Tips for Choosing an Esports Agency
With the widespread popularity of video games in the world today, it is no wonder that the esports industry is thriving as well. With esports, skilled gamers the world over have the opportunity to compete and win in a variety of gaming tournaments, just as traditional athletes do. However, while you might be eager to dive into a contract with the first esports agency that shows interest in you, it is important to ensure that you choose the best one for you.
Why Should You Sign with an Agency?
Like with professional sports, acting, or any other careers that require you to sign deals with corporations, plan out events and appearances, and be very visible to the public eye, an agent is a necessary asset to have. Whether you are just starting out or have already made a name for yourself in the world of esports, having a trustworthy and reliable esports agency at your side will be very helpful for a number of reasons.
Put simply, the value of being represented by an esports agency is that the agency is there to help ensure that you make the best decisions for your career. Whereas you might not be trained in reading legal documents and contracts—something that you will sign a lot of as part of your career as an esports athlete—your agent is, and they will guarantee that everything in the contracts serves your best interests.
What to Look for in an Esports Agency?
Like all decisions that affect your career, choosing an esports agency to represent you is a choice that should be made with consideration and care. As noted earlier, it is never a good idea to dive right in with the first agency that shows interest. Not only does this prevent you from making a decision informed by research, but it is also possible that the agency may not have your best interests in mind and is only interested in exploiting young and eager esports athletes. It is important to do research into a number of topics.
See What Others Thought About Them
While you might not have the pick of the litter when it comes to esports agencies, chances are that you will still have a couple of options. When considering these potential esports agencies, look up reviews of them as an agency. By looking up reviews and seeing what other esports athletes have thought of the agency, you might just realize that the esports agency you thought seemed so great is actually not. Without looking up reviews of their services, you will never know if the agency you are considering is actually good or not.
Consider Your Needs
If everyone who has previously worked with an agency says positive things about them, it can be tempting to choose them immediately. However, the next step is to determine if their services will satisfy your particular needs. Every esports athlete is different, just as every person is different. Therefore, an agency that worked well for one athlete might not work as well for you.
Pricing
No esports agency will take you on for free, so one of the first things to consider is price. Are they too expensive for you? Or do they seem too cheap? Both of these could be signs that going with a different esports agency might be a good idea.
Location
If an esports agency’s headquarters is very far away from where you are located, it might be best to choose a more local agency, unless you are willing to move to the location of the agency in question. While you may be able to work with an agency from a distance through email and other online methods of communication, it will be altogether more convenient if they are located somewhat close to you. For example, if you are ever required to meet with your agent in person, flying to another country or continent might be a serious inconvenience, and could even affect your own ability to work.
Services Offered
Finally, whether you intend to compete internationally, or simply wish to be represented on a smaller scale to the public, it is important to consider the services offered by the esports agency that you are interested in. If you want to have international representation and compete in large-scale tournaments across the globe, then a small esports agency is definitely not the right choice for you. Similarly, if your resources are limited and you do not want international representation anyway, then going with a smaller agency may be best. In fact, not only will the smaller agency be cheaper, but they will also be more tailored toward smaller-scale representation than a very large esports agency that predominantly represents world-famous athletes.
Top Five Reasons to Use WeChat Marketing
The most dominant and largest social network in China is WeChat. It is also the world’s second-biggest messaging platform. Yet this platform is often neglected by international firms who plan to extend their business in China. Many organizations that need Chinese translation services funnel their translated content into traditional marketing streams and overlook this amazing global platform.
The problem arises because WeChat is widely considered by many as any other messaging app. But, in reality, it is also used to perform traditional social media functions like online shopping and payments, sharing videos and photos as well as allows users to play games and participate in competitions. The beauty of this platform is all apps are grouped in one master app as it is designed as a one-stop platform for the end-users and offers an ideal online environment for businesses to get noticed in the Chinese market place. If your long-term strategy is to grow your client-base in China, it is very crucial to have WeChat in your marketing mix. Here are a few reasons to use WeChat marketing (adstochina.westwin.com/wechat-marketing).
Over 1 billion monthly users
A monthly user base of over 1 billion users makes WeChat the perfect platform for helping you to connect with the Chinese market. The country demographic consists of young urban residents who make the most purchase online. They are also the most tech-savvy and have a higher level of disposable income. For getting the user’s attention, your online presence must include WeChat.
Your content will be reaching out to your target customers in a way that no other platform offers
The first step is putting your content in front of the right people, so WeChat marketing provides you the chance for creating content and targets it to specific clients who subscribe to your brand, based on their location or browsing history. The platform offers two different types of accounts for businesses – Service and Subscription. A subscription allows you to put regular content and notifications that are displayed in sub-sections for users who have subscribed to your account. The more advanced is the Service option where your content will be reaching your subscribers’ main moments feed (just like the newsfeed feature on social media platforms). To get success, your users must subscribe to your account; therefore, many brands offer exclusive WeChat special offers for their subscribers. There is a strong culture for sharing posts in China, so producing the correct content leads to higher rewards than on similar platforms.
You can communicate with the costumers directly and see their feedback and reactions in real-time
Like most typical channels, WeChat allows followers and brands to have direct discussions. By using this type of personalized communication, it is easy for brands to gauge consumer satisfaction. When organizations display their new products on WeChat, they can able to see live updates on the customer’s first impressions, receive honest reactions, and immediately capture the data.
It is easy to convert offline to online leads
WeChat allows e-commerce businesses the chance for setting up a digital Micro Store so that users can browse products within the app and make purchases easily with a few clicks by using their WeChat wallet. QR codes are widely used in China, and with a quick scan, anyone who visits your brand in the market will be automatically connected with their WeChat account as well as Micro Store in seconds. However, why not incentivize your customers to scan it? For engaging Chinese consumers, make sure that your QR code is visible in all your in-country stores, product packaging, and other online presences.
The users are spread across the Globe
Even if you are not planning now to expand your business in China, but WeChat must be on your radar as it is beginning to expand in other countries. There are more than 100 million WeChat users outside China, and organizations are focusing on gaining more users in other major markets like Latin America, South East Asia, and India. The platform currently supports more than 20 different international languages, and this will certainly grow in the coming time.
What are the Pros of Working with a WeChat Marketing Agency?
Online Marketing is Effective
In the changed social scenario, the traditional forms of advertisement campaigns have become somewhat ineffective. As the bulk of the present generation depends on online activities for solving their various needs, online marketing is a sure bet for marketing success. Hence, all companies have started to promote their products and services through all the possible online platforms.
Why Opt For WeChat Advertising?
Businesses cannot stay away from social media marketing if the ultimate aim is to pierce into the various customer segments in China. Promotional activities through social media sites like Weibo and WeChat are a sure bet for creating online awareness and thereby, augmenting the sales. However, it is of great significance that the SEO agency that one hires for the purpose is well aware of the functioning of WeChat.
According to an approximate calculation, nearly 902 million users actively participate daily in this social forum. The number of active official account users is just about 797 million. A WeChat user uses the platform almost 10 times a day, according to the calculation. Hence, it will be practically beneficial for all businesses to promote their products and services through this social platform. That said, it is a must that companies must hire a top WeChat marketing company, which is familiar with the SEO localization tactics. Only then, the promotional campaigns will reach the targeted customer segments.
Pros of Working with a WeChat Marketing Agency
Social media activities are rampant in China, and people from all customer segments actively participate in various social platforms. WeChat is the most common site. By participating actively in the site daily, businesses can increase customers’ familiarity with their brands. An experienced WeChat marketing agency will have the professional capability for having engaging participation in the site, by which there will be fruitful interaction with various customer segments. Thus the customers will get a clear picture as regards the company’s products and services.
Companies can make themselves more aware as regards the practical needs and aspirations of the customers by actively participating in social media sites such as WeChat. Thus the company will be able to make the products and services, precisely matching the requirements of the customers. If one has the professional guidance of an experienced WeChat marketing agency, gathering such information will be easy and effective.
A proficient WeChat marketing agency will be familiar with the various practical methods and approaches to interact with different customer segments. This awareness will be of great help to reach new customers, and at the same time, retain the existing clientele. They will have adequate knowledge regarding the creation and placement of WeChat moment ads, WeChat banner adds, Weibo Fensitong advertising, etc.
The whole process of WeChat marketing becomes uncomplicated and successful when you do the same with the help of an experienced SEO agency. Such an agency will have winning strategies for content creation, content localization, copywriting, advertisement content broadcast, conducting ingenious marketing campaigns, etc.
Contact a Professional WeChat Marketing Agency
It’s rather easy to find a professional WeChat marketing company, as there are plenty of agencies that specialize in Chinese SEO. However, it is significant that you must hire an experienced and trustworthy company to bag all the possible benefits.
The best part is that you will have direct access to almost all top SEO companies. You can enter their website to gather the office address, the phone number, and the email id of the company. It is not a must that you must personally visit their office. You can call or mail them. The company representative will call you at the earliest to discuss the matter with you as soon as they receive your query. The main thing that you must make sure is the professional expertise of the agency, which you can make out from the present client-list of the SEO agency. The company must have a proven record for its ability for strategic consulting, SEM, social media marketing, display advertising, website localization, e-commerce solution, etc.
Weibo Advertising and It’s Beneficial Features
Sina Weibo (often called as only Weibo) is a popular micro-blogging site in China. It has a wide user base; making it an effective platform for business promotion. In fact, Weibo advertising is crucial for effective business promotion in China given its beneficial features and targeted approach.
Businesses can pay for the features they want to use. The pricing depends on factors such as keywords, page placement of the banners, size of the ads, etc.
Beneficial Features of Weibo Advertising
Weibo has many features that businesses can leverage for their promotional work.
Search Function –
Weibo has an excellent in-built search function. It helps users to find products and news related to their interests and needs. Businesses can leverage this feature for effective Weibo advertising.
You can utilize keywords related to your business offering. When the Weibo users will search for something using the same keyword, your business account page can be a top result depending on your use of the keyword.
You can utilize the search function for greater brand visibility by way of your Weibo account. The search function will bring more Weibo users to your account. You can then use content on the official page to form a more loyal following. With enough interest in your business or brand; the users are likely to visit your website. Such targeted approach is one of the beneficial features of Weibo advertising.
Display Advertisements –
Weibo advertising also offers businesses the use of display adverts. These ads can feature on the platform’s homepage, the news feed of followers or other Weibo users, and on the discover section or the search page.
When users will click on the display ad, it will lead them to the company’s homepage on the platform. You can optimize the ads for the mobile as well as other devices.
Fan Tunnels –
Fan Tunnels is a feature by which you can target Weibo users who have an interest in your business category. You can use this feature to not only promote your business account but also a specific post. Your promotion will appear in the news feeds of the users but as a headline.
You can specify the target audience not only as per interest but also using other criteria such as gender, age, and location. You can even find other users of the same interest as your followers using this feature.
Using this feature, businesses can build a following. Access to followers means recurring opportunities for business promotion. Fan Tunnels are used to target all the Weibo users and not just the followers of a company.
Fan Headlines –
You can pay for the headline feature to target your existing followers but with more focus. It helps businesses to promote their products or services to the existing users including their connections. It ultimately helps them to gain more followers.
Headlines help to augment the efforts of the Fan Tunnel feature for business promotion. You can use headlines to increase your user base based on shared interests with your existing followers.
Videos –
Weibo displays videos related to different categories in a single video homepage. Users can also sort videos using topics of interest on this homepage.
Businesses can leverage this feature for effective Weibo advertising. They can create excellent video content to offer to the users of the platform and improve their visibility on the platform. Useful or entertaining videos are a great way to promote a product or service.
Weibo Stories –
You can use this feature to offer more engaging content to your users. The comments of the users on Weibo Stories are also visible to all. It helps with greater engagement of the users for each post they see and then choose to comment on it. Your story can also feature on the Weibo stories page, which can further help to bolster a brand’s visibility.
Weibo Stories page also contains different categories for easier search and browsing. You can utilize this feature to promote your stories and business on Weibo.
Weibo stories offer a creative way for businesses to engage with users or their followers. It is a different way to promote a product or a service than direct ads or search promotions.
Benefits of Choosing Local SEO Services
The essence of Local SEO
The bulk of the businesses that function in the present-day world concentrate on various local markets for their operation and winning existence. Examples are plenty; for instance, retail shops, health clinics, hospitals, restaurants, juice shops, accountant offices, etc. Some other businesses that function with a larger platform will also have to target some of the local consumer segments that lie scattered within the various parts of the globe. For all these instances, it is vital that the related companies must be able to reach out to their business platform to the targeted audience. Only then, they will be able to withstand the market competition and sustain their business activities productively. Here, the supportive and beneficial nature of local optimization will be of great help to the businesses. By targeting the precise local customer group, businesses can retain the existing customers, as well as expand their clientele. Local SEO is this process of making the online platforms optimized to match the practical requirements of the targeted group so that they can easily find you.
The local optimization process will rank the website top in the geographical area where businesses want to focus and expand further. That said, all the entailed tasks must be perfect, and for making this possible, the professional expertise of an experienced SEO firm is imperative. You must hire a specialized SEO agency, which is aware of the local market conditions and the proclivities of the various customer segments that live in the place. For instance, if you want to capitalize on the potential of Houston customers, you will have to hire the professional expertise of a local SEO services Houston.
Benefits of Choosing Local SEO Services
Proper research is essential for deciding the marketing possibilities in a local market and calculating the related ROI (Return on Investment). The best bet is to hire the expert services of an SEO agency that is familiar with the local market conditions. They will first study the possibilities and will perform the required SEO works, precisely in sync with the practical requirements.
Top rank, as regards the local search through the internet, is essential for making your site visible among the targeted customer segment in a local market. By opting for local SEO services, you can achieve this. You can make your local online presence noticeable by performing the SEO works in tune with the practical requirements of the local populace.
By adopting a local search engine optimization strategy, you can prompt more local customers to enter your website. In due course of time, they will become interested in buying your products or services. You are sure to get a considerable volume of traffic, which will enhance your sales revenue.
You can introduce unique marketing schemes that will be effective within a particular geographical area or a specific customer group. These schemes will tempt the probable customers to buy the product.
Without going for any other types of advertisements, you will be able to augment the sales. Moreover, the financial requirement for the same will be comparatively less. Other advertisement methods will be valid only for a limited period; however, when you do local SEO for your website, the benefits will be constant.
Another notable advantage of performing regular local SEO services is that you will be able to achieve customer retention. Once the customers become familiar with your company, they will visit your website more often, and this will guarantee repeat business.
Local SEO Services
To make the marketing tactics fully effective, website owners must do the needed search engine optimization professionally. As far as the city of Houston and the suburbs are concerned, there are lots of potential buyers here. However, reaching the targeted audience is a challenge, and it is here, you can see the effectiveness of professional SEO. To draw on the available resources, one must hire the services of a professionally managed local SEO services Houston. You will be able to find a plethora of SEO agencies that operate in this region; nevertheless, you must make sure that the SEO Company that you are going to hire is experienced and technically perfect.
Social Media Marketing – Truth and Lies
Social Media Marketing is the newest instrument in the commercial area that has created a lasting impact on today’s digital space. In the current scenario, more than 80 percent of B2B marketers are using social media marketing in some form or the other. No matter who your target market and what you are selling, using social networking as an advertising tool is an exciting opportunity for getting success for your business. Let us first discuss some of the truth of social media marketing in China.
Improvement in Internet Traffic
Social media marketing blogs or articles helps in increasing traffic. Proper landing pages, creating a new page on your website and well-placed posts help your business to succeed. An individual URL on a social news forum and website or links submitted to an advertising engine can help in transforming a full page from a number of guests per days to thousands.
High SEO
Social media marketing in China helps in raising your website’s SEO. Search engine crawlers very well know which pages are getting traffic consistently and which ones are just ignored, neglected and floating on the market. Operating traffic to your optimized pages with social networking posts help them to climb more quickly in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).
Connecting with Industry Leaders and Customers
It helps in building a true connection. The top social media sites help your brand to maintain a free relationship with your audience. – you can easily study their status updates and tweets about their day-to-day-lives like what and why they prefer some specific items and maybe you can take a cue of it and fine-tune your strategy. Another advantage is with so many websites, they act as a tool for connecting with leaders if your preferred industry.
Targeting and Retargeting with Advertisements
The very personalized character of social networking ads like the ads of top social networking websites is the reason why social networking is vital. These ads provide permission for targeting users by identifying some parameters like industry, level of education, location, the pages a user have liked and also the purchase records. You can also retarget the users who have visited your sites, subscribed your channel and liked your official accounts page and try to convert them into a loyal buyer.
Still, social media is one of the best ways of growing your business. Unfortunately, there are some lies about social media marketing in China. Now we will expose two of the biggest misconceptions about social media marketing. Let us begin.
Social Media is Free of Cost
People have the biggest miss conception about social media marketing in China that it is free as only energy and time is spent. But, the reality is businesses are strapped for time as it is. You do not have an extra 15 hours every week to spend managing and creating social channels. In the same way, you do not have an extra $20k per month lying around. Sadly, these costs show no signs of reduction. One of the studies explains that spending on social media continues to rise due to cut-throat competition although it is well short of the total projected spending.
More Content Fetch Better Results
Over 400 million photos are uploaded on social networking sites every day. Take a pause and think about the number for a second. Most of these photos are from family members and friends. Users do not log on their social account for buying stuff. They just interact with their loved ones. This means you are at a loss. There is already fierce competition. You have to create long-form and evergreen content in social media so that customers stay on your page as long as possible to understand your products and services. To stand out from the crowd, you need more than just high volume. Use storytelling technique where it has to be visual while engaging with users in social media. Through storytelling, you can share an experience that your clients can connect with. Then by capturing that attention, you can draw people to study your company’s services and products.
How to Find the Cheapest Exchange Archiving Provider for Your Business
Today, businesses are relying heavily on emails as their main mode of communication. The fact is many startups are using smartphones as the main communication medium for doing business. With so much emphasis on mail, it is crucial that your business must use the cheapest exchange archiving service for storing all mails. The affordable mail archiving services creates a copy of each mail on your business account or personal account and stores them in an offsite server. It does not matter the content of the email, it will always be stored in the archive even if it is accidentally deleted on someone’s account. The highest level of transparency has several benefits for your business.
Archiving your mails is vital for your business. It helps to safely store the mails for future preferences. You may require past mails for simplifying the work of the IT department, litigation support or regulatory purposes. It also helps in reducing the costs for maintenance of servers. Managing servers for mails is a huge business cost. Even the normal archiving process takes much time to search for specific mails. Email archiving services helps in simplifying the processes and lowers the operational costs for your business. However, finding an exchange archiving provider at low cost is a difficult task. Therefore, we have provided some tips to find the cheapest one where you have to look for the features and compare the costs of various providers.
Focus on Short – Term Commitment
If you are planning to buy an email archiving service for the long term then you may waste your money if it does not fulfill your needs in the way you wanted. Instead, opt for services that provided a limited free trial or a pay-as-you-go option. This will help you to get familiar with the features and also helps in assessing the costs vis-à-vis-their benefits. If you feel satisfied with the short-term or free service, then you can subscribe for the long term with the provider. It not only helps you in saving money but also gives you peace of mind that you have taken the right step.
Unlimited Storage
There are service providers who will be offering unlimited storage for a little extra payment or for no additional costs. This is a very handy feature for your business that helps you in saving costs when choosing the cheapest exchange archiving service. If you think that your business will need more email archiving in the future, then it is wise to choose a provider that offers unlimited storage at cheapest rates.
Special Discounts
In your quest to find the affordable service, search for providers that offer very cheap rates as well as some discounts when you are opting for services like five to ten years archiving. With low rates, you will able to get a complete email archiving system. You can still access all the mails even if they are deleted from your end.
Additional Costs and Avoid Them
If the email archiving service provider wants you to invest in additional hardware then eventually it will add to your overall business cost. Therefore, if there are any extra requirements that may increase the cost of the archiving service then you must look for other archiving providers. You must choose an effective yet simple service provider that caters to your needs. Organizations opt to archive their emails to an external company for operational hassles and cost-cutting. If you have to invest in additional systems or hardware for the purpose then ultimately you need to pay more than perhaps what you have estimated.
Enhanced Features
With cheapest exchange archiving provider, you want your messages to be archived as well as safe. When choosing a provider, ask them to show how your emails will be stored. Various providers store your mails are different secure sites that are beneficial for your business. Does your provider verify the legitimacy of messages before archiving? Are the messages encrypted before transferring them for storage? What is the method of transporting your mails and is it safe? Are your messages stored in a read-only state for extra security of your data? You should ask these questions to your provider.
Reasons to Work with Temp-to-Hire Staffing Agencies
Finding the right talent can be a challenging proposition for many organizations. Apart from having the required qualifications and experience, the candidates must also be able to fit in well with the organizational culture. Failing this, they may not perform to the expected standard and end up costing the organization in time as well as in money. Therefore, to avoid bad hires, many of the leading organizations prefer to partner with temp to hire staffing agencies to do their hiring for them.
Top Reasons to Work with Temp-to-Hire Staffing Agencies
They Can Save You Time and Money
The entire hiring process can turn out to be time-consuming and expensive if you do it in-house. You must divert high-level resources from existing projects and put them in charge of the recruiting. They will then spend a lot of time in sifting through applications and resumes and in shortlisting candidates. Furthermore, they must interview the candidates and negotiate their salaries.
In the business world and elsewhere, time is a precious commodity and, if squandered away, can cost organizations a lot of money. The time expended in the hiring process can disrupt your organization’s other on-going projects and end up hurting your business. Additionally, it can cause dissatisfaction in the executives if they have to handle the recruitment on top of their regular duties. They may speed up the hiring process to get it over with, and you might end up with sub-par new employees as a result. That, again, will take a toll on your business operations.
The better option is to get someone that is solely concerned with selecting the right candidates. Temp-to-hire staffing agencies can do that for you. They will take over the work of searching for people whose skills match your job requirements. They will then schedule interviews and select those that will be an exact fit.
They Will Put You in Touch with Qualified Talent
Most reputable staffing agencies have built extensive industry networks over the years and maintain contacts with the best talent in town. They will, thus, be able to quickly find people who have the right skills and experience for your projects. Moreover, they will negotiate the work and salary terms with them.
With the temp-to-hiring staffing agency handling the entire recruitment process, you can rest assured that you will get top-tier candidates that have what it takes to get the work done.
They Let You be Flexible with Your Hiring
The staffing agency can help you to hire candidates on a temporary or permanent basis. It depends on your organization’s requirements. You may want to hire extra staff quickly on a seasonal basis or for a short-term project. You may also need to hire for a short duration to fill workforce gaps or to cover for existing staff members that are on leave. Or, you may want to tighten up your business operations and maintain a fluid workforce, hiring people only as and when needed.
Additionally, you may want to hire temporarily to assess the candidate’s work performance in a real-world environment before committing. Many organizations prefer to do this to avoid hiring the wrong people. If the candidates do well in a three-month trial period, you can choose to offer them a permanent position. That also works out well in the candidates’ favor. It gives them a chance, in their turn, to experience how your organization operates and decide if the work is what they want to continue doing in the long term. They can then accept or decline your offer.
They Assume Legal Liabilities
When the selected candidates start working for you on a contract basis, it is the staffing agency that will pay them their salary. They will also take care of their benefits, taxes, insurance coverage, and other dues. You will assume these responsibilities only if you decide to hire the candidates permanently.
So, for a growing number of organizations, temp-to-hire staffing agencies have become valuable partners for efficiently fulfilling their hiring requirements.
Importance of Local SEO Services for Small Businesses
If you have a website representing your business, you cannot choose to ignore SEO. It is a well-known fact; the chances of your website appearing on top of SERP are negligible without dedicated SEO efforts. Let’s understand the importance of local SEO services for small businesses.
Bring in More Customers
Today, local businesses need to have a local online presence to attract customers. Many people use the Internet when looking for products and services. Companies that offer local SEO services in Houston, can bring in more customers to your website which might also increase footsteps in your physical stores.
Failure to grab a significant amount of traffic in local searches translates to your business missing on hundreds of potential customers. Discovery is one of the important steps in increasing sales. SEO increases the online visibility of your website and your target customers are more likely to visit your website to make purchases.
With the right SEO tactics, your website will appear in the 1st or 2nd SERP which will ensure people looking for products and services you offer would visit your website.
User-friendly Website
Search engine optimization is not only about search engine and websites. The main focus of SEO is on the user. When users are happy, your search engine optimization will yield good results. There are several On-Page SEO techniques that improve user experience and have short-term and long-term benefits.
Keep up with Competition
One of the reasons to partner with the company providing local SEO services Houston is to keep up with the competition. Today, the majority of small and big entrepreneurs know the importance of SEO. This means your competitors must have already employed an SEO service to improve their online ranking and attract customers.
If you continue to ignore SEO, you are more likely to lose to your competitors. Hence, it is very important you partner with a local SEO services provider and make your website SEO friendly.
Better First Impression
The first impression is very important A positive first impression is more likely to become a foundation for strong relationships with the customer. If your website fails to make a good first impression, you not only lose the customer(in the present) but it also reduces chances of the customer visiting your website in the near future.
The initial first impression can set the right tone for better communication and a strong customer relationship that is needed for business growth and cut through the competition.
Better Conversion Rates
Conversion rate refers to the number of visitors (prospective customers) actually making a purchase on your website. Increasing website traffic does not guarantee an increase in conversion rates. SEO-optimized sites load faster are easy to surf and visitors are able to find the information they are looking for quickly.
SEO optimization also ensures your website works seamlessly on a wide variety of devices like laptops, smartphones, or tablets. This means the user will have the same good user experience even when the user accesses your website from different devices.
A website that is easy to navigate and load faster catch the attention of visitors and they are more likely to stay for longer that gives you more conversions opportunities. The result is a large number of visitors will be repeat customers and subscribers to your services.
Build Brand Awareness
Small businesses with limited budgets cannot afford to allocate huge amounts for brand building. However, SEO can help in building brand awareness at lower costs. For example, when your website achieves higher rankings in SERPs for targeted keywords, potential customers are more likely to trust your brand.
The perks of a trusted brand are many. People will be more inclined to buy from your business and the good reputation will also attract new customers.
Reduction in Marketing Expenses
Marketing is essential to reach your target audience. However, small businesses cannot afford to spend huge amounts on marketing like big businesses. Paid SEO tools like Google Ads allows you target ads as per demographics which ensures your ad mostly appears in front of your prospective customers.
Thus you can see partnering with a company offering local SEO services Houston can help you reap the maximum benefits of online presence and boost revenue generation.
Why Does Your Business Need Search Engine Marketing Services?
Search engine marketing (SEM) is a term that’s been around and recognized equally with SEO. Some companies choose to create in house teams while some other outsource it to agencies who also provide them auxiliary services like SEO and social media marketing. Whatever you choose, here is why SEM is important and why you include it in your business strategy, irrespective of your business size
# 1 – Improve brand awareness
With SEM, people searching for products or services related to what you offer to get to see your ads listed on top of results. Now, ads can receive clicks and make people more aware of your brand, which they may not otherwise have known about. In the event that they do not click the ads, searchers will still see them and can recognize the brand name or URL. If your search shows up along a competitor brand, even better. Now, imagine a new business doing this by themselves without SEM. The challenge would be far greater. SEM can give your brand the immediate visibility it needs.
# 2 – Improve conversions and revenue
Paid ads not only create an impression but clicks that can drive people to your product or service website. While SEO drives organic results and better rating on search engine pages naturally, SEM gives you the results faster. This brings you on top to a highly targeted audience. When you have a qualified lead and a good website in place, the chances of conversion are much higher. Thus, sales start improving once you implement a good SEM strategy. The technique can be applied not just to selling, but also when you want your customers to take a specific action like signing up for your newsletter, tiring out a beta version of your product, or participating in a contest.
# 3 – Better local marketing
Search engine marketing works beautifully well in targeting not just people all over the globe, but in specific localities or communities as well. When your business is a restaurant or salon that caters to a specific location, your interests obviously are in attracting more local crowd than advertising to a larger audience outside. When implemented well, search engine marketing in China can bring up your business in results for searches like “restaurants near me” or “ladies hair stylist near me”. In cases when you need to advertise to a specific country, like China, it also becomes important to use tools and search engine pages that allow those potential customers to be reached. Baidu SEM is a perfect example of this.
# 4 – Works for even small budgets
Typically, paid advertising eats into your marketing budgets. However, SEM is cost-effective. When done right, this method can give you very good results, including a good return on investments. The most common choice for SEM is the pay per click (PPC) model, where you are charged for your ad only when a person clicks the link to your website. Also, in most cases, you can work on search engine marketing with shoestring budgets. This makes it an ideal choice for smaller ventures that may not have deep pockets to market or advertise their brand to consumers. It also works for companies that need to spread their budget across multiple locations.
Not to mention how flexible SEM can be. When you see an ad doing exceptionally well, you can pump in more money, or add more keywords to target more people. On the contrary, if something doesn’t work, you can choose to end it any time you want.
# 5 – Gives you a competitive advantage
Sometimes it is difficult to surpass the top spot that competitors occupy in organic search results. This may be because you are relatively new or because you need a lot more SEO efforts to bring your page on top of the search rankings. However, with PPC you can get a top spot for yourself, alongside the competitor. Also, if they fail to use SEM to its full potential, chances are that you can get a sweeter spot on the search engine results page than them and make more conversions easily.
When done right, search engine marketing can give you a wealth of data about your consumers, and their behavior. This data can then be used later for other marketing efforts at a later point in time, or to fine-tune your efforts when necessary.
How Does a Digital Marketing Agency help to Boost Your Business Strength?
Penetrating the market successfully in China means brands are able to differentiate their products from substitutes in the marketplace. To achieve this type of brand consciousness can be very challenging; promoting your brand in China is a different ball game than other parts in the world. Here in this post, we will be exploring how businesses with assistance from a digital marketing agency in China can leverage for building their brand in China and have a pulse on the ever-changing evolving market.
Some Trending Strategies for the Digital Market
Short Videos – Short video format is the first major trend. According to Online Video Insight data, short video viewers have reached more than 350 million in 2018. Miaopai, a short video platform has become popular for branded content online. Weibo posts claim that those brands who are promoting their products and services through videos earn three to four times more. At the time of incorporating this strategy, the digital marketing manager must remember the rule “Five Seconds is All You Have Got!” that means you have to grab the viewer’s attention in the first five seconds.
Omnichannel Policy – There is no single algorithm or equation that will provide you accurate information on why and when each client will be making a purchase or an acquisition. Top e-tailers use Omni channel e-commerce because they have been building up offline investments over the last few years. The most popular e-tailer in China uses Omni channel policy named “New Retail” which was presented at the Single’s Day e-commerce festival in 2018. Over the years, retail customer interaction has been changing very rapidly from the traditional way of visiting stores to shopping at the comfort of our own homes through e-commerce and now to New Retail. Although the integration of offline and online (O2O) commerce is not a new concept, New Retail demands efficient customer-centric engagement that can be achieved seamlessly through leveraging data technology.
Enable Group Purchasing – It is a fast-growing trend based on hare/split model. For example, the social media model of Pinduoduo encourages a close group of people for buying together for availing greater discounts. It forms a great portion of the online sales of a few brands. Let us take another example, 10 percent of all online sales of a laundry detergent company is now done through the Pinduoduo platform with future sales predicted to escalate.
Word –of – mouth Phenomenon: Online buzz is the key to longevity and brand appeal in China
The development and maintenance of word-of-mouth through online is fundamental to sustain your business and is relevant in the Chinese market. There are some important tools for creating an online buzz which is described below.
• Social media networks – Weibo, Tudou, Youko, and WeChat
• Online Shopping Sites – Taobao
• News Websites – Sine China
• Online Communities – Douban
It is crucial that when you are choosing a digital marketing agency in China, they are updated with the most popular platforms as well as the current topics and issues trending on these platforms and to develop and use them for promoting your brand effectively. By using WeChat Mini app, which is an e-commerce platform where you can order and pay through online. Users also have the option for customizing their purchases in the app. You can select the color of the imprints, badges, and bag. After ordering you can track the shipment through WeChat pay option.
In addition to that, content marketing by the digital marketing agency in China on such media platforms must be engaging for consumers where the content should be informative and entertaining. This is vital as content marketing involves sharing and creating of online material like social media posts, blogs and videos that may not explicitly helps in promoting the brand but the intent is to stimulate interest in its products or services. This also allows a customer to hold sometimes negative, positive or long-lasting associations with a brand. Consumers post immediate and direct feedback on these platforms making it vital for a brand to be watchful of their promotions strategies and online behavior for preserving the brand’s image.
Weibo Marketing: How to Reach Out to Your Audience
When you think of Chinese digital marketing, one of the names that come to your mind is Sina Weibo. It has around 313 million monthly active users that make it a gold mine for marketers. On Sina Weibo, you can publish posts or follow other users, celebrities, and brands.
Here we have shared a few tips related to using Weibo marketing to reach out to your audience.
Know Your Audience
The most important aspect of social marketing in China is putting efforts to know the audience. Understanding the important fundamentals of digital marketing and the mechanics of technology is one thing. Determining the tactics based on your marketing experience in Western countries can be a big mistake. You should not expect the same marketing tactics to bring similar results in China.
Local knowledge, data, and analysis of the Chinese market, and insights are keys to success in the Chinese digital marketing space. Marketers need to put time and efforts to understand audience (cultural and social differences) and create user profiles based on research.
They need to have a clear and typical image of the target user when seeking to engage through Weibo marketing. You can partner with a specialist Chinese marketing agency to gain rapid access to data and insights and speed up your marketing campaign.
A good marketing partner who understands Chinese audience well is a key to achieving success in the Chinese digital marketing arena.
Identify Industry Leaders
Weibo has a useful search feature that allows you to identify industry leaders in any business niche. At the start of building your Weibo community, you can use the search to identify users who are interested in a corporate Weibo account and connect with them.
Create Engaging Content
You need to create engaging content and keep in mind target audience’s interest while creating it. Weibo has a structured framework for content. At Weibo, the topics are divided into different categories and the accounts are tagged. One of the advantages of this is B2B marketers can see trending topic in different categories and visit the page of topics as per their interests.
The tagged categories in Weibo marketing are useful to identify thought leaders, follow them and identify prospects to engage. This also provides valuable insight to create helpful and engaging content that people seek and would happily share. On Weibo, sharing text with an image is a common practice of initiating conversations.
Since images are attractive to Weibo users and they can be searched on Weibo, posts with images are important. You need an SEO mindset to achieve success on Weibo. For example, if you have created a white paper, report, or infographic to share, you need to include appropriate keywords and images in the content so that people can easily find the content. By making the content easy to find, you help in access, distribution, and sharing of valuable content.
Use Hashtags
Hashtags are important on Weibo. However, there is a slight difference in the use of hashtags in comparison to Twitter. For example, a hashtag on Weibo has two ## signs instead of one. The topics are identified by hashtags on Weibo and user can find topics through hashtags.
When a particular hashtag is popular or trending, the chances of its discovery by other Weibo users grow significantly. A hashtag can prove useful to gain new followers and earn fresh views.
Get Your Weibo Account Verified
Weibo follows a different method of user identification. Unlike Twitter where all users are same, Weibo has regular users, verified individual users (recognized by orange V icon), companies and organizations (recognized by blue V icon).
A verified B2B Weibo account brings in several benefits. For example, it enhances the credibility of the account and also improves the trustworthiness of the pages. The reason for enhanced credibility and trustworthiness is it signifies the company or the organization has submitted legal business documents and they have been successfully verified.
Also, a verified Weibo account enjoys special features in setting up the marketing campaigns, publishing posts and access to data and analytics. A verified account also has a higher authority to make profiles look attractive.
Do you have any questions about Weibo marketing tools to reach out to your audience.?