Podcasts started in 2004 as a very niche form of content that only some techies were hooked to. In the last 15 years, that has changed dramatically. In 2013, Apple announced that over 1 billion people subscribed to its podcasts. Today, Apple has more than 525,000 active podcasts and over 18.5 million episodes. Podcasts by Pat Flynn, Srinivas Rao, Michael Stelzner, and others have already become huge hits, drawing in millions of listeners. Yet, podcasts are still fairly unknown as a marketing technique. Business owners invest a lot of money into social media, blogs, and SEO. Few, however, give serious thought to starting or participating in a podcast as a way of enhancing their brand equity. Here are some good reasons why every business owner in today’s day and age should consider podcasting. Podcasts have fantastic engagement rates When it comes to content consumption, attention spans have shortened drastically. People are unwilling to devote a lot of time to content that demands energy and attention. Yet, podcasts seem to be bucking this trend in a big way. In fact, 80% of podcast listeners finish or almost finish an episode they’re listening to. Here are some reasons why podcasts drive such high rates of engagement. The podcast audience actually goes out of their way to find podcasts that are relevant to them. If someone tunes into your podcast, chances are they’ve actively sought you out. Smartphone use has increased exponentially in the past 5-6 years. Smartphones mean it is now much easier to listen to podcasts on the go. Unlike blogs and videos, podcasts don’t demand your undivided attention. In fact, a lot of people listen to podcasts while engaged in otherwise mundane activities like driving, working out or cleaning. This makes it much likelier that they will finish your podcast while they’re doing this other time-consuming activity. Image Source With such fantastic engagement rates, a podcast literally gives you a captive audience. You can express your brand voice through your podcast and get loyal and passionate followers. Podcasts are a great way to build qualified leads In businesses where you need to educate a customer before you can close a sale, podcasts are a great strategy. This is especially true in areas like insurance, personal finance, legal services or B2B products. Podcasts will not be the tool that drives the maximum number of leads to your door. However, people who follow your podcast are much more likely to be aware of what you represent. Since you provide them with a wealth of information and insight, you are now adding value to their lives. When they do finally come to you, they will convert much quicker and will also tend to come back. In businesses where customer churn is a problem and CLTV (Customer Life Time Value) is high, this can be priceless. It’s not an overcrowded space While blogs, social media, and search engine marketing are all important, they are also quite saturated. Of course, content marketing is what helps you build organic traffic for your website in the long run. However, the form your content takes is becoming equally important. While you can’t ignore blog posts, there are over four million blog posts written every single day. This means even exceptional content can get lost in this crowd. Podcasts, on the other hand, are still relatively virgin territory. This is especially true in India. While it is relatively easy to start a podcast, there are still very few people doing it. And even fewer entrepreneurs who are podcasting with a long-term view of growing their company’s brand equity. If you integrate podcasts into your content marketing strategy, you already have an edge over your competition. Moreover, podcasts are likely to explode in popularity in the coming years. This is the time to get that first-mover’s advantage. Better yet, you can actually transcribe your podcast episode and repurpose it as a blog post. This will make sure your blog also benefits from the content created during your podcast episodes. It is easy and inexpensive to set up and manage When it comes to starting a podcast, all you need is a mic and a hosting. A fairly good mic can cost you as little as Rs 5000 and hosting cost is $20 a month. So, you can actually experiment with podcasting without making a huge dent in your marketing budget. The other question is whether the podcast takes more time and energy than it should. The fact of the matter is that running a podcast does involve a lot of work. From hosting the podcast, and finding guests, to publishing, editing, transcriptions, promotion, and show notes. However, you can outsource everything else and just focus on actually hosting the show. Podcasting can even be a source of revenue If your podcast takes off, it may even help you generate additional income. A whopping $220 million was spent on advertising within podcasts in 2017 in the United States. Significantly, a study found that 65% of podcast listeners would be willing to buy products advertised in the podcast. This means there is huge scope for growth when it comes to podcast advertising. This is especially true in economies like India and China where podcasts are still fairly nascent. So on the one hand, your podcast can help you generate qualified leads by building a loyal following. On the other, it can actually help you find sponsorships from brands that want to get noticed by an audience like yours. The podcast can soon pay for itself and then some. Conclusion To be honest, this is the best time to consider integrating podcasting in your overall marketing strategy. Podcasting is still relatively new and is yet to see explosive growth. Best of all, podcasting is fun! It is a great opportunity to meet interesting and well-informed guests and share insights about what you know well. If you aren’t ready to start your own podcast yet, start going
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Why Great Brand Stories Need Videos
Videos are fast becoming the go-to medium for brands to connect with customers. With the digital age, videos have become so much more than the traditional 15/ 30-second advertising that dominated television. With the adoption of high-speed internet and social media taking to videos in a big way, videos are more accessible than ever before. Consumer tastes are consistently showing a preference towards videos vis-a-vis static content. In fact, according to a 2014 Levels Beyond survey, 40% consumers said they would rather watch a video of a brand than read the same information. This means that more and more brands are understanding that videos are no longer an option when it comes to effective marketing. In fact, video ad spend is set to reach $20 billion by 2020. Here’s why most brands need videos to tell great brand stories. Videos viewing rates are increasing The average time that consumers spent viewing videos in 2017 went up by a whopping 19% compared to 2016. Video completion rates (videos watched all the way through) reached a phenomenal 69% in 2017. Videos also have the highest CTR (Click Through Rate) of all digital ad formats. Finally, mobile viewing of videos is at an all-time high and in 2018 people will globally watch 25% more video on mobile devices. This means that videos are not just here to stay but are on a phenomenal growth path. That’s an opportunity no brand wants to miss out on. Social media loves videos View this post on Instagram Hi, this is RVR. Drive it, program it, hack it, and back it, because our latest and greatest robot is now on @Kickstarter. Link in Bio. A post shared by Sphero (@sphero) on Feb 19, 2019 at 4:18am PST According to a recent Facebook study, people spend 5 times longer watching video content than reading static content. Instagram and Snapchat are also seeing video take over as the most popular medium. Whether it’s Instagram poster children Inspirato and Sphero or bigger companies like Nike and Jimmy Choo, more and more brands are now creating inspirational video content that is getting them a lot of love from customers. Of course, as social media gets flooded with more and more videos, brands are making shorter ads. Facebook recommends that brand videos should be 15 seconds or shorter while Snapchat limits videos to 10 seconds. The advantage of shorter videos on social media is that A/B testing can be done more easily as it’s easier to produce 4 variants of a 10-second video than a 30-second one. Videos tug at the heartstrings The combination of great visuals and music that videos offer provides users with a great experience. Videos are more effective than any other content medium to make viewers emotional. When it comes to great brand stories, users will connect with and grow to love brands when they have a compelling narrative. And videos are the best way to put a great narrative out there. Barbie’s rebranding video is a great example. Videos allow you to use audience signals and customize content Today, it’s not enough to just create a compelling brand story based on general cultural insights and demographic assumptions. Nowadays, there are many audience signals from views to searches to clicks to shares to searches, and great brand stories come from paying heed to those signals. Luckily, advanced analytics on Youtube and other tools allow brands to understand their customers better and create customized videos. This makes for effective and personalized storytelling. For example, Frito Lay worked closely with Youtube to identify the major interest categories for their users; from gaming to 90s fashion, and used these insights to create different creatives to cater to different interests. For example, a user would see a gaming-related Lays ad before they watched a gaming video. Videos now allow you to build a story, not just tell it With the different channels through which to tell your brand story, videos are now in different sizes and formats. Moreover, you can use digital media to actually build on your story through multiple videos, based on who’s seen the previous ones, instead of telling your entire story in one go. Here are all the different ways in which videos can cater to different audiences and different attention spans. Traditional ads: Online or television commercials Promo videos: Viral videos, interviews, testimonials, product reviews, case studies. Explainer videos: Introductions, processes, tutorials, services, and overviews. Culture marketing videos: Content to showcase the brand, people, or causes. Social videos: Content to engage followers on social—Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube. In 2018, videos accounted for as much as 64% of all consumer internet traffic. In 2019, this number is estimated to go up to 80%. 64% of all marketers believe that video will be dominating their brand stories in the near future. If you haven’t yet considered getting a video strategy in place for your brand, now is a perfect time.
How to write the perfect product descriptions for your eCommerce website
You have a product you want to sell. So, you have lured the customer in and he is flipping through your website. And, you know that he is interested! But what is that quick-kill chord that needs to resonate with him and make him hit the ‘Buy’ button? Aah. It is then that you rack your brain for those magic words. That unique piece of content writing that will talk about your product and more importantly, sell it! For, in the veritable ocean of products that hit Googlers like nothing less than a tsunami, your product needs to stand out. So, how do you get about product description writing that sets your product apart from a gazillion others of the same kind? Well, there’s an army of trade tricks to write that brilliant, selling copy. But remember, not all will work well for all products. There are, however, some general guidelines, that you must keep in mind when you go about scripting the sales-effective copy for your product. Here are a few questions that you can ask yourself while writing a product description. Who is my audience/customer? First and foremost- Always! Pay keen attention to the audience/clientele you are catering to. Think about who they are – age, interests, demography, where they are from, etc. Think about how your product (through your weapon of the description) can appeal to that clientele. Strike a chord with that group, use words/phrases that pique their interests (for example, use sports terms for customers buying fitness goods, perhaps), and give them an idea that you understand them and are on their side. For example, take a look at this one The Kellogg’s Oats Masst Masala product description clearly caters to health-conscious individuals, who are not ready to invest time in the preparation of food. So, the description talks about nutrition, heart-health, and that it cooks in 3 minutes! That is enough to grab the attention of the audience? What are they looking for? Why are they here? Now that you have given them the assurance that you are batting for them, aim your description at the pain points for which the customer is on your site, looking at your product. Talk about their problems such that your audience finds a kindred soul in you, bound by the same trials and tribulations (no matter how tiny or insignificant). Let them know that you have been through it, just like them. And you have looked for a solution, just like them. For example, take a look at this one The potential customer that has surfed through pages and landed on the page selling Vanish Oxi Action Stain Remover Washing Liquid, can be assumed to be tired of removing stains from clothes. The first thing the description does is calm down the frayed nerves of the audience by saying ‘Wash away your worries’, clearly indicating that the Vanish people understand their customer’s problem. It then goes on to describe the product’s plus points, from a problem-solving perspective. So, how can my product help them? The next logical step is to step in like a magician (well, almost) and tell your audience that you have just the product for them, that will work for them and solve the problem they are looking at your product about. Focus on the benefits of your product, try to go in as much detail as possible within limit constraints. Tell them that your product can improve the quality of their lives and give them a good idea about how and why it will happen. For example, take a look at this one The author of the product description of L’Oréal’s Magic Root Coverup doesn’t waste any time before delving straight into the benefits of the hair spray. The copy introduction starts with how conveniently the customer can die her roots and cover the grey bits and then moves swiftly on to a more elaborate focus on the benefits of the product. Why you, and not the others? While you had been doing all of the above, one crucial aspect should have guided your choice of words, tone, flavour, and graphics used. And that is – why should your customer choose you over others in your category? What is so special about your product that your client (who has been enticed by similar products galore), will think to himself ‘Huh! This product speaks to me!’ Keeping that in mind, think of the unique trait that you are offering and how exactly that trait can be useful to your customer. For example, take a look at this one This product description for Dove beauty bar soap might talk about moisturizing, but the focus is clearly on how only Dove understands ‘moisturizing’ and ‘skin-natural’ features more than any other competing beauty bar. In general, it will do you good to remember the following things as well: Set the tone of your description: From fun and playful, to romantic or steamy, from loving and cuddly to staid and formal, the tone of your copy should align itself with the product you are selling and the audience you are targeting. Be conversational: Everybody likes a good story. So, if time and space permit, tell one! Talk to your audience as if you are having a one-on-one conversation. Pack a punch in the introduction to hook your customer. And then carefully unfurl your ideas. Use bullet points: For listing characteristics of your products, nothing can be more useful than bullet points. Lists give a great snapshot of what you are offering, in an uncluttered way. This can prove useful in prodding the audience in the direction of finally making that purchase. Use words that convey emotion: A lot of people buy on impulse, driven primarily by emotion. So, use words that might appeal to your audience’s emotions. Don’t scrimp on your adjectives, but then again, at the same time, be careful that you do not go overboard
Do This & Don’t Do That While Executing Your Content Marketing Plan
When you are in the business of content, people always want to know how to increase traffic to their website/business quickly. Is there a right or wrong way of doing content marketing? So here it is – a list of what to do and what not to do when you are doing content marketing. One of the first things I do when I sit down with a prospective client to discuss content marketing is asking him what his goals are. Is it be Do know what you want to achieve From a client, that’s totally understandable, and yet I sit down another 15 minutes to make them understand that knowing what you want is very important since that will determine the content platforms and avenues that have to be used for the desired result. Each of the above goals will need to a slightly different, yet important strategy, which will drive in the results. For eg, for those interested in driving traffic to their website should use more content in their SEO strategy. In short, use more blogs, more social media sharing among relevant groups, invest in more fresh content on content-specific platforms like Quora, voice your opinions in relevant groups etc. The same sort of aggressive content generation might not be required if you are looking to just rank on the first page of Google for keywords relevant to your business. Successful as a brand To be on the first page of search engines Generate Leads Add more traffic to the website Hence, the first thing to DO is to know your Goal. Once you have that clear, ask your content strategist to chalk out a detailed road map for the next 3 months. Think whats actually workable for the business as a whole. Also, try and stick to something that can be adhered to and is wholly sustainable in the long run Don’t do what everyone is doing. Know who is your customer is and where can they be found Content marketing should always be unique and fresh. The same package cannot usually apply to everyone. If you are doing social media, be sure you know why you are doing it. Will it help you reach your client? Yes, there will be a tendency to be everywhere – coz that’s what everyone is doing – but that does not help your purpose since your customers are unique to your business. Explore where you should be and ask yourself what sort of content aligns with your business. Ask yourself 5 times why you have chosen a particular medium. The best way here is to get your team to look online at the various forums, online groups, discussion boards and websites, to know who is looking for your services. A few hours a week will immediately give you a sense of which platforms to target. . Do build a community Building a community around your product is the best and cheapest way to create momentum for your product. Here is how you should do it Look for pockets of active users who are interested in your product/service. Use emailers to touch base with new members, or even using your existing contact list to follow you somewhere else. Get more people to sign up for your newsletters Build content for your community – Once them sign up, you have to keep their interest alive. Create content for them, stuff that provides useful knowledge about your product, industry and how they can benefit from it. Offer ebooks, whitepapers and guides that useful for your community. content can be how-to guides, insightful researches, best practices and trends, anything that your user community sees value in. Make sure your members find value from their involvement with your community. Do arrange industry events Okay, this might not be for all, but it’s a great way of crafting a healthy networking path and engaging your community, ultimately leading to lead generation. Build social into your event and create as much buzz as you can about the event through Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Try getting a micro-site up, and linking your social media to it. When done with the event, always create a post talking about all the positive insights into the event, for people to help jog-up with the insights and inner happenings of the event. Do not forget to tag albums with people featured in them. You never know, you might be opening windows to new buyers and leads! Don’t take the pushy salesman approach Educate, inspire, enlighten and entertain your audience, but do stay away from acting like a pesky salesman. One thing that would resonate with your audience would be transparency – and in all modesty, please leave the used car salesman act at home. Think from the buyer’s angle, and be enlightening and inspirational, and provide value wherever you can. Don’t forget to Explore Content marketing, today, goes beyond the realms of blogging and has proved its prowess everywhere – from traditional data sheets, case studies and videos; to infographics, eBooks, SlideShares and podcasts; to tweets and Facebook posts. Be certain that you understand the pulse of every medium and give your audience a well-encapsulated experience, which will resonate leaving a deeper impact and impression. Another good idea would be to get yourself enrolled in websites where you are most likely to get acquainted with professionals of your field. These platforms and discussion-based forums is a great way to build your brand identity, further on networking with the like-minded audience there. However, be sure to make the commenting on the forum approval based. Don’t ever skip the editing of the content that you publish Grammatically wrong, spelling mistakes and the content gap is simply not cool. Make sure you sift through tons of pages evaluating them both quantitatively and qualitatively. On-page SEO, keyword usage and hyperlinking to your main website/blog is a must. However, that being said, go ahead and use slangs and other informal speech conventions — do not treat this
5 Common Content Marketing Mistakes to Avoid
Content marketing is without a doubt one of the most effective marketing strategies out there. It brings your website invaluable organic traffic over a long period of time. In fact, 53% of marketers believe that blogs are one of the best ways to generate inbound traffic. however, there’s a flipside to content marketing. It is a very, very crowded field. Every day, more than four million blog posts are published online. Does this mean you shouldn’t invest in content marketing and stick to advertising and other marketing techniques? The answer is a resounding no. Content marketing, if done correctly, can help build your brand and reputation like no other marketing activity. But this extreme competition means you need to be very smart in your approach to content marketing. The key to this is identifying the most common and costly content marketing mistakes and avoid them from day one. Here are five common content marketing mistakes and how you can fix them Not putting your audience first Surprisingly enough many content marketers make this mistake while starting out. It’s one thing to have a vague understanding of your audience, and another to really solve their problems through your content. Most content marketers use prestigious publications or competitor blogs to find topics to write about. And then find themselves with very little traffic. Another common mistake happens when you have a limited understanding of your audience. Once the content is ready, you have very little idea about how to reach out to prospective readers. It’s important to use the first-principle approach when it comes to understanding your audience. Use tools like the Facebook Ads Manager or EpicBeat to get insights about your audience. These tools have detailed insights about audiences. See what they like, what they’re interested in, what content they read and share. Use this information to define what your next content piece should be and how you should share it. You can even do a group discussion or one-on-one with a few audience members to understand where they’re coming from. Just remember that a whopping 55% of people say that they receive content from brands which they don’t find relevant. Make sure you don’t belong in this group. No follow-up Some content marketers believe their job is done once the article has been written and shared. However, it is a long journey from content consumer to customer and marketers need to enable that. Experts say that it takes 7 exposures to go from being a website visitor to a customer. Setting up a follow-up campaign takes time but it’s the only way to go for a truly effective marketing strategy. Luckily, there are some great marketing automation tools like ActiveCampaign, SharpSpring, and LeadSquared that can do the heavy lifting. Your role is to understand the customer journey and create a follow-up strategy accordingly. Using only one form of content One of the biggest mistakes today’s content marketers can make is to stick to text-only blog posts. Even the usual blog post with 2-3 images is not enough today. As users spend more time-consuming content, especially on hand-held devices, they prefer more visually appealing content. Infographics and videos have both made enormous headway in popularity. They can even bring in a whole new audience that doesn’t usually consume long-form content. Infographics are especially useful because they are low-hanging fruit. It doesn’t take a lot of effort to repurpose a blog post into an attractive infographic. You can use tools like Canva and Piktochart to design your infographic fairly easily. Not having enough evergreen content Evergreen content is content that literally stays “evergreen”. In other words, it’s not based on recent news or trends that will get outdated soon. Evergreen content is centered around topics that have been relevant for some time and will continue to be relevant in the near future. Having evergreen content on your website is a very important aspect of content marketing. Creating content that will still be relevant 5 years down the line means that you will get long-term website traffic. You can search for specific keywords on Google trends to see if they can qualify as evergreen content. If so, you can focus on creating content around them. Not getting enough help One of the biggest mistakes you can make as a content marketer is to try and do everything yourself. There are several kinds of people who find themselves donning the content marketer hat. You may be a blogger who has tremendous writing talent and wants her blog to reach a huge audience. You may also be looking to grow your business through content marketing. Or a professional content marketer setting up or scaling the content marketing efforts at your company. In every case, doing everything yourself is a bad idea. If you have great writing skills, focus your energy on creating valuable content that your audience will love. Outsource the audience outreach to an expert. Similarly, if your skills lie in audience outreach but you’re not a writer, find a talented writer who matches your brand voice. If you don’t have either of these skills work with individuals or agencies that do. When you try to do it all yourself, your mind is easily diverted and the learning curve is steep. You will most likely end up giving up on content marketing without giving it a real chance. Stick to your strengths and hire experts as soon as you can. Conclusion If you do a Google search for your targeted keywords today, don’t be surprised to find over a million results. That is the kind of intense competition that you will have to deal with in content marketing today. Hence, it’s super important to use the right strategy and avoid the common mistakes discussed in this article. Also, it will be wise to keep the long-term horizon in view. So go ahead and start using the tips discussed above to create a valuable
Are You Doing These 5 Mistakes While Choosing Your SEO Keywords?
The keywords are the nuts and bolts of your SEO campaign. The first step is to get these ducks in the right row. Here are a few things you might be doing wrong while choosing your keywords. Keywords are what makes the SEO world go around, so it’s obviously crucial to get those darn things right. With the wrong set of keywords, you would just be trying out various ways to catch Google crawlers and yet not show up where you want to be. So here are five ‘mistakes’ that you should avoid while choosing your keywords, no matter how right they sound. You might not be an SEO expert or want to be one, but make sure you know what is right for your business. CHOOSING SHORT KEYWORDS It seems like a better idea to choose shorter keywords but the truth is that phrases or multi-word keywords are more likely to fetch you an audience. So from an SEO standpoint, more keywords equal more potential. LACK OF CREATIVITY We are often tempted to use general keywords that define our business as it is. Suppose you are a seller of graphic tees in Delhi, the first reaction is to “graphic tees seller Delhi” as keywords. This is where you get burrowed under the competition. Instead of the above, use a term like “Funky graphic tees seller Delhi” or “Cotton graphic tees seller Delhi”. This is likely to bring more visitors. NO IDEA OF TARGET AUDIENCE It is common to design keywords based on our understanding of our product or business, like fitting technical terms or terms that the target segment is unfamiliar with. What you need to do is to get into the mind of your audience and think from their point of view. This doesn’t mean that you give up jargons totally, but balance them with some familiar words too. USING PLURALS Never make the mistake of choosing plurals as keywords. This is because people seldom search for plurals, and since the search engine is very sensitive it may bury your website. IGNORING GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION A very important but frequently overlooked fact is taking the geographical considerations into account when designing key keywords. The locally used lingo in a country varies across the world. Therefore, it is important to carry out appropriate research to incorporate keywords significant to a geographical location. OVERLOOKING TRENDS The world is constantly evolving, there is increased awareness and the media is constantly feeding new trends to the audience. In such a dynamic environment it is essential that keywords follow the trends. Old fashioned words that are no longer in use will not attract people to your site. So keep up with the time and make sure your keywords do too.your keywords do too. UNEVEN KEYWORD DISTRIBUTION In trying to use popular keywords, there is a tendency to forget keywords that are less used but have less competition. Therefore, it is important to strike the right balance between the two to maximize your results. There you go, with extensive research and avoiding the above-listed mistakes, you are sure to find the right keywords that will open the door to your success.
Here’s How Brands Used Social Media to Celebrate Republic Day 2019
The feeling of patriotism seems to be at an all-time high in India this year. Whether it is patriotic movies being released or the rediscovery of our past glory, we Indians seem to be revelling in feelings of nationalism and patriotism. Of course, many well-loved brands are using this patriotic fervour to engage audiences to the next level. According to a key concept in Marketing 3.0, brands have moved from focussing on customer’s material needs to understand the causes and sentiments they really feel strongly about. And what can be more appropriate than appealing to people’s sense of patriotism on the 70th Republic Day? After 15th August, Republic Day is the most important national holiday in India, and brands aren’t shying away from the occasion. Here is our pick of the top brand campaigns on Republic Day this year. Nature Valley Keeping India’s energy high one bar at a time! #HappyRepublicDay Posted by Nature Valley on Friday, January 25, 2019 This nature valley Republic Day campaign cleverly combines the brand’s positioning as an energy bar with the feelings of patriotism. It does this by paraphrasing a now-famous line from the recently released movie Uri, based on the Indian army’s surgical strikes. Ixigo Ixigo’s “Train mein hai swag” campaign is hands down one of the best Republic Day campaigns we’ve seen this year. In the form of a really fun rap song, the campaign talks about how travelling by train in India is the new cool thing to do. It talks about everything we love about trains – the childhood memories, the home-cooked “puri bhaji”, and the beautiful views outside our window. The last line of the campaign is “Kyunki desh mein hai swag” which ties in the whole campaign so beautifully with Republic Day. The underlying message is that trains, which epitomize so many things about our country, are the coolest way to travel because our country is now “cool”. This is the must-watch campaign for this Republic Day! Tata Salt We often take for granted the freedom and privileges of living in the largest Democratic Republic in the world. Here’s a salt art tribute revisiting some of the many reasons to celebrate the Indian Constitution #NamakKeWaastey pic.twitter.com/35v7aZjDzD — Tata Salt (@_deshkanamak) January 25, 2019 From its earliest days, Tata Salt has positioned itself as “Desh ka Namak” (The Country’s Salt) and this Republic Day was no different. With its latest campaign, #Namakkewaastey, Tata Salt used a really unique “salt art” campaign to talk about what makes the Indian Constitution unique. Combining extreme creativity with a strong patriotic message, this is one heartfelt campaign. Sony Pictures Network View this post on Instagram Cinema that entertains and binds this great Republic together! ❤️ Here’s wishing all our fellow countrymen a #HappyRepublicDay! ?? गणतंत्र दिवस की हार्दिक शुभकामनाएँ । ? A post shared by Sony Pictures Networks (@sonypicsprodns) on Jan 26, 2019 at 12:42am PST Sony Pictures released a beautiful video on Instagram as part of their Republic Day campaign. This video talks about how cinema is truly a medium “Of the Republic, By the Republic, and For the Republic”. It showcases how the world of cinema comprises artists and technicians from all parts of the country and all communities and religions. And it talks about how the most important part of cinema is the love that it gets from its audience; the billions of Indians all across the country and the world. This campaign is a great example of choosing to use the brand product to shed light on a different kind of nationalism – one which sends a message of unity and brotherhood. Kudos! Axis Mutual Funds Nation building is a collective responsibility of all citizens. Today, as we celebrate 70 glorious years of being a… Posted by Axis Mutual Fund on Friday, January 25, 2019 Axis Mutual Fund’s campaign ties in the concept of a responsible citizen with “a responsible investor”. While a responsible citizen builds the country, a responsible investor plans and manages their money well. And the simple campaign showcases how a good Indian should be both. Captain Zack Happy Republic Day from Capt. Zack and team! Posted by Captain Zack on Friday, January 25, 2019 Pet grooming brand Captain Zack keeps things simple. It has an adorable picture with a catchy caption. With one simple image, it evokes our love for dogs, our patriotism, and a smile on our faces. They say minimalism is the key to an effective brand campaign and Captain Zack shows us it is possible even in today’s digital-first age. Robin Hood Army and Girliyaapa Little Voices We want to be a Robin and we hope that after watching this video you will too. #RobinHoodAcademy #AcademyVoice #CreateTogether #GirliyapaSpotlight We nominate all our followers & friends to volunteer, register with them on www.robinhoodarmy.com/academy Posted by Girliyapa on Friday, January 25, 2019 This one deserves a special mention. Popular Youtube channel Girliyapa collaborates with Robinhood Army to solicit volunteers for the Robinhood academy. Girliyapa, in a simple but very effective video, asks you to volunteer just 3 hours a week at the Robinhood Academy so that underprivileged kids have a better chance at life. And what better occasion for this message than Republic Day? A light, breezy but effective campaign for a very important cause. This was our list of eye-catching campaigns this Republic Day. These are the brands that made it to our list because they effectively combined a compelling story with the value proposition of their brand. If you think we missed out on any great Republic Day campaigns, do let us know in the comments below. Also, don’t forget to tell us about your favourite Republic Day campaign.
5 Local SEO Strategies that Will Help You Rank in 2019
You may have been running your small local business in a traditional manner for many years. But there’s a reason that marketing strategies that worked in the past may not be as effective today. The reason for this is a rapidly changing consumer behavior. The statistics speak for themselves. Four in 5 consumers use online search engines to find local information. Since consumer behavior has changed so much, you will lose out on a lot of business if you don’t change with it. If your potential customers are searching for you online, it doesn’t matter if you’re an appliance repair business or a designer showroom, you need to be online. Luckily for you, it’s only local customers who matter; those who will actually visit your business. There are local SEO techniques that can help you show up on the first page of the results when these customers search for you online. What is local SEO? Local SEO helps small businesses promote themselves within a certain local area. The difference between local SEO and general or organic SEO is that local SEO is for search queries which have “local intent”. Google can easily identify when a particular search query has a local intent, which means the searcher wants search results with local companies. For example, say the searcher wants to go to a yoga class near their home. So they google “yoga classes near me”. Google will immediately give them a number of local yoga classes nearby with their contact information. On the other hand, say the searcher wants to look up yoga asanas they can do at home and they google “best yoga asanas for a flat stomach”, then the results will be from the website which has the best content, even if it’s at the other end of the world. Why is local SEO important? This is simple. As we discussed before, many customers now search for local businesses online. In fact, almost 50% of search queries have local intent. Google capitalizes on this by showing local search results in two ways; through Google Ads as well as through local pack. Image Source As a local business, you can dramatically increase your business if you show up here. Why does local search give better results? This is because local search is much more personalized. Searchers are looking for something specific and they get it in the form of contact information and reviews. There is a high chance that they visit the local business and make a purchase the same day. In fact, a whopping 18% of local searches generate sales on the same day. What are some basic local SEO strategies? Here are some of the basic local SEO strategies that you need to have in place so that you can leverage local searches and maximize your revenue. 1. Make sure your NAP citations are consistent You need to make sure that your business’ name, address and contact number is exactly the same across all of your online assets like your website, social profiles, and Google My Business/Bing listings. The reason is that the Google algorithm looks for consistency in contact information when it is deciding which result it wants to show in the local pack and if your information is inconsistent it may choose another listing over yours. 2. Claim local directory listings Claim all listings on local directories including Indiamart, Indyapages, Just Dial, Yellow Pages India and so on. Make sure you verify the information in the listing. This is a fairly simple step and will give you instant visibility and credibility. 3. Solicit reviews Reviews are the key when it comes to local SEO. Research shows that 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as they trust personal recommendations and referrals. You need to have the right tactics and strategies in place that make it easy for satisfied customers to leave good reviews for your business. 4. Localized website content If you are a local business and geography is important when it comes to who your customers will be, then make sure this shows on your website. You can create Geo-targeted service pages where the service areas are specified and have maps on the web pages with your business location on it. 5. Schema markup You should ask your web developer to implement local business schema on your website. This gives search engines a clearer picture of the local information about your business and makes it more likely that you will rank higher in the results. Implementing all of these strategies can seem a bit overwhelming especially if you don’t have the bandwidth and need to focus on your core business. In such a scenario, it’s probably better to outsource your local SEO to a company with the right expertise. In either case, you should get your local SEO in place as soon as possible so that you can appear in the local pack of search results and see a huge increase in your customer base.
The 5 Crucial SEO Trends for 2019
Since the early 2000s when Search Engine Optimization (SEO) first became a trend, more and more companies all over the world are trying their best to rank higher in Google’s search results. At the same time, Google and other search engines are becoming smarter, with newer ways to better their algorithm, provide the best experience to their users, and stay one step ahead of the SEOs. Here’s our pick of the trends that we believe will define the dynamics of SEO in 2019. Speed and Optimization Having a technically seamless website which is perfectly-optimized to keep loading time to a minimum continues to be one of the key trends when it comes to SEO in 2019. A newer aspect of this is that mobile page speed has also become an important factor in mobile ranking for Google. Earlier, only desktop page speed mattered for desktop rankings. For page speed evaluation, Google now apparently looks at two parameters; optimization and speed. Optimization is easy enough to control because you simply need to fix all the issues that prevent your site from loading fast. Speed, on the other hand, is measured via the Google Chrome User Experience Report. This report indicates how your site loads for each visitor which is obviously difficult, if not impossible to measure. As of now, optimization is apparently much more emphasised by Google than speed. However, as the latter is only in the testing stages right now, this could change soon. Brand Mentions Many SEOs keep hypothesizing that link-building is dead. However, both evidence and Google experts say that link building is still very much a critical factor when it comes to page rankings. However, there is another kid on the block; “linkless links” or brand mentions. Google has apparently started giving weight to brand mentions in its ranking algorithm. The more brand mentions there are, the better the search engine knows of your brand as an entity. By then analyzing factors like reputation, trust, advertising, and complaint-solving, Google determines the quality of and sentiment around your brand. This, in turn, affects your website’s ranking. Quality link-building is usually onerous and takes time. Brand mentions is an easier path to getting a similar reputation and credibility for your website. It’s best to mention your brand whenever there is an organic opportunity. Addressing customer complaints and engaging with happy clients are also ways to get high-quality brand mentions. Mobile-First Indexing Mobile-first indexing means that Google will now be using the mobile version of your website to index and rank websites. Google has been doing this migration since March 2018 and has even started informing webmasters about it. Since this project is moving at such a fast pace, it’s very important to make sure that the mobile version of your website is now completely optimized and search engine friendly. Switch to your mobile version as soon as you can, and keep checking to make sure that it has a high loading speed and the right user experience. Featured Snippets There is a lot of competition on the first page of Google’s search results. From Google ads and local packs to knowledge graphs and google images. One of the most prominent new competitor when it comes to the first page is the featured snippet. Here’s an example of a featured snippet. A featured snippet is Google’s way of enhancing the user experience by giving them the one answer it feels will help them most accurately and succinctly. If you want to be top-ranked for certain keywords with your content in the featured snippet, it’s a good idea to put your content in the form of question and answer sequences, especially when it comes to knowledge content. Tables with structured information can also help. Smaller sites also have a good chance of ranking as a featured snippet because the structure of the content is very important in this scenario. Amazon Search Amazon isn’t a universal search engine and has been designed only for a specific purpose; to enable customers to search on Amazon for products they want to buy. Nevertheless, Amazon has literally become the one-stop shop when it comes to people buying products online. 56% of customers go to Amazon first if they have to buy something and 51% check on Amazon after they find something they want to buy. This makes an Amazon SEO strategy a must have for any online seller. Getting the basics right is important. This includes running keyword searches, making items’ title and description user-friendly with adequate keywords, providing high-quality images, tracking customers’ reviews, and addressing customer complaints. It’s important to keep these crucial SEO trends in mind as you prepare for the search engine game in 2019. Being aware of future trends goes a long way in thinking of the right SEO strategies and optimizing well in advance. Which SEO trend do you think will work the best in 2019?
Why is it the right time to market your business through Social Media?
Today, India has gained a top seat in terms of social media users and use. Across popular social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube, India has recorded a phenomenal increase in social media use over the past 4 years, edging well past the commercial leader, USA. It is not surprising, therefore, that social media is fast becoming the medium of choice for advertisers across the country. After all, with a large majority of the population hooked on to cyberspace, it has become the natural choice to reach and target potential customers. This comes on the wings of study and research that proves that users often discover new products on these sites. In all probability, your toughest competition maybe creating winning posts/ads right now at his preferred networking channel and potentially whisking away customers! It’s time you took control and set in place a strong social media strategy to accrue maximum value from this burgeoning medium and see your brand going places! Watch the video below to find out why it is time you opened a social media account for your business: