Blogs

Digital marketing has evolved significantly over the last decade. Search engines are smarter than ever, and social media engagement has dipped. The constantly changing algorithms make it tough for digital marketers to get their message in front of the target audience.

Also Read: Tips on Avoiding Common Pitfalls in Social Media Campaigns

Digital marketers are looking for alternatives to solve this problem. Facebook Messenger is one of them. Facebook Messenger allows brands to push out content, generate leads, and deliver timely customer support. And that’s not all. You can do many things with Facebook Messenger. If you are interested in knowing how you can improve your marketing campaigns with Facebook Messenger, then you are in the right place.

In this infographic, you will learn about seven ways to enhance the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns with Facebook Messenger.

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.

You might have read a ton of tips from various social media experts and influencers. But today, the gentleman who has graced Branex Talks with his presence is undoubtedly the biggest name in influencer marketing. He's none other than Mr. Neal Schaffer. Neal needs no introduction as everyone in the digital marketing realm knows him as one of the brightest and oldest stars in the Social Media multiverse.

He has authored three books, including Maximize Your Social, The Age of Influence and Understanding, and Leveraging & Maximizing LinkedIn. He is fluent in multiple languages, including Chinese and Japanese. And he has spoken at more than 200 events all over the world as a keynote speaker.

He provides social media consultancy and training to both international and local businesses in formulating robust strategies that leverage social media to glean maximum returns.

In today’s conversation, he shares nuggets of wisdom that will help your business thrive in the ever-changing digital marketing landscape. Let’s formally begin the interview.

Branex: Hey, Neal. First of all, tell us how you started your journey, and how did you become such a big influencer?

Neal Schaffer: You know it's funny. My journey started back in 2008. I had gotten back from Japan, where I’d lived for fifteen years. I was in the job market for the first time in the United States, which sounds sort of weird being born and raised here.

And at that time, I was in a situation where I did not have a local network and I wanted to build one. And that's where I became a real heavy user of LinkedIn.

Heavy to the point that I was participating in LinkedIn groups & I created my own LinkedIn group. LinkedIn used to have a queue forum called LinkedIn Answers.

I was just very active, and when I ended up landing my job, I decided that I wanted to share all of this knowledge that I’d gained really as a networking vehicle.

I wanted to dig my well before I get thirsty as they say, and just continue my network building even though I'd found my job. So I launched a blog, and that blog I launched on LinkedIn because LinkedIn used to support third-party apps and one of them was wordpress.com.

So I think you know I wasn’t thinking about branding. I think the--what was it called—expert’s answers to your LinkedIn questions blog, something like that.

Content creation is really interesting because, at the time, there weren't a lot of people blogging like there are today. Content marketing was not a word. You didn’t have these big corporations that you were competing against, and I was talking about things that LinkedIn wasn't talking about themselves.

I think they've got a lot better at that over time, so I began with content creation. It started with a blog and that blog then became my first book Windmill Networking: Understanding, Leveraging and Maximizing LinkedIn and I haven't looked back since then.

So that's how you begin with content creation on a niche topic. I'm a little bit unique in that I started “niche” and then I went “broad”. I did not want to be a one-trick pony and just talk about LinkedIn all my life, and that's why I did that.

But that is how you start your journey in yielding digital influence through content creation, right? Also engaging and building a community, which I did, and a lot of that was actually done on LinkedIn, at the time.

Branex: What do you think are the biggest challenges being faced by B2C companies and how to overcome them?

Neal Schaffer: Well, obviously, you know anybody can create a product these days, find a factory in China-- do drop shipping. So I think that B2C companies are a global marketplace.

Even though you might have had the number one market share in the United States up until today, all it takes is someone with the number one market share in China or Korea or Japan or India or Singapore or Germany or Russia to come in and start to take over your market.

So I think at the end of the day, it really comes down to you know the biggest challenge is really understanding your customer and delivering a remarkable experience for that customer that builds brand loyalty. Furthermore, remain friends with that customer for as long as you can and let that customer teach you what other products and services you should be providing to help grow your business.

And I think that's a really huge challenge. I think it requires companies to become much more human in their marketing, and much more focused on customer experience marketing. And I do believe that part of all that can be leveraging influencers and letting them inside this word-of-mouth marketing about your company that's really going to help build up.

Branex: What do you suggest when it comes to content marketing strategy for B2B companies?

Neal Schaffer: Well, you need to be producing content because you need to both educate your current customers on how to best use your products as well as educate prospects throughout the buyer's journey. Through every step of the cycle that helps them decide on the best purchasing decision, and that obviously should be your product or service, so I think that you know I forgot who it is who said it.

The companies who’re really good about creating content about their product, suck about creating content, about solutions or about lifestyle and the lifestyle’s more for the B2C. The solutions and how they're going to make my job easier, how they're going to help my company.

That's really the B2B side of things and that's really the focus, an audience-centric focus, on helping--this is the type of content that I believe B2B companies need to create more of. And like I said, influencer marketing for B2B companies as well, they need to reach out to others in their industry, tap into other experts and other influencers, and make them part of your content marketing, and I think you'll see a lot more success with it for a variety of reasons.

Branex: Can you give us some tips on how to manage sales and marketing goals simultaneously?

Neal Schaffer: Well, the best way to do that is really to break down the walls. You know sales and marketing, I'm not saying that you should have a VP of sales and marketing. Marketing and sales have different objectives. But I do believe that part of those objectives are mutual.

Whether it comes to content marketing, influencer marketing, or social media marketing, sales can be a tremendous help to marketing in how marketing can deliver on their objectives without understanding what the objectives of sales are.

Because at the end of the day, when the company grows, your marketing has been successful. If your company is not growing because you do not understand what sales are trying to do, or you’re going in a different direction,n there are problems.

So sales & marketing should be aligned. One of the easiest ways to align that, I believe especially from a marketing perspective, is through the creation of an “employee as an influencer,” which a lot of people call employee advocacy.

However, the employee-as-an-influencer program is focused on the sales department. If your company has a social selling initiative, try to become an active participant in that, and help sales launch that if your sales team is so savvy on social media. You'd be surprised there are still a lot of sales teams that are in that boat.

Branex: Influencer marketing is getting more popular day by day. How can a digital marketing professional turn into an influencer?

Neal Schaffer: You know influence is all about content creation. Now I know that there are some influencer accounts, like on Instagram, that are just memes or quotes and they just use other people's content. I don't believe that's becoming an influencer. I think that's just creating a new media entity, right? Like a new magazine or a new newspaper.

If you want to turn into an influencer, you need to put your thoughts on paper, your face in front of the camera, or you know the video. You need to first understand what it is that you're trying to do. Why do you want to become more influential? Do you want to try to get a better job? Do you want to launch your own business? Awesome.

Those are all great goals you can have. But you really need to start with that goa,l and then what do you envision yourself doing ten years from now? And how can becoming an influencer help you do that?

So, hey ten years from now, I want to generate all my income just from being an influencer. Awesome.

What does that look like?

Are you a YouTuber?

Are you a LinkedIn influencer?

Are you a blogger?

And I think that when you think about it in those terms, you begin to realize what you need to do and obviously if you're not passionate about something, it's not going to continue for ten years, right?

So, it has to be something that you're passionate about. So this gives you some ways of thinking of how you can become an influencer. But I do believe it starts with understanding, you know what it is you're trying to do, why you are trying to do it, and envision yourself in the future.

And then trying to figure out, you know how you're going to get there. Inevitably it's gonna come to content creation. But what's going to be your niche, what's going to be your content medium, what social networks are you going to try to establish your communities on, and then it's a matter of implementing & really building from there.

Branex: What are the key factors to consider when we define the strategy of influencer marketing? Which tools would you like to suggest for influencer marketing campaigns?

Neal Schaffer: Well, influencer marketing is no different than content marketing or social media marketing. It's just another type of marketing. I believe it should be another line item in your budget. So, you have content, you have you know Google ads, have social media ads, you have influencer marketing.

So whatever you do with influencer marketing, the strategy should feed into whatever marketing strategy you have. It’s a holistic approach that I've always talked about. It maximizes your social what have you.

You need to figure out what are the specific areas of your marketing strategy, where influencers can push the ball forward more effectively than with other marketing channels.

Which tools do I suggest?

I have a blog post that I hope you can link to, on like 64 influencer marketing tools. There are a lot of different tools out there & it really depends on a lot of different things, if you're B2B/B2C, if you want to build your own program, if you want to hire an agency, or if you want to go through a marketplace.

So there's no single answer for that as you can imagine. But I do believe, by reading that blog post, you're going to get a really good idea as to what technology exists out there that can help you.

Branex: Workstation setting plays a role in enhancing productivity. Describe your workstation where all the magic happens.

Neal Schaffer: Ooh! Yeah, I think I'm going to have to avoid showing the picture. My workplace is not as efficient as it could be, but I will say just to give you a snapshot of a few things I have.

I do have this little IKEA. So I have a MacBook Pro, right? But I do have this little IKEA computer stand, which helps to raise it to a thirty-degree angle. I do that for two reasons. I find that it helps me be a little bit more productive when I type. It also raises my computer up a little when I shoot videos or webinars or live streams.

I also have a-- I don't know how many dots by dots this is, maybe a 24x24, square LED light that is right behind my computer. So that when I do the live streams or shoot videos or have Zoom calls, I turn on that light and it really helps light up my face. You know, lighting is one of these critical components.

I use fixed internet in my office, so I have two prongs leading into my office, or connected to my USB-C ports. One is my electricity & the other one is my wired LAN, and I use the Wi-Fi as well, so. It is on a regular desk, a desk that I bought--I think I got an Office Depot, and I sort of constructed it myself.

I have a lot of Post-it notes when I’m on phone calls. And I tend to make notes on Post-it because you know email is my normal workplace, and if it's not on my email, I need a way of organizing that. I also have a whiteboard where I write down important projects that I'm working on or that I'm waiting on. So hopefully, that gives you a little snapshot of how I work.

Branex:  Let's have a quick rapid fire. Answer the first thing that comes to your mind after reading.

• Facebook or Twitter?

Neal Schaffer: Twitter

• Organic or paid?

Neal Schaffer: Organic.

• SEO or SMM?

Neal Schaffer: SMM

• Tea or coffee?

Neal Schaffer: Coffee.

• Book or Blog?

Neal Schaffer: Book.

Branex: You have an impressive 220.9K+ following on Twitter. How did you achieve this feat? What tips can you give small-business owners who want to grow their followers on Twitter?

Neal Schaffer: Dude, I've been on Twitter since 2008. So, it's been like you know it'll be 12 years this fall. It takes a while, right, but you need to be active. And what I mean by active is both tweeting and responding when people reach out to you, but also proactively engaging with others. And part of proactively engaging with others is obviously following others.

So, if you want to grow your followers on Twitter, you need to be posting every day. Hopefully, a few times a day. You should be talking to a few people there on Twitter, whether they are your followers, whether you do keyword searches, follow other people, and comment on what they posted. If you continue to do that over some time, your following is going to grow.

I would say the exact same thing for Instagram, actually. But you know that that's the advice for Twitter. I don't know if you're going to get to 220,000, not every marketing expert is at that level.

That means some are much higher and some are lower. So, it depends on a lot of factors and how strategic you want to be on Twitter, but hopefully, that'll give you some ideas.

Branex: Facebook algorithmic changes are actually limiting organic reach. What do you suggest for increasing organic reach on Facebook?

Neal Schaffer: You need to be doing AB testing. You should be posting content on a variety of networks, and if there's a network where you get more organic reach, more website traffic, and more engagement, you have to invest more in that network.

I have clients who bang their heads on the table about Facebook's organic reach. And I'm like, look, LinkedIn gives you ten times reach right now on the LinkedIn company page. Why are you focusing on Facebook? I will say, if you want to beat the algorithm changes, obviously, photos and videos are the way to do it.

The days of just posting links-- and I still fall into this trap, I will admit it. But, the more photos and videos you can post, the more website traffic it's going to be, and the less website traffic. Still, it means you're going to be touching more people on Facebook because you're going to get more engagement and, therefore, more visibility in the feed. It's a little bit different. But if we go from the marketing approach to the PR approach of using Facebook, if we don't want to pay for paid ads, that really works for most of the clients that I work with.

Branex: LinkedIn’s number one network of professionals. What tips would you like to give to increase engagement on LinkedIn?

Neal Schaffer: Same thing. Post on your feed. Engage on your feed. Try to follow a few new people, try to engage with new people as well as with your connections in your network feed.

And if you do this right, five people a day, ten people a day, 20 people a day, post once a day, post twice a day. If you're able to maintain that for a good period of time, I think you're going to do really well.

LinkedIn groups are back. You know there's so much activity in the feed. I know that LinkedIn groups used to be powerful. They're not as powerful. You could try to experiment, but I think just being active in your feed is going to help you get a lot more engagement on LinkedIn as well as posting photos and videos. LinkedIn really is not much different than Facebook these days when we look at a lot of the content that’s being posted and a lot of the content that is going viral there.

Branex: Which personalities in the industry have been your inspiration? Would you like to name a few?

Neal Schaffer: Early on, Jeremiah Owyang was definitely one of the inspirations. He was an analyst at Forrester. He's since gone on to do different things, but he's still one of the true, you know, I believe thought leaders in the space.

Obviously, Seth Godin, who I had the chance to see speak, is an amazing inspiration. Brian Solis has been an amazing inspiration to me throughout my career. Jay Baer as well. Dave Kerpen. Chris Brogan. Mark Schaefer, who is not my cousin, although we call ourselves virtual cousins. There have been a lot of people. So hopefully, those give you some ideas.

Branex: How do you see the future of digital marketing? What trends do you expect for 2020?

Neal Schaffer: Well, you know that we are not in a revolution anymore. It's an evolution, right, and I believe that the need for content, the need for SEO, the need for marketing automation, the need for paid advertising, and the need for influencers are the areas where I think companies should be focusing on in 2020.

I think we're going to see a lot more brands get a lot more photogenic as they should. So you know we're thinking mobile-first. I think at some point, brands really need to be thinking video-first. And those brands that do think video-first are going to be way ahead of the pack going forward.

So we know that the future of video is coming, this is the year. I'm not going to comment on that. But I will say you know in terms of engagement in terms of how we see people engaging with social media.

How can you keep people retained for a long time?

How can you entertain people?

How can you build engagement?

Video is the key, right? So I hope that companies really take a more aggressive approach to video in 2020.

Branex is a top digital agency. What is the one piece of advice that you would like to give Branex?

Neal Schaffer: I believe web and app, user interface trends change really rapidly, right? And I think a lot of companies are still stuck in the past. I think you should be or every company should really be rebranding their UI or really making sure that the user interface is kept up to date with you know the social media that we see, right?

You know we see sites like Instagram updating the user interface. We have new sites like TikTok that more and more people go to and are very used to that user interface—that look and feel. If your website is still stuck in the past, you know people are going to go from social media to your website; they're going to be going wild.

Was this website made 20 years ago? So, I do believe that that is really key and that is something that if I was Branex, I would be bringing it up more because you are a web app development digital agency.

I would also be trying to understand your customer's needs more. They don't have a need for a website, they have a need for generating more business from their e-commerce store, or maybe they have a need for generating more leads from their content.

Try to find out those critical business needs that your clients have. And then position yourself as the custom web development company that can provide them the solutions, whether it be web development, whether it be app development, or whether it be their partner in a digital agency.

So there are a lot of different ways you can support your clients. Instead of thinking of yourself as a web development/app development agency, you are there to provide digital solutions to help your companies make more money using digital media. And you have all these different solutions for them.

And it's being able to have conversations not with marketing people but with the VPs of marketing. Not with the VPs of marketing, but with CEOs, trying to find the different ways in which you can help them and to be on top of the trends.

To be saying, “Hey! We need to have a quarterly meeting because the trends change so fast. We want to provide you with the latest updates on where we think we can best help you. And obviously, we have the products and services to help you.

So you want to become part of that trusted network of advisers for every one of your clients. So that when they reach out to you or when they see “Wow! TikTok is really big.” Do we need to be on TikTok?” You're like the first company they reach out to ask that question, right trusted network of advisors.

And I think that everybody should listen to this. Obviously, digital is just one piece of the pie. It's really about business, it’s about sales, it's about profits, it’s about speaking the language of Excel.

How does that fit into the big picture? And if you're able to articulate that to customers or to your bosses or to your clients, those are the people who I think do really well in digital and business in general, so I hope this advice helps.

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.

Today on Branex Talks, we have with us yet another exciting personality who has done so much in and for the community. Today’s guest is the founder of HARO, hosts a podcast called Faster Than Normal, advisor at NASA, and has authored five books. A TEDx speaker who has keynote digital events for corporations ranging from startups to Fortune 100s in over 25 countries around the world. Let’s welcome Mr. Peter Shankman.

Branex: Thanks for taking out time for Branex. Can you share some valuable tips for community building in the digital age?

Peter: Understand your audience. It's key. Your audience will do almost anything you ask them if you respect them. That comes from listening to what they want, giving them what they want the way they want it, being brief, and talking to them more when you don't have something to sell than when you do. It's not hard! Just make sure you're doing it right!

Branex: You’re an accomplished person, what advice do you have for people who are feeling stuck or unsure how to move forward in their career?

Peter: The best piece of advice I ever got: If you don't like where you are, move. You're not a tree. Life is too short to sit and be stuck. Want to move? Move. The goal is to move. Forward motion is thrilling. When you don't have that, it's time to go.

Branex: We’ve read in a blog post that you don’t trust your gut, and that has led you to some mistakes. Can you share an example and what you learned from it?

Peter: I ALWAYS trust my gut. It's when I don't that I've screwed up. We're given instincts for a reason. When we ignore them, bad stuff happens. I once took a chance on a hire, even though my gut shouted to me that it was a bad idea. Lasted two months before I had to let him go. Cost me way too much. Make sure you take off your rose-colored glasses before you look for red flags.

Branex: What is the role of content marketing in generating leads?

Peter: I give away 99% of my content for free because it's the right thing to do, and it shows people I'm not just out to sell to them. Goes back to respecting your audience. Create value and your audience will come back every single time.

Branex: What were the underlying challenges that you faced while creating HARO?

Peter: I'm a terrible manager. I have a hard time hiring and managing people. So I found other people who were good at what I sucked at. Additionally, when you have a startup, you're always working on it, no matter what else you're doing. It can affect your personal life. Find someone who understands you, as well as someone who can be there for you when you have a bad day.

Branex: In your book, "Nice Companies Finish First", you talked about transparency. How can brands leverage transparency to improve their customer experience?

Peter: You're going to screw up. It's what we do. When you do, OWN IT. Own your mistakes, fix the problem, and prove it'll never happen again. Get that done, and you'll keep the customers you pissed off, and chances are, they'll bring you new ones, too.

Branex: Which one is more important, digital PR or influencer marketing?

Peter: Depends on the audience. I can't tell you about your audience. Only you can.

Branex: What advice would you like to give to our readers for generating more leads?

Peter: Be amazing to the customers you have. They'll bring you the customers you want.

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.

I have sensitive skin and it goes haywire if I apply something it doesn’t approve of. In the endeavor of keeping healthy skin in this dry winter, I recently purchased a moisturizing cream that was referred to me by a friend of a friend. The cream is excellent, and I am happy with it. I purchased it because I trusted my friend and his friend had given positive reviews of the product.

Do you know that 92% of online consumers read online reviews before buying a product from a brand?

If you have a new eCommerce store, a few positive reviews can impact the buying decisions of the customers.  To boost your sales, you must focus on gaining the trust of the customers.

There are a ton of ways in which you can encourage the customer to leave a positive review. But if you are planning to grow your business fast, it is better that you create such a fantastic experience that customers rush back to your website to leave a positive review.

Here are five ideas that will help your brand to impact your consumer marketing initiatives.

Online Reviews Widgets

On a good day, if you Google, ‘Online Review Widgets', you’ll see around 206 million search results. Most of these widgets are WordPress-based and designed to work with WordPress websites.

These WordPress widgets are simple, easily installed, and offer a superior user experience, and allow you to integrate the reviews from Facebook, Google into your website. 

When you give customers an option to leave their feedback in one place, you’ll create a sense of transparency on the website. When actual customers leave a review, it will be a chance to showcase these reviews to visitors.

Whether the customer will leave a review on Yelp, Google, or Rize, it will help you to get a positive response from people.

Collaborate with Local Bloggers

The easiest way to generate traffic on your website is to get positive reviews from local bloggers. Send these bloggers a free sample and ask them to leave a review on the site.

Of course, every review is critical, but a single review from an influencer can leave a significant impact on your potential customers.

To begin your search for a local blogger, you can use tools like Right Relevance or GroupHigh and pinpoint influencers who may be interested in your products and services.

For some influencers, you need to start a conversation before they take any interest in your product. Once a relationship is built, it will be easy to ask them for a product review.

Just like everything else, this, too has a downside. The review will be posted on your website or even your social media page. So, if there is even a single unsatisfied review, it will take ages to recover from negative traction gathered through the review.

The key here is to keep improving your product/service so that even if you get a negative review, other reviews might cover that up.

Lastly, keep a check on your primary customer audience. For instance, if the audience is 45, do not send a 23-year-old blogger to represent your product.

Social Media Advertising

Social media is a powerful platform to get genuine reviews from customers.

Platforms like Twitter and Facebook have a massive amount of data on customer buying psychology. The customers are already there in groups, on pages where they are looking for products that overcome their needs.

When you take advantage of Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, it will be easy for your products to reach the potential market of your customers. You can install social tracking pixels on your website so that you get a better idea of your target audience.

Check-in & Win

Apps like Wikets, Foursquare, and iPoints award points to customers, which can then be converted into points and get discounts.

You can add a check-in option in your custom mobile app/website where the consumer can get rewards, points, and even custom discounts when they check in at your store.

You can also add an option to leave a review and get coupons that you can then avail in the next order.

Ask!

In the end, it is okay to keep life simple and ask the customers for reviews.

Just like Google Maps, which sends push notifications when people visit a certain place. You can always ask new customers to leave a review on your website. Make the feedback mechanism intuitive to make the feedback process easy. When it comes to repeat customers, they’re usually more than happy to share feedback without feeling uncomfortable.

Don’t forget to support your family and friends who run a business. It might sound a bit cheesy when your grandpa leaves a review and shares how proud he is of you. But this might start a good stream of reviews from your family and your closest supporters.

Final Word

Don’t force customers to leave a review for your brand. Make the website experience so enriching that they come back to leave a promising review for your brand. Don’t tell the customer how you are different, show them with your service and with your product.

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!