Up-And-Coming 2023 Trends In Social Media Marketing

social media marketing in 2023

Social media spending rose in 2022 and will continue to grow in 2023 as marketing picks up after the pandemic. More people are staying connected online – Statista’s data found that 4.26 billion people used social media platforms in 2021! And that figure will keep rising, which is good for social media marketing in 2023! Marketers like yourself can look forward to rapidly developing technologies and feature updates on social media platforms. These developments will help your social media marketing keep up with changing consumer behavior and social media habits.

In times of frequent changes, it’s only natural for us to seek experts’ advice. And they answered that call. Many top marketers have shared their predictions on trends in 2023 for online social commerce. So, we’ve distilled it all into this helpful article for you – read on to learn more about those insights!

Social Media Marketing in 2023: Short-Form Videos Go Viral

Social media trend 2023 influencer ilustration make a short video photography

Move over, horizontal wide-screen videos. The ideal video format in 2023 is vertical and under 15 seconds long. Short-form video content predominates most social media platforms, with TikTok as the frontrunner leading the pack. There are also Instagram Reels, Youtube Shorts, and even Twitter. It’s nothing new, and it’s here to stay.

Experts say that the short-form video trend will continue to grow in 2023. Brands should capitalize on the popularity of short video formats when producing social media content. Short-form vertical videos are easy and cost-effective, with high organic reach compared to other content types. You can easily create a short vertical video using TikTok’s in-app editor or Canva. Short-form videos are arguably the best social media content format for marketers and content creators this year.

TikTok has poised itself to succeed in this area because of its first-mover advantage in the market. TikTok has also become the primary advertising platform chosen by content marketers, especially because of its large user base. More social media users are flocking to TikTok from other websites, causing engagement on the social platform to skyrocket.

Short-form visual social media content is an essential ingredient in viral social media marketing campaigns. In 2023, digital marketing will use faster informal and conversational marketing strategies. Business is no longer constrained to old-school, formal, and face-to-face agreements. Many brands and consumers are increasingly adopting a ‘digital-first’ attitude towards business and consumption.

With so much digital noise, viral social media marketing helps your brand stand out on social networks. Viral marketing uses funny and emotional content to make the audience feel and remember your brand better. Short-form videos are concise and memorable; they are ideal mediums for your brand’s content to become viral. So, start with something funny and relatable to evoke emotion in your audience. The best viral content keeps audiences engaged and entertained by offering a memorable interaction with your brand. It’s conversational and caters to what your audience wants to know, not what you want to sell to them.

Short vertical video content should also be cross-posted to other platforms: TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Facebook and Instagram. For instance, you could regularly publish Instagram reels and use other short vertical videos as regular posts instead of photos. Remember to post your video at the right time when most of your audience is online. It gives your post higher visibility and rewards your account with more engagement. Pin important featured posts to the top of your profile for new visitors.

Also read: Trendy Instagram Ideas For 2023

High Confidence Levels In ROI Of Social Media Marketing

The experts said it first: confidence levels in social media marketing are at an all-time high this year. In a 2021 survey by Hootsuite, 96% of marketers were confident in social media’s ROI (return on investment). Marketers believe social media marketing helps them engage their audience and increase conversions. Marketing budgets are yet to bounce back to pre-pandemic levels, but numbers show it’s steadily growing. As ad spending gradually increases, this trend will also hold true for social media marketing in 2023. For content marketers like yourself, 2023 is the time for your brand’s marketing strategy to shine.

 

Proactive & Targeted Engagement With The Audience

Target audience illustration photography social media marketing trend 2023

According to marketing pundits, brands should aim for proactive and targeted audience engagement for higher ROI in 2023. Social media channels are already saturated with content, and there’s stiff competition to cut through the noise. Brands that proactively and strategically target a specific audience niche will succeed in making their mark. You need more than just a content strategy to drive leads and sales. Your brand must be willing to do the legwork of personally reaching out to your consumers. It’s tedious and time-consuming, but proactive engagement gives you the most conversions.

Social media is an excellent tool for finding and developing sales prospects. Marketing experts recommend starting by creating content to attract your potential target audience. Once you’ve identified the right audience, select those who show interest in what you’re offering. Start creating content to target this specific group. Remember that your end goal is a sale because content creation drives your sales. You should aim to turn these interested audiences into potential customers.

Next, reach out to the interested prospects and engage them in personal conversation. Pay attention to their needs and offer helpful information to nurture a meaningful consumer relationship. The subsequent sale will be much more sincere and natural when you’ve earned their trust and respect. In the long term, you’ll build a loyal customer base of people who trust your brand to meet their needs.

Influencer marketing is one of the popular social media trends for 2023. Content creators aren’t as inaccessible as you think; most smaller creators earn less than USD 100 per post. You can engage more cost-effective micro-influencers if you own a relatively small business. Micro-influencers tend to have a smaller, more devoted following. Their content creation caters to a niche audience, so it aligns with your brand’s targeted social media marketing strategy.

And no, you don’t necessarily have to engage an influencer. Influencer marketing strategy increases brand awareness and trust among your consumer base. You can create authentic content for target audiences to increase brand loyalty. To learn more about influencer marketing, read our blog post on DIY influencer strategies to promote your brand!

You should also diversify your social media marketing strategy across various platforms to reach your target audience. LinkedIn is still best for B2B marketers due to its focus on work and business. TikTok is great for your B2C strategy and for engaging younger audiences. Experts predict that most brands will target these two large platforms for their social media marketing in 2023. More social media users are congregating on LinkedIn and TikTok after moving away from other platforms. It’s also because Twitter’s 2022 content guideline changes have driven brands and users away from the platform in 2023. Organic engagement could be cut back on Twitter, decreasing opportunities for brands to build their customer base there.

 

Social Media Customer Care = Higher ROI

While you’re busy out there growing your customer base, remember to care for your existing customers too. The social media marketing is competitive, and you shouldn’t lose customers at this point. Make a customer care program part of your brand experience; it benefits existing and potential customers, increasing ROI.

Social media is fundamentally a tool to enrich customer connections, not just a content broadcasting channel. Customers check out your brand for the content but stay for the relationships and impeccable customer service. Your brand should primarily use social media to connect with customers and grow their loyalty. Encourage sincere brand conversations and introduce a customer care program to get this done.

How do you implement a customer care program? Marketing specialists shared a few tips to help you begin. Browse your social media channels to identify where customer acquisition and retention happen most frequently. Next, create content that drives engagement, like asking for opinions and product input. Respond to audience queries as often as possible, and look where your brand is tagged online. Finally, develop excellent customer service to meet customers’ needs after the sale.

Customers want to interact with your brand digitally like they would in person. So, ensure you provide avenues for them to communicate with you directly; social media makes it more accessible. Leave your Instagram DMs open, and respond to comments often. Host an Instagram or Facebook live stream every month to answer frequently asked questions. These little moments of personable interaction in your social media marketing strategy help turn passing customers into brand devotees.

 

Alternative Realities & Artificial Intelligence

Man using VR headset experiencing metaverse virtual reality and augmented reality

Social media trends for 2023 will see the continued rise of alternative realities and artificial intelligence (AI). You’re probably familiar with these terms: augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). Alternative realities are so prevalent and ubiquitous in digital marketing that AR and VR advertising is already considered mainstream. If you are yet to try any of these options, you’re missing out. But don’t worry because 2023 is still early enough to start. AR and VR are still growing in popularity on social media platforms like TikTok. Users are still experimenting and getting comfortable with AR visual content, so now’s the next best time to strike.

TikTok leads in this area because of its first-mover advantage and reliability in hosting AR and VR technologies. It already hosts AR filters and special effects that content creators can add to videos. TikTok’s existing infrastructure and extensive user database – projected to exceed 800 million by 2023, makes it appealing to marketers. TikTok wins the lion’s share of ad budgets for social media marketing compared to other social media giants like Instagram. So, consider getting your brand’s content out on TikTok to reach a newer and larger audience.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to be popular, with recent rapid advancements in AI content creation models. OpenAI research has given birth to projects like DALL.E (AI image generation) and ChatGPT (AI content writing), among others. AI is revolutionizing content creation, and brands should embrace it by using AI tools to enhance their content quality. Experts predict that adopting AI tools in marketing will become more widespread in 2023. The early adopters will have a strategic edge over other brands as they lead the forefront of AI-assisted marketing. So, consider revitalizing and diversifying your brand’s social media marketing strategy with AI-assisted content this year.

 

A Return To Facebook’s Roots With Community Development

Social media influencer interact with followers

Facebook re-embraces its origins with the resurgence of community development. Experts predict that 2023 is when Facebook’s obsession with vanity metrics in social media marketing finally fades out. In 2023, vanity metrics will give way to meaningful, smaller-scale conversations. Businesses quietly and sincerely build strong customer relationships to accumulate engagement metrics that matter. Online Facebook communities are engaging in more honest and heartfelt conversations with the brands they follow.

That’s good news for your social media marketing strategy. Your brand’s community is the bread and butter of your business, and conversations are how you grow that community. Create groups for customers to gather and talk to each other, and involve yourself by asking about customers’ concerns. When you care for your customers, they’ll have a reason to care for you.

 

Social Media Marketing In 2023 Is Full Of Possibilities

It’s a lot to take in. So many changes are ahead, and experts have offered exciting insights on what opportunities to seize. But there is also plenty of promise and hope. Remember their advice when you start planning this year’s marketing strategy. Bring your brand’s social media marketing to new heights in 2023 and embrace what’s to come. The future is yours to create, and we wish you all the best on your business journey.

 

Is TikTok Going to Replace Google In The Future?

tiktok and google bannert art vector for website and header

TikTok is the fastest-growing video platform in the world. Its popularity spread like wildfire and it became an effective mass media platform. It has become a global tech giant, influencing trends from shopping to music.

The pandemic sped up the rise of TikTok as many people began spending more time online. A recent viral tweet in May 2022 questioned whether TikTok beats Google as a search engine. With its widespread reach and content, TikTok could compete with Google to be the world’s top search engine. But is TikTok going to replace Google?

TikTok: A Youthful Community

tikok youthful community banner art vector showing balerina and tiktok logo

TikTok is commonly associated with younger users. Studies indicate that nearly 40% of users aged between 18-24 use TikTok to search for lunch. A survey of US users by Wallaroomedia found that 60% of American TikTok users are between 16 to 24 years old. Many of these young users are part of Gen Z, people born between 1997 and 2012.

Another study by Omnicore Agency estimated that 43% of the global TikTok audience are users ages 18 to 24. According to demographic  insights from Statista, TikTok’s global audience comprises 21% women aged 18-24 and 15.5% men aged 25-34.

 

A Tik Tok Triumph

Elf Cosmetics’ #EyesLipsFace campaign on TikTok has been recognised as the most influential campaign by AdWeek. The campaign generated over 7 billion views, 5 million user-generated videos and 1.5 billion earned record breaking media impressions on platforms like Vogue, Buzzfeed and Forbes.

Elf cosmetics’ unique approach of composing its own music hit all the right notes which was then added to 300,000 spotify playlists forming  a deeper connection with Gen Z.

There are several critical differences in how TikTok and Google work, which could explain why users increasingly prefer TikTok instead of Google.

 

Tik Tok vs Google : A Closer Look

The main reason would be a difference in format. Users actively search for something and type specific questions with keywords in the search box. Google lists the websites; users must manually browse content by opening those links in new tabs. Conversely, TikTok allows users to scroll through a seamless stream of TikTok videos in its search results. Users experience fewer interruptions when browsing TikTok than Google, leading to higher satisfaction levels. It is one area where TikTok is better than Google.

Some users who prefer TikTok have stated that subject matter experts usually provide content on TikTok, and these people are familiar with the subject and post videos on it. Compared to blog posts found in Google results, TikTok videos often have higher engagement in the form of comments. Users can verify the accuracy of the information presented in the video based on the likes and comments the post has gained.

 

Tiktok : A Rising Alternative

User satisfaction with Google services is also decreasing, which explains why TikTok is rising as a better alternative. It explains why engagement is falling on Google maps or search. Some users complained that Google’s search results now rank inaccurate information on the first page, and more accurate information is often hidden in secondary pages, making it harder to find.

Google’s Senior Vice President, Prabhakar Raghavan, addressed this trend at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference. He noted that users seek more immersive experiences instead of using keywords to discover content. Google confirmed these findings through studies done on young people in the US. You can bet on videos when it comes to immersive experiences for consumers. TikTok’s strength lies in providing users with engaging content discovery.

Users browse TikTok passively, seeking exciting videos without specific intent. Along the way, they discover a fashion trend or a dance challenge they like. It creates a positive content discovery experience; they enjoy and return to it spontaneously. Over time, as they find more exciting videos while browsing, their trust in TikTok increases, sure to find quality content on TikTok. It makes TikTok their primary choice when searching for information.

 

Winning the Attention Game with TikTok

Finally, TikTok also beats Google in providing more attention-grabbing, visual-based content. Humans respond 60,000 times faster to visual content than text. Attention spans are decreasing in the current visual economy, and Internet users seek quick and easy content. The short-form video format on TikTok satisfies global consumers. Video content captures Internet users’ attention much faster, providing quick and convenient entertainment.

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

 

TikTok And SEO: Targeting Users With What They Want

Tiktok influencer man playing saxophone in his live video wearing brown shirt and red ambience

Despite the differences, TikTok could be a key player in the future search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. Google is starting to index results from TikTok or Instagram. It means that content on these platforms can rank higher on search results.

Given how much TikTok influences consumer buying patterns, SEO professionals should capitalize on this trend. A survey found that 44% of TikTok users discovered new products through the platform. Users spend 14% more when TikTok content is part of their purchase decision. Some businesses could benefit greatly from posting content on TikTok if their products are marketed best through video. SEO professionals should consider adding short-form, vertical-format videos to their content strategies.

 

Google Still Has Its Place

woman using smartphone to searching on Google photography blue

All this isn’t to say that TikTok will replace Google. Google retains its spot as the world’s top search engine because of its broader range of content.

TikTok is better for video-based content with lower stakes. It could be craft or cooking content. Watching a video demonstration to learn a craft technique is more effective than reading a blog. There are also less severe consequences for the user if the TikTok video on crafting presents incorrect information.

 

Google : The Hub of Trustworthy Information

Compare this with content on financial planning or current affairs. Such topics have higher stakes because they affect important life events more. They also require accurate information from sources with more expertise and credibility. In such instances, turning to Google for information would be better. Google brings back multiple search results across various textual and visual formats. This forces users to compare information across different sources. While this seems tedious, it ensures the user filters out the most accurate and reliable information.

 

TikTok’s Viral Content Culture

Tiktok’s application interface encourages more content to go viral. Accurate information may spread fast, but so does inaccurate information. TikTok’s young and impressionable user base also means many young users risk exposure to viral but inaccurate information. It is one of the downsides of TikTok, it emphasises content discovery, not content filtering. A large number of internet users discredit TikTok due to this reason.

TikTok offers robust content discovery, while Google fulfils a user’s search intent. TikTok may excel in several areas where Google doesn’t. However, for good reason, Google has persistently ranked as the world’s primary search engine. Each platform fulfils a different purpose, and internet users can choose which one to use. Ultimately, it’s about deciding which platform is the best for the type of content a user wants.

 

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.

 

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

Reimaging Marketing In The Next Normal

Brand Revival: Reimaging Marketing In The Next Normal

Human civilization is going through one of its darkest and most challenging phases. The days are dotted with unprecedented threats and nights with uncertainty. The coronavirus pandemic blew things out of proportion, pushed us to the brim, where fighting for survival is the only way out. 

Besides health and life, business, too, suffered through a lot of brutal blows. When the world was on the verge of returning to everyday life, the second wave struck. It ruined things with a more significant impact. Repeated lockdowns and forbidden movement affected supply and hit revenue generation like never before. The damage was pretty the same for brands across the globe. 

Despite all, there is hope, and that’s what I will be discussing elaborately here. Robert Kiyosaki, Founder, Cashflow Technologies Inc., said, “When times are bad is when the real entrepreneurs emerge.” There’s oozing positivity in these lines, and it’s real. We need to push through the limitations; that’s how we overcome them! 

Brand Revival: Reimaging Marketing In The Next Normal
Business photo created by rawpixel.com

Marketing In 2021 – Reimaging Marketing In The Next Normal Trying To Survive In A Changed Business Ecosphere

Any given crisis hurts the market – consumer behavior. The pandemic triggered by covid19 created an enormous dent in trade and commerce across the world. Brands and marketers working for them are on their feet, trying to find ways to sail out of this crisis. 

Businesses of varying size and age faced unprecedented challenges. They had to ensure the safety of their employees and consumers, modify business operation and management complying with government policies. Besides these, brands had to support the activities with cash and other liquid assets. 

Different lockdown norms restricted the movement; it affected supply, purchase volume and related elements. A lot of people also lost their jobs due to the pandemic. There was a decline in purchase resulting in lesser sales volume and revenue. 

What caused this change was a few dominating factors. 

The inevitable and enforced lockdown affected the livelihood of many. While the enterprises are struggling to survive, smaller ventures and industries suffered significant loss. It even led to the closure of such businesses. It affected the livelihood of many and marginalized their purchasing power. It directly affected demand in a chain reaction. 

Consumers made more conscious purchasing decisions; they tried not to spend their money on anything they are not sure about. They opted for value-based products and services and online shopping experiences. Consumers moved to online platforms and apps for their everyday essentials and luxury buys. 

There was a restriction on the movement of public transport during the lockdown, but even after unlocking, people tried to avoid it. Demand for online service platforms surged high, to unexpected heights, and they switched to remote working or working from homes. 

Covid19 triggered an economic and social crisis that severely affected consumer demand. 

Brand Revival: Reimaging Marketing In The Next Normal
Sale photo created by drobotdean – www.freepik.com

Potential Brand Revival Strategies 

You cannot avert a crisis and other challenges, but you can surely overcome them. In the face of a notorious situation, you need to be your strongest self and cut through it. You must commit to bold decisions and execution of the same. The covid19 pandemic and its impact on business is not something that you cannot overcome. 

Ian Davis, a Managing Partner, McKinsey, was recently quoted in an article – “The New Normal”, “For some brands, near-term survival is the only agenda.” He elaborated on the finer details, but it stroked me hard because that’s a brutal truth. Survival is the only goal but stopping there isn’t. The article has meaningful implications for marketers. Brands need to revive; otherwise, they will not stand a chance in the grim market condition. So here I will be elaborating on a few central mechanisms that can make it happen. Stay glued! 

Firstly, you need to harness the power of digital platforms and technology. The internet is accessible to almost every corner of the world, by everyone. That’s the best way to reach the mass, and you have a broader market than you could ever wish for. Why not use these platforms and transformational technologies to connect with customers – existing and potential? Build a complementing infrastructure, even a new team for the groundwork is good, to serve demands through digital channels and apps. Try digital transformation through technology, communication, data, the internet of things, AI, and exclusive networking. 

Brand Revival: Reimaging Marketing In The Next Normal
created by stories – www.freepik.com

Secondly, you must pick up accurate data, analyze them correctly, and use it quickly, responsibly and effectively. Data is the key to creating compelling brand strategies, both for sales and branding exercises. Business automation solutions are ideal for making this happen; specifically, a CRM solution will be the best one to serve this purpose. When you implement CRM software, it fetches data from regular interactions, analyzes flawlessly, finds real consumer needs. It also predicts market and product trends. You can use this for offering what the market would need and cash such opportunities. 

Thirdly, what matters are not exclusive products but trustworthy products that meet consumer needs. It is essential, especially when you want to create brands they trust. Invest in good image building exercises because the messages they send are very effective in building your brand image. 

Fourthly, if you want to find a perennial market demand, you will have to be a bold brand. By this, I mean, as a brand, you need to stand up for a cause that makes a real difference and act on it. When you start doing this, you will begin writing a new future for your brand. 

Fifthly, localize your operations and consumer experience. The idea of exported products is not as effective as offering something of their own. Frequent lockdowns have boosted the idea of enjoying local products and experiences. You are restricted to a specific area, so are the producers, sellers and buyers. There are a good number of brands that have benefitted by localizing their marketing exercises. 

Brand Revival: Reimaging Marketing In The Next Normal
Sale photo created by wayhomestudio – www.freepik.com

Social media connected people from different pockets of the world. Similarly, online platforms, technology and digital avenues joined the business to consumers during the pandemic. Whether digital or physical, you must keep supplying to meet the demand. The current situation favors digital or online services, though. The trends and indicators commit to a promising future if you are willing to take that leap of faith and transform your digitally. Trust me; now people prefer home entertainment and home deliveries!

Post-Pandemic Marketing

Post Pandemic marketing

The Covid-19 pandemic has forever changed how we go about achieving things — from how we live to the way we work. For businesses, this means a massive shift in marketing strategies.

Businesses have had to adapt how they run over the past year to keep themselves afloat during the economic downturn. However, if you thought that everything would go back to normal once Covid-19 has settled down, you would be wrong.

The pandemic has shown us the benefits of becoming digital, be it in the way we work, shop, or live. We are studying the impacts that we have faced due to the pandemic will teach us how better to develop a forward-looking marketing plan for the future. According to Google, these are the four permanent changes that the pandemic has brought about.

  • Consumer habits will change

It can’t be denied that the pandemic has been tough on everyone. With the economy in a recession, consumers are becoming extremely careful about what they spend on. As their income drops, they are less likely to spend on nonessential items.

Additionally, over the past year, Google has noticed an upward trend in consumer searches. Specifically, many were (and are still doing so) looking for online alternatives to staples in their life. For instance, when schools were shut down, search queries that included the phrase “online learning” went up by 400%.

Many consumers looked for “fitness apps” in place of gyms, a term that saw a 200% increase in its search query. Leisure activities were no different — searches with the phrase “with friends online” jumped by 300% year over year.

Such shifts in consumer behaviour saw brands focusing their efforts more than ever on real-time insights tracking. As everything becomes highly digitalised, more importance is placed on reacting and adapting to consumer behaviour changes. Brands would have to respond fast to any discovery and even develop appropriate strategies to make sure they continue thriving in these volatile times.

  • Virtual events are here to stay

If you did not catch the memo previously, here it is again — online activities and events saw a startling rise in the past year. Of course, since the pandemic forced everyone to stay indoors, virtual events only make sense for increase.

However, as things start to stabilise and the possibility of live events returning approaches, it does not necessarily mean that virtual events will no longer happen. Google predicts that many consumers have now developed the preference of attending events from their home comforts.

Your marketing strategies should pivot towards virtual events (if you haven’t already) as a business. That is not to say live events should be neglected — instead, it needs to be even more impressive to draw consumers back to them.

  • Online shopping is now the norm

Online Shopping

Ecommerce was one area that prospered during the entirety of the pandemic. Some consumers even claimed that they shopped online for the first time due to the quarantine restrictions!

As a result, businesses had to turn to offer online services to cater to their consumers’ changing needs. Be it opening an online store, taking online orders, or offering local delivery. Brands were tested on how quickly they could adapt to such drastically different requirements from their consumers.

  • Working from home will continue

Work from home

Consumer habits aren’t the only thing that brands need to take note of. Employee habits will affect them just as much, if not more. To be precise, many businesses will see employees continue to work from home even as quarantine restrictions are lifted.

The traditional in-office work model may no longer work in this new post-pandemic era. Even before the pandemic, many have expressed their desire to spend more time doing what they enjoy and less time on unnecessary things, such as commuting.

As workplace cultures begin to morph and shift, brands need to keep on their toes and find new methods that meet the basic needs of their employees while still being efficient as a company. Only then will the growth of the business be guaranteed.

So how can a brand successfully market itself after such a devastating pandemic?

For one, as the community is still coming back from the effects of the pandemic, brands should remember to be sensitive and careful in their marketing efforts. Avoid tone-deaf campaigns that seem to blatantly ignore the struggles that consumers themselves have faced during such challenging times.

BMW used a pandemic-related hashtag — #flattenthecurve — to promote their new i8 model in a company tweet. Such illogical insensitivity caused a backlash against the brand, with consumers criticising that buying a car does not help them solve anything in this pandemic. Similarly, Wix’s latest ad saw many consumers rise against the brand for insensitivity to the mental health issues that many faced due to the pandemic.

Even as the pandemic’s effects are starting to fade, brands need to continue their digital efforts. Whether it means offering free shipping and delivery, online discounts and gift cards or more, businesses would benefit from such digital strategies as consumers continue to shop online. Not to mention that this is the cheaper and less risky alternative!

What steps have you been taking as a brand to stay afloat during this pandemic? If you resonate with any of the points we’ve made, you are taking a step in the right direction when it comes to marketing your brand, be it pre- or post-pandemic. Now, you have to continue on this right track.

Wix vs WordPress: Wix’s Negative Ads against WordPress

wix vs wordpress

On April 6th, 2021, Wix launched series of ads to promote their services on providing website solutions for business. But unfortunately, it did not end up well on some website developers and search marketing communities. Wix’s ads campaign “You Deserve Better” has seen as negative ads against WordPress, and the WordPress community did not feel happy with it.

Who is Wix?

Wix is an Israeli software company, which provided cloud-based web development services. It allows users to create HTML5 websites through the drag and drop tools that already provided.

Wix’s Ads Campaign Caused Anger

Wix’s latest ads campaign causes controversy among search marketing and the website developer’s community. The ads themselves focused on WordPress negatively, and a web developer was coming to a psychiatrist, seeking help for his mental health issues. This portrayal seems caused anger in the WordPress community.

In the ads titled “The Update Button of Doom”, WordPress portrayed as a grotesque person experiencing some glitching during a conversation, and that becomes of the causes that make the web developer experiencing mental health issues. The video ads below have considered typical attack ads.

Through video ads, the “You Deserve Better” campaign by Wix, along with Bose headphone, shipped to some developers and marketing influencers. Most of them are confused with Wix’s approach because they think Wix only wasted their marketing budget by sending those headphones to those not pleased with the campaign.

 

Tweet

On the other video titled “White Screen of Death… Is That You?”, “WordPress” was asked by a psychiatrist for the updates, and suddenly he felt sick and dead. The web developer on the ads mentioned that there could be any problem like plugin issue, hosting problem that caused “WordPress” death.

Maya Grill as the representative of Wix, say, “The campaign shows in a clever way that WordPress users don’t need to be stuck in a bad relationship with their platform, and they should consider the alternative which allows them to focus on their actual work,” Grill said. “Each video in the campaign revolves around user pain points, which also highlight Wix’s strengths.”

But instead of a clever way of a marketing campaign, Morten Rand-Hendriksen, one of the influencers who received Bose headphone, said that the campaign was “All Nuclear Troll-Marketing” and indeed not pleased with that.

Anti-Wix Responses Online

As mentioned before, the new ads campaign by Wix has caused furious and Anti-Wix, not only from website developers but also from the search marketing community. Wix’s ad campaign described as distasteful and bashing.

tweet2

Meanwhile, Matt Mullenweg, founder of WordPress gave his responses on the Wix’s ads campaign as below,

“Wix is a for-profit company… whose business model is getting customers to pay more and more every year and making it difficult to leave or get a refund. (Don’t take my word for it, look at their investor presentations.)

They are so insecure that they are also the only website creator I’m aware of that doesn’t allow you to export your content, so they’re like a roach motel where you can check in but never check out. Once you buy into their proprietary stack you’re locked in, which even their support documentation admits…

So if we’re comparing website builders to abusive relationships, Wix is one that locks you in the basement and doesn’t let you leave. I’m surprised consumer protection agencies haven’t gone after them.”

Wix vs WordPress Tensions

After all negative comment and responses to Wix’s ads campaign “You Deserve Better”, Avishai Abrahami, as Wix’s CEO, given his responses, by mentioning that Matt Mullenweg is angry and not telling the truth and accusing him by being hypocritical for criticizing Wix for negativity by claiming it was Matt that begun the bitter exchanges by being first to go on a damaging attack.

With the open letter by Wix’s CEO, Wix offers a public apology, as long as from the WordPress side, they also clarify regarding the issue mentioned on the Wix’s ads. Avishai Abrahami said in the open letter that they try to make the ads funny, but if the ads ended up offended the WordPress side, he apologized.

tweet3

tweet4

Positive Campaign and Brand Goodwill

Given the example of how Wix marketing their services with their latest ads campaign, we can all agree that the way of Wix advertise it was terrible and it brings negative assumptions about Wix from the audience. Even Wix mentioned the truth about the issues that WordPress has. But by bashing and imposing other brands to make your brand stand out is not a good marketing campaign. Most consumers will choose a brand that gives them positivity and goodwill through their campaigns or their products while not making other brands looks terrible.

Running a good marketing campaign

If you are running your own business or part of a giant corporation, you understand the need for marketing. It can be an absolute nightmare to navigate the inner working of creating a successful campaign. What would help alleviate this would be someone who could take this burden off your hands.

MIU offers a range of marketing services that will help your company successfully launch and maintain a marketing campaign. With experience and skills, the disasters mentioned above can be avoided with our help. 

Feel free to contact us for a free digital audit or check out MIU’s website to learn more about how we can help you.

What is Clubhouse Marketing?

marketing in clubhouse

Clubhouse is the latest app that has got marketers going crazy over it, and here’s why.

Introduction to Clubhouse

As a social audio chat application, Clubhouse first got widespread attention when Tesla founder Elon Musk tweeted about it to his 40 million followers. It has since been downloaded more than 2 million times on the App Store.

That’s not even the main reason why Clubhouse continued to be wildly popular. As an invite-only app, Clubhouse gave off that exclusive vibe which drew even more people to it as it symbolises status and elitism. To get in, you would have to get an invite from an existing user — and they usually only have two invites each. Furthermore, the discussions that happen are often live and unrecorded, adding to the exclusive feel.

Clubhouse was initially marketed to Silicon Valley investors, top-tier celebrities and influencers, and industry thought leaders. Drake, Oprah Winfrey, and Elon Musk were the first few high-profile users the app saw.

Founded by Paul Davidson, who once worked for big companies like Google and Pinterest, Clubhouse came at the perfect time when the world is still recovering from the pandemic’s effects.

With everyone having more free time to themselves, spending more time alone, and the popularity of podcasts rising, Clubhouse was a social media experiment headed for success. Launched in 2020, Clubhouse provides users with a great platform to make conversation and create a new type of content.

Having a social chat app allows users to multi-task. More importantly, it cuts through the visual noise of an era where so much of the content we consume is carefully curated, edited, and pieced together. With live discussions happening in real-time, Clubhouse offers unfiltered authenticity in a time heavily dominated by visual content. Rather than showing people what you have and hoping for possible engagement, Clubhouse skips all unnecessary steps and straight away gathers people for immediate and direct engagement.

Marketing in Clubhouse, is it possible?

So how can marketers use this to further their needs? Well, we can take a leaf from Tribal Worldwide Singapore’s book — they jumped onto the platform and had potential content strategists pitch for a job at their agency via the app.

But that isn’t the only way.

Premium and luxury brands can host branded events on Clubhouse or even sponsor events related to their industry. As a business leader or a professional in your industry, you can host Clubhouse Rooms to discuss a topic related to your brand, service, or product. By setting yourself to seem like a thought leader, you’ll gain more brand awareness and trust and loyalty amongst your consumers.

Not to mention, as the perfect platform to network, Clubhouse is the best way to meet and connect with some of the most prominent entrepreneurs around the world. Currently, Clubhouse has low dilution and incredible reach, although that might not hold for long — so take advantage of it while you still can. This way, you can use Clubhouse to make your brand feel more personal and humanised and build a new following just from the app itself.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg also mentioned in a Room that his social media company is looking into building its version of an audio platform. And it isn’t just Facebook — Twitter also announced plans for a drop-in audio feature for their app, known as Twitter Spaces. Indeed, the social media audio trend is unlikely to be going away anytime soon.

As such an interactive app, Clubhouse proves to be of great potential with being able to satisfy on-demand consumption of content. Marketers should keep their eyes on the app as there is much more potential for audio marketing trends to be discovered.

If you want to find out more about the new marketing strategy, Contact Us.

Lazada SG Celebrates Its 9th Birthday With Katy Perry, NCT Dream, and More

Lazada is known for having big discounts and huge sales on its site, so it’s no surprise that they are hosting a massive event for their 9th birthday this coming weekend.

Known as Lazada Super Party, this event includes a virtual concert, flash sales, surprise boxes, games, and more. The full performance lineup can be viewed here, although Lazada has already teased us with a few names.

Headlined by Katy Perry and NCT Dream, other local artists such as Jasmine Sokko and Nathan Hortono will also be performing for the virtual concert.

On 26 March at 9:30 pm, Lazada will be streaming this virtual concert via LazLive to countdown to its official birthday which falls on 27 March.

Michelle Chong, Michelle Chong, Michelle Chong, Lee Min-ho are posing for a picture: Lazada Celebrates Its 9th Birthday Sale With A Virtual Concert, Games, Flash Deals, Vouchers

In fact, Lazada will be streaming live performances of various K-Pop idols every Saturday at 8 pm for seven consecutive weeks, starting 20 March. Viewers will be able to partake in games and other giveaways for a chance to win a prize!

Beyond these live streams and performances, Lazada has organised a bunch of pre-sale activities to keep us interested in grabbing ridiculous deals off their site. Before the big day, participate in as many games and activities as you can to obtain vouchers, free shipping, LazCoins and more. These will definitely come in handy during the two-hour storewide flash sale from 12 to 2 am on 27 March!

More than 200 stores are involved in the celebration of Lazada’s 9th birthday, offering more up to a whopping 90% discount on some of their products! The list of participating stores can be found here.

Lazada is definitely going all out for their birthday celebration this year. Indeed, the blend of international celebrities from Katy Perry to NCT Dream to local singers is bound to draw a huge crowd to join in on their festivities.

If you want to find out more about the new marketing strategy, Contact Us.

ECommerce Platforms: WooCommerce vs Shopify vs Magento

For most businesses, an eCommerce platform is one of the best things you can do for your brand. After all, the move to the digital sphere is happening rapidly, particularly in recent years. Maintaining an online presence is the best way to have a global reach.

However, many small businesses looking to start their eCommerce store might find this step a little confusing, not to mention intimidating. Just look at it — there are so many options out there! How would anyone know which is the best option for their brand?

The eCommerce platforms available may seem a little daunting at first, but get to know them a bit more, and you’ll realise how straightforward everything is. WooCommerce, Shopify and Magento are the three most prominent platforms in the eCommerce industry, holding more than 50% of the market share combined. In this article, we’ve broken down the pros and cons of these three major eCommerce platforms to help you decide which you should use.

  • WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin that brands can use if they have a registered domain for a WordPress website. WordPress is a standard content management system that many brands use. WooCommerce is a popular choice due to its ease of use. The best part is, it’s free!

With roughly 25% of the market share, WooCommerce is used by nearly 3 million sites to date. Although domain name and hosting are not included, this eCommerce platform allows brands to have an unlimited store size and unlimited orders and sales. If you want your own domain name, however, additional investment is required.

Additionally, brands would need to obtain their own Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate, a global standard security technology that enables encrypted information between a web browser and a web server. This decreases the risk of sensitive information being stolen or hacked. WooCommerce supports SSL but does not provide an individual certificate for brands.

There are plenty of extensions and themes you can choose from when using WooCommerce. This allows you some flexibility in your online shop, most of which would be required if you want a functioning store. Of course, keep in mind that some of these extensions and themes are premium and might require payment.

The good thing about WooCommerce is that it has integrated Google Analytics. This means that you’ll keep track of the popular items, which are being dropped, bounce rates, clickthrough rates, and more. Since it is free, WooCommerce is perfect for businesses who are tight with their budget or are just dipping their toes into eCommerce.

  • Shopify

Easily described as the upgraded version of WooCommerce, Shopify offers a few functions and features that are comparable to, if not better, than WooCommerce. However, the downside to Shopify is that it is not free.

The monthly subscription starts from $29 onwards, which allows you a free myshopify.com domain. Alternatively, you can also use your custom domain name. Even though Shopify runs on a monthly subscription, it has over nearly a million users and takes up 20% of the market share.

With Shopify’s high quality hosting services, you do not have to worry about finding a hosting provider or installing any other software since it is all included. This includes unlimited bandwidth, automatic site backups, and more. They also help update and maintain the underlying software for businesses, whereas both WooCommerce and Magento do not.

Since Shopify is a hosted solution, brands would not be able to access the underlying software, unlike when using WooCommerce or Magento. This means that you would most likely not be able to customise your server the way you want it to.

As with WooCommerce, Shopify does some free extensions, although most of them are premium. Additionally, all themes are also premium, so keep that in mind if you want to change your shop interface. Last but not least, Shopify comes with an SSL certificate which is included in their plans.

Shopify is used by the likes of Sephora, Budweiser, Nestle, Tesla, and more. If you want an uncomplicated setup process but desire premium support, this would be an excellent option for you. Even without much technical knowledge, one can easily handle and learn how to get their online store up and run with Shopify.

  • Magento

Magento is adopted by 250,000 websites worldwide and holds a 10% share in the market as a corporate-level eCommerce platform. Although it seems like a minor player out of the three, do not underestimate this eCommerce platform! Just because it is a niche does not mean it is not as valuable.

In fact, with both free and premium options, Magento offers plenty of support for businesses wanting to start an enterprise-level online store. While the free community version requires you to get a domain name and hosting on your own, the premium version does not.

Again, there are limited extensions and themes that Magento offers for free. Most of the better ones are premium, which means you would need to fork out some money to obtain them. However, Magento has advanced security and updates.

Since it is the most advanced version of the three, it is only natural to wonder what other features they offer. For one, their inventory management system allows them to sync the warehouse stock with the online shop. They also support multiple languages and currencies, which comes in handy for a global business. For a complete list of Magento functions that they offer, visit this link.

With an in-built SEO package and analytic system, Magento is undoubtedly a high-end eCommerce platform highly recommended for established brands or brands looking to branch out. Magento is used by the likes of Nike, Ford, and Christian Louboutin. Remember that there is a steep learning curve for this, as it is more geared towards developers and web development professionals!

All in all, WooCommerce is beginner-friendly and wallet-friendly, whilst Shopify is great for those who want to relinquish control. On the other hand, Magento is perfect for large brands that have the following to back them up. Ultimately, it would be best if you determined which eCommerce platform is best for your business. After all, you know your brand best!