by Marianna Muscat | Aug 28, 2014 | Blogging, Content Marketing
Many small to medium sized businesses aren’t implementing successful content marketing strategies. The problem is that their goals either aren’t realistic, or they are not clearly defined.
If you’ve ever started to blog or create content, you will know how time-consuming this can be. After the first initial posts, your stream of ideas (and willingness to sit and write at night) start to dwindle.
Many business owners falsely believe that by creating content, customers will magically appear in their store. Fact remains there are few blogs that convert visitors into clients within their first, second or even third visit.
Content marketing is an ongoing process and its main goal is usually relationship building and building trust online. In fact, there’s no greater way to achieve trust online – but you need to be smart about it.
While many business owners will agree that building online relationships with their ideal customer is definitely one of their goals, there are a few other goals you should earmark for you content strategy. Here are a few examples:
- Bring new leads to your website
- Forge deeper relationships with your existing clients and prospects
- Be seen as a thought leader in your industry
- Give advice, How To’s and tips so that you can help your online community educate themselves
- Increase customer satisfaction by adding more value to the client relationship
If you’re struggling to justify the investment of content for your business, it might be time to redefine your goals or hire consultants to create a content plan and a content calendar that shows you how to execute your plan.
Need someone to help you with your content marketing strategy? Contact us today.
by Marelise da Silva | Aug 27, 2014 | Blogging, Website Design
When it comes to website development, we’ve been around the blocks a few times. While every designer knows how important it is to get a proper brief from a client, there are quite a few things that need to be established before the developers of the website can start coding.
In order to make sure the website meets the needs of the clients and that everyone’s on the same page about what needs to happen, follow this step-by-step process when meeting with your client and the rest of the web development team:
- Set out the objectives of the website
- Get everyone to agree on the scope of the work in writing. This scope should include timelines, who owns (and will be hosting) the website as well as the budget. Make sure the budget can be changed if the client decides to include extra features during the development phase.
- The website designers should ideally create a mock-up of what the home page should look like. Simple things like logo placement, corporate colours and calls to action need to be agreed upon before the website is developed.
- Create a site-map. This wireframe will include all the main navigation buttons, tabs and features that the website needs to offer.
If you want to remove unnecessary re-dos and back-and-forth meetings about simple things like the font or the basic look and feel of the website, it’s important to have inclusive brainstorming sessions with the client right from the get-go.
Need an experienced web development company to take care of your website and web apps? Contact us today.
by Francois Muscat | Aug 26, 2014 | Blogging, Twitter
You can’t kick-start any social media marketing strategy with guidelines, rules and regulations for the people who will be posting on behalf of your company. Whether you’re new to the social media marketing ball game or you’ve been tweeting up a storm for a while, make sure you aren’t engaging in these common no-no’s on Twitter:
Upsetting people
Sure, a controversial tweet will get more engagement than something dull, but do you really want your brand to be associated with a topic that upsets a lot of people in your industry? Establish what topics are off-limits for your Twitter profile. While everyone wants to be able to give their two cents on newsworthy topics, it’s best to stay away from something that can cause a huge uproar and embarrassment for your company.
Have a personality, but don’t have zero focus
Some brands, such as the @rbjacobs personality from the FNB Twitter account, know how to craft a well-rounded online persona. It’s great to add personality to your Twitter account (after all, you don’t want to be seen as a boring PR profile), but this doesn’t mean you can just post anything without have a clear goal. Don’t let employees update pictures of their lunch or the online games they are playing – for example. This shows that your Twitter personality lacks focus and that you’re just tweeting anything that comes to mind.
Getting involved in negative conversations
One of the reasons why you’re on Twitter is so that your customers and potential customers can engage with you online. It’s easy for a customer to complain on social media – and it’s important that you answer the complaint. Try to take the issue to e-mail or a telephone call as soon as possible (this avoids unnecessarily long, negative conversations around your brand on Twitter).
Need help with your Twitter strategy? Contact WSI OMS today.
by Marianna Muscat | Aug 21, 2014 | Blogging, Content Marketing
Want to make sure your content marketing strategy is a success? Then you need to understand your audience. Seth Godin famously defines the ideal customer as a person who wants your product and has the ability to pay for it.
Some of the most successful content marketing strategies zone in on only one subject or topic and focus on becoming the thought leaders, the ultimate go-to person, for information, advice and How To’s on the topic. Think of Copyblogger’s website – they focus on how to sell with copywriting, they don’t try to be seen as thought leaders in each and every aspect of digital marketing.
It’s common for companies to want to define their ideal customer too broadly, such as “everyone in the Southern hemisphere between the ages of 16 – 65.” While this will allow you to create a lot of diverse content, you’re not going to be able to focus on a niche that really appears to a specific target group.
It’s important to remember that certain content gets good results in different communities. The most successful content marketing strategies are those that create content that gets shared by their followers. This is the best way to reach new people – by getting their existing social media connections to recommend your content.
The best way to find your ideal audience is to create different audience profiles. Map out exactly who they are (what industry are they in? what are their job titles and background?) and figure out what challenges and problems they face. Focus your content around helping them with these problems in order to create a winning content strategy.
Need someone to help you with your content marketing strategy? Contact us today.
by Marelise da Silva | Aug 20, 2014 | Blogging, Mobile Solutions
Gone are the days when website development teams could focus on building apps and websites that worked on desktop computers. Today, we’re creating robust apps that work on everything from tablets and iPads to small screen cell phones. If you have a mobile app, it’s worth your while to use an analytics tool that shows you how users are engaging and using your app. Here are a few mobile app analytics tool you can use:
Tapstream: Tapstream is a free mobile analytics tool that gives you an end-to-end view of how your users found your app, where they came from and if they actually downloaded the app from the original source they used to find the app. You can also find out which clicks or impressions were responsible for app installs, app engagement and even in-app purchases. The app also allows you to quickly out which clicks or impressions were responsible for app installs, app engagement and even in-app purchases.
Honeytracks: Everyone in digital marketing knows that gamification is huge at the moment. If you’ve got a mobile app game, then Honeytracks is the app analytics tool you should be using. This tool has free as well as paid versions and it helps you track user sources, page conversions, signup churn rates and more to increase the number and quality of acquired users. It will also help you monetise your app better seeing as it tracks what users spend their money on, when they convert and how you can make more users convert and buy more.
Flurry Analytics: Flurry Analytics is one of the most popular (and free) mobile app analytics tools at the moment. The app lets you create funnels to measure conversion through any series of steps you’d like consumers to complete, such as making purchases, completing tutorials, or advancing through levels in a game.
Need an experienced web development company to take care of your website and web apps? Contact us today.
by Francois Muscat | Aug 19, 2014 | Blogging, LinkedIn
Social media marketing is different on LinkedIn. As the largest business networking site, it’s worth your while to spend some time planning your LinkedIn marketing strategy, your goals and how you’re going to set out to achieve your goals. Before you kick-start the project, here are some things you need to do:
Commit to a long-term plan
LinkedIn can’t be the flavour of the month – you need to make a long-term commitment. This means actively engaging on the site at least twice a week and having a plan to share relevant content and connect with leaders, potential clients and colleagues in your industry.
Build a robust company page
You need to create a robust company LinkedIn page that reflects what you do in real life, online. Besides adding the right keywords and writing a complete description, list everything from products and services to positions available in your company. Invite your staff to follow the company page first. Then extend this invitation to customers, suppliers and business partners. The more people you have following you on LinkedIn, the more people you will reach whenever you post an update.
Join groups and create a group
Join relevant industry groups and start engaging. Even if you start out with a comment, some helpful advice or share something that would be interesting to the group, start engaging. Then create your own group. Invite people who have similar challenges or common goals and create content that will help them achieve these goals.
This is just the beginning. Any successful LinkedIn strategy will include how to manage connections, send invitations, ask for endorsements and form long-lasting business relationships.
Need help with your LinkedIn strategy? Contact WSI OMS today.
