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June 3, 2021September 29, 2021

Sustainable Web Design

Sustainable Web Design – Need To Talk About This Now!

Rising temperature, melting icebergs, dying endangered species and thinning forests have made us restless. We often worry about Mother Earth and her deteriorating health, don’t we? It bothers me a lot; I am sure it disturbs you as well.

Carbon emission is one of the most dominating factors that’s spoiling the biosphere and causing irrecoverable environmental impact. We often blame deforestation for multiplying its effect and switching to online transactions and communication; to reduce paper wastage and save trees. However, how far is this helping? We need to look at this side of the story because research worldwide reveals a different picture. It is much different from what we assumed.

Photo by Guillaume Falco from Pexels

Why Should We Switch To Sustainable Website Design?

Online activities are not very sane. We are often told to switch to online modes of operation because that supports the environment, but evidence points to a different reality. Whether it’s online or offline activities, both can harm the environment; we need to adopt sustainable options for using the internet and other online services.

Sustainability For The Virtual World

Going by how the UN World Commission on Environment and Development describes ‘environment sustainability’, it is acting responsibly to ensure coming generations will have access to and be able to use the natural resources. The future generation should live, at least, an equal standard of life like the present generation, if not better.

From the perspective of the internet world, sustainability is creating a sustainable web design that will suffice the need of its present users without compromising the resources and the possibility of meeting similar requirements in the days to come.

We create a gamut of activities and awareness drive to preserve our natural resources and reduce the impact of environmental hazards. We do all for the real world, rather the world we can touch, feel, taste, smell and see. But is that the only world we live in? Why aren’t we counting in the virtual world, which is so much a part of us? It is as accurate as the offline world, and you are well aware of it, right? So, like every real-world activity produces waste and toxins, it happens the same in the virtual world. If you want to create a sustainably friendly environment, you need to curb the harmful elements from the virtual world.

image source: TRIMAlfa.eu

Why Must We Be Bothered About It?

Since a website is the primary and one of the most typical online platforms representative, we are speaking about websites. When you are often asked to use online banking services, they refer to a bank’s website or any other financial institution. Is this safe for the environment?

Researchers from across the world have pointed out a grave area of concern. To make an online service available to the public or go live, you need to use several physical products. The virtual habitat is assumed to be green, non-toxic, waste-free and environment friendly. However, that is not entirely true.

I am sorry to break your heart. You need to know this: engaging animations, even Google search, running a website, and other online activities consume a high amount of energy. It has a direct impact on the environment and adds to global warming. Aren’t we addicted to our internet times? Well, internet-connected devices will increase global emissions by almost 3.5 per cent within the next ten years. Does that scare you? I wouldn’t be surprised if it did; it frightened me. However, I intend to not inject fear in you but inform you about a growing demon that we might haven’t yet noticed.

The IT industry consumed about 3 to 5 percent of the world’s electricity in 2015. A study has revealed it. It also projected an increased consumption – 25 per cent, by 2025. What makes things even worse is that the carbon emissions can go higher by 5.5 per cent by the same time.

How Websites Harm The Environment?

Often seen as harmless, the internet is a silent contributor to global carbon emission. As we increase our dependence on the internet, the traffic increases, volumes increase at data centres, and it requires more servers for supporting thick internet traffic. It takes global carbon emission to 3.7 per cent. Superfast connectivity has also given us an unsafe environment. Every time you send an email, a tiny amount of carbon is emitted, increasing with bulk actions. Besides this, total energy consumption is also set to triple in the next five years.

A website uses several features that make it exciting and interactive. To develop and support these features, you prepare codes and the UX, everything requires energy to operate, and this consumes natural resources, which is again irreversible.

When enjoying high-resolution video streaming on your smartphone, did you think about its harm to the environment? A higher volume of video streaming, online recording of surveillance camera records and even emails produce data centres footprints. However, communities worldwide have taken note of this situation and tried different measures to curb it down. Tim Frick, CEO, Mightybytes, elaborated that environmental communities worldwide take a proactive stance in fighting global carbon emission. They are compelling major tech giants like Apple, Google, Facebook and others, to use renewable energy for their centres for data.

The website pages have also increased to a fancy number. It’s not just the numbers; even the page size of individual pages has also increased, adding to the issue. It consumes unnecessary energy, stretches page load time, disturbs web performance, increases carbon emission and interferes with user experience at the same time.

Photo by Lukas from Pexels

Sustainable Design: How Your Website Design Can Save Energy And The Environment

If the problems have scared you this far, I assure you that the solutions will inspire you. Here, we will talk about the answers – how web developers can play a decisive role in creating websites that will reduce emissions.

Solutions To Tackle The Mess

The internet, websites, mobile apps and internet-connected devices have transformed trade and commerce, education, administration and what not? When these beautiful agents of changes have been found with flaws, we need to fix them. Are you thinking of using green web hosts? We might not need that right now. Here I have collected a list of possible things that will help in fixing the flaws.

Firstly, you need to create a sustainable website design. Team of website developers’ work on the approved plans and app interface (as required), and thus a website shapes up.

Secondly, go for compression. When you use larger files, it creates an unwanted impact. So, I suggest you compress files. It reduces the files’ size, reducing the load on a server and improving website performance and web experience.

Thirdly, change browser caching settings. When you download a web page, you even need images, specific font styles, CSS, HTML and even JavaScript. You can either download these files every time you visit a website or change the browser caching settings and keep a copy of the files for a longer time. It reduces a website’s loading time.

Fourthly, use the HTTP/2 protocol. It is an effective option for minimizing the download times of a website page. It means lesser carbon emission, more energy efficiency and a safer environment.

Fifthly, use CSS Sprites for compressing images. A website will have multiple photos and designs, which increases file size and takes longer to load. It is unwanted, and you can reduce the image file size by using it. It compresses multiple images into a single image file that you can use on your website. It reduces page weight, takes lesser loading time, multiplies performance speed and reduces energy consumption at the same time.

image source: www.freepik.com

The internet has become such an integral part of our lives and living. We use it on desktops, laptops and also mobile devices. Even if I list down a thousand negative things about it, you may try to overlook it; I might have done that as well, had I been in your place. However, whether I like it or not, websites and other internet-connected devices are causing substantial harm to our environment. You can either use devices powered by renewable energy or take constructive and planned actions to minimize its impact. I have mentioned quite a few of them here, and I hope you implement them and create a sustainable virtual world as well.

If you want to create a sustainable website for your business and want to contribute to saving our beautiful planet, contact us.

February 18, 2021October 5, 2023

How to Update Your Digital Marketing Strategy

Spring cleaning is a necessary job in any household, but it’s also a necessary job for your digital marketing strategy. Your digital marketing strategy should be checked, measured, and revitalized a few times per year, and the end of the first quarter is the perfect time to take the first steps.

Logo And Design

The first thing to look at is the design aspects of your digital presence. You should check that your logo and designs work across all platforms. Make sure that it’s still relevant and that your customers and potential customers have a positive reaction to your design. You may need to update your logo to give it a fresh look or change any design elements that are outdated and no longer relevant.

In some cases, you may need to completely redesign your logo. You should also make sure that any changes are also updated on any physical promotional materials as well. Try a free logo app like Logo Creator to come up with some concepts for your business.

Goals

Your digital marketing strategy should have set out goals for your business. You need to look at whether these goals have been achieved. Use your key metrics to analyze what strategies worked well, and which didn’t. You should also assess your previous goals to make sure that they were achievable in the first place.

Set New Goals

When you set your new marketing goals, make sure that they are realistic, specific and achievable. You may also want to consider breaking wide goals down into smaller, more specific steps. Lastly, you should also set a realistic timeline for when you expect these goals to be met. You should have a master calendar for your digital marketing strategy, but you may want to have specific calendars for your social media campaigns, blog posts and email campaigns as well. Doing this means you can make sure that all posts and materials are going out on time.

Social Media Accounts

Social media is constantly evolving and changing with new sites and trends emerging all the time. It’s important that you keep your social media presence updated, relevant, on-trend, and consistent with your brand. This may mean updating profiles, creating new accounts, looking at which posts had the most reach and engagement, and updating your response policies. There are plenty of ways you can boost your social media shares to gain more exposure — check our article here for more details. If customers are reaching out to your business on social media, you need to make sure that responses are timely and appropriate.

SEO

Search engine optimization should be seen as a vital task. It’s incredibly important to keep up to date with SEO practices. These practices can evolve as the way people use search engines change. Check your page speeds, meta descriptions, content, images, readability and headers. Optimize every page. We’ve curated a list of SEO tools here that are not only free but perfect for beginners.

Keywords

Re-examine your keywords. Remove any keywords that are no longer relevant, or have a low or no impression. Create a new list of targeted keywords. This will help you create a much more efficient strategy.

Content

Look at your existing content and see which has the most engagement. Revamp lower performing content with fresh links and keywords. Make sure that the information in older posts is still relevant, or update it to include more recent data.

You can also plan out new content. Make a calendar of when each content should be posted. When you’re planning topics or posts, make sure that it is specific and readable. Large topics should be broken into a series of posts.

You should also check how your advertisements are performing. Look at your paid search ads. Examine which keywords are being used and if these need to be extended upon. You should also check the ad copy. Make sure that the copy is free of errors and that it is still relevant. For the best results, read up on our ultimate guide to advertising.

February 2, 2021October 5, 2023

7 Tips to Boost Your Social Media Shares

Having a social media strategy is a must when it comes to digital marketing. Just take a look at how much social media has influenced the way we market and communicate!

However, we can all agree that the right social media strategy will bring you the best returns. Not all methods built equally, which is the difference between a good strategy and a bad strategy.

One area to focus on in your social media strategy is the number of shares you accumulate. After all, part of what makes social platforms so powerful is the ability to expand your reach and gain enormous amounts of exposure — only by word-of-mouth. Going “viral” is a thing — and it’s not always bad.

Social shares do precisely that. However, to get the maximum amount of social media shares, there are steps to follow. Results don’t come by easy — they need the effort to achieve it. Here’s what we think can help you get the shares you need.

1. Prioritise the most shareable content format

This might go without saying, but a lot of times, marketers make the mistake of sharing all forms of content without considering what sort of content they are.

Research has shown that visual content is the most shared on social media, as they are quick to read and easy to digest. TikTok is one such proof that visual content is all the rage right now — look at how rapidly it has grown within the past few years. Sprout Social Index found that of all content that has been shared on social media, 68% of them are images, and 50% are videos.

Use the functions that are already available in these social media platforms to your advantage. For instance, Twitter allowed you to pin one tweet that your followers would see above all else, and Instagram has the Highlights section where your audience can click in to discover more about your brand. So prioritise putting videos and images in these areas for maximum shares.

2. Use in-built features to generate responses & increase engagement

When we talk about the function, social media platforms are now rolling out many features to cater to the increasing number of brands that use their site. Twitter has an in-built poll feature, as does Instagram. Besides that, Instagram also has a question-and-answer feature for their Stories. Get your audience responding and boost your brand awareness with such features!

LinkedIn also just released a new update where users can add links to their stories as well, to redirect viewers to their site. There are plenty of inbuilt features that you can play around to increase engagement on your social media platforms, so don’t hesitate to try it out!

3. Ride the wave on trending topics

This is the formula for getting viral — which, as mentioned, is not always bad. Want to score more shares? Find out what are the hot topics and capitalise on that. Better yet, use a popular meme to capture your audience’s attention. Not only does this personalise and humanise your brand, but your audience is also more likely to want to share it around. When you project your brand to be more than just a business-oriented figure, your consumers would be able to relate with you more.

4. Craft engaging captions

Captions are another essential part of what gets your post noticed. Without a good caption, you would probably lose half your audience. Depending on the platform, you need to adjust your captions accordingly — for example, people go onto Instagram for the pictures, and hence they are more unlikely to want to read a lengthy caption. However, those scrolling on Facebook and LinkedIn would be more open to reading and taking in an enormous amount of text and information.

Whether your caption is long or short, make sure that it includes the keywords that you want to highlight about the post. Furthermore, always remember to put a call-to-action (CTA) at the end of every post to make it more engaging. Whether it is to ask your audience to follow your brand, purchase something, or click a link, we cannot stress enough the importance of having a CTA. Just remember not to overdo it and stick to only one CTA instead of having multiple — that will confuse your audience and result in them not wanting to take any action at all.

5. Come up with a strong hashtag strategy

Captions aren’t the only things that can help boost your post. Hashtags are just as important when it comes to building up your social media strategy. Using the right hashtags would bring your brand not just more exposure, but the right kind of exposure. An excellent first step is to use your own branded hashtag so that new followers can find your content easily.

Additionally, you can engage in tools to help you find the best hashtags. Our previous blog post talks about some of the best free SEO tools beginners can use so that you can start there. Some helpful tools include All Hashtag’s free hashtag generator and Influencer Marketing Hub’s hashtag generator tool. Others like Sistrix, Kicksta, and HashtagsForLikes are all free as well.

Since Instagram only allows a maximum of 30 hashtags, All Hashtag will give you up to 30 relevant hashtags based on one single keyword. The site also has an analytical tool to help you get useful information about your hashtags for your marketing strategy. And if you’re not sure where to start, they can offer you insights into the top trending hashtags on Instagram. So start exploring and experimenting with some of the incredible free tools out there!

6. Make your posts mobile-friendly

Let’s face it — most consumers nowadays are scrolling through social media on their phones. More than 80% of shares from social media visits come from mobile devices. To reach them properly, it is exceptionally vital to make sure your social media posts are crafted not just for the desktop version but also for mobile versions.

Take into consideration each platform’s image previews so that the main point comes across in a single glance. Check those graphics are legible (even on a small screen) and zoomable so that your message is readable by your audience — otherwise your words will be for nought.

7. Find out when the best times to post are

Although this sounds like common sense, you may be surprised to find out how many marketers don’t consider this when planning their marketing strategy. Knowing which days and times your audience are the most active on social media is a crucial step to getting your post noticed.

Sprout Social has an in-depth guide to helping you find out which are the best times to post, depending on the platform you’re using. Of course, this differs based on the industry you’re in and from company to company, so it is best to track your analytics to decide what works for you.

Do also keep in mind that Covid-19 has changed the way consumers use social media and how they engage with brands. For your marketing strategy to work effectively, it is best to adjust your brand behaviour to adapt to such changes. Why not check in with MIU to find out how you can further optimise your marketing strategy? We offer free consultation services for anyone who’s looking to up their marketing game!

January 5, 2021September 4, 2023

How to Run A Successful Instagram AR Filter Campaign

It wasn’t just in 2020 that the trend of digital marketing became immensely popular. Over the past few years, many businesses have started transitioning to the digital realm to offer their products and services there instead.

And it’s not hard to see why. Internet penetration is at an all-time high right now, with the majority of people consuming social media voraciously. In fact, the Digital 2020 report from Hootsuite and We Are Social shows that almost 300 million people came online for the first time over the last 12 months. More than 4.5 billion people use the internet today, with at least 3.8 billion of them on social media.

Not only are there plenty of users on the internet, but they spend a great deal of their time on it as well — a potentially large audience to tap into, so why wouldn’t businesses jump onto that opportunity? Statistics show that we are spending an estimated time of 6 hours and 43 minutes online everyday. To put that into perspective, that’s more than 100 days a year! Of this, the daily social media usage of internet users worldwide averaged out to 144 minutes.

With Instagram being the fastest growing social media platform, many brands are turning towards the app to market themselves in order to stay relevant. Just on Instagram alone, 80% of users follow at least one brand while 60% of users regularly discover new products on the platform. Additionally, 75% of them have taken action (such as visiting the website) after seeing the brand content.

This, alongside the rising popularity of Instagram Stories, means that brands are sure to up their social media game to produce better and more engaging content. Facebook has even revealed that there are 500 million daily active users just of Instagram Stories alone. After all, we know that video posts are more popular with consumers and often receive twice as many comments as image posts.

So what can we do with all this information? Well, perhaps it’s time to take a look at how brands can use Instagram Stories to their advantage. Evolve your online video strategy to stay ahead of the times and remain savvy. What do we mean?

Instagram’s augmented reality filter campaign.

Yes, you heard that right. Instagram recently partnered up with Spark AR to allow users to create their own custom AR filter. Not many brands have made use of Instagram’s AR filter function which is really a pity since it could very well be the future. Want to know how to run your own AR filter campaign successfully? Here’s how.

1. Define your objectives

Are you aiming for more conversions, engagement, or just increased brand awareness? Having a goal guides your creative team and makes it easier for them to settle on a clear design for the filter, depending on what you want to achieve. Remember to also keep in mind which audience you want to appeal to. Build out a persona for this group so that you can provide them the value they seek.

2. Get familiar with Spark AR

Facebook has a free downloadable programme for users interested in making their own AR filter. Brands can use this to experiment and find the best filter that works for them. The app also has plenty of pre-made templates to help beginners who are just starting out.

Alternatively, you can outsource the task to a talented filter creator. As a creative digital agency, MIU has the capability to design for you a captivating filter made specifically for your audience. While it might be more of an investment, the end result would be worth it if your brand manages to stand out amongst its competitors. AR filters or otherwise, we take pride in our work. Click here to contact us for more information today!

3. Include a call-to-action

The end-goal of every marketing plan, a CTA is important to nudge your audience into taking the necessary next steps you want them to take. Otherwise, you might miss out on reaching the objectives you set.

Ask yourself this: what will your filter enable the user to accomplish, and how does it support your business objective? Whether your CTA is just to raise awareness for a certain issue, your brand, or to increase engagement, you need to keep it in mind so as to push the audience to take a certain action, be it subconsciously or otherwise, and reach your objectives — even if it is just to grow awareness.

4. Promote your filter

Once your filter is completed, it will be published directly to your profile and you can use it on your own Stories and Highlights. It can also be accessed via a dedicated filter tab found under your Highlights reel once it goes live. When you use said filter in your Stories, you can add a ‘Try It’ button for your viewers to test out the filter themselves. Anyone who uses your filter will automatically have a button linked to your filter so that their followers can easily try it out for themselves as well.

If you have a branded AR filter, your business partner can also promote your AR filter through their Stories! Branded AR filters also gets access to metrics (including impressions, captures, and shares) to allow brands to keep track of how their filters are performing. Furthermore, every Instagram AR filter has its own unique URL that can be found inside your SparkAR hub or from Instagram itself. Post this link across your social media channels and website to drive even more engagement.

Another efficient and effective way to promote your filter is by entering into a partnership with Instagram influencers. Reach out to those who are popular in your industry and you could work something out! Otherwise, you could also set up a paid promotion which allows brands to partner with influencers as business partners as well.

5. Check your ROIs

Even as your filter has been officially launched, your work is not done. Measuring your metrics and watching analytics is but part of the job. In order to know what works and what doesn’t, it is important to keep track of how your filter is faring and if it’s meeting the objectives you’ve previously set. This will allow you to better optimise your filter for future reference and improve on your marketing strategy.

That said, the world of social media is evolving ever more rapidly with new techniques and tools constantly being introduced every single day. It is up to you, as a brand and a business owner, to learn to stay with the times and keep your brand relevant. Hopping onto new trends early not only expands your marketing possibilities but also gives you a competitive advantage.

With the wide variety of tools that Instagram offers, it is the perfect platform for launching new social media campaigns. From Stories to Highlights to filters and so much more, these functions allow your brand to be even more interactive with your audience. Always keep a close eye on new innovations that surface to boost your business performance and craft a successful social media strategy.

December 10, 2020June 14, 2021

Marketing on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube

If you’ve scoured through many marketing articles, you have no doubt picked up on the fact that digital marketing is the new form of marketing. As internet penetration soars at a record high – and is still rising, the number of users on the internet is expected to increase.

Digital marketing provides brands with a way of reaching out to an audience that they might not traditionally have access to. As social media becomes a highly popular platform for everyone to connect on, businesses are able to use this opportunity to grow their audience and brand.

While digital marketing can span plenty of aspects, from SEO to PPC to email marketing, this article will discuss the details of social media marketing in particular. Read more if you want to find out how to use social media to your advantage!

Digital marketing on social media

Social media as a marketing strategy is all the rage right now. It has been proven that social media is often the driving factor (and one of the most influential) behind word-of-mouth and evangelist marketing.

In the information age, consumers often turn to the internet to seek answers to their problems and pain points. While this may be the best chance for your brand to put itself in the spotlight, it can also be a double-edged sword if your brand does not have much of an online presence — or worse, a negative one.

This is where marketing can step in to help. Managing your brand’s online presence is no easy feat, but it is possible to do it — and do it well. Of course, it helps if you understand what each social media platform is meant to do and how it aligns with your brand. Here are some tips to help you get started.

Facebook

Facebook is one of the most versatile social media platforms as it is widely used not only for personal use but for professional matters as well.

Businesses can use Facebook to connect to their followers by sharing photos, updates and general news on their page. Fans of your brand may visit your Facebook page to explore events, check updates and more.

As of April 2019, Facebook was reported to have 2.38 billion monthly active users worldwide. It is an absolutely useful place to start building a fanbase for your brand. Remember to engage with your audience bty posting status updates, photos and more! Start by publicising your page and linking it everywhere, including your website.

Share your products, offers and services to keep your followers informed about your brand. Better yet, if you can invite them to engage in your posts by including things that nudge them to like, comment or share your content, it would do wonders for your brand.

Although you might be running a business page, it’s important to remember that plenty of your followers also use Facebook as a personal network to connect with their friends and family. Make sure your brand fits into this atmosphere rather than constantly hard-selling your products and services. This way, people will be more interested and engaged in your brand.

With Facebook Ads, you can check details like social graphs and activities to better understand your buyer persona. Knowing the preferences of your page visitors will go a long way in helping you market your brand, be it on social media or otherwise. Use this information to tailor your content to your main audience and turn them into leads!

Instagram

While it may have started as a personal social media platform, Instagram is quickly turning that around. Since it has been bought over by Facebook, plenty of business-oriented functions have been introduced to the app to help brands connect better with their audience.

With 1 billion monthly active users, Instagram is a fantastic place to market your brand and improve your online presence. In Singapore itself, there are 1.9 million total active users — a huge audience that you can potentially market to!

Since being bought over by Facebook, Instagram has introduced many tools that can help businesses market themselves more efficiently in a non-salesy manner. From polls to FAQS, such tools supported by the platform itself can simplify the customer service process so much more — so take advantage of it!

When consumers are satisfied with their customer experience, they will naturally have a better impression of the brand and are more likely to patronise them again.

Twitter

Twitter’s 310 million users may pale in comparison to Facebook’s and Instagram’s user statistics, but make no mistake. The social media platform is a concise way to connect with your audience by serving them bite-sized information that they can consume on the go. In fact, 175 million tweets are generated in a day, making up for what Twitter lacks in the quantity of its platform users.

With 280 characters or less in each tweet, Twitter is a sea of content waiting to be read, followed, and re-tweeted. By allowing you to share quick bites of information and photos, the social media platform is a perfect vehicle to drive people back to your landing pages.

Since each tweet is often short and sweet, people tend to scroll through them quickly in an effort to consume as much as they can. When marketing on Twitter, make sure your content is enticing enough to capture your audience’s attention and make them pause on your tweet.

Try incorporating quotes, photos, GIFs or even polls related to the link you’re tweeting to get people wanting to read more. Remember to build relationships with followers — while people may follow you because they enjoy what you have to say, it is important to engage them in conversation as well.

Like you would on Facebook, ask and respond to questions, respond to mentions and direct messages. This not only personalises the brand but is a good way to show your customer service as well.

An important marketing function that you can adopt is to use hashtags on Twitter. They allow you to reach a wider (and more targeted) audience, as people who are searching for specific information often turn towards hashtags to find what they are looking for. Conduct some research to see what your buyer persona is hashtagging to make sure your posts will be found by the right people.

YouTube

Since it was bought over by Google in 2006, YouTube has become the leading video-sharing platform in the world. As one of the world’s most used search engines, Google has since incorporated its advanced technology and algorithm into YouTube as well. YouTube is now but another platform that the search gives priority to in its search results.

It is no doubt proven that videos are a lot more engaging and shareable than text content. Not only that, but they also help your search rank in Google. Talk about killing two birds with one stone!

Creating videos for YouTube therefore matters a lot. You want to make sure that there’s a purpose and value to the video you are uploading, so as to provide high quality content for your audience. Keep in mind your production value as well. Both the video and audio of what you upload should be crisp, clear, and easy to understand. No shaky cameras!

YouTube gives you a gateway to be an educator in your industry. Upload webinars or videos speaking on important topics that further the education of your audience. When you position yourself as the source of important industry news, people will naturally flock to you for trusted updates and information. In return, your brand will gain a reputable name for itself.

Hashtags on YouTube are also another important aspect that you can take note of when posting your video. Though they are not often talked about, hashtags can actually help your video go a long way in finding the exposure that it needs. Read more about our guide to YouTube hashtags here.

All in all, no matter what social media platform you choose to engage with, the best tip is to use whatever is available to you at hand while keeping a customer-centric view. Your brand will go much further this way and your consumers will thank you in the long run.

October 22, 2020June 30, 2021

The Head to Toe of Video Marketing

Although video marketing is fairly new, the increasing global internet penetration rate has propelled this form of marketing into the spotlight. With the evolution of social media and the rise of accessible online tools, many businesses have quickly adopted this strategy into their marketing plan.

Video marketing explained

It is a known fact that videos attain more reach than images or text, making it very helpful for driving leads and sales. In fact, 72% of consumers prefer learning about a product or service through a video.

Let’s face it — stories sell. Videos provide more engaging content than images or text ever could. Many consumers are often too busy or lazy to read product descriptions or research on a service and would prefer to see your business in action. Videos do just that — they captivate even the laziest due to how easy it is to consume information in a video.

To meet this growing demand, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn have all become ‘video first’ and created new video-friendly placements like ‘live’ broadcasting, and ‘stories’. At the same time, the popularity of video-based platforms like YouTube, Snapchat, and Tik Tok have exploded and become staples of online video consumption. – Biteable

Video marketing goes beyond just creating and placing advertisements online. There are many types of videos you could do for your business. Some of the more notable ones include:

Product demos
Testimonials and reviews
Vlogs
Explainer videos
Tutorials
Behind-the-scenes
Live streams

Videos are great SEO material — YouTube is the most used website after Google, and that includes its search engines! They are an effective way to reach a massive audience due to their wide exposure and ease of sharing.

In fact, it is important to remember that 76% of consumers would share a branded video with their friends if it was entertaining. So create fun entertaining videos to encourage social shares. These can increase traffic to your site and generate revenue for your company. Don’t believe us? Check out Biteable’s summary of video statistics here.

Tips for creating a successful video marketing strategy

In order to plan a good video marketing strategy, there are a few factors you have to keep in mind. A good video marketing plan includes the steps we have listed down below but is not limited to them. Read through and see if you agree.

1. Establish your goals

The first step of any campaign should always be to determine what your goals are. Is your main concern to bring awareness to your brand and grow your audience? Videos are a good way to introduce yourself to the public and can be the start of a long-term relationship with your consumers.

If your goal is to increase brand awareness, your KPIs should focus more on total video views, shares, and view duration, rather than sales.

2. Define your audience

Before you can jump into crafting a video for your marketing campaign, you need to understand your audience. Who do you want to make the video for? Who are you trying to attract? More importantly, what are their interests and preferences? Without such information, your campaign can easily turn aimless.

3. Decide the content

Okay, so you have your goals and your target audience. What’s next?

Now, you can confidently decide what kind of content you want to put out and the type of video best suited for it. What is the message you want to get across? What sort of video would help you achieve that? Product demos, for example, would help in driving sales, so consider that if sales are your main target.

Always strive to keep your video entertaining yet educational, no matter the type. You need to keep your viewers engaged for your video marketing to be effective. Do remember to keep in mind the budget you need for this as well — which may depend on the type and reach of the campaign you want to run.

4. Consider which platform to use

Are you planning to upload your video onto YouTube? Or Instagram? Depending on your platform of choice, you might have to consider certain factors. For instance, video dimensions. Clearly, a vertical video would fit more appropriately if you were planning to post it to Instagram, particularly as a story or IGTV.

You would also need to keep in mind the video length. No one wants to watch a 10 minute-long explanation of your business on Twitter. Of course, even if you were to post it on YouTube or Facebook, data has highlighted to us that 2 minutes is the best length for optimal engagement.

Another important factor to consider is that 90% of consumers watch videos on their mobile, and that more than 50% of all videos are watched on devices. According to Google, smartphone users are twice as likely than TV viewers and 1.4 times more likely as desktop viewers to feel a sense of personal connection to brands whose video ads appear on their devices. Now isn’t that powerful?

5. Have a clear CTA

CTAs are an essential component of any marketing plot. Needless to say, there should always be a call-to-action at the end of your video. This tells consumers the next step you want them to take and nudges them to take action.

6. Have a good title and thumbnail

Unfortunately, first impressions will always play a part in any sort of information consumption. If neither your title nor your thumbnail stands out, consumers will most likely scroll past without registering it. Captivate attention with an interesting title and thumbnail!

You can even conduct A/B testing on your homepage with Google Analytics to determine which thumbnail or which title would work best. Alternatively, you can also conduct A/B testing on Facebook with their Facebook Ads Manager tool — if that is the platform you intend to use.

7. Track data and analytics

The last step, though not the least, is to measure how well your video is performing. This is where the fruit of your video marketing efforts lies. Observe metrics such as number of views, click-through rates, social shares and more.

Here’s an additional tip: since video marketing overlaps with content marketing, you can definitely make use of whatever videos you have on hand to generate more content! Include them in your articles, blog posts, and even email marketing campaigns. After all, statistics have shown that emails with videos can increase click rates by 300%.

Just like the statistics above shows, we know how big of a difference a video marketing campaign can make. At MIU, we take each of our marketing campaigns seriously and as our own. Whether we are dealing with video campaigns, email campaigns, or content marketing, you can find all of our services right here. Have any marketing needs? Let us know.

September 15, 2020October 5, 2023

The Complete Breakdown of the Types of Digital Marketing

Digital marketing has been on the rise in the past couple of years and has become a necessity for brands, particularly in Singapore. With Singapore having the highest digital penetration rate in Southeast Asia, it is easy to see why. As we enter this digital era, the way we consume and process information has changed along with the way we shop. It is therefore important for brands to adjust the way they market themselves, too.

At this point you might be wondering, what exactly is digital marketing and how is it different from the standard marketing process? There are many aspects to digital marketing, from web development to content marketing, and it can be easy to mix them up.

7 facets of digital marketing in 2020

SEO Agency VS In-House SEO: Why You Need A SEO Agency Now? [2020] - Nexis Novus — SEO refers to the process of boosting your ranking on search engines. (Source: Nexis Novus)

1. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

This is the most commonly known form of digital marketing — with over a thousand searches for “SEO agency” on Google each month, businesses are vying to make themselves relevant in this cutthroat world of competition. Knowing SEO is easy. Understanding it takes a lot more work.

To build up SEO on your website in order to rank higher on search engines, you must first understand how search engines work. Beyond just including major keywords with high search volume on your website, it is important to also look at off-page SEO. This includes backlinks — external websites that link to you — which can easily influence the amount of organic traffic coming into your website just as much.

2. Content marketing

How to do Content Marketing for Pharma | BlueNovius — Create, create, create! (Source: BlueNovius)

With the majority of people in Singapore heading online, it is also just as important for a business to have a strong online presence. It is so vital now for a brand to have their own website — the lack of a website actually screams unreliability. According to a survey, 72% of users look at websites when finding information about a brand, with 63% of these users citing it as their third most trusted source of information. More than half of these users will browse the company’s website as well. If this doesn’t indicate to you how important it is for a brand to build their own website, what does?

More often than not, a company blog allows you to showcase your expertise in the industry to potential customers, and generates search traffic for your business as well. Content marketing is often tied in with SEO in order to better market your brand and increase the success of the campaign. If done right, it will lead to traffic growth, increase brand awareness, and even convert website visitors into customers for you.

3. Social media marketing

How to Repurpose Top Content for Social Media Posts — Social media marketing is all the rage now – after all, who doesn’t use it? (Source: Digital Marketing Institute)

Webs aside, it is also just as important for brands to have a presence on social media as well. Just in 2020 alone, an estimated 3.8 billion people are using social media, and this figure is expected to increase to 4.4 billion within the next 5 years (Statista). Indeed, digital penetration is an unstoppable phenomenon. Not only that, 79% of our population in Singapore are on social media as well (Talkwalker).

Just as content marketing does, having a good social media marketing strategy will increase brand awareness, improve traffic, and generate leads for your business.

4. Web design and development

Web Design Best Practices For Your Next Website Project — First impressions are important – and so is your website’s user experience. (Source: Kinsta)

As previously mentioned, the number of online users who look at a company’s website exceed half — meaning that the majority of online users, which are your potential customers, would come across your website! It is therefore essential to make sure your website is not only functional, but user-friendly and visually appealing as well.

A website development agency will help brands improve the layout of their website, making sure it is not only user-friendly, but aesthetic as well. A website with a good user interface will be sure to convert online visitors to customers much more successfully than one without. More often than not, this requires the expertise of a digital marketer with knowledge in the user experience, which a web development agency offers.

5. Pay Per Click (PPC)

What hotels should look for in a pay-per-click program | Hotel Management — Convert clicks into revenue with PPC ads. (Source: Hotel Management)

PPC is a type of advertising that drives traffic to your website through online advertisements, in which the publishers are paid per click. Google Ads are the most common form of PPCs, where you are able to pay to get your link as one of the first results on the search engine. Many other well-known PPCs include paid ads on Facebook, Twitter ad campaigns, and sponsored messages on LinkedIn.

6. Email marketing

Beyond creating content for their website, brands can often reach out to their audience via email marketing campaigns. These usually include newsletters, holiday promotions and other follow-up emails. Email marketing campaigns are good for promoting events, discounts and any other relevant content.

7. Digital Public Relations (PR)

Get to know the best PR agencies in Egypt | Amwal Al Ghad — Maintaining good relations with your audience is essential. (Source: Amwal Al Ghad)

Of course, it is not sufficient to keep your content strictly to your business website — you need a boost from various other sources as well! This is where digital PR comes in — with a PR agency, you would be able to secure online media coverage with other content-based websites such as digital publications or blogs. This can help create backlinks to your website as well, boosting your SEO.

Besides sourcing for media opportunities, PR also includes the handling of customer relations, such as any comments, questions or reviews that might surface online. When customers see that you are actively making an effort to communicate with your customer base to make things as transparent as possible, they are more likely to view your brand in a positive light — which helps to humanise your brand, generate productive conversation, and allows you to deliver impactful messages regarding your brand.

How this changes the way you look at a digital marketing agency

So now that we understand the various types of digital marketing that exists, how do you know which marketing agency you should look for? Well, although there are thousands of digital marketing agencies based in Singapore, you need to find one that complements your needs. After all, the best marketing strategy is to engage in all of them – tastefully.

Knowing that you’re about to embark on a great marketing journey, it is vital to find an agency that makes the experience as comfortable and incredible as possible. Remember, you are building a long-term business relationship with the agency, so make sure you stick with one that works best with you.

At MIU, we guarantee client satisfaction by keeping communication lines open even after each project, so we can always ensure that we are always hitting success with each goal met. Take a look at our portfolio and let our work speak for itself.

August 25, 2020July 23, 2023

3 Reasons Why Photography is So Important

Photography for Digital Marketing

When we talk about digital marketing, visualisation is an essential aspect that cannot be separated from the topic. Where traditional marketing prioritises verbal communication from the business owner, digital marketing builds on visualisation to attract consumers. With various techniques in brand visualisation, business owners should be as creative as possible to make their brand stand out amongst their competitors.

To understand why photography is so important in digital marketing in 2020, we have to look at what current circumstances entail. In this period of Covid-19, businesses are expanding online more urgently than ever. With the restriction that the government has implemented on going out and mingling in crowds in recent times, people are turning to online shopping more than ever.

So, it’s no argument that digital marketing has seen a huge surge in demand during this period. And while you can argue that text is vital even in the age of digital marketing, you cannot deny that images are just as important, if not more. To put things in clarity, we have laid out the reasons why photography is an essential aspect in digital marketing.

1. Photography is irreplaceable

Many business owners use graphic designs or animated illustrations nowadays when working on digital marketing for their brand. But we cannot replace how photography has already become an essential part of brand visualisation and digital marketing. Photography brings to the table a different perspective that cannot be carried across in graphic illustrations, animation, or videography.

Already, this conjures up an image in people’s minds on what one might be able to do when travelling in Australia (Source: Tourism Australia)

For example, if you run a travel agency, the best way to attract customers is by showing them images of travel destinations rather than merely describing the place. Certainly, this is way more effective than having graphic or animated illustrations in terms of digital marketing. Customers will have a clear image of their planned destination when you present a real-life travel destination right in front of their eyes.

2. Content with images get more engagement

Studies show that tweets with images tend to perform better in terms of engagement. (Source: adweek)

The use of photography on digital marketing itself still remains the main content strategy for online marketing. According to some studies, content with real-life images had a higher audience engagement. It was found that tweets which included images get 89% more favourites and 150% more retweets on Twitter than plain text tweets. The same thing was observed on Facebook.

For Facebook, posts that include images get 53% more likes and 104% more comments than those with just words. (Source: Mike Gingerich)

On the other side, pages with images or videos on blog posts on websites draw, on average, 94% more views than their text-only counterparts. (Business2Community) In conclusion, images can do a better job of telling stories, conveying emotion, selling products & services. After all, 93% of human communication is visual. (source)

3. We’re more likely to remember pictures

What do you remember more, pictures or words? (Source: moosend)

Photography has been used numerous times in the past to attract audiences to look at the brand in question – and is still being used for the exact same reason today. The rapid growth of smartphones, digital photos, and the ability to instantly share images has put the use of photography at the forefront of online marketing strategies.

Many businesses still use photography as their main element in digital marketing. And this is for a reason – humans retain information better when it is presented with a visual. Also known as the picture superiority effect, this phenomenon was found to enable us to remember 65% of the information fed to us via an image, as opposed to a mere 10% with just text.

Perhaps it might be because real-life photos can evoke various emotions in one image. Even if that were not the case, the emotions brought about in photography can also be capitalised on to draw a large number of views to your digital marketing campaign. This process will therefore bring your audience perception of your products or services.

There is a phrase that goes: a picture is worth a thousand words, so selecting the right photography for your brand will bring a strong foundation for your brand visual campaign. We have come up with an unlimited design package precisely because we understand the importance of having visuals in digital marketing. With MIU, we are always ready to meet the needs of our clients in the age of digital marketing – visual or otherwise.

August 20, 2020September 4, 2023

The Rise of TikTok Ads

Engaging Business Through TikTok

Early 2020 can be referred to as a period of glory for TikTok as one of the largest social media platforms. The latest data mentioned that TikTok now has been downloaded more than 1.5 billion times on Google Playstore and iTunes. Initially, TikTok experienced a decreased number of users and was even banned in some countries such as Indonesia, due to the porn and vulgar content that could be found on it. But with the effort of the developer to constantly update the apps and ban “naughty” users, TikTok is now seen as a positive platform.

The TikTok app itself is a video sharing platform that enables users to create short videos and add some special effects to them. This “special effects” feature became the main point that attracted people to join the platform and try it out. With such a feature, it allowed users to express their creativity by recording multiple short clips. As such, TikTok’s popularity continues to increase, especially in Asia where celebrities also made TikTok accounts and created their own funny clips. Regular users of course will in turn be interested when seeing their idols use the apps and be encouraged to make some content as well.

Digital Marketing on TikTok

With its popularity rapidly increasing, TikTok became a potential platform for digital marketing, just like other social media platforms. Creating attractive content while promoting brand products indeed creates a good potential for brands to do digital marketing. Some brands have in fact already begun collaborating with influencers on TikTok to promote their products. These are the users who already have hundreds of thousands of followers on their account. Influencers are likely to be closer to the audience than the brand that just started their TikTok account, even if they are a famous brand, due to the individuality that influencers possess.

Not only that, along with the new update, TikTok has also released a platform called TikTok For Business. This platform was released with the intention of helping businesses with their marketing needs and to provide them with marketing solutions. This allows brands to put their advertisements on TikTok. Large businesses such as Nike, Disney, and Guess have already made use of this feature and started to place their advertisements through the platform.

Also known as TikTok Ads, this feature allows you to set “Awareness”, Consideration”, and “Conversion” as options for the objective of your ads. Additionally, you can also choose how to set the placement for your ads—if you already know where your audience is, you can opt to set it manually. If you are still confused on where your audience is, you can instead opt to set the placement automatically.

TikTok Ads also allows you to set your target audience. Options under this category include the gender, location, age, language, and even the device operating system of the audience you are targeting. This will help you reach the perfect audience for your advertisement.

TikTok’s marketing campaign

Just like any other social media which provides advertising options on their platform, you can set your budget and the schedule for your TikTok Ads as well. This can be daily, weekly, or even monthly. Some businesses might see this as a helpful tool as they can calculate their individual marketing budget for each platform.

Other ads tools that you could tap on in TikTok Ads is the Video Creation Kit. This feature allows you to create, customize, and modify your ads using templates already available in the app. It also provides 300+ background music to make your ads more attractive.

Currently, TikTok allows 5 following types of ads: Brand Takeovers, In-Feed Videos, Hashtag Challenges, Branded AR Content, and Custom Influencer Package.

For brand takeovers, ads will appear when the TikTok user opens the app. These ads can either be an image or a video up to 5 seconds long. The ads will be redirected to an internal or external link, where the users will see your brand or business.

In-feed videos are native ads that are placed on the bottom or in the feed and become part of the queue of the video you’re looking for. Videos up to a minute long are allowed and run with the sound on. In-feed videos also will redirect audiences to your website or app, depending on the link you put on the ad itself.

Types of ads you might see on TikTok

Hashtag challenges are also garnering popularity among social media users. Usually, the brand or business will contact the marketing team of TikTok to create the sponsored hashtag, and they will encourage TikTok users to share the content on your brand’s behalf. This kind of ad will often last for 6 days or a week. Under hashtag challenges, the Hashtag Plus upgrade will add a shopping feature to the ads as well.

For branded AR content you can find it easily as stickers, 3D, or AR content in the apps. All TikTok users can use it in their videos to make them more engaged with the brand as they use these special effects in their content creation process. It is possible to combine this with the hashtag challenge, and might even make the brand more memorable in the minds of the users.

Lastly for the custom influencer package, as previously mentioned, brands can work together with any TikTok influencer, and those ads will become sponsored content. Several big businesses have also begun using this kind of ad as the marketing strategy for their brand.

Guess is one such brand that has hopped on this bandwagon and seen tremendous success in its TikTok marketing campaign. Opting for a Hashtag Challenge, Guess created the #InMyDenim hashtag for content creators on the app to join in and show their denim looks.

How the #inmydenim challenge took over the world

To increase awareness for the hashtag, Guess went for the Brand Takeover on the first day of the hashtag launch. Additionally, they collaborated with several influencers to propel the hashtag to their followers, encouraging them to use the hashtags as well.

Just within the 6 days that the Hashtag Challenge was ongoing, more than 5,000 videos were posted under the hashtag #InMyDenim, with more than 10 million views garnered. The campaign was an overwhelming success with Guess gaining over 12,000 new followers in that week, showing how much the advertisement resonated with the audience.

With continual development on the apps, TikTok has become a platform for your business to grow. Now it all depends on you, the business owner, to create your ad on this platform. Jump in with the correct digital strategy with us here at MIU! We have experience in helping many businesses using digital strategy to maintain the business in the digital world. Our qualified and on the ball digital experts provide and execute impactful solutions that allow your brand to leave a mark in the digital space. Experience seamless transitions and growth of your amazing brand online, and scale to newer heights like never before. When are you ready to grow digitally? Because the time is now.