A marketing company has claimed to have the capability to listen to customers’ conversations through embedded microphones in smartphones, TVs and other related devices.

The report from 404 Media details that the information captured would be used to gather data and push advertising as part of a product called Active Listening.

We have all been there. It starts with looking at something on a website then you start seeing adverts for it on your phone. It gets worse when you happen to be talking about a different place or product and all of a sudden, the adverts are coming back to you like a boomerang.

Yes, some people have been convinced that phones already have been recording us surreptitiously in a tangled web that involves online permissions, sophisticated advertising techniques and web cookies.

Permission to be listened to

Within Cox Media Group, a marketing team has been briefing on this product news to interested, potential clients but it is unknown if the service is already in use, or ready-made and future proof, as the 404 report portays.

It states that a representative from CMG was speaking directly about the Active Listening product on LinkedIn and inviting expressions of interest.

CMG claims that the product can “target your advertising to the exact people you are looking for,” based on what is captured in normal, everyday conversations.

Users can “claim” a territory within a small radius and then with an audience secured, CMG is able to roll-out an advertising deck, targeted at customers through TV and audio streaming, display ads, Google and YouTube.

Transparency around such a product is as welcome as it is rare, given the obvious concerns that consumers would have if they knew their devices were being used to target them directly. There are also obvious safety and legislative concerns.

However, the small print when we are accepting terms and conditions online isn’t checked often, meaning that you can be giving your permission to be listened to in your own home or wherever you may be.

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In times of economic downturn, it’s no surprise that marketing budgets are the first to get cut. The percentage of overall revenue allocated to marketing budgets dropped by 4.4% between 2022 and 2023.

The instability of the fluctuating economy over the past few years makes it difficult to plan too far into the future. Yet, brands must be forward-thinking to maintain business continuity. This often requires marketers to seek solutions that can proactively provide the greatest return on investment (ROI) to protect against external factors.

Finding this ideal balance can be tricky, but there are key steps brands can take to build a safety net that can keep them afloat.

Invest in owned assets

Consider marketing strategies in terms of a significant investment, like home ownership. If you invest in properties you own and control, the value you put into them continues to impact your life long after you’ve purchased the home or remodeled the kitchen. If you rent, you’ll get value for as long as you pay. Once you stop paying, most, if not all, of the value is lost.

Owned assets are your brand’s controlled property, technically and creatively. Think: your website, messaging, and blog content.

By investing resources in your owned assets, your brand’s visibility within managed and leveraged channels like Google search, social media, and, yes, even advertising will grow organically.

In short, if you expand your website and optimize your brand content, you can sustain continued, self-propelling value across channels.

Use behavior data to truly connect with consumers

Leverage multiple data sources to truly understand what your target audience is looking for and where they spend time. That way, your brand can prioritize what answers to provide and where to direct content efforts.

Activating consumer search insights includes conducting surveys, monitoring social engagement, collecting organic search intent, reviewing website traffic, and tracking third-party research.

When pulled together, this data accurately represents the information people are searching for at any given time, providing your brand with the tools required to deliver solutions where they matter most.

Stick to efficient spending

Efficiency is key.

Avoid falling into the trap of reliance on traditional strategies that deliver leads with limited returns. Smart, not necessarily common, strategies yield greater bang for your buck. Simple, yet effective, is the motto for the foreseeable future. It can lay the groundwork for your brand to expand if there’s an increase in your brand’s marketing budget.

The owned asset optimization (OAO) method includes expanding and optimizing your brand content. And the returns are impressive. The OAO approach has been shown to drive five to seven times ROI and 87% lower cost-per-acquisition compared to paid-only strategies.

An independent paid strategy can only go so far. Still, suppose your brand’s foundation, the channels you control completely, is optimized, strengthened, and visible. In that case, you can create a natural failsafe to protect assets like ads in the event of an economic downturn.

Take on a challenger mindset

Using audience data to create a direct-to-consumer (D2C) content strategy is valuable for brands. It enables brands to meaningfully connect with consumers, even when they don’t follow the same product distribution model as D2C challenger brands.

No matter their business type, enterprise brands can (and should) think of themselves as publishers pushing their content distribution model directly to consumers.

Leveraging data-informed content not only helps cut out the middleman and keep budgets low, but it also builds trusted relationships directly with its customers.

Consider global brands that sell through retailers, like Johnson & Johnson. Even though they aren’t D2C, these brands must still convince consumers that their product is the right choice when faced with dozens of options in-store. Publishing data-informed content online that’s optimized for visibility will help them achieve this drive, better brand trust, and support future purchasing decisions.

Prioritize consumer service over transactions

In a down economy, businesses and marketing departments aren’t the only ones stretching lean budgets—consumers are, too.

Instead of trying to create sales where they might not exist, focus on serving your audience, building trust, and earning their purchases before they have the money to spend with you. Building brand equity before and during economic downturns builds resilience.

This means your brand is better suited to maintain consumer awareness, market share, and differentiation from competitors. Implementing an OAO strategy reminds consumers that your brand exists and offers solutions they might need down the line.

Consumers who find brands that understand their needs, speak their language and share their values are likelier to stick with those brands through economic headwinds. By building content that delivers the most relevant value possible, you show audiences that you care enough about their needs to invest in fostering authentic relationships.

Featured Image Credit: Nataliya Vaitkevich; Pexels

The post How to Safeguard Your Brand Against Economic Downturn appeared first on ReadWrite.

Email marketing has been around for quite some time, and has established itself as one of the most profitable digital marketing channels. Brands are forever looking for the best email marketing strategy. The reason behind this is that email marketing can produce an impressive ROI of about £43, or $56 for every $1 spent:

(Source)

However, harnessing its full potential is no easy job without an email marketing strategy. Planning and deciding the steps you need to follow is just as crucial as actually sending your email campaigns.

As we all know, sometimes businesses consider email marketing a necessary evil. But the truth is far from that. In this blog post, you’ll find ten essential steps that you need to follow to build a solid email marketing plan that boosts your marketing strategy as a whole.

So, let’s see what those are.

1. Set Your Goals

Whether we’re talking about email marketing, digital marketing, or a general marketing strategy encompassing all smaller components, it cannot be planned and designed without specific goals.

(Source)

Clearly define what you wish to accomplish, how you will approach your goal, and what constraints or requirements exist. Make sure that your goals are attainable and realistic. Don’t include goals that are irrelevant to your future plans, either.

Think about why you’re doing this and what you want your audience to know about you. A clear and accurate definition of your team’s goals will play a major role in your overall success.

2. Choose an Email Marketing Platform

Sending emails manually is a thing of the past. Once you’ve set your goals, you need all of the arrows in your quiver – aka the email marketing and marketing automation tools – that will hit the targets for you.

A robust email marketing platform that can help you create your emails, keep your subscribers organized, and automate your email sequences is imperative when discussing an email marketing strategy.

There are plenty of newsletter tools that can help you in that regard, like the following:

• Mailchimp
• Brevo
• Moosend

Each tool has its own pros and cons, as some sport a state-of-the-art email editor, and others get too pricey too fast. One thing is certain, though: Email tools that allow you to generate leads, create laser-targeted messages with segmentation and personalization options, and even affiliate marketing options are among the most sought-after characteristics of various newsletter tools.

Some of the best email marketing and marketing automation platforms carry these features to allow marketers to reach their goals. An email marketing and marketing automation platform, like Moosend, sports:

• A robust, easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor that helps create emails faster
• Automation recipes that can streamline a marketing team’s tasks
• Landing pages and subscription forms that generate leads
• More specific options like custom fields that help in segmenting and creating dynamic content
• Various integrations to be used in tandem with the platform

Generally speaking, an email marketing and marketing automation platform can give maximum results with a fraction of the effort, saving marketers a lot of time, resources, and energy that can be used for more growth.

3. Start Growing Your List

Knowing how to create an email list from scratch is of huge importance if you want to have engaged prospects that can turn into customers and customers that can turn into fans and brand ambassadors.

You can grow your list using a variety of methods. The most common is by creating a newsletter signup form on your website.

(Source)

In the above example by Kate Spade, the user benefits from a 10% discount for subscribing to their newsletter. Of course, a discount is not always the answer.

There are other ways to grow your list and boost lead generation. You can generate leads through social media by integrating your email and your social media profiles and promoting signups through your Facebook, LinkedIn, or X page.

To achieve effective lead generation, create landing pages for your brand that can lead back to your website or WordPress blog. Incentivize your audience and urge users to become part of your list. Remember that, whichever method you use, your new subscriber should see the immediate value of joining your list. Use double opt-in to ensure that your signups will be interested in your brand and content.

Also, don’t forget that it’s all about providing real incentives. Use your copy to make a promise to the user. That promise can be an exclusive offer, actionable tips, etc. It is also very important to have encouraging CTAs. The use of action verbs can be that extra push required.

Don’t forget to spice up your lead generation tools with beautiful images, gifs, and all kinds of stunning visuals.

4. Segment Your List

Segmentation is the process of dividing your mailing list into smaller bits based on distinct criteria to target users better. As mentioned above, this action is possible through an email marketing platform.

You can segment your audience through your newsletter signup forms. You need to add specific fields to collect as much information as possible. Collect information such as name, date of birth, or even profession. These pieces of information will help you determine the groups – or segments – your audience can break into.

The same holds true for your landing page.

The aim is to divide users based on specific criteria like location, age, and preferences and improve your email open rates due to relevancy. For example, you can run specific campaigns optimized with dynamic content for users who live across the globe. That way, you’ll be showing personalized and relevant content and products that are more likely to hit the mark.

In short, a segmented list will yield better results and more efficiency.

5. Design Your Campaign

Designing your email campaigns is no rocket science, but you must keep some things in mind, especially when you are new to email marketing. You can create an email from scratch, but a good email marketing platform will give you some amazing newsletter templates to save time and effort.

When you create your email, consider three things: managing your data correctly, creating your copy based on that data, designing your visuals, and using actionable CTAs.

The inverted pyramid model is an excellent way to follow and structure your emails strategically to guide your readers to take action. In essence, what this model does is ensure readability and cater to users’ short attention span:

(Source)

Generally, your copy should be short and valuable to convince your audience to take action. The example above shows the “Shop Now” CTA and a “See which Pops are on the 5 for £40 offer”. Both phrasings are short and centered around the verb that provides information on the action a user has to take next.

As for your visuals, high-quality images are necessary to give a great first impression. Use images of your products or relevant pictures to convey the message. Avoid using images for the sake of it.

And be mindful that your CTAs are the conversion points of your emails. Use actionable words to attract attention and lead them to click. Also, colors are of paramount importance, as well as the overall color palette you’re going for. It must always be in line with your brand’s image.

For instance, a red CTA with a white copy might sound like a good idea when holding a sales offer, but how good is it if your color palette is nothing like it?

According to Forbes, “​​86% of consumers prefer an authentic brand image and honest personality”. So, don’t forget to incorporate your branding into your emails to make them memorable and connect them to your brand.

6. Craft Subject Lines and Preheader Text

In a full inbox, your subject line – and, secondly, your preview text – is the first thing your email audience notices when they check their inbox. And as we all know, first impressions always matter.

To make an excellent first impression, you need a high-performing subject line that will give you the best open rate.

Make your subject lines short and on-point with actionable verbs that highlight the value your audience will get by opening the email.

(Source)

47% is half your recipient’s list – or almost. Missing out on this conversion opportunity is like leaving money on the table.

Another winning strategy that can get a user’s attention and give your email marketing campaign a playful attitude is to use emojis in your subject line.

Also, remember to personalize your email subject line and go beyond the “Hi, [First Name]” format. This may be one of the classics, but it’s been overused. Nowadays, users tend to go for more complex personalization options. But more on that in a second.

Lastly, your preheader text should be optimized to give subscribers exact information to get them to act. Add relevant information to boost your value proposition in your subject line. Pay attention to your preheader length, as some email providers will not show your preheader text in its entirety.

7. Personalize

A simple “Hi there” isn’t going to get your subscribers’ attention, and it’s a clear nod to the email blasts of the past that won’t cut it anymore. At this point in time, you need to send targeted messages that are tailor-made to meet your subscriber’s needs.

To do that, you need to personalize every element of your email marketing message. From subject line to content, everything will contribute to better results.

Savvy marketers use dynamic content to display specific content to specific individuals. You can create sections that will only appear to a subscriber who fulfills some set criteria and has used or would be interested in specific keywords.

For example, if you have a hotel business and want to promote your bookings or give a special offer in a specific country, go ahead and use dynamic content. Create a block of content that will be shown only to recipients who are located or are about to travel to that specific destination and watch your metrics improve.

Personalization is no longer optional as people expect you to show them the targeted messages they need at the exact time they need it.

8. Automate

Marketing automation is all about automating repetitive tasks and targeting your audience with the right message at the right time, saving time and effort. To do so, you can invest in an email automation platform and use automated triggers that make your marketing message seem like a natural continuation of a user’s action on your website.

eCommerce stores benefit from it the most, as they can automate their welcome emails and cart abandonment series to be sent when a subscriber takes action on their website.

For example, you can automate a cart abandonment email to be sent an hour after cart abandonment occurs. Target your abandoner with an irresistible offer to make the sale happen.

Using automation is essential to restore your lost revenue. Here’s why:

(Source)

Seemingly lost revenue isn’t lost revenue at its core. You can always make up for abandoned carts with a targeted, tailor-made email sequence by using email automation.

Just create a sequence, use the right trigger, and you should be able to target your audience in no time.

9. Measure Performance

Every email marketing platform offers analytics and reporting to track your campaigns. It just takes a little time to understand the metrics you need to monitor and those you should consider vanity metrics.

The core metrics to monitor are your open rates, click-through rates (CTR), bounce rates, and conversion rates. Vanity metrics could be the subscriber count or the sent volume. However, remember that this differs according to business, audience, and goals.

Keep track of your metrics with your analytics tools. The more advanced your analytics are, the more data you will have at your disposal. For instance, you can monitor opens by location to better understand how specific subscribers interact with your emails.

Tracking your growth and how you achieve it through data can help you create a better content marketing strategy and issue spot-on content subscribers will love.

Not to mention how much it can help with another essential methodology: A/B testing.

10. A/B Test

A/B testing is essential for every successful email marketing strategy as trends and customer preferences change all the time, especially in times of crisis like the COVID era that reshaped the marketing field as we know it.

You can optimize your campaigns by running effective A/B tests. An A/B testing campaign occurs when marketers create two versions of the same action – in our case, the email campaign – that differ in one key component. Your next step in A/B testing should be to send one variation of your campaign to a segment of your subscribers and another variation to a different segment of your subscribers, measuring the performance of each campaign.

Pay attention to the metrics that correspond with what you’re testing for. Check your open rates if you’re testing subject lines, your Click-Through Rate for images or copy, and conversion rates if you’re testing CTAs.

Remember that everything can be A/B tested, from content to subject lines and CTAs, but you don’t always have to do it. If your audience is too small, too homogenous, or your email campaign is a generic one to begin with, it’s best to save the effort and use A/B testing when it really matters.

The Takeaway

Email marketing is a cost-effective way to engage your audience, build bonds with users, and lead them to conversion.

To get from zero to hero, you need a solid strategy that will work every single time. If you want to succeed, make sure to get the right tools for the job. Your email marketing platform should be your ally in this battle, not the end-all-be-all.

A solid email marketing strategy is step one, and picking and choosing the right platform and methodology comes right after that.

Moreover, segmentation and personalization will help you deliver more targeted content and engage your audience more effectively.

And last but not least, don’t forget to measure your results and test your emails whenever possible. Consumer habits and preferences are ever-changing. So, don’t forget to optimize your strategy over time, using these ten methods as a blueprint.

Featured Image Credit:  Miguel Á. Padriñán; Pexels; Thank you!

The post The Essential Email Marketing Strategy for 2023 appeared first on ReadWrite.

In the ever-evolving landscape of e-commerce, it’s evident that the last decade has witnessed a remarkable expansion. A paradigm shift in consumer shopping habits has transformed how we engage with products and services. From the convenience of online grocery shopping to the experience of trying on apparel within the confines of our homes, the e-commerce realm has revolutionized the retail sphere. Moreover, consumers are increasingly turning to e-commerce platforms for products they once only considered purchasing after in-store trials. Notably, beauty-specific e-commerce has seen an exponential surge, nearly quadrupling between 2015 and 2022.

As we traverse into the next phase of e-commerce’s evolution, one entity reigns supreme: Amazon.

As the world’s largest e-commerce company, boasting a market capitalization exceeding $1.3 billion, Amazon significantly shapes the trajectory of e-commerce trends.

In 2023, we observe a discernible trend where brands progressively favor third-party, or 3P, selling.

What Is 1P vs. 3P E-Commerce?

In a 1P, or first-party, e-commerce model, brands sell their products to Amazon, entrusting the platform to sell them to the public. Conversely, the 3P model allows brands to sell through Amazon while retaining their identity as vendors.

A 3P e-commerce model has been gaining momentum over the last few years. While about half of all Amazon vendors use a hybrid approach of both first-party and third-party selling, as of the second quarter of 2023, 3P sellers sold 60% of paid units on the platform.

Why the Shift?

This paradigm shift toward 3P selling directly responds to evolving consumer buying patterns. It offers brands extended reach and more profound connections with their customer bases, driven significantly by the vast reservoir of data at Amazon’s disposal. The capacity to leverage Amazon’s extensive data resources in targeting customers throughout their shopping journey has proven irresistible to brands seeking to optimize their advertising investments.

Though a 1P marketplace might be simpler because it mimics the traditional wholesaler-retailer relationship, 3P offers vendors continued ownership, including more significant levels of visibility into sales data and more control over packaging, marketing, and category options.

Operating in an Open Marketplace

The shift to 3P also reflects the challenges many brands face in the 1P marketplace. In general, 1P sellers are more restricted. They have less control over pricing, for instance. Amazon operates as an open marketplace and does not adhere to the suggested retail price (SRP) or minimum advertised price (MAP) guidelines. Moreover, using algorithms to determine pricing strategies often leads to abrupt reductions to compete with marketwide discounts.

However, despite the shift from 1P to 3P, brands wishing to leap must be ready for the demands of an open marketplace. They will need to summon their external and internal resources to support demand planning, content creation, SEO, marketplace compliance, and promotional strategy and logistics. Will the move be worth it?

How Brands Can Benefit From Moving to 3P

Weighing up 1P vs. 3P e-commerce means considering how your brand will maximize the opportunities of a move to third-party selling. How will you make the most of its benefits as other companies rush to do the same? Start with these tips:

1. Access Innovations as They Arrive

Amazon is at the forefront of e-commerce innovation and implements new technology to improve its services. As a third-party seller, you will gain access to data tools, giving you deeper insight into sell-through performance, the long-term value of customers, the share of the basket, and other essential marketing metrics. And, when Amazon gets involved with generative AI, you know it will change the marketing game.

2. Elevate Your Brand Presence

Success in the 3P model hinges on elevating your brand within Amazon’s ecosystem.

Crafting a distinct brand identity and showcasing unique qualities is paramount in standing out among the vast array of sellers.

Leveraging the storytelling tools available to 3P sellers can enhance your brand’s visibility and appeal.

3. Diversity Revenue Streams

Access to a larger market means access to more diverse revenue streams, which can be revitalizing for brands looking to grow and potentially add new product lines. Plus, acting on some of the other opportunities of third-party selling — such as brand-building social media or collaboration with influencers — can give your brand extra power in the marketplace so that those diverse revenue streams keep multiplying.

The truth is that nearly all e-commerce companies could benefit from the 3P model of e-commerce. The question is, how will you manage that transition and properly support its growth? When will be the right time in your strategy as a business to leap, or are you already prepared?

Featured Image Credit: Provided by the Author; Photo by Christian Wiediger; Unsplash

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Artificial Intelligence is gradually becoming an integral part of everything. The demand for advanced technologies and automation is driving the AI revolution.

It is no longer science fiction or something we associate only with robots and automation. AI now plays a vital role in our daily lives and has dramatically impacted several industries, including digital marketing.

There are now many AI Marketing tools to create content, analyze, make better decisions, and automate. It is becoming indispensable with numerous applications like Chatbots, Voice search, AR, VR, and more.

There is deep AI penetration in digital marketing with the potential to use it for a wide range of tasks. AI in marketing is expected to grow to over $107.5 Billion by the year 2028. Using AI in the right way can do wonders for your business.

Impact of AI On Digital Marketing

AI is making a significant impact on digital marketing, and it continues to evolve. Here are some key ways in which AI has influenced digital marketing:

• AI enables marketers to gather and analyze vast amounts of data, including demographics, browsing behavior, purchase history, and social media interactions.
• Attempting to analyze consumer data without AI can be very time-consuming, considering the vast amount of data generated daily.
• AI-powered algorithms can segment audiences more effectively, improving campaign effectiveness and higher conversion rates.
• AI Chatbots and virtual assistants provide instant and personalized customer support and handle routine tasks. This equates to a better customer experience 24/7.
• It automates ad buying and optimization for more efficient and effective advertising campaigns. After real-time data analysis, it does so to maximize the marketing campaign’s ROI.
• AI technologies can aid content creation, curation, website design, and development. It efficiently processes and analyzes large volumes of data quickly and accurately for better market insights and strategies.
• Some other ways AI has significantly impacted include design, SEO, predictive analysis, social media content, and targeted advertising.
• The value of the AI market in 2023 is 100 Billion USD, with expectations to grow to 2 Trillion USD by 2030.

Penetration of AI In Digital Marketing

Artificial Intelligence has tremendous potential and opens the door to a wide range of possibilities where the sky’s the limit. This includes analyzing gigabits of data, personalization, AI content, images, website development, and more.

Useful Links: AI Tools for Digital Marketing

ResearchAI

DeepAI

Hotjar

Uizard

The number of AI tools and techniques is on the rise. This is what AI penetration looks like:

• AI website builder allows you to design a feature-rich website without coding knowledge.
• Design stunning custom images for your website or content using interactive AI tools.
• Allows designers to be more creative while AI automates the task of website design.
• Simplifies the process of content ideation.
• Reduces the long hours for content research.
• Save energy scaling marketing campaigns at the click of a button.
• Optimizing your content for SEO is no longer an uphill task.
• AI coding assistants help speed up the development process.
• Automation of eCommerce website development with interactive AI tools to design and build functionality.
• Integration of several smart AI features like Chatbot, Voice assistant, and many more.
• Email marketing automation.
• AI website builder to design a feature-rich website without coding.
• AI image generators and content creation.
• Website optimization using AI using current data analysis.

Reasons To Use AI

AI plays a significant role in the planning and implementation of digital marketing. It helps marketers to a great extent. One reason for this is that AI is better and faster at analyzing data and helps with automation.

Here are the main reasons why it is essential to use AI:

• AI is very efficient at analyzing data.
• It can analyze the massive database and tons of data generated daily to improve customer experience.
• Automation helps increase the level of productivity, thus saving time and money.
• Better performance and high productivity help improve the ROI.
• The professionals can make better strategies and implement them more efficiently using the multitasking feature of AI.
• It helps eliminate human error.
• Businesses can use their resources more efficiently with automation and AI handling all repetitive tasks.
• It provides invaluable assistance during design brainstorming by suggesting new ideas and concepts.
• There are many innovative methods in which AI can be implemented for several marketing requirements, like building the perfect website to market the products or services, website design, content generation, and SEO.
• It plays a significant role in simplifying the web design process and speeding up website development.
• It delivers data-driven insights to allow businesses to build highly competitive solutions.

Will AI Replace the Professionals?

AI has limitless potential; however, AI is not likely to replace professionals. Website designers & developers, content writers, and SEO professionals will continue to play a crucial role in the digital marketing process.

We continue to deliver cutting-edge solutions to clients globally at Acquaint, but at the same time, we cannot ignore the benefits of using AI tools for various tasks.

Ignoring the rapid advancements in AI technology and its capabilities is hard. It is highly efficient at generating code, designing layouts, generating content, optimizing user experience, and providing invaluable customer data insights.

The role of the professionals involves detailed technical knowledge of the field. AI is excellent at this and can potentially perform more efficiently.

However, there is more to it than just the technical aspect. It also includes creativity, intuition, internalization, a unique perspective, and a hard-to-replace human touch.

Besides this, it is also hard to replace humans’ essential interpersonal and communication skills with unique elements like the brand voice. We can expect AI to play a vital role in automating tasks and simplifying the development and marketing process.

It is an invaluable assistant that avoids performing several tasks manually and bails us out when stuck. It also helps optimize human efforts, but it is not likely to replace the professionals.

Optimal Method of Using AI For Digital Marketing

AI empowers marketers to make data-driven decisions, automate repetitive tasks, and deliver personalized experiences at scale.

However, it’s essential to use AI ethically, maintain transparency, and ensure that human oversight is present to uphold the integrity and authenticity of marketing efforts.

To harness the true potential of artificial intelligence (AI), it’s crucial to grasp its boundaries while leveraging its advantages to enhance, rather than supplant, routine development and marketing activities.

Adopting a prudent approach entails avoiding excessive dependence on AI and instead recognizing its areas of proficiency. Continually experimenting, fine-tuning, and embracing the ever-evolving capabilities of AI can yield substantial dividends.

Many companies across the globe are taking advantage of AI tools, and this is how they are using it:

• An AI website builder to build a basic website for further customization.
• Explore design ideas with professional tools.
• Create website structure with ChatGPT.
• Incorporate AI-generated layouts.
• Speed up content creation.
• Generate images with intelligent AI tools.
• Incorporate AI applications like Chatbot and Voice Assistance in a solution.
• Image recognition applications.
• Coding assistant
• Optimize the marketing efforts (SEO).
• Automation
• Market insights and develop smart SEO strategies

The concept of Artificial Intelligence has been around for a very long time. However, it is continuously evolving, with more businesses from various industries implementing it in many innovative methods.

It has a growing number of solutions for digital marketers and can assist them almost to the point where it might seem they are no longer required. However, AI is an invaluable assistant, not a replacement for human effort.

Trust a professional website and mobile app development company like Acquaint Softtech to take advantage of AI tools to deliver next-generation solutions. We have a highly experienced & resourceful team of developers who stay up-to-date with the latest technologies, including AI tools.

Inner Image Credit and Featured Image Credit: Provided by the Author; Thank you!

The post The Extent to Which AI Can Help Your Digital Marketing Campaign appeared first on ReadWrite.

In 2023, technology trends in business increased, especially regarding enhancing client relationships. More than ever, companies are leveraging new technology to reach customers across multiple digital channels. As a result, more marketers are shifting their budgets from traditional advertisement methods to mobile applications, social media, videos, and podcasts.

Although these tools are a great way to find new customers and share content with existing ones, companies in all industries must continue to build better client relationships for retention. It’s been proven repeatedly that purchasing behaviors can be driven by the emotional connections created by establishing more fulfilling client relationships, after all.

The Importance of Bringing Emotion to Business Relationships

Any business’s success depends on its customers’ loyalty and satisfaction. Without loyal brand advocates who routinely come back for services or products offered, the business will require costly acquisition methods to continuously find new buyers.

In a world dominated by algorithms and screens, finding the right audience and converting can be challenging. That’s why it’s imperative to continue to focus on retention efforts — it’s less expensive to get returning customers to purchase again, and they are likely to spend more when purchasing a new customer.

Building Successful Business Relationships

Using technology to automate and enhance the buying cycle can make connecting with customers scalable. Many unique tools can be used to create a memorable and emotional connection with customers.

First and foremost, you must acknowledge the whole person and not just what they do for your business. Building a relationship with a customer and not another order number takes sending additional touchpoints outside of the sales cycle. Emotions tend to drive purchasing behavior, so work to find important life and special occasion moments to build upon the business relationship and improve retention rates in the process.

Pitfalls to Avoid When Automating Technology

While many companies are showing ways that the use of technology can enhance business operations and customer experiences, many brands are falling into the trap of relying too heavily on tech tools without considering the human touch.

One common mistake brands make is treating technology as a replacement for human interaction. This can lead to impersonal customer experiences and a lack of trust. Customers value genuine connections and personalized interactions with businesses, which makes it essential for brands to remember that technology should complement, not replace, these human interactions.

The Importance of Continuous Training and Support

Another area where brands go wrong is by implementing complex tech tools without providing proper training or support. Technology can overwhelm employees and customers if they do not fully understand how to use it effectively.

Unfortunately, no new technology will function correctly without a usage guide. This makes it vital for companies to implement comprehensive training programs and provide ongoing support to ensure that everyone feels comfortable using these tools.

Without a doubt, companies are building successful business relationships through the use of technology. However, they need to remain focused on providing the human factor at every interaction to make sure customers are getting the most out of the technology as well.

How a Business Technology Strategy Can Ensure Future Success

Technology trends in business are ever-evolving. Recently, we have seen many companies focus on ways to implement artificial technologies into their practices. Although AI and other forms of technology come with an array of benefits, it is critically important to determine where each new piece belongs.

There is never a one-size-fits-all solution for developing a business technology strategy. However, there are a few things that you can do to ensure success with technology today and in the coming years:

1. Create a roadmap to success.

Building a roadmap can help you remain focused along the journey. You should identify your business goals, the timeline in which you want to meet your goals, and the resources that are needed to implement your business technology strategy. This step will help you remain focused on the road ahead.

2. Increase efficiency with automation.

Try to automate everything that you can. Automation is key for saving time and increasing efficiency. Look for areas in your business practices where manual processes can be replaced with automation. This can help you focus more on urgent tasks while ensuring your team is able to focus on customers and use their time more effectively.

3. Test now to avoid disaster later.

Determining which forms of technology will work for your business and help you reach your goals is crucial. That’s why testing is a critical part of finding out what works. Take ample time to test your technology in various scenarios to ensure it works as intended. Catching bugs and other issues early on can save you time and money in the long haul.

4. Tailor your technology to customer needs.

Your stakeholders and customers play a vital role in your success. Listening to them and understanding their specific needs and concerns is imperative. This can help you tailor your technology to meet their needs while ensuring it remains efficient and effective. Reviewing client lifecycle management information, speaking with customers, and talking with customer service reps can help you find out what is working and, even more importantly, what’s not working so that you can keep your customers happy.

5. Keep genuine connections in your technology stack.

Identify which parts of the process your customers want something more than technology can provide and work that into the flow. Embracing the importance of human touch at every step enables brands to tap into our innate desire for connection in an increasingly disconnected world. It adds authenticity, warmth, and understanding at every step of the customer journey while building relationships beyond mere transactions.

By providing a personal touch and utilizing effective tools, businesses can easily retain their customers and ensure long-term loyalty. Instead of constantly jumping on to the latest trend or using too many tools, it is essential for businesses to carefully select the right ones that fit their needs and use them strategically. With a strong customer retention business technology strategy, businesses can thrive and continue to provide excellent products or services to their loyal customers.

Featured Image Credit:  Brooke Cagle; Unsplash; Thank you!

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User research is essential because it helps to study people’s behavior, needs, and motivations. UX designers are often responsible for a clear interface. However, product managers and marketing departments also need to study user habits and help designers improve the interface.

Products are developed primarily for the users. We analyze what options they use, why they chose this product, what they don’t like about competitors’ products, etc. They constantly interact with the product and pay attention to completely different things than we previously thought in the company. Although there is no universal list of questions to understand the needs of users better, there are specific points that we would advise you to consider.

This article is based on the Nektony software development company’s experience developing Mac cleanup applications. In this article, we will tell you how we selected users for in-depth interviews and analysis of our applications and what we changed in our products thanks to the data we received.

A common mistake when analyzing users

In the past, when we made some changes to products, we often relied on our own subjective opinions of what would be better for the users. However, product usage scenarios among company employees can be very different from the usage scenarios of real users. When you work with a product for a long time and know all its options and capabilities perfectly, you look at the interface, usability, etc., differently. Therefore, firstly, it is necessary to study the pain points of customers and ask them about possible changes in the product.

How to choose interviewees

At the beginning of the product analysis of Nektony apps, we showed the products to everyone we knew, friends and colleagues from other companies, and asked them what they thought about the apps. But, as I noted above, this is not the right approach. Later, we started working only with real users who once contacted our technical support service.

Among the letters in support, you can find many users who may be loyal to the company.

• First, it’s not cold contacts we’re reaching out to. We already communicated successfully with them; they contacted us, and we solved their problems; that is, they remained satisfied customers.
• Secondly, people who write to technical support to solve a question (rather than go, for example, to some forum and complain) – usually this is a special category of people who are ready to share their thoughts, spend their time to make the product better for own use in the future. So, such people willingly agree to become interviewees.
• Third, these are real users, not hypothetical ones. Interviews with such users provide more accurate data on what exactly they like and what they don’t like, which options are used more often, and which are not clear.

Stage 1: Gathering contacts to whom we will write about the interview

We sell our apps through the App Store and our website worldwide. However, we did not select respondents by country. The main criterion for collecting respondents is the level of their loyalty to the company, which characterizes the level of their willingness to agree to an interview. In our case, the support service always adds the client’s loyalty tag after communicating with him when solving issues. So, downloading a list of such contacts was not a problem.

Stage 2: Sending letters and preparing for the interview

We prepared a letter asking you to agree to an interview and help us make our product better. We sent these letters individually, not through a mailing service, because personalization is important. In general, we experimented with the content of the letter. We changed it depending on the history of interaction with the person, as well as on the results of responses to my previous letters to other people.

You can immediately offer a bonus to the user for the time spent, for example, another app as a gift or a discount on the next purchase. But my personal opinion is that it is better to give a gift to the user after the interview as a pleasant bonus. From experience, those people who agree to provide an interview, not for a bonus, are usually more interested in the results of the interview. They are certainly more loyal and open — more willing to talk about the pros and cons of the application for them personally, etc.

Before starting the meeting with the respondent, it is vital to prepare a script. It can change a little depending on the person. The respondent should be relaxed, and the entire conversation should be in a friendly atmosphere.

Stage 3: The interview

Approaching the interview itself — The primary goal and all our questions to respondents consist of understanding the following:

• Who is a user of the application?

• How will users be divided by types? (Like scenarios of behavior, depending on age, type of activity, interests, etc.)

• How exactly do people use our apps? (launch frequency, most favorite options, why they chose our product, etc.)

• What is the product’s most significant value to users?

Now, we will briefly talk about the scenario of communication with the respondent according to the pre-prepared script. It is also important that you open a document or have a paper where you will take notes.

• Introduction: greetings, remembering to say thanks for their time, and asking some short questions of the person to collect information about the country of residence, type of activity, age, etc. Of course, you don’t need to ask directly about all this; for example, you can mark the approximate age of a person (understand visually), or if they tell you how they spent the weekend with their family — you know their family status and lifestyle. At this stage, I also asked how long the person has been using a Mac because, in our case, it is very important. The person’s user habits may depend on this.
• Permission to record a video. Of course, we were making notes, but the video recordings allowed me to go back to the interview, study it more deeply, and make a transcript of the conversation.
• Studying the application usage scenario. We asked the person to run our app and use it in their normal mode without my comments. In the process, you can ask the person questions — but ensure that you do not distract them from the usual actions in the program.
• Question. After observing the user’s actions, we asked them additional questions: open and closed questions. Here are some sample questions:

Open questions:

1. How did you find Nektony programs, and why did you choose them?
2. When was the last time you used MacCleaner Pro, and what functionality did you use?
3. Which option was difficult for you to understand and why?

Closed questions:

1. Was this or that functionality in the program useful for you?
2. Would you like us to change the app’s interface?
3. Is it possible to get back to you after some time for a re-interview?

To sum up. At this stage of the interview, you can ask the interviewees if they have any questions for you. Listen! And give a bonus gift as a thank you to them for their time.

Unexpected results from interviews

Many of the user responses came as a complete surprise to me and the entire team as a whole. Things we never paid attention to and thought that users didn’t need at all turned out to be a significant part of their interaction with applications:

• Sound effects. People like it when apps have sound effects when they launch or press buttons. It wasn’t important to anyone on our team, so we didn’t even think about it before.

• Welcome window and results. People like the animations when the program starts and also after some action, such as cleaning the disk. People wanted to see a window with congratulations on their successful results (to show the completion was done correctly). On the contrary, we always tried to simplify the program and get rid of unnecessary windows and user clicks.

• Texts. People don’t like to read. Previously, we tried to always add an explanatory text to one or another option so that the user could familiarize himself and be sure of his actions when cleaning the Mac. So, we shortened all these texts and left only the mandatory ones. It is important to make the names and icons of each option clear so that everything is intuitive without text. At the interview — it turned out that not all option icons were understandable to users.

• Expectations. The user sometimes expects something completely different from the program or a certain option. Before adding any new features, it is better to conduct interviews and test your hypotheses. Our company keeps a list of all wishes from users. Before adding a new feature, we first analyze this letter, sort by the number of requests, see how many people are looking for such a feature, and only after that make a decision about the need to add a new feature.

Stage 4: First prototypes and repeat interviews

It is important that after analyzing the necessary changes in the programs, prototypes should be made and re-shown to users. As we said above, sometimes you may encounter unreasonable user expectations. Here are my next steps before finalizing product changes:

• Preparation of prototypes. There can be many prototypes. In my case, I made more than 20 prototypes until we chose the most convenient version of the interface.

• Demonstrating the prototype to users. This stage is a repetition of all our previous steps, where we observe precisely how the users use the application at the first launch, how much everything is clear to them, which options they saw at first, and which they overlooked. It happened when the users used the options — they chose differently than we intended. Then, we redesigned the product.
• Final decision-making. When we finally find an option that is understandable to users, we can hand over the task to the designer and the entire development team. That team then works on the changes in the programs.

Examples of changes based on interview results

Using examples of the interface of some of our programs, we wanted to show what changes occurred in them, thanks to the analysis of user needs through interviews. This process must not only be about UX design but also must consider rethinking some options and the need to show these options to users.

App Cleaner & Uninstaller

Previously, at the first launch, the user saw the information about the number of programs on their Mac, the number of service files, and extensions. We found that this information scares many non-geek users who do not understand what service files are used for. We also added the Expert Mode Option, and only in this mode can the users see the list of service files that will be deleted when uninstalling programs. The average user does not want to see these files; they only want to click on one “magic” button — and for the program to solve their problem immediately.

Before Unneeded information in the right panel. The main option below this information is in the blind spot.	After The main function for which this app is downloaded is now in the right panel.

Duplicate File Finder

During the interview, it became clear that each user has their own goals when using the application. Some users want to find only duplicate photos in the Photo Library; others run the program to merge their folders with duplicates. We always guide them according to the scenario of searching for all duplicates they are comfortable with.

Previously, they had to take extra steps to reach their goal. So we completely changed the first window and added different functions to it — immediately — according to groups of user needs.

Before	After

Disk Space Analyzer

During the interviews, it became clear that people are more familiar with and understand when the application interface is similar to the interface of system programs on macOS. For example, people find it easier to click on folders and explore their contents, as they are used to doing in the Finder, rather than clicking on a chart. So we’ve added a Folder Outline file view as done in the Finder.

Before	After

MacCleaner Pro

It is important for users to see animations, beautiful pictures — and a minimum of text. Thanks to the fact that we took all this into account in the new design (after the interviews), we managed to make the application more understandable for the user and increase purchase conversions after downloading the trial version.

We also added the “magic” that users asked for — cleaning all junk files in one click.

Before	After

Final recommendations

I recommend transcribing each individual interview and then using the Value Proposition Canvas to identify user values and needs. This topic needs a separate article, but you can google it and find a lot of information about this process. Take the time to do the following for the best success.

• Exchange experiences with other product managers and show them the product. Yes, these managers are not your users, but sometimes they can give you valuable advice, depending on their experience.
• The user likes to be led by the hand and told what to do next after each step.
• Make the command names and icons as straightforward and clear as possible to be immediately understandable without additional text.
• Combining functionality and showing extras, like additional options where the user does not expect to see them, is a bad idea.
• Bring the main functionality of the program to the start window (as shown above in the Duplicate File Finder example).
• Be very careful with letters to technical support. It is a storehouse of information from where you can get a lot of insights into what is important to users. Fast and good technical support is the loyalty of your users and the opportunity to further interact with them for the development of your company.

We hope that our experience and examples are helpful for you and give you many insights of your own.

Featured Image Credit: Provided by the Author; Thank you!

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2023 heralds a fresh wave of innovation in product packaging design. Let’s explore the latest trends reshaping how products are wrapped and presented, offering a glimpse into the future of packaging.

Minimalistic Packaging

Picture strolling down a supermarket aisle. Products there clamor for your attention with flashy graphics, vibrant colors, and bold fonts—a sensory overload. Minimalistic packaging steps in to offer visual relief. Simplicity is its strength. Stripping away clutter lets the product’s true essence shine.

Minimalistic packaging directs attention to what truly matters: the product itself. It brings calm to chaos, delivering an elegant, memorable experience. This uncluttered design appeals not only to the eyes but also to the soul, fostering a deeper brand connection.

Minimalistic packaging isn’t just about removal; it’s about crafting a meaningful visual language. Key principles include:

Simplicity: Removing the unnecessary, leaving only the essential to convey the product’s identity.

Typography: Embracing clean, sans-serif fonts with whitespace for legible, unobtrusive text.

Color Palette: Utilizing limited, muted colors for serenity, and sometimes monochromatic schemes for a timeless look.

Whitespace: Artfully employing negative space for balance and emphasis on vital elements.

Sustainable Packaging Solutions

Today’s conscientious consumers reject excessive plastic packaging, opting for eco-friendly choices in line with their values, driven by heightened awareness of the environmental toll of waste. This green-minded consumer base is now a powerful industry influencer, compelling businesses to pivot towards sustainable packaging. This isn’t just an ethical move; it’s a savvy business strategy. It garners loyal customers and aligns with global waste reduction efforts.

This shift fuels remarkable changes in packaging materials and methods:

Biodegradable Materials: Cornstarch plastics, mushroom packaging, and biodegradable films replace traditional plastics, naturally reducing their environmental impact.

Recycled and Recyclable Packaging: Brands embrace recycled materials and design easily recyclable packaging, promoting a circular economy and reducing waste.

Minimalist Design: Less becomes more as brands adopt minimalist packaging for an elegant and eco-conscious aesthetic.

Reduced Packaging: Companies rethink sizes, minimizing excess materials and maximizing space efficiency.

Reusable Packaging: Some innovative brands specializing in custom boxes are introducing reusable packaging options. Customers can return the packaging for refilling, reducing the need for single-use containers.

Sustainable Printing: Environmentally friendly inks and dyes gain prominence in packaging, reducing their ecological footprint.

Supply Chain Optimization: Beyond materials, companies optimize supply chains, reducing emissions and energy consumption.

Personalized Packaging

In today’s era of celebrating individuality, personalized packaging goes straight to consumers’ hearts. It’s more than just using their name; it’s forging an emotional bond. When your package arrives with a personal touch, be it a handwritten note, a custom design, or a tailored message, it whispers to the recipient that they’re memorable and cherished.

Consumers now seek products and experiences that mirror their unique preferences. This shift in behavior has birthed a new era in marketing – personalization isn’t merely a strategy; it’s an expectation.

The wonder of personalized packaging is its flexibility. Brands can make their packaging special in many ways, including using Custom Cardboard Boxes and cardboard Packaging.

Custom Printing: Innovations in printing tech make it a breeze for businesses to print custom messages, images, or even individual names on packaging materials. This personalization turns a plain package into a memorable one.

Variable Data Printing (VDP): VDP takes personalization up a notch, letting businesses change text, graphics, and images from one printed piece to the next, all without slowing the printing process. This means each package can be truly unique.

Tailored Packaging Shapes: Beyond printing, brands are toying with unique packaging shapes. Imagine a cosmetics brand crafting a lipstick box in the shape of a customer’s zodiac sign. This doesn’t just surprise the customer but also prompts them to share their personalized experience on social media.

Retro and Nostalgic Packaging

Nostalgia wields incredible power, pulling heartstrings, time-traveling us to the past, and binding us to cherished memories. Vintage packaging taps into this sentiment, serving as an emotional time machine, connecting consumers to simpler days like secrets shared with old friends.

Reviving the past isn’t mimicry; it’s blending the best elements into something fresh. Classic soda brands, for instance, modernize hand-drawn fonts and vibrant colors. Tradition meets innovation, satisfying familiarity and contemporary tastes.

Retro snack packaging follows suit, resurrecting iconic mascots with a modern, animated twist. This fusion of old and new captures nostalgia’s essence while catering to today’s visual preferences.

Sustainable Materials Innovation

Today’s conscientious consumers reject excessive plastic packaging, opting for eco-friendly choices in line with their values, driven by heightened awareness of the environmental toll of waste. This green-minded consumer base is now a powerful industry influencer, compelling businesses to pivot towards sustainable packaging. This isn’t just an ethical move; it’s a savvy business strategy. It garners loyal customers and aligns with global waste reduction efforts.

This shift fuels remarkable changes in packaging materials and methods:

Biodegradable Materials: Cornstarch plastics, mushroom packaging, and biodegradable films replace traditional plastics, naturally reducing their environmental impact.

Recycled and Recyclable Packaging: Brands embrace recycled materials and design easily recyclable packaging, promoting a circular economy and reducing waste.

Minimalist Design: Less becomes more as brands adopt minimalist packaging for an elegant and eco-conscious aesthetic.

Reduced Packaging: Companies rethink sizes, minimizing excess materials and maximizing space efficiency.

Reusable Packaging: Some innovative brands that specialize in custom boxes are introducing reusable packaging options. Customers can return the packaging for refilling, reducing the need for single-use containers.

Sustainable Printing: Environmentally friendly inks and dyes gain prominence in packaging, reducing their ecological footprint.

Supply Chain Optimization: Beyond materials, companies optimize supply chains, reducing emissions and energy consumption.

Storytelling through Packaging

Packaging isn’t merely aesthetics; it’s a vessel for emotions and shared tales. Think about that artisanal chocolate bar you unwrapped once – the paper, fonts, and colors wove a story. Crafting such narratives matters. Packaging, from design to materials, wields subtle cues that spark nostalgia, curiosity, or adventure, forging an emotional link with consumers.

So, why does packaging storytelling matter to brands? It taps into human psychology’s storytelling power. Humans are wired for stories; they engage us emotionally and make us feel part of something larger. Brands that tell compelling packaging stories sell more than products; they sell experiences, lifestyles, and values. It’s about aligning with a brand’s philosophy and becoming part of its narrative.

Take iconic brands like Coca-Cola or Apple; their packaging shares stories of joy, togetherness, and innovation, nurturing unwavering brand loyalty. Consumers don’t just buy; they become brand advocates loyal to these stories.

Moreover, packaging storytelling thrives in today’s digital age. With social media, unboxing experiences go viral. A well-crafted packaging narrative turns routine unboxing into free, emotionally driven brand marketing.

Multifunctional Packaging

Multifunctional packaging is like a chameleon for products – it transforms and enhances the consumer experience. Imagine a coffee cup that turns into a plant pot or a cosmetics box that doubles as a smartphone stand. This packaging evolution goes beyond being disposable.

Versatility is the key:

Reusable Packaging: Containers become more than just containers – a jam jar becomes a glass.

Portability: Snack boxes become plates or trays for those on the move.

Storage Solutions: Cereal boxes seal up, keeping breakfast fresh.

Educational Packaging: Kids’ toy boxes turn into puzzles or games.

It’s packaging that adapts to your changing needs.

Conclusion

The packaging landscape for 2023 is all about sustainability, simplicity, and efficiency. As eco-conscious consumers reshape industries, innovative packaging materials and designs are not just trends; they’re essential steps toward a more responsible and competitive future.

Inner Article Image Credit: Provided by the Author; Thank you!

Featured Image Credit: Provided by the Author; MK2; Unsplash; Thank you!

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In today’s digitally-driven world, businesses increasingly turn to digital marketing as a fundamental strategy to reach their target audiences.

Digital marketing offers many advantages to help businesses grow, engage with their customers, and stay ahead of the competition. It provides numerous benefits, but like any strategy, it also comes with its own set of challenges and disadvantages.

In this article, we’ll explore ten key advantages & disadvantages of digital marketing and why it has become a cornerstone of modern business success.

Advantages & Disadvantages of Digital Marketing

Digital marketing has revolutionized how businesses promote their products and connect with customers. Understanding its advantages and disadvantages is crucial for effective strategizing. Here’s a brief overview:

Balancing these advantages and disadvantages is essential to create a successful digital marketing strategy tailored to your business needs and goals.

Advantages of Digital Marketing

01. Wider Reach:

Digital marketing allows you to reach a global audience. With the internet’s vast reach, you can connect with potential customers worldwide, breaking down geographical barriers and expanding your market.

02. Cost-Effective:

Compared to traditional marketing methods like print advertising or TV commercials, digital marketing is often more budget-friendly. You can choose from various cost-effective strategies, such as social media advertising or email marketing to suit your budget.

03. Targeted Advertising:

Digital marketing enables precise targeting. You can tailor your campaigns to reach specific demographics, interests, or behaviors, ensuring that your message reaches the right people at the right time.

04. Measurable Results:

Unlike traditional marketing, digital marketing provides detailed analytics and metrics. You can track the performance of your campaigns in real-time, allowing you to make data-driven decisions and optimize your strategies for better results.

05. Enhanced Customer Engagement:

Digital marketing encourages two-way communication. You can engage with your audience through social media, comments, and direct messages, building relationships and fostering customer loyalty.

06. Personalization:

Digital marketing enables highly personalized campaigns. You can use customer data to deliver tailored content and offers, making your marketing efforts more relevant and appealing to individual customers.

07. Flexibility and Adaptability:

In the fast-paced digital landscape, you can quickly adjust your marketing strategies to respond to changing trends and customer preferences. This agility ensures your campaigns stay relevant.

08. Improved Conversion Rates:

With targeted marketing and personalized content, digital marketing often leads to higher conversion rates. You increase the chances of turning leads into customers by reaching the right audience with the right message.

09. 24/7 Accessibility:

Your online presence is available 24/7. Potential customers can access your website, social media, or other digital platforms anytime, providing a consistent and always accessible point of contact.

10. Competing with Larger Businesses:

Digital marketing levels the playing field. Smaller businesses can effectively compete with larger competitors by leveraging digital marketing strategies, even with limited budgets.

Disadvantages of Digital Marketing

01. Overwhelming Competition:

The digital space is saturated with competitors, making it challenging to stand out. Businesses often find themselves in fierce competition for online visibility, which can lead to increased advertising costs.

02. Constant Algorithm Changes:

Platforms like Google and social media networks frequently update their algorithms. These changes can impact your digital marketing efforts, potentially affecting your organic reach and ad performance.

03. Ad Blocking:

Many users employ ad-blockers to remove digital ads from their browsing experience. This can result in lower ad visibility and reduced reach for businesses relying on display advertising.

04. Data Privacy Concerns:

Increased awareness of data privacy has led to stricter regulations like GDPR and CCPA. Adhering to these regulations can be complex and costly for businesses operating internationally.

05. Technical Challenges:

Managing digital marketing campaigns often requires technical expertise. For small businesses with limited resources, navigating complex tools and platforms can be overwhelming.

06. High Initial Investment:

While digital marketing can be cost-effective in the long run, setting up campaigns and creating quality content often requires a significant initial investment.

07. Short Attention Spans:

Internet users have short attention spans. Capturing and retaining their attention can be challenging, making it vital to create engaging and concise content.

08. Negative Feedback Amplification:

Negative comments and reviews can spread quickly online. Managing and responding to negative feedback is crucial to protect your brand’s reputation.

09. Fluctuating ROI:

Digital marketing results can be unpredictable. ROI can vary due to factors like changing consumer behavior, economic conditions, and evolving industry trends.

10. Technical Glitches:

Technical issues such as website downtime, broken links, or slow loading times can disrupt user experiences and harm digital marketing efforts.

Round Up:

Advantages & disadvantages of digital marketing are clear and compelling. It allows businesses of all sizes to reach a global audience, engage with customers personally, and achieve measurable results.

In today’s digital age, embracing digital marketing isn’t just an option; it’s necessary for businesses looking to thrive and succeed in a competitive marketplace. So, whether you’re a startup or an established brand, harness the power of digital marketing to propel your business forward.

Digital marketing undoubtedly offers numerous advantages, but it’s crucial to recognize its potential disadvantages as well. By understanding and addressing these challenges, businesses can develop effective strategies that maximize the benefits of digital marketing while mitigating its downsides. Remember that digital marketing is an evolving field, and staying informed and adaptable is key to success in the digital landscape.

Here’s a FAQ section for “Advantages & Disadvantages of Digital Marketing”:

Q1: What are the primary advantages of digital marketing?

A1: The primary advantages of digital marketing include cost-effectiveness, global reach, precise targeting, real-time analytics, and the ability to personalize content for specific audiences. It also offers a variety of channels to choose from, such as social media, email, and search engines.

Q2: What are some of the disadvantages of digital marketing?

A2: Some disadvantages of digital marketing include the potential for information overload, the need for continuous adaptation due to evolving technology, the risk of negative online reviews and comments, and the challenge of standing out in a crowded digital landscape.

Q3: How does digital marketing compare to traditional marketing methods?

A3: Digital marketing offers advantages over traditional marketing in terms of cost-effectiveness, targeting capabilities, and the ability to track and measure campaign performance. However, conventional marketing methods can still effectively reach specific audiences and establish brand credibility.

Q4: Is digital marketing suitable for all types of businesses?

A4: While digital marketing can benefit many businesses, its suitability depends on the target audience and goals. Small businesses, startups, and e-commerce ventures often find digital marketing highly effective, but some niche industries may still rely on traditional marketing methods.

Q5: Are there any privacy concerns associated with digital marketing?

A5: Yes, privacy concerns are a significant issue in digital marketing. Collecting and using customer data must comply with regulations like GDPR and CCPA. Marketers must be transparent about data collection and ensure data security to maintain consumer trust.

Q6: What are the best practices for digital marketing success?

A6: Best practices for digital marketing include setting clear goals, defining your target audience, creating high-quality and engaging content, using multiple digital channels, monitoring and analyzing performance data, and staying updated with industry trends.

Q7: How can businesses mitigate the disadvantages of digital marketing?

A7: To mitigate the disadvantages of digital marketing, businesses can invest in online reputation management, prioritize customer engagement and feedback, adapt to changing algorithms and trends, and seek professional guidance when needed.

Q8: What role does content marketing play in digital marketing?

A8: Content marketing is a vital component of digital marketing. It involves creating and sharing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and engage a target audience. Quality content helps establish authority, build trust, and drive organic traffic.

Q9: How can businesses measure their digital marketing efforts’ ROI (Return on Investment)?

A9: Measuring ROI in digital marketing involves tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) such as website traffic, conversion rates, click-through rates, and customer acquisition costs. By analyzing these metrics, businesses can assess the effectiveness of their campaigns.

Q10: What are some common mistakes businesses make in digital marketing?

A10: Common mistakes in digital marketing include neglecting mobile optimization, ignoring SEO best practices, not segmenting their target audience properly, neglecting social media engagement, and failing to adapt to changing algorithms and trends. Avoiding these mistakes is crucial for success in digital marketing.

Featured Image Credit: Provided by the Author; Pexels; Thank you!

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In communication technology, Communication Platform as a Service (CPaaS) has emerged as a pivotal tool, enabling businesses and individuals to engage seamlessly across various channels. However, as the world becomes increasingly interconnected and reliant on data-driven insights, the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) is poised to revolutionize CPaaS. In this comprehensive exploration, we will delve into the fascinating future of CPaaS, where AI and IoT converge to redefine how we communicate.

The Current State of CPaaS

To grasp the potential of the future of Communication Platform as a Service (CPaaS), it’s essential to comprehend its current state. CPaaS, at its core, empowers users to incorporate real-time communication features, such as voice, video, messaging, and chat, into their applications and services. It acts as a vital bridge between traditional communication networks and the demands of modern digital platforms.

CPaaS: A Transformative Force

CPaaS has made substantial strides in redefining communication. It seamlessly integrates various communication channels into a unified platform, offering businesses and individuals unprecedented flexibility and connectivity. This foundational technology has already revolutionized sectors such as customer service, telehealth, and remote collaboration. However, an in-depth examination of its current status reveals both its achievements and challenges.

Achievements of CPaaS

1. Real-Time Communication Integration

CPaaS has successfully blurred the lines between communication channels, providing users with versatile means of communication within a single platform. This versatility empowers businesses to engage with their customers and clients in the most convenient way possible.

2. Improve User Experiences

The ability to personalize communication experiences has been a notable achievement of CPaaS. Users can enjoy tailored interactions, timely responses, and efficient engagement with businesses and services thanks to the adaptability of CPaaS.

Limitations and Challenges

Despite its achievements, CPaaS faces several limitations and challenges that necessitate ongoing innovation and improvement:

1. Limited Personalization and User Engagement

While CPaaS has enhanced personalization to some extent, there is room for growth. The challenge lies in creating even more tailored and context-aware communication experiences, ensuring each interaction feels genuinely customized.

2. Security Concerns in an Increasingly Connected World

Security concerns have emerged as CPaaS becomes more intertwined with our daily lives and businesses. Ensuring the privacy and integrity of data in an interconnected world is an ongoing challenge that requires advanced security measures and vigilance against potential threats.

3. The Need for More Efficient and Data-Driven Communication

Efficiency is the lifeblood of modern communication, and CPaaS must continue to evolve to meet this demand. Businesses require data-driven insights that enable them to optimize their communication strategies, ensuring that each interaction is productive and meaningful.

Understanding AI in CPaaS

To fully comprehend the transformative potential of AI and IoT in CPaaS, it’s crucial to explore the pivotal role of Artificial Intelligence in enhancing CPaaS capabilities. AI encompasses a spectrum of technologies, from machine learning and natural language processing to computer vision and predictive analytics. In the context of CPaaS, AI serves several critical functions, each contributing to a richer and more efficient communication experience:

The Role of AI in CPaaS

1. Chatbots and Virtual Assistants

AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants are at the forefront of enhancing user interactions within CPaaS platforms. These intelligent entities are revolutionizing customer support, engagement, and user experiences in numerous ways:

• Instant Responses: AI chatbots provide swift responses, ensuring users’ inquiries are addressed promptly, regardless of the time of day.
• 24/7 Support: With AI-driven virtual assistants, businesses can offer round-the-clock support, meeting the demands of a global and always-connected audience.
• Personalized Recommendations: AI-powered chatbots analyze user data to deliver tailored recommendations and content, enhancing engagement and satisfaction.
  AI chatbots and virtual assistants are becoming increasingly sophisticated, with the ability to handle complex conversations, simulate human-like interactions, and even provide emotional intelligence in responses.

2.  Natural Language Processing (NLP)

Natural Language Processing is a cornerstone of AI’s impact on CPaaS. It enables CPaaS platforms to understand and interpret human language, making communication more intuitive, efficient, and context-aware:

• Contextual Understanding: NLP algorithms analyze user messages to grasp the context, enabling more coherent and relevant responses.
• Multilingual Support: NLP facilitates communication in multiple languages, breaking down linguistic barriers and broadening the reach of CPaaS platforms.
• Sentiment Analysis: AI-powered NLP can discern user sentiment analysis, allowing businesses to gauge customer satisfaction and respond proactively to concerns.

The integration of NLP into CPaaS not only improves the quality of user interactions but also enables the automation of routine tasks. For instance, CPaaS platforms can use NLP to automatically categorize and prioritize incoming messages, ensuring that urgent queries are addressed promptly while less critical ones are handled efficiently.

3. Predictive Analytics

AI-driven predictive analytics are a game-changer in CPaaS, harnessing vast datasets to anticipate user behavior, preferences, and communication patterns. This predictive power empowers CPaaS platforms to engage users more proactively and meaningfully:

• Anticipating User Needs: Predictive analytics analyze historical data to forecast user needs, enabling CPaaS platforms to offer relevant services and information in advance.
• Proactive Engagement: AI-driven predictive models identify trends and opportunities, allowing businesses to initiate communication or offer assistance before users even realize they need it.
• Customized Content Delivery: By understanding user preferences, predictive analytics ensure that content and messages are delivered at the most opportune moments, maximizing their impact.

The power of predictive analytics in CPaaS extends beyond user engagement. It also aids businesses in making data-driven decisions, optimizing their communication strategies, and achieving greater operational efficiency. These analytics can provide insights into communication patterns, such as peak usage times or preferred channels, enabling businesses to allocate resources effectively.

4. Advanced AI Features

Beyond the fundamental roles of chatbots, NLP, and predictive analytics, AI’s presence in CPaaS extends to advanced features:

• Image Analysis: AI can analyze images shared within communication channels, recognizing objects, scenes, and even sentiment in visual content.
• Real-Time Translation: AI-powered translation services break down language barriers, facilitating global communication in real-time.
• Voice Recognition: Voice recognition technology enables voice commands and transcription services, making voice interactions with CPaaS platforms seamless.
• Content Recommendations: AI algorithms recommend relevant content and products based on user behavior, enhancing cross-channel marketing efforts.

As AI continues to evolve and become more deeply integrated into CPaaS platforms, the potential for innovation and improvement in communication experiences is boundless. AI’s capacity to adapt and learn from user interactions promises to create increasingly sophisticated and valuable interactions.

The Internet of Things (IoT) in CPaaS

The IoT is not merely a technological advancement; it’s a transformative force that extends connectivity beyond traditional devices to everyday objects, machines, and sensors. The integration of IoT into Communication Platform as a Service introduces a paradigm shift in communication, ushering in a new era of possibilities and context-aware interactions. Let’s explore the profound impact of IoT on CPaaS in greater detail:

IoT and CPaaS: A Seamless Integration

The marriage of IoT and CPaaS represents a symbiotic relationship that offers immense value to businesses and users alike. It’s about turning data from the physical world into actionable insights and meaningful communication:

1. Real-time Data Exchange

One of the hallmark features of IoT is its ability to generate a continuous stream of real-time data. This data is the lifeblood of IoT applications, enabling devices and sensors to provide up-to-the-moment information. When integrated with CPaaS, this real-time data exchange takes communication to a new level:

• Instant Insights: IoT devices continuously collect data on everything from temperature and humidity to machine performance and customer behavior. When this data is seamlessly integrated with CPaaS, businesses gain instant insights that can drive timely actions and decisions.
• Faster Response Times: With IoT in the CPaaS ecosystem, businesses can react rapidly to changing conditions. For example, in logistics, real-time tracking of shipments via IoT sensors allows for proactive route adjustments and delivery optimizations.
• Optimized Operations: Industries like manufacturing benefit from IoT-CPaaS integration by monitoring equipment health. When a machine reports an anomaly, the CPaaS system can instantly alert maintenance personnel, reducing downtime and improving efficiency.

“IoT and CPaaS integration is the future of customer engagement. It allows businesses to connect with customers in ways we couldn’t have imagined before, providing real-time, context-aware interactions that drive value.” – John Smith, CEO of TechConnect Inc.”

2. Enhanced Contextual Communication

IoT enriches communication with contextual information, making messages and alerts more relevant and timely. This context-aware communication is pivotal in providing users with valuable, personalized experiences:

• Location-based Services: IoT sensors can determine a user’s location, enabling CPaaS to provide location-specific information or offers. For example, a retail app integrated with IoT can send discounts when a customer is near a store.
• Environmental Data: IoT can provide information about environmental conditions. For instance, a weather sensor integrated with CPaaS can trigger alerts and recommendations for businesses affected by adverse weather conditions.
• Healthcare Monitoring: In healthcare, wearable IoT devices can continuously monitor vital signs. CPaaS can notify healthcare providers when anomalies are detected, enabling prompt interventions.

IoT-enabled contextual communication is a powerful tool for businesses seeking to engage users more meaningfully and personally. It not only enhances user experiences but also drives customer loyalty and satisfaction.

Synergy Between AI and IoT in CPaaS

The true magic of the future of CPaaS lies in the seamless synergy between AI and the IoT. These transformative technologies complement each other and amplify their capabilities, opening up new possibilities and redefining the communication landscape. Let’s delve deeper into the captivating synergy between AI and IoT in CPaaS:

1. Intelligent Data Processing

One of the most profound impacts of this synergy is the ability to harness and make sense of the vast data streams generated by IoT devices. AI-driven analytics acts as the bridge between the raw data collected by IoT sensors and actionable insights:

• Data Transformation: AI algorithms can process and transform raw IoT data into meaningful information. For instance, in a smart city context, IoT sensors measuring air quality and traffic flow can provide real-time data that AI algorithms interpret to optimize traffic signals and improve air quality.
• Anomaly Detection: AI’s analytical prowess shines when it comes to identifying anomalies in IoT data. This can be crucial in sectors like industrial IoT, where the early detection of equipment malfunctions can prevent costly breakdowns.
• Data Fusion: AI can integrate data from various IoT sources, creating a comprehensive situation view. For example, in agriculture, IoT devices measuring soil moisture, weather conditions, and crop health can be combined by AI to provide precise irrigation recommendations.

“AI and IoT are not just technologies but catalysts for innovation. Together in CPaaS, they enable businesses to create highly personalized and efficient communication experiences that drive loyalty and revenue.” – John Smith, CEO of InnovateX

2. Predictive Communication

The synergy between AI and IoT enables predictive communication—a capability that anticipates and fulfills communication needs based on real-time IoT data:

• Proactive Notifications: AI can analyze IoT data to predict events or conditions that require user attention. For instance, if a connected vehicle’s diagnostics indicate an issue, AI can automatically schedule a service appointment and notify the owner.
• Automated Responses: In scenarios where immediate action is necessary, AI can trigger computerized responses. For example, if an IoT sensor detects a water leak in a smart home, AI can shut off the water supply and send an alert to the homeowner.
• Optimized Communication: AI can optimize the timing and channel of communication based on IoT data. For instance, if an e-commerce platform detects a user near a physical store via their IoT-connected smartphone, it can send a real-time offer to encourage an in-store visit.

Improved Customer Experiences

The convergence of Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things within CPaaS not only revolutionizes communication but also redefines customer experiences. This synergy empowers CPaaS to provide unparalleled levels of personalization, proactivity, and value to users:

1. Personalized Interactions

AI’s analytical capabilities delve deep into user behavior and preferences, enabling CPaaS to deliver tailored and personalized interactions:

• Behavior Analysis: AI algorithms meticulously analyze user behavior patterns, helping CPaaS platforms understand individual preferences and trends. This allows for delivering content and messages that resonate with users on a personal level.
• Recommendation Engines: AI-driven recommendation engines leverage historical data to suggest products, services, or content that align with users’ interests and past interactions. This not only enhances engagement but also drives conversions and customer loyalty.
• Contextual Conversations: AI in CPaaS fosters contextual understanding, ensuring each interaction feels relevant and meaningful. By interpreting user queries in context, AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants provide more accurate and valuable responses.

3. Proactive Support

The fusion of IoT data and AI predictions equips CPaaS with the ability to offer proactive customer support, addressing issues before they escalate:

• IoT Data Insights: IoT sensors generate a wealth of real-time data. This data can be harnessed when integrated with AI to anticipate potential problems or opportunities. For instance, wearable IoT devices in healthcare can alert healthcare providers to deviations from normal health metrics, enabling early intervention.
• Predictive Maintenance: In industrial settings, IoT sensors on machinery can send data to AI algorithms. These algorithms predict when equipment will likely fail, allowing for preventive maintenance that minimizes downtime and reduces costs.
• Event-triggered Notifications: IoT-triggered events can prompt CPaaS to send automated notifications to users. For example, in in-home security, if an IoT sensor detects unauthorized entry, CPaaS can immediately alert the homeowner’s smartphone and contact the security service.

Security and Privacy Considerations

As the world of communication evolves and becomes increasingly data-centric, security and privacy concerns take center stage. Safeguarding user data and ensuring privacy is paramount in the realm of AI and IoT integration within Communication Platforms as a Service. Let’s explore the critical aspects of security and privacy in this transformative landscape:

1. Data Security

AI plays a pivotal role in bolstering security measures by actively monitoring and protecting against threats within the vast streams of data generated by IoT devices:

• Anomaly Detection: AI-driven anomaly detection systems continuously analyze IoT data streams for irregularities or suspicious activities. This proactive approach allows for the swift identification and mitigation of potential threats.
• Predictive Threat Intelligence: AI leverages historical data and machine learning algorithms to predict potential security threats. AI can fortify IoT networks against emerging risks by recognizing patterns indicative of cyberattacks.
• Behavior-Based Authentication: AI-based authentication systems evaluate user behavior to determine identity. This approach enhances security by identifying unusual behaviors, such as unauthorized access attempts, and prompting additional authentication measures.

“Security isn’t just about protecting data; it’s about protecting trust. Users need to trust that their data is safe and used responsibly in AI and IoT-driven CPaaS.” – David Miller, Chief Security Officer at CyberShield Inc.”

2. Privacy Protection

Striking a delicate balance between delivering highly personalized experiences and safeguarding user data privacy is essential. CPaaS platforms must implement robust privacy protection mechanisms:

• Data Encryption: Data encryption is fundamental in safeguarding sensitive information. IoT data transmitted via CPaaS should be encrypted to ensure confidentiality and protection against interception.
• User Consent Mechanisms: CPaaS platforms should provide clear and transparent user consent mechanisms. Users should have control over how their data is used and shared, with the option to opt in or out of specific services.
• Data Anonymization: AI can assist in anonymizing user data. By removing personally identifiable information from datasets, CPaaS platforms can harness the power of data while minimizing privacy risks.
• Privacy by Design: Privacy considerations should be integrated into the design and development of CPaaS systems from the outset. This approach ensures that privacy is not an afterthought but a foundational element of the platform.

Future Trends and Innovations

As we peer into the future of Communication Platform as a Service (CPaaS), it becomes evident that AI and IoT integration will continue to drive transformative trends and innovations. These technologies are poised to shape the CPaaS landscape in revolutionary and exciting ways. Let’s explore some of the emerging trends and innovations that await us:

AI-Powered Voice Assistants and Smart Devices

1. Voice-First Experiences

The rise of AI-powered voice assistants is set to redefine how users interact with CPaaS platforms:

• Voice Commands: Users will increasingly rely on voice commands to navigate CPaaS applications, send messages, initiate calls, and perform various tasks.
• Natural Language Understanding: AI-driven voice assistants will excel in natural language understanding, allowing for fluid and intuitive conversations.
• Multi-Modal Interaction: Voice interactions will seamlessly integrate with other modalities, such as text and visuals, creating multi-modal communication experiences.

“Voice will be the interface of the future. CPaaS providers must prepare for a voice-first world where users expect seamless voice interactions with their applications. – Maria Rodriguez, Voice UX Designer at VoiceTech Innovations”

2. Smart Devices Integration

CPaaS ecosystems will extend their reach into the realm of smart devices, enabling innovative use cases:

• IoT-Driven Automation: Smart devices in homes, offices, and industries will be integrated with CPaaS to enable automation and remote control via mobile apps and voice commands.
• Healthcare Monitoring: Wearable IoT devices will provide real-time health data to CPaaS platforms, allowing for continuous monitoring and proactive healthcare interventions.
  {In healthcare, the remote patient monitoring market, which heavily relies on IoT devices, is projected to reach $117.1 billion by 2027, as reported by Fortune Business Insights, highlighting the significant role of IoT in healthcare communication}
• Connected Vehicles: CPaaS will facilitate communication between connected vehicles, enabling features like traffic updates, remote diagnostics, and in-car entertainment.

3. The Ethical and Regulatory Landscape

As AI and IoT become increasingly integrated into CPaaS, ethical considerations and regulatory frameworks will evolve to ensure responsible and secure usage:

• Data Ethics: The responsible handling of user data, including consent, anonymization, and transparent data usage policies, will be a cornerstone of CPaaS ethics.
• AI Fairness: Efforts to eliminate biases in AI algorithms will gain prominence to ensure equitable and fair user experiences.
• Privacy Regulations: Compliance with data privacy regulations, such as GDPR and CCPA, will continue to be a top priority, with potential new regulations emerging.

4. Innovations Beyond Communication

CPaaS will extend its utility beyond traditional communication, paving the way for novel applications:

• Telehealth and Remote Medicine: CPaaS will facilitate telehealth services, connecting patients and healthcare providers seamlessly for remote consultations and monitoring.
• Smart Cities: IoT-driven CPaaS will play a pivotal role in smart city initiatives, enabling efficient traffic management, waste management, and public safety.
• Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR): CPaaS platforms will integrate AR and VR for immersive communication experiences, such as virtual meetings and remote collaboration.

“The future of CPaaS is a connected one, where AI-driven personalization, IoT-enabled automation, and innovative use cases converge to create a communication ecosystem that transcends traditional boundaries. It’s a future where users enjoy personalized, secure, and highly efficient communication experiences, all at their fingertips.”

Conclusion

In the future of CPaaS, it’s evident that AI and IoT integration will be a driving force behind transformative change. The synergy between these technologies will usher in hyper-personalized, secure, and context-aware communication. From healthcare to logistics and beyond, the possibilities are boundless. Now, The question is whether AI and IoT will redefine CPaaS but how swiftly this transformation will occur. As users and businesses alike prepare for this exciting future, one thing is certain: the way we communicate is on the verge of an extraordinary evolution.

Featured Image Credit: Provided by the Author; Thank you!

The post The Future of CPaaS: AI and IoT Integration appeared first on ReadWrite.

Nearly 30,000 fintech startups are operating worldwide — and many more are on the horizon. From investment apps and payment processors to budgeting tools and blockchain technology, there are so many different ways to step into the fintech space. If you want to stand out from your competition, though truly, you need to make sure your marketing campaigns are on point.

If you’ve been struggling with online marketing, this guide can help. Listed below are five reasons you might not see results from your fintech marketing strategy.

1. You Try to Cater to Everyone

When asked who their target audience is, many entrepreneurs (especially new ones) make the mistake of saying, “Everyone!”

Maybe you can see how everyone could benefit from your fintech company’s app or tool. However, if you try to cater to everyone with your marketing content, you’ll end up not catering to anyone at all.

Being too general with your ads and content makes it hard for people to connect with your brand. As a result, they’re less likely to engage with you since they can’t tell if what you’re selling is actually for them.

What to Do Instead

Be specific about whom you’re trying to reach with your content.

Are you catering to small business owners who need an affordable and convenient payment processing software? Do you want to reach young kids who are learning to budget for the first time?

When you know your target audience, it becomes easier to make decisions about fonts, text, colours, images, and other elements of your marketing materials.

2. Your Message Is Unclear

Even if they know who makes up their target audience, some fintech marketers still make the mistake of using the wrong messaging.

Maybe they sell an app for kids and teens, but their marketing content is full of jargon that only industry experts would understand. That’s not going to work very well when it comes to winning over their ideal customers, is it?

What to Do Instead

Remember your target audience. Ask yourself if you’re genuinely writing to them whenever you write a blog post, social media caption, eBook, or any other type of content.

Some people find it helpful to create avatars, which are highly specific descriptions of members of their target audience. For example, maybe you’re marketing your payment processing app to Sarah, a 35-year-old woman who just opened her own hair salon and needs a convenient and affordable way to accept credit card payments from her customers.

When you’re writing a blog, think about whether or not the content is valuable to Sarah. Would it be interesting and helpful? Would she understand what you’re trying to say and why it’s important?

3. You Aren’t Sharing Your Expertise

Just because you can’t use a lot of technical jargon doesn’t mean you can’t share your expertise and talk about what you know. In fact, you should showcase your expertise and let people know that you’re a credible source of information.

Suppose you aren’t publishing content that provides value and educates your audience or answers their questions. In that case, you’re not going to get a lot of traffic to your website or people interested in your product or service.

Think about it. If you were looking for help with fantasy romance book writing or interior design, you would want to learn from someone who is obviously an expert in their field. Keep in mind, too, that genuine experts know how to explain what they do in simple, plain language.

What to Do Instead

Regularly ask yourself, “How is this content helping my audience?” or “What problem does this content solve?” When you make it a priority to support your target customers and provide value with everything you publish, you’ll see that they’re more likely to engage with your content and your brand as a whole.

4. You Don’t Monitor Your Metrics

You know how important numbers are — you work in the fintech space, after all. Are you paying attention to the numbers related to your marketing campaigns, though?

If you don’t consistently pay attention to key metrics, you’ll have difficulty knowing what aspects of your campaigns are working and which ones need more attention. Instead, you’ll just throw things at the wall and hope they stick.

What to Do Instead

Before you launch a campaign, decide what your goals are, how you’re going to measure progress, and how soon you want to see results (at the end of the month, end of the quarter, etc.).

For example, if you launch a campaign to build brand awareness, you might measure website views or social media shares.

Check-in regularly and keep track of how your campaign is doing, too. Pay attention to the blogs that are getting the most views, the posts that are shared most often, the posts that don’t perform well, etc.

5. You’re Trying to Do Everything Yourself

You’re a busy professional, whether you’re running a small startup or a major fintech corporation. In either case, you likely don’t have time to create and execute a robust content strategy that helps you achieve your goals — at least not without neglecting other important parts of your business.

What to Do Instead

If you’re trying to do everything yourself, you’re probably spreading yourself too thin. You’re probably also not seeing as much progress as you’d like.

Instead of doing all your marketing alone, consider outsourcing to a third party. Partnering with a content marketing agency can give you more time to focus on other aspects of your job (the ones that you actually want to dedicate your time to).

Ideally, you’ll choose an agency that specializes in fintech content marketing. They will have a more in-depth understanding of what your business does and can offer advice tailored to you and your unique needs.

Time to Fine-Tune Your Fintech Marketing

Fintech marketing can be tricky, but it’s definitely not impossible.

Start by evaluating your current marketing strategy and ask yourself (and answer honestly!) if you’re making any of these common fintech marketing mistakes. If you are, don’t panic. That just means it’s time to make some changes!

Follow the tips and tricks shared above to level up your marketing strategy and see better results.

Featured Image Credit: Provided by the Author; Thank you!

The post Five Reasons Why Your Fintech Marketing Strategy Isn’t Working (and What to Do Instead) appeared first on ReadWrite.

In the thriving world of eCommerce, marketing is more than just an option; it is a lifeline that can significantly enhance growth and sales.

A well-planned and executed marketing strategy can set your online store apart from the rest, attracting many customers and driving exponential revenue.

In this digital era, using plugins and platforms to streamline and boost marketing efforts is pivotal for any eCommerce business. These tools, ranging from free to premium, offer immense capabilities to target, reach, and convert potential customers more effectively and efficiently.

This post will delve into some of the best e-commerce marketing plugins and platforms for 2023. Many free tools exist, but any eCommerce store worth its salt will invest in powerful eCommerce plugins.

At this point, I must disclaim that some of the products mentioned here belong to me and my co-founders. However, we do not recommend these products out of self-interest or do so lightly.

A key reason why my business and brand even exist is that our audience would reach out to us, especially requesting tools that answered their needs. A decade ago, the state of the market was such that there was a strong gap for tools that helped with lead generation, email marketing, and so on. And we did our best to fill that gap with top-notch products, some of which are listed below.

Here are the best eCommerce marketing plugins for 2023.

1. Best Lead Generation Plugin: OptinMonster

It’s rare for audiences and users to simply land on a product page and buy something without a gradual build-up to it.

This is why lead generation is so important. For eCommerce sites, this means using an option popup form that appears at exactly the right time to stop a potential customer from leaving without a way to bring them back.

The most effective and straightforward way to manage this is using an opt-in popup form geared towards lead building.

And our very own OptinMonster is such a tool. It’s built for small businesses and professionals and carries out sophisticated functions, once only available to large businesses with in-house development teams.

This tool lets you create a simple lead capture form at specific triggers. For example:

• When they reach a specific section of the page, like the middle or end
• When they start to hover over the close button
• A few minutes or seconds after they land on your page, and so on

For eCommerce stores, using a tool like this allows them to get in touch with people even after they exit a landing page or product page. And over time, you can nurture your lead and convince them to buy from you in the future.

2. Best Social Proof and FOMO Plugin: TrustPulse

In the world of eCommerce, social proof is no longer optional. It’s a must-have to increase sales and conversions.

An effective way to showcase social proof without interrupting a customer’s experience is to show them a small bubble at the corner of their screen. Such a notification informs the customer that ‘Eileen from NYC bought this product 3 hours ago’ or ‘Jason from London added this to their cart just now’ and so on.

This is a social-proof notification. Using a plugin like TrustPulse, you can easily link your store activities to generate such notifications automatically.

You can highlight that a product is fast-selling, that someone nearby bought it, that it’s running out, and so on.

It’s also easy to create the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) effect by setting a timer to show when an item will be out of stock, or you’re running a promotion.

3. Best eCommerce CRM Plugin: HubSpot

Personalization is the key to success for your eCommerce store. It’s no longer enough to offer a customer-centric experience simply.

You have to go beyond that, like understanding their history with you, preferences, or interests, and then creating offers accordingly. That’s where a CRM or Customer Relationship Management tool comes in.

HubSpot is a powerful CRM plugin that gives detailed insight into your customers’ needs. It helps you analyze customer data, create targeted offers, and engage with them via personalized messages.

It also allows you to set up marketing campaigns within the same platform and track ROI for each of them. And what makes this great for small businesses is that you can easily incorporate it with your WordPress site using its plugin.

4. Best eCommerce Funnel Builder Plugin: FunnelKit

Funnels help move customers from one stage of the buying process (awareness, consideration, decision) to another. An effective funnel setup is crucial for any eCommerce store to make every lead count.

Our very own product – FunnelKit is an eCommerce-focused funnel-building plugin. It helps craft, build, and manage funnels to get customers, push sales, re-engage customers, and more.

It offers several pre-made templates designed to meet your goals as effectively as possible. You simply go to the dashboard and customize any of the already-optimized kits that will make sales or build your email list.

There’s no coding involved, and you have a visual and intuitive builder that allows you to add upsells, thank you pages, and more.

And you have a performance dashboard showing how users engaged with your content. You’ll get plenty of insights to help you make improvements and of course, sell more.

5. Best Push Notification Plugin: PushEngage

The trouble with email marketing is that it has delayed communication. Your audience may or may not open your email, and they’re likely to forget all about your content.

Soon enough, their email provider will push your emails down, and it’ll be out of sight.

However, if you use a push notification plugin like PushEngage then your audience will receive notifications right away – even when they’re not on their site.

That is, if you make a compelling enough reason for people to accept push notifications. And if you ensure that you don’t spam people with unnecessary content.

PushEngage allows you to set up automated notifications to remind customers about specials, and sales or send personalized messages at the perfect time. It also allows you to segment your messages to better target users. It’s also great for sending customers timely information.

One of our favorite cases is when an athletics company held a webinar but had technical disruptions twice! With our plugin, they were able to bring back most of the webinar audience and lost only a small number of viewers.

As you can see, there are many creative ways that a push notification tool can help you improve your eCommerce sales.

6. Best Stripe Payment Plugin: WP Simple Pay

Stripe is one of the most popular payment gateways for eCommerce stores. It’s fast, secure, and supports multiple currencies and languages.

But maybe you don’t have a developer on your team to quickly set up Stripe on your site. That’s where WP Simple Pay Pro comes in.

WP Simple Pay Pro is a powerful and user-friendly Stripe payment gateway plugin. With it, you can easily add a Stripe payment gateway to your eCommerce site without any complex coding. This plugin allows you to accept payments, subscriptions, and donations directly on your website, making it easier and more convenient for your customers.

What sets WP Simple Pay Pro apart is its simplicity and efficiency. And how it’s geared to meet your marketing goals by reducing cart abandonment and increasing conversions.

You can also integrate it with other tools and build yourself an efficient and effective eCommerce marketing ecosystem without the high cost.

In this way, you don’t just collect payments but also understand your customers, optimize your sales funnels, and engage with your audience in meaningful ways.

7. Best Landing Page Builder: SeedProd

Landing pages are the linchpin of any eCommerce business’ online marketing strategy. A well-crafted landing page is crucial in converting website visitors into potential customers. Here, you showcase your products or services, make the value proposition and prompt visitors to take a specific action, such as signing up for a newsletter or making a purchase.

So, you want to use SeedProd as your go-to plugin for high-converting landing pages.

Our tool offers hundreds of templates, all of them geared to sell.

With a few customizations, you can literally start promoting and selling your products in minutes, even if you don’t have any design experience.

In fact, this is why we built it – so that small business owners can carry out elaborate design work quickly.

Just drag and drop the elements you need, add images, forms, etc. You’ll be selling like a professional eCommerce agency in no time.

8. Best Schema Markup Plugin: AIOSEO

You can’t forget about SEO when it comes to eCommerce marketing. You need people to find your site, visit it, and buy your products.

The key to this is using schema markup. What is it?

It’s a type of code that you add to your site. It notifies search engines about the content on a page so it can be displayed in search results.

It can be quite complex and time-consuming to add schema code manually. You’re best served by using a tool that handles key SEO functions, especially for eCommerce sites. And this is where AIOSEO comes in.

By enabling AIOSEO’s schema markup feature, you can add the right tags to different elements of your content. For example, if you’re selling a software application, you can create fields for adding your product Name, Operating System, Price, Currency, and so on.

And this gives Google valuable information about your products and makes them easier to find.

Soon enough, you’ll find your products ranking higher on search engine results pages and will get organic traffic and sales, reducing your costs.

9. Best Affiliate Marketing Plugin: AffiliateWP

Many eCommerce businesses rely on affiliates to promote and sell their products.

However, setting up an affiliate program is challenging. Using an existing platform to list your products and find affiliates is possible – but the negative aspect is that you lose some control over the process and pay a fee, reducing your profit margins.

That’s why it’s best to create your own affiliate program in-house using a plugin like AffiliateWP.

Again, this is built for small businesses and professionals with little technical expertise. It is completely intuitive, visual, and well-supported, with documentation, tutorials, and a knowledgeable customer support service. So, you can build an entire affiliate program from scratch with minimal problems.

And you get features like one-click payments, advanced affiliate tracking, coupon codes, and much more.

If you’re looking for an easy way to grow your eCommerce business, this tool will help you do it.

Conclusion

Stepping into the eCommerce world can be daunting, but success is just around the corner with the right setup.

By leveraging the tools and plugins highlighted in this guide, you’re not just setting up an online shop but creating an ecosystem that can grow and adapt to your business.

Featured Image Credit: Provided by the Author; Rupixen; Unsplash; Thank you!

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Many new businesses struggle to generate leads. How do you get people interested in your product or service when they’ve never heard of it or don’t realize that they need it? The truth is that it’s not easy. However,  you can accelerate your lead generation through a content marketing strategy. It’s the art of creating and sharing valuable content that educates your target audience and ultimately leads them through your sales funnel.

But to succeed at content marketing, you need a content marketing strategy. This gives you the roadmap to go from generating content ideas to distributing finished pieces to your audience.

12 Steps to a Successful Content Marketing Strategy

And yet, according to a survey conducted by the Content Marketing Institute (CMI), only 40% of B2B marketers have a documented content marketing strategy.

If you fall into the same camp, it might be time to get serious about your own content marketing strategy. Here are some steps it should include:

1. Set goals

Every content marketing strategy must start with setting goals. Otherwise, you won’t know when it’s failed or succeeded.

So, ask yourself what you aim to accomplish. Are you trying to boost traffic to your website, increase engagement on your social media accounts, or make more revenue?

Whatever it is, write it down. Create a mission statement that outlines exactly what you want your content marketing to do.

2. Attach KPIs to your goals

Once you’ve established your content marketing strategy goals, make them more specific and measurable with key performance indicators (KPIs). These are metrics you can use to evaluate the performance of your content marketing strategy, such as online views, clicks, and conversions.

Set KPI targets based on your goals so you know what to aim for. This is part of making your goals SMART (i.e., specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound).

Other KPI metrics you might consider is including the number of email subscribers, SEO rankings, and social media shares.

3. Determine your target audience

At this point, you should get clear on your target audience. That way, you know who you’re addressing in your content, which will resonate more deeply.

First, start collecting demographic data on your current contacts: their age, gender, location, income, education, etc. Some of this you can do with tools like Google Analytics that analyze your site visitors. Otherwise, you may need customers to volunteer this information via surveys, contact forms, or testimonials. Asking for specific feedback lets you understand them better.

From there, you can segment your audience into different groups. Then, create buyer personas or customer avatars for each group. These serve as ideal customer profiles that describe their interests, pain points, behaviors, etc. This will make it easier to write content with the right person in mind.

4. Run a content audit

Chances are that your business has already published content before, such as blog articles, social media posts, videos, podcast appearances, and so on. Go through these to assess where you stand. How are you performing against your KPI goals?

By analyzing your historical content and comparing it against your goals (and your competitors’ content), you can better understand what needs to be done.

Use a content audit tool to streamline this process. It can help you identify gaps in relevant keywords you’re not ranking for, questions you’re not answering, and other improvements you could be making.

5. Choose the best content channels

During your content audit, note what channels your content is being shared on most. Is it on social media, forums, or other websites? Again, a web analytics platform can help you do this.

Watch for trends and double down on whatever seems to be working best. If you notice that your content is getting a lot of traction on X (formerly Twitter), you may want to focus on this channel in your content marketing.

6. Decide on content types

Now that you’ve determined the best content channels to target, decide what type of content to focus on. This could be long-form content like blog articles and email newsletters or short-form content like social media posts or TikTok videos.

Other content types include YouTube videos, infographics, webinars, ebooks, and podcasts. Narrow down a few that will most effectively reach your target audience.

7. Generate content ideas

Next, start brainstorming content ideas. A good approach is to identify questions your target audience is asking. For example, you can use Google’s autocomplete feature to find commonly asked questions in your industry or niche.

From there, you can come up with topic clusters or pillars around which to organize new content ideas. The goal is to develop as many content ideas as you can in a structured way.

8. Solidify a content creation process

With your content ideas in hand, it’s time to establish your content creation process. At a minimum, you’ll need staff to manage and create the content. This could include full-time, part-time, or freelance writers, along with a head editor or manager.

You’ll also want to invest in a content management system (CMS) to keep your content organized at all stages of creation. Set up standard workflows for each piece of content, such as outlining, writing, image sourcing, editing, revising, publishing, and sharing.

9. Create a content calendar

A content calendar (aka content plan) lets you plan, track, and set deadlines for different content milestones. Without one, you’re bound only to have sub-par results.

Use project management software (PMS) to set up your content calendar and assign due dates to upcoming content pieces. Ensure each piece goes through the proper approval channels to streamline the publishing process.

10. Create content

Now that you’ve researched and planned, it’s time to create the content. Ensure your content writers address your target audience directly and write in your brand’s voice. Every piece should be original and deliver value. This will help it stand out from the vast amount of similar content already out there on the internet.

From there, ensure content is checked, edited, revised, and ultimately approved. Use a combination of employees and software tools to verify content for accuracy and quality.

11. Distribute and market your content

Once a piece of content is complete, share it! You can do this via email marketing (aka drip campaign) software or manually. Spread the new content everywhere, and don’t be afraid to repurpose content into different forms. For example, you could turn a blog article into a video script, a social media post into an Instagram photo, a white paper into an infographic, etc.

Also, don’t forget to take advantage of any user-generated content like testimonials. Share them on your accounts to create a positive brand image.

12. Measure results and adapt

The last step of the content marketing process is to measure results and adapt accordingly. This comes back to measuring KPIs and noting changes over time — whether positive or negative.

Regularly track website views, social media shares, email subscriptions, etc. From there, you can determine what’s working and what isn’t. You can even run A/B tests to compare two versions of a single piece of content.

The point is to continuously improve your content marketing. Double down on what works and abandon what isn’t. That’s the only sure way to success.

You’ll see your business gradually grow as you refine your content marketing strategy. Your content will attract more readers who turn into leads and, ultimately, customers. Trust the process and watch your company reach the next level!

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Lead generation is a critical aspect for all types of businesses, regardless of their industry or size. It allows businesses to generate sales leads, nurture prospects, and convert them into real paying customers.

However, in the absence of a lead generation model, businesses struggle to find new customers and grow their business. 

The digital era brought many technology companies into the limelight, specifically after Covid-19. Fast-track digitization enabled the rise in demand for tech professionals globally. This has underpinned the technology sector’s health and put it at the top of the pile.

Numerous technology firms today have created and captured future growth opportunities and saw the biggest jump in median five-year annual TSR. Now that we know tech comes out on top, the question is, can it stay there? To ensure its consistent growth, it becomes requisite for technology companies to generate leads.

In this piece, we’ll go through the best strategies for lead generation for technology companies to help them reach their prospective customers.

Lead Generation for Technology Companies- Top 12 Strategies!

Any marketing plan must include lead generation as a key component. It can help you identify new customers, attract potential customers, and drive revenue for your business.

You can produce leads for high-value prospects through customized B2B lead generation efforts. But the question is: how do you go about it? How do you implement these strategies? To help you out, we have compiled a list of strategies facilitating lead generation for technology companies.

1) Build an Interactive Landing Page

Having a well-designed and optimized landing page is crucial for generating leads. A professionally designed website can build trust and credibility with prospects, increasing their likelihood to purchase.

In terms of design, ensuring the landing page is visually appealing and easy to navigate is essential. It includes using a compatible layout, clear and persuasive language, and highlighting the key features of the products or services.

The landing page should be optimized for conversions. It includes using A/B testing to experiment with different design elements and using analytics tools to track the page’s performance.

A landing page’s speedy opening and mobile device optimization are also crucial. It entails implementing a responsive design and enhancing pictures and other content to load devices quickly.

2) Use Chatbots

Chatbots can respond to frequently asked questions and qualify leads by gathering information from potential customers through a conversational interface. They can simultaneously handle a large volume of 24/7 leads without human interaction. It enables organizations to reduce labor expenses while expanding their reach and consumer base.

Additionally, chatbots can be programmed to ask specific qualifying questions, which can help identify and prioritize high-quality leads. It also ensures that the sales team spends time on the most promising opportunities.

The chatbot can ask questions to gather information such as contact details, budget, and project requirements. The collected data can then be used to determine if the lead is a good fit for the business or should be passed on to a sales representative for further follow-up.

3) Host Webinars

Hosting a series of webinars to educate potential leads on addressing a particular need is ideal for positioning your company as a thought leader. You prove your knowledge and win over potential consumers by offering insightful information on a specific subject. It can raise brand recognition and trust, eventually encouraging leads and sales.

Webinars can also be used to introduce new products or features and provide demonstrations or case studies to showcase the value of your products and services. Additionally, webinars can also be used to engage with potential leads, allowing them to ask questions and provide feedback. It can also help to qualify leads further and identify their areas of interest.

4) Offer Free Trials

Offering free trials can be a great way to generate leads for a business. They offer potential customers the opportunity to try out the product or service before committing to a purchase, which can increase the likelihood of them becoming paying customers.

By allowing potential customers to try a product or service without paying any penny, businesses can build trust and demonstrate the value of their offering. Free trials can also gather valuable information about potential customers, such as their needs and preferences, which can be used to tailor future marketing efforts.

5) Use Content Syndication

Content syndication is publishing similar content to other websites to increase visibility and reach a larger audience. By syndicating your content, you can get more visitors to your website, which can then be converted into leads through calls-to-action or other forms of engagement. It might assist you in growing the audience for your brand and producing quality leads.

However, it’s important to note that when you syndicate content, you should include a rel=” canonical” link pointing to the original source. This tells search engines that the original content is authoritative and should be indexed, while the syndicated copies should be ignored.

Moreover, it ensures you don’t run into issues with duplicate content, and your website’s SEO is not affected. However, you must choose the correct platform for content syndication to ensure the right visibility and audience.

6) Send Surveys

Sending out surveys can be another effective lead-generation strategy for a business. By making the survey available across multiple channels, you can increase the chances of reaching a wider audience and getting more responses to boost the conversion rate.

Surveys allow businesses to gather valuable information about potential customers, including their needs, preferences, and pain points. This information can be used to tailor marketing efforts and create targeted offers that are more likely to be successful.

Furthermore, making more educated assessments of your product and marketing strategy will enable you to understand your target market’s demands better.

7) Explain Complex Topics in Videos

Using videos to explain complex topics is another excellent way to engage and educate potential customers about your product or service. Videos aid in simplifying complicated ideas and making them easier to understand for your target audience.

Videos facilitate lead generation for technology companies by demonstrating the capabilities of the software or other technical products. They can show how the technology works in a real-world setting and give potential customers a better understanding of its features and benefits.

Remember that the video should be concise, brief, and professionally crafted. It should be tailored to the target audience’s preferences and highlight the key features of your products that add value to their lives.

8) Consult with Recent Clients for Referrals

Asking for referrals from existing customers can also drive leads for a business. This strategy can be particularly effective if the existing customers have a positive experience with your business, as their referral carries more weight than a traditional advertisement. It is a mere fact that happy and content customers are more eager to share their experiences with their friends, relatives, and coworkers.

There are many ways to ask for referrals. It may include offering incentives, such as discounts or rewards, for customers who refer new business or simply including a referral program as part of the customer’s experience.

It’s important to make it easy for customers to refer others to your business by providing them with a referral link or code.

9) Collaborate With Influencers

Influencer marketing has become a popular and effective lead-generation technique for technology businesses. By collaborating with industry influencers, you can reach a wider audience and generate a high ROI through authentic and personal sales techniques.

Influencer marketing can be effective for businesses that sell consumer products or services, as it allows them to showcase their offering in a relatable way. Influencers’ recommendations are more believable than traditional advertising since they’ve gained the audience’s trust.

Influencer marketing campaigns can be implemented on various social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook. The campaigns can include sponsored posts, giveaways, product reviews, influencer takeovers, and more.

It’s important to note that influencer marketing should be well-planned and executed, as it is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Finding the right influencers that align with the brand’s values and target audience is essential. Also, to measure the campaign’s success, it is important to establish clear goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) before starting the campaign.

10) Ask For Testimonials

Customer testimonials can be a powerful tool for B2B lead generation in the technology industry. Positive reviews can help to enhance a company’s reputation and be used to promote its products or services. Additionally, satisfied customers may be willing to refer their contacts to the company, which can also be a valuable source of leads.

Furthermore, customer reviews can also increase website traffic by making it more likely that a company’s website will rank higher in search engines. This can lead to more potential customers finding the company’s website and potentially bringing in more leads.

11) Use Social Media

Being active on social media can help you generate more leads. Are you thinking how? The idea is to increase brand awareness and make it easier for potential customers to find and contact your business through social media.

You can increase your visibility by regularly posting engaging content, responding to comments and messages, and actively reaching out to potential customers.

Additionally, social media platforms have built-in features to create targeted ads and campaigns to reach specific audiences. But, companies need to evaluate which channels their target audience is most active on. Instead of dividing their attention across too many platforms, they should prioritize those channels.

A company may attract a larger audience by being active on several social media platforms. However, it also requires resources to maintain and create content for those channels.

12) Leverage Intent Data

Intent data can be a valuable tool for B2B technology companies to generate leads. The term “intent data” describes user actions that reveal a definite interest in purchasing or conducting research. These acts can be as simple as looking at product or price pages, downloading whitepapers, or conducting keyword searches or other resources.

By analyzing the actions of potential customers, B2B technology companies can gain insight into the interests and needs of their prospects.

Using intent data, you can target these prospects with personalized messaging and offers, increasing the likelihood that they will engage with your company and ultimately become loyal customers.

Wrapping Up

Lead generation strategies are the most critical aspect of sales. An organization’s sales funnel is empowered by drawing in more leads. And in today’s digital world, there are an array of options to nurture leads and improve sales.

The primary purpose is understanding the needs and interests of your target audience and matching their expectations. Try adapting one or more of these strategies to improve your lead generation efforts and spur your company’s market growth.

To win in this competitive market, you need the best Lead Generation System made for SaaS companies.

Inner Image Credits: Provided by the Author; Pixabay; Thank you!

Featured Image Credit: Provided by the Author; Thank you!

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Digital assets are the foundation of modern marketing, presenting a variety of formats to tell a brand’s story and engage with clients. However, quantifying and organizing digital assets can be overwhelming, especially as brands try to keep up with new channels and trends. With each new piece of content generated, how much of the older assets become lost or forgotten, collecting digital dust in the process?

As marketers, we create large volumes of digital content. In fact, nearly 329 million terabytes of data are created each day.

Picture your brand’s digital landscape. What does it look like? Is it overwhelming consumers’ feeds with unwanted noise, or is it delivering useful resources they’re looking for?

To connect with consumers before they even enter their brand’s ecosystem, marketers need a way to paint a clear picture of their digital library, visualizing existing assets and forming connections between them. This also allows brands to organize their assets within a control hierarchy and see opportunities to grow or scale back to strengthen their brand footprint and more effectively promote their message.

So, what’s the most effective way to organize a brand’s asset stack? The MACH-6.

Meet the MACH-6

The MACH-6, or 6-Level Marketing Asset Control Hierarchy, is an organizational framework for brands, helping them gain clarity of their assets according to a hierarchical stack determined by the degree of control a brand has over them.

The MACH-6 is a tool for owned asset optimization (OAO), providing brands with a holistic view of their digital footprint. Discovering opportunities to expand reach through atomizing content or creating entirely new owned assets becomes easier.

In short, the MACH-6 allows brands to establish an asset-first approach to satisfy the needs of their audience, building meaningful relationships in the process.

Understanding the content hierarchy

As marketers, most of us are familiar with the varying degrees of control over our brand assets (wouldn’t it be great if we could guarantee news coverage of our brand would be entirely accurate and favorable?). The MACH-6 breaks these degrees of control into three categories: owned, managed, and leveraged. This organization helps brands recognize the level of control they have over their content.

Picture a table with six layers. The higher you go, the broader a brand’s reach, but the less control it has over the content. While losing control seems counterproductive to brand management, working up to this level is necessary to reach new audiences and draw more consumers in. However, this can only be successful when brands are ready to deploy a comprehensive library of owned assets to support and inform the content coming from the layers of leveraged and managed assets (and provide owned touchpoints for later transactions).

Owned Assets

The MACH-6 should be built from the bottom up so that brands can form a sturdy base with owned assets, which they have complete control over technically and creatively. This category is broken into three layers: foundation, ground level, and Tier 1.

This stack begins with brand basics like company values and purpose, brand language and visual identities, proprietary data and IPs, customer personas, marketing positioning, and executive and employee ambassadors. These assets build the strong foundation that the entire marketing strategy should be based upon. What consumer data can you use to inform content production? How should content be written? What purpose is an asset driving for your mission? All assets should be connected to this foundation to maintain consistent brand messaging and positioning.

Then, we move up to websites, including sub-brand websites, at the ground level and Tier 1 above, which includes pillar content, blog posts, tools, downloadable content, and corporate communications. These assets are fully controlled by the brand and create an external representation of the foundational base.

Managed Assets

Split into two layers — Tier 3 and Tier 4 — a brand’s managed assets are pieces of content that the team has some control over. The brand controls these messages, but channels that are not. Continuing from the three layers of owned assets, Tier 2 includes public relations, events and communications, social media, bylines, ads, and emails. While a brand technically owns and manages its emails and social media accounts, Instagram, Gmail, Microsoft, and other platforms and email marketing tools ultimately control how the content is delivered, creating some limitations.

Tier 3 encompasses company profiles and ally websites, organic search, sites like Wikipedia, and content syndication. Brands can strongly impact these assets with their lower MACH-6 layers but have less control over what content is, and how it’s shared.

Leveraged Assets

The top level of the MACH-6 structure focuses on influence and consists of user-generated and third-party content that brands can guide or direct in some ways but ultimately cannot control. Examples include affiliates and influencers, reviews, word-of-mouth communication, user-generated content, and news.

In reality, the stronger the owned assets a brand creates, the more controlled messaging the managed and leveraged channels have to pull from. That increases the chances that a brand’s preferred narrative is shared more often and to more consumers.

How to implement the MACH-6

With the MACH-6, brands can zoom out and assess their entire network of assets. This is a critical first step to organizing data and managing content, allowing brands to build a more effective strategy.

Regardless of a brand’s size, most will have a vast ecosystem of content that they have invested time, energy, money, and other resources to build. However, much of that content goes underused or becomes forgotten because it is improperly organized.

The MACH-6 allows brands to be better equipped to identify and understand their needs, sharing and creating the appropriate assets to help move them through the journey to conversion.

But how do you begin when approaching a mountain of assets?

Understand your audience

To organize your brand assets and prioritize your focus areas, you need to know what your target consumers are looking for and how you can provide it through your assets. Map out your consumer journey to understand what channels your audience uses, where they go for specific answers, what types of content they trust and use, etc. This will give you a blueprint to lay your current MACH-6 over to understand areas of opportunity for your brand better.

One note here — the consumer journey has changed. It’s no longer (and perhaps never was) a linear path. Ensure your journey map is current and honest, showing modern consumers’ complex and sometimes fragmented journeys.

Audit your assets

The ultimate goal of the MACH-6 is to help brands successfully implement an OAO strategy. Auditing your existing assets and understanding which level of the structure they belong in, will help you determine what you have too much or too little of in each of the layers and allow you to make adjustments where necessary.

Where do you have a gap in owned assets? How can you shift resources to expand certain tiers and perhaps reach new audiences throughout their journeys? This also allows you to ensure your brand’s messaging is communicated at every level of the MACH-6 —  consistency that will help with your brand’s credibility and awareness.

Audits also include looking over financials and prioritization. How can you better pair your budget with your consumer journey and preferences? What pieces of content aren’t performing well and can be optimized to make a larger impact?

Understanding your digital landscape will give you a stronger strategy to connect with consumers and drive business results.

Build your foundation

First, ensure you have a strong base of branding. Educate your entire organization on your brand basics—your vision, mission, purpose, and values—and make any updates necessary before expanding your work to the full MACH-6. Then, don’t shy away from your brand’s foundation. This messaging should echo throughout all of your brand content, so don’t hesitate to proudly publicly share your brand basics, and always ensure your assets are connected to them.

Next, look to your Ground Level and Tier 1 owned assets — the key to a brand’s success online. Identify gaps in your owned assets and fill them with content that matches your brand’s foundation.

For example, if you don’t have any unique tools or downloadable information, consider ways you can better provide value to your consumers with guides or templates that support their journeys. Or, brainstorm ways to expand your digital footprint, like creating a new website for your brand to publish blogs, media, downloadables, and other assets that connect you to your core consumers, directly answering their questions and addressing their needs.

Regardless of reach, optimized owned assets are a brand’s most powerful tools, enabling brands to take action when necessary but maintain the creative and technical freedom to communicate and share their story.

Optimize your content

The MACH-6 is part of a larger marketing asset ecosystem that provides brands various opportunities to expand and reach more consumers. While essential for business growth, a more extensive reach requires relinquishing some control.

To balance your assets and maintain some control, ensure your brand’s owned assets are optimized to be discoverable. Use data-backed strategies to appeal to Google — focus on high-volume search keywords and questions, build author authority, and then create a consistent schedule for publishing new content. Or boost engagement and visibility by including unique visuals, questions, and how-to guides.

With a greater depth of owned resources optimized for visibility and user experience, more consumers, journalists, and publishers will find your brand and identify it as an authoritative voice in your area of focus.

This helps to solidify your brand’s messaging further and establish its tone, making it recognizable and influencing the narrative created by your leveraged assets in Tier 4. In fact, building a solid foundation of owned assets increases the effectiveness of managed and leveraged assets.

If you build it, they will come. So be prepared.

Many of us will recall a big news story or memorable Super Bowl ad when we think of successful marketing tactics. These draw a lot of attention and bring brands in front of more people than they would normally reach. But, brands have a limited window of opportunity to capitalize on the extra attention.

Without a framework of optimized owned assets that use data and branding to answer questions and proactively meet the rising demand, brands can miss out on the increased visibility, which will fizzle out as quickly as it appeared. Capturing attention is half the battle and people are more likely to continue researching a brand after a significant event.

When brands have a library of diverse assets built before this significant draw, the new audiences will have plenty of touchpoints to learn about the brand and make connections. This will help create brand awareness, establish trust, build brand loyalty, and convert customers. In fact, Kia recently demonstrated just that.

By auditing, organizing, and balancing the content in a brand’s vast collection of digital assets, a brand is better equipped to create and share a steady stream of touchpoints to reach a broad base of consumers. As the brand grows, so will its library and the opportunities to build awareness, connect with audiences, and ultimately convert sales.

The MACH-6 is a tool that helps brands organize and visualize their asset stack to assess every potential consumer connection point and deploy the right content to the right people at the right time. This gives brands control over their owned assets at a foundational level that can transfer across all marketing assets and channels.

With the MACH-6, brands understand how their assets meet consumer needs and become empowered to make meaningful connections for the long term.

Featured Image Credit: Photo by Ketut Subiyanto; Pexels; Thank you!

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In the competitive world of business, your company’s pricing strategy can be a pivotal factor in determining its chances of success.

One effective approach is tiered pricing, which offers commensurate price points for different levels of a product or service. This strategy not only caters to a broader audience but also maximizes profit by encouraging customers to opt for higher-value tiers. It’s effective for many types of businesses, from SaaS to e-commerce.

This article will explore four clever ways to use tiered pricing to boost your business’s profitability.

What Is Tiered Pricing?

The tiered pricing strategy uses multiple price points, or tiers, for different levels of a product or service. Prices are set based on the features, duration, and quality level of each tier. This type of pricing helps businesses offer their customers multiple options without sacrificing profitability.

For example, if you offer subscription services for your business, you could create three price tiers. Tier 1 could be the basic subscription that offers a limited range of features, while Tier 2 and 3 offer additional features at higher prices.

In this way, tiered pricing helps businesses create an effective value proposition with multiple price points for different needs, helping to maximize market penetration. It also allows customers to decide which tier best fits their needs and budget without compromising on the quality of the product or service.

Four Types of Tiered Pricing Strategies

Now that you understand the basics of tiered pricing, let’s look at four different strategies that can help you implement and leverage this pricing model.

Feature-Based Pricing

Feature-based pricing is one of the most common tiered pricing methods. In this strategy, each tier offers different features at a range of price points. This type of pricing allows customers to choose from multiple options and pay only for what they need or want.

It involves creating three or more tiers based on the features included in each tier. For example, if you’re selling a product or service, you could create tiers based on the amount of features offered with each option. This allows customers to choose from multiple options and pay only for their needs or wants.

The low-price tier offers the basics of the product or service at a lower cost, while the mid and high tiers offer additional features at higher prices. This strategy allows businesses to reach a wider audience by offering specific price points for different customers.

Ahrefs is an example of a business that uses feature-based pricing. They offer four subscription tiers, each with different features and prices.

Usage-Based Pricing

Usage-based pricing sets different prices depending on how the product or service is used. The price increases with usage, and customers can choose the tier that best meets their needs.

For example, if you offer software as a service (SaaS), you could create tiers based on the number of users or the required data storage. This allows customers to choose a tier that best fits their usage.

Dropbox is an example of a business that uses usage-based tiered pricing. They offer multiple tiers based on the amount of storage needed.

Duration-Based Pricing

Duration-based pricing sets different prices for subscription plans. This is similar to usage-based pricing, but it’s based on the duration of the subscription commitment rather than the amount used.

For example, if you offer a subscription service, you could create tiers based on monthly or annual commitments. This allows customers to choose a tier that fits their budget and needs best.

Netflix is an example of a business that uses duration-based tiered pricing. They offer multiple tiers based on the number of streams and HD/4K video quality.

Volume-Based Pricing

Volume-based pricing offers discounts when customers purchase multiple units of the same product or service. This is similar to usage-based pricing, but it’s based on the number of units purchased rather than the amount used.

For example, if you sell a product in bulk, you could create tiers based on the number of units purchased. This allows customers to choose a tier that fits their budget and needs best.

Amazon is an example of a business that uses volume-based tiered pricing. They offer discounts when customers purchase multiple units of the same product or service.

Benefits of Tiered Pricing

There are many benefits of tiered pricing, including:

• It allows businesses to offer different options at different price points and cater to a wider audience.
• It helps maximize profits by encouraging customers to opt for higher-value tiers.
• It increases customer loyalty by allowing them to choose the tier that best fits their needs.
• It simplifies the pricing structure and allows customers to easily find the tier that works best for them.
• It helps businesses stay competitive by offering more value for their customers.

Best Practice for Tiered Pricing

When implementing tiered pricing, it’s important to keep the following best practices in mind:

• Understand your customer needs and choose appropriate tiers.
• Keep the tiers simple and easy to understand.
• Provide clear information about each tier so customers can easily compare them.
• Offer incentives for customers who choose higher tiers.
• Make sure the customer experience is consistent across all tiers.
• Test different pricing strategies to determine which one works best for your business.

Final Words

Tiered pricing can be a great way to increase customer loyalty and maximize profits. By understanding how to use them, companies can create tiers that meet their customers’ needs and budgets without compromising on quality. To ensure success, it’s important to keep the best practices in mind and test different marketing strategies to determine which one works best for your business.

Featured Image Credit: Provided by the Author; Thank you!

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Top startups today have no time for routine tasks related to data entry and administration. This is where sales automation comes into play for the best startups, which helps optimize your manual tiresome and time-consuming assignments. 

Marketing automation allows your sales assistants, managers, and CMOs to focus less on the organization of the whole marketing process and more on their direct function – selling.

Luckily, there is a wide choice of special tools that can help you automate lead lists building, send sales emails and follow-ups, schedule meetings and calls, and perform other tasks.

Why Is Sales Automation Important for Your Startup?

It Helps Save Effort and Time 

Marketing automation can help increase sales efficiency by 14.5% and decrease marketing expenditures by 12.2%. Besides, business owners, CEOs, and CMOs claim that the biggest advantage of sales automation for their company is saving time at 30%. 

With business administration getting tough these days, 68% of companies use marketing automation somehow. 

It Provides Insight Into the Effectiveness of the Sales Process

An increase in earnings (85%) and marketing productivity (69%) are the main reasons businesses want to implement automated lead nurturing. Moreover, 63% of companies are beating their rivals, thanks to sales automation.

It Helps Identify Sales-Ready Leads and Maintains Relationship with Leads

When used to nurture leads, marketing automation tools show an increase in qualified leads. The reason is simple – automated instruments give you detailed data about your prospects. This helps push every deal down the sales funnel and propose a personalized, data-driven offer so that your lead is more willing to make a buying decision.

It Helps Grow Revenue

As reported by 60% of users, implementing sales automation tools in their business has improved the number of leads that convert to deals. And this increase can be as high as 225%! Even just after one month of use, 3x more prospects can be converted to sales. 

Types of Sales Automation

Modern technologies and artificial intelligence can help you save way more time than you could imagine. If you automate routine tasks throughout each sales funnel stage, you will have enough freedom to focus on interesting and creative tasks. As a result, you will sell more.

You will be surprised at how much can be automated by software:

1. Automate Sales Prospecting

If you implement a dynamic CRM, you can use countless criteria to filter out the most suitable leads based on the required conditions. You can also get a personalized email, Slack notification, or in-app alert once a new lead matches your demands. Put differently; you will keep getting a prequalified list of contacts regularly without lifting a finger.

2. Streamline Processing and Enrich Your Lead Database

The more knowledge about the target audience and existing clients you have, the more powerful you are. Data about your lead’s job position, presence on social media, solutions their business provides, existing suppliers, etc., will help you successfully get in touch with them.

3. Stop Entering Data Into CRM Manually

Set up workflows in your marketing automation software to track records of your qualified leads automatically. For instance, you can determine all the contacts that have submitted the form or downloaded the price list as “qualified.”

4. Automate Your Email Campaigns

Do you still send each email manually to all your leads or copy and paste the same messages? Alternatively, try using email templates, personalize, and schedule letters for every client’s best conversion. You can try using tools like Snov.io for that purpose.

5. Manage Marketing Collateral

Sales reps spend tons of time searching for useful content or writing texts to send to their leads. Ensure your business has a сorporate shared Google Drive folder where you store valuable files. This way, it will be easier for you to access the most important marketing documents, saving time during every contact with prospects.

6. Schedule Calls, Meetings, Mailouts, etc.

Planning a meeting with a sales lead over email can take time and reminds us of a tennis game. You suggest one meeting time to your prospect; they propose another option, then you offer a third solution, etc. This is tiresome and can also destroy the impulse in your sales negotiations.

Instead, you can use one of many meeting-scheduling tools (like Calendar, for example). They give your contacts direct access to your calendar and enable them to plan the meeting in any free time span if you dd customized scheduling links 2020 to your email messages and signatures. Most such tools grant free trials, so it is easy to study and test them.

7. Use AI-Powered Analytics of Sales Conversations 

If you want to analyze your calls, check your campaigns’ efficiency, and improve your sales approaches, try using sales communication AI-software. It allows you to quickly check what topics you discussed in a call, what rivals you mentioned, and study the talk-to-listen portion. Tools like Gong and Chorus pull out key pieces of your talks and give you AI-powered insights.

8. Automate Lead Management 

If you spend hours managing your CRM instead of making calls and bringing contracts, try automating all the activities related to prospects and deals. The market offers plenty of instruments to record your conversations, schedule meetings, and plan emails for you. Check if your current CRM offers workflow automation and start implementing it.

9. Manage Deals and Papers

Today, most of the contracts and offers are mailed and signed over the internet. Tools like Hellosign or Adobe Sign offer solutions for e-signing, lots of impressive analytics features, and functions that can help boost your conversion rates. 

This is just a small part of the many marketing activities that can be automated. In the age of AI and robots, all types of routine organizational tasks can be automated, while a real live contact with the prospective or existing client should remain to be carried out in person.

How to Choose the Best Sales Automation Tool?

Selecting the best tool or several tools that suit your needs might take some time, as many options on the market claim to be the best. We hope these pieces of advice will help you choose the best instruments for your business.

Decide What Processes You Would Like to Automate

Check all marketing processes you have at the moment. Does lead qualification take much of your daily routine? How much time do you spend on lead nurturing, prospect engagement, and content marketing daily? Do you schedule follow-up calls or send reminders manually? How long does it take to organize bulk seasonal offerings? 

There can be dozens of similar questions. Analyze your answers and think about what processes should not take so much time or where you can avoid manual work from you or your team.

Make a List of Essential Functions

After you’ve chosen the main processes, try to create a list of specific features you’ll require, such as email marketing automation or mobile availability. If you do not select features and must-have’s your business needs, you might end up with a complex product you cannot use. Choose the required functions and, after that, compare several platforms according to the list of criteria.

Finally, Test the Product in Practice

Once you have specified the must-have functions, prioritize them and shorten the list to several most important items. After that, compare the software once again to see which tool you can start using right now. It would be great to test-drive each platform by getting a free trial or an interactive demo to get a more comprehensive vision and make a more prepared decision. 

This might look like a lot of work, particularly if you are working hard to help your company survive. Still, experience proves – a couple of hours invested now will pay off a dozen times in the future. 

Top Sales Automation Tools

Snov.i0

Snov.io is an integrated cold outreach automation platform used by sales departments, marketers, startups, and simply anyone who needs high-quality outbound research and outreach tools.

This all-in-one toolkit allows you to speed up creating and managing lists of prospects and bring your brilliant ideas directly to their inbox. It works for every stage of your marketing process:

• Non-stop lead gen and verification. You can automate your lead generation, pump up your funnel with targeted leads, and accelerate conversions with this solution. It boasts 98% email deliverability thanks to the high quality of new and existing leads guaranteed by the 7-tier verification.
• Nurture, engage, convert. Boost engagement with effective nurturing based on automated outreach. Personalized triggered email drip campaigns can help you easily convert leads and smoothly move them down the sales funnel. Schedule campaigns for existing clients, automate follow-ups and track email responses from your Gmail.
• Study market rivals. Snov.io research tools allow you to monitor what sets you apart from your competition and discover new ways to convert. You can check full company profiles and tech stack behind your rivals and leads. 
• Grow and scale your business. Keep your efficiency always in control – sync across platforms with over 2,000+ powerful integrations. 

Pricing: Snov.io offers unlimited freemium with credits that are renewed every month. Paid plans that start at $33 per month billed annually.

Moosend

This marketing automation platform comes with some features that promise to help users generate more clicks and sales. Surprisingly easy-to-use and with a short learning curve, Moosend allows you to create and send email campaigns designed to respond to the prospect’s needs.

From user onboarding to abandoned cart sequences, this platform allows you to design workflows that make sense for your audience and lead prospects further down the sales funnel. 

Users can select any event to trigger the automation, such as visitors browsing a specific page or viewing a product, and set it in motion in a simple manner. What is more, you can test one of the ready-made automation workflow recipes.

Pricing: Moosend offers a free forever program for up to 1,000 subscribers that includes most features. Paid plans start at $8 per month billed annually.

Juro

There is nothing worse than a sales team getting a prospect to commit before month-end, only for the deal to get stuck in the contracting phase. Word documents fly back and forth, versions go missing, data is lost, and visibility is non-existent. 

Sales teams at high-growth startups are turning to new, in-browser tools to end this manual process. Juro is a contract collaboration platform that enables your team to self-serve, agree, and manage routine contracts at scale from one unified workspace.

Salespeople use a natural language Q&A flow to spin up a contract in seconds, from a template over which legal has oversight. They can even generate contracts directly from Salesforce, with two-way data sync making sure versions are the same in both platforms. 

Parties negotiate in-browser in the sidebar and can then eSign securely on any device to help salespeople close deals on the move. Post-signature analytics help stakeholders spot bottlenecks and friction to keep deals moving fast and make contract management data-driven.

Juro is used predominantly by high-growth tech startups with lots of contract volume, like Deliveroo, Wolt, and Babylon Health. 

Pricing starts at free, with bespoke plans depending on the integrations required.

Paperform

Capturing leads is the first and most foundational step in the inbound-driven sales process. Paperform is a versatile form and page builder that might help you do just that: collect leads and kick off the conversation seamlessly and elegantly.

Paperform stands out among the alternatives thanks to its modern interface and customization features. It is easy to make forms and landing pages look unique and fit your company’s broader brand.

There are more than a hundred form templates available, so you will never have to start from scratch no matter what kind of form you are looking to build.

The built-in email automation feature makes Paperform even more useful. Your startup sales department is likely to have limited bandwidth, especially when responding to leads across different time zones.

You might leverage Paperform to send out automated yet highly-personalized emails to leads that submit your forms. Later, once the conversation is already ongoing, your sales reps can catch up quickly and take it further.

Pricing: Paid plans start at $15 per month.

Outfunnel

Outfunnel is an email marketing tool with deep CRM integration. Whether you are using Pipedrive, Mailchimp, or Copper, it has you covered. You’ll be able to create drip or one-off campaigns with defined segments for your sales team using lead-scoring while automating and reducing tasks that were previously done manually. 

With dynamic sender information and smart workflows, Outfunnel will help you stay on top of your leads while continuously allowing you to build up relationships with your current and future customers.

Pricing: Outfunnel offers a free two-week trial. Paid plans start at $19 per month.

HelpCrunch

As an all-in-one customer communication tool, HelpCrunch allows businesses to automate numerous aspects of the sales process. Once you sign up for the tool and install its live chat widget, you can put inbound lead generation on autopilot.

First, HelpCrunch helps businesses engage their visitors proactively with the help of automated chat messages. You can offer help in your website’s strategic places, such as product, pricing, or checkout pages, and initiate conversations on your terms.

People will see a quick and convenient way to contact you and will not hesitate. Simultaneously, you can use live chat to collect leads’ contact information and pre-qualify them on the go with pre-chat and offline forms. Visitors will specify their names and email addresses and choose a department that will better cater to their needs.

While the shared inbox will contain all incoming requests in chronological order, sales reps can create their custom inboxes to filter conversations by their tags, assignees, departments, etc. This way, they will be able to assist warm leads on a first-priority basis.

To keep the conversation going, your team can follow up on their leads with the help of automated email sequences and accelerate deal closure.

Pricing: The ‘Live chat’ subscription by HelpCrunch is available for $12 per month per team member billed annually. If you want to enjoy the ‘Live chat + Emails’ plan, its pricing starts from $23 per month per team member.

Zapier

Zapier is a tool that brings together all your favorite apps, such as Gmail, Slack, Mailchimp, and more. You can automate repetitive tasks, and you do not need to know coding, or rely on developers to build the integration.

Create thousands of different workflows (Zaps), e.g., schedule events in your Google Calendar directly from new Trello cards, save your Gmail attachments to Dropbox, or post tweets across multiple Twitter accounts. 

Zaps consist of a trigger and one or more subsequent actions. A trigger is an event that initiates your workflow. Zaps automate your processes in the background, allowing you to concentrate on more important tasks. 

Zapier counts every task you run through your Zap. To decide which Zapier plan suits you best, you should keep in mind the number of tasks your Zaps run. 

Pricing: The service offers a free trial so that you can study some popular Zap templates. Paid plans start at $19,99 per month billed annually.

Hootsuite

Hootsuite is an SMM platform that supports social network integrations for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube. The tool helps you boost your organic and paid ads’ effectiveness with the Hootsuite automated ad solution. 

Hootsuite allows you to advertise on social media easily. Manually or automatically, you can target key audience segments or market niches by age, location, and user interests. The tool can help you reach more of your social media audience, monitor feedback about your brand and rivals, and use social analytics to make data-driven business decisions.

Besides, its mobile apps allow you to manage your presence on social networks from any location. You can also connect your existing instruments with over 250+ apps and integrations in a single toolbox. 

Pricing: A 30-days free trial is available. Paid plans start at $19 per month.

Wrapping it up

Nowadays, more and more businesses realize the power of sales and marketing automation tools and implement them in their workflows. Accordingly, new instruments in this market niche are emerging a dime a dozen. 

Analyze your needs and select the best toolkit that will help you seamlessly automate your whole sales funnel: lead generation, nurturing, engagement, follow-ups, conversion, and growing a loyal audience.

Image Credit: Ola Dapo; Pexels

The post Top‌ ‌8‌ ‌Sales‌ ‌Automation‌ ‌Tools‌ ‌for‌ ‌Startups‌ ‌in‌ ‌2023 appeared first on ReadWrite.

Well, it’s been a long time since we’ve been exposed to the influence of technology on our daily routines. Does the idea of conquering the unimaginable with this potent and resounding force of transformation strike you as an intriguing possibility?

Should that be the case, then, in what manner do the shifts occurring within the technological framework directly connect us? How has it embraced a new wave of behavioral changes in us?

The changing facet of technology has made the world a smaller place to live in. Imagine you are a digital traveler who leverages technology to take your followers to every site you navigate. This makes your followers connect with the outside world easily without leaving the comfort of their homes. This is what trending technology is all about.

Let’s talk about e-commerce here.

Buying and selling things of value is an activity familiar to us since time immemorial. But with the advent of technology, the innovative side of businesses has renovated its world by incorporating e-commerce.

Electronic commerce (e-commerce) is one fascinating side of the internet that helps companies connect with customers worldwide and earn more profits. So when businesses look around, they get a whole 360-degree cover of the entire population.

Picture the scene: after setting up your profile eagerly, you made the first digital footprint. Like personal profiles, businesses also furnish their e-commerce landscape to enhance online visibility.

What does this online presence mean to direct selling businesses? This is what we are talking about. MLM companies yield productive results with their online presence through efficient management of the commission, advanced customer support and a secure payment system, among many others.

Click, Shop, Smile

Most of us have evolved from carrying heavy bags after shopping and panting until we reach home. And this could be a moment where you think how easy it would be if e-commerce had existed then. Since time has no end, so is the beginning of the e-commerce business.

This online store has revealed its usefulness, ranging from MLM start-ups to enterprises. With unlimited offerings, the e-commerce ecosystem consistently matures and advances so that your direct sales can access all the latest technologies for streamlining your business.

These features include,

• robust reporting and analytics feature
• marketing automation and lead generation
• cross-selling/upselling feature to increase Average Order Value (AOV)
• product reviews and ratings
• replicated website
• repurchase and auto-ship

Embrace this opportunity to leverage technology and revolutionize your customer’s shopping experience, but remember everything is at your fingertips!

Will MLM companies stop with e-commerce alone? Hey there, you belong to a tech-savvy generation, stopping technology with one or two outcomes doesn’t deliver justice.

Let’s take an instance. Imagine starting a small restaurant with a hospitable ambiance, modern infrastructure, the best chefs, quality foods, and excellent customer service. Within no time, you can expect an exponential rise in customers. After witnessing this shift, won’t you rebuild the interiors for more accommodation?

Likewise, e-commerce has extended its zone to welcome social selling for building a rapport with potential customers. When e-commerce emerged as a business model, social selling became the strategy MLM companies adopted to leverage the power of social media.

Some social selling!

What’s not it?

Social selling is not advertising, which people tend to avoid. It is also not about blasting people with special offers and links that navigate to your website, nor is it about bombarding people’s inboxes with a plethora of commercial messages. This obviously annoys them to a limit to put your brand into the spam list.

Customers are not advertising tools to drive sales and earn profit.

Then what is it?

Direct selling companies understand how prospective customers conduct market research on potential vendors before choosing the right one. In order to provide customizable services, these companies have adopted tools to streamline customer needs and concerns and solve them efficiently with proven strategies even before they realize them.

“Social selling expands on the age-old basics of getting to know your customers and meeting their needs.” – Jon Ferrara, CEO, Nimble @Jon_Ferrara

This is social selling where you will engage your customers with real-time conversations, share important information, and treat them as people, not as sales targets.

Wherever a customer is, there is business. So when customers are online, and you pride yourself on being there where your customers are, then why aren’t you there?

Social selling is more like sitting in a coffee shop and having a healthy conversation with the opposite person. As network marketing has embraced social selling, distributors connect with prospects through social media instead of coffee shops. Sounds good, right?

As coffee beans exist in a variety of flavors, social networks also range from LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, or wherever you can find your prospects, form relationships, and build trust. Though the flavors differ, you will have the best sips!

So, what’s the result?

Now we know what’s the primary goal of social selling. It is not about making direct sales pitches and making potential customers overwhelmed or anxious. It is all about nurturing leads by providing valuable insights, addressing their concerns, and answering their questions. To develop this, network marketing uses various strategies to

• Maintain a strong social presence
• increase brand awareness
• deliver a seamless experience through omnichannel publishing
• enhance customer acquisition and retention
• engage audiences with prompt responses to their queries
• ensure customer satisfaction with personalized services

Social selling is synonymous with establishing trust and credibility. Direct networks create an online space for potential customers to consider their offerings, products or services when they are ready with a purchase decision.

In a nutshell, it’s all about getting a customer to know you without involving in any sales goal. With social selling, you can lead your potential customers to make informed decisions by generating more product awareness. This gradually builds up their trust in you.

“You can’t wait for customers to come to you. You have to figure out where they are, go there and bring them back to your store.” – Paul Graham, co-founder of startup accelerator Y Combinator @paulg.

Pause for a moment now. Remember migrating to a new place and having zero idea about the language and stores around? But with just an e-business platform your needs will be met. This is because both e-commerce and social selling crosses seven seas and seven mountains to reach and take you to the required online stores.

To Put it Together

Until now, we have touched on the concepts of e-commerce and social selling. But how shall we incorporate it into direct selling? Buckle up to witness the words following the evolution or should I call it, the revolution.

One way the direct selling model has updated itself with the changing times is to integrate itself with e-commerce and social selling. Let’s see what are the outcomes of doing so.

Is it time to stop reading? For now, no. Because the direct selling community hasn’t stopped with e-commerce and social selling.

Fasten your seat belts and carry your electronic cart; we are navigating toward social commerce.

Belonging to Team Gen Z

During a celebration, I happened to meet a distant cousin who has an aversion to social gatherings. But when I noticed her appearance, I felt I was amidst a fashion parade. Her attire was unique and breathtaking, with a crazy range of shades in a tropical-printed blazer. That day, she was the town’s center of attraction and talk. Even after years have passed since our encounter, I still remember her attire more than her face.

That very day, I heard someone whispering about how she purchases everything behind the screens to avoid talking to strangers in the stores.

My exhausted eyes could not invite sleep but started scrolling through every online store. And bang, I officially became a member of Gen Z.

Did you like my tale on the beginning of social commerce in my life? Weren’t you able to find the concept? If not, give it another story as the whole tale is social commerce, from how I rushed to various stores in different locations brimming with crowds to avail discounts on my purchases from the comfort of my home.

Visit TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook to enjoy your free time. While scrolling Instagram, I see how influencers endorse a brand with their products and services.

But when social commerce met direct sales, success strategies began to take a new turn, just like the point where an airplane takes off from land.

At this point, social commerce begins with multi-channel e-commerce, flexible commission calculations, online and onhand real-time inventory management, consistent logistics, and exceptional customer services. The end is a door to endless possibilities.

To wrap up, whether it is social commerce, social selling, or influencer marketing, the whole idea is to

• Improve customer engagement with user-generated content as a sales tool after customers respond to surveys or share their opinions on the purchased products.
• Make their shopping experience one of the best moments of their lives
• Embrace omnichannel business strategies to reach customers worldwide and drive sales

Featured Image Credit: Karolina Grabowska; Pexels; Thank you! 

The post Evolution of Direct Selling from E-commerce to Social Commerce appeared first on ReadWrite.

Guest blogging is one of the most effective ways to increase your brand’s authority, reach new customers and rank higher in Google’s search results. With this guide, you’ll learn everything you need to know about beginner guest blogging, from what it means for your business, how to pick the right blogs to guest post on, and how to create a winning guest blog post.

The key to every blog post is knowing your audience. We have you covered, from understanding SEO basics to learning how to guest blog for maximum impact. So what are you waiting for? Get started today.

How can SEO help your website rank higher?

Most people know that SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization,” but what exactly is SEO? And how can it help your website rank higher on Google?

SEO is the practice of raising a website’s rating on search engines like Google. The more highly ranked a website is, the more probable users will find it.

Several factors go into SEO, but one of the most important is using keywords. Keywords are the words or phrases people use to search for something on the internet.

If you can optimize your website for the right keywords, you’ll be more likely to appear higher in the search results.

One way to do this is to create keyword-rich quality content. This means writing articles or blog posts that use the keywords you want to target.
But it’s not enough to use the keywords; your content must be exciting and informative. People are more likely to click on a result that looks relevant and useful.

Other technical aspects of SEO can help your website rank higher. These include optimizing your website’s code and structure and ensuring your site is easy to navigate.

SEO is a complex topic, but if you’re just getting started, these tips should help you get started on the right track. If you want to learn more, many excellent resources are available online.

If you need help with your SEO, plenty of agencies and consultants can assist you.

What are the 4 Basic Steps for SEO?

You need to understand SEO basics to improve your website’s ranking in search engines. Here are the four essential steps for successful SEO:
1. Research your keywords
2. Make your website keyword-ready for your chosen keywords.
3. Guest blogging for beginners can seem complicated, but with the appropriate knowledge, you can promote your website.
4. Monitor your results

SEO is not a one-time effort but rather an ongoing process. Following these four steps can create a solid foundation for your SEO efforts and see real long-term results.

Are you looking to improve your website’s ranking in search engines? If so, then you need to know how to do SEO.

SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of improving your website’s visibility and ranking on search engine results pages. Optimizing your website for search engines can increase your traffic and get more visitors to your site.

But how do you do SEO? It’s not as challenging as you may imagine. To help you get started, consider these easy suggestions:

1. Use keywords: Keywords are the foundation of SEO. When you choose keywords for your website, choose ones relevant to your site’s content and popular searches.

2. Use keyword-rich titles and descriptions: When you create titles and descriptions for your web pages, use keywords that are relevant to the page’s content. This will help your pages rank higher in search engine results pages.

3. Optimize your website for mobile: More and more people are using mobile devices to access the internet. Ensure your website is optimized for mobile devices so people can easily access it on their phones and tablets.

4. Use social media: Social media is a great way to promote your website and attract visitors. Use social media to share your website’s content and to interact with potential Guest blogging for beginner’s current customers.

With the advent of marketing channels like email, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and others, you can use these other channels to drive users to your content.

How Important is Link Building and How Does it Relate to SEO?

There’s no doubt that link building is important for SEO. After all, links are one of the key ranking factors for Google.

There’s a lot of debate about how important link building is. And there’s also a lot of confusion about what link building is.

So, in this post, we’ll clear up all that confusion and answer the question of how important link building is for SEO. But, first, let’s define link building. The act of obtaining links from other websites to your own is known as link building.

There are a few different ways to do this, but the most common is creating informative and interesting content that other website owners want to link to.

Link building is essential for SEO because it is one of the factors that Google uses to determine where a website should rank in the search results.

Generally, the more links a website has from high-quality websites, the higher it will rank in the search results. Of course, there are a lot of other factors that Google looks at when determining rank, but links are one of the most important.

So, having addressed the query “how important is link building for SEO?”, let’s talk about some of the best ways to build links.

The first and most important thing to remember is that quality is more important than quantity. Therefore, fewer high-quality links are preferable to many low-quality ones.

When looking for link opportunities, focus on finding websites in your niche that would be interested in linking to your content.

Good way link building is an important part of SEO, but it’s often misunderstood. Linking to articles is a great way to build links, but it’s not the only way.

Article marketing can be a great way to get links, but it’s not the only way. There are other ways to build links, but these two are the most important.

Guest Blogging for beginners and Your Web Marketing Strategy

Guest blogging is an essential part of any web marketing strategy. By writing and publishing articles on other people’s blogs, you can build relationships with other bloggers, drive traffic to your website, and improve your search engine ranking.

When guest blogging, keep the following in mind:

1. Make sure you’re writing for a relevant, high-quality blog. This will help you get the most exposure for your articles.
2. Ensure that your posts are interesting and well-written. This will help you build a good reputation as a guest blogger.
3. Be sure to promote your articles on social media. This will help you get more traffic to your articles and improve your chances of being found by potential customers.
4. When you write your articles, be sure to include links back to your website. This will help you drive traffic back to your site and improve your search engine ranking.

Guest blogging is a great way to build relationships, drive traffic, and improve your search engine ranking. Just be sure to keep these things in mind, and you’ll be on your way to success.

How to Succeed With Guest Posting on Quality Sites or Blogs

Are you looking to publish your guest post on a high-quality site or blog? If so, then you need to know how to write a guest post that will get accepted.

Guest posting is one of the best ways to get your content higher on search engines.

You need to keep a few key things in mind if you want your guest post to be accepted by a high-quality site or blog. First, your guest post should be well-written and informative. It should also be a good length – generally between 500 and 1,000 words.

You must ensure that your guest post is relevant to the site or blog you’re submitting it to. Read the site’s guidelines before submitting your guest post, and tailor your article to fit their needs.

Keep these 4 Basic Steps in Mind when Publishing Your Content or Writing a Guest Post

When publishing your content or writing a guest post, you should keep a few basic steps in mind.

Make sure that what you have to say is worthwhile.

Craft your message clearly and concisely. Third, edit and proofread your work before hitting publish.
Promote your content to reach your target audience. By following these simple steps, you can ensure that your content will be successful.

If you follow these tips, you’ll be well on getting your guest post published on a high-quality site or blog.

The post The Complete Guide to SEO and Guest Blogging for Beginners appeared first on ReadWrite.

The rapid adoption of Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices globally and across every sector is changing how we search and share information. IoT devices go beyond just personal technology like smartphones and computers. They include smart speakers, inventory trackers, and even refrigerators equipped with modern software, sensors, and processing capabilities that connect and exchange data.

In essence, these IoT devices form an intricate network of connected objects. They constantly share, collect, and analyze data while simultaneously performing the task at hand.

With the rise of new search queries and results, SEO is pivotal for IoT businesses. They seek an edge in an industry where users don’t just search on phones but also on IoT devices

The Intersection of IoT and SEO

The ultimate goal of IoT devices is to aid in making the best business decisions. They offer insights into users’ behaviors. In fact, By 2025, it is estimated the adoption of IoT devices will reach about 30.9 million devices. The trend towards utilizing IoT devices means these devices are becoming more advanced and dynamic.

Users will keep searching for products and services online, and businesses will persist in finding cost-effective ways to assist them. But how do these IoT devices attract new users?

SEO is a cost-effective strategy to promote top IoT devices to end users. Like IoT devices, we use search engines to share, gather information, and guide our choices.

The only difference today, with the help of IoT devices, is the entry point to access information.

While the idea of a massive network encapsulating billions of devices might be daunting, these devices provide SEO specialists with valuable information that informs successful SEO strategies. However, the rise of IoT devices has changed how and where we find informative content.

What is SEO for IoT Devices?

Not only do IoT and SEO intersect, but they are synergetic because they both work to understand and meet customers at the most critical moments using valuable data. In a nutshell, SEO for IoT devices includes utilizing search engines like Google to increase your device’s visibility via your website, user reviews, and collaborating with other IoT experts.

Simply put, IoT and SEO intersect regarding the data they depend on to tap their target audience. While IoT advancements significantly change how SEO specialists embrace data, the IoT and SEO industries are perfect for building digital twins.

It is no surprise that in today’s data-driven world, IoT is the primary source of collecting big data. At the same time, SEO is responsible for generating analytics-based solutions that are used in making more informed decisions.

SEO best practices have evolved to adapt to IoT devices like smartwatches, voice assistants, intelligent cars, and connected homes. For example, We have to consider semantic queries and keep our fingers on the pulse of the IoT landscape.

As users adopt more IoT devices in their lives, they will clearly expect their devices to have internet connection capabilities and the ability to connect with other devices. The magic in these connections happens when we reveal the value of IoT products through SEO.

With IoT devices providing new ways for people to access the internet, these change how people search for information and products. For instance, SEO strategies have had to move away from typical exact keyword searches in Google to consider conversational voice-based searches queried via smart speakers and virtual assistants like Apple’s Siri.

Let’s look at one of the world’s most sold IoT devices, the Google Home smart speaker, with 52 million units sold so far since launching in 2016. With its simple design and emphasis on voice commands, SEO specialists have had to optimize their content to be the first (and only) information Google Home’s system deems credible enough to share with its end user.

The Google Home has an array of smart features, but for the sake of the role of SEO, we will focus on seeking answers via Google’s search engine.

As you can see, compared to its Apple competitor, the Google Home device is rated higher due to user ratings and underlying SEO techniques, which we will discuss further in this blog.

Google Home uses voice commands, so optimizing your content for long-tail keywords is vital. This makes it easier for smart devices to process and analyze. As IoT devices conduct searches and communicate with others, Google uses this data to gauge your website’s expertise and credibility.

IoT devices aim to deliver benefits efficiently. By integrating SEO in promoting your product, more visitors will trust your innovative IoT solutions. These solutions offer advanced analytics and data-driven decision-making tools.

The Benefits Of SEO For IoT Device Providers

This year, the need for businesses using SEO rose to an all-time high as consumers consistently turn to search engines. With this being said, SEO remains one of the most viable and cost-effective ways to reach customers while understanding their behaviors in real-time. Organic search remains the primary source of website traffic, with Google leading with 92.02% of all searches online.

Utilizing SEO helps promote your IoT product and ensures users are eventually converting.

Here are some of the benefits of using SEO for IoT:

1. Generates Leads Cost-Effectively: Lead generation is one of the most beneficial elements of SEO. It cultivates interest in your business and products,  transforming attracted prospects into loyal customers. SEO helps you understand how your site can rank higher in Google’s SERPs. Therefore, please both search engines and prospective customers visiting your website.
2. Increases Brand Awareness: SEO helps Increase awareness by generating organic traffic to your website, especially If your website can earn and maintain a spot on the coveted first page of Google. Increasing online visibility sounds good, but it’s only effective if random website visitors become actual customers.
3. Gets You Ahead of the Competition: SEO also helps your site stand out from online competitors who want to attract the same high-quality prospective customers. The best way to rank well and get discovered by your target audience is to use SEO. It helps you outperform competitors, get discovered by customers, and boost lead generation.
4. Builds Trust and Increases Your Credibility: A high-ranking site in Google’s SERP is considered the highest quality with the most trustworthy product because it is built on a foundation of credibility. With SEO, you rank higher in SERP than competitors. This makes you the most trusted source of information in your niche.
5. Optimizes Your Website for Users on New IoT Devices: SEO reveals your customer’s search behavior, making it easier to hear and anticipate customer needs via their IoT devices. SEO reveals the devices your customers are using. This means you can adapt your website to fit these new points of entry.

Why is SEO important in the IoT industry?

The massive adoption of IoT devices means people are changing how they search. SEO enables businesses to keep up with how people use these devices and how their search habits shift.

Currently, the market size of the IoT industry is estimated to be over $600 billion, with many experts believing it will grow exponentially due to the increase in the adoption of more IoT devices. According to Statista, the worldwide Internet of Things (IoT) sector will be valued at over $1 trillion by 2030.

In this trillion-dollar market, SEO’s role is to monitor search behaviors and adapt content focus. It’s all about understanding how searches are conducted and engaging more people through varying methods.

SEO Strategies to Promote IoT Devices

• Prioritize Voice Search Optimization

One-third of US consumers own a smart speaker. This isn’t a surprise as voice-powered tech saves time and helps productivity, therefore saving money. As of 2023, there are at least 4.2 billion voice assistants in use.

Popular smart devices, like Amazon’s Alexa and Google Home, answer voice queries. This means their search engines prioritize voice, and SEO should follow suit.

Voice-powered IoT devices can enhance customer service, ensure consistent experiences, and boost efficiency. Voice searches often reflect natural language with longer sentences. This emphasizes the importance of long-tail keywords.

Optimizing your site for voice search helps devices like Alexa read your content to users. At the same time, IoT devices analyze this content. It’s key to identify long-tail keywords from user data for ranking. This maintains a balance between natural voice search and text search.

The challenge is balancing content for traditional typed searches with the longer, conversational phrases often used in voice search.

• Semantic SEO For Complex Searches

Many of these IoT devices are smart enough to understand the nuance of language, like conversational words users would speak rather than type out. In SEO, this is termed semantic search, focusing on intent and context. Therefore, it’s essential to optimize your content for Google to identify the context.

Consider the search term “Polo”. This could point to the equestrian sport, a German car, or a clothing brand.

• Integrate Interactive Search Content For AR/VR Devices

The adoption of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) devices is continuously growing, with Statista predicting a $297 billion value by 2024.

In 2023 alone, Meta unveiled the Meta Quest 3, their next virtual reality headset. Similarly, Apple introduced the Vision Pro AR headset.

As SEO adapts to trends, it’s vital to integrate interactive search content for such devices to rank higher in SERPs. Search engines will probably consider AR devices during crawling and indexing. They’ll seek content bridging organic search with AR/VR search.

• Utilizing Structured Data For IoT Specifications

In SEO, utilizing structured data like metadata is vital for Google to understand the content on your pages and products. When you tell Google what is on your webpage in a structured way, it is easy for the search engine to interpret the content. Structured data also give visual cues for specifications of IoT products like star ratings and product categories.

If you search for smartwatches based on ratings and reviews, structured data will show the product’s specifications and the site’s rating system.

• Leverage Online Content To Build Industry Authority And Visibility

Encourage Customers To Share Experiences With User-Generated Content

Data shows that 66% of people watch videos to learn about a brand or a product. But when customers themselves explain, review, and test the product in the video, it adds another layer. This is User-Generated Content (UGC), where videos can better explain what written details cannot.

Encouraging users to share their IoT product experiences through UGC can boost trust and revenue. Customers value seeing others discuss a device’s use, price, and other good and bad aspects of the product.

Many Gen Z customers today use video-sharing platforms like YouTube and TikTok as alternative search engines to Google. Take the Philips Smart Lamp, for example, where over 36.9 million views have been generated by UGC content in TikTok.

On TikTok, not only does a large amount of UGC content for Philips Smart Lamp show us reviews, but Phillips’ TikTok pages and other products rank based on customer keywords.

Collaborate With IoT Experts To Promote Product Credibility

Collaborating with IoT experts to promote your products ensures they provide honest, credible reviews to their trusted audience. Due to their credibility, these experts already have an audience seeking information through their content.

Let’s look at tech YouTube creator and reviewer, Alex Teo, who is known for reviewing the latest automated tech products and helping consumers make informed device buying decisions.

His review of the best collection of smart home products is an intelligent collaboration strategy to promote your product. Since Teo is a more minor creator, consumers are likelier to see his reviews as more authentic.

Over 32,000 people watched this review, potentially as a step towards making a purchasing decision. Keeping an eye on IoT-based search media will help you keep track of how and where your target customers are finding new IoT devices.

• Participate In IoT Events To Build Industry Authority Offline And Online

For a long time, SEO has focused on data from online tools (like Ahrefs keyword planner and SEMRush). However, turning to real-world events and offline information will help build visibility among other IoT businesses and customers.

Offline IoT events are essential for leveraging real-life data points to build credibility among customers and keep an eye on competitors.

There are many IoT events, like the Global IoT Tech Expo and Intelligence Cities US, where industry leaders collaborate and learn more from leaders in IoT-adjacent industries like cars, cloud technology, and smart city planners.

• Hyper-Personalized Content Boosts User Engagement

Experiencing more focus on personalization from an online business has become standard for today’s consumer. Furthermore, this is expected to improve through IoT as the devices collect more user data.

Let’s look at one of the more personal businesses utilizing IoT functions: Healthcare. HERO, a smart medication dispenser is used by many elderly patients who rely on home treatments and pill intake. The HERO connects with your phone and smartwatch via WiFi to alert family/caregivers to monitor the pill intake.

Of course, with personalization comes privacy concerns. The HERO dispenser allows users to remove certain information they once shared, like names and passwords, email, contact info, or health conditions.

The pinnacle of personalization in the IoT journey is when we gain valuable insights through the devices. This allows you to manage the outcomes for future personalization, making it easier to hear and understand your customers.

This trend of hyper-personalized content will increase with more IoT devices becoming interconnected with more data about customers’ search histories and behaviors.

• Build Trust Through Blockchain Technology And Transparency

Privacy and cybersecurity are among the main concerns with connecting all of our devices to collect data. Many businesses leverage the information derived from smart devices to promote products strategically. Conversely, others may use this access too much, overwhelm the customer, or raise privacy concerns.

However, integrating blockchain in IoT devices improves security because of its decentralized data storage and sharing. The global blockchain IoT market size was estimated at $351.9 million in 2022. Similarly, showing transparency in the type of data you are storing and using and why you are using it empowers customers to share their information more wisely.

But how do security and trust influence your SEO content?

Google’s algorithm rewards site content consumers trust, usually through proven results and transparency. So, blockchain is worthy of consideration. Every data entry in blockchain technology is visible and verifiable.

This transparency influences SEO by building credibility and enhancing a business’s online reputation. It positively impacts rankings in Google’s SERP (Search Engine Results Page).

This transparency is particularly important for IoT devices because users need to trust the device with which they share information. Relaxed security or not using blockchain can result in your website losing priority in IoT device searches.

The Future Of SEO In The IoT Industry

For now, Google remains the most extensive website traffic tool, as Google Analytics is used by 85.3% of all websites. The future of SEO in the IoT industry points to a shifting focus on voice search and keeping abreast of IoT developments and trends.

Another rapidly growing trend is the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI). SEO experts may turn to AI to collect and analyze information from IoT devices faster than before and use AI to improve their content to ensure it ranks higher in search engines. But, Google does penalize content that it perceives as AI-generated spam.

Additionally, with more users turning to their phones over desktop searches, Google has had to move to mobile-first indexing, which favors content optimized for mobile search. For this, Google recommends aligning all content and metadata is the same for desktop and mobile sites.

The rise of IoT devices means SEO specialists are constantly ‘future-proofing’ their strategies to optimize for more in-depth voice queries automated sensors, and have strong data analysis tools. SEO specialists are working to address future search queries and optimize content to meet the changing needs of target users.

Conclusion

With the trajectory of the IoT industry, businesses keen on implementing SEO will see a significant boost in organic traffic. With a little patience and consistency, the return on investment in an SEO strategy will be clear in time.

The IoT and SEO industries constantly keep up with algorithms, software updates, and technological advancements. These aspects can shift the number of visitors to their sites and engage with the sales process. But one thing is for sure: IoT opens the door to new SEO strategies, while SEO paves the way for greater success.

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