Follow These 5 Simple Steps to Get Better Content Marketing Results

As a small business owner, do you feel like your content marketing strategy needs an extra push? Here's our guide that you can follow in order to get better content marketing results.

Know What You're Selling

You can’t possibly create top-shelf content until you know what you’re selling — and why.

The roots of truly effective content marketing run deep. Long before you create a single piece of customer-facing content, you need to ask yourself and your team some basic questions that will define your strategy going forward. Such as:

• Why are we in business? Lays the groundwork for your mission/value statement.
• What needs do our products or services fill? What are their use cases? Wireframes your key marketing messages.
• Who are our competitors? How are they positioning themselves? What can we learn from them? A little inspiration never hurt.
• How do people hear about us? What’s the most effective way to reach them? Marketing strategies live and die by ROI.

Understand (and Segment) Your Audience

Modern content marketing is all about effective targeting. Effective targeting is all about knowledge — detailed knowledge about who your customers are, where they live and work, what motivates them, and why they want what you’re selling.

Your company’s universe of potential buyers is broad, not inscrutable. It’s just begging to be segmented into a manageable number of ideal buyer groups -- generalized profiles that combine demographic data, occupation, social status, motivation, use cases, past buying history, and more.

According to digital marketing entrepreneurs, sophisticated segmentation means looking beyond broad demographic categories to create detailed profiles of your ideal buyers. There’s no such thing as knowing too much about your prospects and customers.

Leverage Influencer Relationships

Many hands make light work — especially when those hands have big networks and bigger megaphones.

Early on, cultivate relationships with influential people in your organization’s industry or sphere of influence. Use their expansive social media reach and built-in credibility to broadcast your content farther than your network will allow. Influential people are usually willing to share excellent content that makes them look good by association.

Make Content Accessible Across Your Organization

Your organization’s right hand needs to know what the left is doing. This means content marketing is a team effort that extends well beyond those directly responsible for producing content — to the sales team, business development shop, account management department, all the way up to the C-suite. Responsive, unified messaging is a recipe for content marketing success.

Keep Your Audience Guessing

Variety is the spice of life — and content marketing. Publishing one blog post per week and supporting with a couple social posts does not a complete content marketing strategy make. Use a wider mix of media: videos, memes, blog posts, longform guides, white papers, case studies, podcasts, and anything else that aligns with your brand and target audiences. Deliver excellent, useful content and your prospects won’t mind the guessing game.

4 Things You Need to Improve Your Business' Website

Part of starting up your own business is to set goals. If you've already set up a website for your business or are still planning to make one, why not include its enhancement as one of your goals? Whether you're just getting started or you're looking to improve your website to increase visitors, here are some ways you can make your website's usability and visibility even better.

Use a Navigation Menu

Whether you have a simple website with just a few different pages (for example: Home, About Us, and Contact) or you have a detailed website with numerous pages, your website should definitely have a navigation menu. Implementing a navigation menu on your site can help your visitors easily find what they're looking for without going frustrated by searching over your entire website. Where you choose to physically place your navigation menu, whether it's at the top of the page, at the bottom of the page or a sidebar on either side, is totally up to you, but you'll want to make sure the navigation menu is in the same place for every page on your website so your visitors will know where to find it -- consistency is key. It also helps to have a "back to home" button on the same spot on every page of your site and a search feature so your users can easily search and locate what they need.

Include a Contact Form

Another way to help make your website more user-friendly is to include a simple contact form on your site. Not only does it help your customers get in touch with you should they have any questions or concerns, but it's also a great way to generate users feedback, which can help you decide what is and what isn't working for your small business. The contact form doesn't need to be overly complicated either, as long as it includes a blank field for users to submit their questions or comment, as well as a space for them to include their email address so that you have a way to respond to them. If you have an email marketing newsletter, including a sign-up form on your website is also a great way to help grow your subscriber list and reach your audience on multiple platforms.

Incorporate Social Media

If you have a website, you likely already know the importance of having an online presence, and social media should be a major part of this, if it's not already. Like everything else on your website, your social media channels should be easy for your visitors to find. Fortunately, most website builders offer social media features that allow you to easily add links to your social media profiles to your website. You can include social media follow buttons, which allow your visitors to "like" and "follow" your official social media pages, as well as social media share buttons, which allows users to share your website or content on your website with their friends and followers. A great way to grow your following is to use cross-platform promotion, so be sure to link to your official website on all your social media channels as well.

Don't Forget SEO

If you want to improve your website, it means improving its visibility online, which is where search engine optimization (or SEO) comes in to play. After all, if people can’t actually find your website, what’s the point of having one? SEO is important because a higher SEO ranking means your website might appear on the first page of a search engine’s results, whereas a lower SEO ranking could land your website on the second, third or an even lower page of results. Although you can pay search engines like Google and Yahoo! to help boost your SEO ranking through advertisements, there are other tools that several website building services, such as Wix and GoDaddy WebBuilder, provide to help boost your SEO ranking organically.

Simple Ways to Train Your Employees About the Latest Technology

Whether you’re in a corporate environment or own your own expanding business, figuring out the simple but effective ways to train your staff on technology and its upgrades can make or break your company or business.

Unfortunately, many corporate professionals still believe that when they received their diploma at school, their education was complete. How far from the truth this can be because learning is a never ending process and the only true constant in this world is change. Because of the advances in technology, particularly with business related ones, staying current is crucial. A business depends on its employees remaining up to date with technology to stay ahead or at least keep pace.

The difficulty lies in continually ensuring that your team is well trained on the technology, devices, and software they’re using, because:

• Old technology can hamper team members’ work and cost business countless hours of productivity.

• Outdated software is a large security threat. Your system is only as strong as the weakest link in your chain.

• Appearing uninformed about new devices or software may discourage potential clients and customers.

Know when to train

Say, for instance, that you choose to change from desktop computers to tablets. While Sam may be familiar with the mobile device, James may not be. Don’t assume that all employees will grasp a new system immediately. If each individual doesn’t fully understand how to use the technology, even if it’s just an upgrade to a platform your business is already using, you may run the risk of depleted productivity and morale.

Start with the team leaders

As you prepare to launch new software or any technology that affects your employees, consider training a select group of members first. Once they’ve been trained, they can coach their respective teams. Training the leaders first is an efficient technique for passing on information, as well as a great way to encourage collaboration. It also prevents a solitary instructor from becoming overwhelmed with requests and questions.

Try online training

Many small businesses actually exist exclusively online, with team members in different continents, countries, or states. For such a business, in-person training would be wildly expensive and time-consuming. Online coaching is a powerful alternative. Aside from their easy accessibility, online training sites can offer asynchronous timing. Freeing your staff from fixed timelines can allow team members in varied locations around the country or around the world to each learn at their own pace.

Allow employees to experiment with the new tools and software

Most of us take new cars for test drives before we buy them. So why not let your team members experiment with new software or technology before using it in full for the business? If you’re rolling out a new device or program, allot your staff a week to practice with the new tool and solidify their lessons. Ensure that a well-trained team member is handy to answer the questions that will naturally arise.

Understanding the Relevance of Performance Testing in a Business

Before, people used to carry out the performance testing in order to check whether the software or machine is working as it should be and functional testing to check the software to make sure that it has all the required functionality. However, if we shed light on the working and performance testing criteria adopted in the 21st century, then it is safe to say that every organization wants to have valid and most reliable report of performance test carried out on the targeted machine.

Performance testing has definitely become one of the most crucial parts of every business process, no matter if it is linked with the technology, engineering system, and production department. Read on to understand why you, as a business owner, need performance testing and why this phenomenon is becoming very common for each and every business owner.

Why is Performance Testing Essential?

1.     Helps in Determining Productivity

Productivity of a system is highly dependent on the working of the entire system. If the device, software, or application is following the right guidelines and working in the similar manner then, it will be productive and will be able to generate desired results in the given time period. It is also very important to keep in mind that productivity should be given higher importance because it helps in gaining the confidence of the market and transforming their mind in the most profitable way.

2.     Helps in Getting Information About Response Time

Response time is one of the very crucial and result generating elements, which helps in understanding the time in which the software or hardware is capable of performing the task. Response time also helps in identifying the overall strength of the system and for how long it should be used for getting the consistent results.

Furthermore, response time also aids in getting information about the overall life of the system and its workability rate during those years.

3.     Helps in Verifying Manufacturer Claims

When a manufacturer or group of developers designs any software or hardware, they will claim that this particular system or machine is the most powerful and is capable of providing consistent reliability when it comes to its working mechanism. The only way of testing such claims by manufacturers is thru performance test.

This process will help you in recognizing the glitches in the software and what efforts were made by the developers for correcting the errors, which were previously causing problems to its operators/users.

4.     Helps in Gaining the Trust of the Market

It is a crucial aspect for every business owner to gain the trust of its market audience. Why? This is to make your customers aware of the fact that the services or products provided by your company are highly valuable and should be considered.

Performance testing therefore, aims a similar purpose. When you carry out a performance test and your targeted market is watching the results, then this process will easily help them see that the services that are being provided by a company is worthwhile.

So if you're considering to impress your market and to ensure that your products and/or services are worth your customers' time and money, then it's high time for you to implement performance testing on your own business or company.

Outsourcing Tech Support: Identifying What Works

Even with the rapid advancement of technology, companies of all sizes are facing increasing financial strain on budgets. One of the easiest ways for companies to save money is to outsource specific business operations to an outside management or support service provider. Thus, outsourcing technical support to an outside provider is something that every business should consider. It will not matter if your business is a fresh startup or a well-established organization because there are good reasons for outsourcing for any business.

The first benefit that will come to mind for those seeking for cost reduction is, of course, how to save money without sacrificing the company’s bottom line. Let’s set aside for a moment the cost of maintaining telephonic systems and paying for VOIP services, outsourcing your technical support to a professional third-party specialist transfers the cost burden associated with hiring and training tech support specialists, setting up resources, and maintaining systems to the outside specialist.

Outsourcing your technical support reduces the cost for additional employees your business faces, while also providing the peace of mind that knowledgeable, highly-trained professionals will assist your business when issues arise.

Next comes flexibility. As your business grows, you need your systems and infrastructure to keep pace so that customers don’t pay the price for problems that arise in service or coverage. If you keep your technical support service in-house, there are two potential problems involved when it comes to scalability.

If your business experiences rapid growth, you might struggle to find quality team members to work in your technical support group and clients will suffer through longer waits. On the flip side, if your company has too many technical support specialists, you are burning money on employees sitting around waiting to tackle problems that won’t immediately pop up.

By outsourcing your technical support to an outside vendor, you have transferred the responsibility for scaling up or down to them. You are paying them to add qualified staff during expansion or scale down services when contraction occurs. It is their responsibility to absorb those shocks and adjust on the fly.

And then, there is the concept of the company’s focus. Every company has a limited budget and limited resources, and those resources need to be able to tackle all of your business’s needs appropriately. Outsourcing your technical support services to a third-party professional tech support company can free up resources, funds, people, and infrastructure for use on core business processes.

Without the burden of staffing, funding, and maintaining a technical support group, your company can focus its efforts on perfecting its core business processes to ensure clients are receiving the best possible services and products directly from your company.

IT Support: An Opportunity for Businesses to Promote Growth for their Clients

IT support is important for any business, particularly in terms of improving customer service and promoting growth for clients. If you want to keep customers happy and grow your business, here are a few reasons that discuss the importance of outsourcing to a professional IT company:

It helps maintain first-call resolution strategy

Although it’s just human nature to seek for help, this is a simple reminder for companies to always provide good customer service, whether through phone, e-mail, chat, or service center support. Support can be a selling point of the company. Sadly, not all companies focus on providing excellent after-sales service. Exemplary customer or technical service is a tough competition. One negative feedback can destroy the whole company. This is the reason why it is also important for a customer to know what kind of support the company offers before purchasing the product. Since not all companies can maintain a large IT department to maintain first-call resolutions, businesses can outsource their tech support to third-party vendors.

It helps increase sales

A company can increase its sales if they have an exceptional technical support team. This is why some companies even get help by outsourcing professional tech support companies. A good technical support is when a company provides user-friendly assistance to its consumers. The technical support team is composed of individuals who are experts of the products that can assist customers accordingly.

With every technology-related item introduced to a company for the purpose of increasing work output, the more a company should instill a world-class after-sales service. Every company MUST have a great team of support representatives even if this small group is further supported by outsourced services from a third-party vendor. Thus, companies can opt for tech support outsourcing with a reputable Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) company. These outsourcing companies can offer businesses technical support depending on their specific needs.

Below are usually the main factors to consider before outsourcing your IT services:

§  Know the different technical support services that an outsourcing company can provide to your customers.

§  Know the flowchart procedure of the outsourcing or BPO company in terms of recruiting, hiring, training, and managing because most outsourcing tech support companies will only hire professional or licensed tech support personnel.

§  Know the overall culture of the BPO company if it aligns with the company’s beliefs and values.

Never underestimate the power of outsourcing

There’s nothing wrong with outsourcing your IT support to third-party company because not all businesses can afford or have the budget to hire and maintain a separate IT team even if dedicate to customer support. The resources and infrastructure alone will be enormously costly, not to mention the fact of hiring and paying additional employees.

In the end, having a brilliant IT team, even if outsourced, is definitely a good business practice for any small or medium-sized business.

How to Take Advantage of Instagram's Latest Features for Your Marketing

In the past six years, Instagram has evolved into a more user-friendly and dynamic app. And since it is one of the most popular forms of social networking, it has undoubtedly became a favorite among almost all entrepreneurs. The app is a convenient platform to promote products and services. With its latest updates, advertising has never been so exciting.

So here are the new features Instagram has recently released that you can maximize for your marketing purposes.

You can link Instagram to the Facebook Page of Your Business

Instagram gives business owners a chance to make the most out of their social media accounts. Now, you can link your profile to your Facebook page, which makes communication easier. Because of this feature, your followers can easily go back and forth your FB and Instagram page to get the latest updates, promos, and deals from your company. To further optimize your Instagram account, you can ask Vibbi for assistance.

Instagram Stories are Becoming More Viral

Instagram Stories is a great marketing tool in giving live updates or featuring limited promos.

You can give your followers sneak product previews that will excite them the most. You can also give out limited offers through stories. Lastly, you can also use stories to drive traffic to your social media accounts. These will make them feel more connected to your brand. Be creative in using this feature, and you'll gain many hearts in no time.

So why did the developers come up with Instagram Stories? It is made as a solution to overposting in Instagram. In other words, you can now post as often as you like without flooding your profile or your friends' newsfeeds.

To use Instagram Stories you first need to tap the plus sign located in the upper left corner of your screen. Then, you can take a photo by tapping the round button once and a video by long pressing the button for 10 seconds. You have the option to doodle on your photo or even add an emoji and a filter. You have more advanced color options by long pressing one of the colors to choose your desired shade.

When done, you can tap the check icon to share your story. You have the option to save your masterpiece by opening it and tapping the three dots located at the bottom right portion. Select the Save Photo option.

Finally, you can check who checked your story by swiping up as you view the photo or video. You can tap the x mark next to the name of someone on your list to block them from seeing your stories. You can also go directly to your Settings and choose to hide your Story from certain people.