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Ways to Boost Your Content Marketing Strategy

Content Marketing

The winning approach to digital marketing today is relevance and speed. To achieve this, the best way is through content marketing. A digital marketing speaker Hong Kong, highlights that relevance is creating meaningful content. It conveys information that is useful to the audience. Literally, content marketing should provide solutions to the customers’ pain points. 

A social media agency Hong Kong, on the other hand, notes that another challenge to content marketing is posting the right content to reach the right customers at the right time. So, it means speeding up publishing the content to be the first to catch the audiences’ attention. 

Automation tools have made it possible to create and schedule content posting. But such a scale needs careful evaluations. Brands and businesses need to assess the right processes and tools that fit their marketing campaigns. Below are ways to boost your content marketing strategy.

AGILITY 

When your content is scattered and unorganized, it results in duplication and wasted time. If it is hard for you to find your content, it will also be hard to show it to your target customers. Here are some pro-tips to boost your content marketing strategy:

  • Centralize your content library. A searchable library allows everyone in the team to easily find content. 
  • Create a content taxonomy. Classify your content according to categories and topics. It speeds up searching for related content. 
  • Tag your content. Tags are a great way to group content. Relevant tags also make it easier to locate relevant content.

Agility means easily finding content on a social media page or website. More than 53% of consumers who struggle to find content perceive a brand as less accurate, relevant, and useful.

ENGAGEMENT

Modern consumers expect more than canned sales pitches. The key to a boost your content marketing strategy today is personalization. It makes your target audiences more engaged by feeling a sense of importance among brands and businesses. Modern consumers also hate aggressive sales approaches and spammy messages.  To boost your content marketing strategy’s engagement, follow these pro-tips:

  • Choose the right tech stack. There are lots of customization and self-publishing platforms that brands and businesses can use in their landing and social media pages. It makes marketing available 24/7. 
  • Empower sales through insights and analytics. Machine learning made it possible to gather accurate information about how your ads and campaigns perform in real-time. Use them to find the best performing content that your audiences engage with.
  • Share the wealth. Let others know your expertise and skills in your specific niche or industry. Offer solutions that solve your target customers’ pain points. By continuously doing so, your audiences will become your customers, and eventually, your loyal followers.

Engagement means sharing knowledge to let your prospects realize the value of a brand, product, or service. Most B2B companies that have invested in content engagement tools achieved 240% faster sales cycles.

SCALABILITY

One of the best ways to boost your content marketing strategy through automation is using the account-based marketing (ABM) approach. It is focusing on audiences with the highest probability of conversion. A video marketing agency Hong Kong has noted that ABM is hot right now, even on live broadcasts and video sharing. As such, brands and businesses need to scale or expand the reach of their content. It is to target groups that are relevant and unique. Some pro-tips to boost your content marketing strategy through scalability are:

  • Curate relevant content. The baseline to scalability is to first establish your intent. Do you want to boost conversion, engagement, or reach? Depending on your goal, curate your tagged content into relevant posts that will suit your target market.
  • Personalize creatively and smartly. There are lots of automation tools today that can personalize landing and social media pages. Use them to discover a well-defined target group.
  • Leverage AI and machine learning recommendations to your marketing approach. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are very smart tools. Besides speeding up content marketing, they can even outrank the quality of work that humans can do. Use their power to make it easier to keep your customers engaged. 

According to LinkedIn, investments in ABM have increased by 29% in the year 2020. 

THE BOTTOM LINE

Automation, AI, and machine learning can greatly help brands and businesses to boost their content marketing strategies. But is automation really meant for you? A quick guide to know is that automation best fits brands and businesses with the following criteria:

  • Only one person is doing all the content marketing works in your team.
  • You concentrate on only one or two marketing channels or social media platforms.
  • Your marketing team has more money than time.

Once all these scenarios apply to a brand or business, you can surely boost content marketing strategy through automation. 

Reference: https://hub.uberflip.com/blog/speed-up-your-campaigns-with-these-12-boosts-infographic

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Let’s Talk About Meme Marketing

Meme Marketing

To meme or not to meme? That is the question. Last 2020, many social media users turned to memes for comic relief and entertainment. To keep up with the trend, most digital marketers used memetic content to promote brands, products, and services. For a digital marketing speaker Hong Kong, memes are built to go viral. Yet, only the best memes do. They should be funny, relevant, and timely. They must also focus on the pop culture of a target market. 

Meme marketing can help brands and businesses boost awareness and engagement. As they appeal to the emotional level of the audiences, they make brands and businesses appear more authentic and humane. Yet meme marketing is also challenging. First, memes move so fast that marketers have to keep up quickly. Second, humor is also tricky so, they must be careful in offending customers. Last, marketers should interpret them carefully so as not to use them inappropriately. 

Now, let’s talk about meme marketing more!

WHAT IS MEME MARKETING?

The term “meme” comes from the Greek word “mimema,” which means “imitated.” So, its literal definition is cultural information that can spread via imitation. Over the Internet, memes are viral images embellished with text. The text can be a catchphrase, concept, or joke taken from some aspects of pop culture, movies, or TV. In 1976, Richard Dawkins, a British author & biologist, coined the word meme as a pop culture that can spread as fast as genes multiply. 

Meme marketing is the practice of creating appealing, engaging, and fast-spreading content or news to promote a brand, product, or service. It uses social media and word-of-mouth to fulfill marketing goals. According to a social media agency Hong Kong, memes are the native language of social media users. That is how they communicate new attitudes and ideas. Meme-jacking has become increasingly popular in marketing because they are excellent ways to share refreshing content that can go viral. 

Meme marketing grew as a concept in the middle part of the 1990s. They started as short clips that people shared in Usenet forums, an online global discussion system. According to a video marketing agency Hong Kong, when YouTube was launched in 2005, video memes became very popular. The first meme to go viral on the Internet was Dancing Baby Cha-Cha-Cha. It was also the first meme used for marketing to showcase the features of CGI’s Kinetix Character Studio. Soon, big brands like Apple, Barkbox, McDonald’s, and Ruffles used meme marketing to promote their brands. 

HOW DO BRANDS AND BUSINESSES USE MEME MARKETING?

Meme marketing breathes a new life in digital and social media marketing. Being highly visuals, they are a great tool to piggybank on a viral concept. There is no such thing as plagiarism when it comes to meme marketing. Brands and businesses can capitalize on trending memes by customizing them using images or videos to engage their target audiences. Today, meme marketing gets easier using animation and image editing tools. They allow the creation of memes as animated GIFs, quote images, and video clips. 

  • Memes in Blog Posts. Content writers used memes in their blog posts to make easy-to-digest marketing content. Memes can also boost SEO rankings. Instead of plain images, memes make a blog post more engaging and interesting. The text captions of memes allow readers to better understand a content writer’s point. They can also be used as call-to-actions (CTAs). When it comes to improving SEO ranking, memes are fresh and trending content. That is why Google and other search engine love them. Most of the time, memes relate to relevant keywords that most online users are searching for. 
  • Memes in Email Marketing. Email marketing is another great place to use memes. They are visual attractions in small file sizes.  Using memes increase an email’s click-through rate by 26% and its revenue by 12%. A majority of audiences using email find memes interesting as they break the concept of boring text messages. Brands and businesses can use memes in email marketing to announce an upcoming event, promote a sale, or special offers. 
  • Memes in Social Media Marketing. Today, there are 4.48 billion social media users worldwide. Most of them go to social media to find fun, ideas, and inspiration. Memes are the perfect way to create them. That is why brands and businesses use memes as a part of their social media marketing strategies. First, memes help brands and businesses relate to the younger generation which covers a majority of social media users. Through funny and unique memes, younger followers can genuinely understand the perspective of an ad or campaign. Second, memes are on point and straightforward. They give a clear marketing message that online users can relate to. They foster meaningful connections and increase engagement among the followers of social media pages. 

THE BOTTOM LINE

Meme marketing is an exciting and fun way to boost engagement and revenue via blogs, emails, and social media. They are easy to create with a lot of innovative tools available online. The biggest bottleneck is finding trends that are relevant to a brand. But it may also be smart to create original memes to succeed in your marketing campaigns!

Reference: https://invideo.io/blog/meme-marketing/

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Understanding How Google Search Work

Google Search

Like Facebook, Google started from a humble beginning – the garage. In 1995, Stanford students Larry Page and Sergey Brin partnered to build a search engine of links for the World Wide Web. They initially named it “Backrub.” It is a program that analyzes backlinks to understand the importance of a website. For two years, the duo worked on an advanced method of finding information over the Internet. 

In 1997, Larry felt that “Backrub” no longer fitted as the search engine’s name. So, he brainstormed with his officemates for a new name. Someone suggested the word “Googolplex.” Larry shortened the name to “googol,” the digit 1 followed by 100 zeros. By accident, the domain name became google.com, which Larry and Sergey agreed was even better.

A digital marketing speaker Hong Kong notes that since the creation of Google, the company is already worth $400 billion. The search engine has the largest index of websites globally. As such, it is the most valuable brand in the world. Google has evolved as more than just a search engine tool. Today, you can do the following using Google:

  • Chat with others
  • Do audio and video call 
  • Email
  • Navigate 
  • Read the news
  • Translate languages
  • Upload and watch videos

There is a lot more you can do in Google as it receives 5.6 billion searches daily. In this article, let us have an understanding of how Google Search works. 

Google’s Mission

Google aims to organize the world’s information and make it accessible and useful to everyone. It means that Google Search does not target SEO professionals. Instead, it focuses on providing the general public with a better search experience. As technology evolves, Google is dedicated to helping everyone find the right and up-to-date information they are looking for. 

For Google, search results should:

  • Deliver the most relevant and reliable information
  • Maximize access to information
  • Present information in the most useful way
  • Protect the privacy of users
  • Sell ads and nothing more

To maintain an ecosystem of fresh and useful information, Google also supports online creators. It helps people find both large and small businesses and publishers through free search listings. It also provides them with free tools to succeed. 

How Google Search Work

Google uses a robust system to present the most helpful information about your query or search. Thousands or millions of web content and pages might be a match every time you do a search. Here is how the system works.

Organize Information

Google knows that 15% of everyday searches are unique. These unique searches have never been seen before. To keep the information updated, Google adopts crawlers. Such software automatically visits public web pages and sites. Crawlers go from page to page to save content links on Google’s Search Index. Google Search Index takes note of the key signals on content that crawlers sent them. Being over 100,000,000 gigabytes in size, it saves all entries, keywords, and web pages. Google also enabled a search console to help creators better crawl their content. By following established and universal standards like robots.txt and sitemaps, the tool ensures the best possible results for users. Google never accepts payments to make a site crawl better than the others.

Rank Result

Google Search ranks results based on several factors. First, Google analyzes the keywords on your query, your language, and your location. Then, Google ranks results based on the content of pages and the expertise of the source. The search algorithm of Google is designed to sort hundreds of billions of web content and pages in a fraction of seconds. Based on the context, quality, meaning, relevance, and usability of content, Google will show up the information you need. Information today does not only exist on web pages. A social media agency Hong Kong highlights images, news, sports scores, videos, and other types of content. Google approaches every search uniquely. If a searcher is looking for direction, it shows a map. If a searcher is looking for weather updates, it shows the most up-to-the-minute forecast. 

Rigorous Testing

Google keeps conducting rigorous tests to see if people continuously find relevant and reliable results. Rigorous testing involves quality raters and extensive testing. Quality raters are the most experienced data scientists and engineers carefully reviewing the automated processes to ensure that they produce the great results that people expect. Because of innovation, the process of Google Search changes from time to time. But its goal remains the same – to improve the usefulness of the results among searchers. To date, Google has made around 600,000 experiments resulting in more than 4,500 search improvements. 

Spam Detection

Part of Google’s responsibility is to protect its searchers against spam content. Last year, Google detected around 40 billion spammy pages. Google Search invested in a system that detects deceptive and manipulative behaviors. Such an automated system can detect and keep a vast majority of spam out of the top search results. Content submitted for reconsideration is handled manually by a spam removal team. Once a manual action is taken, it will alert the creator to remedy the issue. 

To promote safe browsing, Google Play Protect scans 100 billion apps and 4 billion devices. It promotes a safer way to search by allowing users to control what data to save on an account. Anytime a user searches on Google, they can browse, view, or watch the content. At the same time, they can delete the content as preferred. 

Reference: https://www.google.com/intl/en_au/search/howsearchworks/

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The Importance of Email in Digital Marketing

Email Marketing

Do you know that email has been around for 50 years now? Yes, it is email’s golden birthday this year! Its history is full of groundbreaking technologies and interesting stories. A digital marketing speaker Hong Kong recognized Ray Tomlinson as the father of email. He sent the first electronic message in 1971 as “QWERTYIOP.” This is through the US government-funded research called ARPANET – which eventually became the Internet.

Queen Elizabeth II of England was the first head of state to use ARPANET’s electronic mail in 1976. Her username was HME2 which stands for Her Majesty Elizabeth II. In the same year, US President Jimmy Carter used the email on his presidential campaign. It was in 2002 that email went digital. BlackBerry’s 5810 phone was the first mobile device with email capabilities. In 2004, Gmail was launched, raising the bar of email campaigns. Since then, email has become an important part of digital marketing.

WHAT EXACTLY IS AN EMAIL?

Email means transmitted messages via the Internet. In general, it is information sent to individuals and groups via a network. The information contains attachments, images, and text. They are conveyed through a mail server using multiple TCP/IP protocols. People who want to send emails need to register for an email account on the mail server first. The registration will prompt the user to create an email address and password, which the user can use to receive and send messages.

Each email message includes three components:

  • The recipient or sender’s email address;
  • The subject line of the email;
  • The email’s body contains attachments, images, and text.

Today, an email can support attachments of up to 20 MB. It can also support CSS layouts and Hypertext MarkUp Language (HTML) for images and links. 

Email can be used to communicate personally and professionally. Most people used them to communicate with colleagues, family, and friends. Others used emails to connect with organizations and networks around the world. There are times when an email is used to invite or remind people of upcoming events. But the best advantage of an email today is to use it to send marketing campaigns. Most brands and businesses use email marketing for sending newsletters, product updates, promoted content, reviews, and surveys.

IMPORTANCE OF EMAIL IN DIGITAL MARKETING

There is no better way to prove the importance of email in digital marketing than through statistics. Over the years, digital marketing has developed a large variety of marketing strategies and techniques. These include cold calling, Facebook Ads, SEO optimization, social media posting, videos, TV, etc. But one thing is clear – email marketing remains the most important tool for brands and businesses today. It is likely to remain the same over the coming years based on the following statistics. 

  • Email is popularly used worldwide. The current world’s population stands at 7.9 billion. Out of this number, 4.8 billion people use email. That is almost 61% of the world’s population, and the rate is expected to grow at 5.7% every year. This is equivalent to 700,000 new users daily. Last year, there were around 306.4 billion emails received and sent every day. Although most people will say that it is such a hell of spam, marketing emails continue to convert leads into customers and engage people with brands and businesses. 
  • Email marketing has an attractive return on investment (ROI). An email can give businesses of all sizes an attractive ROI. Brands and businesses with a limited marketing budget need to ensure that their marketing strategy will yield a profitable result. The best thing about email marketing is that you can collect subscribers and send emails for free.
  • The first email blast was sent in 1978 and generated $13 million of sales. Technology has created a lot of new digital marketing techniques, but the ROI of email marketing is still sky-high. Today, it is calculated at 4400%. This means that every dollar a brand or business spends on email marketing delivers $44.00 of profit. This is why when people commonly ask if email marketing is dead, the answer is a resounding NO!
  • Email marketing helps social media boost community engagement and generate leads. A social media agency Hong Kong has noted that email marketing is a perfect support mechanism to boost community engagement and generate leads on social media posts. 

After publishing content on a social media page, marketers commonly send these links via emails. This is to boost the discovery of the content. Among social media followers, brands and businesses continuously engage with them by sending event invitations, newsletters, product updates, promotions, etc. via email. To generate leads, they send out welcome emails and surveys. 

Below are the email open rates among social media platforms:

  • Welcome emails = 82.21%
  • Autoresponders = 29.77%
  • RSS emails = 26.78%
  • Triggered emails = 44.07%
  • Newsletters = 20.48%

THE BOTTOM LINE

People feel excited about seeing their names on their inboxes. This makes email an important part of digital marketing. They still provide wonderful marketing results today. To keep your email more engaging, a video marketing agency Hong Kong suggests adding short video clips to liven your email content. They increase email conversion and open rates by 7 to 13 percent.

Reference: https://www.emailtooltester.com/en/blog/email-marketing-statistics/#Email_Marketing_and_why_its_so_Important

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4 Facebook Video Ads Made Easy

Facebook Video Ads

There are two important things every business on Facebook needs to know. First, the platform has a global database of users who are willing to share their interests and preferences. As such, they make marketing more accurate. Second, Facebook users are crazy about video content. So, if you want to see a great return on investment, it is recommended to use video ads as part of your marketing strategy.

According to a digital marketing speaker Hong Kong, Facebook is the third most visited site in the world, next to Google and YouTube. But, when it comes to the most promising platform for video campaigns, Facebook ranks on top with YouTube and Instagram coming next. This may be the reason why 84% of video marketers use the king of social media as their main video channel. Around 47% of Facebook users watched video ads mainly on the platform. And 62% of those who watched Stories video on Facebook become more interested in a brand or product.

VIDEO ADS THAT WORK BEST ON FACEBOOK

Not all video ads work well on Facebook. Even though 71% of Facebook shoppers say that the video ads they see are relevant, a social media agency Hong Kong notes that some types of videos have better appeal over viewers. 

Facebook viewers prefer live video broadcasts 4x over recorded videos. They also watched square videos 35% more frequently than landscape ones. This is because square videos are the perfect video format for mobile device users. Yet, the best type of video ads that work best on Facebook, per a video marketing agency Hong Kong, are vertical videos. They are more visible by 13.8% than any other type of video feed. They also received 6 to 9 times more engagement. 

Shorter video ads appeal more to Facebook users. They have a shorter attention span due to a large number of posts in their news feeds. So, marketers should maximize showing a brand’s message within the first 3 seconds of a video ad. As much as possible, it is best to limit the length of video ads to 15 seconds. It is also recommended for brands and businesses to directly upload video ads on the Facebook app. Native videos on Facebook have 10x more reach than shared YouTube links on news feeds. They even get 478% more shares compared to other video platforms. 

Here are some more Facebook video statistics:

  • Facebook video ads cost 20x less than TV adverts but result in 2x more reach.
  • Text captions on videos boost viewing by 12%.
  • Videos containing numbers on their titles receive more views.
  • Videos optimized for mobile increased brand awareness by 67%.

4 FACEBOOK VIDEO ADS MADE EASY

Facebook users visited the platform primarily to connect with the world and not mainly to shop. This means that people hate to see ads on their news feeds. The key is to make your video ads appear as a native Facebook video instead of a commercial. Make the audience feel that the content is a normal Facebook post. Below are 4 Facebook video ads made easy.

Facebook Video Ads with Attention-Grabbing Headlines

Facebook video ads with attention-grabbing headlines get people to click into their content. The headline made them curious to embark on the journey of becoming a brand customer. The headline should deliver an authentic brand message, generate empathy, and spark emotions. If people read the headline, it should entice them by knowing what value they could get out of the video. Think of your video ads headline as a puzzle piece. If it is a semi-circle, people will not be looking for a square. This means that the headline should connect the value directly to the viewer, but viewers have to click to discover what it is completely. Some pro-tips to creating catchy headlines are using numbers and positive words like best, good, top, etc. Keep the headline short and sweet – not more than 7 words long.

Facebook Video Ads with Call to Action

Call to action (CTA) are clickable links leading users to conversions. This can be an app download, free trial, lead generation form, sharing a post, or subscription forms, etc. Videos with CTAs placed in the middle part have the highest conversion rate at 16.95%. As Facebook users prefer to watch shorter videos, putting CTAs in the middle part of their viewing experience is the right time for viewers to click these CTAs. 

Interview-Style Facebook Video Ads

An easy-to-create Facebook video ad that the audience will surely watch is an interview-style video. But this is not in the traditional interview setting. Instead, make the subject look away from the camera. Let it appear that he or she is talking to somebody else. As such, the video ads seem to feel less rehearsed and stilted – making it feel more authentic. Interview-style video ads are great for brand announcements coming from a company executive or an influencer testimonial about a product or service. As the video ads feel authoritative, they also feel like more organic content on Facebook.

Text-on-Screen Facebook Video Ads

Most Facebook videos today contain text overlays narrating the story over video clips. This is because 85% of Facebook videos are watched without sounds. People using Facebook visited the platform while at work, commuting, in coffee shops or public places, or traveling. Video sounds can distract other people that is why they muted their desktop and mobile devices. Video ads with text overlays can be very powerful in highlighting the message of a brand. The key is to design your content from a buyer persona. Make the video content appear that somebody else is telling how great your products and services are. To create an organic content effect, be creative in choosing the settings and theme like a casual talk at a bar, chit-chat with friends at a coffee shop, etc. 

Reference: https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/facebook-video-ads-made-easy-5-ideas-to-boost-sales/

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The New Rules on Content Marketing

The New Rules on Content Marketing

There was a significant change in digital marketing last year. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted businesses from physical stores to online shops. Thus, 2021 is the year of online connections. Online is where most people search for answers to their questions. They look for educational, informational, and interactive content. As such, content marketing became the most effective way to achieve digital marketing goals. Modern consumers love well-crafted content. They encourage more interactions and quicker decisions. 

According to a digital marketing speaker Hong Kong, content marketing is fast changing. What has been a best practice in recent years may already be obsolete these days. Consumer habits change and do the privacy policies and search algorithms, but there is one strategy that brands should never fall behind. That is content marketing! To better guide you, here are the new rules in content marketing.

WHY IS CONTENT MARKETING ESSENTIAL THIS 2021?

Content marketing is the creation and distribution of online materials to stimulate interest among brands, products, and services. These materials include blogs, social media posts, and videos. A social media agency Hong Kong has given the following reasons why content marketing is essential this 2021.

Content Marketing Can Be Used in Different Channels in Different Ways

There are boundless ways to use content marketing in multi-platforms. Active blogging yields a 434% increase in search-indexed pages. As it attracts more prospects to a brand’s page, it boosts visibility and enhances the page authority by 97%. Around 86% of B2C marketers have proven content marketing as the most effective way to promote a business. It fills up a brand’s social media calendar reaching over 3 billion social media users.

Content Marketing Encourages Consumers to Make Quicker Decisions

Content is the key to encourage consumers to make quicker decisions. Publishing helpful, informational, relevant, and valuable content builds a positive reputation and establishes trust. Once the consumer understands that the brand is a leader in success, they will choose the brand in less time. As such, they boost conversion and lead generation. Backed by data, here are some statistics proving content as effective in encouraging quicker decisions among target audiences:

  • Blogging results in 67% more leads per month among B2B marketers. 
  • Customized content makes 61% of social media consumers make a purchase.
  • Content marketing produces 3x more leads for every dollar spent than any other marketing strategy. 

Content Marketing Is the Best Way to Improve Search Ranking

To improve search ranking, brands and businesses typically employ content marketing to establish their personality and voice. By sharing entertaining, informative, and inspiring content, they build relationships and engage with the consumers at every step of their buying journey. As such, they were able to improve their search ranking as people discover them through content and recommend them through word of mouth. A video marketing agency Hong Kong, last year’s pandemic has greatly changed the content marketing landscape with videos being the winner among all types of content. This 2021, around 78% of people watch online videos weekly. By the year 2022, videos will comprise 82% of online consumer traffic. 

THE NEW RULES IN CONTENT MARKETING

Below are the new rules in content marketing.

The Length of a Content No Longer Matters

In the past years, content strategies were obsessed with word count and time spent on content. They prefer longer-form content as they give a complete detail and understanding of a brand’s message. This no longer holds true this year. The concept of comprehensive content has changed. Google now makes it clear that they will prioritize the best content that answers a query regardless of how long or short it is. For example, if a searcher asked how many feet are in a mile, Google will rank results that answer the question directly. It is probably not a 1500-word blog. Among social media platforms, GIFs, quotes, one-liners, and short-form videos capture the audiences’ attention the most. This is because social media users have a shorter attention span with the many feeds they are seeing on their accounts.

Optimizing Old Content

Search engines typically prefer fresh and new content, but the new rule in content marketing dictates optimizing old content. Updating the old content can easily turn it into a fresh and relevant post to deliver better results among search engines. There are several creative ways to spruce up old content. You can turn a long blog post into an educational video. Liven up step-by-step instructions through a slide. Create infographics out of business statistics. What is important is to deliver accurate and updated information giving value to the customers.


Video Is More Relevant Than Ever

Short-form videos are taking over this 2021. Instagram Reels, Twitter Moments, TikTok Clips, and YouTube Shorts have captured both the hearts of the millennials and other generations. Among content marketers, short-form videos are highly shareable enabling larger reach. Today, tutorials and webinars are amazing content marketing tools that beat an investment. Others pull shorter clips out of longer videos. They turned it into segments and teasers to engage their target audiences. With a ton of free video editors, the video became a more relevant item in content marketing. And that’s a new rule!

Voice Search Is Rising

In 2021, there are around 4.88 billion mobile users. This greatly contributed to the rise of voice searches. In the US alone, one-third of its population is using voice search, while 71% of consumers globally prefer voice searches over tying their queries. Another new rule in content marketing is to focus on voice search. The Voice Search SEO Guide from Search Engine Watch recommends using long-tail keywords in content marketing. People using voice search are more likely to ask a full question. A one-sentence answer will put you in the top position of voice searches. To maximize such features, crafting an FAQ page can capture a lot of queries. 

Reference: https://evenbound.com/blog/content-marketing-2021

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The Most Common Reasons Why People Unfollow a Twitter Account

Twitter

Twitter is a microblogging social media platform founded in 2006. It allows users to send and receive short posts of up to 280 characters. These are called “tweets,” and they can contain a link, photo, or video. Jack Dorsey originally imagined Twitter as an SMS-based communication. He wanted him and his group of friends to keep up with what each other are doing through short status updates. On 21 March 2006, Jack made the first tweet – “just setting up my twttr.” The initial platform setup failed because Jack and his friends ended up paying high phone bills due to SMS charges. So, they redesigned the platform as Internet-based. In 2007, Twitter exploded through the 2007 South by Southwest (@sxsw) Interactive conference. The Twitter team had a huge presence on the said event and took advantage of it. More than 60,000 tweets were sent daily. Fast forward, Twitter now has 199 million daily active users with 500 million tweets sent daily. 

According to a digital marketing speaker Hong Kong, 75% of B2B marketers advertise their products on Twitter. Around 40% of users make a purchase after seeing a product or service on a tweet. As one of the top 3 social media apps in 2021, brands and businesses on Twitter should keep their Twitter follower counts going up. A social media agency Hong Kong has noted the most common reasons why people unfollow a Twitter account. Here’s a rundown to help you avoid such mistakes.

You Don’t Post Often Enough

Twitter is a social media platform where users go to find the latest news and trends. It is where they initiate conversations on viral content. This means that Twitter is a demanding platform for consistent tweets. If you don’t post enough, your Twitter followers may abandon you. It is highly recommended to post on Twitter a few times a day to continuously engage with your dedicated audience. Tweets have a short life shell. The best time to post on Twitter is between 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM.

You Post Too Often

Twitter demands constant posting daily, but people may unfollow your Twitter account if you post too often. The frequency of your posts on Twitter needs fine-tuning. If you post too much, your posts may look spammy, and people may unfollow you. The sweet spot is to tweet 3 to 6 times daily and spread it out within the whole day. 

You Only Post Ads or Sales

Twitter is an effective marketing platform. But just like other social media networks, people will distrust and leave you if you are too pushy to get sales. Don’t post only ads or sales on Twitter. Here are some post ideas to tweet:

  • An upcoming endorsement, event, product launch, or testimonials can excite your followers. Better yet, pin the tweet for better visibility. You may also post a series of tweets as teasers.
  • Asking questions relevant to a brand is a great way to start a conversation and garner engagement. 
  • GIFs, quotes, or memes can go viral.
  • Promote your brand and educate your followers through blog post links.
  • Sharing promo codes during holiday seasons can boost engagement and sales.
  • Sharing visuals can catch your followers’ attention.
  • Tweet relevant industry news to make everyone informed.
  • A video marketing agency Hong Kong suggests that live-tweeting is a great way to generate real-time conversation and engagement.

You Never Respond

Your Twitter followers crave interaction. That is why Twitter is classified as a social media network. If you don’t respond to your user and have the habit of ignoring them, they will feel resentful and may unfollow your account. Twitter is two-way communication. If your followers ask a question, try your best to answer them quickly and sensitively. During holidays, send some greetings to make them feel valued. It may also help to send them promotional messages or updates from time to time. However, don’t do it too often to avoid being tagged as spam. If you see a relevant conversation among tweets, you may want to join and engage with your followers. Being active in your Twitter account is the key to gaining more followers instead of losing them.

Someone Else Does What You Do, But Better

Sometimes, your Twitter account may be very similar to another Twitter account. Both accounts may fall under the same category, industry, or niche. If this happens and the other account is more than active in posting and engaging with their followers, your Twitter followers may unfollow you and switch to following the other account instead. The key to avoiding this is to keep track of your competitors. Focus on creating quality content that is relevant to your followers’ interests and preferences. Tweet something that your followers can engage, interact, and learn.

Reference: https://blog.red-website-design.co.uk/2021/06/11/twitter-unfollow/

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Tips to Optimize a Facebook Business Page

Facebook Business Page

When was the last time that you updated your Facebook Page? Are you busy posting content that you forget refreshing your identity on Facebook? This is what most brands and businesses neglect. They focus on bidding for paid ads and neglect the power of organic reach. Out of 140 million businesses on Facebook, only 60 million have Facebook Pages. Today, Facebook focuses on enhancing community engagement. For brands and businesses, Facebook Groups and Pages are the perfect way to do this. A social media agency Hong Kong says that Facebook is still king. So, you have to optimize every aspect of your Facebook account to reach 2.85 billion people. If you decide to optimize a Facebook Business Page, here are some useful tips on how to do it.

Create Facebook Group Guides

Guides are folders for the most important information among Facebook Groups and Pages. These include training links and updates posted by admins of the group or page. To create a new guide, an admin needs to click the “More” link on top of the page and select “Guides.” Give your new Guide a name and description, then, you can start posting captions, content, images, links, and videos. Facebook posts published on Guides are more visible in a group or page feeds even if they look like a normal post. According to a digital marketing speaker Hong Kong, Facebook Group Guides are the perfect way to declutter and organize posts that admins will publish within the group or page. Previously, any post can be published without using guides and it goes the same today. But when Facebook rolled out the Guides tab among Facebook Groups and Pages, this made the admin’s posts rank on feeds.

Host Q & A Sessions Using Your Facebook Business Page

A question-and-answer (Q&A) session allows the audience to ask questions about relevant topics and the host answers them in return. Such types of sessions allow the host to give help or support to the audiences in real-time. Today, Facebook Pages can host a Q & A to interact with their communities. They can join groups and interact directly. To host a Q & A via a Facebook Page, you can create a new post and select “Host a Q & A.” You can add instructions and topics before scheduling the Q & A. Once the Q & A is published, you’ll receive notifications for every comment. Your initial reply to a comment will be paired with the questions and added as a separate card. Viewers of the Q & A can slide or swipe the cards to view them. A small label that reads as “Q & A” shows on the post for ongoing Q & A sessions. This label disappears once the host ends the session and it could be anytime. A video marketing agency Hong Kong suggested hosting a live Q & A broadcast on Facebook Pages. This trend boosts brand awareness and reach and builds loyalty among a brand’s followers. By quickly answering their questions or resolving their issues during a live stream, the audiences will feel appreciated and valued by a brand. 

Update the Cover and Profile Photos on Your Facebook Business Page Regularly

When it comes to marketing a brand, brands can’t really ignore the power of Facebook Pages. They have long been trying to master perfecting the size of a Facebook Page’s cover and profile photo. They are also applying the best practices to descriptions about their business. When a user browses Facebook, the cover and profile photo are the first thing the user will see. As they say, first impressions last. If a brand is updating its cover and profile photo regularly, it will boost engagement among the page’s viewers. Today, the recommended size for a cover photo is 820 X 312 pixels. While the recommended size for a profile photo is 640 X 360 pixels. What is important is to test that the image is mobile-friendly. It is because a lot of Facebook users access the app through mobile devices. Needless to say, brands should not just focus on updating the images on their Facebook Pages. They should also be creative enough to add a relevant and timely description for SEO purposes. Putting a call-to-action on the description is also a smart way to boost brand awareness and conversion.

Update the Info Fields on Your Facebook Business Page

The new layout of a Facebook Page places an intro to allow businesses to put their basic information near the top of the page. These are the first pieces that a page visitor will see after the cover and profile photo. In general, the info fields summarize a brand’s “About Section.” While most of the info fields are optional, brands need to complete and update them. This is for discovery and SEO purposes. The more information you fill out, the higher your chance to rank up. In Facebook per se, this information makes a brand visible on the “Discover” feed based on the users’ online behaviors. If your info fields’ information is relevant to the posts they interact with or other pages they visited, your Facebook Page will likely show up.

Reference: https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-optimize-your-facebook-business-page-for-latest-updates/

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A Guide to Content Marketing

Content Marketing

Have you ever listened to a podcast? Have you ever read blog content or gone through an infographic? Have you been browsing social media posts or watching videos online? All these things are under one umbrella of digital marketing. Such an umbrella is called content marketing. Content marketing aims at educating the audiences to turn them into customers and loyal followers. It is a basic strategy to market a brand, product, or service online. A social media agency Hong Kong uses content marketing to increase brand awareness, build communities, and sell products and services via social eCommerce. If you are considering venturing into a content marketing strategy, here’s a useful guide. 

THE POWER OF CONTENT MARKETING

According to a digital marketing speaker Hong Kong, content marketing is a great way to stay relevant with the ever-changing marketing trends. It is a very powerful strategy to boost SEO, build social media communities, gather leads, and generate sales. Below are some statistics to prove the power of content marketing.

  • 61% of consumers bought something recommended by a blog that they read. 
  • 90% of top brands prioritize informational content over sales-y messages. 
  • 95% of consumers trust a business more after reading trustworthy content. 
  • 96% of marketers believe that content marketing helps build credibility and trust with the audiences.
  • Content marketing costs 62% cheaper than traditional marketing.
  • Content marketing generates 3x more leads than traditional marketing.

WHAT IS CONTENT MARKETING?

Content marketing is an approach that focuses on the creation and distribution of consistent, relevant, and valuable content to attract and retain a target audience. This strategy provides useful information to customers and prospects on how to solve their issues and pain points. Instead of pitching your products and services, content marketing can ultimately drive profitable actions by positioning them as the best solution to the consumer’s problem. 

Content marketing supports the most common digital marketing strategies. It comes before social media marketing. It creates engaging articles, images, and videos to post on a brand’s social media account. It also creates consistent and quality blogs, business descriptions, infographics, and products or services descriptions to rank among search engines. It addresses the issues of the readers for a successful PR strategy. Content is also the key to drive leads and traffic for inbound and outbound campaigns. For pay-per-click (PPC) to work, great content and keywords are always behind it. 

TYPES OF CONTENT MARKETING

There are many types of content marketing that brands and businesses can use to boost brand awareness, build communities, and generate sales. Among the most common and effective types of content marketing are the following:

Blogs

Blog posts are the most cost-efficient and powerful type of content marketing. Creating quality blogs positions a brand or a business as an authority in their industry or niche. It invites more interactions as your audience discovers ways to solve their pain points and problems. It also encourages building a community under a common interest.

Creating and distributing blog posts costs zero to less as compared to other forms of marketing. But statistics have proven them to be very effective. When compared to traditional marketing techniques, blog content marketing generates 67% more lead, 97% more inbound links, and 434% more indexed pages. Some best practices for blog content marketing are:

  • Conducting competitive analysis and research about the audiences’ interests and your products or services.
  • Organizing blog topics in clusters and pillars. Clustering involves creating blog posts for relevant and specific topics. The pillar method links cluster blog posts into one article. 
  • Writing headlines that spark interest and using relevant keywords for SEO. 

Infographics

Every brand or business has a message to tell. The challenge is bundling it up to make anyone and everyone understand that message. As the saying goes, a picture paints a thousand words.

The principle of infographics content marketing follows the same rule. Infographics are the display of content, data, or information using graphics or images. It mixed simple wordings with clear images to effectively communicate a message. As 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual, infographics use images to supplement the retention of a brand or business message. Memes and GIFs are popular forms of infographics. These fun and light-hearted infographic formats often go viral among social media platforms.

Paid Ads

Most brands and businesses aim to amplify organic reach in the very first stage of content marketing. This, they can do through paid ads. Paid Ad content marketing means paying digital apps, landing pages, search engines, social media pages, and video platforms to highlight showing their content on such pages. It is a form of sponsored content that doesn’t cost a fortune like other techniques of paid digital marketing. The most common paid ads are Amazon ads, display advertising, pay-per-click (PPC), retargeting, social media advertising, and YouTube advertising.

Podcasts

The rise of mobile devices contributed greatly to a significant switch on the behavior of modern consumers. Voice searches via mobile are becoming popular. People get more emotionally connected to voice ads and content. Just last year, podcast content marketing grew from 18.5 million to 29 million episodes. For this reason, many brands and businesses are now creating and sharing their own podcast.

Podcast content marketing is the digital evolution of radio broadcasting. It is the process of creating audio files to connect, educate, and engage with the audience. Listeners can tap into these on-the-go content while having breakfast, on their way to work, or even while lying on their bed. It is a powerful way to communicate a range of ideas, information, products, and services. 

Social Media

Today, out of the 7 billion world population, 3.6 million are social media users. That is why in this digital age, there is nothing like social media content marketing when it comes to promoting products and services. The top 6 social media platforms for 2021 are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Likewise, the best practices on social media content marketing today are partnering with influencers and KOLs plus harnessing the power of user-generated content (UGC). Partnering with KOLs and influencers allows brands to reach an established audience base. On the other hand, UGCs boost brand conversion through trusted sources – their happy customers. 

Videos

According to a video marketing agency Hong Kong, around 69% of consumers today prefer to watch a video than reading product descriptions to learn more about it. Through live streams and short-form video stories, brands and businesses can boost conversion, boost ROI, and build communities. Video content marketing can grab the attention of users more than catchy headlines. They can evoke the viewers’ emotions and influence their buying decisions. Video content marketing is also effective because of its versatility. They come in different forms like commercials, demos, explainers, how-to, unboxing, vlogs, and webinars.

Reference: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/content-marketing

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What Is a Podcast?

A Podcast is a simple series of digitally-distributed spoken audio files intended to be downloaded on a computer for simple listening. Audio streaming programs and software offer an easy and integrated means to manage a wide variety of personal entertainment queue across multiple podcasting applications and media devices. This enables the user to listen to the program as it updates in real time and provides the ability to schedule a specific time to listen to the audio when the user desires. Podcasts are becoming more popular every day and can be found on just about any type of digital media platform, including the iTunes store, iPods and Playstations.

Pods have become a popular means for people to communicate and to share information online. While a pod may appear similar to a regular audio file sharing software, the differences are many. The ability to play, pause and delete the podcast in real-time and the ability to synchronize multiple podcast feeds make this a superior option to regular file sharing. Not to mention that the software is often times more secure and allows for a better browsing experience.

Podcasts are categorized by topic and are separated into different categories. One of the most popular categories that can be found is called entertainment or information. There are a variety of podcast directories that are available to consumers on the internet where they can find and download a wide variety of podcasts based on the specific category.

Information podcasts are very similar to audio podcast directories except they provide a comprehensive directory of all types of information, no matter if it’s news, entertainment, or personal. They are very much like the radio or television news and information category and provide users with the ability to listen to the news at any time. These types of podcasts are also usually more detailed and focused and provide viewers with information about the story of the day or week.

Entertainment podcasts are designed for the avid podcast listener or casual podcast enthusiast. These are often more of an entertainment or informational category and provide the listener with the ability to listen to new releases and the hottest news in a variety of genres. These podcasts are typically shorter and feature the latest music hits or pop culture related news stories.

Popular podcast directories are designed to be interactive and allow the user to search for a list of categories and even categories by category or keyword. This allows users to easily browse and choose the right podcast for them and their particular preferences. Podcast directories are available online for free and can be searched through the use of a search engine.