7 Tips for Seeking Out and Seducing the Best Influencers to Love Your Brand

The influencer marketing gold rush is underway, and recent surveys confirm that budgets are continuing to grow in this area. Unfortunately, when a lot of money is headed in one direction so quickly, some of it gets thrown out the window. To avoid wasting your budget, it's more important than ever to form relationships with the right industry influencers.

Through mistakes and many lessons, I've learned that remembering these seven things can help you seek out and attract the best influencers to become long-term advocates for your brand:

1. The best influencers aren't always well-known.

Sometimes, higher-profile influencers are in the business for themselves. They've had people cater to them for years and expect you to bend over backward for them, too. For example, one of my more well-known relationships emailed me on a holiday weekend just days after my daughter's birth to ask me to do something for him. That's not a healthy relationship. But lesser-known influencers usually aren't sidetracked by self-promotion or fame, which makes them more likely to become true brand advocates for you.

2. The one thing influencers love more than money is more influence.

–– ADVERTISEMENT ––

Influencers are naturally attracted to influence, so do everything you can to build your own influence before seeking partnerships with them. In your own content strategy, do what you can to include these influencers in your work. Source their content, quote them in an article on your blog, mention them in your speeches, etc. My approach is to draw attention to those outside influencers who deserve more influence--those who are leaders and experts in their industries. As a result, I've formed solid relationships with many of these people.

3. Seek out influencers who are helpful people.

In one conversation with someone, I'm able to determine whether he or she is a helpful person. Helpful people listen to you and lend a hand because it's the right thing to do. They value the relationship and want you to succeed--and that makes them great influencers to work with. But if ego is involved or they clearly have an agenda, they probably won't help you unless there's something in it for them.

4. Earn the relationship before you pay.

Think about this: If you pay somebody $10,000 to be your best friend for six months and then ask him to stay your best friend even if you can't pay him again, do you think he'll be there for you? No. You should do all you can to naturally earn an influencer relationship before spending thousands of dollars to buy it. (Note: Sometimes, you have to pay up if there's no option, but at least attempt to earn it first.)

5. Make sure they actually have influence.

One of my friends who consistently shares my content on Twitter has about 250,000 followers. Fortunately, there are tools to help me track engagement, and I can see that almost no one interacts with our brand or my content when this person shares my content. However, I have another friend with about 5,000 followers on Twitter, and some kind of opportunity always comes when this person shares my content. Don't be fooled by the perception of influence.

6. Care about people beyond what they can do for your business.

One of our clients, John Ruhlin, is one of the leading appreciation specialists in the U.S. He and I had lunch recently, and I told him that my wife was having a birthday party. From the same conversation, he remembered a certain type of gift he once gave us that I told him my wife really enjoyed. On the day of her party, that gift arrived at my doorstep with a handwritten note to say happy birthday and that he appreciated our friendship. John Ruhlin is cemented in my mind as someone who cares about me beyond what I can do for his business and vice versa. And in return, I'll probably always be an advocate for him.

7. Remember the small things.

Just like any relationship, the small things matter most. The other day, I noticed that Jay Baer received his speaker's certification. Jay's received a lot of recognition in different ways as an influencer, but this time, he was being recognized for all the hours he's spent on planes and speaking to people and the positive reviews he's received for putting the time in. Right away, I sent him a personal note to congratulate him. I like to do small things like this for people because when someone does something small for me, it always sticks out.

Influencer marketing will only continue to grow, and it's up to you to make sure your budget is spent on building the best relationships with the right influencers. Whether it's mentioning an influencer on your blog or sending a small message about an accomplishment, it's important for you to build trust and stay top of mind in the right way to seduce influencers into becoming your long-term brand advocates.

Source : http://on.inc.com/2b0QZSC

Quote of the day

Quote of the day.

5 Essential Search Trends That Will Impact Online Revenue In 2016

What will search marketers need to focus on in the coming year to stay ahead of the curve? Columnist Jim Yu explores five trends to keep an eye on.

The search and content marketing world has undergone some major changes during 2015. The stage has been set for a shift away from producing content for its own sake. Instead, there is a trend towards the use of search and social data to guide content creation. This development will be a critical part of boosting engagement for brands and helping their content attract the desired audience.

Although the content itself has a central role to play in the conversion of customers, the importance of the more technical side of search optimization should not be overlooked. The industry maturation has also impacted where brands need to focus their efforts on the behind-the-scenes tasks that help to drive content forward and into the limelight.

Here are five SEO trends brands should pay close attention to as they move into the New Year.

1. Mobile Apps Will Need To Be Optimized

Mobile apps are likely to become an increasingly significant factor for search and brand exposure in 2016. The year 2015 already saw mobile searches overtake desktop searches, and the use of mobile apps has been growing. These apps are going to become essential for the mobile user experience.

Any doubt about the importance of apps can quickly be put to rest by noting that 52 percent of all time spent on digital media is consumed by mobile apps. Also, 42 percent of all mobile sales generated by the top 500 merchants came through mobile apps.

To keep customers engaged with the brand, these apps need to be optimized. Well-designed mobile apps should align with the organization and the brand message that you are promoting.

Remember that when people are searching for apps in the app store, they are just going to be seeing the icons with minimal information. All images used with the apps, particularly the icon, need to be visually engaging and encourage people to click to learn more.

As the app begins to find users, make sure to keep an eye on the ratings and reviews. If customers start to complain about any particular errors or usage struggles, then correct the problem right away and let people know that the issue has been addressed.

2. Structured Data Will Become Even More Significant

In 2015, Google announced the usage of their new machine-learning system, known as RankBrain. This A.I. technology has been designed to better understand the intent of searches. Google says that it has been particularly helpful when the search engine faces a query it has not seen before. This ranking factor has quickly become prominent, as the search engine giant claims that it is the third most important ranking signal in their algorithm.

These developments indicate that A.I. is likely to become an even more significant factor in 2016 and beyond. As Google and the other search engines are able to better incorporate machine learning into their algorithms, they can potentially develop an intelligent algorithm that can learn what customers are looking for and maximize their user experience by showing the best possible sites.

On a technical side, to anticipate this development, brands will need to focus on structured data. Structured data markup, such as that found on schema.org, helps websites communicate with search engines by precisely describing what is on the page rather than leaving it up to the spiders to interpret. This helps search engines display the website more accurately.

In the past, missing or inaccurate structured data markup could usually pass by unnoticed or with a minimal impact on brand performance. As the search engines become more intelligent, however, they are likely to also become more dependent upon this extra data — failure to do it correctly will have a greater impact on site success.

When using the schema.org markup, brands should always use Google Webmaster Tools to make sure the markup has been used correctly. The Structured Data Testing Tool will make it easy for brands to ensure that they have added everything accurately.

Brands should ensure that their markup has been used throughout the site consistently — particularly for rich content, such as videos on the website. Structured data markup will help ensure that rich snippets appear whenever possible, such as in video search results. This can increase the click-through rate for the site by making it look more appealing on the search engine results pages.

3. Site Layout Will Become More Significant

In 2016, engagement will take center stage. On the competitive content battleground, brands have to focus on increasing engagement to keep visitors interested and coming back to the site to progress towards conversion.

Site features, such as the layout, will be an important part of rising above the noise of the modern content battleground. When customers have trouble finding the information they need on a website, they are likely to just click back to search results. An estimated 50 percent of potential sales are lost because customers cannot find what they seek.

Ensuring that the site is optimized for visitors and conversions means primarily that it is easy for customers to navigate. Examine your site data and see how visitors are reacting. Are there certain pages that are not being visited? Are there high numbers of people who click on several different pages in rapid succession, only to then click off the site? These people were looking for something in particular but could not find it.

To counter this impact, you need to look at how your site is organized. Make sure that subcategories are easy to understand and navigate. Drop-down menus can be very helpful because they help to minimize clicking for the visitor. Consider adding an internal search, particularly for e-commerce sites, to help customers find what they need even easier.

Keep in mind that site layout and optimization also applies to mobile. To do this properly for smart devices, you need to make sure you understand what your customers do on the site. For example, providing the brand’s contact information and a click-to-call button up front can be very helpful. Look at your mobile data to better understand what customers are doing on your site and make sure that your mobile pages are ready to maximize the on-the-go user experience.

4. Links Will Still Be In The Spotlight

The first big Penguin update in over a year is anticipated to hit within the next few weeks. This update has promised to clean up link struggles that have been plaguing websites since the last Penguin release in 2014. This impending update has many people on their toes, wondering how this will impact link building.

Brands should be making sure that they are in a position to take advantage of this update and not get hit with penalties that will get the New Year started off on a bad foot. This means taking a careful look at the current link profile. Look for anomalies like sudden spikes in the number of backlinks for your page.

It is also important for brands to focus their efforts on earning backlinks that will have a positive impact on the page. Keep in mind that links from reputable websites, the ones that would positively impact a backlink profile, will be ones that need to be earned.

Solid websites know that linking to other websites will be like a vote of confidence for that site. These websites will only link to pages that they feel meet the quality and value that they provide for their own visitors. Building a quality backlink profile, therefore, means focusing on:

• providing high-value content for visitors
• creating a well-designed, easy-to-navigate website
• promoting content through social to get it in front of influences and reputable sites
• seeking guest posts on quality web pages.

On the flip side, brands should also review their backlink profile to identify any potentially problematic links. If you spot any spam sites linking to your page, disavow them through Google. It is not worth the risk of having these in your backlink profile with the new update coming.

5. Search Will Be Less About Just Website Rank And More About Overall Content And Online Presence

The year 2016 is likely to see maturation in online marketing as success becomes less defined by a website’s ranking and more about the overall online presence of the brand. The website will need to be well integrated with the rest of the online platforms, especially social media.

Facebook in particular has been working on developing a better search experience for users, and it is likely to become increasingly sophisticated in the coming year. That means brands have to be prepared to optimize their online presence on social media. This will become particularly significant with the growing importance of mobile apps, like the Facebook App and the YouTube App. Customers will likely use these with an increasing frequency, which means that the content posted on social media needs to be ready for these searches.

This optimization process requires paying close attention to both the posts made and how the profiles themselves are completed. Businesses should make sure that they describe themselves as completely as possible within the About Us sections. Use vocabulary that customers employ and data-backed keywords. The posts should incorporate high-quality images and engaging text. Use the Open Graph Protocol to maximize your control over how your content appears when posted to Facebook. Make sure that articles included are mobile-friendly. Link posts across the different platforms, such as including links back to the website and blog.

Overall, stop thinking of website development and social media marketing as two different entities. They should instead be treated as a two parts of the brand’s overall web presence.

Final Thoughts

As the online marketing industry continues to grow and refine itself, marketers are likely to feel the pressure as they struggle to stay on top of the latest developments and ensure that their search and content marketing initiatives perform.

2015 has been an exciting year as the industry has developed, and the next year also seems to have many new trends in store. I look forward to seeing what other exciting developments evolve over the next 12 months.

Source : http://selnd.com/1TY84vw

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8 Web Design Hacks for Entrepreneurs

That Want to Attract More Traffic, Conversions and Revenue

Having a website in today’s market is no longer an option, but different businesses utilize their websites differently. Some use their website for instant revenue generation e.g. ecommerce sites, while others simply rely on their website for lead generation through phone calls or email subscriptions. However, one thing is common for all website owners: you want to use your site to grow your business.

There are a number of strategies business owners can leverage to attract more traffic and build that traffic into leads and eventually conversions through sales. This article provides eight seemingly simple but critical web design strategies that have the potential to improve your traffic, leads and conversions.

#1. Find out what elements visitors are clicking and scrolling to

Knowing which areas of the site visitors are clicking and scrolling to will help you to position your offers and CTAs in places where they are likely to attract the highest number of clicks. You can use heat map tools such as CrazyEgg which will show you not only which areas are being clicked on, but also the origins/sources of those clicks. CrazyEgg can also show you how far down your webpages visitors scroll.

Using this tool, you can carry out split testing to identify which locations are most lucrative for your CTA buttons i.e. areas where conversions are most likely to happen. Conversions don’t just come by having CTAs somewhere on the page, gaining insight into what places actually attracts your visitors and leveraging that is what brings conversions.

#2. Site conversion audits

Is your current web design structure optimized for traffic conversion? In reality, many web designers know how to create great-looking sites, but few understand what elements are required to maximize conversions. As a site owner, engaging a user experience (UX) expert to perform a comprehensive conversion audit is worth the investment.

Such experts will help you pinpoint conversion hurdles and recommend design changes that will maximize conversions prior to launching your marketing campaigns. In turn, you can deliver optimized targeted messages and minimize the amounts wasted on ineffective strategies and elements. You can learn how to split test different elements of your campaign to determine which are more effective for campaigns. With a strong foundation on your website, all future campaigns will be more effective.

#3. Trust signals and testimonials

Visitors are more likely to make purchase or submit opt-in information to businesses that they trust. You can contribute to development of trust by including real testimonials from previous customers and/or noteworthy industry partners. Showcase any accreditations, recognition and awards prominently, communicating to consumers that you can be trusted. Stay away from giving fake testimonials, which can be spotted easily and will immediately cause customers to distrust your brand.

#4. Split testing

The importance of split testing cannot be overemphasized. Very often in website design, small changes, like tweaking the color or wording of CTA buttons can lead to significant changes in conversion. There are a number of simple tools which allow you to create multiple versions of your landing pages with slight variations to determine which ones lead to better conversions. You can do this even if you don’t have advanced coding or development skills.

#5. Call tracking

Where you rely on multiple sources for lead generation especially relating to phone calls, it’s advisable to have unique phone numbers and dedicated landing pages for the different sources, this will enable you to track which source was most effective in phone call generation. However, given that the call track numbers are all routed back to the main lines, there will be no disruption to the handling of your phone leads.

Almost all call traffic service providers can give you a record of calls made, and you can then use this information to determine which aspects of your campaign are effective in lead generation and which need improvement.

#6. Google Analytics metrics and data

Google analytics provides valuable information on which sources of traffic are effective in giving conversions and what your traffic engages in prior to conversion. This insight can help you to make significant changes to your layout and strategy e.g. you would know which of your social media traffic is converting and hence be able to direct more resources towards the channels that are leading to more conversions.

Suppose for instance you could tell that most of your successful converts interacted with you on the blog before converting. You would know to focus on generating more high quality content and utilize available distribution outlets like Taboola and Outbrain to lead even more traffic to the blog.

Your Google Analytics data is a gold mine that can help you get rid of traffic sources that convert poorly and scale up efforts on those sources which have higher conversion percentages.

#7. Exit popup offers

Getting traffic from any source to your site is no small investment, even if you’re not running pay-per-click campaigns. The time, resources and effort directed towards social media marketing and SEO essentially means that there’s a monetary value attached to each website visitor.

Most of the time, visitors who leave are unlikely to return; it makes sense to try and convert them through any way possible. Setting up a popup exit offer can actually improve conversion rates, which over time contributes to a significant boost in your ROI.

#8. Live chat

Live chats are not the preserve of e-commerce websites. True, they’re important for providing clarifications that can save sales as well as opening up another avenue for your employees to guide consumers to make a purchase and perhaps cap it with related purchases. However, live chat facilities is useful for other sites as well.

For instance, a restaurant site can use their live chat to iron out details of reservations as well as provide directions on locations for customers. Ensure that your live chat is accessible on mobile devices, given most of such customers may need this information while on-the-go. Cheap to implement, live chat can significantly improve conversions for businesses across the board.

Source : http://bit.ly/1PUVaxi

FIVE RULES FOR CONTENT MARKETERS IN 2016

It’s the most wonderful time of the year: 2016 planning. With the New Year around the corner, we know content marketers are looking for insights and trends that will shape the year ahead and help their content stand out.

This morning, we released findings from one of the industry’s largest and broadest global surveys of consumer views on digital content. We surveyed more than 12,000 consumers across six countries to get a deeper understanding of evolving consumer expectations and how they are fueling marketers’ challenge. The report, titled “State of Content: Rules of Engagement for 2016” sheds light on five rules for content marketers to follow in optimizing engagement with their target audiences.

Design for the Multiscreen Reality

Consumers report using five different devices and, on average, 83 percent use 2.23 devices at the same time. While the majority of consumers report feeling good about it (81 percent entertained, 80 percent connected, 76 percent productive), nearly half (47 percent) say they are distracted. As attention spans shrink, good design and optimization are paramount. Consumers ranked display (65 percent) as the most important aspect when it comes to content experience in their personal life, and 54 percent listed overall good design, such as appealing layout and photography as important. Content marketers can’t attempt to “get away with” a one-size-fits all approach to content distribution: content must be well-designed and optimized for each viewing device.

Don’t Fall Victim to #TLDR (Too Long, Didn’t Read)

Consumers report lower patience for sub-par content experiences – with length a key factor. Nearly 9 out of 10 digital device users would switch devices or stop viewing content altogether if it fails to meet their quality, length and formatting expectations. Sixty seven percent of consumers would stop engaging if content is too long, and 79 percent would do the same if the content doesn’t display well on their device. Marketers need to deliver content in the right format, get to the point and optimize or consumers might say #unsubscribe.

Humor Makes Brands More Relatable

Seventy percent of global consumers agree that humor makes companies more relatable, but just 14 percent rate company-created content as entertaining. Globally, “making people laugh” was identified as the top personal motivator for sharing content. Content marketers should work to create authentic activations that entertain to help drive brand engagement.

In Our Relationships We Trust

In an era of high skepticism, authenticity and trust are critical. Consumers are more likely to engage with content they trust, but many are highly skeptical of most content they view online: 50 percent of consumers question whether negative comments or reviews have been removed, 49 percent wonder if an author was paid or incented to write a positive review, and 48 percent question whether a news article is biased. However, consumer trust in content increases as their relationship with the source grows stronger. Only 23 percent of consumers trust content from companies whose products they don’t buy, but if the source is a company from whom they do purchase products and have a relationship, that number nearly doubles to 43 percent. Brands need to work on building trusted relationships with their audience, which includes disclosing any endorsements, sponsorships and affiliations.

Don’t Show Up Uninvited

The majority of consumers understand the value of predictive recommendations, with 73 percent noting they are willing to share at least one piece of information about themselves and 71 percent reporting they are open to predictive recommendations from brands based on past behavior. Among consumers not willing to share their information, 40 percent believe companies could do something to ease their concern and 25 percent suggested “asking permission to access data” would make them more comfortable. This maps back to trust; consumers are most comfortable sharing information with brands they trust.

In addition to these insights shaping content marketing in 2016, the study also unveiled interesting findings about online engagement and behavior. For instance, there’s a rising fear of digital footprints. Twenty-six percent of U.S. consumers have cleared their browser history to hide content they viewed from a friend or loved one, and 17 percent have hid or embellished the truth about the content they regularly consume.

Source : http://adobe.ly/1OYCQGA

Small Business Power Tip

Dominate Your Niche Online Then Move to Offline

IN THE EARLY part of this decade , I managed a Restaurant that attracted foodies looking for exotic, Asian dishes.  We were generating  a decent monthly income but due to the ‘exotic’ part, foot traffic wildly fluctuated.  In any given Sunday we could have barely two tables full or a busload of tourist barging in the front door, at any given minute.  Being a ‘family business idea’, our restaurant didn’t have solid systems to handle such large influxes of people.  We hear it all the time, “you are the best exotic Asian food in the area!”Even the local foodie magazine, agreed with the chorus of what people were saying.

Two problems started to arise:  Bad financials — cost analysis was deeply flawed and I was getting bored out of my mind waiting for customers.   

I’ve never been a patient kind of guy, I guess; classified as a ‘go-getter’ I like going after opportunities rather than waiting.  I view minutes sitting down and waiting as hours misspent.  I also believe in the importance and power of focus.

I can already hear people say, “then just find something to do while waiting.”  I did.  I didn’t literally waited and stared at the ceiling.  I would go at the backroom at do inventory, call suppliers, stock supplies,etc.  The problem with that ‘set of things to do’ is it might be productive but it’s not an effective way of taking a business to a higher level.  For that, you need strategic planning, face-to-face time with interested people, building relationships with companies who might be interested in bulk orders.  You need to build a system and more importantly, the time and resources to see it through.

It’s hard to do that when you’re waiting for the next customer to barge through the door.  So I went on a different direction and started a website Reno Homes.  That was in 2007, I’m really glad I made the leap.

With the reach and limitless leverage of internet, small businesses can now dominate their niche online just as well, if not more efficiently, as in a brick and mortar store.  There has never been a better time in the history of the world! (If you think I’m exaggerating, think about this: we are the last generation to experience life on planet earth without the world wide web.)

Some facts about small businesses and online marketing:

• A large majority is unwilling to invest significant time and resource in building their online presence.  That’s why Google tried to buy an unprofitable, but local-centric business, for six billion dollars.

•  I was a small business owner three times over.  We just didn’t have time to deal with ‘internet stuff’.  The urgent bullied us to forgetting the important.

• In short, you have Google’s good graces.  Search engines, especially in the last two years, has tried to win small business owners  by giving them favor in their search results in the hopes of letting them see the benefit of search to their core business.

• It doesn’t cost a lot to build an online presence.  But it takes time, consistency and initiative.  Don’t forget the older your site is the better.

The best thing is you can do a combination of Groupon-Living Social-Whatever-New-Coupon-Company, Twitter, Facebook, SEO online marketing campaigns.  Meaning, if you try out these avenues and do a bit of testing to see where you get results, you can leverage it to shoo-in traffic to you brick and mortar business.

Now, there simple is no reason, just to wait.  I just wish I knew this back then.

Source : http://bit.ly/1OZUYtx

10 Ways to Boost your Digital Marketing Strategy in 2016

Here are powerful ways to boost your digital marketing efforts in 2016

1. Focus on Mobile Marketing:

Mobile marketing has increasingly become the focus area of every Digital Marketer and Brand, but no one has cracked it completely yet. Brands are still figuring out what sort of Mobile marketing strategy is best for them and how much of it.  But, every marketer needs to understand that Mobile marketing is not just about, Apps and Mobile sites it’s whole lot of other things too and how important is Mobile Marketing for your Company?

Year 2016 will witness Mobile as the biggest digital marketing avenue amongst all, with every other brand, social media & Tech giants designing and developing their products with specific focus on Mobile to get a bigger piece of the Mobile User base. Remember the Google algorithm change that considered your Website is Mobile responsive or not, that’s just 1 example.

So, now is the time for every marketer to up the ante on Mobile Marketing and design new strategies with larger focus on Mobile.

2. Use Identity based Pay-Per-Click:

Google Adwords came up with a surprise for all digital marketers with their Customer Match targeting in September 2015. You can now target people basis their email address and Mobile Numbers, you can now reach new users similar to your customer list with its Similar Audience targeting, which means better and more qualified leads.

It’s more like your Facebook custom audience & Look-a-like targeting option, but even better because now you can reach your existing customers or new customers on – Youtube, Gmail and Search.

3. Engage audience with Live Video Streaming:

Videos are the most popular content marketing medium and this is evident with the engagement of users with Videos and growth of Youtube. (Must Read 9 Content Marketing Strategies that will dominate 2016)

Brands need to break the clutter of thousands of Ads and social media to grab their user’s attention and engage them. How?

The answer is live video streaming, it is a tactic used by few but can be a very impactful content marketing strategy if used creatively to engage your audience.

Meerkat, Livestream, Broadcaster, wirecast cam, periscope are few popular live video steaming apps with social sharing and instant messaging options.

4. Advertise on Instagram:

Instagram Ads should be part of your Social Media + Mobile marketing strategy as it an awesome way to target user’s on-the-go with carousal ads or a 15 second video.

Since, many brands have yet not started with these, it will help you give better visibility due to less clutter.

5. Show Interest in Pinterest:

We know how Pinterest is creating interest amongst Brands with its buyable pins, but soon it would be launching its ‘Animated Cinematic Pins’.

These cinematic pins will act like video snippets when a user would scroll on it. Brands would be able to target specific users basis their interest with these animated cinematic pins.

It would also be interesting to know that majority of Pinterest users (approx. 80%) use it on their handheld devices and 45% of the users are searching for inspiration or while shopping. Pinteresthas already rolled out a keyword heavy guided search last year.

Now it is important for Digital marketers to show interest in Pinterest and promote their Brand and engage with their target audience.

6. Make your Customers your Marketers:

Word of mouth is still one of the strongest medium to increase sales. For a positive word of mouth or let’s say to make you customers as your brand marketers, use your Customers experience and testimonials as content.

Make use of channels like – Twitter, Youtube, Instagram, WhatsApp, Meerkat for your customers to market your brand. Think out of the box…be creative!

7. Content Re-marketing:

Its clichéd, but we know Content is King. Content marketing works, be it engaging users or for your SEO perspective.

So, what is content re-marketing? It is very similar to re-targeting, but the catch here is to re-target your website visitors or let’s say existing and would be customers with engaging content that compels them to make a transaction.

Engaging a user with great content will make them share it further with their family and friends giving your Brand better reach to New audiences.

8. Create an Omni-channel experience:

What is an omni-channel? As per definition – it is a multi-channel approach to sales that seeks to provide the customer with whether the customer is shopping online, by telephone or in a store.

#Snapdeal became the first e-commerce company in India to create an omni-channel experience for its users.

Omni-channel is great way to create a seamless customer experience especially for brands with brick-&-mortar and online sales options.  Digital marketers of such brands can come up with innovative strategies to use this technique.

9. Search Ads:

You must be wondering what’s new about search ads, it’s been there for ages now and every digital marketer has used it sometime or the other. Well, you are right! But, but one should understand how powerful this ad type is…it is the best form of native and pull advertising. Again, what’s new?

For starters, you can target Ads based on demographics of your TG with Search Ads, the only thing needed is to get your Adwords account white-listed by Google for Search Ads demographic targeting (it might take a little more than week for Google to whitelist the account for it) and start saving on unwanted clicks and cost.

I have successfully used Search Ads with demographic targeting in #Pearson and #BorderlessAccess, saving on cost and reaching out to more relevant TG.

Second, with every brand coming out with their own App and with the increasing challenge to drive discovery and installs for their App. It becomes even more important for your App to appear in front of your audiences search results for new apps on Play store. So, how do we ensure visibility? By running search ads or search App install ads on Google play and increase chances of your App discovery and install.

10. Capitalise on Thank You Pages & Transaction e-mailers:

Thank You pages and Transaction mailers are untapped gold mines. They are the most unused elements, which if used properly can lead to increased customer experience, sales and engagement.

Thank You pages can help drive secondary conversions and help engage your customer from lead registration pages on their first transaction.

Whereas, Transactional/ Thank You e-mailers place your content directly in your lead or customers inbox, unlike your promotional mailers that land in the Gmail promotional tab (NOTE: If you check your database at least 60% of your customers would be using a Gmail id).

It has been seen that, Thank You and Transactional mailers leads to a 2x increase in Open Rate and CTR and increase conversions and engagement with a brand. Do not ignore the power of good Thank You pages and Transactional mailers.

This is just the start, digital world will certainly grow manifold in 2016 manifold keeping all digital marketers on the edge to innovate and create something amazing with their marketing minds.

Source : http://bit.ly/1JrSgR9