Browse Category: Inbound Marketing

5 Common Questions Every Landing Page Must Address

Before we begin discussing how to build your ideal Landing Page, we need to address what exactly a Landing Page is.

Each page on your website that is used as an ‘entry point’, is called a Landing Page. A user can be directed to your website from any source, be it a Facebook post, a result turned up in Google search or a display add published on a website.

5 Common Questions Every Landing Page Must Address are:-

1. What Is It?-

You have to clearly define your Value Proposition. Value Proposition is defined as an innovation, service, or feature intended to make a company or product attractive to customers.  It should be the most attention-grabbing element on your Landing Page. It has to be crisp, short and loud so that a user that enters onto your website for the first time is exposed to this Value Proposition within the first few seconds and that’s what makes all the impact. A lot of marketers tend to ignore the power of a strong and impactful Value Proposition.

The above Landing Page of a popular marketing automation tool, Customer.io, clearly defines its Value Proposition, ‘Automate Your Product Messaging- Build, Test and Send From One Platform’. A user that visits their website for the first time immediately knows what it is, who is it for, how are they differentiating themselves from others and how it can be beneficial for him/her. They go on to further explain the Product Features, describing their Value Proposition through an infographic, followed by bullet points, keeping it neat and easy to understand.

2. Is It For Me?-

In order to communicate most effectively with your visitors, your Landing Page must contain the language your visitors understand.

A student visiting a University website would want to know about the course curriculum, fee structure, alumni association etc. An entrepreneur visiting an analytical tool website would want to know how that particular tool would help him grow his business.

You should understand your audience portfolio and create Buyer Personas in order to understand the needs, desires and demands of your audience. Your Landing Page should be able to resonate with your viewers.

3. What Does It Cost?-

Cost, in this case, doesn’t always mean Money. Of course, money is one of the costs involved but they extend to much more than money alone. Cost could be in terms of:-

  1. Time- People on the internet enjoy skimming through articles. They scan web pages, not read. You cannot expect them to spend additional time on your website without providing them with an incentive to do so.
  2. Learning New Things- Chances are if you’re reading this post, you like to learn and experiment. But as a rule of thumb, people usually are not the most passionate about learning new things, without knowing how it could benefit them.
  3. Data Import- The cost could be the time and risk involved with taking out your data from an existing system and transferring it to a new one. For example, you would think twice, thrice or maybe even more, before changing your internet service provider just for the simple reason to avoid all the hassle involved in the process.

These are in no way a comprehensive list of all costs involved with all kinds of businesses and industries. The cost, being subjective, would differ from business to business and user to user.

The above image showing a 30 Day Money Back Guarantee, attempts to address the Cost related question a user may have by providing a full refund within 30 days if he/she is not satisfied with the product or service.

4. What Is The Risk?-

In a way, Cost and Risk go hand-in-hand. They are interrelated to the extent that the Cost is a Risk for a user.

As a marketer, we need to address that risk in a way that it mitigates a customer’s concern in using or buying your product or service.

A popular and effective way to do that is to include User Testimonials, which are basically reviews and endorsements of customers who have used your product/service in the past and were satisfied with it. It shows a visitor that there are people like them who are using it and people who they trust (thought leaders) that are recommending a particular product/ service. The more the visitor is able to relate to the testimonials, the less risky he/she would feel in going ahead and taking the next step.

For instance, an entrepreneur would be more convinced in seeing the testimonial of a fellow entrepreneur in the same industry that he operates in.

The above screenshot is an apt illustration of customer testimonials by Elegant Themes, an easy-to-use website builder, that displays its customer testimonials along with their profile picture, narrating a short story about how the services they offer helped their customers build a website in few simple steps, without needing any technical know-how. Testimonials help establish credibility and trust and are able to connect with a user on a personal level.

5. What’s The Next Step?-

The final and most important aspect of a Landing Page is to move a user from one step to the next. The next step should be based on the readiness of a user instead of asking him/her to directly make a purchase.

For instance, a visitor who first visits your page for the first time should be persuaded to sign up for a free trial of your product. Only on expiry of that free trial should they be sent content which persuades them to make a purchase as they are now more mature and groomed towards you and your product and trust you as a brand.

If a visitor who has visited your website for the first time, having no knowledge about the service you provide, is given a link to make a purchase using his/her credit card, there is an extremely likely chance that he/she would simply log off your website without taking another look at your value proposition.

The user should be shown the relevant Call to Action based on his/her readiness in the flow originating from trial or subscription to a blog, to final purchase and repurchase.  “Nobody likes to be sold to, but everybody likes to buy” -Anonymous

Conclusion-

Though each Landing Page differs in various aspects in terms of its objectives and end goals, any marketer interested in obtaining a higher rate of customers moving through the Marketing Funnel must consider primarily these 5 questions while designing his/her Landing Page.

To learn more about Inbound Marketing and how to best leverage your Landing Page check  ‘What Is Inbound Marketing And Why It Is Essential For Every Marketer To Implement’.

 

Source:- Google, Customer.io

5 Criteria To Select The Ideal Content Distribution Channel For Your Business

With more [distribution] channels, it’s important to have ‘must-have’ content and brands that cut through the clutter. -Thomas O Staggs

Deciding the ideal distribution channel for your business is extremely critical. It can potentially lead to huge profits or losses or can also put your future survival in jeopardy.

In this blog post, we will discuss guidelines on selecting the various channels on which you can aggregate your audience. Some of the most popular options are:-

  1. Social Platforms- Eg. Facebook, Twitter etc.
  2. Email
  3. Forums/Community Sites

You can pick and choose either any one single platform or you could choose multiple channels for the distribution of your content. However, for a small business just starting out into the market with a limited number of resources, I would suggest you stick with one channel, the one most appropriate for you, and then later diversify and expand into different channels.

In this post, for the purpose of easy illustration, we will consider and take into account three different platforms and discuss it’s advantages and limitations so that you can select the ideal content distribution channel for your business:-

  1. Email
  2. Facebook
  3. Twitter

Let’s get right to it then:-

1. Reach-

Which channel will help you to most effectively reach out to the maximum of your target audience?

In terms of an industry benchmark, Email> Facebook> Twitter

Why do I make such a bold statement? Because “there are 3x more email accounts than there are Facebook & Twitter accounts combined.”-Campaign Monitor

“In 2017, global e-mail users amounted to 3.7 billion users” – Statista.com; as compared to “2.07 billion monthly active Facebook users” – Zephoria.com. “As of the third quarter of 2017, the microblogging service [Twitter] averaged 330 million monthly active users.”- Statista.com

Facebook- Think of it this way. You need an email address to sign up for Facebook. Do you need a Facebook profile to create an email address?

Twitter- With respect to the reach of Twitter, it is nowhere near Email or even Facebook for that matter. The only plus point for the consideration of Twitter in this list is due to the presence of thought and opinion leaders on this platform.

But surely email does not get to enjoy all the benefits. The disadvantage of email as a platform is that you will have to begin from scratch, just like a community forum. Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter almost hand out their users to you on a red carpet, to be used at your disposal.

2. Content Publishing Frequency-

What kind of content publishing frequency do you expect?

Email- If you have selected email as your distribution channel, you simply cannot bombard your audience with 5-7 emails a day. You will experience an unsubscription rate like never seen before. A frequency of once a day is more appropriate to engage your audience.

Facebook-2- 3 updates a day is acceptable by users, provided that your content provides value to them and is not merely monotonous sales ads.

Twitter- Users are more than happy receiving even 1 content unit every three hours.

This is the beauty of each platform. You need to decide what kind of content publishing frequency your business demands and act accordingly.

3. Content Consumption Pattern-

How do you want people to consume your content? How do you want users to engage (take action) with your content?

Facebook- Good multimedia content like photos, graphics, videos etc. are bound to perform better on Facebook than on Email. In fact, Facebook’s algorithm favours those who publish multimedia over textual content.

Email- Images on email will not be visible in the first view and the user would need to click a separate link which would redirect them to a blog post featuring your content. Seems tiresome, doesn’t it?

Now you see that in case of email, inline consumption is not favoured while in the case of social platforms, inline consumption of content is not only favoured but appreciated and encouraged. In fact, social media platforms allow you the option to engage with your audience. Users can easily like, comment and share your content with the click of a button, which could otherwise not be done on Email.

Here is where our beloved social media platforms rank higher than Email.

4. Profiling, Personalization and Targeting-

Segmentation and Targeting is the place where Email emerges victorious once again. Even though Facebook allows you to send targeted messages to a set of users that have liked your page, email is a free platform that you have 100% control over.

It is up to you what kind of data is available to you and what kind of data you can capture.

You can actually send out an automatic welcome email to visitors who have filled out a newsletter subscription form on your website or a reminder email to those who have not visited your website in the last 30 days. The customizability is endless.

Thus, from the Profiling, Personalization and Targeting perspective, Email is a winner here.

5. Channel Stability-

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc. are all proprietary platforms. They own and control every aspect of the platform and have the authority to choose who gets to view your content and who doesn’t. If you think that is not right (or a violation of your rights), take a look at their comprehensive terms and conditions; which we all supposedly read and accept.

Facebook, for instance, changes its algorithm almost every week.

In the earlier days, a content unit posted on Facebook would reach out to a significant proportion of your likes, if not all. That’s not the case anymore. In a bid to increase paid ads, Facebook has immensely reduced the reach of your post, persuading you into opting for the paid alternative to promote your post to your own likes.

A study from Edgerank Checker found that between February 2012 and March 2014, organic reach for the average Facebook Page dropped from 16% to 6.5%. Research from Social@Ogilvy, meanwhile, suggests that for Pages with more than 500,000 Likes, organic reach could be as low as 2%.-Hubspot

As a small business, this would most definitely impact you as not everyone can afford to spend lavishly on every post.

However, in the case of Email as a platform, that’s not a problem. An email sent to your audience would most assuredly reach the inbox of that users. (Spam and Promotion is a different matter entirely. In order to avoid our email going into spam, we need to focus on using the right techniques of sending an email.

Conclusion-

The above 5 criteria are a short list of guidelines that every business must consider before opting into a particular platform for the distribution of your content.

Note that in most cases it’s not necessary to choose one single platform or two for that matter. If relevant, you can opt to go for multiple channels as well.

However, as I have mentioned before, you should focus your energy and resources on a single platform and then subsequently grow out into multiple channels.

Image Source- OptinMonster.com, Google, Business2Community.com,

What Is Inbound Marketing And Why It Is Essential For Every Marketer To Implement

If you have more money than brains, you should focus on Outbound Marketing. If you have more brains than money, you should focus on Inbound Marketing.

-Guy Kawasaki

Co-founder, Alltop.com

 

You may have come across this phrase ‘Inbound Marketing’ from various different sources and especially in recent times, its use has increased stupendously… and rightly so!

So let’s dive right into it. What is Inbound Marketing?

Traditional marketing is a one-way conversation – the marketer talking ‘at’ the potential customer. Inbound marketing is an invitation to an ongoing dialogue in which you can communicate with your customers in both a professional and congenial fashion.

In general, Inbound Marketing is an approach focused on attracting customers through content that is relevant to capture and convert potential customers through channels like blogs, search engines and social media which draws the user base to your product or service.

If the content educates, informs and engages directly with your target buyer persona, it serves to build awareness and increases interest generating leads. Once a visitor becomes a lead, based upon on a scoring system, you can pass them into a sales funnel. Once they convert and buy repeatedly you can analyse the process to produce more desirable content and showcase your expertise.

Now that we understand the concept of Inbound Marketing, let’s get onto why it is important because there is no point in learning, understanding and implementing something if it’s useless and does not help us achieve our ultimate objective.

Why is Inbound Marketing becoming so popular these days?

If you’re new to digital marketing, you might be a little bit fuzzy about the concept of inbound marketing. It’s a relatively new tactic that’s almost exclusive to the Internet.

Inbound Marketing did not exist from day one when the digital marketing industry cracked into the traditional marketing world. Today, more and more businesses are trying to jump onto the Inbound Marketing bandwagon and trying to leverage it as a part of their overall marketing strategy.

  1. The Role of Customer in the Buying Process is Changing-

The traditional Marketing Funnel has changed its attributes. This new marketing funnel visualizes the various psychological phases a customer travels through before they actually try or buy your product. In recent times, a customer now passes through all the stages of the funnel, their number dropping out at each stage, and only when they reach the last two stages of Evaluation(final stage before the purchase decision) and Sales(the result of the marketer’s effort throughout the process) does the actual consideration of purchase take place. Earlier was a much simpler and easier time when sales took place right from when a customer began considering a product or service.

2. Majority Are Not Ready To Buy Yet-

Now, with a shorter attention span, massive increase in competition and increasing availability of sources of information, customers are getting onto the web more so for research purposes than to make an immediate purchase.

This normal distribution curve (bell curve) shows that the majority(95%) of qualified prospects on your website are there to research and not to buy.-Marketo

What is important to keep in mind here is that it is not that this 95 % of people are not relevant or not interested in your product or service but rather that they are just not ready to buy from you at that point of time. The bell curve shows that only about 5% of users are actually there on your website to make an immediate purchase. These are very very significant numbers and something that every marketer must consider at the time of developing his inbound marketing strategy.

Of course, these numbers are not always 100% accurate. there is a minor deviation on a case by case basis depending on the industry, but overall this graph applies to every marketing campaign.

Marketers now need to nurture the users who have just visited their website to research more about the product or service and convert their interest into a purchase through regular and efficient inbound marketing, holding their hand from one stage of the marketing funnel to the next.

70% of people on your website will buy either from you or from your competitor- Marketo

3. Personalization Is Possible At Scale-

In today’s day and age, technology has increased at such a stupendous pace that there is now an availability of tools and techniques which has enabled personalization at scale. This was something that was not possible earlier.

This custom tailored Happy Birthday email mentioning the name of the viewer and wishing him on his birthday along with a discount coupon is a perfect example of Personalization. Instead of simply handing over a coupon, to a customer, the brand gifted it, and that’s what makes all the difference. What this does is that it builds a relationship between a user and the brand, thus increasing relatability and credibility.

With today’s technology, it hardly takes any super-coding skills in order to actually create such detailed personalization.

4. Cost of Inbound Marketing Strategies-

Studies show that Inbound Marketing costs 62% less per lead than outbound marketing.

Inbound marketing tactics don’t generate leads, they generate revenue.-Hubspot

The average PPC on any popular website will support that statistic.

5. It’s Organic and Natural –

Take this scenario: someone searches online for a specific service at 3:00 am on a Saturday; your listing appears in the search engine’s results; your rich content provides them with fundamental value and inside knowledge that will improve their understanding and prompts them to contact you – they become a profitable lead. Inbound marketing is natural, targeted and truly resonates with a primed audience.

6. Attract More Website Visitors-

Inbound marketing is about getting the most out of your website. Creating great content that will attract customers is part of the process. A blog becomes an asset that drives traffic to your website. You can identify “keywords” that your customers are searching and leverage it to your advantage. Therefore, SEO is of utmost importance. If you commit to the process you can drive more visitors to your website. This can increase your chances of converting visitors to leads.

Conclusion

Inbound Marketing is no longer a secondary marketing tactic within our overall digital marketing strategy. In 2018 it will be a must for every marketer to implement and only those businesses that are able to leverage Inbound Marketing effectively will be able to survive in this fast-moving digital marketing world, the rest will inevitably perish.

Wondering how to organically increase your level of engagement on Facebook? Check out ‘8 Types of Facebook Content to Drive Engagement’.

Image Source- Google, Digital Vidya

Top 5 Tips to Promote Online Brick and Mortar Business

When you have both a Brick and Mortar shop and also an online store, it could be difficult to understand where to toss your advertising bucks. You do not wish to forget the shop that was your support, however you recognize to increase your reach, the on the internet shop is your best option– unless you intend to open up extra places, which could be expensive as well as lengthy.
Luckily, there are a variety of methods you could incorporate promos for your online shop as well as your brick-and-mortar organization. Not just will this aid you concentrate on a couple of advertising projects at once as well as solid general branding, however, it will certainly additionally conserve your loan as you toss your advertising bucks behind advertisements with several functions.

online marketing

 

1. Develop Social Media Buzz

The social network could be a wonderful means to send out website traffic to your site, yet it could likewise be utilized to develop a buzz around occasions at your brick and Mortar shop. As an example, for a grand opening, you could develop an occasion on Facebook and also welcome individuals to participate in. Use an advertisement to target much more individuals in your location.
On Twitter, you could hold a Twitter conversation full of a particular hashtag. At the end of the assigned conversation time, welcome individuals to see your Brick and Mortar shop for a unique you’ve created simply for them.
Stream Cliff Farm, a little horticulture facility, coffee shop, and also occasion place, uses Facebook to get to existing and also brand-new site visitors. Considering that its area provides normal occasions, this is the excellent suit for them. At the very same time, it provides the capability to buy some products online along with getting your place for occasions, so it could quickly offer to brand-new clients as well as accumulate their details.

2. Promo codes

Promo codes could attract brand-new clients right into your shop. Discount coupons are prominent with consumers almost everywhere, with around 96 percent of customers utilizing promo codes. When you understand simply exactly how prominent promo codes are as well as the number of individuals utilizes them, you start to see exactly what a solid advertising device this is, both online as well as off.
The most effective promo codes are ones that could be made use of both online as well as in a Brick and Mortar shop. There is absolutely nothing fairly so aggravating as attempting to buy something online just to be informed you could just utilize the voucher in the shop, as well as the other way around. Make it very easy for your clients to utilize your discount coupons both online as well as off and also you’ll get one of the most consumers feasible from the promo.
You’ll additionally make some choices regarding whether you will certainly permit voucher piling or restriction clients to one discount coupon at once. A fine example of a business that enables consumers to make use of discount coupons is Kirkland’s. Consumers that enroll in its e-mail checklist obtain a message with a code that could be made use of online or a universal product code that could be checked in the shop. Because there are times when supply is out online or in the shop, yet offered at the various other, this is a wonderful function for customers.

business

3. Attribute Your Physical Location on Your Website

Regarding 50 percent of those that did a regional search on their mobile phones go to the Brick and Mortar within 24 hrs, so it is crucial to focus on your website as well as exactly how you’re offering your shop to clients. If you desire those that discover your site to find right in your shop, you need to make your place tempting to them.
You could include products that remain in the shop yet are not marketed online, describe exactly what your shop needs to supply or discuss price cuts you supply for details teams, such as elders or army.
Nitterhouse Masonry is a fine example of a shop supplying an extensive, real-life check out its physical place on its site’s touchdown web page. It includes images of its Brick and Mortar shops, clarifies once a week specials and also discusses offered shop price cuts.

4. In-Store Promotions

Do not disregard cross-promotions where you use information regarding just what your shop provides online. For instance, if somebody enters the shop and also you’re out of a thing, deal to buy it for them. Likewise, mention that you provide on the internet getting if they obtain a house and also determine they require another thing yet do not intend to return out.
Mention on the internet promos by providing a promo code with an online discount code, or ask if you could authorize them for your e-mail listing, specifically if you send out promo codes by means of e-mail to your clients. Calling card, as well as literary works, must additionally detail your site so clients have numerous methods to call you as well as to obtain info regarding the items you market.
An example of a business that supplies multi-layered promos is Victoria’s Secret. When you enter into among their shops, salesmen ask if you get on the firm’s e-mail listing. They will certainly after that send you details regarding brand-new items, sales as well as vouchers. Currently, it has actually gathered your info as well as could market to you both for its online and also brick-and-mortar shops.

5. Use Technology

Urge your consumers to download and install an application, and afterward utilize iBeacons to sound a consumer’s phone when she goes to your shop. This is specifically efficient if you’re situated in a shopping center or shopping center, due to the fact that the client is currently there purchasing. You’re simply advising her that you have brand-new goods, a sale taking place or that you would certainly enjoy seeing her drop in.
Lord & Taylor not just pings clients when they obtain with 100 meters of the shop, yet it additionally sends out an individualized message based upon where the individual lies within the shop and also previous acquisitions the client has actually made. This makes the advertising wise as well as very targeted.

To get to one of the most clients feasible and also continuously expand as a company, it is necessary to continually look for brand-new methods to connect. By incorporating promos for both on the internet and also offline shops, you’ll acquire one of the most traction feasible.

Image Credit: Digital Vidya, go-gulf

How to Promote Online Course through Inbound Marketing

The concept of inbound marketing is focused on attracting the right set of audience by earning their interest. Different from the traditional form of marketing that directly sells product service to customers, inbound marketing is based on the idea of creating the list of the right set of content and sharing for the right set of audience, in order to communicate and attract their attention and interest and creating a lasting relationship. An advance inbound marketing course will make you master in the field of inbound.

The Inbound marketing has the internet as a field of action and for businesses that also act in the virtual world, such as online courses, is the perfect strategy to attract and retain customers.

Despite its concept does not have an exact explanation, other data on Inbound marketing are quite concrete and prove why use it is a good strategy for dissemination of online courses and many other businesses that use online channels:

  • It costs 62% cheaper than Outbound Marketing.
  • With the Inbound Marketing, businesses that use blogs obtain 97% more links pointing to their platform.
  • The average return on investment produced by Inbound Marketing is 275%.
  • On average 92% of marketing professionals claim that the Inbound Marketing is essential for companies, before the current economy.

attracting to inbound marketing course

How to use inbound marketing for online courses?

Inbound marketing is a strategy that utilizes many forms of pull marketing – content marketing, blogs, events, SEO, social media and more – to create brand awareness and attract new business.In inbound marketing, the focus is to create the content to attract the interest of the customer by doing SEO, Content Marketing, and Strategy on Social Media.

There are several ways to make Inbound Marketing and each one of them fits in one of the five stages of Inbound that is:

 

Attract the right audience

First, you need to attract people to your site. Invest in SEO to improve your position on Search Engine. In the advertisement on social networks or advertisement in search engine through Search Engine marketing. For an example, Produce relevant and well-prepared content. Post on a blog is also great for attracting new users. Create a relevant well informative ads that relevant to your targeted audience in social media. Write attracting relevant headline and description in ad copy for search engine marketing. You can use social media for brand awareness or for lead generating. There you will find your target audience there. Attract your audience toward your brand on social media by posting attractive articles that relevant to them. With the proper planning on strategy in Social Media, investing in Search Engine Ranking,  Search Engine Marketing, Content Marketing Strategy you will achieve your goal.

Attracting audience through.

  • Search Engine Optimization
  • Social Media Marketing
  • Search Engine Marketing
  • Content Marketing

 

attracting to inbound marketing course

Turn visitors into leads

In this second stage is necessary a content more attractive and converting, after all, you will ask the user something valuable, as an e-mail. For this reason, you must offer them something valuable on their interest such as eBook with the content, can offer exclusive access to a module of the course, or demo class or any other materials by which your target audience can be interested. For an example, Digital Vaidya provides demo class. You also need to work Landing page optimization.

Anatomy of a Perfect Landing page

  • A Great Headline
  • Well Describe Sub-heading
  • Eye catchy supportive image
  • Well designed form with Eye catchy CTA Button
  • Trusted logo with no exit link
  • Value proposition
  • Unique Points and Benefits
  • Social Proof

promoting inbound marketing course

 

Convert leads to sales

This is the time to focus and go straight to the prospect. People have already given you their contact what proves that they are really interested. So it is time for you solve the blocking question between you and them. So they will convert into sales. List down all the blocking question your users might have.

For Example, Take Digital Vidya for an Example

You may be had questions like,

  • Why course delivered only online?
  • Who are trainers?
  • I am already a Digital marketer, why should I learn Digital marketing?
  • currently working in finance, can I learn digital marketing?
  • as fresher, how DM course could help me?

Create a list of content for every blocking questions. You should use proper types of content types for delivering those blocking questions such as Webinars, Guides, or Testimonials. Invest in email marketing with the right set of content and show for the users that you have information of their interest. First list down the content type, whatever is best for your target audience. Analyze which content type could deliver their answer.

A good percentage will convert at the end of the customer journey, customer journey depends on normally how much time your prospect takes before they convert into sales. Move the rest into funnel back keep sending them valuable contents until they convert.

 

Customer loyalty

You have already sold your product, but your conversation with the customer does not need to stop. This is the time to build a relationship. Create a strategy to follow up and increase customer loyalty. Offer special plans, access to other online courses, support material, etc.

 

Transform your customers into brand ambassador for your brand

Doing a good job in the previous step, this becomes a lot easier. Delight your customers and to transform them into true ambassadors of your brand means that you did a good job. To conquer this result give your customer more than a brand that produces contents, but a brand with a purpose which he admires and is proud to be a part.

How to do all of this? Invest in quality content related to your business. Online courses have by goal teach, therefore, to promote them the best strategy is to provide content that shows what the user will win by acquiring it. Besides serving as proof of your capacity as a professional.

You focus in conquer your customers, we focus on ensuring that he/she has a good experience when purchasing your material.