Tag Archive for: influencer marketing

B2B Marketing Trends To Look Out For

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As the second quarter of 2023 is underway, it’s a great time to reflect on the B2B marketing trends that have emerged and evolved over the past few months. The digital landscape is constantly changing, and marketers need to stay on top of the latest trends to remain competitive and drive growth.

Here are some B2B marketing trends to try in Q2 and beyond.

Personalization at Scale

Personalization has been a buzzword in marketing for years, and for good reason. It’s a critical component of any successful B2B marketing strategy. AI boosts personalization by using data from various sources like geolocation, recent purchases, and browser history. Marketers can leverage AI analytics to improve practices and achieve better results. In fact, 71% of B2B customers like the idea of AI for personalization, and 63% would use it for trend and pattern identification. 

Advancements in AI and ML have made it possible for B2B marketers to scale personalization to a level that was previously impossible. By leveraging data from customer interactions and online behavior, B2B marketers can create highly personalized experiences that drive engagement and conversions.

Video Marketing

Video Marketing has been on the rise for years, and it’s not slowing down anytime soon. In fact, video is projected to account for 82.5% of all internet traffic by 2023. There are so many options when it comes to creating video content. Here are some of the benefits of incorporating video into your B2B marketing strategy:

  1. Increased brand awareness: Videos are shareable, which means they can help increase your brand’s visibility across social media and other digital channels. By creating valuable and interesting videos, you can attract more potential customers to your business.
  2. Better retention: By creating videos that provide valuable information, you can improve your audience’s retention of your brand’s message. Viewers retain 95% of messages when they watch them in video format.
  3. Improved SEO: Video content can help improve your search engine rankings. By optimizing your video content for SEO, you can increase your chances of appearing at the top of search engine results on pages.

Voice search optimization

Voice search is becoming increasingly popular, thanks to the widespread adoption of smart speakers and virtual assistants. B2B marketers need to optimize their content for voice search to ensure they’re not missing out on potential customers. Here are some tips for optimizing your content for voice search:

  1. Long-tail keywords: Voice search is more conversational, use long-tail keywords that match the way people actually speak.
  2. Local search: Voice search is often used for local searches, such as finding nearby businesses or services. Optimize your content for local search queries by including location-specific keywords and information.
  3. Clear Answers: Voice searches tend to generate more direct questions than text searches. Provide clear and concise answers to common questions related to your business or industry.

Social media advertising

Social media platforms are constantly evolving, and this presents new advertising options for B2B marketers. LinkedIn, in particular, has emerged as a go-to platform for B2B advertising due to its highly targeted features. LinkedIn allows marketers to target specific companies and industries, making it an ideal platform for B2B marketers to connect with their target audience.

Other social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook also offer advertising options that can help marketers reach their target audience. On Twitter, B2B marketers can use promoted tweets and promoted accounts to reach their target audience. Facebook offers similar advertising options, including targeted ads and sponsored posts.

By leveraging social media advertising options, B2B marketers can connect with their target audience, generate leads, and drive growth for their business.

Final Thoughts

B2B marketing trends are constantly evolving, and it’s important for marketers to stay on top of trends to remain competitive. By incorporating some of these trends into your strategies, B2B marketers can drive growth in Q2 and beyond.

With over 20 years of experience, Onimod Global is an expert in B2B digital marketing. From content creation to SEO and more, we understand the need to keep up with technology trends in the digital marketing space.

If you’re interested in learning more about the future of digital marketing, contact us here.

3 Live Streaming Tips Every Content Marketer Needs To Know

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Live streaming in 2021 is a game changer in terms of brand awareness and growing a following. This feature now offered on multiple platforms is a fun, rewarding, and incredibly valuable tool for growing your brand in an online space. The number of B2C content marketers using live streaming in their content mix almost tripled between 2019 and 2020 (13% vs. 35%). When it comes to creating a professional live stream, it’s difficult to keep viewers engaged. Often times there needs to be many moving part, but the payoff is huge and worth it to put in the effort. There is heavy competition among content creators, so in this post we will share some streaming tips and tricks to help you achieve success.

Promote on multiple platforms

Are you doing an IG Live to promote a new line coming out for your brand? Promote that on every channel possible. Don’t limit yourself to an audience that’s only on one platform. This also includes promotion while the live is starting during any platform. Make sure you’re sending out tweets that your live is happening now for anyone that wants to view the products in action. Also, don’t be afraid to let your live run for a bit with only a logo for some time as it’s proven longer live streams perform better than short ones. Just make sure that you’re available to answer any questions for your audience while they wait. However, this pre-roll method isn’t ideal for Facebook Live in particular. The live video is featured in newsfeeds, so it is unfortunately easy to scroll past and miss.

Is your live over? Now time to share on all platforms you can. Edit snippets and upload an IGTV or reel, add video to Twitter, upload to LinkedIn and Facebook, the list is endless. The point is to make sure that your quality content is able to be revisited by your customers that are still interested in your product but missed the live stream.

Respond to comments live

This is the perfect set up for a live Q&A on your brand, your product, your service, anything you want to discuss with your audience! This is where authenticity is key for your audience, it can be very off script and conversational as you discuss any topic with your customer directly. Having an extra set of eyes on your live stream is very important in this case. The extra person helps provide support and can read you questions from your viewers. They also are helpful to inform you of any problems you can’t see, such as audio sync issues or products out of frame.

This is also perfect to set up a Q&A with a guest, multiple leaders in your company, or brand ambassadors. Not only is live streaming more fun and engaging more people, but the additional company offers fresh insights and perspectives to make your live show more interesting.

Do it, but don’t overdo it

It is clear that there is tremendous that value live streaming can bring to a brand – as long as brands focus on creating content that makes their community want to come back for more. This doesn’t need to be expensive production for your team either, because it doesn’t have to be overly produced. Everything to get started – a good camera, microphone, lighting, and a streaming service – can be purchased online.

To increase engagement, go live at a regular time to build up an audience. Inconsistent and irregular frequency of live streams will only frustrate your audience. Consistency in your schedule also makes it easier to market and promote the show. For example, hosting a new influencer on your channel every Tuesday at 6 PM to try on the new collection of jewelry.

More from Onimod Global

Onimod Global releases the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on all Google updates and other top digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.

Onimod Global is looking forward to the future and helping your business reach your full digital potential. Interested in growing your digital presence for your company? Reach out to us here!

What Will Influencer Marketing Look Like in 2021

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It’s fairly safe to say that 2020 was a tough year for us all, in personal and professional life. We have all needed to adjust to the new normal. One industry that was heavily impacted was influencer marketing, where they saw a sharp decline in the value of their content as people moved indoors and grappled with the loss that the COVID-19 pandemic has imposed on the world. What does this mean for the future of influencer marketing in 2021? Experts at Onimod Global took a deep dive into the topic to help you decide when it’s appropriate to use an influencer, and how that will change in the upcoming decade.

Where influencer marketing began

Initially, before brands used celebrity endorsements, they used characters to evoke empathy from consumers such as Santa Claus for Coca Cola and Tony the Tiger for Kellogg’s cereals. The next wave included all sorts of celebrity and public figure endorsements. This helped brands to get their consumers to connect the dots between brand, trust, and recommendations by public figures.

Then entered the influencer era: where celebrity endorsements are still popular, but now they have to compete with “normal” personalities. Influencers are similar to characters in the sense that they still perform the role of someone in an ad on social media but they are, and very well could be, your neighbors; just with hundreds of thousands of followers online. Influencer marketing has boomed in popularity over the last years, especially in the fashion and lifestyle industries. Consumers that would once shop based on cool advertising and customer reviews, have changed their ways and will buy based on a raving review from their favorite influencer. Today, influencer marketing is worth a reported $10 billion dollars, and now every social platform has been involved in some way.

Impact of microinfluencers

While the influencers and celebrities with an established audience of hundreds of thousands of followers can make a significant impact on your overall sales, they can also take a massive toll on your company’s wallet. This is why brands also opt for “microinfluencers”, or social media personalities with a lower follower count.

Their content is usually centered around a very niche passion or community, some examples being health & beauty, trucking & logistics, or travel. The most incredible USP about microinfluencers is that they can have an engagement rate of nearly 60% versus that of a celebrity doing something similar. While being a cost effective option for a brand that wants to get involved in influencer marketing, they are also seen as very trustworthy source of information.

The future of influencer marketing

What’s up next for the future of influencer marketing? The first change we’ve seen thus far is influencers beginning to charge for exclusive content on Instagram and other platforms. Some charge a monthly fee to become a “Close Friend” on Instagram, while others are trialling WeChat’s new paywalls. In effect, content quality is becoming a focus.

However, this has the potential to also be a benefit for brands. If the influencers they work with are more invested in producing high quality content, they could be more likely to develop stronger partnerships with a select number of brands. “It will enable influencers to avoid having ‘one night stands’ with brands and rather focus on creating long-term ambassadorships with brands that are truly authentic to their lifestyle,” says Krishna Subramanian, CEO of influencer marketing and branded content firm Captiv8.

Private fan subscriptions are just one of many changes we predict will happen in the next decade, and Onimod Global experts will be sure to keep you up to date on all new influencer marketing news.

More from Onimod Global

Onimod Global is looking forward to the future and helping your business reach your full digital potential. Interested in growing your digital presence for your company? Reach out to us here!

Onimod Global releases the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on the top digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.

Top 4 Digital Marketing Trends For 2021

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Many businesses have completely altered the way they operate in 2020. More and more products and services move online and many employees will continue to work remotely or in a hybrid setting for much of next year. What are the most relevant digital marketing trends for 2021 that your business should keep in mind to build customer loyalty and generate more traffic, leads, and revenue? Check out the top 4 areas Onimod Global experts recommend to invest your time and resources into next year. If you’re not sure where to begin, this list is the perfect starting point.

Businesses must embrace the digital transformation

The post-COVID world we will hopefully experience in 2021 will make a digital presence for companies almost mandatory. “Digital transformation” has become a popular buzzword since March 2020, and all types of companies are investing heavily in the migration to digital platforms. This includes platforms such as e-commerce, chatbots, email, apps, artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, omnichannel marketing and augmented and virtual reality.

Google listings and local SEO will be a top priority for small businesses

If you own a small business, one of the most important things you can do is ensure your local listings are verified and kept current on various search platforms. For B2C businesses that draw in primarily local traffic, the Google My Business listing provides valuable information about your hours and whether or not they are affectd by COVID, services, and geographical location. It’s one of the key factors in search and business owners are often blown away to learn how many directories there are out there.

One tip you can easily implement today: make sure that you have a geographically-defined service area in your local listings. Doing this will help your business show up in “near me” searches. That’s because Google and other search engines will prioritize relevance in their search algorithms.

Voice search and its power

Voice search queries will often populate different results than if the user had typed in a text-based search. Even though voice search is not a part of Google’s algorithm, it still dictates current search results. This means that businesses should be up to date on voice search components for their consumers who are adapting and switching over to that medium.

Content must be specifically optimized for voice searches, according to experts in voice search. The content needs to be more direct and conversational, and by doing so it will accurately sync with search queries. This will help boost traffic by staying relevant and more visible to consumers.

Influencer marketing a key pillar of marketing for consumer brands

Consumer brands have historically used social media influencers to present authentic unbiased advertising to appeal to prospects and customers. The pandemic amplified the impact influencers have on the purchase of products, due to a limited ability to shop at stores and increased online shopping traffic.

A recent study found that 40% of people reported that they purchased a product online after seeing it used by an influencer on YouTube, Instagram or Twitter. Influencers and their impact are expected to gain even more popularity and followers and businesses to use influencers more than ever before.

More from Onimod Global

Onimod Global is looking forward to the future and helping your business reach your full digital potential. Interested in growing your digital presence for your company? Reach out to us here!

Onimod Global releases the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on the top digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.

Influencer Marketing Tips: Finding the Right Influencers for Your Brand

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Influencer marketing allows brands to easily break into the consumers’ circle of trust in a way that feels more organic and welcomed. It’s relevant, reliable and relatable, making it an extremely effective marketing tool for brands. 

Are you looking into influencer marketing but not sure where to start? Here are our top tips to help guide your search and create a successful campaign. 

1. Know the type of influencer campaign you’re going to run. 

As you begin mapping out your marketing plan, identifying the specific type of influencer campaign you want to run is crucial. This will in turn help you connect with the best influencer and help you reach your campaign goals. Different types of influencer campaigns include: 

  • Gifting. This entails giving the influencer free products in exchange for shoutouts, mentions, posts, etc.
  • Guest posting. The influencer would get to create a post for you that you would then be shared directly on your page.   
  • Sponsored content. You would pay the influencer to share your content or create content that is somehow tied to your brand. 
  • Contests/Giveaways. Using contests as an incentive to get influencers to mention your product, brand or share your content. 
  • Takeover. You would be allowing the influencer to completely take over your social media page for a set amount of time. 
  • Affiliates. Share affiliate codes with influencers so they can earn money each time a user comes through their funnel and purchases from your brand.
  • Discount codes. Allowing influencers to give discount codes for your offerings to their own followers. 
  • Brand ambassadors. Partnering with an influencer who would then regularly promote your brand in exchange for discounts, deals and additional perks from you. 

2. Research influencers relevant to your niche. 

A great place to start finding influencers is by looking at famous, well-known or respected figures in your industry. This will not only increase the reach of your message and build more brand awareness, but drastically enhance your authority within the industry as well. While this can be difficult for smaller brands, it’s not impossible. You just have to prove why you stand out from others in your industry and get in contact with the proper people. 

To support this strategy, set up Google alerts for industry terms to see who is regularly writing content about important topics in your industry. You can also try browsing forums to see who might be regularly answering questions related to your industry. 

3. Research competitors’ influencers. 

It’s not uncommon for influencers to work with two competing brands, as long as both brands agree to it. So, to find influencers that are likely to work with your brand, look for those who are already working with brands like yours. Another benefit of this is that since they already create content or write about others in your industry, you won’t have to do much educating on your niche. 

Finding these influencers should be fairly easy. You can browse industry-related hashtags on different social platforms to see who is already sharing content and engaging with competitors. You can also look through competitors’ pages to see if there are any influencers working with them that look like they would be a good fit for you as well. 

4. Find influencers that already share your audience. 

It’s not necessary for an influencer to be directly tied to your industry to be effective. Influencers who share your audience can provide just as much value. Actually, working with influencers in an industry that overlaps or is complimentary to your own can help you extend your reach even further. It also connects you to your audience in a space that isn’t already saturated with messages from your competitors. 

To find these influencers start by doing a target audience analysis. This will help you to fully understand your ideal audience, their needs, interests and other sites they frequent. This can help you to then identify other non-industry-related influencers that your audience already follows. 

5. Audit potential influencers’ following, reach and engagement metrics. 

Once you’ve identified a few different influencers you’re considering, start evaluating their authority. Or in other words, determine if they have a large enough reach to help you accomplish your campaign goals. An influencer analysis consists of looking at factors such as: 

  • Number of followers 
  • Engagement rate of their followers 
  • Type of regular content 
  • Quality of content 
  • The depth of niche coverage 

Final Thoughts 

A strategically planned influencer marketing campaign that leverages the influencers most relevant to your goals, audience and niche can lead to big results for your campaign and brand as a whole. 

Onimod Global releases the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on the top digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.

Brand Ambassador Marketing Strategy: Is It Worth It?

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The way a company chooses to market itself can play a huge role in their success or downfall. One valuable aspect of marketing is the brand; it is so important that most large companies have entire departments dedicated to branding. With the growth of social media over recent years, brand ambassadors are at the forefront of digital marketing strategies within thousands of companies.

 

What is a brand ambassador?

A fairly self explanatory term, but by definition it is someone who represents your brand, product, service or event. Typically when we think of brand ambassadors we envision celebrities who are paid to support a brand. This is still a very popular form of influencer marketing, but a brand ambassador doesn’t have to be a celebrity. It is transforming into customers and even employees taking on roles of brand ambassadors.

Lonely Brand shares an updated version of what brand ambassador marketing has transformed into in recent years:

“In 2017 brand ambassador marketing has become, at it’s core, the employment of people with specific influence or expertise to create and participate in your brand marketing strategy, usually leveraging their own popularity on social media platforms to drive value.”

 

Where to start?

A great place to start is with the employees at your company. When you have a product, service, and brand that everyone loves, employees will be more excited to promote your company organically and get involved. A Nielsen study shows that 84 percent of people trust recommendations from friends, family, colleagues over other forms of marketing.

In addition to this, employees’ social followers are seven times more likely to convert on company content than other types of leads are.

Advertisements pose a great challenge in attempting to get people to convert, where brand ambassadors have much more trust and a larger reach across social media channels.

 

Is it worth it?

Implementing brand ambassadors in your marketing strategy is becoming more crucial in marketing strategies. Social media is growing more every day, and it is imperative your employees and customers are driving the online conversations about your brand in a positive direction.

For more information regarding digital marketing expertise, trends and insights, visit the Onimod Global Website. We provide weekly news updates on the latest in the world of digital marketing. Enjoy!