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.
Category: Content Marketing
This is why even content marketers need editors
Content has rapidly become the de-facto in how businesses build credibility, implement thought leadership and grow a community of loyal fans and followers. Understandably, the pressure and expectations on the content marketer are increasing by the way. However, when you see that that 27 million pieces of content are created each day, but that 60 to 70% of website content goes unused, it’s clear that content marketing is slowly becoming more about just producing a high volume of content at the expense of producing content that people actually want to consume. Well, you might wonder what’s wrong with that? The answer probably lies in the growing line of difference between ‘producing content’ and ‘writing great stories’. While content marketers are usually great in coming up with ideas and catchy headlines, maintaining quality, consistency and ensuring that your customer doesn’t skim through your blogs without so much as a nod or a note is the job of a skilled Copy Editor. Here’s how an editor brings your content to life: Maintain consistency It is important to remember that your brand is “one of many” in the over-communicated marketplace, and therefore, you have to consistently ‘own’ your voice. Notice how mainline and social media giants such as The New Yorker maintain their unique voice and tone in all their blogs and articles and has therefore been able to wield authority and high recall value through all mediums. Content marketers and writers who are constantly under the microscope for producing winning ideas, may not have the time or ability to phrase and word blogs, posts and articles precisely to company standards and therefore, it is only a skilled editor with sharpened tools of tone, grammar and overall knowledge of category who can dovetail the content to a voice that is associated with your brand alone. Ensure Quality Control Once writers and marketers submit their pieces, it’s time for the editors to employ their refined skills to polish and correct these pieces to show you/the customer in the best light possible. It’s not only about cutting the T’s and debating over the Oxford comma, but a skilled editor is also a key to ensure perfect and easy readability – concentrating on delivering great stories and not just handing out more content into an already overcrowded space. In the light of maintaining quality, the editor is also responsible for implementing brevity and getting rid of any fluff or superfluous explanations and rhetoric – giving readers an almost ‘invisible experience’ while reading a piece from start to end. Implement Strategy If you look at social media champions such as, Hubspot, whose widely-shared blog posts offer authoritative insight on everything from the evolution of Google+ to the psychology of job interviews, you will notice the copy editor’s hand at work in aligning ‘content’ to ‘company objectives’. This is a person who is well-versed in the industry space you are in and can readily identify any gaps in your content that you can fill or any opportunities that are for the taking. Content editors also work closely with writers and subject matter experts as they do with community managers, social media marketing managers with a content strategy and all other key members of the team to accrue the maximum ROI from each post you make on the social media. Conclusion While you might think that your friend or colleague is ‘good enough’ for the ‘little proofreading’ that your content requires, investing in a professional editor may just be the best decision you make for producing really good content. An editor in the house means that he/she can scan through mistakes and errors that can finally damage the quality of your content. Also, an editor can sometimes give you a different insight into the content written, helping you elevate the standard of your content and thus build an engaged and enthusiastic audience.
[Video] 6 things that will help you hire the best content agency
In an ideal world, being a client would be the easiest job on earth. Put together a brief, see the agency work their magic, get back beautiful reports that make you look good and imagine yourself sipping Margarita on the beach. Since the world isn’t this imaginary utopia, clients, as you may know, are burdened with much more tasks and outcomes. Picking the right content writing company from about a million (OK, exaggerating. Let us say, a few too many) available out there is the first and most crucial task in meeting outcomes for the business. You’ll see many companies change agencies every year with the same old story playing like a broken record. Lapse in deadlines and losing the creative spark being the most common reasons. Then there are others with whom agencies have stayed for decades, so much so that they know the brand’s growth and transition as much as the founders. They can recollect the brand guidelines in their sleep and don’t need an extensive brief for every campaign. Most importantly, they ‘get you’. They know you and they know your customers. They deliver consistently. They have an entourage ready to help you through a crisis. Basically, they have your back. How on earth do you find such an agency, you ask? They are here – around you, like diamonds hidden in plain sight. But to find them, you will need start by measuring them up against a few criteria. Here are six things you need to find out the right partner for your brand
How small organizations can join the video marketing craze?
We’ve generally seen startups and SMEs all thrilled when it comes to digital marketing as it offers quick and tangible results. But a lot of them shy away when we suggest video marketing. The term invokes a budget, production, and execution worry which stops most people from exploring it as an option. Believe us, we are here to change that. Video marketing is not complicated and need not be expensive if you have a clear vision. The benefits of using it are exponential without a doubt. The very fact that YouTube has more than 1B users and is experiencing a 50% YoY increase in the number of hours people watch videos is a big indicator that you need to communicate to your customers in their preferred medium of consumption. If you haven’t tried video marketing yet or started off really small and want to expand, here are some of the things you can try. Types of videos Introductory videos It is hard to understand the superpower booster of a vacuum cleaner when you just say it in words or show pictures. You need a video that can do justice to the product you are selling. Similarly, if you are offering a service that helps people rent houses but also demonstrate that you do it better than all the other people in the market, doing a video can be much better than pages filled with text and pictures. There are many such examples where an introductory product video is simply necessary. And you never know, the first video may just be the last one you need. Take Chat Books for example. The popular introductory video which was an instant hit with mothers currently has over 16M views catapulted the product subscriptions too. Another video that we simply cannot miss mentioning here is the introductory video for Dollar shave club. The video that left its audience in splits also gave the company the visibility it needed to get customers to try it out. Animations While the above videos work well, they also involve a budget with actor and production costs. If you don’t want to start off with a big bang, you can go for quick animation explainer video that can make your complex product proposition look simple. Animation videos mostly have your customer as the protagonist, first shown facing the problem. Then comes your brand to save the world (among other things) making your customer super happy. Check out the Mint videos here which is a classic example of an animation introduction video. You can also see the Spotify video here, which is well made one that is quick and easy to understand. Besides the call to action is so clear that it makes you instantly want to try the product out. There are many freelancers and startups who can make animation videos for as low as INR 3000 / min. So, you see, it isn’t expensive at all to get started. All you need a great idea and script to get started. UGC videos In a day and age where everyone with a smartphone can be a video marketer, you can potentially have hundreds of brand ambassadors talk about your brand. UGC videos are really the new word of mouth campaigns where all need to do is delight your customers and give them the ability to express it. Customers are keen to talk about their experience with your product or service if you delight them. Many even do it without you asking. They review your products or share an experience with your service just like that. The important thing is to then ensure you find them, appreciate their efforts and celebrate them as a hero by sharing their content. If you don’t have customers doing it on their own, just create an ask. Once you do, wait for all the content that comes in and stitch it together for the world to see. Take some of the videos here. The Coca-cola campaign is especially a great example of the potential of such videos. Closer to home, you can see HolidayIQ holidayiq.com do a great job of catching reviews as videos with a smart app that detects where you are before you can do the destination review. Testimonials Testimonials that are in the form of text generally have very less credibility. Anyone can write “I totally flipped over when I used xyz’s Microwave oven.”. – John Doe Instead, have a customer speak about it adds a lot more credibility. Customers aren’t staged actors so the connect with fellow customers is very real. More importantly, these videos don’t cost an arm and leg. Just be nice with “thoughtful thank yous” (which means a nice product hamper could be well received). Influencer videos We all like customers, but we also tend to be attracted towards the better-looking customers who happen to be liked by 20,000 other people. Influencer videos can also be created on the barter system in some cases involving actual payment. But the reach for these videos automatically tends to give the visibility velocity which is much needed. The final impact of an influencer video is debatable, though. A lot of so-called influencers are in the business of collecting goodies and shortchanging brands with no real marketing impact to show. The most important consideration here is that you are clear on your end goal with such videos and can show measurable outcomes. Insider videos You can sum up a bunch of brand showcase videos in this category which is again fairly low on production costs. These can be employee videos, culture videos and behind the scene videos. Just to elaborate, culture videos showcase a slice of how you do business. It can be about your company’s bent towards social activities or the amazing time your employees are having and raving about. Another type of insider videos is ‘expert videos’ where senior and preferably well-known people
How Content Marketers Can Use the Power of Clickbait for Good
“I have lost respect for Rahul Dravid”. This article appeared at the bottom of another article I was reading on my iPad on a Sunday morning. I waited 3 seconds before I gave into the temptation of reading about what had the former Indian cricketing captain, known for being generally a good guy, done enough to lose the respect of a fellow countrymen. Image Source: Outlook As I landed on the page, I realized fast enough that this was just a clickbait headline that had worked so well. I felt irritated at haven fallen victim to such a headline but then thought of how much the copyeditor must have worked to get that headline to work. That sort of cut down my irritation. Turns out Rahul Dravid had not done much to lose respect. He had just not disclosed about his wedding to the media and the writer’s wife was making the above statement because of that. AND to top it all, I was reading an article written in 2003. No idea how I had landed there. In short, I was forced to read what I didn’t want to read. But again, did anyone force me? No. I was simply tempted. I found that headlines irresistible. So the question now is “do clickbait work”? Successful but clickbait aren’t as popular Let’s understand one thing. Clickbait is not valued much and there are many experts, who advise against using them. Brands like Google and Facebook are fighting to get the online world rid of clickbait titles. But why? Well, that’s because clickbait titles, in general, don’t aim to provide you genuinely valuable content. Their purpose lies more in simply bringing in more clicks and thus, advertising revenue. As long as they are successful in getting you to click, they don’t care if you are left disappointed by what was served to you. The fault in our psyche But before training our guns at content creators, we have ourselves to blame. The answer to why we feel so compelled to click a clickbait, lies in our psyche. The headlines provoke us with suspense like ‘If you haven’t seen this’ or challenge us like ‘It’s beyond your imagination’ and we take the bait. We want to know what is it that we have not seen or what we can’t imagine. Sometimes the tone is commanding or confusing and thus, we are enticed to follow the command or solve the riddle. It’s our psyche that makes clickbait so effective. A visual content and digital marketing specialist assessed the top performing articles over three months that were featured on 24 high-traffic sites known for their clickbait titles and found out that 17% were listicles and 29% titles mentioned “you”, “I” or hinted at a personal story. While only 8% mentioned an animal, 63% made a pop-culture reference, trending news or mentioned food. 79% of the articles contained an element of shock. How to use clickbait, ethically But as time passed, consumers got tired of this trope and began to avoid websites that bank on clickbait content. Clickbait gradually lost its credibility. The content creators then found themselves asking —what’s more important: revenue or reputation? For long-term loyalty from consumers and for emboldening the brand image, content creators and marketers began thinking about using clickbait as ethically as possible. Following are some of the possible ways of doing that Use clickbait titles but also make sure the content, you are promising, lives up to the hype to a large extent. Don’t dupe the consumer. He may not be fully satisfied but don’t let him go away vowing never to come back. Bounce rate is never good for a website. Write headlines that are high on SEO. Use clickbait to lure in the consumer but once he visits, he should find a world of relevant content. Link the ‘bait’ article with other articles that have sensible and direct headlines within your own website. The language plays a huge role. In titles, use positive connotations instead of challenging or insulting the visitors. ‘Check out 21 Messi facts about your favourite footballer’ is more professional than ‘21 things, we bet you didn’t know about Messi’ Now imagine what if the visitor knew 15 of them. In the first case, he will feel proud of knowing them, while in the second, he will be judging the intellect of the content creator. Also, the tone of the article is important. If you know the content is not good, at least make it interesting. If you can’t engage with them at the intellectual level because the article is not that informative, then use the tool of humour or pathos to engage them emotionally. Even though BuzzFeed and Upworthy have made a fortune out of it, clickbait is seen by experts only as a passing fad. There’s a huge difference between good content and content designed to manipulate. Let’s make a better choice. Want to read more check the curated list below. How to be Effective at Customer Support on Social Media? [Video] Why Exactly Should You Do Content Marketing And How? Different Ways Your Business Can Use Videos To Its Advantage Should You Use ChatBots For Your Small Business?
Content marketing for heavy industries – how you can make it work
Some people feel that the whole content marketing hype isn’t for everybody. After all who will want to read ‘boring’ content about heavy industries, their functioning, and machinery when the most common articles lapped up on the internet are about celebrities and cats! Beyond the shallow and quick reads that often comes on our Facebook feed, there is a world of professionals who value content that is crafted with knowledge and experience. To them, the content isn’t boring but valuable and the person/company creating becomes an interesting catalyst who can become a seller or partner. As someone working in the heavy industry, your aim will be to market to professionals in other companies – in short – Business to Business or B2B marketing. Here are a few statistics that put the industry, in general, into perspective according to the most recent trends published on Hubspot Companies that published 16+ blog posts per month got about 4.5X more leads than companies that published 0-4 monthly posts. 47% of buyers viewed 3-5 pieces of content before engaging with a sales rep B2B researchers do 12 searches on average prior to engaging on a specific brand’s site. 72% of marketers say relevant content creation was the most effective SEO tactic Even if you are skeptical about content marketing services, these statistics will make you curious to try it out to see if it’ll generate the leads. And that’ll bring you to the next question on where to start and how to go about it. Can you do it yourself or will you need an agency to do it? The thought of an editorial calendar giving you sleepless nights? Before you get on those topics, here are a few details about how content marketing can help your business. 1. Content could be the first building block of your professional relationship Most people who continue to bat for offline say that there is nothing like a personal meeting and a handshake that the client will remember. Even then, considering the conversion rate and possibilities that professional social networks like a Linkedin offer, it makes a very compelling case that a virtual handshake is not only possible but can lead to effective next steps in the lead gen ladder. The proof is in the pudding. 80% of B2B marketing leads from social media come through LinkedIn 92% of B2B marketers use the platform over all others 46% of social media traffic to your company site comes from LinkedIn Check out the full infographic here. It will make you sign into your Linkedin account right away and stir things around. We’ve personally sent out emails to CXOs on LinkedIn and got a response 3 out of 4 times to land a direct meeting with them!* 2. Content widens your pool of opportunities If you want to gain insights into your potential customer’s behavior and preferences, there is no better place than Google to get started. Obvious too, since more than 90% online searches begin with Google. Create your AdWords account and start using the Keyword research tool to see what terms in your industry have a high search volume. This will give you an idea of general trends and what competitors and clients could be looking for. Next, check out what type of content comes up with keywords that are important to you. Now all you need to do is create authoritative content that can rank close to the No. 1 spot for those key terms and you’ll have targeted organic visitors come to the website. Creating content that is being searched for is a way to step up and grab a low hanging fruit for any B2B marketer. Now that you are ready to take on this new beast, here are tips from pros that can help you get started: a. ‘Boring’ heavy industries actually have a lot of opportunities Have you seen the number of articles that discuss tips for weight loss on the internet? It is almost like they are solving an epidemic. You may have also read several lists of the 13, 17. 21 or 56 places you should see before you die. You see, these topics are interesting. But these are also simple. Which is why you have half the world writing such topics. On the other hand, it isn’t easy to write about heavy industries without the proper knowledge or expertise and also a passion for writing. These combination of skills are hard to come by which is why you may see very little well-written content out here. And therein lies an opportunity for you to step up quickly and fill the gap. You’ll get to rank for a lot of your most important keywords which may generate better leads. b. Solve client problems by writing content on specific topics You are an industry expert so you must be well aware of the problems that professionals in your industry face. The key here is to ask what are the top problems faced by your clients. How do they connect typically find you? Where do they engage online in conversations? Once you have a map of these things, you can chart out specific content, especially like listicles that your clients can discover during their online search and by that extension, discover you. Here’s an interesting example. FarmIndustryNews put together an article titled 10 biggest causes of machinery breakdowns (and how to prevent them). A targeted article like this isn’t for skim reading. It will be read by both farmers and machinery manufacturers. Farmers are more likely to subscribe to such targeted content. The database collected by FarmIndustryNews becomes a potent ground for potential leads for any farm machine manufacturer. Imagine such articles written by industry experts – from your company. Won’t that be a great way to build your brand? c. Aim for targeted traffic and not just traffic Though we know that Google is now smarter, the internet still has many sites that promise you
25 Content Marketing Resolutions That Will Make 2017 A Great Year
Well, hello 2017! It’s the first month of the new year and we are at it again – making resolutions. I am not sure what exactly it is about the new year that pushes us into this fiercely resolution-making mode, but here is my guess – it’s perhaps the hope that you have 12 months to plough through and achieve it. Or probably, it is simply good to hope that life will be better this year. Now come the professional goals. For people like us – the army of content marketers who like to think that the weight of the internet is upon our shoulders – the aim is always to show the world how to generate awesome content, how to create that amazing blogs, how to craft that fantastic story… well, you get the flow! The thing with content marketing is that we are constantly dancing to the tunes of a quick changing song. Just suddenly, there is a trending story about how important video is and how Google is playing it up in its search results and we are caught up in the frenzy of creating one. Hence, it’s good to keep an eye on what is trending while you wade through the everyday task of creating authoritative content and high-quality link building. But what you need to change with your content marketing to make progress is something you’ll need to work on every single day. So this is what have done at Justwords. We’ve created a list of the best 2017 content marketing resolution and stuck it on our board. This is the list that you can go to after creating every single piece of content. If you can tick this list off at the end of the year, we bet you’ll be the among the content gurus predicting content trends for 2018. Sounds exciting? So here goes – The Best Content Marketing Resolutions to help you meet your business goals in 2017. 1. Move from text-only content to visual content That photo doesn’t speak a thousand words. You’ll have to write them. But you might as well use photos and images to create a beautiful looking piece of content. Photos, as you may know, goes a long way in serving as a click bait. A good photograph on social media can immediately get more attention from the text-only content. It also breaks the monotony of reading a 2000-word article and makes it easier to skim through until the end. There is scientific proof too. Apparently, 90% of all information that comes to your brain is visual and it is processed 90,000 times faster than text! 2. Start incorporating that video into your blogging strategy Did you know that according to Tech Crunch, 100 million hours of video are watched every day on Facebook alone! Check this amazing list of facts on the benefits of using videos in your content strategy. In fact, 7 out of 10 millennials are likely to watch the company video when shopping online. As content marketers, there are three types of videos you can create: millennials are likely to watch the company video when shopping online. As content marketers, there are three types of videos you can create: How to present a video from a webinar: Host a webinar on a popular topic and make the video available only to your subscribers. New subscribers can sign up to see previous webinars. Eg: 10 easy ways to create a 3000-word content. Interviews: Interviews can be another way to use videos where you can showcase your FAQs in the form of an interview. Usage tips: There are a lot of new tools being continuously introduced in the market making everything from There are a lot of new tools being continuously introduced in the market making everything from curation to analytics easy for content marketers. Not everyone will have the time to keep updated or try and test the tools. You can do it for them with a video AMA. 3. Increase engagement with your followers Though this statement seems like a no-brainer, content marketers often get so lost in the preparation and dissemination of their content that they totally forget about how to engage with their followers and influencers. Engagement also means different things to different people. While a ‘like’ is a positive sentiment, a ‘retweet’ or ‘share’ is an endorsement, the most valuable form of engagement comes with queries or leads. Do not forget to track each form of engagement to see what sentiment your content evokes. 4. Post on our blog more frequently Most content marketers, like the ones at Justwords, are guilty of not being able to devote time to promote themselves while going on an overdrive to get their client’s content to the top. If you are nodding yes to that, think of writing for your blog as a way to showcase your most recent research and knowledge. We already know by rote the statistics we dole out to prove how content creation services every day can increase your traffic drastically. So boys and girls, let’s get on with it right away. 5. No waiting till the last minute to come up with blog post ideas What do I write this week’s blog about? That is one of the major questions that floats around our team of writers. Even though I have been vowing to make that long bank of blog titles so that we stop wasting our time on this time-wasting question, I haven’t been able to do it. If that’s your situation too, then solve it right now. Last-minute blog titles are not really the best blogs from your stable since your main concern is to just get the blog out for that week, or for that matter – that day. Good blogs titles come out of good research and well, sometimes, as Neil Patel says, just tweaking what your competitors are doing. If you are writing one blog a day, you will need at