Netflix took the chance to revolutionize the market with streaming. Blockbuster held the streets with its retail domination. What was the difference? The answer is Netflix’s capacity to recognize new trends. Also to comprehend the competitive environment, and change course when necessary. However, Blockbuster was unable to do so. Do you want to learn how your startup can do the same?

Startups can stay ahead by doing a competitive analysis. Here’s how:

•       Identify competitors. Look for both direct and indirect rivals.
•       Analyze their strengths and weaknesses. What do they do well? Where do they fall short?
•       Study their products or services. What features stand out? How are they priced?
•       Check their marketing strategies. What channels do they use? What messages resonate?
•       Gather customer feedback. What do users say about their offerings?
•       Keep track of industry trends

Why Competitive Analysis Is Essential for Startups?

Competitive analysis is not a single task. It is an endless process that develops along with your business. Regardless of whether you’re in the research and planning phases. Maybe expanding your operations, or trying to eliminate business process bottlenecks, knowing your competitors enables you to: 

•       Recognize market prospects 
•       Enhance your value proposal 
•       Remain flexible in response to market developments 
•       Navigate through expensive errors 

Steps to conduct a competitive analysis

Businesses that perform competitive research study both marketing strategies and service combinations utilized by their competitors. The research evaluates the operational strengths as well as weaknesses of these systems. Assess all available data relating to your organization along with its business sector data points. The analysis will guide you to find strategic alterations needed for your attention. Through analysis, you will establish superiority among your competitors in the market. 

1. Startups use particular methods to conduct their competitive analysis. 
2. Seek out organizations that provide related products as well as similar services. 
3.  Review the key aspects in which competitors outshine their weaknesses and perform well. 
4. Determine the marketplace position through a study of competitor pricing for their products alongside the servicing of clients and administration of marketing activities. 
5. Check how the company presents itself on websites and how it interacts through social media channels and monitors client feedback found in online review pages. 
6. Your customers should talk to you about their interactions with competitor companies. 
7. The evaluation of upcoming industry patterns represents an essential aspect for your startup to determine its operational performance.

Business strategies benefit from useful information obtained by startups who execute these analysis steps.

Identify Your Competitors

To do a competitive analysis, first, find your direct and indirect competitors. 

Direct Competitors

These are companies providing similar products or services to the same target market. 

For example- 

•  Google versus Bing in search platforms
•   McDonald’s versus Wendy’s in quick-service dining 

Direct competitors are the easiest to spot. But be cautious—depending only on them may result in unintentional mimicry. 

Indirect Competitors 

These competitors have the same customer issue. However, they tackle it in different ways.

For example-

•   A project management tool indirectly competes with paper planners or calendar applications.

Finding all customer elements and their needs helps you spot smaller competitors. 

Examine the 4 P’s of Marketing

Explore your competitors more thoroughly. This can be done by analyzing the 4 P’s of marketing- Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. 

 1. Product

Evaluate your competitors’ products with your own. What characteristics do they have? Are there any weak points in their product that your startup can address? 

2. Price

Evaluate the pricing norms, discounts, and value-for-money offers of your competitors. Are you offering a similar product for a better price or with extra benefits? 

3. Place

Analyze the locations where your competitors operate and deliver their goods. Are they performing well in particular areas or markets that you could focus on? 

4. Promotion

Examine how your competitors market themselves. Look at their social media use and how they interact with customers. Seek out creative concepts that connect with your intended audience. 

Understand Your Differentiators

Differentiation serves as the foundation of competitive analysis. Pose two important questions to yourself: 

•  In what ways have you improved? 
•  This concerns numerical advantages. 

Pace: Are quicker delivery or services available? 

Cost: Are you more economical? 

Efficiency: Is your approach more optimized? 

Consider Apple as a case in point. They consistently emphasize quantifiable advancements. Such as extended battery life or quicker processors, with each product release. 

In What Ways Are You Distinct? 

This pertains to qualitative advantages. Apple’s simple design, brand history, and link to innovation distinguish it. Additional distinguishing factors could encompass: 

•  Distinctive branding or tone 
•  Different distribution channels 
•  Creative marketing approaches 

Utilize Instruments and Methods for Analyzing Competition 

Carry Out Market Research 

Conduct thorough market research to grasp your competitors’ products and how customers view them. Seek solutions to these inquiries: 

•   Which trends are competitors taking advantage of? 
•    In what way do customers view their strengths and weaknesses? 

Control Social Media 

Check social media sites like Reddit, Quora, and Instagram. See how clients talk about your competitors. Identify shared grievances or unaddressed needs.  

Visualize Your Position in the Market

A Value Proposition Map, or Perceptual Map, shows how your startup stacks up against competitors. 

How to Construct a Perceptual Map: 

1.     Select two important traits for your clients, such as cost-effectiveness and quality. 
2.     Graph these characteristics on the X and Y axes. 
3.     Position your competitors on the map according to their advantages. 

This activity helps you spot groups of competitors and gaps in the market.

Remain Flexible and Keep Monitoring Continuously

Competitive analysis is not fixed. Markets change, and your strategy should adapt accordingly. Keep an eye on what your competitors do, what customers think, and the latest trends. Continuously assessing product market-fit helps you stay ahead. 

In some cases, competitors can become partners or collaborators. This often happens in developing markets. 

Checklist for Competitive Analysis for Startups

Here’s a quick checklist to keep you on track:

•       Identify direct and indirect competitors
•       Evaluate competitors based on the 4 P’s of marketing
•       Highlight your startup’s quantitative and qualitative differentiators
•       Visualize your market position with a Value Proposition Map
•       Use tools like market research, social media analysis, and SEO insights
•       Continuously monitor and adapt to market changes

Let’s go back to Netflix. Netflix’s CEO proposed a partnership with Blockbuster’s executives. Facing cash flow difficulties, Netflix proposed to sell itself for $50 million. Blockbuster dismissed the notion with giggles. 

What provided Netflix with the advantage? In addition to technological advancement, Netflix thrived in competitive evaluation. It recognized a change in consumer tastes approving of convenience. Also, they analyzed its competitors’ shortcomings and concentrated on standing out. 

Startups can learn from Netflix by honing their skills in competitive analysis and customer acquisition. 

Broadening the Range of Competitive Assessment 

Comprehending Substitute competitors

A type of competitor that startups frequently neglect is replacement competitors. These companies solve the same customer problem, but they use different methods or offer unrelated products. 

Spotify vs. Concert Tickets: Spotify competes with other music applications. It is also competing with live events for the attention and finances of music lovers. 

Uber vs. Car Ownership: Uber transformed the classic taxi sector. It has also provided an option to not own a car.  

Using Emerging Technologies for Analysis

In the current rapid environment, relying solely on manual research is insufficient. Tools driven by technology can assist you in obtaining insights more quickly and with greater accuracy. Here are a few sophisticated techniques: 

Market Research Driven by AI 

AI tools like Crayon, SEMrush, and SimilarWeb provide quick insights into competitors. They show website traffic, SEO strategies, and online ad efforts. 

Emotion Assessment

Brandwatch and Hootsuite let you monitor social media. You can also check customer feedback about your competitors. This knowledge is crucial for grasping how your audience views the competition. 

Tools for Competitive Benchmarking

Services like Owler and Tableau help you quickly compare your startup’s performance with competitors. They show gaps in pricing, distribution, and customer support.  

Strategies for Competitive Analysis That Foster Success 

To succeed, startups require more than mere data; they need practical strategies. Let’s look at important competitive analysis techniques to help you beat your competition. 

The Framework for SWOT Analysis 

Strengths: Identify what makes your startup better than competitors. This could be things like advanced technology or better pricing. 

Shortcomings: Acknowledge your weaknesses candidly. Utilize competitor information to identify areas where they are surpassing you. 

Opportunities: Seek out market gaps or new trends that you can take advantage of. 

Your business must monitor external trends that might develop into safety concerns including newly formed competitors legislative changes and altering client preferences. 

SWOT analysis served as Tesla’s main organizational method for entering the market. The company employed analysis to detect operational weaknesses in traditional automotive firms which displayed slowness regarding electric vehicle development. The company invested its resources to address modern ecological requirements in the transportation sector. 

Analyzing Your Competitors’ Achievements 

The most helpful approach to maintaining a competitive position emerges from studying what rivals do in their operations. Through reverse engineering, Tesla examines their strategies for solution cloning as well as operational method enhancement. 

Actions to Deconstruct

Through website assessment, you will learn about how customers connect with your business competitors. Sign up for their newsletters. It is important to purchase their products to view their operational methodology. 

Pay attention to the procedures that drive customer acquisition along with relationship maintenance. Research their marketing operations using email messages and social media campaigns together with promotional campaign methods.

Understand products better through analysis of their pricing systems in combination with their bundled packages and fundamental features. 

Focus on Customer-Centric Differentiation

A highly sustainable method to surpass your competitors is by prioritizing your customers. Instead of just copying others, focus on solving your customers’ problems in new ways. 

Amazon not only established quicker delivery- it developed a whole ecosystem of advantages. They included streaming services, special offers, and ease of use. By feature prioritization catering to various customer requirements, Amazon transformed the idea of online shopping. 

Establish a Competitive Intelligence Team 

Startups looking to grow should build a small but dedicated competitive intelligence team. This can be a game changer. 

Functions of a Competitive Intelligence Team

•       Research Analysts: Gather and examine competitor information.
•       Customer Insights Experts: Collect opinions and track customer feedback regarding rival companies. 
•       Strategic Planners: Utilize the information to create implementable strategies. 

Reasons Differentiation Represents the Greatest Advantage 

In busy markets, standing out is your key to success. Being “superior” might attract some clients, but being unique fosters enduring loyalty. 

Instances of Differentiation: 

Airbnb: Transformed travel by providing genuine local experiences rather than conventional hotel accommodations. 

Glossier wants to build a beauty brand focused on community. They offer simple products and engage users through social media. 

Also Read:
How to Reduce Technical Debt in Rapidly Growing Startups?
Offshore vs. Nearshore vs. Onshore Development: What’s Best for Scaling Startups?
Exploring the Future of Dot NET Development: Strategies for Hiring Top Dot NET Programmers

Identifying Your Unique Selling Points (USP) 

Your unique selling point is what distinguishes you from a crowd of competitors. To locate it: 

•       Determine what is most important to your audience. 
•       Identify voids in the market. 
•       Align your branding, communication, and offerings to this distinct value. 
•       Turning Competitive Analysis Into Action

A competitive analysis holds value only when it results in practical insights. There is no way how you could transform your discovery into a winning strategy. 

Once you have the data analysis spend not a lot of time on it, but focus on the core metrics for you – acquiring new customers, retaining the old customers, increasing market share, and so on. 

…Experiment with new ways of doing the work and soliciting feedback; often work on methods. 

Closing Words

The fast business seeks to be fast to exploit opportunities in a competitive environment. 

The competitors are taking care to stay in front of us in Reflections.

Old adage of knowledge of your competition is a lot more than competitive analysis entails. That knowledge is also used for this — using it. It gives you the space to make the best decision. It creates ways of generating hidden opportunities that enable an amazing, outstanding business to grow. 

For instance, think of Netflix, Tesla, and, of course, Airbnb. The more you know about the market — the more you’ll be able to identify opportunities and you will be more flexible in that respect. To know so on easy markets you want to know what your competitors are doing to succeed in business and at the same time to know exactly what you have of market share. 

It’s not meant to be a piece of technology that is heart-breaking innovative compared to your competitors, it’s to be ahead of yourself and perhaps run a little smarter. If you want to stay ahead of your competitors in software fronts, contact Imenso Software. Have a look at our portfolio here!

The post How to Perform a Competitive Analysis: A Guide for Startups appeared first on Imenso Software.

When lead generation is considered, social media is often not the first thought, but it should be given more importance. Social media influences branding and sales leads. This leads to a higher return on investment and the ability to reach a larger audience at a lower cost.

From increasing sales conversions to increasing brand recognition, businesses that use social media lead generation techniques and suggestions are likely to get greater results across the board. Social media plays an important role in the decision-making process for 84% of C-level executives and 75% of B2B buyers.

Social media listening involves monitoring your brand’s platforms. This helps build relationships, foster belonging, and engage with potential clients.

We’ll explore how businesses can use the power of social media for beneficial lead generation. Let’s start with some basics…

What Is Social Media Marketing?

Social media marketing supports products or services to a specific audience. It plans to improve website traffic, sales, and brand awareness.

Social media marketing is an influential tool for businesses. It allows them to connect with followers. It also enables them to share their logo memories and inform followers about new products or market trends. Brands can use user generated content (UGC). They can use UGC like critiques and remarks to interact with buyers. This sort of word-of-mouth marketing lets consumers percentage their studies. UGC engages audiences much more successfully than brand-produced ad copy.

What Is Social Media Lead Generation?

Social media lead generation involves finding potential clients or leads. It also involves luring and capturing them through social media platform activity and creating engaging content. It also includes using calls to action and offering rewards to encourage users to provide their contact information. Following that, leads are cultivated. The ultimate objective is to turn them into clients.

For instance, customers can download your material. They can also click on your social media advertisements or subscribe to your newsletter. One effective tactic for drawing in new clients and eventually boosting revenue is social media lead creation.

How To Use Social Media For Lead Generation?

Social media platforms provide access to billions of dynamic users worldwide. These platforms are used for both entertainment and business interactions. They are places where businesses and customers connect daily. Here are key reasons why social media is critical for lead generation:

Broad Audience Reach: Platforms like Facebook and Instagram allow you to reach diverse demographics.

Cost-Effective Advertising: Paid social media campaigns deliver better ROI. They often outperform traditional advertising.

Real-Time Interaction: Directly engage with potential leads through comments, messages, or live sessions.

Data Insights: Use analytics to refine your lead generation strategies and target the proper audience.

With the proper approach, you can seize leads. You can then nurture them and drive conversions.

Understand Your Target Audience

Effective social media lead generation starts with deeply knowing your target audience. Without a clear understanding, your campaigns might miss the mark completely.

Analyze your existing customers to identify shared traits and preferences. Focus on characteristics like age, location, behaviors, and common interests. These insights reveal patterns that help refine your target strategy.

Create detailed buyer personas that represent your ideal customers’ needs. Include their challenges, goals, and how your product meets them. These personas guide your marketing efforts to drive better engagement.

Use social media analytics to discover key audience data and developments. Platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn offer valuable demographic and interest insights. This guarantees your campaigns are focused and resonate with the proper humans.

When you understand your audience, your social media lead generation becomes stronger. Relevant content connects effectively, increasing trust, engagement, and lead conversion rates.

Choose the Right Platforms

Not all social media structures are identical, and your desire has to depend upon your target market and company’s desires.

LinkedIn: Ideal for B2B agencies and professional offerings.

Instagram: Great for visible manufacturers, e-trade, and more youthful audiences.

Facebook: Perfect for reaching a huge variety of demographics.

Twitter: Useful for real-time engagement and trending conversations.

TikTok: Excellent for engaging Gen Z with creative, short-form content.

Concentrate on the systems where your target audience is most active to boost your lead generation efforts.

Create Engaging and Valuable Content

Content is the keystone of social media lead technology. High-quality, applicable content material attracts your audience and encourages them to take action.

Types of Content for Lead Generation

• Blog Posts and Articles: Share insightful content that addresses your audience’s ache factors.
• Videos: Create tutorials, product demos, or purchaser testimonials to construct and agree with.
• Infographics: Simplify complex information into visually fascinating structures.
• Polls and Quizzes:  Engage your target audience even by amassing precious insights.

Content Tips

• Use eye-catching visuals and headlines.
• Include clear calls-to-action (CTAs) like “Sign Up” or “Learn More.”
• Post consistently to keep your audience engaged.

Leverage Paid Advertising

Paid social media advertising enhances lead generation with targeted social media strategies. It allows businesses to reach specific demographics, interests, or behaviors effortlessly. Retargeting capabilities help reconnect with users who previously engaged online. With measurable results, campaigns provide insights into clicks, impressions, and conversions.

Facebook Lead Ads capture leads directly without users leaving the platform. Instagram Story Ads offer immersive, full-screen visuals to grab attention. LinkedIn Sponsored Content promotes professional messages to a business-oriented audience. Each format serves unique purposes to meet campaign goals.

Starting with a modest budget ensures campaigns remain cost-effective and flexible. Testing various creatives helps identify the best-performing ads. Performance optimization ensures resources focus on strategies delivering the highest ROI. Small adjustments can lead to significant improvement in results.

Investing in paid campaigns empowers businesses to scale efforts efficiently. By combining precise targeting and real-time insights, marketing becomes data-driven. Paid ads ensure businesses stay competitive and visible in a crowded market.

Host Contests and Giveaways

Everyone loves free stuff! Contests and giveaways can increase engagement fast. They also help attract potential leads and grow your online presence. To make your contest successful, you need a clear strategy.

Start by setting clear goals for your contest’s purpose. Decide if you want followers, emails, or more engagement. Clear goals guide your planning and keep your efforts focused.

Choose an enticing prize that excites and attracts your audience. The prize should be valuable and relevant to their interests. A great prize increases participation and keeps your contest memorable.

Promote your contest through posts, stories, and paid advertisements. Use social media, email, and blogs to spread the word. Consistent promotion ensures more people learn about your giveaway.

Lastly, lead information will be collected by requiring contact details for entry. This helps you build a database of potential customers effectively. Use these leads to nurture future relationships and grow your business.

Use Lead Magnets

Lead magnets are free resources exchanged for users’ contact information. They help businesses attract leads and build their email lists effectively. Social media is a powerful platform to promote these assets.

Offer valuable lead magnets like eBooks, guides, or free trials. Ensure they solve a problem or meet audience needs directly. Sharing them on social media increases visibility and engagement.

Use posts, stories, or ads to showcase your lead magnets. Add strong calls to action encouraging users to download and subscribe. Consistent promotion helps grow your audience and potential customer base.

Examples of Lead Magnets:

• E-books
• Whitepapers
• Checklists
• Webinars
• Discount Codes

Use clear CTAs and landing pages to capture leads effectively. For instance, a LinkedIn post offering a free industry report can direct users to a form where they submit their email to download it.

Engage With Your Audience

Building relationships with followers is vital for generating leads online. Engagement builds trust and shows your audience that your brand cares.

Responding to comments and messages promptly strengthens your audience connection. It makes followers feel valued and encourages further interaction with you.

Hosting live Q&A sessions or webinars promotes meaningful conversations and trust. These events provide opportunities to address questions and share expertise.

Sharing user-generated content fosters participation and builds a sense of community. Highlighting audience contributions encourages others to interact and engage.

Consistency in interactions establishes your brand as approachable and reliable. It ensures followers see you as trustworthy, boosting lead conversion.

Monitor and Optimize Performance

Regularly tracking your performance is crucial to improving your lead generation strategies.

Metrics to Monitor:

Engagement Rates: Likes, comments, shares, and clicks.

Reach and Impressions: The number of people who see your content.

Conversion Rates: How many leads do your campaigns generate?

Cost Per Lead (CPL): Evaluate the ROI of your paid campaigns.

Use analytics tools like Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, or Hootsuite to gather data. Optimize your social media strategies based on the data gathered.

Collaborate With Influencers

Influencer marketing is a powerful tool for reaching broader audiences. Collaborating with influencers can expand your brand’s visibility. It can also generate quality leads.

Start by identifying influencers who share an audience similar to yours. Make sure their followers match your target demographic for the best results.

Set clear goals for the collaboration. These goals should be measurable, such as increasing website traffic or gathering emails. This helps keep the campaign focused and effective.

Let influencers create authentic campaigns that resonate with their followers. Authenticity builds trust. This, in turn, boosts brand credibility and leads to stronger social media lead generation.

Retarget Your Audience

Not every visitor converts right away, but retargeting helps. It keeps your brand in front of potential customers over time. With retargeting, you can reach those who showed interest. This encourages them to reconsider and take action.

Website retargeting indicates advertisements to site visitors who did not act earlier than. By reminding them of your provide, you boost the chances of conversion. Engagement retargeting targets users who interact with social media posts. It builds a connection and strengthens brand recall.

Email retargeting follows up with those who showed interest. It nurtures leads by offering personalized content and deals. Retargeting social media strategies help turn initial interest into actual conversions. By staying visible, your brand stays in potential customers’ minds.

Build Social Proof

People trust recommendations and reviews more than direct advertisements. Use social proof to strengthen your credibility.

Ways to Build Social Proof:

• Share customer testimonials and success stories.
• Highlight positive reviews from platforms like Google or Facebook.
• Display the number of followers, likes, or shares as a trust signal.

Social proof reassures potential leads that your brand is reliable and worth their time.

Use Automation Tools

Automation can simplify your lead generation process and save valuable time. By automating repetitive tasks, you free up resources for more important work.

With automation, you can easily capture leads through forms and emails. It ensures quick responses and consistent follow-ups, helping maintain engagement.

Popular Tools:

Hootsuite: Schedule posts and track performance.

HubSpot: Manage lead generation campaigns and customer relationships.

Chatbots: Automate responses to common queries and collect lead information.

Automation tools free up your resources, allowing you to focus on strategic tasks.

Inside Scoop: The style of uploaded images is often overlooked by brands. A particular color scheme or filter should be decided upon, and the same edits should be used to maintain consistency.

These are the strategies you can use while generating leads online. Let’s see some real-life amazing examples that are already present.

Also Read:
How Artificial Intelligence is Revolutionizing Social Media to Drive Higher Engagement
How To Create A Social Media Marketing Strategy For Your Business
Key Engagement Metrics of Social Media and How to Increase Them

Successful Effective Social Media Campaigns

Finding inspiration for your social media content strategy is simple. Observing successful brands can spark fresh ideas for your campaigns. You never know when a great social media content idea will strike.

Here are some standout social media campaigns. Let’s explore what made them effective and the lessons they offer.

Spotify Wrapped 

Spotify Wrapped is a famous social media marketing campaign that motivates users to proportion their top-played song of the year. Users can access their Wrapped. This provides a comprehensive overview of their listening habits for the year. 

The campaign is tailored to Spotify’s audience. It offers personalized reviews of the music they’ve listened to. This approach piques curiosity and encourages new listeners to join in the fun. Users can share their Wrapped with friends and family. They can then compare their listening habits and the amount of music they listened to through Spotify that year.

Apple’s ShotOniPhone

Apple’s #ShotOniPhone marketing campaign, launched in 2022, encourages users to proportion their high-quality macro pics on social media. The campaign celebrates the new lens design. It also highlights the autofocus capability in Ultra Wide format and advanced software that enables 2 cm macros. The campaign uses gamification to encourage participation. It showcases the quality of the newest iPhone, with over 29 million Instagram posts featuring the #shotoniphone tag.

Dove’s Project #ShowUs

The Dove #Show Us Campaign, a social change initiative, challenged beauty norms and promoted diversity. It aimed to raise self-esteem and body acceptance, promoting inclusivity. The campaign partnered with Getty Images and Girlgaze Photographers. They created the world’s largest stock picture collection. This collection features diverse female and non-binary individuals. 

The campaign resonated with viewers worldwide. It resonated particularly with women who felt excluded by beauty standards. The campaign’s message of inclusivity was enhanced. This was achieved through YouTube video content and influencer collaborations. This led to meaningful conversations across social media.

Conclusion

Social media lead generation is a powerful tool when used strategically. Understanding your audience is key to creating valuable content. Leveraging tools like paid ads and automation can help you attract and convert high-quality leads.

Stay consistent, monitor your performance, and adapt your strategies based on data insights. With these tips, you’re well on your way to turning your social media channels into generating leads online.

Ready to turn your social media into a lead magnet? Let Imenso Software help you create winning strategies that convert! Get in touch today!
We’re honored to mention that our efforts have been recognized by renowned B2B review and research platforms such as GoodFirms, Clutch, MirrorView, and many more.

FAQs

How to lead generation using social media?

Optimize your social media profiles, share valuable content, and interact with your audience to generate leads. Use targeted ads, lead magnets like free downloads or webinars, and host engaging giveaways or contests to attract potential clients.

Leverage social listening to discover leads and encourage sharing through referral campaigns. Focus on platforms where your audience is most active and provide consistent engagement.

How can you leverage social media?

Social media is a powerful tool to build brand awareness, connect with your audience, and drive traffic to your website. By sharing engaging content, leveraging trending topics, and using targeted ads, businesses can reach a wider audience effectively.

Regular interaction through comments, polls, and messages fosters trust and loyalty, turning followers into customers. Analytics help refine strategies for better results.

Which social media is best for lead generation?

LinkedIn stands out as the best platform for lead generation, especially for B2B businesses. With its professional user base, it allows targeted outreach through features like InMail, groups, and advanced search. You can directly connect with decision-makers, share valuable content, and run highly effective ads tailored to specific industries.

How do we leverage social media for B2B lead generation and sales?

Social media is a goldmine for B2B lead generation. Platforms like LinkedIn allow businesses to target decision-makers through ads, groups, and direct outreach. Sharing insightful content builds credibility, while engaging with posts fosters meaningful connections.

To drive sales, use social proof like testimonials and case studies. Leverage analytics to refine campaigns, track ROI, and nurture leads via personalized follow-ups.

The post Leveraging Social Media for Effective Lead Generation appeared first on Imenso Software.

Lead generation strategies like content marketing are increasing in the business marketplace. Other researchers point out that compared to advertising through traditional media, content marketing has an ROI that may reach up to ten times higher. This has become a norm and a necessity in the field of advertising. 

In this blog post, we’ll analyze lead generation in the entire process of content creation and explain how it is created. We will delve into what it encompasses, why it matters, and how to effectively strategize its use in communicating with your audience.

What is Content Marketing for Lead Generation?

To break it down simply, content marketing is not just crafting a blog or a short video and calling it a day as many believe it is.  It is the practice of providing consistent and fair content to attract the specific audience they want. The primary focus is to assist people in creating content that generates leads from the very beginning until the very end of the pyramid during their entire journey through the marketing funnel.

Understanding The Marketing Funnel 

Awareness Stage (TOFU): Here, your audience is discovering their problems or gaining general information. Content like blog posts, infographics, and social media updates helps educate and spark interest without directly selling your product.

Consideration Stage (MOFU): At this stage, your audience is evaluating solutions. In this regard, eBooks, detailed guides, and webinars come in handy to stimulate keen prospects and place your organization as a solution for the concern. 

Decision Stage (BOFU): The final stage focuses on decision-making. A wide range of materials such as case studies, product demos, customer testimonials, and comparison charts can aid a potential buyer in choosing your offer instead of that provided by your competitors. This would help in boosting the marketing strategy of the company.

When done correctly, content marketing not only helps in executing lead generation strategies, but also helps in providing high-quality leads that match the company’s offer. 

Why Use Content Marketing for Lead Generation?

Content marketing has become a vital part of every successful strategy, rather than just a hype word. Let us now explain how it is effective in lead generation strategies.

Smart Investment

Paid advertisements and other traditional marketing techniques become costly and don’t give any improvement in the results after some time. Content marketing does the opposite by spending 62% less than outbound marketing and in return generating 3 times the amount of leads. This makes the technique much more cost-effective and growth-friendly for companies big and small.

Building Trust and Authority

Giving your audience valuable, well-researched work reiteratively will make them consider your brand a leader in the field. When an audience respects your authority, your brand’s services will be their first choice when they intend to purchase something. Using marketing content tips like incorporating customer-centric stories can help build trust faster.

Keeping your Audience Engaged

Engaging content is one of the most effective ways to get an audience to always ask for more. It doesn’t matter if it’s a catchy blog or a shareable infographic, good quality content has always been able to help build a relationship between audiences and would prompt them to engage with the brand.

Supporting Market Segmentation

The use of content marketing allows for one to change how their content is relayed to different audiences. By focusing on particular issues or interests of the people, one can easily reach out to many different kinds of people within their target market.

Perfect for B2B Lead Gen

While targeting other businesses informative and engaging content is highly recommended. Longer articles, case study papers, and reports about a particular field help with the relationship-building process with the primary stakeholders and demonstrate their worth.

How to Use Content Marketing for Lead Generation?

A friendly and focused strategy is crucial for generating quality leads. The team at Imenso Software, along with its partners, has been able to successfully deliver these results by taking the appropriate steps in any lead generation strategy. Here are some essential steps, enriched with marketing content tips, to ensure you get it right:

Understand Your Buyer Persona

Designing and structuring quality content will be difficult if you don’t know the optimal audience. Buyer persona is a type of representation of a targeted audience in such a way as to mark the needs and problems of different users. It makes it more understandable how to develop and produce content that effectively engages the audience. Organizations that have devised an efficient social media marketing strategy increase their success in target marketing by using the defined personas.

• Research demographics like age, location, and industry.
• Identify their biggest challenges and goals.
• Understand how they search for solutions online.
• Tailor your content to address their specific needs.

Plan Your Keywords

Keywords are the bridge between your content and your audience. When developing an article ensure you have the correct keyword because it makes it easier for people who are searching for something, more so because you are using keyword analysis your target population is easier to achieve. 

• Use tools like Google Keyword Planner or SEMrush for research.
• Focus on high-intent and long-tail keywords.
• Place keywords naturally in titles, headers, and meta descriptions.
• Prioritize keywords that align with each stage of the buyer’s journey.

Develop a Content Strategy

As you adapt or create an advertising plan it must resonate with the customer journey for generating B2B leads. Looking to digital marketing consulting services can greatly assist you in sharpening this ambition goal and achieving it, while at the same time being able to sustain its effectiveness. 

• Create TOFU content like blog posts and infographics for awareness.
• Use MOFU content like webinars and guides to build trust.
• Include BOFU content like case studies and product demos for conversions.
• Maintain consistency in tone and value across all content.

Leverage Social Media

Social media plays a critical role in creating content that generates leads. Placing your content on social media aids in encouraging your followers to get connected with that content, which in turn comes in handy to reach out to them. Incorporating marketing content tips such as using engaging visuals and responding promptly to comments can help drive results.

• Pinpoint and list those platforms where your audience shows better retention.
• Post consistently to maintain visibility.
• Use engaging visuals to grab attention.
• Respond to comments and messages to foster relationships.

Use Lead Magnets

Lead magnets will be your gun when it comes to harvesting contact information. Provide anything of value for an email address and you will not only expand your list but you will also gather some leads to work with. Look at it this way, everyone wins.

• Offer downloadable resources like eBooks or checklists.
• Ensure the lead magnet solves a specific problem for your audience.
• Use strong CTAs to encourage downloads.
• Keep the sign-up process simple and user-friendly.

Optimize for SEO

Making good content is not the end because users still need to be able to locate it. With SEO, you can improve the chances that your material appears at or near the top of the search result pages, resulting in a flow of organic traffic. In effect, you are improving the user experience while making content for search engines.

• Use keywords strategically in your titles, headers, and text.
• Ensure your website is mobile-friendly and fast.
• Include internal links to related content.
• Regularly update older posts to keep them relevant.

Track and Measure Performance

When you don’t evaluate your input, how do you expect to determine what’s effective? Analytics tools provide metrics around the performance of your content, so you can modify your plan and execute it more successfully in the future. The cycle is about the long term.

• Monitor metrics like traffic, bounce rate, and conversion rate.
• Identify which types of content drive the most engagement.
• Test different formats and topics to see what resonates.
• Readjust your plan to fit the eye of the data characteristics.Also Read:
  IT Roadmap for Startups: From Launch to Scalability
  Adjusting Your Product Roadmap in Response to Market Changes
  Managing Investor Expectations: Strategies for Founders and CEOs

Common Mistakes to Avoid in Content Marketing for Lead Generation

Marketing departments of companies can effectively use content marketing strategies when there is a need for a good number of leads in their campaigns but even the slightest failure can cause them a fortune of potential. Let us go through some common mistakes and find out how to steer clear of them.

Ignoring the Funnel

The neglecting of the middle funnel and the bottom of the funnel can occur if lead generation content is targeting only the top of the funnel. This omission leads to a reduced chance of changing leads into sales and causes a loss of opportunities.

• Recognize the importance of all funnel stages.
• Develop tailored content for each stage.
• Use MOFU content like webinars to nurture leads.
• Drive conversions with BOFU content such as case studies.

Overlooking Market Segmentation

A one-size-fits-all approach generally does not resonate well for different target market sections. In the absence of such segmentation, a business fails to meet specific demands, hence producing no or poor outcomes.

• Identify distinct audience segments.
• Customize messaging for each segment.
• Use analytics to refine segmentation.
• Test different approaches for each group.

Not Tracking ROI

Without knowing the returns on a company’s investment, one would not be able to ascertain the success of a business’s content marketing strategy. On a positive note, tracking the results does enable one to point out all successful aspects, in turn maximizing their efforts and investments in it.

• Use tools like Google Analytics or HubSpot.
• Monitor metrics like conversion rate and engagement.
• Compare performance across campaigns.
• Adjust strategies based on data insights.

Spamming Keywords

Writing with too many keywords can not only be harmful to SEO but also makes the audience a little less interested in the content. The seamless incorporation of keywords helps keep the content interesting and ensures that it works seamlessly on search engines.

• Prioritize user experience over keyword density.
• Focus on long-tail, high-intent keywords.
• Distribute keywords across meta tags and headers.
• Regularly update content to stay SEO-relevant.

Neglecting Content Quality

Crafting content that is mediocre, or unrelated to the theme of the content, further tarnishes the brand image of a company. On the contrary, relevant content that is strategic and creative enhances one’s credibility and reputation and thus attracts the audience as well.

• Invest in professional content creation.
• Address specific pain points of your audience.
• Maintain consistency in tone and style.
• Regularly update content to keep it relevant.

When SEO strategies are implemented and all forms of content are unified, companies lay the groundwork for growing their local business online and bolstering their lead-generation processes.

Wrapping Up

Content Marketing is one of the best methods to get high-quality leads. If you understand your target audience, practice lead generation strategies, and avoid common mistakes then you can build a good marketing strategy.

Imenso Software offers marketing strategies through which one is guaranteed growth. In almost all spheres such as digital marketing consultant services or hiring software developers, everything is provided for you.

You can check feedback from our clients about us at Clutch and see for yourself if don’t believe us. With a multitude of success stories and great reviews, Imenso Software is a partner that can assist in enhancing your lead generation strategy. Get in touch and let’s develop your business!

FAQs

How to generate more leads in marketing?

Generate more leads through the creation of valuable content, leveraging SEO, paid ads, and social media engagement. Create lead magnets such as eBooks or free trials and optimize landing pages with strong CTAs to convert visitors.

Which type of content is most effective for lead generation?

The most effective type of content is educational. Examples of this are website blogs, eBooks, webinars, and case studies. These types of content offer value, build authority, and obtain contact information.

What is B2B lead generation?

Lead generation is a synonym for activities that work to generate interest that would allow a business to sell its products or services. Typical networking methods include sending out email invites running campaigns targeting specific businesses on LinkedIn or even creating content to engage with potential clients.

How are leads qualified?

Leads are qualified based on the interest, level of engagement, and fit to your product or service. It is measured in terms of website behavior, demographics, and responses to campaigns, indicating whether they are marketing or sales-ready.

How do I find my audience?

Make use of existing customers data, social media insights, and industry trends to locate your potential audience and understand their online presence. Use Google Analytics and Social Media to analyze your audience and determine where they can be located.

The post How to Use Content Marketing to Generate High-Quality Leads appeared first on Imenso Software.

But it is also fun to reach out to new audiences and introduce your products and services.

If you think that it’s too late to start, here are some stats for you to ponder.

Instagram has 1 billion active monthly users.

Facebook has over 2.5 billion active monthly users, and Snapchat has more than half a billion active monthly users.

This is just the beginning.

Social media is no longer an option businesses can avoid for marketing. It is crucial to create and maintain an active presence on social media channels to reach your optimum marketing potential.

So how do the big companies do it? How do they ride trends and dominate all the new and old platforms with such ease? The secret is a well-thought-out marketing strategy.

A social media marketing strategy is the plan with all the steps to do with detailed goals for all social media profiles. Building a social media plan for your business is highly beneficial for the growth of these marketing channels. While crafting the plan, make it more process-oriented to improve performance.

A carefully planned social media strategy will lead to your brand’s further reach, increase customer retention, enhance brand credibility, and build community. A constant presence on social media platforms gives your business a much-needed professional outlook.

Also Read: How To Grow Your Local Business Through Digital Marketing?

Now that we know what a social media strategy is let’s see why an ultimate social media marketing strategy is crucial for executing a brand creation and awareness campaign.

Social media: an integral part of your marketing plan

It’s not the beginning of web 2.0 where the social media platforms are still evolving, or the audiences are still signing up. Social media has already proved its potential to help businesses with many things, like:

• Increase brand awareness
• Build an engaging community
• Sell/launch product and services
• Gather feedback from customers in real-time
• Consumer-centric marketing
• To know what your customers want and feel about your services
• Advertise your products and services

How to make a social media marketing strategy in simple steps

Understanding that social media marketing is crucial is not enough to crush your competitor’s profiles and make a place in the user’s feed. Creating a social media strategy is the place to start, and here are the steps to help you make a customized social media strategy.

1. Where are you now?

Getting the results on social media is a consequence of a well-executed plan. And to generate the results you want, it is required to know the current state of your business on social media. How to do this is to get an accurate picture, look at your profiles and some of your competitors.

• The first metrics to analyze are your strengths and weaknesses. No two businesses are completely alike, so yours has its specialties, opportunities, and threats even if the competitor also has a similar business.
• Performing a social media audit might be overwhelming to start with. To narrow down your focus, check the how, when, and where for the content you have been posting.
• Do a thorough analysis of competitors and the industry to figure out how your business can have a unique standpoint in the market.
• To dig a little deeper, see how your business is doing on the political, economical, social, environmental, and technological front.

2. Lock the audience

No matter how much content you create on the social media platforms if the audience doesn’t connect with it, what’s the point?

So the next step is to identify your audience for a successful social media marketing strategy. After all, you need to create content or reinvent the old content that works on your target audience. An active engagement rate in terms of likes, comments, and shares is important for your social media growth.

There are a few ways you can identify your audience.

• See which group of the audience likes your content and whether this group of people are your ideal brand customers or not. Identifying the right audience will help you convert leads into customers quickly.
• Be updated with the latest surveys, trends, reports, and stats about your target audience to understand them better.
• Create a few personas that represent your ideal audience with details of what they desire, wants, and expectations from your business.

3. Define your goals

Posting content on social media without fixing the goals is like moving into a dark room with an eye mask. You must have detailed goals to create well-structured campaigns with high ROI, positive stats, and big profits.

Think about where you want to take your business in the next five years? What are your business expansion plans? Do you want the blue tick on your business profile on social media?

Just saying that I want to increase my followers on Instagram isn’t going to cut it.

Be more specific and action-oriented.

A well-articulated and clear goal is much more effective and easily achievable. On the flip side, a vague goal with no daily action will take you nowhere on social media.

Also Read: Instagram Hacks: Get More Views On Reels To Boost Your Engagement

For instance, your goal should be specific to get your profile to reach 10,000 new viewers on Instagram. And you will post two reels and one post every day to hit the target.

This is a far better way of setting and achieving goals compared to the older methods of just posting content without thinking about the audience’s likes, dislikes, and target numbers.

Be mindful of the following points to make your social media marketing campaign successful on the first go.

• Make specific goals for a campaign. What do you want to achieve with a social media marketing plan? There can be multiple goals, but be clear about your priority for the social media profiles.
• Social media marketing is not all the marketing for businesses. It should be a part of your overall brand marketing strategy.
• Track relevant KPIs for your social media marketing plan to stay on track all the time.

4. Pick the right platform/s

Are you a startup looking to sell quickly or a Series C company looking to build a brand? It would be best if you had different social media strategies.

If you are in the B2B market, LinkedIn and Twitter are the best places to go. If you are in the B2C zone, then Facebook is your best bet.

There are so many social media platforms now; it’s not just about Facebook anymore. To pick the right channels, see which platform has your target audience and compliment your brand image. Once you pick the social media platforms, make social media strategies for all the platforms included.

While searching for the best social media platforms, consider all the channels available, not just the big guns like Facebook and Instagram. Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Snapchat, YouTube, Quora, and others also have many active users.

Once you have identified the right channels, create your profiles on all of them and get started with your marketing plan.

Also Read: Here Is The Secret To Secure Huge Funding For Your App

5. Create engaging content

Content creation is on a different level now, and it’s going to take more than posting pictures of your dishes on all social networks.

There are many forms of content – audio, video, written, GIF, images, NFTs, and more. Diversify your content from the competitors with unique perspectives to impress the audience. User-generated content is the most effective to make new customers trust your product and services, so you must include consumers’ stories, videos, and posts in your social media content strategy.

The number of content pieces can be infinite, but while generating the content, don’t forget to aim a part of it for business goals. The ratio of the sales content depends on your social media marketing strategy and the targets you want to crush.

• Don’t just post salesy content. Entertain, educate and communicate with your audience. Think about which content your audience will engage with the most.

• Make a posting schedule, decide a frequency and stick to it.

• Use brand attributes like logos, signatures, hashtags, or certain audio sections on all your social media posts.

6. Automate with tools

Handling all the social media profiles together is a full-time task. You don’t just post but have to reply to the audiences and engage actively. To reduce the workload, use tools for different tasks throughout the process.

Audience identification – Facebook analytics, Instagram insights, Twitter analytics, etc.

Understanding trends – google trends, buzz sumo, brand24, make my persona, etc.

Content creation – Canva, oodles, easel, etc

Team coordination – asana, kontentino, etc.

Ready to build a social media strategy for your business?

Now you know the key elements of making a social media strategy for your brand. Even though it might seem a little hard to create a social media strategy for your business at first, but it’s simple. A social media strategy can be a big boost to improve your social media presence.

Have you tried multiple strategies and content creation methods but are not satisfied with the results?

Contact our social media marketing agency. Our team of creative wizards will bring the target audience to your social media profiles in no time.

The post How To Create A Social Media Marketing Strategy For Your Business appeared first on Imenso Software.

Reels was introduced to rival its competitor TikTok and focus on the Genz users more.  

Just yesterday, Insta extended the reels duration from 15 seconds and 30 seconds to 60 seconds as well.  

For both creators and companies, an influential presence on Instagram is central to being a regular part of users’ mind space. And reels are the best way to make that happen in the least amount of time. Even Instagram favors the most liked reels and puts them in the explore section.  

So today, we have created a list of hacks that both creators and businesses can use to level up their social media marketing game.  

Before posting any more reels, read this post.  

1. It all starts with a video  

As you know, a reel is a video. Shooting a new reel and hitting post is all you have to do. But sometimes, we overcomplicate things. We are here to remind you – don’t. Follow these simple tips and make your most liked reel yet.  

1.1 Keep it simple

There is so much content out there, to get inspired with it is great, but if you keep delaying to post your first reel because you want it to be perfect. Let us tell you – it will never be good enough. Don’t trick yourself into thinking that a good reel requires master editing skills or professional lighting. Just speak your mind and show your creativity.  

1.2 pull them instantly

Grab the follower’s attention in the first few seconds and engage for the whole video. Put some thought into creating a compelling start for your reel.  

1.3 use AR effects

Integrating with new technologies first automatically takes you one step ahead of the competitors. Use AR effects to create visually attractive posts. You can search the hashtag #AREffects to see how others are using it and get discovered too.  

1.4 remix or collab with others

If you find a customer’s post about your product, don’t miss the opportunity to show it to the rest of the community. Collab with them and show your reaction to their post with remixes on reel. Collaboration is how people connect on Instagram. So use that to your advantage to become an important member of your online tribe.  

Also Read: Why Building A Community Is Crucial For Your Digital Marketing Efforts?

2. Trigger a “literally me response.” 

Have you paid attention to why stand-up comedians and sarcastic meme pages have such a dedicated following? They talk about the most relatable things.  

You can also apply the same hack to connect with your audience on a deeper level. Take an everyday moment that relates to many people and evoke the “omg this is some” response and turn it into a reels game changer for your brand.  

You can also follow a trend. Pick a trend and put your own mix to it. Also, don’t forget to tag the creator who inspired you to take the trend. If they share your post, you will also get their user base’s eyes.  

3. Connect with your audience  

The best way to shine on reels is to start a trend. You might not hit it off the first time but keep trying. Make content that people would want to try themselves. Add a clear call to action in the caption so that viewers know what you want them to do. Use text to invite viewers to join the trend. You can also tag creators to be a part of the trend and make it big.  

Tell your audience clearly how you want them to engage with the reel? Please share it, remix with it, tag friends, or something else. You can do so by putting in the caption or using text in the reel itself.  

4. Read some stats  

Instagram has launched reels insight to help creators track their reach, new views, and followers count all in one place. Use insights to understand which post is vibing with your audience or which post has the most shares and likes. If your content is being ranked in the suggested reels section, it is a good indication that people like that kind of content. You should create more of the same.  

Also Read: How Does Instagram Rank Reels?

5. Use text  

The cover photo of your reel is important, just like YouTube. When a new viewer or user lands on your page and sees the reels section, they should be able to choose which reel to watch easily. Text frame in the video, when used as the cover photo, will let users pick what speaks to their interest. And they are more likely to stay and watch what they like rather than wasting time on the most recent ones and then bouncing back.  

Text creates the context for users when scrolling without sound.  

6. All about audio  

When posting a video tutorial for makeup or a recipe for a dish, it’s best to give a voiceover using your voice. Users prefer quick and easy steps to create something. You can mix up your voiceover with trending music and add the hashtag for more reach so that people can find your reel from the audio page.  

For musicians, music companies, and artists, use your own audio. This way, you get your audio page which other creators can use in their reels too. Every time a user adds your audio, it gets more credibility which adds to you and helps you get discovered quickly.  

Save the audio from the audio tab in reels that inspires you.  

7. Test your content  

If you have a new idea to make a reel, don’t hesitate to post it. Your job is not to worry about what every follower thinks; your job is to create awesome content.  

As soon as you get a new idea, try it. Even Instagram keeps testing new reel formats; you never know what you’re afraid of posting, users might like, and the post ends up landing in the featured zone.  

These are the seven hacks to help you tank more views on reels and boost your engagement. And along with hacks, we should also talk about some bad practices which may harm your reputation on Instagram.  

What not to do  

1. Create your videos  

Editing a video from another platform and posting it on reels is not going to make the cut. Consumers seem to get bored with repetitive content and stop paying attention. So be more creative and post new videos. You will lose your credibility and influence in a very short time with recycled content.  

2. Use relevant hashtags  

Don’t use hashtags only to get featured like #explorepage and #featured, rather use hashtags relevant to your content, #travelinspo #southindiandishes, and others. Frequently adding irrelevant hashtags will not get your post in front of the right audience segment, which will reduce the engagement eventually.  

Mindset hack  

Before we wrap up the blog post, let’s add another hack to your Instagram game.  

For brands and creators, creating videos for the first time can be a little intimidating. Don’t think like you can’t make reels. These tips are to remind you that it doesn’t take much to shoot a reel-worthy video. Don’t try to make it perfect; just start.  

Ready to get more views on reels? 

We hope the hacks mentioned above will help you get more views on Insta reels and further engage your customers. If you need more assistance, contact our social media marketing company to stir up your Instagram strategy.  

The post Instagram Hacks: Get More Views On Reels To Boost Your Engagement appeared first on Imenso Software.

There have been changes in the marketing world too. A new kind of economy had been growing exponentially fast since the pandemic. It’s the creators economy. As people were homebound, many people lost their livelihood and they had nothing to rely on for a continuous source of income, so they turned to social media platforms.  

What is the creators economy?  

When a creator creates content on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, they start building a loyal audience that consumes their content. As the audience’ engagement grows they consume more and more content and gradually start trusting the creator. They have built not just a following but a digital community of people who trust the creator/influencer. So, when the creator or influencer promotes or suggests a product or service, their loyal audience considers it and buys it too.  

Basically, these creators have found a way to monetize their loyal audience. The creators economy works on a simple equation: 

Build an audience + earn their trust = make money promoting services and products  

But how is this relevant for businesses? 

To understand the link, first consider two realities of our world today: 

1. Customers want to be educated about the product before buying it. They don’t blindly trust the brand anymore.  
2. Mobile phones are at the centre of online communication and marketing channels. Its penetration in people’s lives is impeccable.  

Now, for businesses, this means that they can’t expect to just explain the benefits of a product and the customers will rush to buy it. This is not how you satisfy customers expectations. Businesses need to make their buyers a part of their decision-making process. All the marketing focus has shifted from product to customers and now they demand to know what is happening with the brand and products which they use every day.  

And because smartphones and social media apps are the main channels to connect with your audience, businesses need to take their marketing efforts to these channels.  

Also, just like the creators are working to build a digital community, businesses also need to create a loyal community to reap the fruits of their digital marketing efforts.  

Reasons why a community is crucial for digital marketing  

• Continuous improvement of products  

Digital communities are constantly in touch with the company. They are the voice of the customers. If your Startup or company is planning to launch a new feature or a product, the first feedback is vital, and your digital community can provide instant feedback and share their honest experiences with the new launch online.  

Also Read: How Does Instagram Rank Reels?

This helps companies shorten the time taken for feedback innovation loops significantly. Updates and changes can be made rapidly, especially if the business has digital products. This also enhances the customer experience and takes their opinion into account.  

• Customer satisfaction  

An online community is an easier way to measure customer satisfaction.  

All brands need to do is post on social media to fill an online form or take a survey to share their experience and rate the new product or feature. The company can easily record the real-time data for further improvement.  

Simply ask the community on a social media post and company’s can get customer satisfaction rates through online communities.   

• Brand development  

For any product or service to become a brand needs a strong community base. A community is active and helps promote your brand without any cost. They want your company to grow.  

Community-based Startups also have the benefit of community members helping each other out and solve issues. This way everyone in the community gets to learn and creates a sense of belonging and trust.  

• Higher customer retention  

An active online community grows and learns together. They help solve customer issues which leads to higher retention of audience and users.  

Also Read: Key Engagement Metrics of Social Media and How to Increase Them

Through helpful comments and questions, the community makes sure that any issue is resolved quickly. Thus, customers do not have to go anywhere else. This can also drive engagement outside the online world.  

How to build a digital community? 

It is important to build, engage and nurture digital communities, it is also crucial to do it right. The first thing you should focus on is your content marketing strategy for social media. Plan the content, search out what is relevant for your audience, what is it that they relate to the most. Make a posting schedule and stick to it.  

You can also try to collaborate with influencers in your niche or invite them on podcasts or a live on social media platforms. This will get new customers and an audience base for your brand.  

The key to keeping your audience engaged is to create informative and entertaining content which makes them feel good. A positive emotion will make your audience remember your brand and they will keep coming back for more.  

There is also a downside to this. If your content is not good enough, the audience might not want to come back and worse they’ll tell others to do the same. With content, the golden rule is to provide value. Keep in mind that you are there to inform the customers about your products and services.  

As your community grows with time, you can also reward the most active individuals who are recognized as problem solvers and help the rest of the group genuinely. This will motivate other members to do the same.  

A thriving and proactive digital community is not a desire but essential for the digital marketing efforts of all businesses that are planning to grow and get ahead in today’s ever-changing commercial ecosystem.  

Our digital and social media marketing company can help your brand create and nurture a long-lasting community to help your business reach new heights. Contact our creative marketing team today.  Also have a look at our Portfolio here!

The post Why Building A Community Is Crucial For Your Digital Marketing Efforts? appeared first on Imenso Software.

While many influencers and content creators have been getting hundreds of thousands of views, that’s not the case with everyone. It has been a mystery for viewers and creators alike that some reels get millions of views and are recommended many times while others never even make the list.  

For all creators out there, we would say, don’t feel disheartened or cheated and start blaming the social media platform for favoring some influencers over others. Instead, let’s try to understand how to get your reels to rank among the top suggestions.   

Today we try to understand how Instagram works. What makes reels worthy of being in the suggested section and some interesting facts to help you get a better picture of the mechanism of the short video feature.   

Tables of contents  

1. Understanding how the Instagram algorithm works  
2. How does Instagram rank reels?  
3. Some interesting statistics  
4. An alternative to TikTok  

Understanding how the Instagram algorithm works  

There are clearly a lot of misconceptions about Instagram algorithms and a lot of mistrust as well. Creators don’t seem to decide the factors that make a post worthy of the user’s feed.  

One common misunderstanding about Instagram algorithms is that there is just a true algorithm that assesses every post, reel, story, and explore. This is a myth. According to Instagram itself, they use a set of algorithms, processes, metrics, and classifiers to determine what people will see on the app. Instagram aims to create the most personalized experience for its users with the right combination of technology to enjoy their time on the app.  

Also Read: How To Grow Your Local Business Through Digital Marketing?

Earlier, when Instagram was just a picture posting app, it also had fewer users. It has evolved into a giant with multiple features where the old methodology to create users’ feeds based on chronological order is no longer relevant. Users would end up missing most of what they want to see with the earlier algorithm.  

Now Instagram algorithms try to understand what you like the most and then show those posts on top of the feed. Different algorithms govern the normal post feed, stories, explore, and reels section. As the purpose of the features varies, so does the algorithm. For instance, in the post, you want to see what your favorite creators and close friends are up to, while in the explore section, Instagram tries to show posts from new accounts which you haven’t interacted with before.  

How does Instagram rank reels?  

Instagram reels work a lot like explore. Mostly what you see are from the accounts you don’t already follow. The major attribute Instagram uses is how entertaining the reel is? The feature is mainly designed to keep users entertained and thus engaged for a longer time on the app.  

For the first time, Instagram curates a reel feed they think you might be interested in. then they order them as per what will entertain you the most. Some of the key indicators used to rank reels are – user activity, history of engagement with a particular account, the content of the reel, and who posted it.  

Instagram mostly focused on small creators to encourage them with more engagement and exposure. However, other elements that are also important about a reel are the audio used in it, video frames, and its popularity.  

Also Read: Key Engagement Metrics of Social Media and How to Increase Them

Some interesting statistics

We have seen how Instagram algorithms work and how they rank reels. So let’s see some interesting statistics about Instagram reels to help you understand them better and include them in your social media marketing strategy. Reels can be a powerful social media marketing channel, especially for brands with a Genz and millennial audience.  

1. Instagram reels were launched in Brazil for the first time. The country is one of the biggest markets of Instagram, so it is clever of Instagram to test its reels feature there against competitor TikTok. Reels in Brazil increased Instagram users by 4.34% compared to a 1% increase before the feature.  
2. After releasing the Instagram reels feature in India, the downloads of social media giant rose 11.4% in the country. The average time spent on the app also increased by 3.5%. The country has enjoyed engagement with the new feature.  
3. Instagram now covers 50 countries as of August 5, 2020.  
4. All the top brands and franchises have been getting higher engagement as compared to posts and stories.  

An alternative to TikTok  

Before we move on to the statistics, it is important to understand how Instagram is similar to the short video giant TikTok. Before Instagram released the reels feature, all the Genz and millennial users were hooked on TikTok videos. There is something about short fleeting videos that we humans can’t get over with. And that is what makes TikTok so successful and popular among all age groups.  

If TikTok were to disappear tomorrow from the internet, almost all its users would flock to Instagram reels for similar feels. This has happened in many countries where TikTok is permanently banned, including India. On June 29, 2020, India banned the app in the entire country. So when Instagram launched reels for its Indian users, they were the first to make the switch.  

Although, unlike TikTok, reels are a part of the Instagram app. The videos are not easily available to watch on TikTok, where you have to tap on the icon once. However, one positive for Instagram is that most creators have a strong presence on the app and so scaling reels will not be an entirely new task.  

We would say that for countries where TikTok has a vast user base, it will be difficult for Instagram reels to beat it.  

We always seem to discard something we don’t understand. Unfortunately, this is true in life and marketing as well. However, Instagram reels are not super hard to grasp. With a bit of experiment and creativity, you can create reel videos that your audience will love to see.  

If you want some help with your Instagram reel strategy, get in touch with our social media marketing team to scale your influencer career with more reel views, comments, and likes.  

The post How Does Instagram Rank Reels? appeared first on Imenso Software.

Local shops can also utilize the free classifieds, Google local business listings, social media marketing, email marketing and many other ways to promote their business.  

Here we have listed 10 effective ways to grow and build your local brand through clever digital techniques and win over competitors.  

1. Give a customary call to action  

The purpose of a clear call to action is just this – to give clear instructions to the public out in the open that gradually help your potential prospects become potential customers.  

A customary call to action (CTA) is important for all successful digital marketing campaigns of your local business. This is so because CTAs are focused on a buyer’s journey through the marketing funnel. Whether it’s a Facebook ads campaign for an ongoing seasonal sale or Google ads campaign, CTAs helps prospects move further to the next level of the funnel.   

A powerful CTA can build a personality for your brand specific to the language of the industry your business operates in and establishes a different level of prominence.  

2. Device a compelling messaging strategy  

An interesting study by review.org in April 2021 titled Cell Phone Behavior in 2021: How Obsessed Are We? Revealed that on average an American (18 years and above) checks their phone 262 times per day. that‘s every 5.5 minutes!  

While this number is staggeringly high, the attention of people is significantly down. You just get a few seconds to convey your message and make a connection with the customers. That is why the emphasis on a compelling and swift messaging strategy.   

To make those few seconds count, craft a simple, engrossing and fuss-free message. Your primary goal here is to leave a lasting impression and hook your end-user through lots of incentives spread over the Facebook ad post and landing page. But don’t mix any complex language or clutter on it, ideally, the ad should be persuasive yet elegant.  

Also Read: Key Engagement Metrics of Social Media and How to Increase Them

3. Custom build landing pages  

Apart from creating the perfect Facebook ad and posts as part of your digital marketing strategy for local business, it is also needed to create perfect landing pages. Sometimes to save time and money you might think it’s fine to link your Google ads, social media posts, etc to the homepage of your business website. But can you anticipate how the visitors will react to the website page after landing on it? Did they find what they were looking for? What if they don’t?  

So, to make sure that visitors land on relevant places through your digital marketing campaigns, put in the extra effort of creating customized landing pages for every campaign. When you make sure that visitors get exactly what they are looking for in the least number of steps it shows that you respect their valuable time while getting maximum output for your business.  

In short, give people what they’re impatiently searching online with hyper-focused landing pages.  

4. Put consistent content on social media  

Just making a business page on every social media platform ain’t gonna cut it. You have to regularly post and reach out to your customers and let them know the daily offers and specials. Posting daily will turn your prospects into repeatedly engaged customers.  

Also, don’t post only salesy content on Facebook and other social media platforms. No doubt, promotion is important but don’t just fixate all the social media content around it.  

There are many creative ways to post relevant and engaging content on social media. For instance, you can convert blogs and guides into a list of concise points to give away free information, tricks and tactics about the industry domain your business is associated with. You can also utilize other content forms such as infographics, GIFs, videos to illustrate your business value and brand.   

More content means more engagement and thus more comments from your consumers. Be mindful to keep meaningful conversations going in the comments section. Don’t take negative criticism too seriously, respond to it practically. To find out what went wrong with unhappy customers, send a personal message asking for their opinion. Thus, using their anger and discontent as a step to build better products and services. Additionally, replying to the negative comments shows that as a business you care for all your customers and listen to them patiently.  

If you want creative content solutions for your business’s social media profiles, consult our digital marketing and social media management team. 

5. Work on the SEO  

Investing in SEO can work wonders for your business. Google supports small businesses by listing them on top of search results to local users. Along with your social media content, implementing a powerful SEO strategy is like putting the cherry on top of your digital marketing efforts.  

Thorough website optimization will rank your local business on top of searchers. In two simple steps, you can enhance the Google presence of your business and reach your digital marketing goals.  

1. Update about your sales and discounts regularly on the Google my business page  
2. Fill in all the details about your services and products accurately in the information sections of your Google my business dashboard along with the right keywords.  

You can also work to get reviews on Google from your customers.  

All these tasks will position your local shop on the first page of SERPs and also help discover it in a friction-free manner.  

Get result-driven SEO services for your local business from local SEO experts. Talk to our digital marketing team now.

6. Gain from content marketing strategy 

Quality content is the foundation for building long term SEO results. It is the process of adding blogs and articles to get higher ranks on Google. Content is a great pillar to attract and inform your customers about your local business.  

For creating creative content you should work to find new and gripping blog topics that address the general questions and concerns of your target consumers. One important reminder here is to know what your audience wants otherwise your efforts and time will go in vain.  

7. Convert with customer referrals 

Don’t hesitate while asking for referrals from your customers. Many of them will be happy to provide referrals when insisted upon. Although some of them might not be as interested in doing it on the first go, still you must at least try.  

Also Read: Define Your Target Audience for SEO with These 7 Steps

Referrals are the textbook way of word of mouth marketing. It is an impactful strategy for local business to acquire new customers through referrals as they will start with a positive image of your product or services. So if you refrain from asking for referrals you are potentially losing a lot of opportunities for marketing and growth.  

8. Nurture your customer relationship 

An august 2020 study from review42.com stated that 65% of an enterprise business comes from previous customers.  

This is no surprise. Every business owner knows that existing customers are less expensive than acquiring new ones. It’s because of this reason you must integrate strategies to build lasting relationships with your customers in your digital marketing plan. The easier way to do this through email marketing.  

You can give away a free gift or coupon code for future purchases in exchange for customer’s email who are visiting your website. After acquiring the mail addresses ensure that your messages are crisp, relevant and informative.  

9. Embrace new technologies 

All the social media platforms keep evolving. Through the years even you have noticed so many changes and new trends in technology. The goal here is not to get comfortable with the old methods. Keep adapting, ride the trends and move fast. Because if you don’t, your business will be left behind.  

For instance, audio rooms and stories are the hottest trends on almost every social media platform these days. With the clubhouse app and Twitter spaces, influencers and enterprises are hosting their audio sessions with their followers. You can also take to stories and audio sessions to keep updating new events and offers of your local business.  

Take advantage of new technologies and keep in mind that most of the time your customers are also moving on the same trends as your business is. It’s the best way to be with your customers.  

10. Collaborate with supportive businesses 

Make use of smart collaborations with mutually profitable and non-competitive businesses in your local area. Help each other out by enticing customers digitally with cross-promotions on social media, collective discounts, coupons and other benefits.  

Be creative and work together to acquire a larger customer base by reaching out to new customers of individual businesses in the group.  

It is true that owners know their business best. But nowadays managing a business along with posting regular stories on social media, optimizing website pages and putting regularly updated blogs might be a little overwhelming. With a little help and expert digital marketing strategies in place, your business can become a local star.  

Take the next step towards growing your local business; contact our experienced digital marketing experts today.

The post How To Grow Your Local Business Through Digital Marketing? appeared first on Imenso Software.

Social media platforms are not just content sharing platforms; they shape culture, build communities and bring humans closer. That is why marketers love researching on social media platforms. They have a phenomenal volume of data about users, how they behave, what they like, where the most attention is, and thus where to get the most leverage.  

But not every bit of data is useful for every company. That is why it is important to filter the key metrics which will get you a high definition picture of engagement on your social channels. So which ones to focus on?  

When someone thinks of social media metrics, we instantly think of likes, shares, and comments.  

Well, certainly these are high-quality indicators, but there are others which a successful social media marketer in 2021 trusts to measure the impact of content and marketing strategies.  

In today’s post, we will list down the most insightful and reliable social media metrics to help you figure out engagement and how to increase them.  

Don’t forget to mix the best combination to get the most valuable information about your social media progress.  

1. Reach  

What is Reach? 

How many unique accounts a social media post is exposed to is its reach. Reach can also be used to measure the number of unique users exposed to a profile/page, campaign post, or a specific type of post (videos, pictures, etc.).  

How to improve Reach? 

The first thing you should ask is whether you even need to increase reach to fulfill your business goal. The top situations where increasing reach is beneficial are: 

• Brand awareness campaign  
• To get more leads into the top of the funnel 
• Campaigns where you have not tapped out the potential market 

Increasing reach on social media channels organically is hard. But it is feasible.  

• You can ask your current audience to share your content in their community.  
• Make more entertaining and valuable content for your audience. 
• Make it interesting and rewarding to follow your profile  
• Create content that starts communication and drives engagement.  

To increase reach on social media paid campaigns are more effective than trying to increase reach organically. 

2. Impressions  

What are Impressions? 

When a post appears in a user’s feed, that counts as an impression. Although it is not required that the user actually interacts with the post to be counted as an impression. This might not be the case every time because it may vary with different networks.  

How to improve Impressions? 

The truth about impressions is that this KPI is difficult to improve. As content creators don’t have control over anything that determines the KPI. The simple way to improve impressions is to focus on improving reach. Refer to the previous section to get more ideas.  

3. Likes, comments, shares/retweets 

All these are engagement metrics. Engagement metrics are used to track how your audience is interacting with your content and how frequently.  

What are likes, comments, shares/retweets? 

We all know what likes, comments, shares, and retweets are. Anytime when an audience member likes or hearts your post, it sends a signal to the social media channels that your content is loved by consumers.  

Also Read: Define Your Target Audience for SEO with These 7 Steps

Similarly, when an audience comments or shares your post in their feed, it indicates the health of your audience (how responsive they are and how many of them are your real followers).  

How to improve likes, comments, shares/retweets? 

Likes are the easiest to get for a social media post. There is very little friction, sometimes the audience just clicks on the post unconsciously.  

So to increase the number of likes or reactions on your post is to create content that gets the most likes in your niche and try to create more content of a similar fashion and theme.  

To increase more shares and retweets, create more content that your audience will wanna share. To create content that your audience feels motivated to share, you must understand what makes them tick.  

Here is a list of psychological reasons that pushes the audience to share content on social media: 

• Bring entertaining and valuable content to their followers 
• Build stronger relationships 
• Define themselves as a person 
• Make them feel a part of their preferred community 
• Support causes they care about 

Generally, the posts which get the most comments have: 

• A strong opinion 
• Engage audience emotionally 
• Make them think 

Try including at least one if not all three of the above elements to get more comments and replies on your posts.  

4. Volume (share of voice) 

What is Volume? 

Volume is one of the easiest social media metrics to track and understand. It is the part of the conversation about your brand online compared to your competitors. Tracking the volume is not just counting the number of posts about your brand, it’s about how many people are interested in your brand and are talking about it.  

Also Read: 7 Steps to Make Your Ecommerce Business Successful

How to improve Volume? 

If you look at it simply, increasing volume means increasing brand awareness. There are many creative ways you can use to amplify the conversations about your brand or campaign.  

• Create authentic, high quality and engaging content 
• Post regularly. It is very important to be consistent on social media  
• Give a persona to your brand 
• Choose platforms wisely. Use them all if required. 
• Get more people to follow your social profiles 
• Connect with your community 

5. Link clicks and conversions  

What are link clicks and conversions? 

When an external link is provided in a social media post and a user clicks on it that is a link click.  

Conversions are when someone purchases something from your website. Social media conversions occur when an interested customer comes to the website via a social media channel and buys your product or service in one go.  

It is easy to track the conversions and other statistics related to link clicks in Google analytics. Just go to acquisition>all traffic>channels>social (in the default channel grouping). Here you can track the click-through rate, amount of traffic from each channel integrated, and other stats.  

How to increase link clicks and conversions? 

While sharing links, primarily, make sure that you put relevant links in your posts. Even if the post content is not directly related to the link, you can add links that provide value to your followers.  

You can share the same link repeatedly, just time out the repetition at a considerable and non-irritating interval.  

Use emojis and call to action to drive attention to the link and hence increase conversions.  

That’s it. These are the top 5 social media engagement metrics you should track to have a firm understanding of your audience. This will also help you to carve out a solid social media strategy for the future.  

There are several other metrics that enterprises use to track their social media progress, CTRs, engagement rate, and others.  

Are you looking to amp up your business social media accounts? Look no more. With the right mix of entertainment and information, we not only create engaging content but also track the impact using reliable metrics.  

Just drop us a mail with your expectations and our social media marketing team will revert in no time.  

The post Key Engagement Metrics of Social Media and How to Increase Them appeared first on Imenso Software.

If a business carefully defines its target audience as a part of SEO strategy, growing the business on Google will be faster. 

The ultimate goal of any marketing channel is to help the business grow. Defining the target audience for SEO will be a game-changer for websites and blogs looking to convert the traffic and buy from them. 

In this post, we’ll see a 7-step process to help you lock that target audience and boost the website traffic.   

Let’s start with what is the target audience?  

The target audience is the group of people who are searching for a business like yours on a search engine. These are the people you want to visit your site. They are your potential customers. 

Defining your target audience means to know exactly who is searching for the keywords to develop a successful SEO strategy and put your website in front of them. 

Don’t confuse your target audience with buyer personas. These two are not the same thing. 

The target audience is the people you want to bring to your website who might buy. 

The buyer persona on the other side is the personality of an ideal customer which is created to help the marketing and sales team make insightful decisions. 

What is the need to define a target audience? 

SEO is all about keywords is the old notion. The whole ecosystem has changed with the frequent updates of search engines and the audience becoming more aware. 

The benefits of defining your target audience are many. It doesn’t just help to create a powerful SEO strategy but also increase the relevant traffic on your website. 

Imagine, 1000 visitors are coming to your website in a single day. With a 25% chance of converting, you get 250 potential customers in a day. 

After targeting the right audience, the chances of converting increased to 50%. Now, even with 800 visitors, your potential customers are increased to 400 in a day. 

That is the power of defining your target audience. It increases the percentage of a visitor becoming a customer multifold. 

7 steps to accurately define Target Audience  

There are many ways to define your target audience, we’ll look at the most effective ones. 

1. Understanding Your Current Customer Base 

To know who will be interested in buying your products and services, start with your current customers. Talk to your sales team and ask what is it that makes customers buy from you. 

Try to understand what the major contributing factors for your business are. Which products are the ones they like to buy most, what is the average cost value and more? 

Don’t forget to use Google Analytics to get detailed insights into the buyer’s current demographics and how they are interacting with your business online. 

This also helps to cater to your customers better and to find more people like them. 

2. Drill Down into Your Competition 

While it’s futile to spend too much time analyzing the competition but to know how they are performing better, is an easy pathway to know what the customers are liking and why. 

Do a thorough analysis of your competitor’s website and look for insightful metrics. Focus on the best performing keywords, top-ranked pages, and other competitors. 

Also Read: 12 Instant Ecommerce Hacks to Boost Your Online Store Sales Today

This will help you to understand what might your product is lacking or how to improve the SEO marketing strategy to present in front of your target audience what they want. 

3. Identify the Potential Demographics 

To only cater to the people interested in your business is a bad strategy. Businesses should always be on the lookout for new segments of potential customers. This is true for SEO as well. 

The next way to understand your target audience is to identify what are the potential demographics of people who can be your target audience. 

Now to comprehend what can be potential demographics of audiences can be, use polls, surveys, sample trials on your website and see what the new customers which are interested in. This will help you to figure out whether or not you’re targeting the right demographic and define new ones as well. 

4. Analyze the Current Demographics 

Nobody can tell you what your customers want better than customers. Grab a coffee and call your customers to figure out what are the demographics of your community. Factors like location, age, gender, likes, marital status, income, will help you discover which type of customers will be more interested to engage with your website. 

You can mail Google forms to your customers and ask them to fill a detailed research survey. Through the collected responses identify buying patterns, online behavior and the core reason for the buy. 

5. Psychoanalyze the SERPs 

To accurately define the audience for a successful SEO strategy, the best way is to analyze the SERPs. 

Search for the main keywords for your business website and the buying terms related to it. Check what is the type of content being used – informational or transactional. What are the keywords that the website pages are optimized for, what is the tone of content, what are the products and services ranking, this will help to determine the search intent.  

Such analysis of SERPs tells you what kind of audience is being targeted. 

6. Focus on the Right Questions 

The end goal of identifying the target audience for an SEO strategy is to display your website in front of them. 

This can be easily achieved by discovering the core questions of your target audience about the product and service. What issues they are facing and how can you connect them with your business. 

Google also displays the best answers to audience question searches. You can use one of the many tools available online like SEMRush, answerthepublic.com, and Buzzsumo to find out the most searched questions regarding your business. 

Also Read: 10 mistakes to avoid while hiring IT outsourcing companies

7. Use Social Media Analytics 

Your social media followers are already interested in your products and services. This social media following can be a great place to pinpoint your target audience. 

Use social media analytics to know deep insights into your audience. The recommended tools are Facebook audience insights, SEMRush, and Hootsuite where you can find out who you should be targeting. 

SEO since its inception has transformed into a giant web for marketing. From searching the high-ranking keywords to crafting a funnel, SEO today is more about the right execution at the right time than ever before. 

Understanding your target audience is the key to untangling this web and making your website rank on the first page of SERPs. 

Keep targeting the right audience and be relentless in execution. 

If you need more insights about how to rank your newly build website on Google or how to take your eCommerce business to another level, contact us for outstanding digital marketing and SEO services. 

The post Define Your Target Audience for SEO with These 7 Steps appeared first on Imenso Software.