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Viral Marketing: What Is It and How Can You Use It?

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Digital marketing grew rapidly these past few years. There are more instruments to use and campaigns to run today, allowing businesses – from small businesses to giant enterprises – to achieve their marketing objectives in an efficient and measurable way.

While content marketing and social media are very popular, more businesses are turning to viral marketing as a way to generate buzz and attract a bigger audience. What is viral marketing and how can you use it? We are going to answer those questions in this article.

What is Viral Marketing?

Viral marketing is a type of marketing campaign that utilizes existing websites and networks of users to deliver key marketing messages to a wider audience. By targeting key users on different platforms, the same marketing messages can reach a vast number of viewers in a relatively short amount of time.

Viral marketing differs from conventional content or social media marketing in one particular way: this type of campaign relies on the content of the campaign to be interesting enough for it to go viral. When the campaign is configured properly, a simple marketing message can get thousands of shares and re-shares across multiple platforms.

In most cases, viral marketing uses video content. Audio-visual contents work better in attracting user engagement and persuading the audience to share the content with more people. At the same time, video content adds that extra dimension for a bigger chance of going viral.

How Can You Do Viral Marketing?

From the definition of viral marketing itself, it is easy to see the elements you need to prepare for a successful viral marketing campaign. For starters, you need to determine the platforms you want to target for the campaign. Aside from popular social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, we also have sites that specialize in viral and funny content such as apextribune.com.

Understanding the platforms you’ll be using and the audience you want to target is important. The insights will help you tailor your content perfectly; once again, the goal of fine-tuning the message is to increase its chances of going viral once viewers start seeing it.

Once the campaign is carefully formulated, you can start executing the plan and let the audience to the rest. Keep in mind that not all content will go viral upon impact. That brings us to the next part of this article: how to go viral.

How to Go Viral

There is no definitive secret or recipe to going viral. The biggest challenge of viral marketing is getting the campaign accepted by the audience the right way. Only then will you see the impact of the campaign amplified to new heights.

That said, you can take steps to increase the chances of your campaign going viral. Adding gamification, understanding the audience’s taste and preferences, and using content that relates well to the target viewers are some of the tips you can use to get started. Do it right and viral marketing can catapult your brand and your products or services like no other digital marketing instrument.

If You Want to Work From Home, These Things Will Help You

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If you’re about to embark on a home working adventure, you need to be sure to think about the challenges you’ll face and how you’ll deal with them. It might seem like a great way to get away from your dour office and skip that morning commute, and that’s all great. But don’t fall into the trap of thinking that working from home is all fun and games because that’s definitely not the case.

There are many of ways in which working from home can become unworkable for you if you fail to approach it correctly. We’re now going to delve into some of the things that will help you to get your home working experience right the first time.

Ergonomically Designed Office Furniture

The furniture that you use every day of the week in your home office is clearly going to have an impact on how you experience your. If you don’t feel at all comfortable when you’re working at home, you’ll feel annoyed and your work will ultimately suffer. That’s why you need good office furniture that has been ergonomically designed to fit the needs of your body each day.

A Dedicated Work Area

A home office is going to be essential because without a dedicated working area, you’ll really struggle to get your head down and focus on your work when you’re at home. That’s clearly a pretty big issue and it’s not something you can ignore. Your workspace should be apart from the rest of your home if possible. It’s not a good idea to just work on your laptop on the sofa or at the kitchen dining table. You’ll quickly realise why those arrangements are bad.

Strict Rules for Yourself

When you don’t have a boss looming over your shoulder and getting you do to all the things that need to be done, the task falls to you. Without proper structure, you’ll just get distracted and you’ll end up failing. That’s why you should set strict rules for yourself that you can follow each day. It’s entirely up to you to decide on those rules but it’s definitely worth giving some thought to.

Locks on Your Office Door

If you’re trying to work from home and you have a family to think about too, you’ll have to find a way of shutting them out and making sure that you don’t get distracted by them. Something as simple as putting a lock on your office door in order to shut people out while you work might not be such a bad idea. There tend to be more distractions for home workers than office workers, so bear that in mind.

Some Form of Financial Security

There are many ways to become financially secure, and that security will be really important if your home working is tied to a new freelance or sole trader career. This is the case for many people who work from home, but it can be risky and precarious if you’re not careful. You might want to save before starting on this path, or you could turn to investing. AlgoTerminal’s backtesting software can help you plan your investments and see good returns. It’s definitely an option to consider.

Time Away From the Home When Work is Done

When you spend your work time at home and you spend your spare time at home, your home can start to feel like a bit of a prison for you. Having time away from your home is definitely important so make sure you do try to get out of your house when your work is done and you have some spare time on your hands. Otherwise, you’ll get sick of the site of those four walls.

A Plan B

Working from home is one of those things that always seems like a great idea, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it works out that way. It’s certainly not an arrangement that works for everyone who tries it, and there’s nothing wrong with admitting that it’s not right for you. If that’s the conclusion you arrive at, you need to have a plan B. So make sure you think about that now rather than leaving it until later.

Working from home can be really positive for you if you approach it in the right kind of way. Approach it incorrectly and it can quickly become a real nightmare for you, so make sure you think carefully about all the topics covered here. They might really help you make a success of your home working future.

The 5 Pillars of Internet Marketing for New Businesses

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Launching a startup is a challenging and often humbling venture. Although financing your business idea is the first milestone to overcome, once you’re up and running, it’s time to channel your energy into targeting your niche audience and marketing your product.

Most entrepreneurs understand the value of good marketing, but many of them don’t have the budget to give their business the promotion it deserves. Luckily, digital marketing is the single most effective way to reach a global audience, and it won’t blow your budget. To help you get your marketing strategy off the ground, here are the five pillars of Internet marketing for new businesses.

Traffic Generation

Your business could have the smartest, most visually stunning site on the web, but if no one knows how to find it, then it’s not going to generate sales. To grow your enterprise, you need to maximize your website visitors – otherwise known as traffic. To increase your website traffic, you will need to create compelling ads, utilize social media accounts, and optimize your site for search engines using SEO tactics. If you’re not acquainted with SEO practices, you can hire a professional Internet marketing company like DAGMAR Marketing, Jacksonville SEO Company to optimize your website and help you attract more visitors.

Conversion

It’s no good sending Internet users to your website unless they’re going to buy your product or sign up for your services. To turn site visitors into paying customers, you need to increase your conversion rating: the percentage of visitors that become leads. CRO (conversion rate optimization) companies can help you work on your website development and improve your landing page design for maximum sales.

Automation

Marketing automation is the software that exists to automate repetitive tasks from multiple channels. For example, for your business to perform seamlessly, you can automate your payments, email marketing actions, advertising, and even social media updates. Automation can also help you generate leads into sales by automatically “targeting” site visitors or previous customers and encouraging them to return to your page.

Content

It’s not enough to have a slick-looking website or a killer social media campaign; if your site lacks well-written, relevant content, then you’ll have trouble driving your visitors to take action. Outsourcing to a professional writer is the most cost-effective way to create a voice for your brand and deliver engaging content. Keeping a company blog also creates a stronger connection between you and your prospective customers, maximizing sales opportunities.

Reporting

Reporting is a crucial step in your Internet marketing campaign – without it, you have no way of knowing whether or not your strategy is working. Free software like Google Analytics allows you to monitor your website traffic, assess the most popular areas of your website, and analyze conversion rates.

No two businesses are the same, so it stands to reason that no two marketing strategies will be the same either. By using reporting software, you can optimize your marketing campaign to best suit your business and improve your chances of success.

How to Prepare Your Business For the Unexpected

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Every small business that succeeds does so at least in part as a result of the strategies employed by its owner in a bid to fulfil their personal vision of the future, but few such owners spend any time working on plans to help them deal with unexpected emergencies.

Small enterprises are far more vulnerable to such events and failing to make proper provision for any kind of disaster scenario, whether a data breach or hurricane, means you risk being caught off guard. Not having a suitable plan in place will also make it far more difficult for you to get your business back on track should the worst-case scenario come to pass.

Select your team

The first step is to set up a planning team composed of employees from across the company chosen for their in-depth knowledge of specific areas of the business. Such a team should include those from IT, telecommunications, logistics and customer service divisions and should be capable of running the business from a temporary location if necessary.

It’s a good idea to spend some time brainstorming with key members of your team to discuss how your enterprise can best respond to a wide range of events. As the response needed to deal with a fire is very different from that needed to deal with a data breach, you may need to have a number of plans in place.

Ready your responses

In the event of a natural disaster, the news agenda is unlikely to focus on your company alone, but in the case of a man-made disaster such as a data breach, you’ll be facing the music alone. In such scenarios, it is essential to make some sort of public statement as soon as possible. Waiting too long to respond to this sort of crisis means you lose control of the story as the media will simply seek out other sources of information. With stories spreading throughout the world almost instantly through social media, any kind of delay can ultimately prove fatal to your company’s financial future.

Cross-train for consistency

If you or one of your key employees is injured in an accident, the effect on your business could be devastating. Cross-training employees so they can take over each other’s roles, at least on a temporary basis, will prevent your business from grinding to a halt.

It is also worth ensuring you know in advance exactly which lawyers to call to deal with such incidents. At a firm such as Harrell & Harrell personal injury lawyers, for example, every case is reviewed by two or three lawyers to ensure it is being assessed not just from a physical point of view but also in terms of the potential financial losses and cost of rehabilitation. Preparing a list of specialists in advance to cover every likely scenario will allow you to respond far more effectively.

Contemplate succession

This kind of planning for disasters should include every aspect of your life. Though it may be unpleasant, it should include plans for what will happen to the company should you die. Ensure there is a provision for new ownership in your will.

Similarly, if you have started the company jointly with your wife, husband, or business partner ensure there are plans are in place for how the business could be divided up in the case of a split. In all such cases, the process of planning should start as early as possible.

5 Simple Marketing Tips for Improved Brand Visibility in 2018

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article | 5 Simple Marketing Tips for Improved Brand Visibility in 2018 | Marketing and SalesFor some time now, having an online presence has been crucial in business. As more consumers turn to the internet to shop, search and even socialize, ranking #1 on Google can put you in front of your competitors and increase conversions. While the internet proves far more competition than ever before, this ease of virtual accessibility can be both a dream and a curse. While it expands reach, allowing companies to access a global market, the increase in opposition means it’s also far more difficult to engage your demographic. Plus, 2018 means new ways of marketing your business digitally, as our ever-increasing world becomes more dependent on technology.

However, even in an ever competitive space, there are many ways to give your brand the advantage, so that your company has a fighting chance. Here are five marketing tips to increase your brand’s visibility this year.

Maintain Your Blogging Schedule

In 2017, many companies tried their hand at blogging, incorporating a blog into their business’s website. By doing so, you’re allowing yourself, as an employer, to become a trusted and knowledgeable authority figure in your industry; writing and publishing content that caters to the needs of your audience, whether it’s for your customers or clients, improves your business’s reputation and makes your business seem more reliable. You’ll become a reliable and trusted source for certain areas of business, and if your posts are well-written, engaging and offer something of worth, people may share your blog posts, organically elongating your reach.

Throughout 2018, you should continue to maintain your blogging schedule (posting at least 2 or 3 times a week). According to Hubspot, companies that published 16+ blog posts per month got 3.5x more traffic than companies that published a mere 0-4 monthly posts; 53% of marketers also admitted that blog content creations are their top inbound marketing priority. Therefore, create a schedule where your team continues to blog regularly so that your business can continue to publish consistent posts.

Choose the Best Social Media Platforms

There are many social media networks up for grabs. However, you should only select the ones that relate to your audience and key demographic. Trying to tackle them all is hugely time-consuming and can cost unnecessary money. By selecting the key social media platforms for your business, you will generate true results from your marketing efforts.

Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are the go-to for many businesses, and they seem set to continue being popular throughout 2018, but if your business cannot thoroughly utilize them, you should look for alternatives. For instance, Instagram is a social media platform tailored for photography; this is ideal for fashion labels, artists and even website designers, but for SEO companies, it may not be so fruitful. Facebook and Twitter, on the other hand, can help most companies, and all businesses should set up profiles with both platforms. Both Facebook and Twitter are also ideal for sharing your blog posts with customers, helping to improve a brand’s visibility.

When looking for a social media platform that drives the best conversion rates, you should consider the following:

  • Facebook continues to be the most popular, with over 1.94 billion users and drives a conversion rate of 1.85%.
  • Instagram’s popularity is continuing to rise and is becoming the number social media platform for e-commerce businesses with a conversion rate of 1.08%.
  • YouTube produces a conversion rate of 1.16%, Twitter 0.77% and even Pinterest brings in a rate of 0.54%.

Also, there are various tools you can use to make your brand stand out through the above social media channels. Software such as Clickfunnels and Leadpages allow you to create beautiful landing pages that effectively advertise your products and services to consumers. These software tools include templates for you to quickly and easily create stunning pages that will excite your prospects and turn them into subscribers and customers.

Master Instagram Stories

It’s predicted that by the end of 2018, nearly half of all Instagram users will be fully utilizing Stories, meaning brands should grasp this particular practice and master the art of crafting and engaging and interesting Instagram Story. Stories are ideal for businesses to stay on top of people’s minds, create a digital community and publishing exclusive behind-the-scenes or launch footage. Instagram Stories is perfect for engaging with Gen Zers, who are 22 years old or below.

The Rise of Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality (AR), has impacted mobile gaming with the likes of Pokémon Go. However, Apple announced that the iPhone 8 and X would incorporate a chip that allows the phones to provide the users with AR experiences that are likely to soon appear in social media. Although AR is still being developed and is a new feature, it’s likely to make headway. It’s conceivable that brands will soon be able to project their products into the homes of social media users.

Continue with SEO

Google is continuously releasing algorithms in the hopes of providing relevant and useful search results to their users. The latest algorithm was Google’s Fred, which saw the end of overtly ‘spammy’ websites, which profited from adverts rather than a user-friendly experience. If you’re wondering how to market your product on Google using SEO, then businesses are expected to cater to the user, rather than for profit, while incorporating the new SEO trends for 2018. For instance, long tail keywords are more effective than ‘caveman keywords’ due to the increased popularity of voice search through Siri and Amazon’s Alexa. It’s forecasted that in 2020, at least 50% of all searches are going to be through speech or images. How can you ready your business for this, then?

Instead of imputing broken sentences such as “best Italian restaurant New York,” people are more likely to speak in fuller sentences like “what’s the best Italian restaurant in New York City?” Therefore, the use of punctuation and more conversational language will be a game changer in the business of SEO.

Technology and digital trends tend to adapt and change frequently, and so businesses have also to adapt accordingly. It’s imperative that your business keeps tabs on the trends as they are as successful as they are fleeting. While many continue to prosper, 2018 could bring in many new digital marketing trends no one is prepared for, making others extinct. Remain knowledgeable, and your brand’s visibility will continue to increase.