See also: How to create a perfect blog post

Reciprocity

If you do something nice for someone, they’ll do something nice for you. So give people something for free. It can be your time while consulting them, small gifts on giveaway, free ebooks, webinars or other content. These are all ways to create feelings of reciprocity.

Commitment and Consistency

When people are presented with the idea which fits their self-image, they are very likely to convert. They have decided through consistency, that a certain action coheres with who they believe themselves to be and then they do commitments. For marketing, craft headlines and value propositions that speak directly to that person’s desires and self-images. You’re establishing influence by creating consistency.

Social Proof

People are very much influence by social opinion, so social proof is a crucial ingredient in online marketing. People will buy, see, do what other people buy, see and do. So use testimonials, show your facebook likes if the number is nice. Moreover, create a content that gets commented on and then write content that gets people’s feedback.

See also: Marketers’ techniques to attract customers

Authority

People want to be told what to do so badly that they’ll listen to anyone. If you have a well-described niche, buy adding more and more content about it you can become an opinion leader. And then the other step would be say what people have to do.

Liking

In order to make relationships with people you should be attractive and have sort of chemistry. In online relationship it look sort of impossible, but it isn’t. You can create a likeable persona by saying things that people like to hear, adding pictures of other people, because people like to see other people. You can create create attractiveness even through your web design: a good logo, smart graphics.

Scarcity

If people think that something is going to run out, they will rush to buy it. Put a timeline on your webinar, telling people that signup is closing on Thursday at 12pm. Or say that there are limited number of people that can attend it. Scarcity doesn’t need to be a reality. People simply need to think that something is scarce in order to be compelled into action.

So now that you know the principles, you just need to be smart and adjust them everywhere: website design, content, social media and so on. Social psychology can really do difference!

See also: 14 things that your LinkedIn must have

Social platforms

Pinterest is new one of the favorite’s social platforms in the world. Its popularity grows so fast that is hard even to notice it. With page views up 210 percent in just the last three months, the site cements the importance of using high-quality, sharable images in web content.

Facebook also adjusted to image-based social media. They make more space in the timeline for the pictures and a huge cover photo make images an important draw for use attention.

Instagram is a new mania. That’s not surprising that Facebook was even willing to buy it for one billion dollar! Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg commented on the importance of images in the site’s future, saying “Providing the best photo-sharing experience is one reason why so many people love Facebook, and we knew it would be worth bringing these two companies together”.

How images affect article

Of course, images are good for every kind of article, because it boost that content’s page views. But as well researches show that certain categories benefit more from having images than others, it’s news content, political content and sports content.

How images affect press material

The amount of view have really strong bonds with multimedia that you include. So to get the most out of you images you should add other multimedia that complements your press release and images in different ways.

How images affect local search

Researches shows that consumers are more likely to consider or contact a business that has an image show up in local search results. So choosing a high-quality photo of your business or products instead of company logo is the best choice.

How images affect e-commerce

Customers says that the quality of a product’s image is more important than products specific information, long description, ratings and reviews.

How images affect social engagement

Analysis say that Facebook posts with photos have the highest user engagement than any other post.

See also: Everything you should know about hashtags

To sum up, images affect almost all the areas in social network. So be picky on them, choose gorgeous, high-quality images that people will really want to share and you will definitely win out of it.

By producing good educational content about your business, the company establishes a leadership position, increases the authority (and traffic) via Google and social media facilitates the process of selling and creates a permanent marketing asset, difficult to be replicated.

However, at the time of implementation many companies end up slipping. That’s why article offers 6 tips on how to build a successful blog to attract and convert prospects:

TIP #1

Personas: a common mistake for many companies is to write for themselves, not for their target audience. Before you set your blog theme, think of the “buyers” of your business and build characters that represent them. Then seek to answer several questions about their profiles and interests.

TIP #2

 Teach: This is the biggest “cake recipe” for a good blog: discover the problems of your target audience and teach how to solve them. Educational content spreads much more than corporate information, thus attracting more potential customers. Teaching also establishes rapport and credibility, and help create demand for the solution.

TIP #3

Search: Do a good keyword research on Google and investigate problems and questions in social media before producing content.

TIP #4

Have a good platform: blogs do not have many secrets, but it is important to have a minimum of technical adequacy. A platform like WordPress solves most questions about SEO and content management. Moreover, a good blog layout helps improve conversion and sharing.

Another important point: keep the blog on the same domain as your company’s website, so one takes advantage of the authority gained by another.

TIP #5

Think like a publisher: a good blog is like a magazine. Several people can produce content, but someone should play the role of the blog editor, ensuring consistency, review the organization of the “agenda” and frequency of publication. About the latter, one post a week is already well enough for the company to start seeing results within a few months.

TIP #6

Promote: think on Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin as distribution channels to leverage the generated content on your blog. Another simple tip is to enter the blog articles in the company newsletter. Write as a guest on other industry blogs also helps in exposing the content to new audiences.

But what is the growth hacking?

To understand the definition let’s compare it with the traditional marketing. In the traditional way of the marketing in a classic company, the marketer receives a budget and it is his function to build brand awareness.

In the growth marketing it is different and simpler, growth the number of the paying users while minimizing marketing costs.

The word “hacker” used in this situation stands for a person who uses unconventional means for a purpose. So use unconventional means to growth the number of users.

Some examples of the growth hacking

Hotmail:  a simple and innovative way tolet know their service. Put at end of each email send the sentence; “PS: I love You. Get your free email at Hotmail.”

Dropbox: create at begin a video with well-known memes and shared it in reddit which make growth the number of first users. But then, the little detail was to offer more storage space for each friend sponsored.

Twitter: The social network work on the activation retention. An user which follow 20 persons is considered an active user and start to use the network regularly. So they work to incorporate the process of following people when you sign.

Marketing is one of the most popular career destinations for newly qualified graduates. And it is easy to see why. In the digital age, marketing and technology are often described as the engine room of a business. It offers an exciting and often highly paid job for those who desire a dynamic business career.

The great thing about marketing is it is a function that is needed in every company in every industry, so career potential is unlimited.

Regardless of the specific marketing position, there are some basic skills and interests that marketing professionals should possess.

Marketing professionals can expect a diverse, dynamic work experience, with new challenges emerging each day. Very few marketers describe their work as “boring” or “routine”. Marketers should also expect a fast-paced, often challenging environment, with numerous internal and external pressures. Workweeks typically range from 50-70 hours. Travel is a job requirement, whether to a field sales office, manufacturing facility, customer account, advertising agency or to supervise local market research. The level of travel varies, but expect a few days of travel a month.

To assess whether or not marketing is right for you, ask yourself if you have and enjoy using the following skills:

–          Initiative: Ability to accomplish complex projects and tasks with minimal assistance.

–          Leadership/Management: Lead and motivate people from different departments, and provide visionary creative leadership.

–          Analytical and Strategic-thinking: Sort through and identify critical data, understand and correctly interpret it, and apply it effectively to drive business growth.

–          Teamwork: Work effectively in teams.

–          Creativity/Innovation: Approach a problem from a different angle, find a better way of doing things, and generate unique ideas.

–          Communication: Support or defend a position in a clear, concise, and persuasive manner.

–          Organizational/Time Management: Balance numerous projects and issues at one time, and properly prioritize projects.

–          Additional Skills: Interpersonal, Enthusiasm, Passion for consumers, Interest in Marketing

Although these are the basic skills needed by all marketers, the importance of each of these skills will vary depending on the industry and sector of marketing.

Anyway a professional marketing qualification or a postgraduate course help to become one of the best in the area.

1. Use Better Targeting Practices
One of the greatest benefits of mobile advertising is that it easier to fine to the locations where the ads will run. Mobile apps can use the phone’s GPS data to get precise location data that can be used to determine which ads to run. Since many apps use Facebook logins or similar methods of persistent identification, there is also a lot of demographic information available that can be used to target very specific groups of people.
“Your mobile advertising campaign will be more successful by geotargeting advertisements to your audience. This makes your campaign more relevant and wastes fewer impressions, ultimately leading to higher engagement and follow through,” said Laura Perkins of Perks Consulting.

2. Improve Your Landing Environment
Getting people to click on an advertisement is only half of the equation for successful mobile advertising campaigns. Advertisers need to make sure that the landing page for the ad is mobile optimized and has content that will close the deal. For example, the landing page should include very specific information that is relevant to the reasons the person clicked on the ad. There should also be a clear call to action.
“For example, an ad for a pair of shoes I’m looking at brings me to a mobile-optimized page featuring the shoes and a way to buy them, rather than pointing me to a more generic page where I have to look around for the shoes I want, and then figure out how to buy them,” said KyeMou, of the mobile research firm Marin, when demonstrating an example of an optimized landing page to a reporter.

3. Do Specific Mobile Keyword Research
When planning mobile ads, don’t use the exact same keywords as you would for desktop campaigns. Google’s Webmaster Tools, Google Analytics, and Google Keyword Tool all have features that can be used to filter specifically for mobile. Mobile devices users employ different words when searching mobile devices (like “nearby”) and there are fewer branded searches than by users on desktops and laptops. Advertisers who aren’t specifically researching keywords with mobile in mind aren’t maximizing their budgets.

4. Experiment with Content
The size of mobile device screens can be a limitation when creating ads, but advertisers can make up for this by experimenting with banner sizes, shapes, images, and colors. What may seem like a minor adjustment may turn out to be the key to a higher click-through rate.
Advertisers should take special care to make sure they have chosen the right call to action and be willing to experiment with different offers to find what best motivates customers.According to Adam Root of HipLogiq, “The three most effective calls to action I have seen are discount coupons (e.g., 20 percent-off coupons for nearby mobile users), buy-one-get-one promotions and free items.”

5. Select the Right Mobile Ad Network
The mobile advertiser network a business uses also plays a large part in the overall effectiveness of the campaign. Determining the best mobile advertising network depends on whether you want to advertise on apps, or specific sites, or in search results. Google is a good choice for most businesses but there are a lot of other good options to choose from. Examine the network’s option for relevant localized data, their mobile publisher database, and what their abilities are for ad display and ad search.

Mobile advertising will see great increases in 2014 as more people use mobile devices to search and shop online, and advertisers follow them. Be sure your advertising are being used effectively by always measuring your results and keeping up with the latest news in best practices.

Are three major engines for the success of the Oficina da Marca: DESIGN, VISUAL COMMUNICATION and MARKETING.

10 Magical Steps to Create Sucessfull Brands

1. The Brand: Are you a brand? What you do? How you describes your brand? What makes you unique?
2. We start finding our position in the world: competitors, stakeholders, events
3. We build brands from inside out: company profile
4. We build brands that people belive in: what people think about the brand
5. We build powerfull brands through passionate people: design lovers, opinion leaders, for example
6. We design an extremely focused approach to the market: social networks, blogs
7. We design brand experience: products, press, trade shows, partners
8. We design a proccess to put the brands inside consumers mind
9. We are extremely consistent and we execute with focus and discipline: tasks, budget, performance
10. We love

If you want to know more informations about Oficina da Marca please contact us.

To help remove some of the animosity from the relationship, it helps to have everyone on the same page and understand the multiplication mindset when it comes to creating the right content marketing:

1. Set objectives: Traditionally, marketing has created content and handed it off to sales teams to use how and when they see fit; a “one-size-fits-all” approach that no longer works. Before marketing can better assist sales, both have to determine their main objective for content — brand awareness, lead generation, sales, customer retention, thought leadership, and so forth.
2. Know your buyers: Take time to identify the people with whom you want to connect and understand them intimately. By creating personas, both sales and marketing will identify and understand common characteristics of a group of people with whom you want to connect. It outlines their perspectives, fears, drivers, and content needs.
3. Understand your buyer/retention cycle: Many companies focus on generating leads and closing the sale, then forget about customers until it’s time for them to buy again. That’s a big mistake. Sales teams need to think about retention and renewals as much as the original sale. What matters most to your persona during each phase? How do their content needs change?
4. The multiplier effect: This is where sales gains empowerment and marketing can catch their breath. On average, teams can create 12 additional pieces of content from a single white paper. Here are just a few examples once you have the main piece created:

• Blogs: Generate multiple posts that cover why the problem is a problem, the solution (your unique point of view) and the impact the solution has on an organization.
• Videos: Consider both internal and external. What does your subject-matter expert have to teach about the subject? What’s something that proved most valuable to a customer.
• Infographic: We all like pictures, and they help make statistics and new processes easier to relate to.
• Publish an eBook: Look for common themes and questions and then create an eBook that addresses them.
• Develop an app: Can you help your customers by making life easier for them through an app?
• Create a community: If you hear the same questions from customers over and over, this may be the time to bring them together. Connect them both online and off and help facilitate connections that prove valuable for them.

Right time. Right place. Right content

What content you use when depends on the persona and where they are in the buyer/retention cycle. Now that you understand your personas, and the breadth and depth of content that you can create from a single source, it’s easier to map that to the buyer/retention cycle and deliver the right content that engages them with the right message when they’re most likely to pay attention.

Source: Carla Johson, Content Marketing Institute

Inbound Marketing is the best way to turn strangers into customers and promotors of a business. IM has been the most effective marketing method for doing business online in the last years.