Archive for the ‘Internet Marketing’ Category
How Long Should Your Blog Articles Be?
by Rahimah Sultan
Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. There is no expense to you.
You shouldn’t be overly concerned about word count when writing content. The quality is what really matters.
Due to recent algorithm updates, shorter articles are ranking better. But this is also related to changes in the way we consume content. The ideal length also changes significantly across industries.
Tech websites use fairly short articles that are commentaries on a product, technology development, or an event.
Fashion is another industry that uses short posts. These readers don’t care about the history of a trend or how garments are made. What you’re going to see are thousands of articles about which looks are hot and how to recreate them.
Job recruitment topics usually range from 900 – 1,000 words. Job hunters don’t have the time to read thousands of words. They want to find new employment quickly.
Food Bloggers can use around 1,200 words to cover an introduction and an in-depth recipe.
Finance, sales, and healthcare are some industries that still benefit from the comprehensiveness and depth of long-form content. As these industries cover fairly complex topics, it’s almost always necessary to go beyond 2,000 words in order to satisfy readers’ interest.
Retail, manufacturing, marketing, food, and travel use mid-length articles of 1,000 – 2,000 words to cover information. This remains the most common article length.
Keep your target audience in mind at all times, as you choose your blog topics and how much content to write for each. If you know their needs can be met with less than 1,000 words, don’t waste their time with fluff.
While doing research for this article, I came across this quote from Ryan Velez, freelance writer and editor:
Ideal blog length has always evolved over time. As a response to the wave of 750-word content, things expanded to be a lot more comprehensive, 2,500 words-plus. Now, with the wave of AI-generated content flooding the internet, word count doesn’t guarantee quality to the same degree. Combine that with the ‘TikTok Effect,’ and ideal content size is smaller now and quicker to get to the point. Think 1,500 to 2,000 words.
What is content marketing?
Content marketing is a long-term strategy used with the goal of building relationships with your target audience by methodically delivering high-quality, relevant content that educates and ultimately makes sales.
Long-Form Content vs. Short-Form
Web users are becoming smarter. Searches using long-tailed keywords increase daily. These users want specific answers to specific questions. So, your content strategy needs to match their increasing knowledge.
Creating content with a high word count allows the you to feel a sense of achievement you don’t get when writing 500-word articles. Marketers are feeling like they have to create long-form content to get a toehold in the SERPs.
But the times are changing. Users are falling in love with short-form content. It’s part of the reason U.S. adults spend up to an hour on TikTok.
Over 50 percent of business videos are less than two minutes long.
Combine these statistics with the fact that more and more adults believe attention spans are getting shorter, and it’s easy to see why consumers are placing greater emphasis and trust in concise articles that quickly answer their questions.
So, back to the question, how long should your blog articles be?
Two decades ago, the average article length was between 500-800 words. By the mid-2010s, articles were in excess of 2,000 words.
There are multiple reasons for this which include the way readers scan articles online and the psychology of equating length with quality.
Now, more concise articles are the trend. Although these aren’t quite as short as 800 words, they are short enough to quickly answer readers’ questions.
As you can see, longer is not necessarily better, neither is shorter. There is no one correct answer for blog article length. It’s dependent upon the industry. Your focus should be on quality not quantity or rankings.
Focus on top-quality content and promote it effectively rather than on how much to write.
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Reasons Why Link Building is Important for SEO
by Rahimah Sultan
Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. There is no expense to you.
In the pre-Google days of the internet, search engines like Yahoo and Alta Vista were dominant players and their search results were 100% based on the content on a webpage.
Then came Google.
Google’s now-famous algorithm changed the game. Google looked at how many people linked to that page instead of simply analyzing the content of the page.
Almost 20 years later, links remain the best way to establish the quality of a webpage. Therefore, backlinks remain Google’s go-to ranking indicator.
Because of updates like Google Penguin, Google now focuses on link quality (not just link quantity).
If the page linking to you is a PageRank powerhouse, that link will have a BIG effect on your rankings.
That’s because links from authoritative pages pass more authority (also known as PageRank) to your site.
Now, let’s continue with the reasons why link building is important for SEO.
What is the importance of backlinks?
Link building is the system of building one-way hyperlinks (also called backlinks) to a website with the purpose of improving search engine visibility. Some common link-building strategies include content marketing, email outreach, building useful tools, broken link building, and public relations.
Content marketing played a substantial role in the development of backlink building. Webmasters started creating high-quality content that naturally drew links from other websites, instead of only focusing on acquiring backlinks.
Website owners could increase their chances of earning organic backlinks by producing informative, valuable, and shareable content.
This shift in strategy supported Google’s emphasis on user experience and the importance of providing important content to online audiences.
FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)
1. What is backlink building; Why it’s important for building authority
The process of getting links from other websites to your own is backlink building.
These links act as a vote of confidence, demonstrating to search engines that your website is authoritative and trustworthy.
Backlink building is essential for building authority. It drives organic traffic and helps improve your website’s visibility in search engine results.
2. How has backlink building evolved?
Backlink building is now more focused on quality rather than quantity. As search engines have become smarter at detecting spammy and low-quality links, it’s essential to focus on acquiring high-quality backlinks from reputable websites. And, the importance of relevance and context has increased, with search engines giving more weight to backlinks that come from websites in the same industry or niche.
3. What are some effective strategies for backlink building?
Important strategies for backlink building include influencer outreach, guest blogging, and creating valuable content that naturally invites backlinks. Guest blogging involves writing high-quality articles for other websites in exchange for a backlink to your site. Influencer outreach involves building relationships with influential people or brands in your industry and getting them to mention your website or link to it. Creating valuable content that naturally attracts backlinks involves producing engaging, informative, and shareable content that other websites will desire to link to.
4. Are there risks or pitfalls to avoid?
When building backlinks, there are risks and pitfalls to avoid. One common one to avoid is engaging in black hat SEO techniques, like buying or exchanging links. This can lead to penalties from search engines. It’s very important to avoid spammy link building practices, such as bulk directory submissions or comment spamming. You should focus on building natural and high-quality backlinks that add value to both your website and those websites linking to you.
5. How can I assess the quality of a potential backlink?
You can consider several factors to assess the quality of a backlink. You can first check the website’s domain authority and page authority using tools like Moz’s Domain Authority or Ahrefs’ Domain Rating. Look for websites with a higher domain authority as they are more likely to pass on effective link juice. And, consider the relevance of the website to your niche and the setting in which the link will be placed. A backlink from a highly reputable and relevant website will have a greater effect on your authority.
6. Is it better to have a few quality backlinks or lots of low-quality backlinks?
Now, it’s better to have a few high-quality backlinks than many low-quality backlinks. Search engines have become more high-tech in evaluating the quality of backlinks, and they prioritize authority and relevance. A few high-quality backlinks from reputable websites in your industry will have a more significant impact on your authority and search engine rankings than many low-quality backlinks.
7. Does it take long to see the results of backlink building?
The time can vary for seeing the results of backlink building. It depends on factors like the competitiveness of your industry, the quality of the backlinks you acquire, and the frequency of search engine crawls. Generally, it can take several weeks to months before you start seeing the impact of your backlink-building efforts. Patience and consistency are key when it comes to building authority through backlinks.
8. Can I remove or disavow bad backlinks?
You can remove or disavow bad backlinks. If you have acquired low-quality or spammy backlinks that could harm your website’s authority, it’s recommended to try removing them by contacting the website owners and requesting removal. If that fails, you can use the Google Disavow Tool to tell search engines to ignore those backlinks when evaluating your website’s authority. However, it’s important to exercise caution and only disavow links that are actually harmful.
9. Are there alternatives to backlink building for authority?
Although backlink building is a highly effective strategy for building authority, there are other methods you can consider. You can focus on creating high-quality content that attracts organic traffic and engagement. If you consistently produce valuable content and optimize it for search engines, you can build authority over time. Another way is to leverage social media platforms and engage with your audience to establish yourself as an authority in your industry.
10. Should you hire a professional for backlink building?
It can be beneficial to hire a professional for backlink building, especially if you are short on time, expertise, or resources to execute an effective backlink-building strategy. Professionals can help you identify high-quality backlink opportunities, navigate the complexities, and develop outreach strategies. However, you must choose a reputable and experienced professional or agency to ensure ethical and effective practices are followed.
Building backlinks is an ongoing process that requires a well-thought-out strategy, time, and effort.
Some important effective strategies for link building are:
1. Creating High-Quality Content
Creating high-quality content is the foundation of a successful backlink building strategy. You should focus on creating well-researched unique and valuable content that provides value to your target audience. When you do this, other websites are more likely to link to it.
2. Reaching out to influencers and industry experts
Ask influencers and industry experts in your niche to share your content or to collaborate on a project. When they link to your website, it can substantially boost your credibility and authority.
Building relationships and using personalized outreach emails with influencers can go a long way in acquiring valuable backlinks.
3. Guest Posting
Guest posting entails writing articles for other websites in your industry or niche. This lets you showcase your expertise and offer value to a new audience. Then, you can include a link back to your website within the guest post. Focus on high domain authority and relevance to your industry when choosing websites for guest posting.
Always remember that building backlinks takes patience and time. Focus on quality as opposed to quantity and always prioritize creating valuable content that people want to link to. Here, we’ve covered some of the reasons why link building is important for SEO.
7 of the Most Common Types of Content Marketing and Some Future Trends
by Rahimah Sultan
Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. There is no expense to you.
With the surge of AI where everybody can publish generic blog posts, remember the foundation of high-quality content is sharing authentic, first-hand experiences.
In its latest search engine updates, Google says content should be helpful and come from human experience.
What is content marketing?
Content marketing is the publishing of written and visual material online to attract more leads to your business. These materials can include e-books, infographics, blog posts, videos, web pages, and more.
It isn’t just publishing a shallow piece of content that offers little value. The focus is on making valuable content that your audience can discover themselves while browsing.
Content marketing is the planning, creating, distribution, sharing, and publishing of content through channels like social media, blogs, websites, podcasts, press releases, apps, print publications, and more. The goal of content marketing is to reach your target audience and increase brand awareness, engagement, sales, and loyalty.
Some of the most common types of content marketing are:
1. Online Content Marketing
Online content marketing is any material you publish online, but specifically, it applies to your web pages.
With a strong online content marketing strategy you’ll be able to rank higher in the search engine results pages (SERPs) and get in front of the right people at the right time and immediately engage visitors with specific content about your products or services.
2. Social Media Content Marketing
There are billions of social media users worldwide so it’s easy to see why many businesses invest in social media marketing.
There are several platforms to work with including Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, and Snapchat. Each one offers various ways to create and share content, like photos, pre-recorded videos, pre-recorded videos, live videos, and stories.
3. Infographic Content Marketing
Infographics display content, information, and data in an easy-to-understand graphic format that includes a mix of simple wording, short statements, and clear images. These are a great way to effectively communicate your content. They work well if you’re trying to simplify an educational or a complex topic so all audience members can understand it.
4. Blog Content Marketing
A blog is a great source of inbound content that allows you to be creative in your choice of topic and writing. You can use your blog to promote related content using links and social share buttons as well as incorporate product information.
5. Video Content Marketing
According to research, 91% of businesses video as a marketing tool.
You can use video marketing to help build a strong bond with your audience, boost conversions, and improve ROI. You can also choose to share your video content on landing pages, social media platforms, or on a co-marketer’s website.
6. Podcast Content Marketing
Experts predict that in the future over 71 million people will listen to podcasts. That’s 10 million more than the current listeners across the Spotify and Apple Podcast platforms. This is the reason many businesses and media outlets create and share their own podcasts.
Since podcasts can be about any topic, you have plenty of room for a lot of creativity.
You decide the pace of episodes, guests, where you advertise the podcast, and the length of each episode.
7. Paid Ad Content Marketing
You can reach a broad audience with paid ads and position yourself in all the places you want to be seen. Pairing paid ads and inbound marketing is especially beneficial.
Paid ads can be shared on landing pages, social media, banners, and in sponsored content.
What are some content marketing trends?
Google says content should be helpful and come from human experience. This is one of numerous ways to increase your traffic.
Here are some ways content marketing is moving forward and how to use them to your advantage.
1. Use of AI
The role of AI is to scale and improve, not to come up with the original insight that hasn’t been shared before.
AI writing tools base output on information already somewhere on the internet – other blogs.
For your content to work for you, it has to stand out. The best way to make that happen is by sharing expert insights. AI can’t give you unique, experience-based ideas.
Producing content requires much more than just pumping out text. For it to be valuable for readers, it needs a proper strategy, in-depth research, first-hand knowledge of the industry, and a person to put it all together in a way that’s relatable to readers.
It’s best to use AI to generate top-level outlines, like a skeleton to set a flexible foundation that can be modified later. Then using your expertise, you can elaborate on the details and add insights and depth that only a human can present.
2. First-Hand Experience
Prioritize sharing first-hand experience. The public loves other people’s stories. If you don’t have expertise in a particular area, you can interview people who do and base your article on their insights.
3. Source Content
One of the top-ranking factors for content marketing is backlinks, so publish “Be the Source” content to get more traffic, links, and shares from your content marketing.
4. Authority
Participate in establishing authority in your area of expertise.
Google prefers content created by knowledgeable and reputable people. Setting up yourself as an authority in your area of expertise improves the credibility of your content.
This is really important now when there’s a lot of AI-generated content on the internet.
You want your content to have a face and a story. This will boost your content’s relevance and trustworthiness in the eyes of users and in search engines. Search engines like Google must decide between high- and low-quality content.
5. Leverage
Use community contributions to boost the credibility and depth of your content by tapping into the collective expertise and experiences of a diverse group.
You can do this by:
a) Collaborating with industry experts in your field to create content and inviting them to share insights.
b) Organizing Q&A sessions with experts or influential people in your industry through live streams, webinars, or interviews.
c) Develop collaborative projects where several contributors can add their expertise. This could be a blog post, a webinar, a research paper, or an industry-related guide.
d) Leverage UGC (User-Generated Content). Urge your audience to contribute their ideas or experiences. This can be through comments, social media interactions, or guest posts.
Promote their work on your platforms as part of the collaboration.
Be sure to give proper credit when you use other people’s content, whether it’s from experts or UGC.
6. User-Generated Content
A bit more about UGC.
Users or customers create and share content about your brand or product which may include images, reviews, social media posts, or videos, which you can then use in your marketing endeavors.
Instead of using traditional search engines like Google for information, many young people turn to platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. Especially when they’re looking for how-to guides or local restaurant recommendations.
There are two main benefits of using UGC:
They prioritize content that comes from other customers, such as unboxing, reviews, and lifestyle videos featuring your product and now that users are creating content for you, you get to:
1. Accelerate the content generation process
2. And you get authentic content that your audience can relate to
7. Repurpose Content
A great way to scale up your content marketing, without starting over each time you want to create a post for a new format, is repurposing your content on different platforms. Content repurposing is now a hot content marketing trend.
But, over the last few years, people’s standards for content have risen a lot. You can no longer just copy and paste a section a section from your blog post and publish it on social media nor can you just read an article into a microphone and call it quits.
But you can match the content to each format.
For example, repurposing a blog post for a YouTube video requires you to add elements at the beginning like a relatable story, use strategies that work well for the video, and rewrite portions to make sense in the new format.
Another example is reusing steps and tips, as you don’t have to repurpose a total piece of content. As an alternative, take the best sections from a current piece of content and reuse them elsewhere. Using this approach allows you to highlight specific, valuable parts of your content on platforms or in different formats.
8. Emerging Topics
Another way for your content to stand out is jumping on developing trends BEFORE they take off.
Use Google Trends to confirm that a keyword is growing or shrinking. And check out the “Related queries” section for your chosen topic.
First, check out a keyword you think might be trending up.
Then, go to the bottom of the page and check out the “Related queries” list.
Although Google-related queries are helpful, a check for exploding topics is better.
9. Improve Content Design
Improve your content design and user experience to suit Google’s algorithms for site speed, navigation ease, and user interaction when ranking websites. When your site loads fast, answers users’ queries, and is easy to navigate, people will stay on your site and interact with it, and they’re more likely to visit other pages of your site.
To improve UX (user experience), you need to:
a) Improving site speed
b) Being thoughtful about pop-up use
c) Design an easy-to-navigate page layout
d) Make call-to-actions and monetization contextually relevant
e) Link only to genuinely helpful content
f) Answer user intent early in your content and not hide important information at the bottom
10. Explainer Visuals
Custom explainer visuals like videos and graphics like screenshots and custom diagrams, are essential in explaining complex concepts.
Focus on creating content that is informative, engaging, and visually appealing.
Design graphics that visually represent data or explain steps needed to do something complex. Establish a YouTube presence. It’s a great place to distribute your content, and Google features YouTube videos on the first page of SERP.
Embedding YouTube videos in your article makes it more engaging and it’s an even greater way to distribute your YouTube videos. If you have a blog and a YouTube channel, embed your videos in your articles to help readers understand the topic even deeper and to increase your video views.
11. Distribute Your Content via Email
Continue distributing content by “personalized” email which involves providing value, encouraging interactions, and building trust. Email is still an important marketing trend.
12. Streamline Content Operations
Streamlined content operations refer to the structured and efficient management of content creation and distribution processes that include:
Setting clear content objectives
Having clear roles and responsibilities
Mapping your content creation process
Organizing tasks and projects
Incorporating effective tools for content planning, writing, and SEO optimization
Continuing to optimize and repurpose your content
Here you have 7 of the most common types of content marketing and future trends. Now you can put a strategy together and work on creating content that will offer real value to your audience and significantly increase your website traffic.
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Current Email Marketing Changes
by Rahimah Sultan
Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. There is no expense to you.
Whether you’re an experienced marketer or just getting started, these email marketing trends will help you create relevant, engaging, content for now and the future.
As we move forward, trends will redefine how we connect with our audience, measure success, and create our email marketing strategies.
We’re now venturing into the realms of heightened engagement, smarter analytics, and more intuitive user interactions.
Do the latest email marketing trends matter?
Yes. Here are some reasons why email marketing trends matter.
1. Consumer habits and preferences continually evolve with the changing digital landscape. What interested them in the past may not resonate this year.
2. The digital space constantly fluctuates with new technologies appearing quickly. Keeping up-to-date on the latest trends means using new tools and techniques (such as AI and interactive design) to substantially enhance the performance of your email campaigns.
3. Differentiation is key in a crowded digital market. If you adopt the latest trends, you can capture your subscribers’ attention and stand out in their inboxes, capture their attention, and stay ahead of competitors who might be slower to incorporate new methods.
4. The fundamental goal of any marketing plan is to effectively engage customers and drive a strong return on investment. The latest trends in email marketing often offer new ways to increase engagement, enhance personalization, and, ultimately, increase the ROI of your campaigns.
5. With directives like GDPR and changing email standards, staying updated with the latest trends also means ensuring compliance and adhering to best practices.
What are the hottest email marketing trends?
Moving forward, the email marketing landscape is in position for some groundbreaking shifts. These changes are about deep, impactful transformations that respond to the evolving digital environment.
There will be trends that will redefine how we craft our email marketing strategies, connect with our audience, and measure success. There’ll be an exploration of innovations that go beyond the traditional, venturing into areas of heightened engagement, smarter analytics, and more intuitive user interactions.
Email authentication is finally advancing from a best practice to a requirement, especially for high-volume senders. Enforcement is beginning now, signaling a significant shift in the industry’s approach to email authentication.
The following are the new requirements:
1. Authentication
1. Senders must set up SPF (Sender Policy Framework), a layer of protection in email infrastructure, and DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), which allows the receiver to check that an email that claimed to have come from a specific domain was actually authorized by the owner of that domain. These protocols are essential for authenticating your emails and proving they’re sent from a legitimate source??.
2. Along with SPF and DKIM, a DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance policy is mandatory. It enables email senders to specify how to handle emails authenticated using SPF or DKIM. Then, these senders can opt to send those emails to the junk folder or block them altogether. This policy doesn’t need to be enforced at the beginning. However, achieving DMARC enforcement is still a best practice for safeguarding against domain spoofing and abuse??.
Only the main points are touched on here, due to the complicated nature of these protocols.
3. The domain in the sender’s “From” header must align with either the SPF or DKIM domain, ensuring uniformity and consistency in the sender’s identity??.
4. It’s essential to maintain valid forward and reverse DNS (Domain Name System) which are also known as PTR records. These records contribute to the legitimacy and traceability of the sending domains and IPs. Domain Name System (DNS) translates a domain name into an IP address to find the owner’s site.
5. Enabling a visible and accessible one-click unsubscribe option is essential for subscription-based messages. This practice augments user experience and aligns with Gmail’s requirements for sustaining low spam rates??.
6. Keep spam rates low, below 0.3%. This metric reflects the sender’s reputation and the effectiveness of their email practices??.
The industry is increasingly focused on security and authenticity. Compliance with these guidelines is crucial for ensuring high deliverability and preserving a good sender reputation. Although these new requirements are from major email service providers like Google and Yahoo, you can expect other inbox providers to announce similar regulations.
2. Generative AI
In the current email marketing changes, Expanded Generative AI is a major leap forward in email marketing technology. It allows marketers to create more effective, personalized email campaigns while saving time and resources. This enhanced AI technology goes beyond basic automation and enables the creation of highly personalized, dynamic content at scale.
AI can generate powerful email content personalized to individual preferences based on user data and past interactions.
Generative AI greatly reduces the time and effort needed to create varied and engaging email campaigns.
Although you might think that AI-generated content may not be very engaging, it has the potential to be the most engaging. As a marketer, you are limited in the personalization and segmentation of your marketing campaigns. The same restrictions don’t apply to Generative AI.
3. Interactive email experiences
With the current email marketing changes, you’ll see emails changing from static messages into dynamic, engaging experiences. There’ll be more embedded widgets and features incorporating elements like surveys, polls, and quizzes directly within the email.
Rich media integration using videos, gifs, and other things to make emails more visually appealing and engaging.
There’ll be real-time content updates based on user actions or external factors, like stock levels or weather conditions.
You’ll see game-like elements incorporated like spin-to-win features and scratch cards, plus, interactive CTA (call-to-action buttons) that animate, change color, or expand upon hover or click, providing immediate feedback to the user.
4. Minimalistic designs
Layouts will be cleaner, color schemes will be simplified, and minimal text with easy-to-read fonts will be used for succinctness and clarity. The focus will be on content and faster load times.
5. Mobile focus
With the current email marketing changes, designing emails with a mobile focus is a must, since the majority of emails being opened are on mobile devices. Although we know this, it still seems that mobile design is an afterthought. That might be because we’re often designing and planning email campaigns from a desktop.
6. BIMI adoption
Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI) is an email authentication protocol that allows brands to display their logo next to their email in the inbox, thus, enhancing brand visibility and trust. Although it’s relatively new, you’ve probably seen a few well-known brands using this in the inbox.
7. New metrics focus
Marketers and senders will start looking at metrics beyond open rates, and businesses will use other key performance indicators (KPIs) to gauge the value and performance of their email campaigns like:
Engagement over time
Email influence on the customer journey
Subscribe lifetime value
Conversion rate, and
List growth rate
These current email marketing changes emphasize the continuous advancement of email marketing.
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Autoresponders Are A Must for Your Online Business
By Rahimah Sultan
Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. There is no expense to you.
Are you just starting an online Business? Then, you might not know a lot about autoresponders. They are computer programs that automatically answer emails sent to them.
Autoresponders help automate your business which saves a lot of time. If you use them correctly, you can generate a lot of business.
Saving time and generating income are the two main reasons for using autoresponders. You’ll need an email marketing application to send out autoresponders. Do an online search for “autoresponders” and you’ll find many to choose from and you can select the one best suited to your needs. Autoresponders are a must for your online business.
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Things to be Concerned About When Starting a Home Business
by Rahimah Sultan
Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. There is no expense to you.
You may have dreams of becoming an entrepreneur and owning your own business, which is great. Just remember that it takes time, patience, and persistence. The process may seem bewildering. The first thing you need to do is brainstorm some ideas.
Do some thorough market research in areas that interest you. Explore whether or not there’s a need for the product or service you choose. Will it solve a problem better than the current available options? Is there a potential to fill gaps in the marketplace? Once you’ve made your choice, write out a business plan.
You should start small and expand later. There will be some startup costs, so be sure you have income and or savings set aside to get you through to the-making-profits phase. Do this by overestimating needed startup capital, carefully watching your expenses, and considering your funding options.
If you’re not planning to run a one-person business, you’ll want a solid, top-notch principled team. Look for the best people for your team.
Once you’re all set up, you need to aggressively advertise your product/service. Get an attractive logo that helps people identify your label and place it on all platforms across the internet including social media. Interact with your potential customers through follow-ups with promotions and discounts or just with free quality information related to the goal or purpose of your website. These are some things to be concerned about when starting a home business.
What should you consider before starting a business?
You should focus on your business journey and not compare your success to anyone else. You need to get into the right mindset. It takes consistency, follow-up routines, and laying out steps to achieve your goals.
Consider the following:
Determining your business concept
Scaling your business
Financing
Where do you prefer to work; a workshop or an office
Time to devote to your business
Your passions and interests
Your expertise or skills
The kind of support needed to start a business
Partnering with someone
Whether a franchise model makes more sense to you
Selling information rather than a product
Once you’ve decided what your business will be, you’ll need to get it up and running. You can do this by setting up a blog as your place of operation online.
You’ll need to choose a domain name and a blogging platform for your blog as well as a hosting company.
Now you’re ready to go.
Here are some ideas for a start.
What are some pitfalls of working from home?
Here are some things to be concerned about when starting a home business:
Remaining Focused
Some people are expert multi-taskers. If you’re not one of them, you need to devise a more formally structured day like in a traditional office setting.
You should have a dedicated office area, if possible, one with a door or a corner just for work or use a café for an hour a day so that when you go there your brain signals it’s time to work.
Keeping Boundaries
Although working from home has its flexibility, remember how easily time can be snatched away from your workday. Remember your work is as real as any traditional office job. Set up a schedule for hours and breaks.
Working Too Much
With any job, there is always more to do. If you’re serious about working from home for the long term, you’ll need time away from the computer and the stress of work for this lifestyle to be sustainable.
Feeling Isolated
You’ll need to create social interactions. You can:
Schedule lunch or breakfast get-togethers.
Use online social networks such as Facebook or Twitter as your virtual “water cooler” during the day.
Use Skype, phone calls, or chat instead of email.
Get involved with networking groups or local meetups.
Spend some time working in shared office spaces.
In conclusion, launching a home business can be exciting, although the real challenge is to keep it going. Work with established brands, come up with ideas, experiment, don’t be afraid to fail, be open to feedback, and network with others. All of these are things to be concerned about when starting a home business.
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Make Your Marketing Easier With an Autoresponder
by Rahimah Sultan
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If you’re a serious marketer using email marketing, you know you need to use an autoresponder. But, if you’re just starting your business, you may not be familiar with certain email marketing tools and how to use them to effectively and efficiently email people. This article is intended to show you how to make your marketing easier with an autoresponder.
What is an autoresponder?
An autoresponder is an automated system that sends a reply to a customer using certain rules. It can contain one email or a series of emails that go to subscribers’ inboxes after a trigger event occurs, such as signing up for something of yours they’ve seen online. The goal of the email is to engage your audience, as soon as they take an action, through a series of follow-up messages.
They are the simplest form of email automation. They can include a welcome email, a thank-you email, or an abandoned cart reminder as well as more complex uses for lead-nurturing and other campaigns.
An autoresponder series of emails will:
1. Help you bond with your email list so they get to know, like, and trust you. Thus, boosting your traffic and sales
2. Lend a sense of continuity to your email marketing
3. Allow constant communication between you and your audienceWhat are some examples of when to use autoresponder emails?
1. Follow-ups
This email is used for visitors to your site who have just given you their email addresses. This is mainly those who’ve signed up for your newsletter or whatever you promised when they filled in the form on your site. It’s a one-time email that goes out immediately after they’ve entered their contact information.
This is usually a welcome email saying hello and thank you for your interest. Then you can set up a series of emails to go out at particular intervals to keep engaged with this list.
2. Sales leads
These emails are for people who have expressed an interest in your product or service. They may have watched a video, so this email encourages them to start a free trial of some sort.
3. Customer service
The goal of customer-service emails is to establish clear expectations for response time, specify self-service resources, and communicate known issues.
4. Onboarding
Onboarding is the process of introducing a new user to a product or service and guiding them through the early steps of using it. The reason for this is to help them understand the product or service’s value and encourage them to engage with it more deeply which leads to increased user retention, satisfaction, and user lifetime value (LTV).
You can use tutorials, welcome messages, guided tours, and other resources designed to make the user’s first experience with the product as smooth and intuitive as possible.
5. Upselling
This email is used after your customers have been using your product or service for a set amount of time. It offers your customer an upgrade to a long-term plan.
Autoresponder emails are an essential part of your email marketing strategy because they allow you to send your subscribers the right message at the best time. Whether you are a blogger or an eCommerce store owner, they can help you maintain a healthy email list (through double opt-in), welcome and onboard your subscribers, and save valuable time.
An autoresponder is a must-have tool if you have an online business and want to successfully and efficiently email people. It saves precious time.
Although you gain quick results with an autoresponder, remember the human element. Things change quickly these days, so “set it and forget it” no longer exists. You have to continue to test copy, see how your customers react to different types of autoresponders, and add new touch points.
Autoresponders will exponentially expand your reach without adding more time or effort to your workflow, once you figure out what works. So, make your marketing easier with an autoresponder.
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Marketing Trends and Strategies for 2023
by Rahimah Sultan
Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. There is no expense to you.
New approaches are necessary as the success of marketing strategies becomes more dependent on real-time data and evolving technology.
As third-party research and data are becoming less relevant, getting to know your audience doesn’t look the same as before. New analytics tools are providing up-to-the-second details on which campaigns work and which ones should be done away with.
To make an emotional connection, you need marketing strategies that integrate branding and storytelling, not just promos and PR. Brand stories and values inspire audiences and also give them reasons, besides a rock-bottom price, to make purchases.
Storytelling, using someone who is well-liked and trusted, humanizes a brand and builds customer relationships. Satisfied clients and influencers can be effective sources of content for videos, blog posts, and general campaigns.
What are some top marketing trends?
1. Video marketers will use short content.
Getting to the point with short-form videos can actually be very effective. They not only take less bandwidth but this type of format aligns well with the short attention span of online audiences in a variety of demographics.
2. Social media will become a customer service tool.
This is relativity new and it’s no coincidence that this trend is emerging when many social media platforms are expanding their e-commerce capabilities thus making providing customer service on these platforms even more crucial.
3. More businesses will leverage SEO
We marketers must make sure our websites and content are as discoverable as possible, especially on Google, which can provide both long-term and short-term traffic returns. While SEO is not new, its strategies are becoming more and more ingrained within today’s marketing strategies.
As interest and need for SEO strategies grow, so do search optimization opportunities. With the evolving of Google algorithms, SEO has become about more than churning out basic posts that answer simple search inquiries.
4. Mobile optimization will be even more important.
As people are spending more and more time on mobile devices, especially millennials and Gen Z who continue to grow buying power, mobile-optimized digital experiences will be even more crucial to consider as a business owner who markets to these fast-paced, highly connected generations.
Mobile experiences aren’t just important on brand websites, they’re also important in other key marketing strategies such as delivering mobile email experiences to subscribers.
5. Inbound marketing will remain a best practice.
As outbound marketing tactics have become less effective in reaching prospects and leads, inbound marketing has become a valuable asset to create brand awareness and build trust, digitally, through refocusing strategy to drive customers to seek out your content.
Inbound marketing requires you to produce good quality, valuable content tailored toward your target audience and buyer personas and their needs.
6. More brands will test out native ads.
Native ads work. When you pay to feature your content on a third-party website, you’re investing in native advertising which is designed to blend in and promote your brand to a new audience that, otherwise, might not learn about you.
Native ads don’t feel like traditional ads so consumers are more likely to view them, especially over banner ads.
You can find examples of native ads on social media, content recommendation platforms (those links to various other content you can click at the bottom of the page to read more on or related to the topic), through search engine results, or in campaigns.
What are some strategies?
1. Cohesive customer experiences.
Although customers don’t interact with brands through a single method or channel, they expect a personalized, tailored experience that speaks directly to their needs.
Marketers need to understand specific interactions in the customer’s entire journey and focus on a complete experience, not a point-in-time campaign.
To better understand your user experience, you can create a customer journey map (you can do a Google search for “customer journey map”) which is a visual representation of how a customer acts, thinks, and feels through the buying process. It can be a valuable tool for creating a cohesive experience.
2. Improved user experience across devices.
User experience or UX refers to how a person feels when interacting with a system. A good UX design will provide a positive experience that fulfills users’ needs and keeps them loyal to your product or brand.
Your website and/or app is probably your most valuable marketing asset, and a great UX can make all the difference when convincing consumers to become customers.
When you design your site, keep the layout simple and include easy-to-use navigation. Don’t overwhelm users with too much information on the main landing pages.
Also, optimize your website for mobile, especially since more than half of users worldwide use their phones to browse the web.
3. Voice search tactics for SEO.
Marketers are beginning to leverage voice search as a search engine optimization (SEO) tool. These digital assistants are designed to answer short, informational queries such as “Who painted the Sistine Chapel and “What’s the weather in San Francisco?” but they’ve also started to process more customized searches, like “What coffee shops are open near me?” and, “Do they serve lattes?”
Businesses’ responses are how they frame information. To answer readers’ questions based on intent, creators are opting for more conversational question-and-answer formats so that when consumers use voice search, they’ll get high-quality, accurate responses more quickly.
4. Conversational marketing.
Conversational marketing uses targeted messaging and AI automation to engage with people when they’re on your website instead of directing people to lead capture forms and waiting for a response.
This digital marketing trend employs intelligent chatbots with machine learning and natural language processing (NLP), which allows customers to have a two-way conversation with a brand. Shifting from an asynchronous way of marketing to real-time conversations presents a major learning curve as conversational marketing grows in 2023.
5. Interactive content.
If you’ve used the internet within the past decade, you’ve likely come across interactive content without even realizing it.
Today’s audiences want content that demands attention. Marketers are developing dynamic, two-way experiences that encourage active engagement from their target audiences with content such as:
Quizzes
Interactive infographics
Calculators
Games
Assessments
Contests
Interactive videos
Interactive maps
Interactive content is a great trend to try if your content marketing goals include:
Enhanced audience engagement
Improved customer learning
More leads and conversions
Increased brand loyalty
Streamlining the customer experience
By keeping up with current marketing trends and strategies and shifting to real-time marketing and campaigns, you can design strategies that create profitable relationships instead of short-term results.
Marketing strategies are road maps that include tactics for converting audience interest into sales. But, plans are only as good as the data that updates them. Shifting to real-time market and campaign insights leads to messages that persuade and connect with the people behind the numbers. Brands that don’t lose sight of why audiences convert, can design strategies that create profitable relationships instead of short-term results.
With these marketing trends and strategies for 2023 tips, you have an overview of what the future holds.
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Back to Basics in Marketing
by Rahimah Sultan
Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. There is no expense to you.
In order to succeed, the market must know you. A strategic marketing effort is an indispensable part of your business. If people don’t know you exist, there will be no one to buy your product or services.
What is marketing?
Typically, marketing is the activity and practices carried out to publicize and deliver offerings of value to prospects and customers. It’s the effort to promote and sell products and services. Marketing has evolved over time from traditional methods to digital marketing.
It’s the effort to promote and sell products/services. Marketing has evolved through time, from the more traditional methods to the recent digital marketing industry.
Both traditional and digital marketing are similar in that they aim to develop a mutually beneficial relationship with prospects and customers. However, digital marketing methods have become more prevalent due to the shift in people’s purchasing behavior to online.
There is a set of proven marketing tactics that you can use in any combination that suits you while getting back to basics in marketing. They are:
Product
Price
Promotion
Place
Process
People
Physical evidence
What do I need to do to ensure marketing success?
1. Define your marketing strategy
To be successful, you must have a well-defined marketing strategy. You need to:
Know your business and marketing goals
Know what you’re promoting and selling
Research and know your market
Profile your customer and competitors
List and develop strategies to supplement your goals
2. Use SEO
To rank high in Google’s SERPS, you must have correctly done search engine optimization (SEO). If done right, various SEO strategies can help drive more traffic to your website by ranking you high.
Use relevant keywords and phrases in your content, but not so many as to be penalized by Google for “stuffing.”
There are many keyword tools you can use to help capitalize on preferred keywords and phrases.
Use quality link-building. Including hyperlinks from other websites is an effective SEO tactic.
Linking to authoritative websites can help boost your ranking, as these are link-worthy sites that increase your website’s authority level.
Only link to sites that are relevant to yours, so Google will not demote your ranking. You can check out the popular link-building tools that can help bring in quality link-building opportunities.
3. Use a Trusted Web Host
Google likes fast websites. The web host and the hosting company you choose can greatly influence search ranking.
4. Use Quality and Updated Content
Your content is the currency that forms the base of all your marketing strategies. Good quality and relevant content are what Google uses for ranking.
Your website must make sense and be beneficial so your audience will return for more.
5. Use Video Marketing
Because people are visual, videos have become the driving force for most digital marketing ventures.
Video is a powerful storytelling medium that connects with your audience emotionally through sound, motion, and attractive visuals. It also offers a better online user experience to your audience.
Videos also break up chunks of text, improving readability. ‘How to’ and technical videos are more effective than technical manuals. Live videos promote more interaction with people allowing them to feel like being part of the conversation by commenting during live sessions.
Use unique crafting content for your videos to make you stand out. Video marketing can be a powerful and effective way to engage and entertain your audience while conveying your core message.
6. Leverage Social Media
Social media is the preferred choice for most marketers. The number of social media users is daily increasing. Use your social media marketing effort on platforms such as Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, and others. Each channel has its own strengths. Use these strengths to increase your organic reach and increase awareness and get a higher conversion rate.
Be sure to incorporate social media plug-ins in your content so your audience won’t hesitate to share your content via social media. This will increase your outreach.
7. Use Simple and Short Forms
Gaining access to relevant data is crucial for a successful marketing strategy, however, collecting data from your audience is a delicate matter, because the way you do so can either encourage the user to voluntarily opt in or leave.
Your audience’s privacy is of utmost importance. Your web forms should be simple and contain a minimal number of fields. Focus only on what you need.
Your forms need to be simple, direct, and easy to understand to help your audience to decide to opt in to share their information with you.
8. Use Email Marketing
Email marketing is still one of the best ways to reach out and promote your business. However, you must have a list and use well-crafted emails that target your preferred audience.
9. Use Automation
Embrace automation to help with everyday repetitive tasks. Identify these and get the tools you believe will free up your time for others things that require specific attention and detail. Your productivity will increase as you spend your time efficiently.
10. Use AIDA
To capture users’ attention, use AIDA which is short for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. This is an age-old formula proven to work on almost every marketing channel. The purpose is to capture the user’s attention (Attention), create a sense of need in the user (Interest), tug their heartstrings (Desire), and finally provide solutions that push the user to buy (Action). All your marketing strategies must revolve around this formula.
Although we’ve learned from the past that the basic and proven marketing tactics are here to stay, they aren’t etched in stone. You must always do the things that are necessary to tweak your strategy for maximum benefits. The above are some of the popularly used smart hacks that you can use to build your marketing foundation while focusing on your unique selling points to stand out among the many and get back to basics in marketing.
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Building Your Brand’s Tone of Voice
by Rahimah Sultan
Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links on this website. There is no expense to you.
What is tone of voice in marketing?
Tone of voice is the personality a business creates to communicate with its target audience. If done well, it should build brand recognition and promote a connection with your audience.
Tone includes the language used, sentence structure, and how your words are delivered. It takes into consideration gender, cultural aspects, and the pace at which the language is delivered.
Think of it as one person communicating with another. When you want someone to do something, how do you ask them?
Your tone of voice depends on the audience, how you want them to perceive you, and what communication will best achieve the outcome.
Building your brand’s tone of voice is all about the words you use to appeal to the right people.
What are the benefits of a great tone of voice?
1. Brand Recognition
A great tone of voice builds a brand’s recognition. Your audience will always know it’s you when you use a specific, distinctive tone of voice that’s consistent throughout all your marketing channels.
2. Trust and Credibility
In business, credibility is everything, and your tone establishes trust and credibility. Customers instantly turn their backs on brands that they perceive as insincere or untrustworthy. Over 80% of consumers need to be able to trust a brand before they will even consider purchasing from it.
A well-defined, consistent brand tone of voice comes across as more genuine, which can help you build trust with customers.
3. Differentiation
Your brand tone of voice can be what, sometimes, differentiates you from competitors who sell the same products and services.
It’s easier for customers to connect with you on an emotional level when your brand has a distinct personality. Thus, building trust and loyalty, upping the odds that they choose you over the competition.
A unique tone of voice also makes your brand more unforgettable. This helps your company stick in people’s minds, which can lead to inquiries, leads, and sales.
4. Customer Relationships
When your brand has a distinct tone, it’s easier to enhance customer relationships. Customers want a personal connection with the brands they buy from. They want to know that you understand their needs, values, and concerns. And, they also want to know that the brand will be around for them if something goes wrong.
You can create stronger customer bonds by speaking to customers on their terms and level, which makes you authentic and relatable.
Customers who feel seen and heard are more likely to stay around for the long term.
5. Brand Values
Your tone of voice reinforces brand values. For example,
Your brand tone of voice should always reflect your values. For example, if you pride yourself on being a compassionate business, your tone of voice should be warm, friendly, and approachable.
So, how do you develop your brand’s tone of voice?
1. Understand Your Audience
You really need to get to know your target audience before creating your brand’s tone of voice. It needs to resonate with people who are most likely to buy your product or service.
You can start by researching your target audience’s preferences. Think about their age, where they live, what they do for a living, and their hobbies and interests.
You can develop a customer persona, if you don’t already have one, by using tools like Google Analytics.
2. Competitors
Analyze and research your competitors for the tone of voice they use. This will help you come up with a tone of voice that’s distinctive and unique.
Who is your competitor and what language, words, and phrases do they use? Who is your competitor’s biggest customer and what are their pain points? How does your content solve their problems? And how can you best speak to them?
3. Analyze Your Communication
Next, look at your current marketing materials to see if you have a brand tone of voice in place. It might be that you already favor a specific tone or your use of brand voice and tone is inconsistent across your content.
Consistency is imperative when establishing your tone of voice. A consistent tone branding can get you more growth overall.
Review everything from existing content, customer personas, brand tone of voice guidelines, and messaging to help you identify what’s working and what you need to change.
4. Clarify Values
To ensure consistency and help your tone of voice resonate with the right people, clarify your brand values.
If you already have a values page or a mission statement on your website, that’s a good start.
If you don’t have brand values in place, think about the characteristics that shape your brand identity, like:
What purpose does your business have?
What problems does your business solve?
What characteristics do the people who work for you share?
What are your long-term goals?
What qualities do your existing customers say define you? Check out previous reviews for valuable insight.
You need to reflect your values in your brand tone of voice.
5. Define Your Tone
Now, use the data you gathered from the previous stages, and choose four or five adjectives that best describe how you want your brand to sound.
Examples:
Authoritative
Optimistic
Informative
Conversational
If you’re stuck, you can use.
6. Create Brand Tone of Voice Guidelines
Brand tone of voice guidelines help with consistency. That way, everyone knows how your brand speaks across different scenarios and platforms. If you work with a third party like a digital marketing agency, guidelines are very useful. This helps anyone who creates content on your behalf use the right tone of voice.
Your guidelines should include specific examples of your brand tone in action, as well as how you don’t want to sound. Here’s an example. Your brand tone of voice guidelines can be a stand-alone document or a part of your company style guide.
7. Test and Repeat
When you’ve decided on your brand tone of voice and revised your content, make sure it drives the right results.
Start with your engagement rates.
Are you getting more likes, shares, and comments than before on social media?
Are you seeing more website traffic or longer viewing times on your pages?
Are there more click-through rates on your email newsletters?
If so it’s a sign that your new content aligns with audience expectations.
Ask your customers what they think of your content—you can do this through a short feedback form. They can advise if your new brand tone of voice clicks with them and offer advice on how to make it even better.
Remember to audit and update your tone of voice annually. If your target audience changes or your local rival updates its brand tone of voice, you need to change to stay relevant.
The most effective result of having a strong tone of voice is that it fosters trust and builds relationships with customers. They interact with your brand in the same way people would with a friend or trusted person.
More and more, people want to interact with brands online rather than call customer service, and they are more inclined to do so if the tone of voice is strong. As already stated in this article, building your brand’s tone of voice is critical to your marketing success.
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