Marketing & Advertising

A process to check the response of the customers to any launched product or marketing campaign for a short period of time comes under the concept of “test marketing”. The customers don’t need to know the fact that they are in the process of test marketing.

It is done to explore the strengths and weaknesses of that product or campaign and to obtain their feedback.

Moreover, it helps to structure the market strategy that will be made. Test marketing determines the performance and efficiency of the product, the satisfaction level of customers and decides whether the product will be launched or not.

Test marketing is done by either the new businesses who are ready to start or old businesses who are ready to launch a new product or any startup.

The Purpose of test marketing is as follows

1. It gives the product a chance to sell and market itself. If the product is worth the value, quality, and price, then it will be its own marketing tool. Over time, customers will start to use this product in their daily life and rely on that product. To facilitate this, the company will offer free trials for its regular paying customers.
2. Some industries do not prefer the concept of a free trial of products. Using a free product will make their opinions subjective and biased. It will increase the competition and consumers will depend on that free product. If industry customers anticipate a free product trial because that’s what everyone else is doing, not providing one might harm the company’s reputation. Much of this is dependent on the company’s ability to present the features.
3. A general concept is followed that money is more valuable than time. But in the marketing industry, it is the opposite. When people use the products and are ready to invest their time in providing feedback, they are constantly building a relationship with the company. Like relationship marketing, This relationship creates a sense of trust and loyalty which increases the customer base over time.
4. If clients are on the fence about a product, product trials provide an opportunity for the company to improve the deal. Offering a discount or an incentive on a product after customers experience it and decide to buy it might help you attract a client. Another strategy to assist complete a business and uncovering new prospects who might be interested in what the company has to offer is to give referral discounts.
5. When prospective customers are presented with a sense of urgency, one of the advantages of test marketing is that they swiftly weigh the merits and drawbacks of retaining the product. The importance of urgency comes from the fact that it compels people to make decisions. The end of a free trial instills a sense of urgency, whilst the fear of losing out on the goods instills emotions of inadequacy. If the consumer believes the value claims are true, this combination will usually result in a sale.
6. When a product sample is made available, it assists the firm in setting expectations for its goods. Brands may effectively communicate with each potential consumer, informing them of what to anticipate from the product and how to properly utilize it. Brands may link the customer’s interests with the company’s beliefs in this way, which helps to strengthen the relationships they’re attempting to establish via exposure to their goods.
7. If the product fails the test, it can save a lot of money on branding, production, and marketing. The brand can correct the flaws discovered during the test launch. Based on the comments and data received from the test sample, changes can be made. If the product has a flaw or an issue, the test can be used to do quick recalls. It is more preferable to recall a product from a test audience than to introduce it to the entire market and then recall it or figure out what went wrong. This protects the brand’s reputation while also saving money.

Did you know that nearly half of those surveyed said they spent an average of five to six hours on their phones each day, not counting work-related mobile use? That’s time spent scrolling through social media, answering emails, and texting.

Perhaps that’s why text message marketing is so effective. Customers open marketing texts at a mind-blowing rate of 98 percent, compared to just 20 to 25 percent for email. And most customers open marketing texts within 15 minutes, making them a great option for advertising time-sensitive promotions. Offering a lunch special at your restaurant? Have a flash sale?

Text message marketing could make it a success.

Your customers are already on their phones all the time, and they trust marketing text messages enough that they’re willing to look at most of them promptly. Text message marketing could be just the tool you need to take your business to the next level by strengthening the loyalty of your existing customers and laying the foundations for that loyalty in new customers. Here’s what you need to do to make mass texting work for your company.

Follow the Rules

A big part of the reason why customers are so willing to open and read marketing texts is that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) have gone to great lengths to protect consumers from being bombarded with spammy marketing texts. There are federal regulations you have to follow when using text messaging to market your business, goods, and services.

The main thing to remember is that you need explicit, written permission from each customer you plan to text. Customers must opt into this kind of marketing, which seems like kind of a roadblock on the surface, but it really isn’t, because it means that you’ll be contacting people who definitely want your text messages. You can obtain the permission you need by using a keyword campaign. Customers who want to sign up for your marketing text messages can text a keyword to a specific code to opt-in.

Don’t Text at Odd Hours

It’s easy to use a mass texting service to contact your customers any time of the day or night, but that doesn’t mean you should. Texting late at night or early in the morning could disturb your customers and make them want to opt-out of future text messages. Stick to texting during normal business hours.

Don’t Overwhelm Subscribers

Subscribers may be interested in getting discounts or special offers from your business, but that doesn’t mean they want to be bombarded with every little update and piece of news you have. If you send too many marketing texts, customers will opt-out. Send texts only when you need to advertise a promotion, especially if the deal is time-limited. Limit how often you text customers and don’t spam all your customers with a message that might only be of interest to a subset of them. Create customer contact lists so you can send your messages to those who might be most interested.

Create Value

Customers aren’t going to stay subscribed to your marketing texts if they don’t think they’re getting something out of it, so you need to create value with every text. Each message you send to your customers should contain relevant information and contribute to another good experience with your brand.

Think about what your customers want before you send out a marketing text. Sneak peeks, promotional offers and coupons are all popular choices for marketing texts. Think about the kinds of communication customers have with peers and friends, and try to emulate that kind of friendly interaction when sending marketing texts.

Make It Easy to Opt Out

In order to follow FCC guidelines for the use of marketing texts, you need to make it easy for customers to opt-out of receiving future texts. But customers will also be more inclined to sign up for text messages, to begin with when they know that they can easily stop them later if they become too annoying. Include opt-out instructions in every text message. Most companies achieve this by instructing customers to text the words “STOP” or “OPT-OUT” to a special code.

Mass texting can be a great way to promote your business. You can send coupons, time-sensitive promotional offers, sneak peeks, company news, and more directly to your customers, right on their phones, which they’re probably looking at anyway. Find your customers where they are, and engage with them on a deeper level, thanks to SMS marketing.

Being in business means that you have to put yourself out there for people to notice you, and to hopefully become customers. After all, you’re not in business to remain unseen, right?

One of the best marketing tactics that have been working for ages is the art of promotions. With a promotion, you not only call attention to your business, but you’re giving away something of value. And this is what can establish a quality relationship with your prospective customer base.

Promotions are also a great way to sink into the local community and to establish relationships with other business leaders.  This will not only help you move up the corporate ladder but also help you expand your network.

Today, we have a variety of tools that can offer value when it comes to promotional ideas. And many of these are fairly inexpensive. So if you’re looking to expand your empire, the following post will explore a few promotional ideas that you can use to bring customers into your business.

Promotional Gift Ideas

Gift ideas are largely up to the imagination. But when it comes to a promotional gift, you want this to be something that is both useful and will make a potential customer remember you.

Gifts can be given away at any time, for any reason. But most often, promotional gifts are given when a customer makes a purchase or for making a visit to your store. And the great thing is that these don’t need to be elaborate or costly.

With the print-on-demand sites that we all have access to today, you can turn any product into a promotional gift just by adding your name or logo. For example, you can even directly purchase items such as promotional lunch bags, hats, coolers, and the like for your promotional gifts.

Giveaways

Giveaways are usually promotional events that bring customers into your brick and mortar location, typically involved with a raffle. And holding a giveaway is a great strategy for bringing people in to take a look around.

When you hold a giveaway, this is something that needs to be advertised. And some of the best ways to advertise a giveaway are by building an email list and sending out invitations, promoting the event through flyers, or print and radio ads, and by advertising on social media.

Giveaways also typically include gifts of greater value. And though you might have a few giveaway ideas, these need to correspond to your products and services as well.

For example, if you produce software, you could offer a software suite for the grand prize while having samples of your more inexpensive products as additional gifts.

Cash Prizes for Referrals and Reviews

Everyone loves cash. And what better way to promote your business than to offer cash incentives for referrals and product reviews.

Referrals are what get additional business in the door. And if a previous or repeat customer went out of his or her way to refer additional patrons to you, you should definitely show your gratitude.

Additionally, product reviews are essential to establishing yourself as a business that produces quality products and services. But often many customers don’t leave reviews.

Giving away a small cash prize for a review, however, might get more of your customers encouraged to leave a review or a testimonial on your business website. And this can also be applied as a discount as well.

For example, if a customer wants to leave a review, you can offer them 10 percent off of purchase for doing so, or give them a cash reward in the amount of your choosing. Just remember to keep the cash prizes limited so you don’t go bankrupt.

Promoting your business is essential if you want to be successful. And promotions also need to be meticulously organized so that you have a sound marketing plan going forward.

In a world where everything is becoming more expensive, when a business owner takes time to hold promotional giveaways, raffles, and prizes, this gets the community noticed. So get your plan together and watch the customers come rolling in.

SSP, also known as Supply Side Platforms, are web platforms that have been created and designed so that publishers can sell ad space online. There, they are able to optimize costs as well as analyze their results. SSPs are an ecosystem that provides publishers with many available advertisers while also automating resource sales and RTB participation.

SSPs essentially make the various tasks of large publishers much easier while outright replacing the whole of a smaller publisher’s ad department. Because of this, these platforms are becoming more and more popular as businesses realize their importance and value in their respective sectors.

Below, we will go over SSP advertising and see how it works, what are its different advantages, and how its main features and components are comprised.

How Do SSPs Work?

Before we can go further, it’s important to have a firm understanding of SSPs and exactly how they work.

As mentioned above, SSPs operate by allowing publishers to sell ad space to prospective clients on the online marketplace. The main advantage of an SSP is that it can offer ad placements to an inordinate amount of prospective advertisers through RTB.

This process is broken down into eight steps, all of which happens virtually instantly without the user having to do anything.

1. The publisher is registered onto the platform and allows advertisers to place ads up through the SSP.
2. A Cookie is created and sent to the SSP whenever a user loads a page.
3. The SSP runs through the information and processes both the user’s data as well as any data regarding the cheapest ad space available.
4. The SSP creates a request with this information before sending it out to the DSP.
5. Next, the DSP begins analyzing the request before deciding the best advertisers to choose from, choosing the offer that is most relevant.
6. After choosing, the DSP sends out a response to the ad exchange for confirmation.
7. The advertiser that has the highest bid wins, their ad being sent to the SSP.
8. Finally, as the page loads, the most relevant ad is presented to the user and what they see.

Again, this all happens in milliseconds and requires no prompts from the user nor the owner of the SSP. Every aspect is automated, and all of it is derived from the user’s cookie data.

For advertisers and publishers, SSPs act as a vital aspect of the Advertiser-to-Publisher chain in today’s modern marketing.

What are the Advantages of an SSP?

Due to their pivotal role in presenting ads to the users, SSPs offer a myriad of essential and vital advantages that publishers all but need available to them if they plan to get ahead.

9. Firstly, SSPs do not limit or cap the number of ad exchanges that are available. This means you can have ads available for pretty much every audience. This means that even less optimal sites can be greatly monetized.
10. SSPs are all fully automated. This fact is incredibly important as it means the publisher doesn’t have to consider how many advertisers they can interact with beforehand. Instead, it all happens instantly and in real-time.
11. The SSPs can connect with multiple DSP exchanges simultaneously, thus ensuring that there is never a reduction in cost per impression or a lack of participants.
12. The SSP can be programmed to filter out inappropriate ads even without the owner’s review. This means that a brand can stay clean while also refraining from putting the owner through an arduous vetting process.
13. Impression prices can be set. This ensures that the publisher can protect themselves from low-priced impressions.

What Features Does and SSP Offer?

For people interested in using an SSP, below are many of the features available:

Analytics & Reporting: Publishers have complete and consistent access to all data and data analysis. Similarly, all hosted campaigns, their advertising costs vs. profits, and advertising resource information are readily available. This ensures a publisher can be up-to-date with the latest information immediately and without delay.

Cost Optimization: Rather than just allow any potentiality for lowered costs and a reduction of profits, the SSP’s algorithm works to keep the best price available at all times. In fact, some platforms are bringing in soft and hard price auctions. These ensure that ad space has a set level of flexibility depending on the current demand.

Customized Campaign Offers: Publishers are able to use the SSP tools to customize any campaigns placed on their platform. That includes the ad type as well as the ad’s topic. It also allows for an immediate black list / white list determination to avoid potential scammers and malware advertisers. If the publisher does not like a certain advertiser, they are able to block them or their entire campaign. This is just as much the case for particular campaign types.

Data Reporting & Analysis: Data is taken in and analyzed before being used for publishing reports and ensuring the most relevant ads are shown.

Data Tracking & Storing: The SSPs collect and store all data from a publisher’s audience. This information is then used in order to present them with the most useful and relevant ad.

Easily Accessible User Interface: SSPs largely have a very easy-to-use and user-friendly interface. This makes even novice owners capable of effectively using them without too much of a learning curve.

High-End Server Infrastructure: The back-end servers software allows the SSPs to interact with the third-party resources in addition to the operation of algorithms for sending and receiving requests along with data analysis.

Third-Party Integration: SSPs can seamlessly integrate with DSPs and ad exchanges to present ads directly to the user. Not only will it connect with multiple DSPs at once, but newer SSPs have developed their own ad exchanges, cutting out the middlemen.

Where Do SSPs Factor in the Online Advertising Space?

If you are thinking of using an SSP, there are a lot of benefits. Today’s online marketing and advertising world play a vital role and are the main link in RTB. These auctions ensure that the best ads are presented to the user while simultaneously benefiting the user, all in the blink of an eye.

By implementing an SSP for your online marketing, you are taking countless hours and manpower off your schedule while simultaneously putting it in the hands of a platform that can simply do it more effectively.

If you are looking to automate the ad procurement process and present your audience with the best option for them and you, getting an SSP is your best bet.

This article was written in partnership with Galaksion.

You’ve spent blood, sweat, and tears growing your mortgage company. You’ve worked hard to ensure your clients benefit from the smoothest transaction possible. Marketing costs have been incurred, building your brand, and ensuring that you’re the first business homeowner in need of home financing assistance. You’ve done all of these, but here’s a question: do potential clients know about you?

Your company could offer the best home mortgage rates in the area, but if your target market is unaware of your existence, all of your efforts will be in vain.

As more home buyers need loans to secure their dream house, they rely on mortgage lenders to help finance their homes. And since we live in modern times, these buyers will go to one place to find lenders: search engines.

This is where you’ll need a local SEO strategy that works. If you don’t invest in search engine optimization, your website’s rankings will drop, which means homeowners won’t find you on the search engine results pages (SERPs). Instead of missing out on opportunities, use local SEO to build brand awareness and drive traffic to your website so your business can thrive in your local area.

If you’re new to the idea of local SEO for mortgage companies, here’s what you need to know.

What Is Local SEO?

Local search engine optimization, also known as search engine marketing, is an effective way to promote your products and services to local customers at the exact time they’re searching for them. For example, a homeowner who types “mortgage lenders near me” will be presented with search results of businesses within their area.

Local SEO is a marketing approach where you optimize your website so that clients in your location or nearby areas can visit your business. It’s an effective marketing tactic for mortgage lenders who want to reach audiences from different geographic locations.

What Is “Local Search” and How Does It Apply to Your Mortgage Business?

According to Google, 46 percent of all searches are seeking local information. So, if a user living in Long Island, New York types in “FHA loans broker near me,” they’ll receive results from mortgage lenders in Long Island, NY. Google will serve them with results that are local to them.

If you haven’t stepped up with your local SEO strategy, your competitors have most likely done it, and they’ll stop the local SERPs. Even if you ranked first on the standard results for a certain keyword, Google would prioritize local searches first.

Based on Google’s priority of the local results, it’s important for your mortgage company to employ different local SEO strategies to ensure you’re getting more web traffic.

What Local SEO Techniques Can You Do To Grow Your Business?

Complete Your Profile on Google My Business

Whether you’re a mortgage broker in a small city or are doing business in different locations, it’s important to have all your business information on your Google My Business profile. This can significantly improve your local SEO strategy.

By optimizing your website, you improve your chances of attracting new clients. Homeowners are looking for a service in your industry. If they come across your business, they’ll look for your basic information: name, address, phone number, and email. Make sure that your GMB profile has your business name, contact information, physical address, and a short description of how to reach your brick-and-mortar business.

Respond to Reviews

Another excellent local SEO strategy is managing and responding to customer reviews, both negative and positive. Clients respond to authenticity. So, when you acknowledge other people’s feedback on your business – whether good or bad – people will see that you take reviews seriously.

However, you may be tempted to screen the reviews before you let them on your page. This is a big no-no since people know that all businesses should have both negative and positive reviews. If you find a negative review, don’t delete it. Instead, address it privately. Get in touch with the reviewer, apologize and address their concern.

Improve Your Social Media Efforts

Strengthen your local SEO efforts by staying active and relevant on social media. Establish a solid social media presence by posting quality content regularly. Your content should engage with your target audience. When you do this, more people will discuss your business, recommend you to their friends and share your posts. Google considers your social media efforts when it analyzes your local rankings.

Remember to add your geolocation when you post social media content, especially if you are posting photos or videos.

The Bottom Line

You don’t need to specialize in marketing major jobs to perfect local optimization. Local SEO is easier to do compared to a wide-scale SEO campaign. Still, you need to pour effort when by developing local SEO strategies that work. If you need help, get in touch with a local SEO expert for your strategy.

In business, product packaging is the most essential and prominent thing. The physical appearance of a product matters a lot because when we go out to buy something, we firstly judge the product by its appearance. After all, the packaging is the first thing we see, it often leaves a lasting impression on our minds, and we don’t want to compromise on anything when we are buying something for ourselves.

Packaging is the most important tool in business through which we can directly communicate with our customers. Packaging helps the company to protect their product from any issues such as hitting, drying, and wetting. Having a good presentation of products attracts the target customers and convinces them to buy your product. Good packaging provides you with many valuable benefits such as good protection, safety, attractive looks, and information according to customer requirements.

Here are some basic benefits of good packaging

Attract Customer

When we go out shopping, the first thing we see on a shelf is the product packaging. If the packaging is engaging and eye-catchy, it automatically attracts the customer towards itself. The visual representation of the product encourages the customer to take a closer look at the product. Good packaging gives your product a premium look.

Choosing a good colour combination, font style, and graphics for your packaging will definitely appeal to the customer. So we need to packaging boxes of our products in an eye-catchy and attractive way so the consumer can easily make his mind to shop the product

Provide Information

Packaging is like the tongue of your product, and it provides information to your customer with the basic properties of your product. When we pack a product in a good packaging we also write the information about the products on a packet. Good packaging plays an important role in providing information about the product because anyone who wants to buy something firstly is attracted by the product’s physical appearance. Then he wants to know what is inside the package and the main ingredients or any other usage information about the product. So this information makes your consumer mind to buy the product.

Product Protection

Product protection is the priority in any business. If a customer unpacks a product after buying or finds the product is not in good condition or damaged due to bad packing, the customer gets offended. He will not be able to purchase anything from your company again in life and may also report a complaint against your company, which gives a very bad impression. Therefore, the safety of a product is very important for the reputation of a company.

Brand Recognition

Unique packaging is very important to make a good identity of your brand. If you make good and eye-catching packaging, it will automatically attract your consumers and tell your company’s whole background. They should be able to recognize where they buy the product from and remember you for a long time and love to shop again from you. Still, a negative unboxing experience of a product will directly affect your brand identity.

Differentiate

A unique and different packaging helps a company easily differentiate their product from other companies with the same products. You can make your product different by making a minimal logo, and using a colour combination also helps you to make your product packaging different from the competitors. These basic things will enable your customers to recognize your products anywhere. If your product packaging is different from other companies, it will be convenient for the targeted customers to recognize your brand easily.

When running an SEO campaign, it is important to make sure you are doing everything you can to make it profitable. But with so many elements to consider, this can seem like an impossible task. In this article, we will be providing you with 5 important SEO trends you need to be aware of in 2021 to ensure your campaign is a success.

The Use Of Voice Search

Many SEO specialists have been saying that voice search will be the future of how people search, the implementation of content and keywords to cater around conversational speech has continued to expand. As a result of this, Google has generated featured snippets and other information that Google Home devices and other voice-activated computers can also use. This is only set to increase as more and more people begin to regularly use voice search.

Video SEO Optimisation

Alongside the use of voice search and optimising for this, it is important to make sure that you are making the most out of video optimisation. With many people using YouTube and other video platforms to see tutorials and look for an answer to their questions, many are using SEO optimisation such as captions and keywords to ensure your video is not only beneficial for your customers but also linking to your website to ensure your Google rankings are improved. By using an agency such as absolute digital, there are several ways that you can go about achieving this in a few simple steps.

Understanding Mobile-First Indexing                       

Mobile-first indexing has been a huge part of Google and the way that they operate since its implementation in 2019. With Google ranking websites based on the mobile version of the site, you need to make sure your website is mobile optimised. With the use of an agency, you can begin to optimise your site to make it worth your while and improve your Google ranking position.

Search Intent Of The Audience Is Crucial

Alongside understanding mobile-first indexing, it is important to make sure that you are aware of the search intent for your audience. By making sure that you are aware of this search intent, you can then begin to tailor your SEO strategy with just a few simple steps, allowing you to get the most out of the process and make sure that you are writing and generating content that will work for you.

Understanding Changes In The Algorithm

The final element you need to consider is the ever-changing Google Algorithm. With many updates happening throughout the year, staying on top of this and ensuring you are aware of these updates will benefit you and the growth of your Google ranking positions as well as organic traffic and other core benefits of an SEO campaign.

With this in mind, there are several ways that you can continue to improve your Google ranking positions and ensure the longevity of your business both online and in your physical store.  

Times Square, NY, is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the world. With more than 50 million annual visitors, the daily pedestrian count can go as high as 460,000 on the busiest day.

Many businesses leverage this crowd to advertise their brands through massive billboards and other offline advertising methods. That’s why flyer distribution NYC, especially in Times Square, can be a great advertising opportunity, especially for businesses in New York.

Offline marketing has been the primary way of reaching potential customers. It is one of the most effective ways of advertising for local businesses. To give you more insights into the world of offline marketing, here are seven effective offline advertising strategies for small businesses in New York.

Participate in trade shows and business expos

Business expos and trade shows are some of the best places to promote your business. Regardless of your company size, it’s always good to be present around your potential customers and create local brand awareness. You may think it’s useless to be just another business at such trade shows, but you have to be at the right place and at the right moment.

A lot of influential people attend business expos, including investors and top executives. You never know when you might find a prospect who can bring you new opportunities. You can find numerous trade shows and business expos across various parts of New York.

Use business cards

Business cards are one of the best offline marketing strategies for small businesses. Business cards are not only a point of contact for you, but they also represent your business.

Many business owners underestimate the power of business cards as they believe they have a strong online presence. Little do they know that business cards are a great way to enhance your online presence by mentioning your business website URL and social media handles on the business card.

They are a great way to leave a point of contact with the prospect quickly. That’s why every business owner, executive, and employee should have a business card.

Flyers and Pamphlets

Distributing flyers and pamphlets to people at any local area or event is still a very effective strategy to gain local brand awareness. You can hire local offline marketing agencies for pamphlet and flyer distribution in NYC or any other region that you want.

Hold online and offline contests.

Contests are a creative way to market your business by encouraging people to compete for a prize. You can host an effective contest if you can determine what type of contest people are more likely to participate in and what rewards should be given to the winners.

If done right, offline and online contests can create a lot of buzz for your brand. You can either provide cash prizes and goodies or gift the winner your products or services for free or at a discounted price.

Community engagement

Communities are the tremendous driving force for local businesses. People love to support the companies that flourish in their region. The fact that your business is a part of their neighborhood will help you get a lot of local recognition.

If you are a part of various local communities, you can leverage that to market your business. You can sponsor local events to become a known entity in your local region.

Distribute merchandise

Merchandise refers to the items that carry your brand identities like your logo, tagline, hashtags, or anything related to your brand. Merchandise can be an excellent way to create a local customer base who feels proud to use your product.

You can distribute your merchandise like t-shirts, pens, coffee mugs, USB flash drives, and backpacks with your logo on them at any business expo or similar events.

Brand collaborations

Collaborating with reputed local brands is one of the best strategies to share their brand equity. When you collaborate with a reputable brand, people automatically associate that reputation with you. Both the businesses can promote their products to each other’s customers, which gives both parties access to a new set of potential customers.