How to Ace Your Content Marketing Contribution

By Michael Cohn  |   Submitted On June 02, 2016

  

By now, you probably realize how important content marketing is for your business. However, it is not enough to merely write content marketing materials. You need to do a really good job with them and truly touch your target audience.

You need to stand out from other competing content marketers

In a world where there is so much content online and so many business people who are trying to make their mark and to be the chosen ones, you need to do a really good job at being the outstanding one, the one who is able to solve the reader's problem.

• Establish and position yourself as the subject matter expert (SME): In order to be regarded as the SME, you need to establish a relationship with the other person. Once you have done that, you will need to build that relationship and nurture it until it becomes strong and enduring. At that point, you will be on your way to being regarded as a SME. That means that the other person will come to you first when they need what you are offering. That is absolutely the position that you want to be in. However, it is important to understand that it won't happen instantly. It takes time to solidify your position as SME.


• Everything in its time: The most important thing that you need to remember when it comes to your marketing content is that you must build the relationship before you can hope to sell anything. The reason for that is that you must build trust and credibility before anything else can or will happen. Without the relationship, nothing else well happen. That doesn't mean that you will never sell your products and/or services. It just means that you need to follow the steps in the right order. You can't skip any steps. Build the relationship and, at the appropriate time in the future, you will get everything that you want and all of your efforts will pay off.


• Figure out what your target audience wants and needs: Before you start writing any content, you must build your content marketing strategy. That strategy should be well-planned and properly executed. Once you have done that, you will be able to customize your writing to suit the needs of your target audience members. Remember always to follow the concept of WIIFM (What's In It For Me?). In other words, you must always put the needs of your target audience member above your own needs (and that of your business) and remember to leave your ego at the door. There is absolutely no room for ego in this situation, at least not if you want to get anywhere with your brand and your business.


• Knowing exactly how to customize your content: Once you have determined what your target audience wants and needs, it is time to customize your content so that it is the best that it can be for them. It actually should not be that difficult to accomplish. Once you have been able to wrap your mind around what your target audience needs and wants, it won't require so much effort on your part to make that happen. Of course, it is important to remember to include your story in that content because your goal is to touch the other person on an emotional/human level.


• Build a solid foundation for your content marketing: Once you have all of the pieces of knowledge in place, the next thing that you will need to do is to build a solid foundation for your content marketing. Before you do anything else, you need to build a foundation that is strong and that will stand the test of time. Your foundation should contain a specific type (or types) of content, it should be built on a specific content platform (blog, video), you will need to share your content in a consistent manner, and you should have the realistic expectation that your content will yield the results that you are seeking eventually (revenue, interactions, solid relationships, etc).


• Leveraging the audience: At that point, you will want to build up your target audience(s). What you will want to do is to increase your target audience and broaden who they are and what they want. You want loyal clients (eventually), not one-night stands. It is important for you to keep in mind that without your audience, you won't have a business. It is really that simple.

Conclusion

If you work long and hard at perfecting your content marketing materials, you will undoubtedly achieve what you set out to accomplish. They will eventually yield amazing results. Always keep in mind that you have more to learn and you will continue to perfect what you have. Your first goal is to get it on paper. After that, you can work on perfecting it until it hits the mark with your target audience.

Michael Cohn is the founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of CompuKol Communications. He has over 25 years of experience in IT and web technologies. Mr. Cohn spent a significant amount of time at a major telecommunications company, where his main focus was on initiating and leading synergy efforts across all business units by dramatically improving efficiency, online collaboration, and the company's Intranet capabilities, which accelerated gains in business productivity. He also reduced company travel and travel costs by introducing and implementing various collaboration technologies.

His expertise includes business analysis; project management; management of global cross-matrix teams; systems engineering and analysis, architecture, prototyping and integration; technology evaluation and assessment; systems development; performance evaluation; and management of off-shore development.

Mr. Cohn earned a Master's degree in project management from George Washington University in Washington, DC; and a Master's degree in computer science and a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, NJ.

Mr. Cohn is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Michael_Cohn/404898

5 Simple Tips for Maximised eCommerce Success

By Souvik Ganguly  |   Submitted On March 17, 2016

  

Every online shopping platform has a unique working style, making generalized assessment extremely difficult. Marketing strategies of an online chocolate store and a portal that sells mango milkshake online will naturally be different. However, there are some basic practices that tend to work in most cases. You can spend millions in advertisements, but without the right basics the chances of a successful run is quite low. I will list the most important tips that can maximize your success without having to spend a lot.

First impression is the one that counts

If your website fails to strike a good first impression, the other factors won't even matter. You can have the best logistics partners, the best deals, and the widest range of quality products, but all that will practically mean nothing without a good first impression. By first impression, I mean the first-screen feel. Try to showcase your best products and deals in the first screen without making it clumsy. The initial feel has to be attractive without being heavy. Simple layout with readable fonts, soothing color combination, and intuitive interface are the first three must-haves in any commercial website. You must realize that online users are not known for their patience when it comes to assessing a website. Most users tend to decide the fate of a website within the first 10 seconds. That is all the time that your website will have to attract and lengthen the stay duration of a new user.

Customer's trust is your first priority

When it comes to running a successful business, customer trust is a must-have. If you run a bakery business, try to be a trusted platform before asking your customers to buy bakery products online. The entire marketing strategy will become much easier if your brand is in the customer's good book. Customer trust is easy to gain if you strictly follow a transparent operating policy and consistently offer high-quality products. Like all other businesses, the eCommerce industry also revolves around customer trust. Even a single dissatisfied customer can hurt your market reputation.

Have a simple operating process

Confusing your customer is the last thing that you should do. The competitive nature of the current market has no room for a time-consuming operating process. Try to keep things simple and short. Easy search options and internal run-time search optimization are absolute necessities for eCommerce platforms. Your website should be able to predict the desired product based on recent search inputs and showcase them accordingly. No modern-day user will take the pain of going through your entire website for a particular item. All pages should be interlinked with variable tabs and buttons. Do not try to be creative with button labels. You must avoid being over creative with buttons and tabs. Use the most obvious and popular label to avoid creating any confusion.

Boosted purchase decisions

Use your back-end data correctly to identify the most popular categories and products offered by your platform. Prioritize your products according to their likability among users. Allow customers to add and remove multiple filters in their search options. As a business website you will naturally try to give your customers options, but too much of anything is usually bad. Think from a customer's point of view and shape your website accordingly. Have checkout buttons and related links on every product page. Never try to push-sell products, if you want to do well in the long run.

Data stream your products correctly

The on-site-search and filter navigation are critical to a website when it comes to sustained user footfall. Try to stream your data as perfectly as possible. Use your back-end and run-time traffic data correctly to make your website appealing and desirable.

http://www.salebhai.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Souvik_Ganguly/2242677

Facebook Ads To Generate Leads

By Rick Toney  |   Submitted On March 03, 2016

  

1

Real estate marketing used to be about referrals, direct mail and flyers. Now, it's gone on-line and marketing through Facebook is an excellent digital marketing opportunity. If you are looking for an ad platform that allows precise demographic and behavioral targeting, then look no further than Facebook. This cost effective medium allows for a competitive advantage among local competitors.

If you are a Facebook user, then you have seen sponsored ads creep into your news feed. If you are thinking about creating a Facebook ad to generate leads, then you will need to get a few things in order to begin. The first must have is a Facebook business page. While it doesn't take a marketing professional to create Facebook ads, it does take some time to develop an ad set and make sure the ads are working. Each ad allows for an image as well as text and a call to action button. A variety of options are available for ad placement varying from a right-hand column advertisement to a mobile or desktop news feed. Understanding your target audience is an essential component in creating any successful Facebook ad campaign.

Ad Targeting

Facebook marketing allows for laser-focused targeting of leads and utilizing Facebook ads to promote real estate services can be a very cost-effective method for gaining qualified leads. Among the top targeting areas are income, behaviors and interests as well as geographic Location. As an example, Facebook offers a behavioral category that's termed "Likely to Move." Other great lead generation possibilities include targeting by life events or home value.

Ad Budgets

Ad budgets can vary significantly, but the biggest thing to pay attention to is the amount of return that you get. Most recommend starting off with a lower advertising budget that won't break the bank. Then determine how the ad is working through engagement and conversions.

Advertising can be done for as little as $2 a day with some major companies spending upwards of $200,000 per day. There are two different pricing systems that Facebook offers: cost per click (CPC) and cost per mile (CPM). The CPM is what you pay per thousand impressions whereas as the CPC allows you to set a price that you will pay for every time someone clicks on your Facebook ad.

Ad Objectives

Without having clear goals in place for a Facebook ad campaign, then you are wasting money. Facebook offers "objectives" which allow you to choose what you want from your ad campaign. Do you wish to increase website conversions? Promote a page? Get people to claim your offer? There are a wide variety of options available to choose from, but the increase in website conversions should be what you want to focus on primarily if the goal is to capture leads.

Capturing Leads

Want more leads? Sure everyone does. But many don't know what to do with them once they get a lead. Having a system in place to capture leads before placing a Facebook ad is crucial. Some wing the Facebook ads and wonder why little to no results are realized. Without planning ahead and having a solid lead capture system in place, the time and money spent on Facebook ads aren't worth it. Obtaining contact information, if only an email will help build up a database.

Without the ability to generate leads business won't come. That's why Facebook ads are a great and cost-effective way to generate highly qualified leads for just about any business. Real estate marketing experts generally agree that Facebook is one of the top ways to gain quality leads. Every day over 900 million people log in to Facebook, so it is a great platform to reach people on for a lead generation tool. Setting up a Facebook page is free, it's only when you want to create an ad that it costs money. Utilizing Facebook's advertising program as an inbound marketing tool can be done through highly targeted ads. A recent Merchant Circle study reported that over 20 percent of small businesses in America have utilized Facebook to help promote their business. And, over 65 percent of businesses stated they would use Facebook ads again. Facebook ads offer flexibility and are also user-friendly to set up and maintain.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Rick_Toney/2103701

Visit also my 10k in a 100 day's challenge.

http://myfirst10kbusiness.blogspot.nl/

How To Get Instagram Followers Fast

By Jovia A. D'Souza  |   Submitted On April 08, 2016

  

Instagram is another of the many social networking sites operating out on the web today. It is a platform where you can share your photos privately or publicly. Now, if you want to reach out to a wider audience, you have to start collecting your Instagram followers.

Here are a few legit and tried and tested techniques to get Instagram followers fast.

Public accounts -

If you have a private account, it's only your friends who can see what you share. Hence, the first step to getting Instagram followers fast is to go public. For those of your really worried about privacy, you can always keep a check on what you choose to share.

Hashtags -

Instagram uses hashtags to filter photographs. When you search for photographs, the social media network will display all the photographs with a common hashtag. Popularity is not the only criteria when selecting the hashtags to go with your photographs. You should also use relevant ones. 3 is an ideal number of hashtags to use with your photograph.

Regular uploads -

A dormant account doesn't usually get too many followers. Instagrammers on a regular basis tend to unfollow inactive accounts. Hence, the strategy is to refresh your account with new, original and captivating content.

As a rule of the thumb, don't post too little and don't flood your page. A photo daily is a good standard.

Use filters -

Why you should use filters? Well, they really improve the look of your photos adding a more personalized touch. This sense of added beauty is enough to draw more followers who love following quality work. Check how a particular filter looks before you actually apply it.

Picture collages -

Instead of uploading a lone picture, you can combine multiple images into a single one. Such images are more engaging as they tell a story. There are several paid and free, third party collage makers and photo-editing apps you can use for the purpose.

Time it right -

The most breathtaking photographs will have no viewers if you post it when the entire Instagram community is asleep. The peak times on Instagram are in the morning before work and in the evening after work. This is when most Instagrammers check their accounts. So, time your uploads right.

Follow, like and comment -

Yet another tip to increase your visibility on Instagram is to follow others. They might follow you in return. Take it a step further by liking and commenting on other's photos and videos. You're likely to grab the attention of the photo owner as well his/her followers. It might prompt them to check out your Instagram account, increasing the likelihood of followers.

Sync with Facebook -

With Facebook taking over Instagram, you can now share your photographs across both the platforms by integrating your Facebook and Instagram account. This way your Instagram activity gets streamed on to Facebook. Facebook Friends that also have an Instagram account will start following you, if they like what you upload.

Call to Action -

Your captions should have a strong Call To action. You should aim for better engagement with your captions. In that, they should compel them to comment or start an interesting discussion.

So, these are different ways in which you can get Instagram followers fast. You can also join micro-blogging groups and participate in discussions there.

Instagram, the photo-sharing site had gained immense popularity over the last few years. With most social networking sites, the more followers you have, the more you are able to leverage their potential.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Jovia_A._D'Souza/1830188