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The Social media is undoubtedly is a wide place to promote a business. But, should you just start spending your time and money on it?

In this post, we will be discussing the future of social media marketing that will be of help for you to decide.

 

Monetization Increase

Although the social media is now primarily used mainly for business purposes and also for entertainment. The monetization opportunities will also be increased in the nearest future. The written content seems to be an easier option mainly for monetization in the next decade. A number of netizens have even started to believe recently that the blogging is gradually dying. However, the medium is constantly growing on the other hand which have proven that the written content is still valuable.

The platform contains a massive audience and also allows content writers to begin writing. The platform also help in publishing on it and then earning money immediately. For the video creators, the Facebook has recently introduced video and have also introduced monetization that has been very much popular. Undoubtedly, almost all of the social media will now focus on providing the monetary value to its users in the future.

 

Rise of Micro-Influencer

The paid campaign for the products and services is confirmed a proven and a long-lasting approach for the business promotion. However, the online-based businesses seem to go in a much different way. They are now hiring influencer marketers more than they do before.  All for the purpose of promoting their products and to grow their followers organically. A survey of Startupbonsai came out with a finding that about 17% of companies are willing to spend about half of the marketing budget for the influencer marketing. It has also clarify how popular the marketing approach is. Social networks like the Instagram have now become a perfect platform for the influencer marketing due to their high engagement rate. In the nearest future, the influencer marketing will become a big portion of the social media marketing.

Artificial Intelligence

Many areas of our daily life is making use of AI. In the case of the social media, the scenario will still be the same. We are already experiencing many of the social media platforms features that is in control by the AI. For instance, the chatbot is a very great invention of the modern technology that is assisting businesses to handle the customers during busy hours. Though the technology still has some other limitations, the chatbot will still be more humanized in the nearest future.

Automated Campaign

At this present time, we are still highly dependent on a good social media marketing service provider like that of SMM WORLD for a paid campaign. Agencies like them will analyze the market data and will also help us to set a perfect campaign for the promotion of a business.

SMM automation is one of the most discussed topics in this our recent times. If possibly the revolutionary change occurs, the campaign optimization and the monitoring will be quite effortless. Even, the automated system will possibly discover the perfect audience to target for an ad all by itself.

Brand and Demand

Both points-of-view have merit – but they are really driving a worrying fragmentation in the marketing activity. The CMOs are spending just less time in creating the strategy. And far more of it refereeing misinformed ‘brand’ versus the ‘demand’ battles in the board room.

The Brand and the demand are two sides of the same coin. In front of the ideal prospect, and at the best time, will deliver some far better results if that prospect is already equipped. And if the prospect has some form of brand knowledge and understanding. Operating a demand campaign in a brand vacuum is a massive waste of marketing resources.

A successful marketing takes a holistic approach and though the most skilled expert in the demand generation. Needs to first understand the brand to ensure that every aspect of the marketing mix works.

Obsessive Measurement

Of course, many of the loudest voices that are located in the c-suite will be shouting that the ‘brand’ is a nebulous concept. While the ‘demand’ can be tracked and can be also assessed in an extraordinary detail. Again, this reinforces the lack of understanding into how good the marketing works. In so many different ways, the digital marketing’s inherent ‘measurability’ is to be named as its Achilles heel. Encouraging the judgement of marketing activity only on the quantitative performance.

Companies are endlessly demanding the measurement of brand perception and the brand awareness – and also the ROI from the brand campaigns. This totally misses the point – the brand as a holistic concept is not just implicitly measurable. (Although investors certainly are flocking towards the companies with excellent brand recognition) but it is highly valuable within the overall marketing mix. Strong brand awareness coupled with the positive brand perception will simply make it far easier for you. So you can create marketing qualified leads (MQLs). It will also ease the conversion process; it will in fact set the foundation for customer expectation.

In addition to the explanation of the value about combining strong brand and the demand campaigns. Many of the CMOs also have to justify the basics of marketing activity. Why, ask the management teams, is money just being wasted on the multiple customer acquisition channels? when one or two have so clearly outperform the rest?

Wrong Questions

While such kind of questions may make some sense in a linear operational process. The logistics or the manufacturing, for example – the marketing, irrespective of the technology and irrespective of the metrics, remains a far more nuanced activity.

Good marketers are aware of the importance of testing, importance of evolving strategy and also building the right messaging. They know that in a constantly changing market, the performance is never static. Customer expectations can change, the cultural events will influence the relevance, even the appropriateness, of activity. Individuals will cave in to the management pressure to focus only on the demand. On today’s top performing channels – and the business will then suffer as a result.

We understand that – like any of the other profession – marketing is not magic and viral is not a strategy. Rather, there is a process that it follows to build momentum, to gain traction, and to gain results. But starting with the industry best practices, we can develop and also implement the best roadmap to achieving your business results.

In our today’s rapidly changing world, there is a significant role to carry out experimentation. And it is important to listen to a variety of perspectives in order for you to maintain agile.

But you should know that experimentation is not a substitute for guessing.

As marketers, we have extensive experience and extensive knowledge in what moves the human behavior: qualitative and the quantitative. That experience is just the starting point for a successful strategic implementation.

Marketing is not a guessing game. It is not simply just having an opinion. The fact that I have an opinion about the baseball does not make me a legend hall-of-fame pitcher. Or even a member of the minor leagues. Self-diagnosis does not make you a qualified doctor.

It is a profession, that we have invested hundreds of hours in making researches, the education, and the implementation. It is only by bringing our background knowledge to the table that we can start helping your business expand.

Social Media and Conversation

The Social media a great tool for sparking and for building on conversations. It all begins with the content marketing and the right choice of the social media platform to facilitate the exchange. People are known to be innately social beings who crave connection and also interaction. The social media has been that link that enables businesses to possibly leverage personas and humanize their brands to their target audience. For you to humanize the brand is for you to act just like a friend to the consumer. One they are pretty familiar with and find easily relatable.

Hence, instead of you always selling on these platforms, the goal here should be to build a community. By driving conversations with the current consumer trends, the educating, showing behind-the-scenes moments making use of appealing images and videos. And also setting the brand up in the consumer’s mind as the preferred choice. We can see a good example on the platforms such as the Twitter. Where brands such as the Cowry wise or the Piggy vest leverage trends and they share jokes with the consumers.

Community Engagement

A community is a group of people that are connected by a single cause or an attribute. Some elements have linked people together. A growth strategy as a marketer is for you to create a community around a business or around a particular product. The Community engagement helps in building loyalty as it feeds directly into the needs of the consumer.

The conversation is no “one-way” street with the consumer. As they are in tune with the happenings and the works of the business. For instance, the Disney company has a strong community within the entertainment industry.

All these strategies available enable a business to reach the customers. And reach them more precisely and more effectively.

 

For you to succeed as a small business often times comes down to the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. You will need to employ many of the powerful marketing strategies available.

Long-term success means having a consistent revenue. However, the continuity of success for a small business is not just about a numbers game; it also acquires a greater depth.

Checking from a marketing point-of-view, a long-term success can be achieved. If you are able to consistently maximize the ROI from your campaigns.

Targeting

Consider the segmentation as the process of evaluating the market. The next step to go, which is marketing has to do with the decision making. We make decisions after all, regarding where we should be focus. Analyzing the market may end up resulting in various segments. It is not unexpected that we may find many of the opportunities out there waiting for us. Still, we will need to decide which one we have chosen to go for. The criteria used are quite so simple.

The first of it has to do with whether we have the essential resources to start entering a certain segmentation of the market. Perhaps, it seems like we have to make our horizons smaller. And then settle for pieces of the market we can actually serve. We do not want to run into something that is bigger than what our pocket can afford.

The second part is for you to see where we can have the most profit. This will mainly be answered if we can check in which area that it is possible. Where we can expect to have the greatest customer value over time.

You should keep in mind that a business is not just built in only one day and its profits should be expected to follow a particular plan. Do not think of the profits short-term. Instead of turning into the markets where manufacturing the product is of a low cost. You want to step into markets where the price you can put on the product is justified to be very high.

Differentiation

Differentiation is known to be the step where we want to find some details that will let our product stand out from all the competitions around. The techniques to be done are numerous but the main idea is to consider what is already provided by the competition. And create something new that will be really hard to copy so that you will have enough time to launch and to establish your product.

Positioning

Once everything is cleared out the company will have to find smart ways to communicate the beneficial aspects of the product to the potential customers. The identification of the market that has been done afore time as an initial step. Provides a whole bunch of useful information to help clarify how the particular group of consumers should be approached.

Hilal notes that for a long time email has fallen victim to a mass-marketing approach. Given increased and also scrutiny on how the consumer data is collected and is deployed. However, in the current climate this can also be the primary vehicle for an increased personalization in both messaging and also promotion. A paradigm shift that needs to occur to not only the drive sales, but the foster growth and the retention among customers.

“ The Email campaigns will be critical for engaging the buyers and getting them to take action if based on the first data.” Says Sara Spivey, the chief marketing officer at the Braze. “ The New developments that is currently in the email personalization, like AMP [accelerated mobile pages] for email, will give the marketers a great toolkit to keep their email communication relevant. And to keep it within the boundaries of increasing privacy requirements for a very long time to come.”

 

Making Use of Email to Drive the Retail Renaissance

During the year 2020, the retail sector had to struggle to cope with the brick-and-mortar lockdown crisis. That resulted in the sluggish sales. The unique opportunity that these unprecedented conditions afforded the retailers. However, meant a doubling down on the digital strategies that not only meant for better stores of actionable consumer data. But it was also an increase in digital outreach. One study showed that the email volume increased by about 27% over the last year. As we are emerging from the pandemic conditions, the retailers are facing pent-up consumer demand. And the digital framework to engage both in-person and also in digital audiences.

This unique scenario begs the question: How does a retailer keep an online customer relationships? And the business models flourishing while also still encouraging people back to the physical stores?

“The answer will simply be through how well and how possible you can both understand the customer audience you have built in the pandemic. And then you still effectively engage with it to cross-pollinate the virtual and also the physical experiences you can now offer.” Says Richard Jones, the chief marketing officer of Cheetah Digital. “The modern email marketing platforms will either look like the CDPs (consumer data platform). Or they may indeed be the fully fledged CDPs in their own right.

They are extremely rich sources that contains information to segment and to analyze an audience. So that they will understand what messages to send and to whom and on what channels to drive an outcome. The Email marketers are in a great position to help their customers explore both the physical and the online experiences a retailer offers. By understanding each of the customer and what will excite them.”

At a time when the National Retail Federation is projecting the astounding growth that is in the retail sector. And coupled with the increased scrutiny over the consumer data. If the email is leveraged correctly and utilized as personalized, it will add value.

 

As new data strategies has become the norm, the email remains a vital tool in the marketers’ arsenals.

The way and manner brands and marketers are now feeling about the email appears to be cyclical. Every few years it seems like there is an industry-wide reevaluation of its efficacy. As the landscape of digital strategies has continued to evolve. However, more of emphasis has been placed on better consumer data, now is the exact time for marketers to fully embrace the email. Embrace the email as an essential part of their personalization and their promotions efforts.

Consumer Data

Considering the report by the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s (IAB) most recent report, as well as the forthcoming legislation that is surrounding the consumer data. Brands are now in a position where they can center their data and marketing strategies around the concept of a value exchange. This value exchange can be a loyalty programs, a better personalized consumer experiences, an individualized promotions. It can even be a free content in exchange for consumer data. Email is a very vital channel within this framework because it has long been a conduit for one-to-one communication between a brand and a consumer.

By the leveraging of more robust first-party data, and also the focusing of outreach strategies under the umbrella of the value exchange. The brands are in a unique position to begin transforming their email programs into an engine. That will not only be of help in driving the unprecedented projections for retail growth in the forthcoming year. Also will be reinforcing the reopening strategies for the brick-and-mortar retailers.

Email As the Relationship Builder

Email surprisingly is resilient; as a communication channel that has underpinned the invention of the internet. It is the single most pervasive mode of the one-to-one communication for the brand to the consumer messaging. Because of its prevalence in everybody’s lives, email is now a fertile testing ground. To make actionable the increased investment in more robust data. Like the first and the zero-party data.

So to say, with respect to the data and the consumer control. The email is known also as one of the most highly regulated modes of communication. The Consumers are given multiple options for them to control settings of which emails that they receive, even unsubscribe, and alter other preferences. Their inbox is also their own—it is a space that they own personally. And can browse at their pace, all based on their personal interest.

“One of the most unique thing that is known about the email marketing is that it is completely context managed by the consumer.” Says Sherene Hilal, the senior vice-president of the product marketing and business operations at the Bluecore. The consumer actively opens and then explores their inbox. In which it makes the signal that is from the email marketing the most predictive of the repeat purchase and the high quality data mainly determines the price, the product, and the category affinity of a shopper.”

 

 

You might want to consider to create a private messaging group for your students. The community building is easy on a platform that people are already very familiar with. Eventually, as people will start to talk about your class, their networks will hear about it, which in turn will bring you more revenue.

 

Do a weekly webinar
Weekly webinars are like the podcasts, but they have got several advantages.

With a webinar, you usually have about 45 to 60 minutes and a structured format, so you do not have to think up new material constantly. Additionally, it will only take one webinar script to get the job done. Over time, you can still refine your webinar and you can even record it and release it throughout the week.

For you to market your online class through the webinars, you can create a 45 minute presentation on a topic. Topic that is broad that your online course covers. Then you deliver a clear call to action at the end that articulates your main ideas and your focuses on the main concerns of your target audience. You will need to promote your webinars on the social media and through targeted ads to really get the word out there.

Also, as you are attracting more participants, the sheer size of the audience will be adding a valuable social element to your presentation.

Translate your courses into other languages

You can also effectively reach millions more people by simply translating your course into another language.

Do not stress about doing it yourself, either. There are plenty types of translators that you can hire to get your courses running in a different language. You can also find those low-cost sites to support you in the finding of a contractor to translate your course for just a lower price range.

Or as an alternative, your video content may just include automatic subtitle generation or a feature to add custom subtitles online. This will just eliminate the need to record the entire course over again. All you just need to do is for you to create quality subtitles that will allow native speakers of other languages to help access your courses from all over the world.

The eLearning is the future

The key to the success of your eLearning course is simply marketing.

It is quite challenging for you to create, design, and then perfect a progressive course that fulfills a specific learning need. Despite its very importance in the bridging of an important skill gap, the course cannot sell itself.

People are in need of the course that you are offering, and it is only through good marketing that you can convince them that it is necessary.

Throughout our everyday life, we are surrounded by marketing. It has become an art form for the marketers to convince people they need certain products and services for their lives to be changed. eLearning marketing is no different.

When you make use of some tactics to get your learning solutions recognized by those that stand to benefit the most from them, then your company will thrive.

 

 

 

 

The growing demand for “technology enhanced” eLearning solutions is currently driving the growth of the industry. It comes as no surprise at all that such a booming industry would even thrive in marketing.

One of the exciting factor is that for you to keep your eLearners. You can make use of this opportunity to promote your company through the giveaways and endorsements. For you to keep your learners engaged once the course is over, use this medium to start reminding them. With announcements about new lessons and new modules.

Collect feedback

For your course to be very successful, the learners need evidence that it will deliver results. If learners know that the others have been satisfied with the learning experience that you have provided, they will be more likely to enroll.

For this reason, it is of high importance for you to include the testimonials of past students in the launch of your course. It is more likely that a product with a known and proven track record will attract investors. More than the one without any recommendations at all.

As another method, you can also conduct a focus group to help gather feedback. Make sure that you are very open to constructive criticism because it is helpful in the long run.

Take advantage of this information to improve your course and then you will gain more perspective on how your it is being perceived. You will gain a lot of credibility when your satisfied learners endorse your course. Employing these tactics will be of help to you in building a more successful marketing campaign and the learner journey.

Use your social media

No matter which of the social media platforms that you are using to promote your business, you should begin your post with some teaser information as soon as possible about your online course.

While you are building your social media following, remember to avoid making all of your content posts about your course alone. Instead, make sure your social media channels provide your target audience with interesting content to get them interested.

The content that you are creating might come from other sources, and that is fine. Your audience will become accustomed to checking in with you daily if that is if you regularly post quality content on your social media. Once you have an engaged user base, you will have no problem marketing your own online course.

You can even utilize some certain apps to help you in marketing your courses to the exact audience that you are trying to reach. For example, some of the book summary apps are being used by authors to help them sell their books. This makes it pretty easier for people to start investing in buying a book when they have a summary. There is less or nothing to lose because the customer feels like they have gotten more information on the product.

The Business-to-Business (B2B) is a company that is providing services or products to other businesses, such as those that are involving a manufacturer and a wholesaler or a retailer.

The Business-to-Consumer (B2C) is the company that sells directly to the individual consumers. They are two separate business models that are serving different customer types: businesses and the other is direct to consumers.

Now, there are some factors that you will want to consider when you are creating your own customer profile—as much as the B2B is different from the B2C, so also are their consumers. So, here are some tremendous start-off questions to be asked and answered yourself so for you to get one step closer to understanding your consumer’s profile.

B2B
1. Do your goods or your services benefit a specific geographic location more than the other?
2. What particular range of revenue would a company need to have to afford your goods or your services?
3. Does your business target some specific personas within these businesses, whether it be the COO or the Director of Marketing?
4. What industries do you know would likely need or want the goods or services that you provide?

B2C
1. What kind of person would benefit from your goods or services?
2. Do your goods or your services benefit a specific geographic location more than another location?
3. Do your goods or your services help a particular target or a set of people, whether parents, seniors or the teens?
4. What is your consumer’s personal income bracket, and can they afford your goods or services?

You want to dip a little deeper? Good, it is advisable you should. You can check out some templates to build out your unique customer profiles. Keep in mind, that there is no such thing as just one type of customer. It is a great idea for you to build out more than one!

 

A Marketing Plan

Having a goal without a plan is really just a wish! And I hate to break it out to you, but four-leaf clovers do not work. So, let us start making a plan!!

Now, you should remember the three main marketing pillars that should be the foundation of every of the startup founder’s marketing plan are: the social media, the emails and the traditional/SMS.

There are so many reasons why it is very crucial to add social media to your marketing plan, and it is simple. First, it is the place where people spend most of their time online. This is not to say that you do not need a website. Of course you sure do, but there are about one billion active users on the Instagram even as we speak. The social commerce also entails the leveraging of social media algorithms to understand the customers’ social behaviours and their preferences.

Unfortunately, there is no magical manual for you to start a new business. I know, if only there was, right? And there is no such thing as the overnight success stories… that is all just hidden hard work. And no, we are not trying to make you scared or discourage you from becoming a startup founder. We just want to make sure you that know it is not an easy feat.

The satisfaction that you get from creating something (either big or small) feels so good, but it also add in some negativity, and there comes some complications. But with more satisfaction comes more of the obstacles that you will have to leap over.

One thing that we know for sure is that every startup journey starts with an existential crisis. We understand fully well that this investment becomes a branch of their life, and every other person that is a startup founder knows this.

So we want to first inform you that you should take a deep breath and then relax. Then, we are going to walk you through some of the explicit goals that you will need to set and some of the strategies that will help you to succeed.

Early Important Goals For Startups

Get Online

A crucial lesson that has been learned these past couple of years and that lesson is that being online is an absolute must if you want to survive. Of course, this also goes for any startup founder. The Dog walking company? Get online. The Personal trainer? Get online. The Scuba Diving Pizza Delivery Man? Interesting, but also, you can get online.

So how is it possible to you ‘get online’? There are a couple ways.
The First one is your website: This is your hub for the people to understand who you are and what you are selling.

Second, social: This is a great place where you can reach your target audience, you can also build brand awareness, and educate your consumers on the benefits of your goods or your services. You must have a firm understanding of your audience and also the message you want to get across before you start introducing your company to the whole world.

Provide Unique Profiles

As a startup founder, you have at least for one time or the thought once if your business plan is unique. Which is very smart. With so many businesses that are out there, you will want to stand out and offer something that is new and different to the world. This also stands to be true to our customers. So you must be able to establish and create your ideal customer. Remember that this will be changed and be also refined over time, but you must have the understanding of who would benefit from your products or services the most.

Now you must be thinking and calculating, how do I do this? A great place for you to start is to determine if you are a B2B or you are a B2C. And you just need to refresh your memory, here is what they mean:

The Business-to-Business (B2B) is a company that is providing services or products to other businesses, such as those that are involving a manufacturer and a wholesaler or a retailer.

The Business-to-Consumer (B2C) is the company that sells directly to the individual consumers. They are two separate business models that are serving different customer types: businesses and the other is direct to consumers.