Author: meenaxi.badola@justwords.in

  In light of the recent news about a ‘void’ being discovered inside the Giza pyramid, we’ve just got out of an article that said: “New theory proves that aliens built the pyramids”. We delved right into the rabbit hole of ‘theories’ that fed our imagination about the extraterrestrial and almost convinced us that this could be possible. Would you call the headline a ‘Click bait’? This one border on a thin line. As marketers (and reasonably sane human beings) we know that the alien theory may not be the best representation of facts about the discovery. But we click to read it anyway. In some ways, the article delivered compelling theories on why the pyramids couldn’t be built by humans. So the headline did deliver on its promise. So won’t then call it a click bait.   What is a click-bait headline? A clickbait headline is an interesting one promising to deliver content to the reader, which it finally doesn’t. It misleads the user into believing what it can offer and leaves the reader dissatisfied. Persuasive headlines are often viewed as click bait. But the truth is that, if your content delivers what it promises then what you have is a damn good headline and not a click bait.   The science behind crafting good headlines When it comes to crafting outstanding headlines, you can’t even begin the conversation without mentioning BuzzFeed. You have to agree that they have absolutely irresistible headlines that make you want to click and read whether it is a story in your Facebook feed or search result. So what makes their headlines so good? TrackMaven conducted an in-depth study in 2014 on what makes Buzzfeed headlines one of the major sources of distraction. Here’s what they found   1. A ‘question’ headline         Out of the 1.2 million blog posts we analyzed for the report, 94.89% of blog post titles did not include a question mark, but the 5.01% that did yielded 46.30% of social shares for the data set. The other part that came to light about these question headlines is that they were directly addressing the reader. “Which mythical creature are you?” “Which car should you drive?” “Who should you marry?” “Design a bedroom and we’ll tell you how basic you really are” The inevitable ‘you’ factor in the headlines coupled with the question is a big factor in getting ‘you’ crazy until you find the answer.   2. Listicles There is a way Buzzfeed writes its listicle headlines and it works so well in pumping up our curiosity. Here’s the general format Headline = “number + adjective + noun + descriptive clause For example: “28 shocking pictures that prove The Illuminati is all around us” “33 amazingly useful DIY hacks that you never knew existed” Buzzfeed took out the top 5 and top 10 and introduced odd numbers like 26, 33. 41 and more to satisfy our craving to keep scrolling and keep reading. Besides the taxonomy in the list makes it easier for us to compartmentalize the big read into small chunks.   3. Creating emotionally endearing headlines     This Kid’s Pure AF Apology To Her Best Friend Is What You Need When The World Is Garbage https://t.co/oufVT5wCrp pic.twitter.com/mbFklkwVxD — BuzzFeed India (@BuzzFeedIndia) October 30, 2017   When it is not listicles or questions, Buzzfeed headlines work hard to create an emotional connect. “This Kid’s Pure AF Apology To Her Best Friend Is What You Need When The World Is Garbage” “This dad has the most adorable reaction to discovering he is going to be a grandpa” You see, it isn’t just an apology, its pure AF. And you need it when ‘the world is garbage’. It isn’t just dad or just reaction but ‘the most adorable reaction’. The connect pulls you in to see what the fuss is all about. All of these headlines are super viral. Yet, none of these are click baits. Because in the end, the content manages to deliver what the headline promises. While its wholly tempting to write these headlines, here’s what to do if you want to stop it from being called a click bait.   How to avoid a click bait   a. Don’t use questionable sources     Sources form an important part of backing the ‘truth’ behind your content. If the source itself is questionable then people won’t be able to trust your content either. It doesn’t extend to just one part of your content or even to the article but to your entire brand. One mistake these days leads to an online reputation crisis. So pick out sources that you know are well-reputed and well known. If you don’t find a source with such credibility, be sure to mention in your article that you’ll need more sources to verify the fact of the matter.   b. Don’t use questionable statistics     Having a big and interesting number of your content spins the whole content around, so much so that you make the statistic a hero and your entire content the reason behind an action to be taken. Let’s take a stat that says”18% people who view your business online are likely to become your buying customers” The statistic is interesting for any retailer, in fact, compelling enough to make the re-look on how they are ranking locally. But without mentioning the source, it can’t give credibility to the stat.   c. Don’t present fallacies     Presenting a fallacy means you misconstrue and present the data with a bias.  Consider a headline that reads “Huge spike in moral decline of the country” The first question that comes to mind is how can you measure morality. By whose standard is good morality and bad morality defined? With the basic premise itself being questionable, what can you do with such a statistic? Let’s say the ‘huge spike’ mentioned in the headline is actually going from 20% to 22%. In a graph that plots 0-100%, this spike

Come October, we found some interesting stories doing the rounds that can just about shape up your digital marketing strategy for 2018. With just 2 months to go for a new year and new beginnings, it is a good time to think about what’s coming your way. Have a look 1. Keyword Rankings are meaningless: Learn how to grade your SEO For the past few years, clients came to us with one goal – Page 1 ranking for select keywords. Like all SEO done at the time, we too managed to get our clients to their happy spot. But things have been seeing a small shuffle. Search intent has begun to matter. Local SEO has become super important. And to top it all, Google’s tests are showing that it is trying to individualize search results based on search location and history. Which means the results you are seeing for a keyword will be different from the results your friend is seeing a few kilometers away. This will definitely bring about a change in client goals and agency metrics. We have to wait and watch this one out closely. The article on Forbes also suggests a keen eye for long tail keywords and their search results. The long tail is now an important part of good SEO strategy and it may just get stronger in the coming years. 2. Should you outsource your digital marketing strategy? We often have clients coming to us in a state of a conundrum. They’ve felt that they can do their digital strategy internally but somehow need a third party expert to get in and help out. If you specialize in selling trekking equipment, that’s your domain. We would tell you to relax and leave the complex world of digital marketing to us because that’s our domain. Just like we wouldn’t know when to pick out Nitrile gloves over regular mittens, it’ll be difficult for you to pick out the right bids for keyword optimization. So you do what you do best – provide trekking equipment and leave the rest to us. This article articulates the fine points well on why a digital marketing agency is a must for your online marketing. Looking for a content marketing agency? We have explained what you should keep in mind before hiring the best content writing agency in India in this blog. 11 things you should know before hiring a content agency 3. How to create local content for local SEO There’s a lot of talk about how effective local SEO is for small businesses. It goes well beyond stuffing the location name everywhere in your content. Small businesses have a tough task of competing with their online and offline local competitors but in addition to this, they also have to compete with national competitors online who have the same product/service. To get an edge on this competition, they can optimize themselves well locally to get better conversion rates. One of the key points this article highlights is increasing your reputation, reach and reviews by improving your local relevance. You’ll need to create local citations around the web and also double up on your local reviews on third party websites. Read up to know the details of how these strategies can help. 4. 10 important digital marketing stats we’ve seen this month Stats are like a lifeline for us digital marketers. We use them lavishly in the content we write and the conversations we have with our clients and the pitch presentations we make. So a stats update is a must in our monthly round up. This month, there are 10 stats that Econsultancy laid out neatly. Did you know that ad spend on videos overtook banners! A lot of stats here are relevant to the UK but there are some that you can easily extrapolate to your location. The fact that 60% specialty retailers are offering loyalty programs is a good indicator of how the marketing strategy seems to be effective and how it can be replicated for your location too. 5. Will blockchain upend Digital? The threat is real Even as we get a hang of blockchain being shoehorned into industries where it may not be relevant, blockchain can have a far-reaching impact on digital. Did you know that ad fraud will grow into the world’s second-biggest black market by the middle of the next decade amounting to US $44B by 2022! The fact that blockchain is open and transparent can then to disrupt the industry as we know it. Though speed is a big challenge as of today, it could just change in the coming years making blockchain an irreversible part of our digital lives. 6. What the Science of Binge Watching Can Teach Content Marketers Have you started watching an episode of Friends on YouTube and couldn’t stop even after a few hours. So much so that you go back to watch the bloopers and viewer interpretations and spin-offs! We all have our weak points. With Netflix and Amazon giving us perfect access to our favourite shows, we can easily fall into a rabbit hole of binge watching. The catch is not everyone feels bad about this guilty pleasure. Have access, will use is the motto.  So what does this habit tell us content marketers and how can we get our users to binge on our content? That’s the interesting question answered by this article. 7. 10 amazingly creative Instagramming brands We all want that Instagram account with a million follows. But not all of us get the strategy right. You post high quality, ultra filtered photos with the exact relevant hashtag and yet you don’t the amount of engagement you were expecting. Meanwhile, some other brands are growing like a wildfire setting all of Instagram ablaze with each post. What are you and they doing differently? Read on to find the gaps in your Instagramming strategies and how you can pick a few pointers that can help you ramp up your performance. 8.There

Instagram has soon risen in popularity in the last couple of years. While some brands are yet to track their customer journey from a delicious photo to the ROI table, most brands know that this is a  valuable medium to grab customer attention. Being visually engaging is more important than ever. This engagement is a valuable currency in the online world where there are millions of brands vying for attention. Some brands do know their game well in this field. Here are the 10 creative Instagram brands that we found were so  that we could follow them anywhere.   1. Humour: Buzzfeed   like if you know what this is A post shared by BuzzFeed (@buzzfeed) on Oct 19, 2017 at 7:18am PDT   If you aren’t following Buzzfeed on Instagram you are missing out on your daily dose of humour. As always, Buzzfeed takes the best of the web and sums it up just right. A lot of user-generated content is reposted which goes well with the brand perception of fuelling content that is somehow a part of our daily lives and yet no one else expresses it better. The memes are the best. At times, we feel its Buzzfeed who teaches the rest of the internet on how to get their memes right.   2. Food: Oreo   Golden #OreoThins: Perfect with an icy brew. A post shared by OREO (@oreo) on Feb 26, 2016 at 7:17am PST   Oreo is by far one brand that most other brands can learn from on social. Their campaigns across media have been loved and many have gone viral instantly. Their Instagram account is no less. Perfectly showcasing the ‘wonderfilled’ cookies, Oreo’s Instagram plays with words and images to create a cohesive brand image. One thing to note about Oreo is that almost all posts are about them and feature the product and packaging well. From the desserts you can make with Oreo to featuring it in different settings, there’s a bit of our world that’s featured in there which is happy to revolve around an Oreo.   3. Travel Photography: Murad Osmann   #followmeto Taj Mahal with @natalyosmann. Finding a new angle was a challenge for us… I will be honest with you – I like this picture more than the previous one from Taj. Which one is your favourite? Thanks to our dear friend @mohitrai for coming to hotel at 5:30 a.m. and helping us with the dresses. #следуйзамной в Тадж Махал. Признаюсь вам – найти новый ракурс и переплюнуть предыдущую фото было для нас сложной задачей, но эта фотография мне нравится больше :). А какая вам? On Nataly: @abujanisandeepkhosla, @amrapalijewels, @raabrabyrahul. #IndiaInstaMeet @beautifuldestinations @theluxurycollection @itchotels A post shared by Murad Osmann (@muradosmann) on Oct 30, 2016 at 10:52am PDT   There is so much of wanderlust and travel photography out there that it is hard to pick one to feature here. Even then, we are featuring Murad Osmann here because his photography is in the perfect position to set a new trend with his creativity. Murad’s photographs mostly feature his girlfriend leading him by hand to different places. It covers the emotion behind the travel experience and the fun in exploring new places together. A new couple goal we hear?   4. Sports: UsainBolt   “I’m clear about why I’m here how about yuh” #4:44 A post shared by Usain St.Leo Bolt (@usainbolt) on Jul 4, 2017 at 9:35am PDT   The one place you can see the fastest man on earth unravel in slo-mo is on Instagram. Posting absolutely wonderful pics from his training, Usain lets us see the man behind the tagline. If that’s not enough, his casual posts showing him having fun with friends, posing with celebrities and politician and simply being himself is an awesome treat for fans. He’s the fastest man on earth… isn’t it a given that we can only follow him. Don’t miss the Usain Bolt v/s Kevin Hart skirmish with the #GameOn challenge to see who is the most maverick of them all.   5. Nature / Wildlife: stevewinterphoto   @stevewinterphoto @natgeo Leopards are the world’s most widely distributed big cat, but did you know that they’ve disappeared from an estimated 63-75% of their former range globally. The biggest threats facing leopards in Africa include the illegal skin trade, wire snare poaching and human-leopard conflict. National Geographic’s Big Cats Initiative is working towards the conservation of African lions, leopards and cheetahs across Africa. Increasing anti-poaching efforts, installing protective bomas to stop lion-cattle conflict and monitoring big cats numbers with camera traps. Visit https://www.nationalgeographic.org/projects/big-cats-initiative/ to find out how you can help save big cats today, and remember by saving apex predators like lions, leopards and tigers we keep ecosystems balanced and healthy! Follow me @stevewinterphoto to see more images of our natural world and Thanks! @www.causeanuproar.org
#follow me @stevewinterphoto to see other images, thanks!

#instawild #instashooters #wildlife #wildlifephotojournalism @ngwild #natgeowild @thephotosociety #NatGeoCreative #onassignment #wildlifeconservation #inthefield #wildlifephotojournalism #BCI #bigcatsintiative #photooftheday #beauty #lion @africanparksnetwork A post shared by Steve Winter (@stevewinterphoto) on Sep 1, 2017 at 8:29am PDT   Start looking at nature/wildlife accounts and there are so many thoughts that cross our minds. The endless transcendence of nature, the beauty of life in all its form, and the people who have the privilege of taking that photograph. There is simply too much beauty in the moment out there that it is super difficult to play favourites. Even then, our pick for wildlife photography goes to @stevewinterphoto who is a conservation photojournalist. Steve’s photos are not just about the imagery but about his experience and sheer love for the art. He has been chased by rhinos, stalked by Jaguars, trapped in quicksand and stayed in freezing -40  degrees – all to get that shot he really wants.   6. Celebrity: Rihanna   #FENTYxPUMA A post shared by badgalriri (@badgalriri) on Oct 8, 2017 at 7:53pm PDT   Our pick these days for the best celebrity Instagram account goes to riri. Rihanna who goes by the name of

  Ads are sometimes a notorious hindrance in videos. Given how they are being programmed these days, it is difficult to skip some without watching at least for a few seconds. Thankfully, not all ads are bad or useless or boring. Some are made so extraordinarily well that you’ll forget about the video you were going to watch and want to see the ad again. Some send a poignant message. Others are sprinkled with a good sense of humor. While we picked out the ads that had impressed us over time, we started noticing a trend. There were a few things that popped out as common factors that go behind ‘good’ successful videos. The best videos on YouTube are generally under 3 minutes: Ads, especially can’t run for more than that so it works best to have a short video. Make the first five seconds count: The user gets the option to use the ‘Skip’ button after five seconds. You’ll have to make those 5 seconds so effective that the user is compelled to watch further The Catch 22 about a brand recall: There’s been a long-standing debate on where you should place the brand logo or do a brand mention in a video for best recall. In a research on TrueView ads by Google done across 16 countries and 11 verticals analysing 170 creative attributes showed that if you put the logo/mention first, the engagement rates drop. If you put it in the end, there is higher engagement rate but the ‘Skip’ rate increases. So what do you do? If you are going to show your logo first, make sure it is tied to your product, not appearing elsewhere on the screen. Tune in to your viewers: The tone you establish in the first five seconds also plays a huge role in deciding if the viewer will continue to watch you after 5 seconds. Google’s classified 10 categories of style and tone like humorous, emotional, and calming. It turned out that humour was by far the best way to ensure that people continued to watch your brand. Bring in a recognizable face: If the viewer sees a recognizable face including a general celebrity or even a YouTube celebrity, the chances of them remaining glued to your ad are much higher Now, here come the 7 ads that seem to have taken these advice points seriously and done a great job at keeping viewer attention.   1. Volvo Trucks – The Epic Split   There’s a celebrity in focus, no brand mention until the very end and a very neatly done ad in just over a minute. The ad more than drives the point across and does so in a way you’ll simply not forget. The video is so good that there are parody videos created on the same ad which has gathered over 1M views!   2. Dove – Real Beauty Sketches   The ad starts with an element of mystery. What is a forensic artist doing in a Dove ad? You’ll spend the rest of the video finding it out for sure. The emotional element in this video is high. It makes the viewer want to introspect their own thoughts and what they think about themselves. As a result, there is a strong connect established with the brand that tells them that they are so much more beautiful than they think.   3. Always #LikeAGirl   Don’t cry like a girl. Don’t throw like a girl. Without even realizing, the term ‘like a girl’ turned into an insult – one that was used on both boys and girls. A simple insight transformed this ad into sharing such a poignant message. We love the way the ad has been shot.   4. Knorr #LoveAtFirstTaste   Love – the four-letter world that makes the world go round. And gets you a lot of views on YouTube. This ad is shot with a certain degree of staged realism. Even then, it makes you watch until the end if food can really connect you to love. Somewhere, you begin to wonder if that would be a good way for you to find the love of your life too?   5. Vatika – Brave and beautiful   Imagine a hair oil brand saying that you don’t need hair! There’s no sign of the brand throughout this ad but the connect established in the end is quite strong.   6. Choose a different ending   There are quite a few interactive video ads that we really like but this one really drives home a point. This video contains violence and may not be suitable to watch at the workplace or for all ages. But it does a great job at combining video and interaction to show the consequence of action and power of choice   7. Nike Just do it   We all love the line from Nike that gets us going. Forget our weakness. Forget circumstance. Forget what is impossible and Just Do It. And this commercial – it does it! So which one is your favorite ad and what makes you watch it. We would love to know in the comments below. Here are some more interesting reads from the world of online marketing that you might be interested in. From the (Advertising) week that was What did these 6 blogs do to make us love them? A fresh n fabulous list of websites that offer free stock images If you want to know or discuss anything more about content marketing strategies for your business, feel free to write to us at sales@justwords.in or leave us comments below.

  The Advertising Week in New York concluded last week. It was a week where the best brains in advertising, marketing, and media industries met, shared best practices and engaged in conversations that can shape the future of the industry. This year, there were many data-backed insights that were highlighted during the Think With Google sessions that we particularly loved. Filled with some great examples of marketing, the sessions brought to light how brands can increase engagement with customers by simply knowing how to connect better. Here are some of the highlights Show them you know them   Google’s VP of Agency & Media Solutions Tara Walpert Levy and Wendy Clark, CEO of DDB North America spearheaded an interesting discussion on what drives consumer attention for video ads and how new innovations in the video can help advertisers. As digital marketers, we’ve been constantly vying for consumer attention. We sometimes call it a click, sometimes a goal and even a conversion. But when it comes to video marketing, advertising has long been looked upon as an intruding filler. Over the years, the video industry has studied data to improvise how the ads are presented to consumers. You are forced to watch some for 5 secs before you can skip. Others come right in between the video you are watching, just like a TV commercial, and you are forced to sit through. Even then, some ads work better than others and are more willingly consumed. Is creativity the only key to increasing attention span? Levy begs to differ. Here are a few myths she busted during her session a) People DO pay attention, even today   Did you know that according to Ipsos, 81% of video-viewing occasions get all or most of people’s attention. But attention is given with a certain caveat. Your ad will get attention only if is really interesting to the viewer. You may look at that sentence with two highlight words – ‘interesting’ and ‘viewer’. Universal creativity, generating awe or shock or even humour gets covered under interesting. But what eludes most ads is the attention they choose to give their viewer. How much do you understand the viewer? Do you think they’ll be able to relate the product or service directly within the first five seconds? That is a key question when you are demanding their attention.humour gets covered under interesting. But what eludes most ads is the attention they choose to give their viewer. How much do you understand the viewer? Do you think they’ll be able to relate the product or service directly within the first five seconds? That is a key question when you are demanding their attention. b) Attention-worthiness of video ads depends just as much on how the ads are served as what’s in them    Consider the restaurant analogy. If you go to a high-end restaurant that has exotic ingredients listed for its recipes but doesn’t match it’s ambience with great service, would you recommend them? Good service comes from a deep understanding of your customer.  Same goes for video ads. It matters ‘how’ you serve them.  As both Levy and Clark emphasized, “People will give you their attention if you can show them you know them”   c) Intent-based targeting can get you 20% higher ad recall and 50% higher brand awareness compared to only demographics targeting   What is intent-based targeting? It involves collecting data about your actions, things you like, stores you visit, apps you install, search history and the likes and then show you an advertisement based on what is likely to resonate best with you. This is definitely better than plain old demographic targeting. For example, if you are a beverage company launching a new flavour of coffee, you could target your ad to 18-50-year-olds and expect some level of engagement. But if you could choose people who already like popular coffee shops and have had recent conversations about coffee, their chances of consuming your advertisement are high. So you see, it’s not just about the coffee but how and when you serve it.   Use data to put customer first   How well do you understand your customer? From the first time, they visited your website to the time they saw your ad on YouTube, read a review on a third party site, saw a blog about your product, then walked into your store and made a purchase. From awareness to action – can you trace your customer’s journey and see how you did at each touch point? Marketers today have access to Big Data that can slice and dice to present numerous facets of your customer and help you know them better. From their general shopping habits to the shows they like to watch to their average family size, you can know both demographics and psychographics from data that’ll allow you to market your products better. But are you doing it? Google partnered with Econsultancy to conduct a research among leading marketers (defined for the study as those that significantly exceeded their top 2016 business goals) to see how they use data to understand their consumer. Here’s what they found:   1. Successful businesses are investing in technology that allows them to gather and act on consumer data quickly   The study showed that “leading marketers are 72% more likely than the mainstream to strongly agree that they’re investing in improving the quality and/or volume of the first-party data they capture“. Collecting data across websites, on-ground sales channels, teams, and even kiosks allow marketers to get a holistic view of the relationship they share with the customer. This allows them to personalize their offering to an extent and improve engagement and loyalty.   2. Use that data to find more customers like yours The data collected from current customers are not only helpful to keep them happy and engaged but is also useful in finding more customers. Applying the statistical probability to a larger set of audience allows marketers to discover new and

Our team at Justwords is a group of individuals from diverse backgrounds but we all share a common love for reading. Books and blog recommendations are an active part of conversations during lunch and tea time breaks. We recently decided to pick favourites in each sector that we thought everyone on the team can universally agree on. Our parameters included the blog design, text content, follower base, visual content (pics, videos and other forms of content) and a little bit of x-factor that allowed us to connect better with the blog. It was a difficult task but we managed to get a list out (finally!) without any team members biting each other. In the process, we all ended up discovering so many interesting blogs. Considering 571 new websites are created every minute on the internet, we’ll be having plenty of such debates in the future. On that note, here are the top 5 we picked from different industries – all having one thing in common – they are all made in India! FOOD  A food blog should do the work of an appetizer. It should leave you hungry and wanting for more. While there are hundreds of thousands of food blogs in India The Culinary Commentator There are plenty of recipe sites out there but what got us unanimous about The Culinary Commentator was that it allowed us to discover interesting news places to try out and did not burden us with the thought of spending hours in the kitchen trying out a dish – just good food that can be ordered or had at nice restaurants with friends and family. Now, that’s refreshing. The blog is  the 2016 winner of Best Restaurant Review blog by IFBA. The author Rukshana Kapadia has over 5000 followers on Zomato and 23k+ fans on Facebook.   TECH Turned out, this category had a tie. We ourselves have a few tech junkies in the team and with a digital and content background, we constantly crave to know new things and industry happenings. These two blogs covered it well Labnol Founded by Amit Agarwal, an engineer in Computer Science from IIT, Labnol is our go-to blogs for how-tos on general consumer software and mobile applications. Labnol first caught our attention years back when it demonstrated the use of Mail Merge for Gmail – a super neat trick for marketers who wanted to bypass Google’s promotional inbox restrictions. While new tech like Gmass has taken over in the same space,   Labnol continues to provide some good how-tos. Here’s the latest one that’s got us all excited and experimenting: How to write a twitter bot in 5 mins NextBigWhat The second tech site where we go to stay updated on the latest tech happenings that really matter is this site founded by Ashish Sinha. A product of IIM Roorkee and IIM Bangalore, Sinha has now extended the site to a full-fledged community which sees great participation from people in the industry.   TRAVEL Travel With Lakshmi Lakshmi Sharath has most of us wishing to take our dream holiday right away. In fact, too much reading of the blog is highly injurious to your mental health at work and can cause excessive daydreaming! In addition to all the wanderlust blogs, she also provides honest guidance to newbie bloggers who aspire to live her life someday. Here’s a good one on barter deals offered to bloggers and how to tackle them Lakshmi’s About page is a wonderful list of how she brings together her passion and profession.   SPORTS AND MORE Doosra / Gonewiththewindies Doosra is a great place to go if you want to smile while you read a blog. It’s sense of humour on sports and a bunch of other topics is full of topical wit. What the blog lacks in design, it makes up for in brilliant content execution that keeps the reader engaged. Expect a mini package of a blog to explode and make you an instant fan.   FASHION FashionOomph Welcome to a world where travel meets fashion and creates magnificent pictures and great fashion goals. Founded by Delhi based blogger Tanya, the site shares some interesting tips on both fashion and travel that gives you the latest trends in clothes, accessories and all things fashion. The cool part is that she believes that anyone can look like a celebrity if you follow some simple fashion tips. Cheers to that! Do you have a list of blogs that you actively follow? Do let us know. Our team will be happy to check it out.

In our discussions with clients, we’ve often come across a common pattern of questions about content marketing. Some stem from worrying if it is worth investing in the medium. Other questions are around having clear measurement metrics or success stories from their industry. Below, we’ve put together 11 questions that most of our clients want to know answers to. You might find your answer here too and if not, you can scroll down to see how you can reach us. We’ll be glad to help out.   1. We are already putting out blog posts regularly. What else can we do? So, you are getting the ‘content’ part right. You need to work on the marketing. The first thing you can do is a content analysis. Since you’ve been putting out content for a while, it’ll be great to check what type of inbound traffic it has be drawing in and if the traffic is ‘sticky’ (people who start from the blog check out the rest of the site).  This will demonstrate the current effectiveness of your content and if the blogs are serving their purpose. If they are working, you need to work on expanding their reach via newer social channels. If not, then you’ll have to go back to the board and chalk out alternate topics and strategies. When you do a content analysis, don’t forget to check if all your posts are optimized well (SEO tags, meta information, Content, images, videos) and if they have the right call to action in place that’ll keep your user on the site and push them to take action. Last but not the least, check on how your marketing actions like campaigns and newsletters change the footfall quality from the post over time.   2. How do you take a company that has mostly done traditional marketing and transition to content marketing? Content marketing has many facets. Simply put, it plays a role in helping create and maintain the perception about your brand online. If you are a brand who is already reaching out to your users via traditional channels, you’ll now need to modify your content slightly without changing your voice or tone to fit into online media. The first step in taking your brand online is your website.  A website allows you to say a lot of things that traditional channels with limited time and space doesn’t. Though users generally come with limited time, they can choose to stay and engage with you if your content is good. Creating an engaging and optimized website is the first thing you can do to being your online content marketing efforts. Next, you can work to claim your handles on popular social channels. Most people know for sure that Facebook and Twitter will have a big subset of their target audience. The rest of the audience may be divided into channels like Pinterest, Instagram, G+ and Linkedin depending on their fit. Even if you don’t plan to use all of these channels, it’ll be good to claim your handles and create a basic bio to avoid conflicting claims from competitors. The above strategies work to generate brand awareness.   3. How can I use content for brand awareness and differentiation when I and my competitors are selling the exact same thing? Interesting question. When you are selling the same product, content actually is the best weapon in your arsenal to chalk out differentiation. That’s because even if you have the same customer base, the persona represented in your marketing can be different. Let us take two financial institutions that offer student loans. One company focused on the emotional aspects that govern the decision-making. Student loans are seen as a medium to fulfil aspirations and dreams. Hence the company and their loan projected themselves as a medium to help students achieve their potential without money being a roadblock. On the other hand, the second company decided to focus purely on the practical aspects of taking a student loan. It described in length about competitive interest rates. It also put out offers on concessions during the entire loan tenure and special offers for girls. Students looking for a loan are likely to come across websites from both these financial institutions. One thing that does tip in the favour of the former is a highly detailed FAQ section that cuts down the time during the decision-making process, providing better clarity.   4. How can you create thought leadership using content marketing? Thought leadership is honestly a highly abused word in the field of content. We are a tad wary of self-proclaimed ‘thought leaders’ who claim to be one on their profile bios. Thought leadership does not come from one activity but a sum of all your activities online. It is about engaging in meaningful conversations, sometimes about your product and industry but also outside it. This means you can share other people’s content if it is relevant. You can jump into conversations where you can add value. You can summarize your own experience on aspects of your industry/product that colleagues and outsiders (even those who are just beginning to cue in on the topic) will find of value. Being a thought leader is not about selling but becoming a resource.   5. How can content marketing help a new company / startup? As someone new, you’ll be eager to share information about your product with prospective customers. And customers too, will, likewise want to know what the new player is doing to keep things different. Like all brands, you can do the regular stuff with updating content on your website, providing detailed FAQs and sharing updates on social channels. Even then, there are two things are come highly recommended for startups How-tos: How to content in the form of text, video, images, and infographics will help prospective customers understand your product better. If you are selling a soil sensor that provides info on plant health directly to a smartphone, it’ll be great to demonstrate

We deal with a fair share of e-Commerce clients, some are giants, some smaller ones and some who are just about riding the wave. From our understanding of this particular industry, I believe that when it comes to content marketing, e-commerce has the best options to directly track the result of your effort. Within as little as 3 months, you’ll be able to tell if a particular marketing activity is driving sales or not. This makes e-Commerce a potent playing ground for trying out content marketing strategy too. If you do not believe me, just read the stuff below. Statistical evidence shows that content marketing can increase the average conversion rate to almost 6 times. But if done right, you have the potential to go beyond ‘average’. Content marketing can not only give you immediate spikes in conversion analytics but also long-term dividends. And that’s just one reason to ensure that your e-Commerce website adopts a good content strategy. And there is more. Image Source: Lemonstand Content marketing plays a crucial role in crafting your overall online reputation. It helps build trust in your company, increases word-of-mouth mentions and is the best way to gather buzz for your products. It even allows you to build a community around your brand and have followers convert over a period of time. While you mull if the time and money investment in content marketing for an e-commerce site is really worth it, here is some food for thought – You can generate 3x leads from content marketing than traditional marketing Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing 82% consumers have a more positive opinion 70% feel a closer connection with the brand as a result of content marketing 60% users enjoy reading content from their brands 70% prefer to learn about brands through posts rather than ads 72% users believe that they form a bond with the brand as a result of custom content Source: The Demandmetric If you haven’t tried content marketing for your e-Commerce business, its high time you get started. Considering that running a business is already a full-time job, it’s a great idea to have an expert consultant who can handcraft the strategy for you. Starting randomly and not know what and how to measure generally proves to be a mistake that costs more than money – it costs valuable time that your brand could have spent building customers for the near future. If you decide to get the ball rolling, we have a great list of strategies below with examples on how you can implement them. 1. Create useful content People don’t like to be sold to all the time. They certainly aren’t crazy about in-the-face advertising. What they do like is content that is useful. Content filled with tips and tricks and hacks that can make things easy. As an e-Commerce platform, you’ll have many opportunities to use this strategy. It sometimes may relate directly to your products. More often, it may not. Nonetheless, being useful will draw users back to your site. One of the best use case for this can be seen with Lowe’s. The retailer makes an innovative use of short Vine videos to mostly share useful tips with its users. There is only an occasional product plug and no one really minds it. You can see that most videos have thousands of loops and likes showing the amount of engagement they generate. This simple yet innovative practice is followed by many non e-Commerce sites too. Take the Jugaad page on Facebook which is actually run by the Punjab Kesari publication. Full of useful hacks, the brand is only subtly mentioned in the end. But it creates an interesting strategy for association and recall. No wonder you see your Facebook feed filled with’life hacks’ these days. 2. Create content that resonates Each section of the target audience for your website falls into a ‘category’ that likes and enjoys certain activities. If you can be an advocate for these activities, it is likely that your audience will begin to bond with you beyond your products. A good example is the Scotts Menswear blog which shows how this is done. You’ll find the blog covering fashion, film, TV, life, music, and sports. From the most talked-about boxing matches to covering exclusive interviews and behind the scene notes with music bands that their target audience follows, the blog is full of life. It also has ample product plugs from the store but they make the blog look nice with high-quality photos and interesting content. 3. Don’t forget to have a sense of humour Everyone needs a good laugh once in a while. Or at least a smile would help. And it’ll help your e-Commerce website too if it puts your customers in a better mood. No matter what channel you use to communicate, adding a sprinkle of humour can keep things light and happy. Take for example Amazon India’s posts on their Facebook page. The ad works the excuses-to-take-leave angle perfectly and prepares you for its annual mega sale. 4. Develop a YouTube channel to drive traffic Wondering how e-Commerce platforms can use YouTube? Considering that video is one of best mediums to quickly share information with your users (and YouTube is one of the most popular channels on the internet), it can definitely play a role in driving traffic to your e-Commerce platform too. YouTube videos are a great way to showcase the benefits of your products. Think of making the videos interesting by showcasing use cases that your audience may not have thought about initially. If product plugs are too obvious,  then go back to useful and resonating content. With the eventual growth in subscribers and views, a part of the traffic will come back to your e-Commerce website too. Zagg is a company that creates screen protectors for iPhones. If you are an iPhone user, you know how supremely important this product is. But how will you know if it is as