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ziffity-solutions · 4 years ago

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Ecommerce Marketing Trends 2021 Every Brand Should Know

eCommerce marketing has got more important than ever due to the surge in digital buying. It’s time to take a look at the eCommerce marketing trends that dictate what marketers should do to get their brand’s story heard in the competitive eCommerce space in the year 2021.

Here’s A Gist Of The 2021 Ecommerce Marketing Trends We Are About To Discuss:

Social platforms are a lot more than just discovery engines

Mobile UX is ‘the’ priority now

Make the long story short – Short-form videos

Virtual events – The new necessity now becomes a priority

The rising importance of user-generated content (UGC) in brand messaging

1 Social Platforms Are A Lot More Than Just Discovery Engines

Social media is no more just a discovery engine for users. People perform various actions like seeking inspiration for the latest trends, interacting with friends for recommendations, etc. Also, social commerce is already enjoying the benefit of the rise in online buying influenced by the pandemic. So it makes perfect sense to provide the checkout experience within a social platform. With more people getting used to buying online, brands can test their social commerce initiatives across multiple platforms and find out which provides the best returns.

Apart from social media marketing efforts in which users are redirected to online stores, more brands will start providing the ability to checkout, making the most out of buying intent. However, creating a frictionless checkout experience determines the success rate. Offering one-click purchase options and digital wallet payment options can enable users to buy with ease.

Though people have started buying on social channels, they are more likely to keep away from making big purchases. So, to begin with, brands should focus on popular and low-cost products.

2 Mobile Ux Is ‘the’ Priority Now

Nearly 73% of internet users will access the internet solely via mobile devices by 2025 – CNBC. Since 2019 when Google rolled out mobile-first indexing, the mobile experience has gained prominence. Google will start ignoring your desktop website. So, emphasis on how your website performs on mobile should continue in the year 2021.

Go for Google’s mobile-friendly test and check out the mobile usability report in Google Search Console. Make sure you don’t have the disallow directive to ensure that Google can crawl your URLs. Don’t miss out on directing Google to see contents that require UI actions like clicking and swiping. Use the same meta contents used for the desktop versions of your store.

Keep your design simple and focus on personalizing content, keeping in mind your users’ intent. Ensure your mobile website is easy to navigate, intuitive to use, and valuable content and images are not hidden from users. As Google will no longer rank desktop and mobile experiences differently, it is high time to consider having a mobile-responsive website.

3 Make The Long Story Short – Short-form Videos

54% of consumers want to see more video content from a brand or business they support – HubSpot. And 61% of marketers plan to increase their video spending in 2021 – Postclick. There are enough statistics to back the fact that videos are one of the most powerful content forms to win consumers’ attention online.

However, as most of the brands have started creating video content over the last couple of years, it has become a necessity for brands to come up with a differentiating factor. Here’s where short-form content chips in.

Short-form videos on social platforms like Instagram and Snapchat have conditioned users to get informed and entertained in a very short span of time. Brands and marketers who can get the point across in 15-20 second short videos can win social platforms.

Focussing on adding value, educating, and entertaining users over trying to sell can help brands create short-form video content that connects. Platforms like Instagram that have rolled out new features like Reels are likely to favor brands that adopt the new algorithms early.

4 Virtual Events – The New Necessity Now Becomes A Priority

Virtual events became a necessity during the pandemic as lockdowns due to the pandemic stopped people from attending events and socializing. This effect resulted in a quick increase in participation in live events, conferences, and workshops.

Facebook witnessed a 50% spike in live viewings during the lockdown, while Instagram registered a 70% increase. Though lockdown measures are more relaxed now, live events are likely to continue the successful run mainly because of the benefits brands have witnessed.

Brands have found that virtual events have showcased them to thousands of new audiences by eliminating dependencies like travel and visa approvals. The convenience, ease of access through multiple devices, and increased participation have made virtual events a low-cost option for brands to improve ROI.

However, the key is to be creative, rope in great speakers and industry leaders who your target audiences love listening to. Influencers can play a crucial role in showcasing your brand to more potential customers. Adding shoppable moments to live streams can enable consumers to interact and purchase within the platform. Amazon Live became a massive success as influencers promoted their favorite products through shoppable live streams.

Though there are technical challenges involved in live events, brands will continue to take the route in 2021 as they have already witnessed the benefits of virtual events.

5 The Rising Importance Of User-generated Content (Ugc) In Brand Messaging

Customers trust consumer reviews the most. According to a study by HubSpot, 63% of social media users feel consumer ratings are #1 priority and 70% of consumers believe customer opinions are their second priority.

Establishing trust with users will be an uphill task for eCommerce brands in 2021 as concerns in data privacy and fake news are on the rise. User-generated content like ratings, reviews, and testimonials can help you overcome the challenges.

63% of social media users consider consumer ratings their primary information source – Smart Insights. No matter how hard you try, prospective customers are more intended towards listening to existing customers who answer questions like how they are using your products and how they have benefited. Such reviews convince prospects more quickly than a brand’s creative ad.

Create hashtags under which customers can post their content. Such UGC can be re-shared on your business profile pages to create a hyper-focused buzz over your products. By focusing on relationships with loyal customers, influencers, and employees, brands can bundle their messages with authentic voices that potential customers value the most.

Conclusion

The eCommerce marketing space is getting all the more competitive. The 2021 eCommerce marketing trends discussed above is a clear indication of it. As consumer expectations are changing faster, embracing new trends is critical for brands to stay on top of the game.

#b2b marketing agency #b2b ecommerce #B2B web development #magento

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longprotection · 2 years ago

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Adobe premiere pro 2021 ultimate course

ADOBE PREMIERE PRO 2021 ULTIMATE COURSE HOW TO

ADOBE PREMIERE PRO 2021 ULTIMATE COURSE FULL

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ADOBE PREMIERE PRO 2021 ULTIMATE COURSE PRO

This course is the most comprehensive beginner editing course where, by the end of the course, you’ll feel confident editing your own amazing video projects.freeload Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2022 Pre-Activated Offline Installer for Windows is the leading video editing software for film, TV, and the web. My ambition with this course is to take 5 years of my video editing knowledge and experience, and put it in an easy-to-follow course so you can learn in 1 week what has taken the last 5 years to learn. If I can do it, I am confident that you can do it too. Trust me, as I review my stats it sounds crazy to me too! I never expected in a million years to be in my current position with these achievements. Fast forward to February 2021, I have ġ0,000+ YouTube subscribers with over 7.12 million minutes watchedĢ66,000+ students in my online video courses In 2016, I had zero video editing experience, no laptop, no students, and no YouTube channel.

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I’m a self-taught video editor and full time vlogger that started off like you! What downloads are included in this course?Īll project files (to follow along with me)Ĥ Cinematic Film LUTS (including the famous “M31” LUT) Sourcing no-copyright professional background music You’ll also learn some cool effects to make your videos awesome, such as Īdding Film Grain for a Vintage Film LookĬreating Rolling End Credits (Like a Movie!)įixing Shaky Footage using Warp StabilisationĮditing Super Smooth Slow Motion (using Optical Flow)Ĭreate An Awesome Strobe Effect (2 Methods!) How to Export High Quality Instagram & YouTube Videos How to Create Instagram Videos (Portrait, Square, Stories, IGTV) Setting the Perfect Audio Levels and Audio MixingĮditing Montages, Full Screen Transitions, and Lower Thirds The Basics of Editing to Music Beats (2 Methods)Īpplying Cinematic Colour Correction and GradingĪdding Titles, Transitions, B-Roll, and Sound Effects The Fundamentals of Editing (Creating New Sequences, Simple Transitions, etc) You’ll create a travel montage and a talking head video (all exercise files supplied)

ADOBE PREMIERE PRO 2021 ULTIMATE COURSE HOW TO

I’ve edited all of my videos with Adobe Premiere Pro so I’ll be teaching you how to edit stunning videos for YouTube (and other platforms) in Adobe Premiere Pro without all of the unnecessary complexity that you’ll find in other courses. I wish I had this course when I first started, it would have saved me years of pain and suffering! Adobe Premiere Pro seemed so complicated and the learning curve was painful.Īs a self-taught video editor with 5+ years experience exclusively with Adobe Premiere Pro, I am proud to say that I am truly happy with the quality of the videos I am producing for YouTube. If you’ve taken a quick look at Adobe Premiere Pro and are completely overwhelmed by the features and have no clue how to start editing your first video, you have come to the right course.įor the first few months of my editing journey, I battled the same problems you have and I felt like I’d never figure it out. This course is a one-stop-shop that has everything you need to become a confident editor inside Premiere Pro. If you have never edited a video before and want to learn while you are stuck at home, join over 206,000 students (in all platforms) in one of the largest and most popular video editing courses for beginner’s on Skillshare! Stuck at home or quarantine and want to learn how to make videos to grow your online business or personal brand? * UPDATED 1ST FEBRUARY 2021 – INCLUDES LATEST SOFTWARE UPDATES *

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gig-photography-with-rue · 3 years ago

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The revival for Zines and Music Mags - Online and Print

Earlier in the year, I had my first ever experience interacting with a physical publishing company, in which my photographs were used for a music magazine publication. The photographs were featured for a review of a musician named Under the Sun, as well as published online on their (now private) Instagram.

This prompted me to start researching physical print zines as a method of getting my work published. To look into this, I researched some local photographers and purchased their zines in order to review how they approached creating one.

Firstly, I wanted to research what a zine actually is and what it means to make one. Wikipedia defines a Zine as:

" A zine (/ziːn/ ZEEN; short for magazine or fanzine) is a small-circulation self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images, usually reproduced via a copy machine. Zines are the product of either a single person or of a very small group, and are popularly photocopied into physical prints for circulation. Popularly defined within a circulation of 1,000 or fewer copies, in practice many zines are produced in editions of fewer than 100. Among the various intentions for creation and publication are developing one's identity, sharing a niche skill or art, or developing a story, as opposed to seeking profit."

Miff Pleasant Zines

Firstly, I began by looking at a former class-mates' zine publications, which specifically focus on documentary slice-of-life style photography from a Co-Op housing group for the Ipswich punk community. These zines really standout to me, especially as they understand their demographic and the publication scene so well.

This ex-student prints their zines using a combination of externally sourced prints and with hand-binding techniques. The zines are mostly black and white, 40 pages, and printed on 135gsm coated art paper

Will Fraser - Tour Zines

The next zine that really stood out to me was the Bleak Soul Uk Tour 2021, published and photographed by Will Frazer. I have yet to go on tour as a part of my music photography, but making a zine for a specific event is a really good idea that had never occurred to me.

The zine consists of a mix of colour and B&W photos, as well as notes, interviews and documents. I really like this style of publishing information about a specific music event, and I really would like to try making my own zine for my work at the Smokehouse over the summer.

Rodeo Mag

Next I looked at some photography from Rodeo Magazine, and how they manage their print based magazines. The publication released quarterly issues of their magazine that are "showcasing the best in new music across genres of alternative, indie and Americana".

The magazine aims to take unique approaches to presenting music journalism, such as its Haiku Reviews page for newly released albums.

The visual aesthetic is inspired by "American country music and diner aesthetic, though covers an eclectic range of great alternative music" which I thought was particularly interesting for a visual approach.

So Young Magazine

Similarly to Rodeo Magazine is the creative platform and magazine, So Young. The magazine aims to blend illustration, photography and music into a publicized platform for the community. Founded in 2013, the magazine started as a publication but now "interlinks a record label, live shows and provides a creative platform to champion music and art from the underground up"

Interestingly, I noticed that So Young have options for both printed and online copies of their work. This was particularly interesting to me as it demonstrates that, whilst the print industry is not dying, you can still modernise your magazine publications in a way that doesn't harm your success at all.

Dislocated Zine

This zine is an art and music based publication focused on providing a platform to local creatives to showcase their work. The layout features poetry, interviews, music photography, playlists and more.

The zine is exclusively online, with no print copies available. This is interesting to me, as I reckon this direction will be seen significantly more and more amongst publication companies. The publication industry is not necessarily dying, it is modernising itself by moving articles and issues online instead.

I really like the layouts, and I think the way they've approached moving the brand online has worked really really well. I will definitely be submitting work to this zine in the near future.

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cathygeha · 4 years ago

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REVIEW

Whiskey and Sunset Nights by T.L. Anderson

Single Dad’s Series

Emotions aplenty as I read this book. I was swept in and stayed invested throughout this short heartfelt deeply moving book.

What I liked:

* Gray: such a good person, loving father, grief-stricken widow, wonderful son and brother, great friend, skilled builder ~ a man who endures and lives his life to the fullest no matter what comes his way.

* Ella: five-six year old daughter that misses her mother, is filled with love and life and joy, very active, accepting, a great character.

* Missy: The deceased wife of Gray and the best friend of Lily – a woman I admired and was sorry had died too soon. She was a bright light and enduring positive presence in more than one life.

* Lily: bookstore owner, best friend of Lily, good friend of Gray’s, friend to Grays brother and father, open and caring and giving and helpful ~ She was perfect as a person and character and love interest in this story.

* Asher: Gray’s younger brother, caterer, fun-loving, supportive ~ liked him

* Gray’s father: an anchor and safe place to land for Gray when he needed to change things after Missy died.

* The small town setting

* That there was no great drama but instead a slow warm friendship that grows into so much more.

* The way the aspect of grief was handled

* That it felt “real” and believable

* That there was a happy ending

What I didn’t like:

* That Missy died…and being reminded that too many people are taken by cancer long before they and their loved ones are ready to have them leave.

Did I enjoy this book? Yes

Would I read more by this author? Yes

Thank you to the author and IndiePen for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars

Release Tour for Whiskey and Sunset Nights

by T.L. Anderson

Grayson Pierce is struggling as a single dad but he’s doing the best he can in his new normal, until feelings for his late wife’s best friend, Lily Dean start to grow more than expected. Can they work through their loss together while falling in love with each other? Readers will swoon for this second chance romance featuring a sexy widower. Fall in love with your next book boyfriend with Whiskey and Sunset Nights by T. L. Anderson, the next book in the Single Dad’s Romance series.

Read Now!

Amazon → https://amzn.to/3dDhj75

BLURB

Grayson

After losing the love of his life to cancer, Grayson Pierce finds himself struggling with his new normal as a single dad. Moving back home to southern Minnesota with his five-year-old daughter Ella, feels like the only option to keep his sanity.

Living on his family farm, he spends his days taking care of Ella and running his construction company - working small jobs to keep his mind off things. Until Lily Dean shows up in his kitchen.

Lily

Losing her best friend to cancer was the worst thing that could have happened to her. Having Ella and Grayson back in her hometown, keeps the memories of her friend burning in her mind.

Spending her days running her own bookstore, Lily takes Ella under her wing, allowing her to explore the world of books and helping her cope with the loss of her mother. But then, there’s Grayson.

He’s her best friend’s husband, or was.

With each passing day, Lily and Grayson find their once casual friendship slowly flourishing into something more.

Can they work through their respective loss and let love in or are they destined for nothing more than a few shots of whiskey and sunset nights?

Add to Goodreads!

Goodreads → https://bit.ly/3tVZ4PK

EXCERPT

My dad takes a sip of his coffee, listening intently as Ella tells him about all the stops her and Uncle Ash took. Apparently, they stopped at a rest stop that had a gigantic rubber band ball in a case, and it had over 3,000 rubber bands wrapped around it. “That’s pretty neat there, kid. I bet it was fun taking all those stops with Uncle Ash. Did you see any animals while you were driving here?” Dad asks her.

“We did!” She looks at her hands, her eyebrows drawn down as she counts off her fingers. “We saw cows and pigs. Oh, and horses!”

“Don’t forget the llama,” Asher chimes in as he enters the kitchen. I glance up at him while taking a sip of my coffee and freeze mid-sip as I see who’s standing next to him. My heart races as my stomach drops out.

“Hey there, Gray.” Lily Dean stands before me.

My heart stops as I see the only other woman who can shatter me to pieces again. Something inside of me wants to let her. Seeing her makes me feel something besides numbness. Something raw and visceral.

Her brown hair hangs down her back in thick curls, and her blue eyes are hesitant as she stands off to the side of Asher with her hands clasped in front of her. She’s wearing a pair of cutoff jean shorts and a plain white T-shirt, which makes her tanned skin pop.

Asher walks over to Ella, picking her up and placing her on his shoulders. “Come on, kid, let’s go see your new room.” Without another word, they head out of the kitchen.

My dad pushes up from his seat, coffee mug still in hand. “I’m going to go help them before they cause too much chaos.” He stops next to Lily and kisses her on the cheek in a fatherly way. “It’s good to see you, Lils.”

She breaks eye contact with me to look at my dad, her gaze filled with gratitude. “Good to see you too, Mr. Pierce.”

“I told you call me Jack. You’re not the scraggly little ten year old anymore. We’re all friends here,” Dad calls out as he disappears from the room.

“Lily,” I breathe out. The last time I saw her was at Missy’s funeral. Lily and Missy were inseparable. She’d come and visit us out east every year and stay for a few weeks, and she and Missy would stay up late to catch up on gossip from back home. When she showed up to the funeral, it felt like my heart was being ripped out yet again. It was always Missy and Lily. So how am I supposed to look at her now without seeing the absence of my dead wife?

She clears her throat while shifting from one foot to the other. “I didn’t mean to intrude. I was just stopping by to drop your dad off some old truck manuals I found for him. He’s been fixing up that old 1972 Chevy parked in the garage. It needs a lot of work, but I think he’ll get it running again soon.” She’s rambling on about the truck, and all I can do is stare at her. “Anyways, so I didn’t realize you’d be here today. I mean I knew you were coming back home, but I didn’t know it was today. I better get going so you all can get settled in.” She fiddles with the hem of her shirt, a nervous habit she’s had since she was a kid.

“It’s fine. Stay for dinner with us.” My mouth blurts out the invitation before my brain can think through if this is a good idea or bad.

Her eyes widen. “Oh no, I can’t intrude. Ella needs time to get comfortable, and I’m sure she’ll want to spend time with Jack.”

Just at that moment Ella comes running into the room. “Lily, if you stay for dinner, we can have a tea party after!” She squeals with excitement as she puts her hand in Lily’s catching her off guard.

Lily looks between Ella and me. I can see the conflict written in her features as she tries to keep her distance from me, but also not let Ella down. “Oh Ells, I’d love to…”

Before she can say anything else I cut her off, “Perfect. Ell, go wash up and you can help me and Lily cook some dinner. How about hotdogs and burgers on the grill?”

She starts jumping up and down. “Yay! I’ll be right back. Don’t start without me!” she yells while running down the hall to the bathroom.

Lily doesn’t move. She bites her lip between her bottom teeth before speaking. “I don’t want to be a burden, Gray. I don’t want to replace…”

AUTHOR BIO

T. L. Anderson currently lives in Wisconsin where it’s freezing cold in the winter and has five months of enjoyable weather year round. Her house is filled with constant chaos between her teenage daughter and infant son, two rambunctious dogs, a stubborn cat, and guinea pigs that keep her and her husband on their toes. Since the age of three, she has loved reading and creating her own stories in her mind. Now her passion has developed into a career. After earning a certificate from the Children's Institute of Literature she decided it was time to put the multiple characters in her head onto paper so she can share their stories with the world. She’s the author of multiple novels which include new adult, romantic suspense, and paranormal reverse harem. She has a slight obsession with doughnuts, coffee, and dinosaurs. When she's not writing you can find her lurking on social media looking for new books to read, taking care of her mini-zoo at home, or having her nose stuck in a book.

Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/authorTLAnderson

Pinterest → https://www.pinterest.com/TLAndersonbooks/

Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/author.tl.anderson

Goodreads → https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18233438.T_L_Anderson

BookBub → https://bit.ly/3pVRRhG

Website → https://tanderson319.wixsite.com/tlanderson

Amazon → https://www.amazon.com/~/e/B07FRWZ64Y

About the Single Dad’s Romance Series

Seven single dads, all from different walks of life and doing the best they can to raise their children - are ready to make you fall in love.

From the celebrity dad just trying to protect the ones he loves from the spotlight...to the silver fox who's out to prove it's never too late to have a family of your own - this single dads collection guarantees to bring you a whole lot of love and of course, a happily ever after.

Look no further, your next book boyfriend is here!

Follow the @IndiePenPR FB Page for all the Single Dad's news: https://www.facebook.com/IndiePenPR

This promotional event is brought to you by Indie Pen PR

#T.L. Anderson #Single Dad's Series #IndiePenPR #Contemporary Romance #Widowed father #Grief #Cancer #friends to lovers romance

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solatgif · 4 years ago

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TGIF: ROUNDUP FOR APRIL 16, 2021

In case you missed it, take this survey to help us understand how the AAPI faith leaders and their churches are feeling and responding to the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes across North America. Your answers will remain anonymous and the results will be published on our website.

As many returned to church on Easter, check out my interview with SOLA Network editor Hannah Chao: When Going Back To Church Feels Awkward. She gave suggestions for reopening and reflected on changes in the church this past year.

Our monthly newsletter is available for you to read online. Join for free to receive our most popular articles. If you have an article or link to share, reach me on Twitter or Instagram.

ARTICLES FROM AROUND THE WEB

1. Matthew D. Kim: Addressing Racism in Light of the Image of God

“As pastors and preachers, we must not ourselves, and we must not let our congregations, be content to pat our backs because we are not actively part of the problem. We must be proactive in fighting the sin of racism against all people of all skin colors and races, thereby celebrating the image of God in all people.”

2. Anne Kerhoulas: Finding Home, Finding Rest

“Knowing our identity as spiritual immigrants doesn’t mean that we never find rest in this life. Rather, our good Savior gives us the rest we need to keep walking toward him and our ultimate home in his presence.”

3. Micah Colbert: Holy Ambitions: The Two Aims of Hudson Taylor’s Life

“Conformity to Christ and usefulness for Christ. These desires were far more than pious but hollow sentiments. They were the life-long holy ambitions that shaped everything about Taylor’s life and ministry.”

BOOKS, PODCASTS, MUSIC, AND MORE

1. Crossway Podcast: Faith, Family, and the Creative Life (Ruth Chou Simons)

“In this episode, Ruth Chou Simons discusses her life as an artist. She digs into what makes her tick, including her passion for creating beautiful pieces of art that reflect the beauty of our Creator, shares her journey from doing watercolor paintings in her kitchen to starting GraceLaced Co. and becoming well-known around the world for her artwork, and she shares what her day to day life looks like as an entrepreneur who also is a wife and a mother to six boys.”

2. The Gospel Coalition: 40 Days of Prayer Guide

The Gospel Coalition released a 40-Day Prayer Guide to share stories of God’s work around the globe. It’s a free 45-page devotional detailing the vital importance of corporate, prevailing, intercessory prayer for cities, nations, and the body of Christ.

3. Aaron Lee: Related Works

Book Reviews: Theology is for Preaching edited by Chase R. Kuhn & Paul Grimmond, Seekers by C. S. Fritz, and Moth by C. S. Fritz. Our TGIF playlist is available on Spotify. Join my Asian American Worship Leaders Facebook group.

FEATURED THIS WEEK ON SOLA NETWORK

1. David J. Schuman: Four Reasons to Celebrate Earth Day

“One day God will bring all creation to its proper glory, and there, God’s people will dwell with him forever.”

2. Aaron Lee: The Love of Christ Compels Us: A Book Review of "Becoming All Things" by Michelle Ami Reyes

“The Bible says that our different ethnic backgrounds are a beautiful display of his glory and an avenue to share the Good News. We can become all things for the advancement of the kingdom.”

3. Tiffany Kwan: How Jesus Understands Asian American Suffering

“Let these atrocities remind us of how much this world does need Jesus. Let them remind us of who he is.”

4. Daniel K. Eng: Should Asian Americans Follow their Desires?

“When everyone is looking up together, the church recognizes that its mission is bigger than personal fulfillment.”

5. TGIF: Roundup for April 9, 2021

Post-Pandemic, Will China’s Church Be Changed Forever? / The Church Has Always Been Multiethnic / Escape the World’s Infatuation with Sex

General disclaimer: Our link roundups are not endorsements of the positions or lives of the authors.

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gositeybuilder · 4 years ago

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The Best Content Marketing Predictions for 2021

Content marketing has been continuously evolving to keep pace with consumer demands, technologies, and trends. For example, social media, voice search, and the increasing use of mobile devices require to stay on the top. Also, some platforms are changing themselves. For example, Facebook has started attracting more older demographics, whereas Instagram has mainly attracted females. Content marketers need to adopt unique strategies to meet these changing trends to reach every section of audiences effectively and attract them. Recently, flexibility and adaptability have been central to content marketing. Many new trends are going to change of overall scenario of content marketing this year.

Content Optimization for Niche, Long Tail Keywords

The content marketers were focused on long-form content for a long time. But, now the scenario has been changed. Instead of focusing on long-form or detailed and lengthy content, content marketers have put their entire focus on using niche, long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords have made it easy for content marketers to rank their content on Google. It means getting more organic traffic which is the best for marketers targeting a specific niche. You can find these long-tail keywords using paid and free tools available in the market. For example, you can use Ubersuggest, Wordtracker, Moz.com, SEMrush, etc. Plus, you can use Google’s related search, Google Suggest, and the feature “people also searched for” on Google .

Building Big Communities

With over 24 million online stores out there, getting noticed is not so easy. You will need to look for a unique way to get noticed. Developing a community gives established and new brands an opportunity to learn, collaborate and come together. Plus, it offers community downloads, webinars, networking opportunities, discounted events, tools, books, and many more. Community marketing is all about engaging with the audience while reaching a broader base and developing loyalty and trust.

Repurpose Your Content Across Channels

When you repurpose your content, it augments your organic search, gets your brand in front of a different and broad audience, and saves you a lot of time. In simple terms, repurposing content means repackaging it into different formats like creating infographics from stats and research, transcribing your videos on YouTube and distributing them as blog content, newsletter, and podcast, embedding your videos on YouTube in your blog, and turning your blog posts into a newsletter content or an eBook.

You can take ESPN’s example, which proved how effective content repackaging could be when it launched its program ” We the Fans” and distributed it across a wide range of formats. The strategy of ESPN includes all formats like podcasts, social media networks, articles, and videos.

“Discover” Features

Google Discover, earlier known as Google Feed, combines evergreen content, news, and visual content like photos. The feature has undergone a significant transformation since the days it was launched. Google uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to understand users’ search history to fill the feed. You will find this feature on your mobile pages, and the users using Chrome will see it when opening a tab. If your content meets the guidelines of Google, then it can appear on Discover. Some of the guidelines set by Google to enhance the chances of your content to appear on Discover includes:

Providing exact details of authorship, including publication, name, and bylines.

High-quality imaging and descriptive titles avoiding click bait.

Posting unique and engaging content.

Creating timely and unique content.

Commentary from Experts

Including comments from a featured or a subject matter expert can enhance the performance of your content. Google does not consider subject matter content as its ranking factor. However, evaluators consider trustworthiness, authoritativeness, and expertise as the significant factors in the quality rankings. High-quality content is not the only subject of interest for Google, but consumers also want to look for it.

As per the Nielson study, over 85 percent of consumers occasionally look for expert and high-quality content before purchasing anything. Plus, more than 65 percent of the buyers say that they prefer unbiased expert recommendations before purchasing a product. According to InPowered, the institution that commissioned the survey, marketers should

Cut through the noise and build trust with expert content.

Share their content once they have gained the trust of consumers.

Ask customers for reviews and continue to build trust among them through their expert content.

“Story” Features

Stories are for many reasons getting popularity. For example, they can make great content on social media networks. Also, it will appear in Google images and mobile searches, enhancing the chances of your discoverability. Other factors playing an essential role in its growing popularity, such as Google Stories, have created stories accessible to every user. Similarly, Instagram Guides have provided curated content in the form of text, photos, and videos. The basic idea is to make content easy to find, so discovering influencers and brands become easy.

Personalization of Content

Content personalization can be defined as introducing the content to the customers based on their preferences or profile. Every customer who visits your website searches for a different product and has different needs. Your content must cater to these customers’ different needs and encourage them to take the next step.

Apart from following the best and latest content marketing practices that will dominate the year 2021, you should also research to improve your strategy for content marketing. Always keep an eye on the top-ranking content and use the relevant data and experimentation to improve your strategy.

Source: The Best Content Marketing Predictions for 2021

#contentmarketing #bestcontent #2021 #gositeybuilder #preductions

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cindylouwho-2 · 4 years ago

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RECENT NEWS, RESOURCES & STUDIES, April 6, 2021

Welcome to my latest summary of recent ecommerce news, resources & studies including search, analytics, content marketing, social media & Etsy! This covers articles, podcasts, videos and infographics I came across since the early March report, although some may be older than that.

I am hoping to launch a new ecommerce resource page on my website in May, although that is looking a bit ambitious with everything else I have on the go. (I've released the latest version of my Etsy search ebook, and am working on updating the keyword research ebook this week as well as still drafting a few new blog posts on Etsy search.)

If you have any questions, please drop me a line here on Tumblr, reply to this post, email me, or contact me on Twitter.

TOP NEWS & ARTICLES

Etsy Ads have been turning themselves on without sellers taking any action. There are threads here, here, here, and here. There is a video here with more people reporting the issue in the comments. A few cases seem to be related to using vacation mode, and at least one person reports a much higher budget than they would have chosen. So go check to make sure they ae still off (unless you want them running).

eBay, Etsy and some other marketplaces have formed a coalition to lobby against proposed laws they say could harm small sellers and microbusinesses. The Coalition to Protect American’s Small Sellers (PASS Coalition) is currently fighting the INFORM Consumers Act, which “would require online marketplaces to disclose third-party seller information to consumers, including name, address, email and telephone, or face civil penalties.” An Etsy rep said that this would be problematic because it would affect the privacy of sellers, and could potentially move communications off-site meaning Etsy would have less “ability to ensure seller integrity and consumer protections.”

PayPal is now allowing Americans to pay using cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin; this is rolling out over the next few months.

ETSY NEWS

Remember when Etsy Ads got way more expensive and stopped working for some people? Here’s the technical explanation of what they changed. [It is very technical in some parts, so most people will struggle with a lot of it] Note they explain that the Etsy Ads algorithm “ranks listings based on their bid price, multiplied by their predicted click-through rate”, and that they added contextual factors such as the time, the day of the week, and the buyer’s platform to tailor the bidding, and the expected order value is supposed to be part of the final bid calculation. They also mention that the current system is using the “30-day listing purchase rate” as a factor. The results of testing: “[t]he buyers saw more relevant results from ads (+6.19% CTR), the buyers made more purchases from ads (+3.08% PCCVR) and the sellers received more sales for every dollar they spent on Etsy Ads (+7.02% ROAS).” It’s clear that Etsy Ads are designed for the really big spenders, not small shops.

April’s attribute updates include candles and desks.

In their latest sustainability initiative, Etsy will now offset carbon emissions from packaging.

Etsy’s “disaster relief fund” has launched, but it is only available to US sellers, which is something not stated until you click to the application form. The FAQs actually state it is available to “all sellers”. Because everyone on Etsy is American, right?

Etsy donated $500,000 to two groups working against Asian hate. Ironically, they also got called out for having an algorithm that was surfacing “erotic” photos of Asian women as recommendations on listings that were completely unrelated items with only “Asian” as a common keyword. The issue was also noted in searches for “Asian photo”. Etsy’s response was to remove 3 listings and to promise to “continue to work on improving our algorithm to avoid surfacing recommendations where not relevant or appropriate.”

The Spring and Summer Trend Report is out, with the usual detail on trending items and keywords used. Some of the search trends:

“143% YoY increase in searches on Etsy for checkered prints”

Things like mushrooms, and “waves and squiggles” are hot

Outdoors, plants and gardening, staycations & decor related to travel are all expected to continue to be popular

“286% YoY increase in searches on Etsy for vintage colored glassware”

“42% YoY increase in searches on Etsy for pendant necklaces”

“86% YoY increase in searches on Etsy for clothing patterns”

SEO: GOOGLE & OTHER SEARCH ENGINES

If you are fairly new to SEO for search engines such as Google, you may find that it seems way too complex, and you might worry that you are missing something. Here is a great basic checklist for websites. Most of these items will not apply on marketplaces such as Etsy; e.g., Etsy rewrites the file name, and doesn’t allow you to create an URL separate from the listing title, or a meta description different from the listing description.

One of the most common questions I get is “how do I get backlinks”? Fortunately, Moz just came out with the Beginner's Guide to Link Building.

You know that links are very important for Google ranking, but do you know how Google decides that? Read this, and you will. [text with lots of graphics]

If you really want to know everything about SEO, Search Engine Journal compiled a fabulous list of resources. Some get very technical, so this list is definitely not for everyone.

A new study says that ⅔ of Google searches do not result in a click; people are getting the information they seek from various Google features on the search page. The study does not separate out simple searches such as the temperature outside, or a spelling check, in which users wouldn’t benefit from clicking. But while the click rate is dropping, users are still growing, so the total number of clicks continues to increase. Here’s a bit of commentary on the study.

Although Google says it likely won’t change ranking much, here’s a good overview of the upcoming Core Web Vitals algorithm update.

Good news! Bots don’t hurt your Google ranking.

SEO for videos on Google, appropriately in the form of a video. [links and highlights in the video’s description]

Former Google employees are involved in Neema, a subscription-based search engine which will protect users’ privacy. The site is currently in beta and there is a waitlist.

(CONTENT) MARKETING & SOCIAL MEDIA (includes blogging & emails)

Trends in the best headline/caption/title for sharing have changed. BuzzSumo’s review of 100 million posts shows that emotional phrases are no longer as big as they were in 2017, and the most shared headlines are now shorter: only 11 words/65 characters. There is a lot of analysis of Twitter and Facebook as well as general info here.

Ideal image size is different on every social media platform; this infographic gives you all the sizes for the major sites.

Reminder: don’t buy Instagram followers. A lot of the services sell bots and inactive accounts, which means you won’t get any engagement. The article ends with a few tips on how to get authentic followers that will actually help you.

Coming to Instagram: the ability to save drafts of Stories.

Reddit has opened a Canadian office, a logical decision since Canuck Redditors are the third-largest country base, and are increasing by 40% a year.

Which app was downloaded the most in the first quarter of 2021? You will be unsurprised to hear it is TikTok.

ONLINE ADVERTISING (SEARCH ENGINES, SOCIAL MEDIA, & OTHERS)

You can’t know how successful your ads are, or how they could be improved, if you aren’t paying attention to several different metrics. Here is what to watch on Facebook.

Here is an overview of what we know about how Google is doing away with advertisers’ third party cookies; the new set up is called Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC).

Ad design can be tricky; here are 11 tips for creating Facebook ads that will work.

TikTok is forcing users to see ads related to their TikTok history; as of April 15, you will not be able to opt out of ad personalization. You can still refuse to let them use your activity on other sites, though.

STATS, DATA, OTHER TRACKING

Here’s an overview of how the new version of Google Analytics works.

Facebook Analytics will be retired June 30, 2021, and some people do not feel there are adequate alternatives.

ECOMMERCE NEWS, IDEAS, TRENDS

Poshmark now has listing videos. Any videos added also show up on a seller’s Posh Stories. eBay is also rolling out videos on listing pages and storefronts.

Walmart’s Marketplace now allows sellers from outside the United States; the first new group is from China.

Hudson’s Bay Company is the latest to invite third-party merchants to sell on its site, the Hudson’s Bay Marketplace. There isn’t much there yet, though.

BUSINESS & CONSUMER STUDIES, STATS & REPORTS; SOCIOLOGY & PSYCHOLOGY, CUSTOMER SERVICE

Half of Americans hate seeing the same ads all of the time. 40% were interested in learning about deals through ads, while almost as many want ads that are “entertaining”.

Make sure you are using the correct words to get buyers to convert. This infographic lists some of the most useful psychological trigger words, depending on your goals.

Increasing the average order value is a smart way to increase your income without adding more new customers. Here are 4 pricing strategies to get you there.

Ecommerce spending is projected to continue increasing, and installment plans have been popular early in 2021.

How fast a website loads is directly related to sales and conversions. “If a page’s load time slowed from one second to three seconds, the chances of a bounce increased by almost a third (32%). And going from one to five seconds increased bounce rate by a whopping 90%!”

#etsysellernews #Etsynews #search engine optimization #content marketing #microbusiness #ecommerce

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remelitalia · 4 years ago

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10 Content Marketing Trends for 2021 and Beyond

Organizations that have made consistent and sound investments in content marketing have reported those investments paying dividends in recent years.

However, to maintain their growth, marketers must also stay tuned into the ever-changing content marketing landscape.

What worked last year may not be enough to creep ahead in 2021.

Being able to anticipate trends and changes in audience behavior based on technology trends and updates can help you adjust your strategy and get ahead of the wave.

Here, we’ll detail some trends to keep an eye on in 2021, but before we do, let’s look at why content marketing keeps evolving.

Why Does Content Marketing Change so Frequently?

Content marketing continues to evolve to keep pace with trends, technologies, and consumer demands. For instance, increasing use of mobile devices, voice search, and social media all require us to stay on top of things.

Then there are the platforms themselves that change. Established sites like Facebook have started to attract an older demographic, while newer platforms like TikTok appeal to a younger audience.

To reach their audiences effectively, content marketers must adapt their strategies to meet these changing trends.

10 Current Trends in Content Marketing

More recently, adaptability and flexibility have been central to content marketing. However, many of the preferred marketing methods remain the same.

Although many current content marketing trends are a continuation or evolution of existing ones, some trends are gaining considerable ground.

1. Building Communities

With as many as 24 million e-commerce stores out there, you need to find a way of getting noticed.

You achieve that in such a crowded space by developing a community.

Community marketing isn’t about getting a quick sale—it’s about engaging with customers while building trust and loyalty and reaching a wider audience.

The Dollar Shave Club (DSC) is an excellent example of this. DSC works on a subscription basis and considers all of its members a part of the community.

In addition to its social media presence and a blog to engage with customers, DSC features members in its monthly newsletter and ensures its subscribers are at the heart of the business.

Then there’s ProBlogger.

You might know ProBlogger from its jobs board or its blog. However, its community side is a considerable part of the brand too. The community gives new and established bloggers the chance to come together and learn and collaborate.

It also offers:

networking opportunities

webinars

discounted books, tools, and events

community downloads

2. Optimizing Content for Niche, Long Tail Keywords

For a long time, the focus for marketers was long-form content. However, more recently, content marketing has stepped back from detailed, lengthy article guides. Instead, the use of niche, long-tail keywords is becoming more prevalent, as long-tail keywords are more specific and have less competition.

Further, using long-tail keywords makes it easier to get your content ranked on Google. That means more organic traffic, which is good news for marketers targeting a competitive niche.

Finding these long-tail keywords needn’t been difficult. You’ll find there’s plenty of free and paid-for tools available, such as:

Ubersuggest

Semrush

Wordtracker

Moz.com

You can also use:

the “people also searched for” feature on Google

Google Suggest

Google’s related search

Once you’ve narrowed down your keywords, you can then focus on a specific segment of your business and create content around the subject.

3. Hiring Content Teams With Diverse Skill Sets

In recent years, there’s been a consistent shift away from content churning.

The brands experiencing the most success with content marketing aren’t just flooding their audience with content. They’re taking a media publishing approach.

The process is just as important as the content itself now. Having a team of writers isn’t enough anymore.

Your company needs to create a broader strategy with a more diverse group of talent and skills to meet your audience’s demands.

That means good writing isn’t enough. The content team will need to grow and adapt for the next year and should include people who have talent in:

video production and editing

graphic design, illustration, and editing

audio editing and production skills

content optimization

content distribution and promo

strategy development, execution, SEO, and campaign management

communications and branding

4. Repurposing Content Across Channels

Repurposing content saves time, gets you in front of a different audience, and enhances your organic search.

This simply means repackaging it into a different format. For example:

turning blog posts into an eBook or newsletter content

embedding YouTube videos in your blog

transcribing your YouTube videos and distributing them as podcast, newsletter, or blog content

creating infographics from research and stats.

ESPN showed how effective content repurposing could be. When ESPN launched “We the Fans,” it distributed the content across a range of formats. Articles, podcasts, videos, and social media were all part of ESPN’s strategy.

As Chad Millman, VP/editorial director of U.S. digital content, explains, “The idea was to take advantage of all of ESPN’s platforms.”

You should consider doing the same for your business.

Content Marketing Trends for 2021 and Beyond

Looking forward, the need for marketers to adapt their content plans will continue, and we’re likely to see a greater increase in existing trends like Google’s Discover and stories to engage readers and keep them on the page.

Let’s take a closer look at these content marketing trends.

5. “Discover” Features

Yoast, Search Engine Land, and HubSpot are just some of those talking about Google Discover. It was formerly known as Google Feed, but it’s undergone a significant transformation since its launch.

If you’re not familiar with Google Discover, it combines news, evergreen content, along with visuals like photos. To fill the feed, Google uses AI and machine learning to understand a user’s search history, meaning the viewer gets content likely to engage them.

You’ll find Discover on Google’s mobile pages, and mobile Chrome users will see the feed when they open a tab.

Over time, Discover becomes increasingly sophisticated. Just ask the Vogue and Vice’s publishers.

Your content is eligible to appear on Discover if it meets the guidelines and Google has indexed it. However, as Google states, it doesn’t guarantee your content will appear in its Discover feed.

Google does, however, have some guidelines to improve the chances of your content showing up.

These include:

posting “outstanding and engaging content”

creating content that’s unique and timely

providing exact authorship details (your name, publication, bylines, publication)

high-quality imaging

descriptive titles that avoid clickbait

6. “Story” Features

Stories are growing in popularity for several reasons. First, they make great social media content. Secondly, they’ll also show up in mobile searches and Google Images, increasing your chances of discoverability.

There are other factors in their growing popularity: platforms like Google Stories make story creation accessible to everyone.

Crucially, though, Google Web Stories cater to consumers’ business lifestyles and provide content for people on the move: the use of Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) allows readers to flick through the same way you would with social media stories.

Another example of story features is Instagram Guides. These provide curated content in the form of videos, photos, and text. The idea is to make content easier to find, therefore making brands and influencers easier to discover.

7. Featured Experts

Commentary from experts that lends credibility to your content can help you stand out. That’s why including comments from a subject matter or featured expert could benefit your content’s performance.

Google doesn’t use subject matter content as a ranking factor (yet). However, evaluators consider the expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (EAT) factor in their quality rankings.

Google isn’t the only one interested in the quality content, though. Consumers are too.

According to a Nielsen study, 85 percent of consumers regularly or occasionally look for expert content before buying.

Additionally, 67 percent of buyers say unbiased expert endorsements make them more likely to consider a purchase.

InPowered, who commissioned the survey, says there are three main takeaways from the research. Marketers should:

build trust and cut through the noise with expert content

begin to share their stories once they’ve gained consumers’ trust

continue to build trust through expert content and ask customers to leave reviews

8 & 9. Generative Media & NLG

Generative media is increasing in use the same way that natural language generation (NLG) is. Like NLG, generative media uses AI to create content. The only difference is it makes computer-generated images rather than text.

It works in much the same way as NLP too:

The designer gives their instruction to the machine, detailing parameters/algorithms.

The machine uses these parameters to create an image.

However, the designer still has some input and can alter algorithms to produce the finished piece.

Tyler Lastovich of Lastly Studios predicted growth in generative media some time ago. As Lastovich points out, although there’s been a surge in use, we’ve yet to see its full potential. For instance, content marketers could use it in areas like:

contextual images

personalized content

realistic chatbots

According to a senior analyst at Techna, trial versions of generative design, cloud-based generative design solutions, and the rising integration of 3D printing with generative designs are just a few of the reasons behind this content marketing trend.

10. Content Driven Personalization

Yieldify defines content personalization as the “process of tailoring content that is visible to the customer based on their profile or preferences.”

Every customer who visits your website is at a different stage of the customer journey. Your content should cater to their specific needs and encourage them to take the next step.

A good example would be a customer that comes to your website to find out more about new kitchen units. When they return to your site, you could offer an e-book offering tips on choosing the ideal kitchen units for their home or a checklist on preparing for the revamp.

In case you’re wondering, content-driven personalization isn’t optional if you want to keep your customer satisfied. Research from Salesforce shows 84 percent of consumers say being treated like a person, not a number, is crucial to winning their business.

Further, fifty-nine percent say tailored engagement based on past interactions is crucial to winning their business.

Conclusion

While data support the trends listed here, trends aren’t everything. You should do your research to see how they can improve your content marketing strategy moving into 2021.

There’s also plenty of historical data that shows us how quickly trends can flop or die off.

Rather than chase content marketing trends, always do your research. Keep an eye on top performers in your space and use data—as well as experimentation—to fuel your strategy as you head into 2021.

Which of these content marketing trends for 2021 are you working on incorporating into your strategy?

The post 10 Content Marketing Trends for 2021 and Beyond appeared first on Neil Patel.

Original content source: https://neilpatel.com/blog/content-marketing-trends/ via https://neilpatel.com

See the original post, 10 Content Marketing Trends for 2021 and Beyond that is shared from https://imtrainingparadise.weebly.com/home/10-content-marketing-trends-for-2021-and-beyond via https://imtrainingparadise.weebly.com/home

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wineanddinosaur · 4 years ago

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Harnessing the Power of TikTok’s Almighty Algorithm

For more stories on TikTok, check out our whole series here.

Within my first few hours spent on the popular social media app TikTok in early 2021, I thought I had cracked the code. That is to say, I thought I understood the formula content creators were using to make their cocktail videos go viral. Based on what I was seeing, I wasn’t impressed.

All the drinks that landed on my “For You” feed — the scrolling homepage where the app serves videos from strangers it deems the user will enjoy — were neon-colored, usually vodka-based, and invariably topped with anything from Prosecco to soda. TikTok, it seemed, had a thirst for the bright, boozy, and bubbly. These conclusions only sparked more questions: Why, in 2021, was blue Curaçao so prolific on the platform? And when did Skittles-infused vodka become a bar cart staple?

When I presented my findings to the VinePair team, those with more experience on the platform laughed at my naivete. There was and is a whole world of complex cocktails to explore, I was told, with drinks assembled by proficient home and professional bartenders. To encounter them, I simply had to spend more time on TikTok and allow the algorithm to learn more about me.

An algorithm is defined as “a step-by-step procedure for solving a problem or accomplishing some end.” With the rise of search engines and social media, the term has become commonplace in our day-to-day lingo. Most of us probably don’t have a deep understanding of exactly what an algorithm is and how they work, but might be familiar with the fact that they influence everything from the search results when we Google something to the posts that appear most prominently on our Facebook or Instagram feeds. To paraphrase that above definition for these purposes, social media algorithms solve the “problem” of figuring out what we users most want to see, with the end accomplishment of keeping us engaged on the platforms for the longest possible time.

Within the realm of social media platforms, TikTok’s algorithm garners more attention than any other. By all accounts it is the app’s major selling point — the reason TikTok broke the record for most downloads of a social media app in a single quarter with 315 million installs in Q1 of 2020, and the reason TikTok attracts close to 1 billion monthly active users just four years after it launched. TikTok’s all-powerful algorithm performs so well in recommending content that users stay glued to it for an average of between 45 and 52 minutes per day. The program not only impacts everything that users view on their For You feeds, but is simultaneously influenced by everything they do on the app. The more time you spend on TikTok, the more the invisible, ever-present force learns about you — and in turn the better curated its selection of videos becomes for you.

As a fledgling user learning these facts, I realized I could dedicate my time on the app to testing how long it would take for TikTok to learn that, among other things, I enjoy classic cocktails and fine spirits. Less blue Curaçao; more Buffalo Trace, please. Given the apparent power of the algorithm, TikTok should eventually serve me the “best” (read: most serious) drinks content. In turn, I would discover the actual state of drinks culture on the platform, and find out if there was more to “#DrinkTok” than Giggle Juice and Blue Lagoons.

@bartendaa

Try out this cocktail on New Years- “Giggle Juice” #foryou #newyear #cocktail #drunk #pink

♬ Snowman – Sia

Despite the mythical status of its algorithm, TikTok has published some fairly extensive literature on how it works, including a June 18, 2020 article titled “How TikTok recommends videos #ForYou.” For those looking to actively improve and train their feeds, it provides the blueprint.

According to the article, TokTok first recommends videos based on the interests users input when they sign up for the app. It then fine-tunes recommendations based on how users interact with the content featured on their For You page (FYP).

These interactions range from the videos a user likes, shares, or comments on; the accounts they follow; and the content they create. TikTok also gauges users’ interest in specific topics — such as cocktails — based on whether they watch entire videos related to that topic, and how long those videos are. The user’s language preference, location, and even device type also factor into the equation, though they carry less weight than the user’s behavior.

Interestingly, the algorithm cares little for the amount of followers or likes a creator has when recommending them to users it thinks will enjoy their clips. “While a video is likely to receive more views if posted by an account that has more followers, by virtue of that account having built up a larger follower base,” the article states, “neither follower count nor whether the account has had previous high-performing videos are direct factors in the recommendation system.”

Armed with this set of guidelines, it was time to improve my FYP. I discovered new accounts by searching simple hashtags like #cocktail, #bartender, and #mixology. Adding the word “tok” onto topics I was interested in also helped (“bourbontok” and “bartok”). When I found someone whose content I enjoyed, I made sure to follow, comment, and watch multiple videos, always through to the end. Searching through the accounts they followed allowed me to discover related accounts. And when I spent time randomly scrolling through my FYP, I made as much of an effort to show TikTok what I didn’t like by holding down on a video and clicking “Not Interested.” (TikTok states this is also important for feed curation.)

Before long, it was bye-bye, blue Curaçao. After creating my first and only video — a rudimentary shot of me pouring a Martini in front of a stacked whisky shelf — the work really started to bear fruit. I discovered the online community I was looking for and found that, within what I would dub the more “serious” subsection of DrinkTok, there are multiple styles of content focusing on different topics. All will appeal to cocktail and drinks aficionados in their own unique way.

There’s @drinksbyevie, for example, who mixes classy cocktails in front of a flashy New York skyline. @SpiritedLA blends recipes and mixology techniques, while @cointricktwitch shares industry anecdotes and advice on how not to piss off your bartender.

@drinksbyevie

Treat yourself to a Clover Club this #valentinesday bc who doesn’t love an edible flower moment? #nyc #cocktail #TrulyGlowingSelfieLove #selflove

♬ This Magic Moment – Drifters

There’s no shortage of quality content on bourbontok either, whether you’re looking for quick, lighthearted reviews (@60SecondBourbonReview) or the latest TikTok trends interpreted through the scope of America’s native spirit (@bourbonpursuit).

I had no doubt the Bazooka Joe shots and tutorials for making the aforementioned Skittles-infused vodka remained out there in abundance, but I was no longer being served them. The apparent success of my FYP experiment sparked a thought I hadn’t considered in the beginning: Were creators thinking about the algorithm as much as I had been, and were they trying to reach me as hard as I was searching for them?

Nico Desreumaux, who runs the industry-anecdote-sharing account @cointricktwitch, says understanding how the algorithm works is incredibly important to creators, but less so for viewers.

While he now shares stories about his bartending and barista career, Desreumaux has a background in film studies and has spent years creating content for social media platforms such as Twitch and YouTube. When Desreumaux first started using TikTok in October 2019, he studied the FYP to learn about the different hashtags creators were using and noting the style of videos that went viral.

This understanding of film composition and experience with algorithms helped him quickly take off on TikTok and grow his following to 1.4 million, Desreumaux says. One of his first posts, a video about “the dumbest thing he’d heard from a guest,” hit 250,000 views within 24 hours. When subsequent posts using a similar template received just as much interest, he realized he was on to something. “I realized that I’d hit the algorithm lottery,” he says.

Contrary to his advice, Desreumaux now worries more about the algorithm as a viewer than creator. There becomes a point where creators no longer need to “chase the algorithm,” he says, given the size of the following they’ve built up. But as a user, he’s judicious with what he likes and who he follows, because he knows the algorithm is always tracking. “If it’s just a video that’s an easy chuckle, I don’t want to see 15 more of those right afterwards,” he says.

Hannah Chamberlain, the home bartender behind @SpiritedLA, sees the algorithm as more of a friend than foe from a user perspective, but tries not to think about it as a creator.

Having posted cocktails on Instagram for a few years, she says it got to the point where the process felt like a job, and that she had to create content in the same curated style as everyone else to gain likes and followers. So Chamberlain started her TikTok as an escape — to have fun with cocktails again and share them in her own unique style.

Chamberlain doesn’t follow TikTok trends and isn’t worried about likes or views. Despite this, her account boasts more than 200,000 followers and 4.5 million likes. “I think the content really finds its audience,” she says. “I trust in the magic of the algorithm.”

The more time spent on TikTok, the more it seems that there are two types of creators: those who work on their personal “brand” and ignore the algorithm, and those who follow the trends and “chase” it, as Desreumaux puts it.

Kenny Coleman, who runs the Bourbon Pursuit podcast and its affiliated social media accounts, falls into the latter camp. When making TikTok content, he searches the app’s trending hashtags, music, and challenges, and figures out how he can tie them back to bourbon.

He lip syncs to songs and posts text-based videos with robotic narration — it’s a TikTok thing — but always relating to topics like annual bourbon releases and Pappy-mania. It appears to be a smart move for growing a following because it allows him to speak to two audiences: Those who are more interested in TikTok trends and those who care more for bourbon. “I just look at it as another creative outlet,” Coleman says.

Given his creation style, it’s somewhat ironic that @bourbonpursuit’s biggest video to date didn’t follow a TikTok trend. But it did start one.

On Oct. 21, 2020, Coleman posted a 30-second clip with the caption: “What does an $800 ice press look like?” The short video sees him transform a large cube of cloudy ice into a perfect sphere using a Meltdown copper ice press. He then places the ice in a rocks glass, tops it with a pour of Elijah Craig Barrel Proof, and raises his drink to the camera.

The video racked up 1.5 million views overnight and celebrity imitators soon emerged, including Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and YouTube superstar Dave Dobrik. Coleman’s original now has over 10 million views and accounts for more than half of his profile’s likes.

“After it did go viral, Meltdown’s website had a literal meltdown,” Coleman says. “It couldn’t keep up with the orders.”

@bourbonpursuit

A perfect sphere every time. #FallDIY #gucciice #bourbon #meltdown

♬ goosebumps – Travis Scott

That a simple video on frozen water could create such waves displays the power of TikTok’s algorithm. From a marketing and sales perspective, it must have been a huge boon for Meltdown. As for the bourbon featured in the video — not so much.

So far, Elijah Craig and its parent distillery Heaven Hill are not on TikTok. Even if they were, they wouldn’t be able to use the platform for advertising purposes or to directly drive sales. The handful of spirits brands that are on TikTok, such as Pennsylvania’s Bluecoat Gin and Kentucky’s Rabbit Hole Distillery, use it exclusively to share cocktail tutorials and educational videos on the distilling process.

When I spoke with Rabbit Hole chief marketing officer Michael Motamedi about TikTok, he seemed just as fascinated with the algorithm as I was. He described the platform as a “real opportunity” for brands like Rabbit Hole, noting that it allows them to engage with consumers “in a real way.”

Motamedi shares Chamberlain’s view that quality content on TikTok will always find an audience. “If you build it, they will come,” he says, and adds that he respects that about the platform. “You see individuals that have 2 or 3 thousand followers and [yet] they have millions of views or millions of likes,” he says. “What that tells me is the algorithm is doing its job.”

For now, and hopefully for the long run, TikTok delivers on its promise of serving the right content for you. Besides its influencers and the odd $800 ice press manufacturer, the real beneficiaries of its algorithm remain its users.

In teaching viewers how to make the perfect Martini or how to not tip like a jerk — perhaps before they’ve ever set foot in a bar — TikTok is succeeding in democratizing drinks culture. As its user base grows, there will be those who join the platform not knowing they’re interested in cocktails but soon find themselves 10 videos into DrinkTok. Others, like me, who’ve questioned whether the right content is out there, should have no doubts: Powered by the might of the algorithm, it’s only a matter of time before it finds you.

The article Harnessing the Power of TikTok’s Almighty Algorithm appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/tiktok-algorithm-drinks/

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margaretbeagle · 4 years ago

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Selling on Social 101: How Blume Markets and Sells to a Gen Z Audience

As the buying power of Gen Z grows, marketers at businesses of all sizes are searching for novel ways to connect with this audience and build lasting customer relationships.

It'll come as no surprise that social media platforms are of the best ways to connect with this generation — which includes today's teenagers and those in their early 20's. But marketing to Gen Zers means much more than simply posting pretty pictures and memes.

So what does it take to stand out and connect with this valuable audience in 2021?

One brand that has mastered the art of marketing to Gen Z is Blume, a fast-growing skin, body, and period care brand on a mission to break boundaries and smash taboos.

In this interview, you'll hear directly from Janice Cheng, Brand and Community Manager at Blume, and you'll learn:

How to build a brand that connects with Gen Z

How to market and sell on social media

The key to understanding Gen Z's preferences on social media

Successful strategies to use when marketing to Gen Z

This post is part of the #BufferBrandSpotlight, a Buffer Social Media series that shines a spotlight on the people that are helping build remarkable brands through social media, community building, content creation, and brand storytelling.

This series was born on Instagram stories, which means you can watch the original interview in our Highlights found on our @buffer Instagram profile.

Tell us more about you! What's Blume all about and what's your role there?

My name is Janice and I’m based in Vancouver! I’m the Brand Manager at Blume—a fast-growing skin, body, and period care brand on a mission to break boundaries and smash taboos. I joined the team back in June 2019 as the 3rd hire and EA to our founders Taran & Bunny. Now, I’ve been in this Brand role for almost 9 months.

Why do you think your Gen Z audience connects with your brand?

Gen Zers are conscious (smart) consumers and the most connected generation ever. Growing up with social media, they want transparency, community, and look for brands that align with their values. I think Blume checks off all those boxes in a really genuine way! Since day one, we’ve been more than just our products. Blume is breaking stigma by having conversations about extremely normal, yet still taboo topics, like acne, puberty, periods, and sex ed. As I’m sure most of us know, these are “issues” that carry well into adulthood, so a lot of our audience are millennials as well.

Gen Zers are conscious (smart) consumers and the most connected generation ever. Growing up with social media, they want transparency, community, and look for brands that align with their values.

We’re also a brand that cares. We launched the thestatesofsexed.com, Future World Shapers Award (created for Gen Z change-makers), and generally produce engaging and shareable content. More importantly, we prioritize using our platform to amplify the voices of our community and speak up on issues important to us; this includes climate change, the Black Lives Matter movement, and even our pandemic response. Our audience teaches us a lot, and more than anything, they’re our friends! This is all translated through our brand voice cohesively across all channels.

Tell us about a recent social media campaign. What made it so successful?

We’re only about 2.5 years old but one of my fave moments was our in-house Blume Celebrates Skin campaign (a campaign focused on being confident in our own skin is undefined and unrestricted by our physical appearances or the bumps and blemishes on our skin). We were only about five people then (half of our team now) and it was so much fun because it came from our hearts. Quickly and organically, it grabbed the attention of Allure and Daily Mail UK. Sometimes metrics are tricky with these kinds of campaigns. Say someone comes across this campaign and finds new strength and bravery in their natural skin. Although can’t quantify feelings, the reviews and customer testimonials are invaluable to our team.

Instagram post found here.

BUT! Meltdown (our best-selling acne treatment) continues to be our top community favorite and campaigns like Celebrate Skin reinforce that. Ultimately, our social media goal is to increase engagement, and this campaign accomplished that for us. We’re about to have some of our biggest campaigns this new year! So stay tuned.

Where do you find inspiration for Blume’s social media content?

Recently, a lot on TikTok (obviously), community pages like Girlboss, and also meme pages. We have an #inspo Slack channel where we share things we see on our feeds and Explore pages and what’s circulating in our own friend's groups! Pro tip: start an #inspo channel whether just for yourself or with your team.

How does Blume leverage user-generated content to connect with its Gen Z audience?

Community is core to all we do. Beyond our products, for us, it’s about adding value to Gen Z, and user-generated content (UGC) is a huge part of that. Using UGC is more impactful than using traditional models or lifestyle images because UGC is by actual people in our community—reflecting a range of real skin. It's the best way to relate to this audience!

Using UGC is more impactful than using traditional models or lifestyle images because UGC is by actual people in our community—reflecting a range of real skin.

Also, Gen Zers are so creative because producing content is second nature to them so partnerships together are so fun. I love looking through our tagged posts every week and seeing people embrace their shelfies and natural skin. We give them full creative freedom! So rather than believing what we have to say about our products, you should believe our community through UGC, their captions, reviews, and experiences.

Instagram post found here.

How does Blume embed UGC, customer testimonials, and reviews across all its marketing channels?

We have an incredible tiny team of two that keeps the rest of the team, especially marketing, up to date with all inquiries, trends, and themes of the week. For example, our Meltdown before & after shave has always been highly effective for us because a photo equals a thousand words.

In skincare, especially clean beauty care, it's really important for us to spotlight the effectiveness of the product and how our products actually work. We’ll use before/after photos and other UGC in ads, Instagram story features, and email newsletters. With permission, of course.

On a regular week, we try to post UGC and/or testimonials about 3-4x on our social media channels.

In skincare, especially clean beauty care, it's really important for us to spotlight the effectiveness of the product and how our products actually work.

What are Blume’s most successful social platforms for selling and why?

Definitely Instagram—still cracking the code for TikTok. Ultimately, Gen Zers are the trendsetters and determine what’s next. Something can come and go overnight so we have to be quick to pivot, adapt and execute. We can plan all we want but our best performing posts often tend to be non-product focused ones. If we had a Meltdown post planned on a day where the world actually needs more empathy and love, we’ll swap it for a journal prompt post or check-in.

What advice do you have for brands that want to start selling on social media?

Make a list of brands that you love and dig deep into the “why.” For Blume, the core criterion for selling on social is based on value; we focus our marketing on educational content about our products and brand, community building through UGC campaigns and partnerships, and aesthetic shareable graphics.

Also, GET. ON. TIKTOK. Whether to start your brand page or just to get in touch with Gen Z culture, it’s worthwhile I promise you. Here are three easy things you can start right away: write copy like a human (not a robot), have fun with emojis, and start following people to bring eyes to your page!

Fllow Blume on TikTok here.

For Blume, the core criterion for selling on social is based on value; we focus our marketing on educational content about our products and brand, community building through UGC campaigns and partnerships, and aesthetic shareable graphics.

How do you stay up to date on Gen Z trends?

Personally, I follow Gen Z brands that I admire, read lots of Glossy and Beauty Independent, and ask our awesome Influencer, Lead Eman, for the 411 on what’s cool and what’s not. I also used to scroll TikTok for 4 hours a day (lol) for simultaneous entertainment and market research.

What's your favorite Blume product and why?

I’d like to say Meltdown because that’s everyone's #1 and I’ve had a lot of stress acne through 2020, BUT my runner-up is definitely Hug Me, our natural deodorant. Random fact: the probiotics, our secret ingredient, has adapted to my body so well I hardly need deodorant anymore. It’s also unscented so I recommend it to EVERYONE. I might be biased but these two are also my faves because their names are so fun to play with when copywriting. 👋

Thanks for Bluming with us, Buffer friends! ❤️

We hope this interview with Janice helps you get started with or double down on your social media efforts. You can follow Blume on Instagram here!

Have any questions for Janice? Feel free to reply with your questions to the Twitter post below and Janice or someone from the Buffer team will get to them as soon as possible.

Selling on Social 101: How Blume Markets and Sells to a Gen Z Audience published first on https://improfitninja.weebly.com/

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vroenis · 4 years ago

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2020 Music In Review

When this was a draft, it opened with a bit about me not writing, but then I started playing board games again and wrote two bits on board games. In the trashfire that 2020 was (add “trashfire” to dictionary, no I did not mean “trash fire”), and 2021 continues to be, somehow I ended up getting back into board games. Actually there are good and logical reasons I returned to them and if you’re interested in that, I go into some of it in those journals, but more interesting is just playing the games so you should totally HMU if you’re local, sorry I don’t do virtual/digital, I like handling physical pieces and sharing food.

The most natural way for me to wrap a year for me is in music and since Melbourne locked down in March, I spent a lot of time working from home and listening on my own gear which I can’t express enough the joy at being able to do - firstly at having good reference transducers and secondly not having to listen to trash radio.

Writing about art is always a bit weird but it’s good fun so we do it anyway so let’s write some words about art. There are three main ways I engage with music in no particular order - more or less however I happen to notice them;

Music and musicianship - tonal and rhythmic composition

Technical production - recording, editing/manipulionation, processing/production, mixing and balance, and mastering

Song-writing/lyrics - should there be any - excludes vocal performance as this is covered under the first one.

To get weirder about it, I tend to have both emotional and also pragmatic responses to those three things separately so that means there’s a wackadoo matrix of 6 criteria I seem to be assessing every piece of music I encounter against and yep, that’s a thing I do, all the time, every time. The better a piece of music is, tho, the more the line between the emotional and pragmatic blurs as the overall quality of the work is established. I might begin with an initial pragmatic appreciation of an excellent mix and balance, and technical execution of a recording and production, then come to get a feel for how emotional a work is - and vice-versa. Sometimes on rare occasions, it all happens at the same time - an album is just a smashing work of excellence in every way and I just love every aspect of it more over time.

It’s worth mentioning I don’t really have any great axe to grind with pop music - there has always been and continues to be great pop, and good pop isn’t by any means easy music to create. For me at least, and likely many people, what destroys pop as a listening experience is repetition which usually isn’t under the listener’s control, but an unfortunate side-effect of the underlying culture that sustains pop as an industry. I still appreciate and admire so much about pop-music and always keep a little in my collection from each decade. No matter what, always remind yourself that the kids are OK and that there’s always great pop-music around - stay in touch with it. Some of it is truly awesome, and I use the superlative with sincerity.

Albums Of The Year

A few things happened on the way to me actually getting to write this journal, including some surgery (I’m fine), but also I ended up nominating no less than 4 Albums Of The Year. I think they deserve their own lengthier write-ups, in a weirdly me thing to do, I feel like I want to talk less about them and you should just go and listen to them but they have been getting a lot of air-time on my channels - in any case, here’s a lazylink to the instagram post I did for them. They’re all great and they feature in the lists coming in this entry so give them a listen, they’re outstanding.

Personal Charts

When I set out to write a musical summary of the year, I went to my last.fm page to see what I’d listened to by number of plays polled. As mentioned, given the Covid lockdown and working from home so much, I’ve actually gotten to register a lot more of my listening on the site whereas in general so much of my listening happens offline, so to speak, be it in the car or on my mp3 player. This year has also seen a serious shift in my buying habits shift entirely to Bandcamp for a few reasons; Google shut down their Play store in favour of streaming because naturally it favours them and not artists - it also just makes sense for them from infrastructure and administrative perspectives, but also I just did more and more research and naturally found more and more artists and Bandcamp just made sense. I want to write a digest as to why you should do the same but I feel like people need to find their own way there or approach me directly so the motivation comes from them. Streaming is bad for artists and while I and indeed artists don’t want you to close your premium accounts just yet because closing any revenue streams to artists in any way is bad, I encourage you to do some research into just how much revenue there is in streaming, and what your expectations are for how you think the artists you love so much are supposed to make a living. I guess if your engagement level is fairly low, or the culture you’re into is pop-music, then this is the end of the discussion and that’s OK, we don’t need to take it any further. If you’re in any way curious about what this issue is, this video by Benn Jordan is a great place to start.

There are two charts I’d like to share - one is my top 10 albums I’ve chosen, the other is the same albums by number of plays as per my last.fm polling. These aren’t the top 10 albums I polled, mind-you. Sometimes I listen to an album a whole bunch just because I’m into it or because it slaps, but it isn’t one I’d nominate as an album that encapsulates the year.

You’ll immediately notice not every album was released in 2020, however my conditions are that they either had to have been released close enough to 2020 that I’d have done heavy listening in the year, or I had to have purchased them in 2020 so they were new to me in the year.

Here are the 10 albums I chose;

And here they are by number of plays polled in 2020 - bear in mind I probably played one or two favourite tracks a few times more, so they don’t neatly divide by number of tracks listed on the album;

A few immediate things to note;

- Dreams Are Not Enough is significantly underrepresented because I don’t listen to it at my PC while I work. In general, I definitely listen to this far more in environments offline, but also it’s not exactly an all occasions album given its tone and atmosphere, if you know what I mean, and if you don’t - give it a listen and find out.

- La Favière on the other hand is more or less a bit of a party so I play it a lot… yet when it comes to my personal rankings, it’s not that I like it less per se, it’s just that I love the other albums more - tons of respect to Iversen. It still made 10th on a list of hundreds of albums and netted 161 plays out of thousands of files I have.

- Had I done this kind of list in 2019 and known about Reid Willis, I suspect The Longing Device would have been an Album Of The Year then. It was a dead ringer for an Album Of The Year for me this year except then he released Mother Of and that is an absolute killer, so he outdid himself and I selected that instead. Reid Willis is a genius.

- There’s a long story as to why I only bought Hanan Townshend’s soundtrack for To The Wonder in 2020 but at least I was delayed long enough to not produce any more plastic, given my original intention once upon a time was to get it on CD. In any case, I had to buy it on iTunes and was bedstricken from illness for days after. iTunes is cursed.

Telefon Tel Aviv - Dreams Are Not Enough (October 2019)

In 2009, Telefon Tel Aviv released their album Immolate Yourself and then Charles Cooper died. I didn’t actually find out about his death until after I’d heard the album a few times over, but the album stayed with me for the 10 years to the new album as a landmark like no other. In part for the mourning of Charles, but simultaneously and separately as something that stood apart as some sound for my life that no other music could touch. Maybe The Haxan Cloak’s Excavation, maybe Darkside’s Psychic, but each of those in different ways.

10 years later and Joshua Eustis continues his long journey and releases Dreams Are Not Enough in the Telefon Tel Aviv name. After my first listen, I tweeted to him that I felt like deleting the rest of my music collection which we had a laugh about (he’s a very sociable person, by the way, if you’re not an asshole - he’s also someone you can learn a lot about the industry from). The thing is - I want to have these kinds of exaggerated reactions to the art I engage with - I want them to be world-destroying. Sure, not every piece of art has to be immense and euphoric and devastating, but it can’t all be run-of-the-mill either.

It’s difficult for me to describe Dreams Are Not Enough in practical terms, it is still a Telefon album, it is also Telefon without Charles, it’s also mourning him, is it moving on in his absence? It is definitely its own art for you to engage with as a unique work, to you the individual. It’s uniquely Telefon Tel Aviv in a way that no other electronic artist does the same way - it feels a specific way and there are times when no other music will do. One of my running jokes is that Porpentine’s Howling Dogs and Cardboard Computer’s Kentucky Route Zero will be my Game(s) Of The Year every year forever and Dreams Are Not Enough now with Immolate Yourself are going to last 10, 20 years - longer - as Albums Of The Year forever too because there’s just never anything else like them.

Reid Willis - The Longing Device (January 2019)

The good thing about having made my choices earlier in 2020 is that Reid WIllis’ Mother Of wasn’t out when I wrote-up the list, so I get to talk about The Longing Device.

Reid Willis was an absolutely random find on Bandcamp. Occasionally I like to dive into subgenres and just go hunting. You can imagine that 9 times out of 10 this is a fruitless endeavour and might think this is frustrating but I really enjoy doing it as an exercise in critical listening. By whatever turn of divine Bandcamp listing, I came across the first chronological album he has up, Crude Healing (2016) and from memory listened to four tracks before instant-buying his entire discography available. I did go hunting on the Google Play store before it was shuttered and buy the most recent album from 2013, The Sunken Half listed from his older works before he jumped over to Bandcamp for all his newer albums and it’s definitely a transitional work to what he does now and well worth having. While Crude Healing initially blew me away, The Longing Device is a more mature album that has been more carefully shaped, skills having been honed and focussed into a less raw and yet more powerful sound. Very rarely am I ever an “I liked your old stuff better than your new stuff” kind of person, in general I tend to go with an artist when they evolve and grow unless on occasion they go in a completely different direction in which case hey - I respect it but sometimes it’s just not something I feel.

Here Willis’ orchestrations are careful, beautiful and languished in the right moments - cut with beats and edits, and the beats and edits likewise deftly cut with orchestrations. This is such a stunning exhibition of creativity, it’s one of the more esoteric examples of my music collection and also in some ways perhaps one of the more approachable works. Then in November Willis released Mother Of where he just takes everything to the next level.

Mat Zo - Illusion Of Depth (October 2020)

In July of 2020, Above & Beyond released their ongoing regular compilation Anjunabeats volume 15 and finished the first disc with a bangin’ Mat Zo track called Problems, an instant favourite of mine as soon as I heard it. It’s a tough year for DJs and musos all round not being able to tour, Josh Eustice and many others have been doing year-round commentary about irresponsible alleged “underground” gigs have nothing to do with the old-school spirit of underground at all and have turned into superspreader events, and how publishers and labels haven’t supported artists through Covid. Leading up to October, Anjuna and Mat Zo promote his forthcoming album and I have to admit, I’m pretty hyped and then it drops.

Holy shit.

In a year of such terrible events, this felt like such a timely dose of positivity that arrived at just the right time. I wrote a whole damn entry for this on instragram, and it’s one of my Albums Of The Year, but far out the digest of this album. On one hand, it’s a hugely technically accomplished work - it’s a diverse exhibition of styles, musicianship, stellar production, and absolutely pristine mix and balance - on the other hand, it’s just an absolute fucken banger-riot-party of an album. The album stands up to a clinical listening on reference transducers, it’s such a delight to audition and examine in every way, but you can set all of that aside and just enjoy the experience, front to back through the tracks in order and as an album, that’s becoming quite rare. There are levels of production discipline on display in this album, especially for electronic music in difficult mixing environments with potentially cluttered frequency ranges that a lot of artists need to learn from, yet Maz Zo executes with ease. This has a lot to give no matter who you are, whether you want to sit down and listen, dance all night or go for a drive - a word of warning, it might make you want to drive fast!

It’s also worth noting that Mat toured this album virtually in Minecraft in order to be Covid-safe and that is absolutely freaken amazing.

Hanan Townshend - To The Wonder (April 2013)

Not the best choice of cover-art, but to be fair, no-one likes Terrence Malick films so it doesn’t really matter. Like most things, getting into music tends to be multifaceted. To The Wonder is my favourite Malick film and yes, I love many of them (you can check the Film Notes page), probably because it’s the most intimate and grounded of his narratives. I still like the more grand and abstract stories he tells, they’re very much my bag, too, but To The Wonder really is a simple story about people told from a closeness that is for some perhaps uncomfortable, but I love that closeness. There’s a dream-like quality to Malick’s filmmaking and indeed cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki’s photography that is both surreal and organic that makes the film feel very real and then like recollection once it’s done. Hanan Townshend’s music perfectly matches it, and then like all good soundtracks transcends the purpose for which it was written and can be applied to life outside of its matching media. There is a certain framing I have in my mind and at times, with the way I quite literally see, that makes me cue this soundtrack. Very few other soundtracks have this kind of power - Kenji Kawaii’s work for Ghost In The Shell (inclusive of Innocence), Hajime Mizogughi’s Jin-Roh and Cliff Martinez’ Solaris would be some of the others.

Daniel McCagh - Altered States (April 2020)

Another semi-random Bandcamp find, I was chuffed to learn that Daniel McCagh is from Albury, NSW, Australia. It’s always amazing to find local artists who are this astonishingly talented. I tend to associate Australian musicians at the not-quite-there-yet level of art and still do. That’s not a criticism of the artists themselves, it’s a criticism of our government and their backwards attitude towards arts funding and economics in this country. We are a developed country in the age of the internet where information and culture is shared instantly but we deny our people opportunities in so many ways - in education, facilities, commerce and economic infrastructure - the state of internet services in this country for a start is appalling and has been behind global standards forever. It will take us so much time, funds, resources and coordination to catch-up and of-course the longer we wait, the greater the cost and each successive government makes their excuses as to why we can never quite afford to do things right.

Props to individuals who can make it stick, tho, and Daniel McCagh is one of them. It’s probably shockingly unfair to hold someone up on a pedestal every time they do well but I can’t help it - Altered States is on par with Reid Willis’ and other dark ambient/electronic works or whatever genre you want to put them into. On Bandcamp these darker synth and drone-centric artists are a dime a dozen and to be fair, a lot of them are quite good but finding works that truly stand out in excellence can be difficult. The low play-count is due to having only found and bought the album quite late, but it goes into rotation fairly often and it’s a growing genre in my collection.

The 1975 - Notes On A Conditional Form (May 2020)

The closest thing to pop music to hit this list, NOACF was going to appear at some point - just getting pipped at the finish-line by Reid Willis, all told. I listened to this in the car quite a bit when I was still in rotation in the office before full lockdown.

Writing about The 1975 will be a Thing - either you’ll know something about them or nothing at all. For me, I guess I engage with them entirely differently from superfans - I’m in my late 30s so it won’t surprise you that I don’t have a TikTok account nor do I op a Spotify account and I’m not active at all on Facebook altho neither are gen Z. That said, I’m not entirely sure who their core fanbase will be - they don’t strike me as chart-topping, TikTok everpresent pop-culture icons. Their lead singer certainly has the awareness of pop-culture to communicate with their fan-base to keep up, but they don’t seem to engage at the same level of the lists you see on say, Todd in the Shadows - but I’ve not watched enough of him to know if he’s ever mentioned them.

Anyway I’m enough of a musician (read: snob) to dig their lofty musical stuff - it’s the perfect follow-up and follow-on from ABIIOR and I Like It When You Sleep... before that. Their sound stays uniquely theirs while slowly evolving with contemporary sounds, all the while the production stays top-notch and I’m always pleased with what I hear from a mixing and balance perspective. It also sort of launched with one of the most exciting singles I’ve heard in a while If You’re Too Shy (Let Me Know) which has to be one of the absolute best recreations of the quintessential 90’s sound yet with contemporary production discipline I’ve ever heard. Many have tried yet most have failed. I always have so much respect when an artist can nail this kind of thing because it’s immensely difficult to do and I’m so proud of The 1975 for pulling this off. All of their genre homages and tilts on this album - actually on all of their albums since I Like It When You Sleep… have been stellar and I continue to be impressed.

I’m also completely onboard with their performative behaviour - they remind me of the angsty political U2 et al of old, but with the necessary contemporary tilt we need. Matty as a front-person is grounded, sensible, vulnerable, flawed - been thru some shit and talks openly about it. I don’t care how much of it is genuine, it reads and plays genuinely. I’m not a superfan so I don’t have posters of him on my wall nor hang on every word he says, but if I was 16 or 23 and did, I think he’s saying the right things. Setting that aside because it doesn’t matter, as a late 30’s adult, this album is fucking great and the band is aging, whether the fanbase likes it or not. There is so much creativity in it and I feel like while they play like they don’t care whether anyone comes along with them or not, they actually really sincerely hope we all do - and I also hope we all really do come along with them because I am coming along with them. None of this “play Antichrist” bullshit - leave the past in the past. Play Nothing Revealed / Everything Denied. They just cancelled their 2021 tour plans due to Covid which was a really good move, and confirmed a new album in the works, and I can’t wait to hear what they have coming.

The Midnight - Monsters (July 2020)

One of the most exciting releases last year, I was amped for the drop and was anticipating another solid, top-notch contemporary synthwave album from who I regard to be one of the very best in the genre. They’d released America Online some months prior which I really loved but it didn’t really indicate what the album was going to be like. Monsters ended up being waaaaay better than I expected - and I expected it to be really great. I don’t know whether it was a conscious decision by the band that perhaps the synthwave space was perhaps wearing out the 80’s a little bit - even pop-music was starting to take nibbles at the genre albeit pretty poorly by comparison, not that radio-punters would know it. With the new album tho, we’re taken into this wonderful in-between of not fully 90’s but not wholly 80’s either and even some contemporary r’n’b thrown in there but always stellar production and it’s just a massive album. It’s like a film you watch that ends up being an instant favourite you wish you could watch again for the first time because that first experience was so great. EVERYTHING lands perfectly in this album… with perhaps the exception of the lyric

“friends become lovers under covers”

in the song Prom Night because celebrating teens being sexually active is probably not something I cherish too much but hey, whaddayagonnado some things are just facts LET’S TURN THIS INTO A TEACHING OPPORTUNITY ABOUT CONSENT let’s not at least not right now.

Jeremy Blake - Object Permanence (December 2019)

Jeremy Blake is also known as Red Means Recording and he is a Synthlord. He has a YouTube channel and I am a superfan of his, so much so that I wrote a feature about him right here in this journal. I have a lot of his albums and Object Permanence is one of my favourites.

Jeremy is the definition of good faith. Everything he does is done with the intention of creating goodness in this world, in whatever way it can, somehow. Whether it’s just by listening to something that you might find pleasing, or whether it’s watching a video intended to help you create music on a piece of hardware or learn about software or licensing or platforms, distribution or business in some way. I happen to really dig the kinds of music styles he’s into as we seem to have had similar roots when it comes to some of the rock and electronic music we grew up on and have been into in our music lives, so the music he makes now really gels well with me. It was super difficult to choose between the album he released before this called Soft Music To Do Nothing To and Object Permanence but ultimately I think this is the right choice as far as an exhibition of his talent goes. Soft Music is still great, it’s more of a long jam he performed with only three pieces of gear which is pretty amazing and I listen to it all the time, but Object Permanence has some distinct tracks in varying styles I really get into.

I highly recommend Jeremy’s YouTube channel as an entry-point into his style, but if you’re a synth-head and like beats, breaks and groovy bleeps and bloops, you definitely won’t go astray by dropping into any one of his albums on Bandcamp.

The Paper Kites - On The Corner Where You Live (September 2018)

File The Paper Kites under “holy shit another Australian artist that isn’t rubbish” and from Melbourne, my hometown at that. In 2018, they split their new tracks effectively into two albums which works really well. The first is called On The Train Ride Home which is wholly downtempo and almost entirely acoustic with no drums, the second is this album and is a more energetic. I don’t actually prefer one over the other and have just made myself a playlist with contributions from other artists that only includes songs from On The Train Ride Home, but for this list I chose the second album for its exhibition of the band’s overall breadth of song-writing, performance and production. I guess I associate this sound with bands like Rogue Valley and other north and Pacific Northwest bands in the US but to be fair, I don’t really go hunting for this kind of sound - Nashville?? I don’t associate this very cooled-down acoustic-electric sound with Nashville, it’s not very Country (I have some Country in my collection which probably doesn’t surprise you), it’s almost like ultra-chilled mid-90’s ballad in a sense. Someone will have to tell me what it really is and where to find more but only of this calibre because I’m picky about quality. Google says they’re “folk music, folk rock, indie rock, alternative/indie” and that’s useless so throw that in the bin where it belongs.

This sound is definitely a mood. I hunted thru my entire collection including the aforementioned Rogue Valley and started a first playlist of just this kind of thing. I have the acoustic list done and will do an electric counterpart that will include more material from this album, as well as the one song I bought from Night Traveler called Don’t Forget Me as long as it’s not too energetic, it all depends on what makes it to the final list. This music speaks of drives thru rural landscapes, late nights in the city, time alone or with just one other person, closeness, loneliness, introspection, of long journeys and separation.

Iversen - La Favière (August 2018)

The story of how I got this album is hilarious - one of my gaming friends who buys stuff on Humble Bundle and itch.io and god knows what else tweets me this link and says “hey there’s this synthwave bundle for like $2 you should get it it’s $2 it has all this music in” and as someone who won’t buy bad music for even $2, I go investigating and you can listen to some samples and lo-and-behold, most of it is pretty great. I paid a lot more than $2 as that only got you 4 albums and for another $5 or something, you got another 4 albums plus I always pay more because I want more revenue to go to the contributing artists. I ended up not liking about half of the music on offer but in the bundle I discovered Lost Outrider, Morgan Willis and Iversen, all of which I’ve gone on to buy more music from on Bandcamp. As for La Favière, I bought it again on Bandcamp because I love the album so much and wanted to support the artist - it’s really excellent. Oddly tho, two of the best tracks from it were bonuses that only came with the bundle version and not the Bandcamp version, called Sunset Rider and Visions of Blue, so if you want those, I’m not entirely sure how you can get a hold of them - I’m sure if you contact Josh Iverson and tell him you want to pay for them, he’ll try to sort you out unless there are labels involved in which case, not his fault. Regardless, you still get one of the best chilled synth tracks of all time In Dreams which is worth the price of admission all on its own, it is absolutely epic and you should give it a listen.

Goodbye 2020

Time of writing is Sunday 16th January and what a ride it’s been already, hey. I might still write up my actual Albums Of The Year given two of them didn’t get mentioned - Reid Willis - Mother Of and Gidge - New Light, so I cheated a bit, but they’re my nominations, awards and lists so I can do whatever I like. I’m always excited about music, both listening with a critical ear and also emotionally engaging with it. There’s never a shortage of good new music or discovering material I hadn’t from years past. Sometimes it feels like wading thru endless fields of dross to find the gold but it’s always there and getting to it is a true delight.

There were honourable mentions and I couldn’t quite get the list to 10 - there are 8. I might write them up but for the moment, here they are in vague order of vagueness. Importance? Order of purchase? I got into Lapalux and Enter Shikari very late in the year. Apparat’s - LP5 is a very special album to me, almost Dreams Are Not Enough special. I do want to talk about how Jacob Collier’s album is both very very good and also not good enough.

The majority of the music listed here can be purchased on Bandcamp. There are links to most of it on my Bandcamp profile if you want to go hunting - I might add lazylinks later-on if I get the time.

Here is my last.fm full listing for 2020 if you’re curious about that kind of thing. Stats are great.

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clarencenicholsonata · 4 years ago

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9 Proven Digital Marketing Tips to Scale Your Online Business

The Bureau of Labor Statistics found that 50% of small businesses fail within the first four years of existence. Moreover, Forbes discovered earlier in 2013 that only two to three businesses out of ten will survive fifteen or more years.

If you want to keep your brand growing, you'll need to consider scaling as your next step. Scaling is an art, like most crucial business steps. If you scale too soon or too slow, you can end up losing sales. As a marketer, I know that scaling a business, whether brick and mortar or online, is a big deal. You're faced with two questions:

Am I ready to scale my online business?

And if so, what's the best way to scale my online business?

Whether or not you know the answer to these questions, this article is sure to be a big help. I'll be showing you how to decide if you're ready to scale and how to scale your online store with these nine proven marketing and branding tips.

Let's dive in.

Are You Ready to Scale Your Business

If you're still stuck on the first question I asked in the introduction, "Am I ready to scale my online business?" it really boils down to these two factors: capability and capacity.

Brands that are ready to scale usually meet two or more of these requirements to scale:

Strong cash flow and repeatable sales: You've been getting consistent sales, and your customer base is growing. The demand for your product and service is consistent. You can meet your current expenses.

You're approached with more business opportunities: Along with a steady amount of sales, you'll be getting approached by brands or influencers for business partnerships and opportunities. This means that not only are customers willing to buy from you, but others see this as well.

Your business is in a position to grow: Your business needs more employees, tools, and features as it demands more of you to grow. Sometimes your company is literally showing us that we need to scale rather than answering the question ourselves. For example, you have a higher customer service request and need more chat support.

1. Evaluate Your Data & Tools for Areas of Improvement

Before you start scaling and putting things into effect, take a look at the Start by doing an S.W.OT analysis on the tools you have and see which tools you can take with you and which you'll need to replace to help you reach your scaling goals.

SWOT stands for strength, weakness, opportunities, and threats. For example, this can help you understand if you need to upgrade your email marketing tool or find a new email marketing tool. Do this SWOT analysis for each of your department's tech and software, so you're improving all areas of your online store.

I know that finding the right tools for your business and online store can be hard, so I compiled a list of our "best tools" guides you can easily go through below:

150 Best Shopify Apps (Paid & Free) To Increase Sales for 2021

9 Must-Have Marketing Tools Business Owners Need for 2021

10 Expert Conversion Rate Optimization Tools You Should Be Using

77 Tremendous Tools to Make You a Content Marketing Superstar

20 Best Must-Have Slack Apps (Paid & Free)

2. Up Your Social Media Marketing Game

One of the most overlooked staples of your marketing efforts is social media presence. Brands think that as they grow, it will eventually grow with them without putting much work into their social media. But that's not the case. When you're scaling an online store, you'll also have to up your social media marketing efforts because:

You'll need to widen your reach so that you can attract more potential customers.

Solidify your social media presence amongst your competitors.

Social media marketing is apart of your omnichannel marketing (which we'll talk about later)

You can serve and nurture your die-hard fans and customers who are on social media.

You can monitor and change the conversation being said about you on social media with social listening and monitoring.

When brands like Barkbox, GymShark, and Glossier started scaling their business, their social media marketing increased—not decreased. Like it or not 54% of people browsing on social media use the platform to research products they intend on purchasing, so if you're slacking, you're missing out on being found in their search or popping up on their feed.

Need help marketing your eCommerce store?

Book a free call to learn how our team of eCommerce experts can help you generate leads, boost traffic and drive MORE sales.

Tips for Using Social Media Marketing to Scale

Here are some top-tier tips you should know when using social media to help scale your business:

Start using more business features: Social media platforms like Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram allow you to have shopping and business features. These make it easier for your followers to access your products and shop directly on your profile without having to leave to click on your website link.

You can use Shoppable tags so that customers can learn more about your products, and you can also easily partner with influencers and track your brand partnership engagement, and so much more.

Start creating and publishing content consistently: Social media users are spoiled rotten when it comes to content, and like it or not, you'll have to stay active in their feed and beat the algorithm you'll need to be consistent in posting. When you post once in a blue moon or stop posting according to schedule, your engagement starts to flatline.

Since there are tons of other brands competing for your follower's attention, you can be easily forgotten, so will your products. To prevent that create a social media strategy and stick to it. You can also use tools like Buffer and Hootsuite to schedule your content in advance with auto-posting, so you don't have to be glued to your phone every day when you scale your online store.

Invest more in social media ads: Expand your reach and increase sales with social media ads. Let's not forget that platforms like Facebook and Instagram are pay to play platforms. In order for your business to grow, you'll have to push more paid content. Facebook has outrightly said on multiple occasions that it deliberately stunts organic growth for brands, so they have to rely on paid ads and features to grow.

If you need more help with social media marketing for your online store, here are some helpful guides we created to do just that and then some:

How to Make a Social Media Checklist (Free Template)

45 Best Brands on Social Media (Based on Niche) & What We Learned From Them

5 Effortless Tips to Create a Hashtag strategy for Social Media

5 Expert Ways to Increase Your Social Media ROI

3. Update & Improve Your Online Store's Website

As you scale, you'll need a website that can handle the new demands, traffic, and shoppers that will come with your growth. This means optimizing your website. For example, you'll notice that the server or website provider you've been using might need an upgrade. Maybe the layout you loved from the beginning might be limiting how your new wave of customers are shopping now.

When your updating and improving your online store's website for scaling, here's a quick checklist of things you should do or have on hand:

Always optimize your website for mobile: No matter how much you scale your business or optimize your website, if it's not mobile-friendly, you'll be missing out on much-needed sales. By 2021, mobile eCommerce sales are expected to account for 54% of total eCommerce sales.

Ensure that your loading speed is fast: Think with Google found that sites that load in five seconds (compared to those that load in 19) see 70% longer average sessions. So ensure that whatever new elements, apps, or integrations don't affect your website's load time.

Move or Upgrade your website: When you started your online store, you probably didn't realize how fast you would have to scale. Now that it's here, you'll either have to choose, upgrade your website based on the website builder you've used. For example, Shopify has Shopify Plus for eCommerce stores that need more space, faster transactions, and enterprise software to handle the massive traffic coming and going to the store.

Your next option might also be to move your store entirely to a new website builder or platform. If you’re using a website builder like Shopify but you'd prefer another online platform, feel free to check out 7 Best Shopify Alternatives For Your Next eCommerce Store

4. Ask Your Customer How You Can Improve

The one person who will be using your online store as much as you is your customer. Why not ask them what you can do to improve your website as you scale your online store. BigCommerce found that 43% of U.S. customers report spending more on brands that are known to listen to their customers.

Asking your customers how you can better improve your online store is also a form of customer service or satisfaction. The truth be told, customer service means a lot; 80% of people claim they'll quit doing business with a company after a poor customer service experience.

You're also not limited to sending out a traditional survey to customers to get feedback. You can use social media, like Instagram stories or posts, email marketing, or reward customers who provide reviews for your products or online store.

6 Creative Survey Examples to Help Boost Your Engagement

How to Use a Quiz Funnel to Grow Your Email List

5. Up Your Email Marketing Efforts

Don't forget to scale your email marketing, as well. This could mean investing in a more integrated email marketing tool. After all, around 59% of customers say marketing emails influence their purchase decisions.

The first step would be to take a look at your customer's shopping behavior and see where you can scale your email marketing efforts around it. From there, create email marketing campaigns triggered by actions, or lack thereof, to boost open rates and sales.

Wishpond used email marketing to help our client SHOC make over $45,000 in sales. With Wishpond, you can create, manage, monitor, and automate your emails along with segmentation and personalization features to fit your email marketing needs.

Ready to start automating your marketing?

Book a free call to learn how our team of marketing experts can help you create high converting email marketing today.

6. Track Every Single Conversion Possible

Tracking conversion on every single platform seems like a tedious task, but it pays off in the long run. When you have no idea where or how to track your data, you won't be able to track ahead of time changes you'll need to make to improve your online store as you scale.

One way to track all your conversions merely is by using tools like Google Analytics. Google Analytics helps your entire team to know what's going on with your eCommerce store on the backend. You can use your Google Analytics reports to learn about your website traffic sources. Google Analytics can show you detailed reports on:

Organic Traffic

Referral Traffic

Social Traffic

Direct Traffic

Email Traffic

The data you have stored here can be used to guide you as you scale your online store to see what's working and what's not, as well as the best approach to using tech to help you scale.

For more on to use Google Analytics for your online store, check out these 9 Amazing Ways to Use Google Analytics for E-Commerce

7. Build Deeper Connections with Brand Advocates

Around 55% of people will search online for reviews and recommendations before making a purchase, with 47% visiting the company website, 26% checking out the physical store, and 23% of people talking with friends and family.

Brand advocates are people who rave about your products/services on or offline. They advocate for your brand. They refer you to friends and family, share reviews, and user-generated content to boost sales. The more you invest in your brand advocate, the easier it is for them to advocate, create content, and share your brand with others.

Start by finding and using UGC (user-generated content) to help build your brand advocate's confidence that you acknowledge and value them. Here's a helpful video from Wishpond's YouTube channel to get you started.

youtube

8. Continue to Improve Your Site's SEO

Improving your SEO will be a crucial factor in solidifying your online presence as you scale your online store.

Leaving out SEO in your growth plan will only leave you losing ranks on search engines, allowing your competitors to outdo you. Safari Digital found that 82% of people who implemented an SEO strategy found it to be effective

Being #1 on Google drives 32.5% of the traffic to your website and that 32.5% only decreases the further down you are in the ranking. We haven't even spoken about how much traffic links on the second pages of Google received, which is far less than you'd expect.

You can use these Ecommerce SEO Checklist to get started to help you take an inside look at how you can improve and scale your SEO alone with your store.

9. Invest in Getting Help from Marketing Experts

As great as these tips are, without the right expert to help you get the ball rolling, you might feel overwhelmed trying to DIY your own marketing and scaling tactics. Scaling your online store means you now have more on your plate than ever. You'll need help working towards the results you need to boost your online conversion rates.

If you can't do it alone, why not hire marketing experts to help you. We provide a dedicated marketing executive that will work with you to ensure your campaign is a success. Get unparalleled support 24/7 with access to designers, ads specialists, content writers, and more.

Summary

Scaling your online store is a new and exciting adventure. With the right tools and techniques, you can begin to see your business flourish.

A word to the wise: just because you can scale your business doesn't ensure it's a success. Scaling your online store is taking your business to unchartered waters. Only take on as much risk as possible and be prepared for what comes after you start implementing your scaling techniques.

If you still need a bit of inspiration, here are some inspiring eCommerce stories to give you an extra push:

7 Shopify Success Stories That Will Inspire You to Make Your Own

Case Study: How SHOC Made Over $45,000 in Sales with Wishpond

Case Study: How Retyche Gain Over $100,000 in Sales with a Shopping Spree Giveaway

Get the world’s easiest marketing platform and the team to do it for you!

Book a free call to learn how you can get unparalleled support 24/7 with access to designers, ads specialists, content writers, and more for your brand.

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muhamedshafaan · 4 years ago

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The Latest Digital Marketing Trends For 2021

1)No Click Searches(Featured Snippet)

Generally, when you have a question, you type your question into Google, hit enter, and click on the article that best answers your question or gives you the information you need.

Sometimes though, the answer is suggested to you in a paragraph at the top of the result page. These boxes, called Position Zero in search engine results, often come with an image and all the information you were looking for displayed in an easy to distinguish box. You have the answer you need, so you don’t need to click on an article. This is what’s called a no-click search. Google and other search engines provide these to help people find answers quickly and keep people on their website (and off of yours).

When search engines use your website to show information to searchers, it shows you’re providing valuable content. The trick is to make sure you add something to these snippets that will draw the reader in and entice them to click on your website for more information, and away from the search engine that has provided them with a quick answer.

2)Google Verified Listings For Local SEO

Having a geographically-defined service area with Google My Business listing aids in showing up for “near me” searches. It also lets customers learn more about your business within Google Search results. At a glance your potential customer can see your open hours, address, and star rating left by other users.

In order to make sure the information displayed is correct, you should verify your Google business listing and keep information up to date. The benefits of verifying your business are:

You can manage your business information in Search, Maps, and other Google properties.

Verified businesses are considered more trustworthy and reputable than unverified competitors.

When you verify your business, you’re preventing fraud in the event that someone else tries to act as the owner and claims your listing as theirs.

3)Voice Search

Voice-activated digital assistants continue to be huge sellers, and let’s be realistic – some households talk to Alexa, Siri, or Cortana more than they speak to family members. The popularity of voice search both at home and on our phones has led to one of the most significant shifts in using keywords. When writing content, choose your keywords based on the questions people may ask when using Siri or Alexa. This can increase your visibility, and this digital marketing trend shows no sign of slowing down.

4)Visual Search

Instead of typing a description into Google, users can now upload an image and get information about an item just from a picture. If they’re uploading a plant photo, the search returns species information, while a landmark image will return historical data. When a user searches a product, it returns similar products and where to buy them. Google Lens, Pinterest Lens, and related search tools turn a user’s camera into a search bar.

You can Add high-quality images tagged with descriptive keywords, introduce an image search into your online inventory, having an image sitemap will increase the likelihood of your images being discovered by search engines , use descriptive filenames for images before uploading them to your website, add alternative text to all image aka “Alt tags”.

5)Online Reviews

Online reviews can make or break your business’s ability to attract new customers or clients. While any company can talk up their products or services, other consumers can provide real, unbiased reviews. Having many reviews from verified sources can make your business stand out from the competition and start building trust before they even click on your website. The most useful review for a business to receive is through Google Business. These are the most trusted sources, they’re the most visible, and your Google Business listing lets people call or visit the website. Facebook is another excellent source of online reviews, and you can use them to build a testimonials page on your website, while Yelp is suitable for restaurants, hotels, and recreational businesses.

6)Automated And Smart Bidding In Google Ads

To get the best possible results from a Google Ads campaign, Ads specialists analyze every piece of data and continuously tweak and adjust keywords, bids, and ad phrasing. While this obsessive attention to detail gets results, it’s exhausting. A business owner trying to run a campaign may become completely overwhelmed and end up failing.

Enter automated bidding strategies. These allow Google to use machine learning to analyze the tremendous amount of data it has on its users to adjust your bids in real-time. Ads specialists can embrace automated strategies while still being in complete control. Automated bidding isn’t anything new – Smart Bidding made its debut in 2016 – but most business owners aren’t aware of what it is or what it does.

It’s important to note that there are still plenty of human strategies involved in optimizing PPC performance. You can’t just set it and forget it and expect results – you still need to test everything, including testing automated bid strategies against each other.

7)Interactive Content

Adding interactive sections to your website is a great way to provide value for visitors, get them to engage with your website, and learn more about them.

Examples of interactive marketing include:

Assessments like quizzes

Polls and surveys

Calculators

Contests

8)Shoppable Posts

If you’ve got an e-commerce business, having a link to your shop in your bio or linking to a specific product in your Instagram Stories is great. Over the past few years, Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook have all introduced ways for e-commerce stores to create shoppable posts. Using a native integration, they’ve made it easy to tag and shop products directly in your posts. For online retailers, this is a great way to drive traffic to product pages .

9)Social Media Stories

Social media stories are easy to use and are an incredible way to feature products, events, and even behind-the-scenes experiences. When you consider that one-third of the Instagram Stories with the highest amount of views come from businesses, it’s hard to ignore that Instagram Stories and Stories on other platforms are an effective form of digital marketing. Once you offer a behind the scenes look, discount code, or limited edition product through Stories, followers will be hooked on your updates – as long as you deliver.

Some easy ideas for adding value to your social media stories are:

Search for customer content your business is tagged in and repost it onto your Stories

Upload livestream video for people who didn’t see it live

Utilize polls, Q&As, and quizzes to engage viewers with your brand and encourage their involvement in your content

Create simple animations and short videos of your product or service in action

9)Employee Engagement

If you have a business with multiple employees that are dedicated, engaged, and excited about the work they do, this can be a tremendous asset not only to your company in general but also to your online reputation.

When employees love their work and the company they do it for, they tend to talk about it. And they should be encouraged to talk about it online while tagging or mentioning the company and sharing interesting stories.

Employee engagement builds your online community in a natural and relatable way. LinkedIn is an excellent example of how this works. You can have a company page where you post events and share articles, but to get even more traffic and engagement, have your employees share and comment on these posts.

The LinkedIn algorithm values personal connections, so this spreads the news out to more connections, signaling to LinkedIn that the people behind the post are active and engaged with their company. You may also consider setting goals and rewarding employees who often share your content; that way, the people who work for you are even more excited about sharing company news with their network.

10) Mobile First Websites

Why choose a mobile-first web design?

Your page will load faster, improving both visitor experience and search engine ranking results.

Less expensive than building an app and a website.

Integrate mobile features like voice detection and camera use into your website.

Increased sales and conversions! Improving the user experience on mobile helps users navigate the website with greater ease and increases conversions.

11)Video Marketing

Think about the benefits of video marketing:

Customers respond well to videos.

They increase engagement.

It’s an effective way to show off new and existing products.

It’s easy to put together and cost-effective, especially compared to graphics and copy.

Live video, such as Facebook Live and Instagram Live, keeps people watching three times longer than standard video. It triggers the “fear of missing out” and hooks viewers in so they are the first to find some big news.

Personalized video advertising is being integrated into emails to create more personalized messages, share information more quickly, and prevent your message from being lost in a wall of text. Emails with videos have a click-through-rate that’s 8x higher than traditional email.

Product videos make customers feel more confident in what they’re buying, and they can offer a better sense of scale and specifications that text and pictures just can’t.

12)Page Speed

A slow-loading page is the number one reason users leave a website within a minute of landing on the page (also called the bounce rate)—even a second or two of a delay in how the page loads can negatively affect your conversion.

The good news is you can speed up your page load times pretty easily. First, optimize your images and make sure there are no large image files. If there are, compress them to where they are less than 100KB.

Next, reduce the number of internal redirects, specifically redirect chains that go through several redirects before landing on the correct URL and internal links to redirects. Reducing these can speed up your authority in Google and your page load speeds (both good things).

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#latest digital marketing trends

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