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The holiday season and New Year is that time of the year when businesses of all types and sizes put their best efforts into creating amazing marketing campaigns to delight their target audience. In this digital era, where every brand is offering discounts and promotions, delighting your fans and followers is easier said than done. With the help of some creative social media marketing campaigns. You can fuel your branding efforts and provide your existing and potential customers with something of value.

For startups and small businesses, coming up with some killer marketing ideas to reach new markets, build brand awareness, and boost sales can be tough. You can help your startup or SMB stand out from hundreds of thousands of brands by simply following some creative new year social media marketing ideas for 2021.

If you haven’t planned something for the New Year, don’t worry, it’s not too late.

Here are some amazing New Year social media marketing ideas that will spice up your brand’s feed and boost your business.

8 Amazing New Year Social Media Marketing Ideas

Let’s check them out.

1. New Year Giveaway

Giveaways are an amazing way to skyrocket user engagement, and brand awareness, and increase your brand reach. New Year is the right time to run a giveaway and encourage your audience to take action to get a freebie. For instance, you can run contests and ask people to share their images using your products, share some funny quotes, write a testimonial, or anything that can increase user engagement.

Make sure the prize is worthwhile so more and more audiences will participate to win the free stuff. The more users engage with your post, the higher the chances of reaching new users and growing your following base.

2. Share Your New Year’s Resolutions with Your Audience

Create your New Year’s resolutions and share them with your social media fans. Ask your fans and followers to share their New Year plans and goals with you. It is an amazing way to engage your audience and help them feel more connected to you. You can share your plans on how you will be moving your startup forward and encourage your audience to send in their own resolutions to foster a sense of community by sharing their stories on your social media feed.

3. Share Festive-Themed Content

Celebrate New Year with your audience by encouraging them to share their holiday activities and images. Believe it or not, user-generated content is an effective way to promote your products and services. Though it won’t drive too much traffic to your website or bring more sales. It clearly shows that people are satisfied with your brand and quality products.

So, if you want to strengthen your relationship with your existing and potential customers. You can start retweeting and uploading images and posts in which your brand or products are mentioned.

Retweeting or reposting brand-related content from fans and replying to their questions is an effective way to show your social media audience. You really care about what your fans and followers say about your brand.  

4. Use Stories to Promote Your New Year Offer

The holiday season and New Year are the best time to offer a special discount and exclusive coupon codes. You can make the most out of your Instagram Stories and Facebook Stories to share your New Year discount deal or coupon code with your followers. While your holiday coupons may have expired, some customers are still waiting for the New Year's Day sale.

It is a great time to attract those customers by offering flash sales to clear your holiday inventory. You can give out exclusive discount coupons to your customers to increase your chances of getting more conversions and sales.

5. Launch New Products

In this competitive business world, the timing of your business launch matters a lot. If your startup wants to grow in 2021 and ahead, then launch a new product on New Year’s Eve. This is one of the best social media marketing tactics that can give you the desired results. People are already in a generous mood, and if your product meets their needs, they will definitely try your product.

6. Host a Live Campaign

There is no denying the fact that live video is one of the most engaging types of content that marketers are using to garner the attention of their fans and followers. Your brand can also make the most out of this cutting-edge social media trend by going live on Instagram or Facebook.

You can describe your product's unique features, conduct a live interview, hold a question and answer session, announce an exclusive discount on your service, or do anything interesting that your audience finds interesting for the New Year. The real-time interaction of your live video will improve your social media marketing efforts, engage your audience, and drive interest in your brand.

7. Send a Handwritten Note

Sending a hand-written customer thank you note, along with a customized holiday package is an amazing way to appreciate your customers and encourage them to return and recommend your brand on social media. When your loyal customers talk about your brand on social media and share pictures of the thank you note and the special New Year package. It will serve as social proof that you can share on your social media feed. In short, a thank you note is a proven way to earn your customers’ loyalty and get an authentic customer review that you can post on your social media and website.

8. Use Trending Topics and Hashtags

Brands can use hashtags to foster and build highly engaged and loyal communities of brand advocates and followers. You can ask your followers to post about your brand or encourage them to participate in contests by using branded hashtags or uploading images on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook with branded and trending hashtags.

A Brief Recap

Social media is undoubtedly an amazing place that allows you to promote your products or services to a wider audience. And the New Year is the right time to do so. You can use these killer New Year social media marketing ideas to excite your customers about your small business in 2021 and ahead. These social media marketing ideas, if implemented right, can increase your sales and brand awareness.

Happy New Year!

In the wake of the Coronavirus epidemic, businesses are navigating a challenging landscape, prompting a surge in the demand for innovative digital marketing strategies.

Our world is facing a never-seen-before outbreak. Although the spread of coronavirus is dangerous, there is hope left on the horizon.

COVID-19 has impacted businesses, and the economy in the worst way ever. The grocery shelves are empty, and restaurants feel like part of a ghost town.

As a business owner, you might be looking for ways to save your business in the coronavirus epidemic.

If you’re watching the news every minute, you might have realized that coronavirus is not going anywhere soon. And even with a cure in hand, it might take some time for things to get back to normal.

While it’s difficult to leave your home at the moment, the situation is just a temporary phase, and your business is not going to shut down.

Let’s just say that it’s going to get worse before it gets any better.

In any case, the only solution for a startup is to stay connected with their audience and don’t lose their reputation in the process.  

This blog will teach you this today. I will share digital marketing ideas that will help your brand increase its online presence even in critical times like these.

Use Social Media to connect with your customer

Everyone is dealing with the coronavirus outbreak differently. Whether the test is positive or not, we all need to take precautions. We’ve all been locked in our homes with our family. No meetup with friends or dining out at restaurants.

This is the perfect time to show empathy to others and help them in whatever way you can. Time is sensitive, which is why you don’t have to act pushy all the time. But if you work smart, this is a grand opportunity for your brand to make a good reputation.

Everywhere is stuck in their homes, scanning for updates, and trying their best to remain insane in isolation.

Use your business to contribute food to areas where you can. Help the elderly with their grocery shopping. Promote these good deeds with social media marketing. Guide the customers on preventive measures of coronavirus outbreak.

Be Discoverable in this challenging time

It is a time when more people are online. Search traffic has been on the rise for the past week, and it will continue for some time. Everyone is glued to their computers and smartphones, and looking forward to updates. People are looking for entertainment and ways to pass their time.

Anything online right now will be consumed with more attention. This is not a time to hide offline. You must use search engine optimization strategies to get on top of Google search results pages. This is the time to connect with your customers and tell them that you are there to help them in any way possible. 

PPC can be a smart move

With everyone busy on their phones, there is no perfect time other than this to make the best use of PPC marketing. The cost per click is already low these days, which means that you’ll save some budget on your PPC marketing. It’s a fantastic way to jump-pass your competitors with clear-cut PPC marketing.

Get ready for the bounce-back surge

We all know that sooner or later, this coronavirus outbreak will be over. And when that happens, the consumer will return to their regular spending habits. You must remember that SEO is a long-term strategy. If you do something now, it will be part of the lives of people later.

Don’t pause your SEO campaign. Now is the time to get more links by guest posting on websites that are at the top of their game. When your site shows up, people will make a note and contact you later when things get back to normal.

Unique Circumstances demand special offers

You have this fantastic opportunity to show support to your customers by offering discounts to them. For instance, Amazon is giving free audiobooks to kids who are at home. Ahrefs offered their blogging for the business course for free. Udemy provided free classes in these critical times.

Think about what offers you can give to your customers for free or on a discount that might help them at this time.

The golden time to work on Local SEO

Since everyone is at home, they are looking for ways to distract themselves. If you are not using local SEO strategies to target your local customers, you are making a big mistake. It’s time to tell those customers that you exist.

Customers are now looking for convenience, something local and near their homes. It’s time for you to help these people and their families with the services that they need.

Make a landing page and offer them discounted offers or geo-location services that will help customers build trust, or at least they will positively remember your brand.

Finish your Digital to-do lists

Now that you’re not commuting to the office or taking any in-person meetings, your schedule is free. This is the free time to finish off all of those half-baked or incomplete digital ideas that never got your attention.

This is the time to rethink your underperforming marketing campaigns. Develop strategies for next year. Go for remarketing and ensure that your customers get what they are looking for.

Wrapping it up

During the pandemic, these adapted digital services empower businesses to thrive in the digital world. It doesn’t matter if you’re a startup or a well-established business. You need to show people that you are a brand that can serve even in times like these.

Undoubtedly, the coronavirus outbreak is temporary. But whatever you do at this time will be noted and remembered by your customers for the long haul. Ensure that you leave a good impression on your customers.

The E-commerce world has incredibly changed and so have the people buying things online. But what makes a website truly workable? A good website development is one that’s truly error-free. Imagine going to a store to purchase a pair of shoes only to realize that the directions aren’t correct, the shelves are disheveled and the shoes aren’t organized or arranged correctly.  Won’t it ruin your entire experience… It's the same with websites. An online presence that’s clunky and has a lot of problems isn’t going to perform well in the online space.  In today’s article, we are going to share some of the common website development challenges. We will also try to share some of our recommendations on how to best solve them. 

6 Common Website Development Challenges and How to Solve Them

As a job or a startup, we hope this article is going to be your best guide.  

1. Check If Your Website is Fully Responsive

Being a web designer, the first thing that comes to your mind is to make sure your website is fully responsive. If a website isn’t responsive, you will be creating a mess for most of your mobile users.  Do you know Statista states websites in the second quarter of 2024 amassed a total of 60% of the global web traffic, excluding the ones that came through tablet devices?  What if your website isn’t fully responsive?  Here’s what you need to do.  A website is fully responsive when it's based upon flexible grids. That’s where you will begin with designing your website, ensuring that it’s fully responsive. From there onwards, you start focusing on button placement, add scalable vector images, and make use of legible fonts to ensure there’s consistency across all screen types. Test the results and see which of them are becoming clunky & improve. 

2. Slow Page Load Time on Your Website 

If your website has a slow page load time, then you can experience a high bounce rate.  This is a basic website development challenge that many website owners often face.  Page optimization doesn’t just offer a great user experience; it also contributes to your overall ranking in search engines. A badly designed or slow-speed website often degrades your SEO implementations. Whether off-page or on-page or technical SEO implementations, slow page loading time on websites can impact your overall ranking, pushing your website down the search rankings.  An interesting way to fix slow page load time is by simply minimizing large image files. You can also leverage browser caching and employ a security content delivery network (CDN).  All such implementations eventually accelerate your website’s loading time. 

3. The Tech Stack You Employ  

A website development challenge that most website developers often highlight is the choice of tech stack. The more prominent the tech stack used for website development, the better its performance and the quality of the build. Tech stack usually involves elements like programming languages, servers, frameworks, libraries, APIs, IDEs, and cloud services, which are a few among others.  The tech stack depends on a multitude of factors; depending on the complexity of the website, features, functionality, integrations, etc. Choosing the right stack often becomes a difficult website development challenge. However, you can easily overcome it by employing the right tech stack for your project, which is why requirement gathering and analysis plays a much more important role in web development.  Once you are aware of your website build requirements, picking the right tech stack becomes prominent.  Here are the top website technology tech stacks used abundantly within the year 2024. 

4. The Security Measures You Implement 

If there’s one pressing website development challenge that businesses often observe, it’s the one that surrounds website security.   Did you know? During the first half of 2024, more than 1,400 major data breaches were reported globally, exposing sensitive data from millions of users across industries. Just in January 2024, the Trello platform saw 15 million user accounts compromised, with emails, names, and usernames leaked on a popular hacking forum.  A few common cyber attacks which are prominent in the website development industry are access control issues, cross-site scripting, link injections, authentication breakdowns, & security misconfigurations.  In fact, most websites deal with critical information and sensitive data.  To ensure all of it remains safe, implementing the best security measures becomes imperative.  The best way to ensure the best security measures are implemented is to install robust cybersecurity protocols. A few practices that most web developers perform to overcome these website development challenges are integrating SSL certification, adding the website to a secure host server, regular security updates, biometric integrations, and multi-factor authentications with access validations. 

5. Website Maintenance, Once the Website Goes Live 

Once the website goes live, it must observe proper site maintenance.  It’s obvious that websites will experience a variety of problems and may encounter bugs for newly created web applications. Thus, it’s important to provide effective maintenance and post-launch support.  Therefore, it’s essential to provide continuous maintenance for your web applications with 24/7 monitoring and regular testing. A key aspect to making sure your website offers smooth performance is to reduce the dependencies using a microservice architecture for improved efficiency. When you have a website with a more structured process, that goes a long way. It’s relevant to ensure that your website is well maintained at the back end by professional web developers. 

6. Creating a Website with an Intuitive Navigation 

Did you know a staggering 88% of users are unlikely to return to a website after having a poor experience with navigation or usability?  A website isn’t complete until it has correct navigation.  So when it comes to website design services for custom websites, functionality plays a significant role. It’s one of those important things you need to prioritize so you don’t end up losing any of your website visitors. What most website designers & developers don’t understand is navigation needs to be simple. You don’t need to get creative in terms of design; what truly works is simplicity.  Let your copy mostly tell what you want to express.  Just remember, visitors only drift away if they are working with a website that’s not easy to follow. 

Concluding Thoughts

Being a website developer is a challenging task.  All websites experience several website development challenges. Today, we have shared some of the most common website development challenges that businesses often experience. Is your website struggling or needs a complete revamp? Do you want to make sure it’s well protected from all security breaches? Do you want to dedicate resources to perfectly manage their digital presence?  Whether you’re an entrepreneur or an SME, it all depends on what best practices you implement.  Branex is a custom web development company, and we encourage businesses to share their website design ideas so we can offer them the best solutions. Looking for a website design that’s robust and on-point from the UI/UX perspective? Feel free to get in touch with our professionals so we can help you. 

After 1993, when the first clickable ad went online, people stepped into the age of digital marketing.

Once upon a time, any company that wanted to get its message across to prospects and customers used traditional marketing to do so. What was once a norm is now obsolete.

Before the dot com revolution, it was okay for companies with a huge budget to invest in flyers, advertisements, billboards, TV, radio, and even direct marketing to reach their customers.

Today, if you want to stay in the game, digital marketing is the only option that can give you unlimited digital space and global customer reach.

Now, people spend more time on the internet than any other thing. So, marketers must grab the attention of users and turn them into customers.

With a brief history of the evolution of marketing over the years, now you are all set to dive into how to grow your business with digital marketing in 2020.

Digital marketing is more like fishing alone in the sea. Some methods are more effective in catching a fish while others take more time. Similarly, in digital marketing, there are effective and ineffective strategies.

In this blog, you’ll see some of the most effective digital marketing strategies to increase your market share in 2020.

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

The top-most digital marketing strategy that can benefit startups is search engine optimization (SEO). If a business wishes to rank on the search results of Google, effort must be made to optimize the website for search engines.

As mentioned earlier, most people spend a lot of time on the Internet. And when it comes to searching for anything, Google is the best place to start. Whether you want to search for a review of a product, 

Today's users will virtually be lost without Google. People check the time on Google. And people do currency conversions on Google. People translate text on Google. And most importantly, people buy products based on the search ranking on Google.

A study suggests that 94% of buyers do a Google search before buying a product. Those brands that failed to optimize their website for the search engine are missing out on sales that can come from SEO.

For small businesses, SEO is a goldmine. It’s not just important. Rather, it’s indispensable for brands to grow their business by leveraging SEO.

Benefits of Search Engine Optimization for Small Businesses

• By optimizing a website, you’ll get a high position in SERPs.
• Your brand awareness will increase.
• There will be more traffic on your website.
• SEO will help you to reach a global audience.
• Most importantly, an SEO-optimized website will convert visitors into customers.

2. Social Media Marketing (SMM)

A type of digital marketing where content is created, and shared across relevant social media platforms, creating and sharing information pertinent to reach marketing goals and boost your branding.

A recent study revealed that there are 3.484 billion social media users. No one in their right mind can deny the power of social media. Social media marketing is helping businesses to grow. Social media is the right medium for small businesses to influence and put the right content for the target market.

How can Social Media Marketing help Startups?

• People will know more about your business to increase web traffic.
• It allows you to establish a strong bond with customers.
• Social media promotion can improve brand awareness.
• Boosts organic visibility.
• It’s economical.

3. Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

Pay-per-click is a digital marketing strategy where owners pay a specific amount for each click their ad gets. In other words, it’s merely buying visitors for your site.

Businesses use this method to create brand awareness on search engines, mobile apps, and all social media platforms.

Of all the popular PPC methods, Google Ads has proven to be the most effective.

Whenever a user searches for a product, Google Ads will display your ad on SERPs along with other paid and organic search results.

People trust Google Ads, so there is a high probability that they will click on your ad on Google Ads.

Is PPC Necessary for Your Business?

Let’s look at some of the main reasons on how PPC can benefit your business.

• PPC gives various targeting options.
• You can easily track your effort using Google Analytics and Google Ads tools.
• PPC helps your business reach a broad online audience.

You must make the best use of a PPC campaign. If you are having PPC management issues, we would love to help you out. Even if you don’t have a clear budget, we will assist you and ensure that your brand is well-optimized for your target audience.

4. Content Marketing

One of the most popular and impactful digital marketing strategies is content marketing. You can use content marketing to increase brand awareness and increase conversions. When you distribute content publicly, it attracts leads, increases traffic on your website, and ultimately boosts your sales.

Content in any form represents the values and morals that your brand holds. Every piece of content that you create demands attention. No business can survive without content marketing.

Content marketers use tools to reach their marketing goals. If you are new to content marketing, check out this fantastic article from Gary V where he teaches how to create various types of content. Each piece of content can be shared individually on different social media platforms.

How can Content Marketing help your business?

• It will drive more conversions.
• Content marketing will bring traffic to your site.
• It helps in building trust with your target audience.
• Good content will help you boost SEO and increase your search results ranking.

Content marketing is having a conversation with your target audience. It will help you to build authority with your brand, humanize your brand, and give you business intelligence that will grow your brand.

Final Thoughts

You might be wondering, are these four strategies enough to grow your brand? Of course, they are. When done correctly, they can take your brand from the ground and make it fly high on the clouds. If you don’t have a digital marketing strategy yet, we can help you plan, execute, and make your brand visible online. Our digital marketing services can help you to make your brand worth trusting.

Till October 2019, an astonishing 6,000 tweets were sent every second. It means that people are actively sharing ideas, talking to people, and even sharing their reviews about a brand on Twitter.

85% of small businesses say that they use Twitter to provide customer service to their customers. If you are a startup, in the beginning, there are chances that you will struggle to generate ideas for your tweets. As you spend time on Twitter and observe your audience, you’ll learn what to tweet as a brand.

But the good news is that you don’t need to worry about this thing anymore. The reason why you started reading this blog is that you were out of ideas on what to tweet. And secondly, even if you are posting things, it means that there is no traffic on the website.

In the following text, you’ll get around some tried and tested ideas that will help you clear your mind and post something that users will love to read.

Promote Your Blog or Landing Page

If you are a business that publishes blog posts daily. There is a chance that each of these blogs won’t get enough coverage due to limited resources or lack of time. But with Twitter, there is a chance that you’ll be able to increase your reach when you tweet it.

A good thing about Twitter is that you can tweet the same tweet several times for different target markets according to their time zone.

Plus, there is so much room for evergreen content that can be retweeted for a different target market.

A similar thing happens with a landing page. For a landing page to reach more people, owners and marketers run PPC campaigns. Twitter with hashtags is an excellent tool to drive people with enticing content. One-liners can grab the attention of users who want to avail of your service. They want a little push, which can help them reach a potential customer.

Share Helpful Tips

Your aim as a marketer is to grab the attention of users and make them trust your brand. If you keep sharing spammy links, no customer will trust you.

To get yourself heard and unique, you must provide the users with some helpful tips regarding your product or the current trends in the market.

Another tip you can use to grab the attention of users is to take the current trend and add something valuable to the conversation.

Surely every brand is using Twitter or at least has an account on Twitter. The best thing you can do is to educate the users on your product.

Moreover, you can post quotes, valuable tips, and tricks from experts in your industry. This will help users in building trust in your brand, and they’ll surely come back for more.

Highlight Reviews

There is no surprise that 97% of customers believe that online reviews influence their buying decisions. 

When you get a review on Google or Facebook, don’t ever hesitate to show it on Twitter.

The good thing about Twitter is that there will be potential customers who can read reviews and make an impulsive buying decision.

And social proof has grown and been recognized in the past few years a lot. To gain trust in the customer or at times, you can even calm an angry customer on Twitter, where everyone can see how you are treating customers who are not satisfied with your service.

Announce Job Openings

If you are looking for a potential candidate, there is a good chance that you’ll get them on Twitter.

Additionally, you’ll be able to get much attention from people. Posting job openings gives the impression that you are a legit brand that is using Twitter to connect with real people.

If a customer is already following your brand, there is a good chance that they will be interested in working with you. When you post a job opening with a link, it will drive relevant people to your website.

Be Transparent

Studies show that consumers buy from a brand more quickly if they feel that the brand is being transparent.

On Twitter, you have a chance to stay true to your brand personality. When you admit that you made a mistake or even if you celebrate things on Twitter. It gives the impression that you are just like a regular brand.

Share BTS or “behind the scenes” videos on the making of your product and let the consumers enjoy the production of your product.

Upon doing this, consumers will be more interested in your brand. And they will be more curious when the product is near launch. If you include the consumer in the making process, the consumers establish a connection with the brand. This is a brand moment where you can leverage that connection and make the users feel safe while doing business with you.

Final Word

Whether you admit it or not, Twitter is a necessary tool for customers and audiences to interact easily with a brand and learn more about its values and goals.

Upon interacting with the users directly, a brand can easily understand the buying intentions of the consumers. If you are not active on Twitter, now is the chance to do so. And if you don’t have the expertise to do so, we can help you with our digital marketing services.

If you can generate leads even with a mediocre product – you still win. Because in the end, it is all about more leads and more revenue. For now, forget your product. You can either jazz up your product, tie a bow to it, or offer the best price for your product – but in the end, nothing will matter.

Even if you have the most user-friendly website and an award-worthy product. If people don’t know about it, you are doomed. The research concluded that startups crash in the first five years. Those startups that generate sustainable business end up winning. Simple!

Let us unpack six ways in which you can generate more leads in digital marketing and set your business on the right path.

Leads Generation via various Growth Marketing Methods

It is not just about numbers games anymore. If you are getting 5,000 visitors a day with no leads. It means that you need to extend your reach and try various other mediums to generate leads.

Here are some ways in which you can grab the attention of potential customers:

1. Creative Popup:

There are plugins in WordPress that give you the ability to create popups and make the user think before they leave the page. Even if you can grab some details like email or phone number, this is a win-win case for you.

2. Give something valuable:

The world is quite selfish. If you are willing to ask the customer for a favor, you must first give them something. For instance, if you want to glean the email address of a customer, provide them with a report or an eBook that can help them in some way. If you are forcing a customer to order urgently, offer a time-specific discount that will force the customer to buy the product.

3. Referral System:

There will be times when a customer will love your service but won’t tell you. An excellent way to get some benefit from the customer is to ask for a referral. Every time a referral purchases from you, the customer who is referred will be given a reward in appreciation. The reward can be in the form of a coupon code or a gift voucher, whatever works for your business.

Leverage Video Marketing

We all know that video is the most attention-grabbing medium to convert users into raving fans. Have you ever noticed the level of curiosity you feel while you scroll your newsfeed on Facebook? Is it just boring text, or are you looking for funny, surprising, and inspiring videos?

Video marketing is a never-ending trend that is not going anywhere soon. Mostly, brands use video to showcase their product features. That’s because when it comes to buying a product, people rely more on video testimonials than any other form of feedback.

Honestly, ask yourself when you are about to buy a new mobile. Do you rely on detailed reviews or do you watch a ton of YouTube reviews about the product?

The key differentiating factor in video marketing is the story. Storytelling can scale up your creativity and force people to think from a different angle.

If you want to see the power of storytelling in a video, check out this Barbie video:

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1vnsqbnAkk[/embed]

Influencer Marketing can help Big time

In a research report, 83% of people claim that they believe and trust the recommendation of a family and friend while buying a new product.

To gain the trust of the customer, a smart form of marketing is using a familiar face to endorse your product.

When you pick the right influencer for your target audience, it will be easy for customers to trust your brand.

On the other hand, if you pick the wrong influencer, the customer will get confused and won’t even try your product in the first place.

If you don’t have any idea which influencer is creating the most impact. You can use a tool like SocialBlakers.com to learn about a particular influencer and how much it can help to get your message across. Just fill out a form, and you’ll get to know a lot about an influencer.

Use Personalized Landing Pages to Evoke Emotions

Whenever a customer clicks on an ad, they will be directed towards a page. A landing page is your opportunity to engage with potential customers and create a first impression for them.

Upon learning the buying behavior of your customers, you will be able to create personalized landing pages that will evoke emotions among customers.

When the message on your page matches the values of the customer or claims to solve their problem. The customer will rush to try out your product.

When you understand the heart and mind of a customer, you’ll be able to develop relevant content and send it over to your customer.

Speaking of distribution of content, if you need to get an idea of how to create engaging emails. Do check ReallyGoodEmails.com which will help you to create content designed for specific niches.

Stick to the Data

Data is the brain-child for everyone and digital marketers are no exception. In an era where everything is in the mist, following a data-driven approach is a must. Everyone has heard about Google Analytics, but tools like Heap Analytics and Mixpanel can help you to understand the movements of your audience. And predict the highest possible ROI that your marketing campaigns can achieve.  

Analyzing your website or app’s performance through the aforementioned analytical tools makes it easy to know more about users. Having rich user data helps you understand the buying intentions of the customers and where they are in the sales funnel. Equipped with this information, you’ll be able to figure out better what is bothering your customers and causing hurdles to complete the purchase.

Never, Ever Stop Testing

Everyone deserves a pat on their back. You’ve developed your website. Pop-ups are ready, you have customized your landing page. Now, your work is done. You need to wait and watch for the leads to fill your inbox, right? Wrong!

Every brand’s digital marketing efforts are a work in progress and require constant optimizations to achieve the best possible results.

A/B testing is a fantastic thing. It allows you to test multiple versions of a page to see which one is giving a maximum return.

A/B testing is not just limited to landing pages or websites; in fact, you can use split testing to check out the efficacy of your email marketing and ad campaigns as well.

It is hard to predict the result of A/B testing, but sometimes even a small change can make all the difference that you need to increase your leads.

The critical thing to keep in mind is to keep on testing and adapting to the dynamic digital landscape to get the best results for your brand.

It’s a Wrap

In the end, it is wise to say that digital marketing is not a sprint; it is a marathon. Keep this in mind and you’ll create every campaign, every page, and every email with a growth mindset. If you want to know more about digital marketing services, or are feeling confused about where to start for your business. Let us help you take away your worries.

Are you a soccer fan? Even if you are not, whenever the soccer season arrives, you will witness a surge in the hype, the flags, the stickers out there. You’ll see fans wearing the jersey of their favorite team. You can see how much love these fans show for the things that they love and adore.

Wouldn’t it be great if your customers and fans talk about you with the same zeal?

You might have some customers. But a fan is someone who has a strong association with your brand. Whatever product/service you launch, they rush to the stores or online to buy the product or avail of the service.

Some brands focus on a customer-centric approach to achieve this goal. In totality, there is a science behind getting the attention of the customer and enticing them to do business with you. There are specific ways in which brands do things to acquire new customers and retain their old customers.

Here are four lesser-known ways in which you can turn regular customers into your brand advocates.

Delight the Customer

When Jeff Bezos founded Amazon, he was straight about one thing. Find a way to delight the customer at all costs. Apple, Target, and Starbucks displayed similar intentions. All of these brands started with nothing but managed to scale their businesses to billion-dollar corporations.

The important thing business owners of 2020 need to understand is that there is nothing wrong with extending a customer service call if it delights the customer. When you start giving something extra to your customer, this is where the real magic happens.

Every employee can stick to the script and follow the rules when an angry customer shows up. But to listen to the customer, calm them down, and resolve their issue is a quality that only big companies possess.

Of course, it is exhausting listening to customers all day long, which brings us to the next point.

Don’t just listen, fix the problem

Last Thursday my new MacBook went crazy. Even after countless tries, I was not able to fix my MacBook's wireless problem. I took the problem to the Apple service center. The guy told me he would get it fixed.

After three days, I received the bad news. “Sir, I am sorry, but your laptop couldn’t be fixed.” Of course, I was angry. I went to the service center the next day, and to my surprise, the guy not just replaced my laptop with a new one; he even transferred all the data to the new laptop and even updated the system. Did I ask him to transfer the data? Not at all. Was I worried about my loss of data? Obviously. 

Apple not only solved my problem; but did it painlessly. I walked away with a new MacBook and a big smile. I’ve told this story a thousand times and every time I adore Apple a little more.

When you listen to your customer’s problems and promptly solve them, they become your fans. A customer will tell everyone about their bad experience, and a fan will profoundly share it with everyone he knows.

Listen Intently & Act proactively

Your competitors are online, your customers are online, and even your fans are online. Every day, people post vigorously on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and even Snapchat about how they feel. They upload pictures, watch videos, create blogs, and write reviews about their favorite brands on every social media channel.

In short, they are talking about you and your brand and your products. It is you who can respond to them on social media, which can lead them from a customer to a raving fan.

Follow Up

We’ve all filled out the feedback form a couple of times in our lives. An automated call or a survey right after the transaction has been done. Often it is difficult to mark the items as all excellent or bad as you cannot give your opinion right away. The same thing happens when you order something online. At times it gets difficult to tell how much you love the product/service or how angry you are.

The best-case scenario is to ask for feedback sometime later. For instance, hotel staff often make phone calls to understand the problems faced by the client, one week after the stay. This type of feedback is useful after you’ve experienced something, and you are in a state to give feedback.

When you try to reach your customers for enthusiastic feedback, they will be happy to give it to you. They will feel valued and cared for. And in return, you’ll build a strong bond with the customer.  

I am a big fan of Amazon and all of their products. The way the brand engages with customers and offers irresistible services is impossible to measure and copy. I am sure you also have a brand like this. Maybe it is Apple; perhaps it’s a local mart near your home. What is the one thing that the brand is doing is making you come back for more?

It is high time that as business owners, we need to ask these questions from ourselves. There is fierce competition out there and if you want to turn your visitors into a fan, you must do something that your competitors are not even thinking of doing.

Brace yourselves influencers because from this day onwards; you won’t be able to flaunt your likes on Instagram. Unless you are Gary V or Roger Federer, who needs no likes to grab the attention of their fans, you need to work ultra-hard on getting the attention of people on Instagram.

The news that broke six months ago is now live on a global scale. Instagram is not showing likes to users.

The wave first started in Canada and then took every other country like a storm. Now even in the US, you won’t be able to see the number of likes in a post.

Previously, social proof was the universal key to generating more leads. But with no likes, there will be nothing to show to the users. This means that in 2020, it will become nearly impossible for everyone to get engagement on Instagram.

Let us first look at why Instagram is hiding Likes and what steps you can take to increase your engagement in 2020.

Why is Instagram Hiding Likes in the first place?

Speaking at the Wired25 Conference, Adam Mosseri, CEO of Instagram, broke the news. According to Mosseri, he is willing to make Instagram a safer place for people.

Initially, the experiment was just for six months, but now it is being implemented on a global scale. The reason is to expand the user base with genuine followers, not fake followers. 

Thank GOD! At least someone knows what they are doing and why they are doing it.

How will Instagram Hidden Likes work?

It is necessary to mention that likes will not disappear altogether – instead, they will be hidden from followers. When you click on the others in likes, you’ll be able to see those who liked the post but not how many people liked it.

You’ll also be able to see comments made by people.

But you will be able to see your likes with just a few taps.

That’s good news. Your followers will not be able to see your likes, but you’ll see them when you tap in the others under your likes section.

How did people respond to this change?

Upon chatting with some people, CNN concluded that the majority of the people are taking this as a positive move from Insta. As likes were the reason that youngsters were facing mental health issues, there will be no such thing as anyone.

However, according to Renee Engeln, a psychology professor at Northwestern University, the mental issues will still not get resolved as users can check their likes and feel depressed upon an underperforming post.

And Then There Were Some Angry Birds

The decision to hide likes instantly sparked a heated debate among influencers. Some are not at all happy with this change and have shared their concerns on other platforms.

While some think that it is the biggest mistake by Instagram.

But as the saying goes, GOD doesn’t make a lock without first creating a key for it. So, there are some ever-green Instagram engagement tips to start the year 2020 with a big bang.

How to Boost Your Instagram Engagement in 2020?

There are two ways to deal with this change. Either you evolve, or you get lost in oblivion. I am sure you are willing to go for the first.

To evolve, you need to follow specific tips that can outsmart your competitors.

1. Begin with Engaging Users

Yeah yeah, I know. This sounds too clichéd. But still, many brands are creating content that is not all serving their marketing needs. They are trying to shove content down their audience’s throats users instead of understanding the pain points of the audience.

Remember, you don’t have likes available anymore. The only thing that can save you now is high-quality content that directly inspires your followers.

Forget the likes; comments are now your new likes.

Produce content that can tempt people to comment. When people say, it will open a gateway to start a discussion.

Make sure that you are posting content that is relevant to, interesting, and intriguing for your followers — this will be how you will be able to engage more people.

Check the example from the ASOS brand. How the brand used an old-school photo to revive old memories, and that forced people to comment on the post.

2. Longer Instagram Captions

Who doesn’t love stories? Do you know how to create stories around your posts? If not, it is time that you start polishing your storytelling skills. Because Jenna Kutcher – an influencer, suggests that writing extended captions in the form of a story can engage more people.

Check how Jenna created a beautiful story around a post and received well-deserved comments.

3. Go for Target Ads

We all know that Instagram’s algorithm follows nearly the same approach as Facebook. If there is little or no engagement, your post won’t make it to more people. One solution that everyone suggests is to run Instagram ads. Since there are no likes, you don’t need to hire influencers to get likes, you can run ads to engage people.

In a world of no likes, small businesses can leverage sponsored ads to reach their target customers; this will entail high sales, more click-through rates, and engagement.

4. Separate Fake from Genuine Influencers

If there are no likes, it will be difficult for fake influencers to reach out to people. In this way, it will be easy for brands to pick influencers who make share-worthy content.

You can easily judge the value of the influencer by the conversation going on in the comments section of the post.

People will share their authentic views about the influencer, and it will be difficult for the fake influencers to rise in such a situation.

5. Get Serious About Hashtags

Regardless of what everyone thinks about hashtags, it is a great way to reach out to more people.

But just like a right hashtag can generate a lead, a wrong hashtag can steal a point too. That’s why it is essential which hashtags you use for your brand.

For instance, if you don’t know which of the hashtags are right for your business, you can use tools like Later.com to get suggestions for your brand. 

Wrapping it all up

Not everyone will respond in the same way. Some people will like it while others, as you might have seen, have vociferously rejected the change. But in the end, all that counts is how you will create and retain engagement for your customers.

What do you think about Instagram hiding likes – do you love it or hate it? Let us know in the comments!

Even if you are not a fan of online shopping, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are days when even a penny-pincher finds it difficult to resist the temptation to spend. Two days when you allow yourself to go berserk and purge your credit card limit in a shopping frenzy.

These are the days when people spend money on gifts for their loved ones or to treat themselves. Major B2C retailers take it as an obligation to offer huge discounts in the form of Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals to their customers to grab their attention. Price slashing in the holiday season is a must-do activity that no B2C retailer can ignore.

While some people hate these days, for the rest of the people and the retailers these days are the happiest and most profitable days of the year.

That’s why people cannot live without offering discounts, promotions, and whatever they can offer to get business on these critical days.

But before you even start thinking about marketing campaigns for Black Friday or Cyber Monday, here are some tips that will surely add a couple of hundred to your account.

Encouraging New Customers

• Social Proof Popup: Add testimonials to the shopping cart page. When new customers see that others are buying from you, it will build trust for your brand.
• Sales Popup: Display new promotions on the main page or category pages of your website.
• Display Activity: When the customer sees that people are buying from the website and sales are increasing every minute, it will force them to buy from your brand.
• Timebound Offers: Time is a valuable commodity. When you know that a specific discount is available for a certain period or when there will be a discount on a particular day, it will entice people to order on that day.
• Discount to Specific Groups: If you are targeting a vast range of customers, it is advised that you use special discounts to target micro-segments of customers.

Retaining Old Customers

• Exit Popups: When an old customer is about to leave the store without ordering anything, you can capture their attention with a heartfelt personal message. This might change their minds.
• Free Shipping Bar: When customers add a product to their cart, show them how much they need to avail of free shipping.
• Countdown: An extension of the timebound offers is a countdown. You can countdown to create a sense of urgency and stimulate your customers by displaying how much time is left on Black Friday or Cyber Monday so they can plan their budget accordingly.
• Cart Timers: If you want to eliminate cart abandonment, you can always display how much time is left before the product gets removed from the shopping cart.
• Animated Notification: Whenever a customer switches to a different tab, you can get their attention back with animated or creative notifications.

Black Friday & Cyber Monday Social Media Tips

• Combine two products: When people browse products on social media, they often seek the most discounted items. On Black Friday and Cyber Monday, you can combine more than one product and offer an exclusive discount.
• Run Ads: To maximize your exposure to social media tips, run promotions and target visitors who are not your customers yet.
• Collaborate with other brands: Every brand offers something on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. You can seek brands that provide products that can complement your brand.
• Use the Power of Landing Pages: One prominent tactic that brands use again and again is landing pages to attract targeted customers. Make custom pages and drive the traffic on those pages to boost your sales.
• Celebrate Discount Every Day: What you can do is pick one category from your website and offer a discount for a whole day. Choose another category and provide some more discounts. Continue a discount for an entire week.     
• Extend your Discount: Amazing thing about the human brain is that it loves comparing things. When you compare your Black Friday & Cyber Monday discounts with the previous year's discounts, it will be easy for the customer to choose the latter as they will instantly see which one is more beneficial.
• Launch a referral program: Do you know that a well-planned referral program can generate 3900% growth? Yes. When done right, a referral program can increase your fans and make massive sales for your business.
• Offer Flash Sale with a Contest: When people browse social media, they often look forward to instant discounts. When you offer flash sales, it gives people a motive to take part in and avail of the discount.

To Wrap it all up

Bear in mind that the holiday season is a treasure trove of opportunities to try something new with your ordinary email marketing campaigns. If not you, someone else is already trying different campaigns to succeed on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

So, grab your cup of coffee and fasten your seat belt to embark on Black Friday, and Cyber Monday, with these fantastic tips. I’m sure the tips mentioned above inspire you.

Before 2011 people had never heard of voice search, a voice assistant or even voice search optimization. When Siri was launched, people thought of it as a tool to make them laugh and manage their to-do lists.

I am a big fan of horror movies. So, whenever I get to witness anything remotely related to a supernatural phenomenon, I try to enjoy it fully. However, these chilling experiences often turn into hilarious memories. Almost a decade ago, when I went to my friend’s house, I found him talking to someone. Bear in mind that my friend has no family and he lives alone.  The following conversation took place between him and me.

Me: “Who are you talking to?
Friend: “I am talking to Siri.“
Me (with a big grin on my face): “Alas, you have a girlfriend!”
Friend (Unamused): “No, it’s someone whom you don’t know and can’t see.”
Me: “Lol! You are talking to ghosts. And here I thought you finally have a girl in your life.”
Friend (Irritated): “Moron. It’s just Siri –voice assistant on my iPhone.”

Not many people predicted that voice search would become a major trend of the future.

But just like everything else, voice search evolved.

Now, there are tons of voice-activated devices in the market, namely Alexa, Google Assistant, and Cortana.

It is said that by 2020, 50% of the searches will be via voice search.

Research conducted by Google revealed that people use voice search because of the following benefits:

• People can efficiently multi-task while searching for things with voice searches.
• It gives people convenience in their day-to-day tasks.
• Voice search helps people search faster than any other device.
• People can get instant answers and the information they seek.

People are already using voice assistants to get their routine straight, e.g., setting the alarm, setting reminders to call their mums, booking an appointment, feeding the dog, etc. This presents a massive marketing opportunity to marketers and small business owners as well.

Optimized for Semantic Search? Consider Yourself, Lucky

If you’ve heard of Google Hummingbird changes, I assume you are already aware of semantic search. If not, here goes. Google realized that they should add more to keyword searches than simple queries. They needed a new skill. This gives birth to comprehension.   

Instead of just queries, and fragments of keywords, Google started analyzing the meaning behind each question. In doing so, Google was able to predict the intent of the people searching for things online. This forced marketers to switch to voice search optimization.

Forget the long list of useless keywords you need to optimize for your search. Stop seeing search queries as words and shift your thinking to a voice search optimization mindset.

The Voice Search Optimization Mindset

In ancient times, the people of the caves used to survive by imitating others. Our great-grandparents worked hard and evolved like crazy, which is how we can survive generation by generation.

Whether you are an entrepreneur or working a tedious job, you'll die if you do not evolve. The same goes for your website. If you want to compete with the fearsome competitors out there, you must get your hands dirty with voice search optimization.

With that mindset, we must focus all our attention on voice search optimization. Instead of leaving things as they are. It is time that you start providing content that answers the needs of the customer. You know that Google will now read aloud your content so why not make it easy on the ears?

To do that, you first need to get rid of the over-optimized text that is lingering on your main page which will serve no great purpose now. In this guide, you’ll learn how to use voice search optimization to make your content relevant to what people are searching for. As the saying goes, "SEO done right is a win for everyone".

Turn Keywords into Queries 

Understand that people type and speak quite differently.

For instance, if someone is looking to buy a new TV. They will type “buy TV” while if they say the same thing, they’ll go like this, “What is the best TV?”

Were you able to spot the Semantic Search difference between the two?

Luckily there are online tools that can help you do this.

One such tool is Answer the Public. A fascinating tool takes one root keyword as input and presents a map of commonly asked questions regarding that keyword.

In Google, the “People Also Ask” feature acts in a similar manner. Just type in any question, and you’ll get what people are searching online.

Structure Your Content to Fit the Voice Search Mold

Voice search queries are more conversational and natural. People don’t type out fragmented keywords. Instead, they speak in full sentences or questions. To make your content in line with this rising trend, write as if you’re having a friendly chat. For instance, instead of “Best Italian restaurant in town,” use a phrase like, “What’s the best Italian restaurant near me?”

Consider the questions people ask out loud. They tend to be longer and more specific. So, if you’re optimizing for voice search, focus on providing direct answers. Think about what information users are likely seeking and structure your content accordingly. This approach not only helps with voice search but also improves the overall user experience on your site.

FAQs Are Your Best Friend

Adding a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) section is a great way to optimize for voice search. People often ask who, what, where, when, and why. Answer these questions clearly on your site.

For example, if your business offers digital marketing services, anticipate questions like, “What are the benefits of digital marketing?” or “How can I increase my website’s traffic?” Provide straightforward, easy-to-understand answers. The following format makes it easier for search engines like Google to pull up your content as a featured snippet when users ask similar questions.

Regularly update your FAQs based on the evolving questions from your audience. Tools like Google’s “People Also Ask” feature can identify useful common queries related to your field. 

Don't Forget About Mobile

Most voice searches happen on mobile devices. 

So, make sure your site is mobile-friendly. It should load quickly, be responsive, and be easy to navigate. Voice searchers are often on the move and need quick answers. 

Having a mobile-friendly site is key to making your users happy, especially those using voice search. People on the go want quick answers without fuss. 

Therefore, it’s always great to ensure your site looks and works great on all devices. Test it out yourself on different screens to check if it runs smoothly.

If your website loads slowly, people might leave quickly—and that means missed chances for you.

Voice Search Optimization - The Future of Search

Voice search optimization is not just a passing trend; it’s the future of how people interact with search engines. With every passing day, voice search will become even more prevalent. 

Forget about old-school keyword stuffing. If you want your website to be a success, you need to ensure user intent is well met and you provide content that answers the spoken queries. 

Shift your focus from simply matching keywords. 

Understand the needs and questions of your audience and optimize your content accordingly. 

It prepares your content for the future and polishes up your overall SEO strategy. And before you know it - you will amass many visitors coming to your website. 

Branex is a digital transformation agency that offers mobile app development, website development, custom eCommerce development, and much more.