marketing tool

6 Reasons Why Online Contests Are an Effective Marketing Tool

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An effective marketing strategy can make or break your business, so it’s extremely important to utilize proper marketing tools in your campaign.

Recently, online contests are starting to change the digital marketing world. You have probably noticed this tactic on your Instagram’s Explore section, but have you considered including it in your own marketing strategy? Well, you definitely should, and in this article, we’ll tell you why it’s a good idea to do so!

So, without further ado, let’s strengthen your marketing strategy together!

1. Broaden your audience

Source:relevance.com

First of all, online contests are a way for you to gain more followers. A person who decides to participate in the contest will likely talk to their friends and family about it, share it on their social media, all of which will increase their interest in your brand.

Remember, every follower is a potential customer! So, growing your brand and promoting yourself by engaging with a broader audience will certainly do wonders for your business.

All in all, online contests will help you build a community around your brand, and they’ll certainly generate more traffic on your online platforms.

2. Build stronger relationships with your existing customers

Source:medium.com

Getting new customers can be difficult, but there’s nothing harder than to keep your existing ones. In a world where the market changes so quickly, it’s extremely important to stay in touch with your customers.

With online contests, you’ll definitely be able to keep your customers interested in your brand by interacting with them. People seem to love these kinds of giveaways, so you can stop some of them from losing interest in your products.

So, don’t underestimate the power of a good online contest, and keep your customer satisfaction levels as high as possible! It’s an investment into creating a loyal client base, which will help you sustain and further develop your business. In addition, there’s no better marketing than free marketing that you’ll get when your followers start sharing the links to your contest!

3. You’ll gain access to important data

Online contests are also a great way to do some market analysis! That’s probably the biggest advantage of digital marketing. You’ll have access to various tools that can tell you more about the people you attracted to your contest.

You might notice that the newly acquired audience is completely different from your usual target group! Having the necessary data is the fastest way to improve the entire marketing campaign! So, do not miss the opportunity to gain access to useful info, and create your first online contest today!

According to sites like buyvotescontest.com, voting contests are the most popular type of online contests. Still, you should choose the type that best fits the nature of your brand! Whatever you do, make sure to be creative and start your contests on trusted media platforms like Instagram and Facebook. In this way, you’ll be able to access all the relevant data without any problem whatsoever.

4. Boost sales

Source:fulfillman.com

More followers create space for more sales! Every follower you get by running an online contest has the potential to become a new customer, so it’s likely that you’ll see an increase in profits after your contest has ended.

Of course, the goal of all marketing strategies is to increase sales. We’re not saying that an online contest on your page guarantees conversions, but if you’re doing it properly, it’s very likely to succeed in generating some additional profits.

Of course, to do it properly, you should consult a marketing expert or an agency, even if it means stretching your budget for a bit. Consider it an investment towards further development and growth of your company. It might seem a bit expensive now, especially when it comes to the prize, but it will certainly pay off once you see your sales skyrocket.

5. Get more people subscribed to your newsletter

If you’re struggling to get people to subscribe to your brand, then a social media contest is the optimal marketing tool for you! Having a “list” of people who are actually interested in your products can be extremely useful for managing your marketing plan.

So, a good tactic is to make every contestant subscribe to your newsletter to be able to join the contest. In this way, you’ll filter the people who are truly interested in your goods or services from the ones that are there just for the prize.

Therefore, you’ll gain some leads while promoting your brand to a much wider audience. All of this will increase your conversion rates and help you position your brand. Of course, make sure to set up a prize that’s related to your brand in some way. Just giving out an attractive prize is not enough! If the award ends up not having any relevance to your brand, then the contest will end up being disappointingly ineffective.

6. Increased engagement

A well-made online contest will majorly increase the number of likes, comments, and other forms of audience engagement on your page. So, use this to your advantage! Create a hashtag to promote yourself even more! A popular tactic also includes asking your audience to tag their friends on the post so they can participate.

Whatever you do, make sure to target your specific niche, and avoid being too spammy with your content. Unleash your inner creativity and think of the ways to improve engagement as much as possible!

As the number of participants increases, you’ll be able to really meet your audience and optimize your future content so it fits them. In marketing, your potential customers are everything, so make sure to find engaging ways to interact with them as much as you can.

Source:intertechmedia.com

The conclusion

Overall, social media contests are a great marketing tool that can help you develop your business quickly. Having a digital contest will increase the number of your leads, improve your conversion rates, and it can be a giant boost to your sales.

Whatever you do, make sure to create a contest that fits both your brand and your budget, and get some professional input to get the optimal results.

All About Cold Emailing for the 21st Century Internet User

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Online channels of communication are multiple and diverse. Internet and mobile users can rely on numerous channels and social media platforms for various needs. Emails have replaced the handwritten and typed letters a long time back. In this day and age, they are a must for online outreach. Today, emails are used for passive advertisement purposes by many companies. 

What is cold emailing?

Source:feedough.com

There are different types of email communications for online users based on styling, templates, usage, or applications. Cold emailing is one such very popular marketing technique, where receivers get an unsolicited message. The receiving party may or may not be known to the sender and vice-versa.

Sectors using cold emails

Have a look at some of the popular applications of using cold email communications in this fast-paced 21st century –

  1. Online networking – You can use this internet-based tool to stay connected with diverse people, which includes customers, clients, colleagues, acquaintances, or friends.
  2. Jobs and career success – You can promote your personality and qualifications to land a job. Pitch your strengths and submit a simple yet effective email to the future bosses.
  3. Sales prospecting – Digital marketing strategists never ignore the power of this channel. They extend emotionally inducing sales pitches to prospective clients or customers.
  4. Brand cultivation – Inevitability, every product or service requires a strong brand image. Cultivate a powerful brand or maintain a positive online reputation with this communication tool.

What is email styling?

You may have a clear and distinct objective in mind. Your language skills may also be impeccable. But without the right style, the message may fall flat and fail to capture attention. It may even lead to the downfall of your entire public relations (PR) campaign.

Marketing gurus advise the use of inline CSS over embedded CSS. However, background images are better off the script as they cause distraction. In layperson terms, styling refers to how the mail is formatted and composed – the template. Effective convey of the message is possible if you rely on a good quality template. Over the years, email has become a cost-efficient and measurable marketing tool. Hence, the writer has to focus on sending out a strong message to stand out of the possible hundreds of similar messages sent by your competitors to the same customer.

With today’s technology, most of the cold email filters into spam even before they reach the eyes of your potential customer. In the case of your customer viewing your message, the human brain takes three seconds to determine whether the content is valuable for them. The human brain cannot read through paragraphs in three seconds. Thus, pictures and catchy headlines are essential. According to a study, human eyes get attracted to the large image in a picture. Thus, try to incorporate the information into the image. There goes the old saying, a picture is worth a thousand words. 

Several service providers can create templates for cold email based on your niche, type of product, type of message (brand introduction, festival wishes, product launch, and so on.). If desired, you can choose to hire such writers for the template. 

Source:keap.com

Seven important tips to new marketers

You are mistaken if you think ‘what is in an email?’ It is not just about writing a letter or sending a message to the receiver or client. It is about pitching the information and making your customers listen to it. Follow these tips to come up with successful online marketing campaigns 

  • Simple and effective wordings

When sending a message or promotion content, be sure of the basics. Always write a concise and relevant matter in the subject column. The first line of the content itself has to be near perfect. After that, make sure the body is fluent and free from confusion. It is a minimum level of efficiency expected even from amateur writers.

  • Sales effectiveness

Build up a meaningful and impactful recipient list. Sending an impactful mail to a ‘prospective buyer’ has to be high on your agenda. What is the point in attracting the attention of casual or disinterested receivers? Use software tools and social media networks to build up an enviable list of addresses.

  • Personalization

Personalization may not be of much value for a startup. But for big companies, the recipient’s data is a gold mine. You can use this valuable information on the customer to send out relevant offers only. Make communication more impactful by creating a positive experience. Research suggests that personalized mail can have 25% to 41% higher click rates from the recipients.

  • Quality control

Cold emails, or for that matter, any, any marketing communication cannot afford errata. Readers are quickly turned off by spelling mistakes, missing a text, or a simple typo. A comma here, a colon there, or some other punctuation mistake is equally significant. Do a thorough spelling and grammar check before clicking that ‘submit’ button.

  • Follow up

Cold email campaigns become more effective if you take followup actions. The follow-up strategy requires a tenacious spirit and a pugnacious mindset. You should not give up after hearing three or four no’s. Instead, be resilient and send that third, or even fourth email to the customer. The best way to make your employees be resilient by providing a sales commission for every sale that takes place due to the cold email. Use this tool to help your employees calculate the sales commission.

  • Testing and feedback

You may have built up a good list of addresses. But it doesn’t mean you have to send mail to everyone blindly. Perform an optimization analysis to target the right clientele. Make good use of the feedback from previous such marketing campaigns. Make use of both human and automated tools to perform this testing.

Source:lmtwomarketing.com
  • Constant learning

A business or marketing campaign is not a one-trick pony. Nor is it a onetime thing to be done and forgotten. You have to be alert and stay focused on your prospective audience. You have to look at specific problems, come up with efficient solutions, and deliver better and better communication, every time.

Why should I spend resources on this front? Technically speaking, this method of marketing has the highest ROI of all marketing methods. You would be spending a bare minimum in sending emails to millions of users in just one second. However, every single sale that happens through this front is profit. On the same note, the chances of a potential client viewing and acting upon your message are very meager. So, do not keep your hopes very high.

 

8 Unique Digital Marketing Tips to Outshine Your Competitors

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The digital marketing realm is very competitive. Small and big companies have all ventured into the market and it is now one of the more unpredictable industries. According to designmodo, there are many different tools (f.e. GA, BuzzSumo, Mailchimp), tricks, and methods used by marketing companies to stay ahead of the competition. For companies that have large resources behind them, the obvious route is to hire as many digital marketers as possible. But what if you can’t outdo these companies in financial terms? Can you make it in the market? The answer to this question is a simple yes. 

The following are some unique digital marketing tips that you can use to outshine your competitors.

Source:altitudebranding.com

1. Have an SEO strategy

In the world of digital marketing, there is nothing as important as search engine optimization. The market has changed drastically over the years though and SEO is no longer as straightforward as it used to be. Nowadays, there are many digital marketers who simply decide to ignore SEO. Any smart marketer would not do this though. Google is responsible for 96% of search traffic and SEO cannot be ignored. 

The key to mastering SEO is sticking to the basics. You should make sure that every aspect of your brand is captured in the right terms and words. Doing this makes it easy for the search engines to index and present your business to the right audience. It may also be worthwhile to review this article, which addresses a wide variety of digital marketing strategy questions that business owners tend to face.

Source:dekel13.com

2. Use professional email templates

User visual satisfaction remains to be the most important aspect of marketing. Marketing is still all about the visual satisfaction that the audience derives from your messages. One of the best things you can do today is to make use of a postcards email builder. In this regard, Designmodo is undoubtedly the leading platform today when it comes to creating professional email templates. Such templates not only provide great aesthetics but they also help you craft functional and effective messages. Having a professional visual appeal gives your brand a great reputation.

3. Prioritize the UX experience

The user experience (UX) is another crucial aspect of digital marketing. You need to create platforms that give your users an easy time. There is no client who likes to deal with a platform that is unsavory. In terms of getting the UX design right, you need to analyze the various aspects of your marketing. 

The content, communication channels, loading speed of the website and the general user interface are top-priority areas. There are different target audiences for every specific digital marketer. You need to learn about your audience and their preferences in order to design the UX experience accordingly.

4. Consider paid advertising when necessary

Source:blog.thomasnet.com

Sometimes, it is important to take the paid advertisement route. This is especially crucial when you realize that the goals of your marketing are being delayed. Paid advertising gives your business the right kind of initial boost and traction which you build upon. When opting for advertisements though, you must take into account the kind of message you include in the advertisement. You should be aware that paid advertisements are not meant to be the primary means of tapping into your audience. When crafting the advertisement, therefore, you should have relevant offers that your audience will be attracted to.

5. Find the right spot on the social media platforms

It is not a secret anymore that social media platforms are among the most powerful tools to use. Whether you are in the social media marketing realm or not, you cannot avoid using social media tools if you want success. The social media market is crowded though, and you need to be in the right kind of spot. There are many kinds of audiences on the platforms and you need to tap just into the right market. You need to choose the avenues that will give you the right kind of engagement and returns for your investments.

6. Don’t put emails out of the question

The most used marketing tool in the marketing realm is email. This tool has been around for a long time and it has made many marketers successful. Considering how overused the tool has become, some marketers simply decide to ignore it. You should not do this though. An email list is valuable as it has many different advantages that come with it. You are not only able to respond quickly to messages, but you are also more likely to reach a unique target market that is otherwise inaccessible by any other means.

7. Consider using influencers

Source:influencermarketinghub.com

Influencer marketing is not very old, but it has proved to be a very effective form of marketing. Influencer marketing is basically the use of individuals who have a large following to sell products. This kind of marketing is very effective because digital marketers are able to specifically make use of certain influencers who have the specific market as their main following. Influencer marketing is reported to be growing rapidly. About 17% of companies already spend over half of their marketing budgets on influencer marketing. You should definitely consider this realm if you want all the benefits that come with it. 

8. Only do what you are sure about

Finally, the best strategy you can use in the digital marketing realm is to focus on the things that you are sure of. There are many different strategies and routes to take in the world of marketing. Even though the opportunities are many, it doesn’t mean that you should pursue them all. 

Trying to focus on too many things at once not only drains your resources but it also lessens that impact of the messages you are putting out. On the other hand, focusing on just a handful of strategies allows you to spend more time and resources on them and thus results in powerful campaigns.

Summary

Ultimately, there is no magical strategy that successful marketers are using. The basic tried and tested methods are still king when it comes to marketing. The only important factor you should consider is being consistent and focused on the kind of strategies that work. The above tips represent the apex of what you can do to turn around your marketing campaign to the best.