Author: ad_new

Well, you’ve finally done it – you’ve got the perfect optimised website up & running and it’s now time for all the leads to start pouring in.

So.. where are they?

Most business owners think that once their website is perfected, they will automatically start getting new customers. However, this is not the case. In order for your website to make an impact, people should first know that your website exists!

What you need is traffic.

It is only once you are able to send a good amount of traffic to that optimised website of yours that you will be able to see some action. And blogging is one of the best ways to get people to your website.

What’s better is that blogging helps you drive traffic that is actually interested in what you offer, since it captures them on a topic that is related to your product or service.

With each new entry on your blog, you provide an opportunity for your prospects to find you, find a solution to a problem and subsequently learn about the solutions that your company provides.

But it doesn’t just stop at traffic.

Blogging helps improve conversions & boosts the number of people that actually do business with you, since it helps create trust. As you answer questions that are important to your potential customers & guide them through your blogs, you slowly start creating a relationship built on credibility & authority.

Plus, blogging helps you attract new customers in other ways too:

Regular updates on your website through your blogs helps boost your organic rankings on search engines. This means it becomes quicker & more likely that people who are searching for your service/product find you over your competitors.

Blogging helps you create reusable content that can be shared across social media channels – once shared, it allows you to bring the interested reader back to your website to read the article.. where they can then browse.

Moreover, a blog provides the opportunity to nurture repeat business. Once a customer has decided to follow your blog, you have earned an open forum to stay in front of your customers to maintain the relationship. Using your blog to occasionally highlight new products and services offered by your business is a great way to spark continued interest among customers that already value your brand plus target new customers looking at your expertise.

However, your blogging strategy should be carefully designed and tailored to your target audience in order to make a positive impact. Spamming people regularly with junk content will have an adverse, and often hard to bounce back from, effect.

Want to know more about using blogging to generate leads? Sign up for a free content marketing strategy session.

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The Like Box has become a legend since the introduction of Facebook – it’s used by businesses & websites around the world to increase their Facebook fans & get qualified people to communicate with on social media.

And it is now being discontinued by Facebook!

While this may seem like terrifying news to some, it’s actually a plan to improve & enhance the way “liking” happens. The Like box, though discontinued, is going to be replaced by a new feature called the Page Plugin.

So What Is the Page Plugin?

Page Plugin is the new feature that will allow admins to embed & promote their Facebook page on their website. Features of the Like Box will still be available through this plugin, so that visitors can continue to like & share your page without leaving your website. However, the installation process and look & feel will be different.

Benefits of the Page Plugin

1. Incorporates Facepile, which is the plugin that allows profile pictures of people who have connected with your page on Facebook to be displayed on your website.

2. Has added ability to include page’s cover photo in preview, making it possible to keep consistent branding across social media & your website.

3. Allows you to easily show if you would like to show Page Posts as a part of the plugin – this allows websites to now incorporate a mini newsfeed with the Like Box functionality in one go.

4. People visting your Page will see a count of friends that like the Page as well as their profile photos.

5. Customisable look & feel

6. Works with responsive, fluid and static layouts & has an adaptive width.

Make sure to get your website ready for this change before 23rd June 2015, which is when Facebook is officially discontinuing the old Like Box.

What do you think about this change? Let us know in the comments below.

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If you’ve been doing online marketing in any form, you’ve probably heard the word “content marketing” thrown around recently.

There are marketers who swear by it, and numerous success stories on how content marketing is the new face of advertising and generating new customers.

As savvy marketers ourselves, we thought we’d test the power of content marketing ourselves – and we have to say, we agree!

Content marketing has the power to attract new customers at a much higher level than regular advertising – it captures people on their interests and sells to them when they are at their highest level of engagement, thus generating a higher number of qualified leads than advertising offers directly.

Let’s look at real time results from content marketing

We created a campaign for our client where they had an offer worth AED 1,999

The first ad was a direct ad promoting the offer on Facebook

The second ad was promoting a blog post (i.e: content) on the topic of the same service that the offer was on

Once taken to the content/blog page, the offer was prompted to the reader at the end of the blog post, which then took them to the offer page where they could book (this is the same page that the first ad took them to directly)

 

So what did we find after creating these 2 ads?

The second ad where we used the strategy of content marketing outperformed the direct offer ad by a distinguished amount – 10:1

So yes, it definitely works!

Apart from just increasing conversions & customer bookings, research shows that content marketing has a host of other benefits. Here are some stats of companies using content marketing strategy:

55% more web visitors

97% more inbound links

434% more indexed pages by search engines

However, it’s important to remember that content marketing will only work when you create useful content that will answer any objections or questions your potential customer might have regarding what you are offering them.

The content should be interesting, relevant and engaging. In fact, posting junk or irrelevant content is a sure fire way to seriously harm your online marketing efforts.

There are a number of ways to create the content through which you are going to market, the easiest (and generally the most effective) being blogging.

Want to take off your content marketing strategy? Consult with us for a full Social Media Marketing package that includes page management, advertising & monthly blogs.

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We say this constantly – online marketing is the only place you should be spending your hard earned money.

With the huge advances made in the internet age, the world wide web has completely changed the face of marketing – and with it, the way a customer is sold to. No longer is flashing a product & telling them about it enough to run a successful business.

With the amount of choices & variables available for every kind of product & service in today’s competitive market, it takes fostering a relationship & real time communication to really get a customer.

This is where one of the benefits of digital marketing comes in. Unlike old school methods of marketing, digital marketing opens up a two-way communication.

For example, social media marketing allows customers to interact and engage with your brand and really get to know you on a personal level – and this is where they make the decision to come to you (versus your competitors) to fulfil their need.

But that’s not the only reason online marketing beats old school methods. These 5 points make it a clear winner when it comes to choosing your prime channel of marketing:

Unlimited reach options

Where you want to target people locally or globally, you can reach people specifically the way you want to.  You can widen your reach to expand your audience & increase awareness.. You can also target people who would actually be interested in what you have to offer, instead of blindly advertising to those who have no interest in your product or service.

Lets you track results

With online marketing you can track all the conversions & customers you are getting and from where exactly they are coming.  There is no guessing game – you know exactly how many people saw your ad, how many clicked and how many converted. Compare this with a method like print advertising, where there is no way to tell how many actually saw your ad & you’ll see the benefit. It makes it easier to optimise your budget & spend only on sources that are working for you.

Budget friendly

You can reach as many as 1000 people for just a few cents. That itself is pretty amazing. However, with the amount of options available to optimise and target your ads, you can really get astounding returns for a fraction of the cost. Online marketing is by far one of the most cost effective methods of promotion.

No guess work

You know exactly where your money is going and it’s super easy to calculate your ROI – unlike old school methods where you would guess or have an approximation of how many clients/revenue was made out of a particular print campaign. With online marketing, you stay clear about your numbers and figures when calculating the end result.

Builds a database

When you do online marketing, it becomes easier to gather a database of people interested in your services. This helps you reach out to them again and convert a customer that didn’t buy from you the first time they saw your ad. When you run a print ad, it’s impossible to get any details for further communication with them. They see your ad, and they either buy or don’t – that’s it. However, with online marketing, every cent you pay gives you a return. Even a customer that didn’t buy from you but clicked on your ad is tracked, which means you can pixel them and market to them again.

If you haven’t already, it’s time to put some serious thought into online marketing – it’s a channel that can very easily generate a 100% ROI, and much more!

Trying to figure out the best channel for your online marketing?

Book a free strategy session where we look at your business and your digital presence to determine the best platform to generate new customers online.

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Hurray! You’ve taken the first step and you can proudly say that your business has a website – but are you sure your website is actually helping you?

What we mean is.. Does it produce results? Is it helping you drive more users to take actions? Is it adding to your bottom line by generating you more customers?

If your answer is a maybe or a no, then your website isn’t utilising its full power. It’s just acting as a decorative hanger for your business at the moment.. when it can act as your most powerful sales machine.

Your website is one of the most important foundations – it’s how people find you and learn more about your brands, products & services. It’s also where over 80% of people make their buying decision.

So how do you know if your business website is working effectively? There are a multitude of ways to test how conversion friendly your website is, and what kind of returns it brings from the amount of traffic you send to it.

But before getting into that, the first step is simply starting with a good first impression – your homepage design.

Sure, it needs to look good & be visually appealing – however, when designing a homepage that can successfully hook visitors, there are a number of aspects to take into consideration when creating this design. While it should remain visually appealing, it also needs to be functional & strategic.

So what points should you analyse on your homepage design?

Tick off the 7 points below to ensure you have the most basic foundation laid out right – these will help you know that you have at least started off on the right foot.

Easily found information

We see a lot of websites that have really snazzy graphics – funky layouts, creative designing – but fail to make it absolutely apparent what the website is about. If a visitor lands on your homepage and can’t understand what you do or what you offer in the first 5 seconds, there’s a very high chance you’ve lost their business.

Your homepage must be able to answer clearly ‘Who you are’, ‘what you do’, and ‘what the customer can do on your site’. Don’t make your visitor think and probe too much – if they can’t identify what you’re all about as soon as they land on your page, they won’t stay on for too long.

Talk in the language of your people

Every business has a target audience – so is your homepage targeting the right audience. Are you using the language that will hook your niche? Is your design consistent with what your demographic will find trendy and appealing?

It’s also important to steer clear of any text that is hard to comprehend – using technical jargon is an absolute no-no. Your target customer should identify with your homepage immediately in order to form a connection & also understand how your service matches their needs.

Show what makes you special

Let’s call it value proposition – in order to do well, you have to have a unique selling point. Either your product is superior in quality, or more economical.. perhaps you offer free shipping. Whatever extra value you provide your potential customer should be evident on your homepage. Don’t wait for them to browse around & find out about that extra value by stumbling upon it – you need to flash that value in their face to show them why you are the one they have been looking for.

Device friendly

If you’ve made your website recently, it’s probably already responsive. I.e: it is compatible across all devices and browsers. However, if your website was made a while ago you might need to responsive functionality. And it’s recommended to do this at the earliest, as more than 50% of users are now browsing using a smart device instead of a traditional desktop.

It should be easy to navigate, and there shouldn’t be any “flashy” object interrupting user browsing experience like flash banners, pop-ups, animations or overly-fancy and pointless elements.

Tell them to take action

When someone lands on your homepage, you shouldn’t assume that they are going to take the initiative to dig deeper and browse through your services. You need to tell them to do it! Your homepage should have strategically placed call to actions that direct users to sales pages or pages where they are required to take the desired step. Without the right kind of CTA, you lose out on the potential of turning a visitor into an actual reachable lead.

Call to actions can be anything from “Subscribe Now” to “Call to Book” – however, CTA’s on a homepage are more based on controlling a visitors navigation process and directing them to exactly where you want them to go – you would first want to instruct them to find out more, before selling them or asking them to give you something (like their email address, their time, or their money!)

Be ready for change

Some homepage designs are so intricate that there is no room for change – which can be a bad thing. Successful websites that generate tons of leads are usually continuously optimised & tweaked according to user behaviour. Try keeping your homepage design flexible so it can make room for changes & future optimisation.

Look good – because, let’s face it.. We all judge that book by it’s cover!

Finally, once you have accounted for the functionality of your website you need to ensure it looks good.  Good design pleases people, and also influences their perception of your brand. And make sure your design is consistent. While you may have call to actions, are they placed properly? Do they look good or just look like an eye-sore that the visitor would get irritated by? These are all very important questions that determine whether your visitor will want to keep interacting with you. I mean personally, I would steer clear of a website if it looked really bad – it’s just such a turn off, don’t you agree?

Still not sure your website is set up right?

Have a free consultation with our lead generation expert to check your website & get pointers on what can be improved to increase sales & conversions.

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Are you sure you’re doing everything right on social media? Almost every business has a social media presence these days. But this doesn’t mean all are taking advantage of the countless business benefits social media can provide.

It’s true social media is the finest marketing way for making your brand reach out to a wider audience base. However, if used the wrong way, it can have a negative impact on your business. One little error can make people unfollow your brand. But how can you stay vigilant and ensure your business avoids the most common slip-ups? To put it simply―know what these mistakes are & keep them at bay.

Mistake 1: Too much of Self-Promotion or Boring Content

A little self-promotion is OK, especially when you’re doing it to establish yourself and your expertise. There is a line, however, that shouldn’t be crossed, as going over-board with self-promotion makes customers unfollow you. While you limit your promotion, also see to it that whatever content is going out is relevant & interesting to your audience. Boring and irrelevant content only gets tedious and very monotonous for the customer. When the content frequency is too high or if the matter is uninteresting, people opt to unfollow the particular brand or service on their Facebook or Twitter.

Mistake 2: Overuse of Automated Messaging or Lack of Personal Engagement

Automated messaging helps your business stay productive, focused, as well as engaged with your base of customers. But things can go haywire if the same fails―resulting in people unfollowing your brand on social media. If there is a lack of personal engagement and automated messages end up sounding extraneous, customers eventually shift their focus from your brand & stop engaging. People want an interactive platform & an automated, unresponsive social page sometimes just doesn’t cut it.

Mistake 3: Inappropriate Use of Hashtag

Hashtags are no more limited to Twitter as they have now made a strong presence on all major social media platforms as Facebook, Google+, and Instagram. However, the use of hashtags is an art – we see too many pages placing them anywhere & everywhere! A tweet with a hashtag is said to get more engagement as compared to the ones without it, but poor use of them usually causes followers a teensy bit of social frustration. And when we say poor use, we mean anything from using too many hashtags or using a hashtag that makes no sense at all.

There are a myriad of ways that things can go wrong in social media – however, starting with these super common mistakes is a good start to making sure you aren’t doing things that tend to cause unfollows.

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