And it seems I’m not the only one. Another passion of mine, other than history, is iGaming, and I’ve found over the last few years that history has been a constant source of inspiration for developers across the industry. Every time I log onto an online casino, I come across multiple games with a history theme, whether that’s ancient Egypt with its iconic pyramids and pharaohs, the battle-worn gladiators of Rome, or the voyages of discovery from the Age of Exploration. 

There isn’t a platform I’ve found that doesn’t have history-themed slots, and with most of them appearing on the ‘most popular’ section, it’s clear that these are the kinds of features that players want to see. So why is this the case? Why is history a constant source of inspiration for iGaming themes, specifically, and what do these kinds of titles do differently to engage us as an audience?

The Visual Elements

The first answer I found to this question came when I was browsing JohnSlots UK and read deeper into their Egypt-themed slot. Cleopatra, especially, plays an ongoing role for many developers, and the reason for this is the wealth of visual and narrative material that her story provides. 

It can be hard to come up with fresh and unique stories, of course, with developers having to consider:

• Story
• Character
• Atmosphere
• Tone
• Symbols
• Aesthetic
• Graphics

And with the iGaming market building constantly, many developers simply don’t have the time to come up with all of this from scratch to grab our attention. So why not borrow from the history books that have all of the above on a platter? The era of Cleopatra comes with its own symbols, architecture, characters, and a visually stunning backdrop to keep people engaged through the design, and the same goes for plenty of other eras too.

The Sense of Adventure

When I was learning about the Ancient Pyramids, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of adventure and exploration, and many iGaming platforms give me the opportunity to feel part of great historical moments. Whether it’s uncovering hidden treasures, battling ancient warriors, or navigating through uncharted territories, the excitement of experiencing events from the past – even in a simple slot game that uses those events for inspiration – cannot be beaten. 

It’s not just about spinning reels or winning prizes, after all. It’s about stepping into a world outside of your own, where history, mythology, and the adventures that surround them can come to life. Some developers do it better than others, of course. I’m not going to say that every history-themed title is perfect just by nature, but by utilising a history-theme with a strong gaming UI, they certainly get off on the right foot.

The Diversity of History

As I mentioned before, our history is vast, with so many eras and cultures to explore and choose from. This makes it a great source of inspiration that also ensures developers create diverse titles and don’t repeat themselves. If you look at the traditional gaming market, one of the most successful games in recent times has to be Assassin’s Creed, which borrows from multiple periods in history to create worlds, stories, and keep things fresh for every release. 

Developers in the iGaming market can do the same thing, releasing multiple titles that focus on a particular period of history with its own distinct aesthetic, music, and atmosphere. It’s also worth noting – with the success of Assassin’s Creed in mind – that historical themes have a proven track record. Whether it’s in films, television shows, or books, audiences always enjoy immersing themselves into a historical world, and this success makes it a perfect fit for iGaming, where developers want to tap into themes that have the broadest appeal. 

Conclusion

I’ll be the first to say that my history knowledge is not the best, but the key point is that it fascinates me, and therefore, I’m more inclined to lean towards online platforms that have a variety of history-themed titles on offer. And, hey, sometimes I even learn a few things. Just the other day I was playing a game based around the Byzantine Empire, and it stimulated my curiosity enough to delve deeper into it and learn more. 

Once again, by blending education with entertainment, historical themes can attract a broader audience – like me! – who are open to learn more about things that interest them. That, and all of the other reasons I mentioned above, is probably why iGaming platforms are so inspired by history and will likely continue to borrow from it in years to come.

The post Why History is a Constant Source of Inspiration for iGaming Themes? appeared first on Tricky Enough.

Hashtags are incredibly powerful for attracting attention and engaging with potential followers. Hashtags can be phrases, words, or titles that are used to convey a message on social media. You’ve likely seen hundreds of Instagram posts with messages preceded by the hashtag sign (#).

They allow the user to connect with topics they’re interested in based on their interests and give them an easy location for finding content that appeals to them. Utilizing hashtags is essential if you want your account’s visibility to increase on the platform. While it might seem daunting to hunt for the perfect hashtag combination, which can be both time-consuming and tricky, hashtag generators are here to help simplify the process of optimizing hashtags extremely quickly.

So if you’re looking for a hashtag generator Instagram users can leverage to boost their followings, read on as we take a look at hashtag generators’ vital role in attracting targeted audiences.

What Is a Hashtag Generator?

A hashtag generator is a valuable tool that helps individuals and businesses optimize their social media presence. By analyzing keywords or topics, the hashtag generator suggests relevant and popular hashtags to include in your Instagram posts. This tool takes the guesswork out of choosing effective hashtags, saving you time and ensuring maximum visibility for your content.

Hashtags play a crucial role in increasing reach and engagement on social media platforms like Instagram. The best hashtag generator for Instagram will come up with relevant hashtags based on specific keywords, allowing non-followers to discover your posts easily.

A hashtag generator simplifies the process by automatically generating a list of relevant hashtags based on your input keywords or topics. These generators use algorithms to analyze popular trends, current events, and user behaviour to provide you with the most effective hashtags for your content.

Promotes Brand Campaigns

The success of any online brand campaign depends on several factors, one of which is the use of relevant hashtags. Campaign hashtags can be used to promote an event or a product, gain momentum for an idea or movement, or even inspire people. However, coming up with the right hashtags is not always that simple. This is where the role of hashtag generators comes in handy. 

This tool helps you generate a list of high-performing hashtags that are related to your brand and campaign. The suggestions will help you get the attention of your target audience and increase your brand’s visibility on Instagram. Whether you’re looking to expand your reach or engage with your followers, a hashtag generator is a great tool that can help you along the way.

Sparks Online Conversations and Engagement

Social media has become a powerful platform for businesses and individuals who are looking to boost their online presence and connect with their audiences. With more than 200,000 million business profiles, Instagram is a platform that has witnessed exponential growth in recent years and has become a hotbed for businesses to promote their brands. 

However, increasing your Instagram followers requires more than just sharing posts randomly. Hashtags play a vital role in swaying online conversations and enhancing engagement. A good hashtag generator will suggest the right hashtags that will make your posts more visible and extend the reach of your content to a wider audience. By using relevant hashtags, you can attract potential followers and boost your visibility on Instagram.

For instance, if you are in the interior design industry, you might start a conversation about the latest trends in minimalistic designs. You can then dig deeper into your audience’s thoughts and discussions on the platform.

Helps Avoid Repetitive Hashtags

Instagram continues to dominate the world of digital marketing, so it’s important to stay relevant and up-to-date with the latest trends. One way to ensure your content is reaching the right audience is by avoiding utilising repetitive hashtags, as this can limit the number of people who are exposed to your content.

However, keeping your content fresh and relevant and constantly coming up with new and unique hashtags can be a challenge. This is where the role of hashtag generators can help. By using a hashtag generator, you can avoid the repetition of hashtags and keep your content fresh and engaging for your followers. This, in turn, can attract targeted audiences and help you establish a strong presence on the platform. So why settle for the same old hashtags when you can easily switch them up with the help of a generator?

In Closing

Hashtags have become a vital tool for digital interaction and have made it possible for people to come together under the same message. As such, leveraging hashtags recommended by a hashtag generator is extremely helpful for anyone looking to optimize their Instagram presence and reach their specific target audience. It streamlines the process of selecting relevant hashtags for your content, saving time and ensuring maximum exposure in an increasingly competitive digital landscape.

Suggested:

How to Utilize Hashtags For Marketing a Business on Instagram?

Should You Hire an Influencer Marketing Agency?

The post Increasing Your Instagram Following: The Role of Hashtag Generators in Attracting Targeted Audiences appeared first on Tricky Enough.

When you have built trust between your brand and customers, you have to engage with them to fulfil their needs according to their preferences and to enhance your credibility. It is essential to sustain your standards through work or customer satisfaction so that whenever they require help or need something relevant to your niche, they come to you to accomplish their queries.

Tips & Techniques for Increasing Digital Brand Consistency

Brand consistency can be achieved by being communicative and responsive on every platform where your target audience is engaged. Here are some techniques and tips that will help you in brand consistency in different directions;

1. Maintaining a Bewildering Logo

You should keep a regular logo by setting a standard size, colour, and alignment. A well-maintained logo across all platforms signifies a consistent brand elegance, and this is something that plays a magnificent role in setting your brand consistency across all platforms.

However, when we say to make a brand logo regular, it also means to make your logo unique and unforgettable in its own way. This logo will speak for you and become a solid brand identity from being used on letterheads to stationary, website to social media handles, printable marketing efforts, and whatnot. Having a great logo for your business means setting an image for your brand that vouches for its consistency and value-driven mission.

2. Deliver Your Business Message

Another factor that is critical for brand consistency is establishing and delivering your brand’s message all the time. This is what helps you set values that define your business, and you can achieve them with your sheer dedication. For instance, if you create a brochure or flyer for your brand from any brochure design company, you will make sure to integrate your messages such as of mission, vision, and values that your brand stands on and pledges to deliver at all times.

3. Connect your Offline Skills to your Online Branding

You should link your brand’s offline marketing skills and accomplishments, including proof of your achievements and graphical representations. With your online branding strategies, share them with the online targeted audience on social media platforms, your company’s website, guest blogs, and various platforms where your brand is available for customer approach. It is a fruitful technique for brand consistency.

4. Focus on Platforms Relating to your Brand

You should focus on the marketing platforms where your customers primarily engage with your brand. Please do not follow the trend without analyzing its pros and cons for your business. Have you ever thought? What if the trend goes against your branding strategies? Sometimes the trend reverses, and it can be harmful to your business affecting it negatively. To get positive results and an optimistic impact on your brand growth, you should elaborate on the platforms that engage your target audience more readily and work on it.

5. Redefine Content Strategy

Redefining your content strategy is a part that will help you excel with your brand consistency motive. With this, you can reach your new audience and reinforce the message with minimal efforts in the marketing drive, as the repurposed content, will be doing the rest of the job for you.

When you are redesigning or reworking the layout of your digital brand, you must also consider the content that it has and what help it will get from the new content pieces. For example, here are a few examples that will help you integrate the redefining strategy;

· You can create an infographic that delivers information in a visually pleasing manner.

· You can work on the social media banners and utilize the previously successful strategy with a new one.

· You can compile some great blog posts and make an e-book for it.

· Gather different services and create content on them to engage users or visitors.

6. Prepare a Brand Portfolio

A brand must have a portfolio to show the company’s best work done for previous customers, and the sales team must have a copy of that to represent the brand’s perfection in the industry to stand out. It helps the sales workers close the deals that benefit brand growth and recognition. For instance, if you run a logo design company, customers are likely to expect you to show them your recent works and the best you can do for them, and a brand portfolio is the best way to appear on the front.

7. Align your Objectives Accordingly

It is essential to have all the homework done before getting to work. It would be best if you create a schedule following the calendar and set objectives to achieve them accordingly. The accomplishment of goals develops a good image of the company over the specific niche you are working in and provides the customers with a well-arranged point of view about your brand. Customers get attracted to time-oriented and efficient brands that fulfil their requirements in the given time.

8. Sustain your Brand’s Sound

One of the essential techniques for brand consistency is sustaining your brand’s tone. Your brand should sound similar all over the marketing platforms; if your brand appears professional, you should maintain the sound throughout the other media so that the customer does not think it is a different brand. Although it should be adjusted according to the platform type, the tone must relate to keeping your brand consistent across all platforms.

9. Appropriate Influencer Marketing

A new influencer marketing trend allows your brand to become familiar to customers through famous personalities or influencers. It has become common all over industries because it is enormously influential in influencing customers to buy your product or services; the influencers represent your product or service as the most beneficial one, which convinces the customer to deal with you. It connects you with recurring and loyal customers and makes your brand noticeable to everyone.

The Final Words

When our skill to make and guide marketing communications upsurges, the probability of making some common errors also increases. The wish to be instant growth can result in unclear, diverting, or disadvantageous communications mocking from the brand you’ve worked so toughly to form. Determining the above techniques for brand consistency can be helpful for you; hence, read them carefully.

Suggested:

Factors To Consider in Building A Brand.

Brand Discovery: Questions to Ask Clients Before Designing.

The post How to Increase Digital Brand Consistency in 2025? appeared first on Tricky Enough.

However, your real job starts AFTER you’ve created your website! There’s no point in creating a website if you’re not getting any visitors, right? Here are all the important reasons you should optimize your website from time to time.

To Cater to Your Audience’s Growing Needs

We’re living in a highly dynamic and fast-paced world. Your users’ expectations of your business don’t remain the same always. They expect you to use every technology that can help you improve their experience, and they expect you to provide them with the content, products, and services, that they don’t find elsewhere.

As your customers’ expectations change, Google also changes algorithmic requirements. If you think the search engine doesn’t rank your best content at the top, or you see a significant drop in your ranking after an algorithmic update, don’t feel disappointed. Google only makes algorithmic updates to meet the users’ expectations and to improve their online browsing experience.

If you create your web content with the following things in mind, it’ll certainly rank higher.

● Offer the best content to your audience

● Create a positive experience on your website

● Prioritize content that adds some value to your website

Google used over 200 ranking signals to determine the ranking of every content piece uploaded on the web. To rank higher, you need to use relevant primary and latent semantic keywords, write engaging content and provide meta-information to assist Google in understanding your copy.

To Improve Click-Through Rates

If you want to improve your click-through rate, try creating unique title tags and meta descriptions for every page.

Title tags should ideally consist of 55 characters and meta descriptions need to comprise about 155 characters. So, you see? Both of these are short, and creating them won’t take up too much time; but if you create attractive and informative title tags and meta descriptions, search engines and visitors will better understand what your page is about and be more likely to click on your web page.

Here, you need to understand that using keywords in title tags may help your pages rank higher for those keywords, but meta descriptions don’t affect your ranking directly. However, adding keywords in meta descriptions will increase the CTR for pages, already ranking in the search engine results.

Grow Your Organic Traffic

According to a report, an average business spends nearly 1% of its revenue on advertising. Some companies spend even more.

This percentage may seem quite a little, but it adds up. So, instead of the traditional advertising methods, if you use SEO to attract organic traffic you’ll obtain better results, without having to invest your money.

However, don’t forget that you may also have to pay for content development and promotions. But that’s not as expansive as PPC. Besides, pay-per-click (PPC) isn’t as much rewarding. Organic search closes at about 15% of searches while paid searches close at 2%.

So, instead of investing a considerable portion of your financial budget on advertisements, try to take some time to grow your organic traffic.

Creating a Lasting Impression on the Visitors

If you’ve created your business website, you certainly don’t want your visitors to get a sneak peek and run away, right? To ensure that your visitors actually ‘ value’ your work and don’t leave your web page after a few seconds, you need to make a lasting impression on them. Make sure your content sparks their interest in your products and gives them a good reason to return to your website.

The first thing you need to learn about website optimization is user experience. You can use different analytical tools to evaluate how visitors navigate through your website and their scrolling behaviour.

To Improve Your Website Performance

Creating a website isn’t a big deal; producing conversions through is!

According to a study, the average conversion rate across all industries is less than 2.5%.

If you want your customers to convert at a higher rate, you need to study them closely and provide them with exactly what they expect from you. Once you do your research and apply the data to every webpage on your website, you’ll notice a massive increase in conversion rates. If people who visit your website quickly get what they’re looking for, why won’t they come again? This will also improve their trust in your brand!

Top Essential Website Optimization Strategies

So, you want to rank well? Here’s how you can do just that!

Mobile-First

Google rolled out the mobile-first index in March 2018. If you want to optimize your website, make sure all your web pages are adaptive to any device; whether it’s a tablet, mobile, or desktop, your website should work well on all platforms. In addition to this, all the images on your website should be properly scaled, and your meta titles should be short and concise.

On mobile, less is more! There’s no need to create long-form content. What brings more traffic isn’t the quantity of the content. The only thing that matters is its quality.

Technical SEO

While the idea of technical SEO may seem a bit intimidating at first, there are several SEO tools available that can help you seamlessly conduct an SEO audit.

But you also need to know how to interpret it and what you can do with it. Once you make certain that your website is mobile-friendly, identify if there are any status code errors and rectify them. Find out your site indexing through Google Search Console, inspect all the issues, and fix them right away.

If there are any duplicate title tags and meta descriptions, change them; make sure all web pages have a unique web page.

Once you’re done with the initial steps, audit your website content. You can also use Google Analytics to check the traffic statistics and evaluate the performance of your web content. If there’s any underperforming content, change it.

Closely analyze your content. That is to say, if there are any internal or external links attached, make sure that all the links are working. If there are any broken links, they can destroy the user experience. 

The post Should You Optimize Your Existing Web Pages? appeared first on Tricky Enough.

There are many reasons why, as a digital business, you might want to offer an email series to your customers. We’ll start by looking at the why, and then take you to the how. 

Why Plan an Email Series?

1. Added value to your customers

If you have a great idea of who your target user is and what their problems are, then an email series catered to solving those problems will be incredibly valuable to your subscribers. Even if it is not exactly a problem that you are targeting, even if the series relates to something your target user is incredibly passionate about, then their hunger to know more about the topic can also be satiated by a well-crafted email sequence.

2. Build trust and brand loyalty

We tend to trust what we are familiar with. This is definitely the case for online shoppers. They are more likely to purchase from a company they know and have interacted with in the past over a completely new option. An email series is a great way to establish consistent interaction between you and your user. Seeing your branding, messaging, and useful content catering to their needs and interests on a regular basis is sure to lead to a connection being built between you and your readers.

3. Grow mailing list

Having an email service offered as a product is a fantastic way to capture emails and build your email list. It makes sense to any subscriber that in order to sign up for the email series that has caught their attention, they must provide their email address. Having an email list filled with the addresses of so many of your target users is a great asset to have for future promotions and series. Make sure to get consent from your email subscribers before sending them other promotional material.

4. Showcase brand voice

Any content you share with your prospects or users along the user journey is an opportunity to showcase your brand voice. A consistent brand voice will allow your readers to build a connection with you as they will start to know what to expect from you, this can be comforting to a lot of people. Due to the consistent nature of an email series, and because of the added value you will be offering to your user, an affinity with your specific brand voice will start to form.

5. Build Suspense for a Holiday Season

There is great opportunity for e-commerce businesses to boost their conversion in the holiday season. One way they can ensure this is by building anticipation for the celebrations and sales. A holiday email series could be a great way to do this. 

How do you plan an email series that converts?

1. Define conversion

What is the purpose of this email series? What counts as a conversion? Is it how many users sign up to the next series or buy a related product, or is it how many users click on any given link? It is important to define your key performance indicators before starting your email series, so you can continually assess the performance and make adjustments where necessary.

2. Choose a subject that will excite your audience

I am not sure how interested pen buyers would be in a calligraphy course, but the chances are that the number is higher than that of a digital ad agency.

Just as you do when you consider any type of content you put out on your website or social media, you must think about what your reader might want. Better yet, what they might need.

Have a look at the content that does well on your site. Is there a topic that continuously attracts higher visitors and more engagement? It is likely that a deeper dive into that topic would do well in an email series.

Simply offer your readers either something they don’t know or something they might care about and you are already doing well!

3. View the Series as a Product

Your email series is a unique product offering and should be treated as such. Your users will gain a lot of insight and value from this package you have put together just for them. Make it visible. Set up landing pages to register for your email course. These landing pages will be where your paid and sponsored ads will lead to. Leave CTAs on related blog posts and share them in your weekly or monthly newsletter. 

You have created this enriched content for your target audience, so it is important to spread awareness of it as much as possible.

4. Nail the Content

So you’ve got the marketing of your email series down, you’ve picked a topic that you’re sure your readers will love, and you have identified your KPIs. Now you need to make sure you nail the content!

There are three parts of the content you need to consider:

1. The copy

Your readers might like long-form or short-form copy, just make sure it is consistent with your brand voice. It’s also crucial to avoid grammar mistakes and poor syntax, as this will erode your brand’s credibility. 

2. The visuals

Use visuals to display data or emotions where possible. Consider including pictures of your team or yourself to add to the personification of your brand. Make sure the images you use are high quality and relevant to the copy.

3. The design

The overall design of the email series is very important and doing it well can lead to a great lot more conversions than something amateurishly put together. Do some research on email series by companies you love and search for inspiration in their style.

5. Final value offering

The end of your email series is an opportunity to re-engage with your audience. Make sure you know what you want your audience to do by the end of the email series.

Options include: 

• Further product offering
• Download white paper
• Sign up for a community
• Buy  a subscription 
• Sign up for the next part of the series

Final Thoughts

This has great potential to bring you and your users together, showcase your brand, and to bring users further along your own defined conversion funnel.

So, you really have no reason not to put together a winning email series after this guide! Or maybe I have missed something, I would love to hear your feedback in the comments below.

The post How to Plan A Winning Email Series? appeared first on Tricky Enough.

In the book “Storytelling in business. How to talk to people so that they listen to you, they believe you, they agree with you ”authors Joe Lazauskas and Shane Snow share a fail-safe formula to help you build an audience with content.

Good storytelling develops relationships and grabs people’s attention. And historically, the best relationships with consumers have developed precisely with those companies for whom stories work. We’re talking about newspapers, magazines, TV networks, Netflix, HBO. These companies boast loyal followers that the rest of us can only get to for money.

What is worth learning from them? What’s their secret? Upon closer inspection, you can see that they all, in fact, work according to the same time-tested scenario.

We call this “flywheel” system. First, content is created, then the methods of its distribution are determined, after which the stage of optimization of both the first and the second begins.

You may remember Upworthy, a well-intentioned site launched in 2012 by a pair of smart, socially-oriented journalists. Upworthy amassed an incredibly large audience simply by turning our flywheel faster than any other publisher.

Upworthy’s strategy was to take an inspirational video created by someone else but go unheeded by a wide audience, repackage that story into a beautifully designed article with a new headline, provide it with an attention-grabbing photo and intriguing introduction (create), and then share this new version of the story with multiple Facebook users (get across).

The authors of the site then checked if the new version of the story was able to attract more attention than the original (optimized). Have people read the entire article? Have you watched the entire video? Did they share the link?

Thus, the creators of Upworthy tested dozens of versions of similar stories. They came up with new headlines, inserted new photos, and shared content with different Facebook user groups until they found the best headline and the perfect picture (created) to give the story the maximum chance of going viral. An optimized version of the story was sent to everyone they knew via e-mail (reported).

Thanks to this strategy, the site grow traffic five times faster than any other media company in history – because it turned the flywheel faster than anyone else.

But a word of caution: After years of growth, Upworthy’s traffic dropped sharply when the company stopped using its flywheel.

There were several reasons for this. First, Facebook changed its news feed algorithm, blocking Upworthy-style content after dozens of copycats began using its most successful headline templates. As a result, Upworthy traffic crashed in just a day. And instead of optimizing the process with these changes in mind – finding another way to deliver the content to the audience or adapting the strategy for its creation – the site did not adjust.

Upworthy’s abrupt disappearance from the top of the traffic charts is also significant because every good storyteller uses one version of the flywheel (create, communicate, optimize) to build an audience, but only the best of them never stop improving and adapting.

Want some good news? Modern technology makes it possible to do this more efficiently than ever before. Before the internet, creating, communicating, and optimizing required a print press, delivery trucks, and a staff of delivery boys. Today, a laptop and an internet connection are enough.

But now that we know about the flywheel, the real test begins. How to get the most out of it?

Deliver: the target of storytelling

One important factor to consider when thinking about what content to create is how you plan to communicate it to your audience. So let’s focus on the second stage of the flywheel.

There are new ways to connect with your audience every day, so we can’t tell you exactly where to send your content tomorrow. What is known for sure is that the new rules of the media game provide brand owners and aspiring publishers with perhaps the greatest networking opportunity in history.

However, in the world of social networks, everything is changing so rapidly that it is difficult to predict which tactics will be optimal. However, we can give you the formula to help you calculate it.

Roughly speaking, there are two types of companies: B2B (a business that offers goods and services to another business) and B2C (a business that offers goods and services directly to consumers). Typically, their goals fall into two categories: branding (what people will think of you and how) and conversion (getting a person to take action, such as buying something or consulting a salesperson).

Some companies may fall into several categories at once, and that’s okay. It’s just that they will have more difficult tasks than others.

Website

No matter what category your company falls into, the most powerful way to reach your audience is with a website. This is where you control both the branding and the conversion process. Through the site, you can make people see exactly what you want to show them, and so that they have a desire to take the actions that you expect from them.

But with rare exceptions, the entire potential audience of the company does not flock to its website on its own, so you need to look for other ways to reach consumers.

Email

The second most effective way of establishing contact is in the territory of potential consumers. This is their email. This method is also suitable for all categories of companies. By sending an email, you largely control both the branding and the conversion process. The content comes from you and goes directly to the recipient’s inbox.

If you do not have email addresses for your target audience, then you will have to lure them in some way. You will need to catch the eye of potential users in those places where they usually spend time on the Web.

Social network

Where to find your audience? What social networks? What sites? What communication channels does she prefer? What applications does he use?

The category to which your company belongs will help determine this. If it’s a B2B company interested in promoting a brand, by far the best solution would be to find contacts on LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, and podcasts. If this is a B2B company interested in increasing conversions, then you should probably focus on Google Search, SlideShare, and similar company subscriber lists.

If you’re developing branding for B2C, you can target the same places as B2B, but go for Instagram and Reddit over LinkedIn. If you’re a B2C company looking to boost conversions, then it’s best to channel your energy towards Pinterest and Instagram.

The type of content depends on which channels you intend to use to deliver your content to your target audience. Your stories should match the specifics of the selected channels.

Further, the strategy is simple. Each story should bring the audience at least one step closer to the center of the target. Your LinkedIn posts and YouTube videos should include an email invitation to subscribe to additional content. And top-notch content in your mailing list should draw people to your site – over and over again.

Again, platforms will change over time, but the principles behind this technique shouldn’t.

Once you have an overall strategy for reaching out to your audience, you can start thinking about the content and format of your stories.

Create: funnel story matrix

Just as strict requirements for haiku structure make it immediately easier to compose an impromptu poem, so the parameters of the diagram below help you craft stories to build relationships with consumers in the ways we just talked about.

We call this strategy the funnel matrix.

The funnel-shaped die has two axes. The first one roughly corresponds to the stages of a typical sales funnel: awareness, interest, purchase. They, in turn, roughly correspond to the stages of our target: while your audience uses some kind of digital communication channel, you are trying to attract their attention. Once you succeed, you should interest her in cooperation. And at the stage of communication between a potential client and your sales representative, your task is to persuade him to buy.

Which stories you tell depends on your current relationship.

Optimize: improve efficiency

In the third stage of our flywheel, the winner is determined among the competitors. The winner is the one who, based on in-depth analysis, makes the necessary adjustments in the first two stages of storytelling (create and convey).

The essence of the third stage is to study examples of successful stories, highlight their common elements and the most effective techniques, and then simply repeat what works best.

It’s like endless racing. We put 10 horses on the tracks, according to the results of the races, we select two winners, we get offspring from them, again we select the best from the offspring, and so on over and over again.

But which story should be considered successful? What content parameters really matter?

At the moment, content marketers want to divide all content parameters into two groups: useless and overriding. But in this changeable area, there can be no absolute values.

Content goals should be driven by your company’s business goals and, in turn, indicate key performance indicators (KPIs) that are relevant to you. Take a look at an example of a table from the Content Methodology Practical Experience Report:

We consider the following indicators to be the most interesting.

Number of users involved

The number of people who spend at least 15 seconds viewing an article.

Share

This is also an important indicator. If a person takes the time to share your content with their contacts on social networks, then your content deserves it.

Average time spent on site
The average length of time spent by a person on your content while performing some active actions: scroll, click, select text. (In other words, he didn’t just open a tab to keep himself busy while lunch was warming up.)

Average viewing depth

This indicator tells you what percentage of the article is viewed by users. If they read no more than a quarter of the text, the headline may have misled them and the article didn’t live up to expectations. If the average viewing depth reaches 90 percent of the text, then you are doing everything right.

Social elevator

This indicator is calculated simply: clicks on links in social networks/clicks on the site + 1. It tells how much additional organic social traffic content can bring, and helps to select priority distribution channels.

Average content per user

Are visitors staying on your site to read more than one story?

Qualification of press mentions
This metric measures the relevance of content-triggered press mentions based on the relevance of a particular publication to your target audience and the reach of that mention. We, for example, actively invest in our own research. Not least because they bring us a lot of attention from the mainstream media.

If you are concerned about lead generation, analyze your engagement metrics: as we said before, no one gets married (or buys anything) after a first date. The chances of converting a person (to a life partner or a buyer) will be much greater after a relationship is established between you. In addition, there are additional metrics to help assess the contribution of content to lead generation.

Subscription conversion rate

One of the best indicators of a quality story is its ability to convince audiences to subscribe to our newsletter.

Lead conversion rate

It’s even better if the story convinces the reader to take an interest in the expensive software product.

Lead classification

This metric measures the likelihood of a lead converting to a customer based on a number of factors (company size, name, industry, and other information).

Possible deals

These are people who enter your sales funnel through content on your site and demonstrate a willingness to become a customer. For example, 50 percent of Contently’s customers are users who read our content or download an e-book.

You can go on and on. Trying to determine your favorite content performance metric is like picking your favorite ninja turtles character.

Another good practice is to tag your article (by topic, person, format, etc.) and compare cost metrics with return metrics. In this way, you can understand which stories do not meet KPIs, and which ones overfulfill them. In fact, you can publish dozens of articles of different formats, topics, etc., determine the winners (the most effective), and adjust your content strategy accordingly.

This leads to another important nuance. In many cases, assessing the effectiveness of content by key indicators is needed not only in order to optimize it but also in order to have a reason to report on your success to senior management and get additional resources for more ambitious content projects. The article was prepared by the service great resumes fast.

The post A Fail-Safe Formula For Building an Audience with Content appeared first on Tricky Enough.

Still, have you ever measured the success of your customer acquisition campaigns? For starters, you need to calculate your Cost per Acquisition (CPA). This metric tells you how much money you spend to aggregate one paying customer. 

If your CPA is high, don’t worry. You can reduce it using the following tactics.

Track your Customer Acquisition Costs

There is a simple formula to use when calculating your CPA: dividing the total cost of marketing by the total number of customers. For example, if you spend $1500 on your marketing tools and strategy and you acquire 50 new customers, your acquisition cost will be $30. In other words, this means you are spending $30 on each customer you acquire.

To understand your customer acquisition cost, you also need to measure:  

• The average purchase value tells you how much your customers spend on average when buying from you. It is calculated by dividing your total revenue by the number of orders.
• The average customer’s lifespan indicates customer loyalty. It is measured by dividing the sum of each customer’s lifespan by the number of customers.
• Customer lifetime value tells you how much money each customer spends on your business during their lifetime. You can calculate it by multiplying customer value by their average lifespan.

Keep your Content Targeted and Relevant

Always keep in mind that the one-size-fits-all approach to sales and marketing doesn’t cut it anymore. Your customers expect your content and offer to be highly targeted and relevant. And, this is an immensely important thing to know for young companies wanting to minimize their cost per acquisition.

Namely, the longer it takes to turn a lead into a customer, the greater your customer acquisition cost will be. Above all, you risk attracting low-quality leads that won’t convert into paying customers or even brand advocates.

The key to attracting the right leads and converting them lies in building detailed buyer personas. Start by collecting customer data through website analytics, online surveys, polls, quizzes, chatbots, and social listening. Then, use their demographic data (geolocation, age, marital status, profession, salary, education) and psychographic data (their hobbies, interests, problems, frustrations) to segment your audiences into smaller groups and develop personas.

Segment your newsletter audiences.

Sending a single, uniform email doesn’t work for online users. To grab their attention in their overcrowded inboxes and get them to click on your subject line, you need to offer something valuable to them. Focus on addressing their needs and preferences. There are many ways to segment your email newsletter lists, such as by their geolocation, previous purchases, browsing habits, interests, activity/inactivity, etc. By investing in a reliable email service provider like MailChimp, Constant Contact, or AWeber, you will do so easily.

Target relevant keywords.

Your target audiences dictate many aspects of your SEO strategy, from choosing link-building prospects to your UX elements. However, they play a particularly important role in your keyword research process. You should always optimize your pages for relevant keywords that will support your prospective customers at each step of their journey.

For starters, you need to focus on search intent. For example, if someone is visiting your website for the first time, they will want to learn more about you by reading your blog posts and news. On the other hand, people at the bottom of the sales funnel already know what they want to buy from you. To convince them to do so, you should provide them with targeted incentives, case studies, customer testimonials, discounts, etc.

The idea is to optimize your website for the right keywords, based on the user’s intent. Apart from optimizing for exact-match keywords, you should also use conversational and long-tail keywords to stay competitive. To learn what your audiences are really searching for, you could also use People Also Ask or Google Suggestions.

Educate customers through diverse content.

Content marketing is the backbone of brand-customer relationships. Diversify your content to make it relevant to different audience segments. For example, you could create powerful company newsletters to deepen customer relationships. Comprehensive guides and how-to articles to offer actionable tips. Customer testimonials, case studies, and demo videos will gain their trust. Provide self-service options, like a detailed knowledge base or a FAQ page that will solve their problems quickly.

Build a Sold CRO Strategy

When attracting customers, you cannot expect them to convert overnight. You need to have a solid, well-defined CRO strategy to convert your prospective leads into paying customers.

Prove your website is safe

This is particularly important to companies that require users to provide their sensitive information. With the rise of cybersecurity threats, customers are concerned about the security of their data. According to some recent stats, 17% of shopping car abandonment rates are caused by security concerns. Therefore, before purchasing from you, they will want to know that they are buying from a trustworthy store. For starters, invest in SSL certificates and add trust badges to your website.

Show social proof

Many customers rely on online reviews when making purchasing decisions. Precisely because of that, social proof is a fundamental part of your CRO strategy. Here is how to use it:

• Enable customer reviews and ratings on your website. 
• Leverage social proof software. Use a CRO tool to provide your website’s visits, leads generated, and conversions in real time. Third, encourage customer testimonials and display them on your website. Finally, create detailed case studies that show your previous customers’ problems and explain how you solved them.

Make your site easily navigable

Complicated website architecture frustrates customers and prevents them from converting. To prevent that, you need to optimize your website navigation. Start with your navigation menu. Reduce the number of categories and subcategories – include the most relevant ones. The categories should be logical and informative, helping customers find the right content faster. For those customers who already know what they are searching for, you should also offer search and filtering functionalities.

Turn Customers into Brand Advocates

In today’s highly competitive digital marketing landscape, acquiring a customer is only half the battle. The other half is increasing their brand loyalty and turning them into a raving fan base. Even though retaining customers and building a growing community of brand advocates takes lots of time and effort, the results are amazing. You will get tons of positive word-of-mouth marketing, boost sales, and help you regain your acquisition costs faster.

Now, there are many ways to nurture your leads and sales into loyal customers.

Show you care about their opinions

Listen to your customers on social networks and monitor your brand and product mentions to understand what they feel about you. You could also create customer satisfaction surveys on your website, social accounts, or email. Use their feedback to improve your customer support, marketing, and products and, in this way, increase their satisfaction.

Build a customer loyalty program

A customer loyalty program rewards customers who are continuously buying from you. The more they buy from you, the more they are incentivized. This practice keeps your shoppers satisfied, as it shows them that you value their loyalty. There are different types of loyalty programs, such as point programs, tiered programs, and value-based programs, and you should always choose ones that resonate with your target audience.

Have a social responsibility strategy

Your startup is more than just a product. Customers would always choose to buy from companies that share their values and missions. Precisely because of that, you should inject your core values into a corporate social responsibility program. Give back to the community. Make your products more eco-friendly. Those are just some of the numerous ways to build trust with your audiences and inspire them to stay loyal to your brand.

Conclusions

Attracting new customers and yet, reducing acquisition costs is any startup’s priority. To do so, you first need to measure your CPA and know how much you spend to acquire a new customer. Based on this data, you will formulate your customer acquisition and conversion rate optimization strategy. Those are just some of the numerous tactics that may serve as your solid starting point.

The post Best Ways to Optimize Cost per Acquisition in the Startup Environment appeared first on Tricky Enough.

Social media is becoming an active part of our lives nowadays. People use social media to stay updated with the latest news or for shopping sessions. Businesses use it to promote their services and products and attract more audiences on their websites. Thus, social media has become one of the most effective tools that marketers can use to get closer to their audience and improve their engagement rate. Also, social media has become a communication tool that helps people and businesses get closer to each other irrespective of their location. Whether you intend to use Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn to promote your business, each platform has a significant role in increasing your visibility. Besides, considering that the competition is fierce, you should stay updated with the latest social media trends if you want to attract more audience. So, keep reading this article and discover some of the best ways that you can try to keep your customers engaged in social media.

1. Determine which social media channels attract your audience the most

When you want to draw your audience on social media, you should start by understanding their preferences. Thus, one of your first actions should be to assess your social media presence. Social media means more than Facebook. Also, you should be aware of the fact that not all social media platforms work for any type of business. Thus, it is essential to determine where your audience is the most active and what type of posts are the most engaging. Besides, you should stick to the rule that less is more. So, if you discover that one social media channel is not suitable for your business, you should remove it from your marketing channel. Below you can find a short description of what type of posts work for each social media network:

• Facebook works best for video content. People go to Facebook to look for the latest news on a given topic and entertainment.
• Instagram is the king of visuals. So, if you have amazing photos of your products or like to post short videos regularly, then Instagram is an excellent choice for you.
• Twitter goes best for worldwide news. You can use it when you want to promote the latest posts on your blog or show the world your web content.
• LinkedIn is regarded as a network for professionals. Thus, you can use it to promote professional content like case studies or business news. It is also the right choice when you want to recruit new members of your marketing team.
• Pinterest is another visual platform that works best when images are your most significant assets. It is also a great source of inspiration when you want to create more visual content.

2. Use visual content to build impact

The impact created by visual content has no rival. People are always in a hurry these days. So, instead of spending 10 minutes reading an article on a particular topic, they would prefer to receive the message via visual content. The great thing about visuals is that they are adaptable to almost any social media network. Whether you focus more on Instagram or Twitter, visuals can help you make an impact. Also, images will help you engage with your customers and transmit the right message in the first seconds. While the written content can be misinterpreted, you cannot go wrong with visuals. Besides, even though stock images come handy, they don’t have a powerful impact on your audience. If you really want to make an impact, you should shift your attention towards custom images. Working with a graphic designer or photographer might seem expensive, but the benefits outweigh the costs. Custom images will help you build your position on the market and convince your audience that you deserve their loyalty. Apart from the images, you shouldn’t forget about infographics. They will help your audience scan the information immediately and transmit a clear message in a dynamic form.

3. Relevant content is the key

Many voices mention that content is the king, and they have all the reasons to think like that. Once you define your target audience, you will understand what their need is and what type of content they expect from you. It is essential to keep your content authentic and customer-focused. Each piece of content that you publish should provide an answer to your readers’ questions. On top of that, you should keep in mind that your audience is always in a hurry nowadays. They don’t have time to read long posts that ask too much attention from their side. They would instead scan the post initially and try to get an instant message during this process. Thus, your content should be meaningful and provide valuable information that keeps them engaged. Also, each post that you publish on social media will help you show your audience that you are a professional in your niche. Therefore, you will win the trust of your audience and offer them constant updates on what’s new on the market. If you are a beginner in social media, you can work with professional writers to help you produce relevant content.

4. Include user-generated content in your marketing mix

User-generated content will help you become more popular and create a sense of community. This type of content will help you open new dialogue paths with your audience. It is also a gratitude gesture that you show to your fans and customers for taking the time to talk about your products and services. Sharing user-generated content on social media shows that you are paying attention to what your audience says about you, and it gives them a pleasant feeling of fame. Also, it is an excellent method to convince new customers that they can trust your products. Before buying a specific product, many clients prefer to check online for opinions and testimonials. So, this strategy helps you strengthen your position on the market and win more customers.

5. Don’t forget about emotions

If you want to grab the attention of your target audience and make them loyal to your brand, you shouldn’t forget about emotion. Any potential customer will react well to a post that has a dose of excitement. Especially around special occasions, you should tap on your audience’s emotional side and use it in your content. Also, if you want to increase the posts’ engagement rate, then this is the card on which you should place your best. Emotional content will always attract people, but an exaggerated dose of emotions will most probably scare them off. It is essential to stay relevant and offer on-point information if you want your audience to trust and follow you. Also, you can use videos or photo collages to express your feelings better. They will have a better impact than written content.

Conclusion

Social media is not rocket science. It is here to help people communicate better and improve business performance. All the tips mentioned above will help you stay authentic and improve your engagement rate. Also, explicit and relevant content will always have success. Your audience will appreciate your efforts in building a professional image on social media. As long as you pay attention to details, understand what they want, and offer relevant content, your success is guaranteed. You should also know that the results don’t appear overnight. You will have to stay consistent if you want to knock down the competition and make your audience understand that you have something valuable to say. Being consistent in posting content will show your audience that you pay attention to their needs, and you put effort into keeping them satisfied.

The post 5 Ways to Attract Your Audience in Social Media appeared first on Tricky Enough.

How Writing for Google and Audience Both can be possible?

Handpick Right Keywords

The keywords are the most necessary aspect for a search engine. They are interconnected with each other. Hence, the right phrase plays a significant role. Almost two-thirds of the total Google clicks account for the top three results. So, if you use the proper keywords, then you have an excellent opportunity to maximize the horizon of your audience.

First thing first, whatever topic you are going to write next, you got to have thorough knowledge about its keywords. Users tend to write specific terms related to what they are looking for. So a well-mapped out keyword means more engagements.

Moreover, certain tools help you to find the popularity of keywords. CrowdWriter is an excellent example. You have to tell the niche of your page. As a result, the tool will suggest a combination of most popular key-phrases. In this way, you may align with the recent market.

Focus On Catchy Headline

Writing a catchy and arresting headline is hands down one of the best ways to make your content SEO friendly. Because that’s the first thing a reader notices. No matter how good your write up is and how much time you have invested scripting that? As long as your headline does not appeal to people, all your hard work is of no use whatsoever.

• Crafting a catchy headline does not take much though. Just start thinking like a reader instead of a writer. You will hit upon dozens of ideas.

• It is generally noticed that the headlines with questions perform very good. Like, “Are you facing these 5 common problems in local SEO?”

• Other than that, headlines like “5 impeccable ways to improve your business” or “5 mistakes you are unconsciously making at your social media account” also prove to be very attractive to the audience.

• Don’t force a keyword in the headline if it does not fit there.

Length Of The Content

An appropriate article length is very critical for better SEO as well as to attract a large audience. So, the burning question is:

How many words do you need to write content?

Well, it depends. If the subject can be covered in 500 words, don’t artificially try to increase the length. However, long contents typically perform better. So it is recommended that you should go for a detailed composition – ranging from 1000 to 1200 words. Google prefers lengthy write-ups.

Moreover, a lengthy written piece gives a positive impression that the writer is well-versed about the subject. That way, they will trust your insight more. Hence, you will be able to acquire a more significant opportunity for engaging through social shares.

Linking is Key

By adding links in the content you can reap benefits in multiple ways. If there is already a similar kind of material available on your website, you must add a link of that. It makes your viewers stay longer on your site.

You can add links to other websites as well. Your readers will take it as your sincerity to provide the best possible information. It shows that you care for your readers and are not self-centered about your own perks only.

Formatting Counts Big Time

When a reader clicks an article, he gives it an “over the top” look first, so that he can get some idea whether your write up is worth investing time or not. That’s where the structure of the article plays a vital role. Reading on a screen is comparatively more tiring than a printed document. That’s why ensure everything through the structure to make the experience less bothersome as possible. Following are some prominent points which you should keep in mind while crafting an article.

• Use subheadings to break the text in parts. Users look for particular information these days. So dividing the body of content into parts is mandatory.

• Quotes and bullet points are suitable for both readers as well as Google. Doing so, not only that your article will look good from the surface, but stomaching information will be more comfortable too.

• Write small paragraphs. Long paragraphs require too much concentration that will cause fatigue.

• Don’t leave any abbreviation unexplained.

Write Answer-Centric Posts

If your document is answering the questions of your readers, then you don’t even have to consider the keywords. When you are focused on the right issue, keywords flow quite naturally. If you have a hard time to infuse the right keywords in your content, there could be two possibilities:

1. Targeting the wrong keywords.

2. Answering the wrong questions.

Avoid Keywords Overstuffing

Without a shadow of a doubt, the importance of keywords cannot be denied. But many people overstuff them believing that it will rank their website a little higher. That is a gross misconception. Google’s new updates have put less emphasis on keyword density. In fact, Google now focuses more on the length and how regular you are when it comes to updating your content.

Keep in mind, that the keyword density should not surpass the limit of 5.5 percent. More than that will look pretty unnatural.

Compile An Eye-Catching Meta Description

A large proportion of people click the link when they find a “to the point” meta description. In a way, it is a gateway to your site. Needless to say, a good meta description will work quite nicely for you. Therefore, it should involve the below characteristics in it:

• It would be a brief of the whole black and white piece. Through this section, you will tell a reader that what he/she will get to know.

• The description must be restricted between 146 to 160 characters including blank spaces, comma, hyphen, and dot.

• Before writing the meta description, keenly consider what your topic is and how people would like to search this? Once again, put yourself in the shoes of a reader. Then put insert the keywords accordingly.

Use Pictures & Videos

Pictures count, But make sure you don’t insert any photo that does not correlate with the content. High-quality images are recommended. Same goes for videos. I emphasize more on videos since they can stretch the stay of readers. At times, charts and graphs could be a good addition too.

Don’t Take Plugins For Granted

Plugins could be very significant to boost viewership of one’s website. You can analyze the performance of your posts and based on that you can come to know about your viewer-base. You can’t quit answering their queries to perfection if you don’t understand readers well enough.

Observe the stats and numbers generated by plugins and then plan your future posts accordingly. Plugins save you from playing blind. It is an ideal tip suggested by various experts.

Go For Writing Tools

If somebody is taking up blogs professional, so he would be well-versed about writing. However, to human is to err and there is no point in leaving any stone unturned. Remember, smalls mistakes are the most irritating ones. So, in order to make your writing free from any loophole, I recommend you some very essential writing tools. They are reliable.

• Grammarly: As the name signifies, Grammarly detects all the grammatical error, be it small or big ones. Before publishing, running your article one last time on Grammarly will help.

• Hemingway: Hemingway is famous for bringing simplicity and smoothness into the content. For easygoing reading, Hemingway works the best.

• Guide2Write: This tool is immensely helpful to improve writing skills. You will come to hit upon various writing pieces. This way, your writing will increase in range by knowing different styles. It is highly probable that your scripting becomes highly diverse using this tool.

The post SEO Contents: Writing for Google and Audience Both appeared first on Tricky Enough.