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Believe it or not, influencer marketing is strongly effective, especially when it comes to growing your brand and increasing brand awareness. This strategy has a real potential to drive new leads for your sales funnel. You should make the most of influencer marketing to promote your brand, products, or services, attract potential customers, get your content in front of a new audience, and effectively communicate with your existing customers. In this digital world where social media is greatly influencing the way brands create content and engage with their audience, where visualization and every second count, your brand’s first impression, and credibility are a huge deal. For brands, it has never been more critical to get creative to stand out from their competitors. This is where Instagram influencer marketing comes into play. Regardless of the size, type, and industry of your brand, Instagram is a powerful and effective social media network for businesses.

Why Should You Create an Effective Instagram Influencer Marketing Campaign?

Implementing influencer marketing into your overall marketing strategy can help improve brand awareness, grow a loyal, massive fan base, and drive high ROI and a whopping number of sales. Some studies suggest that working with influencers can be more effective than using run-of-the-mill advertising methods. If you are one of those brands that haven’t started using the power of Instagram influencer marketing yet. Now is the right time to tweak your Instagram efforts.

Benefits of a Successful Marketing Campaign

Here are some benefits of running a successful marketing campaign.

1. Grow a Loyal Fanbase

Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms that is widely used over the globe. With influencer marketing, you will be able to engage your existing followers with new, fresh, and creative content. In fact, a successful Instagram influencer marketing campaign will not only expand your brand reach but also motivate people to create their own content about your brand.

2. Boost Engagement Rate

Instagram is the most engaging social media network. According to Forrester, brands on Instagram have a 4.21% engagement rate which is 10X higher than Facebook and 84X higher than Twitter.

3. Higher ROI

From established corporations to midlevel businesses to startups, every business can drive enormous returns on investment from an effective influencer marketing campaign.

4. Builds Trust and Brand Credibility

Influencers have already built trust and credibility with their fans. Their opinions and recommendations matter the most to their followers. By sharing influencers’ content, your brand can easily gain the attention of their audience who are already interested in their niche.

5. Look for the Right Influencers to Reach the Desired Audience

To run a successful Instagram influencer marketing campaign and fuel your business growth, finding the right influencer plays a key role. To maximize your chances of success, grow a massive fan base, create engagement, and earn the trust of your audience. You should work with influencers who create content relevant to your business to gain the attention of your target audience. Stay away from the temptation to go for a massive number of followers. Huda Kattan, Chiara Ferragni, and Cameron Dallas may boast millions of followers, but are they your target audience? Remember, it’s not about reaching a large audience, it’s all about reaching the right people. If you are wondering how influencers are promoting their brands and products and how your brand can take advantage of influencer marketing. Here are some inspiring examples of Instagram influencer marketing that will give you an idea of how brands are leveraging the power of this burgeoning method.

6. Sperry

In 2016, boat shoes and sea-inspired clothing brands started working with micro-influencers on Instagram to create engaging content for their audience. Sperry simply rooted out loyal fans who were regularly sharing high-quality photos of their products. They started inviting their loyal users to create more visual content for their official Instagram account.

7. Fiji Water

A mineral water brand came up with an interesting influencer marketing campaign #Bodyworewhat that offers workout videos with Danielle Bernstein and personal trainer Eric Johnson. The brand wants to hydrate people who want to look and feel as great as Bernstein.

8. Disney

A famous brand that needs no introduction always finds innovative ways of pushing out its latest offerings. Disney leveraged the power of influencer marketing to promote its masterpiece Beauty and the Beast, in collaboration with Luke Evans.

9. REI

REI, a brand that offers outfits, footwear, and state-of-the-art gear for outdoor activities, specifically focuses on Instagram influencers and user-generated content to promote their brand. Also, REI features the content of its loyal fans on its official Instagram account without mentioning its brand or promoting its products.

10. Naked Juice

Naked Juice is an American brand that produces juices and smoothies. They tapped into the power of lifestyle influencer Kate LE Vie who strategically incorporated the bottle of naked juice in her stream of posts boasting her daily outfits and beauty essentials. 

Over to You

Leveraging the persuasive power of influencers and incorporating this strategy into your Instagram marketing can work wonders. It not only helps your brand connect with your target audience but also draws the influencers’ following to your account, which in turn will eventually help you reach the additional segments of your target market. You don’t need to create sales or promotional posts. A little touch of creativity and uniqueness could yield awesome results. Discover influencers within your target market, reach out to them, give them creative control, and get ready to generate high-quality leads.

In a nutshell, a digital agency acts as a bridge connecting a brand with its potential customers. If you Google "What is a Digital Marketing Agency?”, you’ll get 5M+ search results, which clearly indicates a fundamental need for awareness about what a digital agency actually is. People are out there searching for it. These people can be students probing it for research purposes, or they can be young Entrepreneurs willing to delve head-on into launching a digital agency with Branex. But, as they say, a fool and his money are soon parted. As an Entrepreneur, you need to get to grips with digital marketing, and what exactly a digital agency is in order to start a lucrative & functional digital agency for your potential audience. Digital marketing has risen back from the ashes of indubitably. Most companies have no separate budget for digital marketing, despite the size of the organization. But, what separates a run-of-the-mill digital agency from a spectacular, head-turning one? Actually, it is a mix of passion and culture that the digital agency is operating on. If you want to know the recipe for a successful digital agency, here it goes: Blend in your passion for digital marketing with fleet-footed company culture, and the result will be a grand-slam winner digital agency. I’ve run a successful digital agency and later sold it because I wanted to focus more on my writing. So, if you’re in the same boat as I was 5 years ago, I can offer a few nuggets of hard-earned wisdom. When I graduated from college, I cultivated an interest in digital marketing. I knew what a digital agency was, but how the wheels turned behind the scenes was something I still needed to figure out. When I started my little agency, even I believed that a digital agency was synonymous with helping brands rank higher in Google search results. Of course, this is only one façade of what a digital agency does. But, after working in the field, I came to realize the reality behind the commonly-held notion. It dawned on me soon enough what a digital agency actually was & how I could make one for myself. In the beginning, when I first started the agency, it was all about letting the bucks flow in and growing my client's list of the services I was offering. But, luckily I attended the Gartner Digital Marketing Conference 2015, where Gartner’s Keynote about Accelerating Your Digital Journey dramatically altered the way I was planning and doing things. The speaker Christy Pettey stressed the importance of social sharing & content. Before this, my perception of what is a digital agency was totally flawed. I was blindly going with the flow, without actually knowing where my destination lay. Now, that we know what is a digital agency in theory, we can safely venture to say that it is not just about acquiring customers and compelling them to use your services. It is about offering digital services that offer life-changing experiences. If your agency is not helping brands reach their full potential, what was the point of starting it in the first place?

A Must-have Digital Marketing Agencies

Let’s start with some basic services. As an Entrepreneur and a digital strategist, I know what it feels like to start a company with just a simple website and expect to get automatic traffic on the website. Surprisingly, a digital marketing agency has an uncanny ability to take things and ideas from scratch and breathe life into them. It all starts with custom web development, mobile app development, and digital marketing services. These are just the basics which every digital marketing agency needs to start with. With time, a deeper understanding of branding has cropped up among consumers, which points towards a high-end demand for branding services for businesses. A little bird told me that there is a rise in e-commerce development & consumers are laser-focused on fashioning user-friendly experiences, targeted communication, and traffic conversion. To glean a better comprehension of what is a digital agency, you need to dig deep into the medium and the process of growing your brand via digital channels. If you take the example of any successful digital agency, you’ll know that it is all about establishing an influential link with the end user. It is all about creating a stellar customer experience for your visitors. If you still harbor confusion about what exactly is a digital agency, you need to work with a digital marketing agency before starting your own.

Benefits of Working in a Digital Marketing Agency

The best digital marketing agencies focus more on cost-effective solutions which are targeted toward your relevant audience. In a digital marketing agency, the client holds the accountability scale which helps agencies measure their progress and work on looming deadlines. You’ll be able to experience direct marketing first-hand and every idea that you put forward will go through a proper channel, where it will be diligently molded and tailored according to the market needs. Furthermore, digital marketing is all about multi-disciplinary solutions to a single problem. So, you’ll learn to unleash your creative mind and come up with various solutions to problems faced by customers in real-time.

What is a Digital Agency? The Conclusion

When you’ve worked in a digital marketing agency, you’ll come to get the above-mentioned experiences.  In the end, it is all about following in the footsteps of someone who has reached the right destination. In the start, it will be difficult for you to get the desired sales and increase traffic on your website, but with the right blend of tools, you’ll be able to carve a niche in the market. There is no right or wrong agency, there are just successful and highly confused ones. The choice is always yours. Either to pick a niche and give in to it fully or to follow along in the wake of someone and wait for a miracle (which never usually happens in this case). My first digital marketing agency might not be the thriving success that they commemorate in the books, but trust me, I’ve learned a lot from it. I’ve got the gist of what a digital agency is in essence. And what it takes to earn respect in the market. Whatever you create, ensure that it fulfills the prime purpose – which is, serving the right customers. Keep the birds-eye view in place and work really hard at everything you do.

As big data continues to evolve, it will be crucial for marketers to stay ahead of the curve and leverage digital marketing trends to drive success in the ever-changing digital landscape. The world has dramatically altered around us, perhaps too soon for our liking. A few decades ago, the very concept of smartphones was something that came straight out of a sci-fi movie. In fact, even in the recent past, people generally weren’t even aware of how to leverage the Internet for their benefit. The idea of having a digital marketing agency was a lingering thought at the back of their minds. It was unachievable, and the world needed another Einstein to crack the myth for them. Today, we have smart machines that are capable of communicating and making decisions for us. We have a number of social media accounts to keep us updated at all times. We have analytics to study data trends and we have large data centers with most of our information stored in the cloud. According to the International Data Corporation's (IDC) predictions, big data analytics is a burgeoning industry in the technology-powered world where we reside. The market value of the big data analytics industry is predicted to go through the roof hitting the ginormous $200-billion mark by the end of the year 2020. Isn’t it strange how fast we have outgrown ourselves? Forbes claims that more than 53% of major industries around the world are focusing their investments on Big Data. These companies are not going in directly, they are leveraging the power of digital marketing. Wondering how big data is shaping the future of digital marketing? Here, check it out.

Marketing Will Mostly Be Data Driven

How does digital marketing benefit from Big Data? Big data allows organizations to collect information from vast pools of resources. It enables them to analyze and study collected information using a range of analysis tools. Most companies leverage it by studying consumer behavior and identifying where to tap into their customer's lives. The idea is to send out the right message at the right time to the right people. Back in the days of yore, organizations would splurge a fortune in traditional advertising. Highly interactive ads with catchy slogans and rhyming jingles were the lifeblood of radio and television channels. While this was lucrative to some extent, it failed to leave a mark on a larger scale. Once a brand breathed its last, it would instantly be replaced by another. With the advent of social media advertising, the definition of marketing has taken a turn for the better. Marketing is now more data-driven than approach-driven. Organizations capitalize on customer data by studying behavioral patterns. They identify which campaign ads were most successful and fine-tune them accordingly. All thanks to Big Data!

Higher Percentage of Social Conversions

Social conversions are important to organizations. Without an appropriate ratio of social conversions, organizations may be hindered in grasping the needs of their customers. Social media is one of many platforms which can be leveraged. But with the introduction to “The Internet of Things (IoT)”, marketers are compelled to tap into new-fangled expansions on strategizing business modules. According to research conducted by Gartner, more than 5.5 million different devices are interconnected using the “Internet of Things”. According to Cisco, more than 50 billion objects will be connected, and to the Internet, by the year 2020. Today, from refrigeration units to thermostats, and television sets to traveling vehicles, everything boasts a separate database of their own. They are connected via the cloud environment. All search queries are stored in databases to create a vast repository of information. Imagine if your fridge could send you an alert if you are running low on milk and even auto-order from your favorite stores, and you WhatsApp your home oven to preheat itself. So that it is ready to go by the time you reach home with that scrumptious frozen pizza that you cannot wait to devour. If a passcode from your phone could gain you access to your vacation rentals, or if the machines at your home can order their own replacement parts! Today, IoT is ready to be optimized for use with social media, allowing user shares and automated posts to be generated regularly by a stream of connected devices as well. This is bound to pave the way for a host of burgeoning social monitoring tools with a propensity to capitalize on the prowess of billions of interconnected smart objects. Gleaning access to personal information about each customer will enable business leaders and marketers to foster meaningful relationships with their clients. IoT devices will be able to analyze, share, and collect favorite sounds, colors, tastes, habits, and other elements to gain a better comprehension of who each person is and how to personalize their message for them. By analyzing big data for IoT-related services, marketers will better understand where the market influx is on the rise. New campaigns are projected to emerge, which will surely produce more profitable impacts for companies so they can grow significantly.

Marketers Will Have Access to Personalized Ads

Traditional and run-of-the-mill modes of advertising are not as rewarding as they used to be a couple of years earlier. A few days back, I visited a symposium where a dynamic personality was debriefing the crowd on the benefits of traditional branding. After being exposed to a stream of visually stunning graphics and a range of other tactics. I conjectured that his result was to convince the crowd that selling ads on the Radio is what takes businesses to that next level. After the session was completed, each small business owner was provided with a brand strategist, selling them on why brand marketing through radio is essential for their business. But, my partner and I realized that running ads on the radio is more of an “interruptive” business strategy than a convincing one. It may significantly result in tarnishing the brand’s image irrevocably. Big data has opened doors to understanding which areas can be tapped by marketers using different data processing tools. One tool that stands above the competition is Yarn. It allows marketers to understand customer behaviors by studying different demographics. Marketers will become capable of analyzing and predicting the wants of their customers by scrutinizing previous purchase patterns. By following these patterns, marketing campaigns would become more personalized. Nothing makes a customer more content than that when they are made to feel special.

Real-Time Analytics Will Allow For Making Quick Changes

A major benefit of incorporating Big Data strategies in digital marketing is that it allows marketers to study data in real-time. With tools such as Hadoop reporting and many others, analytics to study data in real-time has now become possible across Big Data environments. Analysts will equip themselves with quick decision-making by studying data and identifying when a campaign is failing to perform. It will not only save the organization a fortune but also greatly assist in deploying marketing strategies that perform better. According to an estimate, more than 44% of firms dealing with the consumer market, ensure that Big Data greatly benefits their firm while addressing the aspect of responsiveness. Big Data can enable marketers to fine-tune their marketing strategies and create more data-driven campaigns.

Summing it All Up

The evolution of big data has unleashed new horizons for most companies belonging to the technology industry. Organizations are now coming up with newer policies to include big data as a core aspect of their marketing strategies. Companies failing to make use of big data are considerably lagging behind in progress and are facing a vast array of issues. Most of these issues center on customer retention, building brand loyalty, and circumventing unsolicited expenditures. If your marketing teams are failing to adapt and leverage the power of big data in their business processes, they are embarking on a downhill journey. While it may be difficult to identify the chasm at the moment, in the days to come, the market is going to become pretty competitive. If marketing teams aren’t going to adjust to more robust tools and technologies, they will significantly incur massive losses. At Branex, we believe in giving our clients stellar exponential solutions. Do you think you have an idea that can help you create a website or an application with Big Data features? Talk to Us. We can help you build one.

Located in the midst of their old brewery in Amsterdam, Heineken has set up perhaps one of the most famous beer museums in the world. The Heineken experience now become the 17^th most sought-after tourist magnet in Amsterdam, boasting over 400,000 paying guests annually. Unlike conventional marketing or advertising, Heineken lives up to its slogan which is in itself a remarkable strategy to introduce new visitors to their brand.

“Meet the Beer, Share the Magic”

The burgeoning burst of competition, the myriad emerging avenues of communication, the gradual overloading of advertising space, and the ever-increasing demands of customers. How can a business look beyond the horizon to offer what other brands haven’t even conceived of yet?

You can make the mark only if you unravel the mystery behind this “How” that has eluded brands for centuries!

This post is written as an inspiration! An inspiration I took from how Nike enabled users to experience their latest shoes on the product line. I believe the answer to this “How” lies in its amazing example.

Here’s what Nike did…

Nike-enabled test-run sneakers are set within an awe-inspiring video game environment for all its walk-in customers.

The company recently launched one of its hottest brands, the Nike Epic React. For its promotion, Nike created an amazing 16-bit fantasy video game environment that it calls the React Land, which I find reminiscent of Nintendo's Super Mario Bros.

Shoppers can just walk up to the mini React Land center where employees at Nike take a picture of them and transform them into a 16-bit video game character. After that, shoppers tie on the sneakers of their choosing and jog on a treadmill while their video-game avatars sprint through a springy, fluffy fantasy world, bound through deserts and forests, leap dexterously over city tops, and race past the Giant sphinx of Gaza or dancing giant pandas in China. Described as durable, light, soft, and bouncy, pillows, springs, clouds and other fun elements in the game are a metaphorical nod towards the benefits of the react technology.

The game is interactive with vibrant colors and interesting obstacles. Individuals are handed a trigger button which allows them to make jumps to avoid obstacles which makes the experience a whole lot better and further reinforces the bounciness of the shoe.

Sneak a peek at what it feels like to be a part of the React Land.

[embed]https://youtu.be/JJliIaKTtEo[/embed]

But, are brands like Nike and Heineken the only ones investing their time and effort in promoting the concept? Let’s find out who else is making a major impact using the concept of experiential marketing.

Also Read: Devise a Marketing Plan in 6 Easy Steps to Succeed

The Adidas D'Rose Jump Store

Many inspirations are derived from some of the most progressive athletes and if they become the brand ambassador for one of your products, what more could you ask for? Pop-up stores take a positive swerve, but one store that swept the crowd off its feet is located in London. The launch of the D’Rose Jump Store ignited the hearts of over a million fans.

So what did Adidas do which other brands couldn’t think of? Adidas talked the Chicago Bulls point guard Derrick Rose into launching a pop-up store where fans were given a chance to get their hands on a pair of shoes poised 10 feet off the ground. Now, all that the fans needed to do was to make that jump. Fans poured in from all around the country to get their shot at this amazing chance to win an original D’Ross pair.

The Magic Mirror at Macy’s London

Every shopaholic is well aware of Macy’s! Let’s face it, everyone’s been there. In the heart of London city, the amazing Macy’s store is opening new doors for experiential marketing by capitalizing on their ultimate Magic Mirror technology. Haven’t heard of it yet? Don’t fret! Let me help you catch up.

At Macy’s, you don’t just buy clothes off the rack, you actually experience yourself in them in a 21st-century version of dress up, and that too without visiting a changing room, grappling with piles of clothes slung over your arms. You can digitally try anything from their New York collections by simply swiping and making a selection. Check yourself out in the magic mirror from every angle. Finding that shirt too overflowing on your bodice, tap to tone it down a size or two!

Here’s a video illustration of how sharp the supported technology behind the Magic Mirror is.

Also Read: Top 5 Successful Marketing Campaigns for Your Inspiration

Air France In-Flight Entertainment

What makes a flight service stand out above the competition? It’s the number of in-flight services they offer to their customers. And above anything else, what customers want most is entertainment. There is no doubt that long flights can become quite tedious, but with the recently launched Joon airline service of Air France, users are provided with virtual reality headsets inside the plane.

Some are restricting the flight service as solely designed for the Millennials. If you are on a long flight and you have purchased a business class ticket on Joon, you can enjoy some of your favorite TV shows and movies in a virtual reality experience. In fact, just to make things more fun, the airline allows you and the person sitting next to you to share a viewing experience with each other, making the flight more amusing.

Blink Box’s GOT Marketing Stunt

Now, we can’t exactly deem it as an experiential marketing strategy as it felt more like a well-executed PR stunt played out to grab the public’s attention. Somebody on the team of BlinkBox (UK movie and TV streaming service) thought it was a cool idea to drop a king-size dragon skull at the Dorset beach before the launch of Season 3.

Apparently, the season’s opening saw an amazing 632% increase in revenue which marked the date as one of the highest trading days for the company. All thanks to the great skull, BlinkBox made a fortune.

The Coca-Cola Hug Machine Experiment

If you are a cola lover, you should definitely try one at the Coca-Cola hug machine. Where can you find one? At the National University of Singapore maybe. On the 125th anniversary of the Singaporean University, the Coca-Cola Company installed a “hug me” vending machine within the University premises. Here, students were encouraged to hug the machine in return for an ice-cold and rejuvenating bottle.

It was a pleasant experience as most students were overwhelmed with joy when they got the chance to embrace the machine and have it reciprocated the gesture with a free Cola. Now, one can find a similar machine installed at Queen's University as well. Besides, there are other mystery machines placed at different locations. Are you interested in giving a warm fuzzy hug to this machine? It’s time you show some love and get yourself a free coke.

Bombay Sapphire Immersive Dine-In Train Journey

Last year, the famous Gin brand Bombay Sapphire launched an immersive fine dining experience for individuals on a stationary train in East London. For a reasonable £30, the train was explicitly and rather exorbitantly designed to take individuals on a sumptuous journey of gin discovery. The event was held for only a week, with the chef star Tom Seller preparing gourmet cuisines for everyone.

Although the chic dinner campaign lasted for a limited time, it created a lot of hype among beer aficionados. The exclusive nature of the event, the breathtaking and opulent ambiance, and the great-tasting cuisines created an everlasting appeal. As a result, Bombay Sapphire nurtured an interminable list of valuable connections and enabled the company to make headlines in celebrated London-based publications.

Hello Sunny Guerilla Marketing

If you have ever visited London, you may realize that it is replete with tourist spots one can visit. However Love Creative, in collaboration with MDS Ideas, initiated a perky and joy-filled campaign with their jovial costume-clad staff encouraging people to visit Fort Lauderdale to glean a unique hospitality experience. They called it the “Hello Sunny” campaign.

As the campaign gained ground across social media platforms, it instilled passers-by and commuters with joy during the bleakest and most depressing times of the year. The enthusiastic ambassadors of the campaign distributed flyers, leaflets, and brochures at some of the busiest locations across Liverpool Street Station, Southbank, and One New Change shopping center, inspiring onlookers to participate in a competition to win a free holiday. If you're feeling inspired and want to create your flyers, check out this easy-to-use flyer maker to get started!

Why Should Businesses Invest in Experiential Marketing?

Experiential marketing is all about engaging your customers & prospects at an emotional level. Instead of reading through a dull and drawn-out brand marketing pitch, watching a commercial, or experiencing an ad multiple times over, experiential marketing is more predisposed toward the ideology of touch, sense, and feel. It gives your customers an unprecedented opportunity to interact with your brand on a personal level.

The end goal of an experiential marketing strategy is to create an emotional connection between buyers and sellers to cultivate long-term customer loyalty. By brewing up a positive bond between the two, a company seeks to reach out to people who are loyal to their brand, and it is, after all, the end achievement of experiential marketing, which is one of the most significant

What it Means for Small Businesses

If the above examples are a little too rich for your taste and are making you break out a sweat, remember that fostering an awe-inspiring customer experience doesn’t have to be a bank-breaking one!

Experiential marketing integrates a grassroots movement aimed towards employing avenues such as community networks and social media to reach customers. Small businesses are restricted by limited finances and budgets and are unable to compete with global giants and multimillion-dollar corporations when it comes to mainstream advertising. However, to jump on the bandwagon and revamp the feel of your shopping experience, the key is to put on your thinking cap and explore effective yet cheaper ways of ringing in your customers. It should be out-of-the-box, creative, and proven to be successful.

Certain Public campaigns grant customers the WOW factor that is unable to be garnered by any other traditional mode of advertising, and they don’t even have to be expensive. Since Startups and small-scale businesses seldom have the capital required to invest in high-profile campaigns, creating an experience that impinges on the minds of your consumers for long is better than splurging a fortune on crappy and whine-worthy sales messages. Not only is it cost-effective, but the potential outreach can be amazing.

An example of this sort of experiential marketing is that of Fuller's brewery, which came up with its #EmptyPint campaign, a catchy social media campaign which entailed their witter users to follow the London Pride page and then post a picture of their empty London Pride glass, accompanied by the caption “#EmptyPint”. The users were rewarded with a free refill of London Pride!

This is an excellent example of how small businesses can leverage the power of platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, to lay up their online brand exposure. Instead of talking up big words with their clients, Fuller encourages them to engage with the brand, which is mutually rewarding for both.

Another great example is Cabela’s, which specializes in outdoor apparel and gear. In addition to a commendable blend of top-notch products and meticulous customer service, their unique in-store features are what complete the shopping experience for buyers.

Cabela’s stores offer something for the entire family, including bargain caves, gun libraries, boat shops, indoor archery ranges, fudge shops, delis, aquariums, wildlife displays, and mountain replicas, so that it is possible to spend hours inside their store. Although their customers come from a wide array of diverse backgrounds, they all share in their love for outdoor adventures, and that is what Cabela capitalizes on!

What Experiential Marketing Looks Like

The years ahead of us mark the birth of machine learning, AI, and immersive technologies. Brands of today are going to make use of such technologies to create remarkable experiences for users worldwide. Wouldn’t you like a vending machine that understands your needs better before giving you a specific can of free cola? How about a magic mirror that knows what you have already worn previously and helps you pick a better outfit? Because one way or another, it all depends on how you make your customers feel.

The famous Maya Angelou, (poet and philosopher) once said,

“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” 

The days when you have to wake up early, get ready for school, and attend boring lectures are long gone. Learning methods are slowly but surely shifting from traditional to digital and we are seeing an influx of technology in education. With a majority of teens and young adults spending hours on social media every day. Why not use social media as an educational tool? It would not only make education a lot more interesting and interactive. However, students will be more than happy to learn on their favorite social media platforms. It is a win-win situation for both teachers and students. Do you think that the move to introduce social media in class will distract students even more? Think again. Many studies have shown that class participation and student engagement increased significantly by using social media in the classroom. Here is an infographic that shows you how you can use social media to quench the thirst for knowledge of students and impart quality education by using these 20 clever ways.

Instagram has been the most powerful and effective platform for visual storytellers for years because of its main focus on appealing photography, mesmerizing cinematography, and striking videography. The whopping number of the app’s user base makes Instagram a result-driven and attractive platform for merchants to showcase and sell their products. Instagram shopping was first made possible last year when the social media network launched Instagram shoppable posts; an integration feature that makes it easier to tag and sell products directly from organic Instagram posts. Now consumers can go from inspiration to information to purchase in a matter of a few clicks in a completely organic way. Instagram users can buy their favorite items by simply tapping on a link and purchasing it from the seller’s online store without leaving the app. With Instagram shoppable posts, brands have a tremendous opportunity to connect with their potential customers by quickly providing them with all the relevant information, such as product description, pricing, relevant or matching items, and more with a single click without having to switch between apps. https://vimeo.com/209655799 If you haven’t taken advantage of Instagram shopping yet, now’s the time to create Instagram shoppable posts and start generating more revenue.

Why Create Instagram Shoppable Posts?

Instagram shoppable posts make it easier for brands to sell their products with minimal effort and provide a convenient way for consumers to make a purchase. With Instagram shoppable posts, brands and retailers can tag products in organic posts, allowing consumers to tap on the product to find out the desired information. Adding shopping tags can further promote your brand while allowing you to invest more in sponsored posts that will eventually bring more and more users. Instagram shopping offers a seamless experience for users who want complete information about products. This feature gives users an easy way to buy the product without having to leave the app. Instagram shopping allows users to delve deeper into products from the brands they love and follow. Making your posts shoppable makes it extremely convenient for consumers to know more about what they are looking at and complete their buying journey. This is indeed a huge deal for retailers and e-commerce brands that sell products online. As it allows businesses to easily connect their potential customers with the products they sell while streamlining the Instagram buying journey.

How Does Instagram Shopping Work?

Instagram shopping is based on a tagging option but instead of people, only brands will be able to tag products. Users can see the name and price of the product. By clicking on the tag, users will be taken to a more detailed page where they can find complete product details, similar products, and other shoppable posts. If a user clicks on the Shop Now button, they will be directed to that specific product on the business website.

Why is Instagram Shopping a Great Option for Small Businesses?

Previously, Instagram allowed brands to incorporate only one hyperlink in their bio and snubbed at the inclusion of external links in posts. Thanks to Instagram shopping, it has become a breeze for users to purchase the exact item that they are looking at, rather than being directed to a link in bio to peruse through the site and content with the hassle of unearthing what had caught their fancy on Instagram. By leveraging this Instagram feature more strategically, you can boost your chances of getting more conversions, and eventually sales. But it will only be possible when you have a massive, engaged follower base. You can create a huge following on Instagram and foster authentic connections with your cliques by keeping up a constant stream of engaging posts and user-generated content. People who trust your brand and feel connected to you are more likely to purchase from you.

Post Visually Alluring Photos

Keep in mind that Instagram is a visual platform. You won’t be able to nurture an authentic connection with your followers if your images appear unprofessional, run-of-the-mill, or unappealing. You will also fail to reel in your audience with blurry, cluttered, low-res, and dark images that fail to elucidate your products in the best possible light. If you really want to sell your products on Instagram, it is advised to inspire your audience and narrate your brand story with real, catchy, and professionally captured images, which are enticing enough to coax the users into a purchase. Instead of simply posting lackadaisical images of your products, inspire your audience with real ideas using items that you sell in your store. For instance, if you sell silk scarfs, why not post creative pictures of ways in which your product can be tied up or turned into a makeshift top perhaps? Tell them an inspirational story about your products which may encourage your followers to make a purchase.

Over to You

Brands should take advantage of Instagram shopping as the convenience of not having to leave the app encourages many shoppers to make instant purchases. Since people spend a lot of time on Instagram, brands and retailers have tremendous opportunities to promote and sell their products by creating an influx of Instagram shoppable posts. They have made it easier for consumers to make purchases on Instagram with a few clicks. Add shoppable posts to your Instagram marketing strategy and increase your chances of soliciting more conversions, leads, and in turn, revenue.

No list pertaining to the top digital marketing trends is complete without a stolid mention of video marketing. Video marketing isn’t exactly a novel notion. But this year, it is well poised to carve a niche as an integral part of digital marketing. More and more businesses are projected to rely on this medium to promote their products and services. Considering the skyrocketing popularity of videos on the web, popular social networking websites are introducing new features tailored towards video content.

If you have not jumped on the video marketing bandwagon yet. It is time to start using video as a marketing tool because video marketing is the future of digital marketing. Period. The ubiquity of video marketing is projected to reach unprecedented heights this year and marketers are ready to take the plunge.

Also Read: Videos are Reshaping Brands and Transforming Digital AD Industry

Here is an infographic that highlights seven reasons why you must use video marketing and why it is the best thing invented since sliced bread!

By profession, I am a computer science graduate. I did a graphic design crash course and right after that, I designed a brand logo for an eCommerce website. Luckily, I got selected as an intern in that firm. So, the first lesson I learned after venturing a foot into the professional world was that education never stops, and no matter how well-drilled and erudite you think you have become, it is your skills that get people’s attention in the market. I am a devoted learner of life and business. My first job in an eCommerce store taught me a lot. I was usually the first to cross over the threshold at work and was no stranger to burning the midnight oil. I was so deeply immersed in the system that I wanted to learn everything happening in my industry, and everything else that was going on beyond my field of interest. The reason behind, right from the time when I could identify a dog from a cat, and count my secret stash of chocolates, It was my dream to start a brand and make it a thriving success. My interest took root in ecommerce and I wanted to build my own store and sell things online. I gathered experience in digital marketing, delved deep into how to drive massive traffic to my website, and started brainstorming ways to turn those visitors into clients! My journey began with a website, a graphic designer, and a customer agent who was my friend. In the earliest days of our fellowship, we whiled away the time playing checkers because we received no orders. The day of deliverance arrived at last when we got our first order. Although it was a small value order, I was over myself with joy. In fact, everybody was excited to get the ball rolling at last. Since I considered myself rather a newbie back then, I became the jack of all trades, getting my feet wet in everything, failing continuously in the effort to juggle multiple facets simultaneously, and learning from it. Which was certainly a bad decision, because our time on this planet is numbered, and in that time, we need to eke out a decent living, make an impact, and die happily. But, as they say, life is not all rainbows and flowers. In life, everything is defined by moments. In some moments we succeed, and in some moments, we learn. Failure is inevitable. but I believe in taking risks & sharing my knowledge with others. So, here are the lifelong lessons which I learned along the way in pursuing my business idea.

1. Spend Time in Creative Imagination

“Creativity is seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking what no one else has thought.” ~ Albert Einstein There is so much talk about mindfulness and meditation. But people find it difficult to maintain focus while they ruminate. The best way to meditate is to solicit a place of blissful solitude, close your eyes, and lose yourself in a higher dimension. Now, use the power of silence to immerse yourself in the taste of success and feel the sweet savor of accomplishment tantalize your tongue. Imagine your website receiving record traffic on that day. Customers place an order on your website and feel happy about it. You are delivering orders with ease and your bank account is adding figures by the day. This is one form of creative visualization that I have consistently capitalized on to achieve the impossible. The second stage of visualization is to be more creative with your mind's eye. Going outright wild with it. Here you need to envisage the bigger picture in your mind. If you can portray your grand success in your mind, you will be able to achieve it soon. Instead of squandering your energy on Pokémon and other such distractions, use your imagination. We’re all blessed with a beautiful mind that can create incredible things.

2. Take Online Courses for Free

This goes back to the idea of gleaning knowledge for the sake of gaining skills. No matter how accomplished you become in any field, there will always be new developments and things that you are oblivious to. The good news is that there are tons of online courses that you can jump on free of cost, and get drilled in without spending a dime. There are myriad great course offerings as well, such as Udemy and Coursera, they are offering a wealth of priceless courses at a very limited cost. When I first launched my website, I got the idea in my head to jump into the social media realm on my own. So, instead of hiring an agency, I invested my time and efforts in watching YouTube videos. These courses helped me with garnering a basic understanding of social media and I was able to jump-start the brand. After the initial success, competition got stiff and I was forced to look into the SEO. Again, I invested three whole days on the internet, watching videos and tutorials, and learning various methods on different forums. If you invest time in something, you get results. And once again, my brand was able to stay afloat in the competition.

3. Mastering Social Media Marketing

If you are willing to generate sales and expand your reach, you need to ace your social media marketing game. There is tough competition out there, and if you want to differentiate yourself from the competition, you need to reach out to the maximum people and get yourself heard. One of the lessons I learned is that the ‘world needs you. Despite all the competition out there, there is still room for your brand. Develop a social media strategy around some core values. Be authentic, be passionate, and be user-friendly to your customers. One of the best lessons I ever learned is that the world absolutely needs you. It wants you to be YOURSELF and be truly unique. And it most certainly doesn’t want you to sit on your butt and waste your talents. Be yourself and like anything, learn from the experts, who are succeeding at creating beautiful, inspiring messages on social media.

4. Learn the Art of Converting Connections into Raving Fans

"If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together." ~African Proverb Independence is good. But you cannot build a startup on your own. You need to solicit help from others. Social Media is a sure-shot way to build strong relationships & foster bonds with your customers. You need to hear Seth Godin talk about building a tribe. This tribe will become your repertoire of raving fans, who will become your ultimate brand ambassadors. You don’t need a master’s degree in psychology to understand the desires of your customers. You just need to analyze data with the right tools that are available in the market. Gary V in his book, “Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook”, talks about doing two things for the customer before asking them to reciprocate a favor. Offer something. Offer something different. Ask for a favor. Repeat. Once you meet more people, you’ll keep learning and growing. And you’ll gain allies and fans of your own who will help you build your brand.

5. Focus on Execution

 “The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” ~Sylvia Plath Persistence is the key to success. As an Entrepreneur, you will face tons of failures. But make sure that those failures don’t stop you from trying again. Think. Execute. Fail. Try again. Fail harder this time. Eliminate time wasters and focus on executing your ideas. In your business, try different strategies. Some will work. Some will not. But, real success comes from failing with consistency. When hiring anyone in Google, they must mention more than one incidence of failure on their resumes, which goes a long way towards providing a testament to their courage and how they dealt with adversity and came out stronger.

To Conclude it All

Starting a business as a brand seems like a bed of roses. Contrary to popular belief, “they got lucky,” there is no such thing as luck. Luck, itself is the doorway that opens with hard work. In my whole career, if there is one advice that I want to give out, it is never to stop educating yourself. When the world is busy focusing on the competitors, take out some time for self-improvement. Until one day you will be successful yourself, and people will call it an overnight success or a fluke of luck.

Using regional subdirectories can significantly boost your SEO efforts by improving localization and targeting. This strategy helps search engines better understand the geographical focus of your content, leading to higher rankings in regional search results. Regional subdirectories allow you to cater content specifically to local audiences, which enhances user experience and increases engagement. Traffic gridlocks in New York City are rising exponentially. It has come down to the Department of Transportation having to roll out a Gridlock alert each year to ease out travelers who are on their way to work, shopping, or any other leisure activity. The gridlock alerts are normally rolled out for the busiest days of the year, mostly during the holiday festivities. However, this doesn’t mean that traffic in New York remains calm and smooth-flowing on other days. Even on uneventful days, the general public has to deal with this situation daily however they may resent it, and unfortunately, not a lot can be done to eradicate or at least remedy the situation. A probable solution may include recruiting more officials to help normalize the flow of traffic and ease the public suffering, to an extent. The officials are still picking their brains on offering the most viable solution to this dilemma. The business setting in New York pretty much dances to the same tunes. Businesses operating in the online space are usually the ones most affected and have to contend with a host of similar gridlocks when the online traffic ceases flowing to and fro from their website. Not only do these gridlocks hamper the business development process, but they also deter other interested members from landing on the website and completing a transaction. So the online marketers at Branex gathered around and put two and two together to find out what can be done to resolve this concern. What they did find out is that every business owner is working along the same lines, including attaining growth, revenue, more onsite visitors, and eventually boosting online conversions. Ideally, the situation appears highly lucrative and simple enough to achieve, however when one talks about international markets specifically for online businesses, it comes down to the search engine optimization efforts to bring in the most pain. Expansion in terms of SEO efforts is the most painstaking element that you will ever have to contend with. How you plan on expanding and considering the vehicles to monetize the results, greatly depends on your planning skills. URL structure, to start with, is a process for setting up a unique identity on search engines and is irreversible in most cases.  Normally what a business owner does is to set up a URL structure and the search engine optimizer leverages that structure to start casting their spell. However, when your business starts catering to more than one geographical location, things start to get rather nasty. In the case of expansion that covers multiple locations under a single umbrella, there is often a conflicting representation of what should be done. Businesses need to be proactive and determine a route for them that could work as displacement, minimizing the risks and costs attached therein. When opting to expand across multiple locations, an important consideration lies in determining the perceived linguistic and cultural barriers and most importantly, coming up with a way of content delivery that really counts and persuades the native audience to take action. All such stuff cannot be clubbed into one single web page. To effectively address the issue, we bring forward the existence of subdirectories or regional pages for businesses that wish to operate in more than one global location. Let’s see how subdirectories can really help businesses in bagging optimal performance in each of the regions they are operating in:

Prominent Reasons to Use Subdirectories

Subdirectories can help businesses, looking to operate across multiple geographical locations, show up in the regional search results. This can best be envisaged with a custom website development company that operates across Canada, USA, and Dubai. So the hypothetical regional URLs for such an agency would include:

• xyzagency.com
• xyzagency.com/turkey
• xyzagency.com/ae

A counter-argument might pop up here that the agency could have invested efforts in creating URLs with the regional TLD (top-level domain), but the use of multiple TLDs such as .com, .ae, .co, or .ca can result in a differentiated SEO strategy for each URL, which might even result in many varied outcomes. Using subdirectories makes the work a whole lot easier for the search engine optimizers and brings positive results to the front in less time. A search engine optimizer then works on each of the subdomains and targets them fully to achieve results among regionally searched keywords, such as the “best website design agencies in the United States”, or “best website design agencies in Canada” etc.

Franchises

Businesses using franchises as part of vamping up their regional presence can offer subdirectories to the franchise so that they can optimize their content marketing efforts in the region through the extension of the original domain. This also adds value and credibility to the overall business by not refracting its brand identity through multiple domains.

Multiple Separate Product Lines

Subdirectories can also be used to create separate product pages. With the help of subdirectories, a business has a better chance of building customer focus around a niche product line. The main reason behind doing so is to amplify the performance of product pages on search engines. So each product of a utensil company can have a separate subdirectory for silverware, cookware, and crockery, with focused search engine strategies applied to achieve targeted results.

Some Benefits of Using Subdirectories

Some of the most prominent and cost-saving benefits that the use of subdirectories can bring to the table for a business owner include:

• One hosting fee for all your pages, including any additions that you keep adding to the main domain.
• One content management system that lets you manage all the pages from one central location.
• A subdirectory also allows you to insert targeted keywords in your URL structure, making them self-explanatory right from the first glance.
• Sometimes, the main website gets cluttered with information and becomes difficult to manage. With a subdirectory, business owners can create a smooth user experience for web visitors.

This not only creates a great user experience but also allows businesses to build their authority in niche markets. The authority that is built around the subdirectory pages further enforces the overall authority of the business, making it more prone to success. However, you will then be entitled to manage all the pages yourself, so that will come as an extra task to you when you might already be overwhelmed with your daily to-do list. Also, another difficulty that you might face in creating the subdirectories of your main domain is the creation of content. Since the idea behind using subdirectories is to make separate entries for each of your product lines, therefore every page should have unique, informative, and up-to-date content that can align your business strategy with your goals. Also, note that the website content is something that needs tweaking every now and then and may as well require a complete revamp if a need arises.

Conclusion

The use of subdirectories is a sole business decision that portrays the overall vision of the business leaders. It has also been seen that some business owners just don’t go with the idea of creating subdirectories, even when they promise better results in terms of search engine optimization and efficacy in lead generation. Sometimes, the business owner is just overwhelmed with tasks that are already crowding their plate, to spare a few minutes to look away. A viable option in such situations is to contact a digital marketing agency in New York that can provide you with targeted answers to your questions about the use and benefits of subdirectories for your product pages.

We went out to a nearby restaurant for lunch, earlier today. We were placing orders when a friend joined in. Since the day was in the throes of sweltering heat. He was sweating profusely and being a Coke fan, immediately asked for a Coke to quench his thirst immediately. What piqued my interest in that moment was how in a time of dire need. He remembered a brand, instead of the actual beverage he was interested in. He swapped the category name with the brand name. I believe the credit goes to the ingenious Coke marketers who have created and implemented such amazing and influential campaigns that managed to set a profound awareness of the brand itself among the masses. So much so, that it is now deemed a category itself. Brand awareness is a stage that holds imperative importance in a brand’s lifecycle. It is in the awareness stage that brands start growing, for if no one is aware of what the brand is all about. It would fail to nurture associations that would eventually lead to long-lasting brand equity development. Related: How Website Designing Impacts Your Branding Apparently, there is no quick fix that you could apply to your brand and attain a renowned position, with which the target market is well acquainted. However, certain tactics could help brands create the right buzz in the fiercely competitive online markets of today:

Start with Stellar Content Marketing

The fast-paced, digitally influenced world of today revolves around content. Content can be in the form of words that could be read, or in the form of a video that can be seen and remembered and possibly acted upon. All famous social media networks, such as Facebook and Snapchat, rely heavily on content produced by others. To create brand awareness among the vast user base of the social network. While at the same time benefiting the network in a myriad of ways, including widening user base and revenue generation through social advertising. Food Network, a famous blog replete with mouthwatering recipes, is making big waves in the social media realm by luring people to its social media pages. And eventually to its website by posting stellar and succinct food recipes online, that are diligently prepared and expertly plated by expert chefs. Food aficionados around the world not only follow this exquisite brand but also like and share its videos by the dozens, making the content beneficial for both the network it’s displayed on and for the support of a healthy and growing brand awareness plan.

Online Referral Programs

Users tend to gladly use and spread the good word about any brand that provides them an incentive to complete the deed, which we deem as a referral program. Through a referral program, a brand politely asks its target market to engage in word-of-mouth publicity to glean a certain incentive offered to them. This incentive can be in the form of a referral discount or redeemable bonus points. Uber is a globally famous mobile app that allows people to share rides from anywhere in a city. Uber offers free ride codes and discounts to all its users. First-timers are provided with special codes that they can share, and by doing that they become eligible to get a cashback on their next ride. The idea seems to have worked really well for Uber. By offering referral discounts, the app has not only made the masses aware of its functionality. But also successfully engaged in brilliant word-of-mouth publicity, all at a not-so-overwhelming cost!

Engage in Local Partnerships

Another great way to create awareness among local clientele is to get into a partnership with an already renowned brand. Budding brands can partner with the settled players of a complimenting industry, ones that could potentially provide them a lift-off among the competition. By partnering with established brands, budding businesses receive the benefit of increased visibility and trail derived from the users of the established brand. Thus vamping up loyalty at the end of the day. The famous athletic brand Nike and the tech giant Apple have been working together since the early 2000s. Apple wanted to inculcate music in the fitness gurus among Nike’s customers through their iPods. This partnership resulted in fitness trackers and clothing that served to attract the target market’s interest, while at the same time benefiting both brands equally. With Nike and iPod, you work out to the tunes!

Remarketing AD Campaigns

Have you ever wondered why your social media newsfeed starts bombarding you with ads for a certain product category all of a sudden? It’s because of an online marketing tactic that online advertisers opt for to create brand awareness and publicize a brand category that you showed interest in some time earlier. Through a remarketing ad campaign, online advertisers start showing targeted ads to online customers who have visited the website of a brand earlier or clicked a relevant ad somewhere online. By pushing out stuff that they were initially interested in. Online marketers induce the idea of a purchase in the customer’s mind frequently which not only results in creating a profound brand awareness. But also persuades the customer to take the desired buying action.

Car Wraps

Car wraps have remained an old-school strategy, helping budding local brands take the first tottering steps towards building a viable brand identity. By adorning cars with promotional posters, brands engage them in a mass marketing campaign that doesn’t cost them an arm and leg. Car wraps can be customized according to the brand manager’s will and since they are weatherproof. The campaign can run for longer periods with very little marketing cost incurred.

Summary

The above-mentioned tips are only a few sugar crystals in a pot. Every brand is different and so shall be its branding strategy. For budding business owners, my advice is to get in touch with a professional digital marketing agency that could give them targeted information. And sure-shot advice on how they can pull off a viable brand awareness strategy.