This article will discuss advanced strategies to master successful collaborations with Instagram influencers. These strategies will help you reach your marketing goals and establish a strong and sustainable relationship with influencers. So, let’s dive in and explore how you can elevate your Instagram influencer game and see long-term results.

Set Your Objectives

In today’s digital landscape, influencer marketing has become vital to any successful social media strategy. With Instagram being one of the top platforms for influencer collaborations, businesses must set clear objectives before diving into partnerships.

1. Define Your Goals: Before starting any campaign, it’s essential to understand what you want to achieve through influencer marketing. This could be increasing brand awareness, driving sales, or reaching a new target audience. Clearly defining your objectives will help guide your decisions and measure the success of your partnerships.
2. Know Your Target Audience: Identifying your target audience is crucial for finding the right influencers to collaborate with. Consider their age, interests, and location to ensure a successful partnership that resonates with your target audience.
3. Set a Realistic Budget: Influencer partnerships range from free products to paid collaborations. Setting a budget that aligns with your goals and expectations is essential.

By setting clear objectives, businesses can ensure that their collaborations with Instagram influencers are strategic and effective in reaching their target audience.

Define Your Target Audience

Knowing your target audience is crucial for any successful Instagram influencer campaign. It refers to the people most likely to engage with your Instagram content and to your brand. To define your target audience, consider the following points:

1. Identify demographics: Understand the age, gender, location, and interests of your audience. It will help you tailor your content to their preferences.

2. Study audience behavior: Analyze how your target audience interacts with similar brands and influencers on Instagram. It will give you an insight into their preferences and habits.

3. Determine pain points: Identify the problems or needs of your target audience and how your brand can provide a solution.

By defining your target audience, you can create more targeted and compelling content that resonates with them and increases engagement. It will also help you choose the right influencers with a similar audience and can effectively promote your brand on Instagram.

Creating a Compelling Content

The success of your Instagram influencer campaign heavily relies on the content you create. To engage your target audience and drive conversions, creating compelling and relevant content that resonates with them is crucial.

1. Know Your Audience

Before creating content, it is essential to have a deep understanding of your target audience. Research their demographics, interests, and behavior on Instagram to tailor your content accordingly.

2. Be Authentic

Influencers are known for their authentic and genuine content. To maximize your partnership, allow them creative freedom while staying true to your brand’s values and message. It will make your content more relatable and trustworthy to their followers.

3. Collaborate with Influencers

Influencers know their audience best, collaborating with them for content ideas and creation can result in highly engaging and impactful posts. It also helps in building a solid and long-term relationship with the influencer.

4. Use Visuals and Storytelling

Instagram is a visual platform, and using high-quality images or videos can capture the attention of your audience. Combine this with storytelling to make your content more compelling and memorable.

With these tips, you can create content that generates likes and drives conversions on Instagram. Keep experimenting and adapting your Instagram content strategy to see what works best for your brand and target audience.

Choose the Right Influencers

When it comes to influencer marketing on Instagram, choosing the right influencers is crucial for the success of your campaign. You want to choose the right influencers who align with your brand values and have an engaged and relevant audience.

1. Define your target audience and research the demographics of the influencers’ followers to ensure a good fit.
2. Look for influencers with a high engagement rate rather than just many followers.
3. Consider collaborating with micro-influencers who have a smaller but highly engaged niche audience.
4. Look at the type of content the influencer posts and ensure it aligns with your brand and campaign objectives.
5. Research the influencer’s past collaborations to see if they have a history of successful partnerships.
6. Feel free to reach out and have a conversation with potential influencers to get a feel for their personality and communication styles.

By carefully selecting the right influencers for your campaign, you can ensure that your brand message reaches the right audience and that the collaboration mutually benefits both parties.

Explore Your Content Strategy

When collaborating with Instagram influencers, having a clear content strategy is crucial for success. Your content should align with your brand’s image and values and resonate with your target audience and the influencer’s followers. Here are some key points to consider when exploring your content strategy:

1. Define your goals and objectives: Before creating content, determine what you want to achieve from the collaboration. Is it to increase brand awareness, drive sales, or improve brand credibility?

2. Understand your target audience: Research the influencer’s followers and understand their interests, behaviors, and demographics. It will help you create content that will resonate with them.

3. Collaborate with the influencer: Involve the influencer in creating content. They know their audience best and can provide valuable insights and ideas.

4. Be creative and authentic: Don’t just promote your products or services. Instead, showcase them creatively and authentically to engage the audience and build trust.

5. Utilize different content formats: From photos to videos to Instagram Stories, use a variety of content formats to keep your audience engaged and interested.

By exploring your content strategy and continuously adapting based on the performance of your campaigns, you can create impactful and successful collaborations with Instagram influencers.

Optimize Your Online Presence

A solid online presence is crucial for any business, especially regarding influencer marketing on Instagram. Your brand’s online presence is a first impression for potential collaborators and customers.

To optimize your online presence:

• Be consistent with your branding: Ensure all your social media platforms, website, and marketing materials are visually cohesive. It will help create a solid and recognizable brand identity.

• Engage with your audience: Interacting with your followers and responding to comments and messages will show that you value their opinions and are invested in building a relationship with them.

• Collaborate with other influencers: Working with influencers in your industry can help expand your reach and bring in new followers and potential customers.

• Utilize Instagram features: Take advantage of Instagram’s various features, such as Stories, IGTV, and Reels, to showcase your brand’s personality and engage with your audience more creatively and interactively.

By optimizing your online presence, you will not only attract the attention of potential influencers but also establish a strong brand image on Instagram that resonates with your target audience. It will ultimately lead to more successful and impactful collaborations with Instagram influencers.

Post Unique Content Regularly

In order to keep your audience engaged and interested, it is crucial to post unique content regularly on your Instagram account. This means creating diverse and creative content that showcases your brand and speaks to your target audience. Various content also keeps your feed visually appealing and prevents followers from getting bored.

One way to ensure you regularly post unique content is by planning and scheduling your posts in advance. It allows you to have a consistent flow of content without constantly coming up with ideas on the spot. Additionally, consider collaborating with influencers to create new and exciting content for your audience. This keeps things fresh and introduces your brand to a new audience through the influencer’s followers.

Remember, in the world of social media, content is king. Posting unique and engaging content regularly will keep your current followers interested and attract new ones. So, make it a priority to regularly create and share unique content on your Instagram account to keep your audience captivated and grow your brand.  By posting high quality and attractive content can help to get a high engagement rate with Instagram Reels.

Track the Metrics of Your Campaign

Once you have implemented your advanced Instagram influencer strategies, it is crucial to track the metrics of your campaign to measure its success. It will help you determine the ROI of your influencer partnerships and provide valuable insights for future collaborations.

Some key metrics to track include:

• Engagement rate: This measures how actively your followers interact with your content. It is calculated by dividing your total engagements (likes, comments, shares) by the total number of followers.
• Reach: This reflects the number of unique users who have seen your content. It can give you an idea of the potential impact of your campaign.
• Conversion rate: This measures how many of your followers have taken a desired action, such as purchasing after seeing your influencer’s post.

Regularly monitor these metrics and compare them to your initial objectives to see if you are on track. You can also use analytics tools from Instagram or third-party platforms to get more in-depth insights. Adjust your strategies and tactics based on the data you collect. It will help you continuously improve and optimize your campaigns for better results.

Conclusion

The rise of influencer marketing on Instagram has significantly shifted how businesses approach social media partnerships. While likes were once the primary metric for success, the focus has shifted towards creating long-term engagement with influencers to drive authentic and meaningful connections with their audience. 

As discussed in this article, mastering advanced strategies such as defining clear objectives, targeting the right audience, creating compelling content, and optimizing your online presence can significantly enhance the success of your collaborations with Instagram influencers. 

By continuously tracking the metrics of your campaign and adapting your approach, businesses can ensure a successful and impactful influencer partnership. So don’t hesitate to experiment and adapt to the ever-changing landscape of Instagram influencer marketing, and watch your brand’s engagement and reach soar to new heights.

The post From Likes to Long-Term Engagement: Mastering Advanced Instagram Influencer Strategies appeared first on SiteProNews.

What an incredible number it is, isn’t it?

Highly qualified marketers know:

Time does not stand still. All of us have to continue to further educate ourselves on the latest influencer marketing trends to stay up to date. Otherwise, your knowledge will become obsolete and you fail to increase your competitiveness.

The consequence is that you lose valuable business opportunities and clients.

This article will focus on likely influencer marketing trends for 2023 which you need to keep on your radar. Then, increasing sales will be a walk in the park for you.

1. Analytics Will Play a Much Larger Role

Most brands have started paying more attention to influencer analytics. In the end, the priority is on results. These matter the most to marketing executives. However, most brands neglected the analytical component in the past.

Without analytics, you cannot improve your future campaign results. Engagement rates, average sales, and total revenue generated per influencer are crucial to evaluate campaigns and their effectiveness.

Otherwise, you cannot respond to questions such as:

• Which niche do the most successful influencers belong to?
• Does follower size affect campaign results? Do larger or smaller influencers perform better?
• What type of cooperation is best suited to our marketing goals?
• Are there different results depending on the social media platform?

You need to quantify your information to compare influencers’ results. This is not achievable without carefully analyzing which influencer collaborations work.

Brands have recognized how crucial the analytical process is to succeed with influencer campaigns. Hence, in 2023 analytics will become a whole new ball game in influencer marketing.

2. The Beginning of Pure Professionalization

Amateurs were looked at fondly in the beginning of influencer marketing. The whole business was something new and fascinating. Nowadays, companies expect a certain standard when working with influencers.

Excessive prices, unfriendly communication, and influencer fraud will put you on the blacklist and not on the company’s radar.

Ensure that you forge win-win professional relationships. This includes having a media kit ready, sending all the required information, and dealing respectfully with prospective business partners.

3. Influencer Marketing Must Gross All of Its Costs

The time is over when brands could just realize influencer campaigns without having to primarily focus on achieving sales. Influencer marketing has lefts its infancy behind. It is no longer just a PR matter. Brands are focused on the whole media package, including ROI, branding, and reach.

Results matter. Especially now, brands cannot pour money down the drain. Employees must justify expenses in front of their bosses.

Better ensure your influencers deliver the results you promised. Otherwise, a future collaboration will disappear into nirvana.

The all-defining question is:

Does the influencer collaboration fulfill the planned ROI goals?

If this is not the case, you will get in trouble with your boss.

4. Your Professional Network Become Even More Important

Mega influencers are flooded with dozens, even hundreds of collaboration requests. They do not have the time to answer all of them. Either a hired employee replies to your inquiry or you get no answer at all.

In the rarest cases, they reply themselves. Having the right contacts will become even more decisive in 2023. Only then, you can realize high-quality campaigns to reach the pinnacle of influencer marketing success.

Let’s say you are an employee of a major player such as a reputable influencer marketing agency. You probably have to cooperate with other agencies as well.

You will never cover all niches and subjects. Therefore, you have to build yourself a network that will be profitable for both sides long term. Thus, professional relationships are absolutely crucial to persist in the influencer marketing industry for the long haul.

5. Scaling Influencer Marketing Campaigns

Brand managers are not satisfied with realizing one monthly influencer campaign. Many marketers plan to realize campaigns at scale. Dozens if not hundreds of campaigns are their goal. To realize such a number of campaigns, you need to carefully consider how to proceed.

Brands have to think about how to partially automatize research, pitching to, and negotiating with influencers. If they cannot solve automatizing their influencer campaign approach, it will become more difficult to continuously increase sales.

6. Lack of Data

Many social media platforms developed tools to restrict third-party access to users’ data. This trend will continue in the future. Scandals like the Cambridge Analytics gate are deeply embedded in people’s minds. The unrestricted access to millions of Facebook data sets led to massive protests by privacy groups.

In addition, social networks consider establishing their own influencer marketing platforms. It is an enormous market that could be financially interesting for them.

Aside from receiving influencers’ insights, other data will become more and more restrictive. In addition, it becomes more and more challenging to spot fake followers. So, influencer marketing managers might need to rely more on personal recommendations.

7. Use of In-house Talent

Companies will focus on in-house talent when looking for influencers. They will resort to shareholders, employees, and customers for influencer talent. Business leaders already encourage them to develop and use their talents for the company’s benefit.

This is a much cheaper option for companies and can lead to long-term growth.

For instance, many employees share personal insights as well as career- and industry-related advice on their LinkedIn profiles. Some brands have already started to use social media listening tools to identify loyal customers. Brands can entice customers to share UGC (user generated content) by rewarding them with free products and event invitations.

How to Prepare for Influencer Marketing in 2023 – A Conclusion

Influencer managers will face many obstacles in 2023. A careful preparation, though, will enable marketers to achieve their aims in the upcoming year. However, strategic preparations are crucial to achieving your revenue goals.

Brands interested in using influencer marketing are not the only ones facing challenges. Influencers have to adapt their process as well. Companies expect a professional approach from influencers. Otherwise, they will not be considered for future campaigns. Hence, influencers should professionalize their online presence, communication, and the overall realization of influencer campaigns.

Companies take notice of these influencers and will warmly recommend them. This is a win-win situation for every side.

The post 7 Influencer Marketing Trends You Need to Know for 2023 appeared first on SiteProNews.

But how can you know if influencer marketing is for you? And if it is, how would you choose which influencers to work with? Between the nano, micro, mid-tier and macro levels, there are probably thousands of influencers that might work for you. That’s why it’s important to write down a list of traits you’re looking for in an influencer before you start looking. Here are some key considerations as you decide whether to embark on an influencer campaign:

1. Goals, Measurements, and Contracts

Like all advertising, you have to know your goals before starting. From there, figure out things like platform, influencer target, messaging that fits specific influencers and what your call to action is and how that’s communicated through the content.

Proper measurement is also key. You need to make sure you set the right KPIs for your team so that you’re clear about the ROI you seek from engaging influencers. Are you engaging influencers to:

• Drive sales?
• Build awareness?
• Help with a specific consumer demographic for new customer acquisition?
• Change consumer perception of your brand?
• Answer your brand’s critique? 

Finally, the contract negotiation should be very specific, and stay true to your goals and measurements, as discussed above. For example, you should set expectations on:

• Type and number of posts
• Which platforms will be used
• Messaging
• Usage rights
• Links to e-commerce 
• Revenue-sharing vs. compensation on activity 

In terms of negotiating, see what the sticking points are on price. Usually this centers around exclusivity requirements, licensing rights, number of draft reviews—keep in mind video re-shoots can be particularly pricey—and ownership rights. You can negotiate lower rates by having some give on these areas.

Also note that advertising needs to be disclosed by the influencer, per the Federal Trade Commission.

By narrowing among dozens of reasons to engage influencers to a key singular goal will help with specifics around setting team expectations and specific measurement. And if you don’t set proper expectations, things will not pan out as planned and the relationship could be ruined. That leads to wasted money and bad publicity. 

2. In-House vs. Out-Source

Your company hires experts in marketing, advertising, PR, digital, etc. You should also hire someone that knows influencers. This could be in-house or agency side. Managing influencer programs in-house helps maintain more control of the brand and the campaigns if influencers are a key pillar of your marketing strategy.

On the other hand, working with digital influencers can take a large toll on internal teams—in terms of heavy lifting of time—from forming deals for content creation to pushing paid ads across your brands’ social channels, and measurement. Stacy DeBroff, CEO of Influence Central, tells me “Many companies opt to engage seasoned specialists like my team to run their influencer engagements, as it ensures deep vetting of potential influencers, carefully framed and signed influencer agreements that include extension of content rights to the brand, seamless campaign management, online draft reviews before content gets posted, and detailed and guaranteed campaign metrics drawing directly from each influencer’s behind the scenes data.”

3. Authentic Match

Companies must compare their Brand Value Proposition and Buyer Personas and find authentic matches. Otherwise, customers will discount content from an influencer who seems to be just “doing it for the money.” Additionally, marketers must gauge each influencer’s passion for the brand and their desire to work with you. The key is not to just chase influencers that you think are up and coming, but to go after influencers that will help build an authentic brand.

4. Influencer Strategy

Rather than defaulting to the bottom of the rung with micro influencers or spending your way to the top (unless you’re a large brand) with social media celebrities, the best strategy is a mix of nano, micro, and mid-tier influencers.

Such a mix will usually give the best ROI, since these groups together have a decent mix of followers and are perceived to be more authentic, generally. And of course, marketers need to aim for a mix of influencers that fit the brand/business life stage. Below are the different levels of influencers:

1. Nano influencers (1-10k followers): It costs dramatically less to engage this group, since many of them will create content simply for product samples in return. As such, they can offer you the ability to engage certain groups at lower costs. But be sure they have some experience with such campaigns prior to engagement. Of course, some first-timers will do a great job, but consider their experience level before you go all-in.
2. Micro influencers (10-50k followers): Typically, micro influencers do not have agents—which can often try to pull more money from your pockets—and they tend to be more personal. Though they have smaller followings, comparatively, they can be very effective.
3. Mid-tier influencers (50-500k followers): They have a substantial number of followers, but they typically use many brand partnerships to make money. So since social media can be their primary source of income, they can be dramatically more expensive than the previous tiers. Additionally, many mid-tier influencers have started to engage agents. 
4. Premium/Macro influencers (500k-1m+ followers): They are best used for big, themed and/or seasonal campaigns. But it is often best to avoid them. They often communicate through agents, and the relationship is much less personal. As a result, they frequently dedicate much less of their time to the project. They can also miss the message of authenticity, which is critical, and should be a deal breaker.

While follower count is okay for gauging cost and reach, you can’t make your decisions simply based on this number. KPIs like views and engagement will usually give you a much better idea, and a simple conversation with the influencer in mind can go a long way.

Conclusion

Influencers can be a powerful tool in a marketer’s toolbox, but they must remember that this is about relationship building. That’s why it’s key to involve influencers in your brand, get them passionate, and to not treat them as just an execution point. But at the same time, don’t let them take advantage of you, which is why it is so important to gauge up front how passionate and authentic they are about your brand and have a very clear and specific contract. 

All in all, remember to:

1. Set specific goals, measurements, and contracts
2. Decide if you want influencer management done in-house or out-sourced
3. Find authentic matches and foster passionate relationships
4. Create a strategy that will maximize ROI 

The post Is Your Brand Getting Influencer Marketing Wrong? appeared first on SiteProNews.

Social Media Marketing Strategy

Social media marketing strategy can skyrocket your business in no time. There are so many social media platforms you can use as a part of your marketing strategies. However, the most common ones are Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, and Snapchat. For a social marketing strategy to succeed, firstly, you need to set your goals. What is the main aim of your marketing strategy? Do you want to grow your brand, improve customer retention or increase sales? It is time to look up some marketing strategy templates available on the internet.

After you have defined your goals, you must analyze your target audience as thoroughly as possible, defining its age, income, location, interests, etc. However, it is crucial to assess the competition correctly when it comes to social media marketing strategy. You should try gaps where your competitors are not putting much effort and try winning the audience there. When you are a brand-new business, it is tough to compete against big players, so you must start winning the audience step-by-step.

When implementing a social media marketing strategy, it is crucial to decide which platform you will use for which purpose. For example, you can use Instagram to communicate with your audience and Facebook for customer support. Once you have chosen your platforms, it is time to set up your profile. It must be neat and attractive with pictures of the highest quality. You might want to hire a new employee responsible for promoting your brand and developing the content marketing strategy.

The social media marketing strategy will be successful if you post consistently. Set yourself a schedule and define the best time to create posts. It is crucial to track your success, too. Do experiments with content and define what your target audience likes best. A social media marketing strategy requires a lot of effort, but it is definitely worth it. You do not need to be present on every social media channel. Instead, it is better to concentrate on two or three channels where you will apply your strategy.

Influencer Marketing Strategy

Influencer marketing strategy is a part of social media marketing strategy when you collaborate with a person who has gained the trust and has authority over some people. Influencer marketing strategy is extremely popular and effective nowadays. People spend a lot of time on social media platforms and trust influencers, who, in turn, have established an image in the eyes of the audience and can impact their buying decisions.

Influencers are a great marketing strategy example as they can engage the audience and have established themselves and built a reputation as experts in their niche. While it might seem easy to become an influencer, it isn’t. To be an influencer and gain a loyal audience, you must stand out. It is not enough to make good pictures. Influencers must attract and retain an audience, too.

Partnering with an influencer can be a great marketing strategy. To find a match for your business, you will need to do research. Define how many followers the influencer should have and set your budget limit. Payment for an influencer’s marketing strategy also greatly depends on the niche, your product, and the competition.

Once you have chosen an influencer for your marketing strategy, you need to come up with a plan for your brand’s promotion. Define when and in what way an influencer will promote the brand. 

When you have found a potential influencer to collaborate with, you must ask for the statistics and see what other products they advertise. Make sure they are in the same niche as your brand is and have an audience similar to yours. If their profile matches your requirements, it is time to start collaboration and promote your business with an influencer marketing strategy.

Email Marketing Strategy

Email marketing can be very effective and give you an ROI of more than $50 for each $1 you invest. However, for email marketing to work, you will need to be creative and consistent. This marketing strategy has changed a lot, so you will need to adjust. The most effective way to increase the open rate is by sending personalized emails. If you use a person’s name, they are more likely to open the letter and click on the link you send them, which will result in better sales. Instead of saying “Dear client,” try “Dear John.”

When implementing an email marketing strategy, make sure the email is mobile-friendly. Most emails are read on mobiles rather than computers, so the emails must look good. If the emails you send are not optimized for mobile devices, the reader will probably unsubscribe and block them.

Another good opportunity to boost your email strategy is to re-engage existing subscribers who do not read your emails. Inactive subscribers can be re-engaged if you send them an email offering a good discount or even a free gift. Make the discount valid for a week to encourage your reader to act faster.

Conclusion

All in all, if you develop a good plan and stick to it, any marketing strategy, be it content, email, influencer, or saas marketing, will boost your business and promote your brand. The most important thing is to define your target audience and set realistic goals. Marketing strategies require a lot of time, consistency, and dedication. Do experiments and track the stats to see which strategies work for your audience.

What marketing strategies have you tried for promoting your business? Which ones were the most successful? Please, let us know in the comments below.

The post How to Bring Your Business to the Next Level With Marketing Strategies appeared first on SiteProNews.

With lockdown and travel restrictions in place, people looked towards entertainment websites and communication platforms to entertain and educate themselves. YouTube’s data shows that certain genres of videos were getting a disproportionate amount of views post-march 2020 than their previous averages. Videos of meditation saw a 50% increase, cooking videos saw a 100% increase and workout videos saw the greatest uptick in views at 200%.

More users on the internet mean more ways for a website to generate revenue. However, how people access the internet and the amount of time spent on the internet has greatly changed. So what should SEOs of 2021 do to reap the benefits of this new decade? Let’s review!

1. Optimize for featured snippets

There is no denying the fact that the featured snippet implementation from Google has been a great success. Google snippet is the card that contains a short piece of content that appears under the search bar when you search for something.

You may have noticed the content in the featured snippet is relevant to your search query and may or may not contain an image along with the content.

Having your website featured in the snippets box is very advantageous. First of all, it will drive more traffic to your website, and, secondly, it will create a sense that your website is authoritative. There are a few ways to optimize your content for featured snippets:

• Make your content concise and informative: if your website can explain a concept in a few words, then it has a greater chance of being featured.
• Use short paragraphs and bullet points: There is a character limit to the featured limit. So if the content on your website uses large paragraphs, then the chances of it being featured are low. However, you can break up content to bullet points, which is a great way to present content.
• Add tables and lists: break down your content as lists or tables so that you can serve information in a much more effective way. Make sure to add schema markups for those tables and lists.
• Review competitor snippets, and write one even better: Review the current snippet that has been ranking on the search results page. Now write an even better piece with authoritative content and links hyperlinked.
• Make your website mobile-friendly: Mobile-friendliness is a great way to get your content recognized by Google bots because Google always gives extra points to websites that pay attention to user experience.

2. Online Video will continue to rise

Post lockdown, after movie theatres were closed, people looked towards the internet for entertainment. As mentioned, YouTube saw a significant rise in its viewership (4 billion hours of “how-to” videos watched over the past 12 months), and so did other streaming platforms like Netflix (16 million signups within the first 3 months of lockdown) and Amazon Prime (Prime subscriptions grew to 5.6 billion).

So the demand for video content is at an all-time high. And you can leverage the same for your SEO!

“Incorporating videos into your content is a great way to keep the users hooked and increase the overall dwell time on your website,” said Steve Brady from Allen Law Firm, P.A. “Since there are a plethora of videos available, you do not have to make your own video if there is a good resource material available.”

You can also create a channel for your website that hosts videos related to it. As people search for unique and interesting videos, make sure that you stand out. Use SEO skills to create titles and descriptions that are both google and user-friendly.

3. Google Passage Ranking

Google’s Search On Event 2020 unveiled their Passage based indexing update. In passage-based indexing, Google will show passages related to the search query in the SERP from a website, even if that passage is within a larger paragraph.

Essentially, Google is capable of indexing more than just webpages, it can now understand the context of different passages. The aim behind Google passages is to provide the most relevant information within a large website.

So if your search query is quite complex or niche, Google can still give you relevant answers even if those answers are buried deep within a larger content piece. 

And when you click on the Google Passage search result, it will open up the website and highlight the part that may be of use to you.

In essence, you can get straight to the point without having to read long intros or other information that are not relevant to you on that same page.

For SEO 2021, you need to make sure that the content you create is informative and answers the problem it is meant to solve.

4. Improve your page experience performance

Google values page experience because a higher score on page performance means that the page is very user friendly. Google plans to roll out page experience signals in May 2021. What does this mean for SEOs?

You need to make sure that the webpage you are trying to rank adheres to the best practice guidelines from google. While Google hasn’t let out all the details on page experience, there are some things you can do to increase your overall user experience score.

Mobile-friendliness: With more people accessing the web using their mobile phone than ever before, your website must be easier to view and navigate on mobile. You can check the mobile-friendliness of your website here.

Safe Browsing: Google Safe Browsing was introduced to ensure that users are safeguarded from malicious websites that may cause harm to the user or the device through the use of malware, virus, or phishing. You can check the status of your website using the Safe Browsing site status tool from Google.

Https Security: HTTPS or Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure provides an additional layer of security over the standard HTTP module. You can get your website HTTPS status by installing an SSL certificate. Google gives more priority to websites with HTTPS because of the data encryption it provides.

Intrusive interstitial guidelines: These are more like best practices from Google when designing elements for mobile view. What this means is that the webpage you design must not have elements that hinder usability, like a pop-up that takes the whole screen. The experience should be such that the user can interact with the web content without having their immersion hindered by other visual or dynamic effects.

5. Focus on Semantic and Search intent

Stuffing keywords in the content was one of the effective ways for websites to rank on search engines in the past. However, that has changed significantly over the past years as search engines began to give importance to semantics and search intent.

In 2021, the content you put on your website must provide value to the user, and must fit the search intent.

Understanding search intent is easy. All you have to do is ask ‘Why is this person making this search?’, ‘What do they hope to find in a website?’ and ‘Does my website answer their query?’

If you can figure out all three, then you can create content that is tailored to help the user find what they are searching for on the internet. It is easier said than done, but the reward is definitely worth it! Google prioritizes websites that provide real answers to users rather than keyword-stuffed set pieces. The Attorney Brian White&Associates blog is a good example of this. They created content for relevant search queries to help users easily find them. For example, “Should You Ride Your Bike on the Sidewalk?”, “What Happens If a Dog Bites Someone On Your Property?”, or “Can You Sue for Emotional Distress?”

6. The importance of local SEO

Local SEO is very important in 2021. Websites rank much better for local SEO keywords than their more generic counterparts. This is because Google likes to point you to services that are much closer to you than the most famous one or the one with the most number of reviews.

This is the reason why searches for services like bakeries, plumbers, electricians, etc. show the nearest results to your location.

If you have a Google My Business listing, you can always improve it by adding more photos, or getting more reviews, or updating it with the latest contact information. If done right, local SEO can drive online visits to offline purchases.

7. Content Quality will still be the king

Google is constantly developing ways to give users the best results. Featured snippets and Google Passage are implementations that point towards that one goal.

So you must create quality content for users. If your website does not have content that engages the audience, then they are not going to spend time on your website, which hurts your Google ranking even more!

Review the content you create for EAT: Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.

Ensure the content creator has expertise in the area for which he/she create content. The next step is to establish authoritativeness in your content by adding relevant information about the subject. The final step is to ensure that the content is trustworthy and it doesn’t mislead the user in any way.

And always remember that you are creating content for humans and not bots.

8. Rank for zero-click search results

One of the concerns of SEOs, when Google implemented Featured Snippets and Google Passages, was that it would lead to users finding answers for their query without clicking on the web links.

And it did hurt websites. After Google’s new updates, 34.4% of desktop searches result in no-clicks while the number escalates to 62.5% on mobile devices. In essence, people are getting their search intent answered even before they visit a website!

As you know already, websites generate revenue through traffic. If the user finds the answer to their query from the SERP itself, then there is no need to click on the link and visit the website.

So how do you do SEO for zero-click search results?

The best way is to make sure that your content ranks for Featured Snippets so that your website gets pushed to the top of the SERP page. Optimize your content so that it is authoritative which will prompt the user to learn more about it. In this way, you have a better chance of landing a click.

9. Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is the method of marketing your products or services through social media influencers. The influencers can be celebrities, bloggers, or social media personalities with a huge follower count.

It is highly effective if you have a good strategy in place because you can reach your target audience much more directly. The global influencer-marketing platform is set to grow from USD 6.0 billion in 2020 to USD 24.1 billion by 2025.

Influencer marketing works because people tend to have more trust in the celebrities and famous bloggers they follow. So if they saw them recommend a product or service, it creates social proof that this is worth your time and money.

To create a successful influencer marketing strategy, you will need to:

1. Set a budget that doesn’t burn the bank
2. Find the right influencer who can represent your brand
3. Understand whether this influencer has followers that match your target audience
4. Create a strong message that can be delivered to the audience
5. Track changes and makes changes if necessary

Summing up

2020 completely broke expectations when it comes to user behavior on the internet. And in 2021, we can expect this trend to continue with people being more independent on the internet than ever before. With Google making efforts to deliver more meaningful results to  users, SEOs must think in that same line.

2021 is all about giving the user relevant and quality content with an emphasis on user experience. So you have to pay attention to the user experience on a website in addition to delivering quality content. And as always, things may change and the most important skill an SEO must have is the ability to adapt!

The post 9 SEO Trends: How to Win in 2021 appeared first on SiteProNews.

Influencer marketing is a type of social media marketing in which advertisers team up with individuals boasting an established fanbase across one or more social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, etc., for the promotion of a product or service. 

However, working with social media influencers isn’t as simple a task as one may want it to be. In fact, there are several variables that determine the success rate of collaboration. 

In this article, I will shed light on some important tips for you to learn on how to work with social media stars. 

Influencer Marketing: Numbers to Note 

A look at the following numbers might convince you why influencer marketing is one of the best social media strategies for 2021. 

1. As per a 2019 report prepared by SocialPubli, 93% of marketers rely on influencer marketing.
2. On average, a $1 investment in influencer marketing yields $6.50 in revenue. 
3. As per SocialMediaToday, 87% of people decided to purchase after an influencer encouraged them to do so. 
4. Nearly four out of every 10 (39%) marketers are considering increasing their influencer marketing budget. 
5. By 2022, the influencer marketing industry is expected to be valued at $15 billion, almost double its worth in 2019 ($8 billion). 

Therefore, it’s high time for businesses to benefit from the potential of influencer marketing and: 

1. Boost their Sales
2. Increase Brand Awareness
3. Get More Eyes on their Products/Services 
4. Learn the Type of Content that Appeals to Social Media Users

Working with Social Media Influencers: Seven Steps to Follow

Marketers striving to increase ROI and reach their target audience by using influencer marketing should follow the following tips and tricks. 

1. Look for Influencers Whose Interests Align with Your Brand’s

While searching for influencers to endorse your product/service, do not get tempted by their content right away. You need to collaborate with someone whose niche links with the stuff you are trying to promote. 

Their followers will only be drawn to your product/service if they see that the influencer is genuinely committed to what he/she is promoting. 

Moreover, the same interests also prevent collaboration from looking fabricated. For example, an influencer promoting a vegetarian diet plan one day and then a KFC deal the next day would come across as dishonest. 

So, reach out to those social media stars whose interests and content align with the nature of the product/service you want them to promote. 

2. Don’t Micromanage Influencers 

The TV advertisements that most of us have grown up watching follow an exciting approach. Such marketing campaigns and ad strategies are planned by personnel within the same organization, promoting that particular product/service. 

However, when you rope in a social media influencer to enhance your business’s reach and sales, don’t dictate what they should upload. The reason is that these influencers have a better idea of the type of content their followers interact with, as well as the ongoing trends that can be taken advantage of.  

While you are more than welcome to offer your suggestions, the influencer in question should have complete creative freedom. 

3. Aim for Better Engagement

On the surface, an influencer with 55,000 followers on Instagram might seem a better fit for increasing brand awareness than an influencer with 15,000 followers, right? However, that’s not the case at all. 

While better reach is impressive in its own right, it doesn’t amount to much if people aren’t interacting with the content. 

This is where micro-influencers and nano-influencers come into play. While only a few thousand people might follow such influencers, the engagement on their content is unrivaled. This is because their fanbase comprises loyal users who wouldn’t hesitate to check out the promoted product/service. 

4. Avoid Collaborating with Influencers Working with Too Many Brands

It’s not fair to restrict an influencer to only work with your business. However, it’s also not wise to work with someone who has way too much on their plate. 

Influencers who spam their followers with way too many sponsored posts (of items belonging to different brands) on a regular basis aren’t the ones you should be looking for. 

It’s not recommended since the abundance of sponsored content can cause their audience to experience burnout and ignore the stuff being promoted. 

5. Strive to Establish a Mutually-Beneficial Partnership 

In addition to reimbursing social media influencers financially, there’s so much more you can do for them. Invite them to your events, make them host giveaways and other creative campaigns, boost their credibility, and whatnot! 

Make them realize that the collaboration opportunity will be as beneficial for them as it is for you. Only then will they take pride in representing your brand. 

6. Study the Influencer and Plan your Budget Accordingly

Before hitting up an influencer, do your research on them. Study the niche they specialize in, their audience demographics, social media analytics, etc. 

Also, it goes without saying that these metrics, along with the number of followers the influencer in question has, will help you plan the budget for the campaign. 

You should also note that many influencers opt for a commission structure rather than collecting a definite fee.

7. Keep Tabs on the Campaign’s Performance

Your role as a marketer doesn’t end when a social media influencer uploads a sponsored product to give your brand a shoutout. While hundreds, if not thousands, of likes, comments, and shares should impress you, these metrics don’t fully determine whether the campaign succeeded or not. 

In order to gauge how the campaign is performing, you need to find out how many people visited the link that the influencer asked them to check out. Moreover, how many of those visits turned into sales or subscriptions is also a critical factor in determining the campaign’s success. 

In short, measuring ROI should be your top priority. 

Conclusion

Social media marketing’s growth in recent years has been nothing short of impressive. Nowadays, many leading brands and businesses rely on influencer marketing to boost their sales and increase their following. 

An ideal social media influencer helps a business by posting content relevant to both their interest and the brand’s ideology. This content should reach an impressive number of people and attain reasonable engagement in order to increase the ROI of the investing party. 

I hope your introduction to influencer marketing through this article turned out to be a valuable experience. 

The post Influencer Marketing in 2021: How to Work with Social Media Influencers appeared first on SiteProNews.

Yes, there have been some speed breakers along the way, ranging from massive execution fails to misfit influencers. But, that’s just teething troubles for the relatively-new marketing tactic.

On the whole, the journey of influencer marketing has been nothing short of stupendous. And, I expect it to reach new heights during 2020.

How so?

Brands and marketers are showing more confidence in influencer marketing since it became more regulated and transparent. In 2020, brands will pump more money into nurturing long-term relationships with influencers and competing with bigger players who have jumped on the bandwagon. 

Don’t believe me?

Zine found that 58.5% of brands are planning to increase their influencer marketing budgets this year. Obviously, they see marketing and monetizing potential in influencers.

If you want to grow your business with influencer marketing, this post is essential for you. I’m going to discuss how the influencer marketing space is evolving. As a seasoned influencer and mentor, I expect these trends to continue for some time. If you want to win at influencer marketing, you need to master these trends.

Sound interesting?

Then, let’s get started.

The Great Influencer Marketing Makeover 

To do influencer marketing the right way, a great start-to-finish strategy is a must. But strategies are no good if they are outdated. Savvy brands and marketers are always on top of emerging trends in their niche. If you are one of them, make a note of the top three influencer marketing trends.

1. Brands Will Prioritize Fit over Followers

2019 was a turning point for influencer marketing. A number of brands came under fire for hiring mismatched influencers. Most of these “clueless” influencers were A-listers who shared posts that were totally out of character, thus making the whole campaign a joke.

Take a look at the Snickers-Katie Price fiasco. The lingerie model tweeted political posts for the brand’s “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry” campaign. But the exercise backfired massively. Apparently, people didn’t get the joke.

But we totally get it. Snickers fans couldn’t digest a fashion icon tweeting about a genre that wasn’t her forte, even in satire. Katie and Snickers were trolled heavily for their marketing ploy.

Brands often chase vanity metrics like follower counts when picking influencers for collaboration. They are under the misconception that high-tier influencers with massive communities can give their brands more reach. 

After these mismatch blunders, brands are now starting to vet influencers more on the basis of their values and content rather than follower counts. 

To me, this trend makes complete sense. Brand-influencer fit is the key to making influencer campaigns a success. If your influencers don’t align with your brand’s messaging, the collaboration can seem unnatural to audiences.

The glamorous Kim Kardashian endorsing Daniel Wellington watches is believable. But Kylie Jenner gushing about gaming consoles wouldn’t make sense. 

Get the picture?

Your ideal influencers can be your long-time customers or loyal employees. Their follower counts don’t matter as much as their relevance and engagement rates. That’s what defines “real” influence. 

Research proves that micro- and nano-influencers have better engagement rates than celebrities because they are more credible and believable. In fact, as the follower count increases, the number of likes and comments dwindles.

If you don’t want to be swayed by large follower counts of influencers, it’s best to use automated platforms for influencer discovery. 

These tools scan millions of influencer profiles to identify influencers who can be a good fit for your brand. In order to find influencers with the right brand affinity, they compare last posts and brand collaborations of influencers. Using these tools, you can be confident that you are investing in influencers who can deliver value.

2. Building Authentic Narratives Is a Priority

Continuing in the same vein, influencer marketing is more authentic now. Brands and content creators are focused on building compelling narratives through their content. This helps foster stronger customer relationships which are the backbone of influencer marketing.

Influencers who are also expert storytellers evoke emotions in consumers with their personal experiences. After all, purchase decisions are mostly emotion-controlled. Brands have learned the hard way that consumers love the authenticity of influencers. 

The age of copy-pasting captions and posting hyper-real pictures is over for good. Remember how Scott Disick embarrassed his brand partner, Bootea, when he forgot to edit his post caption?

I don’t expect brands and influencers to make such gross mistakes now. 

To keep their stories real and grounded, brands are offering more creative freedom to their influencers. What influencers say about a brand impacts 63% of consumers more than what brands say about themselves.   

I find this to be a positive change. Influencers have a better grip on consumer psychology. They understand the kind of content that strikes a chord with their audience. Brands can’t hope to attain the same depth of consumer insights through random market research. 

Plus, influencers are masters of their niches. Industry experts and opinion leaders can add weight to the content of their brand partners. When such influencers vouch for a brand, people sit up and take notice. Their trust and engagement with the brand deepens. That’s quite an achievement in the competitive webspace.

For all of these reasons, brands are opting for always-on influencer marketing. They either team up with multiple influencers with separate skill sets or with the same influencers over a long period of time. This helps build consistent messaging which, in turn, fosters customer trust.

Is that all?

No way. Savvy brands are going a step further to make their brand storytelling compelling. They are tuning in to what customers really think about their brand/products using social listening tools. 

They are drilling down into the stories that their audience enjoyed and the areas where their competitors are scoring. Drawing on these insights, influencers can craft more resultful narratives.

What if they catch negative customer sentiment? Their influencers can jump in and manage the crisis situation proactively. This way, brands can cut down on their social media response time — a customer service best practice with long-term benefits. It shows customers that brands are inclined to create authentic connections with them.

3. Messaging Is Socially Responsible

Consumers expect brands and influencers to play a more active role in society. 

Championing social issues builds consumer trust on brands. It also improves their online reputation, which provides many benefits.

Like what?

For one, consumers reward their trusted brands amply. Brand trust drives the purchase decisions of 81% of consumers.

So we have brands like Nike coming up with impactful digital campaigns like #Equality to raise their voices against racial discrimination in sports.

People expect influencers to demonstrate the same social responsibility.

Recently, celebrity influencers like PewDiePie and Logan Paul were heavily criticized for their irresponsible posts and behavior. The popular YouTubers lost many fans and endorsement deals for their distasteful content on issues like suicide and animal abuse.

These mishaps were an eye-opener for brands that neglected the societal impact of the content they or their influencers shared. This kind of callous attitude negatively impacted their brand reputation and revenue.

I’ve seen a major shift in the mindsets of marketers recently. Smart marketers are making social cause marketing a priority. They are teaming up with influencers who champion worthy causes that matter to their consumers. Not only that, brands have updated their product strategies to reinforce their social messaging.

Take Heinekens for example.

The beer brand started a campaign #WhenYouDriveNeverDrink to discourage drunk driving. They partnered with F1 racer Nico Rosberg to create a series of YouTube videos. 

The aim of the videos was to encourage people to take the designated drivers’ pledge and vow to remain sober when they take the driver’s wheel. 

What else?

To show their commitment to the cause, the brand helped redesign 10 UK bars so that they could air the videos. They took the step after consulting leading behavioral experts who endorsed their initiative. 

During the campaign, the brand rigorously tracked the number of drunk driving accidents originating from their pilot bars and found a drastic fall in rates. Now that’s walking the walk. And that’s bound to make discerning customers happy, 56% of who detest “trust-washing” (faking societal concern as a marketing ploy).

I see this trend continuing and brands bearing their empathetic side to their audiences. 

Are You Geared Up for the Change?

As you can see, the influencer marketing space has had a facelift. Influencers and brands are becoming more responsible, transparent, and customer-centric. If you want to lead the pack, you should be prepared for the “new normal” of influencer marketing.

The post How Quickly is Influencer Marketing Changing? appeared first on SiteProNews.

Thousands of blogs are created to target the same segment of an audience so how will you make sure your content gets the maximum attention and you drive a huge amount of traffic towards your blog?

Increase in traffic means increase in the number of potential customers and better chances of conversions (read: sales). 

Many blogs give away freebies to attract attention and drive traffic, but what if you have nothing to give away right now? Fret not! There are other simple ways to drive traffic to your blog and improve conversion rate:

Have a Good Content Strategy

Creating strategic content is even more important than creating high-quality content. Know what your customers are looking for and create content accordingly. Content should always be created to meet a specific need.

Even more important than creating content is delivering the content to the right people at the right time. So you must identify the places where your audiences are to be found and then share the content on the specific channels.

Share Content Once, Twice, Thrice!

It is always wise to share your content multiple times over various channels. By sharing the content more than once, you make sure no one misses the information being shared. Though some marketers would call this ‘Spamming’ but by scheduling follow-up cleverly, you can attract maximum attention.

Partner with Other Bloggers

By partnering with other bloggers in your niche, you can expand the reach of your content. Write content that can be published in your partner’s blog and ask them to write content for your blog. By doing this you will cross promote each other’s blogs and get a good amount of traffic.

Participate Actively on Forums

Forums are places where people flock to get their questions answered. So by being active on various forums (related to your niche) you can find people who will be interested in your content. Answer questions, share relevant information and discuss topics with other people. Whenever possible ask people to read your blog and get answers to their questions but remember to recommend your content only when it is relevant.

Influencer Marketing

Engaging influencers is becoming a rage among marketers. If you want to drive a huge amount of traffic, identify influencers in your niche and ask them to spread the word about your blog. Whenever possible ask them to contribute to your blog as well. People will be more interested to engage with you if you have a trusted name associated with your blog.

Use Hash Tags

Proper usage of HashTags is very important to improve the visibility of your content. By including hashtags, you ensure your content gets found when people search for related information.

Give Out Freebies

Everyone likes to be rewarded with something. So if you still haven’t thought about free products, it is time you do. It need not be anything expensive or big. It must be something that your reader will be interested in, such as an ebook, discount coupons, etc.

Great content must always be the first priority, however, you must also think about new ways to drive as much traffic as possible to your blog.

Use SEO to gain more traffic

Make sure your blog is SEO friendly to drive the maximum amount of organic traffic towards your blog. Create evergreen content that will be relevant for the long term and attract visitors for a long period of time. Use proper keywords and implement SEO best practices in your digital strategy.

Optimising a blog is not rocket science and is very similar to optimising your own website. To rank your blog on the top SERPs, you have to follow simple optimisation rules. 

Here are some tips that will help to get your blog ranked better:

Use Long-Tail Keywords: Use long-tail keywords meaningfully within the post and include them in the blog titles if possible. Make sure you use them naturally, so that the posts do not look spammy. Write posts for educating your visitors and insert keywords wherever possible. Posts that are stuffed with keywords do not interest readers and are unsuitable for search engines as well.

Make your Blog Mobile Friendly: Google’s recent update requires all websites and blogs to be mobile friendly. So make sure your blog can be accessed properly on all mobile devices. Google suggests using responsive templates as the best practice to make blogs mobile-friendly.

Get Backlinks from Authority Sites: To earn links from other related authority sites, you have to write information-rich, engaging posts that are worth sharing. To increase the visibility and attract valuable links you can:

• Submit the blog and RSS feeds to various blog search engine and directories
• Post valuable comments on other blogs
• Write guest posts
• Update your blog frequently

Grow your Social Community: Social signals help in boosting search engine rankings, so make sure you write content that is worth sharing. Build communities on the leading social 

platforms and distribute the content in various formats. Make sure you share other valuable 

resources apart from your own content. The more you help the people in your community, the more will they be willing to share your posts.

The Bottom Line

By using these tried and tested ways you will gradually increase your blog traffic. It’s important to remember that building a blog and getting traffic takes time and effort.

The post 8 Tested Ways to Gain More Blog Traffic appeared first on SiteProNews.

Over the last couple of years, influencer marketing has become an integral part of social media marketing strategy for many brands. Its ability to drive sales more effectively than other traditional marketing approaches has seen influencer marketing lauded by both B2C and B2B marketers.

As the popularity of influencer marketing continues to grow, some brands remain unsure about the smartest ways of adopting the influence of social media personalities to boost their business. While there are many benefits of influencer marketing, it can be a confusing and rather complex strategy to launch and manage. 

A successful influencer marketing strategy enables you to increase brand exposure while building authority in your industry. It also drives traffic to your site, getting new leads to purchase your products and services. However, for this to succeed, you ought to have an excellent hosting platform for your website. Checking out the features of Kinsta and WP engine would be a good start. 

What is Influencer Marketing?

At a fundamental level, influencer marketing is a strategy that identifies social media users with a strong influence on a brand’s target audience. A brand forms a partnership with the influencer wherein the latter agrees to expose their audience to the company’s message or content. 

This type of marketing works because of the high levels of trust that the influencers have built with their following. The recommendations from them act as a form of social proof for their followers to love your brand. Such social media influencers often have a large and engaged audience. Businesses benefit a lot as they get in front of their target market in a natural, positive, and meaningful way.

Take a look at these statistics, which will give you a clearer picture of why influencer marketing is a popular tactic to drive up sales:

• Only 1% of millennials trust advertisements, while 33% trust blog reviews before making a purchase.
• 40% of people reported having purchased a product or service after seeing an influencer they follow on social platforms use it.
• 71% of social media influencers believe that their audience gets engaged through an honest and authentic voice.
• According to research by Tomoson, influencer marketing yields up to $6.50 in returns for every dollar invested, 

Getting Started with Influencer Marketing

It is easy to understand why influencer marketing is a red-hot topic right now. But how do you capitalize on it?

Here are five tactics, based on current influencer marketing trends, to help you create and launch a successful influencer marketing campaign:

1. Set your goals and key performance indicators 

As with any other smart marketing plan, always start by documenting your goals. What do you intend to achieve with such a campaign? Having your goals clearly defined in your early stages enables you to develop a consistent, winning strategy throughout the campaign.

Moreover, setting your goals before taking any marketing action helps you to come up with the metrics you should track and monitor to assess the performance of the strategy. 

Some of the key performance indicators (KPIs) to consider when running an influencer marketing campaign are:

• Brand Awareness – more people recognize and like your brand.
• Audience Building – getting more followers and subscribers to your social platforms.
• Engagement – getting more likes, comments, and shares on your content.
• Lead Generation – having more people signing up for your offers.
• Sales – more people are purchasing your products/services.
• Customer Loyalty – having many more people remaining interested in and connected with your brand.
• Link building – getting more backlinks to your website.

2. Understand the influencer landscape

Once your goals are well-defined, another critical component of influencer marketing is finding a relevant and trusted influencer. There are a lot of factors to consider when choosing a social media influencer for your brand. However, the right candidate has to be in tune with your audience’s desire and needs. 

For some years now, Instagram has been the only platform that comes to mind when influencer marketing is mentioned. In fact, this site accounted for 92% of all influencer marketing in 2017. However, as time went by, other platforms came up. As a smart marketer, it would be prudent to incorporate other platforms where your target audience might be found. 

According to CEO World, there are about 16 types of influencer marketers to choose from. As you consider your options, try to explore the following:

• Bloggers
• Social media stars
• Celebrities
• Industry experts
• Thought leaders, etc.

3. Determine fair compensation

Influencer marketing costs vary and often depend on the status and reach of the influencer. There is always room for negotiation on the price (except for some well-established and successful influencers). However, the cost should always be viewed from the lenses of ROI while taking into account the specific KPIs you set.

Overall, influencer marketing is a much lower investment with a larger return on investment than other forms of marketing. Some influencers might even consider striking a mutually-acceptable deal, especially if they fall in love with your products or services.

4. Give the influencers creative freedom

Influencers have built their following thanks to their creativity and personality. It would be prudent to allow them to exercise creative control of the campaign when promoting your brand. You should know that people are uninterested and tired of being bombarded with ads every other time. This is precisely why you should market content and stay away from traditional advertisements. 

5. Continuous tracking and assessment

It might feel like a victory seeing your brand mentioned on social media. However, just getting an influencer to promote your business isn’t a sign of marketing success. This will only get determined if you’ve reached your influencer marketing goals.

Take Away

The digital landscape is rapidly shifting and those not keeping up with the trends are still losing customers, wasting their ad budgets, and continuously shrinking their market share. Luckily, influencer marketing has been extremely successful in driving brand awareness. 

A well-executed marketing strategy will help you achieve the majority (if not all) of your initial goals. By following the five tips outlined above, your brand stands to nurture a deeper and more organic relationship with the target audience. Elevate your brand’s visibility, awareness, and outreach naturally and effectively by trying out influencer marketing.

The post The Ultimate Guide for Growing Your Business with Influencer Marketing appeared first on SiteProNews.

And if they don’t trust bloggers and influencers anymore, who do they trust? What can companies do to overcome this level of distrust?

Why Are Trust Levels So Low?

Consumer trust levels are low because of the lack of transparency and pure “fakery” from influencers and bloggers.

The Lack of Transparency

In the UK, in 2018, 61% of consumers said that they didn’t believe that brands were transparent about using influencers. Around 81% of consumers believe they have a right to know whether someone is being paid to promote content.

It’s not so much that consumers are annoyed that influencers and bloggers promote products. They understand how the internet works, and they also understand that this is how these people earn a living. Where they get disillusioned, however, is that influencers aren’t upfront about the connection.

The Fakery

It seems influencers are constantly being outed for:

• Posting about fake trips
• Endorsing products that go against their stated core beliefs
• Endorsing products that they don’t even use.

Check out this video from YouTube star, Natalie Taylor:

Taylor wanted to show her followers just how easy it was to fake those dream travel videos. The video footage would have easily fooled anyone if you’d seen it without her explanation. As it turns out, though, her luxury trip to Bali was a little closer to home.

She filmed it all in IKEA.

If this was an isolated incident, we could laugh it off. But there have been countless influencers who’ve downright lied about their dream travel and been caught out. Many use photos from stock photo sites and photoshop themselves in.

Influencers have been busted due to various reasons. Some had the same group of clouds appearing in all their shots. Others have made some obvious photoshop gaffes. We could list many more examples, but you get the point. Consumers have a good reason to distrust what they see online.

What’s the Alternative?

Businesses need to move to a more authentic model if they hope to lure clients back. If you want to take advantage of the 3.9 trillion dollar market of digitally inspired sales, you have to ask, “how do we create authentic content?”

The answer?

You don’t — you let your users do it for you.

The whole reason that influencer marketing became so popular in the first place was that influencers are more relatable than celebrities. You could see yourself possibly bumping into a YouTuber like Natalie Taylor and hanging out with her. Could you experience the same thing with an A-list star like Meryl Streep? Probably not.

Now that the influencer marketing industry has gone through a boom phase, influencers have become celebrities in their own right. The more followers they have, the less relatable they become. Add in the missteps and misdirection, and they’re becoming less useful for marketers.

User-Generated Content is the Next Evolution

That brings us to our new generation of influencers since around 43% of female gig economy workers are actually content writers. The influencers that matter most in our lives — our peers. User-generated content is generally unscripted, and it’s real. It shows the products in the hands of people like you and me.

Think of it this way. Let’s say that a company has designed a brand new mountain bike. It wants to show people what it can do, so it hires an expert who shreds that bike like he was born to do it. It looks impressive, but is it realistic for the average rider out there with average skills?

Wouldn’t it be more realistic to see an average rider wipe out trying a similar feat?

Now, if the two videos were side by side, what would the average user find more relatable?

User-generated content isn’t perfectly polished. That makes it all the more powerful because it represents the average user.

User-Generated Content Is the Ultimate in Social Proof

How many sites do you visit per day? You check out their products, and you read or watch all the user testimonials. Do these ring a bell? Sure, they might be real people. If the company has any sense at all, they’ll be posting unscripted testimonials.

At the end of the day, though, you know them for what they are — adverts for the company. You know that the company isn’t going to highlight the review from someone who complained about it. Like social proof, testimonials have limited usefulness.

Instead, imagine a kid getting that great new bike and his dad videoing him popping his first wheelie. Or the would-be daredevil facing down a gnarly trail. There could be hundreds of ideas that user-generated content could encompass.

And since it’s all controlled by the users and not the company, each piece of content will be unique.

We’re Sold — How Do We Get User-Generated Content?

You could simply try asking for it. If you’ve built a loyal fanbase, that might be all it takes. Why not make it a little more fun by setting challenges for your audience? You could even award a prize for the best submission.

That bike company that we spoke about earlier, for example, could ask users to show their best tricks. Bam, you’ve got a bunch of fresh, shareable content to keep your audience entertained for hours. And, all the time, your product is front and center.

Final Notes

This year, forget blowing the budget on overpriced influencers and look to your own audience. Encourage them to share their own footage. You’d be amazed at what interesting content you might get your hands on.

The post Is User-Generated Content an Antidote for Inauthentic Influencers? appeared first on SiteProNews.

That’s a wise choice. 

Influencers can not only help you reach new audiences, but also win over their trust. You can get leads that are more sales-ready than raw leads. If you work with influencers smartly, you can easily nurture these leads and convert them into paying customers.

But is influencer marketing really that great?

Yes, it is.

We have the numbers to back us up on this. 

According to a study by Edelman Trust Barometer, 63% of people aged 18-34 trust influencers over brands. So if an influencer vouches for your product, it becomes easier to secure buy-in from new customers. 

Influencers can improve your sales and brand advocacy too. 58% of respondents in the cited study had bought an influencer-recommended product and 33% had discussed a brand in their circle because of an influencer.

Great news, isn’t it?

This means that whether you want to create buzz about upcoming products or boost the visibility of your existing products, influencer marketing can do the job for you. 

But like all marketing tactics, you have to plan your influencer-led promotions meticulously. 

If you’re new to influencer marketing, you can find this part challenging. To make your life easier, we have outlined some effective ways by which you can leverage influencers to promote products in this post.

Let’s dive right in.

How Can You Promote Products Through Influencer Marketing?

As stated earlier, customers are losing trust in online ads and self-promotional content. Even using influencers for product promotions can fall flat if it’s not done strategically. The tips below will make your influencer campaigns more relatable and fruitful. 

1. Select the Right Influencer/s 

You should pick influencers that are in the same niche and have similar audience demographics and values as your brand. If you build a network of relevant influencers, you can spread the word about your products faster, even if those influencers have small but passionate audiences.

Example: Designer wallpaper brand, Milton & King, partnered with 45 influencers when they ventured into the US market. 

All of the influencers were from home improvement, lifestyle, or interior design niches. Since the brand and influencers were from related industries, audiences found the collaboration natural and believable.

Manual influencer research can be time-consuming and prone to errors. Influencer marketing platforms like Fourstarzz Media have advanced filters to help you narrow down your search. The tool provides detailed influencer reports that can help you compare their key metrics and audiences at a glance.

2. Give Creative Freedom to Your Influencers

People love influencers for their authenticity. If you hamper your influencers’ creativity with strict guidelines, influencers will lose their edge. They may create content that aligns with your rules but doesn’t resonate with their audience. In which case the whole purpose of hiring influencers will be defeated.

Example: AXE is one brand that lets influencers unleash their creativity to promote their hair grooming products. They teamed up with 30 offbeat Instagram influencers with trendy hairdos. Each influencer created videos in their unique voice, explaining how AXE products helped keep their hair in shape.

One of AXE’s influencers, Anthony Padilla, who stands out for his wild curls, created a video in which he mocked typical beauty advertisements that featured people with perfectly-coiffed hair, whereas this is far from reality. The post touched a chord with the audience and garnered 26K+ views.

3. Host Contests and Giveaways

Who doesn’t love free stuff? Contests and giveaways are a sure-shot way of engaging audiences and promoting products. And they become even more effective when an influencer does one on your behalf.

Your influencers can create sponsored contests with your products. They can instruct participants to tag more users in their contest entry, use a custom hashtag, or reshare the contest post. In this way, your product reaches more people and you get tons of free user-generated content.

Example: St Francis Herb Farm partnered with influencer, Jenny Lam, to host a giveaway on Instagram. Notice how she created urgency by attaching a tight deadline for the contest to end. In the post, she also asked contestants to tag her and her partner brand.

You can use advanced tools for hashtag tracking to discover popular hashtags that are relevant to your campaign. Encourage your influencers and their followers to append the trending hashtags in their posts.

4. Tailor Custom Promo and Discount Codes

Your influencers can offer promo codes for your products, meant to be used exclusively by their followers. This will not only increase your product’s sales but also help your influencer attract new followers. More followers means more brand awareness.

Example: Mel K, one of the influencers who collaborates with Woke Wings, shared a custom promo code for her followers to avail a discount on the brand’s products. This tactic helps the brand boost sales and track the influencer’s ROI.

Connect Your Product with a Cause

Cause marketing is big these days. 

53% of customers want the brands they engage with to support worthy social causes and make a difference. If you and your influencers create a brand story (message) pivoting around a cause, you can strike a chord with the audience and market your products better.

The key is to keep your message real and relevant. Don’t connect your product to a cause just because it is trending. Audiences are averse to brands that use social causes as a marketing ploy. Pick a cause about which you and your influencers are passionate so that your message looks credible.

Example: Boxed Water partnered with influencers to promote the #ReTree project which aims to get people to plant one million trees in five years. Known for championing sustainable life choices (such as eliminating plastic waste), Boxed Water picked a cause that resonates with their brand image.

Cross-Promote Your Influencer’s Content

You need to be visible on as many social networks as possible so that your promoted products grab eyeballs. Both you and your influencers should cross-promote each other’s content by tagging and resharing. You can bypass channels that aren’t important for your audiences or compatible with your product or posted content.

It can be hard to manage multiple social accounts. Luckily, there are tools for social media management that can help you schedule posts and track their performance on all platforms from one interface.

Example: MVMT Watches has a network of influencers of different ethnicities. They promote the brand’s watches on Instagram (where MVMT has a massive following), Twitter (in regional languages), and YouTube.

Offer Sneak Peeks 

To make your products buzz-worthy, give your audience a sneak peek into their making. Influencers can create teaser videos and behind-the-scenes clips to share with their followers. They can post pictures from exclusive product launches and build excitement about upcoming products.   

Influencer reviews are regarded highly by followers. Have influencers review your products and share their opinions on your social stories. Unboxing videos are a great way to do this. You can evoke trust among audiences for new products in this way.

Example:  Skincare student and beauty influencer, Claudia Christin, regularly reviews skin products for brands. Due to her background in medical sciences, her opinions are trustworthy and garner a lot of engagement even though she mentions “sponsored review” in her posts.

Final Thoughts

By collaborating with influencers, you can cut through the noise on the internet and make yourself heard in new target markets. As a product promotion tactic, influencer marketing is not only powerful but also more cost-effective than traditional forms of advertising. 

No wonder why it is being touted as the future of marketing.

There are many ways of using influencer marketing to promote your product. But the tactics mentioned in this post are the ones that have proved quite effective. 

Do you have any more ideas to promote products through influencer marketing? Drop a comment to share them.

The post How to Promote Your Products through Influencer Marketing appeared first on SiteProNews.

This pretty well sums up the fact that influencer marketing is the latest trend to be embraced by most of the new-age marketers. As a result, with a remarkable increase in demand for influencer marketing across the globe, 61% of marketers are reportedly finding relevant influencers for a particular marketing campaign difficult. 

Now that you too are among those 61% marketers who find the task of roping in helpful influencers for marketing campaigns difficult, read through this blog. It comprises comprehensive insights into the seven most productive influencer marketing tools of 2020. Consider utilising their potential and stay ahead of the game with coveted ROI at the end of every financial year.

1. BuzzSumo

If you are on the lookout for tools that can boost your influencer marketing campaign with helpful data and easy-to-track industry insights, then go for BuzzSumo. 

Key Features 

• The tool allows users to sort all prospective influencers by parameters such as Page Authority, Domain Authority, Average Re-tweets, Reply Ratio, Instagram Authority and more. 
• The advanced interface allows users to keep track of influencers and their expertise, all at one place. 
• Simply click on the “Influencers” tab included in the application. You will eventually be redirected to the page from where you can gain control and identify influencers across different social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and the like. 

Pricing: BuzzSumo offers a 7 day free trial. The Pro version is available for $99 per month. While the “Enterprise” version comes for $499+ per month. 

Download Link: https://buzzsumo.com/

2. FameBit

Talking of the best influencer marketing tools of 2020, FameBit certainly gets a special mention. It has some extraordinary features that help users carry out effective influencer marketing campaigns. 

Key Features: 

• The tool allows you to get closer to thousands of writers, producers and content distributors having a large number of engaged followers. 
• FameBit makes finding paid sponsorships easier. 
• You can set your budget, select creators and grow customers with the help of this tool. 
• Once you create a campaign by selecting an ideal platform, you will receive proposals from content creators. You can select creators according to your requirements and make the most of the influencer marketing techniques in today’s competitive environment. 

Pricing: FameBit charges a 10% fee for hiring an influencer.  For example, if you rope in an influencer for $100, the actual charge asked by the application would be approximately $110. 

Download Link: FameBit – Google Play

3. NinjaOutreach

This one-in-all influencer tool should be your choice of the day if targeting a large base of marketing influencers around the world is your primary objective. 

Key Features: 

• Simply type in your keywords and look for famous influencers in your niche. 
• Get instant access to more than 25 million bloggers and social media influencers. 
• With NinjaOutreach, you get to filter all searches by tags like companies, influencers and bloggers. 
• The tool offers customised templates as well. This will help you to launch automated email outreach campaigns effectively. 
• The custom templates, in addition, also make sure that every message you send to your influencer is entirely meant for him/her with a touch of personalisation. 

Pricing: The NinjaOutreach Pro version starts at $99.00 per month. You can rope in the basic version for $69.00 per month.

Download Link: NinjaOutreach – Chrome Extension

4. BuzzStream

BuzzStream is yet another influencer marketing tool that will help you rope in influencers to create that much needed “buzz” among your potential customers.  The tool is apparently the best choice for marketers focusing on influencer research to stay ahead of their competitors. 

Key Features: 

• The tool allows users to easily navigate a prospect list, add contacts, and automatically add websites and other metrics you may want to review while looking for influencers online.
• BuzzStream gives you a full image of the potential influencer you would root for. 
• In addition, the tool highlights the influencer’s website and social media presence in the search result.
• The application also helps users manage influencer marketing on the basis of filterable prospect lists. 
• You can track data on how effectively your outreach efforts are working. 

Pricing: The “Starter Plan” is available for $24 per month, while the “Professional” package comes for $299 per month. 

Download Link: www.BuzzStream.com  

5. Pitchbox

Pitchbox has been tagged as one of the most potent influencer outreach and content marketing platforms. The tool allows you to find bloggers and social media influencers in no time. 

Key Features: 

• Pitchbox fosters customisable, personalised influencer outreach and follow ups. 
• The enriched database allows users to make data-driven decisions in a better and more effective way. 
• New users can book a demo of how the tool works. 
• Integration with SEO essentials such as SEMRush, Moz and Majestic helps users filter all potential influencers in accordance with different marketing requirements. 
• You can also send personalised outreach emails with the help of Pitchbox. 

Pricing: Pitchbox offers fully customizable subscriptions. 

Download Link: https://pitchbox.com/

6. Klear

If you want to use a tool that allows users to find influencers who are already engaging with them and those who are within the network, go for Klear. 

Key Features: 

• The tool allows its users to “Find”, “Analyse”, “Manage”, “Connect” and “Measure” influencer outreach in a uniform manner. 
• Advanced search filters allow users to sort priorities by Influence Tier, Social Channel, Audience Demographics and more. 
• The application comes with other add-ons such as blog posts, market case studies and white papers. 

Pricing: Klear is available at a base price of $249 per month. 

Download Link: www.Klear.com

7. FollowerWonk.com

FollowerWonk is an effective influencer marketing tool that finds, analyses, and optimises all search results in an organised way. The handy analytics features of this tool make it an ideal choice for ambitious marketers trying to explore the potential of influencer-driven campaigns. 

Key Features: 

• The application allows you to search for keywords in Twitter bios, sort out and find those with the largest reach and highest authority. 
• You can use this tool in order to keep track of or identify social media influencers who are following your market rivals but not you. 
• You can also contrast your relationship with other competitors and friends within your industry niche. 

Pricing:  FollowerWonk pricing starts at $29.00 per month and the Multitask package is available at $79 per month. 

Download Link: FollowerWonk.com 

In Conclusion 

With nearly half the world’s population (3.8 billion people) actively using social media channels, influencer marketing is only expected to grow stronger and more effective in the upcoming years. The world of marketing and communication will be leaning on the efficiency of more  such tools as noted above. 

Now that you are aware of the seven best influencer marketing tools to count on this year, pick your application from the list mentioned above, see if the platform suits your market niche and watch your business get its coveted exposure. 

Good luck!

The post 7 Essential Influencer Marketing Tools to Use in 2020 appeared first on SiteProNews.

And you know where they are. Yep, on social media. Scrolling their news feed, watching videos, commenting on their friends’ statuses, posting photos, sharing content, liking stuff, etc.

The social media craze is not over yet. In fact, year after year, we see a significant increase in social media usage worldwide. There are currently 3.484 billion social media users, which corresponds to a 9% increase from last year.

A lot of things have changed on how people use social media since the early 2000s. And if you’re using it to promote your brand, you need to know that what worked before may not work now. As we conclude the year 2019, let’s check out the most effective types of social media advertising in 2020.

Chatbots and Messenger Integration

Customers don’t like waiting. In this world where you can obtain information almost instantly, the last thing you want to do is wait. That’s why the emergence of chatbots has had a massive impact on social media marketing. This AI technology is proven effective in customer service interactions, particularly for welcoming customers, answering simple questions, resolving technical issues, and addressing complaints.

Make sure you set up auto-replies on your social media account to improve customer interaction and engagement.

Social Media TV

Over two billion users log in to YouTube each month, which makes it the top video sharing channel in the world. More and more people are using social media today not only to communicate with friends and relatives but also to stay updated with current news and events, and tune in to their favorite shows. The arrival of Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, and other streaming platforms made social media even more entertaining.

Always consider these social media TV channels when creating your digital marketing strategy.

Live Streaming Events

Facebook Live will continue to thrive in social media advertising this 2020. Why not? It’s an easy way to connect with customers. 

A lot of marketers use it for various marketing activities like product launches, sales, DIY tutorials, and behind-the-scenes. Live streaming is widely used to cover events as well. Whether you’re hosting a community event or taking part in a prestigious national event, you can take your followers along through live streaming. And the best part is you don’t need expensive equipment to do that. Just your smartphone.

In 2020, it will be much easier to publish live events through social networking channels.

Social Media Listening

Also called ‘social media monitoring’, it’s a way for brands to know what content, products, or topics interest their customers the most. You’ve probably experienced it. You’re searching for something or chatting with someone on social media and suddenly, ads (which you might be interested in) start popping up from nowhere. That’s not a coincidence. That’s a planned marketing strategy.

This 2020, expect more businesses to use software tools that gain insights from customers’ behavior on social media. These tools look for specific keywords from social media forums, product searches, and other places to generate relevant ads.

Social Media Advertising for More Customer Reach

Businesses will continue to use social media to connect to their customers and find new prospects. That’s because social networking sites, such as Facebook, will have more users. Currently, they have 2.7 billion monthly users. Yes, that’s a lot. More potential customers out there too.

With such a vast network, most brands make use of all-in-one marketing platforms to schedule and manage posts. This way, they are able to publish posts at the time and on the day when their customers will most likely see it.

Social Media Contests

Hosting social media contests has been a practice of many companies. They do it primarily to gain more followers. But the landscape has changed. Marketers are seeing many more benefits from running contests on social media. For example, they can be used to gather feedback, drive customer engagement, and raise brand remembrance.

In order to get value from running a contest, it’s important to keep it relevant to your audience. Know what they value and align your incentives to those things.

Augmented Reality on Social Media Platforms

Not to be confused with virtual reality, augmented reality (AR) will play a major part in social media advertising in the coming years. In fact, Facebook just launched an AR Studio which marketers can use to create rich AR experiences for their customers.

Augmented reality technology has just opened new opportunities for marketers and businesses to promote their brands, from AR virtual stores which give customers a very engaging experience to AR and live events (imagine attending an event from the comfort of your home). You can also market your brand by creating interactive AR videos.

Influencer Marketing

It isn’t a new trend but influencer marketing will continue to soar this 2020. Social media is dominated by influencers who are paid an exorbitant amount of money to promote brands. However, businesses will spend more on a network of smaller, more local niche influencers. This strategy is cheaper yet yields the most results. It also drives much higher engagement than having to work with big-time influencers. More and more marketers are also combining influencer marketing with content and social media marketing as a more powerful approach to online advertising.

It’s important, however, to find influencers with similar values to your company. You can’t just blindly work with influencers because they are famous. They need to have the same core values as yours for a successful relationship.

There’s no stopping social media from being a major marketing platform. To get the most from your social media campaigns, be sure to incorporate different strategies. They are not only effective, they are also easy to implement. As early as right now, you can start planning your social media marketing strategy for 2020 with all these approaches in mind. You don’t have to do them all. You can start with one or two until you find the best combo that works for you.

The post The 8 Most Effective Types of Social Media Advertising in 2020 appeared first on SiteProNews.

However, influencer marketing isn’t a sure-proof success in all the cases. It comes with its fair share of risks as well. There are plenty of things to consider before handing over your marketing campaign to an external influencer, and not doing ample research beforehand can backfire severely.

So how to ensure that an influencer marketing campaign will kill it?

Below are some top influencer marketing examples that can inspire your social media strategy. 

DeeMuesli and the Little Plantation

DeeMuesli is a UK-based small business that sells muesli as its primary product, and nothing else. However, this hasn’t stopped them from making use of local influencers in enhancing their brand awareness.

The startup collaborated with Kimberly Espinel, a popular British vegan influencer. All Kimberly did was post an original recipe alongside delectable pictures via her Instagram account, The Little Plantation, with DeeMuesli as a major ingredient.

Understandably, DeeMuesli could have collaborated with health bloggers or professional nutritionists to simply market the health benefits of muesli, but the conventional approach might not have worked.

Remember, influencer marketing isn’t about putting your products under the limelight, but allowing influencers the liberty to do what they do best and to then enjoy the product success.

Lyft’s huge number of influencers

Lyft is a direct competitor to Uber with a broad audience base, and so it was quite difficult for the company to choose the right type of influencers.

Rather than working with few, select influencers, as most organizations do, Lyft went bold and partnered with more than 1,000 influencers from around the globe, ranging from popular celebrities to some exclusive regional names.

Their idea was to spread the message that everyone, who’s anyone, is using Lyft. Apparently, this strategy did wonders and the ride sharing business became the most talked about brand in 2018,  registering up to 6 million engagements.

It might be easy to say that Lyft just called in a large number of influencers, but it actually took a calculated approach for expected engagement. 

Consider the example of Snoop Dogg.  The media artist has acquired a staggering 33 million followers, 

But trying to engage people for a ride sharing app would have been difficult even for him so the company put in a discount code to catch the attention of his followers.

Walmart’s fight with hunger

The multinational retail giant isn’t concerned about falling revenues, but is about its reputation with younger age groups who wish to purchase whatever they want online. So, the company wanted to change their image and enhance awareness, especially with people under 29 who constitute over 70% of their total target audience.

Walmart launched the #FightHunger campaign by teaming up with people to contribute back to their communities. The company promised to give away 10 meals for every engaged user that mentioned the campaign as an act of support.

They collaborated with influencers like chef Ana Quincoces and other users to post their own content. The move resulted in 89k engagements in 1 month, while Walmart provided over 1 billion meals.

Walmart took a serious risk by allowing users to post their own original content which could have resulted in the retail company being trolled. The trick was to use relevant influencers belonging to the food niche and control the content and posts narrative.

Once the direction got set, the campaign gathered momentum with more and more normal users becoming strong influencers, posting their support under the #FightHunger cause.

Canon goes undercover

The technological advancements of mobile phone cameras and social media platforms came as a threat to Canon. Rather than retaliating, the company patiently accepted the paradigm shift, but started highlighting various amateur bloggers and photographers who used DLSR cameras to outshine their Instagram pictures in the news feed.

Now with 720p to 1080p cameras in our pockets, Canon decided to leave out the amateur users and opt for hardcore photography lovers.

Canon moved on to associate with micro and mid-ranged photographers, alongside bloggers who mainly relied on visual content to increase their follower base. In doing so, Canon was able to reach its intended target audience and refine its brand image.

Seemingly, top-notch pictures go viral on Instagram. Unsurprisingly, Canon managed to acquire about 3 million engagements in 2018.

Canon never felt the need to convince the world that their cameras were good. They just wanted to see the hashtag, #canonusa, in the description of every quality image uploaded on Instagram. However, doing so would require more than a couple of sponsored posts from influencers, or, a long-term relationship with the influencers.

As a result, Canon built a long-term relationship and serious commitment with the right type of photographers and content creators, while using Instagram as a powerful promotional machine in the process.

Adidas She Breaks Barriers

After examining Nike’s unbeatable influencer marketing campaigns ruling the global athletic wear and apparel industry, Adidas decided to get into the game by launching the “She Breaks Barrier” campaign!

The campaign’s intent was to draw girls into sports and empower them mentally. For instance, the campaign features stories from popular female athletes like WNBA star Layshia Clarendon and marathoner Rahaf Khatib.

The campaign talks about the barriers that girls often encounter which prevent them from entering physically demanding sports and encourages them to get out of their comfort zone and liberate themselves.

By using popular female figures (as stated above) in She Breaks Barrier, Adidas acquired a massive follower base in the athlete industry.

Glossier expresses your stories

Beauty influencers can be found around every corner on social media today, particularly Instagram which has made it increasingly difficult for companies like Glossier to stand out with a separate, loyal audience base.

Rather than selecting a few random influencers, Glossier opted to transform their Instagram account into an aggressive marketing chain by changing all their users into influencers.

They encouraged all the women to post by interacting with them regularly. Their typical users became influencers by not only posting stories and pictures on regular basis, but also because Glossier produced stories from user provided data. Glossier’s stories grab around 10 million views each month.

It might seem tedious and time-consuming, but the effort surely paid off. Glossier dedicated a separate team for interacting, reposting, and creating stories based on their users’ data, and shaped its page into a close-knit group that promised and rewarded loyalty endeavors.

In other words, thousands of users were incentivized by creating original content for Glossier. As the ultimate move, the company rearranged and reposted its users’ own content by rewarding followers through interaction and also got to protect its brand image in a highly saturated market.

The post 6 Influencer Marketing Examples to Inspire Your Social Media Strategy appeared first on SiteProNews.

To take full advantage of new technologies, first, we have to obtain a basic knowledge of how they actually work.

AI – What Is It Really About

What does artificial intelligence really mean? To put it as simply as possible, AI is a set of algorithms specially created to imitate the intelligence of humans.

How is it different from other computer programs? Well, artificial intelligence can do more than any computer system ever written. AI is able to learn from given data and drive valuable insights from it. It is capable of making complex predictions, in most cases – AI software is more accurate than human specialists.

Artificial intelligence’s unique features give extraordinary opportunities for businesses from diverse fields. The processes which used to be time consuming can now be completed quickly and without the need for human engagement. The extra time of employees is precious for the development of any company. Staff can now focus on creative challenges rather than waste time on repetitive tasks.

Let’s take a closer look at a few particular areas where the implementation of AI-driven solutions would significantly increase the growth of your business.

Influencer Marketing

It is a new emerging trend in digital marketing – and by 2020 is expected to be worth $10 billion. Artificial intelligence-powered influencer marketing is expanding especially in three areas:

• identification of the right creators
• defining impactful workflow actions
• creation of relevant content

Nowadays, customers are exposed to thousands of ads daily through multiple devices. It is extremely difficult to attract consumer attention to your business. This is why brands need to create relevant content that reflects the client’s needs.

Artificial intelligence solutions can support companies by finding the right creators using classification programs.

AI is able to detect fake engagement, as well as fraudulent influencers through the analysis of patterns among followers.

Another use of AI is in the process of identifying the relevant types of content. AI can process vast quantities of data and determine which kind of publications are the most popular.

Personalized Customer Experience

The rapidly growing market of e-commerce has changed customers’ expectations. A personalization of marketing activity has become an industry standard. The messages sent to clients have to be different, depending on where the particular customer lives and what language they speak.

According to the research conducted by Gartner, 90% of all brands will be using personalized marketing by 2020, especially to create individualized content which has always been the main struggle for marketers since it is an extremely time-consuming task.

AI algorithms offer a solution. AI-based software can learn the behavioral patterns of each user and then suggest personalized content. And that’s not all.

Improvement of Purchasing Experiences – A New Way of Shopping

A currently emerging trend is the virtual fitting room. It enables customers to “try on” clothes before buying without actually having to change. They just have to stand in front of a screen with a camera and select clothes. Then, the virtual fitting room shows a real-time image of what the customer would look like in a particular outfit.

Automation of Processes

Marketers have been introducing automation to different processes for many years now. The problem is to bring all those programs together into one, multitasking system. Artificial intelligence is able to create such a system.

One of the main struggles that marketers have to deal with every day is the allocation of assets. Now, there is an innovative solution called the digital asset management system. It is able to store, organize, search, and finally share digital content, saving marketers countless hours and giving them the time to invest in development.

Prediction of Users’ Behavior

The key to success is to be always a few steps ahead. Artificial intelligence is able to predict the most likely behavior of particular customers, all thanks to its ability to process massive amounts of data gathered by a company about existing and past customers. An AI-driven system defines a priority lead basing on earlier identified criteria and the profile of an ideal customer.

Artificial intelligence is not only able to come up with predictions. What’s even more important is its ability to act on those predictions in order to define the best actions leading to the desired outcome.

AI-powered analytics software processes behavioral data and compares it with statistical models. The system is then able to predict the future behavior of particular customers and can prevent unwanted actions in advance, for example by sending a targeted marketing message.

Artificial intelligence-based analytics opens the door to individualized marketing. Each customer can be treated differently, depending on their characteristics, and behavioral patterns. Such an approach boosts the effectiveness of marketers and sales teams.

Conclusion

The implementation of artificial intelligence tools has become a new standard in marketing. If you want your business to grow and be competitive in the market, you need to invest in AI-driven solutions.

The application process is complicated, but there are companies as well as specially designed platforms that will help you with artificial intelligence software development.

Thanks to accurate predictions and personalized marketing actions your company will be able to gain customer interest which will result in an increase in sales.

The post How Artificial Intelligence is Changing Marketing appeared first on SiteProNews.