Chris Lewis - RELEVANCE https://www.relevance.com Growth Marketing Agency Thu, 01 Oct 2020 10:23:39 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://www.relevance.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/cropped-index.png Chris Lewis - RELEVANCE https://www.relevance.com 32 32 How to Design CTAs That Actually Work (With 6 Great Examples) https://www.relevance.com/how-to-design-ctas-that-actually-work-with-6-great-examples/ https://www.relevance.com/how-to-design-ctas-that-actually-work-with-6-great-examples/#respond Thu, 01 Oct 2020 10:23:39 +0000 https://www.relevance.com/?p=108679 When designing a webpage, you will come across all sorts of useful advice - chief among which is the emphasis on designing intelligent, eye-catching, and effective calls to action. It may seem simple enough - just add a little button somewhere on the page. However, since we digital marketers love to work with data, test […]

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When designing a webpage, you will come across all sorts of useful advice - chief among which is the emphasis on designing intelligent, eye-catching, and effective calls to action.

It may seem simple enough - just add a little button somewhere on the page.

However, since we digital marketers love to work with data, test out different kinds of solutions, and come up with a list of different options, we have applied our meticulousness to CTA design as well.

Here’s what we have learned about designing CTAs that actually work.

Emphasize Your Biggest Selling Point

To be as effective as possible, your CTA should clearly highlight the key features of your product or service and focus on your biggest selling points.

If the selling point in question is that you have built up an incredible community of people who support each other’s goals (for example, if you are a gym), a CTA like “Join our community today” or “Join us today” would work great.

The most widely used selling point is a free trial. So if you offer one as well, noting that in your CTA can be a great conversion-boosting tactic.

Source: formsonfire.com

Here’s an example from Forms on Fire, which has a neat red CTA button above the fold with a simple yet effective “Try it free” – which is all you need in a CTA, really. Short and sweet and to the point.

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But Not Necessarily with the CTA Itself

Maybe you don’t want to use a “try it for free” kind of CTA. Or maybe there is no way to merge your biggest selling point with your CTA.

If that’s the case, an added banner or other neat design feature may help you boost the message of the CTA without having to get too wordy. Plus, you won’t have to break a sweat trying to figure out a way to say something that won’t really fit into your limited-sized button.

Source: ultimatemealplans.com

Here’s what we mean. The Ultimate Meal Plans homepage has a “Sign Up” CTA above the fold. However, their main selling point is that they offer a 30-day money-back guarantee. Not something they can actually put in the CTA, is it? So, they’ve come up with the clever bubble noting this feature, which pairs nicely with the CTA itself.

Brand It if You Can

Another great way to make your CTA stand out is to include the name of your brand or the name of your product. This will help you emphasize your brand’s identity and establish a deeper connection between your business and your audience.

You don’t need to brand every single one of your CTAs. Sometimes, all it takes is branding the buttons on your pricing or features page, and you can keep all the rest of the minimal and more neutral.

Wording like “Get NAME OF BRAND today” or “Sign up for NAME OF PRODUCT” is a great way to achieve this effect.

Prezi does this nicely, with their “Prezi Present,” “Prezi Video,” and “Prezi Design” buttons.

Source: prezi.com

Branding their services like this is not exactly unique, but it helps reinforce the name of the brand, ultimately helping it stand out in the minds of its users.

Offer More than One Choice

Sometimes, you want to highlight more than one feature of a product, or perhaps you want to offer two different kinds of services at the same time. Instead of choosing just one option and going for just the one CTA, you can add two distinct options and ensure all of your customers easily find what they’re looking for.

For example, if you offer a service both in-store or delivered, you might want to offer a choice right off the bat, without prioritizing one kind of customer.

A good example here is what Bark Box has done with their homepage – you can choose whether you want to sign up for their service yourself or send a gift to someone else.

Source: barkbox.com

If they were to highlight only one of these options on their homepage, they would certainly risk losing some of their customers. This way, they have all of their bases covered.

Mind Your Background

The background you place your CTA on is sometimes equally important as what you choose to write.

Placing CTAs on a simple white background somewhere near the bottom of the page can work well. After all, you don’t need to feature a background image everywhere, and you will most often place one in the hero section only.

However, when you are adding your CTA to the hero, you want the image to play off the CTA and vice versa, so you can achieve a powerful synergy of visuals and text.

Source: theadventurejunkies.com

A very good example of the effect we’re referring to is on the Adventure Junkies homepage. It has a captivating image supporting the message of the CTA, which makes you want to get out there and have your very own adventure.

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Establish a Connection

The relationships you build with your leads and customers are what ultimately count. And if you can start that relationship off on the right foot with something as simple as a CTA – you truly will be the master of your marketing.

This tactic may not be relevant for every brand, and some might be able to utilize it more easily than others. The trick lies not only in speaking the language of your customers but also in showing them who you are, what you stand for, and how you can help.

Let’s explain the point with an example. EPIC's homepage features a CTA at the very bottom, in what is essentially the contact section.

Source: epic.net

The CTA reads, “Start a new project with us” – and they have also used a “Let’s start a new project together” before.

The words “us” and “together” are what emphasize the connection. In this case, you (the client) and them (the agency) are in this together, and you will be jointly working on achieving your goals. Works really well.

To Sum It Up

Designing effective CTAs will come down to knowing as much as you can about your target audience, singling out a message you want to communicate, and distilling it down to a couple of effective words. There is, of course, the design element as well, where you should always try to make your CTA stand out, but not overdo it.

Get ready for some brainstorming, and use our tips and examples to help you work out an effective CTA of your own. And now, the stage is yours!

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How to Optimize PDFs and Documents for Search https://www.relevance.com/how-to-optimize-pdfs-and-documents-for-search/ https://www.relevance.com/how-to-optimize-pdfs-and-documents-for-search/#respond Thu, 24 Sep 2020 10:35:05 +0000 https://www.relevance.com/?p=108600 Did you know PDF files can also generate traffic for your website?  When optimized for search engines, the documents you upload can be just as interesting for crawlers as they are for your audience. Regardless of the type of documents you upload (presentations, guidelines, reports, eBooks, whitepapers, and more), there is a chance they can […]

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Did you know PDF files can also generate traffic for your website

When optimized for search engines, the documents you upload can be just as interesting for crawlers as they are for your audience. Regardless of the type of documents you upload (presentations, guidelines, reports, eBooks, whitepapers, and more), there is a chance they can make a difference in your SEO ratings.

And, since PDF is the most popular format of online documents, we’ll break this optimization process down into a few, easy to follow, steps. 

#1: Content Structure is Important

You wouldn’t just slap text on a web page and hope for the best, would you? 

The same is true for documents (regardless of format). In order to make them as user-friendly and readable as possible, you must use an SEO-friendly content structure. This means headings, lists, short paragraphs, images, spaces, inner links (if the document is long), table of contents, and so on. 

A quick tip: If the document is already saved as PDF you can use a PDF to Word converter and edit the content in a more familiar environment. 

#2: A SEO-friendly File Name, Title, & Meta Description

Just like with web pages, PDFs can benefit from keyword research and SEO-friendly titles & file names. This way, when the name of the file is displayed by search results, viewers looking for the keywords will be tempted to click on it. 

In addition, make sure to keep it short and meaningful, so viewers can see the entire title and description. For instance, a guide on how to optimize PDFs for search engines may be named “how-to-optimize-PDFs-for-search” (the hyphen symbolizes spaces in Google talk).

Of course, the title should follow the same rule, but it can be a bit more comprehensive. The same goes for the meta description, which should provide viewers with a brief content summary. 

Where do titles and meta go in a PDF file?

Since documents are only uploaded on the web server, you can’t specify these details using HTML (as you would for a regular page). This is why you have to do this a bit differently. 

Start by opening the document with a PDF reader (like Adobe). Go to File -> Document Properties. In the window that opens, fill in the Title and Subject fields with the title and meta description. 

#3: Use Links

Many site owners use PDFs as an incentive for people who subscribe to their newsletter or as a way to start a discussion. But you can also include them in your content marketing strategy by linking to them and from them (internal linking). 

Treat any PDF file as a regular page of your site and make sure to highlight its importance by including links to the most relevant pages and linking those pages to the file. 

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#4: Optimize for Mobile

While there is no such thing as a responsive PDF file template, you can think ahead and make it easy to read on a smaller screen. This means using left alignment and a vertical template (images above or below text, not sideways). 

You also need to pay attention to size, since PDF files are usually downloaded before reading (this is valid for both mobile and desktop versions). 

Wrap Up 

In summary, if you use PDF files on your website or in your communication with viewers, make sure to optimize them for search engines. It’s an additional boost for your traffic and it’s a nice way to promote various pages without being too pushy.

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Online Reputation Repair: The Benefit of Having a Healthy Online Presence for Your Business https://www.relevance.com/online-reputation-repair-the-benefit-of-having-a-healthy-online-presence-for-your-business/ https://www.relevance.com/online-reputation-repair-the-benefit-of-having-a-healthy-online-presence-for-your-business/#respond Tue, 22 Sep 2020 06:38:57 +0000 https://www.relevance.com/?p=108552 A good reputation is a significant consideration that businesses strive to develop. It might take time to establish a good reputation, but it can be tarnished within a short period. However, this doesn't mean that brands shouldn't do what it takes to establish and maintain a healthy reputation. While it can quickly be tarnished, reputation […]

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A good reputation is a significant consideration that businesses strive to develop. It might take time to establish a good reputation, but it can be tarnished within a short period. However, this doesn't mean that brands shouldn't do what it takes to establish and maintain a healthy reputation. While it can quickly be tarnished, reputation repair is possible if a company invests in practical management measures. A brand manager might wonder why they should invest in online reputation repair, especially if it requires financing. Here are some of the top benefits of repairing and maintaining a healthy online presence.

Enjoy a loyal following

Building trust isn't a straightforward quest. However, with a good reputation, brands can easily win more followers. Noting that people tend to rely on others to form an opinion, with a good reputation, a brand can build on what others feel and think about them to attract and maintain more followers. As more people turn to online reviews and testimonials over ads, it is crucial to maintain a healthy online presence to build a bigger and better business. From maintaining transparency to listening and responding to customers' concerns, brands can foster healthier relationships and enjoy a significant and loyal following. It doesn't have to be a daunting process; simple measures such as reacting or replying on social media comments could be all it takes to improve a brand's reputation.

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Improved profitability

If a brand can't win their target customer's trust, how can they sell? Winning users' trust is the first step to improving sales revenue, especially noting the first impression's impact. It is easier to sell to people who see a certain brand as a trustworthy business. A reputable business doesn't have to break their bank, pushing their products/services to win more business. Star rating is among the essential measures users utilize before choosing a company. As such, with numerous positive online reviews, a business can secure more business without spending a fortune, consequently improving their profitability. Moreover, a reputable brand can leverage its followers to reach a more extensive customer base, improving the chances of securing more business.

Lower risk

Online reputation repair lowers a business' risk of being pushed out of the market. Poor reputation attracts the wrong attention, earning a brand even worse image. See it as the broken windows theory, where a tarnished image attracts more damaging elements, putting a brand at risk of losing significant business. This translates to more losses, and without substantial reputation repairs, force a business to end their operations as they can't stand the competition.

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Gentler treatment

Even the well-established brands, at times, face damaging considerations such as scandals. With an excellent online reputation, such situations won't significantly affect the brand's operations. People are willing to listen, give them a second chance, and treat the business gentler than they would if the brand didn't have a healthy presence. Such treatment comes in handy in enhancing a brand's continuity since no establishment can run without hitting such snags. What's more, online reputation repair won't be a costly endeavor, and within a reasonable period, the brand can regain its good standing.

Attract the right talent

A brand's employees are its ambassadors. Attracting the best talent is easier with a good reputation since more people are willing to work in a company sharing similar core values. Apart from attracting and maintaining the right talent, a good reputation keeps them motivated as they work towards common goals. A productive workforce, or lack thereof, can make or break a business' endeavors. This means that with a good reputation and the right talent, companies can comfortably realize their goals and scale new heights as they build a bigger and better venture.

While analyzing consumption behaviors in today's online-oriented world, it is clear that over 80% of consumers turn to online reviews before making a decision. A brand can accumulate considerable positive reviews and ratings with a healthy online presence, helping them capture a significant customer base. They can also easily win more business, especially noting that they can turn cold visitors into active customers based on the appealing standing. Therefore, investing in effective reputation management strategies can't be stressed enough, a key concern as brands strive to enhance their reach and profitability.

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6 Ways to Incorporate User-Generated Content in Email Campaigns https://www.relevance.com/6-ways-to-incorporate-user-generated-content-in-email-campaigns/ https://www.relevance.com/6-ways-to-incorporate-user-generated-content-in-email-campaigns/#respond Thu, 17 Sep 2020 06:06:42 +0000 https://www.relevance.com/?p=108475 More and more brands are realizing the value of user-generated content (UGC) in building customer trust and relationships. It is a proven way of adding more punch to your marketing efforts. UGC resonates instantly with your customers as it is sourced from the community itself. Marketers can depend less on in-house generated content by doing […]

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More and more brands are realizing the value of user-generated content (UGC) in building customer trust and relationships. It is a proven way of adding more punch to your marketing efforts. UGC resonates instantly with your customers as it is sourced from the community itself.

Marketers can depend less on in-house generated content by doing some smart UGC curating. It has emerged as a vital marketing tool for social media campaigns. More importantly, it can also help boost email marketing conversions - something that has spurred immense interest among digital marketers and professionals.

A section of your newsletter can be dedicated to UGC. Subscribers must be made aware that they can share their views on this forum while ensuring that you have their permission to use the content.

There are six ways in which you can incorporate user-generated campaigns in your email campaigns:

1. Through Email Contests

Experience has proven that nothing triggers customers' interest like a well-planned contest. It is also the best way of sourcing content from users. The offer of an attractive incentive can make them rush to your page with their videos and images.

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It is a great way of reaching out to friends and families as well. A simple but valuable reward can do the trick.

UGC contests are routinely hosted on social media for their ability to offer a wider organic reach to audiences. Emails can serve as one of the best channels for a contest and creating brand awareness.

A few tips for making a success of the email content:

  • Provide a simple online entry form
  • Spell out the rules clearly
  • Use appropriate hashtags for use on social media
  • Choose images, logos, and videos that capture the visual appeal of your brand
  • The content must be in alignment with the brand’s online presence

2. Through A Personalized Approach

Marketing is driven more by personalization in recent years. Email marketing is a great way of doing this right. Individualized newsletters and email correspondence are helping marketers achieve enhanced brand-customer relationships.

With the customer profile of the target audience already available in your database, you can run through the content sourced from users, and pick on the ones most relevant to target segments. It is recommended that you peer through the analytics as well before creating an email personalization strategy.

These tips can help you do it right:

Presenting UGC targeted for subscribers can help boost email open rates as customers will be responsive to the messaging as they will quickly identify with the same.

3. By Using Content Curation Techniques

Some content from a user-generated content campaign may not be brand-appropriate. Marketers might have to spend some time sifting through the content pile to pick the content most relevant to subscribers. This might be a time-consuming task but it will be well worth the effort.

At the same time, this is a vital step as low-quality content and badly-made videos, and poorly clicked images can cause immense damage to brand image and integrity.

That’s why curating the best content and discarding the ones with lesser value is important. Also, ensure that the curated UGC even if it is of the finest quality, aligns with the needs of email subscribers.

Use these tips to get the best out of the thematic content approach:

  • Make sure that content matches the brand’s tone and voice
  • Use the appropriate color palettes – customers associate your brand with a specific color. That’s why consistency in content color is critical.
  • Share past user-generated content or post images that are similarly themed to create a visual clue and boost the chances of generating more interest

4. By Using Testimonial Texts and Videos

Content in the form of user reviews and testimonials can have a huge impact on marketing outcomes. You can enhance the effectiveness of your email marketing strategy by adding user recommendations or endorsements. A positive review from a genuine customer can create as much impact as a strong visual or quality text.

With people looking for ways of finding products and services that can genuinely improve their lives and enhance the level of comfort, customer testimonials can be the perfect way of easing the apprehensions.

When the reviews are posted with images of the customers, the impact can be significantly bigger. Customers feel that a real person is endorsing your brand. It can help them cement their buying decisions.

What else can you do with this strategy?

  • Deliver the message that the brand can bring great value
  • Add a headline or a caption that can capture attention better
  • Video testimonials can be used for more impactful results
  • Showcase real customers as far as possible

A section of newsletters can be reserved for testimonials and reviews. This can improve click rates and add value to your brand.

5. By Targeting Repeat Buyers

Why You Need A Dynamic Buyer's Journey Funnel

It feels nice for any business to have a steady stream of customers but the real test comes from repeat customers. If customers come back to buy your products or order your services, it means you are doing a great job. That’s why retargeting customers must be a key component of your marketing strategy.

You can retarget customers in many ways.

The high ROI associated with email marketing makes it one of the preferred ways of retargeting customers for many businesses.

User-generated content of products that customers will find of great value can be used in newsletters. The best strategy is to include USG videos of people using the product with a testimonial stating its value and benefits.

6. By Creating Communities

Building content communities is another powerful way of putting USG to good use. There must be a conscious effort to create a larger community of fans, customers, and followers. Sourcing user-generated content can be more streamlined by adopting this strategy. Your subscribers will create the appropriate content, knowing fully well about your preferences.

A carefully created community can make this happen and also make the job of showcasing winning brands easy.

In Conclusion

USG allows empowering email campaigns and is an effective strategy for driving sales. The strategy is simple but powerful enough to deliver impressive dividends if utilized carefully and smartly. Marketers simply have to make use of available content, ensure the display of products in real settings, and create an atmosphere of trust. This can help achieve greater conversions and generate better revenue.

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Top 8 Tips To Make Android Development Easier https://www.relevance.com/top-8-tips-to-make-android-development-easier/ https://www.relevance.com/top-8-tips-to-make-android-development-easier/#respond Fri, 04 Sep 2020 14:34:24 +0000 https://www.relevance.com/?p=108356 Android is one of the most popular development platforms with 1.6 billion users worldwide. These days, Android runs on a variety of devices such as smartphones, TVs, smartwatches, cameras, and many more. It also has many development tools and libraries available online, making it easier to develop applications for it. Android has two main languages […]

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Android is one of the most popular development platforms with 1.6 billion users worldwide. These days, Android runs on a variety of devices such as smartphones, TVs, smartwatches, cameras, and many more. It also has many development tools and libraries available online, making it easier to develop applications for it.

Android has two main languages that mobile engineers can choose to develop apps: Java and XML. Once you have a proper understanding of XML and Java development, you’ll find that building and designing Android applications is easy, along with adding additional features and customizations.

However, there are a few tips and tricks that you can use that will make your overall development easier. Let's have a look at them.

1. Use Java design patterns

Instead of writing code from scratch every time, you can use Java design patterns. Design patterns are programming strategies/solutions for general programming problems. You can reuse a particular pattern in more than one project, allowing you to save time and reduce costs, all while incorporating solutions you might need for your application.

Design patterns also provide transparency and clarity to the overall outline of the project. Using them during the SDLC requirement phase helps reduce the resources required to develop a project. You can also use parts of the legacy codebase for design patterns.

2. Create multiple Java resource files

Instead of adding all layouts and strings to a single resource file while creating your Android application, it’s better to use multiple resource files. Not doing so can cause space issues and merge errors. Make sure that resources have a unique name so that when they finally merge together in one Java file, it’s easy for the system to distinguish them. To call different resources in present different files, you can follow this formula: “R.filename.Resourcename.”

3. Write code with the least dependencies

When starting coding, instead of writing an entire application in one module, start with writing small, independent components. You can also move your variables to a top-level build system like build-Gradle. Doing that will allow you to perform variable declarations along with the support of service libraries. Also, this way, you won’t get a yellow notification while updating and managing libraries.

4. Understand your IDE

You should try to learn more about your Android development environment (IDE). You need to understand how dependencies are getting resolved, how the IDE automation handles your code, and how it’s installing libraries.

Once you learn how your IDE works, you’ll begin to understand its full capabilities. Doing so has many benefits. First, it increases your productivity.  Then, you get to know the little intricacies and principles that you can use in your next projects. Also, you might find a new feature or plugin that you previously didn’t know about.

5. Start using Reactive techniques

A reactive technique is a programming method that’s asynchronous and is associated with incoming data, i.e., you can assign variables, clicks, arrays, and system time to be data streams. Reactive programming makes your Android observables exhibit data that your subscribers can catch.

This technique allows you to avoid callback problems and perform threading efficiently. It also reduces backpressure and makes your code efficient and simple.

6. Maintain the Architecture

Many developers don’t maintain the ideal architecture for their applications. Sometimes, they put all their code on a Fragment or Activity. Or they might use Activity as a controller.

Doing that has many problems. Sometimes, Activities may not receive the final version of the code if there are some configuration changes. Also, putting all code in an Activity turns it into a large object that is difficult to update and maintain. It’s also likely to be killed if there are some space issues with the OS.

Architectures like MVP/ MVI are much better, wherein the business logic, controller, and views are separated from each other. Using them makes it easy to maintain syntax and logic, allowing better application development.

7. Use low-end devices for testing purposes

Most of the time, developers who are testing on high-end devices miss out on small issues and errors. These flaws don’t easily come up when testing in high-end devices, which are typically used in the tech world but are less common among the general public.

You can better test issues like deleting activity or loading speed on low-end devices. Once you understand the problem, you can resolve it easily. For example, for slow loading speed due to a bad internet connection, you can add a loading indicator to your main screen.

8. Start writing comprehensive tests

If you want people to use your application, you should thoroughly test it to ensure that it's free of bugs and errors. While designing a new feature, you should test iteratively, i.e., each code unit should have a corresponding test case.

Also, before testing the entire application, you should test on different execution environments with different dependencies. You should also consider running your cases on different devices (real and simulated) to ensure maximum coverage. For long operations and hard configurations, you can create false objects (doubles) and test through them.

Conclusion

There are a few tricks that you can use to code better. Most people who start Android programming overlook these things. It's easy to understand and apply them to your own Java/Android applications.

Of course, this list isn’t comprehensive. There are a lot of other tips you can use to improve your application development. Along with these, you can also focus on other basic things, such as using a good quality computer for development and testing. You don’t want to boggle your mind every day with system crashes and memory problems.

You should also get in touch with other developers and start upskilling yourself. The more you learn, the better you code.

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Top Tips for New Marketing Managers https://www.relevance.com/top-tips-for-new-marketing-managers/ https://www.relevance.com/top-tips-for-new-marketing-managers/#respond Tue, 01 Sep 2020 12:17:38 +0000 https://www.relevance.com/?p=108311 Marketing has always been an incredibly important arm of the business, but never more so than today in the current digital landscape. Businesses need to excel in marketing if they are to succeed, so the role of a marketing manager is incredibly important to the overall success of a business. It can be daunting as […]

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Marketing has always been an incredibly important arm of the business, but never more so than today in the current digital landscape. Businesses need to excel in marketing if they are to succeed, so the role of a marketing manager is incredibly important to the overall success of a business. It can be daunting as a new marketing manager as you will want to hit the ground running and help to get the business noticed while building a positive reputation, so how can you go about doing this? Read on for a few tips for new marketing managers, which should come in handy.

Work on Your Soft Skills

Soft skills are important in all areas of the business but particularly in marketing, where you will need to excel at communicating, presenting, solving problems, and managing your time. Identify if there are any weak points in your soft skills and then find ways to improve these, such as:

  • Research
  • Classes
  • Training
  • Practice

Understand the Company & Its Goals

You cannot succeed in marketing a company without knowing it inside out. This is why you need to take the time to learn absolutely everything about the brand, including its history, mission statement, personnel, sales cycle, challenges, PR, and anything else that you can learn. Additionally, it is useful to go back through previous marketing campaigns to find out what has worked well and what has not.

Analyze the Competition

It is not just your own business that you need to know like the back of your hand, as you should also have a clear understanding of who your competitors are. Analyzing their strengths and weaknesses could help you to find ways to capitalize and leapfrog/stay ahead of the competition, and you need to make competitor research an ongoing process to stay competitive.

Get to Know Your Team

As with any management role, it is also important that you take the time to get to know all of your team members. You need to be a great leader to succeed, and a great leader is someone that knows the strengths and weaknesses of individual members, builds strong connections, listens to advice, and finds ways to keep the team happy, motivated and engaged. Marketing teams work best when they are a tight-knit group and will happily brainstorm together, so you need to cultivate this atmosphere with good communication and social events.

Know Your Customer

Of course, you also need to have a clear understanding of exactly who your target customer is as well so that you can keep them in mind when making key marketing decisions. Many marketing managers find it useful to create a few customer personas based on existing customer data, which is useful for finding the best strategies and segmenting your market. It is also important that you continue to listen to your customers and ask for feedback so that you can find ways to improve.

Take A master’s in business management

Managers in any department will benefit greatly from taking a Master’s in Business Management. This will teach you how to succeed as a manager, overcome common challenges, and use techniques that will help you to hit the ground running. You can take business management online courses so that you can learn while you work, which is useful for flexibility but also so that you can start applying what you learn straight away.

Stay Current

Few departments are as fast-changing as marketing, which is why you need to stay current. You can do this by reading respected marketing publications, reading blogs, joining online communities, attending industry events, and following marketing leaders on social media. You should also be communicating with your team regularly and encouraging them to stay current so that you can all work together to find the best solutions and campaigns.

Avoid Micromanaging

The most common mistake that new managers make is micromanaging their team, which can stunt creativity, reduce productivity, and create additional stress while negatively affecting relationships. This is why you need to trust your team, be willing to step back, and encourage autonomy so that staff can work to the best of their abilities and then come to you for guidance and support where necessary.

These tips should help any new marketing manager to hit the ground running and be an effective leader. Every business needs a skilled marketing manager in today’s digital age, but this can be a challenging and stressful role, especially when first starting out. Hence, knowing how to succeed is key.

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Which Is Better For Your Website - Content or Backlinks? https://www.relevance.com/which-is-better-for-your-website-content-or-backlinks/ https://www.relevance.com/which-is-better-for-your-website-content-or-backlinks/#respond Wed, 19 Aug 2020 10:00:29 +0000 https://www.relevance.com/?p=108147 Any marketer or digital marketing professional will readily agree that search engine optimization is complicated. You need to keep adapting to keep your website ratings high across the constantly evolving parameters of various search engines. While indulging in this exercise, the question that pops us in the minds of SEO professionals is whether they should […]

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Any marketer or digital marketing professional will readily agree that search engine optimization is complicated. You need to keep adapting to keep your website ratings high across the constantly evolving parameters of various search engines. While indulging in this exercise, the question that pops us in the minds of SEO professionals is whether they should give priority to content or focus on backlink building. Which one is better?

Some would say that both are equally important as they both go hand in hand.

[bctt tweet="Building links without a powerful and engaging content of high quality and content devoid of an effective link building strategy are unlikely to succeed." username="relevance"]

However, if you have to choose between the two, the content will tip over the link and for the following reasons.

Content Is The Only Medium Of Connecting With Visitors

Content is one of the most important aspects of Search Engine Optimization. It is the only tool that can be effectively used for marketing products or services across digital platforms.

[bctt tweet="High quality and engaging content can act as a connecting medium between a brand and its customers." username="relevance"]

Content is the only way you can engage with visitors and entice them to buy your products or services. You need content to fill out lead forms. Importantly, without content, it’s pointless for any website to give you a backlink.

Content Defines a Page’s Topic

The context of the page can be defined only by using the appropriate content. Content also defines the topic of a page through the header and title tags. Backlinks only provide a hint of the topic on the page when appropriate keywords are used.

People Link Because of Content And Not Vice-Versa

Another reason for assigning more importance to content is that content provides people the reason for linking to your site organically. You can attract people by creating powerful and informative content, sharing quality data, providing tips on various aspects, or creating any such content format (read quiz, games, etc.) that can quickly attract visitors repeatedly and keep them engaged for a longer time.

[bctt tweet="Content is necessary to create the reasons for someone linking to your website in a natural manner." username="relevance"]

You Need Content To Build Site Structure

Content is mandatory for building site structure and architecture. This is achieved through internal linking. However, it is important to note that site structure and rank sculpting are two different things. The latter is done for the purpose of SEO only. Content can help build a natural internal linking structure. It is a great way of guiding visitors to various resources. Content can also influence purchasing decisions when provided in the form of comparative charts or informative tables.

A crucial role of content is that when created properly and when focused on high quality, it can help search engines discover the most important pages on the website. This can also help website visitors access the kind of content they are looking for when they search online for the subject information they want.

The above four points establish the fact that content is more important for your website than backlinks but links have a key role to play for your website to appear in the top pages of search engine rankings.

Some Additional Observations

If you have quality content on your website, those looking for the relevant information will come to your website looking for the same. If attracting relevant visitors is what you are focused on, then quality content is what will do the trick for you. At the same time, backlinks cannot be put on the backburner as authority building is also important for achieving high ranking.

Research about the top authority blogs around the globe shows that the best blogs are the ones with high-quality backlinks from websites that enjoy high ranking naturally. This means that a website can attract quality links only the content is unique and provides high value to visitors. It is a mutual process. When the best content is noticed by or shown to authority websites, they will eagerly share the content, and in turn, give backlinks from their blogs.

Many SEO experts are also of the opinion that content comes first and backlinks later. From their experience, they state that content is capable of holding on its own without the support of links. They can come in later to boost website rankings.

The Judgment

In conclusion, it can be safely assumed that content is the greatest asset of a website when it comes to SEO. It is the content that triggers link attraction. It is the content that provides the foundation on which your website can be built.

Thus, it proves yet again that ‘Content is king’ is not merely a clichéd slogan. It is the reality and the ultimate truth.

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Industries That are Attracting Millennials in 2020 https://www.relevance.com/industries-that-are-attracting-millennials-in-2020/ https://www.relevance.com/industries-that-are-attracting-millennials-in-2020/#respond Fri, 14 Aug 2020 09:07:48 +0000 https://www.relevance.com/?p=107982 Millennials make up a large percent of the workforce. Being born between 1980 and 1994, this is the generation of workers who are now in their late 20s and early 30s. Many corporations, especially those in the technology field, have several millennials in leadership positions. Millennials have changed what work means in many industries. Companies […]

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Millennials make up a large percent of the workforce. Being born between 1980 and 1994, this is the generation of workers who are now in their late 20s and early 30s.

Many corporations, especially those in the technology field, have several millennials in leadership positions. Millennials have changed what work means in many industries.

Companies around the world have been forced to rebrand themselves and use innovative techniques to attract millennial workers to their workforce. The following are a few industries that have successfully attracted millennials.

Millennials in Technology

Millennials are the first generation to be born in a tech driven world. Previous generations had to learn technology either in elementary school, high school, or college. Therefore, it’s not surprising that the millennial generation leads the world in creating and maintaining technology and the software that runs it.

People born in the early 90s grew up seeing technology as a common part of life, so they are likely to be skilled in IT and understand programming languages. Thus, they are top employees in many of the tech sector jobs around the world.

Millennials are also one of the first generations to come into a world where long-term job security is not guaranteed. The tech sector offers competitive salary packages and job security not seen in other areas. This is what draws many millennials to this field. They’ve witnessed the growth of online businesses, everything moving to the cloud, working from home becoming something pretty common and usual, being able to learn every skill online, and so on.

Even if millennials do not have programming skills, growing up with tech has made it easier for them to work in retail jobs selling technology or the gaming industry. Millennials feature heavily in the electronic sector as well. In the end, nothing less is expected for the generation that stands out for its technology use.

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Millennials in Finance

Millennials are flocking to the finance sector. Many are attracted to the lucrative salaries and flexible schedules that are available when trading stocks online in countries like the UK, US, and Australia. Although COVID-19 has pummeled the stock market, many millennials are seeing this as an opportunity for them to give their investing career a kick start.

Online stock trading platforms have seen a rapid increase in demand during the first few months of 2020. Millennial investors are trying to take advantage of undervalued equities.

For a sizable number of millennials, 2020 is the first year they have seriously considered investing. Millennials are looking for new opportunities to make cash or are looking to recover from earlier losses. Online investment platforms have made it easier for this tech savvy generation to buy stocks in individual companies.

The use of mobile trading and stock trading apps has increased during quarantine months as well. It’s a secure and easy way to trade stocks online, giving you all necessary tools and options. Millennials are taking care of their finances more than ever, and the remote working environment has given them a lot of ways to make money sideways.

Millennials in the Healthcare Field

Previous generations perceived millennials to be lazy and battling failure to launch syndrome. However, statistics show that the millennial generation is as concerned or even more concerned than their predecessors about financial security and stability. This may be because they were the generation who saw their parents negatively impacted by the economic downturn of 2008.

This has led many millennials to seek employment options in fields that have been traditionally profitable, such as healthcare. There is a new generation of medical students, nurses, and medical technicians who are stepping into the job market.

Statistics show that approximately 38 percent of physician assistants are from the millennial generation. Similar statistics are seen with paramedics and emergency medical technicians.

It is common for those in the medical field to median salaries of $100,000 or more per year. This type of money motivates young and ambitious workers looking to build a stable future for themselves.

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Millennials in Engineering

The baby boomer generation is stepping aside from the engineering field while millennials fill the gap. The millennial generation has been praised for its ingenuity and refusal to sit back and assume that the way things were done are the way that they must be done. This spirit, when coupled with knowledge and skill, helps millennials excel when attacking new problems.

The previous generation of engineers and those in managerial positions in engineering had to be taught to think outside of the box. However, for millennials thinking out of the box has been their life experience. Millennials have seen drastic changes in technology and in approaches to doing things through their lifespan. Millennials have been shown to approach tasks in unconventional ways and encourage those around them to do the same.

Because millennials have a willingness to try new ideas, they have a powerful grasp of analytical skills. Millennials have grown up in an environment where engineering disciplines were an everyday part of life, so being attracted to engineering is not a huge stretch.

Millennials in the Hospitality Industry

Millennials have been praised for being ambitious, motivated, and highly educated. For this reason, some older generations are surprised to see that many of them look for employment in hospitality industries.

Research shows that over 40 percent of bartenders are millennials. Millennials feature heavily in nightclubs, restaurants, and bars. The baby boomer generation and Generation Z have a negative bias toward jobs in these professions.

However, millennials, staying true to their reputation for thinking outside of the box, have latched onto the hospitality and service industries as a way of making a lucrative salary, having flexible hours, and working in a fun environment. This is especially the case for millennials who are working their way through college.

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What Will Future Generations Look for in Employment?

Generation Z, born between 1995 and 2010, are starting to take their place in the work environment. When asked what companies they want to work for, the top five answers were identical to those of millennials but just in a different order. They included Apple, Google, Amazon, Disney, and self-employment.

Both millennials and those of Generation Z set technology and media as the top two fields for employment. But here we see differences. For example, for Generation Z, working in media meant working for gaming brands and developers. Millennials were not thinking in that direction.

Generation Z and millennials have grown up gaming. However, Generation Z has grown up in a world where pro gaming, Esports, and making money from developing gaming apps have exploded.

For both millennials and those in Generation Z, the coronavirus pandemic has changed the way they view future employment. Only time will tell what the future will hold for employment opportunities for these groups as they continue to age.

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Top 5 Strategies For Marketing Products on Amazon https://www.relevance.com/top-5-strategies-for-marketing-products-on-amazon/ https://www.relevance.com/top-5-strategies-for-marketing-products-on-amazon/#respond Fri, 14 Aug 2020 08:59:14 +0000 https://www.relevance.com/?p=107978 Are you a seller or vendor on Google? Are you finding it difficult to stay ahead of the competition and sell more of your merchandize? You can do it if you market your products innovatively. This guide can help you discover the best strategies for marketing products on Amazon. The top five strategies for marketing […]

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Are you a seller or vendor on Google? Are you finding it difficult to stay ahead of the competition and sell more of your merchandize? You can do it if you market your products innovatively. This guide can help you discover the best strategies for marketing products on Amazon.

The top five strategies for marketing on Amazon according to most experts are:

  1. Email Marketing
  2. Short Term Promotions
  3. Social Media Marketing
  4. Products Related Qs and As
  5. Review Management Strategy

1. Email Marketing

Emails are an effective communication channel as most consumers check their emails regularly. Using promotional emails is a smart way of creating more exposure for your products. It can be used to announce new launches, offer coupons and discounts, and create customized offers. It is also a powerful medium for information sharing and providing updates about various aspects of your business to your consumers.

These are the steps you must follow for creating a powerful email marketing strategy for selling on Amazon.

Create a list of subscribers

Email marketing can be done using an existing list of subscribers or by creating one by providing sign-up forms on customer contact points such as your website, social media channels, blogs, and others.

Choose a platform

An email marketing platform is mandatory to launch a marketing strategy. When you choose a reputed one, you can get valuable data that can be used for tweaking the strategy for better results.

Schedule Postings

It is important to time your emails right to optimize the intended outcome of your marketing efforts. Developing a schedule can help you send out content on a regular basis and at the right time as well. At the same time, you must also be careful not to overdo it as it may be seen as spam by some consumers.

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2. Short Term Promotions

Short term or limited time promotions can be very effective in driving sales. When your consumers are offered a deal with a time limit, the chances of that offer getting grabbed is very high. With price being the single biggest deciding factor, consumers are always looking for great deals on their favorite products. Short term deals create great value for your merchandize and can drive sales significantly. If you want to do it right effortlessly, choose one of the best Amazon seller tools such as IO Scout.

  • Make an offer they can’t refuse
  • Make use of multiple channels and platforms to make the announcement
  • A hard deadline generally delivers a great outcome
  • Time the promotions during top shopping seasons for best results

3. Social Media Marketing

A large percentage of consumers depend on social media nowadays for making buying decisions. Many brands are discovering the amazing benefits of social media marketing. You can promote your brands across all leading social media channels to boost your Amazon sales. Marketers are using data to create winning social media strategies that can not only create greater brand awareness but also drive their Amazon marketing efforts. These steps can help you maximize the results.

  • Choose the platforms that your audiences frequent the most
  • Share both promotional content and information and strike a balance
  • Find a way of engaging with your audience
  • Include your social media links on your Amazon store

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4. Products Related Q And A

Every Amazon product listing page has a question and answers section. If you are a creative marketer, you can use this feature as a powerful marketing tool. This section provides you the opportunity to highlight the features of your product, make some subtle promotional statements, and create a positive vibe among consumers.

This section can actually influence buying decisions in a big way. By providing answers to consumer queries, you can dispel doubts about various aspects and features of the product and guide consumers into choosing your brand over others. It also projects your brand as being responsive, responsible, and consumer-friendly. What should you do to get it right?

  • Check for Qs and As regularly and answer promptly and accurately
  • Keep the content brief and skimmable
  • Draw attention to USPs of your brand
  • Your brand voice must be visible in all answers

5. Review Management Strategy

Review management is crucial for any business. It can also be utilized as a great marketing strategy. Amazon reviews are taken extremely seriously by shoppers and can even be the basis on which buying decisions are made in many instances. A review management strategy can do wonders for your sales. This is how the top marketers do it.

  • Check for reviews daily
  • Respond to each one of them
  • Encourage users to post reviews
  • Share reviews across online channels to build consumer confidence

The above-mentioned strategies are among the few tried and tested ones that can help you achieve greater success on Amazon. You can do more by hiring the services of a reputed internet marketing agency.

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A Comprehensive Guide To Creating Digital Files And Boosting Your Content Marketing https://www.relevance.com/a-comprehensive-guide-to-creating-digital-files-and-boosting-your-content-marketing/ https://www.relevance.com/a-comprehensive-guide-to-creating-digital-files-and-boosting-your-content-marketing/#respond Mon, 10 Aug 2020 05:14:53 +0000 https://www.relevance.com/?p=107860 Anyone at any level of SEO will know Brian Dean, founder of Backlinko. He’s been called “the Unicorn among a sea of donkey SEOs” and covered by major media brands. In his latest 2020 content marketing guide, Dean talks about the value of creating “compelling lead magnets” to promote your brand. So, what are these […]

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Anyone at any level of SEO will know Brian Dean, founder of Backlinko. He’s been called “the Unicorn among a sea of donkey SEOs” and covered by major media brands. In his latest 2020 content marketing guide, Dean talks about the value of creating “compelling lead magnets” to promote your brand. So, what are these lead magnets, what purpose do they serve, how do you create such digital files, and how can they boost your content marketing efforts?

Downloadable eBooks or PDF Books

One of the most valuable resources in content marketing is the ability to give your audience rich and reliable information. To that end, a short eBook in a downloadable PDF format is an ideal medium. Any professional PDFeditor such as PDFelement will be able to serve as a good tool to create your content, edit it, add images, apply pagination, format it with print-friendly fonts, create visually rich front and back covers, and even add watermarks to protect copyright.

One important aspect, since this is intended to be a lead magnet, is to add hyperlinks to the next step of your sales funnel. You can easily add and edit hyperlinks to your landing pages using PDFelement.

Once the content and formatting are done, you can optimize the file size so it’s convenient for your readers to download to their desktop or mobile devices. PDFelement lets you control the level of compression so you can achieve the right balance between size and quality.

Additionally, you can make it available in EPUB format by converting it within the software. When the book is ready, you can upload it via FTP to your website for direct downloads, link it in your email campaigns, or even upload it to Amazon as a promotional tool. This is a highly effective lead magnet that has worked for thousands of content marketing specialists.

Infographics

Visual content is always a compelling medium of communication. Long eBooks or even long-form articles don’t appeal to all audience types. If you’re looking for a higher engagement rate, infographics are a good way to go because they combine the best of visual and data in one single format.

Today, you no longer need a professional designer to create an infographic. As long as you have the content and can source relevant images, there are plenty of online tools like Venngage, Piktochart, and Canva to help you create stunning graphics with valuable information for your audience.

Once you’ve created your infographic, the output will be an image file. The problem here is that some image files can be really large, which means it’ll take ages to download on mobile phones with slow Internet connections. To get around this, you can use PDFelement to convert them into PDF format for easier distribution. The software allows you to simply drag and drop an image file and convert it into PDF; subsequently, you can even convert it into an HTML file for web use.

By converting it into multiple formats, you can reach a much wider audience through channels like web, email, social media, etc. That kind of flexibility will get your content a lot more eyeballs.

Case Studies and White Papers

Case studies and white papers are widely used in content marketing because of their ability to add credibility to your sales pitch. While such content cannot be “sales-y” or overly promotional, it serves a very important purpose: to give your potential buyers information that is crucial to the buying process.

When creating your content around these formats, remember that they are two distinct entities that provide different benefits. White papers typically convey technical information about complicated products and how they can benefit customers directly. Case studies, on the other hand, are evidence-based showcases of how a product or service has benefited a particular client. A case study is usually strengthened with data such as RoI (return on investment), efficiency gains, cost-savings, etc. In short, case studies contain tangible results and white papers condense abstract concepts into meaningful information.

The documents themselves can be ‘served’ via a website or distributed by email to your lead opt-in audience. For this, you’ll need to have them available in web format, or HTML, as well as PDF. In both scenarios, you can use PDFelement to get your final output in the desired format.

Templates

You don’t need to create all your content marketing lead magnets from scratch. There are literally thousands of templates available for nearly every kind of marketing asset. Some are free but if you want to go premium for a more professional look, the options are certainly there.

Templates allow you to re-create fresh content in a way that’s been proven to work. A lot of the premium templates are taken from actual marketing campaigns and repackaged as ‘white label’ products that you can merge into your content workflows. Not only do they give your digital files a more polished and sophisticated look, but they can also save you a tremendous amount of time.

Checklists

The final aspect we’ll cover today is the humble checklist. Checklists are primarily for yourself, although many content marketers have used them effectively to generate leads. Most importantly, though, they keep you organized. By creating a framework for tasks to be completed for each project you’re handling, you literally check off each item on a form as it gets done. It’ll make you more organized and more efficient almost immediately.

You can use a variety of formats for your checklists, such as Word documents with tables, Excel sheets with embedded objects (radio buttons or checkboxes), and even fillable PDF forms, which are easy to create in PDFelement. All you need to do is open a template or a blank PDF page, add your interactive fields with a drag and drop action, put in the required text, and you’re done. You can even create a master template that can be used for all your content marketing projects.

Put these ideas into action and you’ll see a visible difference in the results you get. If Brian Dean advises it, it’s definitely worth doing, right? And it’s most definitely worth doing right!

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