Unit 3 Digital Marketing
Unit 3 Digital Marketing
Step 1 −
▪ Define Effective Strategy
•Define your target audience.
•Identify their needs and motivations.
•Highlight how your product is best to serve their needs.
•Review your business position in the marketplace.
•Identify your competitors.
•Identify your specific goals and benchmarks,
•such as search ranking, sales, website traffic, and other ROI metrics.
Step 2 −
Choose Right Keywords
Step 5 −
Add Quality Links to Your Website
•Build links to your website from valued links of other websites that are frequented by your
targeted visitors.
•The more quality inbound links you have, the more popular your website is with Google and
other engines.
•Make your website content is link-worthy. Create interesting and informative content on
your website such as a library of best practices articles, blog trends in your industry, etc.
•You can also garner links from vendors, customers, business partners, and trade associations.
•Distribute press releases and articles online.
Step 6 −
Manage Paid Search Advertise
•Bid on the most relevant keywords. Do not pick them based on only popularity.
•Make sure your product offer is interesting to the potential customer.
•Tie the bidding strategy to business results. In many cases a lower Ad position will produce a
higher ROI.
•Finally, include a compelling ‘call to action’ in the Ad and send traffic to a relevant landing page
tied to the Ad
Step 7 −
Measure Success of Advertise
•Check how well you performed in the past.
•Measure CPC, CPR, Clicks, Bounce rate, Impressions, ROI, etc.
•Employ Web Analytics to monitor progress and problems.
•Monitor your position regularly in the search results.
•Identify problems and plan strategies to improve your results in the future.
BEST SEM TOOLS
1.HubSpot's Ad Tracking Software
2.SEMrush
3.Google Trends
4.Keywordtool.Io
5.Google Ads Keyword Planner
6.SpyFu
7.WordStream
1. HUBSPOT'S AD TRACKING SOFTWARE
You're not paying for ads for the fun of it; you're paying for ads because you want to generate leads
and drive revenue for your business.
The HubSpot Ads tool helps you go beyond traffic and click metrics to analyze exactly how ads are
influencing contacts where they are in the buyer's journey.
This will help you understand which ads actually work, justify SEM as a channel, and integrate your
advertising in with the rest of your marketing efforts.
2. SEMRUSH
SEMRush allows you to conduct extensive keyword research, keyword rank tracking, site audits,
traffic analysis, and more.
SEMRush is a fantastic tool for finding opportunities to rank for long-tail keywords organically,
but additionally, you can use the tool for various SEM efforts.
For instance, you can use SEMRush to figure out where your competitors are concentrating
their marketing efforts, and analyze their regional presence, to figure out how much money you
want to put behind certain keywords.
Additionally, SEMRush enables you to discover your main paid search competitors, figure out
which keywords they're bidding on, and study the composition of their ads.
This is vital information when you're cultivating your own paid strategy and are unsure how to
out-rank other businesses on the SERPs.
3. GOOGLE TRENDS
Google Trends allows you to track search volume for a particular keyword across a specific
region, language, or time frame -- which can enable you to identify which search terms are
trending, and which ones aren't.
Since you don't want to put money behind a keyword that's decreasing in popularity, this is
an incredibly useful tool for your SEM efforts.
Additionally, particularly if you work for an ecommerce business, the ability to gauge interest
in your product or service in a certain geographical area is undoubtedly powerful for
ensuring you tailor your paid efforts to specific locations, saving you money in the long-run.
4. KEYWORDTOOL.O
One of the most helpful features of Keywordtool.Io is its ability to tap into Google,
Bing, YouTube, Amazon, Instagram, Twitter, and the App Store, so that you're able to
segment your keyword research through various channels and better target your
efforts.
Additionally, the tool takes your base keyword and provides you with variations of
words and phrases, which allows you to cultivate a more extensive list of possible
keywords you might want to include in a paid ad.
Using Google Autocomplete to provide relevant keywords for you, the free version of
Keywordtool.io lets you generate up to 750 long-tail keywords and keyword
suggestions for every search term.
Plus, you can use the tool to analyze search trends on Google, to ensure your desired
keywords are increasing in popularity and will continue to serve you well over the
long-term.
5. GOOGLE ADS KEYWORD PLANNER
Since Google is likely where you want your ads to appear, it makes sense to consider using Google Ads
Keyword Planner to research relevant keywords for your business, and keep track of how searches for
certain keywords change over time.
The Keyword Planner will help you narrow down a list of possible keywords to ensure you're
choosing the most effective ones for your business.
Additionally, Keyword Planner will give you suggested bid estimates for each keyword, so you can
determine which keywords work with your advertising budget.
Best of all, once you've found your ideal keywords and are ready to launch an ad campaign, you can
do it all from within the tool.
6. SPYFU
Ever wish you could see which keywords your competitors are buying on Google, or check
out which ad tests they've run? With SpyFu, you're able to do just that -- simply search a
domain, and you'll see every keyword that business has bought on Addwords, every
organic keyword for which they've ranked, and every ad variation they've had in the last 12
years.
Plus, you can monitor your own paid and SEO rankings on Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
7. WORDSTREAM
WordStream is a advertising management solution that can help you research, measure,
and optimize your ads for performance.
You get access to advanced reporting features for data analysis and tools for creating great
ads.
In addition, WordStream has alerts and workflow tools to help you make decisions
about your campaigns.
MOBILE MARKETING
“Smartphones are reinventing the connection between companies and their
customers.”
It is a form of business promotion on Internet-enabled mobile devices such as
smartphones, e-books, and tablets to deliver marketing Advertises.
Mobile technology has grown leaps and bounds over the last few decades. The
journey from the clunky wireless phone to sleek smartphone has been peppered
by a number of amazing innovations and discoveries.
With the 3G mobiles available today, users can do a lot more with their
smartphones than just sending a voicemail or SMS.
They can browse the web, check the weather, read a book, prepare a to-do-list,
carry their favorite music around, find their way around a new city with GPRS,
and do much more.
BENEFITS
HOW DOES MOBILE MARKETING WORK ?
Mobile marketing consists of ads that appear on mobile smartphones, tablets,
or other mobile devices.
Mobile marketing ad formats, customization, and styles can vary, as many
social media platforms, websites, and mobile apps offer their own unique and
tailored mobile ad options.
Click-to-download mobile ad
extensions
Local Ad Extensions: Local ad extensions are probably the most important
extensions for mobile, considering that 1 in 3 mobile searches have local
intent. Considering how many mobile searches are questions looking for a local
solution, local mobile marketing needs to be a key aspect of your mobile
strategy.
Local mobile marketing extensions often involve a phone number or link to
Google Maps.
Shares refer to the number of times a video was shared with the viewer’s social networks.
This is a great measure of virality and points to how the video’s reach is increasing as a
result of people engaging with it and sharing it further. Comments refer to viewpoints of
video viewers which is a great measure of understanding how a video was received by
the target audience. The quantity of comments by itself is not a valid metric, it is important
to divide it by sentiment and analyze whether the overall tone was positive.
Likes and Dislikes
This metric shows people’s sentiment towards the video which is an important measure of
how people emote when they view a video online. Chances are if a user hits a like button,
they will share it with their networks as well. This is also a measure of engagement and
allows you to gauge how many of your actual viewers or subscribers emoted strongly
enough to either like or dislike a video
Leads Generated
If the objective of a video campaign was to increase the number of leads generated;
campaigns performance can be measured by summing up the number of leads captured
using the lead capture form.
Rate of increase or decrease in subscriber base
Subscribers refer to people who voluntarily register for your network’s content so that as and when a new video
is uploaded, it appears in their feeds. These are people who have liked your content in the past and are will
most likely engage with your brand. It is important to monitor the growth in subscriber base on a video to video
basis to understand the nature of video content preferred by your target audience. If you have chosen a
particular topic for series of videos and you notice a gradual decrease in subscriber growth, you could derive
that it is possibly because this topic does not appeal to your subscriber base.
YOUTUBE MARKETING
1.Creating and Branding a YouTube Channel
2.Optimizing Your Videos for SEO
3.Creating Videos for YouTube
4.Building a YouTube Marketing Strategy
5.Understanding YouTube Analytics
6.Running a YouTube Advertising Campaign
YOUTUBE
Launched in May 2005, YouTube allows billions of people to discover, watch, and share originally-
created videos. YouTube provides a forum for people to connect, inform, and inspire others across
the globe and acts as a distribution platform for original content creators and advertisers, both large
and small. This tutorial is designed to make the readers understand how YouTube can be used as a
marketing tool. It explains how you can create a video to promote your business and create greater
awareness about the products an
Audience
This tutorial is primarily going to help all those readers who are into marketing and advertising
through videos, specifically those who aspire to make a career in YouTube Marketing.
Prerequisites
Before proceeding with this tutorial, you should have a good understanding of the fundamental
concepts of marketing and advertising. services you offer.
YouTube provides a forum for people to connect, inform, and inspire others across the globe and
acts as a distribution platform for original content creators and advertisers large and small.
The following screenshot shows how a YouTube page looks like −
SALIENT FEATURES OF YOUTUBE
Ready to grow and sustain a loyal audience on YouTube? Start with a Creative foundation and strong, workable ideas.
When deciding what content will work best on YouTube, this is a great list of ideas or questions to ask yourself before
the creation process begins.
• Shareable − Will viewers share your videos?
• Conversational − Is there an element of speaking directly to the audience?
• Interactive − Can the audience interact with the content?
• Consistent − Are there consistent elements to each episode?
• Targeted − Is there a distinct audience your videos are targeting?
• Discoverable − Will viewers discover your videos through search?
• Accessible − Can a new viewer appreciate every episode?
• Sustainable − If your audience loves it, can you make more of it?
• Collaborative − Is there space for guests in your episodes?
• Inspired − Are your videos coming from a place of true passion?
If your content idea passes the test, it’s now time to decide what equipment you’ll use to capture the video. Choices
include everything from your mobile phone, a webcam, a handheld camcorder, or software that captures activity on your
computer.
Give them the benefit of the doubt
Comments on social media channels come with no context, no facial cues, and no tone. Don’t assume that
they meant their comment in a negative way. They may have no idea that their comment is considered
“negative” to you.
Don’t argue
It’s typically in your best interest, even when dealing with argumentative people, to engage in an argument.
Your reply is visible to everyone else who looks at the comments on your video. Think about the reputation
you are trying to create and how your reply will look to other people who want to comment on your video.
Separate constructive criticism from negativity
There are some YouTube users who thrive on negativity and there are others who genuinely want to
contribute to the conversation, even if they don’t see eye-to-eye with you. Make sure you aren’t lumping
these two types of people together. Respond to viewers offering constructive criticism with grace and
appreciation that they are adding to the discussion. Welcome divergent viewpoints when they’re written
respectfully.
Don’t feed the trolls
There are people on the Internet that seek pleasure in being argumentative. Engaging with them can be
exhausting and is never productive. If you think you may be dealing with an Internet troll, tread carefully
and don’t be afraid to disengage (i.e. ignore them).
When your YouTube videos begin attracting a large audience, you can turn those clips into an extra source
of revenue by enabling monetization on your account.
Monetization is a simple process that starts once you to agree to YouTube's terms and conditions
for advertising. Following this, you can allow ads to run with your videos, and YouTube will share of
portion of the ad revenue with you
HOW TO GROW YOUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL
Want to grow your business with YouTube? Here’s a complete guide to building a successful YouTube
channel to market your business.
Create a great channel layout.Use branded images, a video trailer, and organize videos by topics.
Create regular YouTube content.Aim for a minimum of one video per week, but the right amount of
content depends on your audience, your goals, and your content.
Write great YouTube titles.Write a cliffhanger, but make sure to include key terms.
Design the right thumbnails.Use arrows and circles to draw attention to your video and consider
including a logo to stand out.
Cross-promote your channel on other platformsMake it a priority to identify and reach out to other
similar channels to cross-promote or collaborate in a mutually beneficial manner.
Get your YouTube SEO right.Use your title and description to target important key terms and increase
your visibility.
Add close captions to videos.Ever remembered a great line from a TV show, typed it
into Google or YouTube, and found the exact clip on YouTube? If that great line wasn’t
in the title or the description, then you found that because the search engines used
the captions to find the video.
Optimize YouTube tags.The key to optimizing your tags is to place your important
terms first. Use quotes for keyword phrases such as “video production” and provide a
blend of common and long-tail keywords.
Ask for comments, likes, and subscriptionsMore likes and comments signals to
YouTube that the video is getting audience engagement, and YouTube will rank it
higher in their search results.
Create a great opening.The first few seconds of a video are absolutely crucial to get
exactly right. They “hook” the viewer in so that they want to watch your entire video.
Create calls to action.Having too many prompts can cause confusion, so keep your
CTAs minimal and simple. The goal is to make it as easy as possible for viewers to
perform an action.
YOUTUBE MARKETING VID EO TYPES
There are a number of video types that you can explore when creating content for your
YouTube channel. We look at seven of the most popular varieties below.
1. Behind the scenes
Take users into the life and times of your brand and your company culture with behind-the-scenes videos. Tours of your
office space, Q&As with staff members, highlights from office events—these all make for excellent social content. The
Lush behind-the-scenes video is a great example of how engaging this content is—two employees share how a product is
made, intercut with visuals of the actual process.
It’s soothing, calming, fun, and it gives the company a more personal outlook.
3. Explainer videos
These are very popular types of videos—people are constantly looking for solutions to their problems. This is why
YouTube has become a favourite search engine in its own right.
Make life easier for users by creating explainer videos that showcase how to use a product, how to troubleshoot an
issue, or how to understand a concept or industry.
Google Small Business’ video on taking high-quality photos is a simple but effective explainer—it features
someone who has had success in the area alongside clear and easy-to-follow steps.
Note the friendly and comforting tone that makes the video more accessible to users who may be at the beginner
stage of business photography. This helps make content more relatable and engaging.
4. Interviews
nterviews with professionals in your field, in your company, or in an area of interest to your audience also make for
popular content.
Akin to explainer videos, interviews also place your brand as a thought leader in the field—it tells people that you
don’t just create content, you are an expert on it. This interview from Inc with a leading CEO in the field makes for
great content. The light and personal tone, the choice of the interviewee, and the message all place the brand as a
thought leader trying to improve the knowledge of their audience.
5. Listicles
Lists make for very popular content online—whether in blogs, infographics, or videos, lists about a topic are eye-
catching and easy to consume.
Listicles are the most popular kind of content online. The Ahrefs video here is short, snappy, and to the point.
But the reason why listicles work is that they are finite—the audience knows there are 3 points and they can also
go back to the point that is more relevant to them.
When attention spans are low, it helps to make your content more bite-sized, as exemplified in listicles.
6. Product demos
Make your product readily usable for customers by creating a product demo—that you can then use on your
website. A demo will answer a lot of questions about the way a product should be used, while also acting as a
sales pitch to buyers who are still on the fence. Oracle Netsuite’s product demo has a simple set up—two people
discussing the product with shots of the product in use. It gives users a visual guide to follow and refer to when
they’re using the product themselves.
7. Testimonials
The internet may be a bastion of content, but it also has a propensity for spewing information that is patently
untrue. If you want users to engage with you, you need to be real.
And what better way to do that than to feature testimonials with real people—staff and customers—on your
YouTube channel?
These make for convincing videos that will make your brand look more human.
Omada’s testimonial video shows the importance of giving brands a human face—these are real people who were helped by a company and that makes
the brand more attractive to potential customers.
SEO isn’t just for written content—it has a huge role to play in video marketing, and eventually in how well your channel
is received.
There are a number of SEO tools that you can use to make this process easier. But first, you need to know the key
aspects of YouTube SEO that you need to work on.
1. Tags
If you want your audience to find your content, your channel and videos need to have the tags that are relevant to them.
The VidIQ extension is a good tool for checking tags that would be relevant to your content and are more effective in reaching your target audience.
2. Keywords
As with tags, when creating videos, ensure you choose the keywords that not only describe the content but also appeal to your audience.
Use a mind map to brainstorm your keywords and keep track of which ones are most effective for your audience.
3. Headlines
You will have spent time optimizing blog headlines. The same goes for YouTube videos. The headlines you choose should be extremely relevant to your topic.
Keep the headline to 60 characters—as you would do with a blog headline—so it isn’t cut off on search engines.
You should keep the primary keywords to the beginning of the headline—another important way to boost organic SEO.
Here are some headlines that earned brands 1000s of views:
•How to find influencers to explode your Shopify store
•Is this candy actually as intense as it claims?
•What do real people say about Purple?
Short, sharp, and focused headlines will improve clicks and engagement.
4. Thumbnails
The type of thumbnail that appears beside your video has an impact on how many people click on it —thus
improving your ranking. According to YouTube, 90% of the top viewed videos feature custom thumbnails.
When you upload a video to YouTube, you will be able to choose a frame from your video. While this makes the
process easier, it doesn’t actually tell the audience much about the video.
Instead, create a customized frame to use as the thumbnail—this can include visuals from the video, alongside
the headline and a tagline.
• To-the-point introduction, written in brand tone, explaining exactly what viewers will see in the video
• Keywords, used at the beginning of your description and sprinkled throughout. Avoid keyword stuffing, as you
would do with a blog
• Include your CTA below the description—a link to subscribe to your channel, visit your website, or use a code
• Below the CTA, add links to related content
6. Hashtags
People don’t realize that hashtags on YouTube are definitely a thing—and they can be massively helpful for your organic SEO.
YouTube allows a maximum of 15 hashtags, which can be used in the titles and descriptions of your videos.
These hashtags are clickable—users can see all content related to those hashtags. This also means you need to be judicious in your use of hashtags.
For one, they need to be relevant to your topic. They also need to be popular—obscure hashtags, like rarely-used keywords, won’t be clicked on.
Use hashtags to make your content more easily discoverable but choose them wisely.
YOUTUBE METRICS
Here are some of the metrics that you should examine when trying to determine how well your
content is performing:
•Bounce Rates – The rate at which people are leaving your video before completing it
•Click Rates – The number of times your video is being clicked on
•Completion Rates – How many times your video has been watched to completion
•Comments – The number of comments your video received
•Conversion Rates – How often users viewed a video and then acted on the CTA
•Likes and Dislikes – The number of likes or dislikes your video received
•Recurrence Rates – How often viewers watched the same video multiple times
•Referrals – Where users are finding your videos from
•Sharing – How often people are sharing your videos
•Subscribers – The number of subscribers your channel has
•Video Views – How many people watched a video in total
Those are a lot of metrics but you don’t have to study each one to decide whether your content is a
success.
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
“Social media marketing is the process of creating tailored content for each social media platform to drive
engagement and promote your business.”
Social media marketing is all about connecting with your audience or customers and helping them understand
your brand better. It is incredibly beneficial to your business growth.
it offers advertisers the opportunity to put their ads in front of motivated customers who are ready to buy at
the precise moment they’re ready to make a purchase
Imagine you’re going to meet someone for the first time with an intention to build a good relationship.
What should you do to make that person like you instantly because you’re not going to get a second chance? Will
you succeed if you meet that person and say things that are boring or meaningless?
People tend to like you more when you make them happy, no matter how you do that.
Just like the offline world, your social media marketing success largely depends on your ability to find and make
your target audience happy so that they like your brand and share your stories with others.
Your social media marketing efforts will produce no results if your story isn’t worth sharing.
WHY IS SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
IMPORTANT TODAY?
•Be responsive: Engage with those who respond to your content or share something on your
pages - responsiveness encourages more conversions.
•Have clear goals: Make sure you know what you’re going after.
•Be consistent: Post often and at a comfortable rate. Schedule your posts in advance if
possible.
•Have a theme: Choose themes for specific days of the week to boost engagement.
•Tell a story: Engage customers on social media with brand storytelling.
•Do it with passion: Or not at all.
•Communicate: Share everything with your team; goals, FAILURES, and success.
•Be a trendsetter: Don’t just follow trends, be a source of inspiration for others.
•Use remarketing audiences: Don’t forget to use your remarketing audiences.
FACEBOOK
Facebook Apps − Advantages
Facebook pages assist businesses, brands and organizations in sharing information and reaching out to people. Users
like the pages that they are interested in. With this, they can stay in touch and get updates about different activities. There
are a number of different pages you can create depending on what sort of organization you are starting.
Following is a list of the types of Facebook pages that you can create −
• Brand or product
• Entertainment
• Cause or community
The first step to ‘create a page’ on Facebook requires you to select the page category.
While all of the pages have the same look and feel, they have different information and
features that you can highlight and promote.
The image above is what the information fields look like when you click on one of
the categories in ‘create a page’.
Adding page details
The Facebook wizard will guide you through the process quite easily when you are creating your page. If you
have decided that your page is a Local Business or Place, you can add tags that help improve the ranking of
your page (which will increase visibility when people are searching interests related to your business).
You can also add a detailed description, website link and a custom Facebook web URL. You will also be required
to confirm that you are the authorized representative to create a Facebook page for the business. Once you
have finished this step, you will then be asked to add a profile picture, add the page to your favorites and have
the option to claim any duplicate pages relating to your business.
The last step to getting your business or place page set up is to choose your preferred page audience. This will
let Facebook know what demographics should see your page. The setting up of Facebook pages for other
categories are fairly similar.
Once you have
completed the
Setup Wizard, you
will be directed to
your new page. It
will look empty
except for the
information you put
in during the setup.
After completing the initial setup, you will be redirected to your new Facebook page. Apart from the information
you provided in the setup process, it will look rather empty. In this chapter, we will show you how to navigate
through different areas of the page so that you are comfortable with modifying and utilizing the functionalities
In the ‘About’ tab, you can ensure that all your business details have been entered correctly. The areas you can
update/modify include −
• Address
• Contact details
• Website URL
• Operating Hours
• Price Range
You can also include a brief description about your business.
Adding a display picture and a cover photo
o add a display picture and a cover photo, you will need to click on the camera icon located within the designated areas (see
picture below). In general, the display picture should represent your business with either a logo or icon that people will familiarize
with your brand. The cover photo is a great way to show off what makes your brand shine by giving your users a graphical image
that promotes your service. Depending on the culture and values of your organization this can be professional, creative,
informative or a mix, there are no set rules, it will depend on how you want to market yourself.
To promote your page, you will need to open up your Facebook Ads Manager
Toolkit. In the toolkit, select the ‘Promote your Page’ option and the page you
would like to promote. Then, click ‘Set Audience and Budget’.
The following is a stepwise procedure that we need to walk through to promote a page.
• Set the age between 28-40 as we want to target the young, and the active business owners on social media.
• As the posts will all be in English, we have set English as the primary language of people. This sees to the promotion of page among native English speakers too.
• As the page is called “Local Business and Place”, we need to match the interests of small business owners and people interested in small business.
• We have also excluded the page boost to be shown to anyone that already likes the page, as we need not direct the campaign budget on people who have already joined.
This defines your audience and limits your potential reach with the goal of getting a higher conversion of people liking the page.
he image above illustrates all that is mentioned in the steps above. Identifying your target audience is
important as it helps you narrow down on the people who see your posts to the ones that care the most. When
you are using the ad creator, Facebook assists you in breaking down the target audience based on location as
well as demographics like age, interests, and gender. You will also be able to target your ad based on what
people do on the Internet outside of Facebook.
You get full control over the audience you want to reach. Depending on your business needs and the strategy
you are currently implementing, you can choose from either one or a combination of the targeting options.
Choosing the right audience
When looking to identify your target, you will need to choose the right audience you want to reach. Before
working out the right target market, ask yourself the following important questions −
•What device do I want to reach my customers on? Desktop, mobile, tablet or a combination?
•How many campaigns will I be setting up? Will there be relevant messages that I want to target to specific
groups of people?
•How will I get the most value from my advert?
Targeting options to choose from
We can choose from the following options when finding an audience −
•Location, age, gender and language
•Interests
•Behavior
•Categories
•Connections (People who are already connected to any of your pages)
Types and Quality of Posts
Being consistent in the quality and types of posts you create helps people know what kinds of messages to expect from
you and how they are related to your business.
Create link posts to get people back to your website/blog
In the post creation tool on your Facebook profile, you can add a link to either your website or a blog post and then
press enter. This will take the title, description and a picture that you have entered in the link page and organise it on to
your Facebook post. You can also add a caption with some information about the link you are posting. It is good to keep
this caption simple and precise, no more than one or two sentences.
Post interesting copy, images and videos
Posting interesting information, images and videos that are engaging will get your profile more attention and assist you
to make your brand message stand out in your users’ news feeds. These posts should also be short and succinct,
usually between 50-100 words.
Publish posts that create conversations
Posting a question or story that will generate a conversation between you and the
users is a great way to create unique, engaging and entertaining dialog. With this,
the users will be able to spend time on your page reading and at times performing
the required actions. This requires minimal input from you, the Facebook admin of
the page, as it is the users who create the content.
Publish exclusive information
Reward the users who follow your Facebook page by offering them exclusive offers and deals that are not accessible
anywhere else. For example, if you have an ecommerce website, you can create a coupon code that will give them
discounts when used on your website. This can help to grow your audience as your fans may share this information with
their friends and family.
Post frequency is something that does not have a definitive answer. Finding the sweet spot for the amount of
posts you should make per week will strongly depend on how your audience is engaging in the content you
share. On one hand, if you are publishing one post per week, this will probably be not enough to keep the users
from recognizing your online presence. But on the other hand, if you publish five posts per day, users will
probably find this annoying and this could detract them from staying as a follower.
Facebook’s algorithms have been designed in favor of fresh and unique content being shown on news feeds. If
you post repetitive information, this will not be beneficial to your page and your users will not appreciate
repetition on their feed.
At the end of the day, you need to ask yourself the following questions −
• How do I get more followers?
• What information should I share?
• What times should I be sharing this information?
• How often should I be sharing information?
Experimenting with post frequency can take time. We would recommend you start with approximately 8-12 posts
per week and tinker with it till you find a sweet sport for your business. You will notice that the likes, comments
and shares on your posts will stop growing and the count will reduce further when you post too much information.
How to add the call-to-action button
To add the call-to-action button, follow these steps −
Step 1 − Go to your Facebook page and click the ‘add action button’.
Step 2 − Select the call-to-action button option that is most applicable to
what you are looking to do.
Step 3 − If you want to drive your users to a website, click website,
otherwise if you want to drive your users to a mobile application, click app.
Step 4 − Click ‘create’.
Step 5 − Test to make sure it works the way you want it to and you are done!
Facebook analytics, also known as insights, provide you with very important statistical
analysis of how your campaigns are going and what sort of engagement your posts are
receiving.
Following is an image of the front page of the analytics section. It gives you an insight if
your audience is large enough. In addition, it also helps you know the types of devices
your audience uses and you can also have a track of the page/video views.
On the right hand side, there is a toolbar with the different sections that you can go through to find various insights. We will go through each area on what
information you can get from them.
Likes
In this section, you will be able to see the total likes for your page. It will give you a graph with a 30-day overview and you can see how to track your progress.
You will also be able to view your net likes, which shows how many likes you get for each day as well as how many unlikes your page is getting each day.
Finally, you can see where your likes are coming from — from people coming on your page and clicking like, finding you through ads and through the API.
Reach
This indicates how many people see your post. As seen in the following graph, it is separated with organic reach and paid reach. In this section, you can also
find the graph for reactions and shares for all posts.
Page views
This gives you an insight into how many people are viewing your page on a day-to-day basis. This is great because, especially in the early days when you are
testing different post types, you can see the analytics over a period of time and see which days are working better to get click through on to your page.
Page actions tell you what people are clicking on whilst they are looking at your page. Here you can see which people are clicking −
• Directions
• Phone numbers
• Website clicks
This is also broken down by the same insights as the page views (age and gender, country, city and by device).
Posts
This insight is great because it shows some important information. This brings you clear data sets and shows when your fans were online over the last 7-day
period.
Events
The events insight gives you statistical data on how much awareness your event has received. It also gives you information on the
audience/demographic that are attending the event, how much engagement the event has received and if you have a buy tickets
button, it will tell you how many people have clicked the link.
Videos
This insight is very similar to the posts insight. It breaks down how your video reach has gone for each video and a breakdown of
the demographics.
People
This is a very important insight as you get a complete breakdown on the age and gender of your Facebook fans. You also get a
breakdown of which countries your fans are from, the cities within the countries and the language your fans speak.
This
helps with future campaigns as by now you have an idea of who is using your page.
INSTAGRAM
Instagram can also help you grow your brand awareness and introduce new products. Every
month, 130 million Instagram users engage with shopping content. Instagram allows you to
promote your brand and product in a friendly, authentic way without hard selling to your
customers.
ADVANTAGES OF USING INSTAGRAM
You can invite more users to window shop
With this social media app, you can provide window-shopping experience for your followers,
giving them an essence of your products and services. Share relevant and valuable information in
the caption, like location details, sales, and something else to get the interest of your followers.
Ensure you explain all relevant product information, in case your followers wish to purchase the
product you feature in the photo.
You can promote your brand
One can use Instagram to post marvelous photographs about your firm's services and products.
On the other hand, maintain a strategic distance from any sort of exhausting, content heavy
images, or any other infographics. Take and post pictures of you and your workers at work or at
any company event. Utilize the captions to share correlated and interesting information about the
workers and what’s happening in the picture.
You can attract fans and boost sales
Instagram can be a staggering way to draw in more followers to your organization by
promoting coupon codes and selective discounts. You can do this with any of your services
and items. Creating exclusivity and favored status for particular audiences is a proven
technique for driving engagement.
Business Strategy
Engage your customers
Utilize the @mention to promote the "follower of the day" on Instagram, and you will
connect with a considerable measure of potential clients immediately. This will advance your
customers, which will urge them to work with you significantly further. The @mention is used
to tag any client in comments inside Instagram, and you can employ it to generate the
growth of your audience over time. This method can develop a relevant and engaged
audience of high value to your brand or business. You can also use hashtags (#) as a method
of growing your audience.
Build content
Instagram is a predominantly visual type of online networking, and a perfect stage for flaunting items
through video or pictures. While building a strategy, you will have to figure out which strategy will
work best for the service or products that you are promoting. Video is frequently the most ideal
approach to publicize viable products. For example, tools, as you can exhibit the utilization of the
item. For products such as garments, pictures are more appropriate.
Always hashtag
Using hashtags on Instagram is basic for your business. Hashtags enable users to discover content or
brands which they would like to follow. Once a user has been directed to your profile by means of
their search, you can then lead them to your website. Instagram allows a maximum of thirty hashtags
to be included in a post or comment. However, ensure that you do not overuse them.
Connect to other forms of social media
Sharing your Instagram content with your other social media accounts will surely save your time and
will help to increase your leads. Connect your Instagram profile to a variety of other social media
platforms such as Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Flickr, and Foursquare. For example, if you have a
Facebook business page you can arrange it so that all your Instagram posts and photos appear on
your Facebook business page as well.
Use sponsored ads and posts
The use of Instagram’s sponsored posts and advertisements have finally spread worldwide and are
proving very popular. Instagram advertising is still in the early stages of availability. Ads are available
in 30 second video format, as images, and in carousel format too. These adverts are an ideal way to
direct consumers to your website or to tell the story of your brand in a better way.
Post according to an editorial calendar
Instagram was designed as an app to create content via a mobile device. As a result, it is only practical
to use one of the various scheduling tools available, so that you can post systematically. By the help of
using an editorial calendar, you are able to schedule regular posts in advance, to keep your followers
engaged. It is also a useful method to use when you are promoting something, or attending an event. By
doing so, you will never forget to send out content, and that content can be scheduled to be released
when you are because of some reasons not available to do it manually.
Partner with Instagram influencers
Presently, Instagram has over 40,000 influencers using their platform, and they cover a variety of topics
and businesses. They are viewed as the big names of Instagram, and by adjusting your image to the
right influencers, you can extend your image awareness and number of followers. Your influencer simply
needs to incorporate the handle of your brand in one of their Instagram posts.
IDEAS TO FLIP-UP INSTAGRAM
The best way to make your post viral is to make it worthy. Following are a few pointers: Mine
positive things about your products and services. Highlight them in your posts.
Add inspirational quotes to compel people to read your post.
Add appealing images or videos. Visuals speak more than thousand words.
Lay a call-to-action for a definite purpose.
Compel users to generate content for you by engaging them in your post. Repost fan created
content on your Instagram account.
SCHEDULE INSTAGRAM POSTS
It is very important to schedule Instagram posts. One can do this with the help of the following tools:
ScheduGram
Post now or schedule for some other time. You can deal with multiple Instagram accounts through
one easy web-based interface. Multiple users: Let multiple users sign into your ScheduGram
account, schedule posts for your accounts, and see who has scheduled what.
Latergamme
Collaborate with your group. Manage various Instagram accounts. Search, explore, and
discover user-generated content to repost from the web.
Hootsuite
Schedule and publish Instagram content. Monitor and engage with Instagram audiences.
Securely share access to Instagram accounts across groups. Create group workflows, including
assignments and endorsement for Instagram.
PAID INSTAGRAM CAMPAIGNS
It's vital to note that Instagram is trying different things with paid advertising opportunities.
The program is generally new, and at this moment it's held for huge brandsthat as of now
have a presence on Instagram. It is unquestionably something to watch out for, on the
grounds that they have more than 300 million users.
Advertising on Instagram permits you to get your photographs, your captions, and your
messages out to the users that follow you, as well as to the whole community of Instagram
users. If we scroll down the Instagram website at business.instgram.com/advertising, on the
page there are some resources that you can consider.
You can take a look at an inspiring gallery that shows you how organizations are truly
making use and being imaginative on Instagram. You can also take a look at some of the
statistics and results for those organizations that have been able to advertise on Instagram.
And those results show an expanded awareness and a high rate of advertisement review.
There are also some case studies available on the website that demonstrate how brand
recognition has expanded for those organizations using paid advertisements on Instagram.
Again, this open door isn't accessible for everyone at this moment, yet it's unquestionably
something to watch out for. If you advertise on Facebook, once this opens up for everyone,
you're likely going to want to advertise on Instagram too.
LINKEDIN
LinkedIn is a professional networking platform and it has all the features of a great marketing
opportunity provider. Here you interact with people who mean business. To market through
LinkedIn, you need to do the following −
•Build a robust business page that displays your products and services in a compelling format.
•Invite clients and vendors to follow and recommend your page.
•Launch a group that is related to your business. It can attract significant traffic.
•Reach your audience through targeted advertising.
LinkedIn is a powerful social media tool. You just need to follow its policies and best practices.
PREMIUM ACCOUNT
LinkedIn offers different levels of premium account options for people with different goals based on
their specific needs.
•LinkedIn Premium for General Users − starts at $24.95 per month. These plans include features
such as InMail, seeing more profiles when you search, access to premium search filters, ability to
view expanded profiles on LinkedIn, and more.
•LinkedIn Premium for Recruiters − starts at $49.95 per month. These plans include talent-finding
filters, saved searches with alerts for new candidates who meet your criteria, reference search, and
more.
•LinkedIn Premium for Job Seekers − starts at $19.95 per month. These plans include the ability to
zero in on $100K plus jobs with detailed salary information, ability to move up to the top of the list as
a featured applicant, access to the job seeker community, and more.
•LinkedIn Premium for Sales Professionals − starts at $19.95 per month. These plans include a
Lead Builder organizer, introductions to companies you are targeting, and more.
•While some features exist only under specific accounts, such as featured applicant status for job
seekers, most features are similar to the general user premium package.
CONNECT WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS
You can use LinkedIn to connect with other users and convert them into your
clients. To do so, you need to −
•Maximize your links that direct to catchy pages. These links can lure
users to take interest in your products or services.
•Invite more and more people. Connect to even second degree
connections. Message them frequently. Keep interactions open.
•Make your profile professional. It imbibes faith of your invitees in your
business.
•Stay current. Allow people to know what you have to offer and what
advantages they can sought from you.
PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS ON LINKEDIN
LinkedIn is a valuable marketing tool. It involves targeting your own network and creating more links
from it. You can use the following tips to draw maximum benefit from LinkedIn −
•Search for highly targeted clients. Set filters to refine your search so that they meet your business
criteria.
•Stay updated and in focus of customers. Keep in touch with them by messaging, feed, etc.
•Post quality content. Keep posting new and correct information about your business. Make it viral.
•Use sponsored post to reach the right audience.
•Connect to relevant groups and circles and encourage your employees to be a part of it.
•Customize your company page to make it compelling and descriptive. Use images, colors, and clips
to describe what you have to offer.
•Pay attention to your profile. Address in first person and make your points clear and succinct.
•Maintain good relationship with your clients. Nurture your specific connection without forcing yourself
on it.
CREATE AN AD CAMPAIGN
To create an Ad campaign on LinkedIn, you need to log on to LinkedIn. Thereafter, follow the steps
given below −
•Select 'new campaign' and 'start New'.
•Give a name to your campaign.
•Choose your desired language.
•Choose your media type − basic, video, etc.
•Write your ad copy. Use 25 characters for heading and 75 characters for Body.
•Include a desired call-to-action that is liable to convert.
•Choose demographic areas and location you want your ad to be targeted in.
•Choose payment methods between cost-per-click and cost-per-impressions.
•Set a daily budget. This is the amount you are willing to pay on paid marketing through LinkedIn per
day.
•Decide conversion metrics and trace them regularly to get the scope of improvement.
GROW YOUR BUSINESS THROUGH LINKEDIN MARKETING
History of Twitter
Jack Dorsey, an undergraduate student at New York University, introduced
the idea of an individual using a message service to communicate with a
small group. Twitter was launched as an SMS-based communication
platform. Initially it was known as "twttr".
On March 21, 2006, Jack Dorsey sent the first ever tweet − "just setting up
my twitter".
WHAT IS TWITTER MARKETING?
Twitter marketing is a powerful tool for companies of every size and structure to
reach out to new customers, promote their brand, and connect with the rest of the
companies. Users can find out if customers are talking about them, and the
business can accordingly respond. Tweets create another instance for the business
that shows up in the search engine results. Twitter serves as a solid foundation for
your business to branch out into other social sites.
Twitter is a great platform for projecting what your company is doing and accessing
a large audience, where your Tweets can promote products and events.
CREATE A TWITTER ACCOUNT FOR YOUR BUSINESS
Before creating a profile, make sure every element of your profile reflects your business identity
and personality. Follow the steps given below to create an account for your business −
•Sign up for Twitter or go to twitter.com − Supply all the required information in the lower box
on the right side of your screen including your username, email address, and password.
•Confirm your account − Twitter will send you an email to the email address you provided that
will include a link that verifies your account. All you need to do is to click on the link to activate the
account.
•Make your first connections − When you are done with creating your account, the network will
suggest people to follow. Twitter will recommend some popular accounts of celebrities to follow.
Skip this step if you don’t want to follow an account.
•Add profile details − Click "edit profile" on the right side of your screen. Upload two different
appropriate and suitable photos to your profile and update the basic information that appears in
your bio. Try to convey what your business or brand is all about.
•Send your first tweet − Everything is ready, now you are set to start tweeting! Hit the "Tweet"
button and you are off and running with Twitter.
HOW TO INCREASE FOLLOWERS ON TWITTER?
•Grow your community by adding a follow button in your website and promote your
username.
•Get noticed with hash tags like #smallbiz etc.
•Engage with your followers by collecting feedback to build a better business.
•Sync your email contacts with Twitter.
•Keep your bio updated with the events or the business campaign you are running.
•Embed your best tweets and tweet to people every day.
•You can promote your twitter account on any printed material, e.g., business cards.
•Follow people who follow you.
•Make sure you are engaging with your customers on twitter and not to your product.
WHAT IS HASH TAG?
The symbol hash tag (#) is used to mark keywords in a tweet. It was originally created by Twitter users.
This symbol helps them to categorize the tweets and show them easily when people search for them.
Hash tags can occur anywhere in a tweet − middle, end, or at the beginning. If you tweet with a hash tag
on a public account, anyone who does a search for that hash tag will find you. A hash tag is a way for
people to search for tweets having a common topic.
Hash tags allow you to create communities of people interested in the same topic by making it easier to
share and find information related to the common topic.
Sponsored Tweets and Hash Tags
Sponsored Tweets
Sponsored tweets are advertising platforms that connect companies with tweeters. Sponsored tweets
allow brands to tap into a Twitter user's followers to reach out to new customers. By giving companies
access to your twitter stream, tweeters are compensated for each advertisement they accept.
The only thing tweeters need to do is to write a tweet based on some simple guidelines provided by the
advertiser. Sponsored tweets take care of the rest, and will even tweet it out for you. Companies choose
twitter followers they like based on a variety of factors, including how many followers you have and how
much influence you have over those followers.
Sponsored Hash Tags
Sponsored hash tags place the tag of a customer's choice among the list of
trending topics that users see when they access the social network through the
web.
Twitter Account Promotion
Promoted accounts are ad units that enable you to quickly gain followers.
Promoted accounts help you build trust and a fan following over time that gets
people to see more of your tweets regularly. Once your promoted account is
created, you can reach the audience who would most likely be interested in your
business and want to follow your account.
Promoted accounts are shown in the twitter section of "who to follow",
located on the left side of twitter feed. Promoted accounts help introduce a wider
variety of accounts that people can enjoy.
TOOLS TO INTEGRATE TWITTER ON YOUR BLOG OR WEBSITE
•Add the twitter widget to your site’s sidebar as it’s a great way to show your latest tweets
on your website.
•Choose from 40 different well-designed twitter buttons to quickly create a badge to
promote your account.
•TwitThis is a little button that can be placed in your HTML file or in your blog to allow
your readers to quickly and easily share what they are reading with their twitter
followers.
•Chirrup is another solution for pulling Twitter comments across any platform. It allows
you to display all the references from Twitter on a given webpage.
•Aweber has an excellent feature for any newsletter marketer. Newsletter delivery
service has actually created a way to convert RSS to email to tweet.
•Twitterfeed is a pioneer of website and Twitter integration which allows you to
automatically insert tweets into your Twitter from any RSS feed.
TWITTER API
Twitter API stands for twitter programming interface that programmers use to make
applications, websites, and widgets that interact with Twitter. You can use 'Web Intent',
'Tweet Button', etc. to your site for providing basic functionality. You can similarly embed
more complex integrations.
How to Integrate a Twitter Account to Your Website?
To integrate Twitter with your website, you need to have 'admin rights' of your website.
•Open two tabs simultaneously in your browser. Open your website in one tab and Twitter in
another.
•Click 'Widgets' under 'Twitter'. Create a widget. Copy the HTML code.
•Finish and grab code.
•Choose the area where you want to show your twitter box. Paste the code in the HTML
code section.
•Update and Save.
TWITTER AUTOMATION TOOLS
Following are some of the twitter automation tools that make your profile look like an
announcement board.
•Twitterfeed is a service that allows you to set up RSS from your blog or website.
•Social Oomph is a tool to create an automated direct message for new followers.
•Tweet Old Post is a great plugin which allows you to connect a Twitter account with
your blog and regularly tweet posts to your followers.
•Hootsuite is a free tool that you can use if you have fewer than five social profiles
to manage. It offers an option to schedule updates to specific social media
accounts.
•Visibili is a free service that lets you create a custom sharing bar that goes with any
links to share through their service.
•Twitter Showdown is a tool that provides valuable insights on follower-to-following
ratio, level of Tweet engagement, tweet timing, and how two accounts compare.
Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) for Work is a suite of web applications created
by Google for businesses. Your Goggle Workspace account will give you access to Gmail on
your preferred domain and 30GB of Google Drive storage per user. ... Google Apps makes
collaboration simple and effective.
G Suite is a collection of business, productivity, collaboration, and education software developed and
powered by Google. The primary G Suite tools include Gmail, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms,
Calendar, Google+, Sites, Hangouts, and Keep.
HISTORY
G Suite was released 12 years ago as “Google Apps for Your Domain”. The initial launch included
Gmail, Google Talk, Google Calendar, and Google Page Creator (now known as Sites). Google Apps
for Education followed two months later.
Over the last 10 years, Google released various tools and updates as part of its application suite.
Google Apps was rebranded to G Suite in September of 2016, and not long after, the company
launched its first hardware product: Jamboard.
The G Suite platform also includes the G Suite Marketplace (which was originally released in 2010),
through which you can install third-party cloud applications to use as part of your collection of G
Suite tools.
Who uses G Suite?
Both businesses and individuals use G Suite.
Consumer accounts aren’t necessarily called “G Suite,” though. For example, when I’m signed into
my personal Google account, the top right corner of the screen looks like this:
While G Suite services are free for consumers, businesses have to pay for enterprise
features such as a custom email domain, unlimited cloud storage, additional
administrative and marketing tools, and 24/7 support. (We’ll get into the G Suite
pricing structure later.)
If businesses have multiple users on their G Suite, they also have to pay per person.
Here’s what Google looks like when I’m signed into my HubSpot employee account:
Unlike other free consumer software, though, free G Suite users don’t see ads while
using the services. Bonus: Google doesn’t use the information stored in G Suite
applications and accounts for advertisement purposes.
THE G SUITE PRODUCTS
Google offers a wide variety of products for both personal and enterprise use. Most are
accessible with a Google account (by tapping the menu in the top right corner), though
some need to be installed as Google Chrome extensions to gain full functionality.
Gmail
Gmail is the G Suite email software. It was released in 2004 and now has over 1 billion users
worldwide.
With a G Suite plan, businesses enjoy 30GB of storage space, custom company email
addresses ([email protected]), unlimited Google Group email addresses, 24/7
phone and email support, and compatible add-ons available through the G Suite
Marketplace.
Know the second a lead opens an email, send a perfectly timed follow-up, and close deals
faster than ever with HubSpot’s Email Tracking — compatible with Gmail.
Drive
Drive
Google Drive is the G Suite cloud storage platform and was launched in 2012. Drive manages all of
your company’s content and supports collaboration across your entire organization. It also
allows you to view various file formats so you don’t have to download additional software to your
devices.
Depending on the G Suite plan, businesses enjoy 30GB, 1TB, or unlimited storage per user and
audit and reporting insights for Drive content.
Docs, Sheets, and Slides
Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides are the G Suite word processor, spreadsheet, and
presentation programs, respectively. They were added to the platform in 2006.
These programs allow real-time collaboration, save changes automatically, and track revision
history. Users can insert comments, suggest edits, communicate through a built-in chat,
and create templates for future use.
Forms
Google Forms is the G Suite web form and survey tool. Also launched in 2006, Forms shares many
of the same features as Docs, Sheets, and Slides, such as automatic saving, real-time
collaboration, and template creation. To collect data through Forms, users can personalize
surveys or quizzes, send respondents the URL, and review the data (that’s automatically collected
in Sheets).
Calendar
Google Calendar is the G Suite online calendar. It was launched in 2006 and integrates with Gmail to manage schedules, appointments, meetings, and
tasks (via Google Tasks).
With a G Suite plan, businesses enjoy smart scheduling (where employees can see open windows of time on coworkers’ calendars), calendars for Google
Groups, calendars for meeting rooms and shared resources, public calendars so customers can view company events, and easy migration from external
calendars (e.g. iCal, Outlook, or Exchange).
Google+
Google+ is the G Suite social network. It was launched in 2011, and as of October 2018, Google is planning to sunset Google+ for consumers in April
2019.
But, with a G Suite plan, businesses can still enjoy the service as well as restricted communities and enhanced privacy controls.
Sites
Google Sites is the G Suite website builder. It was added to the platform in 2008 and allows users to create websites with little to no coding knowledge or
design skills. Landing page and project websites can be created using pre-made templates and published internally or publicly.
Hangouts
Google Hangouts is the G Suite communication and messaging tool. Originally launched in 2006 as Google Talk, Hangouts supports text, voice and video
conversations (for up to 25 participants) and can be used between desktop and mobile devices. It’s also a common alternative to Slack.
With a G Suite plan, businesses enjoy a seamless integration with Calendar, screen sharing for participants, auto focus and intelligent muting features,
public livestreams automatically saved in YouTube, and custom administrative controls.
Keep
Google Keep is the G Suite note-taking tool. The newest addition to the G Suite platform, Keep can be used to create, organize, and share memos, lists,
images and voice notes across multiple devices. It’s available as a Chrome download and mobile application.
With a G Suite plan, businesses enjoy a seamless integration with Google Docs among other perks.
SETTING UP YOUR G SUITE ACCOUNT
Creating a G Suite account is simple. Head to the G Suite homepage and click “Get
Started.”
Enter your company name and indicate how many employees you have. You can
always change this number as your team grows.
Next, enter your contact information (or the information for whoever will be
managing the G Suite account). Google will send a confirmation to the email
address you insert here, so be sure it’s accessible.
WHAT IS CONTENT MARKETING?
Content marketing refers to the approach of creating and sharing of informative, relevant,
valuable, and consistent content to convert a group of audience into customers and
retain them.
Content marketing is non-interruptive way of marketing.
Good content helps customers become more knowledgeable about the product or
service and make better buying judgment.
Goals of Content Marketing
The goals of content marketing are as follows −
•Brand Awareness − It marks the presence of your brand.
•Sale − It boosts lead generation at quicker pace.
•Customer-Vendor Relationship Building − It helps in creating engagement between buyer
and the company.
•Customer Retention − Pleasing content attracts customers and helps one in retaining him.
Why are You Creating the Content?
Defining your content goals is the first step.
•Why do you want to create a specific type of content?
•What is it that you want to accomplish?
•Does the content strategy match your overall business goals?
These are important questions that need to be answered.
Who are Your Customers?
It goes without saying that identifying your customers is the most important step of content marketing.
You can refer to Part 2 of this tutorial to learn how to identify your customers. The bottom line is to list
out the problems and preferences of your audience and figure out what kinds of content will they like
best. Also, you need to answer the important question - what is the unique thing that you have to
offer to you customers?
What do You Want Your Content to Achieve?
You must ask yourself - how will my content help my customers? Will it help them to arrange a travel,
buy a house, or train for an examination? You need to clearly define and understand how your content
will affect the lives of your customers?
Content marketing is a long-term strategy and an editorial calendar helps you plan your strategy in an
organized fashion. The calendar will contain details such as −
•List of the kinds of content you have or need to create, including the dates when they will be created and
published
•The names of the content editors/producers and other stakeholders who are responsible for the project
•The media channel that you will use to market your content
•Metadata such as your primary target audience, SEO keywords, call to action, etc.
How to Build an Editorial Calendar
While you can use a simple tool such as an Excel or Google sheet to create an editorial calendar, you
can also use web-based software offered by companies such as HubSpot, Skyword, etc.
A content marketing style guide is a document which standardizes your content creation guidelines. From
the colors of your brand, the key phrases you use for call to action buttons to the spelling and punctuation
usages, everything is documented and standardized by a style guide.
A style guide is a necessary document for the success of your content marketing strategy as well as to
maintain quality of the content across your website. A style guide can list step-by-step rules for:
•A designer’s checklist - This will remind designers of your brand colors, correct image properties and
copyright issues, icon selection, etc.
•A writer’s checklist - This will remind writers of the use of voice, spelling, punctuation, unique words,
and phrases approved by the company. It will also advise writes on legal fact checking and proofreading
methods.
By creating content for each stage of the buyer’s journey, you’re ensuring that no visitors fall through
the cracks and that every individual that comes to your site feels like they are receiving relevant, useful
information.
You also want to select a format for your content so that it’s tailored to each stage of the buyer’s
journey. A new visitor in the awareness stage won’t want a live demo of your product, but
they would read a quick checklist or blog post that helps them better understand their problem. A
prospect in the decision stage doesn’t need to know about all the possible solutions, they need a
consultation or demo that shows them that your product is the right solution. Always meet your
audience where they are.
Awareness: Whitepaper, Blog Post, Checklist, Tip Sheet, Infographic, Ebook, Game, Quiz
Consideration: Podcast, Webinar, Worksheet, Comparison Matrix, Template
Decision: Demo, Free Trial, Product Guide, Consultation, Coupon
FOLLOW THESE STEPS TO CREATE CONTENT, REMOVE THE GUESSWORK, AND
Instagram is best for sharing high-quality imagery and short videos with brief captions.
Hashtags work well on this platform as long as they’re relevant to your account and business.
Instagram Stories has introduced a new way to engage with your followers, from quick polls
to questions to real-time videos.
YouTube has 1.3 billion users and counting. Users frequent this platform to watch content
ranging from DIY videos to parodies. Some of the most successful content on this platform are
how-to guides, vlogs, product reviews, and educational videos.
Website Content
Website content should focus on three things: your persona, your target keywords, and your solution. Not
unlike your blog content, the copy on your website needs to guide visitors to your solution in a cohesive and
natural way. Think of web content like a map to your product.
Be careful not to turn visitors away through social media feeds and other distracting elements. Once you
you’ve attracted a potential customer, you must do everything you can to keep them there, and that’s the key
function of your website content.
Blog Content
The purpose of blog content is to support your business by attracting strangers and bringing in qualified leads.
Blog content is a free resource that’s not often directly tied to sales, but don’t underestimate the power of a
well-crafted blog to ultimately generate revenue for your business. Research shows that companies that blog
more get more traffic and more leads than those that don’t.
TYPES OF CONTENT
Let us see what each type of content gives −
News
They contain news about new product release, updates on products, etc. For example, news of releasing new mobile handset
on website of NDTV gadgets.
Webpages
SEO webpages can hold the content in the best possible way and sell the content.
Videos
They say, video is the second best thing to pursue a viewer in person. Creating crisp and compact videos can bring good
market at doorstep. Promote your business videos across multiple channels, and ensure that your videos are optimized for
mobile viewing, as an increasing number of users view them from their mobile devices.
Infographics
These are long, vertical graphics or columns that include graphs, charts, statistics, and other information. Infographics makes
use of the fact that 90% information transmitted to human brain is visual, which makes people perceive it faster than text.
Podcasts
They are digital files available in the form of episodes, which can be downloaded on the PC. They can come in various formats
such as audio, video, e-Pub, and pdf. It allows people to subscribe and it can prove as a powerful medium to communicate a
range of ideas, products, and information to audience. The businesses engaged in podcasting are − IBM, Oracle, Yarn Craft,
etc.
TYPES OF CONTENT
Blogs
Business blogs deliver excellent content marketing. Blogs are required for a
business to survive in the race of content marketing.
Case Studies
Case studies are detailed studies pertaining to a particular problem, action,
individual, organization, event, or action, existing at a specific place at a given
time. They encourage content marketing to build trust in the product and in turn
business.
Photographs
A picture speaks a thousand words. Pleasant and relevant pictures can stand as
a good content for content marketing and boosts the business.
Influencer marketing campaigns usually involve three types of relationship triggers: inspire,
hire, or a mix of both. You can inspire an influencer to share your content or messaging on their
own. You can pay them to promote your brand. Or you can create a situation that uses a little bit
of both.
“ People do not buy goods and services. They buy relations, stories, and magic.”
When you look at the stats below, it makes sense why influencer marketing is such a popular
tactic to drive sales:
•When it comes to millennials, only 1% of them trust advertisements. However, 33% of them
trust blog reviews for their purchases.
•Around 40% of people reported that they purchased a product online after seeing it used by an
influencer on YouTube, Instagram, or Twitter.
•71% of influencers believe that it’s an honest and authentic voice that keeps their audience
engaged.
•According to a study by Tomoson, influencer marketing yields a $6.50 return on investment for
every dollar spent.
The sweet spot for maximum engagement is to find an influencer who has between 10k-100k
followers.
HOW TO CREATE AN INFLUENCER
MARKETING STRATEGY
To create and launch an influencer marketing strategy for your brand, go through the following steps
and download our free influencer marketing strategy template to guide you through the process.
Define Your Goals
Some goals you may want to consider for your influencer marketing strategy include the following:
•Brand Awareness: Getting more people to know, recognize, and like your brand.
•Building Brand Identity: Getting people to see your brand personality and values.
•Audience Building: Getting more people to follow and subscribe.
•Engagement: Getting more shares, comments, and likes for your content.
•Lead Generation: Getting more people to sign up for your lead magnets and offers.
•Sales: Getting more people to purchase your products/services.
•Customer Loyalty: Getting people to stay interested and connected with your brand.
•Link Building: Getting more links directed back to your site.
CHOOSE A TYPE OF INFLUENCER MARKETING
CAMPAIGN
Once you know your goals, it’s time to start thinking about the type of influencer marketing campaign that will help you acco mplish your mission.
Influencer marketing campaigns usually involve three types of relationship triggers: inspire, hire, or a mix of both.
You can inspire an influencer to share your content or messaging on their own. You can pay them to promote your brand. Or you can create a situation that uses a little bit of
both.
Here are a few types of influencer marketing strategies you can consider:
• Gifting: Giving free products and services to an influencer in exchange for a review or mention.
• Co-Creating Content: Partnering with an influencer to create content that is featured on your website, their website, or a third-party website.
• Social Media Mentions: Getting a social media marketing strategy going with a personality or brand to mention your brand, share your content, or post about you.
• Contests and Giveaways: Running a contest and asking an influencer to share your giveaway event with their followers or readers.
• Influencer Takeover: Allowing an influencer to take control of your social media accounts for a set amount of time.
• Affiliates: Providing a unique code that gives influencers a percentage of each sale they drive.
• Discount Codes: Giving an influencer a unique discount code for your product or service that they can promote and offer to their audience.
• Brand Ambassadors: Forming relationships with loyal brand fans wherein they mention or promote your brand, products, and services in exchange for exclusive offers, free
products, or being featured by your brand.
These influencer marketing ideas aren’t set in stone or required to meet certain criteria. They are all flexible and meant to be general ideas for what you can do with your
influencer marketing strategy.
FASCINATING INFLUENCER MARKETING TRENDS
1. Investing in Influencers Who Use Video.
Video production is the latest craze, and if you aren’t tapping into that channel you’re already
behind the curve.
When researching a purchase decision, 4 out of 5 millennials go to video content.
Even more interesting is that 70% of teenage YouTube subscribers stated they relate more to
YouTube content creators than traditional celebrities, and 60% of all YouTube subscribers would
follow advice on what to buy from their favorite video creator over movie and TV personalities.
Imagine the kind of impact that could have on your marketing plan over the next 5-10 years as
those teenagers enter the job market and become your primary target audience.
It’s also worth noting that YouTube isn’t the only platform worth investing in for video.
Social media video marketing has huge opportunity.
Instagram has live stories and recently launched Instagram TV (IGTV), which is essentially a
channel for popular Instagram influencers to stream longer content to their massive followings.
Snapchat and Facebook are also viable options for partnering on video content.
2. Increased Transparency.
With the government setting a cautionary tone and hinting at a possible crackdown, major
brands and marketing platforms are putting in the extra effort to disclose paid partnerships and
sponsorships.
Finding ways to share partnerships and sponsored posts that aren’t off-putting to the audience
will help keep consumer trust high and keep Uncle Sam off your back.
3. Creating Useful Content Instead of Ads.
Content marketing is derived from people’s demand for authenticity. Consumers were sick and
tired of traditional advertising clogging up magazines, radio, TV, and billboards. Then, with the
dot.com boom, the digital age brought about a new flood of advertising that elevated that
demand for greater authenticity.
EXAMPLES OF SUCCESSFUL INFLUENCER MARKETING
CAMPAIGNS
1. Bigelow Tea.
Bigelow Tea is one of the most well-known and recognized brands in the tea industry.
Like many other big name brands, Bigelow Tea is in the fight to retain customers and hold its
brand position in this highly dynamic marketing mix that has become the new standard.
With craft tea and coffee houses on every corner and the rise of social media marketing,
Bigelow decided it needed to differentiate and adapt to the times.
To do that, the company chose influencer marketing as its mechanism and reached
out to lifestyle bloggers to promote the benefits of tea, healthy living, and of
course, Bigelow tea bags. The company partnered with lifestyle bloggers
like Ashley at Cherished Bliss who provided a recipe for Bigelow Iced Tea with
Lemonade Ice Cubes.
That article put Bigelow on the front page of Google for relevant and competitive
search terms like “ice lemonade drink” and “ice cube iced tea,” and has been linked
to by hundreds of other lifestyle blogs, expanding Bigelow’s reach even further than
the Cherished Bliss audience.