9 Tips to Become an Awesome Content Creator

Marketing is just as important today as it was during the start of the Industrial Revolution. Now the difference is the wide array of choices available to a business such as, SMS, Email, Blogging, and more.

It’s without doubt that content is king in today’s society. And for inbound marketers (content creators), there’s one piece of information that’s intergral to driving any dollars for the business, and that’s content and marketing.

91% of business-to-business (B2B) professionals use content marketing as part of their strategy. However, this doesn't mean all the content they create is top-notch, compelling, or valuable content.

It’s the burning question that’s on the tip of every executive’s tongue. But what does it take to become a good content creator? Just how do I become one that peers in my industry would look to for advice and opinions?

I believe that all good things are the result of the amount of effort you put into it. It should start with what you do before you put your fingers to a keyboard.

The core of a content creator is to produce entertaining or educational material that is catered to a selected group of people. These can be delievered through many ways including, blog posts, videos, ebooks, photos, and more. AND today, businesses have caught on to this wave, and aggressively employ content creators to engage new and existing customers on the brand's behalf.

As with most things there are some tried-and-true habits you can adopt that will put you on the path to being a truly successful content creator.

As mentioned before like all good things, it's not going to happen overnight. And it shouldn't, because you're trying to get good at it, not just simply do it. But the sooner you start working these five habits into your routine, the sooner you'll be well on your way to becoming a high-quality content creator.

1. Read news about your industry every day.

Creating great content means, content that resonates with your target audience. Simply put: You should know what’s going on in your industry. The best content creators dive deep into a topic and search widely on the internet for industry news and trends to discover what are shaping their audiences current mindset.

Staying organised here is key. There’s a lot of information that is freely available on the internet, and getting in the habit of readying by putting everything you read in one place is going to help greatly.

To expand on what to read be sure to ask a few colleagues what they're reading these days and follow suit.

2. Regularly write.

If you don't use it, just throw it. Successful content creators understand the importance of constantly flexing their writing muscles. Writing is just like any other muscle, it requires training to mould and to perfect.

Get in the habit of writing by doing it daily or every other day. You don’t need to write a polished essay, but rather set aside a few minutes a day to write down any thoughts and ideas you may have. Some questions to help yourself to start the flow are: What did you read yesterday that stuck with you? What didn't you understand?

3. Your audience is king.

Don’t make the mistake when most start as a Content Creator. Understand that your audience needs are most important. They pay the bills, and help to drive KPIs.

It’s imperative that you know your audience inside and out. Examine your own readers and viewers: What do they want that you're not yet giving them? What problems do they have that you can solve for them? Don’t just read into them using demographic data, but consider what are the real problems they face day to day.

4. Establish your own voice.

Earth to human: You’re not the only content creator out there. There’s a lot of other people who are too. That means you’re not the only one offering advice, observations or seeking thought leadership in your industry.

Diving deep or diversifying into other topics seem like a good idea, but don’t forget that there are many others who are doing the same too!

However what you can bring to your content, that nobody else can, is your own personal voice. Readers click on your content for the information, but they come back for the personality.

Writing about an unmissable competition? Don’t just write about the details about the competition, describe the scenario of them winning the competition and what it could do to their lives.

Learn how to blend other available content with your own creativity, and you'll become a much more valuable content creator in the long run.

5. Curate other content.

There isn’t a shortage of content curation. In fact, anyone on the internet can take someone else's content and retweet it, share it on Twitter, pin it -- the list goes on. However, successful content creators know it's not enough to take relevant industry news and deliver it back out to your content readers.

Sharing content just isn't enough. Engaging with the content you're sharing now makes it unique to you.

Only curate content when you have something valuable to add. Ensure you give your readers additional, useful information or even a thought or opinion when sharing content from others.

6. Understand your KPIs.

The Internet is a big place with a lot of competition, and I dare say that it is too big for your content to be discovered.

Just publishing your content online doesn’t mean you’ll enjoy the traffic it deserves. To get your content discovered, you first need to focus in on a key performance indicator (KPI), and optimize your content for it. A KPI is a specific metric you've chosen to measure how well your content is doing against your expectations. Modern KPIs include:

Social media traffic, the number of visitors that come to your content from a social media post.
Direct traffic, the number of visitors that come to your content by entering your website's URL directly
Organic traffic, the number of visitors that come to your content from a search engine result link.
Submissions, the number of people who visit your website and leave having submitted their contact information

7. Always Network.

Networking forces you to continue to learn and grow and sometimes having a bit of an idea drought is a sign that you should sit down and talk to others’ to spur new ideas and take them into consideration instead of just your own.

Social networks are good for socialing as the name suggests for it to be! Spend some time on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to check out who the thought leaders are in your industry and follow them.

Once you do that, you can ease into in-person networking. Make it easy on yourself and start small with people you already associate with on a day to day basis such as your colleagues. You already have something in common, so striking up a conversation in the kitchen or at your desks shouldn't be too scary.

8. Offer solutions, not just comments.

Want your audience to remember your content? Don't just recite the things you know -- explain why they're important and what your audience can take away from it and it's your job to put your market observations into terms they can understand and find lessons in.

9. Learn to ask why.

It is important to be curious. Insights learned from this curiousity is what continues to make great content.

It’s these solutions that drive great content pieces, and deliver outstanding value to your readers.

An alternative would be to play the devil’s advocate. Taking a contrary view on a piece of content is a unique spin that would get readers instantly reading an opinioted. Start questioning why the author things that way and you would be triggering a different viewpoint, and you will start to think critically about any given point.

In conclusion, there’s a lot of pressure on you to deliver. You need to develop great content to deliver a strong marketing strategy, but do not be disheartened take small steps and you will eventually reach your goals.

Discover how you can deliver smashing content through Email, here.

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How to Choose A Managed Hosting Provider (Industry Tips Inside)

Managed Hosting is complicated, but there is an easy way to understand it. The term is ambiguous and because of this, it is common for every service provider to deliver different solutions.

Managed hosting is in essence an extension to dedicated hosting, where hardware is owned by the service provider and is leased to a single client. This client manages the day-to-day management and maintenance of its servers.

Dedicated hosting is different, by its day-to-day management and maintenance of its servers, as it is handled by the service provider compared to the clients themselves.

Due to the ambiguous defnition, many different business offer different ‘levels’ of management to its clients.

Your managed hosting should include:

Server Monitoring – 

The process of scanning servers in search of any irregularities or potential failures.

Security – 

This includes virus scanning, spam filtering, firewall configuration and operating system updates in addition to standard physical data centre security measures.

Full Back-up and Storage – 

Imagine deleting a file by accident and having no way to recover it. Now think of it on a  company wide scale. Losing data can be costly in every sense of the word; it can cause a loss of money, time and customer trust.

Managed Hosting Providers are far more likely to have both the physical and technical capabilities in place to carry out the back-up/storage process correctly.

Server Configuration and Maintenance – 

Managed hosting providers can offer specialist staff with the expertise to ensure that the hosting solution is initially configured to meet the customer’s requirements effectively and subsequently, to perform the necessary server maintenance to keep the platform running smoothly

Support – 

An attractive benefit of managed hosting is that – if there ever is an issue – there is always qualified support on hand. In ideal cases, companies make human telephone support available 24/7/365, however in some, support is offered via email.

There are also business benefits to managed hosting, which usually include, but once again are not limited to, the following:

Flexibility - 

Managed Hosting is a flexible solution – not a one size fits all service – and providers can work with customers to achieve a solution tailored to suit the budget and individual requirements of their business.

Reduced cost of operation – 

The hardware and expertise required to manage hosting in-house can be very costly; with many businesses, the cost outweighs the benefits.

More effective use of resource – 

If your company employs IT staff then you know better than anyone that skilled IT employees can be costly. With this in mind, it makes sense to make sure that you put this resource to the best possible use.

Learn more about Everworks dedicated hosting here.

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The Straightforward Guide On What Colocation Is and Its Benefits

Malaysia now has over 31 million people. 67.7% of them are Internet users.

In this post, I'm going to cover everything you need to know about Colocation and how to use Colocation to benefit your business.

Colocation is essentially space in a data centre that you rent for your servers to benefit from data centre infrastructure.

By the end, you'll know more about Colocation than most business owners, about taking your online service from great to spectacular.

Let's get started.

What is Colocation?

The first thing you need to figure out about Colocation is a clear simple meaning or definition of Colocation.

Colocation is data centre space which is available for rent.

If the goal for you is to have your servers deliver world class results. Your servers should be placed in an environment (within a data centre) that has facilities to deliver world class results.

For example, you need information fast for a client who wants to work with you. And your servers should perform at an equal pace or quicker than you so that you are able to provide world class service to your clients.

Key takeaway: It's important for your business to deliver fast.

There are a few reasons for this.

First, if you can save some time through speed, you'll be able to do and deliver more for your business.

The biggest benefit of speed is if you are speaking with a potential client who is interested to buy, you'll be able to sell more effectively. When your sales pitch is delivered without interruption, it gives incentive to buyers when they are making a decision to buy.

For instance, imagine if you were interested to buy a new service or product and was doing research.

Wouldn't you miss out on those who are slow to respond, because someone else was first to sell to you?

"That's because speed is very important in selling, and is one of the key components to better sales conversions."

The second reason is that it makes your business easier to work with.

One of the main reasons why clients don't buy from you is because there isn't a sense of urgency.

If you are able to act and communicate quickly on information your buyer is interested to learn, it is more likely that you are able to convert a sale.

How does Colocation benefit your business?

So far we've covered what is Colocation.

However, what's arguably more important, is figuring out how Colocation can benefit your business.

After all you only need to get a small slice of a data centre's power to see exponential results for your services.

First, using Colocation is an inexpensive way for you to benefit from high connection speeds (bandwidth).

Second you would significantly reduce any delay in service delivery because of higher reliability.  For example, power supply has been carefully implemented into the infrastructure to make sure your servers are always turned on.

Third, there is a lower risk of someone unnecessarily physically accessing your servers. Your servers are secured with available options such as CCTV monitoring and lockable cabinets.

Conclusion

If you've allocated funds to buy servers, install them in a data centre to maximise its potential. It should help your business to deliver the world class results your clients demand for.

However, your servers can't just maintain themselves. For example, you might need more computing power (better RAM) to service a growing customer list.

You need to make sure your servers continue to have the best hardware and software you need it to have to service your growing business.

After all, the goal that you should be focused on is to provide world class services to your clients.

From reading this post, you now know everything you need to know about Colocation. So get out there and find a reliable one!

Do you already have a Colocation? What have you found to be the best strategies to install and maintain your Colocation?

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How You Should Introduce Yourself Over Email and Be Ridiculously Successful

We write emails everyday, and it's easy for everyone to write anything they intend to say to anyone. 

But writing an email to a stranger to get a response. That's not so easy. 

As most doing sales in Malaysia would point out. The typical professional email gets drowned out on a daily basis and having them open up the email would be a miracle.

Here's a framework we developed for Sales professionals here in Malaysia to introduce yourself in an email:

1. Write a motivating subject line.
2. Customize your greeting to the industry and situation.
3. Make your first line about the person you are writing.
4. Make sure to explain why you're reaching out.
5. Your email should have a purpose and provide a value.
6. Always include a call to action so the person knows what to do next.
7. Say thank you. Courtesy goes a long way.
8. Send follow ups.

This is a good place to start: By Way of Introduction

When introducing a new topic, person, or idea, you would say, "By way of introduction ...".

You can do this by including examples or a short interesting story to give your new subject context.

For example: Our next guest will be Bryan, by way of introduction, I'd like to share a few of Bryan's accomplishments with you.

Send great email reliably with 99.99% uptime. Discover emails tailor made for Malaysian business professionals just like you.

The steps for Malaysians to introduce yourself over email and be ridiculously successful

Step 1: Choose a strong subject line

This is the 1st thing any recipient sees when they receive your email. The importance of the subject line should not be overlooked.

The key is to pique their curiosity. Unless it is an email from someone they expect or recognize, there's little guarantee they'll read yours.

Here's a list of subject line examples you can use:

1. Question about [goal]?
2. [Mutual connection] recommended I get in touch
3. Hoping to help
4. Idea for [topic the prospect cares about]

Step 2: Pick a salutation

This is the first word of your email body. The greeting you choose makes a difference and depending on industry the conservative nature requires an expectation to the tone.

If it is a traditionally conservative industry, like in finance or government, the traditional "Dear" salutation is generally accepted.

However, if you're in a more relaxed industry such as, tech, media, travel, or fashion, use "Hi", "Hello", or even "Hey".

This might not mean much, but it shows you've done your research.

After a salutation, you'd normally follow with the person's 1st name. These days, this is the norm across most industries.

Please do not include their last name (surname) it will make you sound robotic and including a Mrs./Mr./Ms. gives the impression that you are too young.

Step 3: Compose a strong opening sentence

This is the hook. The opening line is the most important part of an introductory email.

Why it's important? If your opening line succeeds you give your recipient reason to keep on reading.

Avoid, "My name is [name] and I'm reaching out because ...". Your recipient receives numerous introductory emails over time.

It is very likely when receiving emails with this opening line, your recipient would read your email with haste. Why? Because there's no reason for them to continue reading.

Consider these instead:

1. I noticed you manage the procurement teams at [company].
2. Have you ever thought about taking your current advertising efforts online?
3. Just heard your segment on radio about [topic], and I've never learned so much over radio before!

Step 4: Explain your reason for contacting him/her

Here's where you continue to pique their interest and to connect the dots.

The key here is to make your explanation as relevant as possible. You want them to feel that they are not just a person on a list that you're just emailing.

If your 1st line is: Have you ever thought about taking your current advertising efforts online?

Your 2nd line could be: I would with companies like [company A] and [company B] to help them manage their advertisements online.

Step 5: Add value

The basic principle is to give before receiving. Before you ask for anything, you want to make sure you 1st provide the recipient with value.

Adding value does not necessarily require Ringgits and Cents. A thoughtful, authentic compliment is also a way of providing value.

Here are some ideas:

1. Recommend an article they might find helpful
2. Suggest a useful app or tool they can use
3. Offer to make an introduction to someone who they'd benefit from knowing

Step 6: Make a request

Here's the crux of it. Your call-to-action (CTA).

The goal is to remove as much friction from your task as possible. For example if you would like them to meet with you, provide a link to your meetings tool so they can instantly see when you're both available and book a time.

Here's some ideas on how to write for your CTA:

1. If you're thinking about how [proposed idea] could apply to [topic interested in], I have some ideas I'd love to share. Here's the link to my calendar: [link].
2. Would you be willing to comment on the [blog post] I wrote? It would be great to have your unique perspective (and hopefully get some discussion going). Here's the link: [link].
3. Are you open to answering a few questions about [topic]? Happy to chat over phone or email, whichever's most convenient.

Step 7: Say "Thanks" and sign off

The best emails are short, sweet, and concise. Additional information and unnecessary details reduce the the probability of your recipient reading your email.

Just say, "thanks", "thank you".

Step 8: Follow up

There's a chance that when you send this incredible introduction email, that they don't respond.

Here are a few things you could try:

1. Send them actionable advice.
2. Send a how-to guide and offer to follow up in person.
3. Invite them to an upcoming event.
4. Bring up a pain point your buyers have faced previously and present the solution that you've provided.

Emails are digitally transmitted messages, and it's widely used in Malaysia today. We've included some ideas above on how to improve your sales efforts through email.

If this guide has helped you please share with us your experiences below - this hopefully will help others in their quest as well.

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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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Avoid Making Mistakes with a Micro-Influencer (5 Questions to Ask Before Hiring)

Asking for recommendations continue to evolve, and even in the realm of SMS this continues to innovate and grow.

Once upon a time we may have asked a neighbor to recommend a product or service, 47% of millennials now turn to social media for recommendations and reviews before deciding on a purchase.

However, these consumers aren't always going to the social media accounts of major brands. Most of the time, they are visiting the profiles of a specific group of personalities that they relate to or follow. These personalities are "Influencers".

As discussed previously here, SMS marketing is an important piece of your marketing channel that can drive you great click through rates and open rates, and Influencers can drive social legitimacy.

Also consider this: Close to 40% of Twitter users alone have made a purchase as a result of the use of influencer marketing -- combine this with your SMS marketing campaign and the result is limitless.

Many of us when we think of influencers, you might be thinking of A-list personalities and celebrities. Take Yumi Wong, for example, who helped catapult the brand LANCASTER.

There is a good chance that celebrities might significantly grow your sale and help you to achieve your marketing targets, but let's face it: not every brand can afford their price tags. It's reported that Kylie Jenner gets $400,000 for a single promotional Instagram post. That's ~RM1,600,000 per post.

Why us Micro-Influencers?

Micro influencers might seem to be counter intuitive, it might make sense to leverage on an influencer with a large reach compared to those with only a few thousand.

This isn't necessary.

A study done by Markerly, puts this evidence to the sword as it the converse relationship was found between the number of followers against the level of engagement.

"Conclusion: With a large number of followers engagement rate actually decreases."

Finding the right Micro-influencer for your business

Wit so many micro-influencers, it's no surprise that a lot of marketers highlight that finding the right one as their biggest challenge.

Here are 5 questions you'll need to answer very carefully

1. What are your goals?

The first thing as with most things to consider. What are you trying to achieve? Do you want to generate more leads then look for micro-influencers that frequently host contests or giveaways on their social media accounts.

2. Who are the micro-influencer's followers?

Look at the followers as these will be the list of people you want to reach, and look at how well they align with your brands buyer personas. Some things you can consider are:

Where are the majority of the micro-influencers's geographically located?

Are they mostly male or female?

Which type of posts resonates with them the most?

3. What kind of content does the micro-influencer produce?

Micro-influencers create their posts based on their own brand and image and you will want to compare this against the image you want them to associate with your brand. It's important to make sure that this is aligned. 

4. Are they already working with your competitors?

How did the audience respond to the post? Was there anything mentioned by the micro-influencer about your competitors' products that you can use to your advantage or avoid?

5. How many platforms to they use?

Although a bulk of influencers are on Instagram, there are many of them that are equally active on their own blogs and other social media channels. This is good for your as the more platforms a micro-influencer can use to promote your content, the better it is for you.

Use influencers to drive better legitimacy for your SMS marketing campaign. Implement your SMS marketing campaign now with EVERWORKS affordable, and professional service.

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5 Unorthodox Holiday Marketing Ideas for Your Business

Every year, without warning holiday marketing campaigns are everywhere the floodgates open and countless businesses rush to cash in on the holiday spending frenzy. There are numerous holiday emails, social media posts, and TV ads -- everyone is rushing to get a piece of the pie.

It might seem like during the holidays the marketing gets out of control, but some brands actually do it very, very, very well.

They don't just chase typical promotional campaigns, but they strive to create campaigns that actually delight customers. This actually helps the brands to stand out amongst the holiday "noise". They evoke emotion and connect people with their loved ones.

Here are 5 of our favorites:

1. Coca Cola

Here's to peace on earth. Or at least in the mall. #TasteTheFeeling

A post shared by Coca-Cola Canada (@cocacola_ca) on Nov 23, 2016 at 5:05am PST

2. Hotel Tonight

Ready for the holidays? Grandma’s inflating your air mattress & checking it twice. Maybe this year you should visit, not stay. #HotelTonight pic.twitter.com/gWZUU8T8qg

— HotelTonight (@HotelTonight) November 22, 2016

3. Dollar Shave Club

The DSC Holiday Shave Set is such a perfect present, other gifts can't handle it.

A post shared by Dollar Shave Club (@dollarshaveclub) on Nov 17, 2016 at 5:25pm PST

4. Edeka

5. John Lewis

Merry Christmas from us at EVERWORKS. Hopefully this inspires you to create more creative SMS Marketing campaigns!

Learn more about how we can help you deliver your SMS Marketing campaigns here! 

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7 Examples that Drive Conversion through SMS

SMS is a neglected marketing channel that should take more prominence in your marketing pie and there's evidence too with a 99% open rate and a 36% click through rate it's hard to see why not.

There are other marketing channels that are effective, but there are few that boasts the numbers that SMS delivers. There's a hidden gem that most people miss out on the notification messages that you send out when confirming orders or requests from customers.

As discussed previously, its important to establish authentic relationships with people and only when they are willing to receive notifications from your brand should you ever approach them. It's the established trust that gives you permission to build an engaging conversation with your customer. While we are all busy with building new lists it's common for us to forget about nurturing the lists that we've spent so much effort acquiring.

Delivered SMSes to willing brand participants is often overlooked and there's a big opportunity for you to take advantage of here. But how? Through short snippets that pique interest to discover value add-ons that is specially on offer to them.

7 Examples that Drive Conversion through SMS

1) Promote and upcoming event or conference

Having a simple call-to-action in your SMS can drive more registrations, increases live stream attendances, and improve post event follow ups.

We all know how much time and effort is put into setting up for an event, why not reach out to already interested people through SMS.

2) Share a new Ebook or Industry Report

The easiest way to provide consistent and meaningful value to your customers is to pass along helpful content. Any interaction that you may have with your customer is an opportunity to do this -- plus sharing thought leadership content builds trust and establishes credibility.

3) Share a Case Study

To keep customers engaged in your pipeline, share a case study, specific use case or testimonial and feature a customer the prospect can relate to or identify as a credible brand.

4) Drive more registrations to your next event

Need more attendees? Include a subtle call-to-action is an easy way to get the word out.

5) Let customers know about product offerings or discounts

Chances are you already send a lot of notification SMSs out and this is a great way to include a short snipper promoting any offerings or discounts that you may have.

6) Convert leads to Opportunities

Personalisation is important, and this can't be emphasized enough. People who sign up to your lists are likely to be thirsty for more information. Include a CTA for the "next step" and this could greatly improve your chances at converting your leads.

7) Include a video link to spice it up

We know that SMS has superb open rates and click through rates, why not capitalize on this. Typing words sometimes doesn't just cut it, the message isn't fully interpreted. It's tough to establish a real human connection. Best way to do this, try video. In our experience video produces the highest engagement rate by far.

SMS should be your next trick up your sleeve

Continue to strive for personalized and relevant content, as this would work better chances for your sales efforts. Make sure you target the right audience too and this would lead to better outcomes for your team. Create your own SMS campaign today.

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5 Things to Start, Stop, and Keep Doing With Your SMS Marketing

If you're reading this it's likely you're trying to figure out a way to improve on your current SMS Marketing tactics.

SMS Marketing is a powerful tool as we've discussed about in previous posts where we've explored;

• 10 reasons why your cafe should use SMS Marketing and 
• SMS having a 99% Open Rate and 36% Click Through Rate

covering some of key topics on why we believe SMS Marketing is something you should seriously consider. Let's get straight into this:

How to improve your SMS Marketing 

1. Send SMS to lists that want to hear from you

If you have SMS lists that have low rates of engagement activity, stop sending more SMS to them. Every time you send to a list with low rates of engagement, it not just hurts your budgets, but also your reputation for connecting with your customers.

2. Have a goal for for each SMS before you press send

You should always have a goal in mind for every marketing effort you do. If you do not have a clear goal in mind, your customers receiving your SMS won't either. Some examples of these goals can be filling up a form for gated content, or redeeming a voucher code to be used in your store.

3. Personalise and test your SMS

SMS personalisation really works. When it comes to personalisation its best to stick to the basics such as recipient names. You don't want to come across as creepy, so it's best to leave it at that.

4. Experiment by sending SMS out on different days of the week

Stop sending SMS on Wednesdays. Just stop. Tuesday all the way through to Thursdays are the most popular days for sending out SMS but they're over saturated and might be overwhelming your subscribers. If you want your SMS to be opened try on different days like Monday or Fridays. You can also try on Saturdays, and make sure you include a call to action - there's a tendency here for consumers to react.

5. Engage with contacts that have engaged not uploaded lists

When someone willingly provides their information, the engagement is likely to be higher - the key here is willing. That's because they are willing or interested to hear from you, and they've told you so by engaging with your opt-in request. We've got an idea that would help to drive better engagement reach that might help with your SMS list building efforts through influencer engagement.

Never buy SMS lists, you're only hurting your reputation - your hard earned credibility will be hurt by doing this, and it is plain annoying to receive messages that don't matter to you. Here's an example: what if there's a guy that's interested in sports attire, but you end up sending claimable discount vouchers through SMS to him for the new red hot lipstick. There's a disconnection when you purchase lists, and the likelihood for backlash is greater. Why risk it?

SMS has strong merits, and it should be an avenue for you to consider to diversify your marketing channel participation. Having a targeted campaign enables you to direct your marketing campaigns to your customers immediately. Learn more about how we can help you with SMS. If you'd like to run through some ideas with us, just get in touch with us.

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5 Influencer Marketing Ideas to Drive List Building

What's the difference between Influencer Marketing and the traditional Celebrity Spokesperson Marketing?

Influencers are specialists in their respective niches, have a high level of trust with their network and establish a two way communication with their followers.

Influencer marketing is a strategy to tap into an existing community of engaged followers. This means that these people have influence over an audience that you might be trying to reach - this might prove to be valuable to your marketing efforts.

The line is blurred with Influencer Marketing when it comes to celebrity endorsements. There is a tendency for fans to rely on a well researched recommendation compared to signed marketing contracts.

If having a selective niche audience is what your brand needs, engaging with influencers with niche specialities is often better compared to celebrity endorsements that may cover a broad range of different sponsored products and industries. Celebrity endorsements are great, but it's often less about fan engagement and more about attaching a person's fame and name recognition to a particular brand.

Important Tip: Use influencers to drive list building activities. 

Although, giveaways and other perks are great, but use your campaign to also build rapport with your audience - this is a great way to build credible engagement with your fans and grow legitimacy with easy collaboration with reputable influencers.

1. Old Navy

Check out Old Navy's approach to implementing influencer marketing - they got in touch with Meghan Rienks to do a series of promotional posts for them on their social accounts.

she’s baaack 💫🎉💫 . got a bajillion holiday parties? @meghanrienks shows you how to wear 1 jumpsuit, 3 totally different ways. now all that’s left to do is RSVP “yes” 💌 . shop her looks, link in bio ✨ . #oldnavystyle #happyistrending

A post shared by oldnavy (@oldnavy) on Dec 6, 2016 at 1:06pm PST

2. Natta Cosme

Natta Cosme got in touch with woonsingg a local influencer to carry out their influencer marketing.

This Glacial Clay Mask is just what I need, for purifies the skin, as well as minimise the enlarged pores and firm the sagging pore walls 🌋 @nattacosme

A post shared by ⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀w o o n s i n g g 👾 (@woonsingg) on Jul 28, 2017 at 5:27am PDT

3. SKII Malaysia

SKII Malaysia engaged with Sue Lynn Tiong popularly known as Bangsar Babe for their on-ground event. They drove digital engagement with Sue Lynn posting on her Instagram driving awareness for their campaign.

All set for the SK-II beauty workshop I'm hosting in Mid Valley! If you're around, drop by and say hi 👋🏻 #changedestiny #skii @skii

A post shared by Sue Lynn Tiong (@bangsarbabe) on Oct 18, 2017 at 9:14pm PDT

4. The Starling Mall

The Starling Mall organised a campaign #mystarlingtrails and to raise awareness about this they engaged with Tzia an influencer with a giveaway.

You've seen me on my trail. Now, it’s time to do your own! Stand a chance to win RM500 worth of prizes by following the exact same trail as me! Here's how: · · Step 1: Follow @thestarlingmall on Instagram Step 2: Choose and save a map. Step 3: Complete at least 3 of the 5 stops on the map and take photos at each. Step 4: Upload your photos as an album and tag @thestarlingmall + hashtag #mystarlingtrails. Then, add the category hashtags: #starlingfamilytrail, #starlingnaturetrail or #starlingwellnesstrail · · For more info follow @thestarlingmall! T&C apply.

A post shared by tziaaa (@tziaaa) on Nov 2, 2017 at 6:45pm PDT

5. Cetaphil Malaysia

Cetaphil Malaysia is raising awareness of their product through the use of influencer marketing. Engaging with Jane Chuck they get reach to 517k+ of her followers and the trust that they have in her recommendations.

Simple cleanse & moisturize will do the job. Cetaphil is one of the safest brand I go to whenever I have skin problems and when I’m unsure with the products that cause it / make it worst. They never fail me for getting a healthy skin 😉 #CetaphilMy #IdealCleansing #MoisturizeMoisturizeMoisturize

A post shared by Jane Chuck (@janechuck) on Oct 25, 2017 at 3:28am PDT

Key takeaways

Don't limit your campaigns to the use of usual advertising channels only. It is one dimensional and does not encourage your fans to respond. Deliver rapport along with your awareness campaign as you will create greater credibility with your following.

Grow your list and boost it with influencer marketing to expand your reach to fans that want to interact and share their experiences with you!

Introducing NEXT Academy's brand new Digital Marketing Quantum Degree. Now open for enrollment. http://nextmy.co/qd-digitalmarketing

A post shared by Next Academy (@nextacademy_) on Apr 28, 2017 at 1:35am PDT

You can learn more about SMS Marketing and how it is a direct channel tool that will help you with your marketing efforts in our blog post here. Also if you're interested to find out more about SMS Marketing and how we can help you, please visit our website for more information.

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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.

***

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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5 Questions to Ask Before Creating a Marketing Budget

A smart marketing budget is one of the most important things you can do for your business. However, a lot of small companies are afraid of it.

A small business owner recently brought up in a conversation saying that he wants to bring his business to the next level. Not knowing what the next level meant I asked him him to elaborate further, which he responded that he wanted more. After further probing I found out that he wanted more clients who could spend more money with him and that he wanted to do it in a profitable way.

Now the conversation was starting to become productive with a strong statement of intent, because there was a well defined objective. Our conversation after was heated and there was a sense of connection until the topic of budget was brought up. This is something all business owners / managers hate to hear.

There are multiple perspectives on having a budget. A bad perception on a marketing budget would be that having one would promote wastefulness. That is far from the truth.

An intelligent budget is the most important thing you can do for your business. It's as good as creating an action plan that would guide the actions required to accomplish an objective moving forward. It is important to figure out how to spend the marketing budget as much as figuring out how to do marketing.

Here are the 5 questions you to ask yourself before creating a marketing budget for your small business.

Q1: What are my needs?

Analysis: Do you need more leads? More sales? More people to know about your brand (also known as brand awareness)? With those goals in place you'll be able to better grasp the task at hand and to determine the actions you need to take moving forward.

Q2: What are you currently paying to obtain your sales?

Analysis: In running your day-to-day business we need to find out how much you are currently spending to obtain clients or to get people to know about your brand. If you have sales representatives the cost of their labor and benefits will be set against your new sales. On the other hand if you have a storefront in a prime address you are perhaps spending more than you need to for foot traffic.

Q3: How fast can you afford to grow?

Analysis: If you make RM 1,000 for every RM 5,000 in sales and you determine that you are willing to spend 20% on each lead for a sale, that's RM 200 you can afford to pay. Now you can ask yourself how many clients like that are you able to buy? (You can learn how to calculate your minimum and maximum ad spend budget here)

Q4: Am I able to take that risk?

Analysis: Marketing is testing. There is no way for you to know if you will indeed get 10 clients if you spend it and ultimately risk not getting any clients at all. There's always an apparent risk that you may not get the ROI you are looking for when you are marketing your business.

Q5: How do I minimise my risk?

Analysis: Before starting on your marketing journey and spending all of your money, even with you knowing that there are apparent risks involved with marketing, you should come to expect that you might fail. With a marketing strategy in place you are able to determine your maximum daily spend and you can therefore test in micro spends and hopefully it will lead you to your final objective.

Start your journey with SMS Marketing, it's cost effective and its delivery rate is 100% and direct to the consumer. Find out more information here.

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How to Conduct a Giveaway (a SMS Marketing Cheat Sheet)

Driving engagement with your fans is the buzz of the marketing world right now. A 1 way passive interaction between the advertiser and the receiver doesn't generate the best return on ad spend as the world is in demand for more. Competition among advertisers is fierce and there is a greater need to stand out from the crowd.

A giveaway is common, but running a giveaway campaign through sms marketing is not common in Malaysia.

Do note that there is a basis for my perspective in running a giveaway through SMS marketing, mobile penetration in Malaysia is at an all time high, 144.8%, and more marketers should take advantage of this channel.

Here's an example, our friends at Chipotle finished their Great Dorm Giveaway, which allowed students to enter the SMS giveaway by texting DORM2 to the SMS short code 888222. The SMS giveaway gave the chance for students to win a Chipotle catered party for 100, in addition to a $1,000 Target gift card.

Runners up would receive a Chipotle catered party for 20 and a $25 Target gift card. When fans texted “DORM2” to 888222, in order to enter the SMS giveaway, they received the follow text message response, asking them to respond YES to confirm that they were a student at a participating college. This drove student engagement with Chipotle a marketing objective that drives brand awareness, and recognition amongst its customers.

Giveaways are common to drive brand recognition for brands and to introduce increased engagement with customers that are already passively participating with your brand. This introduces an action layer that encourages customers to interact and actively participate with brand based activities.

Want to learn how you can employ this for your business too? Learn more here.

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Tried and Tested Old-School Marketing Hack (SMS Marketing)

Owning a cafe is great, but you're more often than not making a small percentage of potential customers within a certain distance radius. You've got a great location and business is now moving at a predictable pace. Driving more new walk-ins to your cafe is tough because marketing efforts in different locations aren't driving back the return on ad spend you're expecting. Here's a perspective, why not target existing customer databases that have already interacted with your store, but don't return often enough.

Either these customers are unaware that you've put in effort to provide them with special offers and deals, or these customers came to you out of the spur of the moment and impulse entry decision to give you a try. To better ensure that these customers keep coming back you'll have to remind them and a great way to drive repeat customers are through SMS marketing.

"Here are 5 reasons why your cafe should be considering SMS marketing as part of your ad spend."

1. The big boys are doing it, you're missing out if you don't. 

Subway, Pizza Hut, Papa Johns, and more are doing it to keep their customers informed.
Helps build a loyal customer base.

For example: Taco Bell launched a mobile marketing campaign in an effort to develop another channel to communicate with their most loyal customers. To subscribe to the Taco Bell mobile marketing campaign, customers texted “TBIC” to 30364. To incentivize customers to opt-in, Taco Bell offered a free Frutista Freeze, with the purchase of any food item, after a customers opted-in to the mobile marketing program. The restaurant’s mobile marketing campaign was promoted to customers through traditional media such as radio, television and print, generating 13,000 opt-ins within the first five weeks.

2. Get to more customers. 

Papa Murphy’s launched a mobile marketing campaign pilot with the goal being to bring more customers to their Kansas City locations. By using in-store signs, tent pop-ups, and an online opt-in form to advertise their new mobile marketing campaign, the restaurant was able to build a 16,000 person mobile customer database. Mobile marketing promotions such as a $5 Chicken Bacon Artichoke pizza generated redemption rates of more than 9 percent, while deals like a $5.55 taco pizza on Cinco De Mayo generated redemption rates of 11.5 percent, and half-off pizzas generated redemption rates north of 12 percent. The highest redemption rates Papa Murphy’s saw was with a $5, 3-topping pizza, which generated a 17.9 percent redemption rate. The mobile marketing campaign has since expanded across 26 other states, and is estimated to have more than 100,000 mobile subscribers.

3. Increase repeat customers.

A 16-store franchise of Subway restaurants in the New York region launched a mobile marketing campaign to increase repeat business with their customers. The program was advertised in-store with various forms of marketing collateral, and on local radio and television as the “My Subway Mobile SMS” program. The franchise after a few months had generated a database of 5,000 customer mobile phone numbers. During this period, the Subway franchise sent out 13,000 mobile promotions, averaging a 9% redemption rate, which was significantly higher than the 1% redemption rate Subway experienced with their direct mail campaigns.

4. Find a channel that stands out better than channels that don't

During a 15 month period, Pizza Hut U.K. setup geofence locations within a half-mile radius of each of their 340 Pizza Hut locations. During this period, Pizza Hut found the mobile marketing campaign was on average 142% more efficient in increasing incremental sales than other marketing channels, and 4.4 times more effective than TV ads, and 2.6 times more effective than online ads.

Carl’s Jr. sent out a mobile offer to customers on May 14, 2013. The mobile offer was for a $6 burger combo for only $2.99. Not only did this mobile offer get a 19% redemption rate, the fast-food chain generated $14 in new sales for every $1 they spent on this campaign.

5. Increase store traffic.

Dunkin’ Donuts ran a mobile marketing campaign in the Boston area, encouraging customers to opt-in to mobile offers. The mobile marketing campaign was advertised on local radio and through mobile internet ads. This resulted in 7,500 consumers opting in to receive Dunkin’ Donuts mobile offers. After the first mobile offer, 17% of recipients forwarded or showed the offer to a friend, 35% considered themselves more likely to buy lattes and coffee from Dunkin’ Donuts in the future, and Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants in the Boston area experienced a 21% increase in store traffic.

What if you're cafe is only a 1 cafe operation?

Don't sweat it because a Papa John’s Pizza franchise in the U.K. ran a three week mobile marketing campaign, sending a mobile offer to their 8,1000 previously opted-in customers that offered customers any Pizza, of any size for £6.99 (pickup) or £8.99 (delivery). This one mobile offer increased sales for this franchise during the three week period by 33%.

Find out how you can increase sales and repeat customers. Get started with a campaign now.

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How to run a SMS Marketing Campaign for your restaurant? Subway case study

Marketing is important for your restaurant business, regardless of whether your business is small, growing, or large. In your ad spend you'll have integrated into your strategy a variety of channels in your mix, but one that is often overlooked is SMS campaigns. SMS campaigns are extremely targeted. Think of it as an email newsletter, but any notice or information you communicate out to your customer group goes direct to their phones as long as there is a phone line. Just a note, if you're in Malaysia the penetration rates for mobile phones is at an all time high, 144.8% (Malaysian Digital Association, 2016).

So for those who have read thus far, here's the gist of it. Your restaurant needs customers to be reminded that you have special offers catered to their needs, what better way to inform them then to give them a reminder that they'll be sure to notice. Here is a case example of Subway the fastest growing food franchise to learn how we can apply SMS Marketing to your restaurant business in Malaysia.

Subway announces to their customers that they can get deals sent directly to their phones. This is followed by campaign graphics that introduce the benefits of signing up to be on Subway's list.

Not pictured in the screenshot above is Subway’s abbreviated text messaging terms & conditions, which are as follows: Msg&data rates may apply. Max 10 msgs/mo. Msgs may be auto dialed. Consent not required to buy goods/svcs. Only available for smartphones with a data plan. For help, text HELP to 782929. To opt-out, text STOP to 782929.

To see Subway’s full text message terms & conditions, click here. If you prefer to opt-in on your mobile phone to receive Subway weekly text message offers, and receive a free 6-inch subway sandwich, text “OFFERS” to Subway’s dedicated vanity short code – 78292. Did you know that Subway’s vanity short code 78292, spells out “SUBWAY” on a mobile phone’s dialpad? It’s true, try it on your own mobile phone. This is added branding for your restaurant. After submitting your mobile phone number and zip code to receive Subway text message offers, you’ll be redirected to the following page.

This page tells you that to start receiving Subway text message offers, you first need to reply to the confirmation text message sent to your mobile phone from their SMS short code 78292. As you can see from the text message below from Subway’s SMS short code 78292, Subway requires you to reply “Y” to confirm that you want to opt-in to receive Subway’s weekly text message offers.

Why does Subway require you to reply “Y” via text message, after you enter your mobile phone number into their web form? Not only is this required by the MCMC Malaysia, it protects Subway from sending text message spam. How does it protect Subway from sending text message spam?

Here's a scenario, what if in Subway’s web form I accidentally typed in (206) 334-4011, when my actual mobile phone number is (206) 334-4012. If Subway automatically opted-in the mobile phone number (206) 334-4011, without requiring them to reply “Y”, every text message offer sent to that mobile phone number from Subway would be considered text message spam.

That’s why it’s critical that before you opt-in a customer’s mobile phone number, you confirm with them that it is in fact their mobile phone number, and they want to receive your text message offers.

When you reply to Subway’s opt-in confirmation text message with “Y”, you receive two text messages in return. The first text message you receive is the coupon for your free 6-inch subway sandwich, and the second text message is welcoming you to the text message campaign. As you can see from the text message below, the welcome text message from Subway is customized based on the subscriber’s zip code.

To redeem your coupon for the Subway 6-inch sandwich, you have to click on the link. When you click on the link, you’re taken to the following mobile website, where you can redeem the mobile coupon. It’s worth noting that below the “REDEEM” button, Subway instructs you to only press the redeem button during the purchase process in the presence of the cashier. You’ll see why Subway tells you this in the next mobile screenshot. So after you’ve clicked the “REDEEM” button, you’re presented with the following pop-up on the mobile website.

Subway warns you that the coupon you’re about to access will expire within 5 minutes, so it’s best to be at the cash register at your local Subway before clicking “CONFIRM”. Once you do click the “CONFIRM” button, you’re present with your subway coupon, as you can see below. You’ll notice that there’s a 5-minute timer on the Subway coupon, which expires the coupon after it runs out of time. It’s also interesting to note that the coupon specifically tells customers that if the timer hand is not moving, the offer is not valid.

Why? This is to prevent you from taking a photo of the mobile coupon and trying to redeem it. In a photo, the timer hand would not being moving. What does it look like when the Subway’s mobile coupon is expired? See below. Why does Subway do this with their mobile coupons? The reason is to prevent mobile coupon fraud. In mobile marketing, coupon code fraud is when a coupon specifically for new mobile subscribers is used by customers that never opted into the mobile marketing campaign, or used by the same customer multiple times.

To prevent mobile coupon code fraud, Brands like Subway will limit the usage of each mobile coupon, either by using unique one-time usage coupon codes for each mobile subscriber, or in the case of Subway, they’ll limit the time that the mobile coupon is visible to the customer. One of the best parts about Subway’s text messaging campaign is that they’re advertising it everywhere, including in a commercial! Below are some of the examples of Subway advertising their text messaging campaign to customers.

If you're interested to run SMS campaigns like Subway for your restaurant find out more here.

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