Mediaboss Marketing

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The signs in the digital customer experience industry have been clear for years now: marketers and those charged with creating digital experiences recognize that customers and prospects navigate brands digitally outside of websites. No argument here. And the analysts have been clear too: No more web content management labels for software that builds and manages websites. Are brands themselves abandoning websites? From the looks of things, not even close.

Case in point: The CMO Survey found most companies made investments in the performance of their digital marketing over the past year in optimizing their company website: 73.8%. That was ahead of digital media and search (65%), direct digital marketing (57.3%), data analytics (56.5%) and marketing technology systems or platforms (53.8%).

I guess its not too surprising in the year that weve just had that many CMOs invested heavily in their websites, said Tom Capper, senior search scientist at Moz. Theres never been a better time for it.

As the COVID-19 pandemic raged on and on, digital marketing activities like online experimentation and/or A/B testing (45.4%), managing privacy issues (28.5%) and machine learning and automation (20.4%) were at the bottom of the priority list. And the website took precedence. Why?

The website, even though it seems a little bit more tactical, is really the entrance way into the firm experience, said Christine Moorman, T. Austin Finch, senior professor of business administration at The Fuqua School of Business, Duke University and The CMO Surveys founder and director. And so if you screw up there, it's not like you're going to have a chance to go much further. My interpretation is (CMOs) put dollars down there to make sure that they got that right, but some of them may not have been optimized. Consumers were coming at them from all different kinds of directions, but with COVID, the website was the portal in for most of us.

Related Article: Why Your Website Is Key to Accelerating Digital Transportation

The CMO Survey did not break down what marketers wanted to optimize about their website. Lead generation? Infrastructure? Scalability? Website cleanup? Were guessing every brand could stand to improve in all of these departments, especially infrastructure and scalability, which proved challenging for even brands with the backing of some of the bigger web content management software providers.

For the record, we do know this from The CMO Survey, the industries with the most representation for optimizing websites during the pandemic was consumer services and transportation, tied at 88.9%. It was followed by tech/software/platform companies at 62.7% and consumer packaged goods at 56.0%.

In what ways should marketers be thinking about optimizing their brand's websites? Generally speaking, there are two areas that need the most attention: personalization and ecommerce, according to Shift7 CEO Andrew Walker.

First, when users come to your website the things they interact with should be personalized to them via any number of segments including geography, industry, product recommendations and so on, Walker said. Of course, to do this, you need to have as much data on your customers, and those who come to your site, as possible, so that's always going to be the foundation of personalization."

Further, Walker added, if you don't have the ability to transact with customers in some way, whether that's directly taking payment, collecting leads or directing them to a specific retailer, that's a big strike. "Brands must optimize their ecommerce presence to compete," he said.

Accessibility needs to go beyond serving people with disabilities and catering to different languages, according to James Bourner VP, media and partnerships ofJellyfish. Ensuring the experience and functionality are at parity across users' screens and devices is critical.

Furthermore, Bourner added, brands with apps need to ensure the app and web experience is one," he said. "With an eye to the future, we expect the avenues for consumers to access content to expand. For example, the effectiveness of Shops on Instagram is an indicator of this.

For ecommerce, the website needs to be optimized for a frictionless shopping experience. In other use cases, access to specific information or documentation needs to be easy, Bourner added.

Customer research and UX may demonstrate different customer priorities on mobile vs. desktop, or app vs. site, Bourner said. Still, the content must be optimized for both, and user journeys tweaked to reflect any differences in the reason people are visiting the different environments. Consistency through a sales cycle is an important consideration, and robust CMS and CRM systems that allow users to pick up where they left off, regardless of screen, improves the overall customer experience.

Related Article: 6 Ways B2B Websites Fail to Engage

Can a website still be the backbone of a brand's digital experience? It's difficult, but right now, the website probably can be the center of a brands DX, according to Bourner. However, he called that alone poor advice for most and not a solid long-term vision, or something that will always be possible.

Rather, brands can prioritize their website for defining that experience if they need to but really these moves should be dictated by data. Make the place that most of your customer interactions or transactions happen be the backbone of your experience, Bourner said. Ultimately, marketers ignore all other channels at their peril.

Whatever you have to do, be sure to plan for a holistic future. Think about how the user experience and content delivery will happen across all channels and screens. Expect them to increase.

Realize the data and insight you can create from having a unified view of customers is immense, Bourner said, and expect customers to want the right experience regardless of where they are and how they consume content, media and digital services.

Walker feels the website should be the backbone of a brands digital experience. While it should never be the only touchpoint of a brand's digital experience, a brand's website can be one experience it fully controls: a center of a unified experience architecture that might integrate with many systems under the hood but feel seamless to the customer.

It should also act as a hub for many other touchpoints including external ecommerce channels, digital advertising, social media, SEO and the like. Ultimately though, Walker added, the brand's website is its digital face and is well worth investing in ensuring it delivers the experience its customers are looking for. We see tremendous potential for returns on investment when brands invest in this backbone.

Read more:
Why So Many Made DX Investments in Their Websites - CMSWire

Creating content is a fundamental activity that cannot be ignored anymore in SEO or Search Engine Optimization. Content creation is the first contribution of data to any channel and in particular to digital channels for an end user/audience. A lot of people know that creating a content is not easy, but it is one of the most powerful ways to make money online as well as improving your reputation as an authority in your selected niche. In this article, I will discuss the ways on how you can create a compelling content.

You have to understand that marketing by creating content requires a comprehensive strategy and approach to be implemented. You should make a deep analysis of your targeted audience and what kind of content will perfectly fit into your marketing campaign. This is the first step in SEO or digital content creation. It will enable you to properly define each keyword you are going to include in your marketing mix and also give your readers an idea of what to expect from your website or online marketing effort. Every piece of content you produce must have an effective hook and a highly readable and search engine friendly content.

For example, if you are working on creating content for your e-business, you should identify your target audience and find out what keywords or niches they want to see when searching for useful information. Then, you have to analyze what kind of solutions you are offering that your buyer will definitely find useful. You should create a blog post around a keyword and link it to your site, so the buyers can get a full view of what you are promoting. Once you get a positive response from your buyer, then you should try to convert the interested buyer to become a subscriber or even a buyer.

You should also carry out a content audit or checkup before you start creating content. A content audit will identify your strengths as well as your weak areas, so you can improve your strategy and reach your goals. It is better to carry out a blog post audit on a regular basis. However, if you do not have time to carry out a blog post audit, then you can create useful content for your buyers by using Google AdWords or you can even hire a content writer to help you write useful content.

When creating content for your e-business blog, it is important that you create an overall persona for your business. Each and every person has a different purpose and a different personality. For example, the persona of your business could be based on the product, target market, geography, brand name, services offered, reputation management, media exposure, and SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Based on your persona, you should plan a strategy to promote your content. You should think of a way to make your content easy to find online, while at the same time providing useful information for your buyers.

The second part of content creation is identifying the keywords or niches that you should promote or market using your blog posts. The first part of creating content around a specific keyword or niche will provide the information for the buyer while the second part of creating content around this information will help in increasing the ranking of your site on various search engines. You should start creating content around keywords or niches that are difficult to rank in search engines on Google. This may involve purchasing relevant keywords or finding free keyword tools.

Once you are done with building the first persona for your business, you can move on to building the second persona or social media audience. For example, if you are creating content for Instagram, you should keep an eye on the likes and dislikes of the audience. If the audience is mostly using social media to communicate with their friends, you can use Instagram to give them a message of encouragement or share some special offers on Facebook.

Content creation doesn't stop at creating a brand or a persona for your business. After completing your blog posts, you should start planning a strategy to reach out to your target audience. It is important that you use some personalized marketing tactics to reach out to your target audience and build a personal bond with them. Remember that people love to share stories of their triumphs and you can use these stories to create a viral marketing system by posting on your blog and sharing it on your social media sites. You can also hire a professional internet marketing company that will guide you through this process. With a personalized marketing plan, you can easily achieve your goals of creating a loyal audience for your brand or product.

Continued here:
Creating Content For Social Media Marketing - Global Banking And Finance Review

Dive Brief:

The latest campaign for the ongoing Dove Self-Esteem Project aims to raise awareness about the harmful effects of social media on young girls, amid a surge in usage during the pandemic as children spent more time in isolation. The campaign marks an extension of the brand's landmark "Campaign for Real Beauty" to help build confidence in women and children. Previously, Dove teamed with creator Lena Waithe for an IGTV series targeting teens as they experience adolescence and higher rates of body image issues.

Centering the new campaign is the short film, "Reverse Selfie," which shows a rewound view of a young girl putting on makeup and using photo-editing software to enhance her features before posting a picture on social media to gain the approval of her peers. The spot ends with a message urging viewers to have "the selfie talk" with "a girl you love" to help combat the damaging effects of social media. The film is reminiscent of Dove's short film, "A Selfie," which the brand released three years ago to show how social media images can be staged.

The latest Dove campaign is rooted in a survey that found 80% of Canadian girls have downloaded a filter or used an app to change their appearance in selfies by age 13. About two-thirds (67%) of girls ages 10 to 17 have tried to change or hide at least one bodily feature before posting a photo online, while 59% of girls who are insecure about their bodies regularly distort pictures before sharing them on social media. In addition, 37% of survey respondents said they don't look good enough without any photo editing.

Girls said they would feel more confident if images on social media more accurately reflect the way they look in real life, with 67% agreeing that they wouldn't feel judged and 66% saying they would be less worried about their appearance. Sixty-three percent of girls said they wished the world would focus on who they are as people rather than what they look like. The study findings indicate that girls need help in using social media "in a positive way, making it more about self-expression and less about validation," according to Dove.

With 30% of parents saying they have talked to their kids about the pressures of social media, Dove aims to motivate more people to have those discussions with its online "confidence kit." The 32-page booklet outlines how children who spend the most time on social media tend to feel worse about themselves, and how parents and teachers can initiate a "selfie talk" to urge kids to turn social media into a more positive experience. The tips include steps such as unfollowing accounts that don't make them feel good, and using the privacy features on apps like Instagram.

Dove's campaign follows efforts to promote inclusivity in advertising and redefine the public perception of beauty. In South Africa, the brand last month offered to subsidize the cost of hiring diverse talent incurred by other brands as part of its Project #ShowUs to create a collection of images that depict a more inclusive vision of beauty for advertisers and media outlets. Parent company Unilever also said it would stop using the word "normal" in the advertising and packaging of its beauty and personal care brands, a reflection of its push to be less exclusionary. More broadly, Unilever has made social inequality a higher priority, along with fighting climate change.

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Dove urges parents to have the 'selfie talk' about harmful effects of social media - Marketing Dive

This innovative brand-new marketplace allows businesses to connect with different categories of social talent to up their online marketing game.

LONDON, UK / ACCESSWIRE / April 22, 2021 /Influencer Hacki is an online platform that allows businesses to quickly go online and findcontent creator, PR executive oreven a journalist to help them with several service categories pertaining to the marketing industry. For example: writing a press release, arranging celebrity endorsements or hiring content creatorsto leverage a specific product.

Traditional marketing as we speak is no longer profiting for businesses,let alone helping themstay on top of their competition. The attention of millions of people - potential buyers - is poured into social media every single day. Socialmarketing has become the cornerstone of a successful and dynamic marketing strategy.

Influencer Hacki's mission was born because ofthe hardships businesses go through when trying to stay up-to-date and up-to-trend. Professionals such as vloggers, journalists, PR executives and even celebrities can be found on the platform according to the company's respective niche. Segmentation is key and Influencer Hacki understands that premise.

This target-hitting form of marketing uses product mentions and endorsements from individuals who are considered experts in their respective niches. Such peoplehave established a large base of followers who trust their opinions. Being recommended by these content creatorssends out a message about a brand that prospective consumers absorb into their persona. This later leads them to make a purchasing decision towards certain products instead of others. Currently, it is one of the best ways to generate substantial returns for every penny your marketing budget has. As companies realise these benefits, more and more businesses incorporate influencer marketing to boost their performance.

A representative from Influencer Hackistated: "A lot of businesses understand the power of social marketing. As much as they intend to integrate it into their existing strategy, they often find it challenging. Seeking and reaching out to the adequate social talent is not easy; many businesses simply do not know where or how to begin. Taking that brick wall into account, we decided to streamline and ease out the way for reaching social talent.

Each professional can provide a wide variety of services to businesses, from proposals to elevate brand awareness up to sales increasing targeted actions. For instance, a vlogger can custom craft video content intended to grow the customer's base with a specific demographic. Mentioning, reviewingand recommending a product or service are the most common practices to grab the potential consumer's attention. With Influencer Hacki, it will be the right potential customer.

Concerned Person Name: Natalie CollinsCompany: Influencer HackiWebsite: http://influencerhacki.com/Official Email: support@influencerhacki.com

SOURCE:Influencer Hacki

View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/641844/Influencer-Hacki-A-SaaS-Platform-to-Connect-Your-Brand-with-Content-Creators-Vloggers-Journalists-and-Celebrities

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Influencer Hacki: A SaaS Platform to Connect Your Brand with Content Creators, Vloggers, Journalists and Celebrities - IT News Online

Is influencer marketing part of your 2021 digital marketing plan?

It certainly is for a rising number of brands, with newer platforms and formats making it more difficult to keep up with the latest trends, and ensure that they're maximizing their messaging on every platform.

That's especially true of an app like TikTok, which really requires specific audience knowledge and understanding to tap into the organic feel of the app, and connect with its audience. Indeed, the best ad campaigns, according to TikTok, are those that most closely align with the way regular users engage - and unless you're active on the platform every day, that can be difficult to replicate.

So what tactics are digital marketers seeing the most success with in influencer marketing, and how are experienced agencies looking to allocate their influencer marketing budgets this year?

To shed some light on this, Linqia recently surveyed over 163 enterprise marketers and agency professionals, from a variety of industries, to learn more about their use of influencers, and how they're looking to evolve their strategies in the year ahead.

You can read the full report here(via email sign-up), but in this post, we'll take a look at some of the key findings.

First off, Linqia found that the vast majority of those surveyed indicated that they're looking to increase their influencer marketing budget in 2021, following on from their experiences last year.

As per the report:

"71% of enterprise marketers who knew how the marketing budget would be allocated in 2021 said that their influencer marketing budgets would increase over 2020. Thats a large increase from our 2020 report when only 57% said they planned to increase their budget."

The data suggests that more brands are seeing results from their influencer marketing efforts, which is further reinforced in relation to this question on influencer content versus brand-originated efforts.

This underlines the fact that people on social media relate more to other people than they do brand entities, which is an important element to consider in your planning.

Linqia also found that micro-influencers - those with between 5k and 100k followers - are the most common focus for brand campaigns.

"Micro-influencers have always been the top choice for marketers in our annual survey, but this year, there was even stronger demand for this powerful group. In this years survey, 90% of marketers selected that they wanted to work with micro-influencers, up from 80% in 2020."

While big-name celebrities are the ideal, that's not an attainable goal for most brands. Influencers with smaller audiences tend to not only be more cost-effective, but they can also have stronger connection to their communities, that they've built through more direct engagement and interaction. That can make their endorsements more powerful, driving more sales.

Even if you're not reaching the biggest possible audience, you may well be reaching the most lucrative one for your efforts with these creators.

Linqia also found that most influencer campaigns utilize between 5 and 10 influencers at a time, helping to spread the messaging over a broader audience pool.

And while Instagram remains the main platform of focus, take a look at how TikTok has risen in demand over the past 12 months.

Interesting to note the appearance of Instagram Reels her also, while Snapchat and Twitter were just below Pinterest - and ahead of gaming platform Twitch.

There are some interesting notes here - likely nothing beyond what most would expect, but it is interesting to see the rising demand for TikTok expertise, and the various tactics most common amongst other marketing teams.

Will that influence your influencer marketing approach?

You can read Linqia's full State of Influencer Marketing 2021 report here.

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New Report Looks at the Most Effective Influencer Marketing Approaches, and Key Platforms of Focus - Social Media Today