Month: June 2022

Growth marketing has been making the headlines lately as the new alternative to digital marketing. As channels multiply and the ways to connect with audiences rise, it is becoming increasingly important for businesses to explore new methods of reaching and engaging with prospects. As the name suggests, growth marketing focuses on achieving growth. But, what exactly is growth marketing and how does it differ from digital marketing?

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing refers to the strategies and techniques used by companies to market themselves through digital channels such as websites, social media, search engines, and email. Digital marketing focuses on establishing brand visibility, capturing new leads, and boosting conversions. In general, it focuses on expanding product and service outreach, audience targeting, and content creation. Therefore, digital marketing can be said to be limited to the first two stages of the marketing funnel: awareness and interest.

What is Growth Marketing?

Instead of concentrating on the first two stages of the marketing funnel, growth marketing is a holistic approach that targets all stages of the marketing funnel from awareness to retention and advocacy. The aim of growth marketing is not only to acquire new customers but to retain existing ones and to build loyalty until they become champions of a product or service. Growth marketing involves innovation, testing, and analysis. The end goal is to have a unique solution for every stage of marketing that helps a brand to expand and grow exponentially.

What are the Differences Between Digital Marketing and Growth Marketing?

1. Focus on the Funnel

The major difference between digital marketing and growth marketing is that growth marketing considers the entire marketing funnel. Marketing professionals know that it is easier to sell to existing customers than to new ones. Yet, most digital marketing efforts continue to focus on generating awareness and interest and often lack the push to drive prospects to convert to paying customers.

On the other hand, growth marketing looks for ways to convert at every stage of the marketing funnel. To go a step further, growth marketing also finds ways to enhance loyalty and turn existing customers into brand advocates. This means that your customers will both buy and promote your product, allowing for a vast increase in growth.

2. Team Effort

In digital marketing, teams often exist in silos. Marketers, salespeople, and customer support representatives perform their tasks separately and there is little overlap or interaction between roles. In the growth marketing mindset, however, everyone in the company from product development to after-sales service contributes data to improve campaign outcomes and move toward a common goal—growth.

A growth marketing team may feature a diverse range of specialist members including product managers, engineers, designers, customer liaisons, data analysts, and digital marketers. These experts will collect and collate data from various departments and use it to formulate creative and effective marketing tactics.

3. Leverage Data

Data is essential to making informed marketing decisions. Digital marketing often comes with standard ways to analyze data such as Google Analytics. Although these data sources are important, they can be limited. Growth marketing activates other powerful sources of data and feedback.

For instance, clients may communicate their feature requests to product development teams or compliment useful features to customer support personnel. Unless there is a cross-functional growth approach in place, this information is rarely used to its full potential. Growth marketers leverage this information to adjust their marketing strategy. They also think about how to create more opportunities to solicit feedback from customers.

4. Testing Creative Ideas

While digital marketing is typically performed to a fixed set of rules and techniques, growth marketing often employs out-of-the-box ideas. Ideation is a crucial part of growth marketing. After analyzing the data to uncover growth opportunities, the growth marketing team comes up with ideas on how to make the most of these opportunities.

These ideas are prioritized and polished and put to the test. A/B testing is a fundamental tool of growth marketing where sample campaigns are tested and evaluated against each other to formulate refined and successful campaigns. This cycle of analysis, ideation, and testing is repeated consistently to allow marketers to remain at the forefront of market needs.

Which is Better?

Digital marketing and growth marketing do not have to be thought of as separate entities. It would be more accurate to say that growth marketing uses digital marketing techniques and tools to achieve its goals. Instead of comparing them to each other, is conducive to think of growth marketing as an upgraded version of digital marketing—a version of digital marketing that unlocks the ability to access a larger audience and scale your business.

If your business is just looking for a website or an email marketing campaign to serve your immediate goals, digital marketing will suffice. However, if your business is looking to scale, expand its marketing range, and produce more profit, then you need growth marketing.

Growth marketing is a complex and creative marketing mindset that involves various skillsets and collaboration with intent. Because every business is different, your growth marketing goals and strategies will be unique. Consider engaging an experienced growth marketing agency to tailor your campaign to achieve the best results.

College is a great time to meet people and enjoy your newfound freedom. If social life is important to you, be sure to check out the best college campuses for student life before you send out your applications. However, too much partying can have disastrous consequences for your academic results. Here are some guidelines to ensure that you can have fun in college without affecting your grades.

What You Should Do

Make a Schedule

The key to making sure that you have enough time to play hard and study hard is to make a schedule. Add the non-negotiable items such as classes, work, and sleep first so that you have a clear idea of how much time you have left. Then, be sure to allocate at least an hour a day for social activities and an hour a day for self-care and relaxation activities such as exercise, meditation, or just listening to music. A balanced lifestyle helps you to manage stress and improve your academic performance.

Live with Friends

Living in a dormitory or a Greek house is a great way to socialize without having to leave your accommodation—which saves money too! When you live in a student house, you foster close friendships with your housemates and learn how to interact with others as an independent adult. If schoolwork becomes a struggle, you can always turn to your housemates for support and someone to talk to. And if you want to do something other than study, there is always a movie night or cook-off going on.

Join a Club

Even if you do not stay on-campus, there are many ways to get involved in the activities and events around your college. Joining a club will put you in touch with people who share your interests. Since you like the same things, there is always something to talk about. There are clubs for all sorts of interests from conservation to cybernetics. Some of the clubs in your college may be formal clubs organized by the school but there will also be many casual clubs that are formed by students. Ask around in your first few weeks or check social media to find clubs that may interest you.

Be Active

Just because you do not qualify for your college sports team does not mean that you cannot enjoy play sports while you are in college. There are numerous sports clubs for people who love recreational sports such as basketball or volleyball. If your college campus has facilities such as climbing walls, swimming pools, and gyms, make the most of your tuition fees by using them as much as possible. Regular exercise can relieve stress, help you focus, and allow you to meet new friends. As a bonus, your active lifestyle will keep you in great shape.

Take a Trip

Why not plan a trip with your friends when you have a few days off? A change of environment can refresh your perspective and help you to forget your academic stress. Discuss ideas with your friends and make plans together. Sometimes, there may be fun places to explore just around your campus. For instance, a national park or a nearby beach that you could camp at. Or you could head into the heart of the city and enjoy a day shopping or visiting the museums and galleries.

What You Should Not Do

Sacrifice Your Sleep

You need to have enough sleep to think clearly and retain what you study. Sleep is central to our physical and mental function and you should aim for a solid eight hours a night. Although you may feel fine after the occasional late night, you run the risk of dosing off in class or affecting your health in the long run. Therefore, if you feel tired or have an early start the next day, be responsible and stay home instead of going out.

Skip Classes

It is easy to convince yourself that skipping one class will not make a massive difference, especially after a night out. However, skipping can quickly become a habit. Before you know it, you will be far behind your classmates. You may even find that you spend more time trying to catch up than you would have spent just showing up to class. Treat your classes with respect and only miss them when you absolutely have to.

Party Too Hard

Peer pressure is intense in college. You may find yourself being encouraged to take drugs or binge drink. While it can be liberating to consume some alcohol, it is not fun at all when you go too far. Vomiting, losing control, and passing out are neither healthy nor attractive. Bad substance abuse habits can follow you from college through to adulthood. Learn how to assert your boundaries and avoid anything illegal or harmful to your health.

There are plenty of ways to enjoy your youth during your college years. As long as you stick to good, clean fun and take care not to neglect your studies, you can make lasting friendships and memories that you will cherish for life.

Applying to college involves a lot more than just filling in a form. Aspiring college students need to think about grades, tests, extracurricular activities, application essays, letters of recommendation, and more. In addition, schools have different focuses and admission requirements. So, it is no wonder that many students feel overwhelmed by the college application process. Here are some tips that may help.

Do Your Research

Ideally, you should start to research colleges a year or two before you graduate from high school. This will give you time to build up a profile that admissions officers will find appealing. If you already have a college in mind, look it up on an edu data site to learn more about tuition fees, acceptance rates, and the expected range of SAT or ACT scores. If not, compile a list of potential schools based on their available programs, tuition costs, financial aid, location, and extracurricular activities.

Try to join on-campus tours or virtual college fairs to find out more about each college and meet their faculty and students. This will help you to narrow down the shortlist of colleges. As some schools may have more stringent acceptance requirements, it pays to have some backup choices. At the end of your research, you should have about three to five colleges that you will apply to. Take note of the application deadlines and requirements for each school as they can vary.

Get Good Grades and Ace Your Tests

Most colleges will examine your academic performance throughout your high school years. Generally, the better your high school grade point average (GPA), the more likely you are to receive a favorable response to your college application. In addition, students with high GPAs are often offered more substantial financial assistance. Some colleges may place less emphasis on GPAs but it is better to be safe than sorry.

Aside from getting good grades in high school, you should pay attention to your class choices. Admissions officers take note when you choose challenging classes as opposed to basic ones. If available, take advanced placement (AP) classes that will earn you college credits and help you to develop the academic skills that are needed for college. If AP classes are not available, take honors classes to get used to independent study.

Although a good ACT or SAT score does not guarantee acceptance—especially when it comes to highly-competitive colleges—it does increase your chances significantly. Aim to prepare well in advance for your ACT or SATs. There are several online and in-person ACT and SAT preparation courses that you can take. If you are having trouble with a certain segment of the tests, consider hiring a tutor.

Get Involved

Colleges are looking for well-rounded individuals. Demonstrate your understanding of the world outside your classroom by getting involved in extracurricular activities, volunteer organizations, sports clubs, and community events. If you are busy during the semester, use the summer vacation to enrich your life experience. Choose activities that are relevant to your core interests and career goals. Try to develop proactive thinking, problem-solving, and leadership skills as you participate in these activities.

Write Application Essays

Most colleges require applicants to submit essays or personal statements as part of the application process. Application essay prompts are typically open-ended, so you can write about what you feel is most important. Your application essay is an opportunity to highlight your positive traits and convey your unique character, perspectives, interests, experiences, and aspirations. You can also write about the challenges you have faced and how they helped you to grow.

Many students begin working on their personal essays during their senior year but you can start even earlier. Think about what colleges would like to know about you. Stick to the recommended word count and only include relevant information. Your essay will need to go through several revisions and edits before it is ready. Be sure to use a spelling and grammar checker to correct any mistakes. Ask a family member, mentor, or professional editor to help you proofread and refine your essay.

Request Letters of Recommendation

Colleges will usually ask for two or three letters of recommendation. Make your letters of recommendation requests at least two months in advance and provide a copy of your resume to remind recommenders of your achievements. Ensure that you choose someone who has had extensive personal experience with you as they need to write you a letter that demonstrates your character, qualities, and capabilities.

Good candidates for recommenders include teachers, school counselors, sports coaches, faith leaders, workplace supervisors, or volunteer group leaders. Some prospective students may struggle to find recommenders. This is another strong reason for you to pursue extracurricular activities and get involved in the local groups. Recommendations may receive more weight when they are from leaders outside of your academic institution.

Your college application journey begins in high school. By doing your research and ticking all the boxes that make you a well-rounded young adult, you can breeze through the college application process and secure a place in the college of your choice.

Luxury fashion brands that want to stay relevant and ‘cool’ need to embrace the latest trends in social media. And is there any social trend more ‘in’ right now than being on TikTok?

TikTok is one of the fastest growing social media platforms in the world, showcasing short-form videos. Content on TikTok typically includes catchy soundtracks, snazzy editing, and reaction-style clips. It’s hugely popular with the Gen Z cohort and has a reputation as a platform where authenticity and relatability thrive, as opposed to platforms like Instagram where highly-polished and often-staged content proliferate. Perhaps this commitment to authenticity is why TikTok is so beloved by the teens of today.

TikTok’s popularity with Gen Z is exactly why luxury brands need to get on the platform. Estimates suggest that 20% of global luxury spending in 2025 will be accounted for by Gen Z. Therefore, luxury brands need to reach out to this high-potential cohort—and soon—before their brand loyalties are cemented! And luckily for these brands, TikTok is the perfect platform to do so as TikTok’s user base is comprised 60% by Gen Z. However, being on TikTok can come with its own complexities; It’s not a platform that you can enter into half-heartedly. This is because a presence on TikTok, with its emphasis on relatable and authentic content, cannot be successful without a unique strategy.

Chasing Success on TikTok

TikTok, with its features such as TopView and platform culture of quickly proliferating challenges, makes it the perfect playground for brands to freshen up their images, interact with their audience and drive sales conversions. For example, Balenciaga successfully used the TopView feature to launch their shoppable campaign over the 2019 Christmas season. The campaign garnered more than 23 million total impressions, an 18% clickthrough rate, and more than 25 million total video views. It was a resounding success and persuaded the brand to extend the campaign to the UK and Italy. Other luxury brands such as Gucci have taken advantage of the culture of challenges on TikTok to make their brand name stand out and come to the forefront of the Gen Z minds. Gucci created the #accidentalinfluencer campaign to promote their 1977 vintage-inspired Tennis sneakers featuring bespoke choreography. The campaign achieved 2.5 million views. But by far the most successful Gucci campaign on TikTok was actually user-generated. The #guccimodelchallenge was started by TikTok users who noticed Gucci’s unique fashion show aesthetic, and spawned a plethora of creators who started dressing in the brand’s signature style using household items. The trend went viral, and Gucci itself piggybacked on the success of this trend by creating their own similar challenge.

As such, it can be seen that success on TikTok for luxury brands is certainly possible; however, brands need to tap into the cultural and social norms of the platform and behave accordingly.

First of all, brands need to project themselves as authentic, and be relatable. This means shedding the ‘exclusive’ image that many luxury brands create for themselves and showing off a more lighthearted and funny side of themselves. This can be done without destroying the brand reputation and image that has been developed previously. Just like people can present different sides of themselves in a professional setting and a more relaxed, personal setting, brands can also present a more relaxed side of themselves on TikTok while staying true to their core beliefs and brand image.

It’s also important to stay abreast of TikTok trends and challenges, and to see where the brand can take advantage of these to garner attention. TikTok trends can change quickly, and thus, it's important to monitor the platform constantly and to react quickly to any favorable trends or challenges. These trends may be popular challenges, soundtracks that reference or somehow relate to the brand, or even any positive mentions of the brand that it can leverage for good publicity. Do this well and the brand content may even gain virality.

Alternatively, the brand can also make its own content with the hope it will gain traction, and ideally, go viral. This content can be done completely in-house using employees of the brand or it can be done by employing influencers. Employing influencers may have a larger chance of success given that they will have knowledge on what is likely to do well and trend on the platform, and have a larger audience base given their established popularity on the platform. But creating content in-house also has a decent chance of being successful considering the platform’s algorithm which prizes content over creator. If choosing to employ influencers, make sure they are influencers whose usual content relates to your product so that the collaboration seems more authentic.

These are a few ways how luxury brands can use the platform of TikTok to gain the loyalties of Gen Z. But as the platform is a relatively young one, the norms of the community and the features offered may change. It's really an exciting opportunity for brands to explore the platform and experiment with their brand image.

Consumers are becoming increasingly aware of environmental issues and expecting more accountability from businesses. Research has shown that 87 percent of consumers would purchase a product from a company because it stood up for an issue that they care about. Thus, going green can help your retail store to differentiate itself from the competition. Here are some small changes that a retail store can make to have a big impact on the Earth.

1. Be Energy Efficient

Reducing your energy use is an important way to green your retail store. If you have large appliances such as fridges and ovens, be sure to choose models that rate highly for energy efficiency. Meanwhile, replacing small electrical fixtures such as ordinary light bulbs with LEDs can also make a significant dent in your energy usage. Make use of big windows or skylights to introduce natural light to your store so you can avoid using artificial lighting during the day. Treating your windows will help you insulate the interior environment and reduce the need for heating or cooling.

2. Use Clean Energy

You may be able to reduce your energy use but you may not be able to completely eliminate it. Therefore, you should choose to get your energy from clean and sustainable sources. Instead of subscribing to a fossil fuel energy provider, switch to a solar, wind, or hydrothermal energy provider. Better yet, if you own the building, you can install solar panels to help power your store and reduce your reliance on the energy grid.

3. Sell Sustainable Products

As a retail store, the products that you sell have a huge impact on the environment. From the sourcing of raw materials, the manufacturing process, transport, and packaging, each product has a unique carbon footprint. Try to only stock products that are environmentally friendly and ethically produced. Be sure to ask your suppliers about the background of their products. If they are unable to be transparent and upfront, it may be prudent to source your products elsewhere.

4. Go Plastic-Free

Single-use plastics add up to a massive amount of waste and can take hundreds of years to break down. Eliminating plastic from your store is an essential step to going green. From packaging to serving utensils, choose reusable options instead. You can also encourage your customers to bring their own bags. If you must provide bags for your customers, consider sourcing reusable shopping bags bulk that not only negate the use of plastic bags but can also act as advertising for your brand.

5. Provide Water Refills

With plastic bottles one of the largest contributors to the plastic pollution crisis, you should do what you can to reduce their use. Food and beverage stores should provide water refills and offer reusable water bottles for purchase. Even if you do not serve food, offering water refills can put you on the map on water refill apps and help to increase traffic to your retail store.

6. Go Digital

You may think that going digital is more relevant to office settings but there are many opportunities for retail stores to go paperless. For instance, instead of having paper menus, you could have a menu on a tablet or allow customers to scan a menu QR code with their own smart devices. Instead of printing out paper receipts, you can send electronic receipts to your customers via email.

7. Reduce Waste

Waste is a major problem for retail stores, particularly food and beverage outlets. Try to eliminate wasted resources by putting in a clear and efficient waste management process. Food and biodegradable waste should be composted; You can now purchase indoor compost bins that do not smell. Recyclable items should be cleaned and separated to avoid contamination. If you notice a lot of non-biodegradable or non-recyclable items in your waste, you may need to consider how to replace them with more eco-friendly items.

8. Upcycle

Upcycling is the method of turning an item that would otherwise be wasted into something more valuable than before. You can upcycle a variety of items such as glass bottles, old upholstery, and wood. For example, you could make lighting fixtures from used glass bottles or use old upholstery to make patchwork bags. You might also be able to donate your items to a charity or artists’ collective to upcycle.

9. Decorate Green

When decorating your retail store, a great way to save costs and minimize resource use is to buy second-hand furniture and fixtures. Many antique and used items are full of character and can help your store stand out. Where possible, incorporate greenery. You could have a living feature wall or some large potted plants. This can help to freshen stale air and create a relaxing, natural ambience.

10. Clean Naturally

Most cleaning products are toxic and can hurt the environment and beneficial insects such as bees. Be sure to choose green cleaning supplies that are made from natural ingredients that are safe for the environment. As a bonus, you can be sure that your staff and customers will not be exposed to harmful chemicals.

By taking small steps to reduce your impact, you can make a big difference to the environment.

Malware and ransomware attacks are on the rise. Industry experts estimate that by 2025, cybercrime could cost the world $10.5 trillion a year. Cyber security breaches are not only expensive for companies but dangerous for everyday users who could have their sensitive data stolen. The cyber security talent crunch has now created thousands of unfilled positions. Here are some cyber security roles that you can consider and how you can embark on a fulfilling cyber security career.

Why Cyber Security?

Cyber security is a growing sector that is seeing high demand and close to zero unemployment. As concern for cyber security and the need for data compliance rises across a myriad of industries, organizations are scrambling to hire cyber security personnel. Hence, people who are trained in cyber security have the benefit of choosing from several positions.

Because cyber security skills can be applied to almost any industry, cyber security professionals can choose to work in an industry that aligns with their interests. From the basic cyber security skillset, professionals can move on to specialize in different facets of the field such as analysis, strategic thinking, and forensics, or work towards leadership positions.

Since cyber security skills are in demand, salaries for cyber security positions are often higher than most professions requiring similar qualifications. According to Glassdoor, a cyber security professional in the United States can expect an estimated total pay of $96,456 per year. Furthermore, survey results show that 96 percent of cyber security professionals are happy with their jobs and 87 percent are pleased with their earnings.

Cyber Security Career Paths

Incident Response Analyst

In the event of a cyberattack, an incident response analyst is the first to respond. They identify threats and work to contain and minimize the effects of the breach. Then, they investigate the source of the cyberattack, evaluate the damage, and put together incident reports. Their job may also include implementing security changes to avoid future cyberattacks.

Information Security Analyst

An information security analyst is responsible for monitoring network security and performing regular assessments and improvements. Their responsibilities include maintaining firewalls, installing system updates and patches, using assessment tools to discover and address network vulnerabilities, and reviewing access logs and data security compliance.

Security Engineer

A security engineer is a mid-level cyber security position. Their responsibilities include planning and implementing security strategies, performing security audits, overseeing incident response teams, creating automated scripts, and researching possible emerging threats. Aside from academic qualifications, experience is an important factor in this role.

Forensics Analyst

While forensics analysts were formerly employed in law enforcement and defense, they are now in demand in private enterprises as well. A forensics analyst analyzes digital evidence to investigate the source of a security breach. They have to collaborate with several different departments to examine numerous sources of data and identify areas of compromise.

Chief Information Security Officer

A chief information security officer (CISO) is a senior executive position that is accountable for ensuring the cyber security of the organization. A CISO has to make key decisions regarding threat response strategies, overall security implementation and protocols, and liaise with law enforcement when required. As the demands on the qualifications, skills, and experience of a CISO are considerably high, their salary is significantly greater.

How to Start a Career in Cyber Security

The first step to starting a career in cyber security is an undergraduate degree. Most jobs require a minimum of a bachelor's degree in computer science, information technology, or information systems. Note however that if you are planning to go into cyber security engineering, it is more prudent to take an undergraduate degree in engineering with a focus on cyber security instead.

Once you have a bachelor's degree, you may want to consider adding to your qualifications by earning more relevant industry certifications. Many positions require specific industry certifications or vendor-specific certifications. Some cyber security industry accreditation bodies are Global Information Assurance Certification (GIAC), Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH), and CompTIA Security+.

Direct experience in the field is the next step. Cyber security is an ever-changing field, thus practical experience is essential. Many entry-level cyber security positions do not require applications to have a relevant work history, so you can gain real-world experience on the job. Volunteering with a cyber security group or organization is another way to gain working knowledge and experience as well as network with other professionals.

As you seek to expand your career opportunities, pursuing an online Master of Cyber Security degree can help you to move up to more senior positions or cross over to a different field of specialty. A master’s program will equip you with important abilities such as project management skills and knowledge about law, policy, and governance.

Similarly, if you are already an IT professional and want to transition into cyber security, completing a master's degree in cyber security is a good way to get qualified.

Cyber security is a challenging and exciting field that offers excellent remuneration and career prospects. As the world becomes increasingly connected, data security is of utmost importance. By pursuing a career in cyber security, you position yourself at the forefront of protecting user privacy and maintaining the integrity of your organization’s computer systems.

Do you want more website visitors? Most people do! Here are seven ways that you can increase traffic to your website that are easy to implement, whether you are just starting out or have been running a website for years.

More website visitors can mean more leads, sales, and revenue for your business. It can also lead to increased brand awareness and exposure for your products or services. In addition, it can help you build a community around your website and business.

Everyone knows they need more website visitors to make a start on achieving these goals. But what should you focus on to actually get visitors on your site? Here are seven ways that you can get more website visitors

1. Create Compelling Content

This one should be a no-brainer, but it’s worth stating. Creating compelling content is the number one way to get more website visitors. This means creating blog posts, infographics, videos, ebooks, and other forms of content that are interesting and useful to your target audience.

The more compelling your content is, the more likely people are to share it, link to it, and visit your website. The key is to make sure the content you create is exactly what gets your audience excited.

2. Create Audience Personas

Knowing your audience – in as much detail as possible – is a key way to engage them enough to visit your website. This is where creating audience personas comes in.

Audience personas are detailed representations of your target audience. They take into account things like age, gender, interests, income, needs, and more. The more detailed your persona is, the better you will be able to target your content and marketing efforts to them.

Creating audience personas may seem like a lot of work, but it’s worth it in the long run. Once you have your personas created, you can reference them anytime you create new content or run a marketing campaign. This will help ensure that everything you do is targeted to the right people.

3. Up Your SEO Game

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is another no-brainer when it comes to getting more website visitors. But, SEO is also a complex and ever-changing field. This means that you need to be constantly learning and updating your SEO strategy to ensure that your website is as visible as possible in search engine results pages.

Some of the basics of SEO include optimizing your website for the right keywords, creating high-quality backlinks, and ensuring that your website is mobile-friendly. These are just a few of the things you need to do to ensure that your website is ranking as high as possible in search results. Working with an SEO agency is the best way to ensure someone is consistently putting effort into your website's SEO.

4. Use Social Media Effectively

Social media is a powerful tool that can be used to increase website traffic. By sharing your content on social media, you can reach a larger audience and get more people to visit your website.

It’s important to note that simply sharing your content isn’t enough. You need to make sure you are strategic about the platform you are using and the audience you are targeting. For example, LinkedIn is a great platform to share B2B content, whereas Facebook is better for B2C content.

In addition, you need to make sure you are creating custom images and headlines for each social media platform. What works on Twitter might not work on LinkedIn. By tailoring your content to each platform, you’ll be more likely to get clicks and website visitors.

5. Historical Optimization

A lot of advice for increasing website traffic focuses on creating more and more content. And while this is necessary, we also know how much of a drain that can be on digital marketing professionals. Optimizing historical content is a great way to carry your existing content further.

Historical optimization is the process of going back through your old blog posts and making sure they are up to date. This means updating the information, adding new images, and even changing the headlines. By doing this, you can ensure that your older content is still relevant and useful for your audience.

It’s a good idea to go through and optimize your historical content on a regular basis. This will help ensure that your website always has fresh, relevant content for visitors to read.

6. Work With Influencers

A lot of people think that influencers are just for big consumer brands, but working with influencers can help any kind of business. The key is defining what an influencer in your particular industry looks like.

For example, if you’re in the B2B space, an influencer might be a thought leader or an expert in your field. Or, if you’re in the ecommerce space, an influencer might be a popular blogger who reviews products.

The key is to find someone who has influence over your target audience. Once you’ve found them, you can work with them to promote your content. This can be done through things like guest blogging, product reviews, or social media promotion. Working with influencers is a great way to get your content in front of a new audience.

7. Content Offers

Sometimes called lead magnets or gated content, content offers are a great way to increase website traffic. A content offer is simply a piece of content that is given away in exchange for an email address.

This might be an ebook, a webinar, a white paper, or a guide. The key is that it’s something that your target audience would find valuable. Once you have your content offer, you can promote it through your website, social media, or email list. When you create a piece of content for an offer that your audience really desires, content offers are a great way to increase website traffic.

To be a profitable SaaS business, companies must meet the needs of their audience and ensure that their services provide exceptional convenience and functionality. SaaS business owners know that it is easy to gain free trial users but challenging to retain enterprise subscribers. Here are five tips to help you formulate an effective SaaS marketing strategy to increase your audience reach and chance of success.

Five SaaS Marketing Tips

1. Create Compelling Content

Content is one of the primary pillars of digital marketing. Creating content that is relevant, interesting, and valuable to your audience will help your brand and its services to appear more credible and trustworthy. Prospects will share your content and be more likely to convert. Furthermore, content created with search engine optimization (SEO) in mind will rank on search results, improving brand awareness and increasing organic traffic to your website.

2. Offer a Trial

Most SaaS companies offer a trial for good reason; It is harder to convince a customer to commit to a long-term subscription compared to a one-time purchase. To earn a paying subscriber, a SaaS service must prove its worth. That said, trials do not have to be free. You can offer a trial at a discounted rate. Another option that allows customers to try before they buy is the freemium model where access to basic services is free but premium services are limited to users with a subscription.

3. Improve The Customer Experience

If your brand has a trial or freemium offer, you must ensure that the customer experience is outstanding enough to convert the prospect. The customer experience begins from the initial sign-up through to the onboarding process and actual usage of the service. The entire process has to be smooth and systematic. Having clear documentation and responsive customer support helps to improve the customer experience as well.

4. Encourage Promotion

Referral marketing is one of the most powerful methods of promotion. Numerous statistics show that consumers trust peer recommendations more than brand advertising. Provide incentives such as extra storage space or additional credit to encourage your customers to share your service with their contacts. However, note that your customers must be satisfied with your service for them to have a beneficial net promoter score.

5. Market to Your Audience

With the wide range of channels and promotional options available, companies can easily squander their marketing budget. An effective SaaS marketing strategy should not only look to increase overall traffic but focus on attracting the segment of the market that will most likely convert. For instance, B2B SaaS providers should market to high-level business decision-makers instead of generic employees.

Five Successful SaaS Companies

1. Salesforce

Salesforce is a SaaS powerhouse that has built its business around its flagship platform. The Salesforce concept stemmed from CRM and now encompasses a range of services such as team communication via Slack and process automation with Einstein AI. Salesforce’s comprehensive range of services has earned it a top place in the market and a market cap of $185.13 billion as of April 2022.

2. Microsoft Office 365

Microsoft has become one of the largest and most lucrative SaaS companies in the world since moving its office productivity suite onto the cloud. Office 365 now far outsells the client software version. Although the company was slower than Google to launch its SaaS office suite, Microsoft has become the leading cloud vendor in terms of revenue, boasting a revenue of $17.7 billion in the third quarter of 2021.

3. Google Workspace

Formerly known as G Suite, Google Workspace is a collection of enterprise solutions that build on existing free Google services such as Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Docs. The enterprise subscription comes with custom business emails, cloud storage, video meetings, enhanced security, and support. According to Statista, Google Workspace was the market leader in the U.S. in October 2020, holding a 59.41 percent share.

4. Adobe Creative Cloud

Adobe set the standard for desktop creativity software in the last two decades and has continued to reinvent itself by boosting its creativity suite with cloud-based SaaS integrations. The Creative Cloud suite offers subscribers access to collaborative tools, a library of design resources such as typefaces and software updates. According to Statista, the Creative Cloud suite generated $9.55 billion in revenue in 2021.

5. Zoom

A SaaS company that made its mark during the Covid-19 lockdowns, Zoom is an example of a company that focused on perfecting a singular service. From its original basic video conferencing service, Zoom has expanded its capabilities to hosting virtual events, webinars, and conferences for up to 500 participants. Zoom generated a revenue of $4 billion in 2021 from its enterprise subscribers, a 53% increase from the previous year.

The SaaS industry is forecast to continue its rapid growth. SaaS companies are multiplying by the day and brands must work hard to stand out from the rest of the competition. To increase reach, target the right audience, and earn subscriptions, brands must employ a tailored SaaS marketing strategy instead of a basic digital marketing plan. With a strong marketing strategy, your brand could be the next big name in the SaaS scene.