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What is a Digital Marketing Strategy and its Importance?

marketing strategy

What is a Digital Marketing Strategy and its Importance?

Digital marketing strategy is a common phrase that pops out whenever you’re searching for ways to increase your business and brand awareness. But what is it, exactly? More importantly, why should you care? 

If you see this, you’re in luck. I’m going to answer all of the questions above, so keep on reading! 

What is a Digital Marketing Strategy? 

To understand what digital marketing strategy is, you’ll need to know the meaning behind digital marketing. It’s the promotion and selling of products or services through digital platforms like social media, websites, mobile apps, etc.

Hence, a digital marketing strategy is a set of plans or blueprints to achieve your long-term business goals through the use of digital media. Similar to any other marketing tactics, it involves several vital components:

A Clear Objective 

Any strategy should start with a well-defined intention, and the same also applies to digital marketing. Your goals should be:

  • Specific – your objective should be tangible. Instead of something vague like “be super famous on Instagram,” try “increase Instagram engagement rate by 4%.”
    • Relevant – aside from being concrete, your aspiration should be related to your company’s values. For example, Patagonia’s mission as a brand of outdoor gear and clothing is to save the earth. It is reflected in their marketing effort, such as the famous Don’t Buy This Jacket campaign and Worn Wear program.
  • Measurable – the success of your goals must be easily measured with metrics like key performance indicators.
  • Realistic and timely – it should be within reasonable boundaries such as budget and timeline. 

Defining Your Audience’s Persona

An audience persona is a rough profile of your target customers. It’s designed to promote better user engagements using quantitative and qualitative data that can be collected from various research and surveys.

Quantitative

This is the hard data of customers’ backgrounds that influence their buying behaviors. It consists of:

  • Age – knowing the age of your demographics helps you to select the right platform. For example, the age range of typical Snapchat and Instagram users is 18-24, hence why the platforms are ideal for youth-oriented brands. Additionally, age differences also affect the manners of communication.
  • Gender – men, and women have different needs and purchasing behavior. Some businesses, like a clothing brand, for example, might need to segment according to this. 
  • Location – it helps to give you an idea of where most of your traffic comes from and what region-specific culture that may drive people to care about your products. 
  • Profession – this and income level might affect buying decisions because different occupations have different needs and purchasing power. 

Qualitative

Meanwhile, this data type describes the psychological factors behind consumers’ purchasing attitudes and habits. Here are the few important ones:

  • Interests and motivations – what sort of trends that your customers like? What kind of ideas that drive them into action?
  • Setbacks – which of your products or services can solve typical consumers’ dilemmas?
  • Lifestyle – this ties in with the quantitative aspects mentioned above. Different backgrounds affect lifestyles and consumption.

If you need detailed analysis and consultation from experts to build your clientele’s profile, I recommend SDK Marketing to get you started!

The Proper Tools

Finally, all that’s left is picking the best tools to use. Weed out options fast with these criteria:

  • Functionality – the best tools for marketing should have all the necessary features and are easy to use. You can decide between specialization or a jack-of-all-trades. 
  • Integration – your tools should be compatible with other extensions to create a more integrated user experience. 
  • Maintenance – this involves upgrading, creating backups, and maintaining the security and performance of your system. 
  • Price – they should be affordable but valuable based on your budget and the factors mentioned above. 

One of our must-have tools is Mentionlytics. It’s an essential tool for monitoring your business success online and adapting its digital marketing strategy to always changing market conditions.

Why is it Important?

Now that you’ve seen the bigger picture, let’s move on to why it matters. Below are several reasons why you should consider going digital with your marketing strategy.

Brand Awareness And Engagement

Your customers go to the internet to evaluate the products they want to buy. For instance, 80% of millennials on Pinterest use the platform to help them decide what items to purchase. 

Another survey shows that 86% of people use social media to stay in touch with brands. That means digital branding is your chance to gain the public’s recognition and engage with them.

Cost-Effective But Profit-Efficient 

Digital marketing allows you to cut costs while promising a high return on investment. According to this infographic, you’ll need to spend around $1800 in traditional marketing to reach the 2000 audience milestone, while digital marketing will only cost you $125, more or less.

Trackable And Adaptable 

Aside from targeting potential customers efficiently, digital marketing tactics also enable companies to track their campaign progress in real-time to see what works and what doesn’t. It allows marketers to adapt fast, especially in the fast-changing internet world.

Wrapping Up 

A digital marketing strategy is an actionable plan for success, taking advantage of consumers that have grown dependent on the internet.

It should have a definite purpose, be based on a tangible customer profile, and executed with the appropriate tools. Plus, a solid digital marketing plan can increase the public’s awareness and engagement of your brand, save you money, and be adaptable when necessary. 

So, are you up for the challenge? 

 

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Digital Guerrilla Marketing Tips For your Business

Digital Guerrilla Marketing

At times it’s not enough to use conventional marketing tactics. They take a while to bring results. While you wait for your pages to rank on the search engine result pages you can score some quick wins with alternative strategies like guerrilla marketing. In this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know about it, along with some examples and success stories.

What Is Guerrilla Marketing?

To keep your brand ahead of the competition it’s essential to stay up to date with marketing innovations – ones like guerrilla marketing. To put it simply, it’s an advertising campaign that focuses on raising awareness about brands in a non-disruptive way – advertising subtly enough that most people don’t realize it’s a marketing campaign.

Take Coca Cola’s campaign for example. In 2011, the company released bottles with popular names printed next to the logo and encouraged consumers to share the drink with people whose names were on them.

Soon after, people all over the world joined this “share a coke with” movement. No one really saw it as a marketing tactic, they were just happy to be involved in the trend. The campaign was so successful that Coca Cola launched a website where people can design their own bottles. 

That’s what guerrilla marketing is – a unique and interactive marketing strategy that creates personal connections with people and leaves them with a long-lasting impression. And since it thrives on creative thinking and uncommon practices, it can be implemented anywhere.

Top Digital Guerrilla Marketing Tips

Now that you know what guerrilla marketing is, it’s time to put it into practice. Here we’ve gathered the best examples to give you a little inspiration.

Viral Marketing

Going viral can expose more people to your brand and put your name on the map. Plus, as viral content spreads from person to person, it’s usually not invasive to users; they decide whether they want to pay attention to it or not.

While creating viral content is difficult, you can capitalize on ongoing trends to your advantage. You’ve probably heard of the Fire Noodle Challenge, a popular trend where people try to finish a bowl of super spicy Korean noodles with a no-drinking rule.

Starting in 2014, this spicy ramen eating craze has only been skyrocketing. Soon enough, despite the lack of marketing effort from the company itself, the spicy Korean noodle became popular all over the world. The company even collaborated with a well known make-up company to make a spicy ramen makeup series!

Social Media Marketing

Social media is a powerful tool for digital marketing. As of right now, there are 3.4 billion active social media users in the world and the number just keeps growing. 

An average person spends roughly two hours on their accounts per day. That said, social media can really boost your brand promotion to another level. That’s why many companies are starting to do it, and interact more with their followers

Let’s take Wendy’s for example, the American fast-food chain seems to have mastered the art of social media marketing by getting the most out of their Twitter account.

In May of this year, Wendy’s even managed to gather two million likes in one and a half-day by promising to bring back spicy chicken nuggets to their menu.

Emoji Marketing

Now you’re probably thinking: how do you even use emojis to promote brands? This idea may sound a little crazy but you’d be surprised at how convenient emojis can be these days.

In fact, around 92% of internet users use emojis in their daily communication. That said, implementing emoji marketing will not only help you connect with more people, but it will also give your brand the relevance it needs to survive, along with a little flourish that will make posts stand out.

Not to mention that nowadays there are emojis for everything. Chances are if you’re creative enough, you will be able to use this clever marketing tactic to its full potential!

Now let’s see how Netflix, a major streaming platform, recently replied to a fan comment with rat emojis.

This was done prior to the premiere of the third season of Stranger Things. As a result, fans were eager to know what the emojis meant with some even making theories, posting them to outside communities like Reddit. A clever way to keep your audience intrigued!

Meme Marketing 

Memes are an internet gold mine – users around the world are banding together over them. If the memes are funny, they will most likely be spread across social media platforms.

This marketing strategy won’t cost you a dime either. Create some funny and relevant content and let the internet do its magic!

One of the best examples comes from Denny’s, a popular American fast-food restaurant. Combining jokes and memes, this restaurant gently reinforces that they’re open 24/7 to everyone by posting this on their Instagram.

Perks of Implementing Digital Guerrilla Marketing

If you’re still not sure if you want to try guerrilla marketing for your business, here’s something else to convince you:

  • It’s affordable. You don’t need a big budget to get started with guerrilla marketing, especially online! The tools needed are mostly free and easily accessible – social media platforms for example. Creativity is what’s needed the most.
  • Keeps your brand relevant. Brand relevance is one of the most critical aspects of marketing. Trendy and new marketing methods are great for engaging your existing audience and drawing in new prospects.

Conclusion

While you should never overlook established digital marking strategies like search engine optimization and paid advertising, it’s good to stay relevant by trying something unconventional, like guerilla marketing.

It’s arguably one of the most effective new practices out there. Plus, it’s easy, affordable, and shareable. So, why not give it a try and see if it helps you stay on top of your game. Good luck!

 

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How To Create a Knowledge Base On WordPress

WordPress knowledge base

If you just finished setting up your business website, having space online for teaching your clients about your product or service is a must. Why don’t you start with a CMS knowledge base?

In this article, we’ll show you how to create one with WordPress hassle-free. By the end of this article, you’ll have a professional-looking knowledge base that is more than ready to answer all your customers’ questions.

What Is a Knowledge Base?

A knowledgebase is an information database that stores and manages knowledge intended for public consumption.

In a business context, it usually contains all sorts of information related to your company or business processes that you want to disclose to potential customers. In short, a knowledge base exists to help people better understand your business.

Why You Should Create a Knowledge Base?

If you think that a knowledge base has less impact than a traditional support system run by people, we beg to differ.

This particular research gathered that 70 percent of customers prefer to use a company’s online resources rather than contacting the customer support team whenever they have questions.

That’s the percentage of people you will disappoint and risk to lose as a customer if you don’t set one up.

Still not convinced? Here are the advantages of creating a knowledge base for your business.

  • Better customer experience. Ensuring that your customers are satisfied with your service is a giant step towards improving the overall customer experience. By allowing your customers to solve their problems with their preferred method of choice, they likely won’t see the event as a disheartening experience.
  • Higher customer retention. Once you have happy customers, it’s easier to convert them into returning clients. Returning customers mean higher conversion and sales rates on your end.
  • Consistency. Due to its online nature, the knowledge base will be available 24/7. Thus, you get to assist all customers equally without worrying over time differences or human resources.
  • Credibility. Your proactiveness in anticipating any future questions won’t go unnoticed by your customers. By showing that you’re committed to your business, you get to build trust with your clients much easier.

2 Easy Ways to Create a Knowledge Base with WordPress

Creating a knowledge base with WordPress is super easy. You can either use a plugin or a theme to do the job, both of which take little to no time setting up. Each method has its own pros and cons, so you might want to consider those points first before making your decision.

1. Using a WordPress Plugin

All you need to do is to install one of the WordPress plugins below, then set up the necessary configurations to establish a knowledge base. 

The downside of this method is that not all themes are compatible with this type of plugin. You might want to research the theme or simply ask the theme’s developer.

Since there are a lot of WordPress knowledge base plugins to choose from, we have gathered the three best options for you.

  1. Helpie WP. This premium plugin is perfect for creating a knowledge base that is managed through collaborative editing. You get to decide who can publish, edit, and approve the content as well as see the revision history. The editing process is also hassle-free thanks to its front-end editing feature.
  2. Heroic Knowledge Base. If you want your knowledge base to have robust search functionality, this is the right plugin for you. Its user feedback and analytics features complement the AJAX predictive live search. The data can then help you design the most efficient possible knowledge base.
  3. BWL Knowledge Base Manager. If you want a beginner-friendly option, you’d want to consider this plugin. Its responsive grid system allows you to cluster your content based on their categories. The plugin can also display information related to questions submitted by your customers.

2. Using a WordPress Theme

If you don’t want to deal with plugins, you might want to opt for this method instead. By simply installing a knowledge base ready WordPress theme, you’ll get all the features and tools needed to create a well-functioning knowledge base right off the bat.

The theme will obviously take care of the design as well, it saves time and might provide better performance due to the use of fewer plugins on your site.

Despite the above advantages, this method requires you to create a new WordPress installation solely for this purpose. Unless you want to have a dedicated knowledge base website, you might want to reconsider the first alternative.

Here are the top three WordPress knowledge base themes worth your time.

  • Manual. This multi-purpose help desk theme can help you build not only a robust knowledge base but also FAQ and documentation sections. Its compatibility with BBPress and WPML also allows you to create a community forum and reach a wider audience regardless of their native language due to multi-language support.
  • HelpGuru. This modern-designed theme is ideal for all types of businesses. Its drag-and-drop and live theme customizer features can help you organize the content efficiently. Furthermore, the theme is also SEO-optimized and mobile-ready.
  • Flatbase. If you want to create a unique knowledge base site, this theme is for you. Aside from having various pre-made layouts to choose from, you get to customize the typography as well. Functionality-wise, this theme has an AJAX live search feature and support ticket system.

Take Your Pick!

If you own a business, having a knowledge base is a must. Not only does it enhance customer experience, but it also indirectly contributes to increasing your sales and conversion rates. Furthermore, you don’t have to be tech-savvy to create one.

All in all, a knowledge base is easy to make and extremely beneficial for both you and your customers. We can’t wait for you to prove it yourself. Happy tinkering!

 

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How Semantic Search Technology is Changing the Google Advertising Landscape

Semantic Search

Gone are the days where tailoring your keywords for the sake of search engine results required considerable effort. With the term “machine-learning” thrown around so much these days, it’s not surprising that Google’s algorithms keep up the pace to match. With semantic search technology, Google’s search engine will rack up much more relevant results not based on the individual keywords you input, but on the intent of the sentence itself.

So, what does this mean to Google advertisers out there? How is the process of advertising affected and what should be done in order to keep reeling in a desirable amount of traffic? Keep reading this article as we uncover the facts about semantic search technology.

What is Semantic Search Technology?

To put it simply, semantic search technology allows a search engine to include context and user intent into the equation – as opposed to the old way of understanding keywords word-by-word.

This helps the search engine to fathom what users are trying to say in a conversational level and to come up with the accurate predictions on which answer to display.

Thanks to semantic search technology, the answers Google provides are more personalized than ever, bringing together synonyms, error spelling recognition, relevant suggestions, and most importantly, answering the user’s question.

Let’s say you’re looking for information on the birthday of your favorite actor, Leonardo DiCaprio – you’ll probably come up with the key phrase “When was Leo DiCaprio born?”.

 

Search Technology result

 

As you can see, the result shows exactly what the searcher is looking for – which is the date when an American actor, Leonardi DiCaprio, was born. Alongside the date, Google also shows other semantic related information such as his full name, his parents, the movies he starred in, his social media profiles, and much more.

Semantic search technology allows Google to display relevant answers and understand what the searcher intends to look for – by identifying the habits of previous searchers of the same keyword and coming up with an accurate prediction.

Hard-wired results Google was known for giving is no longer true and becomes much more dynamic, in return digital knowledge-seeking takes a turn for the better.

How Is Google Advertising Affected?

This new shift in algorithm opens up many chances to think of a new approach when it comes to Google Advertising strategies. Back then, it was understandable that your ad may fail to show up in result pages due to a different input of a key phrase or using a differently ordered sentence.

Now, thanks to semantic search technology, Google is able to show your ads to the searchers who type in the close variants to your keyword. Let’s say the keyword you set on your Google Ad is “buy groceries online”, these variants will be also triggered:

  • Synonyms – “purchase groceries online”
  • Stemming – “buying groceries online”
  • Mixed order – “online groceries buy”
  • Addition of other words – “where to buy groceries online in 2019”
  • Common misspelling – “buy groceries online”
  • Variants of function word – “buy the groceries online”
  • Plural or singular – “buy a grocery online”

Throwing close variants to the mix means that a keyword you make is now able to trigger your Google Ads to show up in a whole wider array of queries – reaching a higher audience than ever before.

So, how to properly turn this into your advantage? Let’s talk about how each type of query works. After that, we’ll discuss how to use them to give you an edge in advertising.

There are mainly two query types that advertisers can use to extend their reach to a bigger audience.

1. Broad Match Query

The broad match query is aimed to seek a wider range of audiences because it’s not too specific on answering a certain problem, but rather to trigger the ads to show each time the keyword and the user intent are matched.

To explain it better, let’s use a similar example we have used earlier. Let’s say you set a broad query like “groceries online” in your PPC campaign.

Here’s what happens when Google uses syntactical search opposed to a semantic search – your ad won’t show if the keyphrase doesn’t contain the word “groceries” and “online”.

Since semantic is looking for what the keyword implies, searchers will see your ad when they put in any keyword variation related to the content you provide such as “get provisions online”, “grocery delivery”, “online grocery solution” – including long-tailed keywords such as “where to buy groceries online in 2019”.

(Note: Although, the fact that it also targets long-tailed keywords may give you trouble – but more on that in a minute.)

Those have a completely different word order and phrasing, right? However, as long as they have matching intent with your query, Google will show your ad.

2. Exact Match Query

Different from the broad match query, the exact match query will not trigger results from the addition of words before or after the main query – which means this won’t target long-tailed keywords. This may not give you the ability to reach a wider audience, but it’ll help you target the specified keyword search – allowing you to get a hold of a more definite audience.

Don’t worry though, thanks to semantic search technology, your ad will also appear when the searcher uses the close variants of your query when they misspell the keyword.

To demonstrate, let’s say you have the query “dinner cooking tips”. So long as any alteration in the keyword such as reorder, synonyms, or paraphrasing doesn’t affect the intent of the search, your ad will show up. Take a look at the example below.

  • “Cooking tips dinner” (reorder)
  • “Tips for dinner cooking” (adding a function word)
  • “Supper cooking tips” (close variation with the same meaning)

Tips on Getting Benefit from Semantic Search Technology

After getting the idea of how semantic search affects the process of matching query and keyword, it’s time to see whether this is something you could turn in your favor.

  • Create a negative keyword list. Earlier, I mentioned how broad match queries will target long-tailed keywords. The problem with this is that your ad may also appear on the keywords that you don’t want to advertise on. For example, “dinner cooking tips” may also trigger the query for “dinner recipe”, which is still considered relevant. But, what if you only have cooking tips and not recipes?

That’s where a negative keyword list comes into play. Using it will prevent your ads from showing when the irrelevant and undesirable keywords are used.

  • Cover your bases. To ensure that the queries you use reach the target audience you have specified in mind, try to mix in variations of keyword types. Broad match may have its disadvantages, but so does the exact match.

The exact match doesn’t have the capability to reach a long-tail keyword. For example, if you set “best glasses” as your keyword, it could lead you to miss out on transactional keywords such as “where to buy glasses online”. So, the best solution is trying to get the best of two worlds.

  • Don’t waste your time adding the variants. Back then, you may have needed to include as many relevant variants to your content as possible. Today, it’ll just be a waste of time since – as explained before – Google will automatically match your keyword with close variants on its own. Instead, you can allocate your time to research the keyword that has a high volume to give you an edge in keyword bidding efficiency.

To sum up

With the new algorithm Google has set up, it proves to be a point worth factoring in when you decide on how to best implement your Google advertising strategy. Semantic search technology not only helps searchers to save time and effort to seek the answers they’re looking for, but it also gives advertisers a chance to turn it into an advantage.

 

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Why SEO is inescapable in your business Everest climb?

SEO

Being on the first page of Search Engine Results Page (SERPs) is every webmaster’s dream, as it should be. Why so? Simply because it increases the chance of your site getting more visitors. If you’re a business owner, even better – more visitors may turn to more leads and, of course, more money! However, the way of getting there is not as simple as it sounds. The competition is fierce and you need more than just great content to rise to the top. The main key that you need to know is no other than Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Keep on reading, we’ve prepared all the information for you.

How Can SEO Help Your Site?

Ever heard of the phrase “stand out among the crowd?”. The thing is, how can we do so if other people can’t see us in the first place? The same also applies to SERPs. If your site ranks on, let’s say, the sixth page of Google, how’s the chance of visitors seeing your website. This is when you should rely on SEO – a set of techniques to drive traffic from search engines to your website. Simply put, SEO helps your site climb the SERPs and get noticed by curious internet users. What’s more, SEO’s techniques are meant to optimize many elements of your site. Be it text, images, or caching process, optimizing your SEO equals to making your site faster and more functional.

Web Hosting Affects SEO

The connection seems a bit far, but not so much if you have a clear understanding of what web hosting is. It is an online service that enables you to publish your website or web application on the internet. In a nutshell, you rent out server space provided by hosting companies.

How could it affect your SEO then? Well, it depends on several factors below:

  • Uptime and Downtime

Uptime in web hosting refers to the period where a server is online and in operation. Accordingly, downtime is when the server is down and not available for access.

The less downtime you experience, the better your SEO will be. Every time a user tries to access your site when it’s down, Google will receive a glitch report which will then undermine your SEO performance.

Even though a down server sometimes can be accessed and shows an error page, it doesn’t mean that your SEO is safe. It affects the bounce rate – the percentage of visitors on a particular website who navigate off from the site after viewing only one page.

Low bounce rates result in better SEO performance.

That being said, make sure to choose a hosting provider which has a good reputation for its uptime performance. Don’t buy the “99% upscale claim” that easily too! It needs to be tested. Read some web hosting reviews to help you decide.

  • Speed

It’s believed that three seconds are the longest time a website should take to load. Otherwise, visitors will navigate away from it.

Loading time affects the user experience. If visitors think that a website is slow, it may not leave a great impression, thus preventing them from coming back, decreasing the traffic, and undermining SEO.

Also, slow traffic will most likely increase the bounce rate. By this point, you should know what will follow – yes, lower SEO performance.

Again, look for some web hosting reviews on the web and choose based on empirical results.

  • Location

Every website on the web is assigned to an IP address which points to the corresponding geographical location. That being said, having a local server helps redirect your site to the closer audience. This is particularly useful if you want to target relevant traffic in your area.

For example, if you are an online store owner operating mostly in the United States, having a US-based server might be the best option, as it will most likely bring in traffic from the US too, or not too far off.

In addition, a website with a close server doesn’t require much time to download the data, thus boosting the speed.

The visitors will get at least two reasons to come back to your site, which is relevant content and fast website, thus increasing your SEO performance.

No SEO Is Bound to Fail

It is hard to rank high on SERPs if you don’t optimize your SEO. I know, you might think that mastering SEO has a steep learning curve. But, there are a lot of resources on the web, even for free. Learn a bit and apply some techniques. The next thing you know, you’re teaching your colleagues how to optimize web pages while your site is bringing in new visitors left and right! However, you have to understand that SEO takes time to work its magic. Do it consistently and we can assure you that it won’t fail. If you give up along the way, however, you’re the one who fails SEO.

Conclusion

SEO is a set of web optimization techniques which help your site to rank high on SERPs. Why is it important? Well, it exposes your site to a bigger audience, thus increasing the chance of getting higher traffic and conversion rate. However, SEO alone is not enough. Your hosting provider needs to be fast and has high uptime scale (always online). If you want to target local traffic, you can also consider using a hosting provider with a local server, as it redirects your site to the closer audience. With the two combined, you’ll see your site climb up the SERPs in no time.

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Why is Content Marketing Essential for Your Company?

business success

With so many types of marketing presented to the toolkits of RP specialists and individuals, you might stop to consider access if content marketing is worth it. The short answer: without a doubt, yes. The long answer goes into some more detail. Content marketing is essential for practically any kind of business today. It doesn’t have to be the center of your strategy, but it is an invaluable tool when used correctly. We’ll go over some basics for the uninitiated.

It’s in the name

Content marketing is precisely what it sounds like – creating content, for marketing purposes. The catch is that it’s not just a typical ad, product review or similar material. Think of that incredibly convenient newsletter you get in your email, that provides you with cryptocurrency trends. Or the article on your favorite business website that helps you get the hang of navigating a certain kind of software that you started using. You may not have thought about it, but that’s content marketing. And it converts, attracts and provides all sorts of other benefits.

It can take form in more forms than newsletters or articles. It can be videos on YouTube, e-books, podcasts or online lessons. It can even be entertainment. It goes much deeper than meets the eye, and chances are, you’ll start spotting content marketing a lot more often after reaching this article.

This kind of content needs to be credible, authoritative and helpful. Like said before, it serves a vastly different purpose than a typical article or newsletter aimed for marketing or sales.

Your best foot forward

The two significant benefits of content marketing relate to how you present yourself to your audience and clientele. Good content marketing will improve your image by showing you as not just a provider of a good product, but also a credible voice of its industry. And that can go a very, very long way. Content marketing also shows that you care about your users before and after they convert, while doing that extra bit of community service. Everyone loves a good guy.

It is misleading to think that today’s marketing landscape is dominated by fast ads that come and go per the trend of the week or month. Content marketing is the slow burn that greatly rewards your efforts if it is done well.

content marketing

Behold the Brand

The content marketing can take your brand and give it a capital B. Like mentioned before. This is a great way to mold and better your company’s or your image in the public space. Even if you don’t provide the best product in your respective industry, through carefully curated content marketing, you can establish yourself as an expert in the field and an authority on the subject. When considering this benefit, it’s essential to drive home the point, that it doesn’t mean you should do this by giving poor reviews to your competition, or similar content. That can blow up in your face incredibly easily. Instead, content that is genuinely informative or helpful for the user is what works. Through this, continent marketing can make you synonymous with your industry through association. Same as when you think “search,” you think “Google.”

In short, you’re building brand awareness. That’s what separates the medium and small companies from the big ones – awareness.

The big three letters

SEO. That stands for search engine optimization. It is the process of improving your website or page, formatting and creating its content in a specific way that will help your content show up near the top of the search results when searching for specific keywords. It’s one of the critical building blocks of contemporary marketing, as Google queries are becoming more frequent than URLs.  Even if you have a massive social media following, and your product is known by word of mouth, you are shooting yourself in the foot by neglecting SEO.

So, this means that content marketing can help you increase traffic and traction. There are two main methods of it: first of all, if you provide people with compelling and useful content – they will frequent it, and that will up your page’s rank. Secondly, you have the opportunity to grow the SEO of your website, by uploading more content to it and hosting it elsewhere. It expands the possibility of backlinking and utilizing other SEO techniques that will enable a new traffic inlet.

All the way to the bank

Everything we mentioned, all the methods and reasons work to increase two key metrics: leads and conversion rates. A lead is called a potential customer that shows interest in your product. Conversion rate refers to leads being converted into customers or clients. Ideally, you’re trying to have both of these as high as possible. Conversion is harder to increase, so having more leads is a good way of giving yourself a helping hand.

By presenting yourself in the ways that content marketing enables you to, you’re guaranteed to utilize a whole new revenue stream that brings in people and encourages them to pay.

Putting it briefly

Good content and its marketing are a must-have in the current landscape. It will require some know-how and learning for the uninitiated, but it guarantees a solid return on investment. The benefits you get to look forward to better SEO, brand awareness, brand formation, lead generation, and increased conversion rates. It starts as a snowball that with time tumbles into an avalanche that you can take straight to the bank.

 

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Things to Consider Before Starting Your Own Website

Website

In the online world of the 21st century, you’re not on the map, unless you’re on the internet. It is indeed one of the greatest inventions to date that gives businesses a capable platform, a voice to anyone who has something to say and encourages communities and innovations. We’ve reached a point where pretty much anyone can have a website, but what things should you know before you start your online journey? We isolated the main points that can impact your site the most, and how you should consider them before you start. Think of this article as a handy checklist that will help you take that first step.

There’s no substitute for research

Before you start making decisions and purchases, you should take the time to consider some essential things. When it comes to research, you will have to outline two things. What will your project do, why you are creating it in the first place, and secondly, what are the must-have tools and features that will be required.

Project management is key to getting your website right. Often neglected and the caused of untold delays and price rises, poor website project management has caused many websites to be delayed for the best part of a year, losing businesses income daily. There are key steps to website project management and sticking to them and planning correctly is key.

What is your story?

Are you a business owner? Maybe a freelance artist? Or you just want your voice out there? When you consider these things, you’ll be able to start making decisions that will lead you towards a smooth start. At first, it might seem, that a website is a website, but there are many complexities below the surface. Knowing what you’re making a site for will help you narrow down your needs. If you’re preparing a website that will require a lot of power, or maybe it will be an online service or application, you’ll need a vastly different set of tools, different from those used by a blog.

Once you know what kind of project you’re aiming for, further research can begin. Narrow down your options. If you want to create a heavy traffic website, you will probably need to go for a virtual private server hosting service, unless of course, you want to build your very own physical server (which would be very expensive and require a lot of proficiency).

How much you know, that you don’t know?

You may have seen where this is going. The next thing to do is access your technical knowledge. You might be able to use the Linux terminal pretty smoothly, or assemble a PC, boot an OS onto it and make it ready for use, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be able to start a website from scratch. Luckily today’s landscape is filled with tools that empower anyone to create a website. Almost literally anyone. The general pattern is, that the lower your technical knowledge, the more user-friendly and straightforward tool you will need, which means that your website is going to be a bit less flexible and based on templates. That is completely fine, but it might not be what you’re after or what you need. Once you know what you’re making, you know what you need to learn for it and where you should reduce or increase your ambition.

Considering this will make the choice of hosting provider easier, as the level of management and customer support provided will be clear as day. In addition, if you’re going to work with multiple people, that will help you along, having a conversation with them and accessing their capabilities should also be considered.

Where and how much?

We recommend one of two ways when deciding where you want your website to be hosted. To preface these methods: there is never one clear, solid answer. This isn’t an exact science. Hence this guideline relies on flexibility. It takes two different starting points and tries to help narrow down the list.

So the two main questions here are what is your budget and, by now you should know what the must-have functionalities to start are. Through researching the available options, you should either make a list of the service providers that have all the tools you will need, or a list of providers that are within your price range. This depends on which part you’re willing to compromise on, features or price. If you’re ready to compromise on price, take the list that has the features, and pick the one that will fit the bill. If your budget is limited, take the list that matches your budget, and see which one will give you the most bang for your buck.

Now, of course, there might be a perfect hosting service provider even for artists or musicians that will meet requirements at both function and price, but generally, be prepared to make some calls.

A plan for plans

The home stretch is here. Ideally, you have most likely picked a place to host your website, you know what you need, you’ve thought of a great domain name, the last thing you need is to pick a plan. Most hosting providers will offer three different kinds of services: shared hosting, VPS hosting and cloud hosting. Here are the definitions in short:

  • Shared hosting will set you up on a dedicated server where you and other users have to share resources. You have your own private account, website, etc., but if someone on the server experiences a high-traffic period, your site might slow down too. The upside? It’s incredibly cheap. Often you can find a service that will be under two dollars a month.
  • VPS hosting is the heavy hitter. VPS hosting users share a dedicated machine with other users, but the resources are allocated, so you’re entirely safe from downtimes because someone else is having high traffic. Usually, this service provides root access, lets you install a custom OS and has other intricacies. It is powerful and very flexible, but you’re both going to need a bigger budget and a lot more technical knowledge.
  • Lastly, cloud hosting doesn’t use a single dedicated machine, but uses multiple ones, over a vast network. That takes the chances of downtime, or server failure to a bare minimum enables the simple features and panels of shared hosting services and theoretically offers limitless scalability. The downside is that most often, it is a bit on the pricey side, and it is still somewhat new technology so knowledge bases can be limited.

Lastly, consider how you’re going to scale. Do you really need that highest tier VPS plan, or will you grow into it in time, avoiding overpaying now? Maybe shared hosting is a bit too small to start with. If it’s just right, will you be able to transition into a more powerful plan?

Once these last questions are covered, you can consider yourself ready to start your website.

In closing and in short

Nowadays anyone can make a website. And if you have a voice that you want to have heard, a business you want to spread, or a portfolio to host you should make one. There is an abundance of tutorials, videos, and forums that will aid you along the way. You just have to have to know what you need.