The Digital Practitioner: Target Audience
    • Showing posts with label Target Audience. Show all posts
    Showing posts with label Target Audience. Show all posts

    Thursday, 22 February 2018

    Using Facebook Messenger Bots to Boost Your Business

    February 22, 2018 0
    Using Facebook Messenger Bots to Boost Your Business

    Facebook Messenger is a free tool for all Facebook users, including businesses, that is accessible through both the website interface and a downloadable Messenger app available for all phone operating systems.
    Its purpose is simply for communication, which is very important for any business with a profile.

    Many users do some searching before committing to making a purchase and an easy way is to check a Facebook page or profile for further insights.
    We've touched on this in other posts regarding providing great customer service and how users will use social media as their customer service channel but for many small businesses the usual answer is simply: that's great to hear but we simply don't have the time or manpower to monitor Facebook Messenger.
    This becomes a problem when one of the metrics users can see is your typical response time to messages. In their minds, they are checking to see how responsive customer service is after making a purchase just in case they have any questions or issues, and if they see the average wait time to a response being 3 days, they're not likely to buy.
    This is what has necessitated Facebook Messenger Bots but it has expanded greatly since.
    The Bots now are something you can create yourself for your business.
    Depending on what you do, this can be as simple as providing support or as complicated as completing a full sales or marketing funnel task your website is typically used for.
    Companies who allow online orders through their website can configure a custom bot to handle orders directly through messenger, which saves them from simply pointing the user back towards their website.
    If your purpose is to share information through the platform you can create a bot that sends updates on your business to users through Messenger.
    Companies like TechCrunch created their own bots users can add and once added, you can ask it questions or simply ask for updates.
    It's designed to act like a tech-savvy friend you can turn to when you have questions, which makes an excellent offering for a business that is known for reporting tech news.
    The idea is to take your user's journey beyond the task of searching and finding.
    Bots are not limited to Facebook, but it is the biggest platform for them. Having a Messenger-driven Live Chat option on your website can make a big difference in your conversions and bounce rate.

    Your users are more likely to stay when they see some level of interaction and engagement. When it goes well beyond simple canned responses and actually provides a service, you then have something real that can be used to give your business a big boost.
    Why direct them back to your website when the purpose of the website can be completed right in the service channel?
    To get these Bots set up right you'll need to do a few things:
    1. Understand your customer's reasons for interacting with your business
    2. Map that user's journeys from interest to completion and then create those steps in the bot
    3. Create a voice for each purpose and draft a script that conveys genuinely helpful feedback to the user when prompted.
    If they're looking for support, then make sure your support messages are drafted in a way that isn't rigid or off putting.
    If they're looking to purchase from you or book something with you then you should have an upbeat tone to the messages generated by the queries that leads the user to completing the transaction right in Messenger.
    4. Test them out yourself and rewrite as necessary. You may find you've missed something if you take the user's position and message your own business.
    Try to complete a sale or request help in the form of service and see if you feel satisfied by what the Messenger Bot feeds back to you. If not then it's time to revamp the bot!
    It sounds that easy but it's actually an evolving and strategic process so don't treat this as a "set it and forget it" initiative. It's important to monitor the stats and make adjustments to account for any areas that are not creating a perfect user experience.
    If you have users following your business on Facebook just so they can get a hold of you (your bot) then you're doing something right. You may even see website stats decrease but if those users are simply bypassing the step of using the site and you have better conversions through messenger then you've got it!

    It is strongly advisable to seek professional help when creating these. Even with third party systems taking care of the code-related steps you will waste more time trying to become a Messenger Bot Expert than you think. And because of the time demand, a professional may likely wind up involved anyway.
    Susan Friesen, founder of the award-winning web development and digital marketing firm eVision Media, is a Web Specialist, Business & Marketing Consultant, and Social Media Advisor. She works with entrepreneurs who struggle with having the lack of knowledge, skill and support needed to create their online business presence.
    Visit http://www.ultimatewebsiteguide.ca and grab your FREE "Ultimate Guide to Improving Your Website's Profitability - 10 Critical Questions You Must Ask to Get Maximum Results".


    by: Susan Friesen
    Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Susan_Friesen/260293
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    Thursday, 25 January 2018

    How to Get Higher Google Rankings in 2018 [New Checklist]

    January 25, 2018 0
    How to Get Higher Google Rankings in 2018 [New Checklist]

    It's 2018. It's time to get your business and your brand noticed!

     Ranking High on Google is one of the Best methods to get in from of peoples faces and get noticed.

     This Video gives you the lowdown...




    How's you Google Ranking getting along?
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    Monday, 22 January 2018

    The Best Marketing Advice for Small Business Owners

    January 22, 2018 0
    The Best Marketing Advice for Small Business Owners

    Last month, I had the pleasure of participating in a Marketing Panel for NAWBO (the National Association of Women Business Owners). It was great to connect with so many business owners who are working hard to propel their brand to success, now and well into the future. 

    However, marketing a small business on a limited budget can be a challenging task. It is time you stop making excuses and get the word out about your business. If you're a small business owner looking for marketing advice, you have come to the right place. Here's what you need to know.
    Define Your Purpose
    If you want to achieve marketing goals, you will need to define your purpose. Dedicate time and effort to meaningful tasks that will get results and create awareness about your brand. When you know what direction to steer your company in, marketing it in an effective manner will never be daunting again. For example, if your company offers technology services, clearly determine its purpose as solving a particular problem for a specified audience.
    Define and Qualify Your Target with Narrow Terms
    It doesn't matter WHAT you sell if you don't know WHO to sell it to. Once you are able to clearly define your target audience, you will find it easier to sell valuable goods and services that will prove to be meaningful for them. As small businesses usually have limited resources, use narrow terms to define your target audience. 

    This will allow you to target more people at the same time. Many chief executives answer the question "who is your customer?" as everyone. Everyone is a bad answer unless your company has the financial resources to reach everyone. Until you have a budget like a major corporation, you need to be far more selective to achieve a decent marketing return on investment.
    Proper and Effective Message Development
    It is crucial you develop effective key messages for your target audience; this enables you to control your communications and get your message across more effectively and efficiently. Your message should be irresistible enough to catch the attention of the skimming reader, website visitor, or looker. Compelling messages create curiosity. The goal of marketing is to stop the reader and create enough curiosity to take action.
    Focus on questions like "what does your brand mean?" and "what does your company stand for?". Use powerful terms when describing your services such as: Superior quality, excellent selection, convenient, and unrivaled. These terms will help communicate your brand's values to the people in a powerful way. If you make a claim of superior service be prepared to tell why your service or product is better or unrivaled.
    Plan Your Budget
    A true marketing plan depends on the defined budget. A detailed plan and budget are two of the most foolproof ways to make sure your money is being effectively spent on developing comprehensive marketing strategies. Sticking to a well-defined budget will ensure you don't waste your resources and spend your marketing funds appropriately and wisely. Even as a small business owner, you should think of your marketing budget as an investment and not a cost. If spent wisely, your efforts can bring a quantifiable return on your investment.

    Distribution
    Once you have come up with an effective strategy and a well-defined budget and time line, it is time to focus on distribution. Use channels that will help you get your message into the hearts and minds of your target audience. While using social media is among the most cost-effective ways to reach people, care and consideration must be given to whether social media is reaching only people who have absolutely no interest in what you are selling. If you continually work on building a strong social media following, you can consistently deliver your message to thousands of people using YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google+, and Twitter at a fraction of the cost of traditional media outlets. These are a few basics for any small business to carefully consider.
    Better Marketing Ideas Create Better Results. Call 1st Straw Marketing & Promotions today at (888) 235-3088 or visit us at http://www.1st-straw.com.



    by:     Lynn Pechinski
    Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9731124
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    Friday, 22 December 2017

    What is a Facebook Pixel - Best Explanation Ever!

    December 22, 2017 0
    What is a Facebook Pixel - Best Explanation Ever!
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    Monday, 11 December 2017

    8 Creative Tips for Clickable Video Ads

    December 11, 2017 0
    8 Creative Tips for Clickable Video Ads

    Video advertising is one of the most effective ways to reach and engage your target audience.
    Video Production For Mobile
    As predicted by digital marketing experts, mobile usage surpassed desktop usage to access the internet in 2016 and businesses are taking notice. The shift indicates that more consumers are using their mobile devices to do their research about products and services. Therefore, it makes sense for businesses to want to engage their customers on mobile devices and a powerful way to do this is with engaging and effective video content.

    The shift to mobile has come with a shift to video content. Mobile users have been shown to prefer digital video over all other types of content. Thus, it's reasonable to invest in video ads for increased engagement with your customers.
    Video Production Tips For Clickable Ads
    Many businesses that attempt to produce their own video ads before approaching a professional corporate video production company find out the hard way that there is more to video marketing than meets the eye. They find that they are not getting the return on their investment as expected. Many end up making losses because their videos lack strategy, clear messaging and good production quality.

    The following are some video production tips for effective video marketing for mobile:
    1. Ensure your logos are large and clear
    Everything designed to be viewed on mobile should be large and clear. This is because mobile devices have smaller screens than desktops and laptops. Large and clear logos will increase viewer familiarity with your brand and improve the chances of people recommending your brand to their networks. Small logos are likely to be lost on the smaller screens. Packaging and branding your videos is key.
    2. A Call to Action is a must

    A call to action (CTA) gives the viewer a clear path to take if they buy your sales pitch. This can be a simple statement, such as 'click now to buy your goods' or "for more information - website address". Not including a call to action is likely to result in dead end users who don't take any action even if they are interested.
    3. Mention the brand
    It's important to mention the brand in the ad in order to build brand familiarity. This mention may be verbal or visual. It also doesn't matter when in the ad you mention the brand.
    4. Use different ad tones
    There are different tones you can use in a video marketing. These include funny, dramatic and informational tones. These can be adjusted and interchanged to suit the situation and the audience. It is important to be aware of your customers' expectations and preferences in order to use the most appropriate tone.
    5. Align your ads for different screen sizes
    Ads will not appear the same on different screen sizes. It is therefore important to align the ads to suit the screen size. Test the ads on different screen sizes in order to align for the greatest efficiency.
    6. Don't make a long video
    The traditional length for an ad is 15 to 30 seconds. This is the ideal length to pass information to your audience. Your audience is likely to lose concentration with a video that is too long.
    7. Limit your ads to 15 seconds
    15 seconds appears to be the optimal length for video ads. This is adequate for passing information. Ensure your ads are engaging, interesting and concise. A 15-second ad can lead to a longer version when using social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
    8. Use auto-start
    Not everyone likes ads that auto play. However, they are an effective way of getting through to your target audience. You are likely to get through to your audience with a relevant interactive and visual ad if you make it engaging and concise.
    A professional production company in Toronto will help you achieve greater success with engaging videos. Get in touch with VCM Interactive today to get started.




    by:     Paul Nandrajog
    Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9834022
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    Sunday, 10 December 2017

    19 Social Media Marketing Tips For Small Business

    December 10, 2017 0
    19 Social Media Marketing Tips For Small Business
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    Wednesday, 6 December 2017

    5 Best Video Marketing Strategies to Improve Your Conversions

    December 06, 2017 0
    5 Best Video Marketing Strategies to Improve Your Conversions

    They say that a picture is worth a thousand words.
    Well, a video is worth a thousand pictures. And is also why video marketing is now an important part of every online marketing strategy.

    There is a good reason for this. The basic aim of any online marketing venture is to make people convert. To keep them interested enough to sign up, fill your contact form or buy from you.
    I think you would agree with that. Why would you spend so much of your time churning out content after content to reach people you barely know?
    Video marketing is gaining ground because of how easy it is to consume. It's why a video, provided that its well-made, draws more crowds than, say, an instructional blog.
    The proof is in the stats. Recent studies show that 75% of mobile traffic will be video.
    In this post, we are going to discuss five video marketing strategies that can help you increase conversions.
    1- Engage your audience with interactive video
    Customer preferences change on a dime. Trends come and go. And even viral content fizzles out in time. To make audiences stay put, you have to give them something that keeps them interested.
    Lately marketers are using interactive video to achieve this. These are videos that allow viewers to take part and change their outcome. It's kind of like how multiple choice games work. You create a changeable storyline in which viewers make different decisions for different outcomes.


    In a way, interactive videos provide us with experiences that static content can't. Instead of a passive experience, the medium encourages the person watching to take action. This drives engagement.
    For example, consider Mended Little Hearts, a charity for children with congenital heart disease that uses an interactive video to show how donating money can make the lives of the kids who suffer from the disease a little brighter.
    2- Keep it short but entertaining
    The average attention span of internet users is less than that of a goldfish. It's why we would rather skim through content than read every word of it and move on. Grabbing attention is a matter of showing value immediately. Think of it like a five-minute marketing pitch you need to give investors to sell them your idea.
    Video marketing works the same way. You just can't post long videos and expect visitors to view them till the end. If you have any hopes of conversions, your video content must be short. And it must be sweet.

    Some social media platforms have made it easier for businesses to do this. Take Facebook's autoplay video feature for example. Videos automatically play as users scroll through their news feeds. Viewers will watch for a few seconds and then move on if your video isn't interesting enough to retain their attention. According to stats, the average retention rate of 90 second videos is 53% while videos over 30 minutes retain only 10%.
    3- Don't make it look like a commercial
    What do we usually do when a commercial comes on? We switch channels. Commercials may have worked before. But now we have small screens in our pockets; smartphones that give us a plethora of other valuable content that we would rather be watching.
    Point is, people have more reasons to "switch the channel" on your video now than ever before. Posting a video on your social media channel? People will probably scroll right through it if all its trying to do is sell.
    No one watches an ad voluntarily, unless it offers something that is worth their time. Viewers are likely to engage with your content if they are getting something out of this experience. This "something" can be humor or maybe a value proposition. Something unique that might prompt them to convert.
    To illustrate, consider a famous Christmas advert by Heathrow Airport where two grandparents (shown as teddy bears) take a tiring flight to London. During the journey, the airport's staff is there to help them to make this journey comfortable till the couple finally meets their family.
    It's a pretty poignant ad. It kind of pulls at your heartstrings, reminds you how thrilling it is when families finally get together during the holidays and how journey is all worth it in the end. Most important of all, it makes you appreciate all that the Heathrow Airport does for travelers.
    4- Use lead capture forms right in the video
    A trick to capturing leads, is to present your lead capture actions immediately. App developers, for example, often place lead capture forms right on the first page of their websites or landing pages.
    So, how do you do this in a video? How can you make people convert not after they watch a video, but in the middle of it?

    It's possible with a Turnstile. Some online video platforms offer this feature. With it, you can insert a lead capture form anywhere in your video. It's a great way to gain high quality leads like emails or first and last names which can help you personalize your follow-up emails.
    5- Use your products to teach your target audience
    People learn better if they are able to visualize the subject matter. It's why visual content, like charts or videos keep students engaged longer than boring lectures.
    You can apply the same technique if you want your videos to, not only be watched, but also convert your audience into customers.
    Some brands do this pretty well. To illustrate, consider Home Depot which airs instructional videos that teach customers how to use or assemble its products. The brand has thousands of subscribers and around 45 million views in the how-to space. By showcasing its products and teaching people how to use them, Home Depot gives them more reason to convert into paying customers.
    Wrapping Up
    Video marketing offers huge opportunities for those who know how to use it. To recap, you can get more conversions from your video marketing strategies by getting audiences in on the action with interactive video. Focus on keeping content short but worth a viewer's time. Use lead capture forms right in the video and never underestimate the value of instructional videos.
    Farheen Shahzeb is a digital marketer and content strategist at Cygnis Media, a web and mobile app development agency. When she is not penning down her craft, she is looking out for the latest trends on content and social media marketing.

    by:     Farheen Shahzeb 
    Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9815211
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