Benefits of Gift-card Giveaways

Imagine you need to run an errand at a local store. As you walk in, you come across a booth from a large national corporation giving gift cards to that same small establishment. This means that whatever you went to that location to purchase just got cheaper, thanks to the generosity of the benevolent corporation!

Consumers love this kind of swag, and giving away a gift card is the perfect way to attract consumers to your brand activation booth and strike up a conversation. When a company extends gifts like this, it breaks down a barrier and people understand that your company cares about them, which goes a long way in building that coveted relationship with your target customers.

Sometimes, brands also utilize this strategy as a lead generation or sales tool. The brand ambassador says to the consumer, “We are going to give you this amazing gift card, but would you mind taking a survey?” or “Would you be open to hearing more about our company?” 

When the customer agrees, your company captures data in return, such as contact information.

Why a Gift Card?

For many people, getting a gift card — even for only a minor amount like three to five dollars — is even better than free merchandise with the company’s logo, like hats, t-shirts, and sunglasses, which can cost the company even more. That’s because the consumer gets to decide how to use the money for themselves. In this way, everyone who receives a gift card derives the maximum amount of happiness from it. The amount of positive feelings consumers develop for the sponsoring brand is maximized, as well. 

Moreover, whenever customers come across their subsequent purchase in their daily lives, they will remember what company helped them make it, and may even remember the major corporation’s gift card every time they walk into that local retailer. In this way, gift-card-giveaway campaigns go a long way to burnish a brand’s reputation and establish its good character in consumers’ eyes, which opens the door to sales and customer loyalty.

The Benefits of Gift-card Giveaways for the Community

Gift card giveaways are also a great way to demonstrate corporate social responsibility. When a major corporation purchases a massive number of gift cards from a small local business, it buoys their bottom lines. This aids those small businesses and injects funds directly into local economies, contributing to job retention and the community’s financial stability.

These gift cards also serve as a welcome infusion of cash, especially for people who might be struggling during the holiday season. After all, the season of giving can be expensive, and gift cards offer an inclusive way to spread joy, but a parent may now be able to afford a more expensive gift for their child or perhaps an additional stocking stuffer. Some of my brand activation events take place in underserved communities, where giving someone a $10 or $20 gift card can help them put food on the table. Programs like these can help retailers solve food insecurity plaguing communities nationwide.

In addition, if your company gives away gift cards that can be used at more than one restaurant or other establishment, recipients can choose what they need or desire most. This approach caters to diverse tastes and needs within the community.

Gift card giveaways can also create a ripple effect of support within communities. Having received a gift card from a local business, residents feel encouraged to support small businesses in their neighborhood, which fosters a sense of community unity as well as economic growth.

Finally, large-scale gift card purchases serve as a visible display of generosity and goodwill that not only demonstrates your brand’s good character, but also inspires others to engage in similar acts of kindness. As these positive influences spread throughout the community, a culture of giving and support develops.

How to Create a Gift-card Giveaway Campaign

For any small business looking to deploy this strategy, the first step is to understand your target audience. If you haven’t already created an Ideal Customer Avatar, now’s the time. Try to keep your criteria as realistic and accurate as possible — who does your product or service truly help most? Your Ideal Customer Avatar should be a reflection of your actual customers, not a fantasy of who you might prefer your customers to be.

Next, look for retailers or major corporations that appeal to the same people you want to reach since those partnerships will likely be the most fruitful for both businesses, and then reach out to the companies and explain your idea for a gift-card giveaway. Alternatively, you can recruit experts with pre-existing partnerships and experience holding these brand activation events who can help execute a campaign built specifically around your needs and budget.

Gift Card Giveaways Make Everyone Happy

Some companies implement these programs every year because it’s such a positive experience for everyone involved. Giving feels amazing and contributes substantially to the happiness of the employees involved in the gift card giveaway, as well as the recipients.

Ultimately, the purpose of gift card giveaways is to give back to the community. Now that the holidays are upon us, It’s the perfect time of year to give back and say thank you!

The post Why Companies Should Spread Holiday Joy with Gift Card Giveaways appeared first on SiteProNews.

As the United Kingdom continues to tussle with the prospect of a recession, economic experts are divided over whether or not a downturn is on the way. While inflation rates are beginning a gradual fall back to calmer levels, the assistant editor of the Daily Telegraph, Jeremy Warner warned that an “economic decline is coming.”

For many businesses, the cost-of-living crisis has hit sales volumes already as a downturn could force more consumers to batten down the hatches and curb unnecessary spending. 

With famous investor Michael Burry, the inspiration for The Big Short after betting against the US housing market in 2008, appearing to launch another ‘big short’ in anticipation of a recession ahead, it’s certainly worth firms seeking to learn from the lessons of the past. 

According to an Independent article from December 2009, as many as 26,978 businesses went into liquidation or had been declared insolvent since the beginning of the recession in Q2 2008. The downturn lasted for more than a year and proved a stern test for businesses worldwide. 

Should another recession hit, it’s inevitable that more businesses will be forced to close, but there are plenty of ways in which firms can continue to earn conversions and sales even as consumer spending falls. 

With this in mind, let’s take a deeper look at four creative marketing approaches to empower the businesses of today to avoid becoming the latest victims of an economic downturn: 

1. Build Authority with Guest Posting

Trust can be an important topic among customers when times are tough and every purchase means a lot more to the pocket of the buyer. 

This means that you’ll need to focus on building both your presence and authority online. While there are many ways that can help to grow your visibility, promote your products and services, or improve your traffic, none perform better than guest posting.

Why is guest posting so important for UK businesses in a recession? In creating quality content with backlinks driving traffic from a reputable publisher, your organic traffic will be immediately more trusting of your business having come from a popular referral site. 

In addition to this, you can position yourself as a voice of authority within your industry by having your content published on a high-ranking domain featuring you as an author.

Finally, search engine crawlers will come to view your website more favourably if you begin to accumulate backlinks from high-reputation websites. 

But how can you begin your guest posting journey? It’s important to share your industry knowledge on a topic that your target audience will find engaging. By embedding a keyworded backlink to your brand, you can position your business as a leading solution to industry issues or pain points for customers. 
Finding a host website for your guest post can be difficult if you don’t know where to look, but tools like Ahrefs can be a great resource for discovering potential publications that will accept your content.

Let’s say you’re a business that specialises in gardening equipment, and have identified GardenersWorld as a leading online resource for all things gardening. By exploring www.gardenersworld.com on Ahrefs it’s possible to view their dofollow backlinks in order of Domain Rating (DR) and even host site language. 

This helps to provide you with a list of websites that are publishing backlinks to an industry-relevant website. 

Although it can be tricky to offer your content to the highest DR websites, there will be plenty of options for all kinds of websites that post industry-relevant content that you can outreach to in order to secure a guest post. 

Many websites will have contacts pages that can put you in touch with editors while some websites allow you to publish content directly to their pages. When outreaching your content, it’s worth introducing yourself and explaining why your content could be relevant to them before sharing your suggestions for posts. 

While this process can be time-consuming, guest blogging agencies like Solvid can help streamline the process. Solvid has helped some of the most prominent brands in the world generate quality backlinks using guest blogging campaigns. 

Solvid is the only agency to offer placements on DR90+ and DA80+ websites, helping businesses reach the front page of the internet. Although you would need a decent budget to be able to get on some of the world’s most prominent publications, Solvid can help you get there. 

2. Host Competitions

Though the notion of giving away products or services for free during a recession may not seem like the best financial idea, competitions can be a great way of boosting brand awareness and earning mailing list conversions that could bring more purchase intent later on. 

In a recession, customers can be more receptive to the prospect of winning products for free and could be more motivated to enter competitions online. 

Competitions are also a great way of generating a social media buzz, and by encouraging your followers to send user-generated content (UGC), you’ll have the potential to attract a far greater audience while gaining valuable content that can be reposted online for free. 

One great way of building engagement on social media through competitions is by hosting a caption contest with a freebie as a prize. This helps you to welcome plenty of UGC that can then be reposted to help promote further engagement with your brand.  

Other options could involve offering a prize for a customer who shares pictures of themselves using your product or creating funny images or videos with your products. 

Alternatively, tag-a-friend contests, and ‘like and repost’ competitions where users simply share your competition with a larger audience can all work well in boosting brand awareness at a relatively low cost. 

3. Embrace Video Marketing

Content may be king, but its power goes into overdrive during a recession where customers are less likely to be spending their free time travelling or trying their hand at activities. 

When consumer spending falls, the engaging content businesses churn out becomes a key source of engagement. 
According to HubSpot data, 50% of consumers would like to see marketers produce more video content, and this is only likely to increase in a cost-of-living crisis as users become more accustomed to video platforms like TikTok and Instagram.

The great thing about video content is that it’s a far less competitive environment to rank for. As we can see above, a Google query on ‘caring for your garden’ returns 1.46 billion results. Notice the video results at the bottom of the screenshot above? Well, a Google video search for the same term returns 206 million results–around 14% as competitive as the original search and still with the potential of landing on the search engine’s front page. 

It’s also possible to utilise video across different platforms, and whether you want to demonstrate a product on YouTube, share an unboxing experience on Facebook, offer an industry-relevant tutorial on Twitter, or explain a trending news story on LinkedIn, there are many different types of content and host websites you can utilise to keep your audience engaged and to build value in your brand. 

4. Personalisation Is Imperative in a Downturn

During the chaotic years punctuated by the Covid-19 pandemic, the University of London noted that a ‘consumer awakening’ took place whereby individuals became more expectant of shared brand values and a more personable touch from businesses. 

Recessions can be highly tumultuous times for millions of consumers, and as financial headwinds gather momentum, brands showcasing their more human side can resonate far better. 

Think about each customer individually, and add a personal touch within your marketing techniques that can help them feel as though you’re reserving special attention for them. 

This can be undertaken by using your existing website data and by building knowledge of which products and pages the visitor has viewed already. You can optimise their experience based on this background knowledge by showing them their favourite products. 

You can also create a personalised advertising strategy focused on retargeting your customers to bring them back to your pages. 

The best way to deliver more personalised marketing is through mailing lists. Whenever you send emails to your recipients, you should address them by their name as standard while paying careful attention to their interests, likes, and dislikes to help them feel more cared for. 

Recessions are a Cause to Market Smarter

Marketing in a recession should be about working smarter, rather than reinvesting your budgets or reinventing the wheel. 

Showing that you care about your customers and providing them with valuable content at a time when they may be feeling negatively about the economic outlook can help to provide a valuable service that helps them to feel valued at a time when circumstances may be getting the better of them. 

With almost 27,000 UK businesses succumbing to the 2008 market crash, a future downturn will herald a dangerous period for brands seeking to stay afloat. In showing that you care for your customers with creative and engaging marketing, your business will stand the best chance of having its customers care for you in return.

The post 26,978 UK Businesses Went Bust in 2008’s Crash: 4 Creative Marketing Approaches to Avoid a Similar Fate for Firms in 2024 appeared first on SiteProNews.

That’s why using social listening to craft strategic messages that resonate with consumers is more important than ever. 

What Is Social Listening?

Social listening is a technique that enables marketers and other business leaders to understand their ideal customers. It lays the groundwork for developing messages that maximize the chance of reaching them effectively. The idea is to go beyond analyzing your consumers’ demographics and other quantitative data, and get to know them on a qualitative level. One does this by finding where these people are congregating and having conversations, joining them, and listening in.

This social listening allows you to understand what your customers think, believe, and care about. It can guide how you present your brand in relation to a specific topic, giving you ideas for how to align your business with the prevailing sentiment. It can also give you insight into your customers’ common hopes and motivations, challenges and fears.

In this way, social listening enables you to flesh out your ideal customer avatar and have a richer understanding of your target audience’s psychographics.

Finding and Monitoring Conversations

There are two basic steps to social listening. The first is to find and monitor consumers’ conversations online. In particular, look for any place your brand, product, or service is mentioned. It’s also a good idea to look for any mentions of your competitors.

This is important because if your business neglects to conduct social listening, you won’t know what people say about your brand in public. Yet these messages shape how others view your company. Online discussions play a critical role in the development of your brand image: the perception people have of your enterprise.

Social media platforms are made up of conversations — and debates! — among people, so they constitute a treasure trove of data for social listening. The amount of available information is so overwhelming, however, that choosing the right terms and phrases to search for is of preeminent importance.

Search for the Right Words

The first words to search for are obvious: your brand’s name and social handles, as well as any acronyms or nicknames people use to refer to your company. In addition, search for the names of your specific products and product lines. Your brand’s slogan and any branded hashtags are also important searches to conduct. Finally, don’t forget to search for the names of the spokespeople and other key executives at your company.

Regarding your competitors, use those same types of search terms, simply revising them to be appropriate for your rival. For instance, input the specific names of their products and services, rather than your own. It’s particularly important to watch your competitors see if they will launch new offerings or initiatives. That way, your own business can prepare appropriately.

While those two sets of search terms usually yield the most relevant results, it’s also a good idea to zoom your search out to monitor the state of your whole industry. To do this, search for any buzzwords people in the industry tend to use. Also look for common industry terminology and unbranded hashtags that relate to your field. Digging in these broader fields can unearth conversations in which people are looking for the exact product or service your company offers.

Analyze Consumer Sentiment

The second step is to analyze how your business and competitors are being talked about in these public forums. The goal is to gain insights about your consumers, so that you can generate messages that will resonate with them.

To do this, first analyze the sentiment of the posts that mention your company, key personnel, competitors, etc. Are they positive, negative, or neutral?

Evaluating customers’ sentiment is important because, contrary to the common platitude, all media coverage is not good coverage. If the mentions about your company are positive, find ways to boost those messages, perhaps by liking them or resharing them on your brand’s own account. If they are negative, it’s important to consider how you can make things right. This is an opportunity to engage with people and take accountability, which can change how they view your company. Try to address any budding issues before they escalate. If the mentions are neutral, think about how your company could improve the customer experience, and nudge those customers into positive territory.

On the other hand, negative and neutral messages about your rivals will draw your attention to those companies’ weaknesses, which you could choose to exploit. Positive mentions about your competitors can show you where they are strong.

Measure the Size of the Conversation

It’s also important to measure the reach of each mention to gauge how much influence it may have had. Some posts will have successfully captured more eyeballs than others, which means you should prioritize them. What got the most traction, and why?

Similarly, pay attention to how much attention your brand gets compared to your competitors. This is called “share of voice” and it indicates how visible your brand is. If your rivals consistently reach more people than you, your business probably needs to boost its communication efforts and invest more in marketing, advertising, and public relations.

The larger context in which the mentions appear is also important. Some mentions will only be stray comments in a discussion that’s largely about something else. But some mentions will center on your brand — those are the ones it’s most important to watch and intervene on.

Be careful whenever you insert your brand into an existing conversation, however. Don’t just drop in and try to take over, since this can come off as heavy-handed and salesy. Instead, it’s best to begin by cultivating allies among those who already hold prominent positions within that community. Find ways to help them, which will make them more willing to help you and your brand later. In short, whenever your brand joins these conversations, it should be done to build relationships. Sales pitches should take a back seat.

Social Listening Strategies

If you’re feeling daunted by the amount of work that goes into social listening, the good news is software can help. For instance, you can set up free Google searches that alert you whenever one of your key words or phrases is published on outlets it indexes. Major platforms like Sprout Social, Hootsuite, and Meltwater can also catapult you into the middle of key conversations online.

Hiring marketing and public relations professionals to keep tabs on and protect your brand’s reputation is another way to relieve yourself of the labor involved. An added advantage of this approach is that these specialists often have advanced training and experience in leveraging the insights from social listening.

Whatever business you are in, social listening helps you find, understand, and build connections with your customers. For that reason, no business can afford to neglect it.

The post Why Social Listening Is More Important Than Ever appeared first on SiteProNews.

Experiential marketing, as the name suggests, is a form of marketing in which brands create an experience for the customer, rather than marketing to them through traditional means. Experiential marketing can take several forms, from parties and large branded activations to something as small as having a presence at an already existing local event.

One of the reasons experiential marketing is becoming so popular in the marketing world is that it delivers a much higher return on investment than many other forms of marketing. Take television ads for example. While the quality — and therefore cost — of television advertising can vary widely, there are lots of costs associated with this form of marketing, like production costs and airtime. 

Although some brands may choose to have large experiential marketing budgets, it’s also possible to create effective experiential marketing on a shoestring budget.

Getting the Consumer Involved with Your Brand through Experiential Marketing

Part of why experiential marketing tends to be so effective is that it is active, not passive. While many forms of marketing tend to bank on the consumer seeing the marketing while doing something else, experiential marketing invites the consumer to become a participant in the marketing process. 

The best part is that experiential marketing doesn’t have to be flashy and complicated (although it can be). Even something as simple as a mini-game or photo booth can be an effective experiential marketing tool.

Ultimately, the goal of experiential marketing is to create a memorable experience for the consumer. While a consumer is unlikely to remember an advertisement they saw or heard the day before — or even a piece of branded swag they received for free — they are likely to remember an experience they participated in. And if your brand gives them that memorable experience, they are likely to associate you with the memorable feelings of fun they experienced in that event.

In giving your customers this memorable experience through experiential marketing, your brand has the opportunity to cultivate a deeper connection with them. Because your brand — or at least an ambassador for your brand — has interacted with them through the experiential marketing event, your brand will no longer be some faceless corporation marketing to them through means they can (and often will) just ignore. 

One of the key benefits of experiential marketing over other forms of marketing is that it allows brands to be extremely targeted. While other marketing methods do offer some level of customization, experiential marketing has the benefit of offering a highly desirable, targeted audience if brands plan the right type of events. For example, if a brand wants to connect with hip, young audiences, planning an experiential marketing campaign in conjunction with a local farmer’s market is a great — and often cost-affordable — way to reach that intended audience.

Forming a Connection with Your Potential Customers through Experiential Marketing

Hosting grassroots experiential marketing events is a great way to show your target consumers that your brand cares about the same values and causes as them. It’s a way to integrate into the fabric of the community, establishing a rapport of trust with the customer that can be pivotal in building brand loyalty. After all, a staggering 82% of consumers say they want to purchase from brands whose values align with their own — making experiential marketing an invaluable opportunity to prove this.

With experiential marketing, brands can create a conversation with their customers, while traditional forms of marketing like paid advertising tend to be one-way and passive. When a customer sees an advertisement on television or hears one on the radio, they can change the channel, turn it off, or even simply tune it out in their own minds. On the other hand, with experiential marketing, they are effectively forced to legitimately engage with the brand and its message because they are being given an experience.

The biggest benefit of engaging in this type of conversation with your customers through experiential marketing is telling them that you understand them. You are essentially saying “We are here because we knew you would be here.” By making this statement through your actions, customers will feel like you are actually speaking to them and have a connection with them, making them feel more comfortable interacting and doing business with your brand.

Experiential marketing can be a powerful tool for brands when used properly. If a brand has a strong experiential marketing team — or works with an agency that specializes in experiential marketing — they can form deeper, more targeted connections with their ideal consumers. The result will not only be more customers, but also customers who are happier and more loyal to what your brand has to offer.

The post Understanding the Psychology Behind Experiential Marketing appeared first on SiteProNews.

What are Micro-influencers?

Micro-influencers are content creators with a small but loyal following on social media platforms such as TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. By definition, they typically enjoy a reach of between 10,000-50,000 followers, but quality over quantity is where they excel. 

This smaller following, however, means micro-influencers can better establish stronger relationships with their followers. In turn, if a micro-influencer recommends you to his or her audience, their followers will be more likely to engage with your brand, check out your products, and even recommend them to others. 

Micro-influencers Offer Authenticity and Relatability

People venture onto social media platforms because they crave connection. After all, it’s only human nature to want to find a group where we fit in and belong. According to PRWeek, 56 percent of internet users prefer to follow everyday people on social media rather than superstars.

Micro-influencers build relationships by providing genuine content, personal interactions, and relatable experiences. They offer an experience that is authentic, relatable, and trustworthy. Rather than seek out celebrity status, they more easily relate to their followers by discussing real-life problems directly with them, and their followers listen when they offer solutions. 

For marketers, this means that if a micro-influencer agrees to promote your product or service, they can speak directly and authentically about your brand without sounding like a paid ad or promotion.

Micro-influencers Garner Higher Engagement Rates than Macro-influencers 

Micro-influencers also make it a point to remain more accessible than celebrities or other influencers, making it easier for consumers to interact with them on social media platforms such as Instagram or TikTok. As such, they tend to have far higher engagement rates than macro-influencers with a larger online presence.

In fact, there is a negative correlation between the number of followers one has and their average rate of engagement. Micro-influencers with fewer than 5,000 followers have an average engagement rate of 5.7%, per data compiled by Influencer Marketing Hub. As the number of followers passes 100,000, this percentage declines to 1.7%.

Cost-effective Marketing Alternatives

Due to rising customer acquisition costs, companies that rely on online advertising platforms like Facebook and Google are diversifying their marketing strategies to include micro-influencers. ProfitWell reports that the CAC rose by over 60% between 2014 and 2019, and that was even before the pandemic.

One reason micro-influencers are more cost-effective than macro-influencers and traditional advertising calls back to their higher engagement rates. Followers who see your ads from micro-influencer accounts are more likely to click on and engage with them through liking, commenting, and even sharing them. 

According to industry research, micro-influencers also provide a conversion rate some 22 percent higher than macro-influencers. This uptick in sales can be directly correlated to the increased trust their audiences place in them over higher-profile individuals, though it also helps that these influencers often have personal experience using the product being promoted!

Providing Brands with Niche Expertise and Targeted Audiences

Micro-influencers’ smaller, yet more personal following is often a result of expertise in a specific niche market or industry, allowing them to build a dedicated and highly engaged audience within that niche. When you advertise through micro-influencers, you can target your marketing efforts to a specific demographic and reach a more interested and receptive audience. For example, if your brand sells specialized camera lenses, social media users who are comparing product options will prefer to hear reviews from someone who actually uses the equipment in the field. 

When you reach out to a micro-influencer, you’re likely to find someone who’s passionate about what they do and eager for new opportunities. They want to share their expertise with others and build their brand as credible experts in the field. If you share a niche with a micro-influencer, there’s a good chance they will be interested in testing and promoting your product or service.

Finding a Micro-influencer to Represent Your Brand 

In essence, micro-influencers offer better engagement, higher conversion rates, and greater customer satisfaction than marketing through macro-influencers, making them more cost-effective for brands looking to reach target audiences on social media. If you’re looking for an edge in today’s competitive market, consider investing in micro-influencers who resonate with your brand and niche.

To start, you can either do your own organic search for these micro-influencers or hire a public relations specialist who specializes in influencer marketing. For an organic search, consider reaching out to people who follow you on social media and have between 1,000-10,000 followers. This strategy has the potential to introduce you to influencers who are already fans of your product, and if they’re already a customer, their agreement to advertise your product would be spontaneous and genuine.

Hashtags on social media are another way to reach micro-influencers. The next time you find yourself scrolling through your TikTok or Instagram feed, try searching for micro-influencers who regularly publish content that is directly linked to your product, brand, or market.

While the amount of research it takes to find just the right micro-influencer can be intimidating, a PR professional can assist you if you lack the time and resources to handle the procedure on your own. These professionals can assist you in every stage of the process, including search, selection, influencer management, content creation, and campaign analysis. 

The post Why Micro-Influencers are Taking Over appeared first on SiteProNews.

1. Maintaining Brand Visibility

Picture this: You’re at a wild party, and suddenly all the lights go out. Now, imagine you’re a company that goes dark during a recession. Your customers will be left wondering where you disappeared to, like a magician who vanished into thin air. By maintaining brand visibility, you keep the spotlight on your business, reminding people that you’re still here, stronger than ever, and ready to fulfill their needs. So, avoid the disappearing act and stay visible!

2. Leveraging Competitive Advantage

During a recession, many businesses take a backseat and play it safe, like that person who refuses to dance at a wedding – not me. But guess what? By embracing the power of marketing, you can gain a competitive advantage. While your competitors are cowering in the corner, you’ll be waltzing your way to success. By keeping your marketing efforts alive, you stand out in the crowd, attracting customers like a magnet. It’s time to be the dazzling disco ball in a room full of wallflowers!

3. Building Customer Relationships

In times of uncertainty, customers crave stability and a friendly face, just like that friend who always knows how to make you laugh even when everything seems bleak. By continuing your marketing efforts, you can strengthen your relationships with existing customers and build new ones. Share valuable content, engage on social media, and offer support. Your customers will remember your kindness and loyalty when the clouds disperse as the friend who’s there with a cheesy joke and a shoulder to lean on.

Try this one: When is the best time to go to the dentist? Tooth hurt-y

4. Seizing Market Opportunities

A recession isn’t all doom and gloom; it can be a hidden treasure chest of opportunities. Consumer behavior changes during tough times, creating new niches and demands. By staying on top of marketing trends and adapting your strategies, you can seize these market opportunities and ride the wave of success. It’s like discovering a secret passage that leads you to a land of untapped potential. So, grab your pirate hat and set sail to conquer uncharted territories!

5. Investing for Future Growth

Recessions are like those intense workout sessions that make you question your life choices. But just as exercise builds your muscles, investing in marketing during tough times builds the foundation for future growth. It’s like planting seeds in a garden – the more you water and care for them, the more your business will blossom. So don’t be a penny-pincher; invest in marketing and watch your company flourish when the economic sun shines once again.

Digital Marketing Advantages in a Recession

Now let’s talk about the unique advantages of digital marketing during a recession. While traditional marketing channels may be tightening their belts, the digital world offers endless possibilities. With online advertising, social media campaigns, and engaging content, you can reach your target audience more efficiently and at a lower cost. It’s like having a virtual megaphone that amplifies your brand’s voice. So put on your digital cape and conquer the online realm!

Marketing in a Recession – It’s Time to Shine

While others may shy away from marketing during a recession, you’ll be strutting your stuff like a peacock in a room full of pigeons. By prioritizing your marketing efforts, you maintain brand visibility, gain a competitive edge, build customer relationships, seize market opportunities, and invest in future growth.

In conclusion, recessions may be challenging, but they also present unique opportunities to maintain and improve your business and brand to give you an advantage once the economy bounces back, as it always does.

The post 5 Reasons Companies Should Prioritize Marketing Efforts During a Recession appeared first on SiteProNews.

Brand activation events are a great way to leverage this excitement and use it to your business’s advantage. That’s why the moment is ripe for event marketing.

How the Pandemic Changed Marketing

The COVID-19 pandemic changed the entire marketing industry in a lot of ways. Some brands used this time to create or develop their online presence due to restrictions, while others saw opportunities to get out into the field, since there was less competition.

Many brands pulled back from traditional forms of marketing like radio and print. With more people working from home and not spending as much time listening to the radio while commuting, radio spots lost attractiveness. Meanwhile, the newspaper industry continued–and continues–to decline each year.  

During the pandemic, headline news stories also raised the public’s consciousness around issues of social injustice. That made companies focus more on their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and integrating these efforts into their marketing campaigns.  

One of the most striking changes, however, has been the increasing importance of event marketing.

Why Now Is the Time for Event Marketing

Dr. Anthony Fauci has called COVID-19 the worst pandemic in 100 years, but coming out of it has opened another once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Savvy marketers can use brand activations to capitalize on people’s desire for the authentic connection and human interaction that only such events provide.

In addition, there’s still less competition in the event marketing space than in other forms of consumer outreach. Only some brands are starting to bring back their field marketing teams, which means businesses can get a jump on their competitors if they act now.

Moreover, the best part of hosting events is that they aren’t a huge investment. Brands can go out, test the waters, and see how these activations perform. The barrier to entry is low, while the benefits could be high. Doing events can open up whole new markets and revenue streams for companies.

If that incentive isn’t already enough, most event coordinators are so excited about producing brand activations again that they’re willing to give clients a discount. Businesses have all the negotiating power at the moment, so don’t be afraid to ask “Is this the best price?” You can currently get even more value for every dollar you spend on event marketing than usual.

That’s why now is the perfect time to remind consumers about your brand and tell them your story. Let them know you made it to the other side, since plenty of companies were less fortunate. Tell them how your business weathered the pandemic, have a conversation with them about how resilient your team has been, or educate them about your new products or services.

Today’s consumers love it when brands speak to them directly and give them that immediate connection because they feel like the business shares the same likes, interests, and values as them. By relating to them on a personal level during brand activation events, you can cultivate real feelings of affinity and warmth toward your business. At the same time, they make consumers more willing to listen to your brand’s messages and understand your perspective. 

Nevertheless, event marketing itself has changed due to the pandemic.

How Event Marketing has Changed

For most industries, the fundamentals of event marketing remain the same as before the pandemic. Brands must formulate their objectives ahead of time, develop attention-grabbing events that attract the target audience, and engage them effectively.

The food and beverage industry is an exception, however. Due to the pandemic, most people have a heightened awareness of germs and how they spread. Before, food and beverage brands commonly deployed representatives to grocery stores to set out items on trays or tables without sneeze guards, but this practice can seem taboo to some customers today. 

Accordingly, consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands should avoid offering unpackaged samples, since these still present concerns for a certain percentage of the population. Most people find securely sealed, individually wrapped samples more acceptable than sharing food with strangers today.

Regardless of what sector your company is in, the pandemic has driven home the importance of always being prepared to pivot. This is true for your event marketing efforts as well. What if one of your brand ambassadors gets sick? Do you have adequate staff? Are you prepared to move your event outside so that the host location can create a more open flow inside? If difficulties do crop up, just stay calm and stay flexible, adapting to the real-world conditions on the ground.

Event Marketing Brings Handsome Rewards

Given all the advantages of event marketing in this post-pandemic world, your brand can expect to be handsomely rewarded by venturing in this direction. The only way to know what event marketing can do for your business is to try a few brand activations and evaluate their effectiveness, so get out there, start hosting events, and make some powerful new connections!

The post Why Event Marketing is More Important Than Ever in a Post-Pandemic World appeared first on SiteProNews.

What Are Cookies?

Whenever a user visits a website, very small text files are stored on the device of the user. These text files are generated by that website to provide a better experience of the website. But sometimes the users receive cookies from a website they have not visited. These are called third-party cookies. The code for the third-party cookies is placed by the website domain owner on the website domain. These cookies are used by advertisers for the purpose of showing those advertisements that are based on the interests of the user. For example- If we have been searching for a particular product or service, we see advertisements related to that product or service start appearing on any website we visit. Like you were searching for Bluetooth speakers on Amazon, and suddenly you see advertisements for Bluetooth speakers of various brands on almost every website that you visit. There are many types of cookies.

Some cookies are function-oriented, and the whole working of the website depends on these cookies. Whereas some cookies are designed for the purpose of collecting information on user activity to understand user behavior. Then there are cookies that gather information only to give a more personalized experience to the user.

Not all cookies stay active for an infinite period. While some cookies stay on the device of the user for a long time for the purpose of remembering all the important data like login passwords, settings, etc. that are preferred to be used by the user regularly, temporary cookies become inactive as the user exits the browser.

What Does It Mean to Go “Cookie-less”?

“Cookie-less” means having a user privacy-centric approach and being less dependable on third-party cookies. But where does that leave the advertisers, and how does that affect the field of digital marketing? In what other ways can we reach our targeted audience?

Google has already taken the decision to let go of third-party cookies on the Chrome browser, which is almost half of what is used by users throughout the world.

Third-party cookies have been used by different brands to show relevant product or service advertisements to the target customers. Even when the users are not active on the website, with the help of third-party cookies, it is known what they are browsing online. The whole Digital Marketing field is structured around online user activities.

Adjusting Digital Marketing Strategies Amid Privacy-centric Policies

If you are selling services and products on your own website, these new policies are not going to affect you. But If you depend on concrete data for online advertisements of your products and services, then you need to adapt yourself to the new system and work on Alternative Digital Marketing Strategies. Considering the near phase-out of third-party cookies, major Alternative Digital Marketing Strategies are:

Leveraging on First-party Cookies and Data

Since First- party cookies and data are collected by the website that you visit, it is certainly more reliable. But even this cannot be stored without the consent of the user. A notice displaying the cookie policy will still be required, and a choice-based option will be provided. Although the main function of First-party cookies is to understand the pattern of returning website users, they also help in analyzing marketing campaigns.

Maximizing The Use of Contextual Advertising

Contextual advertising is going to be one of the most reliable alternatives in Digital Marketing. Advertisers can go for keyword-based advertising; for example, I the user searched for journals, you could show the ad for pens and other related stationery items.

Utilizing Zero-party data

Zero-party data is collected by asking for preferences for email marketing, putting a questionnaire while registering on a website, conducting polls, etc. As we can have a fair idea that zero-party data will prove to be one of the most credible ones, but the collection of zero-party data is highly difficult. It completely depends on the user whether the user has the time, energy, or intention to even consider it. But if this could be done, it can certainly lead to long-term trust with the customers.

Promotional surveys can be a good tool to gather data. Also, if a user is making time to answer the questions, quality content should be provided to them. Gathering an email list with the user’s consent will be a highly useful strategy. It is a very basic idea, yet a timeless marketing strategy.

Browser APIs

Browser APIs help understand the interest areas of the user, and marketers can maximize interest-based marketing. Although it is highly user-dependent yet browser APIs could provide insight into the browsing habits of the user.

Cohort Marketing

Cohort Marketing can also be used as a good Digital Marketing Strategy. Cohorts means small groups. Segregating the audience with identical behavior into groups comes under Cohort Marketing. It could be leveraged by creating a campaign strategy that includes understanding what is common among users who are making the same decisions.

Data Clean Rooms

Data clean rooms can also be one of the Alternative Digital Marketing Strategies. These software platforms don’t reveal personal information, but still, the data can be shared among parties for advertising campaigns.

Marketing Mix Modeling

Marketing mix modeling (MMM) is a tool that helps marketers understand which marketing input is giving them the maximum returns on their investment. So the marketing strategies that are yielding low returns on their investment need not be prioritized. But it varies according to the product and services. If a specific marketing input is leading to the maximum sales for a particular product and service, it must be given more importance in terms of deciding future approaches.

Universal IDs

Universal IDs (UID) help recognize a user on different platforms. These are single identifiers that are used by the advertising industry to show advertisements. A Universal ID does take privacy into consideration and it is assigned to each user. Universal IDs help in passing information only to the approved partners for the requirements of Digital Marketing.

Final Notes

No strategy is fool proof and won’t be useful forever, yet exploring the basics is the need of the hour. Your website should provide quality content that is actually helpful to the user. Interacting with customers on social media is one of the best ways to build trust and credibility. Connecting through emails but with meaningful content is a timeless Digital Marketing Strategy.

Marketers need to unify their marketing data and invest more in market research.

We cannot run away from Privacy-Centric policies. Instead, marketers need to accept and work around them in a way that is helpful to the users as well as the field of Digital Marketing.

Every field evolves with time. And the field of marketing and advertising, whether in the days of Mad-Men or when Digital Marketing started, has adapted itself to those changing times. Navigating through this Post-Cookie World won’t be much complex either if the marketers adjust accordingly.

The post Adjusting Digital Marketing Strategy in A Post-Cookie World: Navigating the Age of Privacy appeared first on SiteProNews.

Marketing your business using stories also speaks to audiences more clearly and persuasively than more direct messages. Stories resonate with consumers, sneaking past their defenses. On a subconscious level, the consumer thinks, “This brand understands me,” allowing them to forge deep connections with your target audience on an emotional level and make your company appear more authentic and trustworthy.

Using storytelling in marketing can also separate your business from the competition. You won’t even have to mention your rivals while telling a story about your company, yet customers will make distinctions anyway, meaning you can differentiate your business in a respectful and diplomatic way, which is more effective than calling your competition out. Fast food companies, for instance, often use this strategy.

For these reasons, storytelling is one of the most effective ways to market products and services.

Stories About Your History and Mission

You can find valuable stories to tell about your enterprise in many places. First and foremost, consider mining your company’s history for possible stories to tell. Who founded your company and why? What critical turning point in their lives led them to start your business? What urgent problem did they confront that they wanted to help others solve as well?

Don’t shy away from stories about overcoming adversity. Everyone has experienced challenges in their lives, which makes stories about confronting them particularly rewarding for the audience. For an example, just think of Apple — the story of how two college dropouts faced numerous challenges but went on to achieve unparalleled success.

Next, consider your business’s mission or purpose. Why do you do what you do? Why are you so passionate about it? Don’t just sell a product or service. Telling the audience about your vision will help sell them on your offerings. Dove is a brand that does this exceptionally well. They’ve turned their mission to provide pure, natural body products into a crusade for healthy beauty that empowers women to embrace themselves as they are. In consequence, their marketing campaigns foster positive feelings of being seen and understood in their female target audience.

Stories About Your Values

Stories that explain how your business makes a positive difference in the world are particularly effective. To find these narratives, consider your business’s approach to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). How does your business contribute to the local community and society at large? In what ways do your values build a better future for all?

Brands that are using these angles well include Coca-Cola, which focuses on recycling and sustainability, and Ford, which is striving to become carbon neutral. These marketing strategies are effective because these corporations aren’t just checking the CSR box. Instead, they are making CSR values a fundamental part of their mission and investing a substantial amount of time and energy into them. This makes stories based on these efforts genuine and organic, which resonates with customers.

Likewise, the positive culture you’ve created at your company offers a fertile field for stories. How do you support your employees? What good has this had on their lives? How have they developed personally and professionally with your support? How have their entire families benefited as a result? My favorite example of a brand that does this well is Zappos, the shoe company that hires with cultural fit in mind and invests in keeping employees happy.

How to Market with Stories

If you are telling the story in a written format, then strive for language that reads like a fiction novel. Slow down, dwell on the details, and avoid generalities and abstract language. Your reader should ideally be able to picture the events in their own head.

If you are telling the story through video, then it should unfold like a movie in miniature. The better the production values, the more the audience will get swept up in the tale, and the more powerful emotions you can hope to elicit.

One of the wonderful things about storytelling as a marketing strategy is that this tactic can be deployed through a wide variety of channels. By adjusting the content to fit the specific medium, you can leverage the same basic story for social media platforms, advertising, newsletters, and public relations efforts.

Consume Stories to Learn Storytelling

Simply becoming aware of the power of stories and observing how they work can help you start developing more effective marketing campaigns for your business. The next time you view a story-based ad, read a book, or watch a show, pause to monitor the effect it had on you. Ask yourself why it had that particular effect, take notes, and keep a running log. Brainstorm how you might use the same strategy to benefit your business.

Mastering the art of storytelling for marketing purposes is worth the time and effort. The more elements of effective storytelling you incorporate into your marketing efforts, the more effective they’re likely to be.

The post The Art of Storytelling in Marketing appeared first on SiteProNews.

In the ever-evolving world of marketing, one thing remains constant—the need to guide and motivate potential customers to take action. This is where effective calls to action (CTAs) come into play. A well-crafted call to action can make a significant difference in driving conversions, capturing leads, and ultimately achieving marketing success. In this article, we will explore why calls to action matter and how to create and optimize them for maximum impact.

Why Calls to Action Matter in Marketing

Calls to action serve as powerful prompts that encourage website visitors, email recipients, or social media users to take a specific action. Whether it’s signing up for a newsletter, making a purchase, downloading a resource, or engaging with content, CTAs guide users towards the desired outcome. Without a clear and compelling call to action, potential customers may feel lost or uncertain about what steps to take next, resulting in missed opportunities.

Crafting Effective Calls to Action

To create CTAs that truly resonate with your target audience and drive desired actions, consider the following strategies:

Clearly Define the Desired Action

Before crafting a call to action, clearly define the desired action you want users to take. Whether it’s clicking a button, filling out a form, or making a purchase, a precise understanding of your goal will help shape the language and design of your CTA.

Use Action-oriented Language

Powerful calls to action use action-oriented language that motivates users to act immediately. Utilize strong verbs and compelling phrases that create a sense of urgency and excitement. For example, instead of a generic “Submit” button, consider “Get Your Free eBook Now” to entice users with a tangible benefit.

Create a Sense of Urgency

To encourage immediate action, create a sense of urgency in your CTAs. Limited-time offers, countdown timers, or phrases like “Limited Stock Available” can instill a fear of missing out and prompt users to take action promptly.

Make it Visually Appealing

An effective call to action should visually stand out from the rest of the content on your webpage or within an email. Use contrasting colors, larger fonts, or eye-catching buttons to draw attention to your CTA. Ensure that it is easily noticeable and clickable across different devices and screen sizes.

Placing Calls to Action Strategically

While crafting compelling CTAs is crucial, their placement within your marketing channels is equally important. Here are some strategic positions to consider:

Above the Fold

Positioning a call to action above the fold means placing it in a visible area of your webpage or email that is immediately viewable without scrolling. This ensures that visitors encounter the CTA early on, increasing the chances of engagement and conversions.

Within Engaging Content

Embedding CTAs within engaging content is an effective way to capture the attention of users who are actively consuming information. For blog posts or articles, place relevant CTAs at natural breakpoints or at the end of informative sections, enticing readers to take the next step.

At the End of the Content

Strategically placing a call to action at the end of your content can capitalize on users who have read or consumed your message in its entirety. By providing a clear next step once users have absorbed your content, you increase the likelihood of conversions.

Testing and Optimizing Calls to Action

Creating effective CTAs is an ongoing process that requires testing and optimization. Consider the following approaches:

A/B Testing

A/B testing involves creating multiple variations of your call to action and measuring their performance against each other. Test different colors, wording, placement, or design elements to identify which version generates the highest conversion rates. Continually iterate and refine based on the results obtained.

Tracking and Analytics

Implement tracking and analytics tools to gather data on how users interact with your CTAs. Monitor click-through rates, conversion rates, and other relevant metrics to gain insights into the effectiveness of your calls to action. This data can guide future optimization efforts.

Iterative Improvement

Remember that CTAs are not set in stone. Continually analyze and improve your calls to action based on user behavior, feedback, and emerging trends. Regularly revisit and refine your CTAs to ensure they remain impactful and aligned with your marketing objectives.

How many calls to action should I include on a webpage?

The number of calls to action on a webpage depends on the complexity of your offering and the user journey. For simpler objectives, a single prominent CTA may suffice. However, for more extensive content or sales funnels, strategically placing multiple CTAs at relevant points can enhance engagement and encourage users to take action.

Conclusion: Harnessing the Power of Calls to Action for Marketing Success

Effective calls to action are essential elements of successful marketing strategies. By crafting compelling CTAs, clearly defining desired actions, strategically placing them, and continually testing and optimizing, businesses can drive higher conversions, capture leads, and foster engagement. Harness the power of calls to action to guide your audience toward meaningful interactions, and watch as your marketing efforts soar to new heights.

The post The Significance of Effective Calls to Action in Marketing appeared first on SiteProNews.

According to the recent survey reports, content marketing generates three times as many leads as traditional outbound marketing, all while costing 62% less. Apart from this, a significant 70% of consumers prefer to know about companies through articles rather than advertisements. This change in consumer behavior highlights the significance for businesses to modify their marketing approaches and dedicate resources to content marketing, enabling them to actively connect with their audience and establish valuable relationships.

What Exactly is Content Marketing?

In simple terms, content marketing is a practice of creating and distributing valuable content to entice targeted audience. Content marketing involves the creation of several content types including blog posts, articles, videos, infographics, podcasts, and more. Well, the objective content marketing is to provide valuable information to the target audience and boost sales. By implementing content marketing, businesses can build relationships with targeted audience which ultimately drive profit.

This flexible tactic encompasses a range of content formats, such as white papers, blog posts, podcasts, e-books, and digital videos. Through these channels, brands can build long-lasting and sustainable connections with their customers, fostering trust and loyalty. By consistently providing valuable content, brands can nurture their audience and generate multiple opportunities for sales.

How is It Different from Digital Marketing?

In today’s digital landscape, the line between content marketing and digital marketing has blurred, with the distinction often boiling down to the technicality of the terminology used. Content marketing is a unique approach that centers around leveraging the power of content, while digital marketing encompasses a wider range of online promotional activities. It is important to understand that content marketing is a subset of digital marketing, and the two work together. Implementing both can help you reap astonishing results for your business.

While content marketing and digital marketing are closely intertwined, there is one area where they may not directly align: paid advertising for websites or services. This form of advertising, although it often involves explaining a product or service, extends beyond the realm of content marketing. However, it is important to acknowledge that content marketing plays a remarkable role within digital marketing strategies, with content serving as an important component in many digital marketing campaigns.

What are the Different Types of Content Marketing?

As mentioned above, content marketing offers a plethora of possibilities and creative avenues. Clearly, there are several methods for crafting captivating content tailored to the target audience.

Let’s dive into some different content types that have proven to effectively engage users:

1. Blog Posts: These are informative and engaging articles published on a business’s website, designed to provide valuable information and capture the interest of readers.
2. Infographics: Visual representations of data or information that combine text, images, and charts, aiming to convey complex concepts in a visually appealing and easy-to-understand format.
3. Videos: Creating and sharing video content that entertains, educates, or showcases a business’s products/services. This can include tutorials, interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, or animated videos.
4. EBooks/Guides: Comprehensive and downloadable resources that offer in-depth information on a specific topic or provide step-by-step guidance to help audiences achieve their goals.
5. Case Studies: Sharing success stories and real-life examples that demonstrate how a business’s product or service has benefited customers. These highlight the challenges faced, the solutions provided, and the achieved results.
6. Podcasts: Creating audio content that features discussions, interviews, or educational sessions related to the industry or niche, providing valuable insights and engaging the audience through audio format.
7. Webinars: Live or pre-recorded online seminars or workshops where marketers can present valuable information, answer questions, and interact with their audience in real-time.
8. Social Media Posts: Brief and concise updates, tips, quotes, or visuals shared on social media platforms, aiming to engage and interact with followers and create a sense of community.

These various content types offer diverse ways to captivate and connect with your audience across different platforms and mediums, allowing you to engage them effectively and cater to their preferences.

Advantages of Including Content Marketing in Your Digital Marketing Strategy

Helps You Attract Targeted Audience

High-quality content is a valuable resource that can effectively engage your audience and keep them captivated. It has the ability to create positive experiences for potential customers, encouraging them to continue interacting with your brand. Exceptional content acts as a key element in capturing your audience’s attention and consistently reinforcing a positive brand image.

Helps You Get Better Engagement Rate on Social Media Platforms

While it is important to build a strong social media following, it is equally important to prioritize the creation of engaging and relevant content. If your business has amassed a large following but is not experiencing substantial results, it is time to harness the potential of content marketing. Exceptional content can have a profound effect on your social media presence and enable your business to gain the recognition and engagement it deserves.

Helps You Generate Quality Leads

Content marketing serves as a powerful strategy for generating leads. When your audience actively engages with your content, it enhances the chances of future purchases from your business. Moreover, strategically incorporating calls-to-action (CTAs) within your content can effectively generate new leads. By consistently leveraging high-quality content, you can drive lead generation and bolster your overall marketing initiatives.

In The Nutshell!

It’s no secret that content marketing is extremely important for all businesses. If implemented strategically, content marketing can help you increase your brand awareness, boost website traffic and expand your customer base. Well, you need to focus on the right content marketing strategy to gain desired results. Content marketing can help you shine your business in the digital marketplace. If you haven’t included content marketing in your digital marketing strategy, then it’s big time!

The post The Power of Content Marketing in Digital Strategies appeared first on SiteProNews.

While it goes without saying that event marketing is well worth the investment, for this type of marketing to succeed, you must be strategic. Here are seven tips to ensure your next event creates buzz around your brand, engages current customers, and draws in potential leads.

1. Invest in Event Marketing at the Best Time of Year for Your Target Audience

The best time to invest in event marketing is when your target audience is most receptive, typically during your customers’ peak buying season or when they have a special reason for needing your product. For instance, if you’re selling snowboards to young professionals, winter months are ideal. 

Similarly, if you’re selling fitness equipment like treadmills and elliptical machines, then aim for November through January when people want to get back into shape after their Thanksgiving splurges. Remember that events set for Q1 have the potential to underperform, as this time of year is the season when most people are digging out of holiday debt.

2. Market to Your Target Audience with Careful Consumer Planning

Make sure that every dollar you spend on your brand’s event marketing is geared toward the right audience. As you plan, think about your target customers and how they interact with your brand. What do they want from the event? Are they looking for entertainment, education, or networking opportunities? What do they like to do for fun? All of this information will help you reach target customers in a way that is meaningful for them, authentic for you, and aligns with the event’s theme and goals.

Remember that you are marketing your event to both current and potential customers. Current customers are easy to connect with, as they have already indicated an interest in buying your product or service and are already on your email list. 

Conversely, potential customers are slightly harder to reach. They may become interested based on emails or special promotions, but they could also be influenced by social media posts shared by friends and family members excited about the upcoming event.

3. Research to Align Your Event with Strategic Partners and Locations 

The location you choose for your event is critical. After all, you want high-traffic areas that will best attract your target audience. Research can help you align with the partners and locations that will best connect with your audience. 

If you’re a local business, hold your event at a local venue such as a community center or library. If you have a regional presence, consider hosting an event at a convention center or hotel near major highways and airports. National companies can host conferences in major cities, including New York City, Los Angeles, or Chicago.

4. Plan Event Marketing with Clear Objectives and KPIs to Measure Success

Before you implement your event marketing campaign, start with clear goals in mind. Use data from previous events, marketing campaigns, and social media posts to set specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-oriented (SMART) goals.  

For example, if one of your goals is to increase awareness among potential clients, be sure to clearly define what that means. Does increased awareness mean more people know your brand, or does it mean more people have heard about your brand’s products or services? 

In addition, make sure you understand how you will measure your event’s success, what are your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). If your goal is that customers remember your brand in the future, how will you know if that happened? 

Define your objectives and make sure everyone on your team knows what they are. Never waste time and money on an event that won’t meet your brand’s goals.
 

5. Offer Takeaways to Ensure Event Marketing Lives Outside Your Event

When designing event marketing, it’s always a solid idea to provide branded swag that attendees can take home — particularly something they will feel excited to use. Generic pens and coffee mugs get tossed into the trash on the way out the door, but souvenirs relevant to your target audience and the event keep your brand name in customers’ homes, cars, or offices.

One tip is to ensure your branded merchandise can be tracked as part of an Return on Investment (ROI) analysis. If you include unique codes on items, you know which event prompted future contacts and purchases.

6. Plan an Event with Shareable Social Content That Transports Your In-person Event Online

Social media is an essential part of your event marketing strategy. It can build excitement around the event, create buzz around new products or services, offer exclusive content and experiences to attendees, drive registration and attendance numbers, and even provide feedback from attendees afterwards.

Create shareable posts relevant before and during the event to document the experience on your brand’s social channels. In addition, turn event attendees into brand ambassadors by incentivizing them to share.

7. Plan a Journey That Takes Customers from Your Event into Your Funnel

The best way to drive traffic back to your website is by planning a journey that takes customers directly from your event into your funnel, which can be done through the use of social media and email marketing campaigns. It can also be as simple as having clear CTAs at the end of each presentation at the event and making sure attendees know how they can get more information about what they learned during the event.

Event marketing can be a powerful tool, but it’s vital to plan carefully and make sure the event will resonate with your target audience. By following these tips, you’ll be able to create an event that’s memorable, fun, and — ultimately — successful.

The post The Do’s and Don’ts of Event Marketing: Seven Tips from Expert Ray Sheehan appeared first on SiteProNews.

BOFU content, on the other hand, is the content that gives users the last bit of information to help them convert in the BOFU stage. Such content is designed specifically to engage and convert leads that are at the final step of their decision-making process.

So your BOFU content must be such that it convinces your users to take the final step and convert. Remember, BOFU content is the content that your users will read just before converting. So it has to be such that it clears all confusion from the reader’s mind and answers all their doubts or queries.

Now the question is, what type of content can help you do that? In this post, we’ll discuss some of the most effective examples of BOFU content that’ll help you convert your users more easily.

So let’s get started.

1. Free Trials

Not everyone is confident about buying a product for the first time. And that’s justified, too, because they don’t know how it’s going to be. This might confuse them and make them wonder whether or not they should make the purchase.

Such confusion can negatively affect your sales and decrease your conversion rate. To remove such hiccups in the user’s decision-making process, you can offer them free trials of your product or service.

This will allow them to try out your product before they commit to a purchase. It will also help them uncover the benefits of your product or service and make a better buying decision.

When your users are able to experience your products or services firsthand, they are more confident about buying your product.

2. Product Demos

Another super effective BOFU content that you might want to use is product demos. In the age of online stores, buyers don’t get the chance to explore your products physically before buying them.

This makes many people hesitate about investing their money in your products. But you can easily change their minds and convince them to buy by offering an in-depth product demo.

In doing so, you should focus on creating video walk-throughs that offer a closer and more detailed look at your products.

Demonstrate how it’s installed and highlight your product features. This will help people clear all their doubts and convince them to convert.

3. Reviews and Testimonials

Research shows that 97% of people read online reviews before making a purchase. People trust reviews more than any promotional content or advertisement.

The reason is simple. Reviews and testimonials come from real people who have had first-hand experience with these products. So what these users say is based on their experience with the product or service. So people trust them easily and take action based on what they say.

This makes online reviews and testimonials an essential part of a buyer’s decision-making process. So by displaying positive online reviews and testimonials, you can easily convince them to buy from you.

4. Comparison Guides

The next super effective BOFU content is comparison guides. Most buyers will compare your product with your competitor before they make the purchase. So why not make it easier for them?

Create a comparison guide and highlight how you’re better than your competitor, what benefits you can offer to ease your user’s pain or solve their problems, and other such factors.

In doing so, try to focus on the benefits you offer rather than the features. This helps users understand why they should choose your product over your competitor’s.

Over to You

BOFU content is all about offering informative and persuasive content that convinces your users to convert.

So do your research to understand what your users want to know about your users and services. Once you do that, leverage this information to create your BOFU content and start converting your leads.

The post 4 Effective Examples of BOFU Content That Convert appeared first on SiteProNews.

Here, we’ll explore how you can use the power of data to create impactful marketing campaigns. We’re here to empower you with actionable tips and guidance, so you can confidently work towards achieving your marketing goals.

What Is Data-Driven Marketing?

Data-driven marketing is a marketing approach that relies on the analysis and utilization of data to make informed decisions and optimize marketing strategies. It involves collecting, analyzing, and interpreting relevant data from various sources, such as customer behavior, demographics, and market trends. By leveraging data insights, marketers can better understand their target audience, personalize messaging, identify effective channels, measure campaign performance, and drive more targeted and impactful marketing efforts. 

Examples of Data-Driven Marketing

Personalized Email Marketing

It uses customer data such as purchase history, browsing behavior, and preferences to send tailored and relevant email campaigns that resonate with individual recipients. This can lead to higher open rates, click-through rates, and conversions.

Segmentation and Targeting

Analyzing customer data to divide the target audience into distinct segments based on demographics, behavior, or preferences. Marketers can increase relevance and engagement by tailoring marketing messages and campaigns to specific details.

Dynamic Website Content

It utilizes data to personalize website content based on individual visitor behavior, such as showing recommended products, content, or offers based on their browsing history or previous interactions. This helps to enhance the user experience and drive conversions.

Retargeting/Remarketing

Using data on website visitors who have shown interest but have yet to convert to deliver targeted ads across various platforms. By reminding potential customers of their previous interactions, marketers can encourage them to return and complete a purchase. 

A/B Testing

Conducting experiments by creating variations of marketing elements (e.g., headlines, visuals, calls to action) and analyzing data to identify the most effective version. This allows marketers to make data-driven decisions and optimize campaigns for better performance.

Predictive Analytics

Applying advanced data analysis techniques to anticipate customer behavior, such as predicting which customers are likely to churn or identifying prospects with a high likelihood of conversion. This enables marketers to retain customers or target high-potential leads proactively.

Social Media Listening

Monitoring social media platforms to gather insights on customer sentiment, preferences, and trends. This data can help marketers tailor their messaging, identify influencers, and engage in real-time conversations with their audience.

Tools for Analyzing Big Data in Marketing

Analyzing big data is essential for marketers to gain valuable insights and make informed decisions. Here are some popular tools and techniques marketers use to collect and analyze data, turning it into actionable marketing intelligence. As per experts from CDR Writers Australia, one commonly used tool is Google Analytics, which provides a comprehensive view of website traffic, user behavior, and conversion metrics. By leveraging Google Analytics, marketers can track key performance indicators, identify successful marketing channels, and optimize their campaigns accordingly. Some more tools for analyzing big in marketing are discussed below.

Optimizely

Empowering data-driven decision-making; Optimizely is a progressive delivery and experimentation platform. It allows marketers and teams to conduct A/B split tests for websites, mobile apps, and connected devices. The platform also supports multivariate testing using client-side JavaScript variation code. Its features include:

Fast, Scalable, and Intuitive Interface

Optimizely provides an interface that facilitates efficient decision-making based on real-time data analytics.

Seamless Integration

It integrates smoothly with analytics platforms, tag managers, content management systems, and third-party data, ensuring a comprehensive view of marketing performance.

Versatile Testing Capabilities

Optimizely enables multipage, A/B, and split URL testing for websites, mobile apps, and mobile sites. 

Advanced Audience Targeting

The platform offers various audience targeting options, including data export, preview mode, campaign schedule, stats engine, and behavioral targeting, allowing for precise targeting and personalization. 

Benefits of Data-Driven Marketing Strategies

1. Data-driven marketing strategies allow you to precisely target your audience based on their demographics, preferences, and behaviors, increasing the relevance and effectiveness of your campaigns.
2. Analyzing data allows you to create tailored messages that resonate with individual customers, leading to higher engagement, conversions, and customer satisfaction.
3. Data-driven marketing helps you identify distinct customer segments, allowing you to customize your marketing efforts for each group, resulting in higher response rates and better ROI.
4. Analyzing data lets you measure and optimize your marketing campaigns in real time. You can identify which strategies work and make data-driven adjustments to maximize results.
5. Data-driven marketing allows you to understand customer preferences, pain points, and purchase patterns, enabling you to provide a personalized and seamless customer experience across channels.
6. By tracking and analyzing data, you can accurately measure your marketing activities’ return on investment (ROI). This helps you allocate resources effectively and make informed decisions on budget allocation.
7. Leveraging data insights allows you to predict future customer behavior, anticipate trends, and make proactive marketing decisions, gaining a competitive edge in the market.

Data-Driven Marketing Trends in 2023

Shift to First-Party Data

Marketers rely on first-party data due to tighter privacy restrictions on third-party data.

Complex Consumer Journeys

Consumer journeys involve multiple touchpoints, requiring a unified data-driven approach for a cohesive brand experience.

Increased Demand for Personalization

Consumers expect personalized experiences, emphasizing the need for data-driven strategies that unify channels.

Diminishing Brand Loyalty

Brands must deliver seamless experiences on every channel to retain customers, as loyalty can be easily lost.

Integration of Data Tools

Marketers should integrate their data tools to gain a centralized source of truth and improve alignment and performance.

AI and Automation

AI and automation are crucial in scaling personalization efforts, optimizing ad bidding, targeting audiences, and capturing insights.

Conclusion

In summary, using data-driven marketing strategies is crucial for achieving success in today’s highly competitive landscape. By utilizing the potential of data, you can make well-informed decisions, reach your target audience more effectively, personalize your messages, improve campaign performance, and enhance the overall experience for your customers.

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