Changing Trends of Guest Blogging

Expert bloggers always insist that guest posting is one great technique that can help promote your blog virally. Experience has shown that this is largely true. It works some wonders at times.  The real reason many bloggers now want to keep abreast of any new trends in guest posting. Here now are some of the ways that guest posting has changed over the years in digital marketing.

 

Bloggers Have Become Much More Choosier

Unlike years past, what goes into your content and what sites it is linked to are becoming of paramount importance. The real reasons bloggers have become much more careful in choosing what goes into their content and where the links point to. Many Bloggers now make a living off of their sites so they have become more protective and choosy of what they put on them and what is linked to them. Pointing links to prohibited sites and writing about prohibited materials are now off limits for most bloggers.

Increasing Importance on Engagement

SEO techniques have proved conclusively that engagement on a website can impact the ranking of the website. Similar results show with more interaction with their content on social media. That is why websites and brands which are able to use social media effectively can easily become household names with unlimited popularity.

Content Quality Has Increased

As bloggers become more knowledgeable, content quality is impacted and search engines never fail to take note. Poor grammar, punctuation and poor presentations now impact negatively on guest posts. Some sites now routinely reject poor posts even before search engines get to discover them. The real reason good quality content is now most desirable on guest posts.

Tracking Tools Have Become Smarter and More Accurate

With increasing sophistication and smartness of tracking tools, it is now fairly easy to identify content that is capable of bringing in good traffic. That “intelligence” is garnered from data that is collected from social shares, visits from guest posts and leads generated from them. There is less guess work and “shooting in the dark” now because the tracking tools readily come up with smart data which can be turned into actionable content marketing plan. This is why the guest posting niche of marketing continues to change and evolve to keep up with smart tracking tools.

Blackhat Techniques Are Reducing

Because Search Engines are getting smarter and more accurate, Blackhat techniques have started losing grounds. Some guest bloggers sometimes hide codes in an infographic to hoodwink search engines. This is one typical example of blackhat technique of many guest bloggers which is very difficult to get away with right now. These days, search engines routinely penalize companies and websites utilizing such techniques. The real reason many guest bloggers are now not very comfortable using blackhat techniques. 

 

4 Small Business Trends Steadily on the Rise

If you are very current with trends, you must have noticed that small businesses are going through a whole lot of changes in recent times. Apart from ethical and regulatory requirements, the advancements in communication fields, IT, marketing and other fields are playing major roles in engendering changes in the way and manner people run small businesses these days. The small business trends discussed here currently appear to be rising steadily because more people have started to pay more attention to them. Just take a look around you. You will discover that many small business owners are now:

 

Focusing more on customer service: Many small business owners have realized that if you support your customers well, your chance of customer retention increases tremendously. Of course, they know that repeat customers are extremely valuable to their businesses. With advancement in technology, many now use chat apps to literally lead customers by the hand to do business with them. Many are now able to provide 24/7 support services by way of availability, prompt response and prompt solutions. Right now, if you do not have chatbots for customer interactions, the time to deploy some in your own business is now.

Getting their businesses online: That simply means, less storefronts and more websites! The good news is that small businesses lately have become quite divergent and very daring too. With current popularity and real advancements in mobile technology, most small businesses are now flourishing significantly on the internet. The internet somehow allows these businesses to make some reductions in physical storefronts thereby saving on maintenance costs and some other space related problems. So, get smart now by getting yourself a business website if you don’t have one already. It goes with the trends.

Paying more attention to environmental issues: Small business owners are steadily endeavoring to go clean as well as green in the way they run their businesses! That is largely because environmental issues have become a very big concern of the modern world. Going with the flow, it is an excellent thing to see that small businesses have started paying special heed to environmental issues. With global concerns rising over issues like global warming, pollution, plastic, flora and fauna extinction, small businesses now do things to enable them conform to going clean and green to protect the environment in which they do business. So, you now see small businesses deliberately encourage cutting down on plastic and paper use and urging their customers to do same. Online shopping is one great eco-friendly way many of them do business these days.

Having more social media presence: These days, smart marketers consider social media presence a necessity and not a luxury. For that reason, having a presence on social media has become an absolute must for almost all business ventures who want to remain competitive. Hitherto, the online presence people were used to was mainly limited to having a complete website. Not anymore! With the advent of very popular social media platforms like, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram, the game has changed completely. Social media craze has compelled many businesses to expand their online presence to the social media where the customers can be found and interacted with very easily. Right now, even the smallest businesses of the lot are trying their utmost to up their games on social media by socializing and promoting their goods/services to a very large mass of people. That no doubt is good for business. Get social, by putting your own business on social media platforms. That is the place to be right now if you sincerely want to take your business to the next level.

5 Holiday Marketing Tips for Small Businesses

Well, the holiday season is here. People are going to buy like never before and sellers are going to sell like never before. For small businesses, it is smart to “catch the bug” of the holiday season and to make the most out of it. Above all else, you must see the holiday as a time of great opportunity. Many people expect to come face to face with marketing messages this time of the year. You must seize the opportunity to showcase and re-position your brand. These here 5 tips will help you out.

#1. Respect Differences in Beliefs. The world has become a very complex and sensitive place to live in. You must factor in that in your holiday sales campaigns. Don’t assume that everyone celebrates Xmas because in reality not everybody does and at least not with the same intensity and enthusiasm. For your campaigns to be effective, you must show respect for the beliefs, traditions and customs of others.

#2. Mark What Works and What Doesn’t. As a marketer, all you want always are good results from your efforts. Bearing in mind that your holiday marketing campaigns won’t always resonate, it pays to try a new angle each time until you find something which sticks. It is what sticks you should maximize your storyline on this season for optimal results.

#3. Take Your Brand Where the People Are. This is just natural. You must put your brand before your customers wherever they may be in the world. As with all marketing campaigns, you must make sure you’re using the right outlet for your message. It is the right outlet which gets the message to the right people you are targeting. For you to be effective therefore, it pays to know where your customers are “living,” in a digital sense. That is where you must put your brand before them.

#4. Don’t Make Unrealistic Assumptions. Christmas carols may be sweet music to the ears of many people but you can’t assume that all your customers delight upon hearing Christmas greetings. That is why it pays to be sensitive to the beliefs of others. For many, Xmas is no celebrations season so, you can’t force your celebration down their throats. By understanding what your business is, what you want to present and how your audience feels, that is the only effective way to make your campaign resonate well with your customers in this season.

#5. Watch Your Promotion Expenses. It is true that word-of-mouth marketing really escalates around holiday seasons. This is because holidays naturally bring many people together seasonally. When people are together on such special occasions, what do they do? Well, they simply talk and talk about any and everything under the sun. Inevitably, such talks come around to trends, products and bargain deals. These word-of-mouth banters are usually cheaper and more reliable to promote products than expensive ad campaigns which are very common during holiday seasons. Spending too much money on campaign ads during holiday seasons is usually not a very smart marketing strategy.

4 Digital Trends Your Small Business Must Embrace

The trends are on and reports from the field indicate that it pays really well for small business owners to join the train of trends. Even though there is hard evidence to support the fact that many small businesses are increasingly using digital platforms to manage their jobs, take care of quotes, invoices and scheduling, it is still common to see many others still doing things the old way. Small business owners who currently implement the right strategies based on a solid understanding of digital trends and knowledge of digital platforms are bound to outperform others in the new dispensation. These here are 4 popular digital trends which tend to drive that process.

#1.  Digital Payments: PayPal and similar online payment platforms are increasingly taking the lead in helping small businesses with online payments. These platforms are driven by relevant mobile apps, mobile adapters and portable point-of-sale systems. The payment systems are fast, reliable, adaptable and very good for small businesses. The fees they charge are minimal too.

#2. Online Marketing: Fewer and fewer small business owners are still relying on traditional forms of media, like newspapers and TV, to get their information to customers and potential customers. That is because the so-called legacy marketing techniques, like placing an advertisement in the newspapers, radio and TV are becoming increasingly less effective. The new trend is to market online which has a larger reach, faster, more effective and relatively cheaper than legacy methods. With the power of reliable Search Engines like Google, you have the option of a highly cost-effective way to get in front of your customers where they are looking for business worldwide 24/7.

#3. Digital Management: Many small business owners are currently moving away from traditional methods of making bookings on pieces of paper, or giving out handwritten receipts and invoices. The new trend is that many are increasingly using digital platforms to manage their jobs, take care of quotes, invoices and scheduling, for more efficiency and reliability. With the right management technology like simPRO and Tradify, your small business can benefit immensely from current trends of digital management technology.

#4. Digital Messaging: This trend is catching on real fast because of the ease of use, cost-effectiveness, popularity, very wide reach and confidentiality. The advent of Social Media has become a real icing on the cake of digital messaging. With messaging apps on the rise as a form of communication between family, friends and coworkers, many more small businesses are increasingly benefiting from messaging on Social Media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and many others. This trend is bound to continue into the foreseeable future and small businesses can continue to leverage easily on these messaging platforms to provide value and exceptional customer support.