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Why is Blogging Important for Marketing and SEO?

Did you know that 72% of internet marketers believe blogging is the most effective SEO strategy? In fact, according to OptinMonster, companies who regularly blog receive 97% more links to their business websites.

Considering that 77% of internet users regularly read blogs, blogging remains one of the most effective marketing strategies you can adopt. From building business credibility to boosting brand awareness, there is so much that your business can benefit from blogging.

In this guide, we will quickly look at why blogging is important for your marketing and SEO efforts.

5 Reasons Why Blogging is Important for Marketing and SEO

There are reasons why blogging can benefit your overall marketing efforts. Below are some of the main ones.

1. Blogging Helps Build Brand Credibility

Blogging is one of the most straightforward ways to get customers to trust and be loyal to you.

Here is why;

When you provide valuable and insightful information for your customers, you position yourself as an expert and authority in that field. According to Google, expertise and authoritativeness are important in determining whether customers can trust your business or not.

When people trust your business, you start to build credibility, which can then open doors for many leads. However, for customers to trust your business, you will need to create accurate and helpful content.

Brand credibility is important for SEO because it tells search engines like Google that people can trust your business. As a result, search engines will more likely rank your site higher on the search engine results pages (SERPs).

2. Blogging Creates Brand Awareness

When you establish yourself as a credible business and rank well in SERPs, you boost brand visibility. Yes, you can build awareness by advertising on Google or social media sites. However, according to reports, 86% of people ignore paid ads and only click on organic search results.

This means that if you want to build robust and long-lasting brand awareness, you need to start blogging. In fact, OptinMonster estimates that business websites that have a blog section have a whopping 434% more indexed pages.

When more pages on your site are indexed, you are more likely to rank higher in search results. This means more brand visibility for you. To use blog content to push your marketing efforts, you will need to create search-engine-optimized pieces. You can do this by answering important customer questions and using relevant keywords.

Blogging also creates brand awareness when people share your content on social media. This will widen your customer base and potentially translate to more leads.

3. Blogging Attracts New Customers

According to DemandMetric, companies that regularly blog receive 67% more monthly leads than companies that don’t have blogs.

What does this tell you? It all circles back to creating awareness and visibility. The more people interact with your content, the more potential leads you get. When people come across your content and like what you write, they will keep coming back.

With time, they will subscribe to your email list, and before you know it, they are buying from you. You can also use blog content to drive people to your key business pages. When they get there, you can easily take them through your sales funnel and turn them into long-term loyal customers.

This is easier and more effective than using advertisements which people find intrusive. When a prospect feels like you really care about educating them and not simply trying to sell something, they are more likely to trust you. When they trust you, they automatically become a lead.

4. Blogging Helps Drives Engagement

Gallup, an analytics and advisory company, reports that companies that effectively engage their B2B customers record 54% higher productivity with 63% lower customer attrition.

One of the most effective ways to engage your customers is through blogging. This will enable you to build valuable relationships with them and gain their trust and loyalty.

Your customers might not share your products or services. However, when you write a great piece of informative content, and they like it, they will most likely share. So to boost engagement, you need to focus on creating engaging and shareable blog content.

You will also need to focus on content that fosters discussions. One way to do this is to create content around current issues or growing trends within your industry.

With time, as you continue to build relationships, you will convert your readers to customers. This means that you can leverage blogging to create an engaging and efficient customer journey.

5. Blogging Helps You Identify Customer Needs

Companies that are more customer-centric are 60% more profitable than those that don’t focus on customer needs. That is according to cloud-based CRM company, SuperOffice.

What’s more, Strategyn estimates that 95% of business ideas do not come to fruition because they are not clear on what customer needs they want to satisfy. As you can see, identifying and satisfying customer needs is paramount.

Now, there are many ways you can identify customer needs, and blogging is one of the most effective. You will need to find content that resonates with your customers and focus on these.

Based on how people interact with your blog content, you should be able to figure out what interests them more. You can also directly ask your customers what kind of content they want to see more of. Encourage them to leave comments and provide feedback.

This way, you should know what they want and design products and content that meet these needs.

Conclusion

Remember that we have just scratched the surface with these five reasons why blogging is not just important but actually an “essential” component of marketing and search engine optimization.

If you want to maximize the return on sources you mobilize on putting the word out there about the product or service that you’re offering; blogging is absolutely worth it. It will help you win customer trust, build credibility, boost visibility, identify customer needs, attract new leads and build meaningful customer engagement.

Happy blogging!

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Hassan Bawab, CEO of Magic Logix digital marketing agency, is a leader in cutting edge technology, digital marketing consultant and an innovative speaker/writer. He is the author of “How to Work with a Digital Marketing Agency” and has written numerous articles on automation technologies that have become industry dogmas.  Mr. Bawab holds degrees in Computer Science, Mathematics, Technical Writing and Marketing, in addition to several marketing and programming certifications.
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The Future of Digital Marketing is REAL!

Digital marketing changes so fast you can barely keep tabs on what is happening. Compared to about ten years ago, you can agree that a lot has happened. This has left many wondering what the future holds for internet marketing and whether there will be any future to talk about. Will digital marketing still be relevant, say 15 or 20 years from now? The short answer is, yes. Digital marketing is very real and will only be more interesting in the future. In this guide, we explore some of the reasons why we think digital marketing has a bright future and what you should do to keep up.

5 Reasons Why the Future of Digital Marketing is Real

We can think of multiple reasons why digital marketing would still be highly relevant a century from now. Some of these reasons include:
  • The ever-growing number of internet users
  • Cost-effectiveness of digital marketing
  • The use of AI and augmented reality
  • The ability to measure results
  • The ability to get instant feedback from customers
Let’s look at these factors in more detail below.

More People Are Going Online

The number one reason why we think the future of digital marketing is very real is that more and more people are using the internet. According to reports from DataReportal, there are currently around 5.03 billion people on the internet globally. That is about 63.1% of the total world population! This presents a huge opportunity for the digital marketing landscape to grow. Brands can take advantage of this online audience to grow their businesses and reach even more people than they would have with traditional marketing. This means that even as we go into the future, more businesses will be going online to tap into ready markets. As a result, digital marketing will become even more robust.

Digital Marketing is Cheaper

Traditional marketing is very expensive. There is no doubt about that. Many marketers now agree that it is much more cost-effective to develop and run digital campaigns. For one, there are many free tools online you can use to create a digital campaign. This means you won’t be spending a lot on hiring graphic designers and paying for prints. The fact that digital marketing is more targeted also means that it has a higher ROI than traditional marketing. For this reason, more companies will be switching to digital marketing as they seek to strike a good balance between ad spending and profitability.

Digital Marketing Provides Higher Engagement

It is nearly impossible for users to engage with traditional marketing campaigns. This is where digital marketing wins big. Because of ad targeting, online users are more likely to see marketing material that they relate to. This means that they will likely engage with that material and potentially turn into a prospect. In fact, according to Lyf Marketing, more than 50% of marketers prefer digital marketing because of the higher levels of customer interactions. Social media marketing also allows consumers to directly interact with a brand through clicks likes, shares, and comments. Because of this high level of engagement, more brands and marketers will choose digital marketing, making it even more popular in the future.

Digital Marketing is More Measurable

Digital marketing provides a wealth of analytics that you can use to create more effective campaigns. There are many marketing tools that you can use to collect and analyze data in order to create more targeted marketing content. In other words, digital marketing lets you track your campaigns and measure results. This is hardly the case with traditional marketing where you create something, put it out there, and hope it meets the right people. By analyzing results and adjusting your marketing efforts, you play a more clear-sighted marketing game and get your money’s worth. This is one of the biggest reasons why we think more people will prefer digital marketing in the future as opposed to print, radio, or television marketing.

Digital Marketing Can Use AI

The future of digital marketing will potentially revolve around artificial intelligence (AI). This means that marketers will be able to create more targeted advertisements, increase engagement and create AI-generated content. AI can also be used to identify potential micro-influencers, collect critical customer relationship management (CRM) data, and bolster content marketing. By the fall of the decade, we will have even more powerful AI tools for digital marketers.

Future Digital Marketing Trends to Look Out For

As you can see, digital marketing will only be bigger and better in the future. This means that you need to start creating a future-proof digital marketing strategy, so you don’t get left behind. Below are some of the ways you can keep up with future digital marketing trends and practices.
  • Focus on voice search – Forbes estimates that 76% of American consumers are already using voice search to find information online. This will be even bigger in the future.
  • Use micro-influencers – Recent reports show that micro-influencers are becoming more effective than big celebrities and they could be the future of digital marketing.
  • Don’t forget video – Video marketing is going to be huge in the future. Focus on shorter videos for TikTok and Instagram reels because a lot of people seem to prefer them.
  • Tap into Augmented Reality – A huge percentage of companies will be using AR devices in the future to create more engaging marketing content and CRM technology.

Final Thoughts

It is no doubt that many companies are ditching traditional marketing for digital marketing. The digital marketing landscape is growing fast and will be even robust in the future. To keep up, make sure that you focus on voice and video marketing, work with micro-influencers, and incorporate augmented reality to tremendously boost your marketing efforts. Simply put, digital marketing has evolved from being just an add-on to now an “essential”. It’s the bread and butter of every business in 2022 that takes maximizing reach and conversions any seriously.
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Hassan Bawab, CEO of Magic Logix digital marketing agency, is a leader in cutting edge technology, digital marketing consultant and an innovative speaker/writer. He is the author of “How to Work with a Digital Marketing Agency” and has written numerous articles on automation technologies that have become industry dogmas.  Mr. Bawab holds degrees in Computer Science, Mathematics, Technical Writing and Marketing, in addition to several marketing and programming certifications.
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How Blockchain is Impacting Digital Marketing

Everything is becoming digital, and it is important to embrace all the positive changes. Hugely, blockchain is playing a major role in the digital marketing and advertisement industries. This is because they are interlinked to ensure proper business development.

There is a certain misconception that it is mainly for currency. However, you have got it all wrong! Not only is it associated with cryptocurrency but also other broader applications. Blockchain plays a long role in verifying parties in a transaction. This is vital with all online stores and businesses. It will help digital marketing to go a step higher than it previously was.

How blockchain will help enhance digital marketing

1) Boost Digital Marketing

Bitcoin

Blockchain can be termed as a series of digital records that are interlinked with each other and don’t need any kind of third-party verification. It has led to an increase in bitcoin use and helped to verify and record transactions in real-time.

Hence, this will help the marketer to gain access to accurate leads and provide customers with the right information. It will do a lot of wonders to marketing and data transparency.

2) Security Improvement

Blockchain Security

In this day and time, security is a major issue due to buying and selling of goods online. This is because, with digital marketing, people are engaging in sales online. Many data breaches can pose a security threat.

It can be risky if certain financial information gets leaked to third-party people. Hence, with blockchain, each transaction will be verified easily while the people remain anonymous. Therefore, more security when providing any transactions online. This will benefit the seller and buyer equally.

3) Buy Ads Easily

If you want to boost your digital business, you will need to invest in more product advertisements. At times, you can seek the service from Google at a fee to build trust. However, blockchain can help lessen the advertisement network.

It will allow users to easily verify automatically without requiring a third party. Different websites that offer equally the same product can work together to be more productive.

4) Personal Detail Control

In most cases, you may find that you provide some personal information to a certain website and end up getting recommendations from other companies with the data that you provided. Not everyone is always happy about that.

Hence, blockchain will help to give consumers a chance to charge for their information. They can then sell to the companies that they prefer. This will be beneficial for business owners because they will only get the targeted audience and get accurate information.

5) Trust building

If you are running a small business, it can be so hard to stand out if there are established players already existing. Many consumers are often skeptical about new businesses. However. With blockchain, it will be easier for small businesses to build trust quickly, no matter how small they are.

In this way, as a small business owner, people will easily know the products that you are providing. It will be easier to get access to the supply chain information.

6) Accept Alternate Payment

Blockchain allows accepting of alternate payments. This is because, with it, the payments with bitcoin and cryptocurrency are more transparent. There will be reduced cases of forged cheques, bad credit cards, and other issues.

Nowadays, people are cunning and can cost you when you are carrying out business with them. Secure payments will allow you to save enough money each year without any fraud cases.

7) Reduce Fake and Counterfeit Products

How often have you gone to a site and just doubted its legitimacy? Well, guess what, blockchain can help reduce such instances. With digital marketing and online businesses, you can easily buy something then get something different from what you expected. It is so disappointing.

People get fake followers, likes, products, and much more. If you are not careful you can easily be scammed mostly on these social media sites.

Hence, with blockchain, you will deal with the right people rather than third parties that might lie and just take away your investment. Your marketing will also be top-notch, and you won’t have any fears at all.

8) Help Businesses to Function Better

Blockchain Business - Digital Marketing

Through the marketing automation of tasks and ad management, it has become easier for marketers to use ads to fetch data. Hence, blockchain is making the whole process easier. With it, you will have access to certain vital information on where a product was manufactured, labor used, workers’ wages, and other information. This will help businesses to get great credibility.

Blockchain will record all the steps taken and document all the necessary information. This will make it available to the open network. Hence, as a customer, you will have complete information about the supply chain or a retailer, or a distributor.

9) Accurate leads

The blockchain will help you to get access to accurate data. Also, all the transactions are decentralized.

Even if you are a marketer, you will get accurate data from the consumer. In most cases, when consumers give some information to your brand, that means they are interested in your products or services.

10) Have Control of the Content

As a marketer, you may feel like showing the ads every single time to your target customers. Hence, your target audience won’t get annoyed when you see your ads.

According to customers, when they are paying for the internet they are using, they should have control over it. With blockchain, it will be easier to manage how content is shown and at what time.

Final Thoughts

In this day and age, we are being tracked by secret cookies and certain permits. However, blockchain will help to ensure accountability while providing advertisements and paying for actual human interactions on ads and not a robot.

Blockchain will greatly help in ad buying and selling, fraud detection, laser targeting, data control, advertisement customization, ads on social media, data security, ad validation, ad automation, and content management.

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Hassan Bawab, CEO of Magic Logix digital marketing agency, is a leader in cutting edge technology, digital marketing consultant and an innovative speaker/writer. He is the author of “How to Work with a Digital Marketing Agency” and has written numerous articles on automation technologies that have become industry dogmas.  Mr. Bawab holds degrees in Computer Science, Mathematics, Technical Writing and Marketing, in addition to several marketing and programming certifications.
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Digital Marketing Trends for 2022

What Are The Top Digital Marketing Trends for 2022

It’s no secret that digital marketing evolves and changes rapidly, but the pandemic accelerated the pace. With consumer behavior changing, businesses need to keep up and adapt their digital marketing strategies to remain relevant. Those who will prevail in this fierce market are the companies that constantly educate themselves about the newest digital marketing trends and the latest innovations in this sector.

With that in mind, let’s talk about the most important digital marketing trends for 2022 and how to include them in your digital marketing strategies list.

1. Voice Search in Digital Marketing

Voice Search

With 41% of adults using voice search at least once per day, it seems only natural for businesses to focus more on optimizing their content for voice search.

Yes, voice search in digital marketing is becoming more ubiquitous in our daily use, but its influence on SEO and digital marketing isn’t as big as predicted.

And, here’s the reason why:

Most people use voice search either to perform an online search without typing the words or to receive a voice response (for example, when you are driving and you are saying, “Hey, Google, is the gas station still open?”)

Of these two methods, only the first is relevant to SEO and considered one of the newly used digital marketing trends. Users perform a voice command instead of typing in a query. Then they browse through the answers and click on the link that is more relevant to their search. This type of search is indexed like a normal web search and the data is collected in the Google Search Console.

In the case of using voice command to receive a voice answer, this interaction has little to no influence on your SEO.

2. Use of Machine Learning and Digital Marketing

Machine Learning

When it comes to making advertising decisions, it can be hard to overwrite our biases or to make sense of the vast amount of data available. Smart companies are aware of these challenges and use machine learning and digital marketing to overcome them.

Machine learning can help you make better advertising decisions by using all the data given on a specific topic. It can also help personalize your marketing and target your audience with the type of message they need at that exact moment. That is why it is one of the most important digital marketing trends that should be taken into consideration.

3. Use of Conversation in Digital Marketing

Some reports show that chatbots can help businesses save more than $8 billion by 2022 and that more and more consumers trust them even with more sensitive transactions like online payments.

Other digital marketing trends innovation reports claim that although chatbots are useful in their way, they can’t meet all the needs of customers and human-assisted chat and sales support can be more useful in conversation in digital marketing.

We believe that things are a bit more nuanced than this.

While chatbots can’t yet replace a full chat-like conversation, they can help with micro-interactions that facilitate the customer journey.

4. Email Personalization and Marketing Automation

It should come as no surprise that when consumers are bombarded with marketing messages from all directions, they are craving personalization. They want to know that you are understanding their unique needs and don’t see them just as another walking dollar sign.

But, with the increasing amount of data businesses need to operate and organize, personalization can become tricky. That’s where marketing automation can make the difference as one of the well-applied digital marketing strategies. You can automatically personalize emails, automate your campaigns, or offer discounts strategically based on the data collected.

5. Focus on Visual Design

Graphic and visual design trends is one of the digital marketing strategies that can drastically influence the success of a business, so you must keep up with what’s new in this sector.

Some visual design trends that will continue to be popular in 2022 are:

  • Bold backgrounds
  • Including visuals
  • Serif fonts
  • Colorful icons and illustrations
  • Data visualizations

6. Adoption of social networks

Adoption of Social Network

71% of small to medium-sized businesses are already on social media and this is one of the digital marketing trends that is likely to increase in 2022 as companies realize the enormous influence social networks have on consumers.

Businesses can create partnerships with social influencers to get their message to their audience more efficiently and quickly.

The main social platforms used are Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, and Twitter.

7. Advertising on Messaging platforms

When it comes to digital marketing, it’s important to be where your audience is. And, that sometimes can mean creating adverts for messaging apps like WhatsApp or Messenger.

This type of marketing can be tricky and a lot of businesses are still a bit weary. Do it wrong, and it can feel very intrusive. You need a lot of finesse to create and engage prospects in a conversation that feels natural. And, for that to happen, your focus should be on addressing their needs and not just simply selling your product.

8. Influencer Marketing

The use of influencer marketing has grown a lot in popularity in recent times and will continue to grow in the coming years as one of the new digital marketing trends.

Influencer marketing offers the possibility for a business to radically increase the number of customers interested in their products or services, as well as to increase its credibility.

But, before you start reaching out to influencers in your niche, focus first on building a relationship with them. In this day and age, consumers can smell a forced message from a mile away. So, the influencer has to really know the product and be genuine when recommending it. Also, try to look for micro-influencers instead of those who have hundreds of thousands of followers. Micro-influencers tend to have more engaged audiences who are more likely to follow their recommendations.

Final Thoughts

Hopefully, the tips presented in article will be a rich source of information for any business that wants to be successful in 2022. Don’t forget that it is important to have an integrated digital marketing plan in place so that you can enjoy all the benefits of your efforts.

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Hassan Bawab, CEO of Magic Logix digital marketing agency, is a leader in cutting edge technology, digital marketing consultant and an innovative speaker/writer. He is the author of “How to Work with a Digital Marketing Agency” and has written numerous articles on automation technologies that have become industry dogmas.  Mr. Bawab holds degrees in Computer Science, Mathematics, Technical Writing and Marketing, in addition to several marketing and programming certifications.
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How to Increase Your Page Speed: Tips That Will Get You Fast Results

What are the most important elements of a successful digital marketing campaign?

Digital Marketing Campaign

Definitely Page Speed is on the list! Most probably, you will start listing things like having clear goals, targeting the right audience, creating good ad copy, designing a landing page that will help you convert in your digital marketing campaign, and so on. Of course, you would be right – all these elements matter immensely. But, if you are not focusing on the page speed too, then you’re probably losing a big chunk of your potential audience.

Half of your visitors will leave if it takes more than three seconds for a page to load. In the case of mobile devices, the number is even lower – 2 seconds. More than that, page speed will also influence your position in the search engines and how likely your audience is to find your content.

All that said, what can you do to improve your page speed? You can tools such as GTmetrix or Google PageSpeed Insights to test your page speed. GTmetrix is one of the most popular tools for analyzing site speed performance. The tool uses PageSpeed Insights and YSlow to generate performance scores and a detailed report of the current state of your website. GTmetrix is extremely easy to use, and it only requires the URL of the website you want to test.

Here are three tips that are sure to bring fast results.

Reduce and Optimize Your Images for higher page speed

Page Speed Optimization

Take a look at the media elements on your page. Are the images and videos you added relevant to the content and your offer? Are they adding value to your audience or are they just for aesthetic reasons?

While there’s nothing wrong with a web page that has beautiful imagery, try to think about your web design in terms of performance and functionality. Whenever someone is trying to access a page on your website, your site’s server received an HTTP request to return the files that exist on that page to the browser. Obviously, the more and larger the files, the more it will take the page to load.

Remove the images and media files that don’t add any real value to your content and reduce the size of the ones that you want to keep. As a rule of thumb, keep image sizes under 100 KB.

Minify Your Code

Your website is ever evolving and transforming. But, if you keep every widget and piece of code you’ve ever added, then these extra bytes of data can make your site load slowly.

Minifying your code, whether we’re talking about Java, CSS, or HTML, simply means removing these unnecessary elements to make your site lighter and faster.

Use Browser Caching to increase page speed

Whenever a user returns to your website, your site needs to reload all sorts of elements, such as your logo, banners, CTAs, and so on again and again and again.

With browser caching, browsers store and remember these previously loaded elements and show them to your visitors. That way, you get fewer HTTP requests which means that your website will load faster.

Over to You

In a digital world that offers more, better, and faster content than ever before, a one-second delay can affect your entire digital marketing campaign and sabotage all your efforts. Keep these tips in mind and consult with your web design department to find the best ways to make your website not only look good but perform well too.

Want to get ahead of the social media strategy curve? Magic Logix is a website development, digital marketing and social media marketing agency, Dallas Fort Worth-based, representing regional and national brands. Contact us to learn more.

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How to Use Color Psychology in Social Media Marketing

The world is full of stimuli and information and our brains are trying to make sense of it all by using all sorts of shortcuts like the color Psychology. Marketers can use these shortcuts to create emotional cues that can persuade prospects to take action and convert.

The same stays true for the use of color psychology in social media marketing.

Have you ever asked yourself why brands seem to use the same colors in their advertisement materials? Is it because they have a certain affinity for a particular color?

Of course not. It’s because research has shown that consumers tend to respond better to certain colors and link them with their needs.

With that in mind, here’s how to use color psychology to boost your social media marketing efforts.

Why Color Psychology Matter?

Color Psychology

Our brains process visual information better and faster than it does text. Most people make a subconscious decision about a product or brand within the first 90 seconds. Moreover, the color a brand chooses to use for its products or advertisements materials can impact their acceptance or reaction by 60%.

Research also shows that color equates to about 80% of brand recognition. Just think about some of the most famous brands out there and how quickly you can associate them with a certain color: Coca-Cola – red, Facebook – blue, and so on. For example a study from HubSpot has demonstrated that red color (Bold and dominant color) is more affective in a call to action button than green color (friendly and non-threatening color) in social media marketing. Their results showed that the red button outperformed the green button by 23 percent.

What Color Psychology to apply Based on Social Media Marketing Goals

Social Media Marketing

You may not give too much thought to the colors you use to create your social media marketing ads, but the reality is that your audience responds differently to different colors.

Here’s a more detailed look at what each color communicates to your consumers and how to choose the right one based on your goals.

  • Red: Red is a bold and intense color that is sure to capture the attention of your audience. That’s why it’s best to use it in your call to action in social media marketing campaigns to make sure that your audience will not miss the chance to click and convert. It’s also a color that communicates excitement and you want your audience to be as excited as you are about your product, announcement, or offer.
  • Orange: Although not as intense as red, orange can still catch the eye of your audience. It’s also a more cheerful color and using it in your social media ads can communicate friendliness and openness.
  • Yellow: Yellow is the perfect color if you want to communicate warmth and optimism.
  • Green: If you want to evoke health or growth with your social media ads, then you should include the color green in your imagery.
  • Blue: Have you noticed how most financial institutions and even some social media platforms preponderantly use the color blue? That’s because it’s a color that evokes trust, stability, and strength.
  • Purple: Considered a “royal color,” purple can be used to evoke luxury or creativity.

What Color Should You Use?

Each element of your social media ad tells a story and evokes a certain emotion. The color psychology is no less important than the ad copy or the CTA.

As mentioned above, pay attention to your goals and choose the right color based on that.

Want to get ahead of the social media strategy curve? Magic Logix is a website development, digital marketing and social media marketing agency, Dallas Fort Worth-based, representing regional and national brands. Contact us to learn more.

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How AI Can Help You Elevate Your Digital Marketing

Artificial Intelligence & Digital Marketing

artificial intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already reshaping most industries, such as finance, retail, and tech, and changing the way companies do business. But, can this transformation be applied to digital marketing too?

The numbers seem to point to that.

Reports show that 47% of organizations already have a clear digital marketing strategy that also includes AI while 84% of companies agree that an AI-oriented marketing strategy will give them a competitive advantage.

But, how can you use artificial intelligence to improve your digital marketing transformation?

Here are some tips.

Use AI to Make Better Decisions About Your Digital Marketing Campaigns

Most companies use AI for data collection. Rather than compiling data about their target audience manually, they use artificial intelligence to identify, collect, and aggregate every customer interaction into useful data that they can then use to create better marketing campaigns.

With this data thoroughly compiled, organizations can use AI to create more meaningful, personalized interactions with their target audience.

Think about the last time you’ve visited the page of an online retailer like Amazon. You’ve probably received suggestions of products that you may enjoy. These suggestions are made based on your past purchases and browsing and their goal is to improve and personalize your online experience.

Engage Your Audience With Chatbots

You Would Probably Need An Army Of Customer Support Representatives Working 24/7 If You Want To Provide Excellent Customer Support To Your Customers. With Chatbots, You Can Answer And Address Your Audience’s Most Common Questions And Concerns And Help Them Move Down The Sales Funnel.

While Chatbots Are Nothing New, Especially For Retail Businesses, Machine Learning Has Made It Possible For These Bots To Better Understand And Compile Human Speech. It’s Called Natural Language Processing (NPL) And Is Used In Chatbot Technology To Make Them Understand Basic Requests From Customers And Mimic Human Language Better.

AI Can Help You Create Better Content

Content plays a significant role in the customer’s purchase process. One report found that 60% of consumers think that blog posts can impact their purchasing decision.

But, as we all know, creating high-quality content on a regular basis can be quite difficult and time-consuming.

With AI, you can brainstorm more content ideas and do it faster. Moreover, you can analyze the behavior of your readers as well as the performance of your existing content and identify any gaps. For instance, if you notice that your audience leaves the page without taking any action, your AI tool can make suggestions for improving your CTA or adding content that can address their potential concerns.

Are You Ready to Include AI in Your Digital Marketing?

Digital Marketing

When it comes to machine learning, there seem to be two sides. There are those who are excited about the future and those who fear that machines will take their jobs. For digital marketers, artificial intelligence can only help improve their marketing campaigns and reach their audience better and more effectively. Savvy businesses are already aware of this benefit and are beginning to introduce machine learning in their digital marketing strategy. How about you?

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3 Reasons Your Social Media Traffic Is Low and What to Do About It

Social Media Traffic is low

Social Media Traffic 2

A lot of businesses are using social platforms as a way to reach their audience, build awareness, and generate more traffic to their websites. However, they may not be getting everything they would have hoped for with social media marketing.

With over 3.6 billion people using social networks every day, how come your social media traffic is so low?

Here are a few possible reasons and what you can do about them.

Organic Reach Is Declining

One of the reasons a lot of businesses are seeing a drop in their social media traffic has nothing to do with their strategies, but the algorithm updates most social networks underwent. In an effort to provide users with the best and most relevant content, social platforms like Facebook have significantly reduced the reach of the content posted by brands. The average reach of an organic post on Facebook is 5.20%, meaning that only one in 19 followers actually gets to see your non-sponsored posts.

Pumping advertising dollars into each social network isn’t a solution for most businesses but neither is ignoring social media altogether. So, what can you do? We’ll talk about this below.

You Are Not Using the Right Channels for Your Audience.

According to one report from Search Engine Journal, the top social platforms for driving traffic to your website are Facebook (62%,) Twitter (22%,) LinkedIn (10%,) and Pinterest (6%.)

Does this mean that these are the only social platforms that you should be using?

Of course not! You should choose your social media channels based on your audience. If you are a fashion brand, for example, it would make more sense for you to use Instagram (although this channel is not even on the list mentioned above,) Pinterest, and Facebook rather than Twitter or LinkedIn.

You Don't Have a Content Strategy

Social media marketing doesn’t mean just posting daily content on a few platforms and calling it a day. You need to have a clear goal and a content strategy in mind if you want to achieve your objectives.

How Can You Increase Social Media Traffic?

Social Media Traffic 3

If you look at these issues closely, you will notice that they all have a common denominator: your target audience.

You cannot generate more traffic to your website through social media if you don’t have a clear understanding of who your audience is, what channels they are using, the type of content they prefer, what their pain points and interests are, and so on.

Here are some tips.

After you’ve identified the social media channels your audience is the most active one, try to determine the type of content they like. Identify the thought leaders in your industry on each platform, analyze, and mimic their content.

Over To You

Social media marketing can take a lot of time and hard work until you design the right strategy for your business. But, once you do it, the effort is all worth it.

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How Chatbots Revolutionize Enterprise Customer Service

Do you want to talk about the meaning of life, or are you interested in nuclear physics? (Do you want to increase your company’s revenue 100 times?) My name is Kate; I am a chatbot. I can help you with any question!

Chatbots still can’t consult with you on precise business strategies that will work, but they are close.

What are chatbots?

Chatbots (short for chat robot) are a computer program that maintains a conversation with a user in a natural, written or spoken language. A chatbot can understand the intent of the user. It sends a response based on data of the organization and the business rules.

Vivid examples of chatbots that recognize people’s speech are Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri.

A single chatbot can already give company departments a head start as it may gather data, analyze it, provide assistance with various issues and much more.

Studies show a whopping 80% of businesses want chatbots by 2020. That means that soon we will see launches of truly useful bots that will revolutionize the way in which companies do business and how consumers interact with enterprise services.

Which Chatbots Are Applied in Business

There are three main types of chatbots: Front End AI Powered chatbots, AI Assisted Human agents, and Human Assisted AI.

A Front End AI Powered bot 

is a conversational computer program that can interact directly with a customer without human intervention. These kinds of chatbots handle these queries like FAQs.

Front End AI Powered

However, there are some options for human assistance. First is upfront choice; it takes place when a client can choose from the very beginning to communicate with a person instead of chatting with the bot.

The second option is called human takeover — this is pretty similar to the option mentioned above. Every user starts to interact with a bot. But any user can request to talk to a human when a bot don’t know some specific things concerning the conversation. For example, when a chatbot cannot recognize a query it directs the message to a human.

An AI Assisted Human agent 

It is a human customer service representative who is supported by AI technology.

The idea behind bot assistance is that the users themselves never actually communicate with a bot. All questions that a customer asks are forwarded to human operators. The bot analyzes the content of each message from the user and distribute it through different organizational channels.

In enterprises, the bot decides which department or operator is best suited to take care of the inquiry.

A Human Assisted AI 

It is the natural evolution of the previous example. The primary decision maker here is the chatbot, but it is supported by a human. A system decides whether the issue can be resolved by a chatbot or if it needs human interaction by the defined level of confidence.

Human Assisted AI

Each message is analyzed and classified using Artificial Intelligence. If there is no information concerning the issue in the database, the system automatically redirects the message to a human operator.

When a bot have a low confidence it forwards the message to human operators — they review messages and send them out.

The disadvantage of this type of system is that a lot of operators should be available to shorten response time to a minimum, especially if the user thinks he or she is chatting with a bot. On the other hand, only a few operators are needed to supervise the bot.

How Chatbots Revolutionized Enterprise Customer Service

Chatbots can produce significant savings from a long-term perspective as they will contribute to cutting customer care costs by up to 29%, as BI Intelligence reports.

Customer service is one of the most resource-intensive departments in a company because the staff spends their day answering queries, gathering and analyzing information about customers, communicating with other departments, and much more.

It is a common knowledge that customer service chatbot changes the way people interact with service, but how, what are the functions and capacity?

Chatbots can provide customer relationship management

They can congratulate a customer on their birthday or ask how their son liked a T-shirt bought in your E-shop.

This type of relationship can increase customer loyalty.

Chatbots respond intelligently

They do and exclude the human factor (errors). When communicating with chatbots, there are no misconceptions — either a bot knows the answer, or it does not.

Gartner predicts that by 2020, customers will be able to manage 85% of their relationship with an enterprise without ever interacting with a human.

Chatbots are always online

This is a very important point because 50.6% of customers want to receive a response to their queries 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Chatbots can meet these customers’ expectations.

Chatbots can understand natural spoken language

Thereby customers can find any product they want faster and easier using voice search.

Let’s take Amazon’s Alexa, for example. People can now order a new computer with a simple order to Alexa while sitting at home and drinking coffee.

Amazon Alexa AI Assisted Human

According to a Google study conducted by Northstar Research, more than half of teens (ages 13–18) use voice search daily, and 41% of U.S. adults speak to their devices on a daily basis. The use of this technology is growing every day.

They can be integrated with E-commerce websites 

They can be  integrated with E-commerce websites so people won’t get lost on millions of web pages. When communicating with chatbots, customers have the ability to find everything they need concerning a particular product.

Moreover, a chatbot can analyze social media and take orders through Facebook Messenger and comments so that a company will not lose potential customers.

A survey by Facebook IQ found that 53% of people said they were more likely to shop with a business they could message directly.

They optimize and update themselves regularly thereby providing customers with the latest information and changes that were made on a website to which they are integrated.

A Glimpse Into The Future of Chatbots

Gartner provides some variants of potential chatbot usage for enterprises. Among them are the following:

  • Call center help desk. In the future, chatbots will potentially be able to reduce the number of help desk staff members. They will facilitate the handling of routine requests with automated responses.
  • Equipment diagnostic inventory management.

The integration of chatbots with Internet of Things technologies will give workers the ability to receive automatic notifications when a product is out of stock, for example, or if a delivery has arrived at its destination.

An Oracle survey shows that 48% of 800 surveyed executives and officials from France, the Netherlands, South Africa, and the UK said that they already employ chatbots and automation tools for their sales, marketing, and customer services, while 40% will implement automated technology by 2020.

Conclusions

We can definitely say that сhatbots are the future of enterprises. They have already been integrated with a huge number of E-commerce platforms at this time. They communicate with people on social networks and answer queries in search engines.

Chatbots have several advantages when used for customer service purposes. Among them are:

  1. Customer relationship management, which helps take care of every customer 24/7.
  2. Quick and intelligent response to queries, which may save customers’ time.
  3. Understanding of natural spoken language, which makes service available for customers wherever they want.
  4. Integration with E-commerce platforms, which makes shopping much easier for customers.
  5. Regular updates and optimization, which provide customers with the latest information.

All these benefits revolutionize the customer experience and result in increasing expectations towards the quality of a company’s customer service chatbot

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10 Tantalizing Truth Brands Should Know About Developing An Immersive Media Strategy

Media Strategy For Future Demand

According to data from Statista Research, the VR software/hardware market for consumers is expected to be worth more than 14 billion U.S. dollars by 2021 (Consumer VR hardware and software market revenue worldwide). When you realize this statistic is for consumer usage alone and doesn’t include business, government, or military usage, you begin to realize just how truly staggering the future of immersive reality is for those smart enough to innovate.

Virtual Reality

Everything from AR (augmented reality), VR (virtual reality), and MR (mixed reality) will transform how companies connect with consumers in the future. Unfortunately, far too many brands are burying their heads in the proverbial sand, hoping that immersive reality won’t impact the future of their consumer outreach efforts. If your brand is smart enough to see the writing on the VR wall and wants to prepare for the future of digital marketing, it is imperative to start facing the facts of immersive media strategy.

10 Tantalizing Truths About Developing A Media Strategy Brands Need To Understand

Immersive Media Strategy

To help you better understand how consumer connections will change in the future, following are 10 tantalizing truths brands need to understand about developing an immersive media strategy.

1) Immersive media is increasingly being used for educational purposes. From students in the classroom to doctors in the operating room, immersive reality is exploding in popularity. If your brand is interested in educating consumers on the benefits of your products/services, developing an immersive media strategy will be critical in competing with forward-thinking brands in your market sector.

2) Immersive reality is also being used by companies in the hospitality and tourism sector to increase revenues. Companies understanding the potential of immersive experiences to increase revenues will be best prepared to capitalize on profit-generating outreach opportunities. Creating a media strategy now means your brand is poised to take advantage of opportunities as new virtual and augmented reality technologies become available.

3) Immersive media strategy isn’t just about experiences you can see. Increasingly, brands are innovating in the immersive audio space (Zoom H3-VR: Introduction). From surround sound within a virtual reality environment to voice-enabled technologies, sound is one of the next frontiers in immersive experiences. Understanding the importance of immersive audio is crucial for brands wanting to maximize the potential of their IM strategy.

4) Immersive media is also making its way into sectors like architecture and construction. Businesses within markets like real estate, home renovation, and décor had best be prepared for the technological shift coming their way. As mixed reality, AR, and virtual reality become more mainstream, expect to see increasing demand from B2C and B2B consumers for media marketing. Developing an immersive media brand development strategy now means you’ll be able to build a reputation as a thought leader while competitors are struggling to come to terms with their new marketing reality.

5) Product design will also be influenced by the increasing use of immersive reality. When end users can experience a product or service from within a virtual atmosphere, there is an increasing need to improve multiple design facets of a product/service. It will no longer be good enough to design in a 2D or 3D atmosphere; product designers will need to create in a way that takes immersive tactile influences into account.

6) Advertising is one of the most exciting opportunities for immersive media, everyone is trying the latest marketing strategy with tools like paraphrase tool – best sentence rephraser | seotoolscentre to achieve and increase your business in a fast and easy way. Companies understanding the potential of creating innovative virtual/augmented/mixed reality experiences for their target consumers will be at the forefront of immersive advertising. Everything from the way products are advertised on social media to how they’re portrayed on television will adapt as immersive technology becomes mainstream.

7) Mobile gaming is another immersive marketing opportunity smart brands will capitalize upon. With smartphones becoming more advanced each year, mobile gaming is prime marketing ground for savvy companies wanting to turbocharge their customer acquisition rates. Whether its through the development of a brand-specific immersive mobile game or through advertising on a popular immersive game, there will be a rush of activity as companies wake up to the reality of increased brand positioning via immersive mobile gaming.

8) Expect to see growing interest at the intersection of social media marketing and immersive media. Companies like VR Scout are already innovating in this area with technologies like augmented avatars and virtual reality environments. As technology shifts to AR/VR/MR environments, social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram will need to innovate to keep up with the times. Starting to develop a digital strategy for your brand that includes immersive reality will mean you’re prepared when social media outreach collides with AR, virtual reality, and mixed reality.

9) The field of data research is also being impacted by immersive media advances. Companies are now able to research interactions in an augmented/virtual environment and discover everything from consumer reactions to product short-falls. Understanding how data research will be influenced by the move to immersive reality is key for companies wanting to develop a sizable lead over competitors.

10) In case you think all media interactions will take place in a virtual world, be prepared for mixed reality interactions out in the real world too. Innovation is already happening with augmented reality bus stop advertising and in-store display advertising. Brands should be prepared for everything from their digital signage to their billboards to be influenced by immersive reality technological shifts.

Conclusion 

immersive media

As the above examples clearly indicate, immersive media will transform the future of brand marketing. Regardless of which niche your business is in, how you interact with your target customers will change. Developing an immersive media strategy now is essential if you don’t want to be left behind as technology transforms how customers interact with your brand. What are your thoughts? Will your business be doubling-down on an immersive reality marketing strategy?