Ultimately, the key to success in all industries is identifying your target customer and then taking steps to attract this group to your business. The target customer is the group of people that will benefit from the products and/or services that you use, and identifying this group will enable you to make key business decisions; but how can you go about attracting this group? This can be challenging, particularly in competitive industries, but there are a few highly effective strategies that will help your business to succeed, allow you to develop a positive reputation with this group, and compete with the top brands in your industry.
Determine The Target Customer And Their Needs
First, you need to make sure that you have a clear definition of your target customer. You then need to identify what the wants, needs, and priorities for this group are, which will then help you when it comes to marketing and promoting your brand. A few key questions to ask, which will help with this are as follows:
What problems does your company solve?
Which specific customers will benefit the most?
What is the age, gender, location, income, lifestyle, and attitude of this group?
It is then helpful to create a profile for your target market, so that you can picture this individual and keep them in mind whenever you make any kind of strategic decision.
Analyze The Competition
Your direct competitors will have the same target customer as you do, so it is a good idea to carefully analyze the competition in order to see what you can learn, and to take advantage of any gaps in the market. In addition to looking at what the most successful brands are doing well, do not forget to look at what the struggling brands are doing wrong—this can be just as insightful, and will help you to avoid making the same mistakes.
Create Engaging Content
In today’s internet-driven age, a brand needs to create content in addition to providing a high-quality product and/or service, as this is how you promote your brand, demonstrate your expertise, and engage with your target customer. The content must be of value to your target customer, stand out from the crowd, and use a variety of media. If you are in the health and fitness industry, for example, then you have a lot of good options, such as:
Workout videos
Nutritional infographics
“How-to” guides for specific exercises
Interviews with key figures
Live Q&A sessions on social media
Use Influencer Marketing
Following on from this, social media is a key platform for engaging your target customer, and one of the most effective strategies for this is using influencer marketing. This involves an influential figure in your industry promoting your products and/or services to their followers (your target customer), which is a highly effective way of reaching a much larger group and improving your brand reputation. The key to success with using this increasingly popular form of marketing is finding the right agency—you can do this by searching online, for example, by looking for the best influencer marketing agency in Los Angeles.
Host Events
It is vital that you take steps to engage your target customer online, but you must not overlook the value of also doing this offline, as this can be an excellent way of building real-life connections with this group. The best way to do this is by hosting events, which will help to create a sense of community with your target customer, while also portraying your brand is an authoritative figure in the industry. Using the above health and fitness example, you could host fitness classes, lectures, live screenings of sports, and anything else that will bring your target customers to your business.
Surveys
Another smart step to take is to send out surveys to your target customer. This will help you to identify areas in which you could improve your brand in order to appeal directly to this group—as the saying goes, “the customer is always right.”
Improve Customer Service
No matter who your target customer is, you will need to make sure that you provide them with excellent customer service in order to retain customers and build a positive reputation. Keep in mind that people have different preferences when it comes to customer service, so you should have a range of options, including:
Phone
Email
Social media
Live chat
Understanding exactly who your target customer is—and knowing how to reach this group—will be critical to success. Follow the above steps, and you should soon start to attract more people to your business, improve your reputation, and compete with the larger brands in your industry.
https://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/question-mark-1495858_1280.jpg6821280StrategyDrivenhttps://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/SDELogo5-300x70-300x70.pngStrategyDriven2020-04-10 07:00:212020-04-09 13:01:59How To Attract Your Target Customer
Online shopping and businesses are thriving. Everyone is at home and needs items and services that they can buy online. Unfortunately, so too are your competitors. Trying to capture your customer base’s attention is fiercer than ever, with companies trying to offset their in-store income entirely online. To beat them, you need to diversify and focus on efforts that will help your business get to the top – the top of Google, the top of social feeds, and the top of their interest.
Hire an SEO Agency
First things first, if you want to improve where your website is located on a Google search, you will need to hire an SEO agency. There is a lot that needs to be done before you can start building your backlink profile, and all of it will help improve your SE ranking.
Audit Your Website
One of the first things that will need to be done is to improve your on-site SEO, which typically starts with an audit that looks for:
Keyword research is then conducted on your behalf to make sure that you know what your customers are searching for and what words they are using. You can then update your content and invest in better PPC campaigns.
Update Content
SEO optimized content is well-written, intended to entice your customers with punchy language and a compelling message. It is also designed to appeal to search algorithms that search through your site. On top of content updates, a new schema will be created to make it easier for these algorithms to understand your site and parse through it faster.
Offsite Link Building
Once on-site is optimized, it will be time to move offsite. White hat link building today looks like guest posts, where quality content in your niche will be added to other blogs and websites in your industry. It helps improve your organic reach and your SE ranking.
What You Can Do to Further Your SEO Campaign
SEO agencies can help improve the searchability and user appeal of your website, social media, and backlink profile. While they are working hard there, you will want to invest in:
PPC Marketing
PPC marketing will help you see results immediately, and you already have everything ready to go with your SEO efforts:
A great site
Keyword research
It is essential to know which keywords to invest in, however. Keywords can usually be organized based on buyer steps. At the very beginning of the buying process, customers are still researching what they want and are looking for. These keywords are often valued, and typically more expensive. If your goal is to gain a level of authority, then they are worthwhile to pay for, but if you want to boost sales, then paying for niche keywords or specific keywords should be your focus. As a bonus, these keywords are often cheaper.
Social Media Marketing
Finally, there is social media. You can pay for social media ads, but if you want to grow your business and customer loyalty, you will want to focus on good old engagement with the hope that users organically share and talk about your business on their own channels. This takes time, so start now and don’t cut corners – you need to be a real person when interacting with your customers.
https://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/seo-896175_1280-1-1.png6731280StrategyDrivenhttps://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/SDELogo5-300x70-300x70.pngStrategyDriven2020-04-09 20:00:052020-04-09 12:52:34How to Improve Your Website’s SE Ranking
When we speak of manufacturing, we’re often reminded of the factory floor itself, with its workers and automated machines working in harmony to mass-produce equipment and consumer goods for a global marketplace. We rarely think of the managers who make these things happen – and that will be the focus of this article. Managers are able to adapt their factories and production lines to build effectiveness and efficiency – and this is where the five tips below come in, showing you where and how to manage your production facility for the biggest gains in 2020.
Staff
As a manager, your first responsibility is towards your staff. Without staff who are motivated and happy, it’s difficult to run a business. It’s difficult to get them to work the extra hours you may need them to work, and it’s even harder to have them put their all into their work each day. As such, man-managing your staff, with regular meetings, appraisals, and pay rises will help get the most out of your human resources each week of the year.
Processes
You should also, as a manager, be taking a close look at the processes through which your business is working. For instance, your overall production process – from raw inputs to your outputs – is one overarching process, with several smaller processes within it. To really understand these various processes, you should audit your entire production cycle in order to get to grips with where you might, as a manager, be able to intervene and improve upon some of the processes that are central to your work.
Equipment
Astute managers should always be on the lookout for the newest and most reliable equipment to bring into their manufacturing facility. Without the best equipment, you’re unlikely to run at the highest-possible capacity in your facility, with gaps in production when certain elements fail or break. Be sure to use the most advanced in the load cell developer field, and the most impressive sensors and switches, in order for your production crew to continue producing through the weeks and months ahead.
Health and Safety
All facilities – whether offices or factories – require you to be responsible for health and safety. Laws in your locality will stipulate this, by showing you a number of responsibilities that you have towards your staff. While you may not be liable, should your staff suffer injury at work, your company surely will be – and this is something you want to avoid at all costs, as damaging litigation from a former employee will be an unwelcome distraction from your day-to-day operations.
Operational Planning
Finally, managers will hold regular meetings with senior figures across the company in order to divine where, in the future, the company ought to move. For instance, monitoring the market for signs of fluctuation and change can be important for your business – it means you can anticipate demand ahead of time, and put plans in place to ride out dips in demand, or to make the most of the peaks.
Managing in the manufacturing industry is a tricky task – and that’s why this article gathers together five top tips to help you make the most of your managerial role, boosting your company’s performance at the same time.
https://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/welder-673559_1280.jpg8531280StrategyDrivenhttps://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/SDELogo5-300x70-300x70.pngStrategyDriven2020-04-09 17:00:012020-04-09 12:43:35Five Management Tips for Manufacturing Companies
There might come a time when as a business owner or commercial landlord you will need to make renovations to some office space. Unlike home make-overs, commercial spaces must accommodate business needs and those of the staff. If you are closing the office doors for a while as you give the place a face-lift, the experts suggest reading through https://www.industrialdoorsolution.com/ for knowing maxims to protect your office space. Also, here are some key points you need to focus on.
Décor
Most offices are decorated in mundane, boring color-schemes. Even though it is important to keep the space looking professional, consider adding some flair to its design. Incorporate the business brand into the décor with either a mural or having the logo on the office windows and doors. You may want to introduce some plant-life into the space, too. This has been known to be beneficial to staff and helps promote a more positive working environment.
Electrics
As a business you should be having regular checks on your electrics anyway to adhere to health and safety standards. If you are making renovations you might want to consider how you will need to have the wiring redone to fit in with the new office model. It’s also a good opportunity to identify any problems you have with your current electrics. Hire commercial electricians as they will have the most experience working in environments like this.
Facilities
As an office, you will need to have specific facilities available to your staff. Think about how you can refurbish staff bathrooms and break-rooms to make them more comfortable. If any of your employees like to cycle to work, you should have a shower room installed for them to use. You may also want to make the break-room bigger to accommodate a larger team or introduce new perks like a ping-pong or pool table they can enjoy on their lunch hour. Providing these things could help to boost morale in the office and encourage productivity.
Accessibility
It’s also important to consider how accessible your office is for both staff and visitors. People with disabilities should be able to get to your office no matter what floor it’s on, and automatic doors should be installed for ease of access. Where necessary, think about having wheelchair ramps installed to further improve the accessibility of your office. Additionally, you should consider security measures such as key cards or fobs that can be given to your staff. Not only must you protect the business’s equipment and confidential files, but the safety of your staff from potentially harmful intruders is essential.
Equipment
Finally, consider the new equipment you would like to have installed in the new office space. It’s highly likely that you will need adequate IT resources such as computers and projectors, but is there anything else you would like to add? Perhaps new equipment for the break-room would be a good idea? Or any other additional items that are relevant to your particular business.
Make sure your staff members come back to a wonderfully equipped new office space, with top-quality facilities and an overall improved working environment to enjoy.
https://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/office-21419_1280.jpg9601280StrategyDrivenhttps://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/SDELogo5-300x70-300x70.pngStrategyDriven2020-04-09 16:00:012021-12-10 02:41:18Renovating Office Space
Marketing is one of the most dynamic fields in the world, and one that changes every day. New technologies are constantly allowing us to reach audiences in new ways. It also allows you to gauge and understand the impact of campaigns, and make adjustments on the fly.
Techniques like email marketing, content marketing, and search have been around for years now, but we are still seeing some innovation in how they are implemented. Let’s take a look at some of the marketing trends that will dominate 2020 and beyond.
Shoppable Post
Chances are there isn’t a single person in your entourage that is not using social media in some sort of way. It has reached virtually all classes and demographics, and has been used as a marketing tool pretty much since its inception. What is not as clear, however, is how many people actually do their shopping through social media platforms.
This represents a huge untapped potential, as 72% of all Instagram users have performed at least one transaction via the app. In one study, it was found that 70% of the Pinterest users surveyed used the platform to make purchasing decisions.
Platforms have been taking note, and are trying to make it as easy as possible for your audience to shop. This is why they’ve introduced shoppable posts that allow viewers to make purchases directly on posts. This allows you to shorten your sales funnel, and prevent leaks. These types of posts are expected to become the norm in the near future.
Augmented and Virtual Reality
While we were in an experimental stage with AR and VR, we are now starting to realize their potential and moving to concrete applications. Both technologies are becoming more common in marketing, and major retailers have already started using it as part of their strategy.
Ikea, for instance, has an augmented reality app that allows shoppers to visualize how a certain piece of furniture will look in a desired space. This could revolutionize the world of online retail, and change the way people shop forever.
Facebook is also betting on AR, and announced last year that it will make AR ads available to advertisers site-wide. According to Facebook’s VP of product marketing, Ty Amhad-Taylor, the goal is to move audiences from product discovery to purchases faster. “Shoppers are now expecting a visually inspired and personalized experience wherever they shop,” he said. “And this is either on their mobile devices and in stores.”
AR allows advertisers to bring both experiences closer together, and allows marketers to drive sales as well. These ads look like any regular Facebook ads, with the exception of the “tap to try” button. Shoppers will then be able to “try” the item in real time.
A More Demanding Job Marketplace
Marketing in 2020 requires students to have a more well-rounded set of skills than ever. While a solid marketing formation is a prerequisite, here are some of the skills that will be expected of marketing professionals:
Brand storytelling
Social media management
Data analytics
Serving progressive customers
Soft interpersonal skills
According to this piece by Emerson College Online, the marketers of tomorrow will still need to have solid interpersonal skills like listening and communication, even with all the recent advances in technology. Emerson College also puts a lot of importance on progressive audiences, and according to them, marketers who understand how to speak to an increasingly progressive and diverse audience will have a leg up on the competition.
Brand storytelling that is inclusive of all experiences will be needed, and major brands are already pushing towards more diversity in their campaigns.
But one area where marketers of tomorrow will need to be especially proficient in is data analytics. Companies don’t only need to compile data, but they must be able to actually analyze it, and use it to generate results. Data can be used to check if a marketing campaign was successful, and spot trends. Online marketing has the advantage of being easily quantifiable, and knowing how to use data can make a big difference on outcomes, money spent, and return on investment.
Interactive Content
Today’s shoppers are looking for variety and new experiences when they go online, and one of the ways this can be done is through interactive content.
As a matter of fact, a recent Content Preferences Survey found that 91% of responders are looking for more interactive and visual content. Here are some of the reasons interactive content is so powerful:
Interactive content is new and different, which allows it to stand out
It allows you to keep visitors on your pages
It’s immensely shareable
It can help build brand awareness
It is more engaging
For all of these reasons, we can expect more brands to use interactive content in the future. We can also expect to see more tools and techniques that will make the production and implementation of virtual content easier.
Personalization
Personalization falls in line with interactive content, but focuses on providing highly relevant ads to customers. Shoppers have now become experts at phasing out adverts that have nothing to do with them or their interests, and this is one of the reasons why traditional advertising is losing some of its power. The only solution is to personalize ads as much as possible to build a connection.
In a study that was performed on 1000 people, 90% of them said that they viewed personalization as a positive. But more importantly, 80% of them said that they would be likely to buy if a company was able to offer a personalized experience.
What’s beautiful is that modern marketing methods, such as email marketing for instance, lend themselves very well to personalization. The rise of customer relationship management tools only makes it more powerful.
Lists can be precisely segmented and laser targeted to specific audience based on their prior purchase decisions, interactions, or the stage in the sales funnel. Used in conjunction with a cost-effective mass advertising tool such as email marketing, it allows businesses big and small to have the kind of reach that was only possible for major companies not too long ago.
Smart Bidding
People who are familiar with online marketing tend to also be familiar with automation. But new changes by Google are set to make automation and smart bidding the norm. Google Ads are now using machine learning to optimize your bids. This will allow you to:
Have more control over conversion action
Allow you to adjust bids automatically when sales stop or start
Optimize bids across multiple channels based on specific conversion actions
Maximize conversion
Avoid having to set a max CPC manually for each keyword
Old Methods Still Going Strong
While new online marketing methods are becoming increasingly popular, that doesn’t mean that old methods are becoming obsolete. Many of the tried and true techniques will still be going strong in 2020. Let’s look at some examples.
Content Marketing
Content will continue to be king in 2020, and continues to be one of the most effective ways to build a brand. Few methods allow you to establish your expertise and authority like quality content does. Content will also continue to drive search results, and play a central role in SEO efforts.
Video Marketing
Another method that isn’t going anywhere is video content. While interactive content will be getting a lot of attention, there is still a large need for traditional video content as well. Video content is not only being used to target customers, but is now being used as a recruitment tool as well.
Marketers who know how to use live video to their advantage will have a serious edge over their competitors. As a matter of fact, it was found that live videos on Instagram Live and Facebook Live were able to retain audiences at 3 times the rate of traditional videos. The average watch time on Facebook live content has quadrupled over the last year as well. People also interact with these videos a lot more. It was estimated that these videos produced 6 times as many interactions as regular videos.
SERP Position Zero
SEO is still going strong, but now, the objective is different. While the goal for many is still to get on the first page, many are trying to go a step beyond and get snippet mentions. These snippets offer additional information related to search queries, and feature a link to the page from which the information was pulled.
Local search will also continue to play an increasingly important role for businesses in 2020. This also means that business will do everything in their power to get more local mentions, and also work on improving their brand’s image with the public. This means more emphasis on reputation management, and concrete steps to improve their customers’ experience, which is great news for shoppers everywhere.
These are only some of the trends you should watch for in the world of marketing in 2020. Make sure that you’re always on top of the most recent changes, and find ways to incorporate them in your marketing strategy.
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How To Attract Your Target Customer
/in Marketing & Sales/by StrategyDrivenDetermine The Target Customer And Their Needs
First, you need to make sure that you have a clear definition of your target customer. You then need to identify what the wants, needs, and priorities for this group are, which will then help you when it comes to marketing and promoting your brand. A few key questions to ask, which will help with this are as follows:
It is then helpful to create a profile for your target market, so that you can picture this individual and keep them in mind whenever you make any kind of strategic decision.
Analyze The Competition
Your direct competitors will have the same target customer as you do, so it is a good idea to carefully analyze the competition in order to see what you can learn, and to take advantage of any gaps in the market. In addition to looking at what the most successful brands are doing well, do not forget to look at what the struggling brands are doing wrong—this can be just as insightful, and will help you to avoid making the same mistakes.
Create Engaging Content
In today’s internet-driven age, a brand needs to create content in addition to providing a high-quality product and/or service, as this is how you promote your brand, demonstrate your expertise, and engage with your target customer. The content must be of value to your target customer, stand out from the crowd, and use a variety of media. If you are in the health and fitness industry, for example, then you have a lot of good options, such as:
Use Influencer Marketing
Following on from this, social media is a key platform for engaging your target customer, and one of the most effective strategies for this is using influencer marketing. This involves an influential figure in your industry promoting your products and/or services to their followers (your target customer), which is a highly effective way of reaching a much larger group and improving your brand reputation. The key to success with using this increasingly popular form of marketing is finding the right agency—you can do this by searching online, for example, by looking for the best influencer marketing agency in Los Angeles.
Host Events
It is vital that you take steps to engage your target customer online, but you must not overlook the value of also doing this offline, as this can be an excellent way of building real-life connections with this group. The best way to do this is by hosting events, which will help to create a sense of community with your target customer, while also portraying your brand is an authoritative figure in the industry. Using the above health and fitness example, you could host fitness classes, lectures, live screenings of sports, and anything else that will bring your target customers to your business.
Surveys
Another smart step to take is to send out surveys to your target customer. This will help you to identify areas in which you could improve your brand in order to appeal directly to this group—as the saying goes, “the customer is always right.”
Improve Customer Service
No matter who your target customer is, you will need to make sure that you provide them with excellent customer service in order to retain customers and build a positive reputation. Keep in mind that people have different preferences when it comes to customer service, so you should have a range of options, including:
Understanding exactly who your target customer is—and knowing how to reach this group—will be critical to success. Follow the above steps, and you should soon start to attract more people to your business, improve your reputation, and compete with the larger brands in your industry.
How to Improve Your Website’s SE Ranking
/in Online Marketing and Website Development/by StrategyDrivenHire an SEO Agency
First things first, if you want to improve where your website is located on a Google search, you will need to hire an SEO agency. There is a lot that needs to be done before you can start building your backlink profile, and all of it will help improve your SE ranking.
Audit Your Website
One of the first things that will need to be done is to improve your on-site SEO, which typically starts with an audit that looks for:
Keyword Research
Keyword research is then conducted on your behalf to make sure that you know what your customers are searching for and what words they are using. You can then update your content and invest in better PPC campaigns.
Update Content
SEO optimized content is well-written, intended to entice your customers with punchy language and a compelling message. It is also designed to appeal to search algorithms that search through your site. On top of content updates, a new schema will be created to make it easier for these algorithms to understand your site and parse through it faster.
Offsite Link Building
Once on-site is optimized, it will be time to move offsite. White hat link building today looks like guest posts, where quality content in your niche will be added to other blogs and websites in your industry. It helps improve your organic reach and your SE ranking.
What You Can Do to Further Your SEO Campaign
SEO agencies can help improve the searchability and user appeal of your website, social media, and backlink profile. While they are working hard there, you will want to invest in:
PPC Marketing
PPC marketing will help you see results immediately, and you already have everything ready to go with your SEO efforts:
It is essential to know which keywords to invest in, however. Keywords can usually be organized based on buyer steps. At the very beginning of the buying process, customers are still researching what they want and are looking for. These keywords are often valued, and typically more expensive. If your goal is to gain a level of authority, then they are worthwhile to pay for, but if you want to boost sales, then paying for niche keywords or specific keywords should be your focus. As a bonus, these keywords are often cheaper.
Social Media Marketing
Finally, there is social media. You can pay for social media ads, but if you want to grow your business and customer loyalty, you will want to focus on good old engagement with the hope that users organically share and talk about your business on their own channels. This takes time, so start now and don’t cut corners – you need to be a real person when interacting with your customers.
Five Management Tips for Manufacturing Companies
/in Tactical Execution/by StrategyDrivenStaff
As a manager, your first responsibility is towards your staff. Without staff who are motivated and happy, it’s difficult to run a business. It’s difficult to get them to work the extra hours you may need them to work, and it’s even harder to have them put their all into their work each day. As such, man-managing your staff, with regular meetings, appraisals, and pay rises will help get the most out of your human resources each week of the year.
Processes
You should also, as a manager, be taking a close look at the processes through which your business is working. For instance, your overall production process – from raw inputs to your outputs – is one overarching process, with several smaller processes within it. To really understand these various processes, you should audit your entire production cycle in order to get to grips with where you might, as a manager, be able to intervene and improve upon some of the processes that are central to your work.
Equipment
Astute managers should always be on the lookout for the newest and most reliable equipment to bring into their manufacturing facility. Without the best equipment, you’re unlikely to run at the highest-possible capacity in your facility, with gaps in production when certain elements fail or break. Be sure to use the most advanced in the load cell developer field, and the most impressive sensors and switches, in order for your production crew to continue producing through the weeks and months ahead.
Health and Safety
All facilities – whether offices or factories – require you to be responsible for health and safety. Laws in your locality will stipulate this, by showing you a number of responsibilities that you have towards your staff. While you may not be liable, should your staff suffer injury at work, your company surely will be – and this is something you want to avoid at all costs, as damaging litigation from a former employee will be an unwelcome distraction from your day-to-day operations.
Operational Planning
Finally, managers will hold regular meetings with senior figures across the company in order to divine where, in the future, the company ought to move. For instance, monitoring the market for signs of fluctuation and change can be important for your business – it means you can anticipate demand ahead of time, and put plans in place to ride out dips in demand, or to make the most of the peaks.
Managing in the manufacturing industry is a tricky task – and that’s why this article gathers together five top tips to help you make the most of your managerial role, boosting your company’s performance at the same time.
Renovating Office Space
/in Managing Your Business/by StrategyDrivenDécor
Most offices are decorated in mundane, boring color-schemes. Even though it is important to keep the space looking professional, consider adding some flair to its design. Incorporate the business brand into the décor with either a mural or having the logo on the office windows and doors. You may want to introduce some plant-life into the space, too. This has been known to be beneficial to staff and helps promote a more positive working environment.
Electrics
As a business you should be having regular checks on your electrics anyway to adhere to health and safety standards. If you are making renovations you might want to consider how you will need to have the wiring redone to fit in with the new office model. It’s also a good opportunity to identify any problems you have with your current electrics. Hire commercial electricians as they will have the most experience working in environments like this.
Facilities
As an office, you will need to have specific facilities available to your staff. Think about how you can refurbish staff bathrooms and break-rooms to make them more comfortable. If any of your employees like to cycle to work, you should have a shower room installed for them to use. You may also want to make the break-room bigger to accommodate a larger team or introduce new perks like a ping-pong or pool table they can enjoy on their lunch hour. Providing these things could help to boost morale in the office and encourage productivity.
Accessibility
It’s also important to consider how accessible your office is for both staff and visitors. People with disabilities should be able to get to your office no matter what floor it’s on, and automatic doors should be installed for ease of access. Where necessary, think about having wheelchair ramps installed to further improve the accessibility of your office. Additionally, you should consider security measures such as key cards or fobs that can be given to your staff. Not only must you protect the business’s equipment and confidential files, but the safety of your staff from potentially harmful intruders is essential.
Equipment
Finally, consider the new equipment you would like to have installed in the new office space. It’s highly likely that you will need adequate IT resources such as computers and projectors, but is there anything else you would like to add? Perhaps new equipment for the break-room would be a good idea? Or any other additional items that are relevant to your particular business.
Make sure your staff members come back to a wonderfully equipped new office space, with top-quality facilities and an overall improved working environment to enjoy.
Marketing Trends You Should Keep an Eye on in 2020
/in Marketing & Sales/by StrategyDrivenTechniques like email marketing, content marketing, and search have been around for years now, but we are still seeing some innovation in how they are implemented. Let’s take a look at some of the marketing trends that will dominate 2020 and beyond.
Shoppable Post
Chances are there isn’t a single person in your entourage that is not using social media in some sort of way. It has reached virtually all classes and demographics, and has been used as a marketing tool pretty much since its inception. What is not as clear, however, is how many people actually do their shopping through social media platforms.
This represents a huge untapped potential, as 72% of all Instagram users have performed at least one transaction via the app. In one study, it was found that 70% of the Pinterest users surveyed used the platform to make purchasing decisions.
Platforms have been taking note, and are trying to make it as easy as possible for your audience to shop. This is why they’ve introduced shoppable posts that allow viewers to make purchases directly on posts. This allows you to shorten your sales funnel, and prevent leaks. These types of posts are expected to become the norm in the near future.
Augmented and Virtual Reality
While we were in an experimental stage with AR and VR, we are now starting to realize their potential and moving to concrete applications. Both technologies are becoming more common in marketing, and major retailers have already started using it as part of their strategy.
Ikea, for instance, has an augmented reality app that allows shoppers to visualize how a certain piece of furniture will look in a desired space. This could revolutionize the world of online retail, and change the way people shop forever.
Facebook is also betting on AR, and announced last year that it will make AR ads available to advertisers site-wide. According to Facebook’s VP of product marketing, Ty Amhad-Taylor, the goal is to move audiences from product discovery to purchases faster. “Shoppers are now expecting a visually inspired and personalized experience wherever they shop,” he said. “And this is either on their mobile devices and in stores.”
AR allows advertisers to bring both experiences closer together, and allows marketers to drive sales as well. These ads look like any regular Facebook ads, with the exception of the “tap to try” button. Shoppers will then be able to “try” the item in real time.
A More Demanding Job Marketplace
Marketing in 2020 requires students to have a more well-rounded set of skills than ever. While a solid marketing formation is a prerequisite, here are some of the skills that will be expected of marketing professionals:
According to this piece by Emerson College Online, the marketers of tomorrow will still need to have solid interpersonal skills like listening and communication, even with all the recent advances in technology. Emerson College also puts a lot of importance on progressive audiences, and according to them, marketers who understand how to speak to an increasingly progressive and diverse audience will have a leg up on the competition.
Brand storytelling that is inclusive of all experiences will be needed, and major brands are already pushing towards more diversity in their campaigns.
But one area where marketers of tomorrow will need to be especially proficient in is data analytics. Companies don’t only need to compile data, but they must be able to actually analyze it, and use it to generate results. Data can be used to check if a marketing campaign was successful, and spot trends. Online marketing has the advantage of being easily quantifiable, and knowing how to use data can make a big difference on outcomes, money spent, and return on investment.
Interactive Content
Today’s shoppers are looking for variety and new experiences when they go online, and one of the ways this can be done is through interactive content.
As a matter of fact, a recent Content Preferences Survey found that 91% of responders are looking for more interactive and visual content. Here are some of the reasons interactive content is so powerful:
For all of these reasons, we can expect more brands to use interactive content in the future. We can also expect to see more tools and techniques that will make the production and implementation of virtual content easier.
Personalization
Personalization falls in line with interactive content, but focuses on providing highly relevant ads to customers. Shoppers have now become experts at phasing out adverts that have nothing to do with them or their interests, and this is one of the reasons why traditional advertising is losing some of its power. The only solution is to personalize ads as much as possible to build a connection.
In a study that was performed on 1000 people, 90% of them said that they viewed personalization as a positive. But more importantly, 80% of them said that they would be likely to buy if a company was able to offer a personalized experience.
What’s beautiful is that modern marketing methods, such as email marketing for instance, lend themselves very well to personalization. The rise of customer relationship management tools only makes it more powerful.
Lists can be precisely segmented and laser targeted to specific audience based on their prior purchase decisions, interactions, or the stage in the sales funnel. Used in conjunction with a cost-effective mass advertising tool such as email marketing, it allows businesses big and small to have the kind of reach that was only possible for major companies not too long ago.
Smart Bidding
People who are familiar with online marketing tend to also be familiar with automation. But new changes by Google are set to make automation and smart bidding the norm. Google Ads are now using machine learning to optimize your bids. This will allow you to:
Old Methods Still Going Strong
While new online marketing methods are becoming increasingly popular, that doesn’t mean that old methods are becoming obsolete. Many of the tried and true techniques will still be going strong in 2020. Let’s look at some examples.
Content Marketing
Content will continue to be king in 2020, and continues to be one of the most effective ways to build a brand. Few methods allow you to establish your expertise and authority like quality content does. Content will also continue to drive search results, and play a central role in SEO efforts.
Video Marketing
Another method that isn’t going anywhere is video content. While interactive content will be getting a lot of attention, there is still a large need for traditional video content as well. Video content is not only being used to target customers, but is now being used as a recruitment tool as well.
Marketers who know how to use live video to their advantage will have a serious edge over their competitors. As a matter of fact, it was found that live videos on Instagram Live and Facebook Live were able to retain audiences at 3 times the rate of traditional videos. The average watch time on Facebook live content has quadrupled over the last year as well. People also interact with these videos a lot more. It was estimated that these videos produced 6 times as many interactions as regular videos.
SERP Position Zero
SEO is still going strong, but now, the objective is different. While the goal for many is still to get on the first page, many are trying to go a step beyond and get snippet mentions. These snippets offer additional information related to search queries, and feature a link to the page from which the information was pulled.
Local search will also continue to play an increasingly important role for businesses in 2020. This also means that business will do everything in their power to get more local mentions, and also work on improving their brand’s image with the public. This means more emphasis on reputation management, and concrete steps to improve their customers’ experience, which is great news for shoppers everywhere.
These are only some of the trends you should watch for in the world of marketing in 2020. Make sure that you’re always on top of the most recent changes, and find ways to incorporate them in your marketing strategy.