Market Research Analysis: Hacks you probably didn't know about.

This guide has been developed to help you understand how to do market research for startups. If you have a conventional business then too this guide can come off as a helpful tool in helping you. The market research and the marketing research process can be expensive if you leave it to an agency.

Market research is often ignored when a new product or business is started. People often ignore this because of a lack of knowledge and understanding of how well and important it is to a business's success.

Benefits of Market Research

You can eliminate several barriers to growth, success, and market capitalization with this. Marketing research allows all new businesses to understand the ecosystem where they are about to enter. In order to be successful in business, you must be able to reduce the risks associated with entering a market that is new, unknown, or fast-growing.

Doing Marketing Research on your own

Startups are predicated on the idea of fast growth and competent performance.  Market research can be used to reduce foreseeable threats and vulnerabilities from the business environment. It costs millions of dollars in the loss if you do not do it and thousands of dollars to do it.  However, it does not have to be that way, especially for young new businesses. Digital AceTech has developed this simple guide to help you during this market research process.

If you want to learn how to do market research online then please read this guide carefully. It takes less time and money than going to an expert who is going to charge obscene amounts of money to you.

How to do it Online and Yourself

Online market research entails using social media platforms, research tools, and other available mechanisms to reduce uncertainty from your business. In order for you to do this successfully you need to understand why to do it yourself:

●     Market research allows you to to investigate the demand for a product

●     It can help you establish a price

●     Market research can also allow you to speculate demand patterns

●     You may be able to improve product in the market need to this process

●     Business may be able to refine their service based on market research

●     It can be used to obtain customer and user feedback

●     You can reduce potential threats to the business

●     It allows you to develop a better the product then what can be done in a vacuum

One of the key things that entrepreneurs must remember is that their business must reduce all risks. At least those that are foreseeable and that can be reduced beforehand. For a startup, this can be very expensive. It is still doable if you have the funding for it.  However, market research is usually the first step in a business; it usually lies in the bootstrapping phase.

This is one of those time periods where the expenditure has to be the lowest in order for the business to sustain through the time period successfully.  Performing market research is essential. You must not compromise on the quality of it.

So you can use social media and digital platforms to help you collect all the marketing data and explore the market before you begin. You can develop questionnaires, research surveys, digital prototypes of the product and create hype that allows you to gather helpful insight into the minds of the target market and your potential audiences.

As an entrepreneur and marketer, this can be very helpful. You can cut back on the product development on ideation and strategy development time through this.

Conducting research is essential. It can be very expensive though. Digital Acetech provides a free audit if you have any existing business to help you start somewhere. This is worth thousands of dollars however as a courtesy to you and your business this can be done immediately without the heavy cost. So begin today and let’s eliminate risks together.

How Guest Posting can be used as a Powerful Marketing Tool

Marketers and sellers who have been associated with online marketing are pretty aware of the fact that one needs to utilize all sources available to produce a credible business reputation on the internet. Leveraging all the mediums accessible and molding them to one’s own benefit is a very appreciative strategy in marketing as one does not know which source would result in fulfilling a marketing objective. Whether you are a budding marketer who stumbled upon this post or an experienced professional looking to expand your advertising approach, we have got a resourceful method for you to consider, aka, Guest Posting. In case you are not familiar with this term, let us get the introductions out of the way. 

‘Guest Posting’ is exactly how it sounds, you submit your blogs and articles on a third-party site as a guest.  There are countless authoritative and reliable websites that play the role of 'Guest Posting Sites’. They have a designated set of guidelines and policies regarding the sort of content that can be submitted to them. The submitters who follow through with their instructions and criteria can get their quality content uploaded on such sites. Now you might be thinking, if a brand has its own online presence, why would they depend on other sites to display their work across the internet? Well, there are countless reasons as to why this technique works, we have listed some of the most convincing ones below:

1- Build your network
Guest Blogging allows you to expose your brand to a wider category of targeted audiences. You might be getting a viable amount of traffic from your own blog/website/content but guest blogging will represent your brand with the help of credible sites and your marketing with get an instant boost. You will not only be able to build your customer base and get visitors but also build allies in the blogging world by contributing your worthwhile content.

2- Enhance your SEO with Backlinks
An undeniable advantage that the Guest Posting will provide you with is Backlinks. You insert a link into the blog you upload on a guest posting site, so the audiences entranced by your content can be directed to your website, hence resulting in you gaining backlinks. SEO is a very important perspective of Digital Marketing and therefore any strategy which improves your ranking and visibility in your niche needs to be applied carefully. The backlinks will boost your content’s value in the eyes of all considerable search engines.

3- Expose yourself to the world
Your targeted audiences can be anywhere, even on Guest Posting Sites where they can see the most engaging content being presented to them. Using an authentic site to display your work can work out well in your favor as it enables you to maximize your outreach and gain access to more than a designated set of people. If you want to get customers, you have to dive into each nook and cranny of the internet to gain their trust and attention. Upload material which is filled with useful information and will actually prove to be helpful for the readers and a notable reputation will be just a matter of time. The traffic you will be getting from such means will be far more relevant to you than other, less specified advertising mediums. The more relevant they are, the more attentive they will be and hence the more time they will spend on your website looking for your services and products. It will also lower your bounce rate as the willing customers will be more keen on exploring what you can offer.

4- Establish Credibility
Backlinks are a very efficient way to introduce yourself to the world and establish your brand’s credibility. Instead of purchasing traffic and visitors with unethical means to build a reputation, use organic means available to you to fulfill your marketing goals. Your ranking and presence will be immediately improved if you use valuable resources to publish your work and compel the readers. It adds authenticity to an already powerful advertising plan and provides you with a long-lasting method of recognition.

5- Constant Writing development 
By matching the taste of your targeted audience, you will be able to determine whether the content you are producing is accommodating for them or not. The urge to impress them will allow you to constantly improve your content by switching between buyer personas with each subject you write on. What better space to learn than the World Wide Web.

6- Optimize your Portfolio
‘Guest Posting’ enables you to showcase your work in the form of a convincing portfolio. You can not only produce a sense of credibility among your readers but promote your brand as well. Helping people and creating Brand Awareness simultaneously? That is how you kill two birds with one stone.

Get ROI from Video Marketing by using these 8 Tips

YouTube is an unforgiving platform when it comes to Video Marketing. It can prove to be a headache when one spends hours and money both to create something meaningful and it doesn’t get the attention it deserves. It can feel like a waste of time and leave one frustrated with a longing to get as much return on investment as quickly as possible. As a marketer, you and your team need to be wary of the strategies you are using to promote your brand on YouTube, but where exactly one gets this kind of information from? The answer to your question lies in our blog. Read on to discover what strategies you should be using to promote your content and get the engagement you aim for.

1-    SEO is your new best friend

People seem to keep a lot of marketing methods in mind but forget perhaps the most important and influential of them all, which is SEO. Without SEO, even the best content can turn out to be a failure, as it won’t be exposed to the right kind of audience and will remain to be something ordinary. Implementing SEO practices can bring out the best in your content, no matter which format it appears in. YouTube has a stricter and more coherent set of SEO techniques that one needs to follow to ensure maximum visibility and engagement. From finding the right keywords to using analytics to track one’s progress, it all matters too much to be simply ignored.

2-    Add Spice to your PPC Ads

Pay-Per-Click Ads are amongst the best Search Engine Marketing techniques for spreading brand awareness. You can make them more interesting and captivating by inserting videos and teasers to persuade and attract targeted audiences to the designed CTA-Click.

3-    Insert Videos on Landing Pages

Using images on landing pages is too conventional of a marketing technique, make it more indulging with a video that could either be a testimonial, an excerpt to your services or anything that can convince the audiences to perform actions that would be beneficial for your marketing objectives.

4-    Include Videos in Email Campaigns

Video creation and marketing can be a hassle but it doesn’t have to be. The hassle of promoting your channel’s content through every means possible is worth it. Email Marketing is another underrated but effective technique when it meets YouTube Marketing, miracles can happen. That is why you need to integrate your videos in a relevant manner to send out to your email lists. To ensure getting the views, subscribers, or any metric that can help you optimize your progress, you need to use more than one medium.

5-    Let Social Media do its Magic

As mentioned recently, you need to combine the power of some of the most renowned and popular networks available over the internet. Social media platforms are amongst the most recognized marketing platforms, they are widely used and have more global outreach than other single sources. Leverage these 4 biggest Social Media Platforms besides YouTube to attain the brand identity you desire; Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Each of these have its special feature that is profitable for promoting purposes. Gather all the perks you gain from them to get the attention of your potential customers.

6-    Focus on Creating Quality Content

Before YouTube Marketing comes Content Marketing. You need to produce highly engaging and extremely relevant content which is neither boring nor useless. Infotainment is a very profitable means of refining a brand’s identity by educating the audiences. Tutorials are a very helpful set of content to engage your audiences, discover their pain points and resolve them with tips and troubleshooting information.

7-    Introduce CTA more than once

The purpose of each video can vary depending upon its context so tell the audiences exactly what you need them to do. Give them a reason to learn more about your business with consistent but not annoying CTA reminders.

8-    Rely on Video Marketing Tools

Using tools like VidIQ etc to do video marketing research by finding out popular keywords of your niche and so much more can help you develop and build a buyer persona, you need to understand your audiences before you bombard them with experimental strategies and end up wasting valuable time and investment along the way. Observe and Appeal to convert and sell.

Top 7 Content Marketing Trends of 2020

Digital Marketing has many faces, it can appear in the form of a visually charming image, a well-edited video or even a genuinely useful blog. The possibilities are endless. However, in this blog, we shall focus on only one extension of Digital Marketing, which is ‘Content Marketing’.

‘Content Marketing’ contains all the indirect marketing strategies and methods which are used to educate the audiences about a certain niche, industry or subject with a commanding sense of knowledge and expertise on the topic. This marketing resource is finally getting the hype it deserves with brands focusing on not only selling but also communicating with their targeted audience to build not only a reputable brand identity but also an adequate level of customer acquisition.

This article will allow us to dive deeper into the most successful Content Marketing strategies. Let’s filter out only the best ones to carry into 2020 and leave the old ones behind in 2019!

1- Divulge your audiences with Videos

Keeping the latest trends in mind, you need to come up with the most relevant and unique content for your targeted audiences. Grab their attention with strong visual elements and material by entertaining the genre of infotainment. There is no reason why you should not market your business with videos instead of blogs, as both are forms of content marketing anyway, but due to the low attention-span of people in this fast life, you need to catch up if you want them to look twice. Display your skills and establish credibility in the most psychologically impactful way possible.

2- Think outside the Box

Don’t let traditional marketing values stop you from being innovative. Devise plans, topics, and themes that are unique and are bound to make heads turn. Depending upon a brand’s marketing objectives, there are several stages with each goal highlighting their purpose, but setting up a sturdy brand reputation should always be among the top ones. Whether it is by using a brand-generated hashtag which represents the creative approach of a brand or an interactive technique that allows you to increase engagement with a bunch of curious audiences, standing out can be extremely beneficial in the marketing world.

3- Prefer Quality over Quantity

Over-feeding your audience is never going to be a useful strategy. It might bore them easily and lose their gaze instead of holding it, so present them with few but mighty words. Producing content that is going to exaggerate things and make them sound complex is a huge problem that brands consider to be a solution. You only need to provide your audience with a collection of information they can digest and can return to your page for, therefore you need brief but concise content that serves its purpose and can be enjoyed by the readers.

This will not only benefit towards attaining customers directly but also by optimizing your ranking on search engines as Google recognizes and rewards quality content heavily.

4- A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

It's 2020, people prefer gripping imagery and visualization over poorly-crafted material. You have all the tools at your disposal, arrange relevant, exciting and highly-creative graphic content to captivate and indulge your targeted audiences. Combine the message with a splash of visually appealing elements and you have got yourself an optimized pictorial representation of the content that could have been duller.

5- Customize the Content

After conducting heavily-invested market research to analyze the relevant marketing trends and industry, you will be able to develop a specific and well-informed buyer persona. Personalizing the content will allow the audiences to associate your brand with a meaningful connection. Produce cutting-edge and highly-targeted content for your audiences so they have no choice but be attracted to your brand as it will aid towards polishing your reputation and spark just enough curiosity in them to await your content.

6- Include the Influencers

If you are in contact with some popular and highly-demanded influencers of your niche, utilize it to promote your brand. While customer retention can be a useful thing to consider, you need to use the trust and fame these influencers have gained to attract your audiences. Exposing yourself to the most potential and willing customers will become easier this way.

7- Write to Advertise

You need to stay trendy and create content that is more visually powered but also focus on creating written content. It sounds like a bit of a contradiction, doesn’t it? Well, marketing is not just about getting a maximum level of return on your investment but establishing a notable brand authority too. Blogs and articles can be a powerful manner to ensure that you promote yourself in the subtlest but boldest way possible. They are an indirect statement about your authenticity and truth as they leave your readers with a lasting impression if done correctly with all the necessary techniques and data.

Things Every Marketer should know about Email Templates

Email Marketing can be very tricky. From choosing the resources to devising strategies to reach the correct audience, everything can be overwhelming if one doesn’t know have a complete idea of how they can utilize this channel to advertise their brand or business in the best way possible. You must be thinking about skipping Email Marketing for your brand as due to the rumors of it becoming a ‘medieval’ or ‘old-fashioned’ marketing tool, but it is far more valuable and a budding marketer needs every help they can get to spread brand awareness, metaphorically, as far and wide as possible. Email Marketing is not outdated due to its ability to sneak into the most accurate place ever, which is, your potential customer’s inbox. However, not having a captivating email template can land you in a rather dreadful and unpleasant area, aka, their junk folder. In this blog, we will discuss not only the structure but also different tips and strategies you can use to create an attention-grabbing, appealing and profitable email marketing template to get the results you wish to achieve.

Email Templates; definition and uses

Email Templates are a direct form of advertisements with a catchy headline and an equally energized subject body with a Call-to-Action that makes the audience want to follow through immediately. Now, we all know that the digital advancement of marketing leaves no room for bland emails filled with text only. There are also countless valuable, customizable and charming email templates available all over the internet but it’s better to design and formulate one by yourself than relying on such mediums. One needs to add relevant and eye-catching images and animations to increase its appeal and convert it into an HTML or interactive email. Let’s explore the purposes of simple and modern email templates along with some helpful and efficient strategies and methods.

Formats

1-    Textual Format

The Mother of every email template to existing today. A simple text-based email is a classic marketing tactic and can be helpful as it targets a broader range of email networks both capable and incapable of supporting a richer or heavier email format. There’s a lesser chance of your attempt at marketing going to the spam folders with this one because it’s easy to create and safe. All you need is to spin your words creatively and communicate them to the right audience.

Your text can be customized according to the campaign it represents. It gives you the freedom to make your own rules and break them too.

2-    HTML Format

Attractive and visually advanced, HTML email templates contain images and other graphical representations of the information contained in the email. They enhance the text and campaign’s message in the best way possible. An HTML enriched email format is the best example of the famous saying ‘A picture is worth a thousand words’. Creating an HTML template can save you a lot of time and energy, and you would only have to tweak it occasionally unless you wish to go overboard, which makes the whole purpose of a ‘template’ obsolete.

Tips and Tactics

Here are some of the most basic set of strategies you can implement to create the most perfect email template:
·        Recognize and identify your targeted audience before you take any step
·        Turn your feature into a benefit to ensure that the readers click on the CTA
·        This takes a little effort but leaves a great impression: personalize each email with the name of the receiver to address them directly
·        Use legible fonts and typography in the HTML formats to avoid confusion
·        Merge your CTA within the body instead of placing at the end of the email to instantly spring the reader into the action
·        Choose a color palette that matches your brand’s themes
·        Embed some basic information in the footer of your template like social media plug-ins, contact information, website, etc.
·        90% of your text should be inside an image if you wish to go with an HTML template
·        The language should not sound promotional but rather an attempt at problem-solving
·        Avoid negative space unless you can pull it off in an artistic manner
·        Understand the visual hierarchy of your message and use it correctly

7 Common SEM Myths Debunked

Digital Marketing has countless acronyms and terminologies which appear as jargon to people unfamiliar with the concept of advertising through online means. New Marketers and business owners are always looking for ways to enhance their brand presence to maximize outreach and visibility through not only real-life scenarios but also with the help of internet-based platforms and strategies. It is still a foreign concept for the majority of sellers who wish to use old-school and conventional forms of promotions. Most of these marketers have certain beliefs and misconceptions regarding the purpose and methods of digital marketing, and they refrain from availing otherwise harmless and cost-effective services due to their staunch assumptions. Some of their most basic concerns are associated with the field of Search Engine Marketing, otherwise known as SEM. In this blog, we will be debunking some of the most common myths and misconceptions regarding Search Engine Marketing.

1-    Paid Advertising or SEM is Fruitless

Logic suggests that if this was the case, then facilities like Google AdWords, or paid marketing campaigns would have become obsolete by now and paid advertisements wouldn’t be aggressively visible on significant online platforms. More than 80% of the most popular organizations in the world are using SEM to advertise their brand and it enables them to reach the right audience at suitable times as well.

2-    SEM doesn’t give much Return on Investment

Again, referring to the fact stated above, if the ROI from SEM was zero, it would have become a dead practice by now. According to statistics, SEM is considered to be amongst the top three most Digital Marketing Services in the world. Your campaign might require tweaking from multiple aspects as many factors need to be leveraged in Search Engine Marketing. So if anything, you need to optimize your campaign strategy or components of your ad to unlock the full potential of SEM.

3-    Organic Methods are Better than SEM

In the early 2000’s less than 19% of the clicks were known to be paid but now the ratio of paid vs organic clicks for search results has become 40% to 60%.

We cannot ignore the fact that paid advertisements contain the most targeted keywords and are tailor-made to grab the attention of potential customers. Marketing agencies are fully aware of the elements they need to maintain to make SEM work. Simply relying on organic techniques to get optimized ranking and traffic is not the way to go anymore, it is time-consuming and takes a lot of effort. Hence it needs to be combined with a reliable and affordable service like SEM to boost its outreach and impact.

4-    Keywords Should Remain Constant

With new products and new services being introduced constantly over the internet, keywords are bound to fluctuate and evolve with time. We cannot expect them to remain the same and therefore, to keep up with one’s competitors, one has to be consistent and refresh their keywords with proper research to stay ahead in the game.

5-    SEM is Self-manageable

SEM involves multiple complex features that need constant attention and dedication of SEM experts or staff designated towards the said cause. You can either learn it yourself to avoid getting help or you would have to rely on people with a fair understanding of the “Why’s” and “how’s” of SEM. Numerous vital factors need to be managed like updates, keywords, trends, utilizing tools and analyzing inputs along with wit results of campaigns. SEM is not as simple as it sounds and therefore only people with adequate knowledge of this field can utilize SEM to drive profitable results it is meant for.

6-    SEM is Meant for Specific Businesses Only

SEM applies for any and every business that exists on the internet as all brands would want to be recognized by their potential customers. Whether it’s B2B, B2C or specific niches, the diversity of businesses cannot alter the usability or benefits of SEM.

7-    Google is the Only Search Engine Worth Running Ads for

Your business advertisements are to be displayed over the internet through more than one medium. You cannot allocate the responsibility of driving traffic and visitors from ad campaigns on just one search engine. Bing, Firefox and Yahoo are some of the most popular search engines after Google itself and therefore you cannot neglect them by generalizing the idea of your targeted audience browsing with only one search engine.

Why you should be marketing your business on LinkedIn

There is a consistent flow of techniques being invented and new tools being implemented in the field of Digital Marketing. One has to keep up with their competitors in the race to becoming the most compelling business in their relevant industry or niche. The competition, however, becomes more complex on online networks and mediums. Your brand’s reputation and image depends upon how you present your services or products to your targeted audiences. The first step of making sure your brand stands out to potential customers is by choosing the right platforms. Once you have chosen the suitable online channels after assessing their strengths and weaknesses, it is now time for you to implement your marketing strategy in accordance with medium you intend to use. With the right marketing plan, adequate research and the most suitable platforms, sky is the limit. Let’s narrow our sphere down to only social media platforms and further constricting this sphere will lead us to an underrated but extremely efficient social media site which can prove to be a useful marketing tool, if leveraged correctly. The subject of discussion here is none other than “LinkedIn”. In this blog, we will be exploring reasons as to why you should be marketing your business through LinkedIn.

1-    Massive engagement levels

Statistics speak for themselves. LinkedIn is considered to be amongst the five biggest social media networks in the world with more than 170 million active users from US alone, hence it gives a head-on competition to Facebook and Twitter, its biggest contenders.

2-    Diversity of users

Keeping the above stated fact in mind, LinkedIn has around 600,000,000 registered users from more than 16 largest states in the world including Asia. Engaging with audiences all over the globe becomes a lot more convenient with LinkedIn. If you are looking to gain a global outreach for your business, LinkedIn is the way to go.

3-    Refining Brand Image

LinkedIn is the only Social Media Platform that has been specifically designed to help businesses communicate their stories and advertise themselves better. With a formal and corporate-powered touch to it, it enables marketers, businessmen, employers and employees to have a place from which they can promote themselves and their skills in the smartest and easiest way possible. ‘LinkedIn Recruiter’ allows you to hire skilled and experts of their field quickly and through a reliable and customized criteria. Invest the right amount of time and effort into it and you will be able to build an enormous business empire with an indisputable brand reputation.

4-    Content Marketing

As we have already discussed that LinkedIn is possibly the best network to form and optimize your brand’s presence, it is time to take a peek at the ‘how’ of it all. You are publishing posts, designing graphics, distributing videos, writing blogs and more, but are you getting any return on your investment from all the effort you are putting into creating quality content? Content Marketing is much more appreciated on a credible platform like LinkedIn. On most sites, it is more likely to not get the recognition it deserves but LinkedIn understands the importance of brand image and effective marketing, and enables advertisers to communicate with their audiences without seeming like a strictly business-oriented profile, unlike other social media platforms where even if the strategies and content are regulated to match the taste of users, it still ends up being a brand or business trying to sell their products.

5-    Better ORM

ORM or ‘Online Reputation Management Strategy’ revolves around improving customer reviews and feedback. Ensuring customer satisfaction and loyalty becomes far more manageable on LinkedIn as establishing brand authority is amongst the top purposes of LinkedIn.

6-     Traffic and Lead Generation

The significance of LinkedIn has been discussed so far, and now we know how one can enhance their research, insights, brand reputation and marketing process using LinkedIn. LinkedIn gives your business proof of authenticity it needs. It is the best way to spark curiosity and spread awareness regarding your company amongst your potential customers. Implementing the right strategies allows them to learn more about your core values and more by visiting your website and other social media networks. Which essentially is the best way to get traffic and leads.