Archives for July 2018

July 23, 2018

4 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Once only a strange and futuristic concept featured in science fiction, virtual reality is now a part of our lives, and it’s no longer just for video games, either. Many top companies are now using virtual reality as part of their content-marketing strategy in order to connect with their target audience in a whole new way.

Related: Virtual Reality Is Already Changing How We Work and Communicate

“Virtual reality” (VR) describes an artificial environment created with software that users can interact with within a seemingly real or physical way by using special electronic equipment. According to a WebpageFX prediction, this year will see 171 million VR users. With a number of different companies making VR equipment available at reasonable prices, many people have access to this new trend and view companies that use it as “forward-thinking.”

Virtual reality can expand content marketing, allowing companies to engage with users as never before. Check out the following three ways brands are currently using VR for some ideas on how your company might simlarly utilize VR in the near future.

Shoppers can try before they buy.

Before VR, pretty much the only thing you could test drive before purchasing was a car. But now virtual reality gives all types of industries the ability to have customers test out their products without ever stepping into a brick and mortar store. The fact that customers can size up a product online without seeing it in person helps diffuse their hesitation about opening their wallets.

For example, Ikea offers customers the opportunity to “place” furniture in their home with its VR-based app. Customers can see what the furniture looks like with their own decor, making purchases more convenient.

Ikea VR app for HTC Vive, https://www.engadget.com/2016/04/05/ikea-htc-vive-kitchen-vr-app/

Companies can create more engaging content.

Let’s face it: Viewers are a bit bored with traditional content, but with virtual reality, your business can create content that is more engaging than ever. User engagement is one of the most important factors of content marketing: You need users to engage with your content instead of taking a quick glance and moving along.

Related: 5 Ways to Incorporate Virtual Reality Into Your Marketing Plan

The more engaged customers are, the more likely they’ll be to take your desired action. Virtual reality allows you to give your target audience interactive experiences that are super-appealing and help them connect with your brand.  

The North Face, an American outdoor product company, gives its customers a chance to climb the Himalayas in Nepal by way of virtual reality. Instead of just watching a video, they can virtually experience and interact with the virtual expedition and “test out” North Face products. Their target audience is obviously interested in the outdoors, camping and climbing, so what better way to engage them than by letting them experience the expedition of their dreams?

The North Face VR Expedition, https://www.jauntvr.com/title/73298fc244.v03

Companies can grow emotional connections.

People buy from companies they have an emotional connection to, and virtual reality lets those companies tell stories that customers can really connect to. A study from Customer Thermometer showed that customers love companies that care. When people were asked what they emotionally connected with in a brand, the top five answers mentioned caring; in particular, 55 percent said they valued the fact that the company made a positive difference in the world.

Toms Shoes is just such a company; for every pair of shoes sold, the company gives a pair to a child in need. The company also has year-long “giving trips,” where employees and partners of the company can give children their brand new shoes in person and see first-hand how Toms is improving health and education programs in more than 70 different countries.

Using virtual reality, customers can share that experience and be more connected to the cause than ever.

From a Toms Shoes VR Giving Trip http://greenbuzzagency.com/using-vr-tell-story/

Related: Virtual Reality Is About to Change Your Business

With the rise in popularity of virtual reality, your company may soon be able to join this trend. You’ll be able to create insanely real experiences for your customers to enjoy and have a whole new way to tell your brand’s story and drive sales.

July 22, 2018

2 min read

Instagram is a great source to build your brand’s identity, engage new followers and expand your reach. However, if you’re simply posting images to your business’s Instagram page, you’re missing out on a major opportunity on the platform: Instagram Stories. With Stories, you can show a behind-the-scenes look at your brand while developing its personality and building authentic relationships with your followers.

Related: 3 Ways to Build Your Brand Identity Using Content Marketing

If you’re still wondering: What’s the point? There are nearly 250 million active daily users of Stories, and 33 percent of the most popular Stories are from businesses. Not only that, but 20 percent of Stories posted by businesses result in direct messages.

While it might sound daunting at first, you’ll never know until you try. To help you get started, here’s a quick guide to using Instagram Stories.

First and foremost, it’s important to prepare — brainstorm a plan for the story you want. And don’t worry, it doesn’t have to be live — you can upload older images to Stories now too. Next, figure out the best time of day to post by taking a look at your audience. Generally, user engagement levels are highest on Mondays and Thursdays between 7 and 9 p.m., but this can vary based on your followers. Another important piece of advice is to make an impact in the first four seconds of your story. Viewers’ attention drop after four seconds, so it’s important to get to the point.

Related: 10 Instagram Accounts Every Entrepreneur Should Follow

From using geotags to hosting takeovers, there are a number of ways your business can utilize Instagram Stories. To learn more, check out Headway Capital’s “Small-Business Guide to Instagram Stories” infographic below.

July 21, 2018

2 min read

Whether it’s saving for retirement or paying off credit card debt, money management can be a challenge. Of course, different people have different concerns — and that often comes with age. While a 60-something baby boomer might be organizing their savings for retirement, your 20-something millennial might be focused on paying off student loans.

Related: 8 Financial Tips for Entrepreneurs Launching a Startup

In a recent study, financial intelligence company Comet surveyed more than 1,000 people to uncover the top financial concerns of various age groups, as well as the financial advice millennials and gen Zers want to know and what they hear instead.

Overall, saving for retirement was the top concern across all age groups, with saving for an emergency and affording monthly bills following in second and third. However, it’s no wonder these are some of the most pressing worries — according to the research, 23 percent of people admit they don’t have a savings account, and 43 percent reported not being on track towards their retirement goals. Perhaps that’s because they didn’t hear the right advice growing up. At least that might be the case for gen Zers and millennials.

Related: 10 Pieces of Financial Advice I Wish I Knew in My 20s

According to the research, these young people want to learn things such as how the stock market works, how to manage an investment portfolio, how to invest in real estate and how to build credit. Instead, they’re simply told how to create a budget, save for retirement and pay credit card bills in full every month.

Having a grasp on your financials is tricky, but it’s crucial if you want to be successful and comfortable. To learn more, check out Comet’s infographic below.

July 19, 2018

5 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

A new brand — your new brand — has got to make a splash in the market if it’s going to be successful. You’ve got to stand out in a crowd that’s oversaturated with brands that people are already invested in. So, how do you get people interested in what you’ve got to say and offer if you’re the new kid on the block?

Related: The Foolproof Formula for New Brand Launching

The answer is that you’ve got to create an awesome launch for your new brand. You’ve spent countless hours creating your business and your brand, so you need to spend time planning an exciting launch, as well.

A well-developed plan will help your grand opening or your product launch go off without a hitch. Here’s how to launch a new brand and four tips that work whether you’re starting from scratch or re-branding.

Give yourself enough time.

Your brand launch is an important event. People usually spend six months to a year planning their weddings, so treat your brand the same way. Don’t launch your entire company in just a couple weeks; give yourself more time. Your rollout should begin in the very early stages of your branding process.  

Giving yourself more time also helps to develop hype for your brand while giving you ample time to make sure all the moving pieces are in order.

Ted Baker used a countdown timer for a launch for its men’s and women’s clothing; and as can be seen, the countdown is over 30 days away.

Ted Baker Countdown to Launch. http://jennieclare.blogspot.com/2013/03/one-giant-leap-for-ted-baker.html

Tip: Let this idea inspire you; just give yourself lots of time to get all your ducks in a row.

Know your audience.

Your goal is to develop a strategy for your launch that will get your company in front of as many eyes as possible, but you also want to make sure those eyes belong to your target audience. It’s no use promoting your business to people who aren’t going to be remotely interested in it. So, get to know who your potential buyers are, and what’s important to them.

Related: 7 Ways to Build Hype Months Before Your Business Launches

Research what your competitors’ audience is like, as well. Find out whom they’re targeting and how they’re promoting their business: Your goal is to get an idea of how you can capture some of that attention, or on the flip side, find out what niche they might be missing out on, then go after that market.

Pabst Blue Ribbon has been known for many years as an inexpensive working-class beer, which has also made it popular with college students. PBR didn’t have to rebrand but it did develop a fitting marketing strategy to reach its new audience.

Tweet from Pabst Blue Ribbon https://twitter.com/PabstBlueRibbon

Tip: When you know who your audience is, it’s much easier to determine when and how you should market your company to those people.

Brand everything.

After deciding on the name of your business, creating a logo and designing your website, you need to continue branding every other aspect of your business, as well.

You can’t develop brand recognition if your brand isn’t consistent across all of your platforms. So don’t forget to brand your social media platforms, business cards, emails and anything else that connects back to your business. You want your brand to be instantly recognizable when someone stumbles across it.

And choose colors carefully: A signature color can boost brand recognition by 80 percent, according to Color Matters, so put your brand colors everywhere and anywhere you can.

Airbnb, for example, changed its signature color and created a new logo as part of its rebranding:

Airbnb logo before and after. https://co.agencyspotter.com/branding-unicorn-superbrand-status-airbnb/

Tip: The way your brand looks is one of the first things people will notice when they’re introduced to your business and will help people see you as a well-established company.

Build anticipation.

If you make your brand launch an exciting, can’t-miss event for your audience, people will be counting down the days until they get a peek. When attempting to build anticipation for your brand, build in a little mystery; it goes a long way, so don’t give away too many details about your product before the launch.

Teasing your followers with subtle hints on social media, creating videos that stir up excitement and creating a countdown timer to the launch of your website are just some of the tactics you can use to build anticipation.

Apple uses videos to tease its audience about the launch of it latest products, revealing just enough to pique fans’ interest.

iPad Pro Reveal Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaWkgg5l9sg

Tip: The more excited people get about your business, the better. You’ll have a swarm of activity on launch day, with people coming to check out what you’ve been hinting at for months.

Related: 3 Memorable Ways to Launch a Product to Wow Customers

Launching a new brand doesn’t have to be scary: With a brand launch strategy, you’ll make a powerful first impression and gain new loyal customers quickly. Using these tips, you’ll be able to present your business as a rock star in your industry, even if you’re a newbie.

July 18, 2018

3 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Forget the useless, though wildly popular and entertaining, apps that previously filled up our smartphones or computers. People now want apps with function and purpose.

Here are the fastest-growing new or recently redesigned apps of 2018, according to business app platform Zapier, which compiled the data using its platform.

1. Discord

Nostalgic for the days you stayed up late playing The Sims and messaging with your friends? Discord is a voice and text chat app that connects more than 14 million daily players in the gaming community through video and audio.

2. Things 3

If you need help organizing your busy schedule but don’t have a personal assistant, check out Things 3. This award-winning personal task manager app can help you get things done and achieve your goals in an organized manner.

3. Leadpages

Not your typical email marketing service, Leadpages helps you create customized landing pages, webinars and ads to generate leads. It focuses on growing your email list, then links to a third-party site, such as MailChimp, to send your campaigns to those that signed up.

4. Klayivo

Klayivo pulls in data from your ecommerce platform, point-of-sale software or other marketing tools and helps you create highly targeted and super-relevant email, Facebook and Instagram marketing. You can set up automated trigger emails for when customers sign up, abandon shopping carts and check out.

5. Square

Square handles all of your company’s digital finances. With four different platforms (Payments, Point of Sale, Payroll and Capital), Square helps you track all of your money on your smart device. Compatible with both Apple and Android, you can make customer transactions, pay employees and fund your company.

6. Salesflare

If you feel like you waste too much time updating your CRM, Salesflare is for you. A CRM that basically fills out itself, Salesflare inputs data for you so you can focus on making sales. It reminds you what follow-ups are the most important and who talked to what customer, so your team can efficiently work together to increase profit.

7. Coda

If you want to build your own website instead of relying on Squarespace or Weebly, Coda lets you hand-code with a little help. It edits your text to make sure your coding is in tip-top shape.

8. Landbot

Landbot creates a Chatbot for you within minutes that lives in your website and enhances your customer’s experiences.  

9. ClickUp

ClickUp’s easy-to-use product management software keeps your team productive, efficient and headache-free. It lets you integrate with more than 1,000 other services, such as Slack and Zapier, to keep everything your company needs in one convenient place.

10. Ghost

A modern-publishing toolbox, Ghost helps you create and manage an online blog or publication. It edits, manages content, schedules, builds proper SEO and more, all through its simple platform.