4 Promising Content Marketing Trends for 2020
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4 Promising Content Marketing Trends for 2020

Content is king when it comes to marketing. Content is the soul and essence of the message you are trying to deliver to prospective customers. Without quality content, your message falls flat and you lose the chance to catch the attention of a prospective buyer or an audience member. So, you must review and keep renovating your content marketing strategy every once in a while. Here are four trends you must keep pace with this year.

1. Live Videos

The unpolished and authentic feel of a live-streamed video is what makes it gain traction over a well-planned and rehearsed traditional video message. What attracts audiences is, its real-time authenticity. So, this year try to put out some live videos laden with relevant content. It could be an interview with your CEO or a product review or even an ideation meeting with team members.

2. User Generated Content

User-generated content is highly underutilized as a source of quality content designed for marketing strategies. Users often do not find the right media to express their views, opinions and feedback for a particular product or service because there are not enough or well spelt out the means to do so. So make sure you put in place a channel for your customers to share feedback through and make sure you use it to market your product or service.

3. Voice Your Content

Smart speakers are slowly becoming integral to households across the world. So voice messages in the form of small content capsules talking about your product or service or even industry-specific facts and informational bytes can go a long way in drawing attention to your brand.

4. The Snippet

Google now displays, at the top of each results page, a snippet of information relevant to the searched item following which are listed the remaining results in order of relevance. Google now sniffs out the most relevant of content based on user intent and the snippet gives you the chance to feature as a well-packaged source of content right at the top of the Google search results pages if you have the most relevant content tailored to specific topics. So keep the vague and obscure material off your content table and go for relevant content that adds value to a user’s search.

Content cannot simply be produced with the help of the best content writers out there. An effective content marketing strategy, according to Sprout Road’s content writing service experts, needs an integration of more than one member of your team. You must rope in marketers, designers, developers and even your organisation heads to put out a comprehensive and robust content marketing strategy.

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6 Reasons Why you Should Get a Blog for Your Website
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6 Reasons Why you Should Get a Blog for Your Website

When you opt for website development services the first thing that should be on your mind is the fact that your website should be an active one, not a static platform that is lost in the Internet’s timeless limbo. The best way to make your website stay alive is to power it with inbound marketing techniques like business blogging, the benefits of which are manifold. Here is a look at 6 reasons why you must opt for a blog when getting a website developed.

  • Blogs generate traffic

Blogs are a cost-effective way of driving traffic to your website. All major search engines show a strong affinity to fresh, relevant and original content and they throw up search results based on this affinity. So your website has a greater chance of being indexed owing to its blogs. Moreover, insertion of industry- relevant keywords in blogs helps drive relevant traffic to your website.

  • Engage with customers

Engagement with customers online is a very crucial part of online marketing and branding. Blogs are one of the most interactive and engaging mediums of information dissemination and connecting with old and new customers. People on the Internet are hungry for relevant information written conversationally and your blogs can be a free gift of information to them. Moreover, if customers respond in the comments section, you can reply to their concerns and queries.

  • Build your brand

Every product or service has to have brand value in the market for it to sell. Building your brand and having a brand story is as important as selling your product or service because customers tend to prefer brands they can trust. Blogs help you spell out your core business values, what you essentially stand for, the nature of your products and services and how you value your customers and clientele. They serve as the book ends to your business.

  • Demonstrate expertise

Blogs are an excellent medium to flaunt your domain knowledge and expertise in your field of operation. You can write blogs on the production process or touch on topics related to your product’s market and trends – anything that catches the reader’s eye. And the more original and relevant the content, the more will your customers, clients and even competitors trust you.

  • Market Digitally

Blogs, if they are interesting, information-rich and unique, can find wide traction on the Internet and even beyond with people sharing the blog through phones and social media. This in turn helps market your brand widely and inexpensively. It can also lead to conversion to leads if people choose to click on your call-to-action buttons in the blogs they have particularly taken a liking to.

  • Pen down your thoughts

Blogs are a great way to express yourself and communicate to the world what you really believe in and stand for. It is a great medium to help you assert your individuality and stand apart from the crowd that is the Internet.

Now that you have a fair idea about the importance of blogs to your website, you should try to generate blog ideas and content regularly for visitors and search engines to know you are alive and kicking. Sprout Road, a premier website builder in Kolkata, recommends you enlist the services of a professional content writer for your blog section so you can put out quality content regularly.

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4 Neat E-mail Tricks for Offline Businesses
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4 Neat E-mail Tricks for Offline Businesses

So yours is one of those businesses that are yet to go online? And you are not ready to take the plunge yet? Fret not for you have at your service a trusted way of communicating with your clients and prospective customers over the Internet– through email. But sending out emails is not as simplistic as it looks. You need to work on several aspects of your email to win the trust of your customer and make an impact on him or her. Here are a few handy tips for your email strategy.

Custom E-mail

Sending out emails from Gmail or Yahoo reflects poorly on you and your business because it is perceived as more of a personal platform to share mails on.

It is perceived as being unprofessional. Instead, what you can do is create a custom email on any of the many email-hosting platforms with your own domain name, something that is taken seriously. Having a custom email like yourname@companyname.com shows professionalism and gives a corporate feel. Zoho Workplace and G Suite are some of the popular custom email platforms in the market.

Email Signatures

The last impression is a lasting one, some thing you will be remembered by. So signing off well and impressively is as important as the presentation of the content of your email. Ideally, you should have an email signature that has your name, your company name, social media links, your phone number etc. A small paragraph or a catchy tag line that embodies the story of your brand could be added as well.

Email Tracker

No one likes shooting an email and having to wait endlessly for a reply or a reaction. Thanks to email tracking software you can now know when a customer opens an email, opens attachments or simply ignores your email. This gives you knowledge about customer behaviour and helps you target the right clientele for your business. Imagine what you could do if you found out your potential client has opened your email but not replied (you follow up and add value that’s right).

Pre-email signature content

Sometimes having some content before your email signature can be a great way to educate or promote the email receiver about a product or service or something you believe in.

Pre-email signature content reads like – (a). Save upto 20% on your hosting. Ask me how or (b). Contactless delivery partners can now get a cashback. Get in touch for more information.

Conclusion

Business today is all about marketing yourself and your product well. So impressing your customers with good communication skills and a robust one-on-one mail policy is as important as selling them a great product. It is akin to dressing up sharply for a business meet. You obviously want to look your best before prospective investors and clients! We, at Sprout Road, suggest you incorporate these strategies at the earliest if you have not already done so. Sprout Road is one of the best Internet marketing companies in Kolkata. Also, you might want to read our blog on why the COVID-19 lockdown is the best time to take your business online here.

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Top5 Content Management Systems to choose from in 2020
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Top 5 Content Management Systems to choose from in 2020

Making a website of your own has become more exciting and easier than ever before because of the sheer number of Content Management Systems or CMSs available. A CMS is a web application that enables you to publish and manage content on the Internet.

While most think CMSs are meant for blogging, the truth is that CMSs today are highly customisable and can be used for absolutely any kind of project including ecommerce sites and private membership sites. Here is a list of top CMS platforms you can use to develop your website.

WordPress

This open source software is unarguably the most popular one today and it boasts the largest market share among competitors. It is ultra easy to use and navigate and it is highly customisable with a large database of themes to chose from.

Joomla!

This open source platform, like WordPress, has a large library of templates and extensions to choose from. But it is not advisable for beginners because of its complicated interface. It is a good option to build your ecommerce site on for it has extensions for this.

Drupal

This open source software powers some of the most prestigious websites out there including The Economist’s. Many universities use it too. It is suitable for developers to handle especially for websites that are very complicated and designed to manage a large amount of content.

Magento

This powerful open source ecommerce platform from the software giant Adobe is one of the most competent and customisable CMSs available. It is, however, on the expensive side of things and you need specialised developers to build your website for you.

Shopify

This is an all-in-one hosted CMS platform. You do not need to purchase hosting or manage updates and backups. It is a brilliant platform for setting up an ecommerce store with an easy drag-and-drop interface. You can accept both debit card and credit card payments through Shopify Payments.

There are many more CMSs out there in the market. We have covered only five. What we suggest you do is first identify the purpose of your website – will it be a blog or an ecommerce platform or a private membership website? And then proceed to research on the type of CMS you want to go for. Sprout Road, a premiere website development company in Kolkata, recommends WordPress for websites and Magento for ecommerce platforms.

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Top Facebook Updates You Can't Miss
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Top Facebook Updates You Can’t Miss

The world has changed over the past two months because of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. As of April 24, 2020, over 27,25,000 persons have been affected by the novel virus and thousands have lost their lives due to fatal infections from the virus.

Nations have decreed lockdowns and economies have come to a grinding halt. In such a situation, business processes like marketing efforts have undergone a change in language and immediacy. Let us review some of the changes Facebook has undergone in these unprecedented times.

Facebook Ads

Facebook announced it no longer holds it mandatory for advertisers to use campaign budget optimization or CBO. “With campaign budget optimization, you’ll be able to set one central campaign budget for all of your ad sets, and we’ll automatically and continuously distribute that budget in real time to your top performing ad sets.” You can access Facebook’s announcement regarding CBO here.

Facebook Marketing

  • Facebook has announced that changes to its moderation process and the fact that its staff is away from work might result in delays and errors in ad reviews.

So it is advisable to design and upload ads for approval much earlier than you need them so you have time to edit or change the ad or even appeal.

  • Facebook is currently testing new features that limit the spread of misinformation regarding COVID-19, on both Whatsapp and Messenger.

Some pieces of misinformation regarding magical cures and government action have gained a lot of mileage on these platforms.

  • Facebook has banned ads and listings that “seek to capitalize on fears” around the coronavirus pandemic.

Test kits, toilet paper, facemasks, disinfecting wipes, hand sanitizers, or even purported “cures” cannot be advertised to exploit people on the basis of their fears.

Facebook Stories

Facebook Stories has introduced a new “Mood” frame for its Stories. The feature applies any GIF a user chooses to the stories panel and tags it as ‘Mood’. This is to signify the fact that the GIF represents the present mood of the user.

Brands can use this feature to call attention to a product review or the launch of a new product by following up a story with a mood GIF. This feature can be used to “express” feelings like excitement over recent news they have shared via Stories.

Facebook appears to be concerned about your business in these uncertain times, evident from these updates. It has also put out a link to its Business Resource Hub where it puts out pointers on connecting with small businesses and taking your business online. For more assistance on these updates or social media marketing and advertising, do not hesitate to contact us. Sprout Road is the premiere most IT company in Kolkata engaged in Facebook marketing. Best, Sprout Road

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Video Marketing Trends for 2020
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Video Marketing Trends for 2020

Audio-visual medium of communications are any day more engaging and impactful than mere words communicated in patches of written text. To the viewer, a video is more captivating because it engages the aural and visual faculties.

Videos are more impactful because they communicate body language, tone and visual cues to the viewer. It is a tested norm that customers are more likely to click a video ad than a standard banner ad. Thus, most businesses prefer opting for video marketing and video advertising.

Here, we list a set of video marketing trends for 2020.

‘Live’-n up

Going ‘Live’ is the new go-to model for video marketers, especially on platforms as effective as Facebook and Twitter. They tend to create a sense of urgency and they look less scripted and more genuine.

360 degree video content

Immersive videos are dominating the market right now. And there is nothing like great 360-degree video content that can easily be shot on a smartphone or a special camera that does not cost much. Spherical videos tend to fascinate viewers and excite them a lot more as compared to non-interactive ones.

‘Shoppable’ Videos

Shoppable videos are gradually becoming a rage among e-Commerce customers. These videos are designed for customers to click on them and be directed to the checkout page seamlessly, cutting short their shopping time as compared to sifting through an e-Commerce website.

Vlogs

If you are a fan of storytelling and cannot stop at the first 100 words or so while explaining your product or services to a customer, you should go in for Video Blogging – Vlogging. Telling a personalised story that features your product or services touches a cord with the customer and increases conversion rates.

Data-driven video ads

Finally, while everything has been said in favour of audio-visual mediums of marketing and advertising being the most effective, nothing beats the credibility of data and facts and figures supporting your claims around your products and services. Thus, including relevant content in the form of data is not a bad idea at all.

So, if you are trying to better your ads strategy this year, especially since you have time on hand due to the global lockdown in times of the COVID-19 pandemic, do give this blog a thorough read. Best, Sprout Road.

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Why The COVID-19 Lockdown is The Best Time to Take Your Business Online
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Why The COVID-19 Lockdown Is The Best Time To Take Your Business Online

The deadly COVID-19 pandemic has forced economies across the world to a grinding halt. Countries have issued lockdown decrees and travel bans to abate the spread of the coronavirus that has, as of April 21, 2020, infected over 24 lakh people and caused 1,67,000 deaths.

Small businesses have shut shop, factory production has slowed down and consumption has dipped across the world. In such a situation, while we wait with bated breath for the pandemic to pass over, it will be wise to think of ways to overhaul your business strategy – in other words, take your business online.

Here are a few reasons why you should take your business online.

Online Shopping

In a post-COVID-19 world, more customers will be shopping online than they ever did for fear of contracting infection. In fact, a study by the NRF (National Retail Federation) says

  • 9 in 10 consumers have changed their traditional shopping habits.
  • More than 50% of consumers have ordered products online that they would normally purchase at a store
  • Nearly 6 in 10 consumers say they are worried about going to the store due to fear of being infected

Low Demand, High Supply

For some companies selling luxury or non-essential items, demand has virtually disappeared. Customers are refraining from buying expensive watches or handbags simply because they do not really “need” them though they might “want” to possess them.

In this new need-based economic atmosphere, it would be best to take your store online so that you might be able to make yourself virtually present, 24/7, before your customer even if she is not driving down to your brick and mortar store. Having an online store or a website might as well convert “want” to “need” in these days of a nation-wide lockdown.

Improving Company image

Taking your business online is like presenting your customers and clients with a well-designed and thoughtful calling card. It improves brand visibility on the Internet and it lends your company credibility. You simply lose to competitors who have a professional website to go with their businesses.

Even if your business is not designed to be an online one, you can still have a website and generate leads through chatbots or customer care portals online. You can follow these up the next day from any-where you operate from. Taking your business online is the surest way to convert leads to sales.

So, if you have not already taken your business online, please start planning to do so today. The lockdown has given us ample time to rethink business strategies, so we might as well make the most of it. Best, Sprout Road

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10 Free Tools To Help You Work From Home
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10 Free Tools To Help You Work From Home

Slowly coming to terms with the changes forced upon us by the spread of COVID-19? It is difficult, shifting work to your home premises. But it is not impossible.

Here is a list of some free tools that can make the transition to working from home smoother and hassle-free.

  • Slack – It is a great collaboration hub that allows you to share files and communicate in groups as well as on a one-on-one basis.

  • Google Hangouts –It brings to life conversations through texts, audio and video connections on a one-on-one basis and for groups.
  • Zoom–It is a platform that allows you to hold video meetings and host virtual presentations online. It offers real time chats and video recording features as well.
  • Skype–It is a free communications tool that helps you connect with as many as 50 people through audio or video conferencing. 
  • AirTable–This is a strong tool that helps manage data and inventory on visually appealing spreadsheets so you can keep track of what your team is doing.
  • Asana –It helps teams structure work and tasks and helps team leaders and team members track progress and completion of tasks.
  • GitHub–It is a crucial free tool used to facilitate design and development, used as it is for version control and viewing, sharing and collaborating on code developed by team members.
  • Chrome DevTools–It is used for web development and the software is built directly into the Google Chrome browser.
  • Grammarly– It is a great platform used for writing on and editing documents with.
  • Google Drive– It is best for sharing files and collaborating on them with remote team members.

Try these tools out, according to your needs and preferences. For more on the subject, check out our previous blog here – www.sproutroad.com/how-you-can-work-from-home-during-covid-19-some-free-tools.

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How You Can Work From Home During COVID 19 - Some Free Tools
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How You Can Work From Home During COVID 19 – Some Free Tools

Working from home? So are we. And so are millions of people across the world forced indoors by the spread of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic.

But if you have access to the Internet, you are doing better than many because of a variety of free tools available to assist you in working from home.

For communicating

There are several free tools available for helping you to communicate with your colleagues.

Tools like Slack, Workplace by Facebook, Basecamp, Discord and Microsoft Teamsare the names you should be acquainted with.

Most of these are on offer with paid plans, but they grant basic free packages with some limitations (that should not pose any problems to users).

For instance, there is a guide to Slack’s free versus paid-for services.

For work lists and projects management

Making a to-do list of tasks is the foremost way of keeping track of work to be done and tasks completed.

There are several tools which help carry out this function. Take, for instance, Trello and Google Keep.

Tools like Trello give us the opportunity to handle projects, keep a track of work done, add comments or collaborate on these.

Google Keep allows us to do similar things like making lists, taking notes (with a feature that allows for attaching pictures or audio clips), and sharing them with co-workers.

Apps like Zoho, Asana and Paymo can also be used for these functions.

For Collaboration

To collaborate on documents, worksheets and presentations, the most widely used tools are those comprised in the Google Suite.

Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides facilitate work on documents, worksheets or spreadsheets and presentations respectively.

Files are usually saved on Google’s cloud platform – Google Drive – though they can also be saved in the offline mode. An alternative is Zoho Docs.

Conclusion

Working from home can be productive if you want it to be. So do not hesitate to be adaptive. We suggest you try out these free tools and recommend them to colleagues as well. And if you are looking for more suggestions, do read our upcoming blog. Best, Sprout Road

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What Lord Varys from GOT Teaches about Content Strategy

We’ve all witnessed the frenzy brought into by Game of Throne’s SEO and online branding memes that are scattered across the web. Though their humor grabs our utmost attention, there are countless valuable lessons to learn from HBO’s magnum opus show – Game of Thrones.

To be frank, I was always much more of a Tetris kid than an innate worshipper of Dungeons & Dragons – but this time I must say I am totally engrossed in Game of Thrones. Why? Because it’s badass – it’s full of surprises, and its character etching is flawless.

Talking about GOT characters, Lord Varys strikes me the most. His skilled manipulating abilities and the way he singlehandedly commands a large network of informants encompassing two continents wins me over every time – here I have culled out the reasons why he is regarded as the epitome of a supreme content strategist.

Knowledge is King

Being a content strategist, what skill you need the most? A keen eye for the details. Knowledge is strength, it’s the power. And Lord Varys knew this very well; as a result, his Little Birds supplemented him with a large array of crucial data and insights – it’s this information that makes him unbeatable.

When to Talk and When Not To

A proper sense of timing is crucial. Lord Varys appreciates the power of silence and timing. As a content strategist, he understands when his brand should speak, and when it’s best to remain mum. This quality makes him so-desired for promoting brand reputation management.

Balanced and Unbiased

With no emotional involvement and zero complicated relationships, Lord Varys stands tall in terms of trust, reliability quotient and biasness. As he is a no-nonsense person, he is expected to be both neutral and extremely cryptic when asked about his future activities and agendas.

Nothing but Result Matters

“I serve the realm my lord, someone must.”

Achieving target is his motto in life. And for that Lord Varys can go up to any extent. He is focused, determined and result-oriented. Nothing can steer him away from the path of success. This must-have skill should be present in every versatile content strategist who wants to leave a lasting mark in the industry.

Flexible, While Leveraging Seasonality

Lord Varys never swears his allegiance to an evil king. He is free to change his loyalties, if the situation demands or for the welfare of his people. If its content marketing, it has to be Lord Varys – he is the ideal guy who knows how to leverage trends and conditions, while securing his win. Thumbs up to this man of quirks!

So, before you start mulling over how to hire such content strategists, remember Lord Varys takes the job of the message transmitter very seriously – he keeps the King updated and well-informed about all the events that take place in all the Seven Kingdoms, and his role should be given due importance.

The advent of digital media has unlocked vast streams of information. In no time, this powerful information is utilized to formulate superior content strategy based on crucial insights and data. Hence, our ever-inspiring Lord Varys is replaced by robust media intelligence tool, and instead of relying on intuition, this new-age tool provides the valuable clients meaningful insights about whatever is going around in their kingdom. Conforming the SEO guidelines and content marketing campaigns, tools like this help users stay abreast of public wants, brand image and how the competitors are strategizing outside their area of domain.

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