There are 150 million startups in the world today with 50 million new startups launching every year. On average, there 137,000 startups emerging every day. These are huge numbers by any standards. But the question remains, how many startups tend to survive the violent waves of change that have completely transformed the very nature of today’s startups?

Yes, there is a huge paradigm shift. And that shift has challenged the overall functionality of startups. Challenges are everywhere. And businesses – in general, and startups in particular – are no exception to the myriad of challenges that we face today.

Here I am going to elaborate about some of the biggest challenges being faced by small business startups.

Fierce competition

The corporate world is quite fierce. There is always competition between veterans. Competition is one of the biggest challenges for startup businesses. And if you have an online business startup, competition becomes difficult.

The competitive environment places startup at your fingertips because there is no margin of error available. B2B and B2 CE organizations are always feeling the heat of fierce competition. In order to survive in this competitive business environment, to incorporate both traditional and online businesses, the startup needs to be aggressively played, and sometimes in challenging and expanded businesses to grow above their weight.

Unrealistic Expectations

Success does not come alone. It brings expectations with it. Most of the time, these expectations seem realistic, but in the true meaning of the word, it is only unrealistic. This same concept is true for the young startup business.

After initial success, startups have to face challenges when they set ‘Unrealistic expectations’. Remember, success is short-lived and expectations never end. This is where the startup needs to translate the real expectations? Stability is the name of the game. And persistence requires Consistent efforts.

Hiring Suitable Candidates for Startups

One of the most important factors that define organizational culture within a startup company is the synergy of the team. A team comprises of individuals with similar capabilities and identical focus. In order to develop a highly successful team culture, startups need to hire suitable candidates.

There is a huge pool of aspiring individuals available. Selecting a suitable candidate that fits the job well enough is a peculiarly tricky task. It is one of the biggest challenges facing the startup businesses in this digital age.

Financial Management

Money earns money. Remember the fact that when income increases, expenditure also increases. there is no doubt about it. One of the biggest challenges facing startup today is related to financial management.

It is a fact that small startups are heavily dependent on financial backup from the so-called investors. Occasionally, when the cash goes down, it is difficult to do the most important startup correctly, and they fall under pressure.

Cyber Security

This is the digital age. And surviving the challenges in this age requires small startups – especially the ones operating online – to be super agile to counter the so-called online security threats. Hackers are everywhere, and they are going to take advantage of any loophole within the systems installed within a startup firm.

The rate of cyber crimes has increased dramatically during the past couple of years. The percentage is going to increase in the coming years as well. Startups that are active online do face online security threats. Be its unauthorized access to startup’s sensitive information, employee records, bank accounts’ information, or any other related information that is deemed important for the survival of a tech startup, they are at risk.

In order to face and tackle the so-called challenges of a violent business world, startups need to be resilient and focus on keeping their integrity intact against all odds.

Email Campaign, Email Marketing, Marketing

7 Ways Email Marketing Can Improve Your Business

November 9, 2018

You’ve probably heard that email marketing can improve your business. However, while you may know the basics about email marketing(promotional emails), like how to use an opt-in box and use an auto-responder to send out a newsletter, you may not know how it can improve your business.

Here Are 7 Ways Email Marketing Can Completely Transform Your Business:-

1). You will sell more of your product through promotional emails

Promotional emails still work, and they work very well. As a consumer, you’ve probably noticed how many promotional emails you get. After the merchants send out those emails, they sit back in their ergonomic chairs in front of their computers and rub their hands in glee as they watch the sales come in. Perhaps less than 10% of those who receive those emails bother to open them up; and then, out of that small percentage, only 4% click through to the sales letter and only 1% buy. But when you consider that the list might have 100,000 subscribers, that’s an easy $1,000 for five minutes of work.

While these are conservative estimations, imagine if your conversion rates were higher and you were to send out more emails. You will quickly see how you can make thousands a month by sending out emails alone. It’s essential that your promotional email uses copywriting triggers to get people enthused about buying your product.

2). You will build a relationship with your audience through content-rich emails

The secret to getting higher sales from your promotional emails is to build up a relationship with your audience over time through non-promotional, content-rich emails. This way, when they receive your promotional email, they’ll know, like, more trust you enough to respond in a favorable way. Every highly informative, value-packed email you send out will build trust with your audience. They are going to look forward to receiving your emails and visiting your blog posts. When they visit your website, they may start clicking on some of your affiliate ads or buy directly from your website.

3). You will be able to increase your repeat customers by sending complimentary offers

Once people buy your products and like them, they will be more open to complementary products or products that offer more advanced training. In this way, a single subscriber may buy many products from you over many years as you continually appeal to their core interests. As you get more people interested in what you have to sell, you can build a repeat business by offering an evolving line of products.

4). You will be able to increase the size of your sales by sending advanced product offers

If you happen to sell information products, then you could create advanced level products. Since people liked your introductory level products, they will be open to trying out your more expensive advanced level products.

5). You will build your brand through repeated contact with your customers

The best way to build your brand is not through fancy logos and bold colors and cute slogans; it is through regular contact. By sending weekly emails that offer useful information to your niche, you build up your brand through repeat exposure. These emails might even get forwarded to your subscribers’ friends because they want to share your good information.

6). You will become more of a trusted friend than a business entity

Your emails will be a way of sharing your personality with others. Instead of feeling as if they are buying from a business, people will see you as a trusted friend who is offering valuable insights and providing useful products at a fair price.

7). You will be seen as an authority in your field because of how much valuable content you share

You become an authority figure when you can demonstrate that you know what you’re talking about. Since you will be sending information-dense emails that improve people’s lives, you will be seen as an expert in your field. It doesn’t matter if your information has been culled from other sources and you have credited your sources. Eventually, you will be seen as the one who came up with the idea, even if all you did was put other people’s ideas together.

Conclusion

While, of course, email marketing is not the only way you can improve sales in your business, it is an essential component in any marketing and sales strategy. Through email marketing, you build rapport and a loyal customer base. In time, your email list might become one of your most valuable business assets

Email Campaign, Email Marketing, Marketing, Marketing Automation

Email Marketing Strategies: How’s Your Email Marketing Going

October 25, 2018

How’s your Email Marketing Strategies going? We started the year off focusing on the impact of email marketing. We shared a lot of insightful blogs explaining why email marketing is right for everyone, how to get started and tips for those already in the mix.

Many people have put email marketing on the back burner. Marking it as a thing of the past or old marketing techniques for fear of what they see in their own inboxes. Hundreds of emails every day! Spammy emails, junk mail. Big brands inundating our inboxes with emails we can’t pass up, leaving little time for the “mom and pop” business and organization trying to catch our attention with their newsworthy items. And that’s all completely true. Email can often be slightly overwhelming when we’re dealing with day in and day out. However, in that same thought, consider the fact that 2.5 billion people check their email every day. It should be a part of your marketing efforts, it just needs proper execution. The ones that aren’t successful are the ones that are making the right moves.

If you haven’t gotten started, what’s the reason? If you slowed down a little, we’d ask the same thing. Email marketing is here to stay, it’s just a matter of creative strategy to reach your audience and standing out among the rest.

Some of the Best Email Marketing Strategies has shared

1. STRATEGY

Create a strategy based on your overall marketing goals. What calls to action do you want to make? What’s the purpose of each newsletter and content within it. What direction did you head in to meet your marketing needs? Plan it out, coordinate with your other marketing efforts and stick to the plan to create an effective emails campaign.

2. PERSONALIZATION

Most all Emails Newsletter platforms offer multiple ways for you to personalize your subscriber lists and emails and you should definitely be using it. Consider segmenting your subscribers by levels of involvement for corresponding triggers.

Each of these segments should receive unique messages, personalized for where they are in their relationship with you.

Consider triggered emails. “Emails can be automated for a variety of reasons – to upsell existing customers, to remind customers of abandoned carts, for re-engagement, and as welcomes, etc.”
Get personal about your business. “Conversions are the result of relationship-building. Consumers want to know the people behind a brand, and it is up to you to tell your story and establish human connections with all segments of your audience.”
Timing. Monitor the open rates and analytics provided with each newsletter to determine the most active times to send your emails. Also be cautious of the frequency in which you send. Don’t bombard your subscribers with endless emails, they’ll quickly get annoyed and are more likely to unsubscribe as a result

3. RE-ENGAGEMENT

“If you see that a subscriber has not opened your emails for several months, it’s time to re-engage that person. If you don’t know exactly how to craft re-engagement emails so that they actually get opened by the subscriber, your best tactic here is to take a look at successful re-engagement examples and try to emulate them.”

4. RESPONSIVE DESIGN

“This goes without saying. You should adopt a mobile-first strategy in your email design, as many emails opened on mobile devices by busy consumers on the go. Mobile device use ranges from 49.7% up to 78% depending upon global regions.”

5. CONTENT

Content is king! Do we sound like a broken record with that phrase by now? We should, it’s true for all marketing and it’s not going to change! Start with your subject line, what is going to catch their eye and encourage them to open the email in the first place? Once they are reviewing the Emails Newsletter, what kind of content is going to hold their attention long enough to scan the entire email? Now that they are intrigued, are your call to actions strong enough for follow through? From start to finish, analyze your email as the viewer and make note of what pulls you in, what deters you and what done better.

Email Campaign, Email Marketing, Marketing, Marketing Automation

8 Tips for Email Marketing And Social Media Marketing: Holiday Marketing Preparations

October 18, 2018

Small Businesses have a lot of competition during the holiday season, Email marketing and social media marketing helps you to keep up with the competition for holiday marketing. For the Costumer waiting for the end of November is fine. They can unleash an onslaught of commercials, billboards, radio jingles, newspaper flyers, magazine spreads, and big money sponsorships for those holiday TV movies we’ve all seen 10,000 times—and it works—every year.

But for small businesses, success around the holidays means getting customers ready early, even when they may be reluctant to do so. You may not have a million dollar TV budget or Grammy-worthy holiday jingles to do it, but you do have the power of email marketing and social media marketing.

For Holiday Marketing seasons here are eight best tips for using Email Marketing and Social Media Marketing

Develop A Schedule To Help Build Holiday Momentum

Momentum will be crucial in determining whether or not this year’s holiday season will be one worth celebrating your business. But you can’t build momentum around your business unless you have a plan for how you’re going to do it.

One way to start is by creating a schedule. The schedule should map out the weeks and months leading up and through the holiday season with specific goals for each of the big days. The specific holidays you plan to target may vary based on your business and your customer base, but all businesses should be aware of the four biggest shopping and giving days of the holiday season:-

Navratri – October 10, 2018
Dussehra – October 19, 2018
Diwali – November 7, 2018
Black Friday – November 23, 2018

Pay Attention To What Your Fans, Followers, And Readers Really Want This Year

If you want your business to be part of your customers’ holiday plans this season, you’re going to need to deliver content they actually care about.
Consider using a survey to collect customer feedback in the fall, before the holiday craze has started. You can send your survey to all of your email subscribers or post it on your Facebook Page and ask your fans what they are most interested in receiving from your business this holiday season.

Use that customer feedback to not only improve the content you’re sending out but to also better target your messages by segmenting your email contact list. When segmenting your list, you should also look at other information that’s available to you like: open and clickthrough rates, purchasing behaviors, and the preferences people chose when signing up for your newsletter.

Be A Resource, Not Just A Sales Pitch

One of the main reasons people are typically reluctant to shift their focus to the holidays is they are not always eager to start thinking about the less than celebratory work that goes into them. While the holidays are—without a doubt—a time for celebration and giving thanks, they are also a time of great stress for a lot of your customers.

Don’t add to that stress by overwhelming them with sales content and aggressive promotion; instead, provide them with something they can actually use this holiday season. It can be something as simple as advice for preparing their shopping list. Tips for throwing a dinner party, or even a special coupon for subscribers only.

You can also post tips on Facebook or share articles on Twitter. If your business uses Pinterest, consider creating boards to give your followers inspiration leading up to the holiday season.

This year, start your holiday promotion by helping your customers; they’ll remember it when it comes time to buy

Don’t Try To Do Too Much, Too Soon

One of the biggest questions we get from small businesses (at all times of the year) is how often should they post on social media or send emails to their subscribers. This is an especially important question when we’re talking about how to get your customers ready for the holiday season.

The fact is, most of your customers aren’t going to be ready to start thinking about the holidays until. It starts feeling like summer is officially over. Don’t overwhelm them by flooding their inbox and newsfeed with holiday promotions.

When creating your schedule, pay attention to how much holiday content you’re planning to post. Make sure you’re giving your customers the chance to ease into it. Rather than trying to force them to get in the spirit. It can be helpful to think of things in terms of percentages—for example: in September, post 20% holiday marketing content, in October, 30% holiday marketing content, and in November, 50% holiday marketing content.

Give Them What They Signed Up For Exclusive Content

Your customers didn’t become fans, followers, or readers of your email just because they love your products or services. For many of them, it was to receive exclusive content and special promotions from your business.

Telling your readers and fans about upcoming holiday promotions or giving them a sneak peek at new seasonal products is the best way to build holiday excitement and give them the exclusive content they want.

Make The Holidays An Event

You don’t have to wait for the big shopping days or even the official day of the holiday. It to give your customers a reason to celebrate this season. In fact, planning an event earlier in the season—before your customers’ schedules get filled with work parties and family gatherings. It is a great way to get your customers in the holiday state-of-mind.

It’s also a great opportunity to help make a difference this holiday season. By partnering with a local nonprofit and doing some fundraising for a cause that’s important to you as a business owner.

You can also use your event as a way of collecting valuable email contacts before the holiday season by using online event registration.

Remember What Works During The Other Seasons

It’s important to remember that not everything changes during the holiday season. The best practices and strategies you use in your email marketing and social media marketing throughout the year will not only still be effective in November and December. But they will help you engage your customers in September and October and get them ready for the holiday push.

Using rich media, like photos and videos, for example, is a great way to start building that excitement. Think about the types of things we’ve already talked about. Providing exclusive content, being a resource, not being too promotional—photos are a great way to accomplish all of these things. Post pictures from past holidays or give a sneak peek at new products. And then ask your fans to comment, like, or share.

If you haven’t used videos in the past, or even if you have. Think about shooting a short video every couple of weeks or once a month leading into the holiday season. Something as simple as a video on your smartphone can give you the chance to tell your fans what you’re working on for the fall and what you have coming up for the holidays.

Be Authentic And Be Care

One of the biggest reasons people choose to shop with small businesses. It throughout the year and during the holiday season is the personal connection they’re able to provide.

While your bigger competitors will have to rely on fictional stories. And inauthentic holiday moments to connect with customers in the months leading up to the holidays. You have the ability to offer the real thing and can use your own experiences to make that special connection.
Do you have personal experiences your customers will enjoy or stories from past holiday promotions? That will get them excited for what you have planned this year? Use them to create a personal connection your customers will love and to generate buzz around this year’s big season.

Put Your Best Practices Into Action This Holiday Season

Chances are you’re probably already doing most of the things. You’ll need to do when it comes time to get your customers ready for the holiday season. Creating a schedule, being a resource, using rich media. And providing a personal connection are all things that have helped you. Build your social communities and drive real results from your email marketing.

Now all you need to do is … put them into action!

Business, Marketing

How Has Digital Marketing Changed Marketing?

October 17, 2018

Since 10 years, there has been a tremendous evolution in the era of marketing due to exceptional growth in Digital Marketing. And no wonder if one is not on the same path, you’ll be left behind. The scope of the internet is vast and it has brought a significant change in many industries. As the world has inclined more to digitally, marketers have no choice left just to follow the trend and make digitally available campaigns. Digital Marketing is a set of tools that help to promote products or services online through digital mediums.

The technology has changed the way of marketing. Earlier it has been the traditional way like banners, pamphlets, TV, and radio which used be very costly. Though traditional way is still in, however, marketers now don’t believe in comprising just with billboards and brochures. Marketing has transformed as people spend most of the time on mobiles, tablets, and laptops.

Customer Service never Sleep

Customer care had no importance before the digital age. For any assistance, they required to deliver door to door service to manage the customer issues. It used to take much time and effort to be available everywhere. However, with the invention of digital technology, it has become so convenient to stay in touch with the customer and provide 24X7 customer service as per the need which has helped to increase customer satisfaction.

As most of the time customers are quite available on mobiles, social media has become the easy out way to provide all time assistance in a best possible way and makes it an unstoppable and sleepless way for companies. People expect you to address the need for their issue every time and digital marketing helps to stay on the same in the same league.

RIP Traditional Marketing

No wonder, traditional marketing is dead. No one interested and has time to hold pamphlets or watch banners on the road. Customers are more interested in the easy way that they can get through their mobiles or tablets. Though we still consider TV and radio, however, they have fallen a lot. It just because people are moving to online more. Nowadays, even people are more interested in watching TV shows and cricket over mobiles online rather than TV as mobiles and laptops can be accessed from anywhere.

Change in Communication

The way of communication has changed because of the digital marketing age. Audience prefers digital channels more than any other way of the medium. Due to this, it’s easier to reach the target audience. Marketers are more focusing on social media platforms to stay in connection with their audience and create a loyal brand value for them.

Cost Effective

Yeah, digital marketing is cheaper than our old traditional marketing. Advertising takes a lot of money wise and only the companies having a big budget can afford it. But advertising is so necessary to reach more people if a company wants to achieve the success they wish for. As small business or startups can’t afford the bulk investment. Digital Marketing act as a savior for them as its tools and way of performance is quite cheaper. You can use social media platform and digital marketing tools that provide initial stages totally free and can be taken as the easiest way to excel in the business performance.

Digital Marketing has changed everything about the way the companies and market think & act. It has revolutionized the reach of small businesses while demanding more from an already established business. While customers are enjoying the services of this trend, it has also created career opportunities for many as the market need digital marketing professionals to overcome the gap between market trends and success.

Artificial Intelligence, Business, Marketing, Marketing Automation

How Artificial Intelligence (AI) is Changing the Face of Digital Marketing

October 14, 2018

Every year people get swept up in the latest trends. Whether it’s purchasing the newest iPhone or trying out the latest health craze. Industries are subject to their own trends and one that seems to be making its way into the workplace for many (including marketers) is artificial intelligence (AI).

Today, artificial intelligence impacts numerous aspects of life in the form of smart devices, chatbots, and self-driving cars. All of these designed to understand consumer needs and preferences and deliver customized customer experiences. Artificial Intelligence has been a trending topic for quite a while now. And it is being used in various fields including digital marketing. This is mainly because the use of AI digital marketing strategies can help you deliver improved customer experiences. More than that, they can help you save both time and money.

AI is starting to creep its way into most aspects of marketing, from advertising and personalized web experience all the way to generating interactive content.

Getting to Know Your Customers

One of the favorite features of Artificial Intelligence is the insight it can offer into your customers’ behavioral patterns. It takes a lot of hard work out of market research by gathering, calculating and making sense of data far faster than a human team could do it.

These AI algorithms can help marketers build in-depth customer persona profiles to help them better meet and understand audience needs, build deeper connections and brand loyalty, and provide the best possible user experience.

Building Better Experiences

A greater understanding of customers better enables personalization, a benefit to brands in a time when audiences are expecting increasingly meaningful experiences. In fact, personalized content is shown to be exponentially more effective than non-personalized content.

From using machine-learning algorithms that create customized product recommendations to employing chatbots for automated customer support, marketers continue to leverage AI technology to achieve marketing objectives.

A Challenging New Battleground

With AI constantly advancing, companies keeping up with such advancements are gaining a competitive edge, leaving technologically challenged companies in the dust. AI can help brands become more consistent, customer-centric and tailor content and services based on consumer needs. But the more brands utilize these tactics, the more customers come to expect exceptional service and personalization.

Digital Marketing Experts Says- If you believe your brand has to fight to be distinct and memorable in today’s landscape, you already believe you need Artificial Intelligence.

Increase ROI

Artificial Intelligence helps you end the guesswork. You can create a more effective marketing strategy for your business with AI’s data-driven analysis. AI empowers decision-making and also helps you create better-performing content. Implementing AI digital marketing strategies helps you reach out to the right audience with deals they can’t refuse.

Increase Productivity

Using AI algorithms, you can automate a number of repetitive tasks. This can help you increase productivity and save you both time and money. Using AI digital marketing strategies can transform the way you engage with your audience. It can help you drive relevant traffic, acquire new customers, increase sales, and retain your existing customers.

Here’s how you can use Artificial Intelligence technology to process your customer’s needs:

Chatbots

Chatbots are the biggest example of the use of AI technology. They act as a virtual assistant for consumers whether you ask Alexa to play your favorite song or Siri to set an alarm.

Personalized Product Recommendations

Many retail and e-commerce brands use AI technology to track their customers’ preferences, habits, and buying behavior. These insights help them make suggestions on products and services that their customers interested in.

Email Marketing, Marketing

Why Email Marketing is Important in 2018?

October 8, 2018

Did you know that email marketing provides an average ROI of $44 for every $1 spent?

Why is email marketing so effective? Because it allows businesses to quickly and efficiently send personalized marketing materials to specific audiences. 83% of B2B marketers are leveraging email marketing campaigns to generate new business opportunities

Marketing through email can be a fast, flexible and cost-effective way of reaching new customers and retaining existing customers.

Filtering Your Email Marketing in 2018

A Complete Analysis of Email Marketing

Now we discuss how email marketing will be essential for your company in 2018. Let’s run through a few things you can do to improve your email campaigns this year.

Targeted Marketing Opportunities

Unlike many other marketing opportunities, when properly implemented, email marketing can provide your business with various ways to target specific customers. To do this, make sure that your email marketing software allows for lead scoring. Once a user fulfilled the criteria you have defined, then follow up them with targeted messaging to drive the funnel.

For example, let’s say that you send out an email that contains information on a sale. You have also set up lead scoring to know who has bought something as a result of this email and someone who has not. Your email marketing software follows up automatically with an email (possibly a discount code) to entice them for purchase.

For those that did purchase, they could be placed into an email campaign that could provide tips and tricks on how to use the product they just purchased. Perhaps, if the product they purchased has a steep learning curve, you could offer a series of emails that are essentially an onboarding process.

More Personal and Targeted than Social Media

While there are many benefits of using social media for your business, there are many of your customers who might not use social media. However, these people more than likely have an email address.

There are numerous ways to capture a customer’s email address. A few ways are having a form on your website, asking them during the account creation or checkout process, or even asking them during a phone call. Pair their email address up with a first and last name and you have the foundation set for sending personalized emails, meaning you could dynamically insert their information within emails or subject lines.

Personalize your Email Marketing List

Once you have the basic contact information from a customer, you can implement progressive profiling to gather more information. No matter what you ask, keep it short in length and questions. The user submits the form, they get the ebook they wanted, you get the info you needed.

Just think of the ways you can use this additional info to provide targeted and personalized messaging to your customer database. Once you have gained additional information, you could put certain users into new nurturing campaigns to continue the email marketing relationship.

Data-Driven & Measurable

Knowing what works and what doesn’t is key to the success and improvement of a marketing campaign. With email marketing, you get insights into your initiatives.

Insight into a metric like open rates which is what percent of users who actually opened the email you sent. One key factor in improving open rates is having an intriguing subject line. Creating eye-catching subject line results in higher open rates.

Another metric your business can track is (CTR), which is essentially what percent people clicked on a link within the email. If you are really doing email marketing right, you should split test different calls to actions (CTA) within your email copy (and even subject lines). Knowing if one particular phrasing works better than others in generating click-through, can provide exponential results to your campaign.

Having access to these metrics help your business keep tabs on what is or not working in your email marketing initiatives.

Permission to Contact Prospects & Clients

Let’s face it, it is much easier to see results by contacting those who want to hear from you. This is done very easily in email marketing by confirming their email address after submission business. This is called a “double opt-in”, meaning that not only did the user submit their email address, but they are confirming they did so by logging into their email and clicking on a verification link you send them.

Complete Authority of Email Marketing Campaign

By clicking this verification email, they are granting you permission to contact them via email.

Now that you have their permission, you must be conscious of how often you email them do n’t flood their inbox with your messages. Users will start to ignore your emails, or worse unsubscribe completely from your email list.

With permission to email, your business can do a number of things with email marketing. You can create nurturing campaigns, send them monthly newsletters, or use it for progressive profiling.

Stay Top of Mind

Email marketing allows your business to email the consumer whenever you want. While not every email needs to be a sales pitch, your contact with the customer should provide something of value to them. Whether this is a link to your latest blog post, an email asking them questions relating to your industry, or even an update on new products coming out in the near future; using email to stay connected to your customers keeps your brand in the forefront of their minds.

With the personalization of email, you can tailor your message to be warm and friendly. The personal touch will help them connect with your company on a personal level and not think you are just interested in having them buy something. This ultimately builds relationships, loyalty, and trust among your subscribers.

Generate Sales

Email marketing can be a channel to help you increase sales when implemented properly. I am not talking about blasting your list with sales pitch after sales pitch. That won’t work out too well. Your business needs to use email marketing the right way.

Through lead scoring, and well-defined email campaigns, a business can know when a customer is primed for a purchase. Knowing where your customer is in the funnel through lead scoring will give you insights on when to be more aggressive with sales based messaging.

Generate Sales Through Email Marketing Being able to lead the customer further down the funnel on their own terms is a powerful tool. By allowing them to exhibit certain actions before hitting them up for a sale will not only make your customer happy but your bottom line as well.

Cost Effective & Affordable

The costs of email marketing can be much lower than many other forms of marketing. There are no advertising fees, printing or media space costs. Sure there will be some initial implementation costs, but once the foundation is set, the ongoing maintenance cost is minimal compared to the return.

Real-Time Marketing

Through email marketing, you can connect with customers in real-time. Using automated triggers, such as website activity, recent purchase or shopping cart abandonment, you can reach the right audience, at the right time, in the right place and with the right offer.

Marketing, Marketing Automation

3 Steps to Building a Customer-First Marketing Strategy

October 4, 2018

According to a new report, 80% of executives strongly agree that customer experience is important to an organization’s success. Yet just 34% believe they equipped to deliver superior customer experiences. Those that don’t learn how to build and provide those experiences (Marketing Functions), however, will only be left behind. In fact, 75% of today’s S&P 500 companies will be replaced by 2027.

To help enterprises navigate this shift, We combined original research and firsthand accounts from top marketing executives to uncover why customer experience is the new marketing? And how leading organizations like IBM, Microsoft, and Nasdaq are rewiring their strategies to be more customer-centric. Making the transition from brand-first to customer-first isn’t easy – but it is necessary if enterprises want to survive in an ever-changing marketplace. Here are three steps CMOs must take to successfully lead their organizations through this change.

Understand the Shift Power

With the rapid evolution of social media, customers are more connected and in control than ever before. People have the power to gather information and share their experiences across multiple touchpoints at any time. And they’ll do this with or without you.

“What customers are saying on social is what they’re saying to the world,” said Doug Palmer, principal at Deloitte Consulting LLP. “It’s a conversation that’s taking place about you – whether it be your brand or your product – and you’re not leading the conversation.”

We’re in a new world of business, and customers are at the wheel. Understanding and acknowledging this shift in power is the first step to building a customer-centric organization.

Adopt a Customer-Centric Mindset

To keep up with this shift, marketing leaders need to scrap their traditional hierarchies, funnels, and models. They need to start looking at the world from the perspective of a customer – not a brand. Best practices a company must adopt for customer-centricity are:

Being passionate and believing that customers come first
Using customer data to gather valuable insights
Focusing on customer wants and aligning products to these requirements
Aiming at building relationships which maximize customer’s service experience
Planning and implementing a well-well-thought-out customer strategy which focuses on retaining loyal customers
Increasing brand advocacy
Increasing brand advocacy

Putting the customer’s needs first in a digital world

Apart from taking innovative technologies in consideration, a customer-centric approach lies at the heart of a successful business. Creating digital content and campaigns which put the customer first has become imperative. Instead of promoting a brand, the content should focus on enhancing the customer’s life. The good news is that technology empowers marketers to respond to customers effectively. So to stay in the game marketers must bring in data and analytics to ascertain customer pain points.

Using analytics, an insurance company discovered that its customers distressed over the long claim process. To make their lives easy, the company introduced a mobile app which allowed customers to file claims within minutes. Hence, we see how digital innovation acts as a catalyst to enhance customer experience. One of the best ways to tackle customer experience is to follow it from the customer’s point of view. So this unlocks new business opportunities and facilitates the creation of effective business models.

Why should everyone be involved in marketing?

It will be difficult to disseminate the brand message if everybody in the organization is not in sync with the brand story. It is a good idea to encourage employees to create a social media presence where they share positive sentiments about the brand.

Far too often businesses leave the job of marketing to the marketing department. However, by corralling marketing functions into one department, businesses unintentionally diffuse the impact which other departments have on the customer journey. But the question is-are all departments prepared to carry out marketing functions? One smart step is to impart marketing training for all involved in the business. This can include the finance team, the admin team, and the delivery people. The human resource department, which is also the face of the organization, can organize company-wide training which instills a culture of marketing in every function. Additionally, the CRM features may not be obvious to all the employees. It’s necessary that the staff trained in CRM systems. Although technology is an enabler, it is the employees who can bring about a transformation.

Moreover, inclusive marketing is the need of the hour. It involves marketing to specific demographics without relying on stereotypes. It also refers to processes and approach which work best for the larger audience and yield tangible results. These processes should be deployed by teams which are not broken down into silos. Instead, different teams should step into each other’s shoes and steer the business together towards success.

See the Video to know more about online marketing:-

Marketing

How Facebook and Instagram are Perfect for Movie Marketing?

October 2, 2018

Movie marketing, over the years, has undergone a massive shift with the advent of the internet and digital media driving accessibility for the masses. Social media has become one of the key mediums for viewers to discover content. and the film industry is increasingly leveraging it to engage their audience through original, creative content. Given the changing consumption patterns of filmgoers and rapid internet and smartphone penetration, digital media is pivoting large box office results for Hindi movies.

Driving buzz and appeal for Film Campaign

As per the findings of the report, Facebook is one of the top 3 mediums in driving buzz & appeal for a film campaign, achieving it through organic methods like link shares and conversations, apart from initiatives like Facebook Live. Interestingly, Facebook and Instagram, combined, proved to have delivered the highest impact with 21% contribution to a Hindi film’s first-day box office sales.

Engaging the Audience through Facebook

Indian movie marketers are already taking advantage of engaging desired audiences through Facebook, to drive uptake at the box office. For them, Facebook can help in building a community and interest, generate real-time conversation and feedback, and create a fan base even before the movie is released, which in-turn drives word of mouth and buzz. The platform offers not just large, but relevant reach and most importantly high levels of audience engagement ( film Campaign ). It also offers interactivity through a movie’s journey, thereby delivering an ROI incomparable to any other media.

This is Unique

“This is a unique, one-of-its-kind study, developed exclusively for the Indian market ( Film Campaign ). It correlates the actual box office collections to a movie’s marketing mix. The research went beyond just media metrics such as impressions, readership etc. as a barometer for a film’s marketing success, and also focused on awareness or buzz and intent to watch or appeal as key parameters. The study had a comprehensive scale with over 25,000 moviegoers surveyed across several cities, demographics, and strata in a 6-month effort, evaluating the performance of nine media basis the impact created in driving movie ticket sales. As per the findings of the report, Facebook is one of the top 2 media in driving a movie’s buzz & appeal, achieving it through organic methods like link shares and conversations, apart from initiatives like Facebook Live.

Interestingly, Facebook and Instagram, combined, proved to have delivered the highest impact with 21% contribution to a Hindi film’s first-day box office results.” a Facebook spokesperson said.

Email Campaign, Email Marketing, Marketing, Marketing Automation

Enhance Email Marketing with Cloud Computing

September 18, 2018

By offering StrongView On-Demand, a cloud-based email marketing solution, Mailcot fully leverages cloud computing. Providing all the benefits of installed software via SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) in one versatile solution. This is just as if you host your email server in your own secure storage site. The cloud servers are located in an actual data center. But they are considered “virtual” because they can be accessed from any computer, anywhere, any time.

Cloud computing isn’t just another marketing buzzword. Far from it. This is the real deal, an enormous change with huge implications for marketers, and competitive advantages for those who act on it early. So out on the front lines, marketers need to explore how these changes can affect how we do business.

Following are the benefits of cloud computing in Email Marketing:

Faster Sending Speeds

Cloud-hosted email marketing servers have immediate, redundant access to the Internet. It allowing your campaigns to launch at speeds limited only by your ability to click the Send button.

Flexible Data Integration

Cloud Computing System is easier to connect to your database and CRM tools through the cloud, providing ultimate flexibility to meet your business requirements.

Higher Security

Cloud server hosting companies employ the most up-to-date practices for firewall protection, server security, and data redundancy, making the cloud the safest place to store your data.

Future Proof

Cloud computing ensures that the latest server software updates and equipment upgrades are in effect, putting your business at the forefront of email server technology.

Here are top 5 Ways Cloud Computing Can Help Your entire Marketing Department

Low cost

Cost-efficiency is the name of the game with cloud computing. Hence with the cloud, companies no longer need to set up and pay for expensive infrastructure or spend money on hardware.

Democratizing effect

As a result of the reduced capital costs outlined in the previous point, small marketing departments are finally on a relatively equal playing field when compared to large corporations. With the cloud, both small and large marketing departments have the ability to reach a large audience, engage with a wide range of prospects, and grow marketing resources at the same pace as your business.

Improved time management and processes

The ability to control content and deploy strategies without depending on any other department has the benefit of improving processes, including the ability to stay focused on meeting strategic goals and implementing plans more quickly. This has the added benefit of reducing the time required to train new staff. Especially since there is a minimal learning curve with cloud-based technology.

Improved Accessibility

The cloud allows marketers to access their files with ease, improving collaboration and communication both within the team. Additionally, marketers no longer have to worry about losing data in the event of a hard-drive crash or natural disaster.

Innovation

With improved accessibility, processes, and analytics, marketers can spend more time focusing in on understanding customer needs. Hence by honing in on target audiences and better understand their pain points, marketers can spend more time creating innovative campaigns to connect with customers.

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Here Are 7 Ways Email Marketing Can Completely Transform Your Business:-

1). You will sell more of your product through promotional emails

2). You will build a relationship with your audience through content-rich emails

3). You will be able to increase your repeat customers by sending complimentary offers

4). You will be able to increase the size of your sales by sending advanced product offers

5). You will build your brand through repeated contact with your customers

6). You will become more of a trusted friend than a business entity

7). You will be seen as an authority in your field because of how much valuable content you share

Conclusion

Some of the Best Email Marketing Strategies has shared

1. STRATEGY

2. PERSONALIZATION

3. RE-ENGAGEMENT

4. RESPONSIVE DESIGN

5. CONTENT

For Holiday Marketing seasons here are eight best tips for using Email Marketing and Social Media Marketing

Develop A Schedule To Help Build Holiday Momentum

Pay Attention To What Your Fans, Followers, And Readers Really Want This Year

Be A Resource, Not Just A Sales Pitch

Don’t Try To Do Too Much, Too Soon

Give Them What They Signed Up For Exclusive Content

Make The Holidays An Event

Remember What Works During The Other Seasons

Be Authentic And Be Care

Put Your Best Practices Into Action This Holiday Season

Customer Service never Sleep

RIP Traditional Marketing

Change in Communication

Cost Effective

Getting to Know Your Customers

Building Better Experiences

A Challenging New Battleground

Increase ROI

Increase Productivity

Chatbots

Personalized Product Recommendations

Filtering Your Email Marketing in 2018

Targeted Marketing Opportunities

More Personal and Targeted than Social Media

Data-Driven & Measurable

Permission to Contact Prospects & Clients

Stay Top of Mind

Generate Sales

Cost Effective & Affordable

Real-Time Marketing

Understand the Shift Power

Adopt a Customer-Centric Mindset

Putting the customer’s needs first in a digital world

Why should everyone be involved in marketing?

Driving buzz and appeal for Film Campaign

Engaging the Audience through Facebook

This is Unique

Faster Sending Speeds

Flexible Data Integration

Higher Security

Future Proof

Low cost

Democratizing effect

Improved time management and processes

Improved Accessibility

Innovation

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