Discover the Top 5 Secrets to Successful Content Creation

They sometimes say that great ideas are a dime-a-dozen. And there’s probably some truth to this. Having a brilliant idea isn’t very hard! It’s the journey from idea to execution that’s challenging. It requires a framework, craftsmanship, discipline, and persistence. In today’s world, where content is being thrown at us from every direction (as an example, a whopping 2 million blog posts are published every day), creating successful content becomes all the more tricky. In the past decade, we’ve seen many clients struggle with content creation services — there are those who face such inertia that they never get a content plan in place while others create a few brilliant pieces and then just stop. But the good news for all is that, here are some of the best-kept content creation secrets that we’ve discovered over the years:   Build the right content creation model   As a brand, you have to figure out the content creation model that will work best for you in the long run. If you have the bandwidth and the resources, you can hire an in-house content creation team. This is the best option if you need to produce a high volume of content or create content for multiple platforms. If your subject matter is highly technical and requires you to educate your audience, consider hiring subject matter experts. If you don’t have the resources for a full-fledged in-house time, hiring specialist freelance writers or content agencies is a great, cost-effective option. If you have a B2B product with a strong community, you can even consider guest posts from contributors as a viable engine for great content. Whichever model you opt for, it’s important that you find what works for you before you start executing a full-fledged content plan. Read Also: Here are 25 of the most amazing content creation tools ever   Build your audience persona and work with it   This is the most important rule when it comes to creating effective content. You need to understand your target audience and build effective buyer personas. This means you have to define everything you know about your ideal audience member — how educated they are, where they live, how old they are, what kind of work they do, which gender do they belong to, what their interests are, and so on. Sometimes, if your audience is a bit diverse, one persona won’t be enough. So, you might have to create a set of personas. Fleshing out these details about audience members will help you understand exactly who you’re addressing, and your content will be much more relatable as a result.   Zero in on a content niche   Do you know what they say about stand-up comedy? You’re more likely to become successful in the long run if a small group of people consider you to be hysterically funny, rather than if a large group of people think you’re mildly hilarious. The same is true for content. When you’re starting out, you don’t want to invest all your energy and resources across multiple channels and different content formats. Zero in on a viable content niche where you can become the master of the domain and build your following from there. Identify your unique content prowess by asking yourself some important questions. These include: Is your audience longing for this kind of Content and not getting it anywhere else? Can you become an authority in your industry within this niche? Do you have the time and resources to create valuable content within this niche and in the right content format?   Create shareable content It’s not enough to just create brilliant content. It’s important that this content is focused on topics that will help you generate shares and backlinks. For this, you need to research keywords to make sure you’re choosing the right topic. To start with, get on Google and search for keywords in your niche. Remember to use informational keywords rather than product-based keywords. For instance, you should use keywords like “how to make good coffee at home” rather than “mocha pot” or “coffee maker”. You can then enter the details of the websites of the top results into a backlink checker like Ahrefs.com or Open Site Explorer. This will give you a list of the top-performing content. Now what you need to do is build a piece of content around the same topic, but one that’s much richer and more valuable than the existing content on the subject. Remember, the pieces that rank high have been around longer than what you will produce, so you need to make sure your content is far superior, or you’ll find it harder to rank higher. You can do this by making sure that the content is more relevant to your audience, that it has better design, is more current, or has more details.   Use long-form, evergreen content for sustained traffic   There are two rules of thumb that every content creator should keep in mind. The first is that long-form content works better in the long run. If you look at Google’s search engine rankings, the top 10 results are usually of 1000 words or more. So, while consistency is the key to better SEO, 400-600 word blog posts writing simply aren’t enough. Try to create more in-depth content (anywhere between 1000-3000 words) to eke out a position as an authority in your niche. Another great trick is to use evergreen content. This refers to content which doesn’t change significantly with time. Writing high-quality, in-depth beginner’s guides or how-to articles are great examples of evergreen content as they don’t really come with an expiry date. Having great evergreen content also helps you to attract traffic to your blog in the long run.   The last word These are some of the secrets to effective content creation that we’ve discovered along the way. They should work as a great framework for you. If you have any more questions, or if you think there are some

Google BERT — The Algorithm Update Everyone is Talking about and How it Will Affect Your SEO

On 25th October, Google released what it calls the most important update to its search algorithm in years — BERT. Naturally, everyone from business owners to digital marketers has been in a tizzy since then. While some people saw a dramatic fluctuation in their rankings, others saw barely any change and started questioning whether BERT really is an issue in the first place. So, to manage some of the hysteria currently surrounding this update, we decided to break down BERT for you. We’ll talk about what this update is all about, how it’s going to affect search engine rankings, and how you can respond to it in the best possible way.   What is BERT really about?   BERT is short for Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers. While this may sound intimidating, its implications are actually fairly straightforward. It simply means that the Google search algorithm can now understand the context of words in a search string. Does that sound a bit confusing? Let’s break it down even further. With the BERT update, Google now uses NLP (Natural Language Processing) to understand the importance of transformer words (like “to” and “for”) within the search term that a user inputs. Previously, the search engine would focus only on the keywords, without giving much thought to these transformer words and how they actually affect the meaning of the search query. We can take a look at one of Google’s own “before and after” examples to see how BERT really works. Let’s take a search for “2019 brazil traveller to USA need a visa.” If the importance of the word “to” in this search is not understood, then Google wouldn’t have been able to figure out whether the query is about a Brazilian travelling to the USA or vice-versa. Before BERT, this search term therefore also returned results about US citizens travelling to Brazil. Now, with BERT, the search engine is able to understand that the word “to” is actually very important in this context and changes the meaning of the search query completely. Here’s what the before and after search results look like: Why BERT could have affected your rankings adversely   If you’re one of those people who saw a dramatic fall in their rankings right after BERT was released, here are some possible reasons. They may not all apply to you, but one or more definitely will.   Your ‘informational search’ game isn’t strong Informational searches are those types of searches where users are seeking specific information about something. A Penn State research study shows that 80% of Google searches are currently informational searches. These searches are the most likely to be affected by BERT because they usually use more transformer words. If you don’t have the kind of content that would rank high for an informational search, you may have lost out on your rankings in a big way.   You were ranking high for irrelevant searches Let’s take the example above. Say your website provides information for US citizens travelling to Brazil. Earlier, a query like “2019 brazil traveler to USA need a visa” might have shown your result page in the rankings, but not anymore. This is probably not such a bad thing as you don’t need to rank higher for search queries that aren’t relevant to your content.   Local SEO is winning now Local SEO tends to rely very heavily on transformer words like “for”, “at”, and “in” so there’s a chance that these searches are now throwing up more local results, pushing your website down.   Keyword stuffing has become even more obsolete For years, SEO experts have been saying that Google is looking more at quality content, than mere stuffing of keywords. This particular update is another step in the same direction. So if you still have content that’s designed more for search engines rather than for end-users, it’s probably time to rethink your strategy.   What you can do about BERT today   If you have been affected by BERT in a big way, try some of these tips to get back into the game. Even if your rankings haven’t been affected in particular, it might still be a good idea to implement these suggestions anyway because things will keep shifting in the next few months as websites keep evolving to adapt to BERT.   Stop pretending it’s 2009 and get rid of keyword stuffing This is probably the most important advice to keep in mind. In the late 2000s and early 2010s, many businesses started churning out poor quality articles that made little sense for readers but were stuffed with keywords and designed to satisfy the search engine algorithm only. In the last few years, most of the Google search engine updates have focused on preventing this from happening, and BERT is no exception. Since BERT uses NLP, it emphasizes more on natural-sounding content that is valuable to end-users, rather than content that is stuffed with keywords in an unnatural, inorganic way. So in case you haven’t done this already, it’s high time you revamp your content in a way that makes it more amenable to readers vis-a-vis search engines.   Take another look at how you’re capturing informational searches If your rankings have gone down dramatically after BERT, start by examining which keywords and search terms are no longer performing as well. Search for those keywords and look at the kind of content that is now making it to those high ranks. Find ways to incorporate what’s working for this content into your existing content or create new content which is more geared towards informational search. At the end of the day, BERT is not some crazy, out-there update. It simply builds on Google’s underlying goal — which is to make Search more useful and relevant for users. If you’ve already been building content geared towards end-users, chances are BERT won’t affect you in a big way in the long run. If you’re still in the “create content for

6 Powerful Ways Marketers Can Use Psychology to Improve Content

Being a marketer is not easy. You need to wear several hats to create that perfect selling proposition – you need to have the understanding of the product manager, the content team, your sales guys, and even the data people to add that new perspective in positioning, pricing and placement. A good marketer is always on the lookout for a spark of insight about their target audience that can help them create the right messaging for the product. This insight comes from a deep understanding of their psyche – knowing which statement is most likely to tug their heartstrings and push them off an indecisive fence and become a customer. While you may already be applying a lot of psychology lessons to connect with your target audience, here are a few that we found comes in handy:   1. Emotional marketing Has an ad left you feeling so emotional that it has affected the way you perceive the brand? Sometimes these emotions are powerful enough to make a consumer spur the buying decision before the rational brain kicks in to understand the product features or price. If such an emotional buy is then ratified with a good product, it results in winning over a loyal customer. A great example is the Nike Dream Crazier women ad. That and several in the genre that tugs on an emotion. The ad never once tries to sell Nike or explain the product features or mention the price. The intent of the ad is to appeal to the emotions of women athletes. The brand demonstrates that it ‘knows’ you. It ‘feels’ you. And it is one standing by as a silent supporter in your struggles. Of course, women will try out the shoes and buy them for the quality they offer. Not that rival brands may be any less in quality. That’s where the emotional marketing works and creates a differentiator pull of brand affinity.   2. Provide social proof Social selling is new-age marketing. From using influencers to sell your wares to providing the opportunity for reviews, testimonials and other user-generated content, the awareness and selling proposition brought out via social proof is more powerful than a brand peddling its value proposition. The case from social proof comes from the fact that we want to emulate the behaviours of the people we trust and follow.         View this post on Instagram   my daily essentials. what are yours? #madedifferently @smartwaterind A post shared by Radhika (@radhikaofficial) on Oct 10, 2019 at 1:06am PDT Although many industries have adopted social selling, it works really well for travel and fashion. Having an influencer or customer wear your label and tag you often becomes a more powerful reason to buy than other factors. Seeing beautiful destinations visited by someone in your peer group gives better validation to your own choices. Check out the top 10 travel influencers of India in this piece, their brand marketing tie-ups and how they have benefited the advertisers.   3. Grounded Cognition Before we continue, take a minute to watch this Nescafe Gold video.   We have to admit it left us with goosebumps. Would I buy the coffee because of this ad? Probably not. When the decision making happens on the supermarket shelf, we will look at blend and aroma than the emotional appeal. Then why did Nescafe decide to create this ad? That’s because this ad takes the storytelling approach that almost makes you feel standing in place of the man in the stadium. You’ll feel the anxiety of the protagonist almost imagining who in your friends and loved ones will be left standing if you were to ask these questions. This coupled with the product cut ads did the trick for the brand.   4. Paradox of Choice The common experiment quoted to demonstrate this marketing psychology is the one conducted by Sheena Iyengar, a professor of business at the University of Colombia and the author of ‘The art of choosing’. In a California gourmet market, the professor and her assistants set up a booth of jams and switched from a selection of 24 to 6 jams every hour. Here’s the math: No. of people who sampled the larger assortment: 60% No. of people who bought after sampling the larger assortment: 3% No. of people who sampled the smaller assortment: 40% No. of people who bought after sampling the smaller assortment: 30% The other appending factor is the lack of information in the choices. If one variety of jam gave out information on being from an organic source or having more nutrient value for children, it could easily tip the scales of choice. Choices can also be used to tip the scale to your advantage. Check out the choices offered below for a women’s magazine: 1 year subscription: INR 399 1 year subscription with a monthly mystery box of make-up from leading brands: INR 1499 The difference in the values are too high to make the decision easy. What if you now introduced something that could tip the scales in the favour of one choice? 1 year subscription: INR 399 1 year subscription and a bi-monthly mystery box of makeup from leading brands: INR 1299 1 year subscription with a monthly mystery box of make-up from leading brands: INR 1499 You’ll notice that the 2nd choice is a dummy one introduced by marketers to simplify the choice. No one will go for it when the difference between the two is just INR 200 and you get an additional 6 mystery boxes for it. That’s how you can use the paradox of choice to your advantage.   5. Loss Aversion Theory   FOMO or Fear of missing out is real. It is one of the most common psychology theories put out by marketers. Other people are thinner, more beautiful, have happier families, travel to exotic destinations, have instagrammable food and in general live a better life because of the brands they choose. The fear of

How to Write Content That is Future-Proofed for Google Algorithm Updates

Did you know that Google made 3234 algorithm updates in 2018? That’s an average of 9 updates a day! Savvy SEO executives who keep a watch on their keywords’ ranking every day notice the subtle changes. A website that was lost in the depths of page 5 suddenly starts ranking on page 1. Another great link suddenly disappears from page 1 causing a flutter. What we don’t get an immediate answer is to the ‘why’ as we don’t know what’s changing in the algorithm.Even then, Google shares visibility to the bigger updates – also called core updates, like Penguin and Panda. The last confirmed update happened in June 2019 which revolved around quality and site diversity. With so many changes happening every day, SEO specialists need to future-proof their site to possible updates that can have a big impact. Although this sounds difficult, we have some insights on predicting the future based on our past experiences with Google updates. After all, there is no point in looking at Google’s update with trepidation. It’ll be great to instead be prepared with content that can only rank higher with every update.   When Google algorithm updates can work better for you than some of your competitors Google wants to constantly improve its search experience. Most people want to take the shortcut to rankings and end up creating bot-pleasing content piles that may get them going in the short run. If you have competitors who follow this strategy, it is likely that they may outrank you in the short run but with every Google update they are going to find it harder to sustain their rankings until they switch to white hat practice. Google is looking for ‘useful’ content. As long as you can access the utility of your content from a user perspective on an ongoing basis, your rankings should change only marginally   How to access your content’s utility With hundreds, sometimes thousands of pages in a website, many of them being dynamic, it can be a daunting task for anyone to evaluate content periodically. Content cannot be the SEO manager or Content manager’s sole responsibility. In fact, everyone in the organisation should be vested in ensuring that the content is accurate and updated.   Create a Content responsibility Google sheet Let us assume that your website has 20 products and related pages, a blog and standard pages about the organization. In addition to this, there are some technical functionalities built within the site. The site may also have campaign banners and content from the HR team promoting company initiatives. Each page identified within a function should be assigned to the functional head to ratify its content. If there are hundreds of products, the ratification group will have to be expanded. While the marketing team would be in charge of the blog pages, the HR in the company will be responsible for showcasing the latest updates from the organization. The performance content marketing services team will be the best to evaluate which campaign banners will show. Democratizing the responsibility of the content now gives both SEO content and Content mangers better ways to handle constantly evolving content.   Make yourself unique Most marketers do a keyword evaluation, pick the relevant keywords with high search volumes and begin to write a blog. Often such keywords are also competitive and there is existing content available. Do a detailed analysis of content that is currently ranking high for the keyword. Think of ways how your content cannot be incrementally better but exponentially useful for readers.   a. Here are a few things that can make your content unique Data or case studies from campaigns you’ve run: A campaign will generally give you access to a treasure trove of data and learnings that is unique. You can leverage some open information from such campaigns to build a unique case for your brand Your own research/surveys: While a survey and its result is generally good fodder for creating original content, you can cut various slices of this content to make it snackable or even build infographics and image visuals A quote from the relevant people in the company: A company quote and a PR angle is a great way to ensure your content is original Create new forms of content: Content need not be limited to text. From ads to blogs to gifs to social stories to infographics, modifying the type of content can give it a unique twist in perspective. b. Make it meaty The crux of the content and the summary should be interesting enough to drive high click-through rates. If you are talking about the one secret strategy to getting your keywords right, the secret strategy should be something that is really worth the readers 7 minutes of reading time. c. Build trust by showcasing expertise Think of all the industry blogs that you go to check often when you need detailed information on a topic. If the topic you are researching is on improving click-through rates on organic rankings, you know that you are likely to find answers on backlinko.com or Neilpatel.com or Moz.com All of these sites present convincing data from self experiments, in depth analysis and detailed screenshots on how-tos to help you solve your problem. They automatically qualify as the industry expert on the related topics over a period of time. It is not easy to gain expertise and showcase it with content. But the hard work definitely pays off. d. Let the devil lie in the details Content with typos and grammatical errors is simply unacceptable. It brings down the credibility of the website as a whole. It is simple to use tools like Grammarly to get your content house in order. Make sure that anything that is published is of optimum quality. The exception here only lies for UGC. User-generated content is generally full of short forms and sometimes riddled with mistakes. But that goes to show its authenticity that it is not written by a professional but a

The yay and nay of Influencer Marketing and should you do it

Keeping up with the latest trend, there would hardly be a marketer who may have not considered Influencer Marketing in their mix. Given the paucity of visibility in organic marketing and noise in paid marketing, Influencer Marketing seemed like idea that was clutter-breaking. Like all media, it comes with its pros and cons. The ROI from using this channel has been under severe scrutiny and skeptics think this is all hoo-ha and no moolah. The 2018 Mediakix survey predicted that Influencer marketing will become a $5-10B industry by 2020. Let’s share a quick background on this medium of outreach and how you can check for the pros and cons for your brand and industry.   Influencer Marketing   From celebrities to micro-influencers, influencer marketing is a way for brands to communicate via a third-party influencer whose opinion resonates with the brand’s audience. The medium, as such, isn’t new but the emergence of social media has distributed the power and given everyone an opportunity to become an influencer if they garner a good following. It’s one thing to see Bournvita talk about being the best health drink for a child. It becomes more personal and believable when “mothers like me” says how the chocolate-filled sugary powder with some nutrient content has helped her child. It instantly induces trust, becomes personal at some level and makes the brand believable. It would make another mother eventually add Bournvita in her list of consideration when buying a health drink for her child. There is no direct way for Bournvita to attribute their influencer campaign to the final purchase (unless they do a digitally traceable campaign via a series of coupon codes, contests or hashtags). But the final impact on the revenue is undeniable. Choosing mothers as their micro-influencers works well for Bournvita. But other industries don’t have it so straight. Let’s continue with our pros and cons debate   Pros 1. Reach the right audience   If you can identify your target audience well and the influencer who can sway the opinion of your audience and if the influencer has a sizeable following, the reach for an influencer marketing campaign can hit the bullseye. As you will see, there are a lot of ‘ifs’ in the sentence which makes the medium experiment-worthy. Let’s say that you want to promote your hill-station hotel during a low-occupancy period. Right before the period begins, your influencer campaign encompassing of travel bloggers and writers can start seeding in content that gives away titbits about your destination. Once they do this, contests and hashtags can be used as a more direct way to generate interest. Here, we put our trust in the influencer blogger’s relationship with his audience and how much they’ll believe what he says on the destination and the hotel. Will it drive people to come? That one you’ll have to wait it out.   2. Build credibility   Building trust in a brand can take years. Taking the influencer route consistently is like receiving positive word-of-mouth with built-in amplification. It sounds like a dream come true for any brand. Influencers here have done all the heavy-lifting of creating content over time that people follow and like. Even with a single post that doesn’t overly advertise but sounds more like a first-hand review can do the trick.   3. Expand your audience Organic communication cannot control who you reach. Paid advertising can allow you a certain degree of control, especially with targeting and lookalike audiences. But influencer marketing takes your reach to a different level. Zoe ‘Zoella’ who tops Forebes’ Influencer list along with Michelle Phan and Huda Kattan has a multimillion fan following and a bank balance that is in the millions too. She reviews a $3 moisturiser from the local store or a $30 brand from a beauty store with equal ease.     View this post on Instagram   I didn’t know what to caption this, so @poppydeyes said “SPLISH SPLASH I WAS TAKING A BATH” so there you go ? What are you currently loving in your bath routine? This @herbivorebotanicals scrub is INSANE! A post shared by Zoë Sugg (@zoesugg) on Aug 1, 2019 at 11:58am PDT   It makes her believable and trustworthy. Women from 18 to 50 follow her everyday to see if the product she is reviewing matches their tastes and wallets. Reaching such a diverse audience with a single or series of posts makes it well worth it to try steering your brand communication via an influencer and get to say things that you wouldn’t say directly.   4. It isn’t as expensive and saves time   While celebrity influencers do tend to cost a lost, going with micro-influencers can be more cost-effective than other channels. Some influencers can work for barter when you give your product away. Others can work on a mix of barter and a small fee. This post by Shane Barker helps you see what the market looks like for the cost of a sponsored post. Also, an influencer is then given the responsibility to create quality content. Be it a blog, a vlog, a post or a video, the content quality is responsible for the eventual reach and engagement.   5. The statistics tell a story   The 2017 influencer marketing report by LINQIA said a lot of marketers think it worked for them. 77% of marketers use influencer collaborations to drive engagement. 89% of marketers use it to create authentic content about their brand. 56% of marketers use it to drive traffic to their websites. 43% of marketers use it to reach younger audiences who detest traditional ads. Now that we’ve built a case on why you should be trying it out, here are a few cautionary points.   1. Measurable ROI?   Marketers often like to live in a world which is surrounded by words like creating brand pull, increasing positive sentiment, increase visibility, reach, engagement and creating brand recall. Talk about sales numbers and all these words tend to

Linkedin vs Facebook :How to Use This Platform for Business Purpose

Let’s start by clarifying that aren’t stating the obvious. Both channels are traditionally used for very different purposes. Facebook is used to share photos from vacation and connect with friends and family. Linkedin is used by businesses to share updates while staying update What we would like to elaborate is how digital marketers can create the right mix to use both Facebook and Linkedin to their advantage. In this blog, we can take you through some of the latest ad formats to try out and case studies on how the same company is using both media differently. The core part is you are communicating with people on both fronts except that they are looking at you with a different lens on each platform.   1. Leverage on UGC from Facebook and on lead generation from Linkedin   We will neither claim this to be the right way or the only way as vice versa of the above statement works equally well. In most cases UGC is easily generated on Facebook as people have a way to rate your business and drop visitor posts. For a consumer-facing brand, leveraging Facebook to amplify positivity around the brand and eventually get to lead generation makes sense. It is like your digital word-of-mouth. Running consumer ads on Facebook is also a great way generate leads. Given the basic association of professionals with the medium, ads on Linkedin are more veered towards the generation of leads. From professional courses to connecting with the right people within an organization, lead generation from a business perspective works well on this medium. Let’s take an example where the same product can be used for different types of lead generation. Sahil has been teaching Kickboxing for a while. When he wanted to recruit more people from a particular area of the city, he turned to targeted lead generation from Facebook. When he wanted to start batches for corporate, he targeted HR managers at corporate for lead generations and sales.   2. Individual stories v/s 360 degree PR stories Facebook is a great platform for telling individual stories. It allows you to take each of your users and put them on a pedestal and share their story. Linkedin can work well when you connect all these stories and showcase this from a brand perspective on how the brand is helping users collectively. Again, there is no right or wrong here. Because Linkedin acts as a communication point to professionals, talking about the brand gives it context from a different view.   3. Brand building v/s brand advocate building When you want to say something amazing about your products and brand in a visually appealing manner, Facebooks works wonderfully to a marketer’s advantage. Let’s say your company sells travel packages, talking about destinations in all their visual glory works well on Facebook. On the other hand, talking about the numbers and behaviour around travel, that especially comes from your CXO level brand advocates, grounds your company in a superior level intellectually.   4. Awareness and Reach v/s Penetration When it comes to awareness and reach, Facebook beats most social channels hands down. Because of the sheer user base, time on the channel and engagement, Facebook is a good medium to get visibility. Linkedin is used when your targeting is niche and you can almost identify people by their position in the organization and reach out to them with a clear ask.   5. Linkedin Groups v/s Facebook Groups Both social channels have the groups feature that allow users with similar interests to have conversations within the restrictions and guidelines of the group. The motive of engagement in the groups tend to vary. A company selling a mixer grinder may create a general user community group on Facebook to share recipes. Here the company executives may subtly steer conversations that feature their product once in a while. The same company may have an active group of innovators on Linkedin who take pride in food or tech innovations around the product. With these two channels its never an or but an and. As a organizations, it is important to maintain different facets of your social side on both these channels. Have you done a 360-degree campaign using both channels effectively and differently? Do share your case study with us to be featured in this space.   Watch: We are a Content-First Agency

7 Customer Engagement Strategies That Really Work

Digital marketing has one significant advantage over traditional marketing. And that is its ability to create a two-way dialogue between customers and the brand. Unlike traditional marketing where brands shove a bunch of information down customers’ throats, digital marketing allows you to build a relationship with your customers; thereby creating a loyal following. Unfortunately, most marketers don’t leverage this unique ability of digital marketing. They continue to use the same one-way technique that traditional marketing is known for even in their digital efforts. As a result, customers end up feeling disconnected from the brand. Forget customer retention and loyalty, even acquiring new customers becomes a challenge. If you’re serious about building a Digital marketing strategy that engages customers in the long run, here are some invaluable tips: Tip 1: Measure, measure, and then measure some more You can’t grow something if you’re not tracking it obsessively and that stands true for customer engagement as well. With analytics tools like Kissmetrics, Mixpanel, and Amplitude, you can easily figure out how customers are engaging with the product. You can find out which buyer personas are engaging more, where users are dropping off, where cohorts are churning, and so on. This gives you major insights into how customers are engaging with your product today, which will become the foundation for the next steps. Also, try to combine qualitative analysis with quantitative metrics for maximum effectiveness. Tip 2: Deliver exemplary customer experience No amount of customer engagement techniques will work unless you focus on delivering a superlative customer experience. Nothing puts a customer off more than a bad experience. So unless you have a monopoly, chances are that a bad experience equals a lost customer. In fact, 42% of brands say that they invest in customer experience in order to build customer retention. As a brand, start by setting up strong metrics around the customer experience that are relevant to your brand — whether that’s time for query resolution, days to delivery, or time for first response. Then track those metrics relentlessly and even link staff bonuses to these metrics if need be. Tip 3: Involve your brand advocates Chances are that you have a small group of customers who absolutely love your brand. These are the people who will give you a consistent 10 on your NPS (Net Promoter Score), organically tell people about how great your product is, and want to give you feedback. Leveraging your brand advocates effectively is a great engagement strategy. You can start off with simple things, like giving them a sneak preview of your new products/updates and asking them to spread the information via Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. You can also rope them in to conduct user tests before launching a new product or an upgrade. This will not only keep your loyal customers engaged with the brand but will also help you build credibility among a wider audience. Tip 4: Build a brand people relate to In today’s day and age, you have to work on humanizing your brand. People are much likelier to buy your products if they relate to your message as a brand. And this doesn’t just go for exciting, hip brands like Kylie Cosmetics or Red Bull. It also applies to everyday brands that are usually perceived as “boring”— whether that’s a B2B SaaS product or a supply chain management company. If you belong in the latter category, it’s a good idea to find someone in the company who feels passionately about your product to become the “face” of your brand. It could be a CXO, but it could also be someone from middle management who just loves what the company represents. Position this person as a thought leader, publishing whitepapers, case studies, conducting webinars, and so on. It will immediately make your brand more relatable to your target audience. Tip 5: Build a community The best part about social media marketing is that it gives customers a platform to directly engage with your brand. Use this opportunity to create a community of loyal users, many of whom are likely to have shared interests. While Facebooks groups are a great way to build a strong community, Slack is another upcoming option. Many companies these days use an exclusive Slack channel to build a loyal community of brand advocates. Tip 6: Personalize communication Personalization is the best way to engage customers throughout the customer journey. On average,  36% of customers say they want to purchase personalized products and service and 48% say that they’re willing to wait longer for a personalized product or service. From powerful recommendation engines to a customized email, personalization can take many forms. Using marketing automation platforms like MoEngage and WebEngage can also help you deliver a more personalized experience, through customized push notifications, texts, and emails. Tip 7: Listen to your customers Listening to your customers may sound like an obvious cliche, but the latest digital marketing tools enable you to listen to your customers in new and interesting ways. Every few minutes on the internet, whether you’re aware of it or not, customers are expressing their opinion about your brand. By using social listening tools like Buzzsumo, SproutSocial, or SocialMention,, you can tune into what your customers are saying about you. The negative feedback will help you focus on where you need to improve while you can leverage the positive feedback and incorporate into a holistic marketing strategy. With customer acquisition costs becoming sky-high, retaining and engaging customers is rapidly becoming the biggest factor in brand success. Make user engagement and retention the focus of your business and design metrics and policies accordingly. And do let us know in the comments if these tips help you get there. Watch: We are a Content-First Agency

Rise of new social media channels – Vero, Tik Tok and others you should be aware about

All digital marketers know that there are dime a dozen new social channels emerging every day, all wanting to be the next Facebook and take over the world. What the savvy digital marketer really wants to know is which of these should he or she bet their money on. Existing social giants have changed the algorithm several times to nullify our investment. Most brands went after increasing fan follower count aggressively on Facebook until one fine day it just didn’t matter how many you had as the organic reach was going to be paltry at best. But for other social channels, follower count still matters, and so do metrics like engagement. So, essentially, what we are saying is that an average Digital marketer is living the ‘Fast and Furious’ life with a ‘Ride or die’ attitude. We have to try things out constantly, know how it works, blog about it, educate others, keep learning and experimenting and use the collective intelligence of the hive to see how to use the platform. Let’s check out some of the newbies in the digital arena and how you can find a way to begin experimenting with them.   Tiktok   Entertaining, addictive and fun are some of the adjectives used to describe this popular app whose meteoric rise to stardom in 3 short years is commendable. By their own definition, they sound like a competitor to YouTube – they are a music and video platform that allows users to create and share videos on any topic. But the two platforms are vastly different. Primarily because Tiktok is for really short vertical videos ranging between 15 – 60 secs in length. Known as Douyin in China, the app is simple to use, loved by the younger audience (especially teenagers), is strongly driven by localized content and has the Apple music library. Claim to fame Fastest downloaded app, challenges, high degree of engagement – much higher than existing platforms and celebrity endorsement. In fact Tiktok really aced on local celebrity endorsement and this was one of the biggest reasons it grew so fast so quickly. It has spawned a new breed of influencers called Tiktok influencers and you see their popularity flowing from online to offline. How brands can leverage TikTok Challenges are an interesting way to get attention on TikTok. Challenges are as crazy as they come. There was the #achoo challenge where people jumped from one character to another after a sneeze. Other challenges are organically, and in this case, literally rolled out by celebrities like the #Tumbleweed challenge by Jimmy Fallon. In eyeballs and engagement is your criteria, TikTok can do the job for you with their target audience. The Har ghoot mein swag challenge by Pepsi had celebrities Tiger Shroff and Disha Patani showing off the #SwagStep and encouraged other users to share their steps. Until date, challenge has over 15 billion views! There is something about a doable challenge that makes people take it up, then circle back and tag friends to do the same – like the Ice bucket one. The premise of such challenges is that engagement with the brand eventually works to a recall and likability perspective. The users of the future aren’t passive but have a point of view and aren’t shy of expressing it. So where is this whole engagement going? It is allowing brands to build a ‘brand community’ of sorts filled with advocates and super users who can maximize the reach. The wait and watch for TikTok is how the platform will shape up to eventually to help marketers reach their ROI at the end of the rainbow.   Vero Vero was started in 2015 but it became the “hot new” only 2018. It’s claim to fame is that it is “authentic” by not using an algorithm to determine content visibility. It is also an ad-free platform (for now). That’s how Instagram started, remember? The good part is that people who are dissatisfied of being short-changed by Facebook and Instagram’s algorithm and have worried about their content being lost are now in a more comfortable space with Vero. At least, the organic appeal is not lost. Leveraging Vero Since the platform is ad free, changing this status can mean losing user base. As a brand, this means you get to organically test out your traction with this user base. Since there isn’t a shift of marketing money involved, the adoption by brands may be better justified than another new social platform. On the other hand, we’ve burned our efforts with other platforms like this that haven’t been able to continue their scaling without advertiser money. The other ‘What if’ that you should consider before you jump on the Vero wagon is ‘What if one of the bigger fishes eats this one?’   Lasso Facebook has a simple policy – either buy your competition or make a simpler and better version of what they have to beat them. Since TikTok comes as a threat in the social space, Facebook decided to quietly launch Lasso. It has mostly similar features. What makes it ‘easier’ is that you can user your Facebook / Instagram account to login and also share Lasso videos as stories on Facebook. This will be eventually available for Instagram too. Leveraging Lasso Facebook knows how to make a business out of a product. You can expect them to throw their might behind Lasso too to outrun TikTok. Given the existing platform synergies, it makes it easier for marketers to adopt. However, Lasso currently seems like a late entrant in the short video player game. This one we closely watch on how things can turn out. More information here   Caffeine Caffeine is the new Twitch. It’s the social media platform for live streamers. The platform is aimed at gamers and artists. Started by a couple of Apple designers in 2018, the startup came to limelight when it raised $100 million from 21st Century Fox for a content joint venture. The platform

How to Increase Traffic & Improve SEO with Structured Data Markup

SEO is generally divided in on-page, off-page and tech, each requiring a complete understanding of how search engines ‘view’ the website. While on-page and off-page can be taught to a novice, tech SEO requires some basic understanding behind the science of search engines. It doesn’t mean you should know to code but it would be a definite advantage to have the knowledge. One look at the execution requirements of structured data will make you wonder if it is worth the trouble. The question makes most SEO specialists give up before they start. Don’t lose heart. If you are one of the non-tech background SEO experts and want to start with structured data, this blog can be your starting point. Here’s why you should have structured data for your website Rich search results: May include styling and images Rich cards: Similar to rich snippets for mobile users Enriched search features: An immersive popup or an advanced interaction feature (see how job search results are featured these days) Enhancing Knowledge graph: Share information about the brand Enhanced breadcrumbs: Adding breadcrumbs to search results Carousel: Works great for news and videos Higher ranking Better traffic Higher CTR: Structureddata helps Google understand your website better.   Three points to remember before starting Talking to machines is often about having a logical approach to things. For example, if you were to define a recipe, you would have the title, the ingredients, the prep time, the cooking time etc clubbed together followed by the step by step recipe. If you can logically define the hierarchy of things, you should eventually get a hang of structureddata. Have a tech person be ready on standby to help you before you start. Some parts of structureddatais straight forward. Other parts aren’t that simple. It’s best to have someone on standby to help you wade through the murky waters Always take a backup before you start. Once you implement the new code and something breaks, you can always go back to the old site and then figure how to fix things. Otherwise, you’ll be fighting fires on both ends.   What is structured data? As the name suggests, structured data involves giving a structure to the data by organizing it in a way that gives a better understanding. This is also called ‘schema markup’. These terms are interchangeably used in the industry. While Google is smart enough to understand what your data says, it (and you) will be better off if Google can understand what your data means. Here’s a brief description for a microwave cake: In microwave safe bowl, put 2 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp honey. Whisk well. Put in 1 tbsp flax seeds, 2 tbsp peanut butter and milk meal. Stir in. Then fold in dry ingredients – whole wheat flour, ½ tbsp cocoa powder, ½ tsp baking powder and a pinch of baking soda. Top up with peanuts. Put in the microwave at 800 power for 2 minutes. It will be ready. While this works for humans to an extent here’s what makes it simple for Google to understand.     This followed by the step-by-step instruction, clear headers on the cooking time, calorie count and even user reviews, recipe rating, video and images can give Google a full view of the content of the web page. Let’s say, for example, that you have a cookbook website with recipes in the format of blogs and vlogs. Each recipe will have the name of the dish, the ingredients, their measurements, the cook time and the steps to make it. So, weren’t we always told that we need to write for humans first? The key difference to note here is that we may still classify things under these headers for humans but Google needs a little more than that.   So how do we make things better for Google (and humans)? We use schema markup or structured data. There are three types that search engines will typically support – Microdata, JSON-LD, and microformats. Microdata is integrated via the page’s HTML while JSON-LD uses a Javascript object. Of these, JSON-LD is the most commonly used format (because Google supports it) so we will limit to it for our explanation here. It’s now time to have a look at schema.org where you’ll find A LOT of information on the implementation of schema markup for your website. It can be confusing if you aren’t accustomed to seeing codes. The good part is you don’t have to know all of it. Start by looking at Google’s guidelines on adding structured data. Here’s what it says: “Google Search works hard to understand the content of a page. You can help us by providing explicit clues about the meaning of a page to Google by including structured data on the page. Structured data is a standardized format for providing information about a page and classifying the page content; for example, on a recipe page, what are the ingredients, the cooking time and temperature, the calories, and so on” Here’s a quick view of a couple of key terms you need to know from an SEO perspective 1)  Itemscope: Consider this to be the topic header Let’s try with our previous example. Below is the standard code we will write for the page. <div> <h1>Microwave cake</h1> <span>Recipe: Microwave cake in 5 mins</span> <span>Sweet Delights </span> <a href=”../bakery/microwave-cake.html”>Cup cake</a> </div> For the above, here’s how we will inform Google that this section is about a microwave cake recipe   To start, we can change the first line of code to define the topic <div itemscope> <h1>Microwave cake</h1> <span>Recipe: Microwave cake in 5 mins</span> <span>Sweet Delights </span> <a href=”../bakery/microwave-cake.html”>Cup cake</a> </div>   This means all the items defined within the itemscope now belongs to the particular topic. 1)  Itemprop This allows you to tell google about the properties of the individual items. In our case, this can be the name of the dish. The code will look like this <h1 itemprop “name”>Microwave cake </h1> <span itemprop “Ingredient”>Wheat flour</span> <span itemprop “Ingredient”>Honey </span> You can find more examples here

How to Create Your First LinkedIn Ads Campaign in 5 Simple Steps

LinkedIn is one of the most underrated social media platforms there is. A lot of people think it simply doesn’t have the kind of numbers that Facebook and Instagram do. But if you think about it, LinkedIn is really a curated platform. It may have only 575 million users (compared to Facebook and Instagram’s billion-plus users) but they’re largely white-collar professionals who are on the platform because they want to build their career or business in some way. In short, LinkedIn is a great place to get recognized— whether you’re a freelancer, a professional, or a business owner. And if you have a B2B company, then LinkedIn is probably the first place that you need to look at from a marketing perspective. Another challenge people sometimes find with LinkedIn is that it’s unfamiliar. So even though you know it’s an important platform you’re not always sure about how to go about using it. Most importantly, you’re not sure of how ads work on LinkedIn. And while it’s true that the platform can be a little unfamiliar, and that the cost per click is relatively expensive, there is no better way than LinkedIn ads to generate B2B leads in the short run. So in this article, we breakdown the whole LinkedIn Ads platform and help you launch your very first LinkedIn Ads campaign.   Step 1: Build strong personal and company profiles LinkedIn allows people to see everything about a prospect before deciding whether to engage with them. This means your LinkedIn profile has to be spot on, and this includes both your personal profile and your company page. So first off, analyze your personal profile; make sure you haven’t missed out on anything that’s noteworthy and that will build your credibility as someone people want to do business with. As a next step, set up your company page. Here’s how you do it in just 2 clicks:   Image Source   Then add your company name and your profile URL.   Image Source   Although company pages can be fairly extensive, there are a few things that you need to add right off the bat. These include: Your cover image Your logo Your “about us” summary. This helps you with getting recognized in Google searches so make sure you include all the important keywords here. Your header and profile picture should reflect your brand. Many people just use their logo for their profile picture so that people immediately know who they’re dealing with. Ask everyone on your team to connect their profile with the company page so that any prospect knows they’ll be working with a solid team.   Step 2: Share unique content   Before you create ads on LinkedIn, you need to start by posting and promoting great content. This will give you valuable insights into the kind of content that works, helping you decide what content to spend your advertising budget on. LinkedIn is probably the most underrated content platform. There are about 9 billion content impressions every week on LinkedIn, and these are being driven by just 3 million users. What this means is you have an opportunity to get great engagement on your content without having to deal with too much competition. Here are a few things to keep in mind while promoting content on LinkedIn: Post content every day Consistency is an absolute must with LinkedIn. You can post a variety of content — from company updates to blog posts to industry articles to thought leadership pieces. It’s just important to share content every single day. Post snappy content A compelling headline, a brief but interesting introduction, and a clear CTA (Call to Action) are all prerequisites for good content. Also, make sure that your content is asking readers thoughtful questions and discussing their pain points, as opposed to talking about yourself. Use tags Tagging people and companies who might find your content relevant will help you get some quick likes and comments. This, in turn, will signal to LinkedIn that this is the content that they should share with a wider audience.   Step 3: In-depth data analysis Go to the Engagement highlights on your business page to analyze the performance of your content.   There are two main things you need to get from this exercise. Find out who is seeing your posts You need to make sure your posts are reaching the right audience. If that isn’t happening, experiment with changing the headlines to capture a more relevant audience. Knowing how to target the right audience is an important key to effective advertising on LinkedIn. Figure out which kind of content is working You also need to see which type of content is actually working well; in terms of tone, content format, topics, etc. This will help you make important decisions around which content you should be spending your ad budget on.   Step 4: Sponsored content   You are now ready to begin your LinkedIn ad campaign. There are 3 main options for your ad campaign. These include: Sponsored posts Text and dynamic ads Sponsored InMails. Sponsored posts are a good starting point because they reach a wider audience at a lesser cost compared to display ads and InMails. Plus, you already know which content is working well so you won’t have too much trouble there. Here are the steps you need to follow to begin your campaign: Go to your company page, go to the post you want to sponsor and click the Sponsor Now button   2. You’ll be taken to the Campaign manager. Click on Create Campaign. 3. Specify the campaign name and choose a campaign goal. For the first campaign, sending people to your website is probably the best goal. 4. Choose your target audience. The best feature about LinkedIn ads is how narrowly you can define your target audience so use this option well. 5. Choose your budget and bidding option. There are two bidding options – Cost Per Click (CPC) and Cost Per