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What should you avoid when building online brand credibility?

29 April 2022
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Categories: General

Building online brand credibility aims to retain customers and this is a challenge on online platforms as there is a wide range of competition. Online brand credibility is a factor that stimulates a consumer to buy, maintain engagement, and revisit your website or online platforms. Building online brand credibility takes time and planning, so posting a well-designed logo or posting a social media post occasionally is not enough. You need to research your industry and competitors, formulate marketing plans, and put the consumer first. To avoid making preventable mistakes, these are the things you should avoid when building online brand credibility:

  • Exaggerations and half-truths
    Exaggerating or telling half-truths to persuade consumers is a big mistake as it lowers online brand credibility. Credibility is built by being honest with your audience, communicating regularly, and providing what is promised on your online platforms. This also applies to being deliberately vague to avoid certain information. Not communicating effectively and fully is sure to damage your online brand credibility.You should also avoid posting content that does not relate to your brand. If consumers are on your online platform looking for a product, service, or information and click on links that lead them to irrelevant information, they will not trust your brand.To please your desired consumers and build online brand credibility you need to ensure that everything they need and would want is available to them. This will ensure that they trust your brand and that your brand stands out from the crowd.
    Exaggerations and half-truths
  • Don’t showboat
    Promoting your brand and content online is an important marketing move, but if it is done incorrectly, it could damage your online brand credibility. If you over-promote your content and brand, consumers may be deterred due to the promotion coming across as spam or over-compensation.To avoid this mistake, your website and other online platforms need to be clear, informative, and easy to navigate. Not only easy to navigate on a computer or laptop, but also on a mobile device. Using pop-ups, slide-ins, and video clips can be a good marketing tool but if it is overused, or if it appears without the user’s instruction, it may be seen as spam.The overuse of promotional content may also convey the message that what is being seen and promoted is too good to be true. This is sure to damage your online brand credibility, so be sure to avoid overuse or promotional content at all times.
  •  Association with untrustworthy sources
    Having your brand’s name in online publications is sure to build online brand credibility. When consumers see your brand’s name in trusted publications, they are sure to remember it and revisit your online platform when it’s needed. But having your brand’s name on just any publication may lead to damaging your online brand credibility.Many brands choose to hire the services of a marketing agency to create content and have them published in online publications. This may work, but not all agencies use reputable publications and may use disreputable publications to save money.The saying “any press is good press” does not apply to this situation. If you do choose to hire a marketing agency to spread the word about your brand, make sure to research the agency to ensure they can meet your needs and not damage your online brand credibility.

    Association with untrustworthy sources

  • Hopping on trends
    Using the latest trends in marketing strategies can work out to be profitable if done correctly. But the issue with trends is that they don’t last, and if a brand focuses on using trends, they are likely to fade as fast as the trend fades. This is sure to damage your online brand credibility.If you would like to use a trend in your marketing strategy on occasion, you need to ensure that you stick to your marketing strategy. By stopping what works well for your brand for a trend, your online brand credibility will be damaged. Choosing the trend to hop on is also extremely important. Even if the chosen trend is wildly popular, it may damage your brand if it’s off-target.

Brand owners need to ensure that nothing worthwhile is achieved after a quick fix. Online brand credibility needs time, planning, and effort to be built to last. Using a marketing strategy that works is always your best bet. Once you’ve figured out what works, you can test new techniques and see if they can be added to the marketing strategy.

 

What is evergreen content and how to create it

29 April 2022
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Categories: General

Producing content for your target audience is an important marketing technique, but not all content is good content. To stay relevant and engaging, your website and other platforms need to contain evergreen content. Trendy and current content is important and can be used to increase traffic and engagement, but once the trend or hype has faded, so will the traffic and engagement.

To maintain traffic and engagement, evergreen content needs to be used across your website and online platforms. Once you understand how to create evergreen content, the content you produce is sure to be timeless and relevant no matter the date.

What is evergreen content?

Evergreen content is the type of content that is timeless. This content refuses to fade or become irrelevant because it is based on a topic that will be relevant and important for a long period of time, if not for the foreseeable future. An example of evergreen content is “how to write a good essay”. High school and higher education students will need content like that for years to come, therefore making it evergreen content.

An example of content that may not be evergreen is “how to make your own face mask”. This type of content was relevant during the pandemic, but once the pandemic ends this type of content becomes irrelevant. But this type of content is trendy and can be used as a temporary way to increase traffic to a website.

How to create evergreen content

  • Choosing the right topic is vital
    Choosing the right topic is vital
    Choosing a topic that is timeless is the first step to creating evergreen traffic, but determining which topics are timeless may prove to be an obstacle. To find evergreen topics you can use an analytics tool, such as Google Analytics. Google Analytics will show you which topics have a high initial search volume that decreases over time, and which topics have a high initial search volume that is sustained over time. The topics that have a high initial search volume that is sustained over time would be evergreen content.
  • Use the appropriate keywords
    Use the appropriate keywords
    Just as the topic needs to be evergreen, so do the keywords. Similarly, to finding an evergreen topic, you can use an SEO research tool to find out which keywords have consistently high search volumes. Examples of these SEO research tools are Ahrefs, Moz, and SEMrush. Evergreen keywords should have at least 1,000 monthly searches. This will indicate consistent and genuine interest.
  • Optimize your evergreen contentThis tip relates to finding the evergreen content more than creating it. The content you create can be perfect, but if it is not SEO optimized, you won’t have website traffic. Therefore, it won’t be evergreen. To SEO optimize your evergreen content you should build backlinks and include the main keyword/keywords in the title and subheadings.You should also include outbound links to specific high-authority websites, mention cited data points if used, and avoid complicated and technical jargon in the content. Another good tip is to offer the answer or solution to the user’s problem at the top of the content. A user is likely to exit your website if they must scroll down and search for what they are looking for.
  •  Keep your content updatedCreating evergreen content may need some tweaking as time passes. The topic may remain evergreen, but the content may become outdated. For example, data and statistics used in the content are likely to change and become updated over time. To ensure that your content stays evergreen you should revisit your content and update it with outbound links and recent data points as it changes.

 

Keep your content updated

Start creating evergreen content today

Using evergreen content is a smart marketing technique to increase organic traffic, keep your audience engaged, and become a trusted source in your field. Before starting the creative process, be sure that you have done your research and sure that the content you would like to create will be evergreen content. Once it’s been created and shared online, be sure to update it as time progresses to maintain its evergreen quality.

How does leadership styles impact the performance of an organisation?

29 April 2022
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Categories: General

Managers and other business leaders may not always realise and recognise it, but they are the ones who drive employee performance in an organisation. Part of the job description is driving team success, ensuring a positive work environment, being able to answer employee questions, and solve their problems. Many managers are able to do this, but when a crisis appears or they are put under pressure, the performance of the organisation may suffer if their leadership style does not suit the situation.

What are the different types of leadership styles?

  • Autocratic leadership: This type of leadership style creates a clear boundary between the manager or business leader and the employees. The person in power makes all the decisions and the employees are meant to agree with the decision and follow the instructions given.
  • Democratic leadership: This type of leadership style sees the manager or business leader consult the employees or specific team members for input or feedback. Although decisions take longer to form, they are made after careful consideration aiming to make the best decision.
  • Participative leadership: This type of leadership style operates when the manager or business leader allows specific team members to make most of the decisions. The manager or business leader is still present and provides guidance, but the employees make decisions based on their capabilities and skills.

    Participative leadership
    Many managers or business leaders tend to blend certain leadership styles depending on the specific situation. If the situation is extremely stressful or important, the manager may choose to use the autocratic leadership style. If the situation is less stressful and can be discussed to be developed, they might use the democratic leadership style.

Which leadership style generates optimal performance?

No leadership style is perfect or generates optimal performance at all times. Specific situations require the manager to assess the situation, locate the goals, and determine which leadership style/styles are necessary.

The autocratic leadership style is best for improving short-term performance. It was also found that when new employees are involved, or when new teams are created, an authoritarian leadership style is best seeing that the employees still need to find their feet. Managers will then be able to give clear instructions which will likely be welcomed by the employee.

Which leadership style generates optimal performance?

Leadership best practices may offer better results than leadership styles

Although specific leadership styles work for specific situations, it has been found that certain leadership best practices provide high rates of employee and organisation performance. The VAE model has been created to outline a three-step process to achieve this. VAE stands for:

  • Creating a Vision
  • Building Alignment around the vision
  • Championing Execution

‘Creating vision’ means determining the goal or place the organisation or team needs to reach. Although this is the manager’s job, many choose to consult the team seeing that the team will be the ones achieving the vision.

‘Building alignment around the vision’ is achieved when the manager gains buy-in from their organisation and/or team. Managers must consistently communicate and motivate their team as to what the vision is and why it is important to reach.

‘Championing execution’ happens when the manager ensures that the vision materialises. Managers need to ensure that the plan is being executed and that processes are fixed or tweaked if they are not providing the desired results. Managers also need to celebrate their team and offer praise when specific milestones are reached, to boost morale and maintain engagement.

Are supply chain issues slowing down online shopping deliveries?

28 April 2022
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Categories: General, Supply Chain

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented an array of obstacles and issues to supply chains across the globe. But these issues cannot be solely blamed on the pandemic, as supply chains were under pressure and buckling before 2020. Now, these supply chain issues have diversified and intensified to not only affect manufacturers, logistics firms, and retailers but also you, the customer.

What are supply chains?

A supply chain is a complex network made up of manufacturers, logistics firms, retailers, and delivery companies. Supply chains function to create a product and distribute it to the consumer. To function optimally, supply chains need a wide network of people, processes, and resources.

supply chain network

Are your online shopping deliveries being negatively affected?

In short, yes. Due to the pandemic, many people who were able to do their shopping online chose to do so for convenience and to maintain social distancing practices. This caused the demand for large amounts of goods to increase. Once the goods in demand depleted, many of the depleted goods were unable to be restocked and manufactured due to lockdown restrictions preventing factory work.

Once these goods were eventually manufactured, they had to be shipped to the distribution centres. Whether it was transported via truck, air freight, or boat, they could not be processed as fast as they were pre-pandemic due to lockdown restrictions. The staff in the distribution facilities has been limited due to social distancing practices, with some distribution centres closing for periods due to COVID-19 infections amongst the staff.

Once the products have been processed and been released to courier companies, the delivery people become faced with large amounts of products that need to be distributed as soon as possible. Due to staff limitations, the deliveries of these products were delayed due to the sheer number of deliveries.

What are the current supply chain issues?

  1. The COVID-19 pandemicThe pandemic placed major unexpected pressures on local and global supply chains. Due to hard lockdowns and restrictions, supply chains were forced to come to a halt. These pressures and effects caused major geographical shifts in supply and demand, which snowballed causing major issues for supply chains locally and globally.As mentioned earlier, supply chains had faced issues before the pandemic. Examples of these issues were increases in online shopping, delivery driver shortages, and skill shortages during production. These issues became amplified due to the pandemic.

    The COVID-19 pandemic

  2. Doing business has become more challengingDue to the pandemic, and political factors, the economic and business environment has become more complex which has made business processes more challenging. A global example of this would be the effects of Brexit. The UK and Europe felt supply chain issues due to an increase in red tape and cross-border checks resulting from Brexit.Other, more common, examples of supply chain issues would be fluctuating exchange rates and the building of global management teams. This is all due to globalisation. Globalisation has offered many benefits and has made the movement of products easier but has also offered supply chain issues.
  3. The environmental impactSustainable supply chain practices have become a necessity as countries have pledged to meet specific emissions targets and commitments. To meet these targets and commitments means that many businesses need to change and revise their processes. This has proven to be a big supply chain issue as sustainable supply chain practices typically mean slower production.To resolve this issue, businesses have had to put time and effort into supply chain risk management. Supply chain risk management functions to find and determine where risks currently exist or may arise in a supply chain network. It also includes assessing the damage these risks might bring and putting specific mitigation strategies into place.

    The environmental impact

 

What are the types of digital marketing?

5 April 2022
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Categories: General, Marketing

Since the advance of technology, marketing has never been the same. Today, businesses and marketers have utilised technology to create digital marketing. Digital marketing is a form of marketing that uses online media to spread brand messages and content. Digital marketing distributes brand messages and content through search engines, social media platforms, applications, email campaigns, and websites. This form of marketing functions to reach the target audience with conversion-oriented messages to make more sales and grow brand loyalty. Marketers know that being innovative is a part of their job description, and this is why there are many different types of digital marketing. The most popular types of digital marketing are:

  • Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
    SEO is one of the most popular, and important, types of digital marketing. SEO functions to ensure that the brand’s website, articles, and/or products land at the top of the search results on Google when specific keywords and phrases are searched for. This process requires marketers to emphasise certain keywords and phrases, but it should be noted that they should not be overly emphasised. If marketers fill up a website or article with SEO keywords and phrases, it will seem unnatural and of low quality.

Search Engine Optimisation

  • Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising
    This form of digital marketing, as the name implies, sees marketers paying the publisher of the ad whenever someone clicks on the ad to increase website traffic. Google Ads is one of the most common forms of PPC advertising, while other examples are paid ads on Facebook, Twitter, and sponsored messages on LinkedIn. This is considered a short-term form of digital marketing because once the marketer stops paying the publisher, the ad is taken down.
  • Content Marketing
    This form of digital marketing aims to create and promote a range of content to get website clicks, generate leads, and ultimately make sales. The created content can be blog posts, social media posts, videos, podcasts, and more. It is important the created content is SEO rich while still being natural to grab the attention of potential customers. Besides this, the interests, needs, and wants of the target audience need to be focused on when creating the content to make sales and build the desired brand loyalty. If this does not happen, it is likely that the content marketing will be unsuccessful.

Content Marketing

  • Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
    SEM can be described as the paid form of SEO. This form of digital marketing sees businesses buy advertising space on Search Engine Results Pages (SERP). With SEM advertisers pay for the impressions that lead to website clicks, and this also assists in a higher ranking for the website in organic search results. It is recommended to combine SEO and SEM to gain optimal traffic to a website.
  • Influencer Marketing
    This form of digital marketing uses the services of individuals and businesses on social media platforms that have large followings. The aim of this form of marketing is to reach wider audiences and gain more customers. The ‘influencer’, once recruited, will become a brand ambassador of sorts and will be paid to post content such as photos, videos, or features on their website. It has to be noted that the influencers with the largest followings aren’t always the best choice. If the marketing is done well with a smaller scale influencer, the impact can be enormous.

Influencer Marketing

  • Email Marketing
    This form of digital marketing sees marketers send emails to their subscribed clients. This stimulates engagement, reinforces brand loyalty, and aims to drive sales. A popular form of email marketing is curating a newsletter for subscribers. Newsletters would contain information about the business, announcements, and even special discounts. Marketers should strive to keep email marketing exciting and informative, without overwhelming their subscribers’ email inboxes. This will ensure that the subscribers stay subscribed.

The do’s and don’ts of Social Media Marketing

5 April 2022
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Categories: General, Marketing

Social media is mainly used to post an occasional selfie, keep up with friends and family, and follow your favourite celebrities’ daily lives. But for businesses and brands, social media has become a valuable tool. Business owners can use the various platforms to promote businesses and brands, direct consumers to websites, and build a connection with customers and potential customers. Besides this, social media marketing is also able to collect consumer data which marketers can use to improve the marketing, it can offer more information about industry competitors, and it can even increase market share. To do social media marketing in the correct way, business owners and marketers need to know the do’s and don’ts of social media marketing.

The do’s of social media marketing

  • Make use of a posting schedule.
    Many business owners choose to do their social media themselves and make the mistake of over-posting in the beginning. This is understandable as they are likely excited to get started and get their brand’s name out there. But this technique often leads to burnout or depletion of content to share. To prevent this, business owners and social media marketers should make use of a posting schedule. There is a range of applications, such as Buffer and Hootsuite, which you can use to curate a posting schedule.
  • Determine a posting frequency.
    Business owners and social media marketers should create a posting frequency which works for the business or brand. Many believe that posting once a day is the golden rule, but this doesn’t apply to every business or brand. Many businesses operate seven days a week, and this creates a challenge for business owners as they may not have the time to create content and post daily. If this is the case, business owners or social media marketers should determine a frequency which fits in their schedule and which is sustainable.
  • Be fun and relatable.
    Seeing that social media is flooded with content, businesses and brands need to stand out from the crowd to catch the attention of people. Business owners and social media marketers should strive to be creative and original with their content. Creating an interesting and fun brand identity will increase engagement which is sure to increase sales.

The do’s of social media marketing

The don’ts of social media marketing

  • Don’t come across as unprofessional.
    One way to ensure that your social media content is professional is to not make spelling or grammar mistakes. This is an unspoken rule, but many people make these mistakes if they are rushing to complete a deadline or if they want to take shortcuts when creating content. Before posting content, ensure that another person has reviewed it or even run it through a proofreader online. An example of an application that would be useful is Grammarly.
  • Don’t forget that your stories are important.
    Stories are a good way to keep and heighten engagement with the social media accounts’ followers. They are also useful if the posting schedule doesn’t schedule posts for every day. Besides this, stories can be used to celebrate little milestones and make announcements that are not important enough to be a post on the social media account.
  • Don’t forget about the followers.
    Many business owners focus on posting content about the business’s products and services that they forget to cater to their target audience. When creating social media content, business owners and social media marketers should ensure to create the content to be geared towards the interests of their target market. Business owners and social media marketers should also make it worthwhile to follow their social media accounts by providing incentives, such as giveaways or special discounts only available to their followers.

The don’ts of social media marketing

The best customer retention strategies

5 April 2022
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Categories: General, Marketing

Customer retention is one of the key objectives of marketers as it keeps a brand afloat. Customer retention is the ability of a brand to keep its customers returning after making purchases. Marketers aim to achieve the ‘customer loyalty loop’, which is a cycle where customers continue to choose the products and/or services of a brand. To achieve high customer retention, marketers have to put certain strategies in place. These strategies will have a range of functions being to distract them from competitors and to heighten engagement. If you aren’t sure which customer retention strategies work best, we’ve got you covered:

Build a relationship with the customer

Once a brand has been able to build a relationship with a customer, the customer is likely to continuously support the brand as they feel a level of loyalty towards them. To build a relationship with the customer, the brand needs to focus on the customer experience. Ways to improve the customer experience are:

  • Be transparent with the customer about the product or service they plan to buy
  • Ensure to attend to all their needs, questions, and queries as fast as possible through multiple service channels
  • Keep engagement high by consistently communicating with the customers via communication channels
  • Offer the customer benefits like free shipping

Start a customer loyalty program

Many brands have started customer loyalty programs by now. If your brand hasn’t, it’s time to jump on board. Customer loyalty programs will differ depending on the type of brand, but all customer loyalty programs should contain:

  • The rewards should work towards achieving the brand’s goals. For example, if the brand wants more visits, the rewards should be in the form of discounts or special offers.
  • The rewards program should be tiered. Customers who show more loyalty than others should be the opportunity to receive more rewards than others.
  • The rewards should be optimised to peak the interests and preferences of the customer base.

customer loyalty program

Utilise customer data

To improve the customer experience, a brand needs to know the needs, wants, and motivations of their customers. To determine this, brands can draw up surveys for their customers. Brands can also determine this by studying customer data. Examples of customer data are transaction histories, how the customers interact with the staff, and how well the customer loyalty program is received and utilised. This will shed light on which areas brands need to focus on to improve the customer experience.

Focus on personalisation

After the customer data has been collected and studied, marketers will be able to formulate offers and campaigns that the brand’s customers will find interesting and relevant. To ensure that the personalisation of the marketing is done correctly, marketers need to follow these steps:

  1. Focus on macro segmentation. This technique offers marketers the opportunity to market to the customer base in large segments. These segments are dividable by customer demographics.
  2. Focus on micro segmentation. This technique offers marketers the opportunity to market to the customer base in smaller segments. These segments are created by using customer demographic data as well as behavioural data.
  3. Focus on personalisation. This technique offers marketers the opportunity to create marketing content that is individually personalised to a specific customer.

Focus on personalisation

Use games in marketing

Entice the inner child in each customer by introducing gamification into marketing campaigns. This has proven to be an effective customer retention strategy as it offers rewards, which everyone loves. Examples of gamification that marketers can incorporate are points, badges, progress tracking, and leaderboards. The gamification needs to be well-thought-out so that it achieves the business’ goals.

By implementing these customer retention strategies, brands are sure to see higher levels of customer retention. The key is to focus on the customer’s experience and to ensure that they leave the business with a smile on their face.

Marketing to women: It’s time to get it right

5 April 2022
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Categories: General, Marketing

Marketing geared towards women has dramatically evolved over the years. Before, marketers seemed to see women as caricatures of themselves who needed beauty products, clothing, and cleaning products to survive. But in today’s society, many have recognised that women change societies and are often the driving force behind societies. Today, women have much more representation which has improved marketing towards them, but some marketers still haven’t gotten it right. If marketers fail at representing women properly, and respectfully, the brand loses money and customers. To have effective marketing campaigns geared towards women, marketers need to take note of a few key tips.

Make it interesting

This is an important skill and technique to use in all forms of marketing, as marketing campaigns need to be attention-grabbing. But when creating a marketing campaign geared towards women, using a story to make the campaign peak their interest is a very good trick to use. Women, more so than men, will form an emotional connection to a brand if the marketing campaign conveys a message or highlights things they are passionate about. For example, women with strong motherly instincts will most likely be drawn to marketing campaigns that include babies. But marketers need to remember that not all women are motherly and like soft, cuddly things. Knowing which stories would work best for your target audience requires you to know your audience.

Marketers should know their target audience

In this past, and still today in some cases, marketers have made the mistake of marketing to all women as if they share a single personality or interest. Using one marketing technique or campaign on an entire gender has been proven to be ineffective seeing that women, being human beings, do not have the same personality or interests as all other women. To create a successful marketing campaign geared towards women, marketers need to understand the type of women in their target audience. To do so, marketers could set up meetings, focus groups, and create questionnaires to determine their interests, their dislikes, how they receive content online, and their decision-making processes when purchasing a product or service.

Marketers should know their target audience

Represent women

To create a successful marketing campaign, marketers need to represent women in the campaigns. If the campaign uses models, it should be diverse women. By doing so, the target audience will feel seen and build trust with the brand. Having the target audience trust the brand is important as this makes them more likely to support a brand that ‘sees’ them. Women should not only be represented in the campaigns, but also behind the scenes. This means employing women in the marketing teams and valuing their input as they likely share similar experiences, personality traits, and interests as the target audience.

Represent women

Challenge topics that are usually avoided

Marketers tend to avoid topics that affect women such as menstrual cycles, menopause, breastfeeding, contraceptives, and more. These topics are normal parts of the lives of women and shouldn’t be avoided. To cover and challenge these topics, without making women feel exposed or awkward, marketers should aim to focus on the positive aspects and the answers to the questions women may have regarding these topics. This will ensure that there is a safe space around touchy topics and will build trust between the brand and the target audience.

Pink is not the new black

The colour pink is largely associated with girls and women. Although society has made the colour pink feminine, using the colour in marketing campaigns has been done for decades. It’s an overused trend and is not effective anymore as women recognise the intention behind the colour. Using pink, and other soft pastel colours, carry the connotation that women are soft, girly, and fragile. Some women are attracted to this marketing technique, but many have moved on from this stereotype and do not want to be placed in that box.

Marketing to women is not as difficult as it may seem. Marketers need to remember that women, the same as men, as diverse and cannot be targeted with blanket marketing campaigns. To create a successful campaign geared towards women, markets should ensure to know and understand their target audience while making sure to avoid stereotypes and clichés.

How to digitise your business

5 April 2022
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Categories: General

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected most, if not everyone. Although it has brought on many hardships and challenges, it has also opened the doors to new opportunities. One of these opportunities would be the chance for businesses to digitise. Digitisation offers businesses the opportunity to grow, gain more customers, and make use of more sustainable models. Businesses across the globe have made efforts to improve their online branding, their online advertising, and commerce in general. Businesses who have not digitised, or started the process, are sure to fall behind the pack as being digitised has become a necessity to run a successful business. If your business is not digitised, or you want to digitise it even more, you can follow these easy steps:

  • Build an online presence
    Build an online presence
    To start the process of digitisation, you need to build an online presence. This would allow you to engage with and study your potential clients. But being online does not only mean having a website. In today’s day and age, businesses need a social media presence as well. Businesses should create a Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter account to build their online presence. Creating accounts on additional social media platforms, such as Tik Tok, would be a smart move but this is not a common occurrence just yet.

 

  • Build a website
    Build a website
    If your business is able to sell its products or businesses online, having a well-equipped website is imperative. Even if your business is not able to sell its products or services online, having a website is important to attract potential customers. Besides this, having a good website gives your business legitimacy, allows businesses to collect data and track engagement, and stimulates customer retention. It is also important to build up and improve on existing SEO. SEO, which stands for Search Engine Optimisation, is a process businesses use to optimise their website so that it becomes more easily findable.

 

  • Build social media profiles
    Build social media profiles
    As mentioned, having a social media presence is important. Making use of social media profiles to represent your business online is used to engage with potential customers and be seen by as many people as possible. Social media profiles are also extremely useful for small businesses that cannot afford to create a website during the early stages of the business. Many small businesses use their social media profiles to market and sell their products or services. Certain social media platforms, such as Instagram, have offered businesses to use their account as an eCommerce platform by offering a checkout feature. Now, potential clients can make purchases on Instagram without having to visit the business website or make purchases in-store.

 

  • Invest in paid advertising
    Invest in paid advertising
    Once your business has become digitised, you will likely meet competition online. To keep up with the competition, you should consider investing in paid advertising. Digital advertising allows you to be seen by more and consistently make online sales by using paid search ads and paid social media ads. Examples of paid social media ads are Google ads, Facebook ads, LinkedIn ads, and Instagram ads. Google ads are used to reach audiences with strong purchase intent. Facebook ads are used to build a business’ brand awareness. LinkedIn ads are generally used for selling B2B products and services.

The digitisation of a business may seem like an obstacle, but it can be done with ease if businesses follow these few steps. By focusing on building an online presence, using a website and social media profiles, businesses are sure to engage with their clients and potential clients. This would assist in building brand awareness and customer loyalty.

How “buy now, pay later” marketing is turning the finance sector upside down

5 April 2022
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Categories: General, Marketing

Financial marketing has followed specific trends and norms over the years. For example, think of popular banks and insurance companies, many of their logos and campaigns contain the colour blue. The colour blue in the finance sector has been dubbed the colour of trust and is used extensively in finance marketing. But “buy now, pay later” marketers have thrown this norm out the window and introduced a new trend in financial marketing.

What is “buy now, pay later”?

“Buy now, pay later” is a revolutionary form of short-term financing which allows consumers to make a purchase and pay for it over a period of time or at a future date. This form of short-term financing is often interest-free. “Buy now, pay later” financing, which is also known as “point of sale instalment loans”, have become wildly popular, especially when doing online shopping. To use this form of financing, consumers can select this form of payment at checkout. If they are approved to use it, they will be required to make a small payment which is usually 25% of the total checkout amount. They will then make a series of interest-free repayments over a specified amount of time. These repayments can be made through a bank transfer, but they can also be deducted as debit orders.

Goodbye blue!

Goodbuy Blue

Many “buy now, pay later” brands have chosen to steer away from the colour blue when branding, and have chosen bolder, brighter colours. Klarna is one of the “buy now, pay later” leaders and is a good example of this. According to Klarna, the old banking system is flawed which makes the colour blue untrustworthy. AJ Coyne, the head of Klarna’s global brand, said, “The old blue that used to mean ’trusted’ but the sector hasn’t kept up with the times and now it stands for lack of mobility”. Klarna has chosen to use millennial pink in their marketing in the “sea of boring blue”. Another example of this would be AfterPay. AfterPay is another popular “buy now, pay later” brand and develop a custom colour which has been named Bondi Mint which they say is “bold, fresh, and confident”.

This marketing innovation has been the result of constraints

This form of financing may seem too good to be true to many consumers and has been met with distrust initially. Besides this, “buy now, pay later” marketing has had difficulty finding a footing on social media platforms. According to Emma Greenway, who works for creative agency Cult, “The brands are quite stifled from all of the big social channels – they can’t use influencers”. These constraints have forced “buy now, pay later” marketers to be creative and innovate to catch the attention of consumers.

“Buy now, pay later” marketing has forced the finance sector to update

HSBC

These innovations in financial marketing have caused a large portion of the finance sector to update and change their marketing strategies to keep up. An example of this would be how HSBC has changed the way they roll out their campaigns. HSBC, which is a British multinational banking and financial services organisation, has focused on using the bright red colour in their recent campaigns to stand out from the crowd. Dionysis Livanis, a creative director at the branding agency Redhouse, says this change is necessary. Livanis said, “Traditional banks like HSBC, Barclays and Lloyds will need to update their brands and their systems to be able not just to compete with the challengers but to adapt to a changing banking landscape and to their customers’ new habits and expectations”.

If banks and other financial institutions do not update and change to keep up with the competition, they will simply fade away. By continuing to use dated financial marketing techniques and trends, banks will lose customers and be seen as dated.