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Why Are We Lacking Fresh Ideas For Creative Projects?

Why Are We Lacking Fresh Ideas For Creative Projects ideas icon illustration with white background and green plant in the lamp

For those who create content with zeal,

A round of applause to seal the deal.

Innovation isn’t a cakewalk,

Elusive inspiration, it may stalk,

Remember, creativity dwells within,

In every soul, a spark waiting to begin.

 

The creative process is a grueling journey and demands time, effort, and a constant flow of ideas. Just like crafting this poem above! So creative slumps are a natural part of that process.

In short, let’s address this question: why are we lacking fresh ideas for creative projects?

Creative Burnout?
Lack of new perspective?
Nothing exciting out of the box?

Why are we lacking fresh ideas? How do we resolve it?

The above poem was a humble attempt at something outside our general writing style!

Is it unconventional? Yes.
Is it out of our comfort zone? Yes
Is it risky? Yes.

So let’s discuss how we can help counter your creativity block because we tried to do the same too!

 

#1: Find Inspiration

why are lacking of fresh idea? find inspiration

Conversations

Meet people and have conversations. This can aid in discovering an alternative point of view.

Listen proactively. Ask questions. You don’t need to speak only to creative people to ignite your creativity!

Explore online forums, social media platforms, and chat groups to experience diverse opinions and perspectives.

 

Look for Novel Experiences

Stay curious and allow yourself to find inspiration everywhere.

Experience new things by stepping out of your comfort zone. The activities can mean getting bored and not doing anything at all! Which may be something other than your subject area of interest!

Engage in physical sports, listen to unfamiliar music, or visit an unusual place. Observe and listen to your environment, and be present.

You don’t need to force yourself and keep looking for ideas. Just have an open mind, and inspiration will find you.

 

Enjoy Boredom

To support our claim above, studies prove that a highly structured environment dampens spontaneity and curiosity in children, which impedes idea generation. Boredom helps children develop soft skills like adaptability, flexibility, and resourcefulness, thus increasing creativity!

This may sound counterintuitive, but as adults, it’s best to take a break from creating and generating ideas sometimes. Keeping still and staying quiet forces you to tune in to your imagination and helps unlock your creative flow.

Boredom realigns the creative system and allows your brain to combat the lack of stimulation. Without a structure, your brain begins creating plans, organizing activities, and solving problems. These skills are crucial for developing creativity and executing creative projects.

Go for a walk, or just stare at the fly on the wall; inspiration will enlighten you!

 

#2: Idea Generation

idea icon ilustration photography with black outer line and yellow background

Journal Your Thoughts

Gather your ideas, no matter how far-fetched or irrelevant they seem. Document them in a written, audio, or video format so you can retrieve them.

 

Embrace Imperfection

Perfectionism hampers the creative process, so allow yourself to ideate without the fear of messing up!  Adopt a non-judgemental stance towards your thoughts, and explore concepts without being prejudiced towards the outcome.

 

Reflect

Let your mind wander freely to restore your creative flow. Explore an idea, reflect, and resist the urge to have an end goal.

Mind mapping is an excellent tool for idea generation because it records your train of thought and helps you collect and connect disparate concepts.

 

Consume more content

Consume more content to gain new knowledge and revisit familiar concepts.

Read a book, watch a fun show, or listen to your favorite songs and podcasts. Along the way, you’ll find novel patterns between seemingly unrelated things.

Don’t worry if the knowledge you learn seems trivial or unimportant. All these pieces of information help the creative mind generate fresh ideas.

 

#3: Experimenting with Concepts

illustration photography of men while experimenting idea generation or brainstorming

Create content

Before starting your new project, dump your thoughts on a paper notepad on your trustworthy devices. Make unapologetically lousy content to get it out of your system before gathering input.

Sometimes, you must cleanse your creative mind of mental clutter and start afresh to get back into the groove.

 

Side Projects

Creatives work on several different projects simultaneously, so avoid allowing yourself to be stuck on one project!

Moving on to another project gives you downtime and expands your idle energy productively. It may be surprising, but while completing other tasks, you may create a mind-blowing concept for another ongoing project.

Working on multiple projects or concepts helps maximize your inspiration, ideas, and experiment!

 

Alternate Mediums

Creative people don’t restrict themselves to a single medium of expression. If you’re a visual artist, try writing about your images. Try acting out or drawing your written work if your dominant medium is writing.

Interchange your mode of expression to experience your creative process in a different light.

In fact, with the dawn of  AI tools, you might develop unconventional opinions, ideas, and approaches at work. Artificial Intelligence is becoming an accessible reality of the present. As the name suggests, it is a medium to elevate your creative processes in diverse ways.

 

Share

Finally, share your stories, failures, opinions, hacks, tips, and progress with others. Learning is a two-way street; you may garner more ideas from peoples’ reactions to your work.

 

Why Do We Need Fresh Ideas?

The answer is simple. Creativity must be nurtured, and we must work on our right brain rather than pressuring our logical left brain. This opens space for fresh ideas and viral concepts!

Did these tips inspire you to keep creating and exploring?

Take a breather and look around you for innovation. Let your imagination and innate instincts guide you. Remember, gather your ideas to refer to them later and shout “Eureka!” when they come in use.

Most importantly, express, process, enjoy the journey, and good luck!

 

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No Influencer To Promote Your Brand? Do It Yourself!

No influencer to promote your brand? Why not do it yourself? Brands and consumers have gone digital with their consumption and marketing, making the digital marketplace more lucrative and crowded. Businesses generate digital content daily and must compete with each other for consumer attention. Your brand is no exception because it needs to cut through the noise to stand out. Your business must adopt new advertising strategies to retain high conversions and advertising performance levels in the competitive digital landscape.

Statistics show that consumers prefer content over advertising. In Germany, about 50% of consumers install adblockers. 99.5% of digital advertising impressions are ignored by audiences and fail to create increased conversions. Research by Pulse Advertising has found that original creator and user generated content give brands an advantage over others. Many consumers seek authentic and original content over superficial traditional advertising.

Influencer marketing strategy is a powerful tool to harness the benefits of original content creation. It is because influencers produce native content that resonates well with potential consumers. Native content creation enhances your business’s marketing campaigns and creates increased conversions.

Remember to consider the importance of influencer marketing for business to generate interest in your products. Even if you don’t have an influencer to promote your brand, you can still use an influencer marketing strategy to succeed.

Why Do Brands Work With Influencers?

Collaborating with influencers helps brands to improve audience engagement and increase conversions. Interestingly, influencers enjoy the attention of their followers on social media. They have the ability to influence consumer behaviors and consumption patterns. Engaging a successful influencer with more than 250,000 followers creates the same impact as a celebrity endorsement.

Influencer marketing strategy is essential for successful digital marketing and sales. It is evident in the example of the American beauty brand Glossier. Over 70% of Glossier’s sales come from referrals and influencer shares from its Instagram ambassador campaign. Through this campaign, Glossier engaged many macro and micro-influencers who created original, relatable content to promote the brand. Glossier has now become a billion-dollar enterprise, even though it only started in 2014.

You don’t need to work with influencers to enjoy the same benefits. Your brand can use similar strategies to enhance its advertising performance and conversion rates. We’ll show you how to do so in this blog.

 

Know Your Target Audience

Influencers succeed because they have a target audience interested in their content niche. They establish relationships with their target audience by providing content that caters to them. For instance, micro-influencer mayzunewin from Myanmar owns a tour company, and her target audience is people who love traveling. She uses personal travel experiences on her Instagram account to share helpful advice with her followers. She builds a strong relationship with her target audience by creating content that appeals explicitly to travel lovers.

Similarly, identify and attract a target audience for your brand. Have a thorough understanding of your target audience’s needs and wants, and address them in your original content. Establish close relationships with your target audience to make your marketing strategy more focused and impactful.

 

Build Brand Loyalty By Increasing Trust

Build Brand Loyalty By Increasing Trust

Micro-influencers’ authenticity and honesty help them gain the trust of their audience, turning a follower into a loyal fan. Similarly, small businesses should create strong brand loyalty to attract dedicated customers and increase conversions.

For instance, Glossier’s product team built brand loyalty by increasing the trust of their audience. The company promised to deliver products based on what consumers wanted. They created candid, transparent content that was true to the brand motto. They featured honest product reviews from many customers, shared product inspiration photos, and considered product ideas from customers. It increased customers’ confidence in the business’s honesty and reliability.

Build brand loyalty among your customers by creating authentic and honest content. Take customer feedback seriously and make content that is genuine to your brand image and values. Make customers feel involved and valued by being transparent about your production processes. It increases trust and brand loyalty among your customers, leading to increased conversions.

 

Engage The Youth And Increase Content Interaction

Creating exciting and engaging content is crucial because Gen Z comprises 40% of global consumers. Research from Marketing Charts shows that visual content can best engage Gen Z. They enjoy tapping, swiping, and clicking on interactive elements such as polls, stickers, and comments. They also want short, bite-sized content that creatively relays information. Influencer samseats collaborated with Feasty to link his Tiktok video content to the food app. His video was concise, presenting his recipes creatively, and was even visually appealing. The link lets users click and scroll to view the full recipe on the Feasty app.

Replicate this with your brand by producing interactive visual content that increases engagement and conversion among younger users. Include links, stickers, and filters to make your content more captivating and exciting.

Gen Z consumers also love content that is relatable and memorable. For instance, Bretmanrock is a Filipino beauty influencer famous among Gen Z audiences for his funny makeup videos. Some audiences have even turned his reaction videos into viral memes. His content is relatable and memorable because of his humor and wit.

Engage Gen Z audiences with content that has a strong sense of humor to make your brand approachable and charismatic. Produce content like memes, social media challenges, and comedy videos. Create a fun and memorable content consumption experience for your brand’s younger audience. Viewers might attempt the social media challenge or share your memes and videos with others. It improves content interaction and increases brand awareness. Your funny content might even go viral as a social media trend!

Also read: Enhance Your Brand Experience With AR/VR

 

Increase Brand Awareness Through Competitions And Giveaways

Increase Brand Awareness Through Competitions And Giveaways

Influencers host giveaways and competitions to engage their followers and generate interest. Bretmanrock hosts giveaways encouraging his followers to vote on their favorite products and tag their friends. It spreads the content as his followers tag new audiences in the comment section.

Host public giveaways and social media competitions to generate interest in your page. Also, encourage audiences to leave their votes in the comments. Invite them to tag friends to bring more attention to your page and introduce your content to new people. It increases digital engagement and provides good publicity for your brand. With greater brand awareness, you will increase the number of likes and comments on your social media posts. It improves your social media page rankings and increases visibility as well.

You must pair your great product or service with a solid marketing strategy. Use an influencer marketing strategy to grow your brand and upgrade your advertising. Adopt the mindset of an influencer in this digital landscape to increase brand reputation, improve audience engagement and increase conversions. You can do all these and more, even without an influencer.

 

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The Top 5 Soft Skills SEOs Should Develop To Succeed

The Top 5 Soft Skills SEOs Should Develop To Succeed

Master 5 Soft Skills SEOs Success. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a specialized profession that requires expertise and technical know-how. Unsurprisingly, building a career in SEO typically involves mastering the hard skills needed to excel in it. An SEO expert must have a good understanding of SEO tools to excel. From keyword research to link building and understanding the ranking factor of content. 

However, considering the current scenario, knowledge of technical SEO is not enough for an SEO professional to do digital marketing. You must pair them with soft skills enabling you to engage with your clients and customers fully. 

What Are Soft Skills?

You may wonder: what exactly are these soft skills? And why are they so important? 

Soft skills are the personal qualities and characteristics of a person. These include work ethic, punctuality and empathy. They are skills that you do not usually study in school. Instead, you acquire them through relationships with others. Having them makes it easier for you to work well with colleagues. You can also create more appealing SEO content. When you understand how people think and know what appeals to them, your SEO strategies will bear more fruit. 

After all, you work with people and create content for people to enjoy; they consume it. Knowing how to deal with the human element in your work would help you go that extra mile to succeed. These are the top 5 soft skills SEOs should develop.

 

Empathy At The Heart Of All You Create

The Top 5 Soft Skills SEOs Should Develop To Succeed - empathy

Empathy is king in any task that requires creating content for consumers. You must understand what customers want when they interact with your content. Indeed, not everyone thinks the same way or has the same life experiences. It leads to different perspectives and desires among people. Being an SEO professional, you must understand the varying requirements and create content for every audience. 

However, empathy is not all about changing your opinion or attitude to fit others. Instead, it is about being accepting of others. You will better understand and cater to various viewpoints when you have empathy. Building this skill will benefit you greatly in digital marketing.

For instance, an SEO professional should know how the customer and search engines judge SEO content. They need a good balance of hard and soft skills. Hard skills are knowing how search engines crawl for results and filter content. While soft skills are understanding what customers are looking for and creating relevant content. Hard skills are knowing what keywords to put into the content. Soft skills are knowing how to incorporate the keywords naturally so that customers enjoy the reading experience. 

Customers search for keywords in the content. Content that incorporates keywords in a jarring manner will put them off. SEO content creators can only achieve this balance if they have hard and soft skills. 

Empathy is also telling great brand stories. Everyone loves a good story – including you. A brand should always have a good story at its core to showcase its progress to customers. Empathy and an innate understanding of life and emotions, can make you a master storyteller. A good sense of storytelling will help you naturally construct and convey marketing narratives.

In content marketing, an exciting narrative provides more value and enjoyment to consumers. Narratives take the reader on an exploratory journey. They appeal to universal human values and personal development. You can engage your customers better through your content when you tell them a story that appeals to their emotions.

 

Communicate With Clients And Colleagues

Listening is paramount in developing practical communication skills. We might not always be fully engaged when we hear another person speak. We may be thinking of what to say in response or be distracted by something else. 

Good listening is not simply hearing what the other person is saying. It is proactive and attentive; involves much empathy as well. Careful listening means taking a non-judgemental stance towards another person. Ensure you carefully observe their body language and take the time to ask insightful follow-up questions afterward. You will better discern their innermost feelings and thoughts by reading their verbal and nonverbal cues.

Being able to listen well also means thoroughly understanding your client’s needs. With this, you can set clear and reasonable expectations for yourself. Knowing what the client requires helps you create a realistic content creation strategy. You’ll be able to communicate these goals to your client while acknowledging that you are keeping their considerations in mind. Clients feel valued and heard, knowing that you have their best interests at heart. It builds trust between both parties.

Good listening should be paired with good speaking and writing skills for you to become an even more effective communicator. When speaking with clients or writing content for consumers, you want to present as accurate and error-free information as possible. Training your verbal and written reasoning skills comes through practice and takes time. Practice this by striving to get better at composing emails or writing reports. You can also explore different ways of presenting complex SEO concepts more straightforwardly to co-workers or clients. These train you to adapt your communication skills to fit a variety of audiences from different backgrounds.

These are valuable in helping you present your next strategic plan to your client. Explaining things clearly and concisely can elevate your clients’ confidence in you. It is because they believe you can deliver effectively for them.

 

Managing Your Time Well

5 Power Soft Skills SEOs Should Develop - time management

Time management is of utmost importance in a job that is driven by meeting deadlines. Some tasks are more urgent than others. A seasoned SEO professional is familiar with getting work done within specific periods. Given these demands, it is essential to manage your time well. You must know how to prioritize your work to optimize the effectiveness of time spent on projects.

Prioritizing work includes knowing the amount of time needed at each project stage. For instance, the process of link building requires a lot of time. It is not easy to do because you need to get organic hyperlinks that lead to your website from other websites. It is essential to determine page rankings on Google; it shows the worthiness of your webpage content. If you can systematically prioritize your work, you can allocate enough time for this part of SEO strategies. 

Managing your time well also means that you’ll have more confidence in your abilities to complete projects. Good time management strengthens your work ethic because you can ensure the timely completion and delivery of projects. More confidence in yourself naturally translates to a client’s greater confidence in you.

Flexibility is another critical factor in good time management. In the fast-paced world of digital marketing, trends are always changing. Search engines constantly update how they crawl for results and examine web pages. An SEO professional must keep up with change. They must be flexible with evolving deadlines and client demands. For instance, an SEO professional may find out that specific campaigns are not working for one business. A client can suddenly change their demands at the last minute. An SEO professional needs to be able to switch strategies as fast as possible. 

 

Think Critically

5 Power Soft Skills SEOs Should Develop - think critical

When creating SEO content, an SEO specialist often deals with large quantities of information. Data is available in large amounts, and information can be made by anyone and posted online for all. One needs to know how to separate the jewels from the junk.

Google Analytics often yields a lot of data on SEO campaigns. An SEO professional uses his or her analytical and technical skills to work on this data. But they must be able to think critically about what this data means.

Critical thinking is a combination of optimism and a healthy dose of skepticism. It means seeing both sides of the same coin and questioning existing perspectives. It helps immensely with implementing SEO strategies. Someone who thinks critically could sift out informative, credible content from their research online. They would be able to determine what the analytics data could mean about consumer behavior and social media outreach success. 

For instance, when doing keyword research, Google Keyword Planner might bring back lots of results on keywords used by competitors. Being able to think critically about these keywords means that you know how and when you should use them. Not all keywords will fit every business, and you shouldn’t just use keywords because all the other competitors are using them. Even if it works for one company, it may not work for another. 

Critical thinking also means acknowledging that you don’t know everything despite being an SEO expert. You should be humble and willing to learn or improve in areas where you may be lacking. Constant improvement means that you keep growing as a professional; it is a good attitude. 

In his book, “Influence”, author Robert Cialdini said, “we are persuaded by reason, but we are moved by emotion.” Reason appeals to logic, and if people can see the rationale behind something, you’ll convince them. But you also want your strategies to touch people’s hearts as they will remember it better that way. Appeal to consumers’ emotions through excellent communication and upholding universal values. It will create deep and lasting positive impressions on your clients, consumers, and colleagues.

Through this guide, we hope you have gained a profound understanding of 5 soft power soft skills SEOs should develop to excel. Add these to your toolbox of SEO skills to become an even better SEO professional.

 

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How To Leverage Your Content Marketing Strategy In Instagram Reels And Tiktok

Content marketing in Instagram and Tiktok

Does your company understand the difference between Instagram Reels and TikTok videos?

If it does, good for you! Suppose it cannot, then it can limit the effectiveness of social media marketing campaigns.

IG Reels and TikTok videos have different purposes, and their viewers aren’t the same. If you focus on one, it’d be a waste of a good opportunity.

 

TikTok continues to wear the crown of the fastest-growing social media platform. It’s popular among the millennials and Gen-Z, whose hunger for tiny informative content in bulk is quite widespread.

41% of TikTok users belong to the age group between 16-24years. For brands who wish to target this demographic segment, TikTok is a no-brainer.

Instagram or IG isn’t far behind TikTok. It can be worth your time, money and effort to invest in social media marketing, specifically on Instagram. When you use Instagram Reels, which are 30-second video bytes, you also reach IG’s 1.5 billion users! We’ll tell you how it works later.

 

According to this report, IG’s user demographics are as under:

Content marketing in Instagram and Tiktok

As you can see, IG’s user demographics are nearly the same as TikTok, so your company should also market on this platform. (Read this for more information on the state of Social Media for marketing in 2022!)

But how to promote on these platforms?! Can short-form videos help you to leverage these social media platforms?

TikTok has the answer: “Don’t make ads, make TikToks!”

Short-format videos with catchy music have proved to be highly effective in drawing attention, influencing the audience and creating desired effect.  It’s one of the dominating reasons behind TikTok’s overnight success.  However, they are not the same as Instagram reels. Both platforms cater to different audiences, which calls for creating separate content for them.

Why should you create content for both platforms?

Content marketing in Instagram and Tiktok

Instagram and TikTok videos may have common features. However, these platforms are viewed by a wide variety of audiences. To boost the effectiveness of your digital marketing efforts, create video content for both.

Why should you be doing that?

Here are four reasons!

Reach out to more people

A handsome chunk of your target audience may use TikTok, while others may use Instagram. So, it makes good sense to focus on both platforms.

To augment your engagement rate, create separate content for these platforms and this will also benefit your brand visibility.

Impress your audience with creativity

Instagram and TikTok both offer you a range of editing features. You can create appealing videos if you have a strong content strategy and ideas.

Once you publish a video, the social media platforms place a watermark on it. And that means if you import or share videos from Instagram on TikTok, IG’s watermark will be shown on them.

It’ll look unprofessional to your prospective customers! Instagram users may not like it if you import TikTok videos on IG.

So, it is better to develop diverse video clips for these platforms.

Do you want to keep your viewers engaged, and asking for more?

Then on to the diversity of the content! Produce content on topics that appeals to them. Focus on trending topics and on those that matter to your viewers. You can use them to inform, entertain and encourage interactions over the two platforms driving traffic and attracting followers.

Create videos that go viral

If you can identify trending content on both IG and TikTok, you can leverage them to create videos that can become viral.  As mentioned before, both platforms have different audiences; you must brainstorm for content that will appeal to them respectively. So, identify and create accordingly to strike the right cord with your audience.  That’s it!

We have elaborated why you must have separate videos for both of these platforms, now we’ll talk about ways to create them.

 

Three ways to develop drool-worthy content for Instagram and TikTok

Content marketing in Instagram and Tiktok

Here are three ways to get the most bang for your bucks on IG and TikTok.

Seek out hot trends and hashtags

You already know the benefit of using trending hashtags and hot trends. With relevant hashtags, you reap the following benefits:

    • Amplify your content’s reach
    • Increase your followers
    • Learn about your competitors
    • Promote your brand to the public
    • Those searching by such hashtags will find your content.

There are two ways to find such hashtags. Firstly, by using the manual way, you spend time researching current trends and the latest developments. You also focus on what your audience is talking about. These will also take you to the relevant hashtags; don’t forget to note them.

Secondly, tools like All Hashtag, IG’s Explore feature, and TikTok’s Discover feature can help you find relevant hashtags.

Use influencer marketing to create your content

The best way to use platforms like TikTok and IG is to generate user-generated content.

Here’s why!

On both of these platforms, you’ll aim to reach Gen Z.

They prefer to create content and participate in online conversations on burning topics. They are urged to get and feel involved, belong, and participate in trending discussions.

Influencer marketing can be an effective tool to reach this group audience. Doing so will:

    • Help you to gain their trust
    • Encourage existing customers to talk about their recent purchases
    • Ensure that your product has maximum views on social media.

Use the skills of Tiktok influencers and collaborate with them for effective branding. You won’t be disappointed.

Show that you care for your fellow IG and TikTok creators

Social networks love those who generate regular content. It rewards those who engage viewers in conversations. For companies and marketers, one way to do this is by engaging viewers in comments.

TikTok users love talking about posts that interest them and they don’t shy away from commenting and engaging in conversations with other brands. Comments are ranked on TikTok by the number of likes. Make your comments meaningful and relevant, and more importantly, ensure that they connect your readers with your brand.

The same rules apply to IG Reels. You have to engage with the viewers, comment and like their comments. With time, you’ll build up a strong online brand presence and your audience will see you as an influencer!

Remember, that videos are the heart and soul of platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels.

Social media marketing isn’t rocket science once you understand the platform’s demographics. If you can cross that boundary, you can use your content marketing strategy in Instagram reels and TikTok and transform your brand like a pro.

To sum up:

    • Study and analyze thoroughly
    • Consistently generate content
    • Engage with thought leaders and influencers,
    • Hold conversations interesting conversations
    • Use hashtag strategy and influencer partnerships.

Leverage your content marketing strategy in Instagram reels and TikTok with these tips and techniques. Write to us for personalized solutions and more.

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Here’s why You Should Prioritize Internal Linking in 2022

why You Should Prioritize Internal Linking in 2022

Here’s Why You Should Prioritize Internal Linking in 2022

Most SEO strategies incorporate internal linking, but that’s not enough. They deserve more priority.

SEO often tends to focus on a host of other ranking factors; internal linking is one. However, we often fail to realize how powerful internal linking boosts keyword rankings.

why You Should Prioritize Internal Linking in 2022
Image Source: https://cdn.searchenginejournal.com/

Take a look at the chart below.

why You Should Prioritize Internal Linking in 2022

According to this 2021 data, out of 15 SEO factors responsible for search rankings worldwide, internal linking figures are just at 13.7%. But that does not mean it is any less critical for digital marketing campaigns. It means that it is not being utilized optimally.

And this is what we are going to show you in this article.

We’ll tell you:

  • Why is internal linking so important?
  • How to set up an internal linking strategy?

What are internal links?

An internal link connects two pages of your website. It has many benefits, and we’ll come to that in detail later.

Let’s say that it helps both website visitors and search engines. It allows website visitors to look at related information and know more about your company. Doing so decreases your site’s bounce rate, especially if your website’s content is informative. It helps you rank higher on search engines since they use links to navigate your website.

There are many types of internal linking. No website can do without links on the menu, the home page, links to post feed, etc. But you can add links within the content called contextual links. 

Contextual links are important because they lead readers to find related and exciting content. 

Besides that, Contextual linking also allows search engines to find out which content is related, which determines which content is most valuable. The more links a page gets, the more valuable it will seem to search engines.

Internal linking vs and external linking

Before we understand why internal linking is necessary, we must clear out the confusion. If you’ve ever been confused between internal and external linking, this is where we sort it out.

Internal links connect pages within your website.

External links connect your pages to other websites.

In this post, we’ll focus on the former.

Why is internal linking so important?


(Click on video to see the YouTube video explaining why internal linking is essential)

This video shows several reasons why it is essential to focus on internal ranking in most SEO campaigns. Search engines follow links to find content on websites, and then they rank these websites on search results. When search engines see a page or post having a lot of links, it sees them as being high-value content. It works for both internal and external linking.

You’ll also see how you can build an internal linking strategy. We’ll talk about that later as well, so hang on!

If you are new to all this and want to learn from the ground up, Ahrefs has this handy video on internal linking for beginners.

Relationships between content

why You Should Prioritize Internal Linking in 2022
Image source: https://bodhicounseling.com/

We’ll talk about Google for our topic. There are other search engines, but Google is the most dominant one.

Have you wondered how Google crawls your website? Or how does it determine which site deserves to be ranked higher?

Google does that by using its Googlebot. It is a web crawler that follows both internal and external links. When this crawler comes to your website, it renders your homepage and goes for the first link. The search engine can determine the relationship between your pages, posts and other materials by following the link. This lets Google understand which pages are related.

Link value

why You Should Prioritize Internal Linking in 2022
Image source: https://id.hrnote.asia

After understanding the relationship between content, it is essential to comprehend link value. Google divides link value across all links on a web page. The homepage tends to have the most backlinks and has the highest link value. This link value is shared between all the links on the homepage, and it then gets passed onto the next page and then gets divided between all other pages linked to it – the process repeats.

If you link your newest article on your homepage, it’ll get more link value. Doing so helps Google find your recent posts faster as well.

When you understand link value, you’ll see that more links in a post mean adding more value to it. Google thinks pages with more valuable links are more important than your competitors. That’s how you rank higher.

Advantages of good internal linking

There are many ways in which internal linking is valuable for your overall SEO strategy. In this article, we will focus on the top six benefits.

They improve usability through anchor texts.

why You Should Prioritize Internal Linking in 2022
image source: https://cultofweb.com

Internal links help visitors navigate to your website easily. This is made possible when you add sufficient user-friendly links to your articles. You must ensure that these point to related, relevant content pieces when you add anchor text. The aim is to direct viewers to content that shall interest them.

They spread the link juice.

why You Should Prioritize Internal Linking in 2022
image source: https://vexlan.com/

It is equally important to focus on both external and internal linking. Creating backlinks is essential. Yes, but don’t ignore internal linking. They aid in spreading the link juice to other pages of a website. While building backlinks to a page, ensure that the page has links to other relevant pages. Here’s the most important thing you should ask yourself: is the link juice reaching your monetization pages? Is it reaching your blog, information repository, and product or service pages?

They boost your page views.

why You Should Prioritize Internal Linking in 2022
image source: https://thenextscoop.com

You already know that anchor texts help visitors navigate to your website. They are more likely to read the articles you have linked from the original content if they are relevant. Linking through your content helps in increasing your conversion rate. Relevant links are great for assisting visitors in discovering a website. The more links they follow, the higher your page views get. You have to avoid those significant bounce rates and optimize page speeds for all this to work.

They improve PageRank

why You Should Prioritize Internal Linking in 2022
image source: https://jokowarinoblog.com

Before we move on to why internal linking is vital for PageRank, let’s define PageRank first.

PageRank is a metric devised by Google to find out how essential web pages are. This is based on the number of backlinks relieved by a website, and the score is from 0 to 10.

Pages with PageRank can increase the metric score through internal linking since that helps spread the ‘juice’ to other connected pages. As a result, the related pages slightly boost authority and rankings.

They improve time on site.

why You Should Prioritize Internal Linking in 2022
image source: https://landerapp.com

One of the best things about using internal linking is the lower bounce rate. Since you take viewers from one page to the next relevant one, they remain on your website for longer. To reduce bounce rate, link them to essential pages for them, relevant and valuable.

They help Google crawlers in indexing your site

why You Should Prioritize Internal Linking in 2022
https://www.shoutmeloud.com

We have saved the best for last!

Google bots are getting smarter every day. Already, they can replicate the way a human browses your website. These bots follow all the links on your pages and thus get a good idea of your site’s architecture. With a solid internal architecture backed by internal linking, crawlers can visit pages that website visitors do not often see. Thus, linking to pages increases your search engine ranking.

Now that we have seen why internal linking is so important, it’s time to make sense of it all. It is time for…

Setting up an internal linking strategy

why You Should Prioritize Internal Linking in 2022
Image source: https://www.marketing91.com/

Internal linking is for your website what cardio is in a fitness regimen. 

It can jumpstart your SEO strategy when you’re stuck in a rut.

When you add relevant links on your website, you’re telling Google:

  • How relevant your pages are
  • How your pages are related
  • What is the value of your pages

If you want to set up an internal linking strategy, you need to proceed step by step. Of course, it all depends on your website, but there are some steps to follow.

 Determine your website’s ideal structure

why You Should Prioritize Internal Linking in 2022
Image source: https://yoast.com/

Imagine your website as a pyramid. At the top, you have your webpage, below which you have sections and categories. Further down, you have individual pages and posts.

It is a basic site architecture, and if constructed well, your website’s menu will reflect the structure. 

Want to know how to create the ideal site structure? Click here!

 Determine which one is your most important content 

Once you have created the best possible site architecture, it is now time to determine which your cornerstone content is. 

Not sure what cornerstone content is? Here’s a handy video!

 In short, it is the content that you want people to find out the most. It is your best and most complete content. It can be the content that tells people about your company, its values, and its functions. 

Now, the way to make Google know this is the critical content you have to add links to it. 

 Add contextual links

At the beginning of this article, we spoke about contextual linking, remember? 

Well, here is where we’ll talk about that in more detail.

How can you show Google that your articles are topically related? By linking them to each other. It doesn’t need to be complicated either. You can add links in the content itself or at the very bottom of the post.

 Remember, you want to show Google your cornerstone content. You have to link to your cornerstone content from all the relevant pages and the other way around.

 Link hierarchical pages

Suppose your website has a hierarchical structure that interlink parent and child pages. Additionally, interlink sibling pages as well. These pages should be related to a well-organized site, and it makes sense to connect them.

 Think about adding a related post section

Whether you’re using WordPress, Wix, or something else, plugins and modules add a related post section to your blogs. If you have a similar strategy, determine whether the associated posts are related. If you’re unsure, it is best to add links manually.

Add navigational links

Apart from interlinking related pages and posts, you can make your cornerstone content even more authoritative by adding links from your home page and even from the top navigation. Ideally, you should do it for posts and pages most valuable for your business. Doing this will give the pages more link value, which ultimately helps rank higher on search engines.

Add links to taxonomies.

Taxonomies, such as tags and categories, help you organize your website, and they also allow both Google and viewers to understand your content’s subject. If you have a blog page, it can be good to have internal links in taxonomies to which the post belongs. This helps Google’s bots understand your blog’s structure, and your website visitors navigate your posts with ease.

Think about adding links to recent and popular posts

It is a no-brainer. If you have recent or all-time popular posts, don’t hide them away—link to such posts from your homepage itself. There are several ways for doing this, and you can link them on the:

  • Sidebar
  • Footer

That way, viewers will see them on every page they visit!

Remember about the little thing called link value we spoke of? These pages get a boost in authority when they get more link value. Additionally, showcasing your popular and recent posts help viewers to find them easily. And more traffic is an excellent sign to Google.

We have seen the benefits of internal linking, and we have also seen how to start building an internal linking strategy for your website.

But that happens when a website has poor internal linking? How does that affect your SEO?

Let’s find that out next.

Consequences of poor internal linking

why You Should Prioritize Internal Linking in 2022
image source: https://i0.wp.com/

We have seen how essential internal linking is. However, they still require manual upkeep and maintenance. This is why you should have regular site audits, and not doing so can create the same kind of problems that inadequate internal linking brings.

Your website does not remain the same over time, and it goes through significant change, both in structure and content. Unfortunately, such changes tend to produce broken links, and broken links lead to a dead-end or a page that no longer exists. As you can understand, this can put off most website visitors.

So what can you do?

Each time you remove pages or migrate them to a new location, you also need to redirect their links. Find out which links direct visitors to the migrated or deleted page, remove the links or redirect them to a new URL.

Several tools will be of help to you when auditing website:

Discovering broken internal links is essential for your SEO campaigns, as is ensuring link equity from external links throughout your website.

A Recap: Why should you pay attention to internal links?

Internal links are as important as external links.

External links empower your website’s search engine ranking and visibility. Internal links influence your SEO as well.

To recap what we talked about in this article, internal links:

  1. Help search crawlers in determining which pages are important to viewers and search engines
  2. Deteriorate over time naturally, which necessitates the fixing of broken links
  3. Build direct link equity, which is essential for your pages

You should undoubtedly go for external links, but don’t forget your internal links.

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Omnichannel Marketing In 2022

Omnichannel Marketing In 2022

Did you know that 86% of online shoppers channel hop? It includes hopping not only across online shops but across multiple channels too.

Omnichannel Marketing In 2022

Sometimes, people make online purchases even when waiting in a shopping queue. They seldom want to wait anymore. If an online shopping portal offers a better experience, they will go for it. 

Because of such an emerging trend, an omnichannel marketing strategy is essential for your company.

 Businesses worldwide are waking up to realize that they need to offer a consistent experience across multiple channels to be on top of their industry. 

 Your business needs to understand the importance of omnichannel marketing. Only then can you maximize your ROI by creating a unique online experience for your customers.

 In this article, you’ll see a comprehensive guide on Omnichannel Marketing. We’ll show you trends, tips, and marketing strategies galore. By the time you finish reading it, you’ll know how to use omnichannel marketing to take your company to new heights. 

 Let’s begin.

What is omnichannel marketing?

Omnichannel Marketing In 2022

 Don’t be scared of the complicated words. They don’t bite!

 Before we come to omnichannel marketing, let us talk about single-channel marketing.

 Let’s say that you have got a lovely email list of people for your newest sales campaign. Now, again let’s say 20-30% of the readers decide to buy your stuff. 

It is single-channel marketing. Instead of emails, it can also be online ads and similar things. You get coupons and leaflets as sales promotion items, which induces you to purchase.

 Now, omnichannel marketing can also be named ‘multichannel marketing’ because that is what it is. It is the tactic of creating and enhancing your brand’s presence across multiple channels. Such channels can include SMS, Email, social media, various apps, websites, and online ads. 

Besides these, it can also have offline channels like special promotional events, retail store sales promotion tactics, call centre customer service, and others. The aim is to give customers a positive and seamless experience, no matter which channel mix you choose.

 Words like ‘seamless’ and ‘positive’ are not thrown around casually. Studies show that 67% of online customers say that they move away from websites offering lousy customer experiences. 

Omnichannel marketing is unique because it provides your customers with a positive and seamless experience throughout their journey.

 Why is Omnichannel marketing important?

Omnichannel Marketing In 2022

 Omnichannel marketing is crucial because it lets you develop a positive experience for your customers. You can do so for every stage of a buyer’s journey.

Take what Starbucks did, for example. They were the first in their industry to develop an app through which people could pre-order coffee and pick it up later. Such a change was revolutionary and soon became immensely popular, especially in the corporate sector. They could now pre-order their favourite coffee brew, pick it up on their way home, and enjoy it at leisure! 

Before, they had to go home, tired after a day’s work and make their blend. Through their new app, Starbucks made ordering and paying more manageable. 29% of in-app payments were made through smartphones. Therefore, the company enhanced customer experience and used omnichannel marketing to boost its revenue.

 Why do you need Omnichannel Marketing? 

Omnichannel Marketing In 2022

 Harvard Business Review teamed up with a significant US retail company to conduct a 14-month long study. The purpose of the study was to understand customers’ shopping behaviour. For this, they interviewed more than 46,000 shoppers.

It is what they found:

– 7% only did online shopping

– 20% only shopped at physical stores

– 73% used multiple channels throughout the shopping journey.

The study also found that the more channels goods and services went through, the more valuable they seemed to the buyers. For instance, it was found that customers going through more than four marketing channels spent 9% more time in stores than those who only went through one channel.

It proves that omnichannel marketing is essential. It is the need of the hour, and customers demand it. Now, retailers around the world have to re-analyze their customer journey. They then have to find new ways to acquire more customers and engage and retain them. It is possible only by offering positive experiences across all channels.

It is time to focus on omnichannel marketing strategies more than the traditional marketing avenues.

Pros and Cons of Omnichannel marketing vs Multichannel marketing

Omnichannel Marketing In 2022

Multichannel marketing shines when you need to grow your reach, expand your customer base and multiply sales. However, there is no transparency between channels due to a lack of cohesiveness. 

Instead of working together towards a common goal, these channels compete. All of these result in an inconsistent customer experience across the channels.

Omnichannel marketing ensures transparency and consistency by keeping all touchpoints together and by offering a seamless customer experience. 

How to create the perfect omnichannel experience for your customers?

Omnichannel Marketing In 2022

Start by understanding your customers. 

Get a profound understanding of the issues they face and how you can solve them. Going back to the example of Starbucks, they found out that their customers’ pain point is that they don’t want to stand in long queues for buying coffee. The company then used this demand to develop an omnichannel experience.

When trying to understand your customers and their pain points, you also need to see:

– What are their challenges? Which devices are they using? 

– What is their purchasing behaviour?

– Which platform are they using frequently? 

– How do they interact with brands across multiple touchpoints? 

Collating this data will help you discover the vital touchpoints to focus on.

Thus, you can make a seamless and customized experience. You can also identify common problems faced by your customers and their solutions.

Now, let’s see how you can build the best possible omnichannel marketing strategy for your purpose.

How to create the best possible omnichannel marketing strategy?

Let us take a brief look at how Disney created an omnichannel marketing strategy that suited their situation. The company did this to improve its customer experience at Disney’s theme parks. This is what Disney did: they streamlined the booking process, added ride timing information, and a host of other amenities on their dedicated app. All these meant that customers no longer needed to stand in long queues.

Exciting, right?

To create an omnichannel like Disney, you primarily need data and a marketing strategy based on it.

Here’s how to create an omnichannel marketing strategy?

1. Plan customer experiences: Understand your customers’ preferred communication channels and their behaviour on all those channels. Then you can create a plan for creating an experience across all those touchpoints.

2. Use data to strategize: You can discover how your customers behave by studying CRM data, customer’s online search behaviour, and social media data. You can then analyze these to understand their pain points and design a solution around them.

3. Personalize their journey by segmenting users: You can easily segment users into multiple categories after data analysis. This division should be based on common behaviour patterns. Segmenting will help in creating personalized journeys for each customer group.

4. Context is crucial: You don’t want to send the wrong message to the wrong customer at the wrong time. If you do so, customers won’t engage with your messages creating an unwanted impact on the brand. So make sure that the messages you send to them are super relevant. Send them when they are most active and on the channel, they frequently visit.

5. Pick the ideal marketing tools: Don’t go by what other companies do. The marketing tools that you need can be different from others. Before selecting, do a comprehensive analysis of your situation and what you require.

6. Your company needs to become customer-centric: Strategies won’t help if your employees are not trained enough to give a consistent experience to customers individually. So, prepare your resources to have a customer-centric approach.

By now, you understand what omnichannel marketing is and how you can create the best possible strategy for yourself.

It is now time to learn how to implement that in your organization.

Here’s how to boost your ROI with omnichannel marketing!

Omnichannel Marketing In 2022

If you want to create the best possible online experience for your customers, you have to convince your management to invest in omnichannel marketing. 

Explain how it can boost your ROI. To do that, here are four curated steps.

1. Give consistent messages: Messaging needs to remain consistent across all touchpoints. Train your staff to automate your customer relations by implementing a CRM solution and personalizing content for each stage of a customer’s buying journey.

2. Give a consistent experience: To improve your customers’ LTV (Lifetime Value), your company needs to deliver a consistent experience across the various touchpoints. Align your strategy with an appropriately trained team for smooth and consistent customer experiences. Quickly respond to their queries and feedback provide solutions without any noticeable delay.

3. Consistent communication: It is essential to have consistency across all channels. Thus, customers will remain guided across all the channels during their journey.

4. Data-driven marketing: Personalization is the keyword. Use raw data fetched by a CRM solution to understand your customers. Use the understanding to create engaging content and enhance their interaction with the brand on relevant channels.

Common mistakes and how to fix them

Omnichannel Marketing In 2022

Despite having the best marketing strategy and automation tools, sometimes campaigns fail.

Marketers continue to face problems in developing a consistent omnichannel experience. 

It can be due to two reasons. Either they cannot manage data across multiple channels, or they cannot use the data optimally to create the desired customer experience. 

What’s the result?

The dreaded customer churn!

Here are seven common mistakes marketers make and what they can do instead.

– Ineffective content strategy: You can’t be successful in marketing without a plan. Understand your customers thoroughly, draft a proper content plan to bring your target audience on the same page, generate relevant and personalized content to invoke their interest and engage them with your brand.

– Not using data optimally: Did you know that more than 79% of the executives believe that companies will fail if they don’t use big data solutions? Sadly, marketers have, till now, not been able to use data for this purpose optimally. We often choose the wrong data or fail to create the most effective strategy optimally. It will pay more to take time and correctly use the available information.

– Isolated analytics: The lines between offline and online channels tend to blur. It is where you may lose tracking the effectiveness of individual touchpoints. It disrupts your strategy. So, why not take all the touchpoints into account simultaneously instead?

– Not taking action on new findings: If you fail to take immediate, actionable steps on available data, you won’t positively impact your strategies. To fix this and implement the latest technology, hire the right resources to analyze the user data and break it into actionable suggestions. The marketing team can then use it for making better effective strategies.

– Ineffective strategy: Poor strategy is the primary reason for poor and inconsistent customer experiences. As a result, you lose them. Take a data-driven and customer-centric approach to develop effective strategies and work with them.

– Implementation failure: Sometimes, campaigns fail due to problems in implementation. It can be due to a lack of cohesion within your marketing divisions. It can also be due to a lack of understanding, or due to a lack of clear goal. Before creating such a campaign, be sure that your personnel know what the aim is, and what each of their roles are. Ensure that they have proper technical knowledge as well.

– Measuring KPI:  The entire campaign can be pretty long, and it can be challenging to understand its effectiveness in its entirety. Instead, you can have KPIs to check how many you have achieved at every stage. Breaking down the process into different steps and evaluating their effectiveness exposes anomalies and gives you a better chance to correct them. It helps in ensuring more effectiveness.

 Now you know how to create an effective omnichannel marketing strategy.

Finally, it is time to learn about the trends expected to make a significant impact on omnichannel marketing in 2022.

Omnichannel marketing trends 2022

Omnichannel Marketing In 2022

Omnichannel marketing is the big thing that’s set to transform businesses. There are omnichannel marketing trends that stand to make a significant impact in 2022 and beyond. Whether you have just started investing in omnichannel marketing or have been doing so for a long time, it is essential to know what works. You are on the right page if you have yet to try this!

Here are the trends that have a great potential to improve business and related brands. 

Omnichannel is better than multichannel.

Omnichannel marketing is customer-focused, while multichannel marketing strategies are brand-focused and channel-centric. In a multichannel strategy, you use various channels to spread your message without paying much attention to individual customer behaviours.

Multichannel marketing aims to reach the maximum number of people using the maximum number of channels. Since it is channel-centric, the success of your promotional message will depend on the channel.

Omnichannel marketing is not focused on platforms and devices. Its focus is on its target audience and thus aims to give a consistent message and a seamless experience throughout all touchpoints.

Omnichannel marketing is more agile and effective and thus will surpass multichannel marketing.

Video marketing is rising

Omnichannel Marketing In 2022

Videos are a dynamic way of disseminating a message. It is becoming increasingly popular with time. More and more companies are investing in video marketing now. If you want to get your news out, a few ways can be better. Go for video marketing to unify your marketing channels and make your customers’ journey engaging.

Videos can :

– announce information about your brand

– showcase your products, services and ideas

– highlight important information

– lower bounce rate on your websites

– give an engagement that is professional and informative

– boost your SEO rankings with long-form video content

Finally, video content is excellent for omnichannel marketing. That’s because these work effectively on social platforms, mobile platforms and physical locations. Thus, you get a unified experience for your consumers.

Site search is becoming more important

Omnichannel Marketing In 2022

 A website search.

That’s what a practical omnichannel experience begins with.

It is essential to know what your customers are looking for and when. Only then can you present it to them at the right time.

A common mistake that both big e-commerce stores and smaller companies often make is ignoring internal search functionality. It is a grave mistake. If, even after searching, your website is not found, you can lose a lot of potential customers. As many as 68% of online shoppers won’t return if your website’s search results are poor.

Here’s what you can do.

– Add some more relevant keywords

– Give brand-specific messages

Then your customers shall find what they are searching for, which will boost your sales.

Digital payment trend is on the rise

Omnichannel Marketing In 2022

You may have noticed that even your local shops are now accepting digital payments.

With the constant evolution of the global industry and economy, cash is fast becoming obsolete. Brands are more focused on increasing sales, and thus, we are now relying more on digital payment methods.

Because of changing customer preferences for digital payment, companies have started adopting an omnichannel approach to online payments. If you don’t want to fall behind, you need to ensure that your business supports all payment options. You may even lose customers if you aren’t accepting digital payments.

From 2022 onwards, more and more customers expect to pay digitally for almost everything. Thus, the use of cryptocurrencies, mobile wallets, virtual credit cards, and other online payment methods shall increase.

Offering these payment options will surely help you boost sales brand loyalty and retain customers.

Brick and mortar stores aren’t going anywhere

Omnichannel Marketing In 2022

While this is a digital age and you can buy almost everything online, people still prefer physical stores.

Digital stores and e-commerce platforms give a lot of apparent benefits like lower prices, higher discounts, more choices, and so on. However, there are issues too. Customers don’t like waiting for delivery or buying things with colossal shipping and delivery costs. What may add to these challenges is payment processing issues.

In the case of physical stores, you only need to walk over there. There are no advertisements to bore you.

What does that mean for you?

It means that you can create a relevant omnichannel experience. Here the customers’ journey online needs to sync with in-person marketing tactics. You also need to improve your portal’s Customer Experience or CX.

Is Omnichannel Marketing worth the investment?

You or your company’s marketers may still be asking: is it worth the effort?

Here are some statistics that may show you why it is so important. With an omnichannel marketing strategy:

– Customer retention is +90%

– Marketers are seeing a +250% engagement rate when compared to single-channel marketing

– The value of the average order rose by +19%.

Creating an omnichannel marketing strategy means that your team has a more defined plan to work with. It also calls for combining technical and marketing experiences and studying massive amounts of data.

But in the end, you’ll be able to create refined customer experiences. And that’s what it all matters!

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9 Tips to Drive More Web Traffic From Social Media

9 Tips to Drive More Web Traffic From Social Media

Here are nine ways to help you reap web traffic and several other benefits as follows:

When people try to sort out any specific brand or service, they sort names and links. So, with the help of SEO experts, try to optimize your profile page. 

When the web traffic is trying to understand your brand, they generally turn to your profile. It should quickly communicate your brand value proposition while establishing your style and tone. Personal business websites are online bio-data related to your business profile. Do not go for writing full business details there. Just a couple of lines is enough. Next, connect the bio to your site with a call to action for your homepage.

Gain social creditability in social media:

There are three significant ways to gain creditability in social media. First, it is one of the most successful social media tactics to drive traffic to your website.

    1. Personable Interaction is the most important category to consider in social media to build creditability.
    2. To make your credibility in social media, expertise is an important aspect.
    3. Trustworthiness is the essential aspect here.

Use social proof to attract online traffic:

To drive website traffic through social media, you need to enhance the value of your site. Use social creditability here. Clients’ reviews are critical to strengthening social creditability because, just like any check or testimonial, social proof helps build human trust in your product brand name.

Incorporate reviews, social comments, feedback etc., into your media content and website, and your about-us page works well for this purpose. Whenever online shoppers want to purchase something from a specific concern, they want to go for recommendations.

If you wish to fast-track your website traffic and social media focus, Pinterest and Reddit are two actively growing social media platforms. These will help generate an online audience for your business growth.

Promote your blog content:

One may put tons of effort into writing content for your blog to be displayed online. However, it may take months for a handful of people to feast their eyes on it. 

Unless and until not much response from online viewers, there is no point in displaying your blog content online. You may fix it by promoting your post on social media.

Start creating a social media schedule to promote your old content. You can use tools like Buffer, Social Jukebox and Hootsuite.

You may repurpose your blog posts by using options such as:

  • Quoting with different snippets of your article
  • Online survey type form fill-up including questionnaire from the target audience
  • Asking your target audience questions
  • Changing the headline of your article after every 2-3 months
  • Varying your choice of images

Promoting your blog content with various messages keeps your blog fresh and attracts your target audience.

Nine tips for driving more web traffic from social media in 2021:

In the 21st Century era, modern methods for deriving more website traffic is easier with several modern online tools. We are going to clarify it slowly and gradually below.

Focus on the keywords representing your niche to specify your blog content and store pages in your ready website. Focus on using not more than one or two main keywords per webpage. Apart from that, take the help of SEO tools like Semrush or Keywords Everywhere.

For new website builders, it is advisable to start with keywords having a search volume of fewer than ten thousand searches in a month. However, after few months of creating blog content and optimizing a web page, you may focus on going after higher volume keywords.

 Content freshness is an SEO hack people generally do to drive traffic to the respective website. It is a quick touch-up on old webpage content. You must require to remove all the outdated content from the webpage.

How is content freshness measured?

An excellent way to determine this is to Google your search term and gauge the average inception age of the pages returned in the results. If they all appear more than a few years old, it is evident that a brand-new new page. Such pages may have a hard time competing.

One of the most straightforward ways to determine content freshness for product pages is to have a product review app. This can be like Stamped.io’s Product Review Add ons. It facilitates customers to add their reviews on your product pages. This automatically indicates Google about regular activity on the page. It also tells Google about the presentation of new content matters.

Requesting customer feedback and giving ideal descriptions assists you keep the product pages fresh.

 Submit your website to Search Engines. Request for crawling and indexing, which makes the website SEO friendly.

Following are the ways you may submit to Google :

  1. Google webmaster tools
  2. By using links
  3. Auto crawling by Google (webserver)

Indexing is the process of submitting your website pages in Google’s database, so the websites are readily available in Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs).

SEO friendly content writing:

 Try to write SEO friendly content matters. A limited number of primary keywords and secondary keywords are to be given.

Taking help of Content Management Systems (CMS) like :

  • WordPress (26 per cent of WordPress are used for website building).
  • Joomla
  • Magento etc 

All these are online platforms user friendly and easy to use by individuals to build up websites without any help from professionals.

 For digital marketing of page input of various types of keywords plays an important role. These are the types of keywords:-

Primary keywords (e.g.) for making a website for a training academy Professional Course Trainings form the primary keyword.

Secondary Keywords: Linking the content matter with the above mentioned primary keyword here Training on Web Development, Digital Marketing, Advance-Excel and MIS applications, Tally with GST plays the role of the secondary keywords.

Highly searched keywords-Say for sale of buyers website (product and its brand name and its full details including photos, the price range of the products gets displayed online).

Season or seasonal: For special festival seasons, specific keywords here are provided, say- Valentine Day gift for your lover or Great Discount offer during Christmas. 

 High competitive Keywords: Depends on its market value, quality, and quantity of the offered products say-Auto Insurance, De Beers diamonds are worldwide etc. 

Long Tail Keywords: According to its graphical presentation, it is a concept based on search volume and competition (according to its visual representation).

Make your content matter easy to share with others:

Allow and encourage the existing visitors to share the content hosted on your blog, articles by embedding a social sharing tool. 

Some of them will even display several shares earned by each post, say-if you include the option like Click to Twitter buttons so that the readers can quickly share exciting facts or snippets with their friends, colleagues, acquaintance etc. Thus, it indirectly helps in promoting blog content matters, whether business-related or others.

 Social Media Platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Linked In, Tumbler etc., are networking sites to build up free pages related to your business concepts, and it is easier to reach online viewers rather than professional business websites.

It is notable that websites once build are generally static (not updated regularly). However, blogs made in the domains mentioned above, say Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc., usually gets updated.

Researching how the competitors are displaying their products and services online. This concept is called online spying (not any illegal one, though). Surveying the competitors online helps you gain information to generate online traffic. When it comes to competitor analysis enables you to understand the marketing channels you should focus upon.

Guest Posting, also termed guest blogging is basically when the guest bloggers write similar types of blogs for their own business for attracting traffic back to their websites.

Conclusion:
Getting traffic online can be a struggle. But if you use time-tested tactics, your path can be smooth. So go ahead and use these strategies we’ve talked about here. We promise these will be effective for you!

Contact MIU for digital advertising that brings results.

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The importance of guest blogging (Top 11 benefits in 2021!)

Importance of Guest Blogging

Perhaps you are already working hard at growing your blog and wish to let the world know about your services or products. Or maybe you are heading a company’s marketing division and want to bring in more clients. In both these cases, as in many others, guest blogging can help. In this article, we are going to learn about the importance of guest blogging.

Yes, guest blogging seems to be in the rage these days. But believe it or not, there was indeed a time when almost no one knew of the power of this marketing strategy.

For instance, in 2006, when Brian Clark was laying the foundations of the now-famous Copyblogger.com, he experimented with guest blogging as a marketing strategy. He began writing for other websites. In the beginning, he took whatever guest blogging opportunity came his way, but soon he was writing for some of the best web portals having some of the highest footfalls on the web. In time, he got insane amounts of organic traffic from his efforts.

Or take the example of Gregory Ciotti, who used this strategy to get more than 36,000 new email subscribers.

Or consider Brian Harris, who uses just one guest post to kick-start a business that now earns him a recurring $15k a month.

Today, the strategy is used by bloggers, website owners, companies, freelancers and content marketers.

So why is guest posting so effective? We’ll find out in this article. Read on!

11 Benefits of Guest Blogging

You get instant exposure

Whether or not you get a link back to your website, the guest post should always be interesting and informative to readers. It should have something which is not yet there in other sources on the internet. If the post is of high quality, organic traffic will start pouring in soon. Traffic is essential for any business on the web, as it is for blogs. Writing a guest post is a one-time thing, but its benefits are forever as long as the post stays up. And the longer it stays up, the more traffic you continue to get. So look at it as a one-time investment! To boost traffic conversion, optimize your landing pages, your CTAs, and the other elements on your site.

It increases your network

Guest blogging has made it easy and more streamlined to connect to top influencers. It was not like this all the time. Today, many websites accept posts from both new and experienced bloggers and even have a community of dedicated writers in their chosen niches. Other sites have email discussions where post ideas are brainstormed. You can even plan to co-author posts with others. Whatever the structure is, you can always leverage your authority to seek out partnerships with top influencers. To do this, you need to be active in the community. Provide help and valuable comments. Additionally, you can also invite your chosen influencers to contribute to your blog.

Get social media shares

One of the top and proven ways to extend your reach on the web is by generating social media shares. It would help if you stimulated social media shares since the more shared your content is, the more it will be shared and seen as valuable. Guest blogging is helpful for this. For instance, if the blogging site is like Entrepreneur.com, you won’t need to lift a finger most likely to stimulate social media shares. But for smaller portals, you may have to make some effort. Consider incorporating infographics and videos with your content to get 3x engagement.

Nurture and grow your social media following

Guest blogging even helps you grow the existing list of your followers’ count and accelerate lead generation. When you write for an authoritative blog like Huffington Post, you get readers to see your brand as trustworthy. Thus, you get the trust of your readers, which you can turn into social media followers. To nurture them, give regular updates and helpful information.

Guest posting boosts your online authority

You may not be getting many organic leads and social media followers if your online authority is not strong enough. If people don’t trust you, it won’t make a difference if you write the best content on the web. One way to strengthen authority is through guest blogging. You can do this by regularly contributing to authoritative sites.

Guest blogging strengthens your backlink profile

Most blogs won’t give you a monetary reward for contributing, but they allow you to give at least one link back to your website. You need to mention a bit about your brand and provide an SEO keyword-optimized link. This aids search engines in discovering and indexing your website.

It builds your brand awareness

There have been many success stories of people hitting it rich with just guest blogging, even though they were virtually unknown before. Guest posting, if done right, establishes you as an authority in your niche. When that happens, people flock to you for advice and more awareness about your brand, products and services.

Guest blogging gives you qualified leads

This is one of the most significant benefits of this marketing strategy. The leads you get from guest blogging are already qualified beforehand. When you post on niche websites, you ensure that only interested parties will be reading and then reaching out to you. Thus, you connect with only qualified leads, which increases the chances of a sale.

It shortens the sales cycle

With a guest post, you introduce your brand to readers directly. It familiarizes them with your brand and makes them more receptive to your offers.

You get valuable feedback from readers

Feedback is always important, especially when it comes to running a business. You need to know what your readers and customers are thinking about your products and services. Guest posting gives you this benefit. With their feedback and comments, you can refine your marketing strategy for more leads and sales.

Guest blogging strengthens your skills in content marketing

To be successful, guest blogging requires you to research, use the ideal writing voice, write for a particular audience, do influencer outreach, and more. By using guest blogging, you learn more about content marketing.

To sum up

Guest blogging is undoubtedly beneficial. It comes with a slew of benefits that are hard to ignore. If you are taking your business online, you cannot overlook the importance of guest blogging.

You can contact MIU for effective advertising.

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Branding tips for small business

Branding tips for small business

A company is not just a service or goods provider. For if it were that way, companies would be almost obscure. 

Having a strong brand that connects you with your customers. It makes them remember your name, your company, what you offer, and the quality of what you offer. That’s why whenever we see the iconic white and blue colours of successful brands like Facebook, we think of the company even when the company’s name is not there, for instance, on the banners and headers. 

But is brand and brand image only for multinationals and big companies like that? What about startups? 

One mistake startup owners make is that they think they will create or develop their brand image later on as their company progresses. Doing so is a big mistake. You see, as soon as you start your business, you want your customers to remember you. Just offering good products and services is not enough if they don’t have anything to remember you.

What is a brand? 

To put it simply, a brand can be a logo, a punchline, colors, and fonts, or a combination of them all. It can also be an idea, a promise, or something else.

What is a brand identity? 

Companies have to build up their brand identity over time, with which customers remember them or know them. 

What is a brand image?

It is similar to brand identity. It can be positive or negative, and it is your reputation. 

By now, you may be thinking about how you can do branding for your small business. Is it possible? 

Yes, it is, and we are going to show you how in this article. Here are Branding tips for small businesses.

Five inexpensive branding strategies for small businesses

Building your brand

Your brand image is everything. Firstly, it tells the public who you are, what the company is all about, and what its goals and values are. Secondly, based on this information, people may or may not mentally associate with you. Due to this, it is crucial to create a strong brand identity. But how do you do that? Here’s how to do it.

  1. Do a brand audit.
  2. Determine your organization’s values and mission statement.
  3. Determine what your brand’s voice, look and feel would be.
  4. Take steps to create a brand identity.
  5. Analyze and finally refine your brand image.

If you follow these simple steps, you can create a memorable and strong brand image.

Create a memorable visual brand

It is now time actually to design your brand. In other words, you have to create a visual brand. 

The easiest way to do this is by designing your website since this is the first place your customers will come to know more about you. You need to create the look, the feel, and the design of the website consistent with your brand identity. Secondly, create a logo that engages visitors. Remember, your logo is often the first point of contact with your audience. Third, create business cards. Lastly, create a brand style guide that will help you in making the visual brand.

Know your target market

Knowing and developing your brand image is one half of the battle. You also need to know about your target market. Know about your customers more than they know themselves! Research is essential for this. A strong brand image aids in building and maintaining a solid customer base. To understand and define your target customers, you need to:

  • Check out your competition.
  • See what you are offering and how it solves customer’s problems.
  • Consider the demographics of your ideal customer.
  • Consider psychographics, including the personality, values and attitudes of your ideal customer.
  • Create a customer profile and be consistent with that.  

When you know who you are targeting, you can fine-tune your marketing efforts. 

Create and develop a vibrant online community

If yours is a small business, having a vibrant online community centred on your brand is essential. Having such a community enables your customers to interact, reach out to you, and, most importantly, know and share news about your company. It creates a sense of brand loyalty, given enough time and effort. Building a community paves a road for your customers to become a part of your company’s brand and, in time to spread the news about your brand. In short, through this, you get brand loyalty and increased customer success.


To create such a community, follow these steps: 

  1. Take time and make an effort to create a community around your company or business.
  2. Create a team and tell them of your vision for creating such a community. 
  3. Support some social causes as it is seen as customer impact and CSR.
  4. Create social media strategies to offer value to your target audience.
  5. Give your target audience more information about your company or brand through blogs or emails.

Write a blog every day

Publishing a blog every day drives more traffic to your website and attracts relevant customers. Blogging is inexpensive and can generate the majority of your leads. Publish blogs on your website, but also share them on social media. Blogging creates and enhances your online brand visibility, establishes you as an industry expert, and improves your search engine ranking. 

To sum up

In this article, you have seen a list of just the inexpensive things you can do to develop your company’s brand. Yes, you can do many other things, but those require both time and money. You may want to start with these 5 Effective Branding Tips for Small Business.

Contact us for effective and powerful branding of your business that brings results.

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7 Best Video Hosting Sites for Businesses in 2021

video marketing tools for business

Want to know which are the 7 Best Video Hosting Sites for Businesses in 2021?

Read on!

Video is one of the top marketing tools, hands down. It has been so for some time, and its use in marketing will only grow as the years go by.

A marketing video is more interactive than, let’s say, a blog or even an infographic.

Nowadays, more and more companies and entrepreneurs create video content regularly to host interviews, give industry news, create live webinars, create product breakdowns, and much more. Video has become a more helpful medium for training and communication during work-from-home times due to the pandemic. This medium aids in training and education online, in place of the traditional systems.

Social distancing continues to separate team members, at times across whole countries and continents. Thus, it is essential to have a medium to translate visual information with ease, regardless of one’s geographical location.

Regardless of how you are using and creating video content, it is essential to find the best video hosting platform for your company in 2021.

In this article, there are some of the Best Video Hosting Sites for Businesses in 2021. Read on to find out their core pros and cons to find out the one ideal for your needs.

Here are Best Video Hosting Sites for Businesses:

  1. YouTube
  2. Swarmify
  3. Wistia
  4. SproutVideo
  5. Vimeo
  6. Dailymotion
  7. Brightcove

What exactly is video hosting?

When you create a video, it is not the end of the process. How will your customers or audience see it? You have to host it somewhere. Hosting means storing the video for playback and editing later on the internet.

There are many such video hosting services, each with its pros and cons. For instance, some have faster loading speeds, while others have better video editing tools. Some even offer in-built marketing tools to aid you in achieving your professional goals.

Here are the top 7 video hosting platforms.

YouTube

Sometimes the best things in life are free! 

That’s right! It is free, and that’s not all. YouTube is known to be the second-largest search engine on the planet, after Google itself. YouTube gives you free video hosting capabilities, opportunities to earn money from these videos, and a robust search engine through which people can find your videos. This means not just does your video content have to be very good, but your SEO skills and written content have to be top-notch as well.

Lots of people have used this platform to create their brands and even earn millions. With a regular presence on this platform, one can attain stardom.

Pros

  • It is the largest video hosting platform
  • People can search and find your content organically with its robust video search
  • It is easy to subscribe
  • One can advertise and earn through Adsense
  • It is easy to embed YouTube on your website
  • You have unlimited storage

Cons

  • The platform recommends other videos, which can be from your competitors. This can potentially drive your traffic away.

Swarmify

Swarmify is a paid service. You can get it for $49/month. This is a viral video hosting site from AppSumo. The benefits are many. Its users are amazed by the site’s fantastic video loading speeds and real-time cross-platform comparisons of video hosting sites.

Additionally, Swarmify won’t promote other people’s content after your videos, so you don’t need to worry about your customers running off to your competitors.

Pros

  • Admirable fast loading speeds
  • Unlimited bandwidth, storage, and encoding
  • Unbranded
  • Layout is distraction-free
  • Advanced analytics
  • Automated YouTube and Vimeo conversions

Cons

  • It can be expensive for small businesses without the AppSumo deal.

Wistia

Wistia is freemium. You are free to try it out. The free plan has limitations in 200 GB bandwidth each month, three videos, and just enough space to store your videos. After the free period, or when you want to create and keep more videos, you need paid plans. Paid plans begin at $99 per month. You can use Wistia to give your videos a brand and your company’s unique identity. It even gives you heat maps so that you can know what is engaging your audience more!

Wistia is known for its TV-like video quality and is both a platform developer and a video hosting site.

Lastly, Wistia ensures that Google indexes your videos by injecting Schema.org on your webpage. Wistia even lets you use videos for lead generation and in growing an email list.

Pros

  • You have more control over your content
  • It is easy to grow a following
  • You can put content behind digital gates to generate leads
  • White-label branding tools
  • The ability to autoplay your next video
  • In-depth reporting and analytics

Cons

  • Freemium is limited, and paid plans can be expensive.

SproutVideo

This is a paid video hosting platform that is built specifically for businesses. The price is $24.99. SproutVideo gives you many features to aid in marketing your services while staying secure at the same time.

SproutVideo has templates to make your video creation faster and easier. This also helps in making a video instead of static images greet quality video-first sites visitors. The platform offers strong security in the form of password protection, log-in protection, and single log-on.

Pros

  • Video analytics
  • Powerful security
  • Create custom video players and video playlists
  • Video marketing suite
  • Trusted by many Fortune 500 companies
  • You can make video sites with responsive and agile layouts

Cons

  • The learning curve can be steep

Vimeo

Vimeo is one of the more popular video hosting sites. What endears it to its users is that it is both a video hosting site and a video editor. With the Video Maker, you can edit videos and choose from the myriad templates. You can even add text, images, and effects to your videos to create a more professional product.

Vimeo is Freemium, which means you can try it out, but have to buy a paid plan of $7 a month sooner or later.

Vimeo connects you with freelance video creators in case you don’t want to do the work yourself.

Pros

  • Video editing
  • Live to stream
  • On-demand video creating talent base
  • Team collaboration
  • There is a free plan
  • Video marketing tool suite
  • Advances reporting and analytics

Cons

  • Most features for businesses are not there in the free plan.

Brightcove

Brightcove is unique as it helps you to create your streaming service. Brightcove offers you a lot of features, but the price is on the steep side. It costs $99 a month.

However, in return, the platform more than pays you back. It offers high definition and fast-loading videos. There are fantastic features like fast load speeds, live-streaming, and a video marketing tool suite. It also lets you monetize your creations through its advertising options.

Pros

  • Live to stream
  • OTT experiences
  • Run ads on your creations
  • Video analytics
  • Fast loading speed for videos
  • Video marketing integrations and tools

Cons  

  • Some users are unhappy about its search feature and reporting.

Dailymotion

Like YouTube, this too is a video entertainment and video search engine. The platform recommends videos to viewers just like YouTube. Unlike the other services listed above, the look and feel of Dailymotion are that of a news website. But instead of a news article, today’s most important or most seen/popular video stories. This includes news, sports, and most popular videos.

Dailymotion gives you on-demand video, live stream, and standard video hosting features.

Pros

  • Simple video uploading and hosting
  • Monetization of videos
  • Videos can be searched for organically and can be made to go viral or get featured
  • Connect to your social media channels
  • Basic video metrics

Cons

  • Slower than YouTube

Conclusion

Now that we have seen the 7 Best Video Hosting Sites for Businesses in 2021, it all comes down to picking one.

Choosing a video hosting platform is an important decision and should not be taken lightly. However, taking a well-informed decision makes making future decisions more straightforward.

Contact MIU for digital marketing which brings results