Tips in Creating an Effective 2017 Content Calendar

The year is almost coming to an end, and as early as now, digital marketing in thePhilippines is already seeing the start of a tougher competition to usher the incoming trends for online marketing for the year 2017.

Lagging behind of the competition is out of the question and if you’re intent on upping your game, then creating a content calendar before 2016 bids goodbye is a good move. Below are tips you can use to get it started.

Begin with a comprehensive spreadsheet.

If it’s about making a calendar for any event or plan, spreadsheet is always a top choice. Aside from its easy navigation and user-friendly interface, it gets the job done. Whether you choose to use Excel or Google Sheets, you can assure that all items you place in different cells can be easily placed under categories and labeled accordingly.

Even if you’re still doing your draft, spreadsheets already give you an easy means to track every change and addition you make so you can finalize it later. When making a calendar for your content plan on 2017, you can start by labeling different cells according to months with corresponding weeks and dates.

Plot holidays and special events.

As soon as you have the skeleton calendar ready, the next thing you must work on is the scheduling of important events. Needless to say, these events should be based on the location of your primary target market. If you’re selling products or services in the United States, then events such as Thanksgiving Day and Fourth of July must be plotted accordingly.

If the reach of your product is localized in one city, then make sure to include the celebrations that the area holds. These events could be a vital window opportunity for you to make your brand more visible.

Identify the specific products or services that are related to each event.

For companies selling different kinds of items, it’s important to understand that particular events could dictate which product would sell best. As soon as you have plotted the important celebrations, the next thing you must focus on is to identify what product should you boost during the event. 

This would help you put your marketing resources to better use and will help you use your time on services that will likely be in demand for a particular season.

Create general topics and subtopics fit for the theme.

Themes more like dictate the general approach you’re likely to use in a campaign so the content must be in line with the theme.

If you’re celebrating a health month, for example, then creating topics such as eco-friendly products, energy efficiency and diet tips for adults would be great picks. Of course, you’ll need to consider the kind of product your company offers. Which part of your items could be related to the theme? What approach will you use?

Of course, topics and subtopics are ultimately subject to change, and you can always revise it along the way.

Consolidate all the topics and specify what type of post would best present it.

As soon as you have the list of potential topics, the next thing you must work on is the type of posts you’ll make. You have several options:

•    Blog articles

•    Infographics

•    Slideshow

•    Images

•    Videos

•    Podcast

You may also combine two kinds in one post or reduce a longer post into a shorter one just like in the case of an article converted to infographics. Identifying the specific post type will help you prepare for each kind of post and will give you enough time to make changes if any.

Every successful campaign has a solid plan behind it, and they all start with a calendar. Start plotting potential posts as early as now and create a solid foundation for your online marketing efforts!

Simple Productivity Boosters While Staying in the Office

How many times have you experienced wasting several minutes at the office, dazed and unable to proceed because ideas seemed to have gone somewhere else?

This happens a lot especially to employees who work in a competitive, creative industry such as the mobile app development company in the Philippines. The need to constantly be at your best when creating apps is vital to the success of any project. Sadly, different factors both personal and professional can affect your productivity level inside the office.

When this happens, trying out quick remedies and productivity boosters is a good way to go. Here’s a short list.

Mellow music

Listening to music has long been proven to have some significant effect on a person’s mental processes. Soft music such as those instrumentals and classics are known to create a calming effect perfect for meditation and sleeping. Rock and metallic sounds, on the other hand, contribute to an increased feeling of hype and activity.

If you’re looking for something that can help boost your productivity while at work, then a mellow selection is a good pick. Aside from being relaxing, they also assist you in focus and shut off any external noise that may be affecting your attention to any task at hand.

Candies or sweets

Some people might find this idea not so appealing considering the possible health effects of eating too many sweets. However, eating one or two sweets a day wouldn’t hurt much and will, in fact, help provide glucose for your brain.

Same goes with chocolates. While this choice of food has the potential of increasing your sugar and fats, moderation is safe and will help you get that short productive boosts to finish your daily work.

Novels or any light reading materials

Sometimes, all it takes is a nice read to fuel your brain’s creative juices. Staying on a particular task for a long time can eventually bore you. Reading light materials like lifestyle or fashion magazine, and short stories is a proven-effective method of giving your brain the breather it needs to recuperate from the previous tedious job and focus back on the unfinished tasks

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Tea

Coffee might be your preferred go-to beverage to provide those creative bursts and high energy throughout the day. Unfortunately, caffeine also has its backlash starting with palpitation which could be bad especially if you’re trying to achieve calm to focus.

Drinking pure green tea has been proven to be an efficient way to reduce that ‘hyper effect’ caffeine has and still give you a natural boost. Some tea such as the Twinings Chamomile is created to specifically calm you down. The calmer you become, the easier it is to focus.

Board or indoor games

Have you ever experienced doing something that requires substantial analysis to the point that you need to stop facing the computer and just ponder on what something means?

Thinking, analyzing and all forms of mental activities have a tremendous potential of draining the energy and productivity out of you. This is why industries whose work involved a lot of thinking on a daily basis provide in-between breaks for their employees.

If you find yourself stuck in work with no hopes of reverting to your productive state anytime soon, might as well play indoor games. Darts, scrabble, chess and any game that doesn’t require you to go out can be the best pick to distress while at the same time allowing your brain to deviate from the exhaustive task and gain back its optimal function.

Idea board

Lastly, try setting up an idea board and randomly post, read and check ideas that come to your mind. Writing them down on post-its and placing them on the board is an effective way to empty your brain with ideas, so you’ll have more focus on the tasks on your priority list. Posting something on your idea board is also a good way to stay away from the computer and relax your eyes.

Feeling unproductive happens. However, there are methods to help you get back on track and finish your current tasks! Try out the things on the list and see what happens!

Improving Blog Performance with these 6 Efficient WordPress Plugins!

How many times have you felt disappointed at the weak response a blog post received even if you thought its content was better than the previous one? 

Perhaps the problem isn’t on the quality of content but more on the method you use when promoting it. Over the years, various online marketing agencies have been battling on the best approach when it comes to sharing website content. 

To some, this means sharing blog posts on scattered schedules. Other prefer to share the content in one go. Then some marketers depend mainly on scheduling tools and automatically link all accounts so that one click would immediately share the material to all platforms. 

But while some of these strategies worked for a time, not everything offers a long-term efficiency. Companies and individual bloggers who use WordPress now have a best friend in the face of various plugins that help boost your site’s overall online presence! Take a quick look at this list! 

Better Click to Tweet

If you’re a fan of using Twitter for promoting your content, then this plugin is a must-have. It functions by giving out a pre-constructed tweet that contains the link to your article. Readers just need to click the ‘Tweet’ icon. From there, they could simply add hashtags and additional notes before sharing the content to their followers. 

Social Streams

Showcasing the recent activities in your Twitter and Instagram accounts may be an important part of your strategy. If so, then this plugin will allow you to stream real-time updates on your blog. There is no need to separately provide the links for the different accounts. Just activate the plugin and input the necessary information. You will then see the content of both accounts running.  

Pin It Button 

This is meant for users who love Pinterest and its excellent category or board creation feature. By installing this plugin, your images will have a bigger chance of reaching lots of people (especially Pinterest) users since they can automatically share it to their accounts without necessarily shifting through tabs. 

Shareaholic

There are a default sharing options for WordPress. However,  if you’re looking for a more dynamic-looking social media icons to grace your individual posts, then this plugin could help. By setting this up, readers will have an easy way to share you posts, thus, reaching more people. 

Simple Social Icons

In addition to giving your readers an easy way to share content, you might also want to encourage them to look at your blog’s social pages and accounts. This plugin gets the job done. By installing it on your blog, visitors can just click on the SM icon and be directed to your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media accounts you wish to share. 

Also, you have the freedom to chance the icons’ size, color, and alignment based on your preference. 

Blog2Social 

With the robust number of people using social media on a daily basis, it is imperative for marketers and individual bloggers to share their content on social media. This plugin is created to aid content marketers schedule their posts on various platforms at their chosen time. This also allows them to personalize the curation to fit each social site. 

Plugins might occupy additional space on your blog, but given the amount of convenience they offer, installing the appropriate ones is a worthy bargain. In fact, if you examine authority websites, you will see how the accessories we mentioned above help a lot in letting more people become aware of your content. 

Try them out on your blog and see how well they boost its overall performance!

7 Ways to Maximize your Facebook Marketing Plan this Holiday Season

Christmas is fast approaching, and for businesses, this means an added opportunity to sell better. A lot of people who celebrate the event are likely to purchase goods for their loved ones. Whether it’s for gift-giving or personal use, commercial companies have a significant chance to make their products even more appealing.

Creating this opportunity is a job that internet marketing agencies are tasked to manage. With more people now searching online for potential purchase, there is a significant need to boost one’s marketing strategies on the web.

If you’re eyeing to focus on Facebook marketing, then using the following methods would help increase your visibility on the platform.

Identify the key dates for individual offers

Christmas and other holidays only occur for a particular period, and your strategies must be in perfect timing. Otherwise, you will risk losing the momentum and in turn give your competitors an upper hand.

As early as now, it’s best to start already creating a calendar for the coming event by marking the dates when you plan to make any announcement or special offers. By identifying the dates, it also becomes easier to create relevant materials like hashtags fit for a specific day.

Create outstanding visuals

Sharing text content from blogs is a good thing. But Facebook’s analytics is now seeing images and videos more advantageous compared to any other content. Rather than only sharing an excellent article about your company’s latest offer, it’s best to create an enticing image that would represent it instead. Then, you may just provide the link after a short curation.

Add emotion to your content

Anything that pulls on the heartstrings, inspires, and shocks your audience is a good thing. Content that makes them feel something have higher chances of being more visible since audience are more inclined to share these things with their Facebook friends.

It’s important to sell and make your offer visible. However, make sure you do it with emotion rather than going for the hard-selling technique.

Host special events using Facebook Live

Introducing new products is best done using videos. With Facebook live now accessible for anyone, you can utilize the tool by going live on the optimum time when most of your followers are online. These live segments help you monitor real-life interaction, comments, and inquiries from people who are watching it.

Since videos can be stored on your FB account, you can make some edits after the live show and reshare it with your audience at a later time of the day.

Make Facebook offers

Facebook has a feature that allows you to make an offer. Here, you can specify whether the offer is online or in-store. Marketers are also authorized to be specific on their offer type: Amount off, Percent off, Buy one get one or Free stuff.

Ensure your content’s compatibility with mobile users

A lot of people who are on social media access information through their mobile devices. With this in mind, there should be no reason why you should not create content that fit well with mobile use. Create images that look well when accessed through a phone or tablet. Remember that you only have a few seconds to capture the attention of the people as they scroll down their newsfeed. Be sure your content is catchy enough.

Share a story

We love stories. Individuals might have some differences when it comes to their story preference, but it doesn’t change the fact that we love hearing things that we could easily relate to. Marketing with this idea in mind is a crucial element to making sure you make your message relevant and memorable.

You can share a short and compelling story about your brand or how a particular product came to be. Words from your CEO or other executive members could also bring a powerful message.

Marketing through Facebook may sound easy. After all, the platform is a user-friendly area. However, boosting a campaign also needs a slight tweak from your usual strategy. Know your offers and try out some of the things we have on this list! 

Tips for Reaching More People with your Facebook Live Broadcast!

Social media is both a blessing and a curse to businesses.

To online marketing agencies who manage to handle it well, the benefits could be significant. On the other hand, companies who refuse to get in touch with their market online have bigger chances of losing a substantial amount of money in the long run.

Whether you’re gunning for an increase in a publication or just looking for a way to engage with your viewers, social media can play a big role. It’s now a reality. And it’s shaping the direction many of the present day businesses are taking.

There are several important social media platforms, but one of the most respected giants is Facebook. It’s a free platform for everyone. More importantly, it has tons of helpful features that allow marketers to increase the viewership of their individual posts.

Facebook Live

When it comes to the different types of content, images and videos top the list of the most viewed materials online. This clearly speaks of how visual people are when it comes to selecting the materials they consume.

The Facebook Live feature is a recent addition to the social media giant’s attempt to encourage more users to share information as it happens. With this feature, anyone is free to build their fanbase using the type of videos or reports they share.

To marketers, this means having lots of potential competition and at the same time a more efficient and timely tool to promote any of their products or services. If you’re planning to venture into a new marketing strategy by using video content, then this tool could be a major weapon in your arsenal. Below are tips on how you can reach more viewers once you go live.

Create a compelling headline or description.

Facebook Live prompts you to say something about your live broadcast. You can opt to introduce the general topic of the video or perhaps highlight the key points you want to talk about. If there are notable personalities who’ll go live with you, then a mention of their name could help your post attract more attention.

Outline the points you plan to talk about.

Even before you go live, it’s vital that you have a blueprint of the things you want to talk about. You only have 90 minutes maximum to do the talk, and that’s really plenty of time for a live show. Make a list of keywords that presents the topics on your planned talk.

Don’t forget to create a short introductory speech too. Viewers want to establish your identity and credibility in the subject so make sure you give it to them beforehand.

Find out the optimal time on which your target market is likely to be online.

Different countries have different time zones and if your primary market is across the globe, then going live at their wee hours will only go to waste. Consider the optimal social media activity period by studying your previous posts or using advanced analysis tools.

Unlike pre-recorded videos which you could upload anytime, Facebook live is real-time. Make sure your viewers are on Facebook when you start broadcasting.

Invite some of your close friends or colleagues to tune in beforehand.

Just like any premier nights when you ask specific people to watch a show, giving your colleagues a heads-up about your broadcast would at least ensure that you’ll reach someone. They might tell their friends who are interested, which in turn would increase the visibility of your video.

Be ready to share the broadcast to other social media platforms.

While Facebook is arguably the leading social media giant, other platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn might do a better way of promoting your content to a niche-specific audience. Share the broadcast after the live one or take out important lines and points of consideration which you can convert to some artistic images for online posting.

Maximize the usage of Facebook Live using the tips we share on this list. Get more attention from your target market and enhance your product’s credibility!

Maximizing the Art of Persuasion Using Social Media

Persuasion, in its very essence, is psychology.

You’re technically addressing the brain and convincing it to believe what you’re saying and do what you’re asking. But the brain is a complex organ. It doesn’t easily get persuaded by minor ads it sees as repetitive.

For marketers, the art of persuasion has been a daily challenge especially now that the market’s perception is easily affected by the barrage of external information it sees. For industries undergoing tough competition such as the mobile app developmentcompanies in the Philippines, being able to persuade clients is vital in their operations.

Below are some proven-effective strategies that would make your persuasion tactic even more efficient!

Bank on testimonials

If there’s something that works just as good as advertising but for free, it would be actual testimonials from your customers. What real clients say builds up your credibility as a company. The more positive feedback you receive, the better.

Facebook has a feature that allows page owners to provide a review option for the public. This way, clients will have an easier way to review your service through star ratings. It will also help prospect customers get an idea of your average satisfaction rate judging from what other people say.

Share awards and recognitions

Any form of recognitions may it be from an academic body, or a government-run organization can impact your credibility as a company.

Do not hesitate to share these awards on your social media sites. Clients who are so keen in hiring reliable services are likely to get in touch with those ventures who have already received special recognitions from trusted award-giving bodies.

Show significant attention to customer service

There’s a reason why big companies such as Uber create a separate Twitter help support account apart from their official one. You can’t just impress everyone. And from time to time, clients will want to get in touch with you to ask for some help.

Creating an easier mechanism to extend your support is vital in building trust and confidence. Twitter is an efficient avenue for this. If you’re mainly promoting on Facebook, then including a ‘Message Now’ link to your official page is a good way to tell your followers that you’ll respond to their inquiries ASAP.

Partner with influential individuals, groups, etc.

There are several ways on how to persuade customers. You can invest on flashy ads on television or online and event distribute quality magazines or brochures. But one technique that remains to be a top method in getting your market’s attention is partnering with popular individuals in the industry.

The clothing business is fond of using this. We often see big stars in the entertainment industry wearing a casual shirt of a specific brand. The image alone can be simple, but its message is clear. If that particular star trusts the brand, then it must be excellent.

Of course, companies need to pay for these models, but few can do it for free especially if they’re an avid fan of your brand.

Display figures and statistics

Social media is now the go-to place for a lot of people when it comes to buying something. But with the variety of choices available for them, it could be difficult to tell which is authentic and which is not.

Including statistics and figures on your social media posts could help customers narrow down their list. If you’ve had a significant sale for the last month, for instance, then getting the numbers and making it into an attractive image or infographics is a good way to encourage others to give the product a try.

People feel the need to conform. In Psychology, we call this social proof. The ability to design a social media strategy that answers this need remains a crucial factor in determining who wins the competition.

Reassess your current strategies and see which areas need a significant boost in persuasion

Top Reasons Why You Should Use Twitter for Business

In this age where social media is greatly shaping public opinion, the need to be present on the platform often used by your market is crucial.

This is why digital marketers conduct surveys and case studies to identify the best approach and methods that would work well for their specific market. There are several social media platforms and not all can be useful for your marketing strategy. One platform that works for almost all types of marketing and networking purposes is Twitter.

Ever since Twitter has gone live on 2006, it has started to gain momentum and have received worldwide attention from 2007 up to the present. With its short 140-character limit, users are able to deliver direct-to-the-point information pertaining to their core topic.

From then on, Twitter has become an effective micro-blogging platform for individuals. Professionals like mobile app developer in the Philippines can use the platform to promote their work and projects for prospect clients.

Despite Twitter’s popularity, there are still a number of businesses who don’t maximize the use of the tool, thus missing the opportunity to make their product or services more visible to their online followers. Here are reasons that may help you understand why using Twitter for business reasons has now become a necessity.

The market is large

In a record published by statista.com, Twitter has an average of 317 million active users as of the third quarter of 2016. With this in mind, you can just imagine the vast area for marketing opportunities offered by this platform.

By being active on Twitter, you get to explore the diversity of this market and provide more relevant content that those groups of people need.

Studying your competitor’s recent activities is easier

Don’t be surprised if you find your competitors using Twitter at a regular basis. The rest of the industrial world is into the practice after all. Using this platform, you get to closely get updates made by other companies and even track the responses they get from their followers.

The data you gather by following them could be an essential material that would help enhance your own company’s social media marketing strategy.

It’s effective for building brand loyalty

Branding is a crucial matter in becoming an authority in your field. This is why companies invest considerable resource to ensure that they keep a strong and good image in front of their market. Twitter is an effective tool for making this possible.

By constantly engaging with your market through concise and relevant 140-character posts, you’re also cementing your credibility on the field.

It has a more personal appeal and brings you closer to customers

Creating information-packed blog posts helps you build a name, but making high-quality one also takes time compared to constructing a single sentence message. Twitter allows users to add a personal appeal to their products and services by communicating it more personally in a concise and ‘human’ way.

It allows customers to easily get in touch with you

With the platform’s direct message option, followers or interested clients will have a faster way of sending you their concerns. Its retweet feature also helps make your post more visible to more audience without necessarily doing the legwork yourself.

It’s free

Who doesn’t want something free? Twitter is a free platform that can be set up in less than five minutes. For startup companies who are worried about the cost of advertisement and promotion, this platform could be a good starting point.

Twitter as a micro-blogging platform can do a lot more than simply sharing random thoughts. Using the platform for business can mean a huge leap to becoming a trusted brand. Maximize its usage by including it in your overall marketing strategy.

5 Reasons to Add Podcasting to Your Marketing Strategy

Online marketing is the backbone for today’s digital business. Companies whose business rely mainly on online transactions have to invest time in crafting strategies that would help their message get across a lot of people.

There are different ways in building one’s online reputation and among them is blogging. By providing helpful articles, infographics and even slideshow content, potential clients will be more encouraged to check on the products and service you offer.

But with blogging’s popularity, crafting content that would resonate to your readers can be a challenge. Among the most effective methods used in delivering information nowadays is podcasting.

By definition, a podcast is ‘an episodic series of digital media files which the user can set up so that new episodes are automatically downloaded via web syndication to the user’s own local computer or portable media player.’ (source: Wikipedia)

Social interactions have proven that there’s an increasing number of people who prefer this mode of getting information. And if you’re still debating whether or not to start one, here are reasons that might convince you to take the first step.

It’s cost efficient.

Compared to other forms of publications such as magazines and brochures, creating a podcast ultimately reduces the cost you’ll need to spend.

There’s no need to print any material nor pay for duplication of distribution. For businesses especially the startup ones, this means a great deal since it would mean more money saved for other more costly marketing tool.

It’s portable and easier to consume.

Convenience of usage is a vital thing and this is something that a lot of marketers struggle on considering the tough competition among companies. Podcasts, being digital materials, are easy to access.

Users can be on-the-go and still listen to your podcast episode. They also have the option to subscribe so that new releases would be directly sent to their emails.

There’s a growing demand for podcasts.

Unless you have been closely looking on today’s marketing trend, you’ll most likely miss the fact that podcasts are becoming popular. Before official company blogs are the most common users of this strategy.

Now, we’re already seeing individual bloggers producing their own content too!

Using this high demand, there is a good chance that you’ll attract more readers or followers who prefer consuming materials in podcast format.

Their content is more personal and has direct approach.

Compared to those messages that are received through email, podcasts give off a more personal appeal. This can be attributed to the fact that podcast content have more centralized topic. They are also divided into different episodes so you don’t need to push all information into one package - something common when writing long articles for your blog or website.

People looking for something easy, comprehensive and convenient to follow are more attracted to podcasts.

It’s easy and convenient for social media sharing

Whether you like it or not, social media sharing is a very crucial part of your marketing strategy. It’s technically what drives all online efforts to their success. If you want visibility, then your content has to appeal to your audience through the specific social media platform they often use.

Sharing podcasts on social media is a very efficient method to get more likes, comments and shares from interested audience.

Staying relevant and connected to your readers is the most efficient way to build a solid online reputation. This will only be possible if you use the best marketing strategies at your disposal. People who work for SEO company Philippines know this.

Podcasts are proven to be effective materials in attracting viewers and increasing site interaction. Think of potential topics to share and start your own podcast series now!