Marketing Advice That Matters
When looking for marketing ideas for your company, there are several different methods that can be chosen. One of the most successful current strategies for marketing your company, however, uses both proactive and reactive methods to bring in new customers and keep your current customers coming back: lifecycle marketing. You need to know what you are looking for in a lifecycle marketing agency to effectively choose one that will help your company grow.
What is Lifecycle Marketing?
Lifecycle marketing is making sure that your customer, whether they are a current, future, or former customer, receives the appropriate marketing message in order to inform them of your products or services and encourage them to purchase from you. A lifecycle marketing agency will use all the marketing formats available in a proactive and reactive manner to achieve this.
Buying Process Cycle
Using a lifecycle marketing agency, you will gain access to a means of engaging with your customers in all stages of their buying process—not just at the decision-making stage. By giving your potential customers information during earlier stages of the buying process, it will nurture a relationship with the customer early on, increasing the chances that they will choose your products. But also, lifecycle marketing includes marketing to those that have already purchased from you because, as studies have shown, you have a 60% to 70% chance of selling to an existing customer versus the 5% to 20% chance of selling to a new one. All of these different stages will be treated differently, allowing the customer to receive the right type of message for the stage of the buying process they are in. Using a mix of direct communication, social media, sponsorships, advertising, articles, etc. will give you all the tools you need to get the message out.
Choosing a Lifestyle Marketing Agency
Choosing the right lifestyle marketing agency for you is similar to choosing a business to partner with. There are several criteria you should look for in a marketing agency, and there are a few that you don’t need to focus on as much.
Expertise
Expertise is a big one when it comes to a service like those offered by a lifestyle marketing agency. You want to hire a company that actually has the expertise they claim to have because there are many companies out there that know how to sell themselves, but that don’t actually have the knowledge and expertise to back it up. Always research the agencies you are considering; find out who they have worked with before. References are great resources to ensure they are as knowledgeable as they claim to be.
Chemistry
You’re going to be working with your lifestyle marketing agency for a long time, so chemistry is very important, even if it doesn’t seem like it. Hiring a company that understands your business goals and atmosphere will allow them to market more effectively, amplifying your company ideals in your marketing campaign. Respect works both ways, as well; if you respect your agency, and they respect you, then the creativity between you can flow freely and more effectively.
Creativity
The most effective marketing campaigns are creative ones, so you want to look through the lifestyle marketing agency portfolio to get a glance at what they are capable of. When they pitch their marketing campaign ideas to you, you will get to see how creative they can be when marketing your company. Try to find an agency that isn’t just using the same ideas for every client. Your business is unique, and it needs a unique campaign to make you stand out.
Resources
When hiring a lifestyle marketing agency, ensure that they have the ability to take you on as a client. You want an agency that is going to have a team available to work with you, and the means they need to be able to do what they claim and they need to be financially secure so they don’t disappear, causing you to have to choose a different agency mid-campaign.
Cost
Cost is a less important aspect when hiring a lifestyle marketing agency. You want to hire an agency that is within your budget, of course, but you don’t want to just hire the cheapest one—they may be cheap for a reason. Quality is most often going to be worth the extra costs in the return on investment for a marketing campaign.
When you choose a lifecycle marketing agency, it’s important to find one that is the right fit for your company—one that can produce a creative marketing strategy that encompasses the entirety of the buying process cycle for your customers. This agency will be an extension of your own marketing team, so ensure you choose one that will work with your company’s atmosphere. Good chemistry will make for a great relationship and will improve the quality of marketing that is produced.
Importance of Search Engine Marketing
Search Engine Marketing is the overall term given to the varied techniques applied to get more traffic to websites. These include related advertising, paid search, organic placement, etc. In SEM, the traffic to the related website comes because of paid tactics. The main idea is to get into numerous other customer segments, other than that come through the organic search. The overall intention of performing SEM is getting enhanced traffic from all possible sources.
General Benefits of SEM
You will be able to create productive online leads, which will result in sales. When you can do the SEM convincingly and persuasively, then there will be augmentation in your website traffic. The customers will have no confusion, as they will get a lot of information from different sources. Whenever they search through the internet for related products or services, the promotional material of your website will pop up on their screens. Such a situation will prompt them to visit your website. If they feel satisfied with the items, they will take a chance and buy your products and services. This method will become practically useful to boost your business. You will be able to earn extra market share by exploring new customer segments. By conducting handy SEM works, you will be able to retain the existing line of customers. Remember, customer retention is also significant; you will have to take care of this matter, along with the efforts to gain new clientele. Hence, along with carrying out the SEM tasks, you must not neglect to do the required SEO to make your website rank top.
Search Engine Marketing Tips for Your Online Business
Ø Creating a functional website is a must for online transactions. The website must be customer-oriented and must be easily navigable. There must be an option for quick transactions.
Ø The SEM manager must be well aware of the aspirations of the targeted audience as regards to the related product or service promoted. The company that is going to perform the SEM must conduct market studies to get the precise market pulse as regard the varied customer segments. This research will enable the company to decide where to put the target advertisement, PPC, etc.
Ø Create useful contents; these can be blogs, articles, case studies, or guest posts; let whatever be the basic structure of the created content, keyword usage is highly significant. Here, one must take care to create the qualitatively good contents, from which the readers will get various information. Besides, it is very important to do content creation frequently, at regular intervals.
Ø One must take care to use the generally used search words as keywords or key phrases. A casual customer who has just searched for a similar product must reach your website.
Ø Social networks are highly active in our time, and hence, it will be only prudent to get involved in such sites. This active participation will create brand awareness as regards your products or services. This platform will be a functional channel for the existing and prospective clients for having interactions with you.
Ø One must definitely use the Pay per Click (PPC) option. You can manage these advertisements on Search Engines. This is a practical way to attract the attention of new clients.
Ø You can also try the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to bring the maximum possible organic search to your site. Here, you can try both the onsite and offsite optimizations.
Search Engine Marketing
In Houston, there are distinct customer segments, and all these sections hold potential customers. To draw on this prevailing possibility, it is imperative that one should try all the feasible ways. Here pops up the need for a professionally capable SEO company, which is well-versed with the diverse technicalities of the SEM (Search Engine Marketing). In brief, for effective Houston Search Engine Marketing, it is vital that you should get in touch with a technically equipped and experienced SEO company, which has performed such jobs earlier in Houston. You must also ensure that the employees are well qualified and trained.
With 1.3 billion Chinese customers online, the Chinese market is arguably one of the biggest in the world. However, the market is difficult to break into since Google, Facebook, Twitter are being blocked. The only solution is working with a China digital marketing agency.
Here are some ways in which a digital marketing agency can improve your business.
Effective Use of Social Media Platforms
As mentioned earlier, Facebook and Twitter are blocked in China. However, this does not mean the Chinese audience does not use social media platforms. For example, Weibo and Wechat are two popular social media platforms in China. But western countries are unfamiliar with these Chinese social media platforms.
Weibo is projected to surpass 400 million users by 2021. It has evolved into an entertaining platform that encompasses features of Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and Reddit into one.
Chinese digital marketing agencies know the marketing potential of these social media platforms and use them effectively to improve your business.
Smarter Use of Baidu PPC
Baidu PPC is different from Google Ads in several aspects. If you think marketing strategies that worked on Google Ads would work on Baidu PPC, you are making a big mistake. Unlike Google where English is the dominant language, Baidu PPC success rate entirely depends on a better understanding of Chinese language and culture.
Baidu has evolved to better optimize its search technology to the needs of the Chinese audience. The Chinese language is complex and there are several words that have different meanings when used in different contexts. Baidu’s search algorithms give lots of importance to the relevance of the context in which the words are used in the content.
A good Chinese digital marketing agency will ensure the information feed ads are loaded with organic content and are also displayed in content-driven Baidu products like Baidu News, Baidu Forum, and more that will draw more customers.
Content Localization
If you are planning to reach the Chinese audience, the localization of content is important than anything else. For better engagement, the marketing material needs to be written in Mandarin Chinese with pertinent cultural references.
The digital marketing agency can play an important role in creating marketing materials that engage local Chinese audience. It can help you decide what content needs to be produced in Chinese from scratch. The China digital marketing agency can also help your business with the following tasks.
SEO
To reach a maximum number of Chinese consumers, your website should achieve top ranking on Baidu. The competition for the top position on Baidu’s SERP is immense and you need effective SEO strategies to beat the competition.
According to reports, Baidu holds 75% of the China market. Though Google is blocked in China, it still remains as one of the options for Chinese people to search for information.
A good digital marketing agency would conduct a site audit for SEO purpose and perform Chinese keyword research. To get higher position in SERPs, the digital marketing agency would also perform on-page optimization and create a high-quality link network. All these SEO activities would increase organic traffic to your website that would improve your business.
Help in E-commerce Setup
China has the world’s largest e-commerce market. To build a successful e-commerce store and reach Chinese consumers, you need to have a good understanding of banking and regulation guidelines and Chinese payment system.
To set up an e-commerce store for Chinese customers you need to also learn about e-commerce platforms that are not blocked in China. A digital marketing agency can prove helpful to set up an e-commerce store to attract Chinese consumers.
The competition in China market is huge with Western and native Chinese companies vying to create a space for themselves. Working with a China digital marketing agency will help you reach the Chinese audience in an easier way and ensure you achieve your business goals faster.
Do you have any questions? Please feel free to comment.
The challenge of marketing has always been how rapidly technology has shifted around it, causing marketing strategies to become obsolete quickly (or if not obsolete, then at least very limited in the range and demographic that marketing strategy will reach). It’s a full-time job keeping up with the shifts in technological trends and in mastering the algorithms needed to fully profit off of those trends—that’s why there are marketing agencies available to your company. It is also important, however, that you remain aware of the growing trends so you can ensure you are working with the best marketing agency. Right now, there is a new trend on the horizon. More and more people are using AI assistants (like Google Home Mini), and this shift to audio automation is driving visual marketing towards obsoletion. You don’t just need to ensure you are working with a good marketing agency anymore; now you need to modernize your ad campaigns with the help of a voice marketing agency.
What is voice marketing?
Voice marketing is all about translating your current marketing strategies into an algorithmic language that will be compatible with artificial intelligence platforms. This will ensure you don’t miss your target audience, and it isn’t something you should hesitate on for long. Investing in a good voice marketing agency now will ensure your marketing campaign isn’t leaving any gaps that will interfere with your company’s goal achievement.
Why is voice marketing different?
Voice marketing has to appeal to AI platforms, which means it needs to meet a whole new set of algorithms if it’s going to stay relevant to voice marketing trends. This isn’t a big stretch from the way other marketing trends work, but what is different is the format. Voice marketing does completely change the way your marketing campaigns are presented. Now they need to meet voice search algorithms, and they need to be formatted in such a way that they can sound appealing to your consumers when voiced through the AI assistant. That AI assistant is going to become the voice for your company and your brand, and that means your marketing strategy will need to shape itself to remain appealing through the AI voice while still enabling optimisation. These are the complexities your voice marketing agency will need to embrace.
How to find the right voice marketing agency
You don’t just need to find a voice marketing agency; you need to find a voice marketing agency that understands the implications of the shift from digital and visual to AI platforms. Looking for these six features during a consultation will help ensure you’ve found the right one.
1) They can explain voice marketing to you.
Voice marketing is still relatively new, and it carries a lot more potential for future change. You want your voice marketing agency to be able to inform you of the changes implicit in a shift to voice marketing, the challenges and issues of getting there, and you want them to have the foresight to be able to anticipate future changes so they can incorporate room for that into the voice marketing campaign they create for you.
2) They can strategize.
You want your voice marketing agency to be able to formulate a strategy for converting your current marketing campaign into a voice marketing campaign.
3) Qualifications and credentials.
A good voice marketing agency will have the proper certifications and experience working with voice marketing algorithms—and they should be able to pitch to you a trajectory for how those algorithms will shift as AI marketing becomes more advanced.
4) They have an understanding of your company’s true voice—its brand.
It’s okay to walk away from a voice marketing agency that has good qualifications and credentials if you don’t feel they understand or comply with the image or brand of your company. Visual or not, you still want your company’s brand to be able to speak through the AI interface so it can continue to appeal to your clients.
5) Contact is key.
A good voice marketing agency is easy to get in touch with and will present a plan for keeping you in the loop.
6) Don’t undervalue the importance of price This may not be the most important factor, but a good voice marketing agency will be able to meet all of these requirements while still remaining within your marketing budget.
Not every business has the time or expertise to perform SEO tactics. Hence, hiring an SEO expert Houston is a good idea.
However, not all SEO agencies are the same and you need to be careful when selecting your SEO partner. Here are five warning signs that you need to look for when hiring an SEO expert.
1. A Promise of Overnight Results
Ranking on the top of search engine results page (SERP) is an extensive process and there is no magic trick to get overnight results. Just like technology, search engines are also changing. Focusing on keywords is not going to get you higher rankings in a day or two.
According to leading SEO experts in Houston, it will take at least 4 to 6 months to see the results. Also, SEO results grow over time. Whatever results you are getting after 6 months will be lesser than what you will get after 12 months. If the SEO expert promises you overnight increase in ranking, it is a warning sign that indicates he/she is not the right SEO partner for your business.
2. Indulge in Buying of Backlinks
Backlinks play a crucial role in putting your website on the top of SERP. But that does not mean buying backlinks can propel your website ahead of competitors. There are many reasons why buying backlinks is not a good idea.
Buying backlinks are against Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. It doesn’t matter you are using private blog networks or using your outreach, buying backlinks are still not recommended. If the SEO expert indulges in buying of backlinks and Google catches you, the search engine will take a manual action against your website which may lead to losing all organic search traffic overnight.
3. Stress for Long Contracts
SEO results do take time but long-term contracts with SEO agencies have many demerits. Some agencies do many things to look good and impress their clients. During the initial period, you will have all their attention but their efforts and SEO success fizzle out with time.
After 3-4 months, the high-level communication and love they showed to you disappears. You may have to wait for days or a week to get answers to your questions. According to an SEO expert in Houston, some agencies ask their clients to pay more to get better results.
Some agencies may also demand an exorbitant fee from clients who want to exit the SEO contract early. Hence, you should avoid signing long-term contracts with SEO agencies. If the SEO expert is unwilling to sign a short-contract, it is a warning sign that indicates trouble for you ahead.
4. Don’t Agree on Sharing of Data
Gone are the days when it was difficult to get a complete picture of SEO success. Today, there are a variety of tools and metrics that tell you the story of success or failure. A good SEO agency which has used the right SEO strategies and achieved success for your website will share the data with you for analysis.
There are several WordPress widgets, analytics tools that tell you about channels which are bringing in visitors and the way they are interacting with your website. If the SEO expert only gives you a verbal assurance of website success but does not provide you data to back up his/her claims, he/she might be hiding something from you.
5. No Focus on Customization of SEO Tactics
Just like people, businesses and their websites come in all shapes and sizes. They have different ages, backgrounds, markets, motivations, histories, and resources at hand. In simple words, what worked for one client may not work for others.
A good SEO expert in Houston will conduct a deep study to understand different elements that affect your site’s SEO. For example, the SEO expert would conduct a market study, learn about business priorities, understand the competitive landscape and then draw a customized SEO approach to achieve success. Remember an SEO expert who relies on one-size-fits-all best SEO practices is a warning sign that you should not ignore.
These are five warning signs that you should not ignore when hiring an SEO expert for your website. Do you’ve any questions? Please feel free to comment.
If you own or operate a business in Texas, you can benefit from partnering with an advertising company in Austin to meet your marketing goals. Even if your company does some in-house advertising or marketing, by enlisting the services of a professional, you can spread the word on your business and gain new customers faster than you’d ever believe possible. When working with a professional advertising company in Austin, you can take your marketing plan – and your business – to the next level.
Trust the Experienced Advertising Professionals
There are many benefits of using the services of an advertising company in Austin. They are the marketing professionals who know exactly how to attract an audience. These companies have the knowledge and the experience behind them, and they understand what it takes to stand out. With years of ad campaigns in their portfolios, advertising companies know exactly what works and what doesn’t. This vast experience in the world of advertising is something that simply cannot be achieved within your organization’s internal marketing department. A smaller, in-house marketing team simply does not have the same available resources as an external agency. Ad agencies are made up of a whole team of individuals who have worked on hundreds (if not thousands) of marketing campaigns, for everyone from small businesses to major corporations. These professionals know the advertising world and having worked with a diverse group of companies in the past; they know exactly what it takes to stand out among the crowd.
Boosting Your Company’s Brand
Especially in the cases of new business ventures or companies that are struggling to gain a following, hiring an advertising company in Austin can make all the difference in building the recognition of your brand. No matter what kind of company you own, each business is its own brand. You are not simply providing a product or a service to your customers. In order to become truly successful, you need brand recognition and brand loyalty from your customers. Advertising companies recognize that the building of a brand involves thousands of moments in which you can connect with consumers. Every interaction that is had between your brand and a customer is an opportunity to reinforce what your company believes in. The individual impressions that your brand makes on its customers are moments. These can include advertising moments, social moments, transactional moments, and more. When all of these individual moments add up, they create a powerful, lasting impression and create a sense of brand love. A great advertising company in Austin will not only successfully sell a company’s product or service to a customer – they will create a sense of brand love or loyalty that will keep that customer coming back for more.
Gain an Outside Perspective on Your Organization
It can be difficult for an internal marketing team to recognize what makes your business stand out from the rest, simply because they are too close to see it. By hiring an external advertising company in Austin, you gain the opportunity to gather a fresh perspective on your brand. These external ad teams are often working with hundreds of companies at once, allowing them to see first-hand what is happening in many different industries at the same time, compare and contrast the services and products offered, and determine what angle would be the best approach to take when promoting the uniqueness of your brand.
Working with a team outside of your organization can assist you in finding your brand’s voice, identity, positioning and customer journey. Advertising companies also keep a close eye on the data and analytics behind all of their marketing campaigns, which will assist you in gaining a deeper understanding of your brand and the effect that it has on your consumer. This ensures that every decision made along the way is informed and every impact is measured. You will come to understand who your customers are and what compels them to remain loyal to your brand. Forging a real relationship with your customers is possible with the assistance of an advertising company in Austin that can take your company’s marketing plan and turn it into a lifestyle based around your brand. If you’ve only worked with internal marketing teams in the past, it’s about time to see what a fresh perspective can do.
The digital marketing landscape in China is different from that in the rest of the world. Search engines and social media platforms that reign supreme elsewhere aren’t really the toppers in the country. Instead, China’s homegrown search engine, Baidu, is the king of all online searches. Hence it becomes important that any brand making to look a mark and woo Chinese audience have an appropriate presence on Baidu and make use of its Pay Per Click (PPC) program appropriately. Understanding the search engine and how it functions paves for a successful recipe. Read on to know more.
What makes Baidu PPC different from that on Western search engines
Advertising on Baidu is very different from the typical process encountered when marketing your brand on a Western search engine. The latter is often simple and requires you to open an account, enter credit card details, type in keywords that you want to bid for (or choose from a list), write simple ad texts and publish them. This attracts potential customers to see the ad when they search for something similar to your product or service.
Advertising or digital marketing on Baidu entails a registration plus a certification process. Additionally, Baidu PPC requires that you localize your website as well as the PPC campaign for the Chinese audience so that your product or service genuinely appeals to the consumers in the country. The platform puts strict protocols into place to ensure that the advertisers do not misuse Baidu to conduct illegal businesses or trade activities in China. The strict bureaucratic processes help the platform to cooperate with the authorities without getting themselves penalized. The laws of the land also, to a certain degree, have contributed to the strict registration and certification process for Baidu PPC. The well-documented and stringent food safety laws and those for sensitive industries make it imperative for foreign business operating in this space to produce necessary documentation before they can start flashing their ads on Baidu search result pages.
Tips for setting up a Baidu PPC account successfully
There is a certain amount of red tape involving the set-up process for Baidu PPC, which worries many new companies who are unaware of the same. However, with specific knowledge and expertise, which often comes with the help of a digital marketer based in China, you can breeze through the process and set up your account with ease. Here are some tips that come in handy in this regard.
• Prepare copies of your business certificates and translate them into Chinese for ease of review by authorities and Baidu officials.
• Maintain copies of your company’s information listed on government websites.
• Obtain a company seal. This has more value and receives better trust in China than official signatures.
• Create a localized Chinese website instead of a simple landing page. Having a dedicated Chinese website that caters to the tastes of the local people in terms of aesthetics, content, helpful information, and so on guarantees better results.
How to make the maximum of the advertising campaign
Since you will be marketing your product or service to a wholly new audience and using a new way, be prepared to learn and execute from scratch. The Baidu PPC campaigns warrant specific knowledge and expertise in the local language and practices. So, it is advisable to build a localized team and follow these guidelines for best results and to maximize returns.
• Optimize your website for Chinese visitors to provide them with better user experience. At the same time, optimize the pages for Baidu.
• Host your site in China and monitor it regularly to see that it functions properly.
• When using payment options and wallets, ensure that they are Chinese-friendly. Alipay and Union Pay are some good choices.
• Have dedicated Chinese-speaking managers to handle PPC and customer care, for you do not want to leave customers confused when they want to seek more information or need help with purchasing or using your product or service.
If all these seem like a herculean task, you can always outsource the program to an experienced and certified advertiser or digital marketing agency, which specializes in Baidu PPC.
