Are you wondering how do you create contents on Instagram? And how can you make your Instagram marketing successful? You’re not the only person here! For many busy brands and businesses, the idea of an Instagram content plan seems a hard-hitting task that they have no idea how to tackle. As finding time to make, organize, strategize, and optimize your Instagram content can be a very tricky task.

Luckily, there are numerous methods to organize your Instagram content process and spare time to plan your Instagram posts and stories! Ready to win your game on Instagram? Check out these top 10 tips to prepare your Instagram content strategy ahead of time.

 

Instagram Content Plan: 10 Tips on how to plan Instagram content for your feed!

 

1) Optimize Your Brand’s Instagram Account Bio

Wondering why am I talking about this as my first tip? Okay now hear me out, why? There is no value in getting to a good position with your Instagram content plan if your Instagram Bio isn’t augmented well for your successful branding on Instagram. Because once you started sharing high-quality, relevant content in your Instagram feed, lots and lots of people will make an effort to get to know about your business and brand. As the first thing, they check out your Instagram Bio before they will begin to “follow” your brand.

If there isn’t a clear description about brand, pertinent profile image, and engaging call-to-action (CTA), there are high chances of missing out on your new followers because they won’t understand who you are or what your brand is about. I would say Instagram bio is the one and only opportunity to grab your audience’s attention, so don’t do the mistake of neglecting your Instagram bio.

Tips to optimize your Instagram Bio:

• Keep your Bio description 20 words or less
• Include identifiable keywords in your bio that people will use to search you on Instagram
• Lastly, don’t forget to add a strong call to action that encourages people to join your business.

Instagram bio is the very first thing people notice when they click into your Instagram profile, so make sure to nail that bio perfectly before investing your time into  Instagram content strategy.

 

2) Pick Up Your Instagram Content Themes

Picking up the right Instagram themes or “content buckets” is one of the best methods to get rid of the tension of Instagram content planning for your feed. In my opinion, it’s a good choice to select 3 to 4 themes and rotating them throughout the month.

For example, you can choose the content bucket like:

• People (Your team, clients, or customers)
• Location (Your workplace, travel shots)
• Quotes (Motivating quotes or Inspiring testimonials)
• Your Products shots

Or else, you can choose Instagram themes like:

• Work-life of your staffs
• Office Interiors
• Family

Whatever the themes you choose it should go well with your business & brand, and most importantly it should resonate best with your target audience.

“Your brand is what your audience says it is”

The above saying applies to your Instagram as well. When you create your Instagram content plan, it should reflect your ideal followers and their values. Once you have chosen your content themes or buckets, trial them for a month or two then based on that results, swap and change your themes or buckets to what your audience best resonates with. An Instagram content plan is all about testing, learning, and optimizing. And that’s what this post going to tell you (so stay tuned with me!).

 

3) Don’t Miss Out the Significant National Days

Not each and every national day or holiday is relevant for your business or your audience, but it’s necessary to be aware of what’s coming up next in case it is. You may ask why it is important to know about national days. Let me tell you why? Because if a national day is important to your target audience, then it’s a great opportunity for you to create content that your audience will relate to themselves on that particular national day.

Having an Instagram content calendar will help you to stay up to date of these national holidays and traditional holidays like Independence Day and Tamil & Sinhala New Year. Make use of the Social Media Calendar to keep yourself informed about any important national days and social events that are coming up next, then you can put your creativity to make that day special for your audience. Now this question will raise in your mind how could this help to improve your Instagram content strategy?

Here is how it will help to improve your Instagram content strategy:

• If protecting the environment from pollution is your brand’s mission, International Environment Day (June 5) could be a great opportunity for you to elevate your brand and make your audience engage with your brand.
• By planning ahead you can conduct a cleanup program at your local and post those images on the feed.
• Also, you can encourage your audience to do the same and post them via stories

These kinds of activities on a specific national day help you to grab more attention towards your brand. Therefore make use of these national days and holidays to get the spotlight for your brand!

 

4) Create a Strong Voice for Your Brand

You have to be more certain about your brand voice then only you can able to create an effective content plan for your Instagram. Because you are going to create lots of images and captions. So it’s important to be sure about your brand tone then only you can make an efficient process of your Instagram posts. Decide, whether your brand voice going, to be frank, and funny or warm and reassuring.

If you don’t know how to find out your brand voice, begin with your brand values, then think about other brands that have brand voices you love. Jot down the descriptive specific keywords for each voice.

They can be adjective voices like:

• Professional
• Inspiring
• Witty

Or, they can be non-descriptive voices like:

• Momentum
• Mentor
• Love

With those examples, voice keywords figure out your own brand voice. It’s okay if your brand voice changes over time, as you get to know your brand and audience better. But this keyword tactic is a great idea, to begin with.

 

5) Evaluate Your Capabilities for Your Success

Don’t let your lack of understanding, energy, and time come in between you and your success of the Instagram campaign. I mean lots of entrepreneurs and business brands get stuck on Instagram posts because they feel creating an Instagram content plan is an overwhelming task. You shouldn’t overspend your precious time and energy on your Instagram feed content which is why it’s important to evaluate your capabilities.

 

Try to answer these questions to find out your capabilities:

• Do you have time and resources to make a batch of images at the beginning of every month?
• Would it easier for you to outsource images and leave the ideas up to you?
• Are you able to create designs on Canva to make quotes graphics?
• Could you outsource this design?

Hope these questions help you to find your capabilities. For financial reasons, most of us shy away from outsourcing, but also with the guilt that we should do everything ourselves. But you should understand that “Your time is extremely valuable.” If you could able to work with somebody that can give you more time to focus on the things that are more important (creating high-quality stories +interacting with your audience), you are making yourself committed to success on Instagram.

 

6) Set Time for Content Creation in Your Work Schedule

Now you are clear about your content themes and you have decided whether designed graphics/take photos by yourself or outsource someone. So right now you can focus on allocating time to create content. You need to create and schedule your content up to one month in advance. If you need to create and schedule your May month content, you would be doing that during the first week of April.

If you do that so, then all you have to do during the next few weeks of the month is to hit “post” button on your Instagram account or you can set your content to go live automatically via third-party automation tools like Iconosquare. In the beginning, it might seem impossible to plan your Instagram content in advance, therefore at the starting take it to step by step process, for instance, first plan your Instagram content for one week then two, then three… and before know, it will get in place and naturally you begin to plan content far in advance for your Instagram.

 

7) Get to Know the Best Timing for Your Post

If you want to use Instagram really serious for your business, you need to figure out the best timing for your posts on Instagram, but if you have just started using Instagram for your business, you may not have enough data to understand the best timing for your post on Instagram. If that’s your case, then start with sticking to a regular posting schedule (3x posts a week is preferable).

You don’t need to post on exactly the same days for each week, but just make sure to stick with the equal frequency of posting for every week. With time you will collect adequate insights to recognize your best time schedule to post on Instagram.

Eventually, you will find out your optimal times for post, whether

• Is it morning or evening?
• Do weekend posts perform better than weekdays?

When you figure out the best timing for your Instagram posts, you can easily understand what best resonates with your target audience, and based on that you can tweak your Instagram post schedule.

 

8) Make Use of a Scheduling Tool for Your Instagram Posts

The good thing about social media automation tool like Iconosquare is that it’s not just an official Instagram partner, but also an inclusive podium that allows you to create your Instagram content plan for your feed, schedule your Instagram posts and stories, monitor your Instagram analytics in-depth, and manage all your Instagram comments and conversations in one platform. It takes out the pressure of posting on your Instagram week by week and offering you the necessary space and time to focus on engaging with your brand followers.

If you are not ready to invest in paid automation tools then you can use Excel sheets to schedule your Instagram content plan. Of course, it doesn’t automatically post on Instagram on your behalf, but it does allow you to keep and manage all your content and captions in one place. And it could be a good idea to get into a habit to streamline your Instagram content plan before you invest in an automation tool. Financially it would be a wise idea!

 

9) Weekly Schedule Your Instagram Stories

Instagram stories turn out to be more crucial than ever before. If you have any doubt about it, just have a look at the facts: After seeing it on Instagram stories, 50% of folks search for a product or service online and 62% of folks become interested in a specific product or brand. Not only that 1/3 of most-viewed Instagram stories are created by business brands.

Would you miss out this golden chance to reach your audience through your Instagram stories? Definitely No, right? You can create super-engaging and high-quality Instagram Stories week-by-week. That means on weekend (Sunday) you can create and plan 3 to 4 Instagram stories to share over the next week.

Here are some ideas on Instagram Stories:

• Introduce your team member
• Demo your product or service
• Share a sneak peek of your new product or service
• Conduct a Q&A session on your story
• Show a behind-the-scenes of your workday
• Repurpose a blog post through a short video

Don’t hold yourself back, just go for it! In the beginning, it might feel uncomfortable, but trust me with time and practice you become familiar with your Instastories and it will also help you to overcome your shyness.

 

10) Analyze, Modify and Optimize Your Instagram Content Plan

The important part of creating the powerful Instagram content plan comes after the implementation content plan and that is the analysis. Choosing suitable content themes and writing attractive captions mean nothing if you are not analyzing what works best with your target audience and then tweaking your content strategy accordingly. If something worked well as you expected, it doesn’t mean you are getting wrong on Instagram. As you know social media changes every now and then. So as a business brand and Instagram marketer you need to constantly evaluate what you are doing on Instagram and find out whether it’s still working.

That’s the joy of content planning: trying out new things, making mistakes, changing content tactics, optimizing content, and through them continuously improving your Instagram content strategy. Thus at least once in a month make sure to review your Instagram content. For your Instagram stories focus on retention rate (e.g: The % of people that watched your Instastory from start to end). If you want to Improve your Instagram campaign, focus on your Instagram post engagement rate, conversions rate, and number of DMs rather than followers’ numbers and post likes. Because If your content actually engaging your audience, it will automatically increase the amount of DMs, comments, and conversions.

There are lots of Instagram metrics but you don’t need to monitor them all. Metrics depend on your business goals and your overall Instagram marketing strategy. So choose your metrics measurements according to your Instagram content strategy and goals and track your Instagram success according to them.

 

Conclusion

Here you go! 10 effective tips on how to plan Instagram content for your feed. When it comes to content planning for your Instagram feed, it can make you feel a little intimidated or overwhelmed. But with effective planning and the right time-saving hacks in your hand, you will soon make yourself get ahead of the game on Instagram!

It’s time to hear from you! Do you have an Instagram content strategy plan created ahead?

 

”Marathons are more than just a single run, digital marketing are more than just a single activity.”

The future of every single business is being transformed into technology! Keeping this in mind, Here’s a quick elegant question possibly you could think of at times in digital marketing trends.

”What is the biggest obstacle for your company’s growth?”

While thinking about the answers to the above question, how does a business with the latest technology conquering the world function without the help of digital marketing? Can you remember seeing artificial intelligence and visual searches in movies? For example, I Robot movie ( could you go back to those memories?) Leaving at in your good old memories these technologies have been coming into reality for businesses in the present. Brands and businesses do need to use digital marketing trends to succeed in their efforts because what worked for you in the past years might not work for you in the upcoming years. Social media, SEO, content marketing and a lot more are experiencing a dramatic shift in 2019.

This article will help you give a quick insight into the latest trends of digital marketing that you can not simply ignore. And to stay ahead of the competition you might want to invest in these insanely futuristic technologies down below.

Did you know: Canada has the most active Facebook users compared to the rest of the countries.

 1)  Artificial intelligence taking over the digital marketing trends in 2019

AI will take over the world and currently is!

Well, what does AI do?

Putting this in simple terms, Artificial intelligent can easily study consumer behaviour by using the data that is available on the internet or social media by the user. This simply helps all your businesses using AI to increase the optimization of your business activity efficiently. AI has made jobs much simpler. For example, email service providers like Gmail, Yahoo have customized smart email categorization. Many government organizations are using AI for security purposes.

Did you know: Some of the tech leaders are worried about AI

Elon Musk- CEO of Tesla– is no stranger to you. Has made a confession that artificial intelligence could eventually be dangerous to the entire human race. He wants people to follow certain regulations and ban on any type of autonomous weapons, to save humanity. Keeping this aside, governments are already working on hidden projects on AI-controlled weapons.

 

 

Another example is companies like Uber and Microsoft- you can try using robots in parking lots that could read license plates and report suspicious activities to prevent crime. They do this by collecting data and reporting it to their owners. This technology has been in use which seems to be less expensive compared to hiring a human security guard!

2) Voice search: The dictators!

In the current world, for example, you will find it easier to ask Siri about the distance of your top travel destination in Sri Lanka rather than manually typing in the query. With this keeping in mind, further, it is estimated that by the next upcoming year’s a higher percentage of web browsing will be done without tapping the screen. This is because of Alexa and Siri’s engagement with the human-level smartness becoming incomparable. However, the disadvantage of voice search is that it is quite different from the typical text search.

 

 For example, when you Google a question you will get hundreds of result pages. But if you ask the same thing to your voice assistant, it will only give you certain results (a few) more than that you will only get one result!

3)  Video marketing 

You might question yourself whether using videos for promoting your business would worth it? The answer simply is: Yes, not because every business is using it but moreover, it is a very profitable tool for digital marketing trends in 2019. To deeply get connected with your target audience, video marketing can be the best way as they are dominating photos and infographics compared to other ordinary advertisements.

Since videos are more appealing and easier to share than large content. With inexpensive methods, such as quality smartphones, and film equipment. Companies all over the world are using personalized videos to create ”real authentic publicity.” Do not just think that YouTube plays here. To get more engagement using your video marketing, you can go live on Instagram, Facebook, or Linkedin.

4)  Chatbots:

You might have definitely experienced online purchasing. And you might have noticed yourself being answered for your queries in a few seconds or minutes by a chatbot, that will have instantly answered your questions. This will bring a closer connection to you towards your customers. Many customers prefer communicating with chatbots since they are quickly responsive. Giving instant answers to what you are exactly looking for modestly and responding to you without losing its patience. These virtual assistants aid in customer expectations, customer service and performing accurate tasks, which means you can literally focus on your other important tasks.

Many businesses have already started using chatbots which include, for instance, Uber helping customers to communicate and making it easier for them to hire Ubers easily. Other brands such as Facebook Messenger, Google Maps, and Slack have started using Chatbots & digital marketing making it efficient. Chatbots have completely changed the way digital marketing looks at its services. Giving companies a better perspective of market sustainability.

5)  Social media stories:

Brand awareness can be easily be promoted and engaged by making good use of live videos. Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube stories have been coming alive for the last half-decade. First came Snapchat with the concept of ”My Story,” followed by Instagram, Facebook while Youtube unrevealed their story format.

Through social media stories, businesses can directly market themselves to their audience by reviewing their product, showing them ” behind the scenes,” of the products, or about the employees who have been apart? With these effective methods, you can easily target your desired audiences effectively almost anywhere and everywhere!

6)  Social Messaging apps:

You and I every one of us are into messaging with each other. The recent trend is social messaging apps whereas people are spending more time texting each other, it makes total sense that marketing your products and services here is the right place for you to engage with your potential customers.

These apps can be very beneficial in sending messages to your customers directly, whether it is an instant sales reply or feedback! Furthermore, people expect businesses to be present in messaging apps so that they could directly deal and interact with you. Also, 70% of the world’s population are willing to shop at companies that interact with enough social messaging apps.

7) Virtual Reality & Augmented reality:

Virtual reality aims at creating a computer-generated experience for customers using specialized technologies and software. You can use VR to make your products/services advertisements 10x more appealing to your customers than an ordinary advertisement. Augmented reality for digital marketing trends in 2019 has made businesses in recent times to reach out customers effectively in different technologized ways. If you are not sure whether to use this tech or not, you should probably clearly understand the benefits and what it offers to you in real tech life.

For example, an international brand in India IKEA is where it allows and helps place their furniture accordingly to your customers’ expectations. Here, customers can enjoy every bit of looking at their furniture placements.

8) Geo – location-targeted advertisements will become popular.

 What is the significant thing in any digital marketing strategy? Location!

Location is the main key role whether it is advertising or marketing your product. Showing your product/service at the right time in the right place is an important digital marketing trend in 2019.

Other than that, appearing in the right location is equally important. If you want to make your brand withstand the most compared to the rest of your competitors then you will have to start communicating brand messages in the user’s native language, which will make a difference.

On the other hand, also demonstrating geo contents to your users will help you get into business more easily. For successful branding, you may also implement local content marketing strategies for your campaign leading it to a trend. Therefore, partnering with local influencers will help you get easily handle local advertisements around!

Final Wrap:

The era of digital marketing has absolutely no ending for the upcoming decades in trends changing, until dusk till dawn!

Being said this, meantime I hope the above given ” Digital marketing trends in 2019,” might have brought in some ideas on how the newest trends that already exist looks like, also helping you with foreseeing the upcoming trends for the next decades.

Have you started following them, yet for your business? On the downside topic, I have given you the top 08 digital marketing trends currently conquering the 21st century. Take a deep look at every trend and know how it is or would work for your business and customer relationship. Further side, it would be great if you could come back here and tell me about your most beneficial trend that would help your businesses’ enhancement. I bet you will have something to say!

What is the best business plan one could ever plan for? Quality!

Starting an own business with that full passion and self-confidence is the biggest happiness a person could ever hold onto, but sustaining in the competitive world can be quite complicated. As soon as you start a business you cannot expect instant success, you will, in turn, have to go through a lot of trials and temptations to lead yourself into the path of success.

You would not believe that 50% of the startup businesses will fail in the first five years! The often-related problems are fraud, neglect, lack of experience, lack of management and lack of incompetence.

Usually, the goal of every startup is an experiment, discover and sustain a place in the market as their vision says. Every single hour, minute and second in the present acknowledgeable world thousands and millions of new brands are being launched in the market. The new products being launched needs to have a separate, unique identity for it to stand out with long-standing companies and with millions of marketing campaigns. Good market research along with a SWOT analysis would play an advantageous role for the startups.

The only outgoing hope of being successful in the market is to be than the old business that already exists, otherwise, a good profit can not be anticipated. For example, if you own a startup (booking site) you will always have your plans made in a lean budget, which means that you will have your entire process engaged and made out the most with a limited range of finance.

Did You Know: 70% of new entrepreneurs to start their own business possibly developed their idea from company’s while they were working under someone else.

In a matter of fact, our current life is dependent on the internet & technology where we rely on the internet with whatever questions or answers we are looking for. Since the internet has enabled businesses to interact with their targeted audience in real-time, digital marketing has been taking over the world for centuries which will never fade away but increase in no time!

Here are the topmost reasons why a startup needs the help of digital marketing to sustain itself in the market. Let us take a decent look at why it is necessary.

A start-up needs marketing to reach its targeted audiences. When compared to traditional marketing digital marketing can be done at a much lower cost. For instance, it can cost thousands of dollars to make prints and television advertisements, while an online advertisement may cost only a few hundred dollars giving an expected outcome. Blogs are playing a vital role in the digital world making thousands of readers for the cost of producing articles and paying to create a server.

Lower Cost:

Did you know: Businesses that blog 20 times or more per month get 5x more traffic than those who blog 4 times or less per month.

To connect with your customers more controversially, you need to be publishing blogs that will benefit you to connect with your customers. With active comment sections, you will be able to know your visitors and their response to your brand, whereas you will be able to respond quickly, targeting your audiences through high quality, relevant contents.

Digital marketing is the gateway that allows startups to reach new clients and incubate relationships with customers by taking away the traditional cost of marketing.

”A brand is no longer what we tell consumers, it is what consumers tell each other.”

Social Media The King:

If you want to stay synced, updated and connected with your customers, then social media is the latest trend in marketing you can not possibly ignore. If you are a business existing already with a huge fan base then, you can tweet or post on Facebook where your message will instantly be reached to thousands of users around the world.

For example, if you are selling a software product, social media can keep them updated and informed about the newest upcoming updates and releases. Also, helping you to find new customers, educate your customers who already exist and keep them on track. It is important that startups quickly adjust to the changes in social media before they become dead.

The world of digital marketing compromises assets like bookmarking, content marketing, videos, SEM, and a lot more. However, a startup should always keep in mind to only invest in tools and platforms that make sense to their business.

 Content is King:

”Good content is not storytelling. It is telling your story well.”

The quote simply defines that content is everything, which directly means the better your content is, the more time your customers will spend time on your site. This will make them more interested, keep them on track and give them opportunities to become familiar with your brand. Therefore, this will automatically generate a huge conversion rate. It is always a great thing if your visitors stay for a longer period on your website, which can be lead by great content.

Content does not have to necessarily be in the form of a blog. It can be in the form of GIFs, webinars, memes, infographics & images, these all can be part of the startup content strategy. A company’s online content can be something that is even liked or shared.

 

Each share that is made in social media is counted as free advertising and new successful ways to get new prospective clients for the new business. When people go through your content, they will be imagining an impression of your brand’s presence. In case, if they find it helpful for them, then a trusted entity will be formed for your startup. Hopefully giving your brand an enlighten making them think highly of your brand.

 Increasing Web Traffic:

 

What is the most important thing a website needs to be a success story?

Traffic, traffic, and traffic!

Eventually, more traffic means more revenue. Entrepreneurs need good website recognition to grow their startup and develop it further. Hence, more traffic means more brand awareness and good exposure to your website. Some business owners engage in SEO so that they could boost their credibility, visibility, and authority, to generate organic traffic. More website organic traffic than paid traffic can help your business to expand its revenue in the long run. Helping it with hiring new employees, offerings, ideas, and locations.

Apart from this, some startup owners invest in PPC advertising. This helps them to increase their leads to their website. The preferred method you use depends on your businesses need. By looking at the PPC benchmark you will see a good knowledge about your investment and leads who are interested in making a deal with you.

Even though a PPC might bring you a few leads, it cannot simply be the main source of lead generation. A few years ago, PPC advertisements were the main source of advertisement conducted by online marketing. Today, this method has gone out of use and has a far lower impact than the current marketing methods that are being used. Paid advertisements are being so-called in use for promotions than educational ones.

Maturing with the right digital marketing approach:

• PPC campaigns
• Video Marketing
• Email Marketing
• Social, media marketing
• Creating a website
• Search engine optimization

Start-ups can use the above elements apart from the different methods available in the digital world. For a startup, planning has to be carefully focused. When creating a strategy, you have to make your approach carefully. Since emails, advertisements and contents are integrated into each other. From creating a website to posting a post on social media, all the techniques have to be carefully planned and executed.

For a startup operating in a lean budget, SEO needs to be effective. The backlinks acquired from other websites, social media or blogs will help generate more traffic. Each backlink is a clear indicator that a third-party website found on your website to be interesting or useful for them.

At the end of the result, a page with more backlinks will get its page ranked high compared to the pages with no backlinks. Digital marketing will help start-ups identify which preferred products and services should be created to match a customer need.

Final Considerations:

Making a name for themselves and competing against businesses that already exist in the market can be a difficult challenge for a startup. However, with the help of digital marketing, you will be given the opportunity of a wide success story in the long run, even with the ongoing competition.

As soon as your startup is formed, digital marketing needs to be done so that you will be able to reach your customers, convert your leads into sales, and increase your conversion rate. Since technology is rapidly making its growth in the 21st century, and you are at your early stage, remember that building brand and creating great content should be perfect.

Up above, I have summarized, the main key importance of digital marketing for a startup, in short, hope this blog may benefit your startup. Since a startup will essentially face its ups and downs during the first 5 years of its business. Always begin your startup with digital marketing! Feel free to leave your discussions down below in the comment section as I’m looking forward to your ideas too. I bet you will have something more interesting to talk about!

Over the past years, LinkedIn has turned into a crucial personal branding tool. This virtual professional network has transformed from an online resume to a professional networking platform for complete personal branding.

 Get to know about LinkedIn

If you are a university student or a working professional, you must know about LinkedIn. But what is LinkedIn is exactly about that everybody is crazed over? LinkedIn is “the world’s biggest professional networking platform with millions of users and its growing wild.” The individuals at the LinkedIn platform have made it their mission to “join the world’s professionals together to transform them more productive and successful.” Lots of users on the internet have one or other types of social media accounts. LinkedIn also works in the same way as other social media platforms works, but instead of connecting you with your friends and relatives, it connects you with the professional people who work in your field or related to your profession. LinkedIn also lets users search for job opportunities and connect with their potential employers.

Video Source: YouTube/LinkedIn India

 

Why should you have a LinkedIn profile?

Many individuals in the corporate world have their own LinkedIn profile because they know why LinkedIn is important. You automatically make yourself searchable when you are online. Numerous recruiters search for their prospective employees online, often watching to fill particular job positions via professional networking sites like LinkedIn before they posting the job details on a job database. When this way is used, your LinkedIn profile will act as your resume. LinkedIn is also an influential networking tool. Your LinkedIn profile could be the first and foremost professional impression your potential employer has of you. If you have this question “Why use LinkedIn?” Then Continue your reading to get to know the importance of LinkedIn.

 

1) It is popular & has millions of users

LinkedIn has more than 500 million users; LinkedIn is the world’s biggest professional networking platform. There is a saying that popularity is not ever a good enough cause to get into something, but in this situation – it actually is. Not having a LinkedIn profile is considered a foible, with how widespread LinkedIn has become. Actually, recruiters every so often assumes candidates without LinkedIn profiles are basically not in the loop of how things are happening in the world. For the worse, they might totally disregard your application because they don’t consider you as a serious career-minded executive.

 

Information From – Social Media Today

 

2) Topmost position at Google searches

When somebody searches your name on Google, your LinkedIn profile will probably display in the first or second position – that’s really powerful, isn’t it? This is based on the Gravitate Online research of nearly 8 million clicks, in which more than 94% of users were clicked on the first page SERP results while lesser than 6% were clicked to the second page SERP results and 50% of all clicks got the first and second positions.

 

3) People are researching you online.

People use all kinds of methods to get to know about you and LinkedIn gives you a chance to regulate what they learn about you, for example, you can let them know about your strengths and about your company or brand. Now you have this question, who are these people? They can be the people who you know, the people who really want to know about you or the People who really matter to you, like your prospects, manager, employees, customers or competitors. All of these people use your LinkedIn profile to learn about you. People often search for you before they actually meeting you for the first time or after reading an article where you were featured in, or when they decide whether to reply to your email or not.

 

 

4) LinkedIn has invaluable resources.

LinkedIn supports you to grow your accomplishments by providing you key knowledge and connections. Do you need to source your workers? Want to resolve problems that can’t be solved by the workers in your corporation? Need to connect with your customers? Need a service provider referral for your business? Want to research your competitor? Need to know who’s in a potential customers’ network? Then this professional networking site is the best choice for you as LinkedIn places all of these properties at your fingertips.

 

 5) You don’t have any idea what you’re missing out on.  

When you are reading this post, somebody is searching for you and your services on LinkedIn. You should make sure that you are highly noticeable to that person.  This means having a complete LinkedIn profile that’s contained with the right information which is related to your thoughts, services and leadership so that opportunities can effortlessly reach to you. There will not be any job entries in the near future. Rather employing managers will use their social networks like LinkedIn to find their ultimate candidate.

 

6) You will stay connected to the current trend.

Following other well-established companies and thought-leaders help you to get regular update about what’s going around in your industry. You can easily get firsthand information that is not filtered by the media. Moreover, via brand connotation, you can make a clear statement about yourself every time you follow a leader or company because those names undeniably going to influence the individuals who are seeing your LinkedIn profile.

 

7) You will automatically get connected with people.

In a corporate world where we all are overwhelmed with more tasks than time, it’s become a big challenge to staying connected on the ever-growing crowd of contacts. On the other hand, LinkedIn lets you to regularly update your status and instantly letting everybody in your connection know what are the new things happening in your world and where can they find you. You can grow these connections simply by joining other groups, which give you additional opportunities.

 

8) It’s the most effective method to maintain your network.

By using tags you can organize your LinkedIn contacts into groups that make more sense to you. LinkedIn develops as your permanent contacts database whereas letting you share your information with numerous subgroups of your contacts. By using the “find alumni” feature you can easily add contacts from your schools, colleges and former employers. LinkedIn becomes your own CRM system for handling and interacting with your contacts. Now you no need to use your email as your contacts manager, therefore, you can use your LinkedIn profile to maintain your connection with people.

 

9) Best personal branding podium.

LinkedIn offers you lots of best opportunities to upsurge your credibility and visibility with the allies of your brand community. It allows you to be associated with huge networks of contacts. Now LinkedIn also allows you to add images and videos in your summary and experience fields, therefore you can develop a 3D view of your brand by using all the features of LinkedIn. It will help you to paint a convincing portrait of your real self.

 

LinkedIn Free and Premium Account Subscriptions

Are you still unsure which LinkedIn membership is right for you? You are probably trying to figure out whether you can get going with a free LinkedIn membership or if there are any benefits to upgrading your profile to Premium. To help you out I have put the information about the different features and tools contained within the free and premium LinkedIn membership and how they can benefit you.

 

1) Free LinkedIn Account Membership

Let’s begin with the free LinkedIn account, with the elimination of numerous features that were once existing in LinkedIn’s free account, many people are left questioning if LinkedIn is still beneficial with a free account or if they need to shift to a premium account to remain valuable to the time and resources they have spent in. LinkedIn is still the best place for most professionals, salespeople and B2B businesses to discover and connect with their ideal customers.

You can still find and connect with people with your regular posts and status updates, also engage in many ways with your connections. These are the benefits you can get from LinkedIn as a free member:

• You can create your professional identity online.
• You can easily build and maintain a huge professional network for yourself.
• Find and reconnect with your schoolmates and colleagues.
• You can request and offer references.
• You can search and view profiles of other LinkedIn users.
• You can receive limitless In Mail messages.
• You can save up to three search results and get weekly alerts of those searches.

LinkedIn is an active professional networking site for professionals with more than a half-billion memberships. The influence of the LinkedIn platform is that you can rapidly and simply discover and connect with professionals and industry people from all over the global.

 

2) Premium LinkedIn Account Membership

LinkedIn provides numerous varieties of premium memberships; below are the present premium options that are available on a monthly paid plan in USD. This professional networking site offers paid account choices for job hunters, sales and talent experts, as well as for the common professional people who wish to get more out of their LinkedIn profile. If you have a LinkedIn free account and wish to upgrade it to a premium account, you can compare and find out which account type is more suitable for you:

• Premium Career Account –You wish to get hired then go ahead with a Premium Career option.
• Premium Business – You want to get detailed business insights and expand your business then go ahead with the Premium Business option.
• Sales Navigator Professional – You want to generate leads and build your clientele then go ahead with the Sales Navigator option.
• Recruiter Lite – You want to find and hire talents then go ahead with the Recruiter Lite option.

 

LinkedIn API Version 2.0 – 2019

LinkedIn API version 2.0 has the latest advanced technology associated with APIs and for authentication, they introduced OAuth, 2.0. From 1st March 2019, Developers who have been using LinkedIn APIs are requested to shift to LinkedIn API Version 2.0. This newest update will enhance numerous options through the developer’s program. LinkedIn Developers program will allow apps and website owners to let their users have a personalized experience on their site and also allow them to use their professional identities for third-party services and share outside content from other apps and websites.

By Signing In with LinkedIn account users can also log in to other apps using their LinkedIn profiles data. API only acknowledged the “Lite Profile” data with limited profile arenas. LinkedIn users will be able to share links of other sites through their LinkedIn network. However, this API has been already available in Version 1.

For handling company pages, APIs version 1 was used. But version 2.0 will be combined with LinkedIn marketing developer Program which means only the developers who will take part in the marketing developer program will get permission to access API version 2.0.

 

LinkedIn is now disapproving of many other old features that are not popular among its users. Let’s have a look at them.

1) Verification:  OAuth 1.0 will no longer be available and developers will have to use OAuth 2.0. This version meets all the business standards and by now used by numerous developers.

2) Software Development Tools: JavaScript and Mobile SDKs were removed from March 1. Now developers required to move to OAuth 2.0 from apps directly

3) Plugins: LinkedIn is disparaging the Member Profile, Company Profile, Company Insider and Alumni Tool plugins, or any other plugin used to enrich the functionality of the website by producing drop-in code.

 

After these changes have been implemented in the front-end design, there are expectations that the developers portal will also be reshaped, which will allow managers to access apps so that they can easily discover product information and read documents.

 

Conclusion

I think this post has stressed enough just how huge a role LinkedIn profile play in your professional life. Having it on the top of your resume can be the variance between having your job application avoided and obtaining an interview. Through the LinkedIn profile, you can build a virtual professional relationship with people in your field, get mutual connections and even connect with your ultimate role models. Don’t forget that your LinkedIn profile should continuously be a work in progress. Update your LinkedIn profile regularly.

I hope that you have found this blog post to be beneficial in helping you to understand and build a LinkedIn profile that will work best for you.

Have any more questions about LinkedIn Profile? Let me know them in the comments.

Marketing is the door to any successful business. These days, marketers are spoilt for choice with regard to marketing technology. It doesn’t matter if you have a large multi-national company or a small boutique, you will have to make use of your marketing team for success in the world of business. For a marketing team to figure out gimmicks to market the company, it can get a tad overwhelming if you are on your own, with no prior knowledge on the subject. If you go by the recommendation of the marketing gurus, digital marketing is the easiest way to take your business to places.

The evident benefits from digital marketing is easily witnessed and there’s no doubt that Digital Marketing is the preferred choice for most of the brands. More and more companies are resorting to digital marketing to bring in new clients and subsequently grow their business. You might have heard about the influence of digital marketing in the business world and hence taken the decision to step into the bandwagon.

When you decide to go for digital marketing, you have to realize that it will take a lot of time and energy and you will need an expert to guide you through the process. This is where the digital marketing outsource companies can help you out.

How can the digital marketing outsource companies help you?

1. They help kickstart the digital marketing service for your company, which will help it grow
2. They tailor-make services that are suited for your needs and budget
3. They help you gain access to the whole team of experts required for digital marketing- web designers., content developers, social media specialists, SEO experts and campaign designers

Why should you go for Digital Marketing?

Digital Marketing is the new mantra to success these days. With all the companies seeing a surge in their business with digital marketing, it is one trend that you shouldn’t miss out on.

1. Professional Help: With consumers spending so much time on your mobile and laptops, there is a demand for less tracking cookies. For the companies, it is important to note how and where their marketing data is sourced. It can get difficult to track customer’s data very rigorously since that reduces the trust factor. This is where a digital marketing team comes handy. You have a team of experts who track your marketing data responsibly, while you can focus on the business aspect and help your company improve.
2. Advice on Marketing Technology: It is common to get overwhelmed with so many marketing technology. If you have to pick any one tool for our company, you have to go through them all, which will take time and money. A digital marketing partner helps you in such times. You get a digital marketing model that has been tried and tested multiple times. You cut down on time by having an expert pick up the marketing technology that works for you.

Now, when you are joining hands with a third party to improve on your digital performance, there are certain aspects that you need to keep in mind. The digital marketing partner can provide you the opportunity to create great content and interesting campaigns, which result in great sales. Since it’s all about the brand image and sales, it is an important task and a small mistake can end up costing you, big time. Therefore, be cautious when it comes to choosing a digital marketing partner for your business. There are certain things that you need to clarify before you enter a commitment with a third party for your digital marketing.

Five questions to ask your digital marketing partner:

Q1. Can you provide a reference list of your current clients?

Before settling with a digital marketing partner, it helps to know their client base. This will not only help you understand the quality of your marketing partner but also help you realize which companies are seeking help from them and watch their market performance. Given that digital marketing is a booming business now, a lot of inexperienced people are entering the workforce to make easy money. Make sure you don’t end up paying an inexperienced team when you go for a partnership. Make sure you have the reference list of clients and go through it carefully before you make your selection.

Q2. Do you offer guarantees for your service?

Every service provider offers guarantees on their service, so don’t shy away from asking your potential digital marketing partner for the same. If the answer to this question is a vague one, it is better to continue looking and if it is too good to be true, we suggest that you continue with your research and check into the company track record in the market. When a digital marketing agency guarantees to take your company to the NO.1 position in Google, they will offer the same to all their clients. The success in the digital world depends on the update of the competitors, new entry and exists. Decide on set goals and see how well your potential digital marketing partner can achieve them and then go ahead.

Q3. What is their take on a successful client-agency partnership?

Talk to them clearly about the partnership since their take on things might be very different from what you are looking for. The difference won’t help in forging a good relationship for the long run. You need to match your way of working with the agency you ae partnering with. Many companies have a certain level of adaptability and will go that extra mile for their clients. If you want something specific from your digital marketing partner don’t be afraid to ask them for it and be very clear about your wants.

Q4. How experienced is your team and is it helpful for my industry?

The company might be in business for a century, but you need to know how aware they are of the digital marketing scenario and how frequently have they worked on what you expect them to do. You need to know about the nitty-gritty and see if the experience applies to your industry and needs. Be careful with the use of the term “experience.” It is a subjective notion and make sure that the experience amounts to work that is relevant and maintains a certain standard. For instance, there are many individuals who can competently use Facebook, but they won’t be able to use it as business tool. It is necessary for the partner to have the required set of skills since they won’t be able to meet your needs otherwise.

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Q5. Who will be working on my account?

The company that you want to connect with might have a great client record and have in the past created successful digital marketing campaigns for their clients. However, you might not get to work with the same team since they have been assigned to a more prestigious account. You might be stuck with the newbie, who has limited experience. It is important that you meet the individual in charge of your account. When you meet the team or the person responsible for holding your company’s digital marketing, you can decide if they are the right pick for your business and needs.

 

Q6. Do you focus more on your commission or the success of the client?

When an agency makes a recommendation to you, they might be aimed at helping you out or might also end up helping them earn increased commission. Be very careful about the reputation of the company before you go for a partner. Be certain that the recommendations offered to you are in the best interest of your business and not to help the agency earn a high commission.

Q7. Are you utilizing proprietary digital marketing technology?

Digital marketing has become complex these days. The best way to achieve success in the digital world is to combine digital marketing with digital technology. When you pick your digital marketing partner, make sure that they are focused on both digital technology and digital marketing. When the agency has both digital marketing and technology capabilities, it helps you be in sync with the rapid development and opportunities in the marketing sphere. If you are digital marketing partner is able to develop in-house technology that you can benefit from that becomes an added bonus, since many other companies might not be able to access the same technology.

Q8. What percentage of your total business is focused on digital marketing?

If you go for a company that focuses on different core areas, you might lose out. A company that is focused on too many things might not excel in all. Work with an agency that focuses primarily on digital marketing. If you go for a small agency that looks into digital marketing apart from many other things, you might end up wasting your money. Even if you are a small company, it helps to work with a good agency. You are taking a huge risk in your business when working with a digital marketing partner, but they might not understand the gravity of it.

Q9. Do you offer all digital marketing solutions?

It can get a tad difficult if you have to work with multiple vendors for the same line of work. Digital marketing requires SEO technology, web designing, CMS technology and many other things. If you work with an agency that offers only SEO technology, then you will have to look for web designers and meta search marketing and social media solutions among other things, elsewhere.

If you have the same company that focuses on web designing, SEO, inbound marketing, meta search marketing, mobile marketing, social media and SEM, then you don’t have to worry. Also, getting different agencies to work together can makes things confusing and difficult. There are confusions with regard to deadlines and communication, which can have a detrimental impact on the final product and affect your business.

Q10. What percentage of the work is handled in-house?

If the potential partner covers all your digital marketing needs within the company then you are in a better position to work out a cheaper deal with them. If they delegate the task to say freelancers, then you will have to bear their cost. Also, you won’t be able to communicate with those working directly with your account. When majority of the assignments and tasks are met in-house, there is less chance of error as well, which ensures the quality of the campaign.

And lastly…

What is the strength of your workforce?

If the agency has a small group of people, there is a chance that they might outsource some of their work. Given the marketing technology these days, a small team can’t handle the complexities in the field of digital technology and marketing. A larger team will have all the expertise on board and will get the task moving fast.

Before You Go!

These are the ten questions that you need to ask your potential digital marketing partner. A company that provides you with the answers that you are looking for from these questions, will be the right pick for your business. Connect with the best and watch your business soar. If you are completely clueless about where to start from, then head on to our Official Facebook or Twitter Page or comment down below for any advice. Working with an expert will automatically reflect on your company’s profile, so make sure that you don’t shy away from the best. Digital marketing can be a tad expensive, but it pays off in the long run.

A trusted digital marketing partner can transform any business and help you achieve success in the digital world. Working with the complex digital world is the task of the digital marketing experts, so it’s better to delegate the task to them. Your work is about looking at the business aspect of the company and with the right digital marketing partner you can do what you do best without worrying about other aspects.

As of 2017 rolls out, the need to improve on last year’s digital marketing only becomes greater, thanks to the increasing competition for customer engagement throughout the industry. Digital marketers today are faced with the double hurdle of attracting different kinds of customers to their product/service and engaging them until they reach the buying stage.

In trying to take advantage of changing marketing trends, many digital marketers are focusing their energy on the wrong tactics and leaving proven strategies behind. Others are grabbing at too many strategies all at once without maximising the potential of each. Such mistakes led to major declines in sales and conversions for many companies in 2016.

Here are a series of expert tips and solutions to help you and your team steer clear of the common digital marketing mistakes in 2017.

1. Create a strategy for mobile
2. Integrate email marketing with other marketing strategies
3. Monitor the stats from each campaign
4. Set the goals for each marketing campaign before you start
5. Generate better content that is relevant for customers
6. Step out of your social media comfort zone
7. Base your marketing strategies on actual data and statistics, not intuition and gut feelings
8. Target the right audience for your product/service
9. Diversify your content
10. Reexamine your social media marketing strategy
11. Analyse your customer base and understand how different they are
12. Consider only necessary data from analytics when drawing a strategy, not everything
13. Research each new marketing trend before jumping on it
14. Develop a sound reengagement strategy for distracted customers
15. Keep ahead of yourself with upcoming trends in your industry, top news and announcements

Create A Strategy for Mobile

It’s no secret that mobile is gaining a larger share of the market as of 2017, which is why digital marketers that aren’t integrating it into their marketing strategies are seeing less favorable results. A large percentage of customers are now completing their online purchases on mobile devices, right from doing product research and comparison to actual purchasing.

Marketers need to draw a mobile marketing strategy that covers factors including website responsiveness for mobile devices, content creation for mobile users and the option of creating an app if their marketing campaigns are to convert as planned.

 

Integrate Email Marketing with Other Marketing Strategies

Even with the rise of new ‘hotly tipped’ digital marketing trends such as social media marketing, email marketing still remains a formidable and influential player in the field of digital marketing. Without considering the consequences, many digital marketers have turned their back on it, opting for the newer trends with much more promise.

The fact is that email marketing is still the most effective online marketing alternative available with millions of customers making purchase decisions everyday within a marketing email or newsletter. Digital marketers have to understand that and learn to integrate it with other marketing strategies when drawing their strategies for 2017.

 

Monitor the Stats from Each Campaign

It’s surprising to learn that many digital marketers actually pay very little attention to the statistics from their online marketing efforts, choosing not to pay heed to them. Others continue to post various forms of content on different platforms without checking the stats to identify which performs best and when.

Marketers today have to regularly monitor their statistics with the help of analytics tools such as Google Analytics and look out for those patterns that define consumer behavior and interests. It’s these numbers and patterns that determine how each campaign is converting and what needs to be changed before it’s too late. The figures also help marketers to identify which form of content works for which group of customers and at what time of the day.

 

Set the Goals for Each Marketing Campaign Before You Start

A marketing campaign without set goals is like a journey without a destination. Some digital marketers set out on marketing campaigns with rough estimates of the results they want to see without ever putting factors such as their customers’ financial abilities and their competitors into consideration. They never realise that their campaigns are underperforming until it’s too late to turn around.

It’s more than just important to set goals for aspects such as social shares, sign ups, followers, likes, sales, conversions, etc. They are the major determinants of how effective your campaign is and provide a measuring scale for how much ROI and engagement you get out of each.

See Also: Top 10 Free Project Management Software Of 2017

 

Generate Better Content That Is Relevant for Customers

Many digital marketers make the mistake of creating content just for the sake of having something to share and use for marketing their products. In today’s digital marketing world, consumers go to the internet to look for answers and solutions to their problems, not to read for leisure or pass the time. That is why marketers have to put the time into creating content that is when dissected, emotionally viable, relevant, helpful and engaging to read.

Creating such content on a regular basis may prove tedious with all other marketing aspects and time constraints considered, but you can always use the tips below to generate new content for your marketing campaign.

• You can outsource it

Affordable freelancers are always available for hire, with price quotes depending heavily on the content in question. You can also make use of guest bloggers, which is additionally advantageous for your link building profile.

•  You can share from other websites in your niche

Top quality content can be found all over the internet, and in most websites in your niche. Take time to read content on other related websites and share that which you find relevant for your readers. It’s a double win for you; you get good content at a fraction of or no cost at all. Just remember to give credit to the website you shared it from.

• You can re-purpose it

The good thing about content is that you can reuse it after some time without appearing repetitive. Evergreen content can always be updated and republished or converted to ebooks, reports, and whitepapers that you can give out to your readers and subscribers for free.

• Publish user-generated content

See Also: Best Content Marketing Strategies from 9 Content Marketing Experts

Step Out of Your Social Media Comfort Zone

Gone are the days when creating content and posting it on social media was enough to attract traffic to your website, generate enough leads for you and guarantee conversions. Many marketers still stop at posting content on social media and don’t use the channel to the maximum.

Marketers need to reimagine their social media campaigns by;

• Creating actual relationships with their followers and not just posting content, which involves replying to comments, encouraging debate and showing genuine interest in readers’ comments.
• Reaching out to influencers and others interacting with other businesses’ social media pages through shares, retweets, and reposts of their content, which helps when they decide to share their content too.
• Managing their own social media accounts, rather than having someone else promote their brand for them.

Base Your Marketing Strategies on Actual Data and Statistics, Not Intuition and Gut Feelings

It might seem inevitable for some to keep their gut out of making decisions, but it’s the figures that rule when it comes to online marketing. Following gut feelings is akin to gambling, and that exposes the whole marketing campaign to the kind of risk that is wholly avoidable.

For successful marketing campaigns, marketers have to learn to use the statistics from their previous marketing campaigns as the foundation on which their build their next strategies and not gut, intuition or hearsay. They have to get solutions from the mistakes that threatened their earlier strategies and use patterns in the statistics to come up with comparable data on their customers’ purchase mannerisms.

 

Target the Right Audience for Your Product/Service

It’s a common notion among many digital marketers today that marketing campaigns targeted at larger audiences in the same niche have higher conversion rates. While it may sound true hypothetically, the numbers tend to say otherwise.

For 2017, digital marketers have to stop looking wide and target the right audiences for their campaigns to produce more conversions. They should employ A/B testing to gauge the performance of each marketing email or post heading before actually getting it sent or published, and send the versions of each that show more promise when tested.

 

Diversify Your Content

Many digital marketers make the mistake of sticking to one form of content, say either short form or long form articles, throughout their campaigns, which doesn’t always work to their expectations.

This year, digital marketers should embrace the idea of diversified content by leveraging the power of different forms of content including video, images, infographics, long form articles, case studies etc. Mix between long form/detailed posts and shorter ones, with the former being used to target customers making their final purchase decision and the latter catering for those looking for a quick solution to a problem. Take advantage of short informative videos when reviewing products; they have rather high conversion rates. Such varied content makes the customer-to-buyer conversion process much easier and quicker.

 

Re-examine Your Social Media Marketing Strategy

Social media marketing might be one of the most profitable marketing channels right now, but its benefits many never be realized if it’s not maximized fully.

Go back to basics when drawing the social media marketing strategy of your marketing campaign for this year. Pick the social media platforms you intend to work with depending on how each has performed in the past for your campaigns. Identify how to maximise each social media platform by determining which content type performs best on which platform. Consider the different time zones at which content performs best on each platform, and start scheduling your content to go live at that time. Base on past stats and metrics for these conclusions, and use them to come with alterations to each platform’s strategy.

 

Analyse Your Customer Base and Understand How Different They Are

Digital marketers should point out the differences in their customer bases, and strive to develop different marketing strategies based on the varying interests of each customer grouping. They should also use analytics reports to develop rewards and incentives based on these differences.

 

Consider Only Necessary Data from Analytics When Drawing a Strategy, Not All of It

There is a lot of data to collect from consumers about their behavior during any digital marketing campaign, and marketers are faced with the trouble of wading through it all to come up with conclusions and figures that they may need for future strategies. Many digital marketers make the mistake of troubling themselves with every piece of data they collect, thinking it necessary for their next strategy.

In reality, that approach is a waste of time. The importance attached to any sort of data collected on consumer behavior cannot be under looked; nevertheless, not all data needs to be brooded over all night long. Marketers have to learn to pick out only the necessary statistics from the pile of data they collect, i.e. the metrics that clearly define consumer buying habits, and use that to work their way through their next strategies.

 

Research Each New Marketing Trend Before Jumping on It

There is always a new marketing trend in the digital marketing world, and marketers are faced with the temptation of trying out something new before it loses steam.  While these new trends and techniques may sound effective and promise higher ROIs, they need to be researched first to identify whether they are worth investing in. Every digital marketing team should research the pros and cons of each new trend to gauge its effectiveness and determine the costs involved before embarking on using it.

 

Develop A Sound Re-engagement Strategy for Distracted Customers

Many e-commerce platforms experienced the abandonment of shopping carts during the shopping process last year while others faced the issue of customers never opening their marketing emails.

The smart solution to this is for digital marketers to create a sound re-engagement strategy to use for attracting back customers after they are slightly distracted during shopping or otherwise. It might involve sending out an immediate email to customers when they abandon their cart, asking what the problem was, reminding them to complete their purchase or offering an incentive for them to come back and complete the transaction. The success rate will vary, but it’s better than doing nothing at all.

 

Keep Ahead of Yourself with Upcoming Trends in Your Industry, Top News and Announcements

The best way for digital marketers to keep up with upcoming trends in the digital marketing world is by immersing themselves in the industry and keeping track of the latest news and developments. This can be achieved through following and commenting on influencer blogs, forums, and websites, and joining the conversation on social media.

 

Running a marketing campaign is not what it used to be in the early years. Earlier, starting a campaign meant planning, spending the money and then praying that your strategy hit a home-run.

Marketing has forever been a game of analytics, and with the advancement in technology in the recent years, it is easier than ever to measure the output of your digital campaigns in real time. This factor also makes survival tough for the unorganized.

The aim of this free checklist is to help you connect all your various channels for Marketing, so that your prospects do not feel left out during the lead nurturing life cycle.

By following the steps mentioned in the Extreme Checklist for Digital Marketing in 2017, you will be able to:

1. Stay on top of key industry trends and make changes to your brand strategy in advance, to be better prepared for the future.
2. Connect your Digital Efforts, so that your Online, Search and Social Presence work together to enhance the return on your marketing spend.
3. Be in a better position to review the results of your marketing, and make critical changes that will increase the value of your customer acquisition process.

For ease, I have broken this checklist into five parts namely, Web Design, SEO, Analytics, Content Marketing and Social Media Marketing.

So, without further ado, let’s move onto the first section of your checklist, i.e., Web Design.

 Web Design

Color Scheme

Does your website have a consistent and attractive color scheme?

Are you using the right color combinations for your website?

Never go overboard with colors, unless your business calls for it. If you are using more than 5 colors on your site, then use it wisely. Take help of web Designer and maintain color consistency in your site.

After all, you don’t want to end up with a site looking like an art of a 2-year-old.

My recommendation is never use more than 5 colors. 3 colored website is a standard practice in the industry.

Typography

Is your website readable on every platform?

Choose the right fonts. If people have difficulty in reading your content, they will leave your website immediately.

Marketers these days are paying more attention to their site’s typography. Why?

Read Here: The Effect of Typography on User Experience & Conversions

Social Button Integration

Have you integrated social sharing buttons into your posts?

Perks of having social sharing buttons is that, if your readers like the post that they are reading, they can immediately share with their friends on social channels. If you are using a WordPress website, this can easily be achieved with a plugin. Always give your viewers the quick and easy option to share your articles.

Free Opt-In Form

A free opt-in form asks a visitor’s name and email id in exchange of free resources. Install this feature on your site to build credibility towards prospects, by giving them value in return for their contact information.

Optimize for Mobile

A detailed insight by ComScore shows how people are accessing the internet through smartphones, as opposed to desktops. So, I am sure that you don’t want to have a website that is not accessible via mobiles. A mobile friendly site increases the usability of your website for smartphone users.

Is your website responsive? How does your website look on mobiles and tablets?

Takeaway: Consider using responsive themes or implementing mobile-first CSS to make your site user-friendly. Review your website using Google Mobile Site Checker.

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Analytics

Website Traffic Insights

Website traffic is directly correlated to the success of your marketing campaign. Review your website’s top performing pages and analyze the traffic. Understand how many visitors come to your site, how many of them are unique and what elements have helped you capture leads or convert visitors the most.

After all this scheming, you will be able to understand, which traffic sources are most beneficial for your business.

Did you review your website performance?

Takeaway: Use these  Top SEO Tools to review your website performance.

Watch Over Competitors’ Websites

Run an audit of your competitor’s website. Keeping an eye on your opponent’s activity will give you a clear picture of what is pushing them on top. You can take a hint from them and implement certain things from their strategy for your business. This will keep you on the edge, and you won’t miss out any chance of being ahead of your competitors.

Review competitor strategy to understand how they fare against your website?

Takeaway: Use tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs or SEO SiteCheckup for auditing your competitors’ websites.

Perform Full Website Checkup

Monitor your websites broken links, loading speed, cross- browser compatibility and navigation. Fix problems, if you find any. Make your navigation smooth for visitors as well as for Search Engine Spiders.

Does your website have broken links? Remember to check broken links, plagiarism, loading speed and browser compatibility for your website.

Takeaway:  Use tools like HubSpot Website Grader or Woorank to find out issues and fix them.

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Search Engine Optimization

Okay, so your website has top of the line design, great content and images. But, what if I tell you these don’t matter if your SEO is not in place.

It doesn’t matter how beautiful your site looks if prospects can’t find your website. All your effort will be go down-the-drain, if you don’t optimize your content for Search Engine. It is extremely crucial to optimize each page of your site if you want to attract more traffic.

Check your website for the following On-page SEO Factors:

• Title Tags – Are you using focus keywords in your page titles?
• Meta Descriptions – Do all your web pages contain meta descriptions?
• Content with Buyer Intent Keywords – Include Buyer Intent Keywords in your main landing pages.
• Header Tags – Have you followed the six-heading tag format to give your page some structure? (i.e. <h1> to <h6>)
• Image ALT Tags – Use Image ALT Tags for SEO purpose.
• URL Structure – Make sure your URL is short and related to the page and includes keywords.
• Sitemaps – Use sitemap to allow users to navigate around your site quickly when at the bottom of the page.
• Navigation – Make your navigation easy and smooth, so that Search Engine bots can crawl smoothly.

Have you optimized your site for Search Engines?

Recommended: Read about creating a proper navigation structure for your website here.

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Content Marketing

Does your content attract enough traction for your brand?

Content is the King! You need to publish fresh content for both visitors and Search Engine Bots. Publish 4-5 blog posts a month, between 1000-2000 words. Make sure, your content is free from grammatical mistakes and spelling errors and should include eloquent CTA’s.

Have you put the important information in the first two paragraphs of your content?

Consider Reading: Here’s Why You Need to Focus On Content Marketing In 2017?

Headline and Titles

 Do the headings on your web pages describe what the content below is about?

Research has shown that 8 out of 10 people only read the headline. Make sure, your headlines include keywords and have an engaging tone to attract an audience.

Publish Content for Prospects

Optimize your content for your visitors, not just bots. Don’t just stuff keywords for Search Engine Robots, but provide value to the readers. If visitors can’t make head or tail out of what you publish, it is better to not publish at all.

Check if you are producing consistent and valuable content for readers?

Read – Why should you focus on making your content better for the coming year?

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Social Media Marketing

Does your website produce shareable content?

Address the pain of the target audience, help them solve problems, and answer questions being asked about your brand.

Don’t forget to use target keywords in your social media posts.

Review your brand’s Social Media Profiles to find areas for improvement?

Facebook

Update the profile image and cover image of your Facebook page.

Promote content and offers of the page to increase the traffic of your site.

Invest in paid advertisement and run a campaign to create awareness about your brand.

Run contests and quizzes to attract people to your page and use a referral chain for registration to the contest. Do not hesitate to spend few $$$ in organizing giveaways. People love getting pampered by gifts. You can do this occasionally at special events.

Try posting different types of content like images, videos, gifs, blog posts, offers, etc.

Twitter

Post at least 3-5 tweets a day. These may also include retweet’s from influencers and blog posts including CTA’s.

Monitor mentions and thanks to them.

Add images and #hashtags to your tweets to get found.

Pro Tip: Use automated software like Twittercounter, Tweepi, IFTTT to automate your tweets and manage your Twitter Profile.

LinkedIn

Update your company profile. Circulate articles and job openings.

Take part in discussions.

Upload relevant content weekly.

Promote your services and post valuable information.

Encourage your employees to establish an online reputation and expand their networks.

Google Plus

Follow new people or companies to be on the trend.

Circulate your blog posts, share other content, and promote your services and events.

YouTube

Find new videos to share on your page.

Publish one video weekly. Try to make whiteboard presentations, DIYs, tutorials, etc. to engage the audience.

Subscribe to new channels of your industry monthly.

Circulate your videos to different channels. Try replying to comments under your videos.

Wrapping Up!

There is no shortcut to success. If you want to make your mark in 2017, then this checklist should help you reach your core objectives.

But, before you begin, you should take the time to evaluate your progress in 2016. What strategies worked for you this year, which channels performed better, which sources contributed to most of your qualified traffic etc.

You can use these metrics along with our Checklist to understand what you need to do to nail your marketing and get ahead of your competition in 2017. And if you face any problems along the way, I am just a nudge away. Shoot me your queries in the comments section below, or get in touch via our Official Facebook Page.

If you found this Checklist helpful, do not forget to share it with people in your connection who will benefit from it.

And before you leave, here is the Free Link to The Digital Marketing Checklist for 2017!

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