Why Content Marketing Is Critical For Your Business In 2022
I have a question for you. Let’s think about the last time you made a purchase. (Not everyday essentials) Chances are it started out as a question in your mind, Then, you went to your trusted friend Google, and started researching to find answers and the best solution to your “problem”. You clicked a few links, read a few articles, did some comparison back and forth, and then, finally made the decision to buy. If that was pretty much your process, you are just like 80% of human beings and I’m pretty sure your customers are too. No one really wants to buy what you sell. What they want is the solution to a problem they have. 80% of people aren’t actively looking for what to buy. They are looking for solutions to their problems and that search leads them to make a purchase. So, how do you position what you sell as the solution they need to buy? That is where Content Marketing comes in. What is Content Marketing? Content Marketing is the process of creating valuable and relevant content to attract, acquire, and engage your target audience. With content marketing, instead of pitching your product or service, you are simply providing relevant and useful information to your audience to help them solve their issues. By creating content about topics that are of interest to your target audience, you will be able to attract new leads that you can follow up on and ultimately, convert them into paying customers. And just in case our analogy at the beginning didn’t have you thinking “I must include Content Marketing in my Digital Strategy”, here are the reasons you need to do just that. 5 Reasons to Include Content Marketing In Your Digital Strategy Content Marketing establishes your business as a thought leader in your industry. Customers want to do business with those they see as experts or leaders in their industry. Having the answers to your potential customers’ clients’ questions help to position your business or company as an expert which in turn leads to trust. Content Marketing is a perfect way to educate people about your products and services while proving you are an expert they can trust. Content Marketing helps you to attract new leads. Your content is like a huge magnet. Well-written content will attract potential customers. But, in order to do this, you need to ensure the relevance of your content. If your content is attracting the wrong audience, then you are just wasting your time. Content improves your search engine optimization. SEO plays a major role in your business being found on the internet. You NEED to be found on the internet and content increases the chances of search engines showing your content to searchers. Content helps increase your social media followers. Content marketing and social media go hand in hand. Social media is used to distribute your content and get it to your potential customers. The more valuable content you put out there, the more social media followers you attract who can see your new content whenever you post, and ultimately, become customers. Content Marketing improves your sales. Yes, content marketing can help you increase sales. Once your content helps you position as a thought leader in your field, get leads, and educate your customer about how what you have is the solution to their problem, they are ready to buy from you, their trusted expert. The bottom line is, Content is an effective way to get customers banging at your day wanting what you sell. There are many ways that you can use content and we’ll dig into that right now. Types of Content When people think content, they think blog posts/articles but the content is broader than that. Your potential customers consume content in different ways and to be very effective, you need to create different types of content to reach them. The different types of content out there are: ● Articles ● Videos ● Social Media Posts ● Infographics ● GIFs ● Podcasts ● White Papers, etc While you’re thinking about implementing content marketing in your business, you also need to think about the different types of content to catch their attention. How To Get Started Now that you know the importance of content marketing for your business, how do you come up with great content ideas that would resonate with your target audience? 1. Start with your audience in mind The type of content you write should solely depend on your target audience. There’s no such thing as “everyone is my customer”. You should know precisely who you are writing to, understand what they want, and how to communicate with them. All these will help you address what they want to hear. You will know exactly what to write, and how to write it in their language. 2. Understand the user’s intent To create great content, you need to pay great attention to what your intended users are searching for on the internet and especially how they are searching for it. If you know what, how, and where they are searching for certain information, you will understand how to create relevant content for them. 3. Use keywords Once you understand your audience and their search intent, you can build a list of keywords to use in your content. 4. Focus on SEO Once you’ve identified the right keywords for your content, you should use them accordingly throughout your content. Using relevant keywords in your content help it to be found by your target audience What next Content marketing is a strategy that helps your brand meet your ideal audience at the point of need and help position you as the solution to problems. This works irrespective of what kind of business you run. Your audience has questions that need to be answered. Use your content to answer these questions. Is content marketing easy? No… but it is well worth it. If you’re not sure where to start, working with an
Email Marketing: A Beginners Guide
Did you know that email is one of the oldest and most effective marketing channels? Email generates $42 for every $1 spent, which is an astounding 4,200% return on marketing investment, making it one of the most effective marketing strategies. If you are looking to grow your business or brand and sell more of your product, email marketing should definitely be a part of your strategy. In this article, we’ll discuss how email marketing – and the usage of promotional emails – can help you to grow your business, and we’ll give you a few tips to help you get started with a successful email marketing campaign. What is Email Marketing? Email marketing is a form of marketing where you use emails to communicate, engage and build relationships and sell products or services to your audience. An effective email campaign will help you keep your audience informed and engaged with your brand and its offerings and also help you convert prospects into paying customers. Despite being one of the oldest messaging channels, email marketing has proven over and over again to be the most effective as it continues to generate an impressive return on investment for thousands of businesses who use it around the world. Why you should consider email marketing for your Business Businesses use email marketing to connect, engage and build a relationship with their potential and existing customers. You can use emails to inform and update them about changes in your business, offer promotions and coupons to encourage customer retention and loyalty. Here are some other reasons why you should consider email marketing for your business: 1. Email helps you build credibility with your customers by sharing relevant and informative content in your newsletter. 2. A cost-effective method of communication: One of the most appealing benefits of email marketing is its affordability. The return on marketing investment in email marketing as shown in the study by Campaign Monitor found that every $1 invested in email marketing equaled a $44 ROI. And that’s an increase of almost $10 from the year prior. 3. Reaching The right audience: Email marketing allows you to hit your target audience wherever they are. People on your email list have one way or the other be in contact with your business, this makes them more likely to take action because they are not new to your business. 4. Increase Sales: Most customers will make a buying decision if they receive a well-timed offer. Adding urgency to your offers, and offering generous sales or free shipping are excellent ways to convert a prospect into a customer. Furthermore, email marketing can be a great way to upsell existing customers. You can also use email to re-activate customers who haven’t purchased in a while. Now that you know some of the reasons why you should consider email marketing for your business, how do you get started? How to get started with Email Marketing The following three steps can get you started quickly with email marketing: 1. Establish your Email Marketing goals It can be tempting to quickly want to get started with email marketing now that you know why you should adopt it for your business. But, before going ahead and sending out emails to your customers, it’s worth taking a minute to think about your goals and what you want to achieve with email marketing campaigns. Being clear on this will dictate: ● the type of email campaigns you send, ● who you target, ● the email content to write, and ● how you measure your email campaign success. 2. Choose an Email Marketing Service Provider There are numerous email marketing service providers available like Mailchimp, Aweber, Sendgrid, SMBLeadsPro, etc. They all have their unique features and offers. To choose the one that makes the most sense for your business, determine your email marketing goals, some unique features you need, the size of your audience or contact list, and your overall budget for your marketing program. Your email marketing provider should be flexible and cost-effective. (Want an All-In-One Sales & Marketing Solution for your business? Click here) 3. Build your Email list What is the purpose of email campaigns without an email list? To have an effective email marketing strategy, you need to have a solid email list. To build an email list building, you will need to give potential customers a chance to give you their contact information. A great way to do this is to offer valuable information in exchange for their contact information. 4. Key email marketing metrics Your marketing effort needs to be analyzed to know how effective it is to your achieving your marketing goals. Being able to narrow down the metrics you should track can prevent you from becoming overwhelmed and show you how your email marketing efforts are doing. Metrics You Should Be Tracking There are many metrics you can track when it comes to email marketing but these are the top email marketing metrics that matter most to your long-term success. 1. Open Rate Your email open rate is the percentage of people that have opened your email. It’s one thing to send an email. It’s another thing to have the recipeients open it and read it. Tracking your email open rate lets you know how many people are actually opening up your emails to read. 2. Clickthrough Rate Your email’s clickthrough rate is the percentage of people who click on the links you’ve added to your email. Tracking this metric gives you an idea as to how your subscribers are engaging with your email’s content. 3. Conversion Rate Your email’s conversion rate is one step further from the clickthrough rate, it measures how many people clicked on a link within your email and completed a desired action. (e.g. made a purchase) 4. Overall ROI The last and most important email marketing metric you should always measure is the return on investment, or ROI, of your email marketing campaigns. This way, you know how much you’re
Why You Should Use Google Display Ads For Your Business
Business owners are always looking for ad platforms to reach their customers on. Most businesses run ads on Facebook. Some run Google Search Ads & YouTube Ads. And all those are great. But there’s one Ad network that works great for businesses but many people don’t use and that’s Google Display Ads. What are Google Display Ads Google Display ads are mostly graphical ads (though they can also be text-only) in different shapes and sizes that appear as banner ads and sidebar advertisements on web pages. While search ads are based on text, Display ads are image-based. They are great for building awareness for your brand. Benefits of Google Display Ads There are two big benefits of the Goggle Display Ads and they are: ● High Reach ● Low cost Wider reach Google Display Network (GDN) is a network of over 2 million websites across the world plus apps that display advertisers to visitors or users. With Google Display Ads, your ad will be displayed on sites, videos and apps across Google Display Network. This means you can reach your audience anywhere, anytime, and connect with the most engaged online audiences for a few spends You will see your Google display Ad campaigns when browsing your favorite websites. However, they can also appear on your Gmail account, apps, or Youtube videos. Best used for: To reach your potential customers early in their buying cycle and increase your brand awareness. Cost-Effective Unlike Search ads, Display ads are very budget-friendly. Believe it or not, they are much cheaper than Facebook ads when done right. Why you need to use Google Display Ads Google display ads are a no-brainer for your business. They are extremely powerful for business with the right strategy in place. The key for you will be to really research your audience, so you can better understand your options and know how you can effectively customize your ad campaigns to get the desired results.. Best practices of Google Display ads If you decide to run Google DIsplay ads or have an agency run Display ads for you, these are some things you need to take into consideration. 1. Focus On Responsive Display ads Responsive display ads will automatically adjust in appearance, size, and format so they can perfectly fit all the available placements on the Google Display Network. 2. Never mix new users with your remarketing audiences Display ads allow for remarketing, which is a great way that you can remind your website visitors about products and services. Many marketers and businesses have often struggled with the question of whether to use search ads, display ads, or both, some don’t even know the difference between Google Search and Google Display Ads. If you want your business to have more visibility with your target audience affordably, then you absolutely need to use Google Display Ads What’s Next? If you don’t have Google Display Ads set up yet, you need to do so. Running a successful Display campaign has a lot of components and if you’re new to ads, look for an Agency (preferably a Google Partner Agency) to work with to get started.
