Blogs

5472

As the name suggests, SEO is a tool that helps the website to increase and improve the quantity of traffic to the website from search engines.  The tools are helpful for the professionals in tracking the numbers and see how well the competitors are doing. And most importantly, they are helpful in understanding the new and existing keywords the competitors are ranking for.  The SEO is helpful in establishing oneself as an expert in the field. As an SEO expert, the hold on tools and techniques is highly important. The collective effort helps in devising strategies to improve the rankings as compared to the competitors. There are various SEO tools available on the internet which can help you with the tedious job of Search Engine Optimisation. Some of the SEO tools lists are listed below – 1. Yoast SEO This WordPress plugin helps you optimise your website by telling you what changes need to be made. It also helps you write more optimised content for search engines. As soon as you install it, it indexes your website and creates XML sitemaps. It does the job of even notifying Google and Bing about your website and saves you the hassle. When you are writing an article, it prompts you to use keywords in your SEO title, title, meta, and URL. It also checks your text and estimates whether your SEO is good or needs improvement. It also suggests if the readability of the article is good or not too. It gives you all information you need to write natural and search engine friendly content. Learn Digital Marketing Course Online from the World’s top Universities. Earn Masters, Executive PGP, or Advanced Certificate Programs to fast-track your career. 2. Pro Rank Tracker Pro Rank Tracker is the perfect tool to track your rankings on search engines. It gives you the most up-to-date SEO ranking information about your website. With its advanced reports, it gives you useful insights into your rankings, including mobile and local search rankings. It can even track the rankings of your videos on YouTube search results and display search volumes for keywords.   How to Gain Backlinks for Your Website! 3. SEMrush SEMrush does all the difficult SEO work for you. All you need to do is enter your website’s URL and it’ll list everything you need to know – monthly search volumes, backlinks, keyword rankings, and traffic are just some of them. You can also keep track of your social media following from SEMrush. If you wish to build backlinks, they have a tool for that as well. SEO may seem like a daunting task at first, however, it is not an impossible one. It is not rocket science and can be done by one and all. If you follow the above-mentioned instructions well, your website’s ranking may explode. This can also translate to your traffic skyrocketing soon. 4. Ahrefs WebMaster Tools This tool is helpful in assessing the technical health of the website. The experts run various algorithms to make sure that the technical health stays strong. A technical crawl of the website can be run using the tool that helps in identifying 100 or more SEO issues present. This help in taking timely decisions to overcome existing problems. (Source) This tool will not only tell the user about the issues but also will assist in knowing the reason behind the problem along with the measures to be taken to overcome the problems.  5. Google Keyword Planner This tool is from Google itself, thus helping in researching Google Ads. The GKP also helps in suggesting relevant keywords based on semantics. For example, the GKP can suggest keywords like necklace, ring, bangles, and earrings even though they do not contain the word jewellery. (Source) GKP acts as a tool used by PPC and SEOs alike.  It helps in understanding exactly monthly search volumes and ranges, mobile search volumes, suggested bids, ad impression share, etc.  In order to use GKP, the users need to have an active  Google Ads account. 6. AlsoAsked As the name suggests, it is a tool to know questions that people also ask. You must have noticed while searching for a query on Google, there comes a SERP feature sharing “People Also Asked (PAA)” as shown in the image below: AlsoAsked is a tool that helps the users to see the PAA questions related to the topic. The mentioned topic and subtopics can be answered in the article which helps in deriving traffic to the website.  The tool AlsoAsked allows one to get deeper into the topic search and use the information for the benefit. But one has to get into the paid plan in order to discover the available features. 7. Keyworddit As the name suggests, this tool is helpful in performing keyword research on Reddit.  Keywords are very important, and keyword research is helpful in finding topics the audience is looking for.  Reddit is the internet’s largest forum, the users can use the forum in order to do extensive research. The users can simply put the name of the subreddit the audience is participating in. Then onwards the tool keyworddit would extract the keyword from that community.  8. Google Trends The users can see the search results all around the world. The tool Google Trends shows the popularity of a topic over time. The users can monitor the trends and use them to capitalize on the trending topics.  (Source) This way, users can create content on trending topics and avoid the waning ones. Moreover, Google Trends also helps in sharing and suggesting topics that are rising in popularity. 9. RankMath  It is a WordPress SEO plugin for on-page and technical SEO. The users are not required to manually to put meta descriptions, title tags, OG tags, etc. The tool RankMath helps users in adding these very easily.  (Source) RankMath is also helpful in the following- URLs directs Seeing the Google Search Console Data Keyword’s ranking tracking URLs directs Fixing and identification of deadlinks 10. Google SERP Snippet Optimiser Tool  The tool is helpful in showing how the webpage will look like in the search results. For doing that, the users are required to put the proposed title, meta description, and URL. (Source) 11. Merkel’s Schema Markup Generator The users can create a structured data markup in the JSON- LD format. It helps the research engine understand the content better. It helps in creating the right schema code.  (Source) The users can select the type of schema makeup they want to generate. For example, local businesses, products, etc. The next requirement is to fill the form followed by copying and pasting the generated markup on the site.  Digital Marketing Free courses to Learn Influencer marketing free course Introduction to advertising free course Influencer marketing right free course SEO basics free course SEM basics free course Email marketing free course Social media marketing introduction free course How to leverage user generated content free course Content marketing free course Fundamentals of marketing free course Brand marketing masterclass free course 12. Google Search Console It comes under one of the free SEO tools that are useful in the rank building. The tool is useful in identifying and fixing the technical issues occurring on the website, submitting timestamps, looking deep into the structured data issues, and many more.  (Source) The tool provides the information about the Google’s indexed version of a specific page. The users can enter any URL in order to identify the issues.  Moreover, the users can run a bulk check of data.  Popular Digital Marketing Blogs Beginners Guide to YouTube Marketing : Complete List How to Monetize Your YouTube Channel? Top 5 Actionable Steps The Complete Guide on setting up a LinkedIn Company Page Everything You Need To Know About Digital Marketing A Complete Guide to Digital Marketing Strategy: What it is and How to create it? Digital Marketing Tutorial: A Step-by-Step Guide To Become an Expert Future of Digital Marketing: How It Goes From Here Importance of Digital Marketing: Top 10 Reasons Your Business Needs it Digital Marketing Challenges: How to Win Amidst the Challenges in Digital Marketing How to Build your SEO Strategy If you are curious to get into the world of digital marketing, check out upGrad & MICA’s Advanced Certificate in Digital Marketing & Communication. 20 On-Page and Off-Page SEO Techniques: A Checklist upGrad’s Exclusive Digital Marketing Webinar for you – What’s new in Marketing? document.createElement('video'); https://cdn.upgrad.com/blog/rumi-ambastha.mp4 Best Online Digital Marketing Courses Advanced Certificate in Brand Communication Management - MICA Advanced Certificate in Digital Marketing and Communication - MICA Performance Marketing Bootcamp - Google Ads from upGrad To explore all our certification courses on Digital Marketing, kindly visit our page below. Digital Marketing Certification Top Digital Marketing Skills Online Advertising Courses Influencer Marketing Programs SEO Optimisation Courses Performance Marketing Certification Search Engine Marketing Course Email Marketing Strategy Content Marketing Strategy Social Media Advertising Digital Marketing Analytics Website Analytics Online Display Advertising Best Affiliate Programs

by Shane Barker

26 Feb 2023

Blogs

5256

Influencer marketing has become the go-to marketing strategy for most savvy marketers owing to the many benefits it offers. 80% of marketers find it effective and 89% find its ROI better or at least comparable to that of other marketing tactics.  If you’re contemplating whether or not influencer marketing is meant for you, you’re already behind the curve. I don’t want to sound negative, but you are at risk of losing quality leads, sales, authority, and visibility to competitors who are already leveraging influencer marketing. You wouldn’t want that, right? Then, it’s time to set aside a portion of your marketing budget and obtain your management’s buy-in to hire influencers. After you do that, follow the five-step process I’ve explained below and interweave influencer marketing into your overall marketing blueprint. Step 1: Determine Your Goals and KPIs If you want your influencer marketing program to be result-oriented, you need to identify your goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) from the outset. To set your goals, try to answer the question: what do you want to achieve from influencer marketing?  Is it brand awareness and reach that you want to expand, or are you aiming to increase your sales? You may also want to drive traffic to your website or cement your industry reputation through influencers. Whatever your goals might be, ensure that they are SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound). Once you’ve identified your goals, choose the KPIs and metrics you’ll use to evaluate your goal achievement.  For instance, if you plan to increase engagement through influencer marketing, make sure you measure metrics such as likes, comments, and reshares on your influencer-created posts. This will indicate whether or not your influencers were successful in engaging your audience. Step 2: Pick the Right Influencers The fate of your influencer marketing program depends on who you decide to collaborate with. Your influencers should be a good fit for your brand, in terms of industry, audience, values, and target platforms. However, influencer selection can be tricky business if done manually. So, do the smart thing and hire a reputable agency to find influencers. You can also use an influencer discovery tool to simplify and expedite the process. If you plan to use a tool to search for influencers, you should know the metrics to prioritize. Inexperienced marketers focus on vanity metrics like influencers’ follower counts, which are an inaccurate measure of their actual influence. A better way to vet influencers is to look at their engagement numbers, especially the kinds of comments they exchange with followers. It’s also important to opt for influencers who are experts in their niche since they can help establish your brand’s reputation as well.  Anything else? Give preference to influencers who have genuine relationships with their followers, which you can gauge through their interactions.  One more thing… Dig into the brand affinities of influencers on your shortlist to get a better idea about their past work experiences. You don’t want to entrust your brand’s image and marketing budget to an influencer who promotes just any brand/product.  Once you zero in on a well-matched influencer, reach out to them with a work proposal and campaign brief. The next step will guide you through that step. upGrad’s Exclusive Digital Marketing Webinar for you – What’s new in Marketing? document.createElement('video'); https://cdn.upgrad.com/blog/rumi-ambastha.mp4   Step 3: Plan Your Campaign Brands collaborate with influencers in a myriad of ways – each designed to help them fulfil their marketing goals. Likewise, you should conceptualize an influencer campaign that will help you achieve your end goal. Here are some common types of influence-led campaigns you can choose from: Promoting Discounts to Drive Sales If you want your influencers to drive sales, you can give them unique discount codes to share with their audiences. The more aggressively they promote your products, the more sales they will help drive To make it a winning deal for your influencers, you can run a formal affiliate program.  What’s that, you ask? You create a custom affiliate link for each influencer and ask them to promote the link to their audience. On each sale generated through these links, the influencers earn a commission. Since influencers’ remuneration is directly tied to your sales, it’s natural that they will work harder at promotions. Buzz Marketing Campaigns  You can also partner with influencers to create buzz about your newly launched products. The aim is to get people talking about your product before it hits the shelves. How does that happen? In buzz marketing campaigns, influencers: Share details about the upcoming launch and product features. Give exclusive sneak-peaks of the product. Promote the launch event and encourage their followers to join. Write positive testimonials about the product. Writing Product Reviews You can ask your influencers to write in-depth reviews about your products in order to boost consumer trust.  A single positive review by an influencer can serve a dual purpose – it boosts your brand’s reputation and increases your sales indirectly.  How so? Since people trust influencers’ opinions, they may feel encouraged to try your products when an influencer vouches for it.  So, you can design a campaign in which influencers try your products and write good things about them. They can also share video testimonials of their followers using the products, which again build consumer trust.  Best Online Digital Marketing Courses Advanced Certificate in Brand Communication Management - MICA Advanced Certificate in Digital Marketing and Communication - MICA Performance Marketing Bootcamp - Google Ads from upGrad To explore all our certification courses on Digital Marketing, kindly visit our page below. Digital Marketing Certification Step 4: Use Reliable Campaign Management Tools It’s common for brands to work with multiple influencers simultaneously. To stay on the top of your game, you need to monitor each influencer’s performance and contribution to your overall marketing efforts. This way, you learn what kind of value they bring to the table and if they’re worth the investment. To track your campaigns, you should use robust marketing tools and platforms. Using these tools, you can instil accountability in your influencer marketing program. You can track influencer assignments, receive automatic status updates, and send reminders to influencers when deadlines are near. Needless to say, such tools eliminate the hassle of campaign management so that you can invest time in more cognitive activities. Top Digital Marketing Skills Online Advertising Courses Influencer Marketing Programs SEO Optimisation Courses Performance Marketing Certification Search Engine Marketing Course Email Marketing Strategy Content Marketing Strategy Social Media Advertising Digital Marketing Analytics Website Analytics Online Display Advertising Best Affiliate Programs Step 5: Measure Your Campaign Performance It’s pointless to run influencer campaigns if you don’t evaluate their ROI. After all, how will you identify resultful influencers if you don’t know how each one fared?  You can generate reports about individual influencers, campaigns, and revenue, or go granular and find ROI per influencer-created post.  Performance evaluation will not only help you assess the outcome of your influencer marketing efforts but will also help you justify the marketing spend in front of your management. Digital Marketing Free courses to Learn Influencer marketing free course Introduction to advertising free course Influencer marketing right free course SEO basics free course SEM basics free course Email marketing free course Social media marketing introduction free course How to leverage user generated content free course Content marketing free course Fundamentals of marketing free course Brand marketing masterclass free course Wrapping Up That’s how simple it is to start your first influencer marketing program. After a few campaigns, you’ll be a pro at influencer marketing. But till then, follow the above step-by-step guide as your influencer marketing handbook. Do you need more help with any of the steps I’ve explained? Please leave your requests in the comments. I’ll get back to you with the answers soon. However, if you wish to improve your Digital Marketing prowess, check out MICA and upGrad’s Digital Marketing Certificate Program. With this program, you can become an expert in social media marketing, content marketing, branding, marketing analysis and PR – all essential skills on your journey to becoming a successful influencer. Learn digital marketing courses online from the World’s top Universities. Earn Masters, Executive PGP, or Advanced Certificate Programs to fast-track your career. Popular Digital Marketing Blogs Beginners Guide to YouTube Marketing : Complete List How to Monetize Your YouTube Channel? Top 5 Actionable Steps The Complete Guide on setting up a LinkedIn Company Page Everything You Need To Know About Digital Marketing A Complete Guide to Digital Marketing Strategy: What it is and How to create it? Digital Marketing Tutorial: A Step-by-Step Guide To Become an Expert Future of Digital Marketing: How It Goes From Here Importance of Digital Marketing: Top 10 Reasons Your Business Needs it Digital Marketing Challenges: How to Win Amidst the Challenges in Digital Marketing

by Shane Barker

14 Apr 2021

Blogs

5183

Want to succeed in digital marketing? Of course, you do.  You need to accelerate your email marketing efforts. Email marketing is an evergreen strategy that gives proven returns. Whether you belong to the SaaS, B2B, or B2C domains, you should prioritize email marketing. Why do you ask? Emails are the top channel for nurturing leads, say 87% of B2B marketers in North America. Similarly, for 80% of B2C marketers, emails are a primary channel for lead nurturing.  All in all, email marketing is a successful marketing strategy. But just like all things in life, successful email marketing requires planning.  You need a solid roadmap to proceed in a strategic way and get the best return from your investment.  But before we delve into that, let’s first take a look at how much ROI email marketing produces. Learn more: 9 Most Advanced Techniques of Email Marketing Is Investing in Email Marketing a Good Move? The short answer?  Yes.  A well-planned email marketing can make you a lot of money.  When talking about the ROI of email marketing, you need to compare the investment you make and the profit you get from your email campaigns.  The investment includes: Subscription fees of email marketing tools Cost of sourcing email contacts Cost of sending targeted emails Indirect expenses such as content creation costs  On the other hand, profit from email marketing includes revenue generated by an email contact as well as the contact’s lifetime value. Marketers also track email opens, clicks, and bounces when calculating ROI.  If done well, email marketing can produce $40 per $1 spent. This beats the ROI of SEO, keyword ads, and banner ads by a fair margin.  Source You can further improve your ROI by following best practices like personalization and A/B testing. Are you convinced that email marketing is a worthy investment? Yes? Then continue reading to find out how you can create a great email marketing strategy. 9 Steps for Creating a Great Email Marketing Strategy Whether you have a subscriber list of 100 or 10,000 contacts, a solid strategy ensures that your emails reach the right person and receive a good response.  Here are the steps you need to follow: 1. Identify Your Goals Goal-setting can help you identify the right metrics and keep your campaign on track.  Commit to one or more of the following common goals: Build brand awareness Improve website traffic Boost sales Get high-quality leads Nurture relationships with existing customers Improve customer loyalty It’s best to focus on one goal per campaign and pursue it consistently until you meet the goal. For instance, if your goal is to generate more leads, you should formulate your strategy with that in mind. Take inspiration from Samsung.  When they notice that a customer has shifted to a competitor brand, they send win-back emails with subject lines like, “We’ve missed you. Here’s an exclusive deal just for you.”  Their focus is to foster brand loyalty using email marketing.  Here’s a pro tip for you:  Use social listening for email marketing. “Listen” to your existing and potential followers.  Social media management tools track the conversations around your brand on all the social networks where your target audience is active.  This will help you learn about the sentiment around your brand and help you target the right email messages to the right people. 2. Create an Organic Contact List When it comes to email lists, it’s not just about the numbers. It’s also about engagement and open rates. That’s why buying contact lists can prove to be counter-productive.  Often, contacts in such lists don’t align with your customer personas. They may not be interested in your industry, brand, or content. They may not open them or may eventually unsubscribe. Your brand reputation can suffer and any investment you made in the list will be wasted. So, it’s better to build an organic subscriber list.  Include a “Subscribe” button on every page of your site. Interested visitors will click on the button. Then you can take them to an opt-in form where they can register their email credentials. You can also use lead magnets to capture email IDs.  A lead magnet is a free but gated content piece that you can offer to people in exchange for their email addresses.  You can use these legitimate and effective ways to build your contact database.  3. Segment Your List Sending generic messages to your entire contact list hardly ever yields results. Targeted emails have a better chance of getting a response from recipients.  You can segment your contact list based on parameters such as: Demographics like age, gender, location, company role Buyer journey stage Engagement history and buying frequency Next, you can tailor your email messages according to the needs of each segment. Your attention to detail and personal touch can boost your email’s open and click-through rates.  Pro tip: Keep cleaning your contact list. Remove inactive subscribers as they hamper your campaign’s engagement rate. Automated tools for email marketing can do this task on a regular basis. 4. Write Compelling Subject Lines A catchy and optimized subject line can make your email pop in an overcrowded inbox. That’s why you should invest some time into writing compelling subject lines. Additionally, personalized subject lines can boost your email’s open rate tremendously. Some marketers swear by emojis in subject lines as they set apart your email from the rest. Best practices for writing subject lines: Create urgency: Set a deadline to create a fear of missing out. For example, “This is your last chance to grab a 50% discount” can prompt the recipient to open the email. Build curiosity: “Want to know Kim Kardashian’s secret glow formula?” is sure to tickle a beauty lover’s curiosity.  Offer something irresistible: “I’ve put together the perfect outfit for your prom” can do the trick for you. Avoid using “free” in your subject lines as it can decrease engagement. Add preview text: It provides context to the email. Add dynamic content: Address the contact by their name instead of a plain “Hi.” Avoid clickbait tactics: Using an intriguing subject line just to get a person to open your email is not advisable. The email content should match its subject otherwise the reader feels disappointed and may end up unsubscribing to vent their frustration.  Use headline analyzer tools to check your subject line’s efficacy. A/B test different subject lines to pick a winner. 5. Invest Time into Writing Good Copy Along with your subject lines, your email copy needs to be compelling as well. Netizens have short attention spans so use clever copywriting to keep them engaged.  Follow these tips to craft stand-out email copy: Stay true to your brand voice.  Make good use of white space.  Opt for a vertical layout.  Style your CTA as a button to make it prominent.   Don’t pack too many links into a single email.  Include your social handles and contact details in the email footer. Though visual content is technically not a part of the copy, still it needs a mention here. High-quality images and videos can help to attract the attention of your audience. 6. Post at Optimal Times There is a lot of confusion regarding the best day and time for sending emails. But I won’t disappoint you by writing avoiding the topic altogether. Here is what the data tells us: CoSchedule collated 14 studies on optimal email sending times and came up with the following findings: Tuesday is the best day if you send one email weekly. If you send two emails weekly, keep Thursday as the second day. 10 AM, 8 PM to midnight, 2 PM, and 6 AM are the best times to send emails. You can try different permutations and combinations of days and times to find a time that works best with your contacts.   A lot depends on the nature of your business and your audiences as well. If your contacts are office-goers, you should send emails during early morning and lunch hours so that your emails land at the top of their inbox when they are actually in it. Also, set a schedule for posting emails. You need to nurture your relationships with your contacts before you convert them. Sending them regular emails with compelling content will keep you on their radar.  But be aware of cognitive fatigue. Don’t bombard customers with too many emails. You can use email marketing tools to create a reasonable posting schedule. 7. Test Your Emails When you invest a lot of time and effort into a marketing campaign, you don’t want it to fail.  Fail-proof your emails by doing A/B tests on all components, including subject line, visual design, copy, and posting time. Sound daunting? It can be if you try to do it manually. Email automation tools can make your job easier. They offer A/B testing. They also provide intelligent suggestions for improvisation and can gauge how well your email will render on different screen sizes and devices.  Take the time to test each and every minute detail of your email, from font colors to CTA button copy. The effort is an investment that can give rich returns in time. 8. Optimize Emails for Mobile Users Mobile marketing is big these days.  Customer-centric brands provide their customers with a good mobile experience. Three in five Americans check emails on the go. That’s why it’s important for you to design mobile-friendly emails. Apart from the copywriting tips I mentioned before, you need to follow these additional points: Shorten your subject lines or they will be cut off at the end. Test the subject line on different devices to zero down on the optimal length. Avoid using a multiple-column layout.  Use a font size of at least 13 or 14 pixels so that it’s readable on a small screen. Use compressed images so that your emails load quickly. Never stack links for the same reason as above. Test your email on devices of different screen sizes and resolutions. Best Digital Marketing Courses Online Advanced Certificate in Brand Communication Management - MICA Advanced Certificate in Digital Marketing and Communication - MICA Performance Marketing Bootcamp - Google Ads from upGrad To Explore all our courses, visit our page below. Digital Marketing Courses 9. Include an Unsubscribe Button It’s always a good practice to include an “Unsubscribe” button in your emails. You hand over the control to your contacts and they can choose to stop receiving your emails.  Seems counter-productive? After all, you may lose a subscriber if you allow them to opt-out so easily. But the fact is that this transparency will build your credibility and customer trust, which can benefit you in the long term. In-demand Digital Marketing Skills Advertising Courses Influencer Marketing Courses SEO Courses Performance Marketing Courses SEM Courses Email Marketing Courses Content Marketing Courses Social Media Marketing Courses Marketing Analytics Courses Web Analytics Courses Display Advertising Courses Affiliate Marketing Courses Conclusion If done well, email marketing can be a great channel to grow your business. Be creative in your email marketing but have a basic strategy in place. Your strategy will shape your email campaign’s performance. If you are curious to get into the world of digital marketing, check out MICA & upGrad’s Digital Marketing Course Become an expert in email marketing, social media marketing, content marketing, branding, marketing analysis and PR. upGrad’s Exclusive Digital Marketing Webinar for you – What’s new in Marketing? document.createElement('video'); https://cdn.upgrad.com/blog/rumi-ambastha.mp4 Digital Marketing Free courses to Learn Influencer marketing free course Introduction to advertising free course Influencer marketing right free course SEO basics free course SEM basics free course Email marketing free course Social media marketing introduction free course How to leverage user generated content free course Content marketing free course Fundamentals of marketing free course Brand marketing masterclass free course Popular Digital Marketing Blogs Beginners Guide to YouTube Marketing : Complete List How to Monetize Your YouTube Channel? Top 5 Actionable Steps The Complete Guide on setting up a LinkedIn Company Page Everything You Need To Know About Digital Marketing A Complete Guide to Digital Marketing Strategy: What it is and How to create it? Digital Marketing Tutorial: A Step-by-Step Guide To Become an Expert Future of Digital Marketing: How It Goes From Here Importance of Digital Marketing: Top 10 Reasons Your Business Needs it Digital Marketing Challenges: How to Win Amidst the Challenges in Digital Marketing

by Shane Barker

17 Apr 2020

Blogs

7112

Consumers trust influencers more than advertisements and other branded content. That’s because influencers consistently create authentic content that resonates well with their audiences. People look up to niche-specific influencers for their authenticity and expertise. They not only engage with influencer-created content, but they also heed their recommendations. This means that working with influencers can help you get more brand follows, engagement, traffic, qualified leads, and conversions. 92% of marketers believe in the immense potential of influencer marketing. And you should too! Still unsure about investing in influencer marketing? Let’s take a look at some of the biggest advantages of leveraging influencers to promote your brand. Increase Brand Visibility and Awareness Influencers can help you spread awareness about your brand, products, and/or services. While mega influencers allow you to tap into massive audiences, micro-influencers can help you drive more engagement. Even though they have a smaller number of followers, they can help you develop more valuable connections. Also, most influencers are awesome content creators, which is why they can create authentic content for your brand and share it with their followers. They usually create content that provides value to their audiences such as tutorials, product reviews, or something that mentions your brand. This is to ensure that the content doesn’t look promotional and also helps improve the visibility of your brand. If you are a beginner in content marketing, and want to gain expertise, check out our digital marketing training from top universities. For instance, travel and hospitality brands can leverage popular travel influencers to get more exposure for their brands. In the below post, Arielle Vey helped the hospitality brand, Fairmont, reach a relevant audience of 151K people. Image via Instagram However, if you want to reach your target audience, you need to choose your influencers carefully. The influencers you choose to work with should: • Have a decent following • Be relevant to your brand and niche • Have engaged followings • Create content that is authentic • Be influential enough You can use influencer marketing platforms such as Influence.co and BuzzSumo to find the most relevant and popular influencers in your niche. Strengthen Your Content Strategy Most influencers are great content creators. While many marketers consider influencer marketing and content marketing to be 2 different domains, influencers can help you boost your content strategy. Influencers understand their audiences and therefore, they create original and relevant content that their audience will love to engage with and share. 57% of brands reported that influencer-created content performs better than their branded content. You should give your influencers creative freedom when it comes to content creation. But you should also provide a clear campaign brief to ensure that their content aligns with your brand’s messaging. Some common influencer-content formats that you might leverage include: • Sponsored posts • Affiliate links • Giveaways • Takeovers • Brand ambassadorships You should encourage your influencers to ask questions and discuss ideas to co-create great content for both of your audiences. You can also repurpose the content they create to maintain a consistent flow of high-quality content on your social media pages. Your followers might love the fresh content you share. Fashion brand, Zara, leverages content created by fashion influencer, Ana Kras, to ensure a regular flow of content on their new collaborative account, @livingzara. Image via Instagram Win Trust of Your Target Audience Winning the trust of your target audience is crucial to the success of your business, which can take you years. But you can easily get your consumers to trust you if you work with the right influencers in your niche. Top influencers spend a significant amount of time and effort to build genuinely engaged followings. These followers not just engage with their content, but they also trust their opinions and recommendations. When an influencer endorses your brand, product, or service, they can get their audiences to trust your brand. This trust can help you drive more conversions and sales and boost customer loyalty. This means that influencers can help you leverage already loyal audiences to grow your business. Reduce Marketing Cost Traditional advertising is expensive, as a lot of money goes into the creation and promotion of advertisements. Working with influencers can help you save a lot of your marketing budget, especially, if you collaborate with micro-influencers. Influencers with up to 10K followers charge around $75-$250 per sponsored post, which is quite cost-effective. And the best part is that they can help you generate 7X more engagement than mega influencers. This means that you can easily leverage niche-specific micro-influencers to promote your brand effectively, even on a budget. Best Digital Marketing Courses Online Advanced Certificate in Brand Communication Management - MICA Advanced Certificate in Digital Marketing and Communication - MICA Performance Marketing Bootcamp - Google Ads from upGrad To Explore all our courses, visit our page below. Digital Marketing Courses Generate More Leads and Sales Influencers are experts in their niches and they have followers who not only trust but heed their recommendation. With the ability to influence purchase decisions, the right influencers can help you generate high-quality leads and drive more conversions. 82% of marketers believe that the quality of customers acquired from influencer campaigns is better than those from other forms of marketing. Many brands provide unique promo codes to influencers, which offer exclusive discounts. This helps influencers to further encourage their followers to buy. upGrad’s Exclusive Digital Marketing Webinar for you – What’s new in Marketing? document.createElement('video'); https://cdn.upgrad.com/blog/rumi-ambastha.mp4   Daniel Wellington, the world-famous watch brand, has mastered the art of boosting sales using influencer-created content. They offer unique discount codes with a defined time limit to add urgency and increase sales. These codes also help the brand to track and monitor the performance of individual influencers. Image via Instagram In-demand Digital Marketing Skills Advertising Courses Influencer Marketing Courses SEO Courses Performance Marketing Courses SEM Courses Email Marketing Courses Content Marketing Courses Social Media Marketing Courses Marketing Analytics Courses Web Analytics Courses Display Advertising Courses Affiliate Marketing Courses Deliver a Higher ROI 89% of marketers believe that using influencers in your marketing mix can help you generate a higher ROI than other forms of marketing. Another study by Influencer Marketing Hub stated that for every $1 spent, influencer marketing returns an average earned media value of $5.40. The study further asserted that brands who know the hacks of influencer marketing can gain an earned media value of up to $18 for every dollar spent. This is more than the ROI generated using display advertising and paid search marketing. Digital Marketing Free courses to Learn Influencer marketing free course Introduction to advertising free course Influencer marketing right free course SEO basics free course SEM basics free course Email marketing free course Social media marketing introduction free course How to leverage user generated content free course Content marketing free course Fundamentals of marketing free course Brand marketing masterclass free course Conclusion There is not one but many reasons why brands are relying on influencers to promote their businesses. Working with the right influencers can help you increase brand awareness, engagement, and conversions. However, you need to build strong long-term relationships with your influencers, pay them well, and provide them with creative freedom. Offering creative freedom will help them stay authentic and create valuable content to better engage their audiences. If you are curious to get into the world of digital marketing, check out MICA & upGrad’s Advanced Certificate in Digital Marketing & Communication. Become an expert in email marketing, social media marketing, content marketing, branding, marketing analysis, and PR. Popular Digital Marketing Blogs Beginners Guide to YouTube Marketing : Complete List How to Monetize Your YouTube Channel? Top 5 Actionable Steps The Complete Guide on setting up a LinkedIn Company Page Everything You Need To Know About Digital Marketing A Complete Guide to Digital Marketing Strategy: What it is and How to create it? Digital Marketing Tutorial: A Step-by-Step Guide To Become an Expert Future of Digital Marketing: How It Goes From Here Importance of Digital Marketing: Top 10 Reasons Your Business Needs it Digital Marketing Challenges: How to Win Amidst the Challenges in Digital Marketing

by Shane Barker

16 Aug 2019

Blogs

5318

Intelligent automation is the amalgamation of two advanced technologies—artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics process automation (RPA). In layman terms, that means automating processes in a way that they keep learning and improving based on the past performance data. Best Machine Learning and AI Courses Online Master of Science in Machine Learning & AI from LJMU Executive Post Graduate Programme in Machine Learning & AI from IIITB Advanced Certificate Programme in Machine Learning & NLP from IIITB Advanced Certificate Programme in Machine Learning & Deep Learning from IIITB Executive Post Graduate Program in Data Science & Machine Learning from University of Maryland To Explore all our courses, visit our page below. Machine Learning Courses But how does that matter to you and why should you consider investing in intelligent automation? We will answer these questions and discuss the benefits of intelligent automation in this post. The Business Case for Intelligent Automation The practical applications of intelligent automation can be seen in numerous business scenarios today. The application of natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning can be seen in intelligent, conversational chatbots that companies are using. Machine vision’s applications are being tested and deployed in the retail sector. The role that these technologies will play in the future will be even greater. In-demand Machine Learning Skills Artificial Intelligence Courses Tableau Courses NLP Courses Deep Learning Courses Dive into the World of Machine Learning! The increase in the amount of venture capital funding in AI and robotics related ventures is a testament to the growing importance of these technologies. According to a recent PwC report, the total VC funding for AI-related ventures in the US has grown at a CAGR of 52.09% during 2013-2018. Source: PwC MoneyTree Report Q4, 2018 This clearly shows how much companies are investing in AI and related technologies as they recognize the role it can play in the grother of their businesses. Join the Artificial Intelligence Course online from the World’s top Universities – Masters, Executive Post Graduate Programs, and Advanced Certificate Program in ML & AI to fast-track your career. But why is it that companies are willing to invest millions of dollars in intelligent automation? What makes the combination of AI and robotics so powerful that it is predicted to change the entire landscape of operations and process management in companies? Let’s take a look at the answers to these questions and the potential benefits that businesses can derive using intelligent automation. The Benefits of Intelligent Automation 1. It Reduces Human Error Humans are prone to making errors because they can get affected by a lot of external factors like mood, health issues, distractions, etc. Machines, however, do not get affected by these and can complete the same tasks with 100% accuracy. Moreover, an automated process is a lot more reliable than a manual process. No matter what, you can always count on an automated system to deliver the exact same results every single time. There are no variations in processes and they function more smoothly and with higher accuracy. Thus, automated systems and processes can help you reach unprecedented levels of quality and reliability and take your operational efficiency to the next level. 2. It Improves Productivity Automating repetitive, tedious tasks that take up a majority of employees’ time can give them the freedom to focus on more vital tasks. This will result in overall productivity improvement as automation can complete these tedious tasks faster and with higher accuracy. According to a recent Survey, employees spend an average of 16 hours per week on administrative tasks. Imagine, how much more they can achieve if they are freed of these time-consuming, mundane tasks and can focus on something else. Every business has some tasks that can be easily automated. All you need to do is identify such tasks and use intelligent automation to complete those tasks. Take invoice processing for example. The process is tedious and monotonous and is prone to errors, when done manually. However, with accounts payable automation software, like that provided by PurchaseControl, you can automate your invoice processing. It provides accurate invoice matching before a payment is processed. It also provides an end-to-end eprocurement solution, freeing up your employees to take on more strategic roles. This makes the process faster and more reliable resulting in overall productivity and efficiency improvement. 3. It Helps in Reduce Costs Using intelligent automation to perform repetitive tasks means that you will require fewer employees. And, in the long term, the cost of deploying automation is much less than the cost of deploying human resources. The cost of automation is essentially a one-time cost with a very low operating cost. So, once deployed, it can keep functioning for years without requiring too much financial investment. Also, since automation helps you complete tasks faster and with practically no errors, it helps you get more done by using fewer resources. This automatically translates into increased operational efficiency and hence cost optimization. Keep an Eye Out for the Next Big Thing: Machine Learning 4. Lets You Run Your Business Round-the-Clock Intelligent automation helps you create automated systems and processes that can work continuously, without requiring any breaks. Think of this like a virtual worker that works 24×7, all year round, without requiring any supervision. Now, isn’t that the dream of every business owner? However, even intelligent automated systems need to be regularly maintained and updated to ensure their smooth functioning. But even then, intelligent automation can enable you to run your business round-the-clock with great efficiency and minimal cost. 5. It Enhances Customer Service Intelligent automation can enhance your business’ customer service delivery in two ways. First, it can create automated systems that can handle customer needs round-the-clock and provide uninterrupted customer service. Second, it can enable employees to focus less on repetitive and mundane tasks and focus more on delivering better customer service. The best example of how intelligent automation can help enhance customer service is the use of AI chatbots. A lot of businesses now use conversational, AI-powered, chatbots that can help solve customer queries as they navigate through the business’ website. This means that they can solve customer queries in real-time and guide them to relevant resources to drive conversions. Take the example of Kik, Sephora’s AI chatbot that makes product suggestions and helps consumers navigate the website and find what they are looking for. Image via Ecommerce Chatbots From a customer’s point of view, they don’t need to wait on a call for 20 minutes to speak to a customer care executive and can get immediate assistance any time. So, chatbots definitely enhance customer experience and service. Popular AI and ML Blogs & Free Courses IoT: History, Present & Future Machine Learning Tutorial: Learn ML What is Algorithm? Simple & Easy Robotics Engineer Salary in India : All Roles A Day in the Life of a Machine Learning Engineer: What do they do? What is IoT (Internet of Things) Permutation vs Combination: Difference between Permutation and Combination Top 7 Trends in Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning Machine Learning with R: Everything You Need to Know AI & ML Free Courses Introduction to NLP Fundamentals of Deep Learning of Neural Networks Linear Regression: Step by Step Guide Artificial Intelligence in the Real World Introduction to Tableau Case Study using Python, SQL and Tableau Conclusion Intelligent automation is a powerful technology that has the potential to disrupt the current industry landscape and change the way things are done. With its numerous business benefits, it will soon evolve from its current nascent stage and will be extensively used for numerous industrial applications. So, start early and use this technology to grow your business and beat your competitors. If you have any questions regarding the benefits of intelligent automation for your business, feel free to ask them in the comments section. We would love to discuss this further with you

by Shane Barker

03 Jun 2019

Blogs

5551

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is an important digital marketing concept that may seem complicated at first, but it actually isn’t. Even with very little experience, you can do a lot to help your site’s rankings improve in the search engines. If done right, an SEO strategy can work miracles improving your search engine rankings. So, what exactly is SEO? It is a set of guidelines that you need to follow to rank higher in search results on the various search engines. A listing on the first page means higher targeted traffic to your website and more chances of conversions. SEO came into being because search engines cannot read and understand websites as humans do. It is through SEO that webmasters communicate their content to search engines so that they can rank your website appropriately. If your SEO strategy is not strong, chances are your audience won’t notice your website. Most of the traffic never goes past the first page of search results. Hence, it is essential to rank higher and be in the first few results. This guide will equip you with everything you need to know to explode your ranks. 1. Understand your Target Audience This is the first and most important step in SEO strategy. You must understand your target audience thoroughly and also how they use search engines. This is because search engines work to bring the most relevant results to the users. So your website must meet the exact requirements of the users to get listed when they search for something. To understand your target audience, you need to look at their demographics and psychographics. Demographics include things like their age, location, gender, income, and marital status. Psychographics include their personality, interests, values, lifestyle, and behavior. Based on these, you can focus your SEO efforts better. For example, let’s assume that you are selling clothes for toddlers. Your target audience should be people who have become parents in the past 3 years. This can be done by looking at people’s marital status, age, and interests. Think about what they may be searching for, and optimize your content accordingly. Learn How To Use Audience Targeting In Marketing! 2. Conduct Keyword Research Once you’ve figured out your target audience, you can start researching relevant keywords. This will show you which words or phrases people generally use to search for websites like yours. Keywords allow you to target the people who have the highest chances of converting. They can also give you insights into what people are exactly looking for. Accordingly, you can make changes to your website and its services to match their requirements. There are three main types of keywords – generic, long tail and broad match. Generic keywords are simple words like “car.” Broad match keywords are slightly more specific than generic ones like “Honda car.” Long-tail keywords are very descriptive and point to the exact product like “where to buy used Honda car.” Ideally, you should mainly target broad match keywords but include long-tail keywords a few times as well. You can use tools like KWFinder or Google’s Keyword Planner to research keywords. Simply enter your target keywords and these seo tools will show you all relevant combinations. It will also show you the search volume for each of these keywords along with the difficulty level in the ranking. The key is to target keywords that have a good search volume but low competition. This can help you get ranked quickly without much hassle. 20 On-Page and Off-Page SEO Techniques: A Checklist 3. Use Keywords Optimally After getting the right keywords, you must put them in appropriate places where search engines can find them. You must add keywords to your page titles, headers, meta descriptions, URLs and content. However, if the keyword density is too high, you may get penalized by the search engines. So make sure that you don’t abuse the keywords. Google prefers articles on websites that have been written naturally and not stuffed with keywords. In a nutshell, you should ideally keep keyword density at about 0.5% – 1% for long-tail keywords along with semantic and LSI keywords. Lateral Semantic Indexing (LSI) are keywords that are related to the keywords you search for. Use your keywords throughout your blog posts and titles to help improve your rankings. Content goes a long way to build your brand, so make sure you’re doing it right. Even the length of your blog posts is taken into account by search engines in the ranking. Generally, longer articles tend to rank higher in search results than shorter ones. Also Read: Must Read SEO Interview Questions & Answers 4. Optimise Your Visual Content While it may be easy to optimise the text content of your website, visual content is where it gets tricky. Search engines are not capable of telling which images and videos are on your website, all by themselves. You need to define the visual content through title tags and alt tags so that Google can read it. The alt text tells a search engine what your content is about and why it is there on your website. Similarly, the title tag works as the title of the visual content. You can add your focus keyword to these tags to make the content appear more relevant to the search engine. Image and video marketing are extremely important for a site’s SEO, so make sure you do it right. Video Marketing: The Next Digital Frontier 5. Build Links Search engines use links between pages to determine how they are connected to each other. Based on the number of links that are redirecting to your page from other websites, they determine its authority. These links are called ‘backlinks’. The simplest ones are called natural backlinks, which happen when someone links to your content without you asking. You can also try reaching out to other webmasters and ask them to include your links in their content. Writing guest posts on high-authority websites is also a great way to get quality backlinks. Backlinks not only help you with SEO strategy but also increase your traffic and brand awareness. How to Gain Backlinks for Your Website! Best Digital Marketing Courses Online Advanced Certificate in Brand Communication Management - MICA Advanced Certificate in Digital Marketing and Communication - MICA Performance Marketing Bootcamp - Google Ads from upGrad To Explore all our courses, visit our page below. Digital Marketing Courses 6. Don’t Forget the Importance of Social Media While SEO isn’t directly affected by your social media presence, it definitely does get affected indirectly. Things that are posted on social media are seen by loads of people. There is a good chance that some of them may like and use it on their website with a link. This can give you a valuable backlink that can help improve your search rankings. Moreover, websites like Facebook can give you great traffic too. A good way to leverage your social media is to keep posting quality content regularly. This can increase your engagement and get you good fan following which can result in more website hits. The Super Six of Social Media Marketing Channels You can also link your website to your social media accounts to gain more visibility and credibility. Engaging with your followers is important too as they are the very people who might share your content, you can also use white label service to gain organic traffic. Read the next article in this series and learn about the 3 must-have SEO Tools.  In-demand Digital Marketing Skills Advertising Courses Influencer Marketing Courses SEO Courses Performance Marketing Courses SEM Courses Email Marketing Courses Content Marketing Courses Social Media Marketing Courses Marketing Analytics Courses Web Analytics Courses Display Advertising Courses Affiliate Marketing Courses upGrad’s Exclusive Digital Marketing Webinar for you – What’s new in Marketing? document.createElement('video'); https://cdn.upgrad.com/blog/rumi-ambastha.mp4 Digital Marketing Free courses to Learn Influencer marketing free course Introduction to advertising free course Influencer marketing right free course SEO basics free course SEM basics free course Email marketing free course Social media marketing introduction free course How to leverage user generated content free course Content marketing free course Fundamentals of marketing free course Brand marketing masterclass free course Popular Digital Marketing Blogs Beginners Guide to YouTube Marketing : Complete List How to Monetize Your YouTube Channel? Top 5 Actionable Steps The Complete Guide on setting up a LinkedIn Company Page Everything You Need To Know About Digital Marketing A Complete Guide to Digital Marketing Strategy: What it is and How to create it? Digital Marketing Tutorial: A Step-by-Step Guide To Become an Expert Future of Digital Marketing: How It Goes From Here Importance of Digital Marketing: Top 10 Reasons Your Business Needs it Digital Marketing Challenges: How to Win Amidst the Challenges in Digital Marketing

by Shane Barker

04 Jun 2018