By Paul Shell To be self-taught it’s a way of learning. One that is no less effective than the training provided by the experts. This type of teaching requires even more involvement, more obstinacy and a lot more attention than going to sit behind a table and wait until you are given all the necessary leads. I remain admiring of those who manage to become experts from scratch.
Whether you're a novice graphic artist or an experienced artist, you'll probably find good reasons to dig into this list of good practices for design training. Today is open house in online training!
Know your story
Every being and everything has a past. The drawing too. Possessing even basics in art history makes it possible to understand how graphics have evolved. You have to know where you come from to know where you are going. You can do your research chronologically or starting from a work that has seduced you and then interest you to the commensals of the artist who created it. It does not matter.
The goal is just to see how art evolves (and also to be able to build on the research done well before you to integrate it into your own work).
Have vocabulary
Do you know what the vocabulary is for? To communicate. You must be able to speak with other graphic designers or with clients. You must understand them. And this is only possible if you have a minimum of technical language.
Some terms are specific to printing, others are more related to the very profession of graphic designer. When you are at the stage of creating projects, it is urgent to master them.
Follow the work of others
We always learn by observing what others are doing. And it's even truer in the graphics. With the explosion of online galleries, you can follow several creatives closely and analyze their latest works with a single click.
Do not neglect the blogs or social networks of people you admire: it's often a great way to gather inspiration or useful information to enrich your graphic culture.
Compare market places
Many graphic designers (and certainly not the least talented) offer their services or their creations on market places dedicated to design. Observing which jobs are most popular is also a good way to train the eye.
It should be noted, however, that this approach may require a certain amount of time and that it can only be representative of a trend at a given moment.
Take courses online
The Mocks have the wind in their sails. And it exists on all possible sectors. You can train on the use of specific software, learn framing techniques, and improve your knowledge of art history ... It must be recognized, however, that the French catalog of Mocks dedicated to graphic designers remain rare. It might be an opportunity to improve your English, to practice Lettering or other techniques.
Attend conferences
TED talks provide an opportunity for many experts to share their knowledge. And too many fans to watch these conferences whenever they want. We talk a lot about TED talks on the topics of personal development ... but there is also a considerable amount about design, creativity ... or just about anything that is likely to interest you!
Shelling
Look at the work of artists who inspire you. And try to imitate them. Not just to know how to do like them. But to understand their way of working, to train with them. This work can sometimes seem discouraging (they are masters, not you, at least not yet).
But this is often how learning was done in ancient times. And it's a way of forging his technique without using his energy on the creative process.
Practice
It is by forgiving that one becomes a blacksmith, says the proverb. It is by creating that you will become creative. Draw. Illustrate. Whatever your favorite technique, practice it. Even just a little bit.
Even just to perfect what you did yesterday. But never let your tools rest. It's the best way to master them!
Save
Specialized hardware or software can be quite expensive. This is not a reason to deprive yourself of artistic work. The back of a cereal package can become a canvas where to exercise his hand.
And there are computer alternatives that allow you to get into the mastery of office tools while waiting to afford the cream of the crop. Pixlr replaces Photoshop and Inscape is a good ersatz Illustrator.
Create
Imitating, training, observing is good. It's even more than good, it's indispensable. But do not stop there. To train is also to test. It's daring to go beyond its limits or those others have placed before you. Just to see if it works or just for fun. There is so you will really learn!
Being self-taught is a way of learning. One that is no less effective than the training provided by experts. This kind of teaching requires even more participation, more stubbornness and much more attention than sitting behind a table and waiting until they give you Original Source: http://www.articlebiz.com/article/1051652546-1-learn-graphic-design-in-10-steps/
by Sandeep Trichal If you are managing a small business, you are required to surmount various types of challenges and marketing is a huge challenge that can consume most of your time and energy as it is one of the most critical functions. Unlike a large corporation, your marketing budget is limited and there is no huge team of professionals to help you with your efforts, both in strategy and implementation. In addition, you also need to keep pace with the latest trends of evolving technology and marketing methods. This article focuses on overcoming some of the most pressing marketing challenges and gives a direction to the small business owners for achieving maximum success in their marketing efforts.
Deciding which area to concentrate on for maximum results
The field of marketing is vast and there are various methods to promote your business. Several marketing methods are hugely popular these days like SEO, social media marketing, PPC, content marketing, and mobile marketing to name a few. While the availability of a great number of choices is a good thing, it is also a double-edged sword since you have a limited budget and must decide to choose a method for the purpose of marketing your business and this can be a tough ask. If you don’t choose the correct marketing method, you may end up spending considerable amount of resources on a certain method but don’t get any concrete results. It may happen that you need to concentrate on one type of method for long enough to generate results out of it or try something totally different to start afresh.
So, you need to identify the marketing methods in which you are willing to invest your resources. In order to do this, you need to identify where your customers are spending their time online. If you are aiming for digital marketing you have various options to choose from. For example, there are various social media platforms available today but if your customers are associated with making crucial purchasing decisions by looking at images, rather than opting for Facebook, you should opt for visually enriched social media platforms like Pinterest and Instagram. However, if you are more into B2B marketing, then LinkedIn is the right kind of social media platform for you. The very same approach can be used for offline marketing as well and you should be concentrating on finding the interests of your target audience. So, you should make efforts to find out which publications your target audience prefers, the radio stations they listen to and the kind of television content they consume. This way, by targeting the specific channels your target audience frequents, you can make your marketing methods more effective.
How to differentiate yourself in the market?
In order to make your mark in an intensely competitive environment, you need to differentiate yourself from others in the market. For this purpose, you need to identify your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) that can help you set your business apart from the competition. Various businesses try to look to their competitors and mimic their kind of branding and marketing. However, this is not the right thing to do as you should try to develop your own unique voice and presence. You should give your customers a unique reason to demand your product or service. In order to differentiate yourself from your competitors, you should develop a unique brand that reflects on your website, social media pages, ads and virtually everything that has your logo or business associated with it.
You need to identify the points that set you apart from your competition and then go all out to market this USP amongst your customers. However, you need to make sure that you maintain the consistency of your brand. So, your visuals, fonts, language, and the content tone should be uniform on all your platforms, whether they are online or offline. Make sure that your brand image matches the look and feel of your business and you project the same kind of image wherever people get to see your business.
Retaining your customers
Attracting new customers is a key factor for achieving growth, however, to sustain the momentum you need to ensure that you are also able to retain your customers so that they come back again and again to purchase your product or service. There are various ways to do this. One of the methods is to give incentives in the form of coupons, loyalty programs, and email marketing.
The idea is to develop an emotional bond with your customers and enhance engagement with them so that you build lasting relationships with your customers. To reinforce this relationship, you should always strive to treat your customers in a special way and offer them discounts and deals in return for being loyal to your brand.
Targeting customers effectively
To achieve success in your marketing efforts, you need to identify your target audience and determine the exact segment of the audience at which you need to aim your marketing campaigns. In order to do this and to catch the attention of your target audience, you need to offer something of value to them. This can be done in the form of content marketing and effective messaging that offers a solution to the problems your target audience is facing, or you need to give some value enhancement in your content so that your target audience feels enriched. Also, you need to make sure that whatever content you are offering them, it should be relevant and valuable to your target audience.
In order to achieve these goals, you need to deeply research your target demographic and identify their needs. From this type of information that you have extracted, you should develop behavior-based profiles that will help you in determining what your potential customers are looking for. This will help you to target them effectively with your marketing efforts. You should also aim to make use of the relevant tools and practices that are latest in the marketing arena and leverage such technology to sharpen your marketing efforts. The more you communicate and engage with your target audience, the more success you will be able to achieve with your marketing campaigns. Original Source: http://www.articlebiz.com/article/1051652790-1-ways-to-overcome-marketing-challenges-for-small-businesses/
Traditional marketing is based on a one-way approach: marketers come up with an idea for an app, find space for it, and wait for the results.
This method has been working well for many years. However, traditional approaches quickly become obsolete because technologies change the world we’re living in. For instance, the internet has changed marketing forever.
Now, when people need to buy a product or service, they are most likely to do it online. Every second, Google processes about 38,000 search queries.
Online presence becomes crucial for the success of any business, and it’s not enough to just create a website — you should also make sure that your target audience will actually find it and use it. You need to be different from competitors, to increase brand awareness, and to nurture loyal customers so that your profits will grow. That’s exactly what interactive marketing was created for.
Interactive Marketing: What Is It?
Just like outbound marketing, interactive marketing is aimed to make your business grow. It’s based on creating a dialogue between your brand and your potential customers by using various types of dynamic content. There are many types of interactive marketing that have the same goal: you should make your content relevant and engaging so that potential customers will want to interact with it. Here are the four main types of interactive content.
Personalized content
Advanced technologies allow you to learn a lot about your customers. You can analyze their geographic data, demographics, lifecycle, etc. When you know your customers well, you can tailor your content to their needs and preferences, providing a more meaningful experience. If your business operates in different countries, we also recommend that you use a localization service, such as The Word Point.
Interactive storytelling
Marketers can create dynamic content, improving their storytelling approaches. For example, you can add elements of mixed media to your blog posts, using infographics, videos, or animations. Such interactive components will make your audience more likely to share your content with their friends on social media.
Layered information
It’s always good to educate your customers, and interactive marketing offers you many opportunities to do it in the most engaging way possible. You can inform your visitors in an easy-to-read way, giving them quick summaries or short pieces of information and then delivering more detailed content to those members of your audience who want to know more.
Two-way interaction
Two-way interaction means that your consumers get an opportunity to participate in your marketing efforts actively. For example, you can use various online quizzes, games, or interactive videos to make your audience more engaged and keeping it interested in your product.
Benefits of Interactive Marketing
Increased conversions
As consumers become more sophisticated, basic signup forms, popups, and other overused lead generation techniques keep losing their effectiveness. However, many of your competitors are still using these outdated methods, so you have a chance to stand out.
Interactive marketing is very engaging. When your audience is interested in your marketing content, you will get more conversions just because your audience will pay more attention to your brand and therefore choose you over other brands in your niche. Besides, personalized content allows you to lead your potential customers through every stage of the sales cycle.
User engagement
Interactive marketing allows you to provide a more memorable user experience. For example, instead of providing textual content only, you can engage multiple senses at once, combining different types of content. In addition, you can use various buttons and forms, motivating your audience to take action. Your potential customers can answer questions and get a personalized experience.
A great way to add an element of interaction is using chatbots. If people who visit your website have any questions, you can answer them in a conversational manner with no need to hire more employees and train them.
Virality
Interactive marketing also offers you countless opportunities to optimize your content for social media and to encourage your audience to share it. You can offer rewards so that people will want to share your content. Not only will this approach help you generate more leads, but it will also create a gamification element, making your content even more engaging.
Interactive content has a bigger potential to become viral because it’s more shareable. Create a giveaway campaign or contest, and people will spread the word about your brand with no need for you to pay for ads.
Qualified lead generation
Usually, qualifying leads is a time-consuming task that requires you to take into account many different factors. However, interactive marketing allows you to use polls and contests to select high-quality leads while also entertaining your audience quickly. An interactive experience won’t let your audience get bored, so you will be able to ask more questions, keeping them engaged and learning more about them. The main thing is to add questions to their interactive journey organically.
Feedback
Polls and surveys also allow you to get actionable insights into your customers’ experience by asking them for feedback. You can get their feedback in real-time, providing polls right after they make a purchase, click on some of your products, or leave your website. Customers’ feedback will help you understand what you need to improve and what customers like about your products or services. Timely surveys can also provide you with testimonials, which are especially important because many people make purchasing decisions based on other people’s reviews.
Wrapping Up
As technologies evolve, consumers’ expectations change. Businesses have to build a strong and consistent online presence, making sure that their websites will have good rankings in search engines so that people can actually find them. The best way to attract more visitors to your website is to offer high-quality content.
Original Source: https://digitalagencynetwork.com/interactive-marketing-as-a-way-to-increase-interest-to-your-business-website/
Wouldn’t it be perfect if doing business was that straightforward… Just hang up the sign on the door, customers would stroll right in, purchase your merchandise, and the money would magically start flowing in.
Sorry… things in real life don’t work like that. With most businesses transferring online, competition in the digital space is getting tougher. Bluecorona.com states that 20% of small businesses fail the first year, and 70% fail by the tenth year. On top of that, they are all fighting for the same customers.
Chewing the same gum of strategy, a thousand times, doesn’t bring results.
Digital marketers and online business owners need to identify and implement effective marketing strategies for their brands. And even though they do their very best to reel in as many customers as they can, attaining a 100% retention or conversion rate is not possible.
It’s always been about reaching the target audience. And you’ve already invested a considerable amount of capital into your marketing approach- SEO, content creation, social media campaign, and whatnot- not to mention the time and effort you’ve spent to get people to visit your website.
Unfortunately, the numbers aren’t impressive
According to thrivehive.com, 98% of the people that initially visit your website bounce right off. Considering all the hard work you’ve done to drive traffic to your site, how can you make them come back and convert into a sale?
There are several ways to draw them back. But more importantly, you need to devise a foolproof plan to steer back the attention of the 98% of the visitors that took off empty-handed the first time.
Remarketing and retargeting allow brands to reconnect with people who previously interacted with a website or mobile app. In order to maximize the value of those initial visits and convert the visitors, you will need to tap into the potential of remarketing and retargeting.
And though many assume they have adequate knowledge about the criteria, most businesses fall victim to routine, doing the same things over and over again, expecting different results. Therefore, employing the services of experienced digital marketing agencies can be a better route.
Explore all your options and find the right digital agency for your Google Ads. Work alongside a dedicated team of experts that strive to accelerate the growth of your business as well as align your retargeting and remarketing needs.
Though it may sound as if you’re starting all over again. Rather than focusing on first-time visitors, these practices endeavor to attract people who have visited or digitally interacted with a brand before.
Remarketing and retargeting permit businesses to reach those customers that are more likely to convert into sales or complete the desired action, such as subscribing, enrolling, downloading, etc. Moreover, it aims at amplifying current marketing strategies.
Remarketing vs. Retargeting: What’s the difference?
Every business wants to win the bounced traffic. Retargeting and remarketing efforts can help reach out to them. Since they have visited your site before, they’re the ones that are more likely to convert.
And though both words are often used interchangeably, remarketing and retargeting are not the same. However, both practices do have a common goal- to get previous visitors on the path to conversion.
But before we can pursue the topic further, it’s imperative to make each term clear.
Remarketing reaches the audience that has already visited your site via email campaigns.
Retargeting reaches the audience that has already visited your site or has shown an interest in a product similar to yours via paid advertising.
Both strategies are essential and useful because they focus and spend on people who are already familiar with a particular brand. Moreover, the consumers have already shown an interest in the brand or a similar product. Marketers who use these practices, over other ones, typically experience a higher ROI.
How can you use a remarketing strategy for your business?
Among the marketing tools that small businesses are currently utilizing, email, website, and social media are the most important.
According to bluecorona.com, 54% use email, 51% have a website, and 48% use social media.
This proves that emails are quite as productive as a marketing channel. SEO-specialist “Moz” reported that email remarketing conversions could reach up to 40%, mostly because they are targeted at the right person at the right time.
Examples of how emails can be used in a remarketing campaign are:
Through newsletters
As a subscribed customer, you receive informational content regularly through newsletters. But often, the automated campaign includes the occasional promotional offer. And when these emails are more personalized with tactics such as a once-in-a-lifetime proposition, a letter from the CEO of the company, special discounts for loyal subscribers, etc., a person usually caves at some point and completes a transaction.
Optimizing emails with the target audience on a personal level helps connect with customers, boosting the remarketing campaign.
Through abandoned carts reminders
Everyone has abandoned a shopping cart at least once! So emails (as part of an automated campaign) target these shoppers, reminding them politely about those forgotten items. Often the slightest nudge is enough to complete a transaction.
How can you use a retargeting strategy for your business?
Retargeting entails strategically positioning ads while people browse the web. It is designed to specifically target visitors who have clicked away from a website before converting with the use of cookie-based technology.
eMarketer quoted that 3 out of 5 people notice and consider ads showing products they viewed from another page. Retargeting campaigns perform 10 times better than regular display banners. Blog.spiralytics.com stated that website visitors who are retargeted with display ads are more likely to convert by 70%.
Cookies are text files that track a person’s behavior on a website. They’re often required to allow sites to function properly. They are placed for a variety of purposes, such as remembering a user’s preferences or the contents in an online shopping cart.
On the other hand, pixels are a small snippet of code that allows third parties to track user behavior. A retargeting pixel follows visitors and sends ad campaigns to them when they do not complete the required action, such as buying a product or registering for a course.
Pixels can transform a digital ad campaign, optimize the website, and encourage conversions.
How productive are your tactics?
There are several KPIs to review the effectiveness of an ad campaign. CTR, CPC, CPA, and conversion rate are often some of the most important ones. And it’s natural for website owners to be concerned about comparing conversion rates with others in the same industry.
Ad platforms, such as Google Adwords, allow business owners to track and analyze the success of their paid advertisements. The results of these ad campaigns can help determine if:
The right target audience is being reached
Adequate ad spend being allocated to each ad
Typically, a website that advertises on search engines, such as Google and Bing, or social media marketing platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, embeds tracking codes in their website’s code. This enables site managers to keep track of the metrics as well as improve any shortcomings, especially when promoting events.
But analytics tools also place third-party cookies in the user’s browser. This helps to build a profile of every visitor based on their search history. With these vast databases, retargeting campaigns are more effective.
Which platforms allow you to use this strategy?
There are numerous retargeting platforms out there. But some of the more well-known ones are:
1. Google Adwords
It’s quite simple using Google remarketing through the myriad of options that the platform has to offer. Adding a pixel to your website facilitates the tracking process. Whenever a new user lands on your website, it will get immediately added to the remarketing audience list.
Moreover, the pixel code can be customized for different pages to supplement defined categories. For instance, specific potential customers can be selected for highly targeted display ads to intensify the marketing approach. But one of the best aspects that the platform offers is the ability to combine dynamic retargeting campaign with Ad gallery. It’s an easy and cheap way to produce text, image, and video ads.
A few ways to implement Adwords remarketing are:
Standard remarketing
Dynamic remarketing
Customer list remarketing
Video remarketing
2. Facebook Ads
This social media giant is a phenomenal trendsetter in the retargeting domain. Moreover, options on this platform can be applied to Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram. Therefore, its greatest benefit is the massive, active user base- over 1 billion.
Customer Audiences is an extension of Facebook Ads. It works by creating pixels that can be added to websites. This enables business owners to build their custom audience.
In the same way as Facebook remarketing, Instagram has a powerful approach, thanks to its 300 million users. And as the platform’s popularity continues to grow, so too will its retargeting strategy.
3. Twitter Ads
By installing a Twitter pixel onto a website, the brand can collect cookie IDs of all visitors. Through Twitter’s Tailored Audiences, marketers can utilize visitor engagement to target their remarketing solutions. The different techniques include:
Lists – uses email addresses or Twitter usernames
Web – targets people who use Twitter’s tag on a website
Mobile apps – use data collected from a mobile app
Other remarketing/retargeting platforms can be beneficial for your business. But one aspect that cannot be overlooked is mobile retargeting. As mobile devices and digital technologies have become an integral part of our lives, marketers are increasingly focusing on effective retargeting methods that incorporate them.
So when mobile shopping or searching is interrupted while people are on the go, ads for a product that a person was recently browsing can be targeted at them to reignite user intent. With that in mind, allocating a dedicated budget for retargeting is essential. According to Chango, 68% of marketing agencies and 49% of brands are already doing that.
What are the benefits?
Applift.com has the numbers to blow you away. Retargeting produces 3 times more sessions per dollar, and it drives CTRs by 48%.
More interestingly, retargeted dormant users are 173% more likely to spend again. But in order to reap these benefits, you need to keep your campaigns fresh and dynamic. Identify which ads are performing and which ones aren’t. And the best way to go about doing that is using A/B testing.
A tailored digital business strategy with an intelligent online advertising approach has proven to be the core elements of success. Consider, for instance, how Elespacio helped Nespresso run their global campaign. And it’s not the first time that brands have employed digital agencies that were vital cornerstones of their prosperity.
To highlight just a few, here are some benefits of remarketing and retargeting that cannot be overlooked:
Potential clients are reminded of their desire to purchase, encouraging them to come back to your website.
Following up on newly found visitors with highly targeted ads makes business more profitable. Costs of investing in these techniques are lower than acquiring new users.
The marketing campaign benefits the entire user base. KPIs of monetization, retention, and virality can be positively influenced.
It’s an effective way to raise brand awareness, drive sales activity, and increase registrations.
Your focus (time, money, and effort) is on those people that have already exhibited interest in your brand. This means that your ads are most likely on target, with more chances of boosting ROI.
Businesses have more options to filter, modify, and personalize their performance to tailor ads for specific visitors and match their behaviors.
Customers can find businesses promptly as they search on search engines. They are more likely to encounter the brand’s ads.
Creating remarketing lists helps focus advertising efforts on unique customer sets. Moreover, you can reach a more extensive user base through remarketing lists as they browse through their mobile devices, whether they use an app or a website.
You’ll have all the statistics at your fingertips. With regular reports, you know how campaigns are performing, where ads are being displayed, and how much they are costing.
Final thoughts
Remarketing and retargeting are powerful branding and conversion optimization tools. They work best as a part of a broader digital marketing strategy. For instance, content marketing, AdWords, and targeted displays are great for driving traffic to your website. But they won’t help convert.
Conversely, remarketing, and retargeting are ideal for conversion optimization, but they can’t drive people to your site. So your best bet is using a mix of strategies to approach customers, especially those that have deviated from the sales funnel. Not only does this increase brand awareness, but it also reminds this specific target audience to make a purchase.
Original Source: https://digitalagencynetwork.com/retargeting-remarketing-why-its-essential-for-marketing-strategy/
