It wasn’t a while ago that blockchain was far from being a word-on-the-street technology. A few years ago, only a handful of tech enthusiasts talked about cryptocurrencies, fewer knew what ICO even is, and even less could explain what it’s really about.
Last year things changed. In 2017, investors raised 1.5B through ICOs, and public cryptocurrency market cap has jumped over $170B. Token sales become a regular investment practice and a topic of major debates.
Is ICO trustworthy? What about the long-term consequences? With all these bubble-or-not discussions, it’s easy to get a few things overlooked.
- The purpose of tokenization is not just about getting profits. Token sales give a possibility to reward users for their resources and time invested on the platform. What’s better, received tokens can be used right away on the platform, leading to long relationships with customers. Users become regular contributors to the platform, basically creating an enthusiastic community.
- Blockchain is not a separate industry. It’s not living on its own but constantly impacting other industries, changing market position and influencing customer demands. ICOs are entering every field — from dental services with solutions like Dentacoin to space exploration, as in the Spacechain case.
In 2018, ICO is surely not to be ignored in any field. Obviously, there are some fraud cases but they can’t undermine the success of existing crowdsale campaigns, launched in different industries. Marketing automation is no exception.
10 ICO Answers to Current Digital Marketing Issues
Let’s face it, there are problems in digital marketing. Geographical and financial limitations make cooperation difficult, SMEs owners are constantly pulled down by big corporations, and the question of data protection is now more pressing than it ever was. Creating automation platforms, developers and marketers jump through these hurdles again and again — all the time.
One way or another, tokenization solves these issues.
By purchasing and exchanging tokens, based on conditions set by smart contract, marketers and business owners cooperate towards marketing automation. Decentralized systems allow to create monopoly-free platforms, opened to small businesses and direct cooperation.
Seems too good to be true? Take a look at 10 successful crowdsale cases in digital marketing automation that prove otherwise.
1. Inda Hash
Currently raised: $42 000 000
IndaHash — the influencer marketing platform that unites 300 000 influencers in 1 078 campaigns for global brands like Ikea, Milka, Gillette etc. Its mission is to tokenize the entire influencer industry to simplify the cooperation between brands, influencers, and their followers. How so?
Inda Hash uses IndaCoin circulation as their cryptoeconomic model allowing influencers and worldwide corporations to cooperate on a global scale. This allows avoiding all pain in the neck with money transfers, currencies, and exchanges, while also increasing the engagement between users and companies. All the tokens are eventually spent inside the platform, with users trading IndaCoins on services.
2. Basic Attention Token
Currently raised: $35 000 000
Digital advertising is overrun by middlemen, trackers, and fraud — that’s the problem Basic Attention Token solves with distributed system and tokenization. Their mission is simple and global at the same time: to change advertising which is currently run by big corporations that are not shy to use spying methods and data stealing mechanisms. Digital ads are creeping people out, and it’s time to do something about it.
With blockchain and tokenization, Basic Attention Token proves it possible. Decentralized systems allow SMEs owners to take charge of their own ad campaigns, advertising providers, on the other hand, cut Google mediation and cooperate directly with businesses. To get financial support, the company launched crowdsale campaign, selling BAT — an Ethereum-based token. The sale was beyond successful finalizing in 35 million dollars raised in less than 30 seconds.
3. Jet8
Currently raised: $32 706 262
Co2Co Engagement, user-generated content optimization, data mining, and user data exchange — these are just a few digital marketing fields covered by Jet8, a full stack tokenized mobile engagement software. The application analyzes mobile behavior, collects insights, sets the campaign, and measures its efficiency. Basically, it creates a special ecosystem for mobile marketing and user-brand cooperation.
Why tokenization? Internal cryptocurrency simplifies the payment process and gives users and business owners the full freedom on all the collected insights. With distributed systems, it’s possible to control and manage the gathered data, not depending on platform’s creators.
4. Thrive
Currently raised: $26,000,000
ICOs is successfully adopted in all digital marketing fields, including advertising marketplaces. Thrive, a community-based advertising platform where business owners buy advertising space, and not just any advertising space, but reviewed and approved by consumers. The platform analyzes its users’ behavior to create comprehensive insights about campaign efficiency. It’s a win-win: advertisers finally have tested space for their ads, potential customers get paid for just browsing the Internet.
How does tokenization make this possible? Imagine doing a project like this with currencies in place. Decreasing the payment speed, losing profits during the exchange, and limiting the market geographically — these would be just a few of many possible complications if platform creators used anything other than tokenization. It’s blockchain that made the entire innovation possible.
5. Presearch
Currently raised: $16 000 000
From its foundation to first CNBC appearance, Presearch, a decentralized search engine, became a major sensation. With their ambitious goal to fight Google’s monopoly as a search engine, they sold 155m tokens and signed the deal with top crypto wallets.
What’s even more interesting, Presearch team fully described the token sale experience, with its ups and downsides. As they wrapped it up, the process of token sale might be challenging, especially when it comes to such large scale, yet it’s an amazing method to not just generate revenue but also to build an amazing enthusiastic community of project supporters.
6. PM7
Currently raised: $12 500 000
PM7 — is decentralized affiliate marketing solution, created to cut the distance between creators and brands, eliminating the need of marketing, advertising, and PR agencies. The platform enables direct cooperation, with no time and money spent on mediator’s assistance.
Started in 2016, PM7 has already sold 9 million tokens and united 1 312 307 users. Blockchain and tokenization enabled the creators to create a decentralized project marketplace where creators can make cutting-edge projects, brands — cut off the meditation, and investors — join the groundbreaking platform.
7. AdHive
Currently raised: $12 000 000
AI-powered influencer marketing system where advertisers and influencers get rewarded for their work with ADH tokens. They are also used for all the transactions and support any financial interaction. See how this works? The platform creators sell internal tokens for flat currencies, therefore, raising revenues with crowdsale.
The statistics of the platform is fairly impressive: 5.2k buyers, 25k people whitelisted, 104.3M of currently circulated supplies. With successful tokenization, the system became the leader of influencer marketing and native video advertising.
8. Wolk
Currently raised: $11,500,000
Wolk, a decentralized data exchange company, uses blockchain to break the data monopoly of big corporations. All experiences in the digital world are basically controlled by Google, Facebook, and Amazon, leaving small businesses dependable on those Big Brothers. With decentralized data exchange, information goes directly to SMEs owners, no mediation of big corporations involved.
In 2017, the platform started its token sale, and closed it in September, when 11 216 735 tokens were sold. As company told on their Medium page, they are working on improved SWARM DB proof of concept for download and a demo decentralized application. Considering that the sale took two months, this is an impressive achievement and another case of tokenization done right.
9. SocialMedia.market
Currently raised: $8 484 606
With tokenization, marketers move further and create not just a cooperation space but a free marketplace for influencers and brands. This way SocialMedia.market, the platform for influencer marketing, manages to connect advertisers and bloggers worldwide with no entry barrier for monetization. Basically, users get simply register on the platform, interest advertisers, and get paid for that.
As the platform proves, the tokenization is a great solution for building open markets and creating conditions for the free cooperation. With tokens in place, it’s easy to universalize the results of influencer campaigns and monitor their effects. Unlike currencies, tokens are more stable and therefore, more objective for metrics.
10. Lydian
Currently raised: $11 315 843
Lydian™ has developed first blockchain Digital Marketing Cloud — a technology stack, created to gather customer experiences and draw comprehensive insights which are later used by marketers for targeting potential clients throughout their entire purchase journey. Adding Artificial Intelligence to the mix, Lydian™ created MonaLisa, a technology for precise targeting of the consumer audience.
Even though DaVinci11™’s Marketing Cloud is already used by already Fortune 1000 companies worldwide, the creators decided to expand their area of expertise by focusing on blockchain innovation. By opening a token sale, the company supports the development of cutting-edge blockchain services, such as the Whisper Network protocol that fights the raising army of ad blockers. By making advertising more personalized and much less annoying, it’s possible to create a decentralized advertising space that won’t be blocked by customers.
To summarize
Tokenization is a strong method of generating profits for blockchain companies in any industry, marketing in particular. ICO success is not a myth or a bubble, it’s proven by real products with real revenue. It’s amazing how many possibilities crowsale hides for marketing automation, and how rewarding the investments turn out to be.
It’s not just about generating profits though. Revenue is just a part of what tokenization gives. There is much more to ICO than we are used to think. If previous cases are any indication, it’s clear that tokenization is a great way to build a strong community of enthusiastic supporters and oppose monopolies, especially in digital marketing where big companies hold the most resources. It’s a chance to erase geographical limits and build long-term cooperations as we’ve seen on influence marketing projects.
What is going to be the next sensational ICO product in digital marketing? So far, it’s apparent that Triggmine has a good chance of becoming next ‘killer project’ in token sales and blockchain overall. We already received numerous investor requests which make us believe that Triggmine crowdsale might be just around the corner.
Written and Shared from Triggmine
View Article and Follow Triggmine's Blog Here
View Article and Follow Triggmine's Blog Here
June 12, 2018
11 Power Sales Words to Use in your Sales Emails
What you say on your sales emails is as crucial as what you’re actually selling. An email is significantly different from a call or a face-to-face meeting. With emails, you can easily be ignored.
Keep your email off the spam folder by catching your reader’s attention. Use sales language that is powerful and can convert your audience into buyers.
1. Benefits
When it comes to sales words, benefits trump specifications and features, almost always. Using ‘benefits’ shifts the focus from impersonal details that may or may not interest your readers. You only have a few seconds before they click the delete button.
So, appeal to their needs. Sell your product’s benefits by talking about how it can improve people’s lives.
2. Value
Engage Selling Solutions owner Colleen Francis once claimed in her book Nonstop Sales Boom that customers “…only care about value and achieving their objectives.”
So, on email, talk about value, not price. Value is a powerful word. Price is objective; value is variable per person. When you use the word, you reach out to each person’s sensibilities. They think and assess for themselves. They might even click on your link to learn more about what you offer.
As Warren Buffet, American business magnate and philanthropist, said: “Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.”
3. Show
As sales words go, ‘show’ is a positive interactive word that you can use to imply your willingness to communicate with your audience. It works better than ‘learn,’ which – regardless of its positive meaning – implies one-sidedness. When you say ‘show,’ you are reaching out and telling your reader that you’re there to help.
Instead of saying “learn more about our product,” say: “Let me show you how our product adds value to your life.” It makes people feel good and signals what could be the start of a good business relationship.
4. You
Sales is not about you, your quota or that sales team leaderboard you so want to top. It is about the client. Without their willingness to listen, you won’t be able to take further steps in making the sale. And, people always pay attention when you start talking about them.
Even on email, your choice of pronouns communicate what you value more. So, use ‘you’ instead than ‘I.’ Because, in the end, you want your reader to think about themselves and the value that your product brings into their life.
5. Because
Harvard University professor and social psychologist Ellen Langer once did a study on the impact of using ‘because’ in phrasing statements. She went out to see if people would let her cut in line using these lines, alternately:
“Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine?”
“Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I have to make some copies?”
“Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I’m in a rush?”
The last two sentences that used ‘because’ gained around 90% affirmatives. People responded more positively when a reason was offered.
So, when you make a statement – let’s say a claim about your product – add in a ‘because’ and then explain why. People become more open when they try to understand.
6. And
Usually, sales people use ‘but’ when trying to counter an objection. This is a negative word because ‘but,’ as is, signals an opposition. Your prospect knows that you are about to argue with an opposing statement. This is likely to put them in a defensive.
Instead, when you need to append anything to an original statement, use ‘and.’ This is an inclusive word. When used, regardless of how you use it, you sound like you agree.
Take, for instance, these examples by Seamus Brown, a sales trainer:
“I see that you only have a budget of $50,000, but let me tell you why our system costs $100,000.”
“I see that you only have a budget of $50,000, and let me tell you why our system costs $100,000.”
Not only does the second statement sound more positive. It also acknowledges the client’s reservations and offers an explanation to counter the client’s statement, without sounding negative.
7. Power Words/ Emotions
When you sell, you not only appeal to a person’s needs and values. You also appeal to their emotions. Strong feelings, such as joy, fear and distress, come with certain predictable responses.
If your sales strategy requires appealing to these emotions, then you should use words that could evoke them. A good guide is Jon Morrow’s online article called “317 Power Words That’ll Instantly Make You a Better Writer.” The words he put together are known to evoke certain human emotions. Of course, choose your words wisely. Be clear about what you want to achieve first.
8. Free
Ali Abdullah, an entrepreneur, once claimed that: “Two of the most powerful words in the English language are ‘free’ and ‘sex.’ While the latter is a bit racy, the former presents an opportunity all brands should capitalize on.”
‘Sex’ has no place in your sales email – unless, of course, it’s what you’re selling and it’s legal. ‘Free,’ on the other hand, offers many possibilities.
Consider a University of Minnesota 2012 experiment wherein they made consumers choose between similarly-sized lotion bottles. One claimed to offer 50% more free lotion while the other was cheaper by 33%. People chose the bottle with the free content by about 73% of the time.
Dan Ariely, a behavioral scientist, claims that ‘Free’ is always the more interesting offer because it increases the value of the product.
9. Imagine
‘Imagine’ is one of the most powerful sales words you can use in your email. It invites your reader to experience your product vicariously through imagination. When they do this, they stop being passive listeners. They become active participants who, alongside you, are thinking about a better future because of your product.
10. Opportunity
In sales, you want your prospect to acknowledge a problem and then see your product as the solution for that problem. The thing is, ‘problem’ is a negative word. It puts people on the defensive and makes them less open to discussing possibilities.
An easy fix is to use the word ‘opportunity’ instead. Because, in truth, a problem is also an opportunity to achieve something better. You just have to make your prospect see it, and take action.
“Your problem is that you’re hungry.”
“You now have the opportunity to eat what you love.”
Check out the two statements above. They both describe the same situation. However, the second one is more inspiring. It makes you want to reach for the nearby fork and eat with gusto!
11. Their Name
People want to feel that you are speaking to them directly, and that they’re unique to you. You can communicate this simply by saying their names. This is a powerful move and it tells your audience that you’re paying attention.
You can easily do this over the phone or face-to-face. It is harder with sales emails, however, especially when you’re doing blast emailing. A work-around here is to use mailing programs that allow you to use variables in your email text. A simple use of the “first name” variable in the greeting section of your email can make a big difference.
Written by: Dan Sincavage
View Full Article Here
View Full Article Here
June 11, 2018
How Instagram’s Algorithm Works
Instagram users were missing 70 percent of all posts and 50 percent of their friends’ posts before the app ditched the reverse chronological feed for an algorithm in July 2016. Despite backlash about confusing ordering, Instagram now says relevancy sorting has led to its 800 million-plus users seeing 90 percent of their friends’ posts and spending more time on the app.
Yet Instagram has never explained exactly how the algorithm chooses what to show you until today. The Facebook -owned company assembled a group of reporters at its under-construction new San Francisco office to take the lid off the Instagram feed ranking algorithm.
Instagram’s feed ranking criteria
Instagram relies on machine learning based on your past behavior to create a unique feed for everyone. Even if you follow the exact same accounts as someone else, you’ll get a personalized feed based on how you interact with those accounts.
Three main factors determine what you see in your Instagram feed:
- Interest: How much Instagram predicts you’ll care about a post, with higher ranking for what matters to you, determined by past behavior on similar content and potentially machine vision analyzing the actual content of the post.
- Recency: How recently the post was shared, with prioritization for timely posts over weeks-old ones.
- Relationship: How close you are to the person who shared it, with higher ranking for people you’ve interacted with a lot in the past on Instagram, such as by commenting on their posts or being tagged together in photos.
Beyond those core factors, three additional signals that influence rankings are:
- Frequency: How often you open Instagram, as it will try to show you the best posts since your last visit.
- Following: If you follow a lot of people, Instagram will be picking from a wider breadth of authors so you might see less of any specific person.
- Usage: How long you spend on Instagram determines if you’re just seeing the best posts during short sessions, or it’s digging deeper into its catalog if you spend more total time browsing.
Instagram mythbusting
Instagram’s team also responded to many of the most common questions and conspiracy theories about how its feed works. TechCrunch can’t verify the accuracy of these claims, but this is what Instagram’s team told us:
- Instagram is not at this time considering an option to see the old reverse chronological feed because it doesn’t want to add more complexity (users might forget what feed they’re set to), but it is listening to users who dislike the algorithm.
- Instagram does not hide posts in the feed, and you’ll see everything posted by everyone you follow if you keep scrolling.
- Feed ranking does not favor the photo or video format universally, but people’s feeds are tuned based on what kind of content they engage with, so if you never stop to watch videos you might see fewer of them.
- Instagram’s feed doesn’t favor users who use Stories, Live, or other special features of the app.
- Instagram doesn’t downrank users for posting too frequently or for other specific behaviors, but it might swap in other content in between someone’s if they rapid-fire separate posts.
- Instagram doesn’t give extra feed presence to personal accounts or business accounts, so switching won’t help your reach.
- Shadowbanning is not a real thing, and Instagram says it doesn’t hide people’s content for posting too many hashtags or taking other actions.
Today’s Instagram whiteboard session with reporters, its first, should go a long way to clearing up misunderstandings about how it works. When people feel confident that their posts will reach their favorite people, that they can reliably build a public audience, and that they’ll always see great content, they’ll open the app more often.
Yet on the horizon looms a problem similar to what Facebook’s algorithm experienced around 2015: competition reduces reach. As more users and businesses join Instagram and post more often, but feed browsing time stays stable per user, the average post will get drowned out and receive fewer views. People will inevitably complain that Instagram is trying to force them to buy ads, but it’s a natural and inevitable consequence of increasingly popular algorithmic feeds.
The more Instagram can disarm that problem by pushing excess content creation to Stories and educating users about how the feed operates, the less they’ll complain. Facebook is already uncool, so Instagram must stay in our good graces.
Written by: Josh Constine
A high-quality blog post can attract thousands of impressions, shares and comments - here are the engagement stats for an article I wrote a few weeks ago.
Writing such a post is easier than you think - in fact, I would argue that it’s the easiest thing to do, provided that you conduct your content research carefully.
Effective content research involves identifying the right keywords, topics, content formats and marketing channels for your content. Each of those objectives can be accomplished by using handy content research tools.
Here are some of the best.
1. LSI Graph
LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) is one of the factors which enables search engines to understand the context of your content - it means that search engines go beyond specific keywords to index synonyms and related words for more context in understanding concepts.
SEO specialists who understand this process can use it to create more search-engine friendly content, and LSI Graph is a keyword research tool that can help you source LSI themed keywords for your writing.
To use the tool, you simply enter your most relevant keyword and incorporate the resulting matches in your content.
Note that the more organic your mentions of LSI keywords, the better your chances at ranking on SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages).
2. DrumUp
Success on social media involves a lot of networking, relationship-building and co-marketing. Content curation is key in building these relationships - by sharing fresh and relevant content related to your niche, you can earn the favor of both your social media fans and the authors of such material.
DrumUp is a social media tool that helps curate interesting posts that your fans and potential partners are likely to appreciate. Using DrumUp, you can curate relevant content for everyday use by setting up keywords and RSS feeds.
The resulting posts are accompanied by hashtag and @mention recommendations, which you can use to increase the visibility of your content.
3. Screaming Frog
An important part of creating great content is staying up to date with the topics that other writers in your field are discussing. You can do this by subscribing to newsletters or adding RSS feeds to a feed reader, if you want fresh content for sharing. But if your intention is to analyze content created by one competitor from the beginning of time, you can crawl their website individually by using a tool like Screaming Frog.
Screaming Frog indexes all page URLs created for a website, and displays them to you in the form of a list. For content and keyword ideas, scroll the list while paying attention to the slugs.
You’ll find tons of interesting ideas to use in your content.
Written by: Jessica Davis
June 5, 2018
7 Essentials for Any 2018 Digital Marketing Strategy
Digital marketing strategy is crucial to most modern businesses. Is yours following these best practices?
In today's tech landscape, a solid digital marketing strategy has become the CMO's new bread and butter; the only question now is how to best serve it up. Your business's success depends on the right type of strategy, and the right type of strategy can in turn lead to higher sales, new customers, and long-term growth.
Traditional online advertising is a thing of the past. Why? Bottom line, it's more annoying than effective. One study found that 18- to 34-year-olds are likely to ignore online banner and digital ads more than those on TV and radio or in newspapers. What's more, 54 percent of internet users don't click on banner ads simply because they don't trust them.
It's now a CMO's job to stay ahead of the digital marketing curve, keep up-to-date on trends, and break through the clutter. Here are seven tips to optimize your digital marketing strategy.
1. Prioritize customer needs over bells and whistles.
While your team is consumed with building your web presence and developing your product or service, it's easy to lose sight of the customer you want to target. "When building a brand online, too many people rush to buy ads and acquire traffic to drive revenues by brute force," says Tony Delmercado, co-founder and COO of Hawke Media. "Small efficiency improvements in conversion rates, email capture, and retargeting can pay huge dividends -- tighten up the mouse trap first, then buy eyeballs. You'll acquire and retain customers more cost-efficiently and keep money in your coffers for higher-risk marketing strategies."
2. Audit and update your SEO more frequently.
You may know your product or service is great, but is it reaching all the people it could be? Search engine optimization can significantly help your brand reach the people who want what you're offering. Industry experts recommend updating your SEO once a quarter; after all, Google updates its algorithm more than 500 times a year. Find the keywords that are making your business gain or lose traction in the search engine cycle in order to make your brand as discoverable and searchable as possible.
3. Prioritize blogging as a lead generation tool.
Speaking of SEO: Posting relevant and valuable content drives traffic to your website and social media pages, while also increasing your ranking in search engines. In fact, marketers who blog are 13 times more likely to experience positive return on investment, and companies that blog generate 67 percent more leads than those who don't.
Each post you create is one more indexed page on your website, making it more likely customers will find you when searching online. It also indicates to search engines that your website is active, which will help surface your content to the top of search engine results. Further, blogging gives your brand a voice, and 91 percent of consumers say they are more likely to buy from a brand that is authentic rather than generic.
4. Host high-quality webinars and live events.
There are a variety of digital marketing resources you can use to engage with your audience, including webinars, podcasts, and online promotion of live events. To streamline the process of event promotion, try using a third party to make the process seamless. Event technology platforms like Eventbrite help brands create and market an event, as well as promote ticket sales and manage their audience. By getting some external help with the details, you can focus on the big picture and create an experience your customers will remember long after it's over.
5. Expand and refine your email distribution efforts.
Email marketing is still one of the best ways to reach your audience, and the fact that it costs nearly nothing to execute makes it one of the best tools to add to your toolkit. Email open rates have increased 180 percent on mobile devices since 2014, and more than half of all U.S. cellphone owners access their email on their phone rather than a desktop.
Email works better than other mobile forms of notifications (like text messages) because they don't cost the consumer anything, can be accessed on devices other than phones, and have more space to deliver a message. Emails keep your audience engaged across platforms, which in turn helps keep your brand top of mind.
6. Don't give social media short shrift.
Social media has become one of the biggest tools for marketing any brand. By first finding out what platforms your audience uses, you can then target your posts to the best times and dates to share. Engage with your audience on social media by starting conversations and responding to both praise and grievances. Sixty-seven percent of consumers use social media for customer service inquiries, so make sure that you become a part of that narrative so that you can direct it to a positive outcome.
7. Make your marketing mobile.
Even if a desktop version of your marketing content looks great, be sure to check that it translates across devices. Consumers expect cohesion across platforms, and the better accessibility you provide your audience, the more likely they are to purchase.
Remember that authenticity reigns supreme in any of these strategies. Once you have that, an online presence allows you to connect with your audience in ways previously unknown and build a brand that they'll continuously want to engage with.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
