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5 tips to strengthen your business on LinkedIn

Hubspot recently conducted a study of 5000 businesses and found that LinkedIn was 277% more effective at generating leads than Facebook and Twitter. LinkedIn generated the highest visitor-to-lead conversion rate at 2.74%, almost 3 times higher (277%) than both Twitter (.69%) and Facebook (.77%). But many businesses still turn a blind eye towards LinkedIn and… Continue reading »

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content-writing

It’s all about the content …or is it?

Content creation has been a concern for clients and marketers simply because they have to go through the continuous struggle of maintaining ‘relevant’ content. Brands’ acting like publishers is not wrong at all but the extent to which they publish needs to be assessed. These days we have brands creating all kinds of content, short… Continue reading »

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moneyclick_final

Money Clicks 2011

UX Labs, the Usability Consulting & Design division of Indigo Consulting, has published a report: Money Clicks 2011 – A study of the online financial services consumer in India. The report takes a closer look at the new breed of financial services consumers in India and focuses on an in-depth study of consumer digital habits… Continue reading »

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pinterest

This is Pinterest-ing

Say Hello to the newest entrant in the social media space: Pinterest. Widely regarded as one of the hottest new platforms in the digital arena, Pinterest is pretty much like a digital scrap book. Users are allowed to create boards on which they can ‘pin’ any type of content online; be it images, text, videos… Continue reading »

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nfc

NFC: An emerging phenomenon

What is NFC? Near field communication (NFC) is a technology that is becoming increasingly popular in smartphones. It allows devices to establish radio communication with each other by touching them together or bringing them into close proximity. NFC offers convenience and functionality to smartphone users and requires just a simple ‘tap’ from the user to activate. It is in… Continue reading »

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5 tips to strengthen your business on LinkedIn It’s all about the content …or is it? Money Clicks 2011 This is Pinterest-ing NFC: An emerging phenomenon

May
07

5 tips to strengthen your business on LinkedIn

by admin

Hubspot recently conducted a study of 5000 businesses and found that LinkedIn was 277% more effective at generating leads than Facebook and Twitter. LinkedIn generated the highest visitor-to-lead conversion rate at 2.74%, almost 3 times higher (277%) than both Twitter (.69%) and Facebook (.77%).

But many businesses still turn a blind eye towards LinkedIn and continue to spend more effort on Facebook and Twitter.  LinkedIn offers businesses the opportunity to create real results, however many companies still don’t use the network to its full potential.

Here are some tips to leverage LinkedIn and strengthen your business via this under rated social network.

1. Update your company’s products and services tab

LinkedIn allows you to feature your company’s products and services under its own dedicated tab which is a feature of its company pages. This tab allows you to describe you products and services in detail, focus on the key features of your product/service, add the link to internal pages on your website and also allows viewers to recommend your products and leave testimonials. You can spread word about your product/service on other social networks by sharing the link and even requesting customers to recommend one or all of your offerings.

2. Create company page variations

Unlike other social networks, LinkedIn allows you to create variations of your company page to target specific audiences. You can define a persona based on LinkedIn profile Inofrmation and create a variation of your products and services page aligned with that specific persona. This handy tool allows you to the most relevant information and products/services to your visitors. This increases the chances of having visitors click through  to your website.

It is recommended to create two personas based on the main target audiences and create custom products and services pages that are relevant to those personas.

Click here to know more on how to use this tool.

3. Regular Status Updates

While being highly practiced on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, the use of a status updates as a marketing tool has been greatly ignored on LinkedIn. An update can include relevant announcements, news, ideas, opinions and may even include links, photos and is a great way to drive traffic to your website

If you are not sure about what content to post as a status update you can always consider using answers to your customers’ frequently asked queries.

4. Track your page statistics

LinkedIn also provides statistical date about your company page. It allows you to track engagement and visitors of your page.  This includes how many people have visited your page each month, their job roles, which industries they pertain to and which tabs have they viewed within your company page.

Track this data on a monthly basis to analyse your growth and make the most of your findings.

5. LinkedIn paid ads

You can also boost leads by using paid ads on LinkedIn which you can use to target specific personas and drive visitors to a landing page on your website. It has been noticed that there is a lower cost-per-lead for LinkedIn ads compared to other paid channels, so you might want to go ahead with the ads as a controlled experiment for your company.

Experiment with these LinkedIn tools and check how much value you get for your company!

References: Hubspot

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Apr
17

It’s all about the content …or is it?

by admin

Content creation has been a concern for clients and marketers simply because they have to go through the continuous struggle of maintaining ‘relevant’ content. Brands’ acting like publishers is not wrong at all but the extent to which they publish needs to be assessed. These days we have brands creating all kinds of content, short content for twitter, long content for blogs, videos for YouTube and Vimeo, and some brands have started their own radio shows by Podcasting.

We often confuse our content requirement with our advertising need. Advertising plays a crucial role in capturing a consumer’s attention. After all, its main purpose is to create awareness. But besides announcing the existence of your product or service, how else do you share additional information that could well seal the deal between you and your consumer? Where do you share this information? Does your product require a Facebook page or a voice on Twitter?

Yes, advertising is of utmost importance and is about putting your product out there but content is a great way to create awareness as well. But this type of awareness needs to differ and have a special meaning and depth to it only because, while consumers are flooded with advertisements, they aren’t being inundated with content. Brands are not only curating and publishing content but are also functioning as media entities themselves. We live in a world where anybody and everybody can publish their thoughts in various forms, be it in text format, images, audio, video and release it to the world on the internet. This has resulted with brands jumping onto the bandwagon not to be left behind as every other brand does the same. The result is Mediocrity, where the quality of content can’t match the quantity being produced.

The quality of content can’t match the quantity being produced. We need to stop, breathe, and not hit the publish button so frequently. As a brand, you need to ask yourself what great stories can we tell? Brands like Apple and Dell may not be up there at the peak of the social mountain but they do manage to ‘be social’ by not necessarily focusing on ‘being social’ but expressing themselves via other means of storytelling. This could be a single message derived from the brand’s history, mission, values or service. Dell does not just sell computers but they have people online assisting users in understanding technology better.

The good thing is that brands and content and stories are starting to get better. With the tools, channels and platforms available for distribution, storytelling has just gotten more interesting. Brands must now focus on investing in great stories instead of investing in people to talk, blog, tweet or share simply because everybody is doing it or because someone told them that it’s all about the content.

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Mar
16

Money Clicks 2011

by admin

UX Labs

UX Labs, the Usability Consulting & Design division of Indigo Consulting, has published a report: Money Clicks 2011 – A study of the online financial services consumer in India.

The report takes a closer look at the new breed of financial services consumers in India and focuses on an in-depth study of consumer digital habits with respect to the BFSI domain. The research follows quantitative face to face interviews with 1265 respondents conducted by Beehive Edison Research. The respondents included both males and females, who are internet savvy, belonging to the age group of 25-54 years and who have purchased and applied for / intended to purchase and apply for any financial product in the last three months. The respondents hail from major cities across India, such as Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Coimbatore.

The report aims at throwing light on the online behavior of these consumers while looking to understand what they are searching for online, where they are going to research and buy products, what is triggering the use of digital, and what is preventing them from buying on the digital medium.

Some of the report’s key findings include the following:

- Nearly 60% of internet users in India are online for more than 4 hours every week and over 60% of them log on at least once a day. The financial products that users are exposed to the most online are bank savings accounts and life insurance.

- At least 1 in every 4 active online users is searching for a financial product for the first time while almost 50% of users searching for health and travel insurance online are doing it for the first time.

- Almost 1/3rd of the respondents have searched at least one product or the other online. Life insurance tops the list followed by mutual funds, with a quarter of them having ever searched it online.

- Most users go online mainly to understand product benefits and offerings, a behaviour that held true across all products.

- The conversion rate from those who fill online application forms for financial products to those who actually pay online for the product is fairly low. It is significant to note that for a sizeable number of users, an average of 67%, one of the most frequently performed activities was leaving their contact details like number and email address.

- The primary drivers for users to go online for information on financial services are quality and accuracy of information, quicker access to information, ability to compare products, better deals, access to independent and unbiased opinions.

- Reliability of information was cited as a key benefit among users who preferred gathering information on financial services offline. This included, both, first time and repeat searchers.

- The number one difficulty faced by users for most products, was “filling up the application form”, indicating the importance of testing and refining online application forms with users until they are “obstacle-free” and make for a smooth, user-friendly experience.

- Users also indicated that they did not know where they could purchase online initially, which is why websites need to promote online application as a key call to action, wherever relevant, so users start understanding that it is possible.

With the answers to some of the biggest questions on marketing financial services online, this inaugural Money Clicks 2011 report serves as a handy tool for financial services marketers as they look to bring digital strategy to the heart of their advertising and marketing programs.

If any part of this survey report is being used, please mention the following credit line:
Research conducted by UX Labs, a division of Indigo Consulting.
Copyright Indigo Systems & Technology Consulting (I) Pvt Ltd.No copying or reproduction without permission.

Download Money Clicks 2011

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Mar
05

This is Pinterest-ing

by admin

Say Hello to the newest entrant in the social media space: Pinterest. Widely regarded as one of the hottest new platforms in the digital arena, Pinterest is pretty much like a digital scrap book. Users are allowed to create boards on which they can ‘pin’ any type of content online; be it images, text, videos etc.  A user can ‘pin’ the content by installing a ‘pin it’ button on their web browser’s toolbar. The boards created by users, are public and can be followed by other users who share similar interests. Users can also connect with each other, share pins, like and comment, re pin and more.

Pinterest was launched in mid 2010 and quickly grew in popularity. Last December, it featured among the top ten social media sites in the world. At that time however, Pinterest was still not available to everyone and those wanting to join had to wait to be ‘invited’. And since the beginning of 2012, daily users has increased by more than 145 %. Pinterest, in fact is regarded as the modern day, 2012 version of Delicious – a social bookmarking service launched in 2003 that allowed users to share their web bookmarks. Delicious functioned with the notion of tagging content to make it convenient for other users to find online. The platform was recently purchased by the co founders of YouTube and is now a place to collect and share information.

Pinterest’s success cannot be attributed only to its functionalities of saving and organizing content. For users engaging in online communities, the core value sets in when they are given a chance to express themselves and showcase their identity and personality to others. What works in Pinterest’s favor, is that they allow users to have a profile through which they can communicate who they are via visual content.

Brands too are making the most of this platform but like every other platform, there is a key to managing your band on Pinterest as well. It can be noted that the most successful brands on Pinterest are the ones who are less promotional and more personal ie using the network as individual users. These brands pin content that communicate who the brands are and what they are inspired by. Brands are also taking advantage of the design and using Pinterest as a virtual catalogue!

An interesting fact about Pinterest is that (according to Experian Hitwise) it has been extremely popular with women who form 60% of its user base. Is it safe to assume that emerging platforms being dominated by young male users are now a thing of the past? Or is it simply because the newer platforms are much easier and fun to use?  Either way the online audience is now thrown to explore the opportunities of another platform….something, some of them can ‘Pin’ their hopes on :)

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Feb
15

NFC: An emerging phenomenon

by admin

What is NFC?

Near field communication (NFC) is a technology that is becoming increasingly popular in smartphones. It allows devices to establish radio communication with each other by touching them together or bringing them into close proximity. NFC offers convenience and functionality to smartphone users and requires just a simple ‘tap’ from the user to activate. It is in many ways a massive step ahead of similar technologies like Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) which allowed only one way communication and tracking.

Where can NFC be used?

NFC has caught on in the western markets and has been increasingly used in advertising and promotional campaigns in the past few months. It is now making its way into the Indian Mobile market, albeit slowly. NFC can be integrated with a variety of functions:

  • Payments

NFC devices can be effectively used in payment systems and can serve as a supplement to mobile payments and electronic ticketing. Countries such as Germany, Austria and China widely use NFC in their public transport systems. It not only saves time for the commuters but also betters their travel experience. Just imagine purchasing a ticket by a simple tap of your phone on an NFC enabled marker. No standing in lines. No currency notes. Just a tap and you receive an instant e-ticket on your smartphone!

  • Setting up connections

Although NFC connects through a low speed connection, the setup is extremely simple. This can be used to establish a bigger connection like Bluetooth or WiFi and time-consuming steps such as pairing or authenticating devices, can be skipped altogether.

  • Social Networking

NFC can be used to share contacts, pictures or videos. Alternatively it can also be used as a pointer to Facebook/Twitter pages.

  • Identification

Since NFC has a short range and supports encryption, it can be used as electronic identity documents or keycards. A mobile phone with the user’s information can be used for authentication, saving the need to carry physical documents or ID cards.

 Has NFC seen any success yet?

The convenience and functionality that NFC offers has caught the attention of advertisers. Here are some NFC based campaigns:

XMen: First Class

The new X-Men movie “X-Men First Class” was advertised in London, UK using Near Field Communication (NFC) to guide mobile users to a trailer or Facebook page via their NFC enabled phones. It was the first time that NFC was used in a public campaign. The poster campaign featured an exclusive movie trailer and a link to the X-Men film’s Facebook page which was accessed by tapping a NFC-enabled smart phone on poster sites around London. Each site had a pre-programmed NFC chip affixed to the rear of the poster.

 The film’s tag line “Witness the moment that will change our world” was apt for this NFC campaign as this was the first time that NFC was used in a promotion to the public. Since then, NFC has been adopted by many brands who want to deliver effective ‘hyper-local’ marketing campaigns.

For this campaign, optimized mobile content was developed to ensure a great brand experience. For advertisers and retailers this development offers a hugely valuable new consumer gateway as each poster site becomes a new retail outlet. Retailers and advertisers gained additional data about consumers, such as consumer location data and shopping history, which in turn allowed for more targeted advertising.

Also, the cost of each NFC chip is extremely low and the consumer receives instant fulfillment. It is obvious that the potential application of this technology is immense.

Citibank India

Citi Customers in Bangalore can experience the convenience of using their mobile phone as a credit card. The global bank launched its ‘Citi Tap and Pay’, bringing to India the ‘contactless credit card payment system.’ It is based on NFC technology in collaboration with Nokia, Vodafone, MasterCard and VIVOtech.  

The launch of Citi Tap and Pay pilot service was one of the world’s largest pilots ever undertaken, establishing a fully secure, scalable and interoperable mobile payments ecosystem in Bangalore. The technology will allow customers to tap their mobile phone on a contactless reader at the point of sale to pay for purchases, eliminating the need for traditional swiping of credit cards, he said.    

The service also does away with the need for customers to send SMS or incur mobile data charges to make these payments. Nokia supports the service with its NFC-enabled Nokia 6212 classic phones, replacing the multitude of cards in consumer wallets. Vodafone is the mobile network operator for the pilot service while MasterCard will offer its MasterCard PayPass contactless payment and security infrastructure. 

Citi Tap and Pay customers can use the new NFC-capable Nokia N 6212 classic phone which they can purchase at designated Nokia stores, pre-loaded with the Citi Tap and Pay application enabled with MasterCard’s PayPass contactless payment technology. They will then be able to securely execute an Over-The-Air download of their Citibank MasterCard credit card on to their mobile phone. Once personalized, their credit card on the phone is ready and the customers can use the phone to make Tap and Pay transactions at locations displaying Citi Tap and Pay and MasterCard PayPass acceptance marks.

Citi Tap and Pay transactions are absolutely secure and require a PIN validation. The contactless payment transactions will be automatically charged to a customer’s Citibank MasterCard card account.   

References:
printmediacentr.com/2011/05/first-public-nfc-marketing-campaign-delivered-via-printbusiness-standard.com/india/news/citi-brings-nfc-mobile-payments-to-india/66064

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