SmartPhone Evolution: Apps to Enhance Marketing Productivity

June 28, 2018June 28, 2018 / nancyrubin

Marketing doesn’t always happen at your desktop. In fact, marketers are more mobile than ever before, and they need to stay productive while on the go. Apps for superior marketing productivity can:

Make communicating simpler
Boost collaborative efforts.
Maximize your time.
Automate your workflow.

If you’re not taking advantage of apps that can help your marketing workflows, you may be wasting opportunities for growth. Here are 6 mobile apps to enhance your marketing productivity.

1. Slack

Slack has become a marketer’s best friend in nearly every industry. Teamwork is at the bedrock of marketing, and this communication app makes teams far more efficient and productive.

You can ping team members, check out archived chats, and make on-boarding of new team members or clients easy.

Other Slack features include . . .

Open communication channels for different projects and teams
You can go mobile, or use Slack on your desktop
Internal and external sharing, including files, docs, and other assets
A flexible browsing interface
Read-state synchronization

Slack also integrates easily with a number of software ecosystems, such as Google Drive, Zendesk, Dropbox, MailChimp, and major social media channels like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

2. Toggl

Marketers who freelance often need to have billable hours ready to go if a client asks. Toggl does just that, timing you how long it takes to complete a task, or a number of tasks of one client project.

Toggl is also great for timing how long it takes for you to do a certain task to help you tweak your workflow to become even more productive. You can even send detailed tracking reports from the app to clients.

Other Toggl productivity solutions are . . .

Charts for easy user digestion, also great for clients
Day-by-day productivity breakdown for tasks
User-friendly single click time tracking feature
Usable online and offline

The Toggl app is also geared for companies. Marketing managers can use the app data to tweak workflow for optimal productivity. This could have a big impact on marketing agency profits.

3. UberConference

The UberConference app simplifies conference calls by taking glitchy video software out of the boardroom. There is no pin or software to download with this productivity app, and you won’t need to decipher who is talking. UberConference shows you the profiles of all conference call members, and when they are speaking.

A few features marketers can use include . . .

HD audio for clearer conference calls
Screen share option
Admin login with call controls
Social media integration
Document sharing
Compatible with Slack for chat messaging

This mobile marketing app also allows you to connect to conference calls while on the go. Whether you need to hash out client contracts, or connect with the team on an urgent issue, UberConference is a productivity powerhouse.

4. Noisli

Not all productivity apps are about production. The Noisli app doesn’t have scheduling features or note taking capabilities. However, this productivity app is all about heightening your focus to get in the zone. By providing background noise conducive to your workflow, you will simply get more done.

Marketers can find more focus using these Noisli features . . .

16 different sounds (white noise, rain, wind, water, etc.)
Customizable by mixing sounds together
Adjustable volume for mixes
Built in timer and text editor
Colorful backgrounds for relaxation

“The service is mainly used as a concentration booster during work by coders, programmers, bloggers, writers, students, and translators,” Noisli founder, Stefano Merlo told CNET. “Noisli is also used by many teachers in the classroom as a base for creative writing classes or for exercises/games in elementary school.”

5. SocialPilot

This next productivity app is geared for social media marketers looking to automate their workflow. The SocialPilot app is a newer alternative to Hootsuite and Buffer with more advanced options for mobile marketers. It allows you to organize nearly every aspect of your social media scheduling.

Marketers can leverage SocialPilot for . . .

Full automation of scheduling social media posts.
Tracking all social accounts in the dashboard calendar.
Enhanced visibility via customized Facebook branding.
Bulk scheduling with a CSV or TXT file.
Team sharing with contributor and moderator settings.
Client management features for agencies.

This new productivity app for marketers can make social media management far more efficient. In fact, more than 75,000 agencies and marketing professionals trust SocialPilot to do just that.

6. Cloze

Have you ever wanted a personal assistant? Well, how about a virtual AI powered personal assistant you don’t need to pay? The Cloze app can make that happen. It is essentially a CRM that doesn’t require you to enter any data. The app automatically pulls your contact’s information, social media activity, and personal history, delivering one easily digestible place.

The productivity wins for marketers include . . .

Compiles all your contacts in one place.
Updates contact information based on email signature changes.
Links scheduled items to the people mentioned.
Reminds you to reach out to people at appropriate times.
Organizes contacts by last touch point, location, initial meeting, etc.

“With the relaunch of Cloze, the app is moving away from being an email client of sorts, and instead is meant to function more as a tool that lets you track your contacts and your interactions in a variety of ways,” TechCrunch explained.

Ready to be the Most Productive Marketer on the Planet?

Well, maybe that is a bit of an overstatement. However, a more productive marketer is a more successful one, making you one of the savviest in your industry. From team collaboration to the soothing sounds of deep concentration, there is an app for that.

The right tools can make a big difference for any professional, and the Smartphone evolution has ushered in a variety of mobile apps that have made the mobile workforce fierce. What productivity apps are taking your marketing game to the next level?

The Evolution of Content Marketing: What We Can Learn From the Past?

June 27, 2018 / nancyrubin

Content marketing is one of the most popular long-term marketing strategies that, if done right, can significantly increase brand awareness and brand loyalty. It’s a highly effective tactic. It costs 62% less than traditional marketing, while at the same time creating 3 times more leads. Content marketing comes down to offering people relevant info related to your industry on a regular basis. You do promote your brand through content, but the emphasis is not on advertising, but instead on providing value for those who consume the content. The ultimate goal then is to slowly and spontaneously turn your audience into your customers.

This strategy has been around for a long time, although it’s gained real significance on a global scale just a decade or two ago. Let’s have a brief look at the history of content marketing and then we’ll try to point out to a few valuable lessons it can teach us.

Pre-internet era

It’s possible to trace the roots of content marketing to as early as 19^th century. It was far from being as widespread as today, but a few standalone examples have showed the way to the marketers of the future and basically relied on the same principles as content marketing nowadays.

In 1895, Deere & Company started publishing The Furrow Magazine, which provided farmers with valuable pieces of advice and information on topics related to agriculture. And by 1912, it had more than 4 million readers. This was a great marketing move for a company that produces agricultural tools, machinery and equipment, and has done wonders for the image of the brand.

Other early examples of this kind include Michelin’s Guide from 1900, Jell-O’s booklets of recipes from 1904, as well as Procter & Gamble’s radio drama soap campaign from 1930s. All these were a huge success, but these content marketing attempts were still just isolated examples rather than a trend. This has all changed with the emergence of the internet.

Online opportunities: 1990s-2010

The trouble with content marketing was the lack of channels for such a long-term marketing effort. Anything more than a few inches of a printed page or a 30-second TV ad was simply too expensive for most companies. And for content marketing to be done right, you need your own channel where you can regularly publish new content that normally has to be long enough in order to be really relevant and informative.

With the emergence of internet, the circumstances have changed radically. People started using the power of blogs and social media – channels that are basically free and that you can use to publish an unlimited amount of content. This event is often referred to as “democratization” of content marketing. It has opened the door for the real expansion of this marketing strategy in the last decade.

The golden age: 2010 – ?

The explosion of online channels and opportunities has resulted in the explosion of content marketing as well, since 88% of B2B companies reportedly used it in their marketing efforts in 2015. Today, more than 2 million blog posts are published every day and this has resulted in a lot of noise and poor-quality content.

Thus, in order to stand out, it has become extremely important to deliver first-rate content, and both brands and top content marketing companies have recognized this. Moreover, Google’s algorithm updates guarantee low rankings for low-quality and short-form content, which has put additional emphasis on creating top-class, long-form articles that provide real value.

Another novelty that 2010s have brought is the way content is promoted. Companies have realized how useful influencer marketing and paid ads are. Furthermore, the amount of content produced every day is such that you have to invest in promotion in order to be noticed, no matter how good your content is. This has been reflected in the fact that companies today spend a lot more money on promoting the content than on creating it.

Lessons to be learned

Source: burst.shopifycdn.com

When we look at the history of content marketing, one constant becomes obvious immediately. The most important condition for this type of marketing to be successful is simply providing purposeful and interesting content that answers your audience’s questions. This is becoming more essential as the amount of available content grows.

Another constant is the necessity of careful targeting and narrowing your niche. You can’t and shouldn’t let the topics become too dispersed or completely irrelevant for your products and your industry. Stick to what you do and know best and tell stories that will not only benefit your audience right away, but that will also do good things for your business on the long run.

Furthermore, you ought to take advantage of the fact that content marketing has been “democratized”. It has apparently always been effective, but it was too expensive to be done properly. Today, you have all the necessary tools at your disposal basically for free and a multitude of channels ready to be utilized. And with careful targeting and distribution of the content, the resources you’ll have to invest in promotion can also be minimized.

At the end of the day, the ultimate message is to not be afraid to employ new strategies and put innovative ideas to work. Stay in touch with the latest trends and take chances. Some particular rules and practices applied in content marketing are going to change constantly and you have to be familiar with them and put them to use. Currently, these trends include the use of videos, strong links with journalism, as well as employing latest technological tools to analyze your content and feedback. So do your homework, see what works for you and include it in your strategy starting from today.

Guest author Meaghan is a web designer who is also quite passionate about digital marketing. These days she is all about researching various IT related topics and collaborating with other bloggers. When she is not working she enjoys dancing classical ballet.

How to Keep Your Company On-Brand at all Times

June 25, 2018 / nancyrubin

Working toward brand excellence is so important as a small business owner, and this is something that you should be striving for every day when running a business. There are some excellent ways of enhancing and boosting your brand, and there are plenty of things you can do to help you make the company a little more on-brand as much as possible.

The best way of impressing your customers and taking your business further is to make sure you are always on-brand. Your company will have an ethos, and a way of doing things, and your daily activities must exude this at all times. So, these are some of the best ideas you can use that will help keep the company on-brand at all times!

Never Compromise

You must never compromise from what makes your business and brand what it is. You will have plenty of business ideals that you want to make sure are important parts of the business every day. Never compromise on your beliefs, your plans for the company, or how you want the business to come across. It is important that you stick to your beliefs and ideals, and always make sure they are a focal point of the business, as this is one of the great ways of staying on-brand.

Keep Your Marketing Consistent

Another way of ensuring that you keep the company on-brand at all times is to make sure your marketing is as consistent as possible. The best way to keep the business branding on the right track is to make sure you improve your customer service, and that the marketing has the right focus. Too many companies seem to have a disjointed marketing strategy, and this can be detrimental to the company.

Cohesive Content

One of the most important things when it comes to staying on-brand is making sure you have cohesive content. So much of the time, your content can feel disjointed and not representative of the way you want your brand to come across. This is the sort of situation in which you need to use sites like https://www.templafy.com to get the correct sort of document and content management. This is so important in ensuring you are able to keep things cohesive and on-brand.

It’s Easy to Describe Your Brand

You know when you have kept everything on-brand when it is easy to summarize your brand in just a few short words. This is the most important thing to remember, and you need to put yourself in the place of your customers. Can your brand be summed up in just a few words? If the answer is no, then you need to make sure you work on improving your brand identity and make sure you better understand how to get back on-brand.

This is such an important thing for your business, and you have to do what you can to ensure your company is going to improve and thrive as a result. There are so many things to consider when trying to keep your business on-brand as much as possible.

Are Your Online Marketing Expectations in-line with the Truth?

May 15, 2018 / nancyrubin / 1 Comment

For those of you who don’t know, I’m an on again-off again online dater. I work a lot at home… not into the club scene… don’t do blind dates… yadda, yadda, yadda. It’s a diversion for me – now.

But when I first started doing it, I was really into finding “the one.” My sister had just gotten re-married (le sigh), my ex-was on his way to the altar (ciao!) and I just felt like I wanted to be in the hand holding club too. I put on my very best law of attraction demeanor and went on an official soul mate quest.

Yes, I met someone great and we dated for a while. But the truth is that he was great for someone else, not for me. I’m a talkative foodie who loves to try new things. He loved to try new things, but wasn’t very talkative nor was he a foodie.

At the end of that spell, I came to a simple conclusion.

Sometimes you either have to alter your expectations or you have to move on. In that situation I chose to move on.

Expectations can you have barking up the wrong tree when you should be running down the mountain

Yesterday I noticed I was getting some traffic from the Warrior Forum so I stopped in for a brief visit. Apparently one of my readers had mentioned me as a press release writer. A good press release writer.

I popped over to say thanks and to explain how my service worked.

The person looking for a press release writer had previously hired someone else on the Warrior Forum. He wasn’t all that ecstatic about the work provided and was on the prowl again for someone new.

I explained that I write press releases for people who are looking for website traffic through Google News and other assorted websites. I don’t write them to catch the attention of an editor at The Wall Street Journal.

I relayed that if the person wanted true media attention they should ditch the press release strategy, build a list of journalists who covered his type of story and pitch them individually. That’s the most efficient way to get right to the source… and it works way better than sending out a press releases.

This is, in fact, what a lot of super expensive PR companies do. If they have a really good story, they don’t let a press release do the job of a well-tailored pitch. If I want bloggers to review a product, I don’t send out a press release, I email them personally.

Are your expectations leading you down the wrong path?

When I write press releases, it’s for traffic. Not for backlinks. Not for media attention. I want some honest-to-goodness click throughs. I want ebook sales. I want subscribers.

Do I get the backlink effect? Yes. As I relayed in the Warrior post, I have an affiliate marketing client I did 8 press releases for – 2 for each of his sites.

When the dust cleared, 2 of those sites had gained significant backlink juice from the press releases. Enough where they jumped to the first page in Google and in some cases to a top 3 position for a fairly competitive term. So indeed, press releases can be used for backlink power.

But to me, backlinks are a beneficial by-product of the release, not the main reason why I write them. I don’t find them to be as reliable for backlinks as I do for actual traffic. Resource and broken link building are the more effective ways to earn links, rather than trying to build them. Of-course, you need great resources, great content. Remember, when you do it at the optimal way, you’ll see following kind of inbound link graph (This is for Digital Renovators website, Halifax Website Design team):

I made it a point to stress these things when I wrote the sales copy at my new press release website. I wanted to avoid clients feeling like their expectations for backlinks or media attention weren’t met.

And that’s the purpose of today’s post.

Expectations in internet marketing often have a serious disconnect from the truth

In internet marketing, it seems like every tactic is usable for at least 2-3 different purposes. Take forums, for instance.

You can do research on them. You can ask and answer questions. Include your signature and you’ve turned your posts into an advertisement. You can get 1,000 forum profile links in hopes of spiking your backlink juice.

Yes, forums are used for several different purposes. But if you’re using them for marketing purposes, they usually work the best when:

(a) You participate on them, by helpfully answering other people’s questions;

(b) You include a signature.

Everything else (research, backlinks) is a beneficial by-product.

So when I see people get disappointed because they don’t get the positive backlink effect from forum profile links, I cringe a little. Their expectations are off kilter. Forum profiles can be used for backlinks. But that’s really not their intended purpose. If you use them for that purpose then you really can’t be disappointed when it doesn’t work out as planned.

No more than I can be disappointed in a guy who’s nice, but not a talkative foodie like me.

Understand the true purpose of the tools/services you’re using. If you’re using a tool for a secondary benefit, plan for the best possible results, but don’t expect miracles.

It’s a harsh, yet a very reliable metric for expectation joy in this business.

Written by Dahlia, blogger and eBook author.

Plug The Leak In Your Marketing Funnel

April 16, 2018 / nancyrubin

You can lose customers in the marketing funnel. It happens all the time. They’re trickling towards the point of purchase when suddenly they back out and they might even decide to buy from your competition instead. What’s gone wrong? Well, there are a number of issues that can lead to a customer deciding not to buy from your business. Let’s look at a few.

They Checked Out Customer Reviews

Most customers these days will check the reviews of a business before they commit to buying a product. They want to have the safety of numbers and feel reassured when they see that other people have favorable reviews of your business. But what happens if they find that there are a lot of one or two-star company reviews. Depending on what they say, this could be enough to stop a customer buying altogether. Bear in mind that it doesn’t even matter if most of the reviews are favorable. Just a few will be enough to make them stop and question whether they should buy.

The best way to deal with bad reviews? Well, don’t ignore them. Instead, respond politely and calmly, and this will show that you are at least willing to address customer complaints.

There Was A Minor Issue You Weren’t Aware Of

It is possible that a minor problem with your site could lead to customers not completing a purchase. Even the smallest detail can be enough to put buyers off completely. This could be a picture that you’ve chosen to use on your site or even the color of a buy button. This is why web designers are often meticulous and will take care to make sure that every choice for your site design is perfect. If you are having trouble with losing customers and you’re not sure why there’s a failure to convert them, you need to look into A-B testing.

Your Products Didn’t Look Professional

You do need to work to ensure that your products do look professional. If in doubt, hire an expert photographer to make sure that the items do look appealing. Labeling systems can also make sure that the outer packaging of the product in pictures is impressive. Apple is a great example of a company that does this well. Their packaging is almost as stylish as the products they sell.

You Made It Hard To Buy

Finally, make it as easy as possible for customers to complete a purchase. They shouldn’t have to search for the buy button. Nor, should they need to navigate through multiple pages to complete a purchase. It should all be quick and easy. One of the best ways to do this is to have a secure ID system. That way, your customers can log into their account on your site and buy without any issue whatsoever.

This perhaps brings us to another problem that can cause customers to click away and disappear out of the marketing funnel. If you are worried about the level of security on your site, using an expert service to increase it. There are various types of security that you can add to your site from basic layers on your website to more in depth monitoring options.

How to Rank in Google Using the Best SEO Practices?

April 16, 2018April 16, 2018 / nancyrubin

There are numerous methods to rank in Google. Ordinarily, Google and other search engines use many similar algorithms to determine a website’s ranking. The most extensive and popular method to rank your website in Google is by exhibiting proper SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Digital marketing evolved as a result of the Internet revolution. SEO, for anyone who doesn’t know, is one of the branches of digital marketing or online marketing. Who knew something like SEO would become popular in the days of conventional marketing.

Search Engine Result Pages or SERPs are commonly used to refer to Google’s pages. In the SEO community, you will encounter a very typical question that says: how high do you rank in SERPs for a particular keyword? However, you must not be dazzled and remain firm on grounds that lead you to your destiny. In this article, we will cover simple yet authentic SEO methods to improve website rankings. Furthermore, you must keep these three things in mind for a better SEO: the quality and amount of the content (off-page content), backlinks, and things you can do to improve within the website (on-page content).

Method 1

Natural Optimization is the Best SEO Practice

The Hunt for Keywords

Google Keyword Planner is a tool that helps you search for the right keywords. You must get familiar with this SEO tool so you can use it to your benefit. If your website is about beauty products, you can search for keywords specific to the beauty industry. In addition, they must have a higher monthly search volume i.e. many people type in that particular keyword in Google search regularly. It is a ‘best SEO practice’ to do ‘keyword research’ at the beginning.

Google Trends Manifest Changing Priorities

‘Google Trends’ is an online facility showing the changing behaviors over a period of time. You see, keywords don’t always remain the same. As a general rule, the priorities in industries keep on changing giving birth to newer search phrases. Therefore, you mustn’t hold on to the same set of keywords forever. Keep vibrant and maintain your website according to the recent trends.

Mobile Optimization is Essential in the Age of Smartphones

You must optimize your website for the mobile audience. Mobiles are handy instruments and quickly becoming the leading search devices leaving behind computers & laptops. If your website doesn’t load quickly on mobiles, Google won’t rank it higher in SERPs. Nonetheless, getting your website AMP-friendly will make it run like a horse in derby race. It becomes responsive to user’s commands.

Adopt Google As Much As You Can

Ensuring your businesses are part of Google Plus and have ‘Google My Business Listings’ will definitely push the rankings upward. Google, by far, is the most popular search engine in the world. We must respect that and adopt Google as much as we can.

Method 2

Content Creation

Content Must Not Be Plagiarized

You must write highly relevant, error-free content for your website. Google appreciates the uniqueness and rejects any plagiarism. Distinctive content creation is easily the best SEO practice. Keep it simple, to the point, and don’t forget to add keywords you want the search engine to rank you for. You mustn’t sell any wrongful information either so the users get what they want.

A graphic designer can help you with the outlook of the website.

High-Quality Content

If your website is in English, not making any grammar, spelling, and sentence structure mistakes can help you earn a good position in SERPs. On the contrary, if you are simply copy-pasting content, Google knows and it will penalize your website for doing that. Your website may never be able to rank.

Significance of Images

Whether you are writing on your website or promoting your website, never forget to add images to the content. Tag them with your targeted keywords which is one of the best SEO practices.

LSI Keywords

You can use lsigraph.com to find the related LSI keywords against your targeted keywords. Use them throughout your content. Google appreciates those pages that include the LSI keywords. But don’t add those that are not relevant. You must use those keywords which are the most relevant to your data.

Tip – Don’t overdo keywords. Keyword stuffing can cost you.

Which Keywords to Select?

You must target those keywords which have less competition. For instance, instead of choosing ‘beauty salon’, you can choose a longer keyword such as ‘beauty salon in Brentwood’ because long-tail keywords are generally easier to rank for. But it must have some searches. Targeting longer keywords is part of the best SEO practices.

Tip – Google Adwords can tell you about the competition of keywords.

Sitemap – A Must SEO Tactic

A ‘sitemap’ is like a complete guide to your website and a ‘best SEO practice’. It is like a road system of your website leading people to the right products or services. Click through rate (CTR) increases by 1 % after creating a sitemap. Google likes sitemaps and you shouldn’t ignore anything that it likes to move up the rankings.

Guest Author, Fizza Arshad, has a passion for writing on various subjects.

Six tips to improve your video marketing strategy

April 7, 2018 / nancyrubin / 2 Comments

Marketing is an integral part of any business. In the past, businesses have used email and content marketing to get their message out there. Presently, online videos are trending, and businesses are using them to increase their outreach.

The reason why video is a very effective marketing medium is that it is very engaging and captivating. Using videos on a landing page can increase conversion by more than 80%. A video is a very powerful tool that businesses are presently using to reach their audiences.

If you have been using videos for some time and have not really gotten any result, chances are there is something wrong with your video marketing strategy. In this article, we are going to be looking at six tips that can improve your video marketing strategy. Ensure that you take a review of IPage before making a video for your business.

Start with a story

Telling stories in your video is going to make it more appealing to your audience. When you tell them a story that has a link to something they are going through, they are likely going to connect with you. Most viral video usually has a fun and engaging story.

A simple video without any story is likely going to give you an average or no result. On the other hand, if you add a compelling story to your video, the results are going to be mind-blowing.

Keep it short

Videos do not need to be very long in order for them to be captivating. Presently, a lot of research is going video marketing. The results of these researchers have shown that customers prefer watching a short video. The obvious reason for this is because they have a very short attention span.

When making a video for your product or services, you need to have it in mind that your customers or prospects are busy and may have a lot of issues to attend to. The ideal length of a video ranges from 30 seconds to 1 minutes.

Make your video interactive

The behaviour of your customers is changing by the day. If you don’t keep pace with it, you are going to be left behind. You will agree that making a video is expensive, even more, it takes a lot of time and effort. Video contents that are very interactive usually go viral. If you want to get more out of your videos, you have to make it more interactive. If your videos are interactive, your customer will follow you closely.

Add a call to action

Making a great video content without any call to action is a complete waste of time and resources. Businesses that create excellent content, but do not have a call to action, usually struggle and find it difficult to increase their revenue.

Use the last few seconds at the end of your video to tell your customers or viewers what you want them to do next. You should add links that will take your viewers to your sales page or your membership site.

Use data effectively

Data is what runs the business world. If you ignore the valuable data from your business, you are going end up making the same mistake over and over again. Having a data gathering strategy will help you chart the progress of your video content. In the long run, the data you have collected will show you the kind of videos your customers love.

Optimize your video

This is something you should never ignore. If you do, all your hard work is going to go to waste. Optimizing each of your video content is going to make it easier for your customers or audience to find it. One of the most effective ways to improve your ranking is to transcribe your videos.

Applying the tips in this article will improve the overall outreach of your business.