The Metaverse works hand in hand with businesses, as brands can enter this space and use the technology to upgrade and revolutionize their products. For example, Meta Platforms (formerly known as Facebook) dipped its toes into the Metaverse and has created Horizon Worlds, a platform where users can create worlds and items from scratch and virtually spend time with up to twenty users at once. Other programs have had success in cyberspace; Both Ready Player Me and Decentraland offer users a unique virtual experience where one can trade assets, customize avatars, and even create artwork from the comfort of their own device.

A niche in the Metaverse that is growing increasingly popular is the opportunity to care for and own a pet, virtually. The digital pet toy from the 1990s, Tamagotchi, has found a new home in the Metaverse through Metagotchi, where users can train and breed their animals in a way that has never been possible before. Some of these platforms have even surpassed the success of cryptocurrencies. Axie Infinity is an NFT pet game where users breed and upgrade their pets in order to evolve to the next level, which has earned more protocol revenue than both Ethereum and Bitcoin, collecting over $30 million in fees in July 2021. Owning a metaverse collectibles are not only a great option for pet lovers and businesses alike to reap the benefits of the Metaverse, but is also a revolutionary way of monetizing gameplay and creation.

Infographic Source: PetNewsDaily

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Starting with the workforce, higher wages can be expected from ongoing inflation. In 2021 hourly wages rose 5.1%, a jump that made many workers happy. Higher wages bring more people to the working force and leads to lower unemployment rates. Looking again at 2021, with the increase in wages the unemployment rate dropped to 4.2% in November.

In terms of the cost of living, inflation leads to an overall higher cost of living. With an increase in hourly wages there is an increase in things like general goods, utilities, and rent making the cost of living rise overall. To combat this, social security will rise nearly 6% in 2022 in order to combat the growing cost of living.

Inflation affects an individual's finances as well with increased interest rates. In fact the Fed’s New Dot charts suggest a rise in interest rates of 3% by 2024. People can also expect lower savings rates with a range between .01% APY and .10% APY, a range that is far below inflation rates.

With prices rising, there are many ways to protect yourself from the effects of inflation. For starters, 30 million Americans could be earning 70% more if they continued their education. Obtaining a college degree even later in life has the ability to increase your overall earnings in order to prepare for rising prices. Purchasing property is also a great way to secure a solid ROI with good rental bringing in a minimum 10%. Increasing retirement contributions can also prepare Americans for inflation in their later years. Even increasing the total amount invested by 1% each year could be beneficial.

Inflation is inevitable, it is important to take all necessary steps to prepare for the rise in the price of goods and the cost of living. Are you ready to protect your finances?

Infographic Source: Expensivity

The post Why Is Inflation So High? [Infographic] appeared first on Business2Community.

Why?

Local SEO practices boost your brand's visibility by making your venture stand out from other local businesses in the Google search results. Your business can gain recognition, attract relevant website traffic, and generate authentic leads.

The easier your business is to find and access online, the quicker you can draw potential customers to your store.

Here are some best local SEO practices to supercharge your local rankings and help you reach the right audience at the right time.

#1: Be a Part of Google Local Pack

Google Local Pack refers to the search result that displays the top three local businesses related to the user's query along with NAP (Name, Address, Phone) details and a map.

Here’s an example that shows how Google Local Pack appears for the search term - ‘best restaurants London.’

Source

Here are some tips to improve your chances of getting featured in the Local Pack -

• Claim your Google My Business profile.
• Add your business name and address.
• Mention your operational hours and days.
• Add images to your business listing.
• Respond to your customer reviews.

#2: Optimize Crucial On-Page Elements

Update your website's content for local search intent.

The content should provide solutions to the search terms of your potential customers. This SEO practice will help your business gain trustworthiness, credibility, and rankings in local searches.

Start with optimizing the following on-page elements.

• Page titles
• Meta descriptions
• Body paragraphs
• Image alt text
• Image file names
• Keywords

#3: Incorporate a Link-building Strategy

Backlinks are one of the most crucial ranking factors on Google, yet 66.31 percent of website pages on the internet don’t have any backlinks.

Is your website one of them?

Follow the shared tips to incorporate a solid link-building strategy.

• Produce high-quality content with relevant keywords.
• Reach out to relevant websites with higher domain authority and pitch guest posts.
• Fix all broken links across your website and on third-party websites that link back to yours.

Leverage these local SEO practices to supercharge your rankings. For detailed guidance on local SEO, check out this insightful infographic by Ronkot.

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Even if brands do not populate YouTube as other social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram, we should not forget it is still the second largest search engine, offering a business the ability to reach millions of people.

The ones that should consider creating a YouTube marketing strategy are especially those brands that rely heavily on the power of visual presentation, like cosmetic, tech, or fashion-oriented brands.

For example, if we look at the most popular brands on YouTube, we’ll see many of these represent these categories, like Nike, Victoria’s Secrets, Chanel, or GoPro.

Of course, like any other video-oriented platform, it requires an excellent quality of the clips posted since it is an indicator of a brand’s professionalism and a source of thrust for the YouTube subscribers.

Which brings high prices to be taken into consideration when assigning budgets. And certainly, taking money out of one’s own pockets is not a reason of joy for anyone.

This is exactly why creating a well-researched marketing strategy is essential if your want to launch your business on YouTube since you have to keep in mind your brand’s ROI.

The first most important thing before creating your YouTube marketing strategy is to start your competitor’s research process, indicating what type of content is more catchy for your YouTube audiences.

After this first step is done, you have to go to the next one - which is optimizing your videos. This optimization refers to many aspects - from the length, the content’s quality - both video and audio, and of course, a wise use of keywords. Second largest search engine, remember?

Other helpful tactics may be live-streaming from time to time, creating collaborations with YouTube influencers, or even running some YouTube ads.

Some of these tips and many others are included in the infographic below.

Read more:

• 8 YouTube Tips for Business Marketing
• 33+ Best Video Editing Software for eCommerce

The post 8 Tips on How to Create Your YouTube Marketing Strategy and Grow Your YouTube Channel [Infographic] appeared first on Business2Community.

Christmas is the season of joy, of gift-giving, and of families united. While this may be true for all of us, for marketers and SMM specialists, Christmas is also the perfect time to perfect their campaign ideas.

During Christmas, social media opens its doors and all kinds of Christmas posts are starting to bombard our feeds.

Even though Christmas posts are magical, not all of them are successful. And because we know how hard it is to come up with new content ideas, we turned our attention to data.

The team at Socialinsider did a case study on Christmas campaigns and made a list of best practices marketers should follow to craft engaging Christmas posts.

• Choose the right platform

According to the data, the most engaging platform for last year’s Christmas campaigns was TikTok, with an average engagement rate of 5.493%, followed by LinkedIn (with a score of 1.399%).

However, Instagram was the app with the highest posting last Christmas (712,875 posts), followed by Facebook (with 320,251 posts) and Twitter (with 103,586 posts).

This means that creating a 360' marketing strategy is important but just as important is to understand each platform's features and to use the one that is most suitable for your brand’s needs.

• Use more albums on Facebook and more videos on Instagram for better engagement

On Facebook, brands should post more albums for better engagement (0.487%), to differentiate Christmas posts from regular posts.

On Instagram, videos perform best, with an average engagement rate of 0.383%, which is not surprising at all, considering how much the platform relies on visuals.

• Christmas posts with shorter captions bring more engagement

On Facebook, brands should post images with longer captions (40-60 words) for the highest engagement rate per post - 1.374%.

On Instagram, videos perform best with short captions (less than 20 words), with an engagement rate per post of 0.908%.

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Even sales professionals who make it to the finish line, their negotiated outcomes may not always be ideal.

Sellers may win sales but lose most of their margin in negotiations. Final agreements are often subject to changes or budget restrictions at the last minute.

No wonder many sellers approach negotiations with anxiety. In fact, studies show that anxiety is the most common emotion associated with negotiation, and our work confirms that anxious negotiators don’t perform well.

To make things even more challenging, negotiation is very different today than it was a decade ago:

• Procurement is more involved
• Buyers have more information about you, your products and services, your competitors, and your prices
• Third parties often sit between buyer and seller (representing and insulating buyers from sellers)
• Procurement technologies are fast becoming the norm

This might make sellers think that buyers have all the leverage.

But they don’t.

In fact, the RAIN Group Center for Sales Research found that Top Performers were 3.8x more likely to understand the leverage held by each side in sales negotiations.

In most cases, a sales negotiation is critical to the success and failure of both the seller and buyer. To handle negotiations that result in the best possible agreements, sellers (and buyers) need to be skilled. They need to use the best sales negotiation strategies, approaches, and tactics at the right time, and they need to know how to respond to the other party regardless of what’s thrown at them.

Succeeding in sales negotiations takes experience and a strong foundation of core negotiation skills. In this infographic, we reveal the 6 Essential Rules of Sales Negotiation to help you create great agreements, win sales at better terms, and position you to handle anything buyers throw your way.

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Many companies are looking for new ways to create a better work system, and it seems like every week another company shares that they are testing a four-day workweek. There are many documented and researched benefits of a four-day workweek, along with plenty of anecdotal evidence too. When my company switched to a four-day workweek, I noticed a significant improvement in my work/life balance, and I felt more rested and relaxed, allowing me to accomplish more during those four days.

Moving to a four-day workweek is good for staff, for companies, for work/life balance and for the environment. Check out this infographic below to learn more about the benefits of a four-day workweek:

Although the four-day workweek is still a fairly new idea, the feedback from companies that have tried it is mostly positive. For businesses that focus on having employees present as a measure of productivity, working fewer days can seem daunting. However, organizations open to new approaches are experiencing the advantages. When Bolt switched to a four-day workweek, they discovered that the Executive Leadership Team could reduce meeting time by 90% without losing effectiveness.

It is very possible that if companies dedicate the time, and make the commitment, to implementing a four-day workweek that each individual company and team will find their own ways to become more productive, improve processes, and become more efficient.

Thinking about the future of work in a new way means not being afraid to tear up the rule book and start again. Not everybody wants or needs the same type of employment, and moving to a four-day workweek is the way to start showing commitment to the bigger conversation.

The post The Benefits of a Four-Day Workweek [Infographic] appeared first on Business2Community.

The outbreak of the novel coronavirus created new challenges for businesses, pushing them to adjust their strategies to respond swiftly to the situation. With ongoing concerns about being outside, many individuals turned to digital platforms to find and purchase products and services. This led to a surge in online users and a heightened demand for improved customer experiences on these platforms.

As of October 2021, there are already 4.88 billion internet users globally This figure comprises about 62% of the world’s population and will continue to grow in the succeeding years.

Many companies took advantage of this changing consumer behavior and boosted their online marketing activities to gain a wider audience reach. However, others cut back on their content marketing efforts or ceased them completely. It may seem like a way to save funds amid the global health crisis, but having no content marketing strategy can spell greater disaster in the future. In a digital world filled with numerous competitors, it might get difficult for companies to reenter the market after letting go of their digital marketing tactics.

If companies want to stay competitive during the pandemic and beyond, they must keep up with emerging content marketing trends and practices. After all, relevant, consistent, and high-quality content can attract new customers while retaining existing ones.

A few notable content marketing trends in 2021 are the dominance of video content, mobile-friendly content, personalized content, optimization for voice search, the advent of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered content, and many more.

To learn about these content marketing practices that made waves in 2021, see this infographic provided by Digital Marketing Philippines.

The post Content Marketing Trends 2021 – Mid-Year Report [Infographic] appeared first on Business2Community.

In 2020 with the world going virtual, content marketing saw an increased adoption and investment. B2B content marketers majorly pivoted to webinars as virtual events replaced physical counterparts and conferences.

But where are B2B organizations headed in 2021? Should you increase your content creation budgets? What kind of content should you create? And how should you structure your content team?

Well, here’s a quick overview of what works and is pursued by top-performing B2B content marketers:

• They have a central content marketing team that collaborates with various departments in the company: A good example is the Intercom editorial team, which helps their colleagues (designers, engineers, and others) write about topics they know well. If you're just getting started, outsourcing content creation and hiring freelance SEO experts is acceptable. However, plan to create a dedicated team in the long run.
• They document their content strategies and measure their performance: It’s impossible to improve something you’re not measuring. So set key performance indicators (KPIs) for your team and align your efforts to meet them. You need to think beyond vanity metrics such as traffic and evaluate how your content efforts impact the bottom line.
• They focus on the middle and bottom of the funnel content creation: B2B content marketers tend to exclusively focus on brand awareness educational content simply addressing the top of the funnel. But content marketing needs to serve the complete funnel. In fact, content around your products (such as case studies, a knowledge base/help center, and even articles comparing you against your competition) are better starting points for content programs.

The infographic below on key B2B content marketing stats for 2021 discusses the above figures alongside insights on social media, COVID-19 impact, more. Use it to take stock of your current content strategy:

The post State of B2B Content Marketing in 2021 [Infographic] appeared first on Business2Community.

In a saturated world of online platforms and mobile devices, it is unlikely for businesses not to use internet marketing techniques. With a few clicks on Google, people can easily find products and services even if they do not know the brand. And being on the top positions in SERPs elevates the chances of one’s website being found by prospective clients.

In 2021, Google searches already account for more than 70% of the overall global desktop search traffic. The search engine’s top organic SERPs generate a high 31.7% click-through rate (CTR). These statistics emphasize the importance of boosting one’s SEO efforts to stay competitive in a saturated online market. Reaching the top positions of SERPs should be a top priority among businesses today and beyond.

This year has witnessed several SEO trends that can be advantageous for businesses. One of which is the improvements in video content through dedicated structured data. Videos remain a robust tool in digital marketing, making its continued use an essential aspect of one’s SEO strategies. Moreover, Google’s developments make it more effective for companies to improve their standing in search results.

Another influence that sparked emerging SEO trends is the proliferation of erroneous or misleading information. In an attempt to curtail the spread of this fallacious information, Google is focusing on E-A-T or Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness in their Search Quality Rater Guidelines (SQRGs). It prompts websites to align their content to these guidelines to show they are worthy of ranking.

There are many more SEO trends to know in 2021. See this infographic provided by Digital Marketing Philippines to learn about them.

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First and foremost of these is the pandemic. We also witnessed the Australian bushfires, a stock market crash, the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, the arrival of murder hornets here in the U.S, and more.

These events have impacted the way marketers and businesses communicate with customers.

There is a noticeable shift towards inclusion, and brands are working to back up statements with statistics and facts. Bright colors are being used more. Brand memes are popular again.

Graphic design will continue to both draw inspiration from and exert influence over cultural changes. The infographic below from Venngage illustrates the upcoming trends to watch for.

What graphic design innovations are expected to dominate the landscape in 2022?

1. Muted color palettes

Brands are stepping back from the vivid and bold color trends of last year and are veering toward more muted color palettes. Muted colors are colors that have been slightly desaturated with black, white, or a complementary color.

2. Color gradients

Instead of being relegated to image backgrounds, gradients will be used in a lot of unique ways in the coming year. They will be added to complex illustrations, used color filters, and included in simple graphics to add some depth and texture.

3. Abstract and dreamy illustrations

Simple illustrations don’t have the same eye-catching power that they once did. Embrace more imaginative, abstract, and dreamy illustrations to really stand out.

4. Heavy but simple fonts

Heavy fonts are usually bold or extra bold. Many designers are using heavy fonts to create contrast and hierarchy by pairing them with simple backgrounds and lighter fonts.

5. Beautiful flowing shapes and lines

Flowing shapes can be used to convey a natural, approachable, and genuine feeling in your designs. They also pair well with other design trends, such as muted colors and heavy fonts.

6. Genuine and neutral stock photos

Once color trends begin to shift, trends in stock photos and images are quick to follow. That means you can expect to see more muted landscapes, realistic portraits, and neutral stock photos.

7. Minimalist landing pages

More brands are taking a minimalist approach to their landing pages to achieve better load times and compatibility with mobile devices. This is especially important because Google rewards fast mobile pages with higher rankings.

8. Better branded animations

Brands will take the time to create better and more unique branded images going forward. Animations are more eye-catching than the standard GIF.

via Venngage

The post 8 Important Graphic Design Trends For 2022 [Infographic] appeared first on Business2Community.

It’s crucial to know the amount of risk your business poses in being attacked, but also the potential magnitude of financial devastation.

In 2019, small businesses (with less than $2 billion in revenue) lost an average of $143,000 per ransomware attack. Often left out of the equation, business interruption loss averaged $215,000 per incident. Other expenses businesses sacrificed include paying approximately $453,000 in ransom, spending $42,000 in recovery expenses, and investing an additional $93,000 in crisis services. That same year, large businesses (with more than $2 billion in revenue) lost $18.9 million on average per ransomware attack. Subsequently, they also yielded, on average, $275,000 in other forms of recovery and $175,000 in ransom per incident. These colossal sums have increased aggressively since 2019. The annual accrued cost of ransomware increased by 243% from just 2020 to 2021 alone.

Ransomware attackers, increasingly, are tailoring their demands to each victim. Attackers augment their demands to accommodate their victims’ ability to pay, and the exertion needed to breach their security. Large businesses face more sophisticated attacks and higher ransom demands, while small businesses are more likely to be hit by predictable tactics with lower ransom demands. Nonetheless, the expenses drained from all ransomware attacks can be financially detrimental.

It’s important, now more than ever, to fortify your infrastructure against the repercussions of ransomware attacks. With the monumental shift to working from home, business cybersecurity has become paramount. As ransomware attacks become more frequent, preparedness must intensify to match.

Learn more about how to keep abreast of ransomware attacks and how to stop ransomware before it starts in the infographic below:

Infographic Source: Cyber Security Degrees

The post An Emerging Epidemic: Ransomware [Infographic] appeared first on Business2Community.

The first thing to consider is resource planning. Define the plant’s layout, flow, assets, and resources needed to produce products in a safe, efficient manner. Next, plan out manufacturing processes. Enrich the product and resource definition by defining and validating a process plan. Work instructions ought to be clear and detailed if a company wants to achieve its production goals. When making these plans, digital visualization of resource and process changes can help accelerate time-to-production in any scenario and from any location when a business leverages its cloud. The factory of the future will need adaptable technology, scalable production, and a versatile workforce. Robotics and equipment should be reconfigurable to accommodate new products and changes. This reduces waste and overall costs as one.

Leaving the inside of the factory, consider how supply chain planning can be optimized across all planning horizons. Global conditions make this difficult right now, but that is why companies must adapt. Businesses need to plan for alternatives and minimize the impact of disruptions. While single source suppliers were once commonplace, organizations are now shifting to more diverse value networks. While single source suppliers come with lower costs, value networks bring higher resilience and greater flexibility. Advanced planning and scheduling allow businesses to leverage AI and machine learning for decision-making.

Building factories of the future can improve business operations and environmental practices in one. Rethinking manufacturing, production, and distribution could eliminate 45% of global emissions. At this time, manufacturing represents 54% of global energy consumption. Just 5 areas of manufacturing could reduce missions by an amount equal to eliminating all transportation.

Infographic Source: Dassault

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However, the emergence of new variants of the novel coronavirus poses another challenge across countries. Businesses are again faced with the responsibility of adjusting to these changes, ensuring they can safely operate while generating enough profit to keep their company afloat.

Additionally, with the COVID-19 global health crisis still ongoing, there continues a rise in the demand for remote services. In the past year, consumers have been relying on eCommerce sites to purchase the goods and services they need. As a result, businesses shifted their marketing efforts to maximize the internet in getting their brand known by customers. Many marketing strategies in the pre-pandemic era might no longer be effective in the new normal.

These digital marketing trends include leveraging platforms like Google My Business and shoring up search engine optimization or SEO efforts. Visual elements like pictures and videos are also increasing in popularity as part of online marketing campaigns because of their appeal to users. Plenty of customers prefer videos since it eliminates the need to read long texts.

Furthermore, with customer experience as one of the top priorities in many business operations, there is an anticipated increase in the adoption of Chatbots to provide a 24/7 customer service facility. More and more consumers lean towards this artificial intelligence (AI)-based technology because they are more convenient and hassle-free than waiting for live agents to answer queries.

It is highly likely that digital marketing trends are here to stay even in the post-pandemic period. Ideally, businesses should adopt these online marketing tactics to attract customers and generate revenue.

For more information on the digital marketing trends in 2021, here is an infographic from Digital Marketing Trends 2021.

The post Digital Marketing Trends 2021 – Mid-Year Report [Infographic] appeared first on Business2Community.

Staying up to date with new trends can be a challenge but the design solution’s annual study will make it easier for brands to adapt.

For 2022, these are the eight trends that will impact marketing efforts.

1. Inclusive visuals
2. Fun data visualizations
3. Bold backgrounds
4. Colorful icons and illustrations
5. Serif fonts
6. Branded memes
7. Quotes
8. Social screencaps

Venngage has also created an infographic that highlights the 2022 graphic design trends.

We look at each of the biggest trends in detail below.

1. Visuals are becoming more inclusive

Alongside the pandemic, 2020 saw numerous events that impacted the types of visuals brands create.

There was a resurgence with the Black Lives Matter movement, which went global. The #StopAAPIHate campaign put a spotlight on other marginalized communities.

In general, there was an increased discourse around representation or the lack thereof, and what society and brands could do to rectify the situation.

Brands have begun to answer those rallying calls by adapting their marketing strategies to reflect diverse communities.

This is one of the biggest graphic design trends of 2022 and it’s already underway. We’re seeing more inclusivity in visuals used on brand websites and social media.

Icons, illustrations, and photos now display a variety of ethnicities, orientations, and abilities.

Inclusive visuals are going to be a mainstay in marketing communications. Creating collaterals that reflect the society a brand exists within will benefit companies and bring communities closer.

2. Data visualizations are focusing on fun topics

Data visualization has become one of the most attractive and interesting visual forms over the last 18 months. But the cut-and-dried data visuals of 2020 have already become passé.

The pandemic has been a difficult time for most people. Consumers are tired of heavy topics. They’re looking for a release through entertaining content.

On the other hand, charts and graphs have become ubiquitous in the world of marketing.

Brands have answered the call for more entertainment by using the instant recognition of graphs and charts.

Fun data visualizations are becoming all the rage and they’re going to be one of the biggest graphic design trends of 2022.

Instead of focusing on the impact of the pandemic, brands are designing data visualizations on topics such as gaming and remote work.

Brands are also creating visuals about relevant topics for their audience, wrapped in a jovial tone. This makes for entertaining content that relieves some of the stress of the past year.

3. Bold and bright background colors are returning

What makes content stand out in a crowded online environment? Great quality and bold backgrounds.

Color trends are ever-evolving. They tend to go back and forth between bolder styles and muted versions.

We are currently in the bold color phase. Brands are using bolder and brighter colors in the backgrounds of marketing materials.

This creates a contrast that makes the text and visuals on the background easier to read. It also helps the content attract attention on a busy timeline.

4. Icons and illustrations are becoming more colorful

Another way that color is influencing the graphic design trends of 2022 is in icons and illustrations.

Icons have become a powerful visual tool in marketing campaigns. They are instantly recognizable and have universal appeal.

Colorful icons are all the rage at the moment, and it’s going to continue that way into 2022. This trend applies to both 3D and flat icons, the latter of which became popular in the last couple of years.

We are also seeing more colorful illustrations being used by brands. Illustrations are more open to interpretation, which has made them a useful tool for drawing attention.

There has been an uptick in abstract illustrations in marketing materials. While that trend is set to continue, there is a great deal more color at play, as well.

5. Serif fonts are coming back in fashion

One of the oldest font types has been making a comeback. Over the last few years, serif fonts have taken over graphic design trends. In 2022, they will remain the more popular font type of choice.

Why are brands turning to serif fonts? They are traditional and elegant. Not only do they evoke nostalgia but they foster a sense of security.

In the current pandemic conditions, that kind of safety is what consumers want.

Numerous brands are adopting serif fonts for the text on their websites, as well as across their social media visuals. Others are using a mix of serif fonts with more modern fonts.

Like many other trends, font styles change cyclically. We could see a move towards sans serif fonts in a few years. But for now, serif fonts are reigning supreme.

6. Brands are designing relevant memes

The relentless doom and gloom of the pandemic has had a direct impact on the types of visuals brands create. This is why one of the graphic design trends of 2022 is the rise of branded memes.

While memes have been co-opted by marketers over the years, brands are no longer using memes as is.

Instead, they are adapting these universal visual messages to their company’s specific tone and their audience’s needs.

There’s also a lightness to the way memes are used by brands now, which ties into our earlier point about entertaining consumers and helping them escape reality.

7. Quotes are being used as teasers

Quotes have been a mainstay of marketing. They became so ubiquitous that quotes eventually fell out of favor.

So, it’s surprising to see quotes becoming one of the 2022 graphic design trends.

But these aren’t the motivational quotes that were shared ad nauseam by friends, relatives, and brands on social media.

Instead, marketers are using pull quotes from larger pieces of content—such as blogs, podcasts, and ebooks—to share as teasers.

This gives users a taste of what’s to come and incentivizes them to click through and read more.

Most quote posts in 2022 will be paired with attractive and relevant visuals to be more impactful.

8. Social media screencaps are being shared across platforms

Another of the graphic design trends taking over 2022 are social media screencaps. How does it work? Take a screenshot of a post on one platform and share that image on another.

One could take an image of a tweet and share it as an Instagram post or on LinkedIn. Or take a screen capture of a TikTok video and share it as an Instagram Story or Facebook Story.

This is not only a visually appealing trend but it’s also a cost-effective one. Marketers don’t need to create separate content for each platform. They can use the same content across platforms.

It’s important to note that the screencaps trend works best when sharing entertaining content, not sales-focused content.

Conclusion: 2022 Graphic Design Trends are Geared Towards Entertainment

There is an underlying thread that connects all the graphic designs trends of 2022—consumers’ desire to be entertained.

The pandemic has been a difficult time to live through and most parts of the world are only just beginning to open up. ‘Normal life’ seems far away.

Brands have risen to the challenge by being more attentive to users’ needs.

Marketers are creating visuals that are more reflective of society, are more engaging, and most importantly, more entertaining.

All visuals courtesy Venngage.

The post What Graphic Design Trends Should Brands Know for 2022? appeared first on Business2Community.

Google didn't simply analyze the content of a page but at the number of people that linked to it. Links continued to be one of the most important ranking factors used by Google and many other search engines up to this day. This is how search engines discover new content through links and judge the quality of that content.

Good links are seen as testimonials to the quality of the content. As you receive more links from trustworthy and popular sites, search engines will consider your website more relevant in its area of expertise. In turn, this will lead to higher search engine rankings and an increase in traffic to your website.

SEO professionals and marketers use link building to create a network that links to a page to drive traffic and increase its authority on search engines. Link building is all about balancing your strategy and establishing relationships with other authorities in the industry. These links are intended to lead more people towards the content and improve website visitors, which is a good indicator of your site's health.

However, link building is a complex and time-consuming process. Many SEO agencies and professionals do not have the time or resources to do all the work involved in link building. That is why they partner with a third-party link building agency to provide link-building behind the scenes while getting the credit for the work.

If you are on the fence about hiring a white label link building agency, learn why reseller link building services are worth it in this infographic by Digital Marketing Philippines.

The post Benefits of White Label Link Building Services to SEO Agencies appeared first on Business2Community.

One of the most effective ways to grow your business is having an active and engaging presence on LinkedIn.

Why?

LinkedIn is not just an app that connects job seekers with prospective employers anymore. LinkedIn is the preeminent social network for hiring and recruiting and a powerful marketing tool, with more than 57 million company users worldwide.

To determine how LinkedIn's algorithm works, people started wondering how to optimize their posts. Is it better to place the link in the post itself or in the first comment on LinkedIn?

What do I mean when I say a LinkedIn post with a link vs. one with no link?

When we share a post on LinkedIn, we usually share a link with our own comment. But we also have the option to share only the comment (an image or a video, for example) and then add the link in the post's first comment.

Lately, the behavior of adding the link of the resource in the first comment of the LinkedIn post seems to have gained increased popularity.

But do these LinkedIn posts bring more engagement? Do they reach more people?

The team at Socialinsider did a study and analyzed more than 86,504 LinkedIn posts from a total of 883 LinkedIn pages to discover where to place links in LinkedIn posts: in a post or the first comment.

Below are the key findings of the study:

• Posts with no links perform better across all types of posts on LinkedIn
• Brands with a LinkedIn presence don't usually post links in comments
• The most performing type of content on LinkedIn is an image with an engagement rate per post of 0.45%

Take a look at the infographic below to discover more insights!

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The pandemic did not create gig work. It increased the pace of existing trends. Frustrated with high levels of pandemic employment, 2 million Americans tried gig work for the first time in 2020. Gig work avoids many of the formal structures imposed by typical employment. It is flexible, project-based work open to anyone at all times. In gig work, high school grads can earn as much as those with college degrees. The majority of gig workers work less than 30 hours per week. 70% also receive higher pay than their traditionally employed peers.

Gig work offers many benefits to businesses as well. Hiring by project allows for greater specialization and flexibility in hiring. Gig work is also not bound by many employment regulations, meaning red tape is averted. 4 in 5 US companies are planning to increase their use of gig workers. By 2027, over 86.5 million Americans will enter the gig economy.

How can people break into the gig economy? Look for openings on digital platforms. Consider what services are popular in the area and ensure your skills are a good match. Accept varied tasks to test your talents and gain experience before zoning in on one job description. Ask for reviews and ratings to increase visibility and reputation. Finally, watch out for platform fees and take rates. They can turn a good deal into a bad one if they go unnoticed.

Learn more about how the pandemic changed the gig economy in the infographic below:

Infographic Source: Wage

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Emotionally intelligent leaders are 7x as likely to have high performance outcomes. For supervisors and executives, performance outcomes are strong determinants of tenure, compensation, and career satisfaction. The benefits don’t only arise for leaders; 90% of high performing employees exhibit high emotional intelligence. In a 2021 study of Spanish workers, high emotional intelligence was a stronger predictor of salary than age or gender.

How is emotional intelligence practiced? There are 5 key traits that fall under the umbrella: self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, social skills, and motivation. While some people are naturally more social or empathetic than others, all of these traits can be nurtured or developed intentionally. With the right focus and intentions, anyone can learn to control their words and actions despite negative feelings or communicate clearly with different kinds of people. It is in every person’s career interest to develop these “soft skills,” as a single point increase in emotional intelligence is linked to $1,300 in additional annual income.

What can a person do to grow their emotional intelligence? There are 2 steps. First, understand your feelings. Practice identifying emotions in times of stress and consider how your emotions impact your actions. Second, monitor your reactions. Pay close attention to how you act in stressful situations and practice patience before responding. To make this journey easier, find a mentor or keep a journal.

Learn more in the infographic below:

Infographic source: GradSchoolCenter

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By 2025, phishing attacks will cost $10.5 trillion each year, according to Cybersecurity Ventures. Cybercrime is the 3rd largest economy in the world, after the US and China. Since phishing is often the first step to bringing malware into a system, ransomware has reached everyone from consumers to big business. In recent times, a cyberattack against Colonial Pipeline caused massive gas panic. A recent NotPetya ransomware attack stole consumer information from the large corporate giant, FedEx.

If large corporations can be brought to their knees by ransomware, imagine the impact cybercrime has on small businesses. More than 60% of small businesses permanently close 6 months after a phishing attack. For those that do recover, it can take up to 6 weeks and major consumer losses to get past a data breach. Most consumers don’t shop at businesses incapable of protecting their data.

What can businesses do to protect themselves and their customers? Protecting documents and folders is an important first step that 95% of companies have yet to take. Nearly 1 in 5 of employees click phishing links, meaning 85% of scams involve human error. Establishing an employee training program is a crucial component, though that will not prevent every attack. Because the majority of attacks involve credential harvesting, businesses should verify all invoices and payments. No matter the email security program a company uses, one should always keep an eye out for discrepancies. While humans can’t catch 100% of problems, 25% of phishing emails bypass default security.

Infographic Source: Avanan

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The year also saw some collisions of social media platforms with governments — leading to the ban on short-form video platforms such as TikTok. YouTube capitalized on this gap in the market, opening up its platform to even creators by launching YouTube Shorts.

Among the key challenges for brands and video creators on YouTube, the rising competition and insufficient video production budget might be at the top. The new Shorts experience lets you create up to 60 seconds of vertical videos by stringing together clips and a bunch of editing tools to make them engaging — addressing both of these problems.

Creators worldwide have jumped on Shorts, and its player was reportedly getting 6.5B views a day. So leverage the discovery offered by this short-form experience before it ends up being super competitive.

In the infographic below compiled by Elite Content Marketer, you’ll learn more intriguing YouTube statistics that you can leverage to inform your video strategy. It lists content trends, use cases of videos, the watching behavior of consumers, the crucial role of live streaming in the absence of physical events, and more. Here’s the infographic designed by Graphic Rhythm:

Remember that YouTube isn’t the only video platform, and even success on YouTube with millions of monthly views could still mean a life of poverty. Whether an individual creator or a brand, you should leverage YouTube — but diversify your video marketing efforts. Gaining better control over your audience would mean not relying on an external algorithm.

Building a sustainable business around video might mean creating a video membership site. Or even hosting videos on your own website to offer a better-branded experience to your audience.

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To get the best visibility for your business in a Google search, your landing page must include the right features to appear in Google’s Local Pack—valuable space in Google’s search results. This is where your business will stand out with a map, star ratings, and other details. It will connect to Google My Business listings and show up above regular search results.

Some of the key elements to achieve a high rank in Google’s Local Pack are Google My Business (GMB) listing factors (25%): backlink quantity, authority, and anchor text (17%); review quantity, freshness, and diversity (15%); and website keywords and domain authority (14%). Businesses can optimize their Google My Business listing by claiming their business profile, completing every section thoroughly, and keeping listings updated with weekly posts, responses to reviews, and answering public questions.

Having the right elements on your landing page is also hugely important in gaining ground in Google searches. These elements include the body, headline, and mobile features. The body needs to be attention grabbing as consumers spend 74% of their viewing time on the first 2 screenfulls. The headline must be clear, concise, and use keywords. Keywords are important but often neglected, as only 11% of the top-ranking landing pages include keywords in the headline. Mobile features are also hugely important since 84% of local searches are made on mobile devices. Having a mobile responsive site will help the majority of consumers engage.

The importance of your local landing page cannot be overstated if you want your business to stay ahead of the pack.

Infographic Source: Wiideman

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From the marketing funnel, we get shorthand acronyms like TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU - each indicating where a post, ad, or campaign lies in a high-level effort to increase brand awareness, nurture audiences, and convert them into customers.

Influencer marketing ROI works much the same way. Without including influencer KPIs into broader marketing conversations, you risk going in a different direction from the rest of your marketing team.

A lopsided approach overemphasizes one stage of the funnel over another, thereby increasing customer acquisition costs, lowering retention, or both. Additionally, tunnel vision on a single stage of the funnel keeps you from seeing the bigger picture of your influencer ROI.

“Influencer marketing is no longer in its infancy. Creator management solutions and attribution tools are catching up to demand. More importantly, recent developments in influencer campaign management demonstrate that influencer ROI is more extensive than experts previously thought.” - Influencer Marketing: What Is It & Where Is It Going?

For marketers just launching their influencer program or assessing their creator collaboration strategy, here is an influencer-specific marketing funnel with which to guide team discussions.

What is the influencer marketing funnel?

The purpose of an influencer marketing funnel is to track how your influencer campaigns impact your consumer touch points and buyer’s journey. Also, looking at the influencer marketing funnel can give you guidance on the right content for each stage of your customer journey.

As we all know, customers don’t get a brief look at your brand for the first time and immediately rush to buy your products. Buyers need time to feel comfortable with a brand and take a risk with that first purchase.

The more effective your marketing mix, the greater impact each touch point will have and the fewer touch points you’ll need to get your target audience from point A (brand awareness) to point B (conversions).

The main benefit of content created by influencers is that it often feels more real than brand-made content. Social media creators balance being celebrities and knowledgeable consumers. Followers rely on their favorite influencers for buying choices, especially if those influencers show real love for the brands and share engaging lifestyle posts that highlight those brands.

In other words, influencer campaigns don’t just offer you another medium for connecting with audiences, they can significantly lower your costs and increase your bottom line. The influencer marketing funnel will help you visualize where your program ROI comes from.

Once examining the current state of your influencer program, you can use the funnel below to refine your influencer outreach, program goals, and campaign workflows to improve ROI over time.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="612"] Source[/caption]

Top-of-the-funnel: Influencer-generated brand awareness

Influencer campaigns tagged as “top-of-funnel” are introducing your brand to new people within your target audience.

Key TOFU Metrics

• Number of active influencers: This metric often indicates the size of your influencer program. Improving this KPI means acquiring better influencer management support (tools, budget, and team members) to accomplish more relationship-building tasks with fewer clicks.
• Number of influencer campaigns and posts: Your influencer campaigns and content volume also signal the size of your program. Scaling your program from a campaign perspective requires hacking program inefficiencies with the help of automation software.
• Influencer reach: An influencer’s follower count is often the best way to gauge that creator’s reach. That said, pay careful attention to the quality of their follower engagement. Impressions are worthless if there’s no real relationship between an influencer and their audience.
• Growth of followers on brand pages: It's a positive sign when an influencer's fans start following your brand. This metric shows the influencer halo effect, where a person's loyalty to one brand extends to everything that brand supports - in this case, followers reflect an influencer's enthusiasm for a specific product.
• Ongoing user-generated content: Content that resonates with an audience inspires reactions, comments, and shares. A single piece of viral content can spread like wildfire across your target audience. UGC is a great way to track your influencer’s viral success. This UGC also contributes to your organic social growth (more brand followers and engagements).

Middle-of-the-funnel: Using influencers to inform & nurture audiences

Campaigns that are “middle-of-funnel” will leverage influencer content to build relationships with members of your audience who’ve already heard your brand name a few times. These individuals can recognize your brand, though they may not fully trust your brand just yet.

Key MOFU Metrics

• Number of influencer engagements: Follower reactions, comments, and shares indicate how well your influencer content is resonating with your audience.
• Quality of influencer engagements: Taking a closer look at what your influencer content engagement looks like will help you weed out fraudulent activity (fake followers), as well as identify your top-performers.
• Top-performing posts: These posts signal how well your influencer campaigns are being consumed by your audience. It can also indicate which types of content are most effective for moving buyers through your marketing funnel.
• Number of influencer reviews: It’s critical that your influencer program include content that showcases product strengths/weaknesses, case uses, before/after, etc. Most consumers rely on this type of content to visualize how your product will improve their overall quality of life.
• Organic social growth: If your influencer’s audience and tone of voice are aligned with your brand, you will notice a strong correlation between that influencer’s performance and your own social growth.

Bottom-of-the-funnel: Influencer-generated sales & conversions

“Bottom-of-funnel” metrics require very little explanation. Marketers, sales staff, and C-suite executives alike understand the value of conversions.

That said, tracking conversions against the backdrop of your marketing funnel ensures that influencer-generated conversions come at a lower cost per customer (CAC) and extend that customer’s lifetime value (CLV).

Key BOFU Metrics

• Number of link clicks and click-through rate: A link click is a significant action taken by a member of your audience. Link clicks can also contribute to your web traffic and paid remarketing efforts.
• Subscriptions: An email, SMS, or notification subscription often signals future purchases. Timing matters in sales, and when members of your audience subscribe, it means that they are interested in making that first or repeat purchase at some point.
• Leads: For longer sales journeys, qualified leads are worth their weight in gold by improving your close rates and lowering your customer churn.
• Discount code redemptions: Coupon codes are a widely-accepted way to track influencer attribution. And the great thing about these codes is that they drive direct sales.
• Sales: Sales as a BOFU metric is not difficult to appreciate. But what can be a challenge for many influencer programs is knowing which sales came from which creator. Whether using affiliate links, discount codes, or another influencer platform tool, it’s important to keep track of your influencer-generated revenue. Not only does this affect influencer payments (i.e. commissions) but it also gives you the numbers you need to pitch a bigger influencer budget to your superiors.
• Return on ad spend on repurposed influencer-generated content: Creator content frequently makes better-quality ad content than traditional production companies or agencies. Additionally, influencers are more affordable. Measuring the performance of your repurposed influencer content helps you see the bigger picture of how your program impacts your overall marketing ROI.

Influencer Marketing Funnel - Key Takeaways

As you apply this influencer marketing funnel to your program, here are a few things to keep in mind.

1. Direct brand-influencer relationships outperform influencer networks every time. Networks and agencies either don’t provide the performance metrics listed above or hold that information close the chest. Engaging creators directly helps you find your ideal influencers and gather firsthand accounts of each campaign’s performance.
2. Authentic brand-influencer relationships translate into authentic influencer content. These relationships come from proper vetting and communication with the right influencers. By contrast, the wrong influencers and a laissez-faire approach to influencer management is a waste of time and resources. Consumers can smell inauthenticity in an influencer’s content. Healthy brand-influencer relationships translate into genuine brand love.
3. You can’t track success without creating marketing goals and KPIs. Establishing marketing goals tells you and your influencers what you want them to accomplish. Key performance indicators break those goals down into actionable milestones.
4. Additionally, you can’t track ROI without assigning the right performance metrics to each marketing KPI. Every marketing KPI should include a number and a deadline. Whatever tools you use to manage your influencer campaigns need to provide you with the right metrics to know whether you are meeting your KPIs.

At a certain point, you can’t manage your influencer program well using spreadsheets and manual tools. For newer, smaller influencer programs, spreadsheets and manual tracking work well and save money. But once you’re managing a team of influencers, these tools will drain your time and energy. To scale your program without drastically increasing your work hours, you’ll need to adopt an influencer management solution that fits your program needs and goals.

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With a significant number of business transactions coming from your ecommerce site, it's also now crucial to have an online payment system that will enable you to get paid by customers digitally.

If you have no IT resources, you can partner with merchant services, which will help you build an online payment system and integrate it into your ecommerce site. By having an online payment system set up, you can serve more customers and attract repeat buyers.

Cashless payments are rising, especially among shoppers who find no need to keep cash in their wallets. Many customers also prefer paying with their debit or credit card because they're cautious about going out these days, so they would rather stay home and transact through online payment modes.

Just imagine customers' frustration if they're unable to complete a purchase they badly need because your website or ecommerce store doesn't support online payment. That may result in missed opportunities and significant losses for your business, as customers are likely to look for alternatives or ecommerce sites that accept debit cards, credit cards, or e-wallets.

Still, some consumers may be a bit apprehensive about submitting their information or payments online, so you'd do well to offer the cash-on-delivery option. Just like your digital-savvy customers, those who prefer to pay in cash will be delighted if you let them choose how they want to pay for their purchases.

Whether your customers are paying digitally or COD, see to it that your ecommerce store doesn't involve a lengthy checkout process. That tends to put off customers, which doesn't help create a positive experience. In worst-case scenarios, buyers choose to abandon their shopping cart because they feel it's not worth their time to do several steps to complete their shopping.

Thinking about what else you should do to win in the digital market? Check out our featured infographic, as it discusses 4 Online Payment Tips to Improve Your Ecommerce Site.

Source

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In early 2020, the FBI reported a 300% increase in cybercrime and attacks targeting remote workers increased by 5x within the first 6 weeks of quarantine. Unfortunately, the cyber attacks did not only affect employees as 20% of companies also experienced data breaches linked to remote workers. Cyberattacks of all kinds shot up to unprecedented levels in 2020. These attacks include phishing, up by 600%, ransomware, up by 148%, malware activity up by 128%, botnet traffic, up by 29%, and attacks on IOT devices up by 13%.

Although most companies are satisfied with their in-house security measures, the COVID pandemic rendered those security measures nearly obsolete as the majority of employees are no longer under that umbrella. The top security concerns about remote work are that personal devices may be more easily compromised than company devices; there are new difficulties managing new devices using remote work resources; and IT support and cybersecurity protections are not as effective for remote work or personal devices and networks.

Even while 60% of remote employees report having MFA security implemented by employers, 67% of companies still report having security breaches. MFA is almost a good security solution, but these protocols still only slow hackers down. Ultimately they are still easy to breach.

In the age of remote work, security must go a step further by removing passwords altogether. Beyond Identity offers cybersecurity with the use of cryptography and biometrics, among other things. Hackers are unable to hack passwords without a password to hack.

Passwordless security is the future of cybersecurity in our “new normal.”

Infographic Source: Beyond Identity

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