Ever since the social media platforms started picking up,
it gave rise to a new method of marketing, influencer marketing.
Influencer marketing is where a social media influencer subtly promotes your brand or product,
either by talking about it, using it as a prop or subtly mentioning it in their content.

Who is a social media influencer?

A social media influencer is someone who has gained a loyal following of audience and gained credibility in a particular industry.
A large number of audiences follow them thus giving them the ability to persuade their audience.
Influencer marketing is surely on rise with more and more marketers increasing their annual budget for this method.
From exposure, brand awareness to instant attention & publicity, the marketer is benefited for every penny spent.

So why say yes to Influencer Marketing?

Cuts through the Advertising Blindfold:

Decades of advertising has made the audience immune, blind to ads.
Nowadays the traditional methods are not persuasive enough for the people.
Influencer marketing on the other hand because of its not so pushy nature subtly
registers the brand or product in people’s minds.

Offers a great Return on Investment:

The marketer here is truly benefited for every penny spent;
rather it outweighs the cost making the ROI very high.
Apart from monetary return on investment it also
complements the brand with exposure, recognition, publicity.

Boosts Brand Awareness with its unlimited reach potential:

One can’t set the reach a social media influencer could have.
The audience reach is unlimited and that’s good for the marketer.
It instantly boosts brand awareness and makes your brand the sudden topic of interest.

Builds trust & adds credibility:

When a social media influencer who is known to a certain number of
followers promotes your brand or product it adds credibility & builds trust amongst
the audience about your brand or product, drives their purchasing behaviour.
In turn, increases business.

The post Why say yes to Influencer Marketing? appeared first on Value Direct.

LinkedIn is a great way to promote businesses. There are a lot of advantages of launching social media marketing campaigns, especially on LinkedIn. Get started on LinkedIn by creating an account free of cost, and then follow the steps listed below.

Why you should consider using LinkedIn for marketing your business:

• The networking website has managed to gather over 65 million business professionals from around the world. This translates to great marketing opportunities.
• Every second, there is at least one login on LinkedIn. This creates showcasing opportunities for LinkedIn campaigns.
• The average annual household income of LinkedIn users is upwards of $100,000. Hence, this accounts more business prospects.
• Nearly half of the members on LinkedIn are authorized to make decisions on behalf of their company.
• Businesses can expect to get referrals, mentorship, etc. and accelerate on the path to growth through networking.

All these points show the potential of LinkedIn. If done right, marketing on LinkedIn can take your business to new heights.

How you can get started with LinkedIn marketing:

The first thing you should be aware of is how LinkedIn works. Create a new account if you don’t already have one. One of the main advantages of LinkedIn is that creating an account is completely free of cost. This method of marketing is also relatively inexpensive, should you have to buy certain special packages.

• Now, create an amazing LinkedIn profile. Keep in mind that your business should be helping others in some way or the other, only then you can expect growth. Create a profile that is attractive, and also visually pleasing.
• You should also consider setting up a LinkedIn company page for your business. This can be done after you’ve filled out your resume on your LinkedIn profile. The company page will be automatically linked to your LinkedIn profile through your resume.

Now that you’ve set up a profile, filled out your resume and linked your company page to your profile, let’s get into the methods of LinkedIn marketing.

Passive and Proactive Methods of Marketing on LinkedIn:

Before you start marketing on LinkedIn, you must keep in mind that the rewards will be directly proportional to your efforts. However, you must also keep in mind the quality of your marketing campaign is a big determinant here. Let’s talk a little more about the methods of marketing on LinkedIn.

1.   Passive Marketing

As the term suggests, you don’t have to put in any special efforts. Simply having a LinkedIn profile, making new connections, keeping your account updated, etc. can help you gather the attention of potential customers, clients, potential partners, etc. Here’s how the passive marketing approach works:

1. Connecting you with potential customers: LinkedIn has a search feature, which connects people looking for what you offer.
2. Introduction to a host of networking opportunities: LinkedIn business connections can help you connect with people and businesses that you may otherwise not be able to reach.
3. Recommendations: Recommendations are basically testimonials as to how good your business is. More testimonials translate to better opportunities for growth.

 2.   Proactive Marketing

As mentioned previously, the more efforts you put in your marketing campaign, higher the rewards that you can get. Here’s how you can proactively market your business on LinkedIn:

1. Participate in groups: Establish yourself as an expert in the field of your business. Answer business related queries with eloquence and in a professional language. Do not spam group posts, or promote your business directly. The first step involves establishing yourself as a trustworthy and knowledgeable person in that particular field
2. Post regular status updates: Get your word out there by posting regular status updates. Post updates about what you’re working on, and how you ensure that the client is satisfied. It is imperative that what you’re doing helps others achieve their own goals, too.
3. Paid advertising on LinkedIn: Paid advertising on LinkedIn is relatively cheap and an amazing way to break into the market by getting the word out there.
4. Paid LinkedIn membership: Paid membership on LinkedIn gives you access to a lot of opportunities that weren’t previously available. This will give you additional benefits such as added contact options.

The Bottom Line:

 Promoting a business is one of the main things that an entrepreneur/business professional aims to do. LinkedIn offers great opportunities to market your business to a stream of professionals who know what they are doing.

Get started on LinkedIn today for marketing your business.

Reach us now for all your Linkdin marketing needs at info@valuedirect.in 

The post LinkedIn Can Help Your Business Achieve New Heights appeared first on Value Direct.

From “Babies singing a perfect Bollywood song” to “Animal fanatics sharing cute videos of their cats & dogs”; from “Our Prime minister giving a perfect speech on growth prospects of the country” to “Few ministers giving Not-so-perfect speech about feminism”; one thing that keeps us curious about what’s happening around the world is- Facebook.

So let’s think about it. With around 226 million users in India actively spending time on this platform; Social media marketing sounds totally incomplete without Facebook.

Be it getting quality prospects for your upcoming real estate project or getting new customers for your insurance policy, Facebook Marketing has many ways to surprise you with its cost effective and efficient results.

So if you want to know how to utilize this platform to achieve your business goals; Check out these top 10 strategies.

1. Generate Quality Sales Leads

Be it any industry you belong to, sales is a backbone! But one of the important factor responsible even before a successful sales closure is Lead Generation. With its simplicity, Facebook has made it extremely easy to target and acquire ideal leads. The Auto pull feature makes the registration process even easier; where user doesn’t even have to leave Facebook’s interface.Combining the form with valuable offers and beneficial information included in Context Card; Facebook leads would be a great opportunity for the growth of your business. So get ready to make that first impression!

Combining the form with valuable offers and beneficial information included in Context Card; Facebook leads would be a great opportunity for the growth of your business. So get ready to make that first impression

2. Drive Traffic To Your Website

You spend so much time and money on building that awesome looking website. Don’t you think it deserves a warm visit from your target audience?

Website click ads on Facebook are exceptional if you are looking to generate traffic on your website and with Analytics placed correctly; it gives you a real-time statistics and performance. This in turn helps you in learning visitor behavior that can help you in improving your Target Marketing efforts in future.

With this objective, Facebook also optimizes your ad where you get maximum clicks at a minimal cost!

3. Promote Your Upcoming Event

If you have an exciting event coming up then there is no better platform to promote it than Facebook. With Event promotion, you can create the buzz about your exciting event as well as you can create leads or sell tickets by integrating your website properly into the campaign. How cool is that?

4. Increase Conversions On Your Website

How often do you see the e-commerce companies dominating your newsfeed with “End of Season Sale”& “FLAT 50% OFF”? EVERYDAY, Isn’t it?

With Conversion campaigns, you can not only drive people from Facebook to your website but also track a specific action that they have taken on your website such as buying a product or signing up for your webinar!

In order to do that you have to install Facebook Pixels on each page optimized for a specific action you want your user to take.

5. Get Video Views

Marketers are increasingly using video content to engage their audiences on social media. As per research, video ads generate higher engagement and more click-throughs than traditional static ads.

So, if you have that inspiring story which you want to share with the world, you should definitely use the Video Views objective.

6. Reach People Near Your Business

Is your brand hyper-local? Local Awareness objective on business allows you to reach people who are geographically closer to your business, but having only 2 options for targeting sometimes makes it very one-dimensional.

So if you wish to have a narrowly targeted audience with just Age and Gender, this option is more suitable for you.

7. Get Installs & Engagement For Your App

Gone are the days when businesses would debate whether to have a mobile application or not. Businesses from all corners of the world are now considering their App as a means to primarily improve their customer service.

With App install campaigns, you can now get as many downloads as possible to increase your app store ranking. An app installs campaign is one of the best way to kick-start your downloads.

With App engagement, you can link your ad to a specific section of your app – such as your online store, a registration page and more – so you can give your customers the best experience.

8. Get People To Claim Your Offer

If you are planning to attract more customers with a heavy discount or exclusive offer, Facebook “Offer Claims” campaigns would be a great choice. It could be beneficial in lead generation since now you can provide an incentive to your audience by asking to use their email IDs in exchange of a coupon code.

9. Promote Your Page And Engage Your Audience

Well, which company doesn’t want a loyal fan base? Promotion of your Facebook page itself accomplishes 1 goal: New fans.

So if you want to build awareness for your business by increasing the number of likes on your page, page promotion happens to be a go-to option on Facebook. But remember; if people don’t actually ENGAGE with your posts, your page likes are essentially worthless. So start sharing a valuable content in order to keep your audience highly active and engaged.

10. Retargeting

A simple question that every business should ask themselves is – Who is more likely to provide an email address? Is it “Someone who has never heard of you before” or  “Someone who visits your website frequently”?

Of course, it is the latter one. When you target people who have visited your website before with an opt-in opportunity, chances are your costs and success rate are significantly better than targeting a cold audience. Also keep in mind that the quality of the email address from a frequent website visitor will also be much higher.

Although there is no specific objective given as “Retargeting” in Facebook, it has been proven as the most important strategy when it comes to increasing the number of ‘Conversions’.

Our suggestion would be “Focus not only on a random website visitor, but most engaged website visitor”. Results then will be even better.

So how is your experience using Facebook Advertising? Good? Not so great? Let us know in the comment section below.

Also, If you are just starting and need a FREE consultation on how to use Facebook Marketing for your business? Reach us now at info@valuedirect.in or call us on +91 22 4113 3762!

The post 10 Awesome Ways To Use Facebook Advertising For Your Business! appeared first on Value Direct.

Businesses today use social media as a tool to grow and connect with potential or existing customers. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram are turning into an economical and productive platform for lead generation. Healthcare is the only sector which is in the inception phase of using social media for lead generation when compared to other businesses.

Digital Channels surpass Traditional Marketing for Healthcare:

• Radio or Television is so passe`, people are active on social media sites more than ever making it the perfect choice for target marketing.Apps like ‘Practo’ are widely used by Fitness Centres, Healthcare Centres, Hospitals and Speciality Clinics who list themselves over it.With gym, salon, spa and other services listed on the app, the people who use it for such services hover over Healthcare services resulting in Healthcare leads for the service providers.
• Fitbit, a fitness app used social media to get around 75K comments, likes and clicks through Instagram and Facebook. It engages the audience by posting questions related to Healthcare. Its social presence is generating more Healthcare leads for the company.
• Carilion Clinic, a US based Healthcare center has been promoting early breast cancer detection with its Instagram campaign #YESMAMM since many years. The campaign got them 4,605 followers on Twitter.
• Anne Arundel’s Medical Center started a facebook campaign “Stachie” to raise awareness for Men’s Health which helped their website gain more traffic. Apart from this, blogs and podcasts also further increased their website traffic leading to more Healthcare sales leads.

  Why is Social Media your go-to tool for generating Healthcare leads?

• 90% of the people in their early 20’s rely on the medical information shared over social media.
• 19% of smartphone users have apps related to exercise, diet, and weight on their phones.
• 54% of people look for virtual advice for their health problems.
• 41% people rely on social media while contemplating over the decisions regarding their medical treatment.
• There is an 119% increase in the diversion of YouTube traffic to hospital sites.
• 27% of people count on social media for sharing their health experiences.

5 ways in which Social Media Advertising can help the Healthcare sector:

1. Cost Efficient & Strategic Business Tool – Social media has emerged as the latest healthcare marketing solution for Healthcare lead generation. The biggies of Healthcare sector are paying a huge sum to advertise over social media.
   Alternatively, Target marketing using advanced targeting systems like Facebook and Google Adwords can prove to be an economical way of generating Healthcare leads.
2. High Customer Engagement – Most of the people today share their feedback over social media. Their decisions, opinions and trust factor are based on the facts posted online about the hospital or Healthcare center.
   Healthcare centers have noticed increased healthcare sales leads with a positive feedback about their service over Facebook. As we all know ‘time is money’ in today’s fast paced life so the quick reply to customer queries keeps them engaged over social media.
3. Instant Feedback helps both the Customer & Organization – Social media channels like Facebook allows your business to get real-time data about conversion rates, leads received and so on instantly. It helps the customer to get information relating to the hospital or service in a jiffy.
   A majority of people use social media channels like Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter for health-related information before visiting a hospital. For e.g. Mr.X may go to a Facebook page of a hospital to read reviews and user ratings of the center.
4. Higher Conversion Rates – Like other Industries today, Healthcare Industry is also looking for outcome based measurement. Social media enables quality based Healthcare leads for the businesses with its target marketing approach. For the customers, it’s a reliable and affordable care plus value based purchase with a quick feedback to their queries.

5. Increased Customer Satisfaction  – Using Social media, the Healthcare sector can connect to people almost instantly. Through Twitter, Facebook or Instagram they can immediately reply to the queries, comments or likes posted by the users. This real-time engagement with customers leads to positive feelings towards the company.

A right step of the Healthcare Industries with target marketing by improving their presence over social media can grab the attention of their prospects. With the number of social media users growing to 143 million by April 2015, it is the right medium for the Healthcare sector to target their potential customers. In the wake of cut-throat competition, social media is a brilliant way in which the Healthcare sector can connect to the new and existing audience and build goodwill in the market.

Social media is the 21st-century Healthcare marketing solution. As a popular proverb says, “Don’t find customers for your products, find products for your customers”, social media helps in knowing what the customers really want and helps businesses build services around it thereby creating a winning strategy.

The post Social Media – A Silver Lining for The Healthcare Industry appeared first on Value Direct.

As you plan your budget allotments, see how the emerging trends would impact social media in 2017.

1. Potential Prospects:

Previously, social media only acted as a thread for connecting people, whereas today businesses are using it to connect with their potential prospects. This year, social media ad revenue touched $9.8 billion & nearly 84% of CEOs, VPs gave more preference to social media marketing while making purchasing decisions. With social ad revenues anticipated to rise, the paid form of online advertising won’t remain cheaper either.

#Fact: As marketing budgets continue to increase, the ad spending for social media is expected to exceed $35 billion in 2017.

2. Video ads:

Undoubtedly, video ads have grown this year to a large extent. Although; YouTube existed in this race since a long time, but Facebook became the first preference for advertisers to publish video ads. The bonus here is even Instagram is evolving as the most preferred channel for video ads, ahead of Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. Around 90% of buyers are of the opinion that video ads help them in making purchase decisions.

#Fact: Over 70% percent of marketers plan to increase their use of video ads next year.

3. Start-Ups & Digital Marketing:

For start-ups, what better way than social media to promote products cost effectively! And, they’re nailing it with perfection to build a reputation, engaging with followers and for finding potential clients. Around 75% of small business owners believe it is very effective. Today, Instagram is used by 48.8%of brands. Social Media will create new opportunities for brands to improve conversion rates.

#Fact: By 2017, the global mobile ad revenue of Instagram will reach $2.81 billion.

4. Marketing Database:

In 2016, Facebook had 1.79 billion monthly active users, while Instagram had 500 million monthly active users as of June 2016. In fact, Instagram has beaten Facebook and Twitter when it comes to engagement.

Do you know one thing that’s common among them? A huge amount of Customer Database. Contests, likes or dislikes about a particular product or service, and bios are some of the determiners to gather customer information. The sole purpose of everything is to get your business narrow down on your target personas.

#Fact: By 2017, the global social network audience will total 2.55 billion.

5. Emerging social platforms:

Except for Facebook and Google, other emerging platforms are Instagram and Snapchat. The dominance of Instagram is clearly understandable from the fact that nearly 71% of companies are projected to be active on the platform in 2017. Is your business one of them? Many brands are using to grow a strong follower base on Snapchat as well due to its innovative video features.

#Fact: In 2017, it is expected that Snapchat will double down on its ad product to enhance targeting and analytics for its advertisers.

Conclusion

You may be wondering what your business can derive from the changes happening in the digital world. One thing it can definitely help you is – increase sales by helping you reach out to untapped customers. It may seem simple to follow these changes, rather execution would require a lot of time and talent. If your business don’t want to go through the pain points of digital marketing, then Value Direct will manage everything for you with its unique lead generation programs.

The post How Your World Will Revolve Around Social Media In 2017 appeared first on Value Direct.

Nope! I am not defending social media here neither am I donning a lawyer’s coat. I am simply bursting some of the mythical bubbles that go against this ‘people’s medium’ – Social Media.

1. Social Media Is ONLY for Branding

This theory has been over sold since the times businesses decided to explore this territory. As a matter of fact, social media is primarily for branding and serves as an excellent reciprocative tool as far as direct feedback is concerned. But breaking the stereotypes, social media is not just restricted to building a brand anymore. It’s more about building an EXPERIENCE. It has eventually become an indispensable business tool for any of the marketing activities.
2. Social Media Isn’t for Marketing

This seems to be WRONGLY infused by agencies into the businesses. Why would they do that? Simply to avoid the question of ROI! While some agencies across the world have shrugged this off and are working only on ROI model, there are certain biggies who feel mention of ROI from social media will backfire. If your agency isn’t working on commitment, it’s time to switch your agency. Social media is a part of 4P’s of marketing and separating it from marketing is equivalent of making it handicapped.

3. Social Media Demands Big Bucks

WRONG! Social media is the cheapest advertising medium for any and every business today. According to Adweek.com, “It’s cheaper. A lot cheaper. You can reach 1,000 people for a fraction of the cost using social media than you can through television, billboards or even email.”

Proclamation: It’s possible to generate 1000 leads in a day for your business on social media, by spending ¼ of what you would spend on television, radio, OOH or any other advertising medium.

4. Facebook Is the Strongest Social Medium for Business

While Facebook is one of the top tools for business, it cannot be strongest tool for ALL the businesses. The reason – Audiences! If your business talks to business, then Facebook definitely isn’t an accurate tool. It would rather be served by LinkedIn, which is a B2B platform. According to Internet, there are more than 200 social networking sites and our world is still limited to Facebook

5. Social Media CANNOT Get Me Sales

If this is what you believe in, then you have probably not heard of Cost Per Acquisition campaigns on social media. Well, not only SALES but registration, leads, bookings, and lot more happen through social media.

Isn’t it cool to book a test drive on Facebook?

6. Social Audiences Aren’t Serious

Yo! There’s some cool gang of youngsters hanging out on social media sites to connect with friends and have conversations. Ever tried befriending them? They will surely respond optimistically to your gesture. It’s a just a matter of seconds that these stranger YO guys will turn into your biggest influencers and positive resonators. The audience is pretty serious out here when it comes to buying decision as there’s a lot of peer influence and organic viral promotion that makes decision authentic.

7. Social Media Contests Aren’t Serious

Like my earlier point, the contests may not lead to purchase but they are definitely serious if planned and executed well. Heard of Oreo’s super successful campaign on Twitter? Well, you must just Google it.

8. Social Media Won’t Foster My Offline Business

This is one of the biggest myths! Social media has been lending a helping hand to retailer’s big time. From creating brand awareness to getting targeted walk-ins, I just can’t stop going Gung-Ho about social media here. A well known pizzeria in Australia named Philadelphia saw a 41% sales uplift after resorting to Instagram for advertisement. Get started with social media marketing and let some new walk-ins pump in.

So, what stops you from being social? Go and get your brand shining on the top of the charts leaving all the stereotypes aside.

Author: Divya Arjun Gajaria

Breathing social media at the moment! Pursuing PhD in Social Media simply for the love of it  Driving innovation for businesses with social media strategies and strategic concepts. Always hungry for more knowledge.

The post 8 Biggest Social Media Myths Businesses Have appeared first on Value Direct.