Social Media Marketing Strategy: 5 Steps to Boost Sales

Social media impersonation scams

As we all are well aware how social media marketing can be a game-changer for an influencer or a brand whether it’s in terms of getting more leads or getting more engagement. And since you are here reading this article, I’m sure you must be aware of it too. It’s true that today almost every brand is on social media platforms in order to boost their sales and gain popularity for their brand, but only a few are successful in doing so. Hence when you are competing with those bigwigs, we suggest you go prepared and learn how you can make your social media marketing strategy</a successful. 

Hence here we have listed 5 common ways that will help you boost your sales, so we insist you read till the end and make sure you include them in your social media marketing strategy. 

Be where your potential audience is

Let’s start with the most obvious and the most important step that will help you boost sales, and that is of course by understanding on which platform your audience is. By being aware of where your targeted audience is spending most of their time, will help you save your resources, as of course, you can have your account on different social media platforms but that will take your time plus money. One should have their profile on different social media platforms but should focus only on those platforms which have the majority of their potential customers. 

Whoever you are targeting, whether it’s an individual, business, or a company, and age group of your audience will help you decide accordingly. You can also dig into your existing customers’ data and find common characteristics, or just simply ask them which platform they use the most through a poll or a normal post. Other than that one can also spy on their competitors, there are many tools in the market that show how many hashtags used on different social media. You can use their hashtags to know on which platform it is being used the most. 

Collaborate with social media influencers 

Today where everyone is using social media platforms to gain wider reach, and every brand is competing to increase engagement on social media, it gets hard for new players to stand out. Hence collaborating with social media influencers can be a great way to boost your sales. Contact social media influencers with 10k – 15k followers, and ask if they are willing to post about your brand on their page and stories in exchange for a free product. As most of the customers get influenced by the recommendations made by influencers. 

You can also find niche groups, they charge according to the quality of their followers. But make sure before buying services from any niche group or influencer, see how they interact with their audience, do they have a positive relationship with them or not. As this step will definitely help you gain wider reach and hence will boost sales. 

Create a community and engage with them

If you want to increase engagement on social media platforms and generate leads then you’ll have to build a relationship with your audience. You’ll have to interact with your audience, so instead of just posting about your products or services, have a conversation with your audience. In order to gain the trust of your fans, you’ll have to show them that you care. 

To do that make sure you make your audience a part of your brand, share behind the scenes, show how they can relate with you, show the humorous side of yours and share something that is valuable to your fans. On social media, like Facebook and LinkedIn you can even form a group, which will help you engage with your targeted audience even better. 

Boost sales through giveaways and contests

Giveaways and contests are a great way to gain wider reach, as everyone loves free stuff. The engagement that you’ll receive from it will help you rank up, and your brand will be able to gain wider reach. But make sure you understand your audience before hosting any giveaway or contest, as the prize should excite your audience. Ah! And make steps simple, the more simple it is the more engagement you’ll get. Almost every social media platform for contests and  giveaways has a set of rules and regulations that needs to be followed, hence don’t forget to read them. 

There are plenty of advantages of hosting contests and giveaways as it’s a great way to grow your brand fast, increase engagement and gather new leads. It will help you stand above that noise and show your audience why you are worth following, this way people who are interested in your product or are curious about your brand are more likely to turn into loyal customers. 

Use social media Advertisement

Investing in social media advertising is the most preferred way for brands to make their brand familiar to their audience as it’s quick and the most effective way to boost sales. And every social media platform has an option to promote its brand or create ads through its advertisement feature. This will help you create visibility for your brand among your targeted audience and it will help you reach the right customer. 

The best thing about social media advertisements is that they let you target your exact audience, you can target your audience on the basis of demographics, location, interest and so much more. And if you are wondering that it will make a hole in your wallet, it won’t as every social media offers a wide variety of options even for brands who have a low budget. 

You can customize your campaign according to your needs or goals. Plus, social media advertisements show ads to those who are most likely to search for your product or are looking for similar products, hence it will definitely boost your sales. 

Conclusion

And so we’ve reached the end. There are many other ways through which you can boost your sales, that I’d love to add but for now being aware and implementing these major 5 steps will be more than enough. 

If you have any suggestions or questions, feel free to leave us a comment. Till then see ya. 

 

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Cash Loan in Singapore: Here is all that You Need to Know

green plant in a pot of coins

When an emergency happens in life, addressing it well requires one to have ample resources. If you do not have enough cash, it can be challenging to address such emergencies, but lenders in Singapore can make available the funds you require urgently. One of the best ways out is a cash loan and most lenders in Singapore are willing to lend you S$1,000-S$5,000.

With more people preferring to use cash loans in Singapore because of tough economic times being experienced today, it is important to understand how they work. Keep reading to understand what cash loans are, associated benefits and how to apply from the best lenders.

What is a Cash Loan?

This is an unsecured type of short-term credit advanced to borrowers by lenders after review and approval of their application. The loan comes with a fixed interest rate and loan term. The approved funds are deposited into the borrower’s account and repayments done in installments throughout the loan tenure, usually a few months to a few years.

Unlike secured loans that require collateral, cash loans are unsecured. This means that no one will seize your assets if you default. However, the high risk associated with cash loans implies that they also attract higher interest rates compared to secure loans.

In Singapore, cash loans can take different types, including the following:

  • Payday Loans

When you take a payday loan, it has to be cleared the next payday. Note that this means paying the principle plus the pre-agreed interest.

  • Small Loans

If you only require a small top-up to your emergency fund, going for a personal loan or other types of long-term credit might not be a good option. Instead, you should consider a small loan. For example, if your car breaks down and you need additional cash, a small cash loan Singapore might be the perfect solution.

  • Micro Loans

This loan resembles a small loan in most aspects, but it is way smaller. The loan term is also pretty short and the interest rate smaller. You might want to use the micro loan to meet costs like utility bills in Singapore.

Advantages of Using Cash Loans in Singapore

When faced with challenges that require more money than what you have, a cash loan in Singapore can come in handy. The main advantage of these loans is that they come with a lot of freedom on how to use them. Once a cash loan is approved, the funds are released into your account for you to access and use.

Other benefits of using cash loans in Singapore include:

  • The process of loan approval in Singapore is impressively fast.
  • The loan does not require collateral.
  • The short repayment period means that you are able to clear the loan fast.
  • They can be a good method of improving your credit score.
  • The paperwork required for a cash loan is limited. For example, Lendela only requires a few documents, such as your bank statement and proof of residency.

How to Apply for a Cash Loan in Singapore 

Although a cash loan is approved rather fast, the application process can be tricky because you have to compare dozens of lenders and their conditions. For example, one might wonder, “What is the offered interest rate?” and “Should you go for a payday or small loan?” Do not let these questions become challenging for you.

Lendela compares the available lenders to help you identify the best and enjoy lower interest rates. Furthermore, they help simplify the cash loan application process for greater convenience. With Lendela, there is no need for stress at all!

 

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Employ SEO and SEM to rake in more revenue for your business

SEO vs SEM main image

If you’re involved in the business field, there’s a likelihood you’ve heard of SEO and SEM. These terminologies are commonly tossed around, but what do they mean exactly? Is there a difference between the two?

Although the distinction can be minimal, if you understand how to execute them effectively and correctly, they can lead the organisation to extremely high traffic and growth.

Let’s look at the difference between SEO and SEM and how they can be game-changers for your company. Ready for results? Let’s plunge into this integral part of marketing for your business.

An overview before we begin
seeing an overview

Image Credits: Inc. Magazine

The average person will most definitely click on the top few links in a typical search on Google, right?

That’s why the first page on Google search is where you want your website to appear. These days, human attention is short, and it’s essential to be the first few to grab your target customers’ attention before your rivals do. Here’s where SEO and SEM come to play.

They’re ways to promote the company so that your potential customers can access them on search engines, such as Google or Bing. If your company has a website rival, SEO and SEM are essential for more traffic to be guided to your domain.

Let’s explore their primary purposes to grasp these promotional tools better.

SEO otherwise referred to as search engine optimisation, is a concept that lets you organically appear in search results. While SEM, known as search engine marketing, depends on paid strategies to get you ranked on search engines.

Here’s a more insightful look into both approaches.

The four parts of SEO
  • Technical SEO – This focuses on improving your website’s technical aspects and constructing it to provide a fantastic user experience. It’s also part of on-page SEO.
  • On-page SEO – Involves tweaking the web pages themselves so that search engines can understand your title tags, content, internal links, and URLs.
  • Content SEO – Your content needs to match what the searcher intends to find. This is one of Google’s most important factors for its rankings. Consider these: keyword strategy, site structure, and copywriting.
  • Off-page SEO – Connect your website to other trustworthy and high-authority webpages through hyperlinks, PR, or different strategies, and the search engines will push you up the ranks over time.

Now, moving on to SEM.

SEM and PPC

SEM includes PPC ads instead of organic growth. PPC is also better known as pay-per-click. In the form of embedded advertisements, Google or other search engines can showcase your website and display them to your prospective customers.

Not all campaigns, however, are expected to yield results. To make your advertising stand out so that you get the best bang for your buck, you will have to see what your rivals are doing and choose your keywords wisely.

SEO vs SEM
SEO-vs-SEM

Image Credits: Matchcraft

  • With every click your SEM ad gets, you have to pay.
  • In the form of clicks, SEM usually has immediate effects, while SEO takes much longer.
  • SEM advertisements give you more control over how they appear. This doesn’t apply much for SEO.
  • SEM provides you with data specifics so that you can quickly tweak your advertising for instant results. When it comes to SEO, that’s a bit more challenging.
  • Over time, SEO visibility expands, so the impact snowballs as you progress. With SEM, exposure comes to a halt as soon as you disable your advertisements.
Is one better than the other?

There is no straightforward answer as it falls on how your organisation is structured and what priorities you have at hand. But here are a few pointers to note:

  • What is your objective? You want to go for SEM if it’s a short-term one.
  • How is your current SEO health? SEM can be a great backer if it is already substantial.
  • Go with SEM if you expect that your company would have a higher consumer lifetime value. SEO could be ideal if it’s the opposite.
  • Did you have your sales and profits assessed? See if making a profit from SEM is practical for you. Go with SEO if it’s not urgent.

When it comes to driving traffic, either SEO or SEM is useful for your company. But why not use both? Most of the time, having the financial capacity to combine them will allow you to reap the benefits of both.

Here are some of the benefits of implementing both strategies:

  • Do you recall how we mentioned data was available only for SEM but not for SEO? Well, now you can use SEM as a tester for your SEO strategy.
  • Through incorporating remarketing strategies within your SEM plan, you will make your SEO efforts go the distance to convert those who didn’t buy before into paying customers in the future.
Final thoughts

Now that you know what SEO and SEM are all about, you can use your new-found insights to refine your competition strategy and make the best of both worlds to conquer the organic and paid regions. All the best in ranking your company site at the top of search engines!

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The importance of creating customer avatars for your business

customer avatars

Creating customer avatars for your business should be part of your marketing plan. Remember that you want to nudge a lead or customer to the next level by smartly employing digital marketing.

Many start-ups deal with cold prospects in the beginning. To convert these cold prospects to fans and beyond, identifying your ideal customers’ profile is necessary.

This is where a customer avatar comes in handy. A customer avatar can also be referred to as a target audience for the laymen. We will use it interchangeably in this article.

Give life to your avatars with these components

To help you better understand your target audience, you want to give life to your avatars.

Tackling these components are useful – know their goals and values, the platforms they source for information, and their demographics. It’s also wise to think through the potential reasons why your avatars would reject your product or service.

There are many ways to gain the abovementioned information. You can conduct a study, schedule surveys, or have conversations with members of the public. But lest you think it’s do or die, that’s not true.

Go ahead and make the first cut while trusting your assumptions about your target audience. Once you have done enough research and gathered results, fine-tuning is all it takes to move forward.

Find your niche with the “but no one else would” trick

via GIPHY

Let’s zoom in on the finer details with the “but no one else would” trick. This trick will allow you to choose the right tools, platforms, and influencers to engage.

Take a look at these sentences:

  • My target audience would read [name of a book], but no one else would.
  • They would subscribe to [name of a magazine], but no one else would.
  • The company’s ideal customers would attend [name of a conference], but no one else would.

By answering the above, you will filter and narrow down on some hows and wheres of marketing. The main idea here is finding your niche, so it’s extremely targeted. You won’t want to be wasting any of your marketing dollars, right?

Use different customer avatars for various campaigns

Throughout the lifetime of your business, you will be running several marketing campaigns in a year. No one campaign should be precisely the same as the other.

If you’re simply using the same profile for each of your campaigns, you will quickly realise that it doesn’t work. To craft personalised content and offers, you need to establish who you’re marketing to.

Knowing your target audience will help you deal with the rest of your marketing components, including the type of content to produce, the social media sites to use, and what kind of advertisements you should buy.

You can create your customer avatar in just five easy steps. For the visual learners, this will help:

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4 Life Lessons From Tesla’s Elon Musk

Elon Musk became a household name in the contemporary years due to establishing both PayPal and Tesla Motors. It all began in 1971 when he was born in South Africa. After obtaining a Canadian passport in 1988, he left South Africa in search of greater economic opportunities available in the United States. He founded X.com in 1999. This website was later known as PayPal.

He also became the brainchild of both SpaceX (2002) and Tesla Motors (2003). He reaped the fruits of his labor as he became a multi-millionaire in his late 20s when he sold his start-up company – Zip2. With all these achievements on his belt, here are some life lessons that he shared during his past interviews.

#1: PERSISTENCE PAYS OFF

Persistence is very important to success. When he was asked what he was willing to give up towards realizing his dreams, he said: “I am willing to give up everything that others hold dear.” Elon Musk was in the journey for the long haul.

It is difficult for us to measure the limits of what we are capable of. For instance, he experienced serious challenges in 2008 when both SpaceX and Tesla were running out of money. He saw the circumstance as short-term set backs and focused on reducing the costs of launches in SpaceX. At a time when most people had given up in American automotive and aerospace industries, he showed foresight to stay on these industries. He looked to the future with hope and was overly optimistic in most cases.

#2: FOCUS ON THE IMPACT OF YOUR DREAMS

Zip2 was the first company he founded. When he sold it to Compaq, he poured his soul into PayPal. He had enough money to retire into wilderness when eBay bought PayPal. However, he had bigger dreams. He is not here for the quick route, he is here for the long haul. He put about $100 million in Tesla and $70 million in SpaceX. Other found him crazy at that time. He did not care! His vision was clear.

He wanted to prolong the lifespan of humanity by colonizing Mars. He aims to have weekly flights to space when he is in his 50’s. This propels all his enterprises to chase excellence and history. Our dreams may not be as grand as his, but having an end goal you strive for can help motivate you to work towards it.

#3: BECOME YOUR OWN CRITIQUE

“It’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better. I think that’s the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself,” he once said.

Despite accomplishing various things in different industries, he does not stop to reach excellence. He constantly strives to improve himself. This is something we can apply in our daily lives. Whether it be personal or professional life, improving your skills and knowledge can help you become the best version of yourself. Identify certain parts of yourself that you want to improve on and look for resources that can help you with that.

#4: TALENT BEATS NUMBERS

When it comes to hiring employees, talent beats numbers. Entrepreneurs may experience problems when they throw a lot of employees to one building. Not Musk.

Image Credits: pixabay.com

According to him: “It is a mistake to hire huge numbers of people to get a complicated job done. Numbers will never compensate for talent in getting the right answer.” Hiring two people who do not know anything about the job will slow down the progress and cost you more. Instead, hire a person best suited for the job. Do not forget about the person’s character too. It must go hand-in-hand with the talent.

Sources: 1, 2, & 3

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