by Brian Mawdsley | Jan 31, 2023 | News, Tech Updates
Digital marketing is constantly evolving, and staying on top of the latest trends is crucial for businesses to remain competitive in today’s digital landscape. As we look ahead to 2023, there are several digital marketing trends that are likely to gain traction.
- Personalized Marketing: As businesses have access to more data about their customers, personalized marketing will become increasingly important. By using this data to create highly targeted campaigns and messages, businesses can increase engagement and conversions. Personalized marketing can include things like personalized email campaigns, personalized landing pages, and personalized social media ads.
- Influencer Marketing: Influencer marketing has been growing in popularity over the past few years, and it’s expected to continue to be a major trend in 2023. By partnering with influencers who already have a large following on social media platforms, businesses can reach a wider audience and increase their brand awareness. Influencer marketing can include things like sponsored posts, product reviews, and giveaways.
- Voice Search Optimization: With the continued growth of smart speakers and virtual assistants like Amazon Echo and Google Home, voice search optimization will become increasingly important. By optimizing your website and content for voice search, you can increase the chances that your business will appear in the results when someone uses a voice search. This can include things like including long-tail keywords, and ensuring that your website is mobile-friendly.
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML): AI and ML are becoming more prevalent in digital marketing, and they’re expected to play an even bigger role in 2023. By using AI and ML, businesses can automate repetitive tasks, such as creating ad campaigns, and also analyze large amounts of data to make better decisions.
- Video Marketing: Video marketing has been growing in popularity over the past few years, and it’s expected to continue to be a major trend in 2023. By creating engaging video content, businesses can increase their brand awareness and reach a wider audience. Video marketing can include things like explainer videos, product demos, and live streaming.
- Interactive Content: Interactive content, such as quizzes, polls, and interactive infographics, can help businesses increase engagement and conversions. By creating interactive content, businesses can make their campaigns more interesting and interactive, which can lead to higher conversion rates.
- Micro-moments: Micro-moments are small, yet critical moments in the customer journey when they turn to their mobile device to act on a need. By understanding and optimizing for these micro-moments, businesses can increase conversions and customer loyalty.
- Micro-Influencers: Micro-influencers are individuals who have a small but engaged following on social media. They are considered more authentic and relatable than traditional celebrities and can be an effective marketing strategy. They can be a cost-effective way to reach niche audiences with a high level of engagement.
- Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR): AR and VR are becoming more prevalent in digital marketing, and they’re expected to play an even bigger role in 2023. By using AR and VR, businesses can create more immersive experiences for customers, which can lead to higher engagement and conversions.
- 5G: 5G networks are set to become more widely available in 2023 and will have a significant impact on digital marketing. It will enable faster download and upload speeds, more stable connections, and lower latency, which will make it easier to deliver rich, immersive content and experiences to customers.
In conclusion, the digital marketing landscape is constantly evolving, and staying on top of the latest trends is crucial for businesses to remain competitive. By understanding and implementing these trends, businesses can increase their reach and engagement, and
by Brian Mawdsley | Jan 31, 2023 | Business, Food for thought, News
The 4th industrial revolution, also known as Industry 4.0, is a new era of digital, technological advancement characterized by the integration of physical, digital, and biological systems. It is defined by the interconnectivity of technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, big data, and more.
One of the key aspects of Industry 4.0 is the increasing use of data-driven technologies to enhance productivity, efficiency, and decision-making in various industries. This is made possible by the widespread availability of data and the growing power of computing technologies. As a result, machines and systems are becoming more autonomous, making it possible for businesses to automate many tasks that were previously performed by humans.
Another important aspect of Industry 4.0 is the increasing role of artificial intelligence. AI is changing the way we work and live by automating repetitive tasks, making it possible for machines to learn from experience, and enabling the creation of intelligent systems that can respond to real-world situations in real-time. This is leading to the development of new products and services, as well as the creation of new business models that can harness the power of AI.
Industry 4.0 is also changing the way we think about work. With the rise of automation and AI, there is a growing concern that many jobs will be lost. However, it is also creating new job opportunities in areas such as data analysis, software development, and cybersecurity. It is important for workers to adapt to these changes by acquiring new skills and retraining, in order to remain competitive in the job market.
In conclusion, the 4th industrial revolution is a major transformation in the way we live, work, and interact with technology. It is changing the way we do business, creating new opportunities, and transforming entire industries. While it is important to be aware of the potential challenges and disruptions that come with such rapid technological advancement, it is also important to embrace the opportunities and benefits that Industry 4.0 presents.
by Brian Mawdsley | Feb 2, 2022 | Social Media
The success and survival of your business depend on the number of customers and the number of sales. Making sales, whether it is eCommerce or Retail, is always challenging. It is a business that constantly changes, and it is not easy. Direct contact with customers never is. Today, we will talk about various ways to increase sales using SEO. Let’s see how website optimization can help grow your revenue.
Use keyword planning tools
Keywords are the most important element of SEO. When customers search your product online, they will use various keywords to find it.
Keyword planning tools like Google AdWord are the perfect place to start. However, figuring out what keywords to use is not easy. The competitor companies are using the same keywords as you. With that in mind, it is always a good idea to try and link the keywords you use with your company’s name or with something that makes your business unique.
The most important element of SEO is keywords.
Furthermore, where you implement keywords is also essential. They should be present in:
- all web pages;
- your content;
- URLs;
- in the emails you send;
- if you are running a blog, in the headings, image descriptions, page titles, and metadata;
The final rule to remember is that stuffing keywords everywhere in large numbers is not good for your business. It will seem unnatural, and Google does not like it. You need to find balance. A good idea is to research advanced SEO techniques for small businesses. You will find a lot of valuable pieces of advice on creating and using keywords.
Content is still the king
The keywords will lead people to your website. But, if the content is not good, they will not convert to customers. Your sales directly depend on the quality of your content.
If a potential customer is looking to purchase, let’s say, a car, they will have a bunch of questions. Especially if this is the first car they are buying, and they don’t know anything about cars. Each piece of content they see on your website should give them an answer and bring them one step closer to understanding what they need.
Content may come in many forms, like blog and vlog posts, animations, podcasts, infographics, e-books, guides, product reviews and product descriptions, and so on. All of the content your produce and publish needs to be a part of a bigger picture.
Tracking website visitors
When you start creating quality content and bringing visitors to your website with the help of keywords, it is crucial to begin tracking website visits. First, you want to see if the changes actually make a difference. The number of visits should go up. You can also track your users’ actions, what pages they are visiting, what they are clicking on, etc. The idea is to collect valuable data about your leads and use that information to further improve their experience on your website.
SEO changes all the time. That is why you want to know how your customers interact with the website. You can also do polls and ask clients how they found your website. This is another excellent example of how to track their activities.
Using social media
If you are struggling with getting customers to your website, you should use social media to boost the traffic. This is one of the easiest ways to increase organic traffic and advertise your business. Social media helps your brand stand out and spreads awareness about what you do.
Linking social media profiles to your website will give your business valuable exposure.
On-page SEO
On-page SEO is one of the most critical factors that affect the conversion rate of your clients. Convert More professionals state that improving SEO elements on your website may increase your conversion by more than 20% in the next few months.
On-page optimization refers to optimizing any element located directly on your website. We already covered some of these elements when we talked about keywords. But, there are other elements, like website loading speed, linking content with other content on your website, improving website structure, backend code optimization, etc.
All of these elements help make your website easy to use. It is crucial to create a seamless experience for your clients.
Purchase an SSL certificate
An SSL certificate helps protect the safety of your clients. If you are running an online store, this step is a must. All professional websites have this form of certification. It is a sign of online safety.
There are a lot of scams happening online every day. Customers will not put their trust in your hands unless they can be sure that your website is a safe environment for them to shop.
Website safety is a crucial element of online sales.
Doing website audits
Working on SEO every day is crucial. You need website audits to improve the performance of SEO and fix any errors that come up. Furthermore, you need to follow the changes to Google’s algorithm. They constantly change the game, and if you don’t keep up with their updates, your website will start to lose its rating.
Website audits also help with testing if your SEO works. Making a few minor changes and observing the traffic will tell you how efficient your SEO actually is. Do a lot of A/B testing until you are satisfied with the results.
Increase sales using SEO to grow your business
We covered a lot of different ways to increase sales using SEO. Keep in mind that you need to use a mix of strategies to get the best results for your business. You also need a lot of patience and dedication. This is not a process that happens overnight. With that in mind, take your time. Best of luck!
by Brian Mawdsley | Jan 5, 2022 | Business, Cybersecurity
In 2021, you have to deal with tech no matter what your business is about. If you have a server or even just a website, you must think about both European Union’s GDPR and California’s CCPA. Governments care about online privacy a lot these days — so if you’re processing a lot of data, you want to make sure all of it is safe. Of course, you take care of that by having the right people in your team. But if you aren’t an expert in the field, it can be tricky to figure out what you need. To help you out, we’ve made a guide to hiring a cybersecurity specialist.
The problem
As more and more sectors embrace technology, it’s only natural that we need more skilled IT security workers. However, these specialists aren’t easy to come by. At the moment, about 2.72 million open positions are waiting to be filled.
The demand is high, and there aren’t enough employees to go around. So, what can we do to turn the situation around?
As it turns out, companies need to up their game. They need to change the way they pick the people they’ll hire. We know it’s not an easy thing to hear, but if you couldn’t find a cybersecurity expert to fulfill your needs for some time, the problem may have been in you.
Here are some of the best practices you should follow if you want to get it right.
The biggest problem with the industry is that there aren’t enough workers to go around.
Find your weak spots
You want to start by thinking about is your company’s strengths and weaknesses. You must recognize your vulnerabilities to know what expert you need to plug the gap. Maybe certain areas of your security strategy are good, so you don’t have to work on them. Instead, focus on the ones you know aren’t at their best.
On the other hand, you might be thinking about the future. If you’re keeping some sensitive information, you want to stay ahead of the curve and ensure its safety is never compromised.
As experts love to say, one vulnerability is one too many. Hence, you want to create a comprehensive strategy and a team to make it a reality. Think about your hires and cover all the security areas. Remember that hiring too many people who specialize in one thing could bring you a lot of trouble as it will leave other areas open to risk.
Don’t get hung up on traditional qualifications
Most companies seek some qualifications when looking for network security experts, and we’re not saying this doesn’t make sense, but maybe you should change the way you think about it.
High tuition fees made many people ditch getting a traditional degree and dive right into the world of working and gaining experience. There’s nothing wrong with that in the eyes of experts from wpfullcare.com. If someone took the non-traditional route to learn how to do the job, that doesn’t make them less competent.
On the contrary, we see that many people with the ”right” qualifications don’t know enough about working in the real world. And it’s not necessarily their fault. In this niche, experience is often more valuable than school.
Thus, in this guide to hiring a cybersecurity specialist, we advise you to keep the qualifications you require to the necessary minimum. You don’t want to stop people with the actual skills from applying because they don’t have formal credentials.
A significant takeaway from this guide to hiring a cybersecurity specialist is not to be afraid of hiring self-thought experts.
Go for a diverse team
Your goal should be to make your team as diverse as possible. Only that way, they’ll be able to reach their full potential. If you hire everyone with the same background and career path, you can’t expect to see innovative ideas popping out.
Luckily, there are a few easy ways you can take to solve this problem. For example, hire a woman. Although the chances are that you have a female employee working on creating fresh content for your SEO, the world of cybersecurity is predominately male. As a result, it’s a smaller talent pool to recruit from, but if you can do it, it’ll be an excellent addition to your team.
Speak to your HR team and see how you can take your recruitment strategy to the next level. The more you can diversify your talent pipeline, the more quality of your workforce will improve.
But it won’t stop there. The word will spread out, and your company will become far more attractive to prospective employees. In the future, it’ll be much easier for you to find new talent, and that can’t be a bad thing.
Help your current employees grow
As you can see, it can be hard to find the right people to hire in this sphere. However, if you already have some employees, you can provide them with additional training to develop and advance their skills. It’ll mean a lot for their career, but it’ll mean to you even more as they’ll do more meaningful work for you.
On top of that, your workers are more likely to stay with you for longer if they see that you’re investing in their professional development. They’ll know how to respect that, and you won’t have to hire external associates.
Explore a bit about cybersecurity certifications, and learn how you can get your staff to earn them. Maybe some of your IT generalists want to get into this world, and there’s nothing wrong with producing your experts.
Help your employees grow, and they’ll love working for you.
Be flexible
The way people work and like to work is changing. In other words, you need to know what you’re potential employees are after and offer them just that. When it comes to younger generations that dominate the IT security niche, they value job satisfaction over traditional linear career progression.
For you, this means that you’ll have to sell not only the position but also the company. You’ll have to offer:
- A competitive salary
- Good benefits
- Nice work environment
However, that’s what everyone’s offering, isn’t it? Hence you need to go a step further. You want to show your potential employees that you care about their work-life balance by giving them flexibility. Don’t try to run away from remote working, graduates, or working parents, for that matter.
Your workers will do their job well if they like their place in your company, and that’s what we’re trying to get across with our guide to hiring a cybersecurity specialist. The talent is out there — you just need to find it.
by Brian Mawdsley | Nov 10, 2021 | Online Marketing, Social Media
The use of social media platforms for business purposes has many advantages. However, it is also crucial to find the right platform. Not all social media apps have the same reach and features. Let’s analyze the best strategy for choosing the right social media platform for your business.
Follow your audience
Everyone that has a mobile phone likely uses social media. That is around 5.13 billion potential customers. However, not everyone fits into your target audience. For example, if you are in the moving industry, you will only be interested in those customers who need relocation services. And, if you wish to promote your local business online, you need to do it on the same social media platforms they use.
Since we know that people mostly use a couple of different social media apps, it is a smart move to do a little survey and find out what platform is used the most.
Understand your audience
Knowing where your audience is is one thing. Understanding who they are and what their interests are is a whole other story.
To define your audience, you need to consider their age, gender, interests, and many other factors. Another smart move is to do another survey to find out why they like the social media platforms they use.
For example, if your clients like Instagram, you need to tailor the content to match that format. The share button for social media plays a crucial role because it allows your followers to share content for you. However, posting links to your website is useless because Instagram posts do not allow links. Alternatively, you can use your profile bio to provide all the important information.
Understand the social media platforms and their benefits
Using a social media platform for your business without understanding its capabilities and features will not bring any results. Since you are planning to advertise your business, you need to approach the entire process professionally. The goal is to build credibility in your industry, and it is essential to know what you are doing. Otherwise, you will spend too much time and money only to achieve mediocre results.
With that in mind, let’s analyze various social media platforms to find the best match for your business.
LinkedIn
Everyone knows that LinkedIn is the best social media platform for building business connections. It helps you find employees for your company, but LinkedIn also connects you with potential customers. It is truly a fantastic platform to showcase your business.
If you are looking to form B2B partnerships or find B2B clients, this is the app to use.
Facebook
With the current change from Facebook to Meta, we can expect great things for the future of this platform. Facebook is one of the oldest and most famous social media platforms still in use today. It offers many options, both for business and personal use.
Since the company is reshaping at the moment, we can expect new changes in both fields. One of the reasons why you should consider Facebook is because the majority of people using social media apps have an account there. It helps build loyalty and credibility.
YouTube
Probably the most liked social media platform today, YouTube is a great source of fun. People use it to listen to music, watch fun videos, find tutorials about anything they need, and many other things. Having a platform to host video content for free is a true luxury in the online world.
Your company needs a business YouTube account. First, you will reduce the use of hosting space on your website. Embedding URLs is cheaper than uploading videos directly to your pages. Secondly, everyone knows about YouTube. It is safe, and it always delivers. If you wish to create employee manuals, product commercials, marketing campaign content, or anything you can think of, YouTube will be the best platform to use.
Twitter
Twitter is such a powerful social media app because it allows you to directly track everything happening in the world today. Tweets happen in real-time, and that is the best way to stay informed. All viral events usually happen on Twitter first. We can look at it as the modern social media platform that shares the latest news from all over the world.
Instagram
Out of all the social media platforms today, Instagram is the platform that is growing the fastest. It has such a strong user base, and it definitely has many business uses. A lot of companies even make sales via Instagram, which only shows how powerful this platform is.
TikTok
The latest sensation, TikTok, focuses on short videos. While you can find pretty much everything there, it is obvious that it gives birth to many social media trends.
While it is not the first choice for a business social media platform, TikTok is the place where you will find the youngest audience. This is important to know if you want to target Gen Z customers.
Using software with social media platforms
Integrating software and social media platforms is a crucial move. One of the most important pieces of software for any business is customer relationship management software. It allows you to track purchases and keep a database of customer information. When choosing a social media platform, make sure that the combination of CRM and social media is possible. You want the best of both worlds together.
How to find the best CRM?
While there are many CRM platforms to choose from, you need to consider your industry first. Some platforms are built for specific needs. If we look at our previous example of running a moving company, MoversTech CRM would be the best, most specialized choice. This is mostly because the software focuses on the specific needs of relocation companies.
In that manner, you need to understand your industry goals. Look for a CRM platform that delivers exactly what your business requires.
Choosing the right social media platform for your business explained
As you can see, it is crucial to follow a few steps to determine the best social media platform:
- define your audience and know where they are;
- understand your business and set company goals;
- learn about different social media platforms and their benefits;
- combine social media with useful software to boost your business.
Choosing the right social media platform for your business will take time, but be patient. Do not rush through this process, and remember to focus on one platform at a time. Once you master one, you can start working on the others.
