Marketing

 by Emma Cameron

How To Build Your Brand Through Social Media Platforms

Branding yourself on social media platforms is becoming increasingly important in todays market. In 2014, a study found that 65 percent of online users use search engines to find out information on people and companies. These searches usually bring online users to social media profiles, and have been found to increase exposure for brands and companies, as well as increase loyalty among fans and followers. So if you are thinking about using social media platforms to brand yourself, then you should begin today. We have complied a list of tips on how you can get started.

Select the social media platforms you will use: 

There are so many different social media platforms that can provide you with what you are looking for, for your brand. You should be aware and careful with the platforms you do decide to choose because you don’t want to spread yourself too thin. Focusing on one or two social media platforms will allow your to build up presence and reach your potential audience.

Keep your presence on each social media platform consistent: 

The consistency of your brands imagery is very important for making an impact on social media platforms. You want to make sure that your profile photo, brand logo, colour palette, and writing styles are all recognizable on each platform. Using consistency on social media platforms will allow your brand to have a unique identity that followers will be able to easily remember.

Create unique and valuable content: 

Producing valuable and unique content that your followers want to read is a great way to build your brand up and create unbreakable bonds with your readers. Figure out what kind of content engages your audience the most and make sure it is valuable enough for your audience to want to share it on their own social media profiles.

As talked about before, keeping branding and imagery consistent is extremely important for building your presence on social media. You want to make sure that your content supports your brands image and that the tone or topic of the content is relevant to your brand. For example, if your website is dedicated to healthy recipes and cooking, you would not post content that had to do with finance. Most visitors would find that confusing and irrelevant to your brands image and website. So stick to relevant content that is consistent.

If you are unclear about which content will gain the most visibility on your social networks, then check out Google Analytics. Analytics will tell you what kind of content your audience likes to view. Whether that be blogs, videos, or images, Google Analytics will show you the best content for your audience.

Talk part in the conversation: 

The best way to gain a following or fan base on social media is by interacting with your audience, and using those interactions to socialize your content. One easy way to do this is by collaborating with other social influencers. Mention these individuals in your content, and back link them to their website or content. This will create bonds and will inspire them to share your content with their followers.

in Business / Marketing / Social Media 0 comments
 by Emma Cameron

How To Increase Your Chances Of Going Viral On YouTube

Viral videos have become a huge trend over the past couple of years, thanks to YouTube. YouTube content creators make and post videos in the hope of going viral and drawing attention to their videos and channels. It can take years for seasoned YouTube creators to get even a slight taste of attention from their videos. So how do these great videos go viral? And is it just luck or is there a specific method to going viral?

We compiled a list of the top things you should be doing to increase your chances of going viral on YouTube.

Take Advantage of Current & Popular Trends:
Capitalize on current trends that are popular on YouTube right now. Check out successful channels, and viral videos for the trends and categories that they are using. Some of the most popular categories include cooking, beauty and fashion, tutorials, and comedy skits, but there are also tons of other niches out there, like funny animals or reaction videos. So discover what clicks for you, there are tons of options out there.

When picking a trend or category that you want to capitalize on, always keep in mind your industry and how you can incorporate it with what is trending. For example, if you own a wedding cake bakery, try incorporating your brand into a viral trend such as the “Will you marry me” musical videos. But just beware that you are competing in a extremely popular trend on YouTube, so it may take you more views to get noticed.

Make Sure It Is Quality Content:
Most popular YouTuber’s have access to production teams and quality equipment, such as lighting, cameras, and microphones. All of this advanced technology is not needed to make a video, however most viral videos and channels tend to have good quality content. So using the right equipment and putting out quality content that you are proud of is extremely important for increasing your chances of going viral on YouTube.

You don’t have to go out and buy expensive equipment right away, check out your local camera shop, they usually rent out equipment for relatively cheap.

The Title Is Important:
YouTube is the second biggest search engine in the world, so when coming up with the title of your video you want to treat it like any other search engine. Besides your content, the title is perhaps the most important thing, and could be the gateway to a viral video. Start thinking about the top viral videos you have watched and shared. Most of these videos have engaging titles that make you feel like you have to click on it. Capitalize on people’s sense of curiosity, it will definitely increase your videos views and chance of going viral.

Market It:
There are many YouTube videos that become viral out of shear luck, but for the most part many are well planned and marketed.

In order to give your video the best shot at going viral, you need to plan everything. Before filming, make sure you have identified the trend or category that you are going to target. If you do decide to go with a trend that is popular, just remember it maybe more difficult to get a ton of views. Views are what are important in going viral, so finding a niche or smaller trend might be better so that you rise to the top of YouTube’s search results faster.

YouTube has similar search engine rankings just like Google. So after uploading, give your video a brief description and make sure you use the right keywords that fit well with your content. Keywords will help your ranking and your chances of going viral. Ask your friends and family to share, like and comment on your video. As well as, use other social media networks to help spread it.

Planning ahead will give your video a better chance of gaining attention and going viral.

in Business / Content / Marketing / Social Media / Uncategorized 0 comments
 by Emma Cameron

How To Gain More Followers On Instagram

Instagram is quickly becoming the biggest social media network for businesses and content creators. Instagram opens up a huge playing field for any businesses looking to gain exposure and interact with their target audiences online. Many businesses do not utilize all of the great resources that Instagram has that can get them a lot of followers. Gaining more followers requires a little more than just uploading content, check out some great things you can do to gain more followers on Instagram.

 

Stick To A Niche Segment:
In order to be successful on Instagram, you will need to stick to one or two specific niche segments. It is best to find a niche market that you are passionate and knowledgable about, so that it makes it easy for you to come up with creative and consistent content easily.

 

Post Engaging And Creative Content Continuously:
People follow accounts because they want content – and a lot of it. If you are looking to attract a large audience on Instagram you are going to have to post consistent, high-quality content nonstop. It is easy to get lost in the land of Instagram, so make sure you are posting around two to three times a day so that followers can get use to your post and familiarize themselves with your username.

 

Use Captivating Captions:
Captions can be just as important as the content you are putting out. Figure out first if your audience enjoys long or short captions. For an example, if your Instagram page specializes in makeup, your audience will most likely want a long caption that includes the products that appear in your post. Once you have figure out what your followers want in their captions, you must remain consistent with it.
Instagram captions should include four things: they should be motivating; captivating; inspiring; and should give viewers an experience while reading it. This will really draw users in and keep them wanting more from your page.

 

Use Hashtags…And Lots Of Them:
Using hashtags on a post is one of the best ways to attract like-minded individuals to your page. When you are using hashtags for your post you want to be using the right ones that relate to your content posted, as well as your Instagram page. Studies have found that the optimal number of hashtags on Instagram is 11. The more hashtags you load onto your post, the more likely you are to get likes, comments, and new followers. So #YourHeartOut.

 

Interact With Users:
Communicate and engage with the community around you by following, liking, and commenting on other users post. Instagram isn’t just about posting your own content, it is also about exploring the content of others and the different communities around you. Create personal bonds and relationships with your followers by responding to comments they have left on your post. This will allow you to create personal bonds with your followers, and make you seem more attractive to them and others who stumble across your page.

If you are just starting on Instagram, comment and interact on big content creators pages. People are more likely to click on your page if they see you commenting and interacting with the same people they follow.

in Business / Content / Marketing / Social Media / Uncategorized 0 comments
 by Emma Cameron

Customer-Centric Marketing Trends That You Should Be Doing

Today’s market is focused primarily on one thing: the customer. And it is really paying off for businesses. Businesses are using marketing techniques to build and construct a thriving relationship with their customers, which in return is giving major return on investment. If you are looking to get your foot into this customer-centric marketing space, keep reading to find out the biggest marketing trends that are happening right now.

 

Interactive Content:
Classic blog posts, and reports are still great to put on your website, but customers today want interactive and exciting content. Shift your content towards something more interesting. Look at putting your content in different and creative forms such as videos, info-graphics, or interactive games – something different that will keep consumers clicking and sharing your content.

 

Add Personalization:
Customers like to feel as if companies are talking directly to them. Personalized messages through emails, custom landing pages, or through content that is specific to their wants or needs, is exactly what consumers want to see. Customers expect companies to know everything about them, so utilize the information you have and personalize this content.

 

Interact on Social Media:
Create marketing messages that can be posted onto your social media networks where consumers can spark up conversations and engage with you. Use different social media monitoring tools to respond to this engagement or use it to assist with any customer concerns that need to be addressed. This can really help improve your presence and engagement levels on social media networks.

 

Marketing Middleware:
Marketing middleware is a trend among marketers that had been increasing in the past couple of years. There are countless softwares and programs out on the market that allow marketing technologies to work together and provide marketers with access to in-depth analysis of customer interactions with different marketing campaigns. This gives marketers the opportunity to remain consistency and flexibility across all of their marketing campaigns.

 

Advocate Marketing:
When customers have a great experience with your company they are more likely to give a referral to their friends and family members. Promoting through referrals is more effective than affiliates or incentives in today’s market. So taking advantage of these advocates is an amazing idea, and is extremely easy to do.

Building strong relationships with these advocates and giving them a positive experience is the best way to bring new referrals in your business.

in Business / Content / Marketing / Social Media / Uncategorized 0 comments
 by Basim Mirza

Increase Search Engine Rankings Immediately

Increase search engine rankings immediately in 6 steps. We’ll break down the exact process for you. When clients come to us, we get to see exactly how they’ve approached their SEO campaigns in the past. Let me tell you, it’s not pretty. Most businesses take a shotgun approach to their SEO, in fact it’s not precise when it comes to key words or understanding the algorithms of search engines and how they work. We’ve taken the time to break down our in house process, and how our clients immediately benefit from SEO traffic. They increase search engine rankings immediately!

Here’s How To Increase Search Engine Rankings (in 5 steps)…

 

  1. On-Page Modifications

It’s not as complicated as it sounds. You’re making on page modifications to existing content on your website or blog. Which really means you’re making edits to your page that are according to best practices in SEO. We have systems in place to help make this process efficient, as there’s many things to consider.

increase search engine rankings

 

2. Publish Changes 

Every time you make such modifications go ahead and publish them on your website or blog. Everytime you do this, search engines like Google crawls for changes. This alone will help you get up in rankings, as search engines look for these updates.

increase search engine rankings

Below is a continuation of the above examples on how these on page modifications are implemented. Eventually your articles with capture more organic traffic, and you’ll have to rely less on your direct networks.

increase search engine rankings

3. Off-Page SEO

Again this is not too complicated. However you’re looking for article distribution outsider your website. Which means other blogs, forums, websites, etc. The best way to do this most effectively is through hundreds of links that are back-linked to your specific content you’re optimizing. This is done through automated press release distribution and spinning content. You’ll see below how we can spin different words in titles and passages, which will produce hundreds of unique press release articles that link back to your blog or website.

increase search engine rankings

4. Produce Back links

Once you’ve sent of your press releases, you’ll be able to generate reports on all the links that go out on hundreds of different sites. These articles are also focusing on your primary keyword, and are there for the purpose of driving up your main article for rankings by building search engine authority.

increase search engine rankings

5. Ping Search Engines

The final step involves letting search engines know about your changes. This is very simple, you can submit your URL to Bulk Ping or any other pinging site to communicate with the search engines. Keep coming back to the key word by checking on Google and see how your listing progresses.

result

in Content / Marketing 0 comments
intelligence tracking
 by Basim Mirza

Intelligence: Double Your Business With 6 Metrics

Intelligence Tracking takes the uncertainty after you e-mail a proposal to your prospect. You’ll know and understand what to anticipate, and how to respond. Having such information is critical to increasing the likelihood of closing high level sales.

As a marketer, for many years I’ve been obsessed with data and economics. That obsession has really helped me bring something unique to the table to the marketing profession and industry. One of these innovations is the understanding of how to find intelligence on your prospective leads, and use the data to determine the answer to these two questions:

  • Is this prospect taking my proposal seriously?
  • Which prospects should I be spending most of my time with?

Not only were these questions important to my sales team, it was something many of my prospects were asking. It was these two questions that led me to determine the 6 intelligence metrics that will double your sales. As you read the information on business intelligence, you will definitely appreciate how this can add value to your practice. This would be especially useful if you’re running a consulting practice or sell high level services.

 

These intelligence metrics will double your business…

 

  1. Frequency of Email Opened
    This metric is one of the first places to start. This one really determines all the other 6 I’ll be discussing. At the end of the day if your prospect hasn’t even opened your email, then you haven’t captured their interest yet. Now this could mean that they are busy and just haven’t yet gotten round to your proposal. Some of my biggest clients have taken weeks (even months) to open an email. However knowledge is power, and just having an understanding of whether your email has been opened will give you the confidence to follow-up with your prospect. Maybe they just need a quick reminder? Maybe they’ve just been hiding the fact that they are not interested? Either way, at least you’ll know whether to spend any more time or not. Your time is your most valuable asset!Another important reason worth mentioning is finding out the level of interest in your email. If your prospect opens your email 3,4, or even 18 times, what does that mean!? It could be that he or she is super engaged, which makes the prospect even more qualified! It could also mean that he or she is indecisive, which is always a red flag. Either way, you’ll be more confident in your next move.
  2. Frequency of Link(s) Clicked
    If you’ve decided to share a link or an article on your blog, that’s a hyperlink that can be tracked. The engagement on that link will give you a clear indication on your prospect’s intent. He or she may not even click the link, in which case you may want to change your approach or move on to another prospect. Similarly to the first point, if your prospect is clicking the link multiple times, this is a clear indication of his or her’s interest in what you’ve shared. This will give you the confidence in shortlisting this prospect, and escalating towards closing a sale. As opposed to frequency of email opened, frequency of click makes the engagement level more certain and definitive.
  3. Average Proposal Reading Time
    Now we’re getting in to the good stuff! If you’re seasoned as a business owner or sales leader, you’ve probably sent out many proposals to your prospects. When you send out emails to your prospects, you can set tracking on the attached proposal. Once the email is sent, you can sit back and wait for the data to come through. Eventually you’ll find out how much time on average does your prospect spend reading your proposal. You know if it’s more than a minute, he or she is most likely giving it a serious review.

    intelligence
  4. Average Time Spent Per Page
    Understanding the engagement levels on each individual page of your proposal will give you a clear understanding on which content is your prospect taking more seriously. If your prospect is spending more time on the pricing page of your proposal, you can probably make an educated guess that he or she is spending time thinking about the investment opportunity. I’ve had prospects who are interested in the process, and others may spend more time on the section that talks about the services. These are all clues on your next steps. The screenshot below is an actual proposal sent by our team to a prospect, and we track his engagement per page.intelligence
  5. Number of Visits Per Page
    Understanding the number of times your prospect has come back to read specific a page will help you evaluate which page required the most attention. Having this knowledge can give you an idea of how the prospect is approaching the proposal.intelligence
  6. Prospect Reading Completion
    Prospect Reading Completion comes as a percentage, and knowing how much of the proposal is complemented will right away tell you if the prospect has read the entire proposal. If there are parts that have not been read, not only will you be able to tell which parts, you’ll be able to advise and review over the neglected parts with the prospect. This metric will also tell you if the prospect may have skimmed the material, in which case it’s also best to check the reading time to determine this.

If you’d like to know more on how to implement intelligence in your business. Book your complimentary strategy session with us, and we’ll show you how.

in Business / Content / Marketing / Networking / Tech 0 comments
 by Emma Cameron

How To Be Successful At Blogging

The internet has been transforming the ways in which we can make money. Blogging being one of them. Blogging has been around since the start of the internet, but just recently, blogging has really transformed into a money making machine. There are tons of bloggers around the world who have thousands, even millions of followers, who flock to their blogs to read their newest posts every single week. Making these influential bloggers tons of money and success.
So what is their secret to gaining thousands of followers and running a successful blog? Well its a little bit of luck, and a ton of strategy. Check out some of the strategies that these bloggers do on their blogs!

Become An Expert In One Topic:
Become an expert in one or two topics and use your past experience and knowledge to make quality content. People go to blogs usually for advice or to learn something new, so being an expert in a topic is very important and will make you seem more credible. Anyone can copy information from online and repeat it back to the public. So back up all of your content with real life stories and knowledge. This will definitely set you a part from other bloggers.

Be Consistent With Your Content:
The one thing consumers love is consistency. Create a weekly schedule where you post creative content on certain days – for an example post on Monday’s, Wednesday’s, and Friday’s. This will allow consumers to know exactly when new content will be up and will help you stay on top of your posts.

Make Your Content Entertaining:
The way you decide to write your content is one of the most important decisions for your blog. If you are writing about more formal or informational based topics, it can be easy to get caught up writing very factually and dry. Most people like to read articles and blogs that are entertaining and fun. Even if you your topic isn’t traditional entertaining, throwing some life into it will keep your audience engaged.

Use Social Networks To Promote:
Social networks are a great way to get your blog and content out there and give you more exposure to new readers. You should have a Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn account, that should also be linked to one another. The more social media sites that you are on, the bigger your reach will be.

Give People Value:
One of the most important things your blog should be providing their readers with is value. Value will help you attract and gain interested readers who will continuously return to your blog each week to view your content. Make sure you are providing new information and new content for your readers, as well as being consistent with the value of your content that you are putting out.

Offer Free Stuff:
People love free things. So you need to provide your followers with tons of free content. You don’t have to make all of your content free, but in order to build a loyal following you need to offer free content that can be consumed easily. Your free content doesn’t always have to be articles, you can provide free videos or e-books – which will definitely receive positive attention from your followers.

in Business / Content / Marketing / Social Media / Uncategorized 0 comments
SEO
 by Mitchell Cameron

SEO – Top 5 Benefits and Advantages

SEO or Search Engine Optimization has become a very popular online marketing strategy because of its effectiveness. While the benefits of SEO are vast, here are some major advantages of implementing this into your marketing campaign.

1) SEO Increases Traffic

Top positions on the search engines pages receive a majority of the traffic and clicks. So ranking in these top positions can result in significant increases in the amount of people that view your website. SEO also focuses on creating informative and keyword relevant title tags and descriptions. These show up in the result pages when people search. Having optimized tags and descriptions helps to increase click rate. This also promotes increases in qualified web traffic. People will see your page more than your competitors and you can target the right types of people.
2) ROI

SEO provides trackable and quantifiable results, regardless of what type of industry you are involved in. Agencies are able to track nearly every aspect of their strategy. They can track things like increases in rankings, traffic and conversions clicks. Analytics also provide the ability to see demographic information and other engagement metrics for people who have visited your website. Determining these things can help you again target qualified customers and determine if your online efforts are yielding you profit.
3) Cost Effectiveness

SEO is one of the most cost-effective marketing strategies. It targets users who are actively looking and searching for your products and services online. This is an inbound strategy which helps businesses save money. This opposed to outbound strategies like cold-calling or contacting. While cold-calling can still be an effective strategy, the leads generated cost more than leads generated by an inbound strategy like SEO. Again the prospects generated from SEO are more qualified, resulting in cost-savings for companies.
4) Increased Site Usability

SEO makes your website easier to navigate for the search engines. By doing this it simultaneously helps make your website easier for users as well. SEO consists of rearranging the site’s architecture and links to make pages within the website easier to find and navigate. This not only makes it easier for search engines to locate your site and find pages. It also makes it easier for users to find information on your website as well. Have you ever gone to a web page and thought to yourself that this could have been easier to use? Well SEO helps takes care of this problem.
5) Brand Awareness

Top position rankings in search engines result in significant impressions and clicks. Having your website in these top positions on the result pages translates to more exposure for your brand. Being on the first page for your targeted keywords for one thing helps users to associate your brand with those keywords. It also associates trust. Companies on the first page are generally perceived to be more trustworthy. The more your pages and content rank in high positions in the search engines, the more chances you have for users to see your content and associate with your brand.

In the end the awareness and reach of a business is very much determined online today. Marketing is a very important part of the future growth of a business. At Mirza Int’l we are up to date on the best business practices today to ensure sustainability. Contact us to get a quote.

in Business / Content / Marketing 0 comments
 by Basim Mirza

Increase Instagram Followers [Video]

Instagram is a new mammoth that adds to a business’ brand, increase instagram followers and you’re well on your way to attracting qualified leads and connecting with prospects. Check out the video below to learn more on the steps you can take to increase instagram followers.

How do I grow my increase instagram followers and get great engagement?

 

 

One of the great things you can do is just be yourself, be personal. Forget about your business when it comes to Instagram. Instagram is a place where you need to connect with people on a personal level. Now, at some point you can tie your business in and let people know what you do, but that is not what its about. You want to create visual experiences for people that get them to reciprocate. If they feel personally connected to you in someway, they are going to show some love and that is really the key. What worked for me is that I went out there and I started making sure that I got pictures with every celebrity that I knew, and that worked for me – not saying that to toot my own horn or anything like that, that I hangout with celebrities. But you know, maybe that might work for you, go out there, get to know some influencers, get to know people that other people know – they can recognize their face. You would be surprised what that does. I took a picture with Jenny McCarthy and that did so much for me. So what I am saying is find something that works for you, it could be something really visual. If you run a spa company you may actually have lots of really beautiful images that you could take of like stones and aesthetics. But you could do some really cool stuff that get people to say “hey that looks so cool, that looks so nice!”. That is what you want, and the beautiful about Instagram is that people reciprocate, so when people like your stuff and when they start commenting, do the same thing for them. Show the love back and when you start to do that, you are going to start building that community around you as well.

in Business / Content / Marketing / Social Media / Uncategorized 0 comments
seo strategy
 by Basim Mirza

SEO Strategy: Profit From Rankings [Video]

Your SEO Strategy is a gateway to all kinds of exposure from search engines. Take our word for it, with the right approach you can have your brand in front of MILLIONS of eyeballs… for free. Check out the video below, as Basim show’s you below how to do this organically!

How Do I Build a Profitable SEO Strategy For My Website?

 

The beautiful thing about SEO is that you can really play into this and you can really build your content in such a way so that you are attracting lots of people through those search engines. Google mainly because Google is the biggest mammoth out there. So you have got to think about how you can look good, not just in front of Google – like where Google actually rewards you for your content that you are putting out on the website – but also the users who are actually searching on Google. What you want to do is plug into the people that are searching through the long-tailed keyword, and maybe in some cases the short-tail. But mostly long-tail, where they are basically typing “what is the nearest restaurant near me that gives sushi?” or whatever. So you want to plug into that and you can use organic content to actually do that. You can actually base your articles and even videos like this, you can plug into SEO. Not social media, don’t worry about the social media part, focus on your website. HubSpot actually did a study where they found if you have over 311 index pages on Google, you are going to increase your traffic by over 230 percent. So that is crazy! If you actually follow through on that, you are going to start seeing those kinds of results as well. So follow through on that because most people don’t and I think we all know that. So really just see and think about how you can create lots of unique and valuable content to pump out through your website or blog or resources section. Add value and the traffic is going to come.

in Business / Content / Marketing / Tech / Uncategorized 0 comments