Popular Blog Ideas for Your New Business Venture

It’s no secret that blogging has the potential to be an incredibly lucrative business venture. All over the world, bloggers in growing numbers are asking and receiving huge sums of cash as influencers, having earned extensive and dedicated audiences.

Technically speaking, most people could achieve at least some kind of success with their own personal blog. After all, we’re all experts at something…right?

The secret to coming up with a great idea for a new blog lies in two things. The first of which being to focus on something you know and are passionate about, the second being to focus on a subject of interest to other people.

A difficult balancing act to pull off?

Perhaps not, as there are more diverse and wide-reaching subjects of interest to the masses these days than ever before. So if you’re looking to start a blog business venture and need a little inspiration, here’s quick rundown of just a few of the most popular web topics you might like to consider:

1. Self-improvement. 

 Any advice and guidance you could offer those looking to improve themselves, both in professional and private capacities alike.

2. Health & Fitness for Busy People. 

Why not base your blog on the kinds of simple, effective and workable health and fitness strategies that suit those with very little time on their hands?

3. Languages. 

 If you speak a foreign language even to a relatively modest extent, you could start a blog to help those interested in picking up the basics.

4. Budget Travel. 

Everybody loves travelling and the vast majority of travellers prefer to do so for the lowest price possible. Why not share all those budget travel tips and tricks you’ve come up with over the years?

5. Dining Out. 

 If you’re the type that likes to eat out on a regular basis, why restrict your comments and recommendations to other sites like TripAdvisor? There’s nothing to stop you starting your own site/blog that could become the next big thing.

6. Recipes. 

The key to success if looking to share recipes lies in offering something different. Or at least, something with a very specific focus. Meals for under £3, dishes that exclude certain ingredients, cooking for fussy kids in less than 15 minutes and so on.

7. How-to Hacks. 

 Simple guides and tutorials covering everyday tasks and projects are spectacularly popular these days. So why not share your own unique and innovative ways of getting things done with other people?

8. Relationships. 

 Likewise, millions of people from all over the world turn to the web every day for advice and guidance on various relationship issues. Whether serious, light hearted or downright hysterical, surely you’ve plenty of words of wisdom to share!

9. Music. 

 Share your thoughts, reviews, recommendations and so on to those with similar tastes in music to your own. Or perhaps go one step further and base your blog around playing musical instruments, production, editing and so on.

10. Sports.

Last but not least, if you can bring your own unique voice, tone and style to a dedicated sports blog, you could be golden. Which technically should be relatively easy – just as long as you focus on a sport or activity of any kind you are genuinely passionate about!

 

A Roundup of Some Key Digital Marketing Statistics

It’s been awhile since we shared a roundup of digital marketing statistics. So, what better time than right now to do just that?

During an interesting couple of weeks, we’ve learned a lot about influencers, mobile apps and automation. The most important and surprising statistics we’ve come across being as follows:

Influencers Are Not Trusted by 96% of People

Slowly but surely, we could be seeing the demise of the influencers as we’ve come to know them. According to the results of a recent study carried out by YouGov and Grey London, just 4% of Brits said that they trust the information and advice of influencers. 17% of social media users reported encountering inaccurate or misleading content online, while 48% said they don’t trust the accuracy or honesty of celebrities’ profiles. There’s still plenty of trust for reviews and recommendations from friends and family – third-party influencers being an entirely different story.

Over a Million Knowledge-Based Jobs at Risk

Forrester’s 2020 Predictions report has painted a somewhat gloomy picture of the future of knowledge-based jobs. Specifically, they believe that more than a million knowledge-based human roles will be replaced by an automated hardware and software next year alone. The report also suggested that quality assurance roles in customer contact centres could be cut by as much as 40%, replaced again by automated hardware and software.

Print is Now the Third Biggest Ad Channel

It’s been a long time coming, but social media has finally overtaken print to become the third biggest ad channel. That’s according to Zenith’s latest ‘Advertising Expenditure Forecasts’ report, which predicts a further 20% social media spend this year to hit a whopping $84 billion. By contrast, total print ad spending is expected to decrease by 6% to $69 billion.

Gen Z Loves Snapchat, Wish and Twitch

Unsurprisingly, it’s now estimated that 98% of Gen Z now carries a smartphone. In addition, they also spend an average of 3.7 hours each month on the four biggest non-gaming apps listed above. Though what’s interesting is that they’re spending less time with each of these apps per session, but visiting them on a regular basis. On average, Gen Z members clock up 150 combined user sessions with these apps each month – that’s around 55% more than their older counterparts.

Satisfied Christmas Shoppers Are Surprisingly Loyal

Impress a Christmas shopper this year and they’re statistically more likely to convert when they visit your store next year. That’s according to a report published by Monetate, which found that satisfied Christmas shoppers who return to your store are twice as likely to convert as those visiting you for the first time. A statistic that underlines the importance of prioritising the satisfaction of every Christmas customer, rather than treating them as disposable ‘one-off’ shoppers.

Negativity Driving Social Media App Deletions

Last but not least, approximately one in every five young people has deleted a social media app due to negativity. The potential negative impact of social media is apparently been acknowledged and acted upon by more younger users than ever before. According to Mediacom, 18% of younger people have deleted one or more social media apps from the devices over the past year, while 13% said they have consciously reduced the amount of time they spend on social media apps.

The Four Biggest Ecommerce Changes You Can Expect In 2020

Every year brings its own unique shifts and changes to the online retail landscape. 2019 looks to be no exception to the rule, with a handful of ecommerce trends set to dominate the months ahead.

So whether you’re running an online business or are simply a spectator on the sidelines, here are the four biggest ecommerce shifts you can expect to see this year: 

Social Selling
First up, the key to success on the world’s leading social platforms has always been to avoid the hard-sell at all costs. And it still is, but this doesn’t mean that selling on social media isn’t an incredibly effective strategy for the savvy business. It’s the classic case of selling without selling - finding ways to promote your products, your services and your brand without resorting to the hard-sell. Images and videos showing your products in use, influencer recommendations, exclusive deals and discounts - there’s a lot you could be doing to promote your products subtly yet effectively on social media.

Multi-Channel Selling

It’s also worth remembering that today’s consumer doesn’t make purchases exclusively through one online channel. A recent survey has found that around 90% of consumers still shop offline, 45% use branded online stores, more than 75% have made purchases on Amazon and around 35% use eBay. This means that irrespective of the demographic you’re reaching out to, it simply makes sense to sell your products and/or services through a wide variety of channels. If you’re still selling your wares exclusively through your own website, it’s time to think about getting your eBay and Amazon stores up and running as quickly as possible.

Smarter Payment Processing

The simplicity and seamlessness of the payment process can be the ultimate deal-breaker for today’s consumer. They’ve made it right through to the final payment process, but it’s still spectacularly easy to lose them at this late stage. In fact, research suggests that of the 70% of shoppers who abandon their carts before making a purchase, the majority cite issues or inconveniences regarding the payment process. In this instance, ‘smarter’ payment processes means simplified, streamlined and accelerated payment processes. A checkout process with as few mandatory fields to fill in as possible and a variety of payment options to choose from.

Custom Packaging

Last but not least, consumers are placing heavier emphasis on the appeal of product packaging than ever before. Along with the elimination of unnecessary packaging and the exclusive use of recyclable/recycled materials, custom packaging is also making its mark. To such an extent that almost 70% of shoppers admit being impressed and engaged by brands that take their packaging seriously. If you lack resources to come up with your own custom packaging in-house, there are plenty of third-party specialists who can help.

What’s the Difference Between SEO and SEM?

Unfortunate as it may be, most of the 2 billion or so websites up and running right now attract little to no traffic. Shocking at first, but less so when considering that just a couple of major search engines direct around 95% of the web’s collective traffic.

So it’s really no surprise that competition for the top spots with Google and the like is ferocious. Climbing the rankings means implementing an effective marketing strategy, which brings two distinct options into the spotlight:

1. Search engine optimisation (SEO)

2. Search engine marketing (SEM)

Often confused as one and the same, SEO and SEM are in fact quite different. But if you’re serious about appearing prominently in the rankings, you’ll need to bring both into your digital strategy. 

SEO Vs SEM

In a nutshell, SEO refers to the activities and initiatives implemented to boost a website’s appeal in the eyes of the major search engines. By contrast, SEM refers to paid search advertising programmes, which most commonly manifest in the form of PPC advertising (pay-per-click).

Why is SEO important?

Taking a look at SEO first, search engine optimisation affects the extent to which visitors will find and visit your website organically. In this instance, ‘organic’ means you didn’t use any form of paid marketing, advertising or promotional materials of any kind to attract them. Instead, they found you ‘organically’ because you’re clearly the best match for their needs.

SEO is important because it is an ongoing strategy that boosts not only traffic volumes, but also brand recognition, authority in your niche and the potential to drive better conversion rates. Organic listings in the search page results attract exponentially more attention and interest than their paid counterparts, making SEO a must for small and large businesses alike.

What is SEM?

At the opposite side of the spectrum, search engine marketing is all about paying to have your ads positioned prominently at the top of the rankings. Rather than attempting to appeal to the major search engines by improving and optimising your website, you instead pay them to showcase your message in accordance with your chosen keywords and search terms.

SEM differs from search engine optimisation in that it has the capacity to deliver an immediate influx of traffic. The moment your ads go live, they begin directing traffic to your landing pages accordingly. This can therefore be ideal for generating an initial burst of interest in a new website, advertising a temporary promotion or introducing a new product.

On the downside, the benefits of PPC advertising are usually limited to the period during which the campaign is operational.

The Best of Both…

Essentially, therefore, you’re looking at a free and organic search strategy geared towards long-term benefits, alongside a paid initiative that can deliver near-immediate results. A strategic combination of both clearly represents the ideal approach for any business out to improve their exposure.

Why PPC and SEO Campaigns Should Be Run Simultaneously

It is common to come across a debate regarding which is better – PPC or SEO. In reality, you can do with bringing both of them into your marketing strategy.

But the question is still there – which one should you prioritise? For some businesses, it is a case of bringing an SEO marketing strategy underway, wait some time until it starts generating traffic and then move on to PPC. For other companies, it is the other way around.

Both PPC and SEO have the potential to generate Internet traffic in generous volumes. Nonetheless, anyone trying to maximise their ROI may want to consider running both SEO and PPC campaigns at the same time.

Here is why:

SEO Will Take Time

For starters, even an outstanding SEO strategy takes time to reach fruition. What is more, it’s fundamentally impossible to predict how much time it will take for an SEO strategy to reach a certain result. It will simply take as long as it takes. Meanwhile, there might be a little to no difference when it comes to the traffic your website is able to pull in.

By contrast, PPC is about immediate impact when you happen to need it most. Rather than sitting and waiting to see what happens, your PPC ads will be published both instantly and prominently. While your SEO marketing strategy is working hard to get the job done, your PPC ads deliver a steady and strong stream of traffic.

Paid Ads Will Appear More Prominently

No matter how great your SEO strategy is, you will always play second fiddle to the paid ads. In fact, you are unlikely to reach the top of the search rankings for the most popular keywords. It is important to bear in mind that above all else, Google is out there to make money – that’s a fact. This is precisely why Google gives those businesses who hand over cash priority in the search result listings.

With a PPC marketing campaign, you have the chance to position your ads at the very top of the search results page. If the best you are managing so far with your SEO campaign is tenth position, you may find PPC ads very useful for boosting the traffic to your page. That is also something that can help your SEO marketing strategy – Google considers page hits and visitor numbers into its indexation algorithms. So again, a combination of PPC and SEO wins the day.

Lessons Learned

Lastly, PPC campaigns could be used to learn important lessons for your SEO strategy, and vice versa. By monitoring their respective progress, you will tap into a world of invaluable data for the improvement of both campaigns.

Especially when it comes to keywords data and analytics, a PPC campaign could be worth its weight in gold. Google usually reserves the most valuable insights and data for those businesses willing to pay for it. Therefore, your PPC ads can teach you more about your business audience than your SEO strategy alone.

Summer 2019 - Online Marketing Statistics

The 2019 summer is already proving to be a fascinating period in the world of web marketing statistics. Or at least, fascinating if you are keeping up with the major topics like artificial intelligence, influencer marketing and the power of online video.

So here is a short summary of just a few revealing statistics from the past weeks that attracted our attention.

AI marketing is set to explode by 2022

A recent study by Forbes Insights and Quantcast suggests that online markets worldwide are planning significant investments in AI over the next few years. More specifically, around 535 of web marketers have the intention to spend more on AI in the next 4 years, while 17% intend to invest heavily in AI. More than half of those studied declared they had personally observed improvements to customer retention since introducing AI. Particularly when it comes to customer service, AI is dramatically transforming the way businesses improve their online user experience.

More children than ever before want to be influencers
The social media influencer as an idea didn’t even exist a few years ago. Nowadays, a study by Awin suggests that nearly 70% of children between 11 and 16 have aspirations to become social media influencers. Additionally, 155 of children have the intention to build careers on YouTube. Both of these numbers are higher than the number of children who want to become vets or teachers. But while children are dreaming of becoming the next huge social media success, nearly half of the parents involved in the survey had no idea what a social media influencer is all about or how it works.

Blue Monday appears to drive strong online retail sales

Online retailers seem to have taken full advantage of the most depressing day of the year – January 21. Turning to online shopping as a distraction from the gloom elsewhere, EmpathyBroker reported a noticeable increase in shopping-based online searched compared to a typical Monday. This amounted to around 30% heavier shopping traffic than the typical for a less-depressing Monday at any other time.

YouTube’s revenues from ads are still on the up

As every year, YouTube has once again achieved some impressive revenue growth – an 11% increase in 2018 compared to the previous year. Media and entertainment brands contributed in excess of 30% to YouTube’s advertising revenues.

Video reviews are preferred to textual write-ups

Lastly, a recent study by Small Business Trends confirmed the potential influence and value of quality video marketing. In this case, the study revealed that nearly four times more people prefer watching a video review of a product that simply reading about it. Along with the simplicity to deal with compared to block after block of text, a video review can help build a deeper connection with the viewer and can deliver much more detailed visual product information.

5 Steps to Becoming an Influencer in Your Business Field

It is no secret that influencer marketing has the value and power to earn just about any company superstardom in no time at all. Similarly, everyone is aware that the world’s most popular influencers are right now raking enormous sums of money, for simply recommending the services and products of the brands they’re working with.

On one side, you have businesses which are desperate to work with successful and established influencers. On the other side, you have influencers with the power to drive public opinion through positive or negative publicity. 

So you can argue that the Holy Grail will be for the company itself to become an influencer in its field. After all, who could be better to promote whatever it is you sell than you yourself?

Unsurprisingly, becoming an established influencer is not an easy job. It is far from impossible, but it is quite the undertaking. In most cases, influencers do what they do as their full-time job – not just a fun side project. Therefore, managing a business and being a successful influencer can be viewed as the ultimate balancing act.

Nonetheless, if you consider you have what it takes to be an influencer in your field, here are five steps how to get started:

1. Build knowledge

Nearly 90% of the working hours of an influencer are spent carrying out research. If you want to be an influencer in your field, you will first need to develop comprehensive understanding of said niche. Additionally, you will need to be close to the cutting edge of the field so that you can accurately tell what is coming next. If there is even a single person out there who understands the industry better than you, you will struggle to establish yourself as a key authority.

2. Make your voice and face known

Even with all inside knowledge in the world, you can’t just burst onto the scene and expect to become an instant authority. Instead, you will need to spend time becoming an essential part of the community, making your voice heard and offering people the opportunity to get to know you. Create and publish high-quality content on a regular basis, while gradually building both your business identity and your audience.

3. Network like crazy

Always keep in mind that no influencer has ever succeeded by living in a vacuum. Instead, established influencers network like crazy and try to surround themselves with individuals who could help them achieve their goals. Especially in the early stages, you are going to need all the help you could get.

4. Dedicate your time to the cause

Don’t even consider approaching your influencer efforts as a side venture or something to do when time permits. Just as is the case with any other occupation, you will need to set aside some time in your schedule every day to dedicate to the cause.

5. Have clear goals in mind

Last up, along with a strategy in terms of how precisely you want to progress, you will also need to determine your main objectives and goals. It is crucial to consider carefully why you have decided to do this in the first place and when you will consider the whole venture successful. Like any other business idea, you will need a set of KPIs to be able to measure your performance and progress along the way.

5 Timeless SEO Strategies You Will Always Benefit From

In the ever fast-paced world of online marketing, SEO strategies come and go all the time. What is supposedly a sure-fire method for success this week often becomes entirely ineffective next week.

But this doesn’t necessarily mean there are no evergreen SEO hacks you simply cannot go wrong with. The kinds of evergreen tactics you will always benefit from if you dedicate to them enough time and attention.

So beyond the temporary trends and passing fads of SEO, what follows are five times strategies that will always benefit your marketing campaign:

1. Publishing Quality Content

The important keyword in this case being “quality” – as in the type of content that holds some kind of value and purpose. It is perfectly possible to post a compellingly written article on any topic and gain precisely nothing from it. Quality means thinking about what matters to your audience, as opposed to your company or the SEO bots you are trying to win over. Just as long as the content you create is relevant, fresh and of interest to your readers, there is no such thing as producing too much of it.

2. Enhancing the performance of your website

Similarly, there is no such thing as a site that performs too well. The fluidity, the speed and overall consistency of your site will all play a role in determining its SEO prowess. If there is anything you can do to improve or speed up the way your website functions, it is something you should be doing. The same also applies to any improvements that can be made for mobile audiences – also a guaranteed SEO element for the indefinite future at least.

3. Focusing on backlinks of value

We are unlikely to see a time when high-profile backlinks will not add up to serious credit in the eyes of Google and co. The days of getting away with low-quality links are gone for good – backlinks of value are the only links that can benefit your SEO campaign. Building a contingency of quality links is not easy, but can benefit your site and your marketing strategy indefinitely.

4. Optimising your social platform activity

While it is true to say that social media does not directly influence SEO, it is nevertheless a strong contributor to your promotional efforts. Posts on the most popular social platforms can drive as much traffic to your website as links positioned elsewhere on the web. Additionally, the more interest you are able to generate, the more likely the major search engines are to also take note.

5. Website improvements and updates

Lastly, there is always something that can be done to update and improve your website. Whether it is a visual design overhaul, simplification of your navigation system or update to the static text content, , it is an effective way of boosting your SEO. Always keep in mind that whatever you could do to improve things for the end user would have a knock-on effect on your overall SEO strategy. Offer a flawless experience for all visitors and the rest will take care of itself!

5 Key SEO Tactics and Trends in 2019

Looking ahead to this year’s upcoming online marketing trends can be daunting and exciting in equal measure. Visualising your success and planning your strategy, though also accepting you are not in for an easy ride.

Nevertheless, the better idea you have of what is to come, the better your chance of making it work in your favour. With this in mind, here is a brief overview of the five key SEO tactics and trends to keep in mind going into 2019:

1. Increased Visibility Competition
The first entry is also the most obvious and arguably the most important of all. Every year, visibility competition grows at its fastest rate. And 2019 looks to be no exception. The search engines are evolving and space at the top is becoming ever more confined. In online marketing stakes, the phrase
survival of the fittest” has never been more appropriate.

2. Old School SEO Tactics Will Lose Value 
You will still need to have a strategy with your on-page SEO, but relying exclusively on old-school methods is just not going to cut it in 2019. Instead, it will be more about the all-round customer experience and the level to which you can foster a sense of genuine engagement with your web audience. On-page SEO will always play a role, it is simply a case of accepting you cannot rely on it alone.

3. Growth of Voice Search
As far as the industry watchers are concerned, more than half of all online searches will use voice search by 2020. Which is only a year away. Which should be a concern for anybody who is yet to give any thought to voice search optimisation whatsoever. Incredibly, the most popular voice assistants on the market today have achieved an understanding accuracy of more than 90% on average. If you are not yet giving thought to voice search, you are in danger of falling behind.

4. Mobile-Optimised Websites Will Gain Value
What this means is that Google and the other major search engines have begun the process of assessing pages and websites firstly from a mobile perspective. This essentially means that if you want your website to rank higher in 2019, you will need to give mobile SEO more time and focus. If you don’t, your content will not add as much value as it could and your SEO performance will suffer.

5. There Is Life Beyond Google
Last but not least, it has never been more important to realise the fact that Google is not where the buck starts and stops when it comes to SEO. It is the biggest and most important by all means, but it is not the only search engine at all. What is more, Bing has started gaining significant traction by occupying a bigger share of the search market in 2018. Therefore, you may want to stop putting all your SEO eggs in the same proverbial basket.

Six SEO Myths to Ignore

SEO may have been around for decades now, but the concept remains a subject of confusion for millions of businesses worldwide. Every year, we’re bombarded with a completely fresh set of ‘rules’ and ‘best practices’ that can supposedly maximise the value of an SEO strategy.

Not to mention, all manner of myths and untruths – some of which are downright dangerous.

So just to illustrate how things are looking from a 2019 perspective, here’s a brief rundown of six dangerous SEO myths that are still doing the rounds with gusto right now:

1. Quality content alone is more than enough

First up, you cannot and will not achieve SEO glory without plenty of outstanding content. Nevertheless, you cannot run an effective SEO campaign on quality content alone. Content matters – and matters a lot – but is nonetheless just one of many components you need to address. Try to avoid putting all of your eggs in the same proverbial basket.


2. It’s all about the keywords

Likewise, getting too bogged down with keywords in general isn’t a good idea. Keywords are a critical element of the successful SEO strategy, but cramming in as many as possible and damaging the quality of your content in doing so is a risky tactic. Not to mention, the kind of tactic that doesn’t tend to curry favour these days with any of the major search engines.

3. More pages = better rankings

Contrary to popular belief, more pages will not necessarily guarantee more prominent SERP positioning. Unless the pages add genuine value and quality to your website, they won’t do a great deal for your SEO profile at all. Creating more pages simply for the sake of it is a common tactic, though one that’s unlikely to do you any favours.

4. Pictures are pointless

Just because search engine spiders cannot yet crawl the content of website pictures doesn’t mean they’re without value. The reason being that all major search engines now take into account various aspects of the user experience, which includes the provision of a rich mixture of media. What’s more, SEO-rich file names and alt-tags can and should be used to your advantage.

5. Mobile focus is overrated

If anything, it’s the exact opposite. Evidence suggests that not nearly enough business owners worldwide are yet giving mobile focus the attention it deserves. With mobile web traffic having comfortably overtaken desktop traffic, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out the importance of mobile SEO focus.

6. It’s not necessary to hire help

Last but not least, it’s highly unlikely that any in-house effort that lacks extensive specialist expertise is going to get the job done properly. It just isn’t going to happen. Contemporary SEO is an infinitely more complex and challenging concept than it was even just a couple of years ago. You can’t make things up as you go along and expect to get by – nor can you rely on a half-cooked strategy to deliver positive results. If you’re serious about making the most of your SEO strategy, hiring help comes highly recommended.

Smart Content Marketing

Perhaps the most important thing to keep in mind when it comes to content marketing is the following:

Every web user presently online around the globe is online for a specific reason.

There is a surprising number of businesses that assume that every second web user is online with no specific purpose in mind whatsoever. Drifting around with no requirements or intention, thus wide open to their tempting offers and suggestions. The reality, however, is much different.

Whether it is for socialising, entertainment purposes, seeking services or researching products of any kind, there is always a reason for going online. This in turn means that to some extent at least, there is something specific every person in question is looking for.

Exactly who fulfils their requirements and expectations comes down to one simple thing and one thing alone – quality content.

Value and Quality

Online webmasters and businesses in general can throw all the hype they want at their target audiences. But without genuine value and quality to back it up, it is an exercise in futility. Above everything else, the crucial thing to remember when implementing a content marketing strategy is that web users will always respond best to websites that are providing them with some sort of help.

It can be help filling some minutes with quality entertainment, help with researching services and products, help with buying services and products and so on. Web users in general like to know that after each engagement or experience with an online entity, they come away better off.

Which is exactly why the most successful content is that which delivers benefits and value of some kind. How-to guides, tutorials, infographics or pretty much anything unique that can’t be found elsewhere.

Web marketers who exist for the sole reason to separate consumers from their hard earned money rarely find success – those who try to satisfy the needs of their audience usually perform much better.

The Psychology of Selling

Studies and the experience of millions of online businesses worldwide remind us that strong customer relationships could be forged if you help them solve a problem. If you’re willing to offer support and advice that is relevant, useful, transparent and accessible, you will stand a greater chance of standing out as a leader and authority in your field.

This means that next time they need any support or help along the same lines, they will most likely gravitate in your direction.

In a way, it is the classic example of selling without really selling in practice. Rather than bombarding your audience members with marketing materials, you are instead focusing on what they really want. And by doing so, you stand out from the crowd as an authority in your field.

So rather than focusing on and investing in the kind of hype that will most likely lead to nothing, think about how your business and your website could provide valuable and genuine help, for the benefit of your web users.

Why Buying Web Traffic Is Rarely a Good Idea

All websites could benefit from a little more traffic. Irrespective of how successful your online business may be, more is always better. After all, no right-minded business owner would happily turn down the prospect of additional sales.

With competition in all sectors at an all-time high, businesses worldwide are resorting to various weird and wonderful tactics to boost web traffic. One of which being to buy traffic in bulk.

 

On paper, it sounds like a relatively simple tactic with obvious appeal. You hand your cash over to a service provider, who in turn sends a predetermined number of visitors your way. It could be 5,000, 50,000 or even 500,000 visitors – a quick, easy and affordable boost that could make a huge difference.

Or at least, so it seems.

Think of it this way – if it was really so easy and effective to buy web traffic, wouldn’t we all be doing it? Or to put it another way, if it was possible to buy all the web traffic you need at an affordable price, why waste money on conventional marketing and advertising?

The short answer is the obvious answer – it isn’t quite as easy as it seems. In fact, it’s comparatively rare for buying web traffic to be an advisable course of action.

The following four reasons going some way to explain why:

1. Zero targeting

First of all, there’s nothing to gain by sending a whole bunch of entirely untargeted traffic to your website. Sending hundreds of thousands of visitors your way is all well and good, but what if not a single one of these visitors have any real interest in what it is you do? Unqualified prospects are about as much use to your business as no prospects whatsoever. Hence, any traffic you buy that isn’t meticulously targeted may prove to have zero value.

2. Heavy penalties

In most instances, those who sell bulk web traffic provide their services by way of automated bots. Or to put it another way, the visitors that come your way aren’t in fact visitors at all. At least, not the kinds of human visitors of any real value to your business. Not only does this mean little to no positive impact, it also leaves you and your website wide open to heavy penalties. When the likes of Google and the other major search engines detect these kinds of tactics, they’re not in the habit of letting them go unpunished.

3. Scam potential

This is also an area of the digital marketing spectrum that is rife with scam tactics. Find yourself at the mercy of a substandard service provider and the consequences could be catastrophic.

4. No guarantees
Along with all this, there are absolutely no guarantees that you won’t be wasting every penny of your investment. They may promise to deliver hundreds of thousands of profitable visitors, but there are no guarantees they’ll deliver even one. And if you’re unhappy with their services, there’s precisely nothing you can do about it.

If you want to drive more visitors to your website, there are hundreds of safer and more effective avenues to explore. Nevertheless, if you do decide to go ahead and buy website traffic in bulk, you need to be extremely careful when choosing a provider.

The Five W’s (and One H) of Perfect Product Descriptions

By its very nature, the term ‘product description’ is misleading. The reason being that one of the biggest mistakes you can make is to simply describe your products, rather than communicating their primary selling points.

When you think about it, you can describe almost any product in minute detail, without describing any of its benefits or applications. Realistically therefore, product descriptions shouldn’t be used to describe your products, but instead sell them by way of merit.

One of the best ways of penning perfect product descriptions is to focus on the Five W’s approach. Call it cliché, but it’s a consistently effective way of ensuring you communicate everything that matters to the prospective buyer.

Irrespective of what it is you’re selling and who you’re attempting to sell it to, these are the Five W’s (and One H) that can ensure you get the job done right:

WHO

First up, you need to clearly communicate who the product has been designed for. What kind of demographic are you targeting? What are the interests, expectations and priorities of your ideal buyer? Your product description should be tailored to both appeal to your ideal customer, while clearly communicating the benefits of the product to their demographic.

WHAT

You’ll then need to give a concise yet compelling account of what it is your product does and what sets it apart from comparable products on the market. Along with its basic attributes – features, dimensions and so on – your product description should communicate the purpose and value of the product in question.

WHERE

Slightly simpler, this refers to information regarding where the product can or should be used. Has it been designed for use in a very specific scenario, or is the ability to use it anywhere and at any time one of its selling points? Help build a mental picture of the product in use for your customers, by communicating where they’ll be using it if they buy it.

WHEN

The same also goes for when – what would be the ideal time for using your product and why? Has it been designed to maximise convenience or enjoyment while travelling? Is it an everyday household essential they’ll be using on a daily basis? Or is it something altogether more special for an altogether more special occasion?

WHY

The last of the W’s is also the most important – why should they purchase your product? What will it do to improve their life? Does it solve any specific problems? What makes it both unique and superior to anything else currently on the market?

HOW

Last up, the nature of the product you’re selling will determine whether you need to detail how it works. In the case of technology and gadgets in general, at least a brief overview of its method of operation could be useful.

And there you have it – five simple steps for coming up with concise yet convincing product descriptions. Once again, it’s a good idea to get out of the habit of simply describing the product itself, focusing instead on its benefits and unique selling points.

Yes, You Do Have Time for Creative Writing

Some writers insist that their busy schedules get in the way of their creativity. Rather than focusing their efforts on quality content, they’re instead left with little to no time to write anything at all. Hence, the copy they come up with isn’t exactly their best work.

The thing is though, if creative writing is part and parcel of your profession, you need to make time for it. Irrespective of how busy your schedule may be, there are countless avenues to explore for freeing up a little time here and there.


Three of which you’ll find outlined below:

1. Cut Down on Social Media Time

If you’re anything like the vast majority of people these days, you’re probably spending far too much time on social media. Even if it’s only a few minutes here and there, it can quickly add up to several hours per week. Hours wasted doing nothing productive whatsoever.

It’s not a case of quitting social media entirely, but instead focusing on a strategic cut-down. Particularly during your working hours, when these kinds of distractions should be avoided entirely. As important as it is for you to stay connected, you can always check those non-business messages a little later. Facebook isn’t going anywhere, so there’s no rush!

2. Always Carry a Notebook

Why rely exclusively on technology to enable your craft? It can be far better and more enjoyable to go back to basics, carrying a notebook and making use of any spare time that comes your way. If it takes you 30 minutes by bus to get to work, that’s five hours a week you could dedicate to creative writing. All without the usual distractions creeping into the equation.

It’s also worth remembering how therapeutic traditional writing can be. Rather than straining your eyes staring at a screen, give the paper option a shot and see how it works for you. You never know when and where inspiration might strike – Harry Potter started out with nothing more than a pen and a napkin!

3. Schedule Creative Writing Time

Last up, if creative writing is part of your job, surely it’s worth bringing it into your schedule. If it’s a genuine priority, don’t simply cast it to one side until time permits. Bring creative writing into your schedule, ideally getting into some kind of effective routine.

If your current schedule is already full, think about which duties are more or less important than creative writing. Even if you simply slot 20 minutes of creative writing time into your lunch break, that’s more than one and a half hours per week. Or, more than 75 hours per year. A small price to pay to get those creative juices flowing and ensure your talent doesn’t go to waste.

In a nutshell therefore, it’s always possible to find at least some time to dedicate to creative writing. It’s simply a case of weighing up your priorities and focusing on what really matters.

Five Steps for More Engaging Infographics

The fact that infographics are so uniquely powerful and influential really is a godsend. From a business perspective, being able to pack so much concise and relevant information into such a small marketing material is no less than fantastic. Not to mention the fact that close to half of all people are known to respond better to visual information than plain text alone.

So you understand and acknowledge the power and potential of outstanding infographics. But how to go about creating them?

Well, the good news is that regardless of what line of business you happen to be in, there are certain standards and conventions to stick with. In fact, work in accordance with the following five guidelines and your next infographic could be your most successful to date:

1. Identify your message and stick with it

As is the case with any good story, you need to first consider what your overall message is. Just like when penning a blog post, consider the purpose of the infographic and the relevant theme. Once you’ve made these decisions, you need to make sure you stick with them from start to finish. The closer you remain tied to the primary message and theme, the more convincing and engaging the infographic will be.

2. Work hard on your headline

If you want anybody to bother reading the content of your infographic, you first need to create a compelling headline. Once again, this is no different to the usual standard with any other kind of content creation. The key lies in providing the reader with a good idea what the infographic is all about, though without giving too much away. The idea being that they are compelled to continue reading the rest of its content from top to bottom. If you can create a sense of intrigue, you’re golden.

3. Keep it simple

The more complicated an infographic appears at first glance, the less likely anyone is to bother reading it. It’s a bit like when you come across an unbroken passage of text, as opposed to a passage punctuated by imagery and other breaks. Whether it’s too many visuals, too much text or simply too much of everything crammed into a small space, clutter and crowding can be extremely off-putting. Focus on the basics and keep things simple.

4. Light-hearted visuals

Although there are exceptions to the rule, most infographics benefit from visuals that are relatively light hearted. As you’ve probably noted by now, infographics tend to contain visuals that are somewhat cartoonish, entertaining and highly simplified. They very rarely contain complex, formal or distracting visuals of any kind.

5. Push and promote

Last but not least, perhaps the single most important rule when it comes to creating effective infographics is to push and promote them as vigorously as possible. It’s best to look at infographics in the same way you would view a press release. It represents a marketing material in its own right, but nonetheless needs to be marketed to have any real value. Always keep shareability in mind when deciding on the content for your infographics and do your best to get the process of sharing underway.

Confirmed: Speed Matters More than Ever

If there’s one thing every Internet user today has in common, it’s growing impatience. Even if some have at least a little more patience than others, impatience among web users is growing like never before. For the most part, it is taken for granted that both your website and all of its internal pages will load in full at the snap of a finger. If they don’t, your prospects turn around, head elsewhere and perhaps never return.

Now, it’s natural for those on the business side of the equation to simply throw accusations at impatient customers, arguing that it’s unrealistic to expect flawless performance at all times. Unfortunately, the customer is always right. Or at least, the customer determines whether and to what extent you will succeed, therefore you need to do what they want, when they want it.

According to one of the more recent studies carried out by Kissmetrics, almost half of all consumers now expect websites and internal pages to fire up in no more than 2 seconds. In addition, approximately 40% stated that they will happily walk away from a website (perhaps permanently) if they are forced to wait more than 3 seconds for it to load.

But here’s the real kicker – it’s not only about the huge increase in bounce rates slow loading times tend to trigger. Instead, research has shown that even when customers wait those extra few seconds and stick around, slow loading times can have a remarkable effect on conversion rates.

…and not in a good way.

Extensive surveys have shown that when page loading times are delayed by as little as one second, it can lead to a quite extraordinary 7% reduction in conversions. In the case of Amazon – which is admittedly rather on the large side compared to most online businesses – it is estimated that approximately $1.6 billion is lost every year, simply due to slow page loading times. It’s not as if your own business is likely to incur these kinds of heavy losses, but still – can you really afford to throw away 7% of possible conversions, simply due to basic issues with page loading times?

The answer…of course you can’t!

From a website developer’s perspective, the most frustrating thing about poor page loading times is the way in which they can usually be addressed relatively easily. While it’s not to say that there will not be some time, effort and expenditure involved, it often takes little more than a few simple tweaks behind the scenes to get things up to speed…literally. Whether it’s your current hosting service provider, your site’s coding, issues with its content or anything else across the board, there are various ways and means by which you can and therefore should work to improve its performance.

Given the fact that so many businesses are still allowing themselves to fall behind the curve by operating sluggish and inconsistent websites, this is actually a comparatively quick, easy and affordable way to get ahead.

Negative SEO: Protecting Yourself

Statistically speaking, your likelihood of being directly affected by negative SEO is actually relatively low. Nevertheless, it does exist, does happen and does have the potential to wreak havoc with your business.

In the simplest of terms, negative SEO refers to anything done by outside parties to either harm your rankings or redirect traffic elsewhere. It’s sometimes used to hijack traffic for material gains, though can also be used for no reason other than to destroy your reputation and business. And as it can be very difficult to reverse once you’ve been attacked, the best approach is to keep your eye out for anything suspicious and protect your business on an on-going basis.

Perform Regular Link Audits

For example, link audits represent an important SEO tool in general and can be very helpful in detecting negative SEO. You basically need to keep a constant eye on the links pointing toward your site and those your site features. Should any turn out to be spammy, fraudulent or invalid, your SEO prowess could take a hit.

Monitor Site Speed

Never forget that these days, Google pays close attention to the speed and overall performance of your website when determining its SERP rankings. Which is precisely why many negative SEO attacks target overall speed and performance, which can and often do make a big difference in terms of rankings.

Check for Scraped Content

This basically refers to the all-too common process of content being directly lifted from your website and published word for word elsewhere. The attacker may then subsequently claim that the copy is their own, which will lead to your site being penalised for duplicating their content. If not, the fact that the copy is repeated any number of times in various locations could automatically affect your rankings.

Check Google My Business

The occasional negative review tends to be both inevitable and potentially beneficial for your business. However, if it seems as if you are unfairly and inexplicably attracting negative press from all over the place, it could be that someone is trying to do your reputation damage with fake reviews. All of which is precisely why it is important to keep tabs on your online reputation at all times.

Upgrade Your Security

Last but not least, the single most effective way of protecting yourself from the kind of negative SEO that happens directly on your website itself is to upgrade the security of your site. Contrary to popular belief, it isn’t always blatantly obvious when hackers have made their way through some kind of back door and done their bidding with your coding. Quite the opposite, as with negative SEO it’s more a case of sneaking in, wreaking havoc and making it as difficult as possible for the changes to be detected. So for obvious reasons, it simply makes sense to protect yourself to the highest possible extent.

Five Ways to Wreck Your SERP Score with Google

It seems the one constant in the whole digital marketing landscape over recent years has been the importance of SEO. Or more specifically, achieving solid SERP performance. And as far as the immediate outlook is concerned at least, it doesn’t look as if things are about to change anytime soon.

That said, the one thing that has changed beyond recognition is the list of errors and oversights that can get you in trouble. Reaching the top spot with Google has never been more difficult – doing yourself a disservice has never been simpler. Which is exactly what a surprising number of online businesses are doing right now.

To just look at things from a slightly alternative perspective, here’s a rundown of five guaranteed ways to wreck your SERP score with Google:

1. Anything black hat

First up, there’s really no sense in listing the various examples of black hat SEO techniques you should be avoiding. The reason being that all black hat SEO should be avoided at all costs. Even if it’s the kind of thing you’d once get away with, or genuinely believe you’ve hidden sufficiently from view. These days, there are no short cuts to positive SEO whatsoever – trying to find them will only ever land you in hot water.

2. Duplicate content

As time goes by, the rules in terms of duplicate content are also becoming more and more severe. Bad enough when there’s duplicate content within the same site, even worse when the same content appears in different locations. Whatever your excuse, Google sees duplicate content as nothing more than lazy and of poor quality for web users. Even if you don’t agree, you still need to abide by the rules.

3. Too much guest blogging

You know how guest blogging can be a great way of an invaluable and abundant backlink? Well, as far as Google is concerned, too much of a good thing is bad. Just to clarify, guest blogging should in no way be considered black hat or inadvisable. It can actually be enormously beneficial and positive. Nevertheless, any kind of duplicate, poor-quality or spun content used for guest blogging is exactly the kind of thing that could reflect bad on you. Both in terms of your reputation and your SERP score.

4. Site performance issues

The problem with this particular consideration is that it didn’t use to be a consideration at all. At one time, you could get away with a website that wasn’t particularly speedy, reliable or easy to navigate. These days, all these things and everything else to do with performance are taken into account and considered accordingly. Which in turn means that even if your site’s content is no less than outstanding, it could be rendered redundant if site performance isn’t up to scratch.

5. Poor security

Last but not least, there’s nothing quite like being kicked when you’re already down. It’s not as if getting hacked isn’t bad enough. Nevertheless, evidence of hacking suggests that your website may have serious security issues – something that doesn’t go down well with Google. The long and short of it therefore being that as far as security is concerned, there’s no such thing as overprotecting your website.

A Monthly Checklist to Keep Your Blog On Track

Give your business blog appropriate time and attention and it will reward you for your efforts. By contrast, neglect it and it may bring you nothing but bother.

The problem being that while so many business blogs start out great, their respective ‘owners’ sooner or later begin letting things slip. It becomes less of a priority, quality begins to slide and the benefits it once brought to the business slowly but surely disappear.

Which is why it’s a good idea to perform on-going health checks on your blog, just to ensure it and you are doing your jobs properly. It doesn’t have to be difficult – simply get into the habit of working with the following monthly checklist and you’ll find it much easier to keep your blog on track:

Interpret Data

First of all, owning and operating a blog – even a successful one – isn’t enough. If your blog is successful, you need to find out why and capitalise on whatever it is you are doing right. If it isn’t successful, you need to know what you are doing wrong and change things accordingly. Or if it’s ok but could certainly be improved, the same applies. Reviewing analytics and working with the data you collect should represent one of the most important core duties in the operation of your business blog. If it doesn’t, you are effectively grasping blindly in the dark and have no idea how or why your blog is performing as it is.

Rank Entries

When dealing with data, take a good look through your most successful entries for the month or year to date, in order to rank them in terms of performance. It’s crucially important to keep a log of your successes and failures in terms of entries and headlines, in order to determine what your target audience members do and do not respond well to. Focus on things like number of shares, time spent on each article, number of clicks, bounce rates and so on. This way, you’ll have yourself something of a blueprint mapping out the most successful posts/titles for your blog.

Itemize Content
Variety is the spice of life – something that applies to blog management just as much as anything else. In order to ensure that you are providing your readers with sufficient variety, it’s good to get into the habit of itemising content. For example, establish headers like video tutorials, infographics, podcasts, lists, opinion pieces and so on, checking each month that each category has been given sufficient attention.

Strategize for Next Month

Last but not least, once you have taken care of all of the above, you will have all the information you need to develop a near guaranteed winning strategy for next month. The worst thing you can do with any blog is to simply make things up as you go along. The more strategic you are and the more you base your strategies on the data you collect, the higher the likelihood of next month being even more successful for both your blog and your business.

Writer’s Block? Where to Look for Blog Post Inspiration

Every now and again, even the most committed and capable bloggers struggle to find inspiration. You’ve every intention of publishing another quality post, but can’t for the life of you decide what to write about.

The problem being that this is usually the point where many bloggers simply throw out a load of old garbage to fill the vacant space. An inadvisable move that could compromise the quality and appeal of the entire blog.

If struggling to pull inspiration out of thin air, the solution can often be found in a slightly more strategic approach. That being – knowing where to look to take inspiration from others.

So if you find yourself struggling to come up with solid topic ideas for your next post, here are four places you’ll probably find all the inspiration you’ll ever need:

Other Blogs in Your Niche

First up, there’s nothing wrong with seeking inspiration from the blogs of other businesses within your niche. However, the key to making it work lies in taking inspiration from a specific topic and doing something brand new with it in your own words. Simply ripping off your competitors wholesale is not the way to go about things. Feel free to sign up to as many mailing lists and newsletter subscription services as you like for regular inspiration in your mailbox every week.

Social Media

Whatever line of work you’re in, social media is the very best place to find out what’s generating conversation among your target audience. Industry blogs and resources are one thing, but what’s making waves at ground level? Browse relevant groups and pages on the platforms of your choosing and you’ll soon discover the hottest topics to steer your posts in the right direction. And while you’re at it, feel free to join the conversation and boost your reach at the same time.

Colleagues and Employees

Unless you’re a sole-trader of some kind, all the inspiration you’ll ever need could come from those in the immediate vicinity. Simply chatting with colleagues and employees can open the doors to all the inspiring ideas in the world for your posts. Not to mention, the benefits of seeing current topics, trends and discussions from an entirely different perspective. Even if you’re entirely bereft of inspiration, your colleagues and employees could be anything but.

Your Existing Content

Last but not least, repurposing old content is a great way of dealing with writer’s block. The key in this instance being to take one of your better prior posts and approach the subject with a slightly different spin, or from an entirely different angle. You could turn a factual piece into an infographic, an instructional piece into a video tutorial or a popular blog post into a podcast. While it’s important not to simply copy your own work verbatim, there’s always plenty that can be done to extract maximum value from your existing content.

Google Latest Algorithm Tweak Shouldn’t Shock Anyone

These days, most online business owners keep a fairly close eye on their SERP rankings. Assuming they count on search engines to send traffic their way, their prominence or otherwise can make or break their businesses. The problem being that every now and then, many businesses bear the brunt of a sudden yet perhaps dramatic fall.


Falling down the rankings just a few positions can transform solid performance into near-zero performance in an instant. Particularly in the wake of major changes to Google’s search algorithm, it’s normal to see thousands of casualties on a global basis. But what many fail to realise is that outside these major changes, minor tweaks are made to Google’s indexation system all the time.

Hundreds of them every year, in fact.

So it’s technically no surprise that a couple of weeks ago, a fair few businesses and SEO analysts alike noticed slight changes to their respective sites’ performance. Nothing major, but the apparent algorithm tweak generated such huge discussion online that Google stepped away from tradition and broke silence on Twitter.

“Each day, Google usually releases one or more changes designed to improve our results. Some are focused around specific improvements,” wrote a Google spokesperson on Twitter.

“Some are broad changes. Last week, we released a broad core algorithm update. We do these routinely several times per year. As with any update, some sites may note drops or gains. There’s nothing wrong with pages that may now perform less well. Instead, it’s that changes to our systems are benefiting pages that were previously under-rewarded.”

The obvious issue being that while they may have confirmed the change, they didn’t go into any detail at all regarding its nature. Neither did they offer any pearls of wisdom as to how to go about repairing the damage where necessary.

“There’s no “fix” for pages that may perform less well other than to remain focused on building great content,” Google stated.

“Over time, it may be that your content may rise relative to other pages.”

So once again, we find ourselves with countless businesses and website owners wondering why they’ve been punished. Or more importantly, what to do to reverse the damage. The thing is though, these kinds of changes really aren’t surprising at all. Nor should they be interpreted as punishments.

As Google stated, a fall in the rankings doesn’t mean you’ve been punished to some extent or another. It simply means that something to do with your rivals’ websites that wasn’t previous awarded due credit has now been rewarded. So it’s not a case of repairing the damage – it’s a case of taking your own SEO strategy to the next level.

Google’s rules have never changed…at least as far as their intentions are concerned. Serve you niche with a quality, content-rich and well-optimised website to feature prominently in the rankings. Fail to do so and your competitors will outperform you.

Make it happen with a quality, long-term SEO strategy and you can ensure you stay one step ahead of both Google’s algorithm tweaks and those you’re looking to outperform.

Essential Marketing Stats from Mid-February

It’s time once again to share a few interesting and important digital marketing stats from the past couple of weeks. Whatever the size and nature of your business, you’ll hopefully find some kind of value in the following:

Right to be forgotten of interest to millions of Brits
First up, a recent study carried out by Mediatel found that up to a third (34%) of people in the United Kingdom are interested in exercising their ‘right to be forgotten’. What’s more, less than one in five companies are confident that personal data is handled and used responsibly, with 58% of consumers expressing concern regarding how much personal information is stored about them in general. If accurate, millions of Brits could issue requests to be forgotten over the coming years.

Mobile apps driving stronger retail sales
According to Criteo, retailers that offer their customers mobile apps are seeing around half of online sales take place via mobile devices. While mobile devices are known to account for around 40% of online sales in Europe in general, the figure for the UK is much higher at 53%. Customers in many regions and demographics are demonstrating growing preference to dedicated mobile apps, above and beyond purchasing through mobile browsers. The biggest increases in mobile sales have been noted in luxury, fashion and health & beauty sectors.

Too much personalisation is a bad thing
Personalised emails and marketing messages can be extremely powerful. However, take things too far and you’ll be interpreted as creepy, sending your customers in entirely the wrong direction. A recent study found that around 75% of consumers find all types of personalisation at least a little unsettling, with 22% having said they’d refuse to use a brand that takes personalisation too far. On the whole, around 50% of respondents said they’d had at least one creepy experience with personalisation.

Replying to online reviews is a must
New research from Harvard Business School shows that if looking to boost your brand’s overall rating, replying to reviews is an absolute must. Specifically, it was found that when hotels on TripAdvisor respond consistently to customer reviews, they in turn attract on average 12% more reviews and a star-rating boosted by 0.12 stars. Given that even the smallest of differences can have a huge impact when dealing with such huge competition, the findings of the study could prove highly significant.

Global internet user population surpasses 4bn
Last but not least, we’ve now officially passed the 4 billion global internet user threshold for the first time in history. That is, according to a new report published by We Are Social and Hootsuite. This would mean that more than half of the entire global population is now online in one capacity or another. The study also found that the average Brit now spends around six hours online every single day, with more than 95% of the UK population using the internet.

A Fresh Roundup of the Latest Facts, Figures and Stats

It’s the moment you have all been waiting for – our latest list of interesting and perhaps even useful statistics from the world of digital marketing.

65% of consumers are fed up with irrelevant communication

First up, it seems you aren’t the only one who’s well and truly fed up with pointless messages. A recent study found that a full 87% of younger consumers said they’d be encouraged to shop with a company that personalises its special offers and discounts. At the other end of the scale, 65% of shoppers said they’ve had enough of retailers and businesses in general sending them generic and useless messages.

46% of consumers have used social media to ‘call out’ brands

Naming and shaming companies in the face of a negative encounter is apparently becoming more popular than ever. A recent study by a Sprout Social found that a whopping 56% of millennial audiences have taken to social media to publicly vent their frustrations about businesses they’ve dealt with. On the whole, 46% of consumers have done exactly the same.

Consumers are switching to ethical utility brands

Environmentally friendly attitudes and policies are apparently winning over more consumers than ever before. Along with 16% of shoppers saying they’d abandon a utility service provider if it was involved in some kind of scandal, 10% said they would definitely switch providers if a competitor proved to be more ethical in general.

Email click-through rates fell last year

Though it may be too much of a general statistic to hold any real value, a new report from the DMA found that email click-through rates last year experienced a notable decline. Compared to the year before, click-through rates fell from 1.8% to 1.6%. Nevertheless, the overall open-rate remained at around the same 14.2%.

Two out of three luxury shoppers prefer to use mobile

Anyone involved in high-end ecommerce should probably take note of the fact that the majority of luxury shoppers apparently prefer to shop via mobile devices. A full two out of three luxury shoppers preferring mobile, according to Content Square.

Brands can benefit by avoiding or condemning Trump

Last but not least, analysis of brand sentiment scores before and after political statements and messages would seem to suggest that negative sentiments towards President Donald Trump can be beneficial in a business sense. Both Intel and Under Armour have recently seen significant jumps in their respective brand sentiment scores – both occurring almost immediately after the company’s publicly took a strong stance in one way or another against the Trump administration.

Since Under Armour’s CEO Kevin Plank revealed that he is to leave Donald Trump’s manufacturing council, the brand’s sentiment score has stood at a positive 89.4%.

Content Marketing: Why Is It So Effective?

By this stage in time, you don’t need us or anyone else to tell you how important content marketing is. You may or may not be using it to its full potential, but still…chances are you know it’s a big deal.

But have you ever stopped to ask the big question: why is content marketing so effective?

With so many other approaches to digital marketing out there, why does content marketing top the table?

Two very important questions, for which there are thousands of deep and unnecessarily convoluted answers. In truth, the explanation as to why content marketing is so effective can be summed up in just two words:

Value and influence.

Content of Value

The basic principle of content marketing is one that focuses on value. Whatever kind of content you produce and regardless of who you are reaching out to, you need to provide them with something of value. This is the only way they will look beyond your content to the brand behind it, slowly but surely building a sense of trust. And they build a sense of trust because content of value has influence.

Which in turn means that effective content marketing increases influence, which is just about the single most important thing a business can have plenty of.

When you think about it, the most successful businesses the world over are built on influence. Overtime, they increase their influence to such an extent that their target audience members practically eat out of their hands. The greater their authority and influence in their niche, the more power they have to grow, evolve and vastly extend their customer base.

You really only have to think of two brands to get the idea. One being a household name, the other being some random name you read on the packaging of an equally random product that you had never heard of. Which of the two would you be most likely to trust? Which would you be more likely to become a regular customer of? Or for that matter, give their product a try in the first place? More importantly, which would you recommend to your friends, family and colleagues?

The answer is almost always the same – the company or brand with the greatest influence.

Influence Through Value

There is a direct correlation between creation of value and greater influence. That being, the more value you provide, the more your influence grows as a result. Once again, it’s a case of thinking about which brands and even individuals in your life have the greatest influence over you. The brand you are loyal to instinctively, the people you look up to and so on. Chances are, the reason these companies and individuals have so much influence over you and the decisions you make is because you value them.

You may value what they do, what they stand for, the products they provide you with or anything else at all. Value breeds influence, which in turn breeds loyalty, which in turn breeds even greater influence.

So to answer the question once again, content marketing works because it is just about the only approach to contemporary digital marketing that focuses on value above and beyond everything else.

Using Brand Stories To Connect With Your Customers

How can you ensure that the brand story you tell is one your customers will respond positively to?
The answer…well, there are of course enormous differences from one organisation to the next. Nevertheless, there are a few key strategic guidelines to follow, which can help in all instances.

In fact, proceed in accordance with the following five steps and you may find it difficult to go wrong:

1.  Show your customers, don’t just tell them
First of all, it is not simply enough to tell your customers X, Y and Z about your business. After all, you could just be saying it for the sake of winning them over. Instead, you need to think of appropriate ways and means by which you can show them, rather than tell them. Or in other words, demonstrate what your brand represents, how you do what you say you do and what it is that makes you different. These days, evidence speaks louder than all the words in the world.

2.  Focus on long-term stories
It’s also a good idea to ensure that the brand story you tell is long-term or on-going in nature. The reason being that if it is only relevant and/or convincing for the time being, it may not have little value for your business. As with most marketing, the focus should be on the long-term benefits for your business, as opposed to quick-fixes. What’s more, you should tell the type of story that you can and will continue to tell and update along the way. Think of the kinds of evergreen qualities that sell and the kinds of stories your customers will want to keep up to date with.

3.  Be authentic
Or in other words, don’t think you can get away with faking it. Whatever type of story you decide to tell or persona you choose to assume, it needs to be authentic.  Which is for two reasons – first of which being that most consumers can spot fakes miles away. But even if they don’t, you cannot expect to keep up a voice, attitude and façade that go against who you really are and what you really do. Sooner or later, the whole thing will come crashing down - hence it isn’t worth bothering with in the first place.

4. Grab their attention
You cannot expect your customers to delve too deeply into your story if there isn’t something to hook their attention early on. Attention spans these days are minimal at the best of times. Which means that no matter how deep and compelling your story is, you need to ensure you grab their attention as early on as possible. First get them hooked, then move on to the details.

5. Study their habits
Last but not least, the better you come to understand what makes your customers tick, the easier it will be to create compelling stories. Study their habits, get involved via social media and discover the kinds of subjects, voices and anything else that engages them. Not to mention, the kinds of things that generate discussion, or perhaps send them in entirely the wrong direction. This way, you will have nothing less than a blueprint for the creation of not only a great brand story, but the rest of the content you publish across the board.

4 Ways to Avoid E-Commerce Annihilation

Nowadays, it’s often said that in order to be able to survive as a retailer, you need to get involved in the ecommerce revolution. But at the same time, it is hardly difficult to notice how the ecommerce field is already utterly and completely dominated by a few leading brands. Put simply, no matter what you want or need, chances are you’ll be able to easily pick it up from a leading name online.



All of which seems to leave little space for smaller online brands, considering the David and Goliath struggle they usually face. But as far as the professionals are concerned, not all hope is lost. Quite to the contrary, as there are some ways and means by which focusing on what matters can assist any online store avoid complete annihilation by the ecommerce giants.

1. Don’t Count on Low Prices Alone

It is worth bearing in mind that most consumers value other elements of the service package above low prices. Amazing customer service, extremely reliable delivery times or just a brand with a story and ethos they can connect with. Surviving as a small ecommerce business means focusing on what it is that makes your brand both different and awesome from rivals.

2. Be a Service Provider, Not Just a Vending Machine

What this basically means is the way some online stores seem to exist like glorified vending machines, while others are exceptionally rich in engaging and useful content. The difference is that the large majority of web consumers respond significantly better to the latter. Therefore, it is crucial to make all efforts to build and market your businessand brand around so much more than products alone. You have to become an all-round service provider and an online authority your clients turn to for more than purchases alone.

3. Get to Know Your Clients

Loyalty schemes are both effective and important, with eMarketer recently revealing that next to 55% of web consumers admit that their spending habits are influenced by such programs. Nonetheless, it is once again crucial to go beyond the norm in order to be as competitive as possible. Provide regular e-mail updates, carry out surveys, request thoughts, reviews and opinions, find out what their priorities are.

4. Stay Social

Last up, you need to use every scrap of information you come across regarding your customers in terms of the content you create and your effort to maintain relationships. One of the most crucial pieces of the puzzle is that of staying social – making the most use of your social media channels and building one comprehensive online presence. It is not like the CEO of Amazon has the inclination or the time to get directly involved with customers via Twitter or Facebook. As a much more personal and small business, it’s very much something that you can do and hence should be doing.