Author: hello@ve.digital

13 Bad Habits You Need To Quit For A Happier and Healthier Life
13 Bad Habits You Need To Quit For A Happier and Healthier Life”

In today’s fast-paced world, it’s easy to develop bad habits that can impact our health, happiness, and overall well-being. From eating unhealthy food to spending too much time on our phones, these habits can take a toll on us physically, mentally, and emotionally. If you’re looking to improve your life, consider quitting these 13 bad habits for a happier and healthier life.

Eating junk food – Eating junk food is a bad habit that many of us have. It’s easy to fall into the trap of fast food and sugary treats, but these foods are often high in calories, unhealthy fats, and sugar, which can lead to weight gain and health problems. Try to replace junk food with healthier options like fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.

Skipping breakfast – Skipping breakfast is another bad habit that can negatively affect your health. Breakfast provides your body with the energy it needs to start the day, so try to eat a balanced breakfast every morning.

Not getting enough sleep – Sleep is essential for our physical and mental well-being. Not getting enough sleep can lead to fatigue, irritability, and health problems. Aim to get at least 7-8 hours of sleep each night.

Sitting for too long – Sitting for extended periods of time can lead to back pain, poor posture, and even obesity. Try to take breaks every hour to stand up, stretch, and walk around.

Smoking – Smoking is one of the most harmful habits a person can have. It can lead to lung cancer, heart disease, and a variety of other health problems. Quitting smoking is one of the best things you can do for your health.

Drinking too much alcohol – Drinking too much alcohol can also have negative effects on your health. It can lead to liver damage, high blood pressure, and other health problems. Try to limit your alcohol intake or quit altogether.

Procrastinating – Procrastination can lead to stress, anxiety, and missed opportunities. Try to break tasks down into smaller, manageable steps and set achievable deadlines to avoid procrastination.

Negative self-talk – Negative self-talk can impact your mental health and self-esteem. Instead of focusing on negative thoughts, try to focus on positive ones and practice self-compassion.

Comparing yourself to others – Comparing yourself to others can lead to feelings of inadequacy and low self-esteem. Instead, focus on your own strengths and accomplishments.

Holding grudges – Holding grudges can lead to feelings of anger and resentment, which can negatively impact your relationships and mental health. Try to forgive and let go of grudges to improve your emotional well-being.

Overthinking – Overthinking can lead to anxiety and stress. Try to focus on the present moment and practice mindfulness to reduce overthinking.

Not exercising – Exercise is essential for our physical and mental health. Not exercising can lead to weight gain, poor cardiovascular health, and other health problems. Aim to get at least 30 minutes of exercise each day.

Spending too much time on social media – Social media can be a great way to connect with others, but it can also be a source of stress and anxiety. Try to limit your time on social media and focus on other activities like hobbies, exercise, or spending time with loved ones.

In conclusion, breaking bad habits can be a challenging process, but it’s worth it for the improved health and happiness that comes with it. By quitting these 13 bad habits, you can lead a happier and healthier life. Remember, it’s never too late to make positive changes in your life.
August 14, 2022
Using Canva for Your Small Business

Using Canva for Your Small Business

If you are on social media, you’d know how important visual content is. In today’s digital age, visuals actually weigh as much as text (or maybe even more) and it’s something that you need to put your efforts in.

While text-based content is an integral part of marketing, the use of visual content will set you apart from others. It will bring life and more engagement to your overall marketing content. And that is where a design tool comes in, which in this case is Canva.

Why do small businesses need Canva and how significant is it really for your online efforts?

What is Canva?

Canva is an online user-friendly graphic design tool that can be used by anyone regardless of graphic design experience to create visual pieces for personal or business purposes. It has a free and paid version. The paid version is highly recommended as it unlocks so many features that will be very helpful for you to create your materials according to your brand.

Canva can be used for pretty much any marketing collateral. Anything from business cards to brochures to media kits, to PowerPoint presentations to infographics, you can design all of them and more in Canva.

Setting Up Your Canva Account

Create your Account

Upon creating an account, you’ll be able to access the free features of Canva. If you are creating an account for business purposes, we highly recommend you get the paid plan. If you’re having doubts if the paid plan is worth it, you can avail of a free trial for 30 days to experience it.

Setup your Brand Kit

With a pro plan, you’ll be able to make a brand kit. This feature is very helpful in creating professional branded designs for your business. Upload your brand colors, logos, fonts, etc. Your brand kit will be available to access whenever you create a new design making your life easier.

To learn more about Canva Pro, here’s an in-depth review of it.

Canva Tips and Tricks

Lock Feature

When editing and organizing your design, the lock feature is a great tool. By selecting an item that’s already in the perfect position, you can lock them so they won’t move when you’re editing anything else.

This lock feature works great with larger items. You can toggle this feature on and off whenever you need it.

The Canva Brand Kit

You can find the brand kit on the left side of your home dashboard. This feature is a time-saver and very helpful to keep you organized, but this is only available for Pro users.

You can save your brand logo, fonts, and colors under this feature and they will readily be available whenever you make a new design.

Canva Page Manager

This is a great tool that will let you customize the appearance of how your project looks on your screen. You can find this at the bottom right-hand side of your screen.

The Canva Page Manager lets you select a full-screen view, a bird’s eye view layout of your project, as well as different magnification of each design. You can also move your pages around, delete them one by one, and duplicate them according to your needs.

This feature is very useful when you are working with large documents. Another tool that makes life easier, tbh!

Hyperlinks

This tool is very helpful when you are making ebooks and PDFs. Hyperlinks will allow your viewers to click on the links in your PDF.

To create a hyperlink, just highlight the text you want to make a link to. Once you’ve selected the text, click the link icon on the top right-hand side, add in the URL for your link, and click apply.

Just remember that the links will only work when the document is downloaded as a PDF.

Instant Image Background Remover

Another wonderful feature of the Canva Pro is it makes the tricky process of removing the background super easy with just one click. Any photo of any product, headshot, and logo will do.

Select an image and click the ‘Background Remover’ in the Effects section. The background will disappear in an instant. This is probably one of the most useful tricks in Canva!

Aligning Text and Images Perfectly

Aligning texts, images, and elements in Canva is simple. Instead of manually positioning each object, you can easily use the position tools to align the texts and images automatically.

To align images, elements, and texts, click the element, click the “Position” from the toolbar above the editor, and choose the alignment you want to apply to your element.

Creating a Drop Shadow to Your Images

Adding drop shadows to your graphics makes them look more three-dimensional. It makes your graphic designs pop out and more alive. With Canva, you can also easily make this effect to beautify your design. Full tutorial here.

Save As A Template

This is another Canva Pro feature that saves you up a lot of time.

When you make a design and it’s something you’d want to use again for the future, one feature you can do is to save that document into a template.

You can easily do this by clicking on ‘Show More’ under the ‘Publish’ button, and click the “Templates’ option. Select the folder to where you want that template to be saved and select publish.

Your saved templates can be easily accessed on your home page. Remember, this feature is only available on Canva Pro.

Canva is a very useful tool in designing visual content especially when you own a small business. When you don’t have an in-house graphic designer, you can totally create your own graphics. Thankfully, Canva is here to help you out as it has so many different pre-made templates ready for you to use.

Visit our blog for more articles like this!

July 28, 2022
Effective Writing: How to Write an Irresistible Headline
Effective Writing: How to Write an Irresistible Headline

Most, if not all, of the content you create for your blog, is based on your writing. You are not limited to the format of a traditional written blog post, though, because even things like audio and video will often need some writing beforehand. This is why effective writing should be practiced at all times. So how do you do that?

Writing is a great way to communicate ideas, but compared with in-person verbal communication, it comes with a certain handicap. Body language accounts for a significant portion of human interaction. Things such as facial expressions, posture, gestures, and eye contact can either support or negate the words that are being said. Body language is often used unconsciously to connect with people, gauge character, understand how someone is feeling, and many more.

The meaning of what you say is based on how you say it. But when it comes to writing, many of those qualities are lost. Body language and tone of voice are not present in the published content. You are reliant on the words themselves, which makes effective writing much more important.

The Importance of Effective Writing

Effective writing gets you to build trust, share ideas, educate, and persuade people, all without the use of body language. Beyond that, remember that the nature of the world we live in today is ever-changing. At any given moment, thousands upon thousands of people and companies compete for your audience’s attention. Think about this: why should someone spend their precious time reading your content when they can do absolutely anything else?

The world of web content is more crowded than ever, and it’s only getting more competitive by the day. Some see that as a bad thing, as the surplus of content is driving down the value of the content itself. But the reality is, as the volume of content increases, so too do the rewards for those who create valuable, high-quality content. Valuable content is what you are going for. You want your content to be the diamond among the ordinary rocks, and effective writing can help you achieve that.

Writing Irresistible Headlines

An effective and irresistible headline is one of the most important parts of a good blog post, because this is where you deliver and nail the first impression. When people come across your content while scrolling on social media or the Google results page, there are only two things they’ll do. People are either going to click through your link or they are going to ignore it. A good headline is crucial because it’s the only information people are going to have at this stage.

When you are working on a piece of content, start it by having a working title. The title doesn’t have to be final, it just has to be something simple to identify what you’re working on and guide the general idea of the write-up. Once you’re finished, that’s when you come back to the headline and refine it. There will be times that you’ll end up writing a slightly different approach than you originally intended, so it’s usually a smart thing to write the final headline once you’re done with the main content. Take your final headline seriously.

Don’t just type out the first thing that comes to your mind. Give it a thought before hitting the publish button. The headline is your one chance to grab the people’s attention so make sure that you spend enough time on it.

One thing you can do is to come up with a list of potential headlines, maybe five or so titles. Then narrow them down until you have the perfect one.

With that process in mind, these are the certain elements that you need to have in a perfect title:
1. Be unique. If your headline looks the same with all of the other related content on your topic, your potential audience might not want to click it. With a lackluster and common headline, what reason does your audience have to think that you have any unique value to offer them?
2. Show a little personality and don’t be afraid to be different. A good example of this is the viral video that put Dollar Shave Club on the map. dollarshaveclub.com – our blades are f***ing great! It’s edgy and they took a risk putting the f-bomb in an official ad, but here’s the thing, it worked. The ad got people’s attention and it showed the people that the brand wasn’t just another razor brand like Bic or Gillette. I’m not telling you to be intentionally edgy and swear in your headlines. All I’m suggesting is that you allow your blog to have a personality and a unique, authentic style.
3. A good headline is specific. Be extremely clear about what you have to offer. Don’t stick to the common and general titles that don’t offer much insight at first glance. Be as precise as you can. If you are writing a post about how to grow a business with content marketing, a bad example of a headline would be “Content Marketing” or even “How to Grow your Business”. A good title for this would be “How I Increased My Company’s Sales by 50% Using Content Marketing”. This will make the readers know what to expect, and if they’re interested in what you have to offer, they will surely click through your link.
4. Your headlines should be useful, and it should convey a clear benefit to the reader. Just like the example given above, the title “How I Increased My Company’s Sales by 50% Using Content Marketing” is extremely clear about what the reader is going to learn from the article.
In summary, when writing headlines, make sure to always offer something unique, specific, and useful. Come up with a list of potential titles for your posts and narrow down the list to find the best one. If you’re stuck, you can run it by your friends to get fresh perspectives. In any case, always remember that your headline is your chance to make or break the first impression. So be sure to give it the attention it deserves.
July 28, 2022
9 Benefits of Video Marketing For Your Small Business

9 Benefits of Video Marketing For Your Small Business

Are you still having doubts about whether video marketing is for your business? If you haven’t read our article about Why Small Businesses Should Use Video Marketing, we have another treat for you. In this article today, we are going to share with you the many benefits of video marketing.

Probably the most useful tactic to incorporate in your marketing strategy is to personalize your brand and to do that, you have to tell your brand’s story. Storytelling is an effective way to get your message across to your audience and invoke an emotional response from them. Emotions are important as they influence trust and perception. And videos are the fastest and the most effective way to make this action possible. Because videos play to your visual appetite, they can effectively convey your message and information to viewers, and easily make them understand complex concepts.

Video marketing has become a huge part of the digital marketing scene today and it will continue to do so in the future. Whether you own a small or big business, here are 9 benefits of video marketing.

Get your Brand Noticed

Using videos is a great way to build and improve your brand awareness. Well-made videos will help you get your brand noticed and will catapult your business to the top. This will make you an authority in the industry and position yourself as a thought leader in your field.

Video Builds Trust and Credibility

Video is an incredible medium because of its power to present things in a different light. You get to convey emotions that will appeal to your customers and in this way, create a personality for your brand and company. Through videos, you will be able to connect with your viewers and get their trust.

Videos help educate the audience about your product or service and this will inform your potential customers more about your company and what you do. Trust is essential to make sales today and building trust is one of the benefits of video marketing.

Influence Customer’s Buying Decisions

About 90% of online customers have said that watching a video about a product or service helps them in deciding if they are completing their purchase or not. Videos are great because they influence customer’s buying decisions and about 64% of these consumers said that watching a video makes them more likely to buy.

Boost Your Organic Search Rankings

By having videos, your website’s ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs) is improved and boosted.

Google takes note of how long a visitor spends on your page and this influences how you appear in the SERPs. As videos are highly engaging, they will keep your audience longer on your site. Businesses that use video marketing effectively will more likely help boost their site’s search rankings.

Moreover, Youtube is the second-largest search engine next to its owner Google, and putting your video here can rack up your visibility and reach for a new audience.

Increase Website Traffic

People love videos and businesses that use videos on their site get more traffic on their website than those who do not.

Encourages Social Shares

When something goes viral, it’s always in a video format. And how does a post become viral? It’s when people share them with others.

Videos are shareable and very engaging, and when people enjoyed your video, they will more likely share them with their friends and family.

Engage Customers on Social Media

Whichever platform you’re on, whether it’s Instagram, Tiktok, or Facebook, you can easily share your message via videos.

Today, social media is overrun with video content and continues to have more because people respond and engage to this type of format more than just the generic text and image. Facebook alone has a staggering 100 million hours of video watched. (source)

Creating stunning video content to share across your pages will likely gain you more audience.

Increase Conversions and Improve Sales

Videos are made to convince the audience and convert them into actual customers, and this is probably one of the biggest benefits of video marketing.

A Great Addition to your Email Marketing Campaigns

Email marketing is still very much alive today and to spice it up, you can add videos in it to increase the engagement with your subscribers. Having videos in your emails can increase your open rates and can likely decrease your unsubscribe rates. Videos are just really easier to watch rather than having to read a long text, right?

Video marketing is becoming popular by the second and has become more affordable than before. With a variety of platforms that you can choose from, there will certainly be a perfect fit for your business. And with the benefits that come with it, video marketing is a strategy most marketers have found effective and worth investing in.

Need guidance and help with video marketing? Ve Digital offers videography services. Contact us today!

July 28, 2022
Where to Get Inspiration for New Content: Here are 5 Good Suggestions to Consider

Where to Get Inspiration for New Content

Creating new content is essential for any content creator, blogger, or marketer. However, coming up with fresh and engaging ideas is not always easy. At times, the inspiration just seems to be lacking, and you might find yourself struggling to come up with new content ideas.

In this blog post, we will share some of the best sources of inspiration to help you generate new content ideas.

Industry News and Trends

One of the best places to look for inspiration is in your industry. Keep up to date with the latest news, events, and trends in your field. Check out popular blogs, social media accounts, and forums to see what people are talking about. You can use this information to create content that is timely and relevant.

Customer Questions

Your customers can also be a valuable source of inspiration. Look for frequently asked questions in your customer support emails, social media comments, and forums. Answering these questions in a blog post or video can help you provide valuable information to your audience and establish yourself as an expert in your field.

Competitor Analysis

While you shouldn’t copy your competitors’ content, you can certainly use it for inspiration. Look at the content that is performing well in your niche and see how you can put your spin on it. You can also look for gaps in your competitors’ content and create content that fills those gaps.

Keyword Research

Keyword research can help you understand what people are searching for and create content that is optimized for search engines. Use keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner to identify relevant keywords that your audience is searching for. You can then use these keywords to create content that targets specific search queries.

Brainstorming Sessions

Brainstorming sessions can help you generate a ton of ideas quickly. Get together with your team, colleagues, or even friends and family to come up with new ideas. Write down all the ideas and evaluate them later. You can also use tools like Trello, Google Docs, or MindMeister to collaborate on ideas remotely.

Social Media

Social media can be a great place to find inspiration. Look for popular hashtags in your industry and see what people are saying. You can also follow thought leaders and influencers in your niche to see what content they are sharing.

Customer Feedback

Listening to customer feedback can help you create content that resonates with your audience. Use feedback tools like surveys or feedback forms to gather insights from your customers. You can then use this feedback to create content that addresses their pain points and provides solutions to their problems.

Industry Events and Conferences

Attending industry events and conferences can also be a great way to get inspiration for new content. These events provide you with an opportunity to learn about the latest trends, innovations, and best practices in your field. You can use the insights and ideas from these events to create new and engaging content for your audience.

Your Own Experiences

Sometimes the best content ideas come from your own experiences. Think about your personal and professional experiences and how they relate to your industry. You can share your own stories, lessons learned, and insights with your audience. This not only provides them with valuable information but also helps you build a stronger relationship with your audience.

Repurpose Old Content

Another great source of inspiration is your own old content. Look at your existing blog posts, videos, or podcasts, and see if you can repurpose them. You can update the content with new information, change the format, or create a series of related content. This can save you time and effort while still providing your audience with valuable information.

Guest Posts and Collaborations

Collaborating with other content creators or industry experts can also provide you with new ideas and inspiration. You can invite guest bloggers, participate in podcast interviews, or collaborate on social media campaigns. This not only expands your reach but also exposes you to new ideas and perspectives.

Books, Podcasts, and Other Media

Lastly, books, podcasts, and other media can be a great source of inspiration. Look for content that is relevant to your industry or niche and see what insights and ideas you can apply to your own content. You can also use this content as a starting point for your own research and analysis.

In conclusion, getting inspiration for new content requires a mix of creativity, curiosity, and research. By staying up to date with industry news and trends, listening to your audience, attending industry events, and collaborating with others, you can generate a ton of new content ideas. Remember to be authentic, provide value, and create content that resonates with your audience. Happy creating!

July 28, 2022
12 Gift Ideas for The Small Business Owners

12 Gift Ideas for The Small Business Owners

holidays are coming are you done with your Christmas shopping or are you one of those people who do things at the last minute? Whether you’ve done all the gift-wrapping or are yet to find the perfect gift for your loved ones, we’ve curated a list of gift ideas for small business owners, entrepreneurs, and digital marketers in your life!

Noise Canceling Headphones

Some people’s focus sharpens and thrives when outside noises are blocked and they can only hear their thoughts, or in my case when I can only hear the music I’m playing. Working on a marketing plan for businesses takes a lot of time being immersed in your own thoughts, researching, and looking out for inspiration. Without getting distracted by unnecessary noise, noise-canceling headphones are your best pick.

These Sony headphones and Apple AirPods pro are great options.

Bluelight-Blocking Eyewear

Blue light is very damaging for your eyes, it’s the light that’s emitted from devices and screens. This light is known to cause headaches, dry eyes, blurry vision, and insomnia. If you are getting a gift for someone who spends more than half of their day facing a screen – PC, laptop, or phone – the best you can get them is this blue-light-blocking eyewear. These specs are prescription-free glasses that have filtered lenses that can help minimize the effect of blue light.

A Trusty Notebook

Ideas are everywhere, and they pop when you least expect them. A handy and durable notebook that can be carried anywhere will be very much appreciated by business owners, entrepreneurs, and marketers alike.

A notebook will not only ideas but also reminders, to-do lists, future plans, and other things that need to be written down. A Moleskine is a classic notebook that’s stylish and functional at the same time.

A Big Whiteboard with Markers

Make your buddy’s brainstorming session a great one by gifting him a big whiteboard. With a long list of things to do, a whiteboard is something any entrepreneur or business owner will appreciate receiving because no matter how cool the apps and tools are we can find online, we’d always go back to do the traditional thing – like writing.

Tip: With this item, the bigger the better!

A Bluetooth Speaker

In today’s world, working from home has become the norm. Music, podcasts, and audiobooks are great sources of entertainment. A BlueTooth speaker can elevate the mood and enjoyment as you get through your work while listening to your favorite tunes and podcast episodes.

This one is a great pick.

A Laptop Lap Desk

Digital Marketers, entrepreneurs, and business owners are always on their laptops, so basically, getting them this laptop lap desk is just a logical thing to do.

This specific one has a built-in mouse pad and phone holder, so it’s going to be helpful when you want to lounge and work away from your desk.

A PopSocket

With the large phones, we have today, it’s super convenient to have something that can help us grip them more to avoid dropping them. Good thing there’s a thing called a pop socket. This is a handy phone accessory that isn’t just there for its look, as it is highly functional. Just stick it to the back of your phone and you’ll have a phone grip and stand in one.

An Ember Mug

Another thing in this list of gift ideas for small business owners is this unique mug. Do you love coffee but hate it when it gets cold? This cup is the answer to your dilemma. The Ember mug is designed to keep your coffee hot and fresh – even if you poured it an hour ago. What an innovation!

Stress Relief Candles

It’s the winter season, a time to slow down, chill, and relax. But then, work doesn’t stop, does it? Gift your loved one’s relaxation in a form of a stress-relief candle. With a lot of scents to choose from, these Bath and Body Works three-wick soy-based wax candles can burn up to 45 hours to refresh minds and reduce stress.

Subscription to HeadSpace or Calm App

A subscription to a meditation app can be a reminder to your loved one that it’s vital to take time out and breathe. Stress can lead to burnout and can make running a business be an even bigger challenge than it already is. This would be a great gift to remind them to have a work-life balance.

Subscription to their Favorite SaaS

Whether your loved one is an entrepreneur, a small business owner, or a digital marketer, they will love and appreciate it if you gift them a premium subscription to their favorite SaaS product. Maybe they like Audible or Spotify or even Grammarly. These apps are great for the productivity and inspiration that they will need to get their work done.

A Masterclass

If you are unfamiliar with this, Masterclass is an online learning platform, just like Skillshare and Udemy, that offers classes taught by some of the biggest names in the world. Do you want to learn how to cook like Gordon Ramsay? He teaches a class here! Natalie Portman teaches acting, RuPaul teaches self-expression and authenticity, Stephen Curry teaches shooting, ball handling, and scoring, and so many more. Aside from these, several amazing classes could be useful to entrepreneurs, business owners, and digital marketers.

Today, they have an offer, a buy one get one deal for the holidays! Don’t miss out!

It’s been a hard year for all of us. I hope this holiday season gives us hope to look forward that the next year will be better. And hopefully, this list of gift ideas for small business owners, entrepreneurs, and digital marketers will give you that light bulb on what to get for your loved one. Happy shopping!

July 14, 2022
7 Benefits of Digital Marketing For Your Business

7 Benefits of Digital Marketing For Your Business

It’s not a question that with today’s digital age, we all face our screens almost all the time every day. And with this, the world of marketing evolved to get on with the times. Digital marketing has become larger than ever as more and more consumers turn to researching and buying products online. Here are seven (7) benefits of digital marketing for your business you need to know if you didn’t yet.

Benefits of Digital Marketing

It is cost-effective

This may be the biggest benefit of digital marketing as it helps you obtain more leads while getting more of your money’s worth in the long run.

When compared to traditional marketing methods, you can compete with larger businesses because you all have a level field in digital marketing. Digital marketing is a more affordable way to advertise and market your business to potential customers. PPC or Pay-Per-Click ads allow you to work within your budget. You can also partner with digital marketing agencies to help you with your brand’s online marketing strategy.

It is measurable

When you spend money on digital marketing campaigns, you can easily track and measure what happens to your campaigns. There is analytics you can analyze to improve and make your digital marketing strategies better to get more favorable results.

While traditional marketing tactics are effective, they can be difficult to track and measure.

It enables you to target ideal customers

The good thing with digital marketing is that you can target your ads and show them to the right people who are interested in your brand and want to hear what you offer.

With traditional marketing, it’s difficult to target the right people because your ads generally go to everyone in hopes of reaching the people who will be interested. With digital marketing, you can filter who you want your ads to reach by specifically targeting those who fit your buyer personas.

When you create your Facebook or Instagram ads, you can set your target audience by defining their attributes such as age, gender, hobbies, occupation, location, and more. You can be as specific as you like. By narrowing your specifications, you’ll reach your ideal audiences more effectively.

It allows you to leverage social media

Social media is a crucial part when you want to market your business online. With digital marketing, leveraging social media has now become a part of it. Social media marketing can widen your audience reach and increase your brand awareness. You can also tap into influencer marketing which can be very beneficial for your business.

It helps you connect with mobile customers

Another one of the many benefits of digital marketing is it lets you connect with mobile phone users easily. With how the world has become more mobile-friendly today, people of all ages are browsing and consuming content mainly through their phones. This is the perfect opportunity to market your business. With digital marketing, you’ll be able to reach your target audience on their computers, tablets, and mobile phones.

It improves your conversion rate

One of the benefits of digital marketing is how it can significantly increase your conversion rate. This is made possible due to your ability to target specific leads as stated earlier. As you focus on your target audience, you increase the chance of converting potential leads into actual customers, and this will help your business grow.

It provides a way to really build relationships

The good thing about digital marketing is it’s more than just advertising and marketing. It’s also about connecting, engaging, and building relationships with your audience and followers, and even with other brands. Trust is crucial and when you build relationships with customers, you increase your client retention levels.

Build a sense of community with your audience by valuing their feedback and opinions. Maintain your relationship with your customers by sending them a follow-up email after their purchase. You can also send them special offers that are customized for them regularly.

Final Thoughts

If you own a business and you still haven’t dabbled into digital marketing, this is the time you start. Get on with the times because this digital age won’t be going out soon. With all the benefits of digital marketing we just shared with you, it’s definitely a win-win to get your business into its game.

For more articles like this, visit our blog and our Facebook Page.

July 14, 2022
All About Influencer Marketing
All About Influencer Marketing

Due to the large influx of both big and small businesses coming into the online world, it’s becoming increasingly challenging for brands to get attention on the internet. This has made consumers doubt the brands that self-promotes. New digital marketing strategies have been planned and created, and one of these is influencer marketing.

Ten years ago, influencer marketing was only limited to celebrities. But times have changed, and now in this modern digital age, tons of newly grown influencers have been paving their way into the market.

Influencer marketing is now an established form of online marketing and has been a buzzword in the media for a while. If you are one of those people who haven’t heard about this term yet, you have come to the right post. We will talk all about influencer marketing, what it is, why it’s important, how it works, and how you can leverage it for your business.

What is Influencer Marketing?

Influencer Marketing is a form of online marketing that uses endorsements and product mentions from people who has a large following on a distinct niche who can likely persuade other people to buy your product – hence the term “influencer”. This type of marketing involves collaboration between the brand and the online influencer to market their products or services.

Rather than doing all the marketing yourself across your consumers, you instead hire and pay influencers to get the word of your brand out across their followers.

Influencer marketing goes hand-in-hand with social media marketing and content marketing. Influencers have their social media accounts, the platforms where they are expected to spread the word. Influencer campaigns carry content elements, whether the brand has created content for the influencers to share, or the influencers create the content themselves.

What is an Influencer?

An influencer doesn’t automatically equate to celebrities. You can be an influencer without being a celebrity. So, what makes a person an influencer?

An influencer is defined and characterized as someone who has a loyal band of followers and has the power to affect the purchasing decisions of others because of his/her knowledge, position, authority, and relationship with his/her audience. They are regarded as experts in their niche and what they recommend is highly considered by their followers.

Influencers are real-life consumers who are knowledgeable about certain topics. This gives them the “influence” they have that enables them to urge their followers to take desired actions.

The Importance of Influencer Marketing

The influence economy has forever changed the way we purchase stuff. About 67% of marketers report that they are engaged in influencer marketing. With more mainstream exposure, this type of marketing will undoubtedly rise. Brands that don’t take part in this innovation will more likely miss out on the grand idea that consumers are now in control of the buyer’s journey.

The conventional ways of digital marketing no longer yield the desired results. Over 66% of customers are bombed with too many marketing messages online and about 20% of these will avoid the brand because of the excessive ads. This is why marketers should care about influencer marketing because this is one way to prove your brand’s authenticity.

Smart marketers leverage influencer marketing to create engagements with their consumers. Unlike conventional digital marketing, influencer marketing goes beyond just reach and clicks, they create ongoing conversations with potential customers that drive purchase and gives the results you desire.

Customers want authentic people who attract and influence their perceptions. It’s not a question of doubt, content creators have a huge influence to drive business growth and deliver authenticity that resonates with their audience.

How It Works

It’s important to recognize that brands no longer have the center stage, it’s the consumers who run the show. If you want to take part in the conversations and customer engagements, you have to think like a consumer. These people have conversations over various social media platforms, this is where influencers emerge.

The goal here is to plug into new communities and connect your product/brand to new viewers via a trusted voice in the community. Authenticity creates trust and people gravitate toward online influencers because the content they create is valuable. Collaborating with these influencers will allow the brands to integrate their message into their content which will be shared with their followers. To ensure authenticity, the brands must allow their influencers to be true and sincere when doing sponsored content. Consumers do not appreciate insincere and irrelevant content, this will negatively affect the influencer’s power as people start to unsubscribe.

Brands wanting to be pertinent to consumers should approach the media as a way to attract, engage, and convert prospects, which means they should create content that consumers care about and trust. Collaborating with influencers is the most effective way to make this happen. Influencers are experts at generating online discussions so the content they share with the brand’s message will be discussed, shared, and reposted. This is earned media and what makes this valuable is that it is trusted more by the consumers. When influencers write about their own experience with the brand and share compelling stories about it, it will influence their audience.

How to Use Influencer Marketing for your Business

Before you start looking for influencers to collaborate with and create a strategy, there are a few things you need to determine to set the stage.

Know Your Audience

Define your target audience. Who are you trying to reach? Who are your target consumers? Who do you want to hear your message?

Set Your Goals

The key to influencer marketing success is setting appropriate goals. For influencer marketing campaigns, some of the common goals are brand awareness, gaining social media followers, getting people to try your product, and increasing sales.

Define What Success is

How will you and your client measure success? Define some key performance indicators (KPIs) and by setting up the right tracking methods, you will be able to identify where a consumer is in their buying journey – awareness, consideration, preference, purchase, or loyalty.

How To Get Started

There are five key components to build an influencer campaign:
- Planning your strategy
- Selecting and Identifying your Influencers
- Content Collaboration and Campaign
- Optimization
- Analytics Monitoring
Planning Your Influencer Marketing Strategy

It takes careful planning to make a successful strategy. Research is key.

Selecting and Identifying Influencers

This depends on your budget and the scope of your campaign. Influencers come in all shapes, sizes, and backgrounds, and have varying levels of impact. You can find them in agencies and webpages online.

Content Collaboration and Campaigning

Creating great content is what makes up a great marketing campaign. Your content should compel your target audience, authentic to the influencer’s voice, and stands with your brand’s values and objectives.

Optimized Distribution

Create a content strategy that extends its usefulness. Use content from your influencer in your testimonials. Feature celebrity influencers in your print ads. You can even share your content in your newsletter. Don’t just stop with the content that influencers have created, optimize it to get more results.

Analytics Monitoring

To check if your influencer marketing strategy worked, monitor your analytics. There are different metrics and methods for measurement to define your success. Collect more data so you can optimize your marketing efforts. Based on these data, you can rank your influencers, conclude which content resonates best with your audience, and see which social media channel is best for sharing.

The Bottomline

There’s only so much we can do with today’s technology, but one thing is for sure. Influencer marketing has come a long way and has the potential to become the future of digital marketing. Taking advantage of how consumers would rather hear from real people than brands, influencer marketing is the best choice because it delivers connections and authenticity that the consumers crave.

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July 14, 2022
Why Video Content Matters to Marketing: Here are 9 Important Benefits

Why Video Content Matters to Marketing: Here are 9 Important Benefits

Content marketing is a strategy effective in building brand awareness and reaching your target audience. One form of content marketing that has been gaining traction for years now is video marketing and for today’s post, we will be talking about why video content matters to your marketing strategy.

Marketers have said that videos have become more important than ever and as shown in this statistic report, using videos as a marketing tool has become vital.

Also read: Top Tips for Video Marketing

Here are 9 reasons why video content matters to marketing:

Videos are Great in Explaining Everything

Videos are a great medium to introduce, explain, and show off what your company is all about. Launching new products or services? Make a detailed video to show its features and benefits. Video content is useful as it helps potential buyers learn more about a product.

96% of people have watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service and 84% of people say that they’ve been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video. That’s why 85% of businesses use video as a marketing tool. (source)

There’s a lot of ways to leverage video marketing into your business strategy and it doesn’t have to be expensive. This visual element is such a good tool to help businesses explain how things work and it greatly affects the potential buyers’ purchasing journey.

You Can Use Video in Many Ways

When it comes to making and using video content, you have a lot of options to choose from. You can find the method that’s perfect for your company’s goals. Of course, the most obvious choice is YouTube, but there are other platforms you can use aside from this giant.

Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat allow you to post short videos that disappear after 24 hours and these are great because they are quick to create and are personal as they speak directly to your audience. For these stories to be effective though, you’ll need to have an audience on your social media.

There’s also live video which has grown in popularity in recent years. On platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and Twitch, you can have live stream events for your business. Live video is effective and highly engaging compared to regular videos.

You can make webinars that you can use to directly interact with your potential clients. These webinars are created to address specific questions and concerns about your product and service or teach your audience about your field and company.

Videos are Great for SEO

Search engines like Google love videos and websites are more likely to rank on the front page if it contains videos. Videos are highly engaging content and they can keep visitors on your website stay longer.

And as Google owns YouTube, which is the world’s 2nd largest search engine, relevant videos are favored by Google in their search results.

Optimize your videos on YouTube for SEO by writing catchy titles and detailed descriptions. Add your website, products, and services links, too.

Video Builds Trust

A video is a great tool and a powerful medium for marketing as it allows you to connect to your target audience on an emotional level. This emotional connection your build with your audience is what makes them trust and do business with you. Building this trust will link you to your audience and will gain you the chance of winning over new customers.

Video Shows Great Return On Investment

Creating effective video campaigns may look like you need to have a big budget, but the cost is not as high as it used to be 15 years ago.

The ROI you get from creating videos will also depend on several things such as how well organized your content is and the quality of your videos. But nonetheless, with strategic planning, a well-produced video will provide an ROI for your investment.

Video Engages Even the Laziest Buyers

Videos are great for learning and they are very easy to consume. In today’s fast-paced world, people are too occupied to read long texts, so having videos that provide audio and visual content is preferred. Customers love seeing products in action and videos provide this kind of content.

Videos are Mobile-Friendly

The majority of the population today has a mobile phone and 90% of consumers watch videos on their phones. With the growing number of smartphone users over the years, your videos will keep getting more and more audience. More audience means more potential customers.

Videos are Shareable

As stated above, videos are popular for mobile users. With the video formats we have available, it’s easier to share them on whichever platform you want. This can potentially increase your content’s reach and will also mean an increase in your brand awareness and possibly conversions!

Video Drives Traffic and Boost Sales

Adding product videos to your landing pages can increase conversions and sales. A high-quality video with great content will drive leads to your business and traffic to your website. Not only will videos get potential customers to interact with your brand, but they will also aid them through their purchasing journey as they get to know more about your products and services.

Videos are a vital part of your marketing strategy and it’s a great way to reach your audience. The best part is creating quality videos has become easier than before and it’s been made available to everyone.

If you still haven’t incorporated video marketing in your business strategy, then perhaps this is the sign that you should.

Need guidance and help? Ve Digital offers videography services. Contact us today!

July 14, 2022
Three Career Paths That Are Set to Survive the Pandemic

3 Career Paths That Are Set to Survive the Pandemic

COVID-19 has disrupted the workforce in a way that has never been seen before in all of history. The most influential change has been the widespread switch to remote work. Companies have traditionally not supported remote work due to fears that employees would lose their productivity, but this pandemic served as a trial by fire for such companies.

As remote work has taken hold of the country, some companies have been quite pleased with their employee’s results. For example, CNN examined some of the top companies considering keeping remote work semi-permanent after the pandemic.

In that, they referenced how Mark Zuckerberg discussed that up to 50 percent of his employees may be working from home for the next five to 10 years. A number of traditional career paths have been lost due to the onset of remote work and the pandemic, but if the trend continues, then there will be even more job losses. Fortunately, there are a number of remote careers set to survive this pandemic, and below are three of the most prominent paths.

Full Stack Development

The fact that the number of websites around the world is increasing at an unprecedented rate is no secret. With 4.57 billion active Internet users per month, according to Statista, it’s clear that the future of business is on computers. Keeping this in mind, websites are the landing places for those billions of people and they do not build themselves.

Full stack developers are experts in both front end and backend development. This means that they design the barebone aesthetics of websites and can also work on the software side as well. In short, full stack developers are capable of completely creating and maintaining a website. As remote work rises, a byproduct will be the increased number of companies needing comprehensive websites to conduct online business. Due to this, the number of job openings in this field is likely going to increase drastically.

Fairly extensive knowledge of coding is required to enter this field, however, which can be difficult to achieve if you aren’t currently in school. Fortunately, there are coding bootcamps in cities around the world that can teach anyone the skills needed to enter this long-lasting field.

UX Design

For the more creative people in the world, becoming a UX designer is a path that will become heavily favored in the next few years. This is due to the fact that little tech skill is required, unlike the majority of tech-based jobs. UX designers handle the design of the website and typically have an understanding of human psychology, so as to guide website traffic to certain parts of the page.

This career, as with full stack development, is set to see massive growth due to the speed at which websites are appearing. As more businesses transition online, their websites will need to appeal to more people than their competition. That’s where UX designers will come in. With an average salary already sitting at about $85,000 per year, according to Glassdoor, it is obvious how valued these professionals are.

Unlike other tech-based jobs, UX design will appeal to more people because it is one of the easiest careers to transition to from a non-tech job. With only a creative eye and graphic design experience required, this will be a career path that could become saturated, so getting involved now is the best way to make a name for oneself.

Software Engineering

Truthfully, software engineering is probably one of the most difficult career paths to break into once you pass your educational years. However, the path to becoming a software engineer is not impossible and, if achieved, would provide an employee with a versatile career. Software engineers, similar to full stack developers, design web applications and operating systems that can be used.

Coding and programming are, perhaps, the two most important skills to this profession, and attending a trade school may be a smart option for anyone looking to break into this career. This path is only set to grow for the same reason as the careers listed above. As technology continues to advance, as well as remote work, professionals capable of working with and on computers will be required.

Conclusion

There are a number of traditional career paths that are going to see a decline in the coming years. Keeping this fact in mind, taking preemptive action, and developing the skills needed to enter a tech-based job may just save your career later down the line. The full effect of the disruption from COVID-19 on the workforce is yet to be seen, but getting ahead of it all by pursuing tech-based jobs is the best way to get a leg up on the future competition.

June 28, 2022