Marketing & Advertising

There are many different ways to market a venture and get more traction when it comes to brand awareness, leads, and sales. After a very tough year due to the global pandemic, entrepreneurs in most industries are looking for ways to recover and get ahead again.

One way to cement your name in your sector is to utilize promotional products. Branded items don’t have to cost too much but can have excellent results. Here are some things to consider as you research and buy gear for your business in 2021.

Work Out Your Budget

Work out how much you can afford and want to spend on your purchase of promo items. Set yourself a budget before you start investigating options so that you don’t waste time looking at products that aren’t feasible from a financial perspective. Having a budget from the start also makes it less likely that you’ll get so excited by an option that you order it in bulk when it’s actually too expensive.

Get Clear on Your Goals

Determine, early on, what your specific goals are when buying promotional products. In turn, you’ll become targeted in your search for suitable goods. What kind of impression do you want the items you give consumers to have, and what do you hope the marketing avenue will achieve for your business?

For instance, do you hope to acquire more leads and brand awareness, or are you looking to highlight a new campaign or product or service offering? Perhaps you want to thank your current customers or suppliers or recognize and reward valued team members? There are many different goals possible, so work out what’s important to you. Then you can search for products with the best chance of making these outcomes possible.

Know Who You’re Buying For and What You Want Gifts to Represent

Know exactly who you’re buying for when you research goods. Understand the type of person or organization you plan to gift items to, and who these people are, what’s important to them, how they live and work, what might be memorable to them, etc. Consider tastes, family status, hobbies, lifestyle, location, age, stage of life, and more. Promotional products have more impact and deliver a better return on investment when properly targeted to specific recipients.

It also pays to research if your competitors give out promo gear and, if so, what kinds of things and to whom. You want to try to stand out from the crowd and avoid investing money into goods that are too similar in type, look, or style to items consumers receive from other businesses. As you research potential products, also consider what your organization does particularly well that other companies don’t, and how this is of value to your clientele. Try to find promo items that relate to this in some way.

Plus, keep your venture’s mission, values, and company culture in mind when choosing goods. For instance, if you run your business in a way that focuses on sustainability, you’ll want the promo things you buy to be similarly earth-friendly. Or, if your brand revolves around offering unique products made in small batches that people don’t find elsewhere, steer clear of promotional gear that’s run of the mill and generic.

Keep Lead Time and Distribution Factors in Mind

Buying items is just one part of achieving success from promotional gear. You also need to be able to distribute it effectively, at the right times. As such, as you investigate options, keep lead time and distribution factors top of mind. If, for instance, you plan to exhibit at a trade show or have a booth at a conference in a couple of months, check that the goods on your shortlist will be available and shipped to you or the event venue in plenty of time. It helps to use suppliers you’ve dealt with before or those with good reviews for delivering when they say they will. Also, speed up processes by utilizing helpful procurement tech tools to make prompt payments. Inventory management systems also help with tracking and managing the bulk items you buy.

Note, too, that if you plan to ship promotional goods to recipients, this may get costly. As such, look for lighter, more compact items that won’t create such hefty postage bills. You’ll also want to choose products that can be easily and nicely packaged, so they arrive at their destinations still looking good.

It can cost thousands of dollars to secure quality promotional goods and deliver them to the people on whom you want to make a positive impression. Be smart and strategic about your choices, and look for ways to get the best return on investment.

Jason Obrien

Jason is the Marketing Manager at a local advertising company in Australia. He moved to Australia 10 years back for his passion for advertising. Jason recently joined BFA as a volunteer writer and contributes by sharing his valuable experience and knowledge.

As a business owner, you want to build your brand and let more people know about your products or services. You do all these things to make sales in the end. After all, this is what will keep your company going and growing. Investing in sales analytics tools is one thing to consider to help increase your sales. This software can guide you in generating leads, determining which of them should be prioritized, and the best approach on how to convert them into actual clients. Here are other proven strategies on how to improve your sales.

Ensure your Products and Services are top-quality

The products or services that you offer must be high-quality to get return customers. Satisfied clients will keep coming back to you, and they will also spread the word about your business. Recommendations from those who tried your products or services are still the best forms of advertisement. It applies both to the word of mouth and online reviews or comments. People are more likely to try something when they hear positive feedback about it.

Focus on Existing Clients too

Some companies focus too much on getting new clients. It’s not a bad thing, but you should also not forget about your existing clients. Since they tried your products or services before, they are more likely to do business with you again, especially if they were happy with their experience. Reach out to them and offer discounts or exclusive deals as a way of thanking them for being loyal clients. This will strengthen your relationship, and they will keep using your company.

Understand your Clients

Listen to what your clients want. Get to know more about your target market, their interests, and buying habits, so you can tailor your marketing approach, and improve what you offer based on their needs. Some ways to do this are through surveys and reading the comments that they leave about your business.

Offer the best Customer Service

Excellent customer service can help encourage customers to buy your products or use your service. It will create a positive experience, so they will be more likely to go to you for their needs. Make your website informative, so they can check the information they need anytime. Offer various methods on how they can contact you for convenience. Some of them are chat, phone, email, and online forms.

Know your Competitors

Get to know about the companies that are in the same industry. Doing so will help you determine their strengths and weaknesses. You can get inspiration from their strengths and adopt them with your practices. You could also learn from their weaknesses, and find ways on how to convert them into strengths to benefit your business.

Create Effective Marketing Campaigns

Getting the word out there about your company and effectively enticing customers to try your products and services is vital to increase your sales. No matter how exceptional your products or services are, if people don’t know about it, it wouldn’t generate profit. Remember these tips and apply them in your business operation to successfully increase your sales. Never compromise the quality of your products and services so clients will stay with you.

Jason Obrien

Jason is the Marketing Manager at a local advertising company in Australia. He moved to Australia 10 years back for his passion for advertising. Jason recently joined BFA as a volunteer writer and contributes by sharing his valuable experience and knowledge.

When it comes to customer service, we all know how to impress our customers when we are face-to-face. However, in the age of COVID-19 and technology, how can we impress people without physical interaction?

Here are 5 ways you can impress potential customers before you have even met them.

Offer efficient online customer service

Before visiting you in person, potential customers might read through online reviews or try to ask questions themselves through your online customer services. With this in mind, it will impress potential clients if you can offer quick and efficient online customer service.

You should keep in mind that unified communications are fantastic for enhancing your communications services. Unified communications bring communication tools together into a single app. This benefits employee as it allows for greater operational flexibility, boosting customer satisfaction rates in turn.

Take advantage of your reviews

Speaking of online reviews, it can be upsetting when you get bad ones, but this doesn’t have to be the case. While positive reviews can naturally impress potential customers, you can still use negative ones to your advantage.

Instead of getting downtrodden about bad feedback, turn it into constructive criticism, allowing you to implement changes which improve satisfaction for later customers.

Offer a free trial

A free trial is a great way to tempt potential customers to try out the product or service you offer. Free trials will grab people’s attention and allow you to collect that all-important feedback mentioned above.

The length of the free trial is down to your professional opinion and best judgement, as it can range vastly even within a single industry. For example, the longest free trial for paid music streaming services is four months, whereas the industry average is only one month.

Show your dedication to your customers

Having a base of dedicated and loyal customers is a great way to impress potential customers before you have even met them. How do you do that? You show that you are dedicated and loyal to them, too. After all, the trust has to go both ways.

Send your current clients and customers loyalty gestures, such as a gift for every so-many purchases, or even a birthday or Christmas card once a year.

Be active on social media

Your presence on social media can make or break how you are perceived by potential clients.  The best example of this in the modern era has to be Aldi’s Twitter game during their caterpillar cake legal battle against M&S.

The hilarity of said Tweets has made many people empathise with Aldi and take their side in the battle of the caterpillar cakes. On the other hand, M&S have struggled to retaliate on social media, which has caused their reputation to take a hit.

Final thoughts

Overall, the best way to impress potential customers before you meet them is to treat your current customers right! Offering efficient online customer service, being active on social media, showing that you are open to taking on criticism, and actually making changes will garner you a fantastic reputation.

Jason Obrien

Jason is the Marketing Manager at a local advertising company in Australia. He moved to Australia 10 years back for his passion for advertising. Jason recently joined BFA as a volunteer writer and contributes by sharing his valuable experience and knowledge.

When it comes to search engine optimisation, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a campaign that doesn’t incorporate link-building into its overall strategy, and it isn’t hard to see why. As its name suggests, the technique involves the generation of inbound links from external sources to the website with the objective of improving its ranking in the search engine results pages or SERPs and elevating both its visibility and credibility as a result.

However, it is by no means easy to build links. Not only does it require a fair amount of work, but also some care in ensuring that the approach remains ethical. After all, the use of spam tactics and other black hat methods in an attempt to quickly advance in SEO will only end up in penalties that will create setbacks. In an effort to help those interested in creating an organic, valuable, and relevant foundation of links to improve the experience of users, here are some proven link-building tips to keep in mind.

1. Contact those that you mention or link to in your content

When it comes to the creation of content, you’ll likely link or mention others in your pieces. It is a good way to reinforce what you decide to write about, after all. And one simple yet highly effective technique is to get in touch with those you have chosen and notify them about linking to their web pages. Of course, make sure that you ask them if they can do the same. This will not only open a dialogue, but it can potentially lead to mutually beneficial relationships in exchanging links as long as you’re not overbearing or pushy. 

2. Look for bloggers

Another way to build the desired links is to find and reach out to bloggers whose content matches your brand. There are several tools that you can use but even a quick search with your search engine of choice can get you a decent list of potential blog websites. There are also services that you can hire such as blogger outreach from Ocere to help you find the bloggers that you need to promote exposure and awareness of your business and its offerings, and should be considered because of its efficacy in creating online visibility.

3. Leverage influencers

These days, many businesses are leveraging influencers to step up their digital marketing efforts, and for a good reason: they can boost brand awareness. Whether it is a sponsorship, product trial, or even a mere shoutout, they’re an authoritative voice that can attract prospective consumers and keep existing clients engaged. So don’t underestimate their influence on the market. They can be a surprisingly effective marketing tool.

Link-building is undeniably an essential SEO strategy in any marketing campaign. However, it is crucial to understand that it takes as much time as it does effort to achieve the desired results. When you get right down to it, you can’t cut corners if you want to generate organic, high-quality links and improve your position in search results. But with the tips laid out in this article, you’ll be able to get started on the endeavour.

Jason Obrien

Jason is the Marketing Manager at a local advertising company in Australia. He moved to Australia 10 years back for his passion for advertising. Jason recently joined BFA as a volunteer writer and contributes by sharing his valuable experience and knowledge.

As the world becomes more advanced and developed, the business industry has also taken upon itself to improve its unit of operations. They’ve made notable changes in their marketing strategies, moving from traditional to contemporary methods. The use of digital media in promoting the business, its brand, and its product or service is becoming common now. However, with innovative and creative mindsets, marketers are coming up with effective digital marketing strategies integrated with the tried and tested methods.

Link building strategy is one such method; it is beneficial to assimilate it with SEOs. It is a series of actions that marketers take to improve the quality and number of backlinks leading to their website. It helps bring your web content to the top of search engine results and helps increase leads. The Google algorithm is difficult to understand, but research has proven that link building is a very well-trusted strategy that aligns with the search engine. What matters is the number of times an original webpage has added your backlink, hence recommended you. These search engines use web crawlers to discover new sites, and the one with the essential sources gets the highest ranking. Let’s look at some top link-building strategies in 2021.

Guest Blogging

The idea behind guest blogging is a straightforward and effective one; all you need is a set of content-creating skills. It is an effective way of attracting readers while providing them informative or entertaining content. Start with writing a high-quality article; make sure they are relevant and grammatically correct. Then, publish them on the websites related to the topic you chose and make sure your blog has a set of good SEOs and a few backlinks that direct the readers to your webpage. It will allow you to improve your content’s SEO score and expand the range of audiences. Ensure that you’ve done proper research and the website where you publish your article also benefits from your content.

Using Social Media

The use of social media has increased rapidly in the past decade. It has benefitted not only the sellers but also the buyers. With social networking being available to people 24/7, it has become an effective platform to promote your product or service. Building brand awareness has become cost-effective. There is almost no constraint on the number or type of content that businesses publish. Hence, gaining backlinks has become more manageable if you develop new, innovative, and relevant stories.

On Facebook or Instagram, you can add the link to your website, which would lead to your homepage with just a click. It would also add up to a good reputation of yours as an entrepreneur because owning a website depicts credibility and authenticity. Further, you can include the link to your website or relevant webpage on every post you make on Facebook. You can also add the link in bio or Instagram stories, which will only need the readers to swipe up. They’ll get redirected to the desired webpage. There is also an option of providing the page button of “Learn More” on FB, which turns to your website. Similar CTAs are available on other social platforms like Twitter, YouTube, and Linked In.

Give a Testimonial

The easiest way to gain customers is by writing believable testimonials, aka reviews and recommendations, so that they find your product worthy. Customers are naturally inclined to believe other people’s opinions about your product rather than your own. As a business, you can take advantage of it by writing a testimonial for a product you find satisfactory. As a return, you can add a backlink to your webpage. Start by discovering your niche and the type of products you use for your business. Then choose the one you are satisfied with and already have other people recommending it. After writing a convincing testimonial and adding a hyperlink to your website, find a relevant authority to pitch it. You can easily find it on the website or through the email address provided there, and the next step is to send your testimonial to them. It is an easy way to put your point forward, give the internet with your backlink on others’ web pages, and build strategic B2B alliances.

Make Use of Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is one of the most effective promotional strategies these days, and businesses are making the best use. For the same reason, marketers align link-building strategy to influencer marketing because it has shown an excellent return on investment results. The primary step is to build a relationship with influencers who have a large following, own a high-authority website and high-traffic blogs. You would then have to make an attractive headline that also feeds your chosen influencer’s excellent image. You can add a picture of the said blogger in your header or their name in your headline to get their attention and get them to share the link to your publication. Ensure you stay relevant to your blog’s influencers’ interests so that there’s a higher chance of them adding its backlink on their socials. Another way is to do the famous “Expert Round-Up” and feature different bloggers and influencers in your article. The last step is to inform the experts or influencers that you’ve published the said article, and they are likely to help you promote it.

Get Your Link Under Resource Page

If you are working with high-quality content and have good traffic, you are likely helping other content creators. It could benefit you too if you get them to add your link under their resource page. First, you’ll need to find a resource page – and it is pretty easy with the use of simple terms and shortcut keys. Type in your keyword + “useful resources,” and you’ll lead to several such blogs. You can go on these websites and surf through their content to see if they’re relevant to your niche. Then email or message them with a request to add your content after pitching it to them. The more contacts you make, the more backlinks you get. And hence, resource link building is an effective link-building strategy.

Conclusion

Marketing teams invest a lot of time and capital in their digital marketing strategies, and link building is one of them. It is undoubtedly instrumental in bringing your brand name and content to the top of search engine results and increasing website traffic. The benefit of building awareness and brand loyalty also helps you get to the market’s top. The leadership comes from being on top of the search results and being customers’ first preference.

Jason Obrien

Jason is the Marketing Manager at a local advertising company in Australia. He moved to Australia 10 years back for his passion for advertising. Jason recently joined BFA as a volunteer writer and contributes by sharing his valuable experience and knowledge.

Appearing in the top few search results is the most important need for any eCommerce site. A sponsored or paid search like Google Ads can help your website get at the top of the results page (SERP), but it becomes difficult to bear the expenses in the long run.

SEO or Search Engine Optimization works here as the most effective way to achieve this. SEO is indispensable for any eCommerce site. Here in this SEO guide, you will get to know all the SEO ranking strategies and details for your eCommerce site.

Why do you need SEO for your eCommerce site?

Build Brand Awareness

Most eCommerce websites require SEO for generating brand awareness at a minimum cost. To rank among the top 10 sites of Google’s search results, technically called the SERP (Search Engine Results Page), is extremely rewarding. A survey showed that 98% of the internet browsers click on the 1st page of SERP.

A good user experience can increase conversions on your site. SEO helps you in understanding customers, and hence optimize your website’s traffic. That, sequentially, can improve your site’s ranking on search engines.

Create Customer Trust

The trust between a customer and any brand is as significant as any other rapport. If your brand establishes a genuine and truthful bond with its customers, you’ll see incredible results. SEO can always help you build this trust.

Trusted eCommerce sites attract high traffic and customer revisits. Once your website gains credibility and authority online, your customers will naturally trust you. In this way, you can create a good reputation and establish better trust between you and your customer.

Generate More & Better Traffic

A well-executed SEO strategy can generate quick web traffic by ensuring that your site features relevant search results and thus, draws in more visitors. You can rank high in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) naturally by organic SEO.

High SEO rankings place you at the apex wherever your service or products appear, and 60% of all the organic clicks get to the top three to four pages of the search engine results. A top listing brings more and better traffic to your website. Thus, SEO enhances the total number of checkouts on your website.

Elevate Your Content

A well-planned SEO can help you reach your targeted audience better. Your blog posts, how-to videos, buyer guides, and other infographics need to be seen by your potential customers, otherwise, the sales numbers on your site may not rise.

Content Optimization can yield considerable increases in traffic at minimum cost. The correct keyword research can allow Google or any other search engine to identify your services and match them according to the user queries.

Expand Your Remarketing Audience

Once customers land on your website, either through organic search or any other channel, your paid search team will be able to place cookies for remarketing campaigns.

Now you can show various display ads to those customers when they leave your website.  The more the traffic entering your site, the greater will be your remarketing audience. As your past customers will browse the web, they will be passively reminded that your brand provided some value to them.

Increase Touch Points

It’s a fact that a shopper’s first interaction with you is when they land on your website. Surveys say that the average journey of an online shopper from landing on your site’s homepage to becoming a paying customer takes around 7-13 touchpoints.

These touchpoints, like visiting your Facebook page or subscribing to your YouTube channel, help them trust your website and become a paying customer.

Conclusion

We hope you have got a good idea of how beneficial SEO is for your eCommerce site. Following all these tips and guidelines will help you optimize your website, which will attract good traffic. In Australia, taking help from eCommerce SEO Australia service will help you meet your goals if you don’t want the hassle of optimizing everything yourself.

If you think SEO to be relevant in more ways than those mentioned here, please comment below!

Denis Woods

Danis Woods in Businessman, investment banker and stock exchange traders. On the same time he loves writing financial blogs to shed lights on different aspects that new and existing businessman are not aware of.

Promotional products bring instant brand recognition which can drive customers to your business in an effective way. They also help expand the reach of your services and products to a larger audience. Here are some promotional items that can be used to advertise your small business.

Pens

Despite the arrival of smartphones and computers, you still feel the need for pen and paper to note down things. The pen can be a great promotional product for most businesses. You can offer a good pen to your customers, clients, employees, and almost anyone because it is useful for everyone. To promote your brand, print the logo or company name in large letters for easy recognition. 

Water Bottles

Drinking an adequate amount of water is a necessity to maintain good health. It is common for people to carry their water bottles when they venture out of the home—for example, going to the office, gym, or even market. Most people carry a water bottle so they can stay hydrated throughout the day.

The water bottles can be excellent promotional products for all the right reasons. People are more likely to use them every day. A bottle has ample space to print your company name and logo, which can be visible to others.

Stress balls

Stress balls are in great demand due to increasing stress levels in the general public. These items take away your attention from daily chores and keep your stress levels low. Stress balls can help your customers and employees playfully relieve stress.  You can print your company logo or name on these balls. The branding will be easily visible to the users and people around them.

Backpacks

People are required to carry a few essential items when they venture out of home for any reason; a backpack is one of them. It is an ideal form of bag that can hold most of your items like your laptop, charger, notepad, pen, water bottle, and a few other things. The backpacks can be branded with the name of the company or logo. The branding is visible to you and others every time you use it.

Lip balm

Lip balm is a personal care item loved by both men and women. The skin of the lips does not have any sebaceous glands, and the skin often dries.  Your lips also need love and care. Lip balm contains moisturizing oils that your body does not produce. It keeps your lips moist and hydrated.

A lip balm can be an excellent promotional product as it is a useful item for both sexes. Every time a person uses the lip balm with your branding, he/she will remember the company name.

Chocolates

Most people like receiving chocolates as gifts. Chocolate can create memories of a tradition within family and friendships when given as a gift. Many business organizations give chocolates to their employees on the days of celebration. You can use this opportunity to gift chocolates branded with your company name.  

Chocolates can be effective promotional items as people of all ages love them. Ensure the chocolate’s quality is good and the taste lingers on the person’s mind for days.

Hand Sanitizers

Water is not always available to clean your hands. Hand sanitizers are great personal hygiene products that can keep common illnesses at bay. Most people have a habit of carrying hand sanitizers with them. Hand sanitizers are small in size and easy to carry. Also, people often share them with others. That way, hand sanitizers have the potential to be seen by many. Brand the hand sanitizers with your company logo or name. People tend to be more thankful for the things that care for their health.

To sum up, people love promotional items as most of them are given as gifts. A useful promotional product of any form or size creates a positive and lasting impression of the company in the minds of people who receive it.

Ifama

Hi! This is Ifama. I am a student and giving my services in SEO. I have a lot of experience in digital marketing. Travelling is my hobby and I love visiting different hilly areas and doing adventures.

Account-based marketing (ABM) is a business growth strategy focused on collaborating with sales and marketing teams to deliver personalized campaigns for high valued accounts. Personalization is a critical factor that drives consumer action.

An account based marketing agency assesses your organization’s goals and requirements and develops the right ABM strategy for successful executions of one-to-one or one-to-many campaigns. According to a personalization marketing report, 91% of customers are likely to shop with brands that offered personalized deals and recommendations.   

Factors to Consider When Choosing an Account-Based Marketing Agency

Services Offered

Understand the complete range of services offered by the marketing agency. Implementing a successful ABM campaign required both the marketing and sales team to work in tandem. Organisational objectives tend to evolve with the changing dynamics of the marketplace. 

Is the market agency capable of handling 1:1 account expansions, segment target audiences, and create personalised campaigns or execute a technology-intensive campaign targeted at a large audience?

Some of the standard services offered by the marketing agency are:

• Establishing an ABM roadmap for your organisation
• Developing and executing personalised pilot campaigns
• Scaling ABM campaigns to target multiple accounts
• Mediate between the marketing and sales team

Industry Experience

How experienced is the marketing agency you want to work with? An ABM strategy, although complex, can be implemented within your organization. So, why is there a need to reach out to a marketing agency? The answer lies in the marketing agency’s experience, successfully executing multiple ABM campaigns for several clients.

You can ask about it in your peer group or look for third-party reviews to ascertain the marketing agency’s industry expertise.

Client Testimonials

It should be easy for you to find client testimonials on the website of the marketing agency. A simple Google search will provide you with access to customer reviews. Understand what the marketing agency has done for its clients? What results have they delivered? What are their work ethics? Will organizations want to work with them again? If yes, why so?

Despite the brand image presented, it is the client’s success stories that offer you a glimpse into the agency’s inner workings and if they can actually deliver on the promises they make. 

Free Consultation

The agency may have delivered successful ABM campaigns for many clients. How do you know the strategies they implemented will work for your industry vertical as well? Before signing up with any agency, have a consultation meeting with their strategist to understand their work process and if their services align with your organisation needs.

Most agencies offer a free consultation meeting. Some even provide you with proposals. Leverage this option to weigh the options at your disposal.

Opting for ABM strategies does not mean overhauling your current marketing approach. It involves leveraging your current strategy to land new accounts, maximising your organisation’s share among high-value accounts, and optimising the client conversion process. 

Look for tangible results the account-based marketing agency has delivered for its existing clients, sit in for a free consultation and evaluate their process before signing on the dotted line.  

Denis Woods

Danis Woods in Businessman, investment banker and stock exchange traders. On the same time he loves writing financial blogs to shed lights on different aspects that new and existing businessman are not aware of.