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SMS Marketing Trends 2021

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article | SMS Marketing Trends 2021

Since the world has been gripped in the hands of COVID -19, it brings significant changes in the life of businessmen. SMS is now regarded as the marketing tool and perfect way to bridge the gap between the business and its consumers. According to a study, the texting was increased by 53% and recorded to be higher than average in both January and February. Let’s look at some of the trends in SMS marketing and the probable changes they must bring to the lives of many.

1. More than SMS, Omni channel is better preferred: In case you want to establish a better relationship between with the customers, prefer Omni channel more than only SMS. Earlier SMS was regarded as the only channel of communication with the customers; the contact number and email ids of customers were collected by the senders. But now, SMS has an incredible open rate (say 98%) acceptance and it can be integrated with other channels as well. 2021 will notice certain trends in SMS marketing and they would be like the following.

  • Blog posts and other company news can be shared through messages.
  • E- Mail and SMS promotion can be combined.
  • SMS can be well combined with social media marketing.

With the help of marketing automation software it is possible to integrate other channels with SMS.

2. SMS as a customer care channel: Some ways are prominent where SMS can facilitate the customer service functions.

  • They can be used for sending confirmations.
  • They could be used for providing delivery tracking information.
  • They can be used for confirmation and also rescheduling appointments.
  • They are generally used for responding to questions that are frequently asked.
  • While you text with customer support that allows a shorter time of resolution.

In the present year 2021, you may expect to see a betterment in customer service. Since the SMS platforms come handy, there is much improvement in the transactional SMS, and the two way SMS that helps in customer and business services.

3. B2B SMS marketing is on the rise: B2B marketing uses SMS for interacting with the customers and it’s in rise in 2021. Well, the amount of SMS used by B2B is always lesser than B2C. SMS is used to send text to customers as well as valuable information. Well, there are many ways that can help in this regard:

  • By sending personalized messages that customers can know the expected time of delivery as well as the order number of the materials.
  • The customers might know about the product updates and also improved services thereby keeping them in the loop.
  • While you exchange messages with potential customers, it can keep themselves motivated.
  • There can be timely updates about the company’s products and offerings.
  • You may schedule product demos and webinars, as well as answer FAQ’s that provides limited time offers.

4. User reviews is the trend:The use of SMS is on the rise. According to a study about 82% of the consumers read the online reviews especially for the local business. Reviews play a critical role in sales and marketing. In fact, there are several polls and surveys conducted that would give an idea of people the product. In fact threads are provided via SMS and users are expected to complete the poll. Give customers a chance voicing their opinion on the various products and services; you may see the use in social media. The surveys conveyed can help to build the necessary insight.

5. Transactional SMS updates for cross selling: The transactional SMS would keep the customers updated about their purchase and any interactions with the Finance business. By sending SMS to the customer would create a positive image, and there are chances they would convert to potential customers. The companies will be provided with a chance to promote cross selling and providing discounts, all to attract a buyer.

6. Elevate your business with SMS marketing message: In the future, maybe SMS marketing will be combined with marketing strategies as a mix. The success of a marketing strategy depends how effectively it’s used to send text and manage the potential clients. With advent of age, SMS marketing will be the most effective tool to communicate and give a boost to sales.

The marketers hope that business will see a havoc change in 2021 and that will be reflected in the marketing trends. Business trend will be more empathetic this year and that will lead to a stronger customer relationship. E-mails and SMS are regarded as a perfect tool that can help push notification and can elevate sales along with revenue. After all, there is a saying that ‘Content is the king’, and it would appear like that text only emails and SMS are the main tool that can lead to a successful marketing strategy and future development.

About the Author

Susan Raj is Marketing Head of TXTImpact.  TXTImpact provides Business Text Message products for marketing to and support of customers to increase their client base. Our Enterprise Text Message Marketing Platform designed for your business, allows marketers to communicate and engage customers on the go instantly.

What Are Some Of The Ways To Increase Traffic To Your Blog?

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Increase Traffic to your Blog|What Are Some Of The Ways To Increase Traffic To Your Blog?There are many different reasons why people set-up blogs today. Some people establish blogs as a way of facilitating their business website and driving more traffic to their online store. There are then people who start blogs because they are passionate about certain subjects and a blog enables them to share their voice and opinions. You can also monetise your blog. However, you are only going to be able to achieve your goals if you get a lot of traffic to your blog. Keeping that in mind, we are going to take a look at some of the different ways that you can drive blog traffic.

Make the most of social media

When it comes to online marketing, all of the different channels are very much integrated. SEO, social media marketing, and blog writing all work together to help you to build your online presence. Therefore, it makes sense to build an effective social media presence for your blog in order to attract more traffic and followers.

However, one of the biggest mistakes that people make when it comes to social media is trying to establish a presence on every social network site. When you consider the wealth of social media sites that are available today, this is simply not possible. Your efforts will be diluted because it will not be possible to give every platform the amount of effort and attention that is required. As a consequence, one of the most important things that you need to do is determine what social media networks you should focus on.

This means that you need to figure out where your target audience is. What sort of social media networks are blog readers most likely to use? For example, if your blog readership is predominately females who are of college age, Pinterest would be a wise social media network to integrate into your strategy. This is because the Pinterest demographic matches up with this. You can grow blog traffic with Pinterest if it is the right social media platform for your audience.

Focus on delivering quality content

Not only should you think about your approach to social media, but quality really is everything when running a blog. You cannot expect to put out poor quality content and have a successful blog. Your content needs to be original, exciting, and informative.

If you do a quick search on the web, you will see that there are so many different blogs out there today. Competition is fierce. What is going to make people choose your blog over other blogs? The answer lies within the content you create. If you create high-quality content that is different from the norm, you are more likely to have people following your blog. However, if your content is low quality and it does not provide anything new or helpful, no one is going to read your blog. It is as simple as that.

Make sure you have a consistent posting schedule

Yes, your content needs to be of a high quality. However, it also needs to be consistent. Posting several times in one week and then disappearing for a few weeks is no good. It is much better to post once or twice per week than it is to have an erratic posting schedule.

People like to know what to expect. They want to know when they are going to receive new content from your blog. This is the only way you are going to build up a following. If you post on an erratic basis, people will lose interest when you do not post on your blog for quite some time. The best thing to do is create a calendar for your blog so that you can schedule content.

Create guest posts that link back to your blog

To boost the power of your own blog, you need to post content on other blogs! If you have other websites that point back to your own, it can help to boost your social media ranking. This will give you more visibility online, which can result in more viewers for your blog.

However, we must stress that it is imperative to only link up with premium quality blogs that are relevant to your blog. If you were to run a sports blog, for example, linking to a blog about unicorns wouldn’t help you to climb up the search engine rankings. There is no relevance. This is why you need to make sure that you carefully consider the blogs that you post guest posts onto. Make sure you check their domain ranking so you can be sure that the site has high authority.

Be patient

We know that it can be hard to be patient when you are desperate to build your blog. However, we are sure you have heard the saying that Rome was not built in a day. You cannot expect any blog or website to be a smash hit overnight. It just does not happen. Instead, it takes a lot of hard work and dedication.

Slow and steady truly is the best approach when building your presence online because it will help you to create a natural and organic ranking, which is much more likely to last. If you try to take shortcuts, you will only end up hurting your blog in the long run.

So there you have it: an insight into some of the different ways that you can drive more traffic to your blog. If you try the different strategies and techniques that we have discussed above, you can give yourself the best chance of increasing the traffic to your blog. From focusing on your social media marketing efforts to ensuring that your content is original and engaging, there are lots of different tactics that are important when it comes to increasing the visibility of your blog. Try out the approaches above and remember that you need to be patient to see results.

Three digital marketing techniques your company should try in 2021

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Digital Marketing|Three digital marketing techniques your company should try in 2021Every business knows that marketing is important. After all, it doesn’t matter how fantastic your product or service is if no one knows about it! Traditionally a lot of advertising was done in newspapers or magazines and even direct mail, but these days the digital sphere is undoubtedly the most powerful arena in which to do your marketing. Regardless of the size of your company and the industry in which you work, having a professional quality website and decent online presence is vital. With that in mind, here are three digital marketing techniques that your business should definitely consider trying in 2021:

Content Marketing

Content marketing is a strategy that involves creating ‘valuable, relevant and consistent’ content that is aimed at a particular audience (for example, people of a certain age or gender or who have certain interests), with the intention of attracting and retaining customers. Right away you can probably see that this covers a huge range of materials, from infographics and podcasts to books and videos.

When it comes to your business, one of the simplest ways to get started with content marketing is by having a blog. The key factor here is to make sure that the articles you write are genuinely interesting and informative – they shouldn’t feel like marketing to the reader. If you can give your audience something of value, they will keep returning to your website and be more likely to convert into paying customers.

Paid Advertising

While content marketing has the advantage of being free (aside from paying your staff to write it!), sometimes there are advantages to using paid advertising too. Some of the most common examples of paid advertising are pay per click Google ads, product listing ads, video ads during YouTube content, and Facebook ads.

The world of paid advertising can be a confusing one, so if you’re not an expert in the area, then it may well be worth working with a professional agency such as Octiv Digital. They can help you to design the best adverts, decide where and when to place them, and manage them once they’re up. This is a great way to ensure that you get the best return on the money that you spend.

Social Media Marketing

Although Facebook ads must be paid for, there are ways to use social media for free marketing. By creating tailored content for the most relevant social media websites in terms of your target audience, you can boost engagement with your company, raise awareness of your brand, promote your products or services, and ultimately increase your sales.

Social media is actually one of the best ways to showcase your brand’s unique personality, thanks to its informal nature and opportunities for making direct connections with people. These days the majority of people use social media, so it’s a key place to advertise and build relationships – particularly if your target audience is young. Take a look at your top competitors and see how they use social media if you want some ideas to get you started!

How To Integrate Your Offline And Online Marketing Efforts

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article, How To Integrate Your Offline And Online Marketing Efforts

When it comes to marketing today, there are many different options available to you. However, most techniques tend to fall into one of two categories; either online or offline marketing. A healthy balance of both approaches is often the remedy to success, depending on the nature of your business. However, you can supercharge your efforts if you manage to integrate both campaigns, ensuring they work together to help one and other. With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the different ways you can integrate your online and offline marketing efforts.

Create QR codes to print onto your leaflets – There is only one place to begin, and this is with making a QR code and printing this onto your leaflets, brooches, and so on. You can make QR code designs with ease. By doing this, people will be able to scan the code on their phone and it will direct them to your app or website. They do not have to go through the hassle of typing in a URL or browsing through the app store. It makes it as easy and convenient as possible for people.

Advertise online competitions via print methods – Another option to consider is sending out flyers about competitions that you have running. Users should have to enter these competitions online, meaning that there is a clear connection between your online and offline marketing efforts.

Add an online call to action to your offline promotions – If you are establishing an offline promotion, why not get customers to take the action online? For example, you may send out postcards about a promotion that you have running, and you may want the person to sign-up to your online newsletter in order to gain entry. This is a great way of integrating your online and offline marketing methods.

Get your online customers to contribute to your offline efforts – Ask your online customers if they would be willing to contribute to your offline marketing efforts. For example, if someone has left a great review about your company, ask if they would mind this information being printed in your next brochure. This can act as social proof, proving that your products and/or services are more than worth the money.

Use your online data to support your offline marketing efforts – The final step when it comes to integrating your marketing efforts is to fuel your offline campaign by using data that you have collected online. One of the great things about digital marketing is that it enables you to capture a wealth of different data sets with ease. You can use this information to power your offline campaigns so that you’re getting great success.

As you can see, there are a number of different steps you can take to integrate your online and offline marketing efforts. If you follow the tips and advice that has been provided above, you can give yourself the best chance of making sure that your marketing campaign is effective and delivers the results that you hope for.

Attention Social Media Marketers! Here’s What You Should Know about Inclusiveness on Social Media

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article, Attention Social Media Marketers! Here’s What You Should Know about Inclusiveness on Social Media

At nearly 4 billion users, more than half of the world’s population now uses social media to connect with not just each other but also with brands. Needless to say, your social media audience is an extremely diverse bunch of individuals with varied interests, beliefs, and abilities.

To cater to them all in the best way possible, you’ll need to consider inclusiveness in your social media marketing efforts. People expect the companies they do business with to take a stand – in fact, 70% of U.S. consumers say it’s important for brands to take a stand on social and political issues.

But inclusiveness is not just about taking a stand on global issues. It covers a diverse range of subjects, from racial justice and gender equality to content accessibility and hate speech.

In this post, let’s learn more about these inclusivity issues and how you can address them in your social media marketing strategy.

Go Beyond a Corporate Statement With a Social Strategy

A corporate statement tells your audience about your beliefs, but a long-term social media strategy shows them how your brand is taking real action.

It goes beyond announcing a charitable donation and proves that diversity, equality, and inclusion is a long-term commitment for your brand. Create a social media strategy to highlight your employees’ actions and your company’s ongoing work towards more inclusivity.

For instance, if one of your initiatives focuses on internal education and dialogue about racial justice, you can share the activities that your team is doing with your followers. If your team is doing volunteering, highlight their stories and experiences in serving the community.

To go beyond a mere corporate statement about inclusiveness and demonstrate real action, here are a few things you can have in your social media marketing strategy:

  • Research how issues like racism and gender inequality impact your industry and create and promote content or resources like books, podcasts, thought leadership, etc. on how to tackle these issues.
  • Get your company involved in a movement and frequent volunteering or fundraising activities, and invite your followers to do the same.
  • Learn about your company’s past and existing efforts, and build a plan to convey your employees’ stories and actions on social media..

Use Gender-Neutral Language, Emojis, and Imagery

When addressing a general audience on social media, use inclusive pronouns like “they/them” rather than “he/she” and avoid language biased to one gender, such as “mankind” or “guys”.

Also, when responding to comments or posts, do not assume the person’s gender, but instead, address them by their name or username. UN Women has a comprehensive set of guidelines on writing in a gender-inclusive way.

This extends to the emojis you use, too. Avoid gendered emojis if possible and opt for the default yellow emojis when addressing a diverse audience.

Simply put, using non-gendered and default yellow emojis when engaging with a universal audience, or multiple colors of emojis when portraying a broad audience can greatly contribute to creating a strong sense of inclusiveness in your social media presence.

Furthermore, if you use stock visuals in your social media, understand that stock images are often littered with gender and racial biases, and there aren’t many options when trying to source inclusive images.

Use platforms like nappy and Canva’s Natural Women Collection the next time you need a stock image that truly embraces diversity and inclusivity. And when designing any new marketing material (flyers, banners, icons, etc.), make sure to let your graphic designer know that you’re committed to representing diversity and inclusion.

Create Content That’s Accessible to Everyone

While on the subject of designing graphics for your social media marketing, inclusiveness is also about ensuring all your content is accessible to everyone, regardless of their disabilities.

You might already know that having an accessible website is mandatory today, with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) extending to digital properties too. Essentially, an accessible website is one that accommodates all visitors on all devices irrespective of the physical or mental ability of the user.

With an estimated 26.9 million adult Americans claiming they either have trouble seeing or are unable to see at all, if you don’t prioritize accessibility, it’s likely that you’re unwittingly shunning a considerable chunk of your audience from engaging with your content on both your website and social media. Not to mention accessibility is also important to avoid ADA lawsuits, which are on the rise.

To make your website accessible, you can take many steps yourself, such as ensuring logical content hierarchy (with subheadings), adding alt text for all images, adding descriptive labels to form elements, and making your site keyboard-friendly. Making all of these adjustments basically mean to adhere to the ADA compliance guidelines.

For social media, in particular, make sure to create graphics with sufficient color contrast so that the visually impaired can also consume the content. When posting videos, always include closed captions or subtitles.

Also, when posting on Instagram, go to Advanced Settings and then Write Alt Text to add a descriptive alt text for your posts. This way, you make your content more accessible to the visually impaired audience who’re using screen readers.

Remove Offensive Comments

If you haven’t already, sooner or later you’ll receive comments on your posts that are misogynistic, racist, homophobic, or hateful in nature. Such comments that are offensive to any group of people should have no place on your brand’s social media presence.

By not engaging and instantly removing these types of comments, your followers can appreciate your company’s intolerance and firm stance against hate speech. If you are not able to remove comments on some social review platforms, develop a strategy to tactfully respond to such spiteful comments, and demonstrate your brand’s values.

Final Words

Inclusivity isn’t just an HR initiative that’s limited to your workplace — it should be built into your company culture that extends to all your brand messaging and marketing as well.

Sure, it’ll take some time and effort, but working with your marketing team to create an inclusive social media presence goes a long way in increasing your content’s value, reach, engagement, and overall brand image.