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It’s no secret that we’re seeing a competitive market dominated by major brands. For small to medium sized businesses, the challenge isn’t in the creation of beneficial products or services, it’s in making potential consumers aware of the brand. Digital marketing is arguably one of the most effective ways of improving brand strength, but how should it be done?

Social Media Networks and a Consistent Message

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest… today, small businesses have a wealth of options when it comes to social media, but which do you choose? The answer - all of them. Demonstrating a presence across multiple platforms can have a significant effect on brand strength, assuming you’re building a consistent brand image across each network. Studies suggest that businesses that use consistent branding are typically 20 percent more successful than those that don’t.

Analyse Digital Marketing Trends and Adapt

A common mistake made by young businesses is to focus on creating brand equity and then leaving the brand to essentially manage itself. A strong brand should be able to adapt to changing trends while still maintaining that same strength. Small to medium sized businesses should look to their competitors, and study and analyse current trends in digital marketing to remain relevant and up-to-date. Imagine if we were all still using MySpace!

Natural, Readable Search Engine Optimisation

While many consumers do feel loyal to specific brands, don’t forget that 89 percent of online shoppers begin the purchasing process with a search - this gives small to medium sized businesses an opportunity to shine. Digital content marketing should not only focus upon common keywords, but also upon search terms inspired by any other form of marketing you’ve engaged in. Keyword density is overrated - it’s readability and engagement that counts. 

Remember that there’s no agreed definition when it comes to brand equity - rankings are variable and highly subjective, so there’s no definitive goal for businesses to aim for. There are, however, many ways to monitor how your brand is growing in response to digital marketing, including utilising social media platforms to gather consumer opinions, studying post shares and engagement, and analysing visitor statistics.

Google Adwords

It’s also worth noting that Google Adwords can generate more direct conversions over the more broader social media approach. By carefully when selecting the right key words in order to target your niche business area which will result in generating leads to your website. Google do advise to select the more competitive key words but be warned some of these can cost you over £1 per click, so this could result in you having to increase your budget.

Yazoomer’s Social Media Channels

For a short period of time Yazoomer are offering social media exposure for all new signups which is currently a subscription based Premium Service. What does that mean? We will post your company logo together with a short description of your business onto our Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter channels, some of our customers are already seeing 600-700 views on their posted averts placed by Yazoomer. This is why it is imperative to have your social media channels in place and more importantly connecting with Yazoomer so we can also increase your brand awareness.

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While more businesses are using online directories than ever before - and the market is expected to see a steady growth by around 2.4 percent by 2017 - this method of digital advertising is still heavily underutilised by many small and medium businesses who place too much importance on SEO and SMM alone (we will be posting blogs on these topics within the coming weeks). Here are some of the key benefits businesses could enjoy through placing an advert in a global online directory:

Improved Outreach

There are many benefits of blogging to a global audience, yet many businesses shy away from international marketing due to the stresses and hassles of optimising content for foreign audiences using different keywords, key phrases, and cultural references. Placing an ad in an online directory is one of the most effective ways to reach new audiences without alienating.

Local Reputation

While advertising to a UK or global audience can be beneficial, word-of-mouth marketing is still a major player when it comes to building a local reputation. It’s important for businesses to promote themselves, their products, and their services to the local community through location-based advertising on online directories, encouraging customers to spread the word in the locality.

Increased Visibility

At a time when on-site content marketing is proving to be so effective, many businesses are becoming sucked into the SEO world and are failing to see that, for SMEs, SEO isn’t everything. Optimised web pages should be used in conjunction with digital advertising forms such as online directories that work to introduce consumers to businesses they may not have found otherwise. Online directories also push your details onto Google, try this by simply typing ‘Barfia Yazoomer’ into Google the results speak for themselves.

Together, these three primary benefits do what they’re supposed to - they bring in business. A study by the The Editor & Publisher Co found that more than half of all business owners who advertise in online directories plan to renew their ad when it expires due to success and overall satisfaction.

Yazoomer is currently offering a FREE listing with an option to upgrade to Premium for £5 which offers a lot more benefits, most importantly enhancing visibility of your business not only online but to our 10,000 followers!!

It’s reported that 93 percent of marketers today use content marketing to promote their business and reach target audiences, but it’s important to remember that there’s a very significant difference between content, and good content.

64 percent of content marketers claim that their biggest challenge today is producing enough content to keep their audience hooked, but perhaps it’s time to stop focusing upon quantity, and instead make quality more of a priority.

When questioned, experts in the field claimed there were three distinct aspects that, when combined, help contribute towards killer content:

Audience Relevance

Audience relevance has been proven to be vital in both B2B and B2C scenarios. In terms of B2C, 82 percent of blog readers report a preference for reading relevant content rather than generic content, while in a B2B context, 79 percent claim they’re more likely to choose a vendor that displays relevant content online.

Keeping a blog relevant needn’t be a difficult task - it’s simply a case of doing a little research. Keep up with trends and news within the industry, take into account what direct competitors are posting, and perform keyword analysis to determine what modern consumers are looking for.

Engaging Storytelling

Engaging storytelling is often cited as important for brands, but why? Many believe that it all comes down to human science and the fact that ‘human memory is story based’. In order to remember information, the brain converts information into a story, and so we’re naturally more inclined to engage with data if it’s presented to us in a story-like format.

Creating a compelling storyline is actually much more simple than it sounds - it’s about following the Monomyth structure. This structure is often found in fiction, but it can easily be applied to blogs - begin with the familiar, discuss challenges, risks, concepts, and ideas to lead to a revelation, finally returning to the familiar to conclude.

Triggers Actions

A true measure of whether blog content has triggered a response in its audience is whether or not the content goes viral. Blog readership figures are essentially pointless if none of that audience are influenced to an extent that they feel compelled to take action - to share information with a friend, to follow the brand, or to make a purchase, for example.

Experts state that an audience is more likely to react to content that is positive, rather than negative, to content that arouses emotions and pushes buttons, and to content that is practical and useful within day-to-day life. Incorporating these aspects into blog content is vital.

The Key to Success

Whether your content is considered ‘killer’ or not isn’t determined by one single factor - it’s about having the right combination of factors that work together to create content that’s original, meaningful, and, ultimately, influential.

The Yazoomer website has re-launched and branded as the Visual Business Directory offering Free advertising and a Premium option. We have added a new feature allowing you to upload upto an additional six images to help promote your business. Check out how our new zooming technology and how it displays the advert!

By subscribing to Yazoomer, you can provide your online advert the significant audience reach offered by an online directory. Yazoomer also has a large social media following and can leverage on this to promote your advert through the Premium subscription options. We have made it even easier to upload and manage your subscription via the My Profile option, also allowing you to view your advert in case you need to make any changes.

The increased prominence of a paid subscription ensures that your advert or listing is more likely to be found by visitors compared to a Free subscription.

Premium adverts on yazoomer.com are similar to promoted posts on social media networks - they target larger numbers of consumers and help increase brand awareness and online visibility.

Advertising categories range from Arts, Finance, wholesale trading and warehousing through to transportation and utilities - Yazoomer is a truly diverse directory, and that’s what really makes us stand out amongst the competition.

We also offer businesses the option to categorise themselves based on location. While yazoomer.com enables promotion on a worldwide basis, more than half of all consumers prefer to support local businesses, and will specifically seek out small to medium sized businesses in the vicinity, which is why it’s important to target demographics based on geographical location. Once your advert has been placed and listed within the yazoomer.com directory, consumers from all around the world will have access to your advertisement.

Adverts can be browsed, or will be displayed when a user searches for suppliers within your industry.

Yazoomer allows our customers the ability to change their advert logo and text at anytime at no extra cost. Your advert will be part of either a basic advertising rotating system located on the home page which is available to all adverts including FREE subscribers.

The Premium rotating section incorporating larger adverts is for paid subscribers.

All adverts use our patent zooming technology. Once the advert is clicked on, it is automatically zoomed allowing maximum exposure.

For complete peace of mind, all payment details are stored securely by our payment processor, Stripe, and any communications involving credit/debit card details are fully encrypted.

We also have a secure verification system and use industry recognized security including SSL to protect our clients and our users, and so that we can offer instant access to hundreds of legitimate, verified businesses and minimise the risk of fraudulent activity on the web.

Why don’t you subscribe and join the many who continue to benefit from being a member of the Yazoomer.com community.

Register your business today and start advertising now.