Cheat Sheet on Which Website Changes to Prioritise

There are generally two ways websites change, either big or small.

There is the revolutionary change requiring a periodic 4 to 5 year redesign and there are the little evolutionary changes that happen in between the revolutionary change that are the enhancements, and support handling.

Some changes to websites are simple content changes, while others are serious maintenance normally requiring new features and integration.

There are millions of things you can do with a website and each of them has a cost and benefit:

1. The time/effort/costs needed to make changes varies in time. It can be finished quickly or can take months of planning, programming and testing.
2. The results of the websites changes also vary wildly while some have a huge impact on marketing outcomes while others have none at all.

Adding a new title tag or modifying it, adding a new section or dropping a video has a return (benefit) on investment (time and cost).

Together they can be plotted on a chart showing the relationship between benefits with time and costs.

Time and Money: The costs of website updates

Websites are magic, it allows anyone to interact with your business globally. However, it still does need time, and money or both.

If you have an in-house marketing team, with a solid content management system (CMS), then changes to texts and images don't incur additional expenses. These are basically free website enhancements to the company.

Big design and programming changes normally mean calling your web developer.

Here is a quick overview of possible website enhancements and whether marketing time or there is a required investment into design or development incurred:

Relationship between traffic, conversions and website changes: the benefits

Before making any changes to your current website you should ask this question.

What is the outcome you expect to achieve out of this change? Is it to enhance your brand, gain better conversions or you are responding to feedback you have received from your users?

Each and every investment into your website should align with a goal.

These business goals lead to website needs, where commerce sites are usually higher sales transactions or information sites are for lead generation through better traffic and a higher conversion rate.

That's how essentially websites make money.

Here are some main goals of websites that people use as a benchmark:

1. Increase conversion rates: Maximize the percentage of visitors who visit the site to take action through the website that align with the visitors' perspective and psychology.
2. Increase traffic: Grow brand awareness and top line traffic levels through better alignment between website, search, social, email and paid marketing activities.
3. Easier management: make the website more efficient marketing tool with more flexible templates and tools so no update takes longer than expected and the ability to integrate actively with other systems when practical.
4. Website uptime: Ensure that the website is up during critical times when customers meet most often. Find out more about great hosting here.
5. Internal politics: Keep people happy, especially highly-opinionated people, and people with power. Some website changes don't have any practical marketing purpose.

Beware of opinions! When an opinion is stated look for evidence to support or refute that opinion. You could probably find it in Analytics which is a great tool for making better decisions about website updates.

Below are some examples of website changes that align with goals mentioned above and we see how the benefits matchup according to our experience:

There are a few updates to your website that could potentially hurt the marketing results (yes this is true and can happen to you too!) and here are some common examples:

1. Adding a design element that pulls the visitors attention from the call-to-action.
2. Building an expensive feature that isn't rarely used.
3. Updating the title tag of a page that already ranks high for a valuable phrase.

Set priorities

Things by now should be clear.

Look at every possible change to your website in context of costs and benefits and you should be well on your way to determine objectively what business goals need to be solved and what changes potentially have a negative impact on the site or could potentially hurt marketing results.

Create a worksheet with some of the points above that is simple. The most important aspect of this exercise is to have a clear statement of purpose. The risks of action without outcomes without a clear direction can be bad.

Not sure? Test.

There is no certain answer to every method. You can still be clear about the goals and look carefully at the costs that might be incurred.

If costs are marginal then try quickly and measure the impact of the change over a fixed time to compare with other changes that occur on the site.

If costs are high, weigh the risk and proceed with the test or you can choose to prioritize the lower cost updates, only making the bigger changes after you've exhausted the smaller, simpler updates.

When Updates Reach Limits

Eventually you will hit the point where updates have reached their limit and it is possibly a time for a redesign.

An updated website has a lifespan of around 3 to 5 years depending on the business and the industry, and updates might not be keeping in line with market trends.

This should be a clear indication to stop making updates and proceed with plans for a new redesign.

What do you prioritise for website changes?

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Industry Secrets Revealed: Mobile Originated vs Mobile Terminated

MO and MT are frequent terms that you may come across when dealing with EVERWORKS SMS Delivery Gateway. These two jargon terms sound complicated when they really are not! MO standards for Mobile Originated are messages 'originating' from the user's mobile phone. Where as Mobile Terminated which means messages get terminated on the phone. 

MO and MT are frequent terms used by mobile marketing and sms service providers to identify the different requirements and function of each point of action. Think of it simply as a flow chart where there is a point of inquiry and there is a final response.

Firstly, MO simply means user-initiated response from his/her own mobile phone. They usually send in a text word(s) which form the keyword so that the system can identify and respond to the inquiry. This keyword is only just a command instruction partnered with a short-code to help the server respond with to display the information requested for. 

For example: "mobile" is the keyword sent to the short-code "33886" would query a response from the server to sent information relevant to both the "mobile" keyword and short-code "33886".

Secondly, MT simply means the point where after receiving instruction from the MO will display the relevant information for the inquirer.

The command received from the MO's earlier keyword and short-code would generate a response from the server, which would be terminated on the user's mobile phone (terminated messages does not imply messages that stop an action, but instead it means the final point of destination the message is intended to reach). 

For example: after a user has sent an MO containing both the keyword "mobile" and the short-code "333-888" the server would respond to send "sms delivery gateway services special offer 40% discount for bulk orders over RM xx", representing the MT displayed on the user's mobile phone.

With a 140% mobile phone penetration rate in Malaysia there is ever growing opportunity to reach new customers, existing customers, or respond interactively with field employees and more (Source: eCommerce Milo).

Multiple uses of mobile marketing can be employed to generate a user response and initiate pre-sales and post-sales customer service and provide a response to a potential customer demand. 

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6 Fantastic VR Marketing Examples for Your Business

The importance of virtual reality (VR) shouldn't be taken lightly, as the Internet was once a debate. This is the future and we should learn from past experiences with the Internet.

 Here you will find 9 Fantastic Ideas on how to apply VR to your business. It is estimated that by 2020, the economic impact of virtual and augmented reality is predicted to reach $29.5 billion.

By the end of 2017, the number of shipped units of VR software and hardware from Sony, Oculus, HTC, and others totaled $2.4 million, up from $1.7 million in 2016.

By 2020, the number of VR headsets sold is predicted to reach 82 million -- a 1,507% increase from 2017 predicted totals.

 It's evident that VR is being adopted in the marketplace at a rapid pace, and adding this capability to your existing portfolio of marketing channels is something you must consider to stay current in the ever changing ever growing competitive space for business.

 What Is VR VR, is short for virtual reality, is a form of interactive software that immerses users in a three-dimensional environment to simulate a real experience (This is achieved with the help of some hardware). Ideally, VR allows people to simulate the experience in 360 degrees.

 Numerous industries are now finding uses for VR. Some examples include the transport people to places they might otherwise have to travel to, or simply imagine.

While movie companies, for example, are giving audiences the opportunity to experience the movie as if they're the actual character in the scene, and conventional businesses are now using VR to demonstrate and promote their products to potential customers to give them a more immersive experience and a more vivid illustration on what they intend to communicate.

 Before we dive into some of the businesses that have found success injecting their marketing with a dose of VR, it's worth noting that virtual reality has a few key differences from another term you might've heard before: augmented reality.

Both are working in the virtual space, however, there are differences:

 Let's dive into the 9 fantastic ideas on how to apply VR to your business below:

 1. Key Technology: VERYX Food Sortixd d. 0g

 

 As a designer and manufacturer of food processing systems, Key Technology created a VR demo system that would allow any attendee to experience a more detailed, hands-on look at how the company's VERYX digital food sorting platform works and how it will help them.

 2. Defy Ventures and Within: Step To The Line

 

 Another great VR initiative we recommend is Step To The Line: A short film (that was immersively viewed on a VR headset) documenting the lives of inmates at California maximum-security prisons. Created by Within, a VR storytelling production company, in partnership with Defy Ventures, an entrepreneurship and development program for men, women, and youth who are currently or were formerly incarcerated.

The objective of this viewing experience is to help viewers to uniquely see what life is like within the walls of these correctional facilities, from the yard, to the cells, to the conversations that take place there.

3. Limbic Life: Project VITALICS

 

There is knowledge that For far too many people, injuries, age, and disease can diminish mobility and equilibrium to the point where walking is extremely painful to nearly impossible.

 Pairing this special chair with a Gear VR headset allows users to more intuitively move their bodies (thanks to the chair's combined neuroscience-based and ergonomic design) while virtually experiencing day-to-day experiences with a rehabilitative use of their hands and legs.

 Dr. Patrik Künzler mentioned, "Patients enjoy being in the chair and the freedom of movement it allows. They enjoy VR a lot, especially the flying games," he told Samsung Business Insights. And not only can the VR technology help them physically heal, but it also contributes to emotional rehabilitation. "When they get up from the chair," Künzler said, "they’re in a good mood and feel happy.”

4. Lowe's: Holoroom How To

 

 IT is more often than not for any first-time buyer. Even if you know of the unfathomable power of paperwork and finances to undermine the fun of designing or decorating a new home. That is, until you walk into one of 19 Lowe's stores that features the Holoroom How To VR experience.

 Some homeowners are lucky enough to pay a professional to renovate their home when it needs to be. For others -- Lowe's core buyer -- the next stop is the world of do-it-yourself (DIY) home improvement, which comes with its own hefty dose of stress.

 That's why Lowe's decided to step in and help out homeowners -- or recreational DIY enthusiasts -- with a virtual skills-training clinic that uses HTC Vive headsets that guides participants through a visual, educational experience on the how-to of home improvement.

5. Boursin: The Sensorium

 

We discovered that the cheese brand Boursin once created a VR experience to take users on a multi-sensory journey through a refrigerator to shed light on its products' flavor profiles, food pairings, and recipe ideas.

 The goal: to raise awareness among U.K. consumers of Boursin's distinct taste and product selection. While the VR installment was part of a live experiential marketing campaign, the rest of us can get a taste -- pun intended -- of the virtual experience via this YouTube video.

 6. Adidas: Delicatessen

 

 In 2017, Adidas partnered with Somewhere Else, an emerging tech marketing agency, to follow the mountain-climbing journey of two extreme athletes sponsored by TERREX (a division of Adidas). And what good is mountain climbing to an audience if you can't give them a 360-degree view of the journey?

Viewers were able to follow the climbers, literally rock for rock and climb along with them. You heard that right -- Using a VR headset and holding two sensory remote controls in each hand, viewers could actually scale the mountain of Delicatessen right alongside Rueck and Miller.

This VR campaign, according to Somewhere Else, served to "find an unforgettable way to market TERREX, [Adidas's] line of outdoor apparel & accessories." What the company also did, however, was introduce viewers to an activity they might have never tried otherwise. Instill an interest in the experience first, and the product is suddenly more appealing to the user.

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How You Can Be More Efficient With Email At Work

..Runs into the lift

..Rushes out to the door

beep..8:59am "phew, just on time"

Boots computer.. "first things first, gotta check email to see what's the status from Atikah and Wong"

This daily routine sounds familiar doesn't it? I'm attached to checking email constantly. This isn't surprising because email has been and continues to be the most popular form of communicating for businesses.

Times are changing, and there's an increasing amount of options for workplace communications options. Apps like Slack and Workplace by Facebook are changing the way for workplace communications. However, there are some that still prefer having a conversation in person, where apps like Skype help to streamline the distance gap.

Even with an increasing number of new technology, email isn't a thing of the past -- at least not yet --. Increasing options of communications is making it trickier to remember the right "etiquette" when emailing.

Email helps us to recap, reconcile and remember important conversations and helps to streamline when there's too much going on. Until a new more organised approach is introduced to the world and is universally accepted, email is staying, and that's why it's important to make effective use of email.

"Read on. Here's a quick and easy list of Do's and Don'ts to help you maintain effective use of email."

How to use your email in the workplace effectively

The Do's

1) Personalise

It's really important to personalize your emails, no one likes talking to a robot. You should come to realize that the person who is receiving your email is a real life human being, not a computer robot that is processing your request. Adding some personality to your email will make it easier for the person receiving it to relate better with your email's intended purpose.

2) Adapt

There's a saying that different people respond differently and these reactions are largely bound by the characteristics of the person. Here's an example, what if you sent a data focused email to someone who isn't motivated by data. This person receiving this email would not know how to adequately respond to your objective, because there's a disconnect. Learn to adapt your writing style, content body, etc. to the person receiving it. This will greatly increase your email's effectiveness.

3) Always check before clicking "send"

This should go without discussion, really. It's actually very shocking to receive an email that has not been checked. Spelling errors, and grammar mistakes are not game changers. However, if your email had been written in a manner you did not intend it to be and its been interpreted wrongly, this would demotivate the receiver from cooperating with your intentions.

4) Check your email on your own time

Like with most tasks, email shouldn't be treated any differently. Some emails are urgent and require immediate response. However, more often than not most emails can wait and I do encourage you to take the time to think carefully before responding.

5) Keep your inbox clean

It's shocking. How everyone is not making an effort to ensure that they're email inbox is sorted and kept tidy. I've witnessed the amount of wasted time anyone goes through when backtracking their email to search for urgent information. Here's how you can clean up the mess.

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Email is still an important tool for business communication today. Take advantage of the sheer amount of email use everyday by implementing strategies to harness its wide user base. Learn more here.

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5 Marketing Resolutions to Start Your Business's New Year Right

Its that time of year again, you're here probably because you are looking for new year resolutions for your marketing campaigns that you'd like to follow through on.

Take a second to think about what you've accomplished throughout this year and what you are going to resolve to accomplish this coming new year. Maybe you've thought of ways to better manage your time or come up with fun ideas for team outings.

1. Focus on mobile.

Mobile is huge period. This shouldn't be an option for Malaysian businesses anymore it should be a point of focus that is serious for businesses to consider.

2. Make your website responsive.

This shouldn't even be a topic of consideration, but with many Malaysian websites still old and not updated it is time that you consider updating your website and not leaving it untouched since the mid 90's

3. Adjust your social and email strategies to work with SMS

Social and the leverage of influencers are the buzz at the moment, be wise with your selection and choose one to prioritize on. The age of social is upon every business and it is going to stay. Keep up or lose out.

4. Take a look at your buyer personas.

All the resolutions in the world would not do you any good if you have not narrowed down your list of potential buyers. You can send them mix messages or messages that do not relate to them at all. Look through how you ca re-engage with your list and better engage with them.

5. Consider a homepage revamp.

Although you might have already put in a great deal of time, effort, and resources to making a top-tier homepage, a change in buyer persona or a change in trend could mean it is time for a facelift. The Internet is constantly evolving and so are your buyers. Keep up with them buy making sure that relevant content is consistently communicated to them.

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The Quick Way to Learn if Your SMS Marketing Campaign Converts

According to the Malaysian Digital Association, Malaysia has 44 million+ mobile subscribers. That's a whopping 1.4x the total population of Malaysia. This is huge for businesses in Malaysia and should be an ideal place to reach and engage with new and existing audiences.

There's an argument though that Facebook is all the hype with 1.28 billion active users every day it seems to be a no brainer for marketers to focus their efforts here.

Hold on right there, that's the total number of active users a day, globally. How does Malaysia fair? According to Facebook themselves as reported by soyacincau.com about 80% of Malaysians that have access to the Internet are on Facebook, that's about 18 million people.

From this perspective SMS Marketing seems to be the more attractive option. However, this article isn't written with the purpose to discuss about the differences between SMS Marketing and Facebook. Rather how to measure whether the campaign you're running through SMS is actually worth it for your business. Let's get right into it.

How do you begin measuring SMS Marketing ROI?

You might be asking, why calculate your SMS ROI?

You need to know which channels are working best for you and how much return you're getting to know where to spend your marketing dollars for your future SMS Campaigns.

Here's an example scenario.

It usually costs your company around RM100 to acquire a customer. You just got to know about SMS Marketing and want to test it out by trying an SMS Marketing campaign to generate new customers with a budget of RM1,000. You run this campaign and notice that it generates you 11 new customers. Was it worth it?

To find out if your campaign is actually worth it or not is pretty simple.

Just follow a simple formula and you're good to go.

Take the amount you spent (cost) and divide it with your returns. From the example scenario above you take the RM1,000 budget that you have as the amount you have spent (cost) and divide it with the number of customers it has brought back in (returns).

11 new customers. That makes for an approximate of RM90 per acquired customer.

Since you know that the typical cost it takes to acquire a customer (RM100) with the new campaign you have decided to run you realise that it only costs you RM90 to acquire a new customer.

Knowing this allows you to understand that you're SMS Marketing Campaign is performing fairly well against the usual customer acquisition cost you have previously been running.


via GIPHY

With this, you should be well on your way to becoming an expert on measuring your customer acquisition costs and using it as a benchmark to tell if your SMS Marketing campaign was actually worth it or not.

If you'd like to discuss more about SMS Marketing and how we can help you with your campaign, do get in touch with us here or if you'd like to learn more about the services we have on offer please visit our website.

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Don't Send These Messages to Your Subscribers

We have a tendency to want to flatter our prospects, and to deliver a high level of personalisation so that they can resonate with you. Take caution though on going too personal, it should be kept simple so that you do not come across as creepy. Else your customers will start to wonder how you've managed to get such detailed -private- information about them. This isn't good to do. Normally people don't trust flattery from strangers.

3 Creepy SMS Habits to Drop

1) You know too much about them

With today's technologies and tools it makes it really easy to learn a lot about a person.

Pro tip: Embrace what you don't know and try seeming a bit lost. It's okay to not always be credible and start to be more curious. The more questions you can ask, the more natural the conversation will flow and build.

2) You're focusing too much on what they've done not what they've said

"I see that you've been to the same university as me". This is creepy. Please forget about the school, work history, summary, awards, and reference sections. Instead go straight to the associations, groups and network associations.

Pro tip: I can send them an approach which says we've noticed you said this and we'd like to ask you some questions. This builds rapport and is a more authentic way of building a relationship.

3) You are not disclosing your sources

Don't say, "I understand you recently moved jobs" "I'm aware you're looking for new software" or "I know you also know Bob". These statements raise questions that you don't want people asking themselves.

Pro tip: "I'm actually not a member of the group, ..." is an opener that might sound trivial, but that's an important phrase to include to save you a lot of time from explaining, and allows you to establish that the person you are approaching still remains to be the expert.

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It's important to remember that every approach you make must have a specific goal in mind. If not your recipient or prospect won't know what's the objective of you trying to reach out to them. You might be asking, when should you take the lead in the conversation? The answer is at some point of time when you the conversation is headed towards a direction you expect it to. The answer is vague, and you'd like an accurate answer to it, but the truth is there isn't one. The positive you can take from this is that when you place more power in the prospects hands, it's more likely that they will be more eager to open to you.

If you'd like to learn more about how we can help you with SMS Marketing, you can follow our updates here on our blog, or you can get in touch with us.

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7 Easy SMS Ideas to Attract Foot Traffic to your Store

SMS Marketing is the success for a number of industries. On average there more than 95 million SMS are sent every single day in Malaysia. This is another way that retailers can engage with and motivate consumers.

What sets SMS apart from other marketing initiatives is the level of intimacy SMS has with the user. There's a difference compared to other digital and print ads, is that the subscribers on your list have explicitly chosen to receive communications from you and that they want to hear from you.

When you compare this with other forms of ads like social media, paid ads, or other tactics, nothing is more personal than SMS. Any message you're sending actually lands in someone's cellphone, every single time. Social media only reaches a ratio of your entire audience potential and paid traffic is often not qualified. The idea is with other forms of adverts, the activity of reaching out to people don't even know your brand yet with expectation for them to spend money on you.

Utilising SMS Marketing allows you to reach a qualified audience on an intimate nature, which means that these people are more qualified to take action.

Below you'll find ways Malaysian retailers can use SMS Marketing to lure in more foot traffic.

What to Include in Every SMS

Malaysian Retailers who have brick-and-mortar stores should always include information (a CTA) in every SMS as a reminder to come to the shop. Here are some things you'll want to consider; A specific landing page leading from the SMS that shows:

• A list of locations (plus a link to easily get directions from Waze / Google Maps)
• Store hours and phone numbers.

Use more personal language. For example: "Your Local Store", compared to "Nearby Locations" or "Nearby Stores". The more personalised the messaging feels to the customer, the more likely it will resonate.

Don't Just Send SMSs

There's more to SMS marketing than simply sending SMS's to your list. There's a requirement for maintenance, strategy, and nurturing involved, as well.

Building Your List

If you don't have an existing SMS list, you're going to need to get one. And if you're thinking that it's as easy as putting up a form on your website. Think again.

Customers sign up for SMS lists because they want to get something out of it. In some cases, it could be a free resource and for other cases, they sign up because of a free gift with purchase. If you're not sure what to offer your SMS subscribers, think about who your target market is and what they want. It could be as simple as a coupon code, but it needs to be appealing enough to make your customers want to give you their personal information.

Then think how you will encourage customers to sign up on your list. There are many ways to do this, but again, it comes down to your target market. If your target market are mainly on Facebook, run a paid Facebook campaign to build your list. Likewise for other channels; magazines, forums, associations, etc.

Segmenting Your List

SMS list segmentation is important. Period.

List segmentation is by creating lists within your list. Sublists, of customers with similar attributes grouped together by demographics, purchasing behavior, SMS engagement, and more.

"If you want to use SMS to drive more foot traffic to your store, you must make sure that you're only SMSing customers that have registered interest to actually coming into your store."

SMS Ideas to Attract More Foot Traffic to Your Store

In-Store Events and Announcements

This method is a highly recommended way for retailers to boost foot traffic. If you really want customers to come to your events, you'll need to do more than just send a one-time event about it.

Instead, think of an SMS series that you can send weeks prior to the event. This helps build buzz, and your list is more likely to see it.

For example:
Athletic gear: Have a meet-and-greet with a local celebrity athlete. Send out emails that have exclusive Q&As, the athlete's training regimen, and videos where the athlete demonstrates different exercises. Post-event, distribute more fitness tips, coupons for any recommended gear (in-store purchases only!), and information on future events.

Celebrate Customer Milestones

Customers have relationships with brands, and the more brands nurture those relationships, the more they can expect their customers to purchase with them. Celebrating milestones in the brand's relationship with its customers you can encourage them to come in store to share that moment with your brand. Here are some examples of what you can implement for your customer:

• Birthday
• Anniversary of joining your SMS list
• Anniversary of first purchase

Build Hype Around Your Products

New Arrivals? Stock running low? Use SMS to create buzz around your products to give updates. Let your customers know about the status of products.

• New arrivals
• Popular products
• Running low

SMS Marketing Is Only as Strong as Your Strategy

At the end of everything, a strong SMS marketing strategy is important to ongoing and consistent success. Starting out with measurable goals and a target market in mind will help ensure your SMS marketing is as effective as possible.



Find out more about how you can implement SMS Marketing here.

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Don't Miss Out On The Instagram Bandwagon (Tips For More Followers Inside)

If you're here reading this then you already must know the potential that Instagram offers as a channel for you to sell and market your brand.

It's ever more so important for your business to humanize your approach so that you attract employees that share the same goals as you and delight your customers as their growing needs and expectations change.

Here's the crunch. Unless you're famous it's actually nearly impossible to get a large following on Instagram without hard work or money $$.

For an average business, growing a fanbase or following takes dedicated daily attention and time. That being said, there is a way to get at least your first 1,000 followers on your Instagram account (Disclaimer: this still requires time and effort, but rest assured it is more focused and efficient).

The secret is to know where to invest your time and effort, by customizing your profile, curating content, writing clever copy, using hashtags and working with influencers and fans through actions that incentivize engagement.

Let's go through how you could gain your first 1,000 followers by creating an Instagram worthy profile through to using contests while staying true to your brand.

How to get more followers on Instagram

1) Make your profile cool

The easiest and often missed, make sure your profile is public (you can do this by navigating to your Instagram account's "Options" and make sure the "Private Account" is turned off.

Make sure your username is recognizable and easily searchable.

How? If your business name is already taken try keeping the first part of your username as your business name so people who are searching for your business are more likely to find you. For example @lornajaneactive

2) Dedicate to content creation

Commit to have someone or yourself to creating content so that there is a good variety of postings that comes handy when you need it!

3) Improve your photo taking and editing skills

On Instagram post quality matters.

I should emphasize that it matters A LOT. Do not put a bad photo up and always have a good eye for great photos. You can beef up on your photography skills here and your editing skills (there's a list of great websites to learn editing posted at despreneur).

4) Populate your Instagram page

If it's your first time it's a good idea to get posts up (around 20 or so) before you start engaging with people and working down this list.

5) Use relevant hashtags

To help relate to your followers try getting on a hashtag campaign. Like above ^

6) Run contests

A great way to expand your reach while increasing engagement on your profile would be to publish a promotion contest post then ask your audience to follow, like and comment on the photo to enter. Include hashtags like the example above #letsbefrank so you can include user generated content in your postings.

7) Make your Instagram profile easy to find and follow

Place a follow button link, icon on your website / email newsletters so it's easy for people to find your profile and interact with you.

More often than not most audiences don't even know that a brand is actively engaging on Social Media. See our website for an example above.

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These marketing tips are to help you improve your business and what you can do to ensure that the business you're running drives leads in a variety of ways for you.

Consider SMS Marketing and alternative direct approach to CRM for existing customers or to reach out to customers that have interest but have yet to covert. Find out more here.

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Supercharged Marketing Tool with 99% Open Rate and a 36% Click Through Rate

We'd like to wish all Malaysians Selamat Hari Merdeka! This year's Merdeka is special with the SEA Games being hosted in Kuala Lumpur. Learn more about the SEA Games here.

Find out how you can spice up your holiday with mobile marketing below.

During Merdeka there are major discounts and deals given to consumers and this has been the highlight and trend that majority of Malaysians look forward to.

Redbox turned the opportunity into their benefit when they SMSed text messages to their followers to follow them on their Instagram account. This is a cross-channel approach to encourage users to participate with their different marketing channels.

With the average SMS open rate at 99% and the average click through rate at 36% it is easy for brands to direct their customers to other owned marketing channels. The statistics are also the reason why a lot of brands are attracted to the possibility of SMS.

(Source: https://www.tatango.com/blog/redbox-spices-up-holiday-mobile-marketing-campaign/)

Hey it's the holiday season in Malaysia with a lot of brands taking advantage of the festivities by testing and making returns on alternative marketing methods and channels.

Learn other ways you could use SMS for your business here: How to conduct a SMS giveaway and Here are 10 reasons why your cafe should use SMS marketing.

Give SMS a try.

We believe that Malaysia is a beautiful country with abundant opportunity. Here is to the future :)

#bangkitbersama
#NegaraKuSehatiSejiwa

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Learn How You Can Make Your Social Sharing Explode

Content marketing and social media are two different thing. Neither content marketing nor social media can be done well without the other.

Social media is only a slice of your content marketing strategy pie. Social media should always be included when you devise a content marketing plan, while website, partnership sites and search engines should also be considered.

There are various ways to distribute your content marketing. With that being said, social sharing should be placed as the top priority.

Every piece of content you post online should be promoted, linked, or reposted on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media platforms. Social media is a direct path to brand loyalty and engagement with your target audience. Content marketing’s objective is consumption, while social media revolves around participation.

Social media comes with other benefits as well. For instance, social media is a fantastic tool to obtain valuable audience insights. Most of the social networking sites offer some sort of analytics. One of the few notable ones include Facebook Insights and Twitter Analytics, which rivals even the king of analytics, Google Analytics with their audience nuggets.

Social media postings allow instant feedback. For websites, it might take days or even weeks to analyse and evaluate how well the new content is resonating. Social media allows you to know within hours. Social shares can get you these valuable insights. When people share your content, it’s a signal that you’re doing things right. In fact, sharing is even better than commenting because sharing allows you to reach even more people while commenting doesn’t, and it isn’t always a good thing because it might be a bad comment directed towards your company.

Although results vary according to the social media platform you chose, there are still many ways that can increase sharing.

Go Wild With Visual Content

‘Visual content is the new black.’ This phrase has been thrown around since 2012 to depict the effectivity and efficiency of compelling visuals.

Visual content is extremely shareable. Try to think for a moment, do you see a witty meme and cute puppy photos shared on your Facebook news feed often? Most probably, the answer is yes. Why? Because they are hilarious, fun, and something out of the box that they can relate to. Your objective as a content marketer is to be the source of a photo that people share.

• Think twice before using a stock photo. At times, stock photos lack a source of life and personality. It’s good to have a little fun sometimes with humorous photos that you might find ridiculous. It’s good to incorporate comedic elements to entertain your audience and show that you’re not a one-dimensional cardboard.
• Release the designer within you. Don't give yourself excuse to use plain and boring visuals. Let your creativity go wild and be open to out-of-the-box ideas. Incorporate interesting design with compelling texts in your visuals.

Regardless of the nature of your campaign, it is always good to include one or several visual elements/content that are light, fun, and entertaining. After all, everyone likes a little laughter to loosen up from time to time.

The Power of Videos

Producing a video is extremely difficult and hectic, but they are worth the time, money and effort. Research has proven that digital video content that are interesting and compelling enough has a much higher chance to go viral.

Another suggestion to incorporate videos into your content marketing strategy is to plan a series instead of a one-off video. This gets your audience hooked and tuned in to you from time to time.

These videos can be as simple as vlogs or even silent videos, meaning videos that insert text to convey their message instead of having people speaking or voice overs.

If there is a slightly higher budget you can even conduct an interview based video, where you collect opinions from the public that revolves around the central theme/topic that fits your mission statement. Organisations with a relatively higher budget will choose to produce PSA (Public Service Announcement) themed videos that incorporates emotional elements that are capable of touching and evoking the public’s emotions.

These videos lay a huge impact to the public because it touches on their fragile and sensitive inner emotions. It shows that the organisation has a sense of humanity and actually cares about things happening around us, making the audience feel that they care about them. Ultimately, portraying the organisation in a positive and likeable way.

List-based Articles

Research has proven that in recent years, list-based articles have gotten very popular. This is due to the fact that users prefer digestible content on social media.

List-based articles’ content are broken down into bits that are direct and easy to consume. It also adds the ‘share’ factor that drives users to repost/reblog/retweet.

Make sure the subject of your articles are of your audience’s interests. When writing these articles, make sure your content either addresses their needs, or is captivating enough to make them read and share. A few great examples is, “Twitter Goes Public: 21 Things You Should Know”, “6 Types of Employees - Which Are You?”, “6 Ways To Nail An Interview”.

These subject (and their headlines) are intelligently crafted and it prompts people to click in out of curiosity and interest.

Baiting

What is baiting on social media? Baiting is the act of selecting a hot topic or trend that fits your brand and ask a question informally on your network. For instance, if you’re an alcohol company, bait your readers several times a week:

“A research done recently shows that 62% of whiskey drinkers like to mix their whiskey with apple juice. How do you like your whiskey to be mixed?”

“Herbal tea-flavored whiskey?! What do you think about this Oriental whiskey flavor?”

“They say night time is the best time to enjoy whiskey. Which part of the day is your favorite time to enjoy a cup of whiskey?”

The key to this is to be moderate and encourage participation among your audience. If people start making an interesting or insightful point, thank them because they are giving you alot of attention. This will also drive them to invite their like-minded comrades into the conversation.

All in all, these tips will no doubt increase your social sharing, but your work doesn’t stop here. You must set a goal in mind, either to convert your followers into legit customers or garner more followers and promote brand loyalty.

Keep your objective in mind every time you post and be thankful for all the participation you get in social media because it shows your audience’s loyalty towards your brand. After all, the ultimate goal of social media is to turn customers into a voluntary marketing army.

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Is Viral Marketing the New Money Tree? (Lessons to Learn From Kony 2012)

The Internet Joins The Advertising Industry 

Ever since the emergence of the online media, the advertising industry has went through a huge revolution.

What used to be only found in newspapers, television, radio, billboards, etc, also exist in the online media now; which can be stored permanently and accessed anytime.

Majority of the people worldwide spends more of their time on the online media than any other traditional media. The online media is evolving rapidly and turning into the media that most people depend on the most these days. 

In recent years, social networking sites are trending worldwide and have managed to attract millions of users globally.

This phenomenon has caused big organisations and advertisers to target the online media, especially social networking sites to be a great platform to reach out to a large number of individuals or the intended demographics. 

The ‘Viral’ Phenomenon in Online Media 

‘Viral’ is a term constantly used to describe any form of work, production, or information that is being circulated rapidly, mainly in the internet. The term ‘viral’ was derived from the term ‘virus’, describing an effect of spreading rapidly and widely like a virus. 

Among the things that go viral in the internet, videos go viral most frequently. Ever since Youtube, a video-sharing website, was created in 2005, users are able to watch all types of videos from it and are even able to upload their own recordings and productions on Youtube.

With simple and convenient functions such as the search bar and the ‘trending videos’ section, users are able to search for videos they want to watch easily and can even watch what is trending at the moment. Furthermore, the emergence of social networking sites allow users to share these videos easily on popular social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and such.

This is where the ‘viral’ phenomenon kicks in. The videos are shared to all of their friends and connections in social networking sites. Then, the people who see it and also find it interesting might also share the video again to their own circle of friends and community. The cycle goes on and on and this is how the ‘viral’ phenomenon take place and functions. 

To make something go viral, it is essential for the content to be attention grabbing. It could be something interesting, controversial, offensive, shocking, or any other creative elements that can garner attention regardless of it being in the form of images, videos or whatsoever.

The mission here is to create something that will entice users to share it to their group of social circle, with the ultimate goal to make it circulate around the internet. 

KONY 2012 – Most Viral Video in 2012 

On 5th of March 2012, a short film called KONY 2012 was uploaded onto Youtube. It is produced by Invisible Children, Inc., an organization that aims to create awareness among the public globally to stop the Lord’s Resistance Army and its leader, Joseph Kony.

The video introduces Joseph Kony to the viewers, providing details and provoking viewers to support the organization in their actions of appealing to the officials to take the issue more heavily and deploy more troops to arrest Joseph Kony. KONY 2012 achieved more than 32 million views within its first week, and has more than 100 million views currently.

The video has been massively spread and circulated in the internet due to the use of the few major social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.

The success of it was mainly due to the excellent videography and scriptwriting techniques that were employed in producing the video, accompanied with a strong emotional touch that touches the viewers. Users were sharing the video with their own input of opinions, expressing how it touches them and convince others to watch it as well. 

Why Viral Marketing? 

As of now, the public is even harder to please than ever. Therefore, companies must constantly come out with creative ideas to get the public’s attention.

Viral marketing does so and the circulation effect it achieves is astonishing. With that being said, viral content is not something that is easily created.

A huge amount of ideas and effort is needed in order to create something that relates to the public; something so good that when an individual sees it, he/she couldn’t resist to share it. 

Viral marketing is so successful because the content is extremely engaging and people are far more open to recommendations and testimonials from their friends compared to that of the media.

They are slightly more skeptical towards advertisements found in the media as they know organisations paid large sum of money to the media to broadcast their advertisements; while they are more likely to believe information provided from a personal source that they trust. 

As the world slowly evolves and improves, it is necessary for us to keep up with its pace and be up to date in recognising the social phenomenon.

It is undeniable that viral marketing is a great marketing and advertising tool for companies to get their message across as well as achieving brand recognition; but what makes it so special is that it also prompts the public to insert their own input into it while sharing it online, encouraging them to speak their mind and inspire them to invoke the creative and innovative potential within them.

Alternative Marketing with a 100% Delivery statistic

Consider mobile advertising done right with SMS. There is no limitation of connectivity or problems with compatibility. Reach every customer within your database to inform, educate, or to advertise your new product or service.

This method very much like social media is competitively cheaper when compared to billboard, and traditional media advertising.

Within the strategy of viral marketing impose reminders to your customers to have exposure to more than just social media channels but also through mobile channels.

Mobile is huge with penetration within Malaysia alone to be over 140%. Take on this new strategy for added growth now.

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4 Marketing Strategies to Engage Generation Z

Marketing trends are cyclical, rotating around generations in a different social upbringing. Marketing strategies that target Baby Boomers, Generation X and Y, and the Millennials is something of the past with a new generation coming forth, Generation Z.

This generation is exposed to the Internet from a young age. Technology and social media is the norm for communication with family, friends, purchases, their workplace, etc.

Internet is no longer a shiny new toy, it is a necessity that every business should be on immediately. Generation Z is the modern day consumer, with the Internet widespread in a variety of industries and impacting everyday tasks and needs.

Businesses should start to put effort in understand the behavioral patterns of Generation Z.

Children are big influencers. Ask parents and most will tell you their purchasing behavior is strongly influenced by their children. That goes without saying that the purchasing power of this new generation is approximately $44 billion.

Generation Z consumers are different from other groups. Companies must deliberately craft information that target and engage them through the appropriate channels.

Targeting and engaging Generation Z:

1. Visuals

In our experience video is the number 1 engagement media for Generation Z, with pictures coming second and words being the least effective. Modern consumers want to instantly consume and access information conveniently quick. Being conveniently quick means adoption of marketing content that must cater to mobile. Mobile adoption rates in the smartphone categories have been changing the global marketplace and your business should implement this right from the get-go.

Just to name a few; Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest have a lasting popularity because the platform allows Generation Z to consume quickly, share with the social circles that matter to them, and rely on information that trusted influencers recommend conveniently.

Conversations are changing. Short video messages, photos embedded with text allows Generation Z to share their life experiences with rich depth compared to describing their experiences through text.

2. Clear & Concise

Research shows that the attention span of Generation Z is approximately 8 seconds. The blame for this shocking revelation should be on the existence of smartphones and their ‘scrolling’ nature. All of the social media apps or mobile web pages exist in a scrolling form. Scrolling is extremely convenient, in fact, it is too convenient. It causes them to just scroll through or swipe away if they’re not interested in a particular post at first glance. This is why brands’ content posted on social media need to be able to grab their attention instantly to avoid being scrolled through and ignored.

Messages need to be bite-sized: short, simple, and direct. Keep this in mind, ‘less is more’.

Keep your message on point like how a drag queen’s makeup is always on point.

3. Word-of-Mouth

As permanent tenants in social media, Generation Z has been groomed to enjoy sharing in social media. They can’t be fooled easily by marketing schemes and will only share things that they find interesting or genuine. Therefore, your content needs to be authentic.

Incorporating influencers into your marketing strategy is an excellent way to achieve this. Generation Z tend to look up on opinions from a third party to obtain a non-biased opinion. Hearing it from a social media influencer which happens to be an expert in a particular field will definitely convince them into believe in your brand.

Furthermore, testimonials, reviews, and postings from people who’ve really tried it is important as well. Use your customers to convince your customers to trust your brand.

4. Locate Them & Go To Them

Put effort in finding out which social network is the widely used by Generation Z. While Facebook holds the record for the most amount of users among all social networking sites/apps, it is unlikely that you’ll reach a huge amount of Generation Z users in Facebook. Research has shown that Facebook is populated by mostly adults, while Generation Z regards Facebook as less interesting and is constantly looking to be entertained by new alternatives. New social networking platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, and etc are more preferred by Generation Z as its mechanics and nature differs greatly from Facebook and offers a more innovative way to communicate with each other.

Understand these trends and factors to reach and engage them successfully. Most brands make the mistake of thinking that targeting 10 year olds are a waste of time, effort and money. This is by far the worst mistake they’ll ever make because these Post-Millennials are forming perceptions towards brands since an early age. They play a huge part in their parent’s buying decisions and has huge potential in turning into your loyal customers in the future. It is definitely a long run investment that benefits your business greatly in the future.

Find out more on how your business can focus on crafting marketing strategy to engage Generation Z while having peace of mind of having technical infrastructure being taken care of here.

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Copy This Process to Create Data-Driven Marketing Campaigns

Is marketing dead?

Previously brands that have the most incentive to spend large amounts of money had the most authority in their fields and therefore, won the battle. As the world continues to grow there is a shift that today we have moved to a more customer centric are where your brand's value is determined by its ability to connect effectively with your target audience. You could win them over by going above and beyond to cater to everything they need and all of their interests.

This may sound like a win-win situation, but this proves to be extremely challenging when on a massive scale. That is why every marketer should turn to data to understand what their customers really want on a deeper more personal level.

With data you can attain basic demographical information but you could have stronger access to more valuable information like buying patterns and conversion performances on promotions and offers.

Key to your data is interpreting it in a way that brings most value to your goal. This information enriches your campaigns and makes them more pertinent to your audience.

Big Data

Big data tech is making big waves in multiple industries and there is a lot of chatter on the internet regarding this matter.

The name itself makes it feel vague and very allusive with those of us who are unfamiliar with it. In simple terms the term "big data" is actually a process of analyzing large sets of data in order to attain patterns in behavior, activities and many other important implications.

Doesn't this sound all too familiar? These data represent information that is valuable to you and the key is in analyzing those data, which we will discuss as you read along.

You should be able to see that from a marketing standpoint this is an absolute deal breaker. What if you had all the necessary information in one easy place regarding all the buying habits, trends, the likes and dislikes of a particular user segment.

ou would be able to tune all of your marketing activities to set it according to your customer needs and specify your targeting initiatives to the next level. This could give you more sales, greater loyalty and customer retention all of which are game changers your business could do with.

There are numerous case studies that show how big data has improved established businesses and this could be of help to you too.

You must be wondering by now, if big data is really helping big businesses give better insights into their customers, doesn't that mean that this will require expertise that you do not have? Good thing here is you can take advantage of big data technology providers and you can learn how below through proven strategies.

1. Retargeting campaigns

Retargeting is crucial for all expert marketers where according to Inbound Ascension efforts resulted in an increase of 7425% ROI, which shows the effectiveness of these campaigns

Results such as this increases the potential engagement and loyalty from customers and it is what makes retargeting very popular especially in the realm of ecommerce and other similar industries.

Essentially retargeting reaches out to people who have previously shown interest under specific products when you have access to valuable data such as location, interests, and which products have been looked at in the past.

2. Targeted email marketing

To bring your email marketing campaigns to the next level, keep everything mentioned above in your thoughts. All of the data collected will help you bring all the information necessary to create personas of various micro segments so that you can develop effective email campaigns specifically geared to their needs and interests in order to grab them from the beginning.

For example, you can pair all the doctors in Kuala Lumpur, or group together a bunch of teen Pokemon Go players living in Johor. You shouldn't just stop there, create emails to trigger their behavior and it should recapture disengaged customers.

Without data analytics however, creating personalized email campaigns that truly match a customer's unique preferences is nearly impossible, it becomes more of a guessing game. Having a non-stable platform to facilitate data retrieval is also a potential problem; more on this later.

3. Landing Pages

A logical user journey is a simple analogy used as a way to better understand mass user preferences. Landing pages allow you to reel customers in according to a logical user journey.

Customers connect to you through various search terms relevant to the products and/or solutions you offer and are more likely to engage with your desired call to action.

Backed with data analytics can bring this to another level. Unlike typical landing pages, targeted landing pages use data to come up with which segments of your audience is interested to come up with particular topics to meet their interests.

This way, you can target the most relevant personas for each landing page, gaining interest and more relevant prospects each time.

Infrastructure Reliability

Using data to drive your campaigns can help your marketing soar to new heights. You become more connected to your customers' needs and as a result, they are more likely to rely on your solutions for years to come. This is evident with a stable environment that facilities reliable architecture on a strong infrastructure network. It is also important to have a platform to facilitate data retrieval and with reliable hosting to keep your website up 24 hours to allow constant customer engagement.

Final thoughts

Use data to drive your campaigns.

Your marketing will be a step above generic unfocused marketing efforts. Target the most effective segments to make the most of your marketing investments and benefit through stronger ROI.

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