As we get ready to close out 2016, let’s take some time to reflect on impactful trends that took over the marketing world this past year with the help of our top In-Sites blogs and videos.
It is time to stop waving your hands with an outbound approach to marketing and time to start creating quality content to attract customers to you.— Direct Images Interactive
Attract your audience to your brand with help of inbound and thought leadership marketing
The inbound marketing methodology is all about bringing people to your brand organically. And this concept is best exemplified when comes to content marketing and thought leadership marketing.
Content marketing is creating and distributing relevant content that addresses the pain points of your audience. Thought leadership marketing is providing value and knowledge to your audience by educating them through your content. For example, if you are a web design agency and your audience’s pain point is centered around the website redesign process, you can create an eBook, an infographic, a blog post, or even a live Q&A session on Periscope or Facebook Live to help them learn for themselves about this specific topic that pertains to their needs.
You can apply thought leadership throughout every piece of content you create. And the more thought leadership content you create, the more attractive your brand will be to your potential clients. For more information on how to adapt thought leadership into your marketing, check out the following resources below:
- Advertising vs. Marketing Your Startup: The Battle of ROI
- 5 Examples of Excellent Thought Leadership Content
- FAQ Friday: Thought Leadership in Your Social Media Marketing Strategy
- How Community Engagement and Brand Messaging Define Thought Leadership
- FAQ Friday: Crafting a Thought Leadership Strategy
Your website should have actionable tips, best practices and SEO keyword rankings set to the standards of today and created around your buyer personas—increasing your site visitors and boosting your digital presence in the process.— Direct Images Interactive
Convert your audience into customers using your website
Your website works around the clock for your business. And let’s be honest, you can’t expect your employees to even do that. Let alone on a consistent, daily basis.
However, is your web design creating an engaging user experience relevant enough for your website visitors to convert into leads?
Well, if you haven’t updated your website especially within the last two to three years, you may need a website redesign. Narrow down specific web pages that need a lot of TLC. Especially take some time to focus in on your landing pages and content offers. You want to make sure that the value you are offering your audience is enough for them to give you their personal information, i.e., name, email, phone number, etc.
Never assume that your visitors will automatically see your homepage. And just updating your homepage or even just uploading new blog posts and other content onto your website is not enough when it comes to keeping your website fresh and relevant for your website visitors. Remember that your website visitors will be accessing your website from different entryways. Some will be mainly interested in your blog. Some may come directly to your products and services page. This means that your website should be freshened up across the board through consistent website redesign.
For further assistance on how consistent website redesign can help convert visitors into leads, explore the following resources listed below:
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- Is A Traditional Website Still Effective Website Design?
- 7 Benefits of Personalized Website Content and a Dynamic Website
- How to Incorporate Interactive Marketing with Growth Driven Design
- The Anatomy of a Lead Generating Website
- FAQ Friday: How to Make My Website Better with Modern Web Design
The cost of creative design, video production, and strategically developed content is always going to have a better return on investment than that of paid ads and traditional advertising.—Direct Images Interactive
Excite, entertain, and engage your audience to your brand with video
With more apps and social media platforms including video into their brand, i.e., LinkedIn, the power of video cannot be denied. You have TV networks creating their own video subscriptions like CBS and HBO. You can watch movies, TV shows, and even original web series with brands like Hulu, Amazon, and Netflix. And especially with YouTube and Facebook, they have both helped in increasing video content creation and video consumption as exemplified in the following statistics:
- YouTube has over a billion users — almost one-third of all people on the Internet — and everyday people watch hundreds of millions of hours on YouTube and generate billions of views.
- YouTube overall, and even YouTube on mobile alone, reaches more 18-34 and 18-49 year-olds than any cable network in the U.S.
- More than half of YouTube views come from mobile devices.
- Facebook videos posts have increased by 94% annually In U.S.
- Total potential facebook video viewing audience: 1.71 billion monthly active users
- Facebook Live videos are watched 3x longer than regular videos
With that said, this is bandwagon you don’t want to pass up. Learn how to start engaging with your audience with the help of video marketing through the listed resources provided below:
- The Best Live Streaming Video Marketing Campaigns of All Time
- Thought Hive: Booo(st) Your Brand Messaging with Social Video
- 5 Top Video Blogs using Thought Leadership Marketing
- Thought Hive: Stop Your Fear of Video using These Video Marketing Tips
- FAQ Friday: All of your Video Marketing Questions Answered Here
Practice makes progress. In order for you to be great at video, you have to practice video. Create a webinar. Create a live video Q&A. Create an explainer video. Just create in order to see how you can progress and grow from there.—Direct Images Interactive
This was just a glimpse into the top blogs and videos from our In-Sites series this year as well as highlighting on trends that impacted the 2016 marketing landscape. However as we close out 2016, feel free to share your favorite marketing topic or trend in the comments below, mention us @DirectImages on Twitter, or visit our In-Sites Thought Hive and get featured by providing your insight.
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