Which Digital Channels Deliver the Best ROI ? Are you in the process of finalizing your digital marketing strategy for 2019? Are you contemplating on the budget to be invested across digital marketing channels? Then read on… Before you decide which digital marketing channels you should focus on, it is but imperative that you completely understand how each one has performed for the past recent years. Just as you wanted to utilize the channels that will get you the most out of your time, you also want to make sure that you will only be investing in channels that will deliver the maximum  ROI for your money as possible.   Selecting the right combination of channels is crucial for ensuring the success of your overall digital marketing campaign.   Digital signage has the power to improve internal communications and capture customer interest. Enplug digital signage makes it easy to scale your communications with compelling content delivered to screens across the room. The team has created a useful guide – a list of awesome tools that help users create digital signage content and other memorable visuals that could create an impact on any business. 27 Digital Signage Content Creation Tools Disruptive Shift In Digital Strategy – A Study by Ignite Visibility San Diego-based Ignite Visibility recently released a new study which highlights a growing shift in digital marketing. The study surveyed businesses in six revenue brackets – under 1 million, 1 to 5 million, 5 to 10 million, 10 to 20 million, 20 to 50 million and over 50 million – in order to gain insight into how they would be investing in digital marketing over the next two years. Additionally, the study analyzed which digital marketing channels would be most popular. “It’s incredibly important to be forecasting ahead and making sure you have the right digital strategy,” says Ignite Visibility CEO John Lincoln. “ We’re dedicated to bringing best-in-class insights to the industry so marketers can have the most effective strategy in place.”     The findings reveal an overall shift toward online marketing channels across all business categories. They also reveal that many smaller businesses still struggle to effectively measure ROI and conversion rates. Furthermore, social media is by far the hardest channel for businesses to manage. “We’re seeing a large shift from offline to online because digital channels are more trackable and generally produce a higher ROI,” continued Lincoln. In the study, we also say clear divisions in the business size and type of digital marketing channel they liked the most. But overall, social media marketing seemed to be a big pain point for all marketers.” To view the full study visit Ignite Visibility (Digital Marketing Industry Study 2019) 300 Marketers Reveal Disruptive Shift In Digital Strategy Blogging remains as the top content marketing strategy 53% of marketers say blogging is their top content marketing priority. The most successful marketers spend 40% of their total marketing budget on content marketing. The average for all respondents is 26%. Content marketing revenue will exceed $300 billion by 2019. Here are some of the biggest challenges when it comes to content and email marketing. Limited internal resources 28%, lack of strategy 28% and lack of content 23%.     Paid Search and Mobile Marketing As of July 2018, 90.46% of people use Google as a search engine. Bing is 3.13% and Yahoo is 2.21%. SEO leads have a 14.6% close rate, while outbound leads (such as direct mail or print advertising) have a 1.7% close rate. 18% of local searches done on mobile devices lead to a sale within a day. In 2017, 48% of 1,200 global digital marketers say on-page SEO is still considered to be the most effective SEO tactic.  ...

Appreciating and rewarding staff’s hard work is the easiest way to reduce staff turnover and increase morale. Use these quotes to motivate your employees that are sure to bring a positive change in their mind set.  26 Inspirational Quotes to Motivate Your Employees Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t – you’re right. Henry Ford  The sun himself is weak when he first rises and gathers strength and courage as the day gets on. Charles Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop If I had nine hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend the first six sharpening my axe. Abraham Lincoln  The question isn’t who’s going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me? Ayn Rand  When people are emotionally invested, they want to contribute. Simon Sinek  Research indicates that workers have three prime needs: interesting work, recognition for doing a good job, and being let in on things that are going on in the company. Zig Ziglar  You can have all the potential in world, but unless you have confidence, you have nothing. Tyra Banks  Appreciate everything your associates do for the business. Nothing else can quite substitute for a few well-chosen, well-timed, sincere words of praise. They’re absolutely free and worth a fortune. Sam Walton  There are only three measurements that tell you nearly everything you need to know about your organization’s overall performance: employee engagement, customer satisfaction, and cash flow. Jack Welch  If you don’t give people a chance to fail, you won’t innovate. If you want to be an innovative company, allow people to make mistakes. Indra Nooyi  Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships. Michael Jordan  If you think your boss is stupid, remember you wouldn’t have a job if he was any smarter. John Gotti   The best part of going to work is coming back home at the end of the day. Anonymous Quality is job one. Henry Ford  If you hire people just because they can do a job, they’ll work for your money. But if you hire people who believe what you believe, they’ll work for you with blood and sweat and tears. Simon Sinek  Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it. Dwight D. Eisenhower  “I’m bored” is a useless thing to say. I mean, you live in a great, big, vast world that you’ve seen no percent of. Even the inside of your own mind is endless; it goes on forever, inwardly, do you understand? The fact that you’re alive is amazing, so you don’t get to say, “I’m bored.” Louis C.K  Give a man a fish, and you’ll feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he’ll buy a funny hat. Talk to a hungry man about fish, and you’re a consultant. Scott Adams  The best way to appreciate your job is to imagine yourself without one. Oscar Wilde  Minds are like parachutes – they only function when open. Thomas Dewar  If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Maya Angelou  Why are you keeping this curiosity door locked? Dustin, Stranger Things  If you know you are on the right track, if you have this inner knowledge, then nobody can turn you off… no matter what they say. Barbara McClintock, cytogeneticist and Nobel Prize Winner  For me, I am driven by two main philosophies: know more today about the world than I knew yesterday and lessen the suffering of others. You’d be surprised how far that gets you. Neil deGrasse Tyson  Be so good they can’t ignore you. Steve Martin  Your potential, the absolute best you’re capable of—that’s the...

Social media platforms have given marketers the chance to spread brand awareness, maintain brand loyalty, and attract new customers. Using sites like Instagram and Twitter in this way requires a proper strategy, though.   As anyone advertising on Facebook or another platform knows, your primary goal is to boost revenue. By focusing on social media optimization, you can leverage these services to their full potential.  The Benefits of Social Media Optimization Optimizing your social media presence lets you establish your brand as authoritative and trustworthy. Also, social media makes it simple to reach many customers in one place. Using these platforms to target specific audiences allows your marketing team to drive more relevant traffic to your site. Therefore, you lower your risk of attracting users who may not be interested in your services. However, it’s important to understand that some myths about social media optimization can prevent you from taking full advantage of all it has to offer. For example, although anyone can create a Facebook or Instagram account and post for free, you won’t get ideal results without spending some money on advertising. You will need to invest funds, time, and additional resources when implementing a campaign.  Second, don’t make the mistake of assuming all social media platforms are equal. Each offers its own unique set of benefits. For instance, Snapchat is helpful for reaching a Millennial audience, whereas LinkedIn is more useful for B2B marketing.  Finally, don’t fall prey to the belief that simply creating strong content is enough to attract followers and grow your social media presence. Great content is just the first step. To truly succeed, you need to find ways to promote it effectively.  How to Get Your Content Noticed Social media marketers have learned to prioritize engagement over reach when determining how well a campaign performs. Reaching a large number of potential customers isn’t very helpful if those users don’t also actively engage with your content. That’s why you need to focus on understanding what type of content would best catch the attention of your target audience. Put yourself in the customer’s shoes and ask yourself what style of posts you would find valuable and interesting if you were in their position.  You should also consider what mediums you’ll rely on. For instance, video and image-based posts tend to perform well because they are more likely to capture a user’s attention than just text alone.  However, the actual content of a post remains important. It should speak to your target customer in their own language and provide a genuinely entertaining and educational experience. For instance, if you’re marketing a startup that helps users choose outfits, sharing content about fashion trends would be a smart way of appealing to your audience.  The Importance of Being Social Social media is powerful from a marketing perspective because it gives brands the chance to truly interact with customers. That’s why it’s a good idea to think of your business’ social media account the same way you do your personal account. Like other people’s posts, share others’ content, leave comments on other pages when appropriate, and generally focus on cultivating real relationships with your followers.  That’s the key distinction that makes social media unique when compared to other marketing channels. Yes, it certainly does give you the opportunity to target specific types of users and share content in a wide range of formats.   Most importantly, though, it lets you relate to customers on an equal level. The impact this has on brand loyalty is well worth the initial effort you put into designing a proper strategy....

Plan Your Global Strategy for Success in Any Language   Effective marketing materials and strategy play a key role in expanding your business into the global marketplace. Creating compelling text, however, can be a challenge when crossing borders. Marketing translation issues you might never have considered will arise. Direct translations might sound awkward. Clever turns of phrase on the original site might have no impact in a different language. Cultural misunderstandings can cause offense instead of appeal. While entering a new market may seem intimidating at first, this post will guide you through the best practices for translating branded content for new audiences. Language Services Providers Can Sharpen Your Marketing Language service providers (LSPs) are more than simple translation companies. With the rise of global markets, LSPs have expanded their services to include local consulting, business and legal advising, and, yes, global marketing. If you plan on competing internationally, you should consider working with an LSP  from the beginning. With experts in local markets, quality firms can identify issues you might encounter, offer effective design and copy advice, and develop your concepts to resonate locally. By planning in advance, you can also cut down on eventual costs by avoiding the need to redo materials that were not positioned for the future. Key Contributions an LSP Can Make Design and Layout Marketing materials are designed to optimize visual impact as well as content. When you begin to develop material, a basic truth should be considered: not all languages occupy the same amount of space to say the same thing. Consider, for example, the visual difference between German compound nouns and Chinese characters. Each language will need different amounts of space  to convey the same message. An LSP with marketing design experience will understand these nuances. They can advise on basic layout principles while keeping future expansion into other markets in mind. By taking design issues into account early in your process, you will be able to leverage existing materials much more cost-effectively as you continue to expand. Transcreation Versus Translation A simple translation brings words from one language into another. The approach is as literal as possible, with focus on meaning. Transcreation, however, goes beyond basic translation by taking into account the feel of the original text. Issues of tone, style, and context do not always have a carbon copy in different languages. Idiomatic expressions are a great example of the value of transcreation. You can translate the phrase “no use crying over spilt milk” into French, for instance, and perhaps convey a rough meaning through context. But a similar saying in French, “les carrottes sont cuites” – literally “the carrots are cooked”– will express the idea instantly for a French reader with no added context clues necessary. Transcreation can be helpful when it comes to brand and product names or slogans. Any time a word or phrase is meant to be short, pithy, playful, or meaningful, an LSP will be your best bet for recognizing when they won’t work in another language, while offering a successful alternative. Local Marketing for Local Audiences Cross-language barriers are not always just a matter of words. Cultural nuance comes into play as well. What might be commonplace and tame in Western countries can be deemed too racy in more conservative Middle Eastern ones. As noted above, colloquialisms are also culturally based. Not making sense in another language is one thing; creating an inadvertently inappropriate campaign is another matter entirely. Lively, interesting marketing, however, does not need to give in to generic neutral copy. Language professionals with experience in various foreign locales can produce equally compelling text that will have the same impact, regardless...

Let’s Learn the Nuances of Business Strategy How Do You Define Business Strategy? Business strategy is nothing but a series of decisions that are made by the management of a company in order to obtain or maintain a competitive advantage over a period of time. It shows the overall direction of a company. It is also future focused and contains long-term sustainable goals. For startups, creating business plans can be night marish and hectic, hence this short guide which throws some light on “How to use Powerpoint as an effective tool to showcase your bsuiness plan” to investors in a simple yet appealing manner. A great business strategy will encompass the following characteristics: A clear direction of where the company is going and concrete plans necessary to execute the decisions An unmistakable understanding of the company’s core competencies Will solve the marketplace demands and address real customer needs Will contribute to sustainable competitive advantage Will be properly documented but gives room for future change in accordance with the environment THE THREE BEST GENERIC BUSINESS STRATEGIES 1. COST LEADERSHIP This strategy is followed by market giants like Wal-Mart, McDonald’s, IKEA to name a few wherein, the companies focus on building a large market share by slashing the prices – mush lower than their competitors. Typically, such customers will be less loyal and more price-sensitive. The real challenge is to succeed at offering the lowest price, but still maintain profitability and a high return on investment. The company has to necessarily run a tight ship by controlling its operational costs to improve efficiency. 2. PRODUCT DIFFERENTIATION This strategy requires the company to develop products that are “better than” or “more unique than” its competitors. The main focus is to differentiate itself from its rivals. The differentiation could be in the form of higher-end quality materials, excellent customer service, unique company image or branding, or other customer oriented values. Typically, companies going for this strategy can charge premium pricing since their customers tend to be more loyal and less price-sensitive. 3. MARKET SEGMENTATION This strategy simply focuses on a niche or sub-market to sell your products or services to. This is best suited when you are competing in an overly saturated market. For example the gift basket industry is highly competitive and over saturated. If you choose to enter the field, you might have to choose a product differentiation strategy combined with appropriate market segmentation strategy. Hence you might focus on selling high end products to the wedding market. A Wonderful Infographic from Americanexpress.com that clearly explains what needs to be done to experience an explosive business growth… WHAT TO DO WHEN BUSINESS IS SLOW Write a business plan If you have never written one now is the time to grab a chair and fabricate a really crafty business plan with your mission, vision, values and marketing strategy included. Rebrand Work on your logo, test new colors, change your site layout, breathe some fresh life into your branding strategy. SEND A THANK YOU NOTE TO YOUR CLIENTS FIND NEW VENDORS Read a book Discover guerilla marketing tactics and best keep business secrets by reading Cold Pitch Create a list of prospects using leading networks like LinkedIn and reach out via email Create a lead magnet A lead magnet is an opt-in gift that you offer visitors, whether online or offline to encourage them to be part of your tribe and purchase your product or services. Let’s understand what makes a company innovative? 48% – coming up with new ideas for products and services 33% –  listening to customers 33% – continuing to improve current product 33% – offering a unique product 28% –...