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Let's Be Honest, People Hate Digital Marketing

Posted: 26 Feb 2020 05:20 PM PST

Digital ads are everywhere. Before you watch your favorite YouTube videos, in the middle of your favorite blogs, before you listen to your favorite songs, even when you check your email. You can't escape them. Yet now, more than ever, are people taking extra measures to avoid them. Consumers are now recording shows to fast-forward through commercials, shelling out money so their favorite streaming services aren't interrupted, and setting up ad blockers on their devices. As technology advances and brings great strides in the quality of life, there is always a catch, and one of those catches is the overwhelming number of ads being thrown in our faces every day.

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should

By 2001, more than half of all American adults were using the internet and Google was steadily claiming its way to fame. With that followed other big tech stars: Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia, and more. However, leave it to the marketing industry to take something pure and pollute it.

Originally, Google was designed to help people find content that they're interested in. Facebook was meant to help users keep in touch with family and friends. Blogs were meant to build a community of those with similar interests. If you look at these sites today, they have morphed into more of an advertisement popularity contest. Now you can't log in to Facebook without every other post being an ad or browse Instagram without your favorite stars pushing products, and other content being constantly interrupted by an advertisement explaining why you should buy this or sign up for that.

We all understand that the rise of the internet and having the capabilities of being connected to such a large audience is a marketing industry's playground, but it doesn't necessarily mean that this industry should abuse its privileges.

The damage has been done

We are now seeing the effects digital marketing has brought to the general public. There is definitely a time and place for it, but companies need to be more strategic about it. With more ad blockers put in place than ever before, the effect it will have on future marketing is significant. The rise of Generation Z will also impact digital marketing. They're tech natives, and as such, are savvy enough to dodge ads. Furthermore, by the end of this year, they're going to make up 40% of American consumers and they're demanding more authenticity with their purchasing decisions. Look at this way, by abusing our powers in the digital marketing space, it has created an effect of the rise of skepticism among millennials, and frankly, Gen Z doesn't even give it the time of day.

So, is digital marketing dead?

Of course not. As long as the internet and technology flourish, digital marketing is far from dead. However, it's becoming more apparent that digital marketing is changing its landscape yet again. With more sophisticated data and analytics taking place, digital marketing is now becoming more of a psychological study than a popularity contest.

As we transition out of a phase where more likes equals more sales, we are now entering a digital marketing era where it's not about how many people know you that influences the buyer's decision, it's about how you're going to get into the consumer's soul. This is because most companies are entering a market that is oversaturated.

With an oversaturated market, data and analytics are now coming to the forefront of digital marketing to help businesses understand consumers. And not just any consumers. Your consumers. By understanding your consumers, you can learn how to touch their souls and make them passionate about your brand.

Consumers don't want to be sold to; they want a relationship.

Over the years, studies have shown a decrease in click-through rates among ads and a rise in response to influencers. But influencer marketing is starting to become oversaturated too, which is becoming worrisome to marketers.

When a company hires a marketing team, they want to scale their business and scale quickly. They want to go viral, they want lots of website traffic, they need phone calls. And unfortunately for them, this is not the future. The future consumer wants to build a relationship with a company, build brand loyalty, establish a relationship with a company that they're proud of and that share their values and beliefs. This is changing the landscape of marketing in a way that agencies are scared of.

Clients are demanding better results, more numbers, and want to see where their ad dollars are going and how it's benefitting them as a business. And honestly, digital marketing should be able to provide those numbers. But everyone needs to soon realize that their digital marketing strategy is going to require a little more psychoanalysis than they thought.

Conclusion

Digital marketing is undergoing yet another massive change in the way people engage with advertising. In the beginning, when the home internet was making its debut and sites like Facebook and Twitter were born, it was a great way to reach potential buyers. Then, the rise of paid advertising took hold and made the digital marketing industry much more lucrative. People could pay to have their advertisements seen and, in the beginning, it was a great way to scale your business and to scale it fast. However, now with a more competitive digital marketing landscape, consumers are getting annoyed and ads aren't as effective.

This doesn't mean that popular digital marketing strategies like pay per click advertising, email marketing, influencer marketing, etc. are on their way out. It just means that it's time for companies to be more strategic about their processes. The data and analytics provided are the gateway to understanding your particular consumer and their purchasing journey. It is now time to utilize this data to build a relationship with them because that is where the future of digital marketing is going.

If you're not using your digital marketing dollars to learn about your buyer, then you're losing out. Don't let agencies with fluff reports and data with high impression rates and click-through rates wow you into submission. Ask them:

  • WHY this data is important?
  • HOW does this data help my business?
  • WHAT does this data tell me about my buyer?

It's an exciting new era in the digital marketing field to be able to understand our consumers so well, and the fact that the future of consumerism would be to build a relationship with a company would be a positive aspect. (Say hello to a much easier customer retention process!)

Digital marketing is still alive and well, and can still do your business wonders. It still provides a great platform for your voice to be heard and to reach out to customers. It's a competitive place, but a great one at that. Let's just keep the salesy techniques at bay and develop a solid strategy that you can measure and analyze. Start understanding who truly is passionate about your company, why are they choosing your business, and analyze the customer journey to learn how they found you.

8 Influencer Marketing Tips for Small Businesses

Posted: 26 Feb 2020 11:44 AM PST

Many of us think of influencer marketing as something that's largely reserved for larger businesses. After all, top social media influencers like Kim Kardashian can charge tens of thousands of dollars for a single Instagram story. There's no question that this kind of expenditure is too much for small businesses, and often even for medium-sized businesses. At the same time, social media is occupying an ever-larger segment of the marketing sector, and is becoming increasingly influential for most business markets.  That's why everyone should be using influencers as organic social media becomes more difficult for most businesses.

Here are some ways in which small businesses can level the playing field by leveraging influencers on a limited budget.

Consider supply and demand

When deciding which social networks to use for your influencer marketing campaign, consider supply and demand.

There's no question that demand for social media content is everywhere. However, some platforms have more content available than others, and some places will help you get noticed better than others. For example, it can be really hard to get noticed on Facebook, because that's where everyone seems to start. With that said, this platform can work really well if you're a small business with mostly local clientele and the influencers you're hoping to engage with have a large number of local followers.

In addition to the possibility for engagement numbers, supply and demand helps regulate the cost of engagement.

These days I tell my clients to look at Instagram or Pinterest for B2C and LinkedIn for B2B because these platforms are still able to deliver relatively high organic engagement to those content creators that use them.

Aim for collaboration

Some influencers treat the business of influence more like a cash cow, while others consider it more of a public service that also enhances their income. Influencers who operate a cash cow are likely to "sell" you on "buying" a social media story, and then move on to the next person. However, influencers who are more public service minded will want to collaborate with you.

While transactional influencer stories have some value, you'll get a better ROI when you partner with influencers as a collaborator. These influencers get to know you and your brand, and then take an interest in helping your business grow.

When you collaborate with the right influencer, you do so in hopes that you can convert the influencer into becoming your brand advocate. That's when the ROI of such a collaboration skyrockets because the influencer will begin to talk about you naturally above and beyond any contractual commitment that they might have with you.

Start locally

Even if you could afford to go straight to the celebrity influencer, it wouldn't do you as much good as choosing to stay local.

Let's say you run a restaurant or an auto repair shop. In both cases, you're reaching out to a local clientele: people won't bring their car all the way across the country to let you work on it. And unless your chef is a celebrity, people won't come from out of town just to eat at your restaurant. Therefore, you should start with people who have used your repair shop or really love dining at your restaurant. As word spreads locally, the number of customers should increase. Who knows, you may be able to open a second shop or become a local restaurant chain.

Once you master the local influencer network, where you have a chance to actually meet these people in person and even invite them to your shop, then you can think about expanding your geographic reach.

Go with high engagement rates

For your influencers, that is.

When you have a local influencer with a smaller following, the engagement rate becomes much more important. Partially, this is because those smaller followings tend to be more interested in what an influencer has to say than large ones. One example might be the local food critic, who mostly writes for the local paper and websites. People who follow someone like that love food and generally live nearby. You're getting access to plenty of people with interest in your products or services even though the pool is smaller to start. As your business grows larger, you might move up to influencers with larger followings, but lower rates of engagement. So long as they still give you access to more potential customers than you had before an acceptable ROI is possible.

Do the math: Don't even look at the number of followers they have. Look at their engagement!

Watch their industry

Don't choose influencers in another industry than yours just because they're local and influential. You want to make sure that content produced is something that's interesting to their audiences, or you won't get an effective ROI.

For example, if you follow my social media closely enough, you know what kind of car I drive and why. But the people who follow me are interested in my insights on marketing and social media. They don't really care what car I drive, generally speaking. I'm therefore not a good choice for someone trying to sell cars.

From the brands that have pitched me on representing products and services that are completely irrelevant to my community, I can safely say that a lot of marketing budget is wasted on simply working with the wrong influencers.

Consider cost per action

This is just like buying any other kind of advertising, because you never want to overpay for exposure.

Getting name recognition is worthless if it doesn't turn into sales leads. Even worse, spending your marketing money the wrong way means you don't have it available to pay for better options. Not only that, but not every influencer is equally effective. Cost per action helps you know who to consider for your influencer marketing campaigns. Create an affiliate marketing program for your influencers for an even higher ROI.

Make a great pitch

Remember, you're ultimately trying for a mutually beneficial relationship.

There's no question it takes time to find the right influencers. But, if it's taking too many tries then chances are you're not reaching influencers with your message or you have an image problem. Not everyone is good at pitches to influencers. You need to diagnose the problem, and address it effectively. For example, your business might have really bad Yelp reviews so that influencers don't want to be associated with you. Or, you might have trouble articulating why you're different from your competition. Either way, this needs to be addressed.

Price it right

Before engaging with influencers, you need to figure out if it's best to pay in cash, products or experiences.

Often giving out experiences results in better content, because the influencer gets to see every angle that a regular customer does. On the other hand, products frequently need to be used more than once to get the full sense of how they work. Decide what you can afford to give away, and stick with it. Sending out unsolicited freebies? Follow up with your influencer to see if they have any questions or need help. If you're paying cash, then you really have more of a transactional relationship. These can work out OK, but proceed with caution.

I hope these tips are helpful for you and your business. Any more that you'd like to add? Need any clarifications on the above content? Please chime in in the comments below.

Why Entrepreneurs Should Also Be Investors

Posted: 26 Feb 2020 11:34 AM PST

Wealth building shouldn't be restricted to professionals and even business owners must consider the same for easing out the funding issues, going into the future. The best thing about investing is that it offers a sense of financial freedom and security which in turn allows entrepreneurs to make the best use of the resources in hand. 

Why should an entrepreneur make strategic investments?

In the next few sections, we shall talk about the best investment reasons which owners should take into consideration and must act upon, almost immediately:

  1. Investment grows the financial reserves

It goes without saying that investing in a lucrative venture can easily amplify the existing financial reserves. Business owners are better suited when it comes to identifying the most promising ideas. Investing in one or all of these ideas makes the money grow. Some of the best strategies in hand include investing in certificates and bonds which in a way allow individuals to create wealth, in the most promising manner. 

  1. Prepares one for and beyond retirement

The best thing about investments is that they offer a great retirement cover to the business owners. Needless to say, entrepreneurs never usually focus on insurance and term policies and this is why a proper investment plan becomes necessary. While individuals can use the investment corpus for maintaining a specific living standard even after retirement, business owners can infuse newer resources into the venture for improving sales and profits.

  1. Offers higher returns

Higher returns are guaranteed once the investments are liquidated and used as assets. However, the nature and overall corpus play a major role in determining the nature and size of the returns. Business usually look for residual money infusing avenues going into the future and a good investment plan, as mentioned at themoneypig and other credible websites can readily serve the purpose. Therefore, researching for options, right before making a substantial investment is extremely necessary.

  1. Make and achieve financial goals

Every business has certain pre-defined financial goals which usually determine the layout and existing set of plans. This is where investments come in as they allow companies to achieve the same without worrying about other resources. Moreover, every business owner looks to expand the spread of the venture at some point in time and this is where additional money comes in handy.

  1. Works as a saving plan

Entrepreneurs should always concentrate on savings as business worries and lack of funds often show up as detrimental roadblocks. Moreover, businesses do require additional funds all of a sudden and this is where individuals can tap into the investments for getting access to better opportunities. 

  1. Helps with expansion

Business creation and even expansion depend on the corpus in hand and this is where companies with adequate expertise in suggesting investment opportunities come into play. Firstly, any kind of extra money helps in establishing new ventures with considerable ease.  In addition to that, this flexibility allows entrepreneurs to create new job opportunities for individuals that impact the economy in the best possible manner. 

What are the best investments for an entrepreneur?

Now that we have ascertained the possible reasons for investing, especially for business owners, it is necessary to look at the best investment opportunities, as well. Moreover, a sustainable business is the one that keeps making money on a continual basis and in order to keep the backbone intact, it is necessary that the procured financial wealth is reinvested into more profitable areas. Good investment opportunities help build stability and peace of mind which minimizes bankruptcy and other critical business issues as well.

  • Investing in Real Estate

For business owners, real estate comes across as a good business opportunity. A good way to go about this investment plan is by purchasing commercial property and eventually renting out the same to other businesses. This way, a continuous cash flow is guaranteed, on a monthly basis. However, investing in real-estate requires weeks or rather months of extensive research which including property investigations, rent analysis, and more.

  • Investing in Mutual Funds and Stocks

Here comes a stock-based investment approach that can change the game for entrepreneurs. That said, this investment opportunity brings forth extensive research into the mix which would then assist in wealth creation. A good way to go about this investment plan is by creating a balanced portfolio. The entire corpus must be diversified with stocks include oil firms, precious metals, and even pharmaceuticals. However, researching is extremely important for long term portfolio creation. 

  • Invest in Bitcoin

While there are individuals who prefer investing in select cryptocurrencies, a more productive approach would be Bitcoin mining that is underrated but extremely lucrative. However, with a busy schedule like this, it is necessary to opt for something known as the Cloud Mining that involves a hands-off business approach in regard to acquiring Bitcoin. This process doesn't come with the predefined responsibilities of maintaining hardware, bandwidth, and electricity reserves as everything is done over the cloud.

  • Expand

For businesses, expansion is the best form of investment as it allows them to grow the existing financial reserves in the best possible manner. The aspects which determine the nature and spread of the expansion include the resources in hand, business plans, and more. Individuals who are currently associated with a business can also consider investing in other startups. While this offers a new perspective to them, it also makes room for increased introspection. However, not every company is worth investing in and it is necessary to gauge the pros and cons of the existing scenario before taking a call. 

Businesses investing in other businesses: do's and don'ts

Last point that we discussed concerned investing in other businesses. However, the process isn't as straightforward and takes several factors into account. Firstly, one must understand that any type of investment emanates from two types of financial positions, including equity investments and debt investments. 

While equity investments offer some of the biggest gains, they can also have detrimental consequences if the startup that's invested in, fails. Debt investments are better in that regard but for business owners with aspirations, they might be a bit too silent. The best way to deal with the same is to make way for a hybrid model that involves both debt and equity investments into account. Business owners must also realize that whatever be the nature and size of investment, it should all come down to the comfort level of the individuals that are putting money into a plan. '

What are the best business ideas to invest in?

As a matter of fact, not every business is as productive as the other. This is where it is necessary to conduct research and come up with the best ideas for investing in. At present, entrepreneurs, besides giving time to their own ventures, must seriously consider the likes of cleaning services and fitness to invest in. Needless to say, the spread of these business ideas is growing in the best possible way and the time seems right to tap into the same for additional benefits, especially in the long run.

As discussed in this article, business owners need to be very strategic and selective about their investments as this practice can help them in the long run, especially with business expansion and sustenance. However, besides enlisting the reasons, we also talked about the best investment opportunities for the entrepreneurs while stressing upon the startup-investment idea a bit more. 

I hope the budding entrepreneurs take the important discussion points into account while researching online for the best investment ideas that can help them make, save, and use money, in the most hassle-free manner. 
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