How to Use Visual Elements in Blog Posts Effectively

Readers these days are busy and want to consume information as quickly as possible. So, more often than not, you’ll find them reading on their mobile devices while they’re on the move.

How do you engage such busy readers? The most effective way of hooking readers to your story is to include relevant visual elements. Readers will ignore all the words without batting an eyelid when they see an image or graph explaining the facts you are looking to share on your blog. Yes, that’s the power of images.

Here’s how you should use visual elements in your blogs to hook your readers.

Only use relevant images

True, an image does grab attention, but you should ensure that it’s relevant to your content. While you may post the image of beautiful scenery while writing about how important visual communication is, it won’t have the desired impact. The image will surely grab attention for a while, but when it comes to conveying the message of your blog or retaining reader attention, it fails.

When you use any images, ensure that they bring value to your text:

• They further underline the message you seek to share
• They are cleaned up or resized with photo editing software so that they appear uncluttered and clean
• They declare which source the copyright belongs to if the images aren’t original

It’s an excellent technique to post an image at the beginning to draw the attention of a busy reader to the introductory paragraph they skip often.

Optimize for Google

For Google, among various considerations, the loading speed of a page has become an important factor in ranking sites. Again, readers read blogs that load fast. Optimize the visuals on your blog to ensure fast loading.

To do so, use tools like Adobe Photoshop or Affinity Designer before uploading images. Better still, use a WordPress plugin like Imagify that’ll allow automatic optimization of all the images simultaneously with no drawbacks on quality.

To check your website loading speed with Google, use a tool like PageSpeed Insights and click “Analyze.” You may also use other tools for testing speed like Pingdom or GTmetrix and focus on total load time instead of the scores.

For quantitative data, use graphs and charts

Read this paragraph:

“A survey carried out by Edison Research shows that 35% among 3,755 respondents consider the economy to be the most important national issue. Racial inequality is considered to be the most important issue by 20%, and 17% consider the Covid-19 pandemic to be the most important issue facing Americans.”

It probably took a while to grasp everything, right? Presenting statistics in the form of a visual image, like a graph or a chart, will not only grab reader attention. Readers will understand what has been told much more effectively.

However, not all charts are the same. Some of them might be poorly made and look rather clunky. Consider the following example of a chart:

Yes, it does deliver the message, but can we increase the readability of this chart? Yes, we can. For such an example, a horizontal graph will work much better:

Graphs and charts do a great job of simplifying complicated data. You’ve only got to ensure that the chart or graph you use is relevant to the data you want to share. The diagrams you can use are the following:

• Bar charts: to make comparisons
• Pyramid charts: to present data hierarchy
• Pie charts: to show data composition and how each part forms the whole data
• Line graphs: to compare data and show if there’s any correlation or pattern in a range of data

Some sources for images

To avoid copyright issues, there are certain sites you can download images from for free. The common examples include such sources as Pexels and Pixabay that offer visual elements under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0). However, there are more, less well-known resources that blog writers might skip. Free Vector offers a variety of beautiful images completely free of charge.

Depending on where you are, you might not always have these options available. Certain services might be blocked or have other guidelines that prevent you from downloading visual components. If you ever stumble upon these hurdles, you can quickly overcome them. A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is an app that allows you to change your IP address. By connecting to another country, you might be able to bypass geo-restrictions.

As writers, we can never have too many resources – tools like this help you reach more information, including available visual components.

Conclusion

No matter how well written, a series of paragraphs in a blog will find no takers. It’s therefore important that you fill your blog with relevant images at regular intervals.

Images like graphs and charts make it a lot easier for readers to digest complicated data that might otherwise seem too bland. Ensure that your blog loads quickly to retain reader attention. Add images from the sources mentioned above to engage your readers. It works!

Guest author: Caroline Jones is an enthusiastic writer, gamer, and foodie, interested in helping people and becoming a veteran in all things technical. Cybersecurity is her passion, and the fight for digital privacy is one of her favourite subjects to dig deeper on a regular basis.

The post How to Use Visual Elements in Blog Posts Effectively appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

source https://www.jeffbullas.com/blog-post-visuals/

Agencies: Don’t Get Caught Out When It Comes to Web Accessibility

Did you know that there has been a 300% increase in web accessibility lawsuits since 2018?

It has been incorporated into the civil rights legislation of countries all over the world to protect people with disabilities.

This is critical information for web agencies. Over 90% of business owners expect their web agency to make their website accessible and inform them of their obligations.

So given the rise in lawsuits and the expectations of your clients, web accessibility is a BIG deal for web agencies.

But what exactly am I talking about?

What is web accessibility?

If you’re not familiar with the concept, let me cover a quick overview.

Due to updates and adjustments in civil rights legislation around the world, business-related websites are now expected to be accessible for people with disabilities.

To be more specific, people affected by auditory, cognitive, neurological, physical, speech, or visual disabilities, should be able to navigate, understand, and interact with a website without prejudice.

Web accessibility is no longer a “nice-to-have” but an essential part of your client’s digital presence. Every image, attribute, icon, button, form, and interaction needs to be assessed from the perspective of a person with a disability.

How do you know if a site is accessible?

Given web accessibility expectations have increased dramatically in recent years, many websites are not optimized appropriately. In fact, a whopping 98% of all websites are inaccessible.

That means that many of your clients’ websites could be inaccessible and exposed to legal action.

Whether or not a site is considered accessible comes down to the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) 2.1 level AA requirements.

I know… it’s a mouthful!

Luckily, there are tools available that can determine whether a site is accessible in the click of a button. Rather than you drowning in legal documentation.

aCe is one of those tools.

aCe is a tool powered by artificial intelligence (AI)  that gives you an immediate answer on whether or not a website is legally compliant under web accessibility laws. All you need to do is enter your domain and it spits out a detailed audit with in-depth explanations about the website’s compliance.

It scans your website for accessibility errors and tells you exactly where you need to make improvements.

You’ll get feedback on a range of website elements, including:

• Buttons, links and other clickables
• Menus and site navigation
• Images and alt text
• Readability
• Page layouts
• Orientation and popups
• Form validations

The cool thing about aCe is it’s free to use, extremely accurate because it’s underpinned by the best technology, and super fast to get a report.

Test your website’s accessibility with aCe here.

What can you do to make a site accessible?

Ok, great, so you’ve tested the accessibility of your website with aCe, but what if it’s not compliant?

Good question!

aCe provides a range of recommendations in its accessibility report including a grading of “Compliant,” “Semi-Compliant,” or “Non-Compliant.” You’re at highest risk of litigation if the report grades your site as Non-Compliant.

Based on this report, you can work with your development team to make changes to the website and then re-test it for compliance. Alternatively, you could use a tool like accessiBe to automate the entire process!

accessiBe is an AI technology that replaces the manual process of making a website compliant with accessibility laws. All you need to do is add a single line of JavaScript to your website, accessiBe will scan it, making it compliant within 48 hours.

We use it here at JeffBullas.com – here’s what the popup looks like after a user clicks on the accessiBe icon in the bottom right corner:

It’s quite amazing how much an automated tool can do! accessiBe’s Contextual Understanding AI engine analyzes the functionality of every element on your website and adjusts the user interface, keyboard navigation, and screen-reader based on millions of past experiences to make it compliant.

It also monitors your website every 24 hours to ensure that accessibility is upheld over time.

Given the expectations of your clients when it comes to this fairly new website risk factor, having tools like aCe and accessiBe in your back pocket could be highly beneficial to your agency.

Especially seeing more and more people are working remotely, accessibility lawsuits will continue to rise in years to come. Now is the time to get compliant.

accessiBe has a Partner Partner program for agencies that helps you easily prioritize accessibility with your clients. You’ll protect your agency’s reputation and your clients’ from a lawsuit.

The kicker? If your agency is up-to-date with these changes, it could also open up a new revenue stream.

With several simple ways to make a site compliant, there’s no reason to wait for a demand letter before taking action. Plus, it’s the right thing to do.

Try accessiBe FREE for 7 Days Here

The post Agencies: Don’t Get Caught Out When It Comes to Web Accessibility appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

source https://www.jeffbullas.com/web-accessibility-for-agencies/

5 Reasons to Prioritize Data Quality in Your Email Marketing

Did you know that nearly half of email traffic is considered to be spam? Plus, 30% of your email information becomes outdated in just one year because of obsolete and erroneous data.

In today’s competitive landscape, quality data is crucial for every enterprise that leverages email marketing channels. Many marketers put all their resources and time into optimizing the graphics, design, and copy but overlook something as fundamental as the quality of the data being used.

Having the best software and automation practices are crucial features of any digital marketing toolkit, but so is the information you use to segment your contacts and target your audience. Here are some of the reasons why data quality is critical in email marketing.

Why data quality is paramount

Email use is nearly universal, so even with the growth of social media, email marketing is still very relevant today. Many companies are paying attention to writing eye-catching email copy as a strategy for lead generation and customer retention. But emails are only as effective as the data that drives them. So, what can strong data do for your business?

#1. Avoids problems caused by inaccurate data

Leveraging inaccurate data or overlooking data quality can cause problems for your business, as you may end up targeting the wrong audience or making decisions based on incorrect information. Making decisions grounded in erroneous data is no better than guessing, so if you are planning to use data for devising marketing strategies, you must ensure that you prioritize quality.

Data inconsistency can also lead to problems like duplicate email messages, which is very unappealing to clients. Data quality is a business imperative because it helps you keep every department aligned and integrated. To avoid problems caused by inaccurate data, it is crucial to constantly review your records and eradicate any redundant, duplicate, or inaccurate information.

Email marketing can be daunting, and if your team is not equipped to do it in-house, you may want to consider hiring an outside professional. Consider leveraging the skills of a freelance administrative assistant, data analyst, or writer who can help you get your contacts organized and segmented and start producing targeted email messaging.

There are many freelancing sites you can explore to find a professional writer for your email marketing writing needs. This can give you an edge by ensuring you are using quality data to produce effective marketing materials.

#2. Keeps contacts secure and up-to-date

A lack of customer information like demographics, psychographics, and other critical data will cause you to waste your money targeting people who might not be interested in your particular product or service. There is a wealth of data available, but this almost means you need to be strategic and safe with your data.

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Digital marketers should emphasize customer and buyer personas that represent the company’s ideal clients. Personas allow marketers to understand customer preferences and reveal the common pain points of their user base. This information can be used to give customers what they want, but you shouldn’t sell customer data or use it for other unethical functions. 

Like any data handling, your email marketing should be secure and targeted. Use your client information ethically and effectively, and focus on the customer’s experience. Accurate data is vital for your non-marketing activities too. You will need to maintain up-to-date contact information for things like making sure that refunds reach the right place and that financial data is accurate to avoid fraud or error.

#3. Helps you reach more people

Leveraging quality data ensures you spend your marketing budget on communicating to the intended audience at the right time. It may not seem like the sexiest way to market, but email is an important part of any marketing budget if you want to reach the average computer user.

Quality data provides valuable insights that you can leverage to enhance the planning and performance of your marketing campaigns. Only by leveraging up-to-date, accurate information that has been adequately segmented, targeted, and analyzed, can you build a robust email marketing plan to reach as many potential leads as possible.

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According to the online marketer, Alexander Williams of Hosting Data, email marketing services remain the most effective tool to reach out to customers in today’s world.

“Email marketing is incredibly cost-effective, with potentially massive returns on investment,” says Williams. “The Digital Marketing Association estimates an average 4300% ROI for US businesses. There are minimal start-up costs. It’s increasing in usage. And you have direct contact with your customers, with lots of flexibility in how you craft your message.”

#4. Helps you reach the right people

Not every person in your email database will have the same needs and concerns. Different people respond better to different email marketing messages, and topical relevance is critical.

It is worthwhile to cluster your contact database by segmenting records according to specific standards. For instance, you can separate contacts according to an individual’s job title, industry, or the stages they are in the buyer journey. When you analyze your customer data with relevant metrics, it helps you be specific about who the audience is so you can deliver better-targeted email campaigns.

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With your database segmented, you can use email marketing triggers to send out automated email marketing messages that are well-suited to a specific group’s needs. Whether emails, mail, or phone calls, customers are more likely to interact and engage with content that is relevant to them. This will help you acquire more quality leads and achieve a higher ROI.

#5. Improves customer relationships

You want to foster satisfaction and a strong rapport with your customer base, and quality data lets you get to know your subscribers so you can understand and meet their needs. Email marketing is not simply the online form of cold-calling – you also want to maintain existing relationships this way. This is especially if you are trying to rebuild customer trust after an incident, such as a data breach or a complaint.

Pay attention to who is responding to what type of messaging. If you don’t do your research, at the end of building a social media campaign, you may discover that customers better respond to phone calls or email. The same goes for customer service. Different age groups in particular may want to interface with your staff differently to address their queries.

And when answering questions or addressing complaints, it is imperative that your customer feels heard. Just as you tailor your advertising to segmented groups, you should target your customer service to satisfy different concerns.

Wrapping Up

The bottom line is, you need to be vigilant about maintaining data quality to maximize the effectiveness of your email marketing. Be sure to validate, update, and segment your contact information like postal addresses, email addresses, names, and phone numbers.

With quality and accurate data and proper analytics, you can reach out to your prospective and existing customers with relevant messages that interest them. Data quality is not negotiable, and it is a critical part of any effective email marketing strategy if you want people to respond to your messaging.

Guest author: Nahla Davies is a software developer and tech writer. Before devoting her work full time to technical writing, she managed — among other intriguing things — to serve as a lead programmer at an Inc. 5,000 experiential branding organization whose clients include Samsung, Time Warner, Netflix, and Sony.

The post 5 Reasons to Prioritize Data Quality in Your Email Marketing appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

source https://www.jeffbullas.com/email-marketing-data-quality/

How to Turn Your Employees Into Company Advocates On Social Media

In a number of ways, an organization is focused on creating sustainable growth and goodwill, which are considered to be significant assets for the company. However, in order to build a good reputation, another asset, which signifies the heart and soul of the company, plays a significant role. The asset is none other than the ’employees.’

In the competitive environment that businesses find themselves in, engaging employees apart from the work sphere is swiftly gaining significance. Among the various strategies that the businesses come up with each day, an experiment made to engage the workforce with the use of social media has left the industrialists quite surprised.

One of the major reasons is – the majority of today’s workforce comprises millennials. They are in search of an opportunity on social media that embodies a wide variety of networks of their interest. In fact, Linkedin has even proved that employees collectively have 10x more connections on social networks compared to the company’s brand.

If that is the scenario, why not let your organization benefit on social media from these potential employees? How about transforming your potential employees into your advocates?

Well, many employers wonder if it’s possible and worth it. The answer indeed is yes. But how and why are the questions that may pop up instantly. Read on to discover the unknown aspects of your employees becoming your advocates.

What is employee advocacy?

In simple words, when an organization enables its workforce to promote its product or service on social media to the general public is what is understood as employee advocacy. However, the phenomenon is still a growing concept, and many organizations have understood its impact on society. The reason behind the concept’s familiarization is the fact that the promotion comes directly from the people who work for you. Who wouldn’t believe it then?

As employee advocacy is gaining importance, companies have already begun to implement the program in a more organized form. Some companies even have implemented software for the same, wherein the content approval, sharing of information, credibility, and rewards as well are systematically followed. Thus, this program enables your employees to act as advocates and increase more authentic leads for the mutual benefit of the company.

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Thus, the organizations harness the employees’ untapped potential by enabling them to be influential leaders. As a result of this influence on the public, employees are given an opportunity to amplify the company’s brand with the right strategies on various social media platforms with authentic voices. This way, the employees play a significant role in sharing the company’s story with the world.

The benefits of employee advocacy

In the digital era that all of us live in, using social media platforms is kind of inevitable. It is true that almost 98% of employees are using social media every day. And among them, research reveals that 50% of employees are already sharing information about their companies.

What is the outcome of this? Well, among the many advantages, here are a few predominant benefits that businesses can experience through employee advocacy on social media.

Increased Business Leads

According to an IBM study, the leads generated through employee advocacy programs and social selling are 7 times greater in comparison to other strategies implemented.

When any posts are shared on social media platforms, companies check the engagement and click-through rates to see a post’s reach to its targeted audience. However, not all posts of the company reach potential customers, as most of them find the company’s posts too promotional.

When employees share posts, LinkedIn has identified that the click-through rates are 2x greater and have a broader reach. Thus, along with reaching potential customers and brand building, the possibility of increasing leads for companies is also higher.

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Eradicates Communication Gap Between Business and Customers

There are a variety of strategies implemented for marketing, but the question is – does it reach your target audience? Most of the time, the answer is no. Because identifying and reaching out to them is difficult without a proper platform. Research undertaken by Facebook reveals that 7/10 businesses communicate effectively using social media platforms, yet only 20% of customers who agree with this.   

What about the rest? Where are we missing out? Well, there might be other questions too. But the answer to all these queries is a well-planned employee advocacy program. It plays a major role in reaching your unknown prospective clients. Added to this, the communication gap is eradicated as employees play a significant role in addressing the prospect client’s queries instantly.

Brand-building messages have a 24x greater effect when distributed among the workforce than the company itself, assures MSLGroup. Moreover, in a survey conducted, 76% say they trust content shared by normal people. Thus, the connection between people (person to person) becomes more effective and meaningful than the connection between business and people.  

Enhances Employee and Client Engagement

Today, employee engagement has become one of the inevitable aspects of a successful business. Yet, with the increasing millennial workforce and changing expectations, engaging employees is tricky yet possible. And one such strategy to engage them is employee advocacy.

Millennials are not just tech-savvy but also highly influential on social media platforms. This includes even Twitter, which helps in driving brand awareness by about 79.4%, while even an average user has 707 followers. Thus, when we direct this interest of theirs on the right path, it is sure to contribute dual benefits.

Firstly, the very fact that a company is allowing them to use social media and trusts them to share the company’s information will make them feel responsible and engaged with the organization. Secondly, the content shared on social media platforms by employees is proven to have 8 times more engagement. With a strategically implemented employee advocacy program, a business can achieve both employee and prospect customer engagement towards the company.   

Ways to encourage employees to be social media advocates

The fact that a company desires to have a well-planned employee advocacy program might motivate employees as the effort shows that you are willing to invest in their personal and professional development. Research shows that companies with a well-organized employee advocacy program have witnessed an increase in brand visibility and employee loyalty.

Let us discuss the strategies that can help you achieve the possibilities of this program. Here are the ways which will contribute to encouraging employees and transform them into advocates for your company.

Set-Up and Convey the Guidelines

Guidelines may differ according to the practices and nature of each business; however, figuring out what suits for your company is the first step. Employee advocacy guidelines should include the do’s and don’ts for the employees in regards to their posts on social media. Apart from this, also specify the kind of vibe and brand morals that you wish to put across.

Once the guidelines are set, make sure they are properly conveyed to the employees before they begin posting and tagging you.

Provide Necessary Training

It would be better if employees were trained before they begin their work as advocates on social media. This training will help motivate and guide them to use the right strategies. The pre-post training will contribute to enhancing their skills and create a better brand image on social media.

Start at a Slow Pace and Gradually Develop The Plan

It’s understandable that once you know the benefit of something, it’s tempting to do anything to achieve it. But it isn’t always right to start all guns blazing. Similarly, employee advocacy should also be started with a small group of employees. Gradually determine its impact on the company and check if the desired results are achieved, and then accordingly, you can expand the implementation.

Encourage Employees By Making Them Aware Of “What’s In It For Me”

Employees turning out to be your advocates is added work that they contribute to the company. Let them be aware of the benefits they can experience through this program. This can also be included in the guidelines you prepare for them. Some of the benefits that the employee could experience are:

• Personal brand building
• Incentives
• An opportunity to express themselves as a thought leader
• Authentic and helpful connections with people
• Increased network
• Better career offers (reported by 86% of employees in a formal advocacy program)

Set-Up Competitive Targets

While you provide training and means to enhance skills, what motivates the employees is the competitive spirit. Therefore, set targets to achieve, and this will make employees perform better as advocates. It contributes to both self-motivation as well as team motivation. Along with this, arrange proper means to measure targets and the success of employees.

Recognize and Appreciate Good Employee Advocates

Recognition and appreciation go a long way in making your employee feel happy and engaged. Especially when employees have achieved the set targets, they deserve it. By doing so, they feel encouraged to perform even better as well as motivate other employees. On the other hand, if they are happy, they are sure to make posts sound happy too for a more engaged audience. Appreciating employees in front of others, giving them a card, or providing a complimentary lunch or dinner, are a few examples.

Wrapping up

In order to connect better with clients, companies are considering social media as one of the most reliable platforms. And for an added advantage of reaching prospective clients, it is wise to tap into the employees of your organization.

The transformation of employees into advocates is indeed a win-win process. So what are your thoughts on it? Would you want to begin the process in your company? Worth a thought, right?

Guest author: Shubham Joshi is an experienced content marketer. Passionate about training and development programs, he is always ready to help colleagues and customers by representing concrete ideas and methodology. Beyond work, he is well-equipped with problem-solving abilities.

The post How to Turn Your Employees Into Company Advocates On Social Media appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

source https://www.jeffbullas.com/turn-employees-into-company-advocates/

How to Sell Digital Products in 2021: A Marketer’s Guide

Digital products are one of the fastest ways for businesses to sell an intangible asset and make money. Today, the popularity of digital products can be attributed to the accessibility and ease of delivery of the products. No wonder, the digital products market is expected to cross $240 billion by the end of 2022.

New players are entering the digital battlefield to gain benefits from the booming market, leading to increased competition. Each digital product owner needs to put their product out in the market and promote it right to gain success.

This is where this marketer’s guide can come in handy.

This write-up talks about digital products and then goes on to cover the various steps required to sell a product from a marketing perspective. In the end, you will also find some simple yet effective marketing tips to sell digital products in 2021.

What is a digital product?

In general terms, a digital product is anything that does not have a physical presence and is an intangible asset. Such a product can be sold on digital platforms for people to download and stream online. These are intangible assets that give returns.

What makes digital products beneficial for many businesses is that it does not need new product development for each sale. You can invest in one-time development costs and can sell the services or their licenses for its use.

There are endless possibilities when it comes to supercharging a digital product. And with new technologies, the options keep increasing.

There are different types of digital products that you can sell in today’s digital ecosystem. Some of these are:

• Software: Hire software developers or build a development team to write codes for software. You can then sell digital products to users. These could be WordPress Plugins, remote working tools, task managers, or any other type of software with a market need. There are several software as a service products/SaaS product ideas that you can work on to get started with your digital product.
• eBooks: While paperback books are still a charm, there is a growing inclination towards eBooks. You can create an eBook and build a website to sell the same. You can even sell it on different platforms like Amazon Kindle to get amazing returns.
• Audio and Video: Another type of digital product that is fast gaining popularity is audio and video product. These could be anything like lectures, study material, fitness audios/videos, reusable music, and much more.
• Photographs: Several online platforms and websites sell high-quality pictures. If you also have a knack for photography, selling digital pictures can be a great idea to start selling your digital product.
• Courses: With the pandemic hitting all aspects of life, the way people studied and received education has changed. You can now sell online courses or even ask for membership to get access to each segment of the course.

These are some of the popular types of digital products that you can sell online today. You can contact product development companies to build your digital product and start selling it online. But how do you sell a digital product?

Let’s find out below.

Steps to start selling digital products

When it comes to selling digital products, there is a lot that marketers need to know. The most important of it is about the sales funnel described in inbound marketing. This is one of the most effective and cost-efficient ways to capture more leads and boost sales.

The inbound marketing sales funnel includes different stages like awareness, consideration, buying, and then loyalty. There is a need for the product owner to keep these stages in consideration while selling the product. It will not just help in boosting sales but also in keeping users engaged throughout the process.

However, this also follows a step-by-step process. So, let’s find out the steps you need to follow to sell your digital product effectively.

#1. Start With Creating Buyer Personas

The first step is always about analyzing the target market and researching the audience. This will enable you to create a strategy that is focused on the targeted buyers.

Let us understand by defining what a buyer persona is. In simple terms, a buyer persona is a fictional character or representation of a particular segment of your target audience. To define it, you must analyze demographics like the age group, browsing patterns, behavior, background, motivation, goals, challenges, pain points, etc. The data can be collected from the existing customer data and competitor data.

The next step is to define the various stages in the buying journey. This includes the awareness stage, consideration stage, and decision stage. In each of the stages, you should add the situation/context, search query, and accordingly the content that the marketing team should create.

Creating a buyer persona helps in creating a more detailed representation of your target audience to amplify your marketing efforts more effectively. You have real people instead of fake representation to create your marketing copy. With buyer personas, you will know exactly what type of content to offer and when to offer personalized marketing. 

#2. Build Your Online Brand

The next step is to build the online brand. A product company without a great brand image won’t sell as much as a product with a great online presence. By brand image, here, we mean creating a feeling of familiarity with the brand name, logo, color choice, etc. It will be the way that your target audience perceives your brand.

Simple steps to building an online brand include:

• Market and audience research
• Thinking about the business name
• Creating the look, logo, slogan, etc., for the brand
• Keep promoting and building the brand as per the feedback and response received

The first three steps are clear and concrete. These can be done with some research and help from a web development company. They can help build your logo, website, and other elements of your site based on the theme you choose. However, it is the fourth step where companies with digital products get stuck.

How do you promote the online brand?

Here is how:

• Work on search engine optimization to start ranking for major keywords on search engines like Google. 49% of users surveyed by Think with Google in 2019 agreed that they used Google to find new products.
• Start a blog and continue to write informative content based on the buyer personas and the stage in their buying journey. Over 57% of companies have acquired more customers owing to their blogs.

• Guest blog on high authority sites to gain exposure and link juices to rank better.
• Don’t forget to keep your social media profile alive and buzzing. Ensure consistency through each social media platform.

#3. Create Product Excitement Pre-launch

The pre-launch time of the product is crucial for any digital product owner. Marketers need to be in full swing during this period. They need to be prepared to create excitement around the product. The best way to do this is through social media.

Social media has proven to be a great platform to create buzz for a product. All you need is to be creative and innovative with your marketing strategy. Here are some things you can do to keep your audience engaged with high excitement levels:

• Build suspense for the digital product by sharing some information but hiding main details. You can share some features of the product that will make it stand out during the pre-launch.
• Share behind-the-scenes videos of the product development. This will create excitement for the product launch. For example, if you are creating an eBook, share a few quotes or a question related to the storyline.
• Update about development and progress in the product development to create excitement regarding the launch.
• Leverage the fear of missing out or FOMO. You can launch some limited-time offers or early-bird offers to attract more customers.
• Start a countdown before the launch to keep the users informed and excited about the launch of your digital product.
• Elicit participation by hosting contests and offering discounts or limited free products before the launch.

#4. Have a Landing Page Before Sales Page

When it comes to selling digital products, most product owners feel they just need a sales page like they do for online stores. However, this shouldn’t be the case. From a marketing perspective, there should always be a landing page before the main sales page. This is because not every buyer would be there to buy. There are some who are simply browsing or considering the purchase.

A landing page will enable them to clear all doubts about digital products. It should have the features, USP, and other information that a buyer may need. Not just that, it should have a call-to-action form for those planning to buy.

This practice of having a landing page as well as a sales page will help strengthen your sales funnel and generate more sales. As digital products are not tangible entities, there is a much greater need for marketers to follow the sales funnel and offer marketing content accordingly. A landing page will help get details of the lead and can be sent out with other details regarding the product. This helps in boosting conversions and even engaging customers who are not ready to make a purchase.

Marketing tips for selling digital products

When it comes to selling digital products, marketers play a very crucial role in the entire process. While the product’s quality and the market needs are pivotal in sales, the way a marketer promotes digital products is also an important factor in success.

Here are some tips that can help marketers sell digital products and boost sales.

#1. Partner with Influencers and Micro-Influencers

Influencer marketing is gaining a lot of traction. In order to boost sales, you can get in touch with influencers and micro-influencers from the niche to try the product and promote it among their followers. This will help build trust and confidence in people to try it out.

#2. Create Buzz For The Product

The next way for marketers to sell more digital products is to create buzz. Be it by inviting guests during launch, going live, hosting an event, or through any other means, creating a buzz is imperative. Social media is one of the most effective ways to do this. Become a social bee and spread the word about your product.

#3. Choose a Name That Says What It’s Offering

In a bid to put a unique name, many product owners name their products totally different from what it’s offering. Marketers should be consulted while naming the product to ensure the name reflects what the product is all about and why customers need it.

#4. Get The Pricing Right

Pricing is another important factor in the sale of digital products. It should neither be undervalued nor be over-expensive. In fact, while marketing, marketers can also use comparison to show how investing the amount in the digital product can be more useful than in any other purchase.

#5. Host Contests

The next great marketing tip to sell digital products is to host contests. You can ask people to enter certain details to register for the contest and also share them with friends and family to increase the chances of winning. Offer giveaways or collaborate with brands to get more collective efforts put into the contest.

#6. Leverage Rewards

Who doesn’t love rewards or free gifts? Tap into this feature of human nature to increase awareness or users for your product. You can offer rewards to everyone bringing more references.

#7. Generate Reviews

The next marketing tip is to generate reviews and testimonials. People trust word of mouth and reviews/testimonials from real people. An eMarketer report suggests that product reviews are trusted 12x more than descriptions.

#8. Create Convincing Product Videos

Wyzowl reports that 84% of people were convinced to buy a new product by watching a brand’s video. Videos are going to get bigger in the coming years and will become a prime source of consuming information. Creating convincing product videos will help understand better to boost promotion and sales.

These are some effective marketing tips that you can use to boost the sales of your digital products.

Build an awesome digital product

The first step to turn an idea into a selling digital product is to build one. You can start by creating the product from scratch, hire the best team to build the product, or get remote product development.

Once the product is ready and in a beta-testing version, start with the pre-launch marketing tactics. Running contests, setting countdowns, and sharing short clips of the product can be a great move at this time. Once the product is launched, get in touch with influencers and others to collaborate on promoting the product.

The right marketing strategy holds immense importance in the sale of a digital product. Just building a product and not marketing it is never beneficial.

Guest author: Tanya Kumari leads the Digital Marketing & Content for Classic Informatics, a global web and custom software development company. She is an avid reader, music lover, and technology enthusiast who likes to be up to date with all the latest advancements happening in the techno world. When she is not working on her latest article on tech dynamics, you can find her by the coffee machine, briefing co-workers on the perks of living a healthy lifestyle and how to achieve it

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