Don't miss out on these amazing Social Media platforms!
Oct 12, 2018
10 min read
Being a proactive digital marketing company, we keep a close eye on the latest studies and findings in the industry to provide the best to our clients.
And recently, we came across a Clutch Research about how businesses are using digital marketing in 2018 and were kind of surprised by its findings.
From the 501 digital marketers (in the US) surveyed by Clutch, 81% of them actively use social media for marketing themselves digitally, 78% of them have their own business website to promote themselves and as much as 69% of them use email marketing to push brand promotions. 
While we were clearly surprised to not see SEO in the top 3 (or even top 5) of this list, to our dismay, it actually is the least popular marketing channel amongst digital marketers in the US with only 44% of the marketers making use of it for increasing their online exposure.
If you don’t already know, we are die-hard fans of SEO!
SEO can be a game changer for businesses if done well and can bring a lot of search engine traffic and exposure to a business. So, in short, yes, it’s important and the attention it’s getting from marketers is kind of underwhelming, to say the least.
I think the editors at Clutch were surprised with the results as well, that’s why they took the effort to specify reasons why marketers aren’t interested in SEO as much as other marketing channels. But that is not what this blog is about.
As much as 81% of marketers use social media marketing for building an audience. But what platforms do they actually target? We know for sure that Facebook and Twitter would definitely be on that list. But are they enough?
Facebook is recently going through it’s own set of engagement problems and Twitter, despite of it’s huge audience, doesn’t deliver on active engagement much.
So, the question arises.
Is maintaining your business presence on just these 2 platforms enough for your brand? Or should you diversify your social media marketing efforts to other major platforms as well?
The thing is, each social media platform out there has their own pros and cons to offer, not to mention, they all boast their own unique audiences as well.
Which you absolutely should tap on, to increase your brand awareness in folds.
But what are those other not-facebook-famous but popular enough social media platforms that you should maintain a business presence on to attract new audiences? Let’s find out -
1. YouTube
OK, you might have heard it a thousand times already but maintaining your presence on this video-streaming giant is a necessity for businesses looking to generate some awareness about themselves.
Video is still going strong and currently, YouTube is the hub of it. With more than a billion monthly active users, there’s no better place to hop on the video wagon than YouTube.
Moreover, since YouTube is a property of Google, you can also expect some SEO benefits with your YouTube videos, since videos usually come at the top of search results.
Probably the best part about YouTube is that you can reach a global audience without much hassle, the platform does the legwork for you.
For brand promotions, you can make use of product explainer videos, training videos, webinars, podcasts, and showcase customer stories. The audience of YouTube is so diverse, you probably will find people who like your content, doesn’t matter which industry you are in.
Your potential for gaining exposure for your brand is unlimited on YouTube.
2. Quora
If you possess a vast amount of knowledge of your industry and want to portray yourself as an authority in your niche, there’s no better way to start than Quora.
Quora is a social Q&A community where anyone can ask questions about anything and expect answers from the users on the platform. A great way to pour all your industry expertise out and help other people with your thoughtful answers.
Like YouTube, the 200+ million users present on Quora are diverse and you can find questions and answers on basically any topic on the platform.
Probably, the best part about Quora is that you can directly answer questions being asked about your products, services or brand and convert users straight from there. Also, you can provide insightful answers of questions related to your industry and can build your reputation as an authority in your niche for the world to see.
Here’s an example of the Quora profile of Gabriel Weinberg, CEO & Founder of DuckDuckGo - 
If you are not aware of it, DuckDuckGo is a relatively lesser known search engine than Google that is focused on privacy. Gabriel Weinberg frequently answers questions related to his product on Quora and has built a solid following of 55k doing just that, providing useful information.
Start experimenting with the platform as soon as you can, but keep one think is mind, your sole motive of answering a question should be to provide as much value to the seeker as possible, don’t throw your sales pitches in your answers. That way you’ll quickly get flagged by Quora moderators and an account suspension may follow next.
3. Medium
If you are serious about blogging, for your business or for yourself, Medium is a great social publishing platform that you can make use of.
Founded by the co-founder of Twitter, Evan Williams, Medium originated as a place to write stories of more than 140 words (which was the tweet word limit back then) and share it with the world.
Today, Medium boasts some of the most thoughtful minds of almost every industry niche out there.
Medium can work as a great re-publishing platform to accompany your blog to tap into it’s diverse audience - which apparently is 60 million and is going strong. To gain some additional traffic and exposure, Medium is great.
You can start publishing on Medium as your sole blog as well.
The current revenue model they follow pays out on the basis of engagement you garner on your ‘stories’ (fancy name for a blog post). For that to happen, you’ll have to join the ‘Medium Partner Program’.
Gaining some exposure for your business and earning something on the side for your blogging efforts doesn’t hurt anyone, right?
So, do give this awesome publishing platform a try to gain a few more eyes on your blog posts.
Know of any other social media platform that worked wonders for you? Let us know in the comments.
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What Is Quality Content? How Google Recognizes & Rewards Them
Rand Fishkin coined the term "10x" in one of his Whiteboard Friday videos, and soon, the already abuzz digital marketing world had a benchmark for what makes content stand out of the crowd. An exceptionally well-written piece of content recognized for the quality and service it provides is termed as a 10x content. But what do we mean when we say content needs to have quality? What are the elements that define quality content? It can be a tricky question to answer. After all, quality is subjective, and everyone has a different way of viewing and analyzing a piece of content. But there are specific parameters, identifying and working on which will be beneficial in developing quality content. And with Smartinsights statistical data revealing the enormous quantity at which content is being produced in a minute, no content creator and marketer can afford to overlook them. Quality content should be based on proper research based on what the target audience is looking for, currently in the industry. It should address and resolve the concern of the prospective customers; There is no room for language, spelling, or grammar mistakes. A quality content follows a consistent style guide, has catchy yet concise heading and subheadings. A content that does not deter from its topic, no matter the length, would keep its readers engaged. Focused content is quality content. The content should encourage people to engage with the business, leading them to take the desired action. A content with facts, statistics, and data adds to the credibility by reassuring people into believing the effectiveness of your products or services. High-quality content is available in a format preferred by the audience, whether it is long-form posts, videos, or images. This will vary with the platform it is being published on. Talking about the platform, good quality content is optimized, not just for search engines but social media as well- attractive, recent, shareable. While imbibing the characteristics mentioned above, you can produce quality content. The gravity of the impact it creates ultimately boils down to whether or not it is searchable on the prominent search engines like Google. With 93% of online experiences starting with a search engine, it should not come as a shock to you that your prospective consumers rely heavily on the search engines to find the products and the services they need. Do you want high organic traffic? For that, you need to have a good search engine ranking, which a quality content can assure you. But this is possible only when you understand how the particular search engines recognize quality content. We are going to focus on what Google defines as high-quality content. (a) Google sends you the most traffic; (b) Google has been consistently dominating 90% of the search market. With the latest Penguin and Panda update, it is clear that Google aims only to deliver high-quality content to the seekers. Google now has all it's ranking algorithms focused on indexing, crawling, and ranking quality content from every possible rabbit hole on the internet. With the goal to further enhance the quality of the search engine, this update's foundation is a calculation or filter which determines whether the content is of high quality of low-quality. The low-quality content is then rearranged to be pushed further back to the SERP's. The formula or Panda Filter, as it is commonly called, look for signals to identify and differentiate between the varying degree of content quality. So, what makes Google's quality content? For Google, EAT defines the quality of content. What is EAT, you ask? E-A-T stands for Expertise-Authority-Trust. Let's elaborate on them: Expertise You know how, for any business-related trouble, there are certain leaders or digital gurus whose advice you trust for its results? You need to be that for the products and services your area offering and in that industry. You are aiming at a high rank in the search engine results; you need to put out such content that establishes you as an expert in the particular field. What will define your online expertise? Your credentials, the author's biography, time visitors spent on each page, shares, etc. Authority How does one establish their authority online? Your well-crafted content pieces should focus only on niche topics and have informational keywords. Backlinks from reputable websites, reviews, awards make for a benchmark that establish authoritativeness. Trust: You need to be the first name that strikes their mind when they are looking for a reliable source of information. A well-researched and adequately quoted content will make it credible. Your content and the website should make people trust it and feel comfortable sharing their personal data, aka high grade of security. They should feel confident enough to invest in your products or services. Indicators of trustworthiness are testimonials, signs of community, social media presence, website security, etc. While the aforementioned forms the foundation of high-quality content per Google standards, it's webmaster guidelines clearly lays down the difference between low and high-quality content. High-quality content would have: Authentic information backed by research and data- adding value for the readers; Images and videos in abundance- to enhance the presentation; No spelling, factual or stylistic errors; Search Intent- were they created for ranking or to resolve customer's queries? Well-researched and engaging information- Making it shareable, or worth bookmarking; Comprehensive information- does it leave out anything of importance?; Sensitivity- can it enrage users for leaving negative comments?; A low-quality content, on the other hand, would: Serve no purpose with their inadequate or no website information; Be stuffed with the keyword for the sake of SEO; Have deceptive designs or doorway pages with plagiarized or automatically generated content; Have inadequate website information and little to no sub-content; Have hidden texts or links Be a website that lacks maintenance and updates; So, how to develop high-quality content? Know and understand your audience; Focus on search intent; Go for a new approach; Conduct thorough research; Answer the latest questions with abundant information Your content needs validation, for which it needs to be shared, for which it needs to be read, for which it needs disability, which only quality content gets. Your SEO-centered content lacking quality might be coming in the way of your goal of achieving higher search engine ranking. Enhance the value of your website by creating high-quality content, because while the SEO strategies keep evolving, high-quality content will always command the marketing world. ...
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Dental App Marketing Is Most Effective Ways To Encourage Users To Download Your App
Trust us; if you think that your traditional dental marketing techniques are going to make patients prefer your service over others, then you are living in a bubble. Dental marketing, similar to any business, needs an adept and capable digital marketing technique to create a long-lasting impact. One such effective tool, which every business, big or small, is leveraging is a mobile application. Per Statista's 2019-2023 global mobile user statistical reports, by 2021, there will be roughly 7 million mobile users. The figure, without any doubt, comprises a considerable population that would require dental treatment at one point in their lives. Also, knowing that mobile application accounts for 57% of the total digital usage, it would only be a massive loss of opportunity to overlook this tool. Your dental practice needs a robust mobile application to reach out to the broader base of patients, who might not even know that there is a credible dental clinic in their locality. If you already have a mobile application and you are getting desirable traffic, leads, and conversions, then kudos to you!But if you don’t have, allow us to enlighten you with the ways in which your practice can benefit from having a mobile application: We are living in a world that is always in a hurry to be somewhere. Having a mobile app to book a dental appointment quickly is the convenience your patient needs. This will thereby reduce the frustration people face with last-minute appointment scheduling. Having push notifications to remind patients of their appointments, follow-ups will help with patient retention. Mobile applications are an engaging way of establishing and fostering a strong connection with the patients. The mobile application is an excellent way of providing impeccable customer service to the patient by staying connected with them round the clock. A dental practice can use this platform to build their rapport by encouraging patients to drop reviews that can bolster the credibility of the application and drive more traffic through the application store. Ideating, designing, planning, and developing an application is a daunting task in itself. But that is not it; the real uphill battle starts after you launch the app and have to hit the bull's eye with your marketing efforts. Dental application marketing is not a set and forget it implementation. You can't just sit folded arms and expect the app to be installed and used in the count of thousands and lakhs. If you are one of those practitioners who are struggling to market their mobile application effectively, then we bring you a list of efficacious marketing tips that will promote your patient to download and use your dental application. Market your app If you think that only making the application available on the app store is enough, then you are highly mistaken, doc. Because you are not the only dentist with an application there, and it is easy to get lost in the crowd. Create a well-researched and effective marketing strategy to promote your app on a different platform. Marketing is a continuous effort, so you need to make sure that you are periodically checking up on it and working on the techniques as and when required. The app should be a solution Your goal behind creating an application should be to address and resolve your patient's dilemma related to their dental hygiene. People tend to overlook their dental health until it becomes serious. Your app can help them take better care of their teeth and mouth with regular dos and don'ts, tips, and facts. A patient using a dental application won't really care about the features that it can offer but whether or not it can resolve their urgent dental needs. If your app will target the issues, it is sure to get downloaded and used by millions. Leverage social media presence Social media is not just for retail stores, manufacturing industries, but healthcare practices can also leverage this cost-effective means of increasing awareness and conversion rates. There are lakhs of people logged on to one or the other social media handles at a point in time. This could include a percentage of your patients. But you need to be meticulous in your social media approach- know the pain points, talk about them, be more interactive. This can help build a rapport of your dental practice as approachable and credible. Give incentives to your patients Part of the reason why many people refrain from going to a dentist is their high fees and expensive dental treatment. The expense will increase even more if they have to download a premium application. Offer them a discount on app download and installation. What you can also do is, ease their burden by offering them a discount on their revisit or adding a treatment theirs to their already existing package. Ensure compatibility on all devices All your patients won't be just using one mobile device or operating system, right? You need to make sure that your application is accessible across all leading devices and platforms. Create an application that runs smoothly on all devices and operating systems. This will further encourage the user to download and use your app. Add CTA or download app option Make sure that whatever content you post on the application has a clear and visible call to action. Be it an image, a blog post, or a landing page. Every page in the application should have an appropriate call to action so that patients do not have to look for ways to reach out to you in case of an emergency. Leave no stone unturned. Promote your app on your social media handles, blog posts, visual content, website everywhere for maximum visibility. The aforementioned tips will undoubtedly help to ensure that you get a higher return on investment with your mobile application. But a more profitable and practical choice would be to let an agency specializing in dental marketing services develop and strengthen your mobile presence with effective application marketing. SaffronEdge holds considerable experience in successfully dispensing supreme quality dental marketing services, guaranteeing maximum visibility, and a higher conversion rate. Check how we helped a dental practitioner establish and strengthen their web and mobile presence with our exhaustive and strategic marketing approach. ...
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Email Marketing vs. Marketing Automation: Which Strategy is Right for You?
Choosing between email marketing and marketing automation can be confusing, especially since the two are often used interchangeably. Businesses need efficient strategies to connect with their audiences and achieve their goals. Email marketing and marketing automation are powerful approaches often misunderstood or used interchangeably. This usually happens because both rely heavily on email as a key communication channel. Email marketing focuses on sending personalized messages to build relationships and drive sales. However, email marketing vs. marketing automation reveals a significant difference: marketing automation goes further, allowing you to manage customer interactions across multiple channels, analyze behavior, and send personalized content at scale. In this guide, we will differentiate between email marketing and marketing automation, their benefits, and how you can leverage both to improve your marketing strategy. What is Email Marketing? Email marketing is an online marketing strategy businesses use to reach potential customers, nurture leads, and communicate directly with their audience. It is a more traditional approach focusing on building relationships and promoting products or services through email. Key components of email marketing include: Building and maintaining an email list Creating engaging email content Segmenting your audience for targeted messaging Designing visually appealing email templates Tracking and analyzing email performance metrics Many businesses prefer email marketing to other strategies like social media marketing, SEO, and PPC due to its impressive ROI, high sales conversion rates, and cost-effectiveness. While email marketing involves direct manual communication with subscribers, email marketing automation uses tools and software to streamline and optimize your email marketing strategy, offering benefits like dynamic content, send time optimization, and automated sequences. Advantages of Email Marketing Email marketing offers several advantages that make it a popular choice for businesses: Direct Communication: Emails are sent straight to the recipient's inbox, providing a direct line of communication without intermediaries. High ROI: Email marketing consistently delivers an impressive return on investment, with studies showing an average return of $36 for every $1 spent. Cost-Effectiveness: Unlike many other marketing strategies, email marketing is highly cost-effective, making it accessible for businesses of all sizes and budgets. Performance Analytics: Email marketing allows you to track important metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates, helping you understand and improve your campaign performance. Personalization at Scale: With list segmentation, dynamic content, and lead scoring, you can send personalized emails and product recommendations to subscribers at scale. These benefits make email marketing a must-have tool, especially for small businesses and those just starting with digital marketing. What is Marketing Automation? Marketing automation involves using software to streamline and optimize your marketing processes across multiple channels from a single platform. It goes beyond simple email scheduling to involve various marketing activities, such as lead generation, segmentation, customer journey mapping, and multi-channel campaign management. Key features of marketing automation include: Managing marketing efforts across multiple channels (email, social media, SMS, web personalization) Scheduling and publishing social media posts Lead scoring and prioritization Personalizing website content and recommendations based on user behavior Capturing and collecting leads through web forms, landing pages, and polls When implemented effectively, marketing automation allows you to increase communication with customers across multiple channels and have access to data from all past and present customer interactions, thanks to its seamless integration with CRM tools. Advantages of Marketing Automation Marketing automation offers several powerful advantages for businesses ready to take their digital marketing to the next level: Advanced Lead Scoring: Marketing automation provides deeper insights into customer preferences beyond what email marketing can offer, allowing for more effective lead prioritization and personalized messaging. Multi-Channel Marketing: Manage your marketing actions across various platforms from a single dashboard, ensuring consistent brand messaging and efficient resource allocation. Advanced Integration: Marketing automation tools can integrate with other platforms and tools, streamlining your sales process and allowing for more comprehensive tracking of customer interactions. Scalability and Efficiency: Handle complex marketing campaigns easily, saving time and significantly reducing human error. Ads Retargeting: Implement effective ad retargeting strategies to increase conversion rates by up to 150%. By leveraging marketing automation, businesses can deliver personalized experiences at scale, making it a game-changer for growth-oriented organizations. Email Marketing vs Marketing Automation: Key differences While both strategies involve email as a communication channel, Email Marketing vs. Marketing Automation differs significantly in functionality, scope, and complexity. Let’s break down the key differences. Scope of Features and Supported Marketing Activities Email marketing focuses mainly on managing email lists, creating campaigns, designing content, and analyzing email performance. It has a limited scope compared to marketing automation, which covers a broader range of marketing activities. Marketing automation integrates email marketing with other channels, such as social media, SMS, content personalization, lead scoring, and more. Lead Management and Customer Data Collection Email marketing gathers basic customer data, but marketing automation takes it further by collecting data from multiple channels. This allows for better insights into the customer journey. Marketing automation tools help marketing and sales teams track and score leads, enabling personalized communication. This improves team coordination and ensures that high-priority leads receive the right content. Campaign Complexity and Management Email marketing is effective for simple email campaigns, but marketing automation is better suited for complex campaigns. For example, if two prospects receive the same email but take different actions, marketing automation can send follow-up emails based on their behavior. It can track interactions across various touchpoints (website, support team, social media) and create more sophisticated and personalized marketing strategies. Level of Automation Email marketing offers basic automation features like scheduling emails, autoresponders, and simple trigger-based workflows. These are mostly limited to email-related tasks. On the other hand, marketing automation handles complex workflows, automates multi-channel marketing, tracks customer behavior, and personalizes messages across different touchpoints. Price Point and Program Complexity Email marketing is generally more affordable, with many free plans and a shorter learning curve. It’s ideal for smaller businesses or those just starting with marketing technology. Marketing automation tools are more expensive due to their advanced features and complexity. They are typically designed for medium to large businesses with more complex marketing and sales processes. Understanding these differences can help determine which strategy aligns with your business goals and resources. Email Marketing vs Marketing Automation: Similarities The good news is that you don’t have to choose one. Combining both strategies in the Email Marketing vs. Marketing Automation debate can yield the best results. High ROI: Both strategies offer impressive returns on investment when implemented effectively. Email as a Channel: Email marketing is one of the channels that marketing automation incorporates, with 65% of users implementing it in their marketing automation for increased customer interaction and sales. Lead Generation: Both strategies excel at lead generation and nurturing, allowing segmentation and personalized communication. Increased Efficiency: Both email marketing and marketing automation automate repetitive processes, saving time and reducing workload on business staff. Tired of seeing your emails land in spam folders? Book a strategy call Why Can Having the Right Marketing Automation Specialists Help Do Both? The right marketing automation experts can help you combine the effectiveness of email marketing with the efficiency of automation, unlocking a seamless, results-driven marketing approach. Why Saffron Edge Should Be Your Top Choice for Both Expertise Across Strategies:Saffron Edge has a team of specialists who are experienced in email marketing and marketing automation. They know how to design campaigns that engage audiences and leverage automation tools to simplify complex workflows. Seamless Integration:Whether you want to focus on traditional email marketing or adopt advanced automation techniques, Saffron Edge ensures a smooth integration of both strategies. Their solutions allow businesses to operate efficiently while keeping customer engagement at the forefront. Personalized Campaigns:Our team specializes in personalization, crafting tailored messages that resonate with your audience. By combining data insights with creative strategies, they deliver impactful campaigns that drive engagement and build long-term relationships. End-to-End Service:From planning and implementation to monitoring and optimizing campaigns, Saffron Edge offers comprehensive support at every stage. Their hands-on approach helps businesses harness the full potential of email marketing and automation tools. Focus on Results:Saffron Edge emphasizes ROI-driven solutions, ensuring that every campaign delivers measurable outcomes. Whether boosting conversions or improving customer retention, their strategies are designed to meet your growth goals. How do you choose the right strategy for your business? These factors can help you decide how to leverage Email Marketing vs. Marketing Automation to maximize your marketing effectiveness and achieve your business objectives. Team Proficiency: Email marketing might be the better choice if your team is not advanced enough to handle marketing automation and your marketing needs don't require it. Customer Lifecycle: Email marketing may suffice for short sales cycles. Marketing automation can help nurture leads across multiple platforms for longer, more complex customer journeys. Detailed Reporting: Marketing automation offers more robust reporting capabilities if you need comprehensive insights into customer behavior across multiple platforms. Budget: While marketing automation can increase productivity and reduce overhead costs, it typically requires a higher initial investment than email marketing. Integrating email marketing with automation allows you to create a powerful marketing ecosystem that works seamlessly to achieve your goals. How to integrate email marketing and marketing automation? Integrating email marketing with marketing automation creates a comprehensive system that benefits from the strengths of both strategies. Businesses can use email marketing for timely newsletters and promotions while relying on automation to manage complex workflows like onboarding, lead nurturing, and re-engagement. Automation tools can enhance email marketing by analyzing user behavior, enabling better segmentation and personalized content delivery. This synergy helps businesses create a seamless experience for their audience and significantly improves campaign outcomes. Rather than choosing between email marketing and marketing automation, many businesses find success in integrating both strategies. Here are practical examples of how they can work together: Suppose you use marketing automation to score and segment leads based on their behavior. Then, you can use email marketing to send personalized emails to each segment, customizing your message based on their interests and engagement level. Another example is if you gain leads through web forms or multi-channel marketing efforts, you can use automated email sequences to nurture and guide them through your sales funnel. Which Strategy is Right for You? Choosing between email marketing and marketing automation depends on your business needs, resources, and goals. For smaller businesses or straightforward campaigns, email marketing is a reliable option. Marketing automation is the way forward for businesses looking to scale and manage complex processes. Consider your objectives carefully, and remember—you can always combine the two to get the best of both worlds. Both offer great benefits and are powerful tools for digital marketing. For many, the ideal solution is integrating both using email marketing within a marketing automation framework for a more efficient and scalable strategy. Thoughtfully integrating these tools helps create campaigns that truly engage your audience. Ready to elevate your marketing strategy? Contact us at Saffron Edge for expert guidance on implementing the right email marketing and marketing automation mix for your business. What if your email open rates could be 10X? Book a strategy call ...
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