Archive for the ‘Content Marketing’ Category
05/08/13 by Dragan Mestrovic | blogging, Content Creation Strategy, Content Marketing, Get Found Online, inbound marketing, Lead Generation, Marketing Automation, Online Reputation, Real-Time Brand Massaging, Real-Time Marketing and PR, social media marketing | 1 Comment »
The proven and successful inbound marketing strategy is a great way to generate high quality leads.
Therefore inbound marketing is known as the “riskless” marketing strategy because of the activities done which are long lasting and bring an increasing stream of future customers to your offers.
Why is this inbound marketing such a great way to generate leads?
Inbound marketing offers you a strategic and smart approach to be and to stay several steps ahead of your competition.
Inbound marketing is the marketing strategy that focuses on getting found by customers when they research online for products and services your business also has to offer.
With inbound marketing businesses “earn” their way to the customer and his loyalty, by publishing helpful information on a blog, in social media and forums.
Inbound marketing includes: Content creation like blogging, video, photo, whitepapers, eBooks, podcasts, press releases, comments in social media and other blogs and forums, Social media two way communication, lead generation, lead conversion, lead nurturing and closed-loop analysis.
How can Inbound Marketing help you?
A. It saves you up to 62% of your marketing budget
B. Makes you stand out of your competition
C. Helps to generate a massive amount of leads
D. Gets you up to 55% higher lead conversion rates
E. Increases your customers and sales
Infographic: Inbound Marketing Rising
TOP 42 Reasons to Jumstart your Inbound Marketing NOW!
1. 60% of companies will execute an inbound marketing strategy in 2013.
2. Marketers dedicate 34% of their department budgets to inbound tactics, but only 11% to outbound.
3. 48% of marketers will increase spend on inbound marketing in 2013.
4. 34% of all leads generated in 2013 come from inbound marketing sources.
5. Inbound practices produce 54% more leads than traditional outbound leads.
6. 17% of marketers say traditional advertising and direct mail are less important than they were 6 months ago.
7. Traditional advertising and PPC deliver the least leads of any form of marketing.
8. Only 6% of marketing leads originate from advertising or PPC campaigns.
9. 34% of businesses cannot or don’t calculate overall inbound ROI in 2013.
10. Adopting a marketing/sales agreement saves companies with more than 200 employees $195.84 per new customer.
11. Only 24% of companies have a formal process for marketing/sales handoffs.
12. Companies who test are 75% more likely to show ROI for inbound marketing.
13. Inbound marketers double the average site conversion rate, from 6% to 12% total.
14. The average website conversion rate is 10%.
15. 81% of companies integrate inbound marketing with larger marketing goals.
16. Marketers spend 55% more of their time than their money on blogging.
17. 82% of marketers who blog on a daily basis have acquired a customer through blog content.
18. 57% of marketers who only blog once a month have acquired a customer through blogging.
19. Inbound marketers plan to hire an average of 9.3 people this year.
20. Only 18% of marketers are purely focused on developing quality content in 2013.
21. 25% of marketers cite reaching the right audience as their top priority for 2013.
22. Only 5% of marketers have no integration between inbound marketing and overall marketing goals.
23. 50% of marketers consider their companies primarily customer-focused.
24. 17% of sales teams and 11% of executives fully support inbound marketing efforts.
25. 73% of marketing agencies are implementing inbound strategies.
26. Only 41% of nonprofits report adopting inbound tactics for 2013.
27. Just 21% of enterprises assimilate inbound marketing with their overall marketing strategy.
28. 47% of CEOs and CMOs ignore formal marketing/sales agreement development.
29. Marketing is 125% more likely than sales to provide inbound resources.
30. Increasing total lead volume is the top priority for 21% of marketers.
31. Customers average a total of 9,100 leads after 1.5 years of inbound marketing.
32. 67% of marketers produced a blog last year.
33. Only 20% of marketers without a blog reported a positive ROI for 2012.
34. 27% of marketers report that both social media and email marketing produce the lowest total average lead costs.
35. 15% of marketers say SEO leads have the highest sales conversions.
36. Social media delivers 14% of all leads and 13% of all customers.
37. 52% of all marketers have found a customer via Facebook.
38. 43% of marketers have found a customer on LinkedIn.
39. 36% of marketers have found a customer on Twitter.
40. 41% of marketers have adjusted their budget due to the success of inbound marketing.
41. 41% of CEOs report inbound delivered measurable ROI.
42. Marketers with more than 15 blog posts per month average 1,200 leads per month.
Source: HubSpot 2013 State of Inbound Marketing Annual Report. FREE Executive Report on Inbound Tactics and Strategy – Insight from 3,339 Marketers
04/25/13 by Christian Arno | Content Creation Strategy, Content Marketing, Get Found Online, Lead Generation, Local Marketing, Online Reputation | No Comments »
Wh
en creating content, it pays to think big. Publishing online gives us access to a readership that’s almost too large to imagine. Do it right and your words could be read by people in places you might never even have heard of.
While a global readership might seem like something most of us dream of, with a little know-how it’s something that you too can achieve.
Decide Who You Are Talking To
When you write for the web, you aren’t just pushing out content at random. You are engaging with others, convincing them to buy into your idea or product. With this in mind, it helps to know who you are trying to reach and which parts of the world you want to expand to.
For example, your ideal reader could be a female entrepreneur, or you might want to address a young music lover. Going global makes your pool of readers much larger, so your female entrepreneurs might include women in Brazil, and your music loving youth could be reading in East Asia.
Keeping a tight focus on your target demographic as you go global will let you reach more of the kind of people that interest you. It also helps your budget go further. Are you looking to connect with female entrepreneurs in South America but less so with similar women in China? Then make your content culturally and linguistically suited to the South American readers, instead of spending time and money trying to reach everyone.
Embrace the Multilingual Web
Forget the idea that everyone online speaks English. Although English is often used in the corporate world as a linguistic go-between, internet users are a far more diverse crowd. The web is also more informal and driven by social connections.
Even people in countries who have strong English skills as a second language will prefer to engage with others in their native tongue. In fact, a 2011 survey by the European Commission found that although 48% of non-English speaking Europeans occasionally read English-language content, 9 out of 10 users preferred to visit sites in their own language.
This makes translation of your content a priority. Make good use of your budget by first figuring out which languages need to be top of your list. In our South American example, Spanish and Portuguese would be essential for getting your message across. If Europe is your key market, you’re likely to find German or French better languages to start with.
Take Languages Seriously
If you don’t get serious about translation, your foreign-language readers won’t get serious about your content. They will be too busy laughing at your language slips, if they stick around at all.
We all know of corporate giants who managed to offend or became a laughing stock thanks to poorly-translated slogans. The rest of us needn’t think we will do any better. Unless you are genuinely bilingual and up to date with current usage, you will miss hidden meanings. It’s also easy to opt for what seems the right word choice, when in fact it means something entirely different (for example, in German the word Gift means poison).
Native speaker knowledge will make sure you don’t sound out of touch or leave readers confused. Accurate linguistic choices will also help your SEO by keeping your keywords relevant. Cutting corners here, on the other hand, could leave search engines as confused as your foreign-language readers.
Understand Cultural Differences
The 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer reveals that while people worldwide are becoming less trusting of what they read, ‘a person like yourself’ has become the most trusted source of information. Your job is to be that trusted person to your reader, no matter where in the world he or she is.
Localization is an essential part of becoming ‘one of us’ in another culture. Using words and expressions that local people use makes your content more accessible. Being in touch with important cultural events or hot topics can be useful too. Of course, offending people is never a good idea and cultural knowledge also can guide us around dangerous topics or inappropriate language.
Show You Care
Now that you’ve opened up your content to overseas readers, make them feel welcome. Avoid anything that places your English speaking crowd above foreign-language speakers. For example, aim to respond to all comments, not just those in English. If you offer a way for people to contact you, make sure it doesn’t exclude certain time zones or languages. Showing you care about all your readers helps you to build a good online reputation.
Write with other cultures and languages in mind and you’ll be saying Wilkommen, bienvenido and yōkoso to international readers in no time!
About the author:
Christian Arno is the founder of Lingo24, Inc., one of the world’s fastest growing translation services. Launched in 2001, Lingo24, Inc. now has over 180 employees spanning three continents and clients in over sixty countries. In the past twelve months, they have translated over 60 million words for businesses in every industry sector, including the likes of MTV, World Bank and American Express. Follow Lingo24, Inc. on Twitter: @Lingo24.
03/13/13 by Christian Arno | Content Creation Strategy, Content Marketing, Online Reputation, Trust Agents | 1 Comment »
Have you set your sights on expanding your brand to overseas markets? In today’s global economy, going international is a smart move.
It’s also one that needs some careful planning to get the best return on your investment. Foreign markets involve not only different languages but different cultures. That sure-fire strategy for your home market won’t always win customers overseas. In fact, in this world of social media, getting it wrong can be a business disaster.
Let’s take a look at some things you can do to make your international launch a success – and what went wrong when others failed to pay them enough attention.
Look Before You Leap
There’s no such thing as too much research for an overseas marketing campaign. Your target demographic in a foreign market might appear similar to your home one, but could have very different buying habits. For example, in Russia 65% of consumer electronics were bought at a physical store, according to a 2012 Accenture study. Japan and China showed a similar preference. On the other hand, in Germany only 36% were purchased in this way.
The more research you can do into the habits and mindset of consumers in a particular country, the better informed you will be. On the other hand, even the best ideas can fall flat if the marketing campaign doesn’t appeal to your potential clients or customers. British supermarket giant Tesco discovered this when launching as ‘Fresh & Easy’ in the US. The supermarket spared no expense on a social media campaign, but failed to take into account the importance of TV, radio and print advertising. From the design of its stores, to its self-pay checkouts, the stores failed to meet American shoppers’ expectations.
Language Matters
Tesco’s example shows the difficulties that exist even with markets that share a common language. Bring a foreign language into the equation and overseas marketing can turn into a minefield.
The more care you give to the translation of your campaign, the better your chance of avoiding the dangers. Pay attention not only to translating the actual words but to phrasing them in ways that make sense to native speakers. Professional translators can help you to use appropriate idioms as well as find the right tone. Just as importantly, they can help you to sidestep slang or crude terms that wouldn’t be immediately obvious to an outsider.
Fail to spot these and you can end up with the same problem that Mazda had with the Laputa. The minivan’s name sounds like a term for a prostitute to speakers of Latin languages and had to be renamed in Chile. Clairol also ended up creating the wrong impression when launching its hair curling iron, the Mist Stick, in Germany. Not only does Mist mean manure, but when used with stick sounds like the insult “Miststück” (similar to ‘bitch’ and definitely not the best choice for a women’s product).
Cross the Cultural Divide
Culture is more than religion or festivals, it’s a whole way of living. It can influence everything from product branding to the formality of language used in marketing. The greater the cultural differences between your target country and your home country, the more carefully you will need to adapt your campaign. Those who neglect to do this risk coming across as insensitive or ignorant. It only takes a single cultural faux pas to undo months of good work, destroying trust in your business.
Most of us know that certain animals hold religious taboos, or that some hand gestures change their meaning from one country to another. Other cultural symbolism can be less obvious, such as the associations with certain numbers or colors. Take time to find these out beforehand if you don’t want a marketing disaster on your hands. This is exactly what happened to Pepsi in Southeast Asia when they rebranded their dark blue vending machines. The pale blue they chose was associated in the region with death, with the unfortunate result that their regional sales died too.
A Tourism Australia campaign is a good example illustrating the fine line between what’s culturally acceptable and what isn’t. Its tagline, ‘Where the bloody hell are you?’ combined with beer references hit the wrong note in several countries. The down-to-earth Australian hospitality they thought they were offering to overseas tourists came over as boorish and hard drinking.
There’s simply no substitute for local knowledge when launching in a foreign market. Even though some of the biggest companies have found this out the hard way, you don’t have to follow in their footsteps. Instead, arm yourself with the benefit of research and insider knowledge and you’ll be well-prepared to win friends and customers worldwide.
About the author:
Christian Arno is the founder of Lingo24, Inc., one of the world’s fastest growing translation services. Launched in 2001, Lingo24 now has over 180 employees spanning four continents and clients in over sixty countries. In the past twelve months, they have translated over 60 million words for businesses in every industry sector, including the likes of MTV, World Bank and American Express. Follow Christian on Twitter: @l24ca. Cont@ct Christian here.
03/08/13 by Dragan Mestrovic | blogging, Content Creation Strategy, Content Marketing, Lead Generation, Online Reputation, Real-Time Brand Massaging, Real-Time Marketing and PR | No Comments »
Did you asked yourself what future customers will find when they research your industry for products and services you also have to offer, will they find you or your competitor?
Millions of businesses competing for paying customers and it have become a difficult task for most of them to stand out of the crowd and to make future customers aware about their offers.
Content and social media have become successful ways to get attention from future buyers.
On the web you are what you publish… What are you?
–David Meerman Scott
Original content builds you trust, customer loyalty and can position your business as trusted experts in your field.
Content marketing has established as a powerful way to engage customers. An increasing number of B2C and B2B marketer are faced with the challenge to produce and publish buyer persona oriented interesting and remarkable content to attract customers to their products and services.
There is no question content is king! And Remarkable and helpful content brings customers and business direct to your front door the smart and cost effective way, this is for sure!
New studies show that companies utilizing the content marketing strategy in a serious manor report an up to 2,000% lift in blog traffic and 40% boost in revenue!
Infographic: A Brief History of Content Marketing
Moreover remarkable and helpful content is also a great way to build trust and customer loyalty. It offers the so called value ad for customers.
An open minded communication culture and authenticity mixed with credibility beats any old school – yesteryear nonsense marketing and saves your business a truckload of marketing cash!
The great success of content marketing is the result of giving away valuable information – remarkable content for free to attract the RIGHT people to your business like a magnet in an ongoing and steady growing stream.
Content marketing works 100% for any industry and business!
Content marketing can also work for you to attract new customers to your business like a magnet is you are willing to do it right!
The best way to start content marketing for business is to start a corporate blog.
But how and where to get the ideas to write remarkable blog articles who drive visitors to your business?
Here are five ways you should use to get blog content ideas:
1. Set up Google Alerts with your industry keywords
2. Search Blog Directories for your industries topics
3. Subscribe to other industry related blogs and on articles there
4. Go through your customers email communication, especially service, product and support questions
5. Participate in industry related social media groups and forums
These five points will bring you a ton of content ides to write helpful articles for your recent and future customers.
And yes, this is additional work but it is worth every minute you invest in your content marketing.
By taking this challenge you can expect these advantages for your business:
- Blogging companies get up to 55% more Traffic
- Blogging companies get up to 97% more Inbound Links
- Blogging companies get up to 434% more indexed pages in search engines
- Blogging companies get up to 25x times more business leads
…and more LEADS mean more revenue! It’s up on you.
02/09/13 by Dragan Mestrovic | blogging, Closed-Loop Marketing, Content Creation Strategy, Content Marketing, Get Found Online, inbound marketing, Lead Generation, Local Marketing, Pay Per Click (PPC) | No Comments »
In the past years Pay per click marketing has been a quick and easy solution for businesses to generate leads. But to do paid advertisements is no long-lasting and holistic marketing strategy to depend on!
When you do PPC than you generate leads as long as you pay. When you stop your PPC campaign then you will not generate leads anymore! As simple as that!
Nevertheless PPC are still a great vehicle to get the word out but only when they are incorporated within a smart and holistic marketing strategy.
The proven and successful inbound marketing strategy is a great way to generate high quality leads. Therefore inbound marketing is known as the “riskless” marketing strategy because of the activities done which are long lasting and bring an increasing stream of future customers to your offers.
Why is this inbound marketing such a great way to generate leads?
With inbound marketing businesses earn their way to the customer, by publishing helpful information on a blog, in social media and forums.
Inbound marketing includes Blogging, Social Media, Lead Conversion, Lead Nurturing and Closed-Loop Analysis.
How can Inbound Marketing help you?
A. It saves you up to 62% of your marketing budget
B. Makes you stand out of your competition
C. Helps to generate a massive amount of leads
D. Gets you up to 55% higher lead conversion rates
E. Increases your customers and sales
Example: The backbone of successful inbound marketing is the content creation strategy. To create outstanding in a corporate blog improves the trust, visibility and traffic to a business online. Published articles once done are literally online forever, are indexed through search engines and can be found from future customers.
The more articles you publish the more „digital outposts“which you build for your business and you get an increasing stream of future customers to your offers.
Businesses brand them self by creating and publishing original content. Businesses that create and publish remarkable content on the web and in social media:
• Establish thought leadership
• Elevate brand visibility and buzz
• Boosts SEO
Blogging has great advantages and here are the most important:
Blogging companies get up to…
1. …55% more Traffic
2. …97% more Inbound Links
3. …434% more indexed pages in search engines
4. …25x times more business leads
A seriously executed content marketing strategy can be responsible for 25x times more business leads and boosts your revenue by up to 40%!
Infographic: The Rise Of Content Marketing
PCC can’t deliver such results!
But you can incorporate Pay per Click Marketing into your Inbound Marketing Strategy.
Some thought how you could use PPC to increase your visibility:
PPC drives you quick results and you can use it to bridge over the time until your content marketing starts to show effect.
To get a better idea of what your audience is looking for before they hit your website and to adjust you’re SEO, you could start a PPC campaign. Look at the initial keyword data in your Google AdWords account and see which keywords have the highest click through rate (CTR). So you get the most popular keywords and custom tailor your content and your next PPC advertising.
You should bid on your own corporate terms, for example your business name or the names of your products. So when a interested person is researching online for your business, products and services the chances are good even if you are not in the top five Google Search result they will find you through your PPC ads.
Especially for local businesses PPC is a great way to get a targeted location based positioning to attract locals to the business front door. Local businesses can do advertising for a very specific location and do bidding on keywords related to this location. So they get laser targeted traffic from people who are maybe living around the corner in the next street.
There is not only Google AdWords where PPC campaigns can be done to reach the buyer persona in a great way.
Businesses can also do PPC ads on Twitter, Facebook and for B2B on LinkedIn.
One more thing to keep in mind when doing paid adverting!
You should direct your traffic to dedicated landing pages to convert those prospects into leads.
Take care to prepare a great offer on your landing page to motivate those prospects to leave their contact to follow up with them later and to get them into the lead nurturing process to convert them to sales.
01/30/13 by Dragan Mestrovic | Advanced Content, Content Creation Strategy, Content Marketing, Get Found Online, inbound marketing, Lead Generation, Online Reputation, social media marketing | 1 Comment »
What exactly are infographics?
Infographics are graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge intended to present complex information quickly and clearly.
Infographics can improve cognition by utilizing graphics to enhance the human visual system’s ability to see patterns and trends and this is what made them a powerful marketing tool for businesses.
Infographics are shared on the web, Twitter and Facebook more often than other content online.
Infographics are easy to understand, to consume and to share. On Twitter, LinkedIn und StumbleUpon Infographics get more retweets than other content.
Marketers love Infographics because they offer an easy and powerful viral marketing tool to spread the word about the company’s products and services.
B2C and B2B also love infographics as they explain sophisticated facts in a very easy understandable way.
“A picture is worth a thousand words”
The most popular Infographics are about business with about 12.7%, technology with about 10% and social media with about 9%.
As infographics are able to explain sophisticated topics in an easy way they are very popular for technology.
Infographic: The State of Infographics
What are your experiences with infographics? Tell me in the comment box below.
12/05/12 by Dragan Mestrovic | Advanced Content, Content Creation Strategy, Content Marketing, Get Found Online, inbound marketing, Lead Generation, Online Reputation, Real-Time Marketing and PR | No Comments »
Content and social media have become successful ways to get attention from future buyers.
Content creation, marketing and content distribution in social media are proven ways to make interested people aware of your business.
Millions of businesses competing for paying customers and it have become a difficult task for most of them to stand out of the crowd and to make future customers aware about their offers.
When people want to buy products and services they turn to the web, to search engines like Google, Yahoo, social media and their friends and relatives to get information and recommendations about products and services.
Original content builds you trust, customer loyalty and can position your business as trusted experts in your field. It offers the so called value ad for customers
Content marketing has established as a powerful way to engage customers. An increasing number of B2C and B2B marketer are faced with the challenge to produce and publish buyer persona oriented interesting and remarkable content to attract customers to their products and services.
By publishing interesting and remarkable content other blogs, news sites and content curators will link to you which increases your Page Rank and improves your search engine visibility also!
So when you publish expert content on the web you will be recognized as an expert in your field.
On the web you are what you publish… Think a minute what do you publish on the web and in social media? … Exactly! That’s what you are on the web!
If you miss the opportunity which content marketing offers to you, your business will vanish in the dust.
The best way to start content marketing for business is to start a corporate blog.
Recent and future customers can interact this way with your business. You show expertise and offer valuable information to solve your audience’s problems. This gains trust.
Blogging has great advantages and here are the most important:
- 1. Blogging companies get up to 55% more Traffic
- 2. Blogging companies get up to 97% more Inbound Links
- 3. Blogging companies get up to 434% more indexed pages in search engines
- 4. Blogging companies get up to 25x times more business leads
A seriously executed content marketing strategy can be responsible for 25x times more business leads and boosts your revenue by up to 40%!
10/12/12 by Heather de Wit | Content Creation Strategy, Content Marketing, General, Get Found Online, social media marketing | 2 Comments »
What is ‘The Arts’ ?
1. The Arts is a group of disciplines, comprising many genres, endeavours or art forms, all united by their employment of the human creative impulse, to express and communicate through various art forms.
2. New and additional genres are being added daily.
3. Let us put them all in one box for ease of understanding. This may be contentious to some globally, who have different perceptions of The Arts.
4. The many forms of expression create an adequate or enormous income for many players, but for others, sadly it must just be perceived as a pastime, due to lack of funds or infrastructures.
5. The Arts are dying in many countries, which are not getting sufficient financial support from their governments or other and so it is time to seek other means of exposure and marketing platforms.
What do The Arts enable ?
1. Imparting a message
2. Telling a true story
3. Education
4. Imparting own gifts
5. Creating mindset shifts
6. Enabling interactive conversation
7. Enabling enjoyment, laughter, sadness, joy etc
8. Self expression
9. Enabling escape from real life – and so on
Let’s look at some players in ‘The Arts’
- MUSICIANS – all genres from jazz to rap
- ARTISTS – all mediums, including sculptors, potters, etc
- DANCERS – al genres, from ballet to hip hop
- COMEDIANS
- MAGICIANS
- SINGERS - from OPERA to RAP – including producers, choreographers
- FILM/THEATRE – actors, directors, writers, producers, choreographers
- WRITERS/AUTHORS – all genres, including poets, fiction, non-fiction, biographies, etc
Players in ‘The Arts’ need to up their marketing game + would do well, by using the Social networking sites + incorporating VIDEO COMMUNICATIONS into their marketing mix
Adding VIDEO CONFERENCING / WEBINARS into the marketing mix :
More and more of The Arts genres are embracing this powerful technology as an adjunct marketing, training, collaboration, communication and exposure platform. Due to budget and time constraints, people cannot always travel far distances to attend an event/training etc..
- DISTANCE Training/Workshops
- Globally teaching, learning + rehearsing dance routines, orchestral music arrangements + scores, scripts etc in advance before show time
- Creating a global environment for creative research across diverse disciplines, where all players can collaborate, experiment and enjoy artistic exchange and learning, exploring the boundaries of synthesizing art and technology
- In this global environment, students can actively explore their creativity and develop, using their own creative gifts through active engagement, reflection and collaboration
- More and more music teachers world wide are embracing this technology to teach pupils to play various instruments in remote areas
Virtual shows can be created in a global Video Meeting Room, where interested parties can participate in interactive sessions, with people interested in learning more about their particular genre of Art.
o Authors can save a fortune by hosting a virtual book tour.
o This can be co-marketed with e-commerce book companies, online communities and off-line bookstores, that want to drive traffic to their stores and sites.
o Invite reporters or editors to an online web interview.
o These web events can be conducted with the media, through relevant websites and e-commerce sites.
o Online web interviews enable interviewing all relevant journalists at once, with the promotion of their stories on Movie, TV, Radio, Theatre, Music, Dance, Arts etc.
o Webinars enable you to expose large groups of people at once to interviews with actors, singers, dancers, poets, playwrights, producers, choreographers, directors etc..
o Artists across all art form mediums, can use Video Conferencing to go global, communicate and show their art to the world.
o They could even stream a pre-recorded video on a virtual tour of their art from their own studio or gallery.
o Inviting a well known art expert as a guest speaker to a Webinar, who in their own rights, will attract numbers to the web event, would be an added bonus.
Adding VMail – The new EMAIL – into the marketing mix
What is a Vmail ?
o Video Email is simple to use, online, browser based technology, which enables you to create your own personal Vmails.
o Most technology platforms allow 20 minutes of talk time, which is more than adequate to impart your message.
o Additional videos may also be uploaded into the Vmail, e.g. a virtual tour of an Artist’s gallery or studio, a Singer or Dancer’s debut or demo, etc..
o No software downloads are necessary.
o Bandwidth is not compromised, as the VMail opens on the Internet.
o Most Vmail purveyors allow full integration into your social networks to share on Youtube or Facebook, etc..
WHY use VMAIL ?
Video Email is the new Email ! It is a perfect adjunct marketing tool to incorporate into your Video Communications suite –
Why ?
- It’s Different
- More powerful
- More Personal
- More Effective
- Is Creative
- Seeing is Believing
- Has more Impact
- Grabs the customer’s Attention
- Enables you to literally look into your contact’s eyes and develop a relationship with that person, engaging them on a level that is simply not possible with a static text email
- Enables your voice to resonate on a subliminal level
- Static text emails, are easy to ignore, and at their best, give a customer only the vaguest notion of what your business or craft really values
Facts :
- - Google loves Video !
- - Cisco predict there will be a 10 fold increase in the use of Video over the next 5 years
- - Internet Video traffic is now 40% of consumer internet
- - People retain 10% of what they hear, but 50% of what they see
- - Video is the single, most effective form of communication
- - Additional creative marketing platforms are constantly being sought
- - ‘Old school’ marketing is no longer effective
Heather de Wit considers herself to be an ‘out of the box’ thinker and is happy to share her knowledge on the merits of utilising Video Email and Conferencing/Webinars. Her experience as a sole Entrepreneur for over 20 years spans marketing, advertising and PR. She enjoys creative writing, singing at functions and is a self-taught artist.
Get in touch with heather :
10/09/12 by Dragan Mestrovic | Content Marketing, Lead Generation, Online Reputation, Real-Time Marketing and PR | No Comments »
Millions of businesses competing for paying customers and it have become a difficult task for most of them to stand out of the crowd and to make future customers aware about their offers.
The customer chooses by himself through research on search engines like Google, with the help of friends, relatives and his social networks which product to buy and which not.
Did you asked yourself what future customers will find when they research your industry for products and services you also have to offer, will they find you or your competitor?
How many people hit your site and how many business leads do generate daily?
Businesses who publish and share content on the web do not only increase the number of “digital outpost” but moreover increase their visibility and build trust with the future customers. Trust is the main motivation to buy. When your audience trusts you, then you they are willing to do business with you.
Actually the best way to increase visibility is content marketing. With content marketing businesses demonstrate thought leadership; prove themselves Trustworthy and Boosts SEO by increase Backlinks to their website.
Remarkable and helpful content is also a great to build customer loyalty. It offers the so called value ad for customers
Content marketing has established as a powerful way to engage customers. An increasing number of B2C and B2B marketer are faced with the challenge to produce and publish buyer persona oriented interesting and remarkable content to attract customers to their products and services.
A seriously executed content marketing strategy can be responsible for 25x times more business leads and boosts your revenue by up to 40%!
With great content you position your business and the people of your business who create the content as trusted experts in your field. Content Marketing is great to build your online reputation.
Here are some marketing tips you can use right away.
Give away free content
Give away free content in form of a corporate blog where you write about topics your audience is most interested in. You can get great ideas for blog articles when you go through email and support requests. This will give you a ton of possible blog article topics.
You can also take a camera and explain a task, for example how to use one of your machines and what to take care of. Or you can use photos and testimonials of satisfied customers and publish them too.
You need to invest time/ money to produce content
To find the time to produce remarkable content is the most common problem business face. But as you need to spend time for your business you also need to understand that marketing and content creation is an important part of your lead generation. Therefore you need to set time free to produce remarkable content which will attract new customers to your business.
No matter if you do it by your own or you hire an Inbound Marketing Agency, content marketing is not free. You have the choice, do you want to invest your time or do you want to set a marketing budget and hire a professional Inbound Marketing Agency.
Give away GREAT content
Great content is valuable. It is worth reading and sharing it. Therefore you need to be specific with information which should benefit your future customers. Don’t be afraid to give away “secrets” because this kind of content attracts the most people. And be the end you are the professionals and the future customer will turn to you when he is ready to buy.
09/18/12 by Dragan Mestrovic | Content Creation Strategy, Content Marketing, Online Reputation, Real-Time Marketing and PR, social media marketing | No Comments »
The traffic to your offers online decides about the value and the volume of your business leads.
Are you in control of your traffic and the volume of your business leads? Do you think you can be in control of your business leads and revenue?
I have a message for you: You can be in control of your business leads and revenue!
There is a way how you can increase qualified traffic, business leads and revenue. Content marketing!
Content marketing has become a powerful way to engage customer’s right where they stand.
To share published content in social media is not enough. Content creation and content marketing as a holistic strategy must be performed on regular basis to gain measurable and profitable results on the long term.
Businesses brand them self by creating and publishing original content. Businesses that create and publish remarkable content on the web and in social media:
• Establish thought leadership
• Elevate brand visibility and buzz
• Boosts SEO
Content marketing improves the search engine rank and the content has more chances to get shared on social networks, which also improves brand reach and direct more future customers to landing pages where they can convert to qualified leads.
By generating interesting and remarkable content other blogs, news sites will link to the businesses website and blog which increases the Page Rank and improves the search engine visibility.
Companies utilizing content marketing strategy report an up to 2,000% lift in blog traffic and 40% boost in revenue.
Infographic: The Anatomy of Content Marketing
The best way for businesses to start with content marketing is blogging!
Companies who operate a corporate blog on frequent base get up to:
• 55% more Traffic than companies who do not blog
• 97% more Inbound Links than companies who do not blog
• 434% more indexed pages in search engines than companies who do not blog
• 25x times more business leads than companies who do not blog
09/12/12 by Dragan Mestrovic | Content Creation Strategy, Content Marketing, inbound marketing, Lead Generation, Real-Time Marketing and PR | 3 Comments »
In a March 2012 poll of more than 400 US marketers and agencies content curation services provider Curata found that 95% had curated content in some way over the past six months by sharing a link, blog post or other content type with their target audience.
Curata results also showed that 85% of those marketers focus their main objective of content creation to establishing a thought leadership, 80% of those marketers see also brand building and buzz as a goal of their content creation strategy.
The most popular channel to share content is social media. About 76% of marketers say they used a social network as the main channel for content distribution.
Content marketing has become a powerful way to engage customer’s right where they stand.
To share published content in social media is not enough. Content creation and content marketing as a holistic strategy must be performed on regular basis to gain measurable and profitable results on the long term.
But what is more powerful curated content or original content?
A business brands its self by creating and publishing original content on. It establishes thought leadership, elevates brand visibility and buzz and boosts its SEO by creating and publishing original content the web and in social media.
This improves the search engine rank and your content has more chances to get shared on social networks, which also improves brand reach and direct more future customers to your offers.
By generation interesting and remarkable content other blogs, news sites and content curators will link to you which increases your Page Rank and improves your search engine visibility also!
The biggest challenge for marketers when doing content creation is the time investment!
Research results show that about 70% of marketers say they did not have enough time to devote to the process of content creation and content marketing. Also the marketers stated that is difficult for them to create original content to share with their audience.
Infographic: A Brief History of Content Marketing
09/06/12 by Dragan Mestrovic | Content Marketing, Real-Time Marketing and PR, social media marketing | 1 Comment »
New reports show that Twitter beats Facebook in US Mobile Ad Revenues This Year. This is a clear sign that Twitter users could be more engaged that Facebook users. New numbers also show that Photo- and Video-Sharing Popular on Twitter.
Here are some numbers to try to compare the effectiveness of Twitter and Facebook for marketing:
An average Facebook user has an average of 130 friends compared with a Twitter user and his average 300 Followers. Twitter users share 1.5 more times tweets than compared with Facebook users which share wall post messages 0.65 on average. Massages shared on Facebook reach 45k of people there on average compared with 105k reach on Twitter.
These numbers give you a small idea of marketing effectiveness of booth social media platforms.
How can you profit from Twitter’s great opportunity to reach your target audience and increase business leads, sales and profits without spending a truck load of ad money on Twitter?
Twitter is a great tool to do real time communication with your audience. Users expect companies to response quickly to their requests. The quick response and serious reaction to requests or events on which happen is an essential part to profit from Twitter communication which breaks out.
Customers often reach out to brands to learn more about new products and services. If a brand is able to publish important product and services related news exclusively to their Twitter network first, this would help to improve loyalty with their network. This can also result in an improvement of revenue in the long term.
4 Reasons why companies should leverage Twitter:
• Increase brand awareness
• Humanize B2B companies
• Establish as thought leader
• Connecting easy and effortless with customers and prospects
7 Steps how can you profit from Twitter?
1. Start a Twitter presence and complete your profile
2. Research for industry related Tweets, discussions and people. Follow those people
3. Listen to their discussions. If you have something valuable to contribute than do it, otherwise go on listening
4. Start a corporate blog. Write about topics your audience is interested in. Share your blog articles in Twitter and ask for feedback and opinion for your publication
5. Build landing pages and offer Twitter exclusive and valuable content for download. So you generate laser target high quality industry related leads from Twitter
6. Measure your activities
7. Improve your activities and repeat
Infographic: Twitter Marketing
08/29/12 by Lauren Carlson | Content Creation Strategy, Content Marketing, Marketing Automation | 2 Comments »
Recently, we posted a video with Eloqua’s Joe Chernov that discussed the various ways marketers miss the mark with content marketer.
As a follow-up to that, the folks at CRMSoftware.TV sent over another interview where Joe offers some advice to those just getting started with content marketing
You’ll have to watch the video to learn all of his tips, but we’ve highlighted our three favorites below.
— Develop “buzzword-free” writing skills. At the risk of offending the PR crowd, it is important for content marketers to know how to write in a non-PR way. What that means is ditching the buzzwords and using language that people can understand and ultimately connect to. This is an area where new graduates have a leg up. Their language hasn’t been corrupted by industry jargon, so they are more inclined to communicate ideas in a more straightforward way.
— Display good business judgement. Many young marketers pride themselves on their web savvy. They are on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Google+ and myriad other online networks. However, it is important to remember that your activity on those networks is a reflection of you as a professional. Joe suggests that you approach your activity with this mindset: “If Google is your resume, what does that say about you?”
— Keep it brief. An oft heard phrase is, “Brevity is the art of lingerie,” but it’s also the art of content. Joe addressed this somewhat in the last video, but it begs being mentioned again – keep it short and sweet! Just because you use 100 words to explain something doesn’t mean you should. It’s far more impressive to do it in 10. Content marketers should keep this in mind when creating content, remembering that today’s buyer consumes information at a much more rapid pace and doesn’t have time (or patience) to sit through a 10 page whitepaper.
For the rest of the tips, check out the video below.
Lauren joined Software Advice in 2010 as the CRM Market Manager. Currently, she is the Producer and Content Manager for CRMSoftware.TV, a new site designed to be like Hulu for CRM Software. She writes about various topics related to CRM software, and often reports live from major industry events. She has particular interest in marketing automation and social CRM, and her work has been featured in Forbes and The New York Times. When she isn’t covering the software industry, you can find her running at Town Lake with her dog, Sophie, and singing at local Austin venues. She is a graduate of the University of Texas with a bachelor’s degree in journalism.
Get in touch with Lauren:
08/21/12 by Dragan Mestrovic | Advanced Content, Content Marketing, Get Found Online, inbound marketing, Lead Generation | No Comments »
We live in a customer centric time powered through social media and the rules of marketing and PR has dramatically changed.
The customer chooses by himself through research on search engines like Google, with the help of friends, relatives and his social networks which product to buy and which not.
Then it counts what and if he can find your business on the web.
Marketers need to understand that most people do not go online to buy something. The primarily go online to research for products and services. This is valid for B2C and B2B!
Businesses who publish and share content on the web do not only increase the number of “digital outpost” but moreover increase their visibility and build trust with the future customers. Trust is the main motivation to buy. When your audience trusts you, then you they are willing to do business with you.
Trust can only be build with a long term approach, because what you publish reflects what and who you are.
With great content you position your business and the people of your business who create the content as trusted experts in your field. Content Marketing is great to build your online reputation.
Here are some marketing tips you can use right away.
Give away free content
Give away free content in form of a corporate blog where you write about topics your audience is most interested in. You can get great ideas for blog articles when you go through email and support requests. This will give you a ton of possible blog article topics.
You can also take a camera and explain a task, for example how to use one of your machines and what to take care of. Or you can use photos and testimonials of satisfied customers and publish them too.
You need to invest time/ money to produce content
To find the time to produce remarkable content is the most common problem business face. But as you need to spend time for your business you also need to understand that marketing and content creation is an important part of your lead generation. Therefore you need to set time free to produce remarkable content which will attract new customers to your business.
No matter if you do it by your own or you hire an Inbound Marketing Agency, content marketing is not free. You have the choice, do you want to invest your time or do you want to set a marketing budget and hire a professional Inbound Marketing Agency.
Give away GREAT content
Great content is valuable. It is worth reading and sharing it. Therefore you need to be specific with information which should benefit your future customers. Don’t be afraid to give away “secrets” because this kind of content attracts the most people. And be the end you are the professionals and the future customer will turn to you when he is ready to buy.
Infographic: The Rise of Content Marketing
Six great reasons to consider content marketing to generate more business
Companies who operate a corporate blog on frequent base get …
…up to 55% more Traffic than companies who do not blog
…up to 97% more Inbound Links than companies who do not blog
…up to 434% more indexed pages in search engines than companies who do not blog
…up to 25x times more business leads than companies who do not blog
Companies utilizing content marketing strategy report an up to 2,000% lift in blog traffic and 40% boost in revenue.
Every businesses which ignores these facts will vanish in the dust of today’s networked and quick economy and that’s good.
08/08/12 by Lauren Carlson | Content Creation Strategy, Content Marketing, inbound marketing | No Comments »
We are marketing in an age where content is king. As a result, more and more companies and marketing teams are increasing their content marketing efforts. But, not all content was created equal. How can you discover which content is going to convert the best? And what steps should you take to develop an effective content marketing strategy.
In this video, CRMSoftware.TV‘s Lauren Carlson sits down with content marketing guru Joe Chernov of Eloqua to discuss where some marketers are falling short when it comes to content.
They also highlight several tips for marketers who want to up their content game by creating a powerful and effective strategy.
Check out their discussion in the video below.
Lauren joined Software Advice in 2010 as the CRM Market Manager. Currently, she is the Producer and Content Manager for CRMSoftware.TV, a new site designed to be like Hulu for CRM Software. She writes about various topics related to CRM software, and often reports live from major industry events. She has particular interest in marketing automation and social CRM, and her work has been featured in Forbes and The New York Times. When she isn’t covering the software industry, you can find her running at Town Lake with her dog, Sophie, and singing at local Austin venues. She is a graduate of the University of Texas with a bachelor’s degree in journalism.
Get in touch with Lauren:
