Greenwashing, it sounds clean right? It’s actually a dirty business practise where a company spends more time and money marketing themselves as being environmentally friendly than on actually minimising their environmental impact.

Investopedia labels greenwashing as the process of conveying a false impression or providing misleading information about how a company’s products are more environmentally sound. Cambridge Dictionary states that greenwashing is to make people believe that your company is doing more to protect the environment than it really is, in an attempt to make your business seem interested in protecting the natural environment.

As companies realise that today’s consumers have an increased awareness of the environmental impact their purchases may have, some may be tempted to mislead consumers by making environmentally-friendly promises that go unfulfilled. Unfortunately, this misdirection can take market share away from products that offer legitimate benefits while slowing the penetration of real environmental innovation, creating doubt about legitimate environmental claims and continuing the use of toxic ingredients or practices.

Greenwashing is commonly seen through unsubstantiated claims, renaming, repackaging or the use of misleading images to gloss over unethical behaviour. Playing on human psychology, companies have even changed the colour of their company logo to invoke the illusion of environmentally friendly products, opting instead to use natural associated hues such as green, brown or white, as seen in the case of Coca Cola Life. 

Are companies going green or are they just selling the idea of green practices while ignoring sustainability?

As of 1 January 2011, The Australian Consumer Law (ACL) states that businesses have an obligation not to mislead or deceive consumers in any way and prohibits false or misleading representations about specific aspects of goods and services. This applies to all forms of marketing, including claims on packaging, labelling, advertising and promotion across all mediums such as print, TV, radio and online.

A brand that is truly ethical will have accessible and detailed information on their practices which may include information on workers’ rights, factory equipment and the environmental impact of components used in the product and manufacturing processes. 

For a consumer, it may be a red flag if a business has no supporting evidence to back up their claims if there is a lack of transparency, or the brand uses ambiguous terms that falsely represent the standard or quality of their goods. Other identified industry greenwashing tactics may include:

• The Hidden Trade-Off – Over-exaggerating the benefits of a product based on a single environmental attribute or a narrow set of criteria while ignoring the overall negative impact of the product. This is used to paint a greener picture of a product which a closer analysis wouldn’t support.

• No Proof – The environmental claim of the product is not backed by either factual evidence, easily accessible supporting information or certifications. It’s commonly seen that companies even create false certifications or labels which ultimately mislead consumers.

• “Green” Projects – This may give an illusion of a company’s compliance however is often based on a PR move with the sole purpose of amending a company’s reputation to cover acts of environmental degradation. An example of this is an oil company conducting an ocean clean-up project to supposedly protect the environment, mostly completed after an oil spill.

Why do companies partake in greenwashing?

With a shift in consumer spend on products they believe to be sustainable, companies may be attempting to capitalise on this growing demand. Having products that claim to be more natural, healthier, free of chemicals or recyclable may even help a business generate positive public relations and boost their brand image.

There is also growing pressure for businesses to adopt environmentally friendly practices and convince consumers they care about the same things. CHOICE reported results from a survey published in the ‘Journal of Marketing Management’ which suggested that consumers might be motivated to buy products if they believe their purchase will contribute to reducing injustice, indicating that ethical marketing can influence purchase decisions. 

If consumers don’t think a brand is ethical or sustainable, they’re likely to switch. The 2018 Ethical Consumers Markets Report shows that over a quarter of British respondents surveyed stated that they had avoided buying a product or using a service due to its negative environmental impact in the past year, an increase of 65% since 2016.

Check out this example of greenwashing:

Well-known bottled water brand, Fiji Water, deceptively marketed themselves as being carbon-negative since 2008 after earlier disclosing they had produced 85,396 tons of CO2 and other greenhouse gases in 2007. 

Fiji Water used ‘standard offset credit’ to purchase a tradeable certificate; this gives the purchaser the right to emit one ton of carbon dioxide and use ‘forward credit’ to essentially give themselves credit for carbon reductions that haven’t happened yet. However, the offsets necessary to make it carbon-negative would not be realised until 2037. 

Fiji Water’s advertisements also demonstrated a hidden trade-off by claiming their products “reduce carbon emissions and protect Fijian rainforests” however they’re deceptively omitting the effects of producing bottled water on the environment such as the use of non-renewable resources and single-use plastic pollution. 

Fiji Water’s website now makes claims they “invest in sustainability, the environment and local communities, while focusing on meaningful issues with like-minded partners to enable positive change.” 

Here’s how to practice good green marketing

Using honesty, transparency and science in good green marketing are important to encourage environmentally conscious purchases and decisions. 

True green marketing will help consumers learn more, understand and confirm the scientific case behind each green marketing claim. Businesses can do this by educating consumers about their values and explain the features and benefits in simple terms that consumers can understand.

Businesses should not let one positive aspect allow them to overlook or overshadow the bigger picture. Consumers have the power to see through the greenwashing and are increasingly using their power on social media to call out brands. Consumers will continue to pressure businesses to adapt their products to more sustainable options while simultaneously changing their own habits and behaviours to use their spending as an expression of their environmental commitment.

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The basics and definition

Marketing is a business concept completely driven by the needs of the consumer. Its whole purpose is to analyse and define the needs of the consumer in order to try and satisfy those needs in a superior way than the competition does. Doing business in such a way, if you are successful, will lead to a high level of satisfaction, trust, and loyalty from a customer which will result in a long-term relationship that leads to profitability in the long run and continual consumer satisfaction. However, marketing is not only the prerogative of large companies but it is also extremely important to small/local companies. To achieve this, as a company, we need to:

• analyse and define the market and its needs
• segment it and choose the right target market
• adapt the 4P elements to suit market needs
• analyse the satisfaction of customers and adapt accordingly

An adequate marketing strategy cannot be created without full knowledge of the market and its needs. The market is also a collection of different customer preferences and desires and a successful company needs to identify the group of customers (target market) that it can try to satisfy through its marketing activities. So, the marketing concept requires extensive market research, data analysis and rational market segmentation that must lead to the creation of an offer tailor-made for the target market. This offer comprises of 4 basic elements that we call marketing mix.

The elements of the marketing mix

Elements of the Marketing mix are the core offer of a company to the customer/consumer on the market. These four elements (4Ps) are combined, moulded and adapted to each market segment to suit the customer and their needs to the highest possible degree.

Product (service) is the core value we provide, the offer to the customer. It can be a service or a physical object that has certain characteristics that satisfy a consumer need. The product is not static, it is always a subject of development and change aimed at its adaptation to the changing needs of the market.

Price is the amount of money paid for the product. The price should be linked and determined by the value of the product but it is also influenced by the market (competitors’ prices), costs, expenses, and discounts.

Placement represents the distribution network of our product. These networks today encompass social networks and digital markets as well as traditional networks (small and large market store chains)

Promotion is PR, advertising, and the complete promotional strategy of the company. It ties in and balances all other elements to create and present and offer tailor-made for the target market.

Marketing is digital

The whole world and all of our customers are digitalising their life and the way they are doing business. Habits and the way of communicating are changing. Internet, Web sites, social networks, blogs, influencers, etc. have all made it very easy to communicate with a customer and also made communication a two-way street. Traditional ways of communicating do not appeal to customers anymore. Consumers tend to react and respond to the Brands they can communicate with directly, passive marketing based on billboards and flyers does not allow that. Using digital marketing made it possible for companies to communicate with the market and monitor its response at the same time, which allowed them to adapt to the observed trends of the markets. It also allowed them to try, to a certain degree, to create, control and lead trends on the market.

Social networks, in particular, have allowed companies to efficiently use digital marketing to raise brand awareness, promote new content, products, and services, develop trust with consumers, maintain an existing client base and expand it, and also to research, analyse, and monitor the markets to adapt to its needs even better.

When we consider that digital marketing can be up to 60% cheaper and up to 3 times more efficient than traditional marketing, it is clear why digital marketing is developing fast.

Website basics

The web site has been a starting point for digital marketing development and has so far proven to be the basic content source when building brand awareness. It is the starting point of every brand in the digital world. Combined with Google Analytics, AdWords, etc it is the basic digital marketing element today. These tools allow companies to track, monitor, and analyse consumer interest when visiting a web site, check who the buyers are and why visitors left without buying. In this way, they are a source of information for changing, correcting and innovating marketing strategies and tactics in the digital world.

Social media

Today, social media is the most powerful platform for building marketing campaigns and creating and developing brands. Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn with their following count in the billions, represent an endless field for marketing experimentation and development. These are the networks that can be used to develop a personal relationship with a consumer and to invoke an emotional response, engaging a customer in the marketing activity of a company.

Blog, Bloggers, and Influencers

In today’s marketing and digital world, the customer tends to believe what others are saying about the company rather than what the company is saying about itself. In these conditions, companies are inclined to use other means of communicating with their target audience. Using blogs or bloggers and influencers has come to be a way of creating an image of a company and Brand promotion to the public we want to communicate with (customers and potential customers) Experienced bloggers and influencers that communicate with our target audience can be beneficial in raising brand awareness and realising planned marketing strategies.

These communication lines are also connected to new innovative and interactive marketing tools that are very beneficial to companies using them.

These aspects of digital marketing are also closely tied to Search Engine Optimisation which is one of the most important elements of marketing online. SEO is the process of optimising the content of a website, blog, or social media post by adding elements relevant to search engines to increase the rank of a web page and generate a high rate of traffic.

Marketing has evolved from its beginning and changed to adapt to the fluctuating markets, technologies, and habits of the consumers. As a term, marketing is often not completely understood and it is important to research it and study it further. In light of its continual development, we have pointed at some of the topics for study and analysis. However, in order to create and implement an effective marketing strategy, it is important to know that the market for marketing professionals and companies is very well developed.

The market has a veritable sea of knowledge and experience, so hiring a professional might be a good starting point when drawing up your marketing strategy.

The post Marketing Basics – The What, The How And The Why!? appeared first on SEMA.

Picture this: you’ve been working hard on creating the perfect marketing campaign for your brand, you’ve come up with all the details, everything was organized perfectly, and the campaign was seemingly successfully launched. Instead of acquiring you many new customers, however, the campaign has resulted in public outrage and the loss of, up until then, many loyal customers. It is a sad fact that these kinds of grossly insensitive campaigns happen all too often.

Some recover from it, some don’t. To be on the safe side as much as it is possible, it’s useful (and fun) to learn about unsuccessful marketing campaigns, so that you can be prepared when it’s time to launch your own campaign.

With that in mind, here are some of the major marketing fails of 2018/19.

#01 Heineken’s Bar Commercial

The first fail that we’ll discuss happened to Heineken back in March 2018, when this company’s marketing division envisioned a commercial that had many viewers accusing it of being racist. Namely, the commercial takes place in a bar. The bartender notices a beautiful white woman entering. In an effort to woo this woman, the bartender opens a bottle of Heineken and slides it down the bar toward the woman.

Nothing wrong with that, right? Sure, except one little detail that made this commercial one of the major marketing fails of 2018. Namely, as the bottle slides along the bar, it passes right by no less than three people of colour and no people of other ethnicities! Soon after the commercial was originally broadcast, there was a reaction on social media, notably by Chance the Rapper, who called the commercial “terribly racist”. With many other people thinking the same, Heineken’s commercial was a spectacular failure.

#02 Dolce & Gabbana’s Chinese Controversy

Then, there’s Dolce & Gabbana’s campaign that backfired and caused a lot of bad publicity for this fashion giant. In the commercial for this campaign, a Chinese woman is shown trying to eat Italian food with chopsticks. While trying to do so, this woman constantly fails, resulting in humorous attempts to finally sate her hunger.

This only goes to show that even humorous (probably good-natured) attempts at marketing can lead to major marketing fails due to marketers’ ignorance. While the people working for Dolce & Gabbana have thought that this would be a hopefully fun and light commercial, in reality, it portrayed Chinese people as so culturally backward that they can’t even use a knife and fork. Even worse, inappropriate comments made by Stefano Gabbana on Instagram surfaced soon after, further damaging the company’s image. Of course, one of the rules of a solid social media strategy is – don’t slam the people of other nationalities (in this case Chinese) on social media if you don’t want your business to suffer because of it (or in any other case, for that matter).

#03 Estee Lauder’s Racist Line of Foundation

The next fail involves products in the line whose full name is Double Wear Nude Water Fresh Makeup SPF25. This is a line of foundation made by Estee Lauder. When a company releases 30 different versions of their product, one would expect that all women will be able to find something for themselves. Unfortunately for Estee Lauder and some of their customers, more than 15 of these versions were aimed at white women, specifically, the ones with very pale skin.

In the eyes of the buyers, when a company unnecessarily designs and markets their product in such a way, it clearly shows a backward way of thinking. It goes to show that they’re aiming their product specifically at white women (and very pale ones), while disregarding other ethnicities. And in 2018 (and 2019 as well), that way of thinking should have been discarded a long time ago.

#04 Dove’s “Unreal Beauty” Disaster

One of Dove’s more important missions, as seen in their marketing campaigns, is to present and reinforce the image of a woman as a beautiful human being. For ages, women have been taught how they should look. From successful models and actresses to other celebrities, women in media are skinny and extremely beautiful, painting the picture that this is how a woman should look if she wants to enjoy having a sense of self-worth. Diets, makeup, even plastic surgery – women have been taught that this is what they need if they want to keep their confidence intact.

With its long-running campaign entitled “Real Beauty”, Dove has been successfully fighting this damaging cultural stance. Up until 2018, that is, when their attempt to empower women turned into one of the major marketing fails of 2018. What happened is that Dove released their clothing in seven shapes, each shape in a packaging with a very abstract form that resembled soap bottles. Instead of promoting diversity, Dove accidentally made women more self-conscious about their bodies, as they were made to choose between one of the seven shapes that best matched the appropriate soap bottle.

#05 H&M’s Jungle Fail

In this case of digital marketing gone wrong, the people from H&M posted a highly controversial picture on this company’s official website. Similarly to some other fails on our list, this picture was also deemed to be racist. Namely, two kids were shown on the picture, both wearing H&M-designer sweatshirts. One kid (caucasian) wore a sweatshirt with the phrase “survival expert” written on it. The other one (black) wore a similar sweatshirt, but with the phrase “coolest monkey in the jungle”.

How could H&M’s marketers think that this was a good idea is beyond us. While there’s nothing wrong with jungle-themed marketing, calling a white person a “jungle survival expert”, while a black person is a monkey in that same jungle is obviously wrong and racist (no matter how cool the monkey is).

What Can We Learn From These Major Marketing Fails?

As you can see, major marketing fails to happen most often due to ignorance on part of the marketing dept. Of course, creating a strong online presence is important, but doing so with the help of qualified professionals who can help you avoid all the potential pitfalls is equally important. For example, if you were looking to make your moving company visible online, you’d need to do it with the assistance of experienced experts. The same goes for any other business.

However, while experts can help you, the trick perhaps is not so much in consciously trying to avoid marketing pitfalls, but rather in respecting all people no matter the race, gender, or sexual orientation. Many people believe that they do respect all people, but their actions (and thoughts) still may be offensive without them realizing it. Apart from avoiding major marketing fails, questioning your beliefs and making sure that your way of thinking isn’t harming other people will also make you a better human being. Win-win.

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Brand purpose is not a new word when it comes to marketing. In order for businesses to be more unique and impactful in a highly competitive world, they are changing their values and mode of operation. The purpose of a brand stands for more than a commitment to certain values and the mission statement. Rather, it defines the value that an organization has in society, which allows the organization to grow while creating a positive impact on the world.

For many marketing teams, this raises the question: How can you effectively communicate the purpose of a brand considering that you are dealing with many other contenting marketing objectives?

How important is a diverse content strategy? 

The options for formatting content, delivering it and methods of consumption are increasing on a daily basis. This provides marketers with a wide range of marketing tools. Over the years, content strategies have grown to be more sophisticated as they target different audiences, product lines, business goals and much more. Your core strategy can include plans to showcase the executive thought leadership in an organization, promote company products, reach different target markets and create a platform for future products.

One critical area that should not be overlooked when a content strategy mix is being created is the brand purpose of a business. Today’s customers care about the brand purpose regardless of the information that it may contain such as corporate social responsibility undertakings, the ethical policies followed by a business or how consumer goods are sourced.

How is your brand narrative being shaped by the market?

The dynamic and ever-changing market outlay is changing the way businesses handle these efforts. Today, they can actually form a foundation for connecting with existing and potential customers.

As a marketing professional, what plans do you have in place to articulate the larger vision of your company and the impact you are making?

The expectations of customers, business partners, prospective employees and the wants of the general public are now being evaluated on a different level.

All of a sudden, businesses are very open in discussing how they choose their core business values and what makes them the most original in the market. These considerations are very important when proposing the value of a business. Today people do not want an enterprise that talks about itself. Instead, when looking at the purpose and value of a business, what is considered is how the content you are providing advances with the interests of employees and customers. It is usually considered if there is a movement around the available value system in order for a dramatic impact to be achieved.

Is there such a thing as too much purpose-driven content?

With the background that I have in economic development, it was always important to tell stories that showed that there was an impact. It was clear that those kinds of stories increased the investment made in economic development projects. Most importantly, those stories gave people the courage to dare and dream, and further, to believe that it was possible to effect significant change.

How many individuals who focus on empowerment and development have been inspired to do great things such as launch a healthcare program or build a learning centre because of a success story, heartrending needs or because of stories they have heard or seen?

To tell the truth, many countries have increased their projections for economic growth or started working towards alleviating poverty because of examples and stories they have heard or by taking cues after getting insights from neighbouring countries that have exhibited similar progress.

However, when the same is applied to the private sector, it becomes harder. It is important to articulate your brand purpose while at the same time taking into account your other content. This makes digital marketing experts face tough choices. For example, if your budget allocation is 20 new pieces of content each month, how many units should be allocated.

Though there is no single approach that can be said to work best for organisations, the brand purpose should be made to reflect organisational goals. You can attract new customers to your business by exploring your brand purpose. Exploring the purpose of your enterprise can also assist you in improving and enhancing the larger content marketing objectives of your business.

Customer behaviour is changing…

The demands of customers are not the only thing that is changing the role of content that is purpose-driven in organizations. Another key consideration is the context in which content is being used in an organization; from the role, it is playing in corporate communications, the integration of marketing to its role in sales.

It is unlikely that many people will follow an individual channel on this topic unless they are addressing the needs of a specific audience. The client reinvented the coverage of this area and began making it an integral part of all organisational processes. Blogs that are product-specific began carrying pieces that are relevant to the target audience. Blogs designed for the corporate level now carry content that tackles issues that deal with executive and organizational areas. Internal communications and investor relations content carry similar stories though with a different spin.

By looking for ways in which different parts of the organization can support the story you are pushing, you can be able to present it in a more compelling manner to the desired target audience.

Organisations have different departments with different functions. For example, you might have a public relations team in charge of managing corporate social responsibility. There you will have a team in charge of creating content for social media platforms. In an organization, you can also have a product team with the responsibility of making a product more relevant to the target audience. In most organizations, these teams function independently. If the efforts of all the teams were pulled together, it would be really fascinating.

For example, consider a Tech company that wants content tackling the involvement of women and technology. The top part of the content can provide on the skill gap for women seeking to embrace technology and the ideal road-map for making this happen. The PR team in the organisation can then focus on investments, coding camps and other partnerships necessary to make this happen. The customer profiles used in the content can contain information on women in the tech industry who are making huge strides in this area.

By focusing on each individual part of an organisation, you can satisfy the functional needs of each part and then link them all together. In order to start making a big impact and headway in this area, you need to start questioning how a connection can be made across the whole organization.

Content strategists…it’s your turn!

Content strategists and marketing professionals have a bigger workload. Simply talking about the purpose of your brand is no longer enough of a deliverable. It is important to offer more than the occasional distant blog post and annual reports of an organisation. Instead, strategists and marketers have to look at how the brand purpose dictates the organisation function and the way different individual parts of the organisation can be used to highlight this.

Interconnecting the bigger content marketing strategy of an organization with the brand purpose helps in telling the story better to the audience. At the same time, it also helps in weaving the brand purpose more strongly into the narrative of your organization.

The post How To Make Brand Identity A Core Part Of Your Content Strategy appeared first on SEMA.

As more and more people are using the internet for shopping, finding different businesses and products, and for generally interacting with various brands through their websites and social media, online marketing is becoming more refined by the day. Improved marketing software, better algorithms, data collection – everything is growing more mature as businesses and brands try to attract new customers and keep the old ones. In order to do so, they need to devise new, effective strategies. And that’s when the benefits of interactive content marketing become apparent.

What Is Interactive Content Marketing?

Basically, interactive content marketing is a type of marketing that entails a real-time reaction to the actions of the consumer. Thus, more personal experience is made possible for the customer. In a way, this type of marketing bears a resemblance to the kind of marketing that’s done live, when a customer visits a store. Even though users are not interacting with another human being, this type of marketing provides them with a somewhat similar, almost tactile experience.

Some of the more popular examples of interactive content marketing include:

• Polls, surveys, and quizzes. Not only will they provide you with useful information, but they can also be used to prevent the customers from becoming bored.
• Contests. People are usually competitive and they love getting things for free. Through contests, they’ll become more interested in your brand and there’s a good chance that they’ll want to see what it’s all about.
• Messenger bots. Thanks to these bots, your customers become more engaged. Messenger bots provide the user with a conversational experience, without you actually having to train a human customer service representative.
• Interactive Infographics. Adding some moving graphics and animations, activated by one press of the button, will make most buyers more focused.
• E-mail marketing and videos. These are great for answering questions and helping your customers understand just what the buying process entails.

Alt text: A messenger bot appearing next to someone’s phone, on which a chat window is open.

The Benefits of Interactive Content Marketing

So, what are the exact benefits of interactive content marketing? Actually, there are quite a few of them.

#01 Customers Become Actively Engaged

First of all, when this type of marketing is used, users generally become more engaged with your brand. By this, we mean that the customers are actively engaging with your content, rather than just minimally participating by reading or watching a video. Active engagement, in fact, is actually more important than the number of visits your site has received or the time someone has spent on it.
By actively interacting, customers form a deeper relationship with your brand. And that, in turn, not only leads them to buy your products or hiring your services, but they are also more likely to stay loyal to your brand. What’s more, interactive content marketing also makes your brand stand out, as most businesses are not employing these marketing techniques. And this further deepens the relationship that customers have with your brand.

#02 Data Collection Is Made Easier

Interactive content marketing also helps with data collection. Obviously, data is very important to marketers, as it allows them to more accurately assess what their customers need. People today have grown accustomed to receiving personalized marketing, which seems tailor-made just for them.
By using tools such as surveys and quizzes, one can collect data in a way that is engaging for the customers. This data will later be essential in improving your services and products so that they are a better fit for your customers. If you use interactive marketing, there’s a greater chance that your customers will bother to provide you with important feedback, that you’ll be able to see it in real-time and change your marketing strategy more quickly and efficiently.

#03 Search Engine Optimization Is Improved

This type of marketing also improves your SEO. Interactive content will have a better chance of being shared and a better chance of attracting more links. And more shares and links mean a better SEO ranking. Interactive content can also be embedded on other websites. High-quality content in the form of an interactive infographic, contest, or quiz, is likely to be embedded somewhere, earning you plenty of SEO points.

Alt text: Someone looking at their online marketing plans, including SEO.

As we said, interactive content marketing makes customers more engaged, meaning that they’re likely to spend more time on your website than if you’ve only used static content. And the more time the users spend on your website, the better will your search engine visibility be.

#04 You Can Effectively Educate the Potential Customers

Before buying your products or choosing your services, most consumers like to get educated first. They’re looking to learn something before making a purchase. Sometimes, they’re just looking for information that will help them decide whether they really need your product and whether it will be the best choice for them.

So, when your content seems more like a pitch, rather than an honest explanation on what your customers can expect, they are likely not to be satisfied.

That’s when interactive content comes in! Infographics and interactive videos can be especially useful in educating the potential customers, rather than straight up pitching them your products and/or services. Consumers usually love to conduct research before buying, and allowing them to do that easily can only be beneficial for your business.

Alt text: A man conducting research online.

#05 Interactive Content Helps You Find Qualified Leads

Interactive content will allow you to more easily find qualified leads. By using carefully created quizzes and questionnaires, you’ll be able to more easily discern whether a user is a low-quality prospect or if there’s a significant chance of converting him or her to becoming your new customer. The key is in asking for small snippets of data that will allow you to determine if a user is serious enough or not.

In comparison to static content, interactive content marketing does a much better job of keeping the users’ interest while they’re answering your questions. Instead of giving up as the questions begin to pile up, they are more likely to stay with your questionnaire until the end and provide you with all the important information you need.

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10 key benefits of video marketing for your business

Although you will find divided perspectives when it comes to the use of video marketing, nobody can dismiss the potential it has. Especially when you examine past marketing campaigns that brought so much success to countless companies. According to a study by Wyzowl, the average attention span is slowly shrinking. As a result, people find it difficult to focus on anything for more than 8.25 seconds, which is less than a goldfish (9 seconds).

This being said, you can see how video marketing fits into the equation. However, even videos are not as they once were. Today, you need to make shorter videos in order to keep your potential clients interested. And even in spite of all this, you will find that there are countless benefits of video marketing campaigns. Here are some of the more important ones to toy with:

Start a conversation

Starting any conversation can be difficult, let alone one that involves selling products or services. And this is all the more challenging when you have a brand new company and nobody knows about you. However, video marketing is definitely something that can make a difference in such cases. Furthermore, studies show that a professionally shot and executed video clip can often turn even the biggest of sceptics into potential clients.

Video marketing is one of the best brand development tools

Most people nowadays are concerned with the influence of VR and AI on modern business and brand development. What many fail to comprehend is the importance of video promotions in all that. Start from yourself – how difficult would it be for you to trust a certain company by only reading about them or their content? Then think how faster the entire process would be if you had a visual aid such as a video telling a story about that company.

The fact is that videos put a human face and emotion on your brand. With videos, you can communicate with your target customers on a personal level, thereby making your brand more accessible to them. You have examples of companies such as Moving of America – NJ Movers, that use video reviews to strengthen their brand.

Everything revolves around mobile users today

People today spend hours and hours on YouTube and social media platforms, watching short videos and GIFs. However, they do all this through the use of their mobile phones, while commuting, having their morning coffee, getting ready for bed, etc. So, it’s only logical to presume that the same principle applies when it comes to shopping for products or services.

Research shows that over 90 per cent of people today will watch videos on mobile phones before making a purchase. It’s the next evolutionary stage of TV viewers.

Videos help you capture the attention of Google’s web crawlers

Given the simple fact that YouTube is the property of Google, marketers can only benefit from using it to further their promotional goals. Although studies and opinions vary, most claim that websites embedded with videos can receive up to 50 times more exposure. Of course, these are not simple videos. You still need to arm them with SEO friendly titles and descriptions to make the biggest impact.

Video marketing enables trust building with clients

Using plain marketing to sell your services or products is a long and tedious road to take. With videos on your side, you can drive conversions, in addition to building trust and long-term relationships with clients. All it takes is a minute-long video that tells the story of your company and its humble beginnings. As long as you are able to elicit emotions from viewers, there is no reason for your company not to rank high on the list within your industry.

It helps you appeal to lazy buyers

With the overwhelming amount of companies and ads that you come across today, consumers don’t have as much time to go through long promotional posts. Even worse are the lazy buyers, which expect you to do everything for them. However, videos give you the opportunity to shorten the time clients need to experience what you’re selling. So, it’s a great way to market to lazy buyers that need a short-burst motivation to make a purchase.

Stay one step ahead of the competition

As mentioned above, there are a lot of companies that disagree with the appeal and benefits of video marketing. Whether it’s the additional cost of it or the time and energy it demands, they are still reluctant to use it. That gives your business the perfect chance to come out on top and overcome your competitors.

Improve retention

With the endless pool of information that the Internet presents, it becomes increasingly difficult to win the attention of others. Videos help you overcome this obstacle with the long-term sub-conscious effect they can have on people. It is no secret that we tend to remember what we saw for far longer than what we discussed or read.

Target multiple demographics

Videos appeal to everyone, basically. Despite this not being the truth 10 years ago, today we all respond to what we watch. Although certain age groups are more drawn towards social media platforms without video content, they are still the minority.

Improve your social media presence

To end this list of video marketing advantages, we turn towards social media sharing. Yet another logical and realistic statistic – drastically more people share videos rather than written posts. So, smart marketers that turn towards video will always make sure to leave a Share button below. And once you do that, all it takes is a little patience and voila – your video can go viral! So, go out there is start investing your efforts into video marketing campaigns.

The post 10 Tips for a Successful Video Marketing Campaign in 2019 appeared first on SEMA.

Wouldn’t it be great if you had a simple yet detailed guide on how to create high-converting CTAs in, let’s say, 15 steps?

Well, here it is! 15 tips on how to create high-converting CTAs:

Finding the perfect combination of elements and putting it all into a single Call to Action might seem simple, but it is far from it. This is one of those game-changing details that can determine whether or not your marketing campaign will succeed.

• Are you familiar with your target base?
• Do you understand your clients?
• Which colours should you use?
• Which combination of words drives people to take action today?

These are all questions that you need to be able to answer before you hope to create high-converting CTAs for your marketing efforts. It is my hope that you will be able to do just that, after these 15 steps.

1: Choose the right colour for your CTAs

Colour can speak volumes to your clients, no matter how small the section or button. This is why you should take the time to consider the colour you want your CTA in. Make it easy on yourself with this quick colour-choice checklist – it needs to:

• Be a colour.
• Stand out from the background.
• Not clash with the background.
• Grab your attention.

Colour plays an important role in CTAs.

One way to test this it to try with your company colours first, and then do a trial run with other colours. This way, you will be able to determine which colour works best for your niche.

2: Don’t over-complicate the design

Yes, if you want to create high-converting CTAs, they should stand out. However, this doesn’t mean that you should go to Las Vegas with your design. Sometimes, less is more, and the same can be said for a good call to action. Keep font colour limited to black or white, while changing the background colour of the button.

3: Size does matter – keep it sensible

Despite what people might have you believe, bigger is not always better. With CTAs, you have to make sure that the button is sensibly sized. Here, you need to consider both desktop and mobile device users. If a button is too, small, people might have a hard time clicking on it. And if you make the button too big, mobile device users will find it overwhelming and annoying. So, balance is key here.

You have to consider mobile devices and how your CTAs will fit in there.

4: Choices are always good to have, as long as you limit them

People love to think they are in control. This is why we love having choices when faced with a decision to buy something. However, you can’t give people too much space for thinking and establishing control. So, if you do decide to give people a choice between different CTAs, limit it to a maximum of 2 choices.

To create high-converting CTAs, you have to limit your options.

5: Make sure the design is inviting and clickable

As obvious as it is, people need to know that the CTA is clickable. What this means for the buttons is that they should have:

• A rectangular shape
• Clear boundaries or borders
• White space surrounding them.
• A contrasting colour

By following these criteria, you will make the buttons more clickable. Combine that with action words and you get the result you’re looking for.

6: Create high-converting CTAs in such a way that they are the next logical step

“Okay, now I need to click on the button and proceed”. This should be the thought that comes to the mind of online visitors once they reach the call to action. That button should be the final, and culminating part of the process. You can usually find examples like these when you have a company that is presenting a product. In the image below, Movers Development presents a moving quote calculator through a video. They then ask potential clients to apply for a demonstration of the product right next to it, in plain view – the next logical step.

Always have everything in plain sight when you aim to create high-converting CTAs.

7: Quality of wording over quantity

When you aim to create high-converting CTAs, you need to focus on maximum impact with minimal wording. The button has to be a knockout that will be direct and to-the-point. Glance-click-done.

8: Aim to make an impact

The Call to Action button is one of the most important page elements. This is why the content has to be nothing short of perfect. However, this varies from campaign to campaign and company to company. So, there are several tactics that you can combine:

• Use action words (get, try, use, read, see etc.)
• Use timing words (today, now, ASAP etc.) to create high-converting CTAs
• Keep it positive – including positive encouragement.
• Stick to obvious nouns (checkout, course, deal etc.)
• Spice it up with value – using “free” or “no charge” etc.
• Keep it consistent – always think about what you’re offering.

9: Focus on first-person CTAs to generate conversions

Speaking to the needs of your clients is one of the best things you can do when calling them to take action. Rather than using “we” or “our” and drawing their focus away, target it with 1^st person CTAs – “my” or “I” etc.

10: Apply pressure with a sense of urgency

We all know that if given too many options and space to think, people tend to prolong making a decision. This is why you have to implement that sense of “limited time” urgency into your CTAs. Today, you have to push clients in the right direction to get the desired effect.

11: Explore the aspect of “lazy” CTAs

Not everyone is willing to take a short time and little effort it takes to get through your perfect landing page and click to proceed. However, this is where “lazy” CTAs can come in handy. Usually, you would use these when asking for credit card or address information, to make it as simple as possible for people to proceed to the next step.

This might be too demanding for people looking for a quick fix.

12: Make the white space work for you

The International Design Foundation claims that “Macro white space” acts as a container for your design, and can be incredibly calming to your user. So, why not use this to your advantage. Leaving adequate white space around your Call to Action button sends a clear message to visitors. However, this does not necessarily need to be limited to white space – sometimes a non-intrusive photo can fill the role of “white background space” and focus people on the CTA.

13: High-converting CTAs should be optimized location-wise

Just like all the elements we mentioned up to this point, the location of the CTA plays a key role as well. You have the popular opinion that the solution to create high-converting CTAs is to put it at the end. However, according to research done by Hubspot, only 6% of conversions come from CTAs at the ends of posts. So, you have to carefully consider where you position your CTAs.

14: Keep it specific for effect

People today are used to seeing ads and marketing campaigns. So, offering them products or services through universal terminology won’t make an impact. The more specific you are in what you’re offering, the easier it will be to create high-converting CTAs. One idea is to personalize deals or promotions with number or brand names etc.

15: Be prepared to get into some A/B testing

At the end of the day, none of the previous 14 steps we mentioned will matter unless you test and measure the results. Testing is that constant factor that plays a crucial role in finding your perfect and high-converting CTAs. So, test, test, and then test again. It might take time, but you will get there eventually. And once you do, it will only be a matter of putting it all together.

The post How To Create High-Converting CTAs In 15 Steps appeared first on SEMA.

It is also well-known that, during the buying process, this content is used to motivate prospects in the following ways:

1. The awareness stage: this is where you identify the problems that potential buyers are having

2. The consideration stage: when a potential buyer will do research in order to solve the problem

3. The decision stage: the moment where the buyer finally decides to choose a solution that can help them

When doing a digital marketing strategy, there are several types of content that you should use that can help each person eventually commit when going through the buying process.

Blogs And Keyword Research

The awareness stage of content building utilizes blogs. Essentially, people reading your blog may not be at the buying stage yet, and this content will allow them to remember you.

If you can understand what is causing your audience pain, you must do keyword research that can identify keyword phrases that are related to this problem. You need to generate content on topics that will be focused on searcher intent. An example of this was recently creating a blog on the benefits of PR after identifying our target market (CEOs and c level execs of SMEs) which was looking for info on the benefits of PR. You must consider the challenges they may be facing, and subsequently create blog topics that they will be looking for on the web.

The content that you create must include these keywords, but you also need to make the content helpful and easy to read. Engaging content is what allows the audience to remember you, and should not be solely designed to rank on Google.

Develop Gated Content 

If you want to get leads, this type of content is what you want to create. For example, the top of the final leads can use this content because the potential buyers are at either consideration or awareness stage. Gated content may include explaining her videos, white papers, or even digital e-books.

To create best-gated content, it needs to be:

• Persona-driven – targeting specific people that will need your service
• Focused on one pain point – creating highly focused content for downloads
• Beautifully designed – developing appealing and friendly content

As you create this content, it must provide helpful advice for the audience highlighting your expertise in this area.

Engaging Video Content 

There is a saying that a picture can be expressive of a thousand words, and videos do an even better job. In fact, it is thought that the most engaging content for any brand your business is creating a high-quality video.

These can be used at any stage of the buying process you have set up. For example, if they are at the awareness stage, and they find this content on social media, it will definitely attract their attention. Explainer videos work perfectly with those that are at the consideration stage, giving them plenty of insight as to how to deal with their pain. If they are at the decision stage, case study videos work very well, representing what you know about the topic, and will help them develop a positive impression about you.

There are four things that video content should have (sometimes all of them together!) – Videos need to be shareable, engaging, memorable, and insightful. If you are aware of who your audience really is, and also how they consume content daily, you will know how to develop your videos so they can benefit from them.

Link Building

Content that is on your social channels, or even on your website, is not the totality of all you can produce. If you can create targeted digital content, that which will raise PR activity, you can help their awareness improve about your business, giving them content they can share and indirectly backlinks that can help with search engine optimization.

At this point, PR becomes a substantial component of any digital marketing strategy you are attempting to do. When you can secure links online on different websites and publications (preferably with high DA) you will see a definite boost in your search positioning and visibility.

When you create engaging content, this will help you get follow links, and at the same time, build your brand and your business profile.

As you can see, any digital marketing expert worth their salt will tell you that good content is essential with a successful digital marketing strategy. You must always consider each and every element of your content carefully – including knowing who your audience is, what information they are looking for, and what channels, if any, they are consuming daily so that you can produce the content they are looking for so they can make an informed decision.

The post Why Quality Content Is Key To A Successful Digital Marketing Strategy appeared first on SEMA.

According to BrightLocal “Local SEO is an effective way to market your business online. It helps businesses promote their products and services to local customers at the exact time they’re looking for them.” We already know that utilizing SEO is a very effective way to capture customers. If you have a local business, you’ll definitely want to take it a step further and assure that your local SEO is on point.

BCC Interactive, a premier SEO agency in Philadelphia, PA, has put together an engaging infographic, showing you 15 reasons why local SEO is more important than ever.

The post 15 Reasons Local SEO Is More Important Than Ever! appeared first on SEMA.

A significant challenge that almost all startups face is lack of investment. This challenge stops you from advertising your products which eventually lead your business towards a shutdown. Although, there is one way you can make a presence for your B2B company online and start getting orders in no time. Wondering how? With the help of an international B2B marketplace.

These B2B portals offer an open platform for companies from all corners of the world to interact and start trading with each. All you have to do is a signup and provide all your company details. After that, not only can you search for relevant buyers, but they will also start reaching out to you. Having that said, the real question that arises here is which B2B platform you should trust? To start, here are a few essential requirements that you should consider before signing up on a specific B2B marketplace.

1.    Number of Members

Probably the most crucial thing to look at is the number of members that are already signed up. By knowing how many people are already active on a platform, it can help build your trust and confidence on a specific B2B portal. In addition, there is no point in wasting your time looking for potential clients on a platform that lacks an adequate number of relevant members.

For example, if you go through businesses like Alibaba and Amazon Business, you’ll see millions of members who are happily connecting and trading through these B2B portals. That apparently means, instead of searching for potential B2B buyers that are relevant, all you have to do is start contacting them with all their details available on such platforms. Though many Alibaba B2B competitors are fighting to reach the top, it is your job to evaluate each network.

2.    Experience

Though there is no harm in signing up to every other B2B marketplace that crosses your eyes, we still advise that as a startup you should focus more on portals that have been around for quite some time. Older and well-set B2B marketplaces are considered much more trustworthy than new ones. In order to maintain their reputation and quality of members, all suppliers and buyers undergo a strict verification process. This process is used to ensure the authenticity of the member as well as all the personal details they provide.

Once you have established a name for yourself and are generating enough leads and orders, you are free to sign up to new B2B marketplaces as well. You can find other new businesses there which you can work with. However, always be careful when you work with such buyers to avoid any scam or fraud.

3.    Paid Services

When you start a new business, a few workers and a warehouse full of stock aren’t the only things that you need. One crucial thing that all companies need to have is a user-friendly and well-maintained website. In addition, to actually gain online recognition for your site you’ll also have to utilise digital marketing techniques.

Worried how you’ll do all that in so little time? Well, many online B2B marketplaces have started offering premium packages in the form of digital services to boost your business. For example, if you go through sites like Tradekey and ExportHub, you’ll see a variety of digital service packages you can choose from. From making your website to promoting it on social platforms, to getting it ranked on Google with the help of SEO marketing techniques. They do it all! That means you can relax and start generating leads in no time with minimal investment and efforts. – Sounds like a pretty good deal to me!

4.    Money Back Guarantee!

You can’t put your money on the stake without any proper guarantee. Can you? To be honest, I definitely wouldn’t! Regardless of which B2B marketplace you choose, you should always see if they are offering a money back guarantee. As a startup, most businesses are already operating on a shoe-string budget. Therefore, investing without a guarantee is a risk too significant to take. – Think before your act!

5.    High-quality Round The Clock Support

Customer support is a crucial element that signifies the quality of service you can expect from a potential B2B platform. If you wish to check how much help you’ll get from representatives of a specific portal then reach out to their team and have a quick chat. You should also contact them at odd times. For example, if a platform considers itself an international B2B marketplace, they should have support staff available 24/7. If that’s not the case, and eventually you have to talk with a chatbot that is programmed to answer basic and limited questions, maybe you should move on to the next option on your list.

Wrap Up

Though there are hundreds of B2B marketplaces available for you to start your business, you can’t rely on all of them. Start by researching and carefully evaluating all the best ones. Go through the points we’ve mentioned above and make sure that you don’t make the wrong move. As a B2B startup the stakes are pretty high so make sure that you trust the right marketplace. Once you become a member of a good B2B portal, the rest is history!

The post Which B2B Marketplace Should You Trust as a Start-Up? appeared first on SEMA.