Spotify is one of the most popular music streaming services in the world. It has many ways to let people interact with your music on this platform, but not everyone knows about them! Here are some tips that will help you let more people interact with your music on Spotify.
Learn how to advertise on the platform
No matter what you do, you have to advertise your work. This platform is no different, and you should learn what Spotify marketing services are there and how to take advantage of them to create a profitable music career. First of all, use Spotify Adverts from the free service section to start advertising your music. These Ads are great for getting the word out about your work without limiting access to it. People who have not yet subscribed will see ads, so they’ll get curious and learn more about what’s being advertised right away.
Ask experts and take courses on how to use these services to your advantage. That way you’ll be able to get the most out of Spotify’s marketing opportunities. Once you’ve learned how it works, use Spotify Sponsorship or Spotify Underlay Ads to advertise your music with limited access. The advantage of these sponsored ads is that they’re non-intrusive and also limited in time; listeners can’t play them forever for free!
Share your music on social media
Social media is your best friend when it comes to Spotify, allowing you to reach a much larger audience. This platform is all about sharing and social media allows people to see what’s going on in your Spotify account without having an actual Spotify account themselves.
This way you’ll make it easier to be further shared by your friends, allowing Spotify to reach more people.
You can share anything on social media you think is worth sharing: Spotify playlists, tracks of new albums, etc. This way not only will your music be shared but also the fact that it’s available on Spotify! Also, make sure to make a music video for YouTube, that you can link to your Spotify account.
There are many different types of social media accounts dedicated solely to music so make sure to have them connected with Spotify as well. For example, you could connect your Soundcloud account and let all the followers see what songs are being played by Spotify users at this very moment (and vice versa).
Invite people to listen and follow you on Spotify
Getting people to follow you on Spotify is a great way to work towards your goal of having more people interact with your music. Spotify has many features that allow you to share what you’ve been listening to, and it’s also possible for listeners to follow artists they enjoy without needing a Spotify account.
Send out Spotify invites to friends and family, follow other Spotify users who share your taste in music, and encourage them to return the favor by following you. Spotify also has a feature that allows listeners to preview songs they like before buying or downloading them. Use this tool wisely: give people an idea of what your music is about without giving too much away!
Make playlists and include your own music
Create specific playlists and put your music into the mix on Spotify to give more users the opportunity to interact with your music. Spotify’s playlists are a great way to find new content, and if you use this app for listening purposes, it might be worth checking out some of these playlists yourself!
make a playlist of a specific genre your music belongs to
make a playlist for specific moods
make a playlist with music for car rides
Create an engaging cover photo
An engaging cover photo on a song or album can lead to more people interacting with your music. Spotify is a digital media player that uses streaming technology so users can listen to specific songs or albums for free, unlike iTunes where songs are sold per download.
As artists may have already noticed on Spotify, if their cover photo isn’t engaging then it’s less likely that “people will click”. Either take a photo or create cover art that is fun and eye-catching and people will want to see what’s going on behind the picture.
Write a blog post about how you made the songs
A lot of people are interested in the process of making music but don’t know how to find out about the musician’s techniques. Tell them how a song was made from composition to lyrics and many will feel how personal it is and how much effort was put into it. After that, they will be keen to listen to your content and support you.
Promoting music has become easier thanks to Spotify and you should use this opportunity. Make sure you know how to advertise yourself and share content on social media and blogs. Make playlists and invite people to listen to you. Also, make sure your cover art is just as engaging as your song. Good luck!
The SEO industry is abuzz with the Google taking the onus of rewriting titles of articles, blogs, and any other content in the SERPs. Since mid-August, the SEO industry started noticing massive title rewrites, which was a clear departure from the earlier practice. Let Google rewrite is making minor changes to titles like adding the business name to the end.
Google is doing now to completely transform the title with different text, which is as good as writing the titles afresh. One SEO Company in India feels that although the scale of rewrites is not yet clear as SEOs have already gone through the experience, it shows that the range is quite expansive and likely to grow in the future.
What prompted Google to change titles drastically?
Google has always attached immense importance to titles that appear in the SERP. It helps to present the most relevant result against specific search queries and encourages users to click on it. In its endeavor to refine the search results and present the most accurate results, Google continuously updates the search results.
But since May 2021, the pace of the updates has been unprecedented. Between May and August, when Google started title tag rewrites on a large scale. There have been multiple updates to the search results in rapid succession, accompanied by a significant increase in People Also Ask (PAA) features.
The interactions of people with the PAA features reached Google in the form of data that underlined what users mean when they frame or use certain search queries and data about why they did not click on certain search results despite being relevant to them. It might be presumed that the cause for not clicking on some results by overriding its relevance could be that the title tags were perhaps not descriptive enough.
The insights about people’s interaction with search results gathered through PAA may have helped Google understand that the improper title tags prevented users from clicking on the search results despite being relevant.
Many Titles fall short of Google’s expectations
According to Google guidelines, each title must be unique and, at the same time, brief but descriptive so that viewers can guess correctly what the content is about. It needs no reiteration that the titles should be clear and concise and reveal what the content is all about so that users can get enough hints about what to expect from the topic and its relevance. It should help them decide whether to click on the reach result or look for something better.
The SEO industry has been following the guidelines religiously for years. Still, there seems to be some gap between the level of descriptive accuracy that Google expects and what the industry can deliver. Or else, why should users refrain from clicking on some search results despite recognizing their relevance to the search query?
Why are title tags important to Google?
Titles are like the tips of icebergs that help Google understand what lies beneath by using various technological tools to match the topic with the search query to present the most relevant and accurate result in the SERP. Interestingly, Google has never advised adding a keyword to the titles, although it has been one of the industry’s best practices since the new millennium.
However, it does not prohibit publishers from doing it, although it vehemently denounces stuffing unwanted keywords in the titles. Why the SEO industry started using keywords in titles remains a mystery because titles do have any remote connection to ranking. Surprisingly, the practice is still prevalent. No one knows for sure how it is beneficial for users because descriptive clarity of title tags is paramount to Google, and nothing else matters.
How users can make better use of title tags
To create the most appropriate title tags, users must start looking beyond the established industry best practices that still prefer placing keywords in the titles. Although keywords are important for ranking, it should never be a priority to place keywords in the title by overriding the need to create crisp, descriptive titles that reveal a lot about the content.
To place or not to place keywords in the title tag is a non-issue from Google’s perspective, and you must create title tags that are short but easy to understand and builds the right expectations of users about what they can find in the content.
The gap between the industry best practices and Google’s advice
Looking back at the SEO best practices as outlined in various articles published by the industry experts from time to time since 2000, the gap in the perception about what constitutes the perfect title tag becomes quite evident. Even after two decades into the new century, the SEO industry is still reliant on using keywords in the title despite Google’s declaration that the title tags do not impact ranking.
Although the SEO industry recognizes the need for the relevance of title tags to the content page, it keeps emphasizing the use of keywords in the title. It suggests various means of reinforcing the keywords so that it garners maximum attention from the search engines. Some experts even suggest that placing keywords in title tags should help to rank for that keyword. Moreover, keywords would encourage users to click on that page. All these are contrary to Google’s advice about creating title tags.
Adhere to what Google wants
From the above, it is clear that adhering to the so called best practices of the SEO industry does not equate with Google’s expectations about title tags. Realizing that the SEO industry is yet not ready to fulfill Google’s expectations about title tags, Google has now started rewriting the title tags by introducing updates that allow the rapid development and deployment of new ranking models and improvement of existing and introducing new algorithms. However, it isn’t clear whats the technology behind title rewriting is or the kind of data used for it.
It is a wake-up call for the SEO industry to recast its age-old ideas about creating title tags to align with Google’s guidelines or leave it Google to change.
We’ve all wished we could have more customerconversions at one point or another. But getting people who visit your site or your premises actually to buy from you is tough. Let’s discuss how to influence and convert consumers with marketing psychology.
It’s vaguely psychological in the sense that it accepts that enticing people to buy your product are important. But it’s naive in its approach. It doesn’t seek to exploit the psychological triggers that cause people to buy from you.
Your brand’s message isn’t limited to the word choices that you make. The environment under which you present your message is equally (perhaps even more) important.
Subtle aspects, such as color, line, shape, and font, matter. People respond to visual stimuli subconsciously. For starters, you need to ditch the notion that your website has to be elegant. Beautiful websites that don’t function well have high bounce rates. And, they don’t convert well.
You just need a functional website that’s easy to use and loads fast. But, learning a few psychology principles will help you to improve the usability of your website and thereby increase the engagement that you receive.
Here, we’re going to investigate the various psychological forces that trigger the buying decision. How can you better influence and convert them? Let’s take a look.
Pleasure
Human beings might have very differentpersonalities, but they’re all wired on a basic level in a very similar way. This is particularly the case when it comes to pleasure and pain. People like pleasure and they avoid pain.
This basic fact is important for companies. Companies that provide their customers with pleasure are in a better position to do business than those that don’t. Why? Because companies that provide pleasure will become associated with pleasure in the consumer’s mind.
The theory seems straightforward, but how to make it actionable? Today, many of the world’s top companies are using the A to Z process. The idea here is to take customers from their first interaction – point A – and get them as close to point Z as possible, before asking for money.
You see this sort of thing all the time from top tech startups. Almost all tech startups won’t charge for their software upfront. Instead, they’ll offer customers a free trial that lasts perhaps a couple of weeks.
In that time, customers will use the product and learn all the many ways that it can help them. And, ultimately, they’ll begin to associate pleasure with that product. When that happens, tech companies will look to close the sale. It’s an effective strategy and one that exploits a key human drive.
Marketing psychology … Hick’s Law
Psychologists William Edmund Hick and Ray Hyman conducted choice reaction experiments to assess cognitive information capacity. They found that increasing the number of choices increased the time that it took to make a decision logarithmically.
A common application of this law is the jam study that you might have read. When the number of choices at a grocery store was decreased by 18, the sales shot up from 3% to 30%.
So, how does this law apply to your website design?
Instead of providing ten choices to your visitors and overwhelming them…
You need to cut down the options that you provide to the absolute, bare minimum.
A consumer is bombarded with a lot of information, every day. So, when they visit your website, value their time and present your most compelling and relevant offer to them.
Here are the specific design elements that you need to consider:
Keep the number of form fields to a minimum. Here’s an estimate of the conversions that you might lose, upon increasing the number of form fields.
Every additional social mediashare button on your website contributes to increasing the loading time. So, find the social platforms where your audience hangs out. Only show those sharing buttons on your blog, not ten other options.
We have known for a while that people strongly respond to both precedence and novelty. In the consumer world, the same is true. Take novelty, for instance. Neuroscience has shown that our brains react to novelty in a very interesting way.
When we see something new, our brains immediately release dopamine, making us feel good. We then start to associate new stuff with feeling good and become, in a sense, hooked.
Take the iPhone, for instance. Everybody knows that the difference between the iPhone 5 and the iPhone 6 is small. And yet people were quite happy to throw away their iPhone 5 and blow money on the new version, just because it was new.
So what can marketers do with this information? The key here is to tweak your product continuously. Add a couple of new features, change the styling, or even do a simple rebrand. These can all be effective in driving new sales and giving customers what they want.
If you do go down the novelty route, however, you’ve got to be careful. Customers will call your bluff if you don’t add meaningful new features or change your business model.
Influence and convert consumers … visceral reaction
I didn’t share complete information when I said that beautiful websites don’t get good conversions.
Occasionally, you can win over people and get them to love you by directly triggering their central nervous systems. People just feel that your website is great and can’t get enough of it.
How we are subconsciously affected is relatively consistent, across genders and demographics, because these reactions are rooted in our old brain.
So, how can you evoke a visceral reaction on your website and make people want to experience it again?
One simple way is by leveraging colorful pictures. Airbnb uses beautiful images to please its visitors and make a great first impression.
The UX Magazine shares a few more ways to design for the gut, in this article.
Leverage symmetry
If you’re like most people, you don’t like disorder. So, you perceive all objects with a symmetry around their center.
So, how you can you leverage this principle in design?
Your audience will quickly comprehend information when you convey it in a symmetrical and orderly manner. On the other hand, when your composition provides a sense of imbalance, then the user might find it difficult to concentrate.
But, you can leverage asymmetry to draw attention towards important elements on your website – like the CTA buttons.
Marketing psychology … ease of use
The famous psychologist Daniel Kahneman said that the law of least effort applies to cognitive as well as physical effort. He says that if people have some options to achieve the same goal, they will choose the easiest.
His argument, therefore, is that people like stuff that is easy and dislike stuff that is hard. Evolution, he says, has made us lazy. It was a survival benefit for us to expend as little energy as possible because we never quite knew when our next meal would arrive.
Because laziness is so deeply built into our psychology, it’s something that is paramount for businesses. Firms need to make the customer experiences as painless and as easy as they possibly can.
Take making payments, for instance. Customers want to be able to make payments as quickly and as easily as possible. But often businesses don’t offer solutions that cater to their needs. Nobody wants to spend ages filling out a direct debit order form every time they make a big purchase.
What’s the key message to convey to your customers? It’s that your business is the easiest and simplest way for your clients to get hold of the service that they want.
Psychological triggers.
Influence and convert consumers … personal connections
Ultimately, it’s all about connecting with your audience emotionally. If you can’t communicate a relevant offer for the user at the moment when he visits your website….then you’ve failed.
Here are a couple of ways to ensure that you take care of your prospects.
Conduct user experience tests While data about your users from analytics is a good way to make decisions, it isn’t the best. Because it doesn’t tell you ‘the why.’
Yelp leveraged a series of five tests, to analyze user behavior and derived valuable insights on the specific elements of their website.
For example, the search bar was one of their major features, and it was easy to use. They also found some elements, like the ‘Events’ tab, which weren’t particularly noticeable.
StorytellingA classic and powerful technique to make an emotional connection with people is by telling stories. Your design tells a story, but is it a compelling and memorable one?
I would recommend starting with my article on brand storytelling,to assess your visual story.
Don’t underestimate the power of storytelling. Ecommerce brand Raven + Lily was able to ramp up their sales by 150%, by incorporating product storytelling and doing a site redesign.
Share a common enemy
Steve Jobs wasn’t the best manager or the best engineer. But what he could do better than anybody else in the world was sell. He understood that they way to sell to people was to create an alliance with them to solve a problem.
Creating a common enemy helps to unite businesses and consumers in a fundamental way. It makes it seem as if they are on the same team and have to work together to face down a common foe.
In the 1980s, Apple saw that Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard were running away with the desktop market. Jobs immediately saw an opportunity to cast Apple and its consumers as the underdog, and the PC firms as the corporate giants.
It didn’t matter that Apple itself was a big company. All that mattered was that Apple was uniting its customers under one banner against the PC.
The advice for small businesses is to find a common enemy. Remember, you don’t have to unite with people against a particular company. Having “colds and flu” as an enemy or “boring education” can be just as effective.
The bottom line
To be effective in this new era, we as marketers need to see our jobs differently. No more just focusing on metrics like clicks, video views or social media shares. We must successfully integrate our function with other business functions to create entire brand experiences that serve the customer all the way through their experiences throughout the business.
We can do better. Much better. But first, we need to stop seeing ourselves as crafters of clever brand messages and become creators of positive brand experiences.
Need some help in building better customer trust from your customer engagement? Creativeideas to help grow your customer relationships?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job and pay for results.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your continuous learning for yourself and your team?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.
More reading on customer engagement from our library:
Whole Foods Customer Engagement Using Social Media
How easy do you find it to pay great compliments? An authentic compliment. Difficult for you? Seemingly a common thing, right? But difficult to do uncommonly well, don’t you agree?
As a leader or even as a peer, great compliments have never been more critically important than today. Not because they are expected, but to help in team motivation and engagement. While everyone is wrapped up in their own performance, people hardly take the time to recognize the work of others.
Whether you’re dealing with bosses, subordinates, or peers, a well-placed compliment will make you valuable, noteworthy, and better suited for leadership.
Why compliments?
When you recognize people’s skills and achievements, it makes you seem more selfless. Your attention to detail is appreciated. And if you believe what some scientific studies have to say on the subject, people who pay others compliments are seen as smarter. And more humble … a critical leadership quality.
Understand what motivates people you work with and focus on paying compliments that will give attention to those things. For a business leader, it may be addressing and inspiring a crowd of subordinates. For a secretary, it may be her knowledge of office details. Regardless, compliment them accordingly, in the most natural way possible.
Timing is essential
Compliments are all about timing. They are usually most effective immediately after someone does something they deserve praise for. It’s right after the fact that most people want to hear that they did well. Let time pass and they will calm down, or convince themselves that they did well and don’t need anyone else’s approval.
But timing also involves calibrating someone’s mood. If you see a co-worker in a slump, a well-placed compliment might motivate him and remind him that what he does is significant.
If you’re looking for a new way to boost your business marketing this year, it pays to consider promotional products. They can lead to excellent results, are available in options for many budgets, and aren’t hard to source. However, it’s also good to understand the top promo item types that work well, so you can source the best option(s) for your company and goals.
Bags
The most effective promotional products tend to be the ones people use often. As such, you might like to investigate buying quality custom bags that you brand with your logo and other pertinent company details. Tote bags, in particular, can be excellent choices since people use these as reusable shopping bags, book and library bags, and more.
These items are handy, too, when you’re exhibiting at a trade show or conference and want to give people something they can fill up with paperwork and other bits and pieces on the day. Attendees appreciate such a practical product.
Pens
Pens are also a promo product people get practical use out of. They’re one of the most popular goods chosen for this reason, along with the fact that they’re affordable for most budgets. Buy specifically printed pens for your business, and you can rest assured that they’re likely to be used time and time again and will probably even change hands multiple times, adding to the brand awareness generated.
Notebooks and Other Stationery
Other stationery items can work well as freebies, too. For example, since so many of us tend to make notes in journals and spend time writing a diary, gratitude list, to-do list, etc., custom notebooks are popular. Alternatively, you could opt for branded desk or wall calendars, rulers, desk organizers (such as caddies), mousepads, and shopping lists.
Water Bottles
Since we all drink daily, you might purchase water bottles to hand out as customized promotional gifts. People across ages and locations are increasingly focused on how much water they drink and take bottles with them when they go out, so they don’t get dehydrated. This means reusable water bottles are practical and popular and growing more so all the time. Plus, they have the added benefit of being an eco-friendly option, unlike disposable plastic bottles.
Coffee Mugs
Billions of cups of coffee are consumed every day, especially in the office, making coffee mugs an equally useful gift. If you want many people to see your brand name and logo, a coffee mug that gets left at the office and used in meetings can work nicely. Custom mugs will likely never go out of fashion and aren’t too costly to buy in bulk, either, so they work from all angles.
When you make an accidental mistake with a customer, your primal response is to immediately say ‘I’m sorry’. That’s OK.
What’s not OK is to say ‘we apologize for any inconveniences we may have caused”.
Mistakes happen.
Related: Deadly Mistakes that Destroy Employee Engagement
Apology message … How you apologize matters.
This is not OK.
Don’t BS people … just say ‘I’m sorry’.
And mean it.
Do you have an apology story to share with this community?
Need some help in building better customer insights from your customer engagement? Creative ideas to help grow your customer base?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job of growing customer insights and pay for results.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new insights that you have learned.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your continuous learning for yourself and your team?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
More reading on customer engagement from our library:
Complaint Management … Tips for Small Business Success
Complaint Handling … 14 Effective Business Relationship Recommendations
Your air conditioner units are an essential utility for the household, but it may not be something you want in the front and center. Most of us want to hide the AC units, but not sure how to do it. It may be embarrassing to have a mechanical unit cluttering up your open spaces and damaging the place’s ambiance. It is an ideal way to consider a good quality air conditioner cover, which will offer both protection and help avoid the unsightly scene.
In this article, we will discuss some fun ways to cover up the AC units.
However, before considering covering up your AC, keep the following things in mind.
You should not block the airflow around the unit. If air is blocked, the AC unit may not work properly and also get overheated.
Ensure that your creative coverage solutions will allow easy access to the unit during the HVAC services or repair.
Also, check the informative guide of your AC to know the dos and don’ts of maintaining it before installing any add-on.
Ideas to cover up AC unit outdoors
Here are some ideas to effectively cover up your condensing unit, which is mostly placed outdoors.
A garden structure – You can aesthetically hide the outdoor AC unit inside a garden structure. You can get decorative wooden structures of various sizes to camouflage your condensing unit. However, make sure that there is enough room for airflow, and the equipment is accessible for servicing.
Lattice vine wall – A lattice vine wall is a fun way to cover up your air conditioner unit even when maintaining the air flow smoothly. However, do not up to it so close to the flowers and plants as AC vents may release excessive heat.
AC cover – There are many choices in air conditioner cover, both online and offline. These are made of various quality materials like polyethylene, vinyl, canvas, etc. Make sure you get a good quality cover with air vents to allow proper airflow.
Do not install a too tight-fitting cover as it may cause damage to the unit. Also, do not choose a loose-fitting cover as it may not offer adequate protection. AC covers are available in various colors, shades, patterns, etc.
Painted screens – These variants of AC covering are so popular in the Caribbean and Dublin area, where people paint the doors in shiny colors. You can think of creative ways to recycle your old doors to use them as cozy AC coverage.
Painted pallet screen – This is another inexpensive idea that requires an old shipping pallet. You can apply some decorative painting of some bright color matching to the overall décor and use it as AC coverage. You can make it a funny DIY project by including your kids, who will enjoy it the most.
Among these, choosing a good quality AC cover is the most popular and effective way to cover up your AC unit. These can be easily installed and taken off when needed. There are plenty of options available in AC covers, and you can surely find one matching the size and model of your AC unit online if you spend some time researching it.
Does your business put a priority on its competitive market analysis and competitive analysis ideas? Does it monitor marketplace trends and its understanding of market change? And most importantly, does it put a priority on making changes as a result of insights from this analysis?
Related: The Small Business Crash Course on Creative Business Ideas
No business attribute is more important today than that of adaptability, as many, many businesses are on the brink of irrelevance unless they change as fast as change itself. Your strategies do run out of steam, get old, and become ineffective … you need to keep refreshing them based on your anticipation of the next change. A competitive analysis is critical in helping with your anticipation of market and customer change. Read on to understand why.
Why do a competitive analysis?
A vigorous competition watch kills two birds with a single stone – helps with a better understanding of rival tactics and opens a window through which you can see your own problem areas. Further, I’m sure you’d agree that knowing where you stand is highly important.
Aquisition
Still, looking for reasons to use competitive analysis in improving business success? Read through the following reasons and find out yourself.
Identify opportunities to serve newly acquired and prospective customers.
Determine the size of the market – identify service gaps and areas for self-improvement where competition is exploiting at the moment.
Find the tested ways to cater to the target market.
Update and add unique value propositions.
Conclude if your marketing strategies are effective.
Benefits of competitive research
There are many benefits of effective competitive analysis. Here are the ones we feel are most significant:
You can really dive into your market to understand it better.
Define who your real customers are and better target them.
You can get an understanding of what your competitors have done that has been successful without re-inventing the wheel.
Isolate trends that make a positive difference.
Who are your competitors?
Most companies believe they know who their competitors are. But when we do a little research on identifying them, they are usually surprised by the results. Here are the questions and facts you need to know and be asking yourselves:
What to find about your competitor and where?
A local store is not your competitor online if they don’t offer their service via the internet. Your competitors based online could be entirely different. Examine new and emerging players in the market.
Evaluate the premise of your rivals – if you share similarities, look for areas where a certain edge can be established and nurtured.
Competition analysis – How to do it effectively
Taking a sneak peek at competitors requires a little undercover work from your office and occasionally doing a walk around surveillance. Here are some things you should consider:
Acquisition approach
Look for rivals’ social media engagement – how frequently they respond to their clients, are their social media reps doing a decent job or not, and subtle indicators of customer acquisition via self-promotion.
Unique value propositions
Learn how your rivals are playing the game, so you can beat them to the punch. The unique value proposition sheds light on the fraction of clients that your rival is fixated on.
Are their posts mostly internal, external, or a mix of both?
How on-brand are their photos? Do they show the product or service in each shot, or do they follow a more lifestyle-oriented content strategy?
What hashtags do they use?
Competition store walkthrough
Occasionally put your customer hat on and do a simple walk-through of your key competitors’ store. From a customer’s point of view, what are the strengths and weaknesses? Which ones could you employ to make your business better?
Tap local business leaders for local intelligence/advice
Never hesitate to reach out and ask local business leaders their opinions on trends they are seeing and how they see your business in relation to its competitors.
Compare your website value versus your competition
Our research has shown customers will visit at least three websites before making a purchase. The larger the purchase, the more sites they’ll visit. Therefore, you need to look at your website in the context of your competition.
Seek to understand the customer journey as they move from one website to the next. Pay attention to the promotion incentives your competitors offer and how they compare to yours. If the competition’s website is easier to use, offers more enticing incentives, and contains more compelling messaging, you will have a hard time generating online leads.
Trends and shifts
Watch for marketplace trends and shifts. Look at the fringe of the environment, for that is where trends first appear.
Anticipation
Work at developing your anticipation of changes in your market.
Study how trends start to interact with each other as well as customers and businesses.
Useful tools
Rival IQ
Rival IQ is perfect for getting full intelligence coverage on what your market is about. You can set up landscapes (up to 30 sites in the pro version) in your category or content publishing niche, find the hottest and most engaged (hello conversion possibility) topics and channels.
You can spot gaps where your competition is not present and mine the top 100 SEO keywords for search volume, traffic share, and search rank positions.
You can go deeper and map up the entire editorial flow for each channel and get topic ideas for your marketing. You can also see what changes RivalIQ does to titles, Meta descriptions, and social bios and even track website changes (design and mostly home page).
Site Alerts
Site Alerts is another great tool for looking under the hood to see what your competitors are using technology-wise (which eCommerce platform, mail provider, plugins, tech enhancements). It’s great for seeing what social referrals work best for them and what percentage of traffic they represent.
Additionally, you can see what other traffic sources they get (and the share for each) and a list of referral sites, related sites, and organic keywords.
Google Alerts are great little inventions because they allow you to track virtually anything and have it delivered either to your email or RSS. What kinds of stuff should you be tracking? The name of our competitor’s company, their employee names, their CEO, product names, locations, mentions of new features, etc.
What kinds of media are you looking for? Their blogs, social profiles, photos, videos, Flickr accounts, Facebook pages, etc. Why? The more you know, the better off you are to make smart decisions.
Follow your competitors on Twitter. Follow their employees. Follow the people that engage most often with your competitors. Follow the people your competitors are following. Private Lists are a goldmine for researching.
The bottom line
Continually rework all of your techniques, particularly your discrimination and value proposition.
The key to success here is realizing that this is a marathon and not a sprint. If you examine the competition in the top areas mentioned above and create a plan to overcome it, you will win long term.
Monitoring your competition is a small, but important component of a successful digital marketing plan. No business exists in a vacuum, so you must be aware of your environment.
Will you be the one to stand out?
Try. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your creativity, innovation, and ideas?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
More reading on creativity and innovation from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
How You Can Improve Creative Thinking Skills by Adding Constraints
The Small Business Crash Course on Creative Business Ideas
Does a Paradox on Innovation Design and Creativity Exist in Business?
What is the key to being able to build trust? In my opinion, there are many essential elements and not just one. In today’s fast-paced business world, having a range of trust elements is key. Minimizing mistakes new managers make will to show the team you trust them.
Leadership can be especially challenging for entrepreneurs. Balancing the need to run a business and the need to lead company personnel is quite a task.
Effective leader influence as an entrepreneur means that you can “make things happen,” instead of just “letting things happen.” Leader influence is required in many activities.
It is involved in a variety of situations and problems, from the very simple to the very complex. And many leadership mistakes can quickly destroy that influence.
Leaders must influence others to achieve goals, and they must gain the respect of followers to influence them. This is no easy task, but if you want to have the respect of your followers, you must become an influential and trusted leader.
Related: Looking for Battle Tested, Effective Leadership Qualities?
Leaders use influence and collaborative skills to solve problems. They do this by selecting one course of action from several possible alternatives.
Almost any decision involves some conflicts or dissatisfaction. The difficult part is to pick one solution where the positive outcome can outweigh possible losses.
To many, avoiding decisions often seems to be the easiest approach. Influencing decisions and accepting the consequences is the only way to stay in control of your time, your success, and your business.
The most valuable teamwork commodity is trust, hands down in my opinion.
Background
Team trust is a must in today’s hyper-competitive, ultra-connected business environment. Everyone wants to do business with people they trust. The one constant that all executives seek for their organization is a competitive advantage with their team.
As we noted on many occasions, team trust is gained through two interlaced faculties: good intent and competence.
Here are 15 mistakes of leader influence Digital Spark Marketing uses with clients to improve their ability to get the best leadership influence skills:
Hesitant with action
It is critical that you learn the importance of the start, whatever you have been postponing. Just do it, as Nike likes to tell its customers and potential customers. If you wait for the perfect time to start, it will never happen, and you will have accomplished nothing.
Great leaders don’t work in existing systems. They change the systems to give them what they want. And they don’t delay the start.
They come up with new options for jobs, projects, and professional development that their bosses hadn’t even thought of. They see an opportunity coming their way before most of the rest of us have even looked up from our laptops. They don’t hesitate to seize the initiative or get into action, do they?
Lacking integrity
Nothing can ruin your influence and respect faster than a lack of integrity. Integrity, however, is not just avoiding unethical choices and situations. Integrity is intentionally molding a culture of values and service.
The reason team trust is so critical today is that we’re no longer thinking just regarding performance. We must think regarding relationships.
Business is a people activity. People like to do business with people they know, like, and trust. Ones with whom they have relationships are at the top of the desirable business option list.
The stronger the relationships with your customers, the greater will be their trust and loyalty in your business. So it is very logical for businesses to put a priority on building customer relationships.
Not communicating effectively
Effective communication is the cornerstone of any successful team. In today’s fast-paced business world, having a range of communication channels available such as phone, e-mail, instant messaging, fax, etc. is key. It means maximizing your ability to communicate effectively with each other.
Communication is the close brother of chemistry. In any team, communication is crucial to building a sense of camaraderie among members. The manner of communication ‘how freely and frequently team members communicate’ determines the effectiveness of the team.
Put simply, the more freely you talk to your fellow team members, the more comfortable you are in sharing insights and ideas. This is just one major reason why modern businesses emphasize communication and collaboration tools.
Not being transparent
Transparency is another competency that should come naturally. So many team members have trouble coming to terms with what it means.
People are smart. They know when you’re up front or when they are told a mistruth. If honesty is the best policy, they’ll appreciate and admire you more when you admit to a mistake. This is opposed to playing games or even worse, avoiding the topic altogether.
Don’t try to hide or cover up your errors. Address the issue directly, explain how you will handle it, and share what steps are being taken. Steps taken to prevent the errors from occurring in the future.
Not being a good listener
Hear and remember the ‘remarkable’ for the next discussion.
The most important part of communication is listening. Listening is not just a way to find things out. It’s also a sign of respect.
So send the message that your conversation partner is valuable. Listen as you mean it. Demonstrate that you’re listening. Paraphrase, re-state and react to what you hear. Ask for clarification. Get involved.
Teams accept responsibility as individuals and as a team. They don’t blame one another for team mistakes and failures. No one should spend any time, useless time, in personal justifications.
They should celebrate their successes together and recognize special performances. This includes special contributions that each team member makes to the total work of the team.
Not learning from others
Observing and learning from those around you makes you stronger, better. Never fail to see its value.
Your peers, as well as competitors, can usually teach you more than your friends. Let them.
Learn from them. To be a great leader, you need to have a strong will and an even stronger stomach.
You need to remind yourself that your job isn’t to make everyone happy. Rather, it is to improve the organization as a whole.
Good leaders are constantly trying to improve and surround themselves with the ablest people they can find. They look squarely at their own mistakes and deficiencies. And they ask frankly what skills they and the company will need in the future.
And because of this, they can move forward with confidence that’s grounded in the facts. It is not built on fantasies about their talent.
Employing a style outside your ‘comfort’ zone
One of the most important things you can do as a leader in cultivating self-awareness. Knowing your leadership styles will help you to be more intentional. That is, being intentional about using them well and managing their shortcomings. Do you lead with expertise? Charisma? Caring?
Armed with this awareness, you can leverage your unique styles to become more influential and inspire others. Avoid styles that are outside your comfort zone at all costs.
Lacking persistence
Persistence is key. Always keep up the effort as you will never know how close to success you may be.
Think about your energy. It’s not just about what you like best, but about what feeds you and what depletes you. And who.
Do what you can to increase the good stuff and decrease the bad. You just need to realize you have the power to accomplish it. Much more than you may have imagined.
Eliminate whatever it is in your life that’s draining you, and replace it with something that inspires you. This will help your persistence.
Not investing in yourself
Leaders invest in continuous learning. Grow your expertise. The more you know, the more you can help. The greater your competence, the more others will respect you and the effort you made to learn about what they do.
Always work hard at being a little better than you were the day before. Continuous learning is one of the most important attributes in the work and personal environment.
Great leaders know that every step they take, every decision they make, matters in the end. They know they must strategize carefully, and then act decisively.
They know they must think ahead. That means not just to their next step, but to the many steps after it.
Worrying about mistakes and failure
No matter how confident someone may seem, everyone is afraid of failing. All of us are afraid of screwing up or afraid of looking stupid.
But great leaders know that everyone they interact with is also afraid.
These people are successful because they act in the face of fear. They go after what they believe, seek change and, ultimately, make a difference.
They also believe they can take a risk because even if they fail, they’ll be able to learn from it and overcome it.
Their fear doesn’t hold them back. Instead, it springs them into action. They know that not stretching themselves is worse than failing.
Mistakes new managers make … not being a coach and advocate
One of the leader’s most important roles is being a coach and advocate. Help people be successful. Focus on developing leadership skills in your team. Be a resource, a sounding board, a safe place to talk.
If you want the people you lead to respect you, they need to know you are on their side. Advocate for them. Help them get the promotion they’ve been hoping for. Leverage your influence on their behalf.
Lacking enthusiasm and passion
Always show your enthusiasm and passion for what you are doing. To do that, you must find those things that you love.
Follow the passion. Passion is what gives you the strength to overcome the obstacles to everyday tasks. Passion is power. It is what keeps you going when everyone else gets tired and gives up.
Short term focus
A leader’s job is to interact with the future on behalf of constituents. Spend time doing things that only you can do, delegating other important areas to competent team members.
Establish a vision, and keep your gaze focused on the overall goal. Resist the temptation to spend too much time-solving day to day problems. If they cost you progress toward your vision, resist them.
The bottom line
Avoid these leadership mistakes and think ahead for your greatest leadership advantages.
Need some help in capturing more improvements for your staff’s leadership, teamwork, and collaboration? Creative ideas in running or facilitating ateam or leadership workshop?
Call today for aFREEconsultation or aFREEquote. Learn about some options to scope your job.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy innovating your social media strategy?
Do you have a lesson about making your advertising better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add to the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.
More leadership material from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
Visiting Charlottesville Virginia and Thomas Jefferson
Do you feel that traveling enhances your continuous learning and curiosity? Perhaps visiting Charlottesville, Virginia and Thomas Jefferson will help you with this answer. Let me elaborate.
I am at the end of my third career now, so it has been a few years since my college days. But I spent 8+ years as an undergraduate and graduate student at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia.
And traveling has always been a favorite thing to do for myself and my family. And we have returned to Charlottesville on several occasions. It is a very special place to visit and learn many interesting things.
Related: 8 Awesome Things to do in the Finger Lakes Region of New York
Yes, it has changed significantly since my college days. And those changes have made it even better as a travel location. Let me tell you the places and things that make Charlottesville and Thomas Jefferson so special.
Recommend the Thousand Islands as a great getaway weekend.
Touring the Thousand Islands of New York and Canada
Are you always on the lookout for a new weekend getaway experience?
My wife and I semi-retired about 4 years ago and weekend getaways, especially places we haven’t seen, are always a priority for us.
Recently we had an excellent long weekend touring the Thousand Islands.
Have you ever visited this area? We totally enjoyed our 3-day visit and highly recommend it to others.
Vacation ideas and recommendations … the beaches of Florida’s space coast
Stretching 72 miles along Florida’s East Coast, the Space Coast continues to enliven, entertain, and inspire more and more visitors each year.
While the Space Coast area of Florida’s East Coast is known as the home of America’s space program, Orlando’s closest beaches, and some of the best surfing in the country, this is only a taste of what this area has to offer.
Whether you dream of excitement and entertainment or simplistic peace and tranquility, the Space Coast has what you’re seeking. And the variety of offered activities is fantastic and sure to have that something for everyone in your family or group.
Take a close look at these ten smashing reasons why we believe this is the best location to plan your Florida vacation.
Know the best Finger Lakes Wineries?
The Best Finger Lakes Wineries to Visit
My family and I have spent 31 of a 35-year career in the upstate New York Finger Lakes Region, and despite growing up in the southeast; I can’t imagine a better place to live.
So you can imagine we are quite familiar with this region and its wine country.
Last few years my career took me to short-term assignments in California, Virginia, Florida, and Colorado, all places with some established wine industry that we visited on several occasions.
At the conclusion of these assignments, it was time to retire … a good time to spend the summer getting reacquainted with the Finger Lakes Region (to include it’s growing wine industry). As a result, we are writing several articles on our research and resulting in travels.
The bottom line
All of these vacation sites were real winners for us. Don’t think you could miss with any of them.
Are you a travel site business owner? Need some help in capturing more improvements for your business content marketing? Creative ideas in running or facilitating a team workshop?
Call today for aFREEconsultation or aFREEquote. Learn about some options to scope your job.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to innovating your social media strategy?
Do you have a lesson about making your advertising better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.
More reading on travel recommendations from Digital Sparks Marketing’s Library:
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
