10 Tips for creating engaging content for an ‘Always-On’ economy

15 Sep 2020 Content

Producing content is easy for anyone. But content without any objective has no value and is ineffective. For content to qualify as engaging it needs to be original, valuable, rich, and should trigger a measurable response in people. Content should be impactful on the target audience for it to be considered as engaging be it in the form of an article, a blog post, a video, report, podcasts, or visual content. It is all about generating results such as an increase in traffic, clicks, conversions, sales, comments, mentions, opt-ins. These metrics help in measuring engagement.

There are certain prerequisites to keep in mind before creating engaging content for your organization.

  1. Know your Audience – The technology-driven era gives a better chance to know your audience. Presence on the web and through social media platform presents an opportunity for a business to interact with its target audience and understanding their interests. Knowing what the target audience is looking for online helps in devising the content that will lead to higher engagement.
  2. Create with Intent – The preparation phase for creating compelling content that connects with the audience is of prime importance. Know the objective that you want to achieve with the content, be it creating brand awareness or increasing conversions. Understanding what the audience is looking for, understanding what you want to accomplish with content, experimenting, and altering content to best suit the audience and the organization objectives will lead to creating engaging content.
  3. Be original, tell a story, and make it valuable – Creating unique content is a challenge in today’s day and age. The main goal should be to create content that stands out. Focusing on being original and making a connection with the audience by sharing your experience and expert insights on topics is the key. This connection with the target audience will make it more likely for them to read the content and know where to look for when the content in the future as well. This is a great way to create a target audience into loyal customers. E-books and newsletters are some of the tools offered by organizations to offer value to the target audience.
  4. Produce content that is actionable – As an organization you need to be aware of what objective will you achieve when you engage your audience with the content. For example, writing a blog on the new product launch highlighting its features and benefits and how it can improve the lives of the target audience will drive them to make a purchase. Ensuring a hyperlink on the page that redirects them to a landing page where they can make the purchase will achieve the action required.
  5. Focus on the strengths – One of the most effective ways to create engaging content is to focus on the strengths. If as an organization, you are good at something, make sure to use it to your advantage. If social media is your strength, make it attractive, and use it to get your content across to your target audience to engage them. Similarly, if the blog posts gain more traction, then the focus should be on that medium. Make sure to be consistent in your method of engaging with the audience to make a lasting impression on the audience.
  6. Diversify content – The content marketing strategy for any organization should not focus on one medium. Vary the content with visuals through the use of images, infographics, videos, etc. as they impact the audience more. Infographics and videos are used to enhance content and take it to the next level. The possibilities with video content are endless. Video content can be shared on the website, through newsletters, and across social media channels to generate higher engagement.
  7. Focus on creating a compelling headline and use subheadings – Before your audience engages with the content, it should be attractive enough for them to click it. Focus on creating a headline that is clickable as that is what people will see first. It should generate curiosity amongst the target audience to learn more and explore the topic you are presenting. Some of the popular top-performing headlines by engagement metrics on Facebook by BuzzSumo are “can we guess”, “that is why”, “the reason is”, “will make you” amongst others. After getting the attention of the audience to ensure that content is presented in a way that is easy to follow. Content should be presented with clear headings and subheadings, lists, bullet points to ensure the audience stays on the page and consumes the entire content.
  8. Mix up the content to make it more engaging – Putting out the same type of content is boring. Mix up the content by using articles based on research followed by a video, writing about recent events, and promoting a product. This keeps the customers excited about the content leading to higher engagement levels.
  9. Share the content – Great content serves no purpose if no one gets to see it. When planning the content, think of ways how best it should be distributed and shared to achieve its objective. Planning a detailed schedule or a calendar will add consistency and ensure that the content is shared to engage with the target audience.
  10. Use Artificial intelligence – All the elements stated above help in creating engaging content but we cannot ignore the role AI can play in making content engaging and successful. It not only helps in identifying the audience but also helps in understanding the performance of the existing content. AI-powered solution helps in predicting the best performing content for each audience to guide and improve content planning. It also helps in giving insights for every content to better understand who it attracts. It provides key metrics like top content views, conversions, and more to measure the impact of each content on the business.

Creating engaging content is not an easy task and presents its own challenge. Connecting with the target audience through compelling and original content is what drives engagement and turn them into loyal advocates for your organization. Focusing on the steps mentioned above will surely lead you to create engaging content.

5 Engagement Metrics You Should Track

14 Sep 2020 Digital Marketing

The pandemic has made the businesses realize that customer engagement is what will help them sail through these times. Customer Engagement is the emotional connection between a brand and its customers. It is a process where customers interact with the brand through various channels to develop and strengthen their relationships. Customers that are highly engaged with the brand, buy more, promote it, and are more loyal to the brand. The focus of any business needs to be on providing value beyond just products and services to its customer. Products and services initially attract customers, it is the quality of the experience along with relevant content that helps in developing long-lasting relationships.

Why is customer engagement important?

The most important reason for customer engagement is that it leads to brand loyalty by the customers and these customers serve as loyal advocates of the brand. They are more open to any kind of marketing and communication and spend more on the brand than on the competitors. A study conducted by Ray Wang of Constellation Research found that companies that have improved engagements drive up-sell revenue from 13 percent to 51 percent, increase cross-sell by 22 percent and increase order size from 5 percent to 85 percent. These statistics indicate a direct correlation engagement of customers and the profitability of the business. Not having a customer engagement strategy in place means missing opportunities to interact with customers and building a relationship. There is no standard procedure for customer engagement as each company needs to tweak its plan as per their needs and target audience. However, focusing on clarity, empathy and simplicity is the key to successful customer engagement.

Having stated the importance of customer engagement, it becomes imperative to track the level of engagement at every step.  Let us explore the engagement metrics to track

  1. Activity Time – Is the best metric for measuring the success of the customer engagement strategy. It refers to the total time spent by a user online interacting with the services offered and is one of the earliest indicators of how well the engagement strategy is working and if any changes need to be made to keep the users engaged. It measures the actual time spent by the user interacting with the service and factors out the time a user is idle. More time spend by the users on the website positively impacts the search engine optimization and increase the chances of the user converting to customers by buying the products and services offered. Similarly, time spent on social media channels helps to identify the content most valuable to the target audience.
  2. Return Users – How often a user returns to you is a key indicator of the value they derive from your brand. It is often referred to as value frequency. Value frequency helps in understanding the patterns in customer behaviour and use it to the advantage of the brand. If the expectation from the user is to return daily then the value frequency should be measured against that. If the user is creating an account and then not returning may mean that the product or service does not appeal to him. This metric is important at later stages of growth and development in the design and addition of features. Keeping your user updated with the latest changes and developments is the key to keeping them engaged.
  3. User Action – It is important to understand how the user is engaging with the brands. Google Analytics and other tools can be used to understand what the users are most focused on and what content is being viewed. Understanding the actions of the users will help in finding out any problems or pain points. These insights help in determining what is working well and what isn’t working well with the customers, which in turn can help in making improvements. Knowing the actions of the users’ help in understanding how best to keep them engaged with the brand.
  4. Net Promoter Score – This is a measure of customer loyalty. In other words, how likely is it for a customer to refer the brand to others. This metric is important in understanding how well the products and services fulfill the needs of the customers. Customers are the biggest marketing asset for any brand. They do a better job of putting the brand in front of the potential user. The most common way to measure net promoter score is through a survey where the customers are asked to rate their experience and how likely are, they to recommend your product or service to a friend/family. To get the most out of the NPS is to ask some open-ended questions along-with some sliding scale questions. This helps in quantifying the NPS and take some necessary steps for improving customer loyalty and referrals. Ensuring a high score means exponential growth for the brand in the long-term
  5. Daily active users vs Monthly active users– Daily active users are considered a vanity metric and do not have much weightage whereas monthly active users help in understanding the customer engagement in a better way. To understand how well the product/ service is performing with the users, you need to measure how many customers are actively engaging with the brand and how the brand resonates with them. By comparing the daily active users vs, the monthly active users will help in understanding if the users are sticking with the brand or not returning.

It is important to understand customer engagement and how it can benefit any business. It helps in understanding the customer interaction with the product/service and their likes and dislikes. It is ideal to have high customer engagement to have more loyal customers and higher returns. Tracking engagement metrics help in understanding what is working well and what is not to make changes accordingly.

Top 25 Analytics Apps

10 Sep 2020 Blog

The objective of any business is to extract actionable and commercially relevant information to improve performance. According to Sharad Agarwal, CEO of Cyber Gear, “If you’re able to go into a meeting, and other people have opinions, but you have data to support your arguments and your recommendations, you’re going to be heard.”

The Top 25 Analytics Apps that can help you make smart decisions are reviewed below:

  1. Agency Analytics- an all in one reporting platform for the marketing activities undertaken by any business. These include Email marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Pay Per Click, Social Media, and many more. It allows users to create dashboards that can be customized and branded for each campaign enabling users to present information based on the metrics that matter the most. The reporting can be done on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis through the application. It allows for providing comments and recommendations for each section of the report.
  2. Akita- is a Customer Success Management Platform designed to help reduce the customer churn, nurture customer relationships, and increase revenue from existing customers. It allows for customization of automated alerts for important customer interactions. The dashboard gives an insight into the customer contact details, customer segment, lifecycle stage amongst other things, and the actions that need to be taken. It also gives an overview of the monthly recurring revenue, customer lifetime value, average health scores, and other metrics with details of the percentage change. Users can view the list of organizations or people who have been identified as churn risks by Akita.
  3. AC Video Tracker- is used to tag and track the videos viewed by the contacts. Tagging viewers allows marketers to gain insights into how each viewer has engaged with the video content so targeted follow up can be done. If a contact has viewed only a part of the video, the follow-up sequence covers the information missed. It works well with Youtube, Wistia, and Vimeo video. Viewers can be tagged or untagged, added, or removed from the automation.
  4. Big Picture- helps in tracking custom events and measure the funnel conversion rate. Providing detailed event analytics help understand how the users and visitors are engaging with your app or the website, find opportunities for optimization, and upgrade the process. It can help easily track taps and clicks, page scroll, video engagement, and form interactions. Integrating this data with the CRM and sales engagement tool helps you target the right people.
  5. Bridge Subscription Manager-a recurring billing software that provides a solution to the challenges faced in manually monitoring and processing subscription credit card charges every month. Payments can be automated, accounts of clients can be disabled automatically in case of a declined payment, clients are notified when an update is needed on the credit card. It reduces the time needed by staff for all these activities. It integrates well with all leading payment gateways.
  6. ConvetFlow- powering over 10,000 marketing teams and fast-growing companies, ConvertFlow is an all in on platform for converting the website visitors. It provides you with tools to convert website visitors, generates leads, audience segmentation, drives sales, and personalize the website. Create, personalize, and launch landing pages, forms, surveys, pop-ups that can be fully integrated without coding. It gives marketers “no-code” superpowers.
  7. Data Hero- is the fastest and easiest way to automate business insights without the need for complex queries or coding. Connect all the data sources to track sales, marketing, and customer success data in one place. Create drop-and-drag charts to generate insightful, intuitive data visualization in no time. It helps organizations dive deeper into the data and use the intuitive tools of the application to get meaningful insights and results.
  8. Dasheroo- the amount of data available to us is a growing challenge. Many applications are required to run a successful business which makes the process very long and time-consuming. Dasheroo is a collaborative business dashboard that helps in monitoring the metrics from all the apps in one place, making it easier to understand the data and use it best for the growth of the business.
  9. Databox-is an analytics tool that allows users to create a custom analytics dashboard with data from multiple sources to be viewed on one device. It is built to track performance, discover insights, and understand the business. It organizes business KPIs in one place and delivers the metrics without any coding. The feature of live previews helps users view the data in real-time.
  10. Deliverability Dashboard- helps in viewing and tracking the overall email Health Score. It helps in monitoring the engagement stats, thereby making informed decisions to improve the reach to the clients’ inbox. Email engagement is the most important factor in email deliverability.
  11. Evidence- it is a simple tool used to boost the website engagements and conversions using powerful social proof. Once the app is working on the site new website visitors can see other sign-ups for the newsletter, purchase of product or service, register for a webinar, or schedule a live demo. Displaying these conversions in real-time builds buyer confidence and makes the visitor to the site take similar action.
  12. Google Analytics- a web analytics service offered by Google, it provides comprehensive reporting and analytics tools for all kinds of websites. The users can monitor website traffic, understand user interaction with the site, and can generate reports customized to the needs of the business. Google Analytics collects, manages, and consolidates data showing the user how to engage with the website, videos, social tools and ads across all devices.it also helps in understanding the behaviour of the end-user. Business can improve their marketing campaigns and web content with the right insights. Website managers can gain insights into what is working and what is not working to make necessary changes.
  13. Grey Metrics- is a marketing report and dashboard software for digital agencies. By using this software, companies can create reports/dashboards with the data from marketing platforms. These can be checked on an hourly basis to track marketing performance.
  14. Import2 Wizard- allows you to import, update and export contacts, deals, and more with CVS files from other apps. This application helps in updating data from the CVS files to fill in the missing information in the existing records. It offers the freedom to select data and download to share with others who do not have access to the database and also for business analysis. Data is the basis for making informed decisions. It is important to extract only the data that is needed to support the business.
  15. MailOptin- it converts the website visitors into e-mail subscribers and customers. You can engage with these visitors by sending event-triggered emails. MailOptin grows the ActiveCampaign email list, capture leads on the WordPress site using conversion-optimized beautiful newsletter signups. You can schedule email campaigns daily, weekly, or even monthly keep your most interested visitors engaged with your brand.
  16. Mail Timers- is being easy to use application that allows you to create countdown timers marketing emails for sales, events, holidays, webinars, and more. It has additional features like transparent background, advanced colors, background picture, expiry message, and more. With this service, design customization can be done using adobe photoshop PSD layout and by using advanced technology GIF images can be created.
  17. Octoboard- is a business dashboard solution that generates visual analytics and reports to provide users with insight into their business performance. Brands and marketing agencies send Octoboard reports to clients and key stakeholders. Companies add ActiveCampaign data to Octoboard to find the dependencies between email marketing, website traffic, sales funnels, and align email activity with the company goals.
  18. Piesync- takes care of syncing the contacts bi-directionally between the cloud apps in real-time. It works in the background and updates the customer information from anywhere. The sync can be customized, sync direction can be changed, and use PieSync to keep the contacts continuously consistent across all types of apps.
  19. PlusThis- is a campaign toolkit for marketers and entrepreneurs. It has 50+ tools and integrations like SMS, webinar connection, countdown timers, Facebook retargeting, video triggers and tagging, and expiring offers and content.
  20. Segment- it is a customer data and analytics solution that helps in analyzing contact data from multiple sources and funnels it into apps that you may be using. The contact data is shared between apps which gives a complete picture of the data and the apps have more data to leverage. The data is sent to Segment by installing lines of tracking code in the website or app. Segment integrates with some of the most popular analytics, marketing sales, developer, and user testing apps. There are currently 150 partners.
  21. SegMetrics- is a data analytics app that helps in getting clarity on where the best leads are coming from, how they act, and how much the marketing efforts are worth in terms of how many leads turn to customers. SegMetrics gives actionable insights without any coding, spreadsheet exporting, or pivot tables.
  22. SendForensics- is a specialist email deliverability suite that allows you to test and optimize the deliverability of emails before they are sent, getting the maximum engagement out of each campaign.
  23. Wicked Reports- automatically track and attribute revenue to gain ROI and LTV insights. It connects lead generation to high-value clients over time. Wicked reports have deep integration with Facebook, Google, and all popular CRM, marketing, e-commerce, and order management platforms. It gives reliable conversion data. It automatically detects and reports all email clicks that lead to sales. Best clients are recurring subscribing clients. Wicked reports detect this and connect it to marketing.
  24. Wistia- lets your videos do the work. It is a video marketing software that makes it easy to find, engage, and grow the audience. Custom lead capture forms can be placed directly into any Wistia video at the exact moment chosen.
  25. Woopra- is a customer analytics platform that helps in visualizing, analyzing, and optimizing every touchpoint in the customer journey, empowering data-driven teams to grow and innovate faster. It provides a unified analytics solution that is used by on-demand services, e-commerce, and SaaS for understanding, connecting, and engaging with customers through data. Woopra’s customer journey and segmentation data enable the user to deliver relevant messages to improve conversions and drive customer engagement.

The exhaustive list above gives a good insight into the important and significant analytic apps that are available online.

Top 5 WordPress Plugins For Social Media Posting

7 Sep 2020 Social Media

Social media has revolutionized the way users share information online.  Research by Statista shows that social media has progressed from having 2.34 billion users in 2016 to 3.96 billion users as of July 2020. It is therefore considered as one of the most powerful tools for modern marketing and branding of a website and needs to be integrated well to generate high traffic. Using the WordPress framework makes the process simpler by offering numerous choices in the form of plugins to share content through the use of social media buttons on the website.

Before we explore the top 5 social media plugins, let us identify the functionalities and benefits of using social media plugins.

  • Social sharing button– help in improving the online exposure by users sharing the content from the website through their social media profiles.
  • Social icons– these show the website visitors your social media presence and allows them to click the icon to automatically be directed to your profile. It is one of the easiest ways to build followers on social media
  • Social logins– allow people to sign in using their social media accounts. This helps in keeping the site secure and minimizes spam. It also makes it easier for the user since they don’t have to create a new username and password to access the website.
  • Social feeds– help showcasing social media feeds directly on the website. It adds visuals and gives a sneak preview of what can be expected on the social pages.
  • Social comments-boost the conversation in the comments by adding social media comments to the posts. This helps in driving higher engagement and comments.
  • Social locking-best content can be restricted with the social locking tool. It can be unlocked by a specific action taken by the website visitor like sharing content or following on social media.
  • Automated Posting– using plugins to automate social media posting. For example, sharing older blog posts on Twitter benefits the followers as the content is always being shared.

Top WordPress Plugins for Social Media

  1. Easy Social Share– Is one of the best free social sharing plugins for WordPress. Simple yet powerful, easy to use this plugin is suitable for beginners as well as experts. Easy social share buttons offer a choice of 30 different default positions such as above/ below content, floating icons, post share bar, etc. and is supported by 50 social media networks. This plugin has been ‘Performance Approved’ by WordPress plugin Wp rocket which highlights how well regarded it is for being optimized and not affecting website performance. Some of the notable features of Easy Social Share are
    • Over 55 button style templates offering a choice to the user to make the buttons look exactly as they want.
    • Share count displays the share count for individual or overall networks.
    • Follow icons to let visitors follow you and the count can be displayed.
    • Share count recovery enables the recovery of old share counts in case of switching domains or from HTTP to HTTPS.
    • Custom content helps control what content is shared.
    • After share action enables a display of message/ offer after content is shared by the visitor.
    • A/B testing uses split testing to know which social networks and buttons perform best.
    • Social media profiles can be linked using this plugin
    • It costs less than $ 20 and yet it offers more features than other WordPress social media plugin
    • It provides a simple button to subscribe to an email newsletter.
    • Use analytics and metrics to see what content is working best.
    • A live chat button can be displayed for Facebook or Skype live chat.
  1. Social Warfare-Is among the best available social media WordPress plugins due to its simplicity. It does not slow down the website, unlike some other plugin. It is designed to increase shares by adding social sharing icons on the website. The buttons can be placed above/ below content or both, manually with a shortcode or floating share buttons. With the paid version some more options are available. It supports 6 social networks with the free version and 9 with the paid version. Social Warfare helps track the results with UTM parameters. Analytics can be used to see how well the sharing icons are performing to tweak them if necessary. Some of the other notable features are
    • Attractive buttons that look great.
    • Share counts display total share counts or individual network share counts. Tweet count can be displayed with the paid version.
    • Popular posts by share count can be displayed using a widget.
    • Share count recovery enables the recovery of old share counts in case of switching domains or from HTTP to HTTPS.
    • Minimum social proof offers the option of displaying share counts only after a certain number is reached.
    • Share customization controls what content shows up when a user shares content.
    • Pinterest specific share image is when a separate image shows up on sharing it on Pinterest.
  1. Mashshare– A free social media plugin by WordPress, it can be customized for social media and help optimize content. It provides attractive designs for the display of three social media buttons for Facebook, Twitter, and Subscribe. It displays by default the total shares against each of these buttons to give an idea about total shares at a glance to the visitors of the site. These plugins do not have an impact on site speed. The buttons can be placed above/ below content (or both) and can be placed manually with a shortcode. The premium versions allow for positioning of the buttons like a floating sidebar or sticky sidebar. The free version supports Facebook and Twitter while the paid version includes Google +, Pinterest, Reddit, LinkedIn, Whatsapp, and some small networks. Some of the other notable features are
    • Social media plugin with add-ons helps choose the features that are required without having to pay full price for features that may not be used.
    • The plugin has caching built-in for the fast delivery of the buttons.
    • Select and share – let users share specific parts of your text.
    • Pageviews are displayed.
    • Share count recovery enables the recovery of old share counts in case of switching domains or from HTTP to HTTPS.
    • Share count is displayed just like Mashable.
    • Shortcodes allow for buttons to be placed anywhere on the website.
  1. Ultimate Social Share– Is a popular social media plugin that is simple and easy to use. It offers a range of buttons with its premium version. It is active across a huge number of websites with high rating reviews for its aggressive approach for asking for reviews. The free version allows for buttons to be placed at a specific position on the page via a widget, a shortcode, after posts, or via a pop-up. The premium version supports over 100 social media networks with the free version supporting the popular social media networks like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Pinterest. Some of the other notable features are
    • Share counts across social media platforms.
    • Custom shares help choose the pictures and text to be shared.
    • Exclude pages from sharing share icons.
    • Share count recovery enables recovery of old share counts in case of switching domains or from HTTP to HTTPS
    • Exclusive design styles.
  1. Add to Any– Is one of the most popular social media share button plugins on WordPress. It is active on over 500,000 sites. It most enviable feature is the number of social networks it supports and that too free. These buttons can be placed above/ below content (or both), vertical and horizontal floating bar, widget, or shortcode. The buttons can also be placed at the bottom of media pages and excerpts. AddToAny button allows the user to choose any network. Some of the other notable features are
    • Share counts across networks
    • Google Analytics integration- to track share analytics
    • AMP support
    • Responsive design
    • Share buttons help increase traffic to the site.

The website and the social media profile should work together to generate optimal results. Which WordPress social media plugin you choose will depend on what you are looking for. By making sharing of content easy will boost engagement and drive more traffic. The above-mentioned WordPress social media plugins are sure to help you add some interesting buttons to your website.

Content is not only King, It is the Kingdom

5 Sep 2020 Digital Marketing

More than 2 decades ago Bill Gates asserted, ‘Content Is King’. While this may be true to a certain extent, the most important aspect to consider is that content is king only if it is read. The focus of any business needs to be on creating good content to establish and build an ongoing relationship with its customers. ‘Content is not the king, but the kingdom to weave a story around.’ With the changing dynamics of the web and the evolution of social media, it becomes all the more imperative for organizations to focus on creating exceptional content, the kind that will get the attention of the target audience, engage them, provide them with the information they are looking for and generate results that you are looking for. As the famous marketing icon Neil Patel says “Good content should be interesting, challenging, entertaining and worthwhile. Otherwise, the producer (writer) has wasted his or her time.”

Good content is never enough as everyone in today’s day is putting out good content. It is important to have the knowledge to get content to reach the target audience using the various channels and ensure the traffic converts to customers/subscribers. Promoting the content through the right channels is as important as getting the content right. This requires a plan of action that clearly defines the steps to be taken to capture the audience, promote the content, analyze, and track how the content is performing and helps in conversion. As they say, ‘Conversation is the new lead’.

Marketers today understand the value of good content and the importance of having a content strategy in place to provide the target audience with the most relevant content as per their needs through the channels they interact with. Content strategy helps in aligning and standardizing the content delivery efforts of the organization in order to present a brand story and influence the target audience. Some of the key elements in creating a content strategy for an organisation are:

  1. Align content strategy with the overall business objectives – It is important for any organization to have clearly defined objectives for the content strategy to ensure that it aligns with the marketing and sales of the overall business. Just producing good content is never enough. A well laid out a drafted plan which gives clear reasoning for creating content, the channels to be used and how best to optimize content to the advantage of the organization is essential for the success of a content strategy.
  2. Get management to buy-in on the financial aspect of the content strategy – Getting approval from the leadership team and the management is the toughest part of content strategy. Clearly laying out the cost, benefits and the value drivers of the content strategy is imperative for it to be considered by the management. Value divers would be boost from effective targeting, timing, and content, lower cost through channel shift, deriving efficiencies through a focus on valuable and prospective customers.
  3. Effective segmentation – Targeting content to specific audiences is an effective way to ensure that it is viewed by the audience. It is important to understand how well the content was received by the target audience in the engagement cycle. A road map should be designed to help understand the customer journey and support sales. This will also help devise plans for future delivery of content through the right platforms to the target audience and maximize the financial value for the organization.
  4. Selecting the right platform – Having an understanding of the unique segments to be targeted along with their typical behaviour across the online and offline channels will help select the right platform giving the much-needed boost to the content. Viewing each platform from the user’s perspective will help in getting a better understanding of what they experience and adjust the strategy to help them view content as you want them to view it.

Having understood the key elements of content strategy, let us now look at the current trends that are changing the content marketing scene:

  1. Visual Content – Has become an integral part of a content marketing plan as the target audience are drawn to the visual elements of all kinds. The advantage it lends is that it presents new and creative ways to help form a brand voice and personality. Higher engagement can be achieved for new content through the use of social media channels which can help drive traffic to the website.
  2. Mobile-first content – Content today needs to be optimized for a mobile experience as many users access content through their smartphones or tablets.
  3. Metrics for reporting – Having different touchpoints for the content makes it difficult to measure its ROI. However, a successful content marketing strategy must show ROI and data to support it.

For marketers, the content has always been a key powerful element of the kingdom gaining more important today than ever before. Creating valuable content is not the end but a means to achieve business objectives and assist in the attainment of sales objectives. A well-drafted content marketing strategy will help the organisation achieve higher engagement and conversion. Delivering content through the right platforms to the right person at the right time is crucial for optimization and measurements of ROI.

10 Tips for Building an Online Marketplace

2 Sep 2020 Blog

The number of online marketplaces is increasing every day. They offer convenience and time efficiency over the traditional offline platforms to the buyers as well as the sellers. According to research conducted by Statista, E-commerce sales are expected to reach $4.1 trillion by the end of 2020. This only reflects the scope of online marketplaces. Let us get an understanding of “What is an Online marketplace?”

An online marketplace is a digital platform with websites and mobile apps, where several vendors, shops, people offer products to the buyers in exchange for a marketplace fee. The owner of the marketplace attracts the customers and handle all transactions. They do not hold any inventory and focus mainly on assisting the sellers to sell through the marketplace. Perfect examples of the online marketplace are Amazon, Airbnb, Etsy. Since the online marketplace offers a huge opportunity now just for the owners but for sellers and buyers, let us look at “Tips to Build an Online Marketplace.”

1. Conduct market research and research the target audience: Market research is essential while creating an online marketplace to get a clear understanding of the target market, users, their needs, and the solution they are looking for. It is important to assess the market size to better understand what business model to adopt. Understanding the market segments will help pick the most attractive niche in the target market. Popular online marketplace Amazon has grown big by initially starting from a small niche-an online bookstore. The study of the competitors will help gain insights into the marketing strategies and the business models they use as well as the strengths and weaknesses they have to use to your advantage. Market trends help to understand what is working and what is not, changes in regulations, new technological breakthroughs, and change in customer behaviour.

The most important element of conducting market research is to identify the target audience. Knowing who the users are and what are their goals and the challenges they face in buying the product. It is also important to know where they buy from, and what motivates them to buy. Creating buyer personas will give a better understanding of the audience and help solve the problems they face. All this will help draw up a business model that will work and prepare a marketing strategy to make the marketplace successful.

2. Choose the right business model: Designing a viable business model is very essential before starting the online marketplace. The various models to consider are:
• Sign up fees- a flat payment to charge the sellers to sign up on the marketplace. This way you get the money in even before the marketplace is thriving as long as you can sell your business idea. After the initial sign up one needs to look at other ways to monetize.
• Subscription- charging the sellers a specific amount regularly to generate revenue for the marketplace.
• Listing fees- collecting a set amount from the sellers for listing their products on the marketplace. These fees can be at a flat or variable depending on the price of the product, the category of the product.
• Selling fees- A great monetization strategy. Selling fees are collected each time the seller processes an order on the marketplace. It may pose a problem initially when the orders are small but eventually can ensure high returns when the order volume grows.

3. Planning the operations of the marketplace: A plan needs to be in place to successfully manage the operations of a marketplace and make it profitable. The focus needs to be on acquiring and maintaining the sellers to make the marketplace run. The first step is to convince the sellers to come on board. You need to present your unique value proposition to them and make them understand how the marketplace will function. The way the products are organized will impact the selection of the software, the layout of the marketplace, and how the sellers publish and manage their products. Payment processing, logistics, and shipping processes need to be carefully planned to ensure smooth operations of the marketplace. Marketing strategies need to focus on the target audience to get maximum traction to make the marketplace a success.

4. Outline the features of the Marketplace: Focus on creating features that the user needs to optimize time, effort, and money for a marketplace. Start with the essentials and improve the platform with time as the business grows. Make the onboarding of sellers an easy and simple process. Optimize product management features according to the product offering on the marketplace. Make it simple for the sellers to receive and process orders and communicate with their buyers. Similarly, the buyers should be able to find what they are looking for easily, place orders, and make payments. Adding some reporting features will help understand and analyze what is working and what is not for both you and the seller.

5. Select a payment solution: For a marketplace, payment is received from the sellers, payments are received for the sellers, and payments are received from the buyers. It is a must to have a sound payment solution in place to manage all these payments safely and securely. The types of payments, the processing cost, and the availability of payment providers in the region will govern the selection of the payment solution of the marketplace.

6. Invest in the right software: Selecting the right software will help you successfully launch the marketplace. Whether you choose from the cloud, hosted platforms, standalone solutions, multi-vendor CMS extensions, or your website will depend on the kind of marketplace being built, the features the platform needs, and the user experience.

7. Get a great team in place: Getting the right software is not enough. A team needs to be put in place to manage different aspects of a marketplace from design to marketing and sales, operations, and logistics. The focus should on getting people with specialized skills who have an understanding of the marketplace. This will not only ensure success but future growth as well.

8. Develop the Marketplace: After all the planning is in place with a great team, the next step is to develop the platform. Everyone involved in it should have a clear understanding of the requirements and the timeline. Ensure that there is a backup plan in place if things don’t work out as planned. Keep it simple when designing, implementing the marketplace software, and test with real users to resolve any issues faced initially before the official launch of the marketplace.

9. Launch the Marketplace: Prepare the launch plan of the marketplace keeping in mind the timeline, the marketing message, and the primary channels that will be used. Devise a social media strategy as per your target audience and create the buzz before the launch. Do a soft launch and try and get as much feedback as you can from the initial customers. Use the feedback constructively and make changes and improvements to the platform. Post that does a test run before the launch of the marketplace. Make sure to create enough hype around the launch especially with the target audience.

10. Grow the marketplace: Post-launch the focus should be on growth and retention of the customer base as well as the seller base. Use social media to create brand awareness and attracting new customers. Set aside a budget for social media ad campaigns and have the necessary tools to analyze how well these platforms are working for you. Gather feedback from both the customer and sellers for improving the marketplace. Feature and promote the best sellers by creating case studies and success stories together with them. Always come up with new and exciting ways to engage your customers.

Building an online marketplace is a complicated and time-consuming process. Remember your niche is what will set you apart from others. Each marketplace has its unique challenges. However, with proper research and planning processes using the right expertise you can create a success story.

10 Industries Thriving Post COVID

1 Sep 2020 Blog

COVID 19 pandemic has caused unprecedented disruptions impacting businesses worldwide and wiping out more than $ 20 trillion of the value of global equity markets.

Businesses across various industries have been forced to rethink and readjust their strategies and respond in new ways to survive through this period. The timelines for implementing new emerging technologies have changed where companies have had to accelerate drastically to cope with the pandemic. Early implementers of digitalization have seen their investments paying off now and others have realized that digital capabilities need to be enhanced to stay resilient through these times.

The nature of the pandemic is helping certain industries succeed even after the restriction like remote working, social distancing is in place. Let us get an insight into the industries that are creating opportunities and are likely to thrive post the pandemic.

1. E-Commerce: Due to restrictions in place and fear of going to public places, the online marketplaces are booming. E-commerce companies have seen a huge growth in transaction orders despite the challenges faced with the supply chain. Many companies are expected to turn profitable in the next 1 year. This remarkable shift is not expected to retreat to the pre-COVID levels once things get back to normal.

2. Remote Working Technology: With billions of people working from home offices must stay connected. Schools around the world have moved to remote learning models making telecommunications and remote working platforms more important than ever before. Businesses that provide video meetings, file sharing, webinars, and other mobile collaborations have seen exponential growth. They are looking to hire more people to cope with the surge in demand. This new trend is likely to become the default method of communication for many industries in the future.

3. Industrial Real Estate: With growing interest in bringing industries closer to customers for better control in times of disruption, as well as for increasing safety stock, the demand for industrial space will likely grow. To accommodate more complex pick-pack systems and provide access to a greater variety of products, typically associated with any e-commerce distribution facility, the real demand for such a space will be thrice the size of a regular B2B facility. The change in the model could also see management either working from the distribution facility and/or from home.

4. Health Industry: The healthcare and pharmaceutical industries around the world are most essential in current circumstances. Companies are providing delivery services for medical supplies not just to individuals but to private clinics as well. With people switching to teleconsultations as a preferred way, companies that provide a platform to book appointments and consultations with doctors have seen record-high traffic and it is likely to grow in the future. The enhanced flexibility and convenience that this platform provides both for the patient and the healthcare provider will ensure the continuous growth even post the pandemic.

5. Product and Service Delivery: Companies that cater to deliveries of essential supplies has seen a huge spike in demand. Third-party services are being used by restaurants e-commerce, F&B companies to fulfil the substantial growth in orders as their current delivery infrastructure cannot cope with the surge in demand. In the post COVID world, it is anticipated that the delivery service will continue to stay in high demand.

6. Automation: Robots have been viewed as a threat to the workforce. With the current need for social distancing and least human interactions, the benefits of using such technology are superseding its threats of replacing humans. Warehouse operations have been transformed in current times. Companies are looking for low-cost, flexible automation solutions to replace humans where it is possible to do so. This trend will continue and diversify in the future. Many jobs will be lost, but once the companies switch to these technologies during current times, it is highly unlikely for them to revert to pre COVID times.

7. Augmented Reality: AI was incorporated into many online channels to cope with restrictions imposed due to COVID leading to a fall in sales in-store. It is likely to replace the need to feel and touch goods before making a purchase. The industry will see growth in the future with technological improvements and lower costs.

8. Online Grocery Stores: Online sales for grocery items have seen a drastic rise in orders in current times. Many companies have had to hire personnel to cope with high demand and ensure deliveries are made on time. With restrictions easing this trend is likely to stay with people opting for the convenience of the online stores.

9. Cloud Kitchens: a concept referred to as e-commerce of food where there are virtual restaurants and food can be ordered online and delivered to the customers. Centralized kitchens can serve as a hub for many restaurants who can reduce their cost of having a physical restaurant and staff to run it.

10. E-Learning: With children across the world forced to continue their education from home, e-learning has become essential. This holds true for colleges and universities as well. With this shift and the integration of information technology in education, it will make online education an integral part of the education industry.

Countries have increasingly felt the need to have their manufacturing rather than relying on other countries to have more resilience in their supply chain. This socio-economic trend to reverse globalization will ensure that no organization faces challenges like those that the pandemic presented.

The Post-COVID road is certainly going to be bumpy and unpredictable, but it is in these uncertain times great opportunities arise. The pandemic has compelled many companies to evolve, transform, and digitalize to conduct business. Some businesses will survive and emerge strong, transformed reshaped and some will not survive. The key lies in bringing about the changes necessary to overcome any future challenges.

Accelerating Retail- A Google Initiative

31 Aug 2020 Blog

COVID 19 has changed everything around us from the way we live to the way we shop.

The use of technology by businesses and people has soared and is visible with the increase in internet usage by 60 percent. There has been a substantial shift in retail spending from planning to buying products we need. These changes have brought about a complete change in the retail setting. Businesses today are using a variety of resources to understand the changing customer behaviour like google trends, survey, analysis of their data as well as social listening to be able to make decisions in real-time. Google has stepped up and has offered tools like “Rising Retail Categories” since May 2020 which highlights fast-growing product-related categories along with the location.

To help European, Middle East, and Africa retailers make the most of the digital opportunities, Google is all set to launch its new initiative “Accelerating Retail” in September 2020.

What is Accelerating Retail?

Retail accounts for 9 percent of jobs in the European Union alone and it will play a vital role in the recovery. Accelerating Retail is a platform designed to help retailers of all sizes across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa accelerate business recovery and growth and to be ready for the upcoming peak shopping season. The month-long program will introduce new products, tools, free training, real-time insights, and resources to plan for the future.

Why do we need a platform like Accelerated Retail?

1. Retailers need to respond to the changing needs of the consumers-The world around us has seen a major change after COVID 19 was declared a pandemic. Online shopping has seen exponential growth which has brought about challenges in decision making for the businesses. The needs of the consumers have changed and their buying journey which started from research to exploring options both offline and online have now gone through a change due to the uncertainty in the availability of the products. Consumers have become more open to exploring other brands and options available. Having said that they now need help in finding the right product, at the right place, at the right time. This provides a perfect opportunity for the retail industry to respond to the consumer needs and changes in behaviour while building their brand online and in-store through the use of tools of Accelerated Retail.

2. Recovery and growth through digital- Online retail demand have soared and the focus of any business now needs to be on providing great customer experience and build brand recognition. With the launch of a new version of “Grow My Store” in many countries, Google wants to help local businesses to improve digital shopping, grow customer traffic, and enhance the online customer experience to complete transactions. It is as simple as entering the business URL into the tool to get a customized report, digital traffic trends, industry benchmarks, and actionable tips to improve. This will help retailers reach their potential customers. Upgrading of Smart Shopping campaigns is being done to help with the acquisition of new customers and simplify advertiser onboarding. The use of “Rising Retail Trends”, which was specific to the U.S., U.K., and Australia has been expanded to other regions on the world to providing insights to fast-growing retail categories with locations where more interest is seen.

With the growth in online spending, the success of the retail sector will depend on the online and offline offering, and the customer purchase experience. Research conducted by Google in collaboration with Euromonitor shows that in the next five years purchases will be made in-store but retailers who offer in-store and digital platforms will gain the maximum. Through the use of digital technologies, retailers can become more resilient and ensure growth. Accelerated Retail will help make that possible and prepare retailers for what lies ahead.

Seven things digital marketers should do to improve their return on relationships (ROR)

31 Aug 2020 Digital Marketing

Loyalty, sharing, and recommendations represent relationships. The returns from such relationships are far better than what money can bring.  In today’s day and age social media is becoming a way of life for people and a way of business for companies who have realized the importance of it, especially for their marketing efforts. To be able to reach the target audience, companies need to focus their marketing efforts on building relationships and expand their metrics beyond Return on Investment to include Return on Relationship.

So, what is Return on Relationships? According to marketing strategist Ted Rubin, “ROR is the value you accrue by fostering a relationship with customers, whereas ROI is a measure of dollars and cents. ROR is the worth of each customer that will accumulate over time through effective social-media engagements.” Measuring the quality of customer relationships can help companies in establishing profitable, long term relationships based on trust.

Return on Relationships requires careful planning and execution. Let us dive deeper and look at what digital marketers can do to improve the Return on Relationship.

  1. Listen and Hear: It is essential to listen to the consumers first, their feelings, pain points, and what they are looking for to be able to understand them and develop trust over a period of time. Once this is done, they will respond to the message you put out and listen to you. Marketers should gather customer feedback through the use of Google alerts and other social listening tools like SocialMention, Buzzsumo, etc. which help in gaining visibility into social media and online reviews. Have a strategy in place to respond to feedback on social media and online reviews to prove to them that you understand what they are trying to tell you. The response should be well thought off and timely.
  2. Know your audience: The key to a good ROR lies in understanding the target audience to build trust and connection with them. Thorough research of the metrics like bounce rate, time spent on the website, and the behaviour flow help in understanding if what you are providing is what the customers are looking for.
  3. Make it about the “Them”: Give the audience a platform to show what they want, need, and are interested in. Conduct online surveys to know what the audience is looking for, how they feel about the product, its price, functionality, and experience. Social media is a place where the audience share and influence opinion about the brand. This can be beneficial for a brand if they have positive reviews and can be detrimental if they gain many negative views. Use the reviews to gain valuable insights into what works and what does not work and respond promptly.
  4. Look for ways to best serve them: The relationship between a company and an audience should not simply be about providing service for their time and money but should focus on how best to serve them. Digital marketers should provide free useful resources to help serve them by sharing expertise and creating useful content. Sharing expert opinions and content is a good way to boost the reputation and gain a new audience. This can be done through live sessions on social media, websites, podcasts.
  5. Constant Engagement: to have meaningful relationships with the customers, it is important to engage with them. Focus on getting to know the customers and give them reasons to engage with you. Brands can constantly reach a customer through posts on social media, blogs on topics that are important to the customers, and by sending out newsletters that can carry information regarding upcoming events, customer reviews, new product launches, etc. Ensure that they are responded to promptly be it on social media or respond to the content that is shared by the company.
  6. Be Genuine, Be Real: If there are any mistakes committed, own up to them. The consumers don’t expect perfection from companies but what they do expect is for them to be honest. To build trust and a solid foundation for a good reputation, it is best to own up on any mistakes and provide reasonable solutions. This leads to higher customer satisfaction and shows the prospective customers that you care. Ensure that responsibility is assigned to a person/team to monitor social media channels and respond to customers, prospective customers so that no communication goes unanswered.
  7. Build Relationships, build brands: When the focus of the marketing strategy of a brand is to build relationships, they pay more attention to who the customers are, their needs and preferences. These customers buy the product and services the brand offers and promote the brand by recommending it on their network.

ROR ultimately enhances ROI. As you add the engaged, focused, relationship-building aspect of ROR, your ROI increases, often exponentially.

Return on Relationship enhances Return on Investment. It requires careful planning and attention. Keeping the focus on engaging with the audience, understanding their needs and desire will help build relationships, thereby increasing the ROR. Know your people well before investing in social media marketing to have a high Return on Investment.

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