There’s a training event run by The Online Academy coming up next Friday 3rd March in Auckland.
Learn more at The Online Business Academy – how to Plan, develop and Write content that will rock your brand.
Creative Agency Secrets provides digital marketing services for brands and businesses. We are a leading agency innovating with marketing techniques like social media, community building, direct response and advanced blogging.
Working with us you will learn how to run a website, ecommerce shop, blog, email marketing, database management and social media marketing.
This position is suited to an applicant with 1+ year experience in a similar role who wants to accelerate their learning and move up towards being a Marketing Manager.
An interest in the internet is essential and a marketing, communications, business studies degree is optional. Some prior knowledge of websites, blogs and online marketing is needed. Excellent written communication is required and a writing test in English will be part of the application.
Send your CV and one page describing an event you ran (party, event, gig, trip to the beach etc) what you did to market and promote it. Include a list of the tools and techniques you used, what worked and what didn’t work and the outcomes.
This is a full time job based at our Eden Terrace offices. Pay is from $40,000 per annum plus 20 days holiday.
The age of Artificial Intelligence is here and it’s powering up the simplest things in our daily lives. In a nutshell, Machine Learning is the science of giving computers the ability to learn without being explicitly programmed. Kinda like showing it pictures of kittens until it creates enough patterns to identify another kitten by itself from new images. It’s very similar to how our human brains learn while we are kids. A few companies already have this type of technology running (and evolving by the second), like Facebook and Google. Every day we input more and more content online as check-ins at favourite restaurants, search queries for hotels for our next vacation, pictures with friends and peers. The list goes on.
This is a bit of a futurology exercise, I know. But don’t get it confused with any supernatural nonsensery, I’m certainly not writing this article on an Ouija board. It’s pure (computer) science that you don’t have to understand completely, just harvest its potential.
Taking advantage of the massive quantity of data stored online is incredibly useful to pinpoint your target audience, facilitating conversions. Because we blindly “agreed to the terms and conditions” of most online services, social media platforms can freely record information and trace it back to your profile for future use. In a world where virtually everyone is connected 24/7, this is actually a cool thing from the marketing perspective (if you ignore the obvious user privacy issues of having every move tracked online).
Ever noticed how Facebook shows (mostly) spot on sponsored content on your timeline? By analysing everything you like and share, Facebook creates a detailed persona of each user to target ads in the best way possible. And it’s not only what you do on the platform, they can track your footprint in other websites thanks to their Facebook Pixel.
As you probably know, we humans are creatures of habit, which makes recording our behaviour a simple task to the machines. Knowing that, Amazon and Netflix have mastered how to give the best “related products” suggestions you can find online. Their state of the art database is taking advantage of Machine Learning to predict your next clicks offering highly tailored content. Forget one-size-fits-all. To thrive in the current market, companies must pay attention to User Experience like never before.
A simpler (and free) way to implement something a lot less fancy as that is two tools called Content Analytics and Heat Maps, both part of the SumoMe suite. They record data of how far down your readers are getting in your articles and what links are generating more clicks on your pages. With this information, you can make very good educated guesses regarding what’s working and what to change on your website. This is not the “machine learning” approach, but I felt it was worth mentioning.
Artificial Intelligence is also being used to write texts without human supervision. For example, the biggest Wikipedia contributor, Sverker Johansson, with more than 2.7 million articles published, is actually using a bot called Lsjbot to create all content.
If you think it would be obvious to differentiate between human or computer generated articles, think again. According to a study from Karlstad University, Sweden, “the readers are not able to discern automated content from content written by a human“. The researchers used two sports articles (these tend to be more factual and analytical) one written by a journalist and another by a software previously called Statsheet (now called Wordsmith). Big media outlets as Los Angeles Times and Forbes already use similar technology as a base for some articles, with humans later improving the content before they hit publish.
And what if I told you that the previous paragraph wasn’t actually written by me, but by software?
Well, I would be lying.
But for one second you actually thought about the possibility, right? Welcome to the future.
And how can you take advantage of this in your business? There are a few services (like the IBM Watson) that offer the power of “computer minds” to businesses.
One experiment that I believe is worth the try is applying “robot talk” to your images SEO. Using a free tool like Microsoft’s CaptionBot you can let their machines determine the Alt tag for your image in your website. With Google giving more autonomy to RankBrain and relying more upon machine learning to deliver the best search results, it’s not about how you describe an image anymore. It’s how the machines see it.
No related posts.
Low prices and stellar customer service will not make up for poor marketing. Though each industry is different, these tips are universal for entrepreneurs to make it easy for prospective customers to reach them.
Even the greatest small business is only as successful as its ability to engage and communicate with prospective customers. Finding the best toll free number for business can be a great place to start. These are time-tested lines that allow for customization, ease of marketing, and a complimentary option for people trying to reach a company. In addition to a dedicated phone number, social media sites and applications are important places for a robust online presence. Many people now communicate almost exclusively through these channels, so being accessible and responsive here could result in new leads and loyal customers in the future.
Each unique industry comes with its own demands and complexities. Beyond that, different regions have specific challenges impacting the ways in which business can be conducted. Perhaps the most important variable, however, involves what it is a company’s customers actually want. Through feedback, surveys, or some other metric, savvy entrepreneurs are constantly monitoring whether they are providing exactly the experience that their clientele is requesting. If one business falls short, those customers are sure to start shopping around for another option more closely aligned with their desires. Of course, it is impossible for any endeavor to please everyone at all times. Coming as close as possible to checking all the boxes, though, is a great way to remain in an advantageous position for the future.
Since tastes, technology, and much more are constantly evolving, it is vital for any business owner to know precisely what competitors can offer above and beyond the standard fare. Whatever the industry, there are likely multiple factors at play in any given time period. Make sure not to neglect any significant improvements in speed, quality, or cost. Maintaining the best product or service for the fairest price around are the quintessential standards of quality and long-lasting business model.
Much planning and research goes into launching any successful small business. As all entrepreneurs know, however, the hard work does not stop on opening day. Instead, new obstacles arise and must be cleared by those tasked with keeping the operation afloat. Remembering the three tips outlined above can take some of the guesswork out of this nonstop pursuit.
You have a product or service, and create fantastic content, but you’re receiving no engagement. Without clients or consumers, your business will be stagnant. Boosting traffic to your website is the key to building a community and, ultimately, gaining new clients.
Don’t expect conversions overnight. You’ll need a solid and consistent marketing strategy to open the flow of traffic. There’s no single tactic that will be completely effective. Instead, multiple tactics, implemented together, will give you a significant influx of new viewers. These five strategies will increase your website engagement and help you build a loyal community.
Google loves links. Implementing quality links through-out your content will help it rank higher on search results. Also, if your website is linked via an external source, it will boost your rank on search and raise your authority as a site. It can take time to reach out to other online sources and convince them to link your website on their page. Consider using a link building service to do it for you and see a massive increase in relevant traffic to your site.
Social Media is one of the most valuable marketing tools you have at your disposal. The best part is, it’s totally free and relatively straightforward to use. Connect with your target audience using social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.
Join Facebook groups in your niche and engage with the community. Don’t be spammy but offer up your website as a resource at appropriate times. You can use hashtags on Instagram to locate people who are interested in your product or service. Engage with them by following and liking their content, which will encourage them to check out yours as well.
Using ad platforms is a great way to get your website in front of your target audience. Google Ads and Facebook Ads are both comprehensive platforms to launch your advertising from. You can choose which demographic you’d like to target, which will deliver a better return on investment. The ads will only appear to those people who are most likely to engage with your content and brand. Yes, you’ll need to spend a bit of money on advertising, but it’s a surefire way to boost your traffic quickly.
Optimizing your website and content for online search is essential to driving traffic your way. Search relevant keywords to determine what your target audience is searching for. Then, integrate them into your content so you’ll rank in search engines.
Use relevant keywords in headlines, subtitles, image descriptions, etc., to see the most benefit. SEO is a bit of a rabbit-hole, but learn the basics to make your content relevant to your niche.
How many times have you arrived on a website that’s bland, confusing, word-heavy, etc. and left straight away? Design your website with your consumer in mind. It should be visually stimulating, with fonts that are easy to read, and have a balance of written and visual content. It should look attractive, organized, and represent your brand. Make sure it’s user-friendly and easy to navigate around. Confusion will lead your potential customer to click off the site as quickly as they clicked on.
Direct mail is a highly effective marketing technique that delivers sales revenue in a short time frame.
Some direct mail is poorly conceived and so does not achieve its potential.
[WARNING – this is not always true].
Printed direct mail promoting a printer
I received three mailers from a printing firm which serve as a great example of a campaign that could have been much more effective with some pre-planning working with an expert in direct mail campaign structure such as us.
Using a mailing list of marketing agencies, three print pieces of DM were posted out.
The copy promoted “digital by nature” and a new world of digital printing.
The positives
The negatives
Wrong link – testing would have showed this up
Give us your challenge and let the creative team loose!