Importance-of-User-Experience-in-your-Business

Importance of User Experience In Your Business.

User experience encompasses all efforts you put on the website in order to make it attractive, user-friendly and interesting to visitors. Visual appeal and usability have the largest influence on people’s first impression of a brand. And these initial impressions can last for years.

First impressions are 94% design-related. Don’t get me wrong, quality content matters. A lot. But even the best content is rendered powerless when it’s embedded in poor design.

A good user experience should entail value, usability, ease of navigation and a functionality which provides the website visitors with a positive impression. Cheap is expensive, Do not compromise on average design and functionality to save cost.

Ask yourself and your staff the following question: Have we logged in and changed anything in the last month? Six months? Year or more?

The longer that period is, the more likely your site is outdated and that goes double if no one can remember the logins to get into the website.

Reasons why user experience matter to your company.

Mobile factors

In the current scenario, mobile phones account for 52.2 percent of everyday web traffic. This means you should design your website to accommodate mobile users or else you will be serving less than half of the web users. Most companies are quickly adopting mobile-friendly website and marketing strategies to boost their sales.

User Behavior

It takes about 50 milliseconds (that’s 0.05 seconds) for users to form an opinion about your website that determines whether they like your site or not, whether they’ll stay or leave.

Here’s a sad scenario.

A prospective client is referred to you by a friend, family member or client. Before they contact you, though, this person does what everyone else does — they visit your website to learn more about who you are and what you do.

But then, silence. They don’t call for an appointment. They don’t email you. Nothing.

Apparently, your warm lead just turned cold. What happened?

Easy. Your website scared them away.

Instead of giving them the confidence that you know what you’re doing and you can actually help them, your site did just the opposite. It created doubt, uncertainty and a general feeling of uneasiness about you and your company.

So they quietly click the back button on their browser and decided to look elsewhere. Probably to one of your competitors that offers inferior services to yours, but has a better website than you.

Bringing clients on board is already tough. Don’t make it even harder by having anything lesser than an exceptional website that drives them away.

Referral to other users

When your website leaves a lasting impression on the minds of the users there is a huge probability that they will pass on the good name to their friends hence increase traffic to your site.

People are 4 times more likely to buy when referred by a friend.- Nielsen

With limited time and higher stakes than the general consumer, business leaders have to be sure that they’re making the right decision. And many of these top-level business people already know that referrals are worth their weight in company gold.

84% of B2B decision makers start the buying process with a referral.

With the right tools, your organization can implement a structured process for monitoring, tracking and rewarding your customers. And over time, campaign analytics can show you key areas of the referral funnel that need improvement.

Sites efficiency

If you can customize your site in such a way that it simplifies processes and saves the users time, you will definitely create a great user experience. If a task initially took five minutes but your system performs it in two minutes people will definitely opt to use your site. The ease of your site is also an important factor to consider.

The ability to increase sales

One of our clients runs an e-commerce business and they faced a situation where more than 60% of the users exit the page after adding the items to the cart.

After some research, it was discovered that there was a form that the customers were supposed to fill before checking out and it was putting most of them off.

In order to make sure that you don’t face such user experience nightmares, you should ensure that your site has a smooth workflow and the user should not be introduced to a new task after every click.

Elements of a successful User experience.

Most people always assume that user experience only entails design and colors of your site, well there is a little more than that. A positive user experience must incorporate the following elements.

Value

What are your customers getting from your website? What value are your services adding to their lives? Are you solving their business challenges? These are the basic questions which should be answered when developing a perfect User Experience strategy for your site.

Usability

Good usability is not attained overnight. Your website should consist of clear, credible and relevant information that provide answers to all the questions your visitors are yet to formulate.

Navigation

Customers definitely hate a lot of ‘next buttons’. You should, therefore, reduce the number of clicks to find out what they are looking for. The layout of your site also plays a key role in ensuring that your site offers a great user experience.

Functionality

A website without functionality is a one-way street. Since the Internet is designed to allow more than one channel of communication, it is pointless to have a website that does not provide some form of visitor interactivity.

Your site should be straightforward about the services you offer. Customers should not wonder what you are specialized at and be able to see it at the first click.

Adaptability and Design

Your website should be goal oriented without distraction to the buyers. It is always easy to deviate from your goal when on the internet; your website design should not be the reason the users will get distracted from what brought them there in the first place.

It should also adapt to all devices that use internet be it phones, tablet, iPad or even desktops

  • 57% of internet users say they won’t recommend a business with a poorly designed website on mobile
  • In 2017, mobile eCommerce revenue accounted for 50% of total U.S. eCommerce revenue
  • Nearly 8 in 10 customers would stop engaging with content that doesn’t display well on their device
  • Average smartphone conversion rates are up 64% compared to desktop conversion rates

 

Impact of User Experience in Return-on-investment (ROI)

Research shows that your ROI increases rapidly with an increase in your investment in better design. Every 1 dollar spent on UX has a $100 ROI.

A good example is the ESPN which saw its profits increase by 35% after taking into consideration its fan base suggestions on how they wanted the site’s homepage designed.

It is important to ensure that you offer the best experience for your clients. This can get you a better website traffic, generate sales and an increase in ROI.

Snapchat

Snapchat for Business: Should Companies Start using Snapchat?

Despite its 187 million daily active users, its 10 billion daily video views, its 2.5 billion daily snaps, and the approximately 18 visits it enjoys from daily active users, Snapchat remains another massively underestimated platform.

Since its founding in September 2011, Snapchat continues to evolve and transform allowing you to post videos as well as photos and has added all kinds of extras, like filters, Geo-filters, lenses, emojis, and video-editing tools like slo-mo. Content is no longer ephemeral.

snapchat stat

The growth of Snapchat messaging app is unparalleled with millions of millennials using these feature every day. Snapchat is a lucrative platform for businesses and companies and some of the reasons why they should use snapchat include:

A quick way to reach a massive audience

Snapchat Ads– With a massive user count, Snapchat is one of the most popular social platforms today. Advertising your business on it will get you in front of millions of people, especially the young crowd aged 18 to 34 years. This is a group that love to stay connected and keep themselves updated on what’s trending in the social world and command a large purchasing power.

Some 82% of Snapchat users ages 18 to 24 say they use the platform daily, with 71% indicating that they use it multiple times per day.

In the United States alone, 80 million young Americans are using Snapchat several times a day. The chances of your sales skyrocketing are quite high if you use Snapchat to advertise your business.

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Growingly Popular among the Adults

With the average age of Snapchat users steadily going up, It’s no longer just for teens. According to Comscore’s U.S Cross-platform Future in Focus, Snapchat is getting a meaningful traction from the age group of 35+ and with more new releases, the number is expected to grow. At present, 28% of snapchat users are among the age of 35+. Companies should kick-start into the Ad products of Snapchat before it gets flooded with Ads.

More than 20,000 photos are shared every second.

Excellent User Engagement

Despite getting few punches from Instagram, Snapchat is growing steadily with its users seriously engaged to the content. An active Snapchatter opens the app 18+ times and creates 20+ stories a day.

According to a report by Axios, Snapchat user engagement is up by 40%. The users spent a total of 32.8 minutes per day with the app, up from 30.3 minutes per day in Q1, and 27.5 minutes in Q4. That’s almost a 20 percent jump in just six months during a time when Instagram was offering its own version of Snap’s best product, Stories.

statThe opening rate for an email newsletter is about 25% whereas for Snapchat it is 61%. If you have 100 followers on snapchat, it is very likely that 60+ would engage in your content.

Truly a fun way to advertise

Adverts about your company need not be too formal and serious. Companies could add some sense of humour in order to connect with their target market. Snapchat gives you that opportunity to be cool and funny while presenting your idea to your followers.

Younger audiences (which make the best targets on social media) express themselves through brands, and they engage with brands that have a relatable personality.

Rather than presenting the marketing gigs to your customers, you can relate to them by having a conversation which is more endearing to customers and helps you with a wider reach.

New ways for Brands to stay trendy

Are you trying to create awareness about your brand in the market? You should be the first one to give quick alerts, trends and breaking news about your industry. This will give the customers the curiosity to know more about your products and will stay tuned or follow your company.

Snap chat offers a platform where you can add brilliant value to your brand with fresh content. When sharing your product or status on other platforms like Facebook & Twitter, Make it a habit that you create a story in Snapchat.

Powerful tool to influence the market

Traditional Advertisements may continue to enter our homes through television and radio stations, but advertising that actually influences people will happen only when people feel comfortable with the brand that establishes personal affinity with the consumers. This will encourage the buyers to learn more about the brand and be all ears to their stories.

And the most effective way to do this is for companies to think and act like individuals with unique personalities and voices that people can actually see and trust.

Snapchat brings a lot of value to your Ad campaign but you need the assistance of a talented marketer/agency to master your Ads. With the benefits associated with using snapchat, Companies should revisit their marketing strategy and embrace the app because the results will be quite rewarding.

user-engagement

How can a Mobile-Friendly Website Boost User Engagement

With the introduction of technology in the business world, complicated business endeavours that were once a pain have now been made simpler. We live in a generation where a simple device like a mobile phone is no longer just used for communication but to mainly seek information on the internet and even manage and run a business.

The big question is How much time do consumers spend on mobile devices?

mobile devices

With a massive growth of the mobile market in the recent years, having an archaic website that only runs on the desktop means that your website is losing a large volume of valuable traffic.

1. Mobile Marketing Strategy

Why do you need a mobile marketing strategy? Well, this is the age we live in! Just get to the city square and you’ll find thousands of folks glued to their smartphone screens.

Here’s a quick bite of some mobile marketing stats.

  • According to official Google statements, more than 50 percent of search queries globally now come from mobile devices. But we don’t know whether the number is 51 percent or 60 percent, or if it varies significantly by country.
  • The number of mobile phone users in the world is expected to pass the five billion mark by 2019. In 2016, an estimated 62.9 percent of the population worldwide already owned a mobile phone. The mobile phone penetration is forecasted to continue to grow, rounding up to 67 percent by 2019.
  • 66 percent of all email in the US is now opened/read on smartphones or tablets and 34 percent is viewed on a desktop. The mobile breakdown is as follows: 49.5 percent of email opens were on a smartphone, 16.8 on a tablet.
  • Google drives 96% of mobile search traffic, followed by Yahoo at 2% and Bing at 1%.

 

2. Mobile website optimization

With the help of a Smartphone, Buyers can now access your website within a short span of time and shop. Due to the increased use of mobile devices to access online content, you need to ensure that your website is fully functional and well optimized for mobile devices.

Enter your website’s URL into Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test and it will let you know if you’ve got a mobile-friendly page on your hands. If the website you entered passes Google’s test, you will see a green banner indicating the website is mobile-friendly

A slow website loading time is, and will always be your biggest threat. The webpages should operate well to allow it to smoothly function on multiple screen sizes. Most people will abandon the website if the loading time takes more than five seconds.

Human-vs-Goldfish-Attention-Span-researchGoogle has announced mobile friendliness as an important ranking signal. The change has affected the websites all over the world and made a significant impact on the search results. Optimizing your website to be mobile friendly will result in reaching scores of mobile users.

3. Mobile phone applications

Companies have started to embrace mobile apps as they understand the exceptional user engagement and the value-add it brings to their business. It can be easily downloaded from the App Store. The app economy is continuing to grow, with the worldwide revenue from app stores expected to top $110 billion this year.

mobile-app-usageMobile apps with numerous functions help customers to quickly access the company’s products/services with minimum steps.

It also provides an easy payment option with an ability to track sales which benefits both the customer and the seller. Similar to mobile-friendly websites, Mobile apps engage buyers to spend more time surfing the products and services, thus increasing sales remarkably.

4. Social Share

It is no longer a news that we’re in a social-driven world. Facebook has more than 1.6 billion monthly active users, while Twitter has 305 million–numbers that are rapidly increasing. More than 100 million people use Instagram every month.

You don’t have to limit social engagement on social media. Engage customers as soon as they arrive on your website by offering a Live Chat option. Linking your social media is just the first step but to truly boost engagement, you need to get serious about the content creation and distribution.

Social media for mobile-friendly-website

A mobile-friendly website with social media engagement would be a perfect mix to retain visitors and respond to your call-to-action.

5. Online surveys

Surveys are a way to know the market views concerning a certain product or service. The consumers give their opinions concerning the improvement of a product or service by completing online questionnaires made available.

A mobile-friendly website would allow the customers to take part in online surveys easily. This will enable the service providers or companies to evaluate themselves and make changes to the products/services leading to a better user experience and increased sales.

6. Better Conversion Rate

If your target market can access your website conveniently on their mobile devices, then they are more likely to complete contact forms, make purchases and become a loyal customer to your brand.

One of the main benefits of having a mobile-friendly website is that even for dynamic technology platforms- such as wearable devices and smartphones- your website will still run very well and be optimized. This means that a mobile-friendly website will serve your business for years to come.

The mobile market is rapidly expanding nowadays. It presents a great opportunity for your business to stand out from your competition. When done properly, your mobile website will help attract more customers and achieve a better bottom line.

5-B2B-MARKETING-TACTICS-TO-INCREASE-YOUR-SALES

5 B2B Marketing Tactics to increase your Sales.

The business world has seen an enormous transformation in the steps involved in business-to-business marketing and sales. Business to Business (B2B) marketing has evolved so much that outbound marketing has started becoming to be the tactic of the past.  Automation, Digital Business Network & Social Media have rewritten the way business used to operate.

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The B2B business is characterized by fewer customers, complicated business transactions, derivative demand and a few numbers of employees. The internet has played a major role in turning the B2B marketing into a round-the-clock activity making it very competitive since every business is scrambling for the clients found on the internet.

For every business to grow and make profits there have to be strategies put in place to govern and enhance the marketing and sales activities. Setting an online presence is not just enough to put you ahead of the game in a B2B business set up. The following strategies can be used to increase the market share and generate more revenue.

1. Establish a specific goal

Before setting any specific goals for marketing you need to establish the kind of customers you want to reach out to. With this, you will be able to determine the tactics, strategies, promotional avenues and the messaging you can use in the marketing campaigns. You can start by creating buyer information channels to gain knowledge about your customers’ goals, motivations, pain processes.

b2b

By this, you can understand where the buyers get their information from, what kind of products attracts them and how they carry their research. You can then synchronize the buyer’s needs and challenges with your products/services and how you can add value to them. This will help in creating relevant content which will keep you ahead of your competitors. Since the B2B marketing has many stakeholders, you have to go through this process to make sure you deliver the right message to the right person and at the right time.

2. Use video in your marketing

By 2019, global consumer Internet video traffic will account for 80% of all consumer Internet traffic.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words and the easiest and fastest way to spread your product in the market is through video advertisement.

YouTube has been a very powerful tool in the social media for advertising, promotion, and marketing. This is a media platform that can no longer be ignored because videos are becoming more prominent as a content formatting tool. You can work on the strength of your video to deliver a special and unique experience that will assist in sharing accurate insights, create emotional and personal connections and help solve market problems.

3. Prioritize Digital Advertising

With digital marketing becoming more mature, it’s no surprise that companies are continually getting better at SEO. Marketers see SEO as becoming more effective, with 82% reporting effectiveness is on the rise and 42% of this group stating effectiveness is increasing significantly.

Google receives 63,000 searches per second on any given day.

In terms of efficiency the digital paid advertising was ranked at 52 percent while posts promoted by social media came second with 39 percent. The preference of using paid advertising whether it’s the social media ads, social media posts that are promoted or the pay-per-click ads found in search engines will continue being in an upward direction.

b2b market linkedin

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is more suitable for B2B sales and marketing because it enables you to reach out to your intended market organically.

4. Use  Content marketing to assist customer’s journey

94 percent of people that buy through the B2B marketing platforms are said to have done some online research before buying any product, while the majority of decision makers of a business prefer to know the company they are engaging with from a number of articles rather than hearing of them through adverts.

Content-marketing-priorities

Content marketing can take the perspective of the buyer about your products right from the awareness stage to the buying or purchasing stage. Apart from that, it can also help to increase the awareness of the brand to people, direct new customers to your website and helps to boost your search engine optimization.

A content marketing strategy that is well designed allows you as the seller to get the best leads, build trust with the buyers, nurture relationships, help prospects, lead decision makers of companies to their platform which finally leads to getting high sales

5. Build a good e-commerce website platform

If your potential clients are bypassing the website without spending time or engaging in the available resources on the page, then you need to know that your content marketing and advertising techniques are all in vain. It is very important that your business is supported by a strong e-commerce website that is fully featured.

This can help you to process the number of website visits to sales and then to recurring orders which obviously is the goal for any business.

This entire customer journey can flawlessly happen only when your website offers an outstanding user experience.

The digital era has brought with it significant changes posing some challenges while at the same time opening up numerous market opportunities in the B2B world. The big question is, Are you making the best use of all the available resources and technology to meet the demands of your customers? If not then you now know the strategies to run a successful B2B marketing campaign.

AI

Advancements in Artificial Intelligence and it’s Future.

Advancements in Artificial Intelligence

Technology is the backbone of everything we do or even say in our modern life. This has necessitated the advancement of technology even further. Artificial intelligence is the imitation of human intelligence in machines. It is the equipment of machines with the ability to assess their surroundings and react accordingly.

AI is the study as well as the design of systems that sense and understand their environment and act in ways that highly increase their chance of success.

By the end of 2018, more than 3 million workers globally will be supervised by a “robo-boss.” Robo-bosses will increasingly make decisions that previously could only have been made by human managers…

Investments in Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence borrows from natural intelligence which is what living things have. Machines are made by humans and due to the advancement in technology, human beings are always looking for ways to outdo themselves. Since the majority of brilliant minds are always inventing new ways of making life easier, major steps have been taken towards technological advancement.

Artificial intelligence covers a huge chunk of the technological field. Every day, there are new ways of approaching AI that is created amongst researchers.  

Major approaches of AI

Despite the many ways that are invented from one day to the next in artificial intelligence, they all borrow from the major approaches to AI. They deviate in a few ways but generally almost always achieve the same goal which is machines ‘thinking’ for themselves. The major approaches to artificial intelligence include:

  • Fuzzy logic
  • Neural network
  • Genetic Algorithm
  • PSO – Particle Swarm Optimization

 

businesses-are-in-a-constant-state-of-change-02

Fuzzy logic

What is Fuzzy Logic?

  • It is a powerful problem-solving methodology.
  • Builds on a set of user-supplied human language of rules.
  • Fuzzy Systems convert these rules to their mathematical equivalents.

This is the creation of intelligence in machines so that they use logical reasoning in executing their tasks. Human beings are known to use logical reasons in making their decisions and when they use fuzzy logic they are trying to design machines that emulate this behavior.

Artificial Intelligence, Deep Learning

Currently, fuzzy logic is in the process of evolving even as human beings continue evolving. Machines are able to rationalize situations and come up with solutions promptly. The major advantage of this approach in machines is that they are not governed by their emotions and as such, they are able to make split-second decisions.

The advancement in this approach as a major approach to AI is that more machines are being manufactured and used instead of human beings to make crucial decisions. The machines are able to use a collection of attributes concerning the situation to get the most suitable solution.

The drawback to this approach is that the world is ever-changing and so are the factors to consider when mitigating a problem.

Fuzzy logic uses pre-existing conditions to give solutions. In the case where an alien factor is introduced at the last minute, the decision arrived at would most probably be a wrong one.

However, In the future fuzzy systems in machines will be able to make split-second decisions no matter when or how new factors are introduced to the system. Better ways of enhancing fuzzy systems are discovered daily and the future where your phone decides for you whether to pick a call or not is almost here.

Neural network

This approach imitates the functioning of the human brain. The artificial neural network is an exact copy of the human brain. It is, however, safe to presume that since it is the human brain that invents such a system, the human brain is still more superior. In the same way that the neural network in living things consists of neurons that analyze and send information, the concept is the same in machines with the only difference being that machines use artificial neurons.

Neural-Network

In the same way that human beings learn through repeated actions from time to time, the machines are taught in the same way. The machines are trained to identify similarities or patterns in all operations and they end up working as though a human was responsible for the thought process of the entire work. In the same way that human beings adapt to their surrounding as well as tolerate much of their surroundings, so do artificial neural networks. They are tolerant of the fault and they adjust accordingly to different situations.

Currently, machines that are reliant on neural networks for their operations are advancing in development. They think better than earlier machines and adapt easier. Machines nowadays stop operation in the case where only one component is not working, or they may choose to isolate the weak link and continue operating but at a lower capacity while sending a signal that one part is down. This emulates the way pain is in the mind. When we are in pain we may not move at all or we may slow down while doing normal activities while looking for ways to heal the broken parts.

In the future, our suitcases would be able to identify when we need to unpack and open them or they may ‘think’ we are on the move and follow us. In fact, such suitcases may already be in production. If this were the case, then in the future they may just go ahead and calculate how long you intend to stay away and recommend what to pack and where to put each item for maximum use of the available space. If this were to happen, human beings would be lazier than they are perceived to be right now.

Genetic Algorithm

Based on the evolution theory that living things evolved from simple organisms into more complex organisms, an idea was formed in the minds of brilliant scientists. Throughout the years, human beings have tried to establish the validity of the theory. Nevertheless, researchers and computer engineers decided to replicate the theory in machines to determine if it would hold.

Genetic Algorithm was developed to illustrate that natural evolution worked and continues to work. It is an algorithm used in machines to create machines that are intelligent from machines that are not.


There are four steps that summarize all Genetic Algorithm (GA) is all about:

  • A pool of solutions is generated to solve a presented problem.
  • The solutions that exist are mated to give new solutions
  • The current solutions are mutated in ways that are a replica of natural genetic variation
  • The weak population (machines that are not adapting well) are eliminated via natural selection.

Genetic Algorithm

This mechanism applies the mantra “survival of the fittest” in the machine world to get better and more sophisticated machines. In the past, if you needed to work on a machine you had to physically see it.

Currently, applications such as team viewer allow a person to remotely access a computer. Machines in the future may not need to have visible microprocessors in them. A wireless link may be developed such that a person may not need to physically see the machine to use it. An alternative would be to teach a machine to learn how to do things on its own based on the genetic algorithm in it.

Particle Swarm Optimization

It is an optimization technique that heavily relies on the behavior of different swarms. The setting is always a multi-dimensional search space. The algorithm uses repetition as well as speed and positions of the members of the swarm or in the case of machines, swarm particles. In machines, PSO is applied in the case where:

  • The machines are randomly placed in a search space.
  • They are then located in the search space
  • The objective task at each machine’s position is evaluated
  • A machine with the highest chance of succeeding at a task is identified and all other machines are adjusted towards performing just as well as the benchmark machine.

gamestat

In the effort of getting the intelligent machines, this technique is used to establish the machine with the highest probability of success and the assumption made is that all the other machines will be able to get the work done just as well as the benchmark machine.

Conclusion

AI in its elemental form is a fun way of using machines. It is very impressive to know that human beings invent better systems every day. However, in spite of the many things AI has and is yet to bring, the human race should remain active because, at this rate, machines may just take over the world.

Video-Marketing-Trends-in-2018

Simple Guide And Trends To Video Marketing In 2018

Have you ever watched a movie or just a funny clip anywhere be it on your TV, or your mobile device offline or on the internet and wondered who comes up with this stuff?

Well, there is a lot of work as well as creativity that goes behind making a successful video. The success of the video is frequently determined by not only the viewership but also by how many people understand the message passed across. It is therefore very important to display your videos on the media that is most used by the audience you want to reach.

online-video-marketing

It is also a fact that as the human race continues to progress so does their creativity as well as their tastes. It is therefore not a shock that in 2018, the video creators have taken to using animations or even random stills played continuously to relay personal messages.

By 2019, global consumer Internet video traffic will account for 80% of all consumer Internet traffic (Source: SmallBizTrends).

There are a few support hands and techniques you need if you are to make an appealing and successful video:

studio10filmsThe Cameraman is responsible for how well the video appears on the screen. Before he or she submits their work, they need to ensure that the video has the best quality.

This is mainly because not many people have the time to sit down through a low-quality video. The quality of the video more often than not translates into the number of people who not only finish watching the video but also recommend the video to other people.

Try Studio10Films for dynamic content and highest quality video & media products.

Content Creators are the backbone of video marketing. Videos, unlike photography, needs content that is to be covered and to be planned for. Photographs are simply images that people have seen at one time or other and would want to preserve the memory. A video, on the other hand, could be lightly defined as moving pictures. Video has evolved over a long time to be what it is today. Video content makers have had to look for new and better ways to be inspired because the tastes of target audiences continually change.

Content editors are the people who ensure that only the correct content reaches the customers. They are the bridge between the promoters of the content and the recipients of the material. They not only correct the complex things such as the message and how well it will be understood. They are the determinants of how well the product is marketed since they have a full grasp on what works and what doesn’t.

Video Marketing Trends and Statistics in 2018

  • 78% of people watch online videos every week, and 55% view online videos every day. (HubSpot).
  • By 2020, online videos will make up more than 80% of all consumer internet traffic (85% in the US). (Cisco)
  • YouTube is the second most trafficked site, after Google. (Alexa)
  • Users view more than 500 million hours of video each day on YouTube. (Business Insider)
  • Viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video, compared to 10% when reading it in the text. (Wirebuzz)
  • 43% of people want to see more video content from marketers. (HubSpot)
  • Nearly 50% of internet users look for videos related to a product or service before visiting a store. (Google)
  • Shoppers who view demo videos are 1.81 times more likely to make a purchase than non-viewers. (Adobe)
  • Companies that use videos in their marketing have 27% higher clickthrough rate and 34% higher conversion rates than those that don’t. (Buffer)
  • 15% of viewers believe a video Ad should be no more than 15 seconds in length. (Marketing Land)

 

Marketing StatsVideo Marketing- Social Media

  • 85% of Facebook videos are watched without sound. (Digiday)
  • Social video generates 1200% more shares than text and image content combined. (Wordstream)
  • Facebook videos receive 135% more organic reach on average than a Facebook photo. (Socialbakers)
  • Snapchat users watch 10 billion videos each day. (AdWeek)
  • 82% of Twitter users watch video content on Twitter. (Twitter)
  • Periscope users have created more than 200 million broadcasts. (Periscope)

Video MarketingVideo Marketing- Business

  • Live Internet video will account for 13 percent of Internet video traffic and will grow 15 folds by 2021.(Cisco)
  • Internet video-to-TV traffic will be 26 percent of consumer Internet video traffic by 2021.(Cisco)
  • Nearly 90% of website visitors will hang out longer on sites with video than on those without it. (Forbes)
  • 80% of consumers believe demonstration videos are helpful when making purchases. (Blue Corona)
  • Video ads have an average clickthrough rate of 1.84%, the highest of all digital ad formats. (Business Insider)
  • Blog posts that incorporate video attract three times as many inbound links as blog posts without video. (Moz)
  • Before reading any text, 60% of site visitors will watch a video if one is available. (Single Grain)

 

5-ways-to-increase-revenue

5 Ways to Increase Revenue using Organic Search Traffic

Organic search traffic is the influx of people who are searching for your site online. There are major search engines that you would want your website to be found on and they include but are not limited to Google, Yahoo, and Bing among many others. When you look for something online or when you type within the search engine’s search box and press enter or click on your mouse, there are some results that appear.

Organic search traffic

‘Organic’ is used in this context because any search outcome that appears at the top of the search results is only able to get the position over a certain period of time. The results are also required to meet certain requirements. The process all the sites need to get to be seen among the top search results is referred to as search engine optimization.

Organic search traffic is the most sought-after asset by the businesses that are online. This has always been the case since inception and judging by the trends there is no end in sight of the contrary happening.  The internet avails many ways that the businesses may use to their advantage to maintain their presence online. The many channels available for use are the channels that contain the most traffic within a day. These are the social sites that connect people with common interests or needs such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or even YouTube. In most cases, the channels are linked and they lead to very many clicks via the influx of users.

In order to fully comprehend what this means, you need to understand organic search traffic the business way. This is especially for online business owners. For you to understand what organic search traffic is, let’s first find out how to generate income from organic search traffic.

Increase Revenue

 

There are several ways to earn the extra buck or more from organic search traffic. They are:

The use of article marketing

The goal of encouraging more traffic to your site is for you to earn more. Since one leads to the other, you may also think of ways that encourage traffic.  One of the simplest, as well as efficient ways, is through promoting articles. It is also among the more preferred ways used by the internet marketers.

Having a fascinating title while writing an article that is promoted is one way of ensuring that people visit your site and enable you to earn some money. People are naturally attracted to interesting things. They however only get to see the article title first.

The importance of having an attractive title is then portrayed well when you compare an article with a catchy title but boring content or another with a boring title but is an interesting read. What you are aiming for in order to increase your revenue is the number of clicks to your site. The title is then a very important tool.

Ensuring that the article also has an interesting as well as easy keyword is also a way of ensuring that when people look for you, they will find you. People normally look for almost the same set of words in a sentence. Writing the keyword that is generally used helps the people looking for you find you faster since the search engine groups all similar groups together.

Back-links

Since it is a fact that in order to increase the online income you need, the traffic should overflow, you should focus on getting more traffic to your site. Make sure that the website has back-links to it. You should get as many inbound links as you can. This can be achieved by publishing articles on known directory sites meant for articles on top-ranked sites.

 

Check out the top SEO companies In New York

Keep a keen eye on the niche

Ensure that the niche you finally settle for holds an appeal to you. It is important that you are not only interested in a niche but that you are also passionate about your brand. Your brand is the work you have spent quite a bit of time trying to get out there.  An easy way of growing your revenue is providing something that you like and do not mind working on for long periods of time at a time. In the long run, you retain the business you love at a high search rank while making the money you need from it.

Create a network

People are social beings. We tend to pass information faster when we are talking to each other as opposed to writing a letter. You may also choose to connect using other channels and devices as well. On the internet, you as an online business need to collaborate with other local businesses so that they may feature your product on their page.

The network also means that you need to support the other online business by offering them a chance to feature what they have on your website. While you may interact with many people within your area of specialization, it is not advisable to allow your competition to display what they are offering on your wall.

Always maintain quality

Be humble enough to know when to ask for help and if you should. People are attracted to self-competence as well as a quality product. Maintaining a high standard of the product thereby ensures that people always come back for more or they simply come on recommendation and they never leave.

big-ecommerce-brands

How to Compete with Big E-Commerce Brands as a Small Online Retailer

It may seem difficult for a small business to compete with big online brands. But remember even the large retailers also had to start somewhere. The secret of competing with big brands is to be smart. Also, recognize that it is possible to beat any big online brand if you work hard and have the right resources.

There are five vital things you have to do to compete with big e-commerce brands.

1. Be Unique

Whatever product you sell, a prospective client can find it at a lower price from other big e-commerce brands. They will always beat you to the game since they have more products and sell at lower prices. But not to worry, the secret to beating them is making your business stand out from the rest.

2. Have a USP (unique selling point)

There are various ways of offering a product or service. Know the kind of products you provide; are they luxurious, more personalizable, ethically produced, or do you offer better quality and services? The bottom line is, do something witty, creative and surprising than big online businesses.

Sometimes you might also be lucky to have products, which are not sold by the big brands, but that should not make you satisfied. Even if you are a small online retailer, you have to know what makes you unique and better than the competitors regardless of how few they are.

3. Best Web Design

Web design is one of the essential factors for success. To compete with the big online brands have the best website that is user-friendly. Add some great tricks by personalizing the business website. Such as using photos that will give people the scene behind the business. You can post pictures of your staff members.

Ecommerce-Web-Design-Tips

Additionally, have an about us web page to tell clients a brief story about the business background. It puts you ahead of large e-commerce businesses with no identity. Customers will also have reassurance in case they have any questions or issues.

4. Embrace Social Media

Social media is the best way to connect with new and existing customers. However, how you use the platform can either make or break you. Be interesting on social media and avoid sending the wrong vibe. Always put the customers’ needs first, and hang out with the right people. Invest in the right platform, by finding out about the social media sites used by your main audience.

5. Focus on Niche, Not the General Market

A well-developed e-commerce business focuses on specific niches, as part of their marketing strategy. Knowing which niches fit your business, evades a mistake most businesses do. They do everything to please everyone. Focused businesses, find it cheaper and quicker to be recognized within a specialist area.

unique ecommerce brand

When marketing, find video-bloggers, publishers, and bloggers, specialized in your targeted niches, and ask them to help promote your brand. Most of them will accept and charge a fee. However, it is a cheaper way to influence new audiences than other forms of marketing.

Finally, aim to develop real expertise within the niche, and become an influencer. Updating your social media with high-quality content, and building a fan base gradually, is a sure way to beat top businesses.

b2b-tactical-strategy

B2B Requires a Tactical SEO Strategy. Learn How

Businesses that serve other businesses often have longer sales cycles and niche market. They don’t bother trying to earn traffic from search engines. However, the majority of B2B researchers start their research with an online search. You can gain an edge over competitors if you use a tactical SEO strategy.

B2B businesses should not only focus on driving traffic but also qualified leads. You should use the right SEO strategy that will influence the metrics that do matter for the bottom line of the business.

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Create an SEO-Friendly Website

A tactical SEO strategy has two important elements, which are website and content. Before you can create content, you first need to optimize the website for search engines. You should optimize the pages with the keywords in the Meta descriptions, and headings.

You should also make sure that the website is mobile-friendly. When choosing your web designer, find one that knows how to do SEO-friendly design. The design must complement your marketing strategy, which includes search engine optimization.

B2B businesses require a platform where they can show they know what they are talking about and engage potential customers. Product descriptions are not enough to direct more targeted audiences to the website. By starting a blog, you get the opportunity to create content that will attract traffic to the website.

Write Interesting Content

In the past, SEO strategies called for content written for machines. However, times have changed and ranking high on search engine results pages requires building authority, high-quality backlinks, and social media shares.

Getting more clicks from search engine results will earn the website higher ranking. Search engines think that clicks from users indicate that the page provided the answer they were looking for. In order to get more clicks, the page must stand out from the crowd. It must grab the attention of the readers with interesting headlines and Meta descriptions.

When writing the content, you should put yourself in the shoes of the customers. You should consider what motivates them, their job title, and the information they are looking for. Create the content to target specific readers, and provide answers to their questions.

B2B SEO
Build Quality Links

Quality backlinks will improve your search engine rankings. When another website links to you, it is an indicator to search engines that the site is authoritative. The higher the quality of the backlink, the more boosts your website gets.

There are several ways to get quality backlinks. You can try guest posting on websites that are relevant to your industry. However, you should do this when you have already established your blog. That way you will not be neglecting your own readers.

You can also try to earn links by creating content that gives value to readers. Not only will the content make you seem like an authority in the industry, it will make readers want to share it with their colleagues and followers on social media.

As you can see, you need to have a tactical SEO strategy to drive traffic to your website and get positive results. By observing good B2B SEO practices, your website can help generate leads and improve the sales of your business.

 

Free-SEO-tools

Free SEO Tools To Improve Your Marketing Strategy

A proper marketing strategy is more important for an organization to remain competitive in the current business environment. With organizations targeting the use of digital media to create awareness of their products and services, it is very important they employ the right SEO tools so as to easily achieve the desired goals.

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Following are some SEO tools that you can use to achieve your marketing goals.

Google Webpage Speed Tester

For a business to rank high, they need to make sure the business has a responsive website. Use the Google page Speed insights SEO tool to test how fast the page can load on mobile devices and desktop computers. This will assist in making sure the marketing strategy works. Check your web page speed.

Google Analytics

This SEO tool helps the business to track the actions that web visitors take when browsing their websites. This is a good tool because it will help the business determine if there are conversions that come from the landing page. If there are low conversions, the business should look at the marketing strategy employed. Create a  Google Analytics account.

Google Trends

This tool will enable the business to find a topic that is trending in their industry and create a blog post based on the topic to get the traffic while people are searching for the particular topic. Check out the latest trends.

Google Keyword Planner

This is an SEO tool that lets the business know what kind of words the internet users are searching and therefore he is able to create content that will bring the potential traffic as users browse the internet. You need a Google Adwords account to access the keyword planner.

Open Site Explorer

This is an SEO tool that gives the business ability to have a quick look at the full range of links analysis and therefore make use of the most impactful links that are coming to your way. Research your backlinks

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Webmaster Tools for Google and Bing

These are the tools that are used to give the business insights of how the internet search engine views your website, and therefore you are able to see the bugs that may be on the website and act immediately. You have to install the code on your website to be able to make use of this tool. Google, Bing.

Keyword Tool.io

This is an SEO tool that allows the business to enter certain keywords, and it generates several long tail keywords that are suitable for use by the business. Do your long tail keyword search here.

Moz Local Listing Score

This is an SEO tool that allows the business to have data from all popular sources such as Facebook, Google + Google, so as to be able to score how your business is fairing on this website. You will also get a list of actionable to increase your performance. Check your business listing.

Incognito Window by Google

This is a window that allows the business to be able to have all the familiar list of auto-fill options that can be used to guide the business in search for keywords.

Rank Checker

This is an SEO tool that allows the business to see where their website ranks compared to the competitors; it is an SEO tool that will help in making sure that the websites rank well.

When using these tools, it is important that a business seeks insights from the SEO tools expert to make sure the marketing strategy works.