Category: Business (Page 1 of 3)

What do you do when you are stuck indoors due to a terrible global pandemic outside?

Firstly, stay indoors and relax. You can do all the things you want to do right from your house with just a laptop and a good internet connection.

You could use up this unexpected holiday to binge on Netflix and tick off your movie bucket list. Or you can indulge in some super relaxing activities like baking cakes and banana bread or maybe read that book you put away six months ago. 

Or you could use up this break from outdoors to up your skill and talents for the post corona period. 

Soon the lockdown will come to an end and by the looks of it, things seem to be pretty bleak in the immediate future. Right from your job to your travel plans, we guess you might want to redo your yearly plans and goals. With the huge downsizing of the workforce, the pressure to be above all is more than ever. 

Well, one good thing about the lockdown is you have plenty of time in your hands. Also in today’s digital world, almost everything is available online.

It doesn’t matter if you are fresh out of college or already employed or planning on higher education, you could always develop some extra skills that might be beneficial to you in aspects of education or career.

Pick a ‘high-income skill’

On looking at what skills to take up, just remember there are a million things you could master yourself but you need to pick those skills that will add value to you as an individual. 

The skills that make you more valuable and always in demand are called high-income skills. 

High-income skills are those set of skills that do not run out of demand. Regardless of the times, they will always hold an essential place in today’s world. 

This lockdown is an amazing time to pick, master one of the high-income skills, and work on your potential. You could even discover your true calling through this project and develop yourself in it. 

Not to mention – you can even make a lot of money. 

While doing so also pick a skill that interests and inspires you to become more and also those that will look good on your resume. 

Focus on not just any skills but high-value skills that are aligned with your work and career growth. 

Here are some skills that will help you go a long way in the post quarantine period, so do check them out and look at developing your niche there.

Web Development 

Regardless of the numerous websites online, there will always be plenty of opportunities for one in this field. This field of programming and codes allows you to express your creativity on the internet through your computer knowledge and skills.

Web development simplified – The method of designing and setting up web pages using different programming languages. 

If you are someone who wants to create and develop web applications or websites and be engaged in the servicing of these applications and pages, you could give web development one solid shot

Why should one pick up web development?

Firstly, there will always be a demand for developers. 

Almost everything we deal with and associate with, in today’s world, is all digitalized. There are plenty of opportunities waiting for qualified and authentic developers. If your work is neat you will never have to worry about jobs.

Can you work from anywhere? 

Yes, freelancing web developers is a thing. In fact, freelancing developers specializing in a particular process are always sought after by small and medium-sized companies. 

The earnings made as a web developer sure motivates people to pursue this field. Web development can be a self-taught skill just that one identifies the right place to learn from.

To start off your Web Development journey with MyCaptain – Click Here

MyCaptain’s LIVE development workshops allow you to directly interact with field professionals as well as experts. Moreover, you get a chance to network with other mentees taking up the course with you!

Copywriting 

If you have an eye for marketing and want to put use to your creativity in the field, copywriting is the thing. If you are already in the marketing domain you would know how copywriting falls into as one of the valuable skills out there.

So what is Copywriting? 

Copywriting is the art of writing content that attracts customers and promotes business. It is super valuable as it drives profitability and helps in convincing the target customers for the product. 

Well, to start off with, you being a good writer have nothing to do with copywriting skills. One just needs a decent grasp over language to be a good copywriter. 

Copywriting is the art of communication and persuading the targeted customers. It concerns itself with more of understanding the formula to what your audience wants and accordingly giving it to them. 

Your copy needs to catch the reader’s attention as well as inform them about the product.

Copywriting is a lucrative career and with the right aptitude for writing and creativity, one can land a lot of success. 

You can look up to these online courses and start off with your very first copy soon:

• Copyblogger
• Skillshare
• Kopywriting Kourse

Data Science

Ever wondered if there is a study that helps you understand data, where it comes from, what it represents, and how it can be a valuable resource?

Well, data science is all of the above and is mainly used in creating business strategies.

Data Science is a field in which you use 

• scientific methods, 
• scientific algorithms, 
• systems, and processes

Your reason behind doing so is to extract data in addition to insights from both structured and unstructured data.

The field of data science is huge! 

Also, data science includes a number of topics like Statistics, Machine Learning, as well as programming languages… Where Python and R programming seem to be used the most. 

With automation on rapid growth, data science is here to stay and will have numerous opportunities to develop into. 

Here are some of the online courses you can enroll in now:

• Coursera 
• Edx
• DataCamp

Digital Marketing

In simple words, digital marketing is performing the act of advertisements and marketing using the means of the Internet. It can include social media marketing, search engine marketing, as well as email marketing.

Digital marketing is replacing traditional methods to designs that cater to the needs to reach today’s consumers. 

Why is digital marketing a sought after skill?

Well, think about who is looking at the billboards right now? There’s no way to measure your success neither do on-ground marketing efforts make sense during a pandemic. 

Also, because it allows you to go global and expand your market space.  

Here are some online courses that you could take up and get started on your digital marketing journey-

• UpGrad
• edX
• MyCaptain

There are plenty of other high-income skills you can venture into as well, just that the skill should be valuable to you in the marketplace. 

Skills like graphic designing and photography can also be high-income skills if you develop a niche in the field and craft out your services well.

Invest this lockdown period to create content,  learn a new skill, try out new things, make money, or even set up your own online business to come out of this quarantine with something added extra to your cap.

It’s ok to slow down but not ok to stop!

So you wanted to launch your company this summer but what a bummer it was when the news of the lockdown came through. 

You probably had everything in mind: a solid idea for your startup as well as a problem that needed to be solved. And the remaining you were going to figure out as you moved forward with your company. 

However, the lockdown got extended and well, you were stuck with your idea left inside in your head. 

We know… it sucks 

But are you sure that you should be cursing the lockdown instead of using it to build your company?

It is true that your startup cannot function properly due to everyone staying indoors. However, you can still lay a solid foundation for your company instead of winging it as you go. 

Why should you build a solid foundation for your company? 

Because one of the biggest reasons why 7 out every 10 businesses fail within the first ten years is the lack of laying down a solid foundation. 

We empathize with the moment when you were sitting in the classroom and suddenly the breakthrough idea came into your head. We understand the feeling as well as the rush to become an entrepreneur. 

But after teaching the art of building a business to thousands across the country and helping them build their own successful business, we know that the basics of any startup or business are the most important. 

In this article, we will help you fight with the “lockdown boredom” as well as build a solid foundation for your startup. 

Without building the ground floor, you cannot hope to build your own empire state! 

Laying down a foundation during the lockdown

We are going to be taking a look at the three most important pillars of building a business: 

1. Business model
2. Finances
3. Marketing 

However, note that there are other foundational steps one can take while starting up like coming up with a solution for a mass problem and building a team. These three are the most basic of starting any business and thus, we will be taking a look at them individually. 

Let’s begin…

Building a business model

Simply put, a business model is a plan for the successful operation of a business. It is made by identifying the sources of revenue, the ideal customer base, products, and financing details. 

According to Peter Drucker, “a business model is supposed to answer who your customer is, what value you can create/add for the customer, and how you can do that at reasonable costs.”

If we take the example of Facebook than they have an advertisement-based business model. Meaning that they let people use their product for free but profit by advertisers wanting to promote their business on Facebook. 

There are various types of business models but here are some for your better understanding:

• Manufacturer – example, Ford
• Retailer – example, Amazon, Flipkart
• Franchise – example, subway sandwiches 
• Brick and mortar – example, local shops 
• Freemium – example, Spotify, tinder, YouTube. The company offers a basic plan which is for free and costs an amount or a membership fee for extra features.  
• Subscription – example, Netflix. Unlike the freemium model, the subscription model does not have a free plan. 
• Aggregator – example, OYO, Uber, Ola.

Your business can have more than one business model but it is essential for you to know which one will suit your company better. Moreover, pick those which will favor you as well as your company’s vision, the most. 

You can use these tips to build your business model:

• Keep your customers in mind

While building your business model, we suggest creating a solid customer persona first. Ask yourself who your ideal customer is, what do they look like as well as what do they do and are interested in. Creating a customer persona and keeping it in mind will let you understand what type of business model will best suit you to make a profit from your business. 

• Don’t over or undersell yourself

You will need to keep the pricing of your product in mind. You cannot keep your product too costly. Neither should you keep them so low that it becomes insignificant. We suggest taking a look at your competitors and set your own pricing accordingly. 

• Develop a strong value proposition

There’s a ton of competition in every single industry and niche today. As a result, the customers have a ton of options before buying anything. If you wish to make your company be seen in the crowd, you will need to add a solid value proposition for your product or service. You will need to give your customers a reason to buy from you rather than an already established brand. This is where adding better value to your offer can come into play. Adding a USP (Unique Selling Proposition) is an amazing way to stand out from the crowd. Not to mention, its a great marketing strategy as well. 

• Establish a business process 

Every business is unique in its own sense and thus, has its own process. You need to establish your own business process and have an understanding of the various activities that are required to run your business.  You can establish the key business process by first identifying the core of your business.  For example, if you are thinking about starting a marketing agency, then your key business process would be to market other businesses. Similarly, if you are a shipping company, your core process would be to take care of parcels and shipping of orders.

• Understand key resources

Every company needs a set of things to carry out their daily processes, find new customers, as well as to meet the goals. For example, a website, warehouse, marketing budget, etc. You will need to understand what your company will require to function properly. Document all the essential resources required to sustain your business needs.

Finances 

Let’s say that your business is booming, you have a product that the market loves and you are seeing a good number of sales. However, without a good financial system, your business is bound to fail. 

Reports suggest that 95% of businesses that have failed in the first five years did so due to poor financial management. Even some of the big companies like Blockbuster and Kmart failed due to poor finances. 

You can choose to set up a finance department for your company with the current resources you have or get professional help. 

Here are a few tips to help you create a good financial plan:

• Keep track of all the invoices
• Keep track of the inventory
• Take your day-to-day expenses into account
• Plan for contingencies 
• Create a budget for everything 

If you are serious about the long life of your startup, we suggest giving the finances of your company, its deserved importance. 

Marketing plan

Imagine opening a shop that sells all the required items but nobody ever walks into it. The reason for that would be poor or no marketing at all. 

Marketing your business or product or service is the only way for people to know about the new guy in town i.e., you. 

Market research, identifying a customer base, product development, and brand positioning are all functions of marketing. Thus, they should all be done way before a product is ready to launch.

Keeping marketing in mind in the early stages of your business has its own perks. Perks like understanding your target audience and getting insights for developing your product sure come in handy. 

Many companies come up with great ideas as well as products. However, very few execute on the marketing side of things properly. This results in the market never knowing about the product and thus, the company ends up being shut down sooner or later. 

Don’t do the same mistakes as others. Use this lockdown to build a marketing plan or strategy for your future success.

Hubspot has an amazing article that will help you create a marketing plan for your company – check it out.

Can, building a business be taught? 

There’s no doubt that everyone must have, at least once, had the thought that people like Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk had a flair for building a business or becoming an entrepreneur inherited within them. 

That they had a natural talent for building a business. 

The above thought has made many delay in launching their own startup for years. In many cases, it has even made them never take the leap and starting their own company. 

We agree that some have a natural talent as well as enthusiasm for certain things.  However, this does not mean that if you weren’t born with those genes, you can’t learn a certain skill. 

Entrepreneurship, as well as the art of business, at the end of the day, are indeed skills. And just like all the other skills, they too can be taught and learned. 

So if you are having confusion or doubts before launching your startup, know that this is very normal. Understand that you will feel confused about many things. But until and unless you take the leap and become serious about learning the various skills. 

Pavan Bheesetty, a mentee of MyCaptain, too was a confused engineer before he had the chance to meet Captain Zeeshan, CEO & Co-Founder of MyCaptain. Zeeshan became Pavan’s mentor and helped him turn his idea of VR Cinepolis into reality. 

Pavan went from being a confused engineer to pitching his idea in front of NSRCEL IIM-Bangalore. 

Pavan is a living example that entrepreneurship and building businesses can indeed be taught. 

So if you are feeling a bit nervous or confused, we suggest you become serious about learning how to run a business before actually running a business. 

What’s smarter – learning by making mistakes or by observing the mistakes of those who came before you? 

The majority of the well-known, big, as well as established brands, spend a large amount of money on online advertising. 

Anyone who hears this would surely be wondering why such a big company wants to spend a lot of their profit money on ads. 

It is very interesting to hear the reasons for doing so.

They are the same as for those businesses who are small or who are just getting started. Or we might call it the startup strategy. 

In this article, we will take a look at the top reasons why you should be running online ads for your business. 

If you need help with understanding the art of online marketing, MyCaptain’s LIVE digital marketing workshop should be able to clear your doubts!

1. LEADS AND SALES

While maintaining a traditional ‘brick and mortar storefront’, businesses now also allow their customers to purchase their products online. 

As a result, this helps them make a sale around the clock, giving the customers to buy from within the comfort of their homes. 

Once the online stores are created, among other things, online advertising is used to direct visitors to their websites. Online advertising is a great way to get leads as well as boost sales 

Moreover, it will also contribute towards improvement in brand recognition. 

Lastly, serving ads online is a great way to grow internationally as the internet is, well, everywhere. This will also help you take your business to international grounds.

2. MOBILE MOVEMENT

Have a glance at your hands – you are probably holding a phone right now. 

Moreover, if you look around you, you will notice the astounding amount of people using a smartphone or other type of mobile device.

There has been a rapid increase in the number of people using mobile devices. Moreover, there has also been an increase in how many of those buy something online via their smartphones.

If you are not marketing your products to those people, you will surely miss out on a lot of sales.

Would you even take time to look at a pamphlet while scrolling through your feed?

A simple thing to realize is that the world is becoming digital and online advertising is the way to go. 

Business owners who say “they do not need to be online to succeed” are likely to see their competitors steal their business. 

Technology is the king nowadays, and if it appears that you are outside this frame, your business is likely to be viewed as archaic. 

As a result, start-ups get a chance to grow rapidly and take a slice of the market. Furthermore, most start-ups also realize how important running online ads really are. This gives them an upper hand over the traditional businesses that don’t run ads over the internet.

3. STAND OUT IN A CROWD

The popularity of online shopping means to us that there are now a lot bigger competitions out there in every single niche. 

Not only is online advertising fun and exciting, but also a creative way to engage with your audience. For instance, so many new start-ups end up having a great social media following during their initial year.

Making your advertisement more and more creative and the presence of catchy phrases is a simple step to advance your business.

For example, even if you own a business that is successful and well established, you still have a responsibility to let your customers know what you are working on. 

This is especially true if you are about to launch a new product or service. You could either create a massive hype within the market or wait till people find out about your product.

The modern customer lives for the “hype” of the product. 

They want to know about a product before anybody else and want to be the first to have it. 

With digital advertising, you can take advantage of that part of human behavior and make a name for yourself despite the heavy competition. 

4. TRACK YOUR SUCCESS ANYTIME ANYWHERE

This is probably the biggest reason why digital marketing is such a huge field right now. It is also one of the two biggest reasons why digital ads are preferred over traditional ones by modern marketers.

As you might know that marketing doesn’t really have a lot of room for guesswork. Every campaign is designed after analyzing data.

And when it comes to measuring data as well as your advertising success, digital marketing wins it all!

With all the campaigns running online, you get to keep track of the various digital marketing metrics. With these metrics, you can get an accurate measure of ROI and other forms of data. 

As a result, online advertising helps you define the areas of improvement and work to make things better for your future marketing efforts. 

Through the use of the analytics tool, marketers can check for different ad contents and manage how audiences react to each campaign. 

Moreover, you can check, 

• the number of visitors on your website
• the number of page views
• the average time spent on your website by each user
• bounce rates 
• conversions 
• analyze your growth over time. 

You can get the best results by simply analyzing and optimizing your marketing strategy according to the above aspects.

5. Targeting and re-targeting

Remembered when we said that the above was one of the two main reasons why digital ads are doing so well? 

Well, this is the second reason. 

With easy to measure and track data, digital marketing provides you with new ways to target your audience and gives your company great exposure to the business around the globe and build your brand recognition. 

Running online ads allow you to precisely target a set audience that will be most interested in your product or service. With just a few clicks, you can choose to target those whose interest, age, gender, education, profession, etc., match your ideal customer. 

Moreover, with various digital marketing strategies, you can easily retarget your audience.

For example, through blogs, you can reach out to those potential customers who like to read a lot. Similarly, with social media ads, you can reach out to those potential customers who like to scroll on Instagram a lot. 

But don’t worry, planning your digital marketing strategy is not that complicated. You just need to define your goals, tactics, and your target audience.

Most successful businesses not only have well-defined strategies but are also continuously spending on these strategies. 

E-Marketer forecasts that by 2020 the digital ad spending will reach 23 billion dollars. If you do not work on building digital marketing strategies, you are at the risk of being left out.

As consumers, these days we are looking for more digital content and wish to make each of our purchases unique. Search engines like GOOGLE, YAHOO, and BING are the most popular channel for search. 

So, it is also important that you make your company rate high in searches. Your content needs to be equipped with catchy phrases as well as attractive designs.

So, what makes digital marketing an important factor for startups?

Digital marketing can often be done at a lesser expenditure than traditional marketing. Print and television advertisements can cost thousands or even lakhs of rupees.

One the other, an online advertisement may only cost a few hundred dollars. 

Also, a blog can reach hundreds of thousands of readers. Digital marketing allows startups to reach new clients and develop relationships at a very fast rate.

SOME STRATEGICAL MOVES!

1. SEO

SEO is arguably one of the most important aspects of digital marketing.

While it’s true that Google’s algorithms can still become confusing, you cans still better grasp how it works when you work more with its concepts.

But don’t worry, you don’t need to learn a bunch of technical skills, at least not right away. In just about a week, you can learn a lot of SEO basics. And trust us when we say that even knowing just the basics of SEO will help you immensely. 

For example, recently, Google has suggested everyone switch to HTTPS pages rather than HTTP pages.

The reasoning behind this is many contact forms using HTTP pages aren’t deemed secure enough.

So learn the basics of SEO and see how it helps your business. 

2. Search Engine Marketing

Usually abbreviated as SEM, Search Engine Marketing is a type of internet marketing used to increase SERPs via paid advertising methods.

You’ll want an expert to help you in this field as well, especially one who’s worked with Google Ads and search/display ads. 

In the case of Google Ads, you’ll want to educate yourself first on how the process works.

What you’ll appreciate the most is Google makes its Google Ads easy to use through their attention to customization. 

They let you choose whether you want graphic display ads, YouTube video ads, text-based search ads, or in-app mobile ads. All of these are going to depend on your business style and the targeted customers you need to reach.

Google makes it easy to track your ad performance with localized ad capabilities as well as superior metrics.

However, don’t forget about other paid ad opportunities, especially Facebook Ads. The latter gives you ample opportunity to customize multiple ad formats.

3. Local Search Marketing

You’re seeing a lot more attention to local search marketing in the last few years. It’ll continue being important far into the coming decade as local businesses realize the value of being found by local consumers.

Tools provided by Google are again the best way to get started with local search marketing.

For instance, using Google My Business, you can have your listing showed in front of someone searching for a particular keyword. Moreover, this includes your business appearing even on Google Maps.

Nothing can become out of date since Google has made it easy to update listings as well.

However, You cannot ignore the importance of online reviews and social reputation.

Who wouldn’t want their customers to write positive reviews without any push?

You can reap the benefits of inbound marketing by simply starting a conversation on social media. Inbound techniques help customers come to you over you seeking them

4. Content Marketing

Another major way to attract an audience is content marketing. The most essential step in content marketing is making your content valuable. Before putting out any content, ask yourself: Is my content worth spending time on?

This will help you make the most value-driven content for your specific audience. 

In today’s time, you need to focus on creating content that can solve pain points and stay evergreen. Thanks to Google’s advanced algorithms, moving to the top of the search engine using tactics like black hat SEO won’t work.

So always keep in mind that “content is king”, as many like to put it. 

A bit of good advice would be to focus on mobile content, influencer marketing, native advertising, and marketing automation.

Smartphones are already making up for 50% of all global devices. It wouldn’t be logical for anyone to not think about mobile content. Write and design content keeping the mobile audience in mind.

Think about how often do you use your laptop to visit a website you found on social media

5. Remarketing

If prospects do not respond to your ad banner the first time, you can always retarget them. You can use cookies to track visitors and create new ads on relevant sites using the information. This whole process is known as remarketing which is another huge aspect of digital marketing.

Creating new ads on your site can also help you better target your prospects. Moreover, tweak your ads to target pain points using the information gained when visitors visit your website.

Ultimately, remarketing helps you stay more engaged with prospects, aids in brand awareness, and increases conversions.  

6. Responsive Web Design

While this isn’t exactly a strategy to market your business, having responsive web design is always a good practice. Since reaching customers by mobile is more or less the standard now. 

And that’s going to go on into the coming decade. 

Having a responsive web design that adapts to the needs of a mobile user is very important. As mentioned earlier, most people are now on mobile devices. 

So would anyone buy from you if your website doesn’t work on their favorite device?

With responsive programming, you can make your website automatically conform to all mobile screens – from tablets to smartwatches. 

While you’ll have to work with a web designer to make this work, you’ll also want an SEO expert.

AMP (or Accelerated Mobile Pages) is an open-source code help web pages load faster on mobile devices.

Google gives precedence to websites with faster load-time, so take it seriously. If you publish or post content on your website on a regular basis, having faster load time is essential for you.

Moreover, if you have a blog, having AMP is a must

7. Email Marketing

You might have taken a jab at email marketing already or have always wondered about how effective it really is. 

The fact is that email marketing is still the greatest tool to generate leads. For the most part, businesses generate more leads through emails over any other marketing method. It can also increase their sales and overall, their conversion rates.

The best part about email marketing is that it is much cheaper than any other method. In some cases, it’s even free.

Moreover, you can also combine it with other media. For instance, you can add social share icons as well as referral reward systems. 

As a result, email marketing is also one of the most integrated marketing methods.

Email marketing ultimately helps you shorten your sales cycles when using compelling content.

However, to craft compelling emails, you must learn the art of content writing as well as copywriting. 

8. Social Media Marketing

We have no doubt that you’ve posted content on social media already. Yet, what can you do to make it more effective this year and the next?

A simple trick is to post your content when you know your audience is reading. 

Moreover, using tools like Hootsuite for post scheduling helps immensely when reaching users in other time zones. 

You’ll also want to curate some content if possible to prove your clout. 

Don’t be too proud to do this since it adds luster to your expertise and brand. When you curate content from others, they’ll likely reciprocate. Plus, don’t forget about hiring influencers to post content for you on popular social media channels.

If you happen to be up-to-date with the latest marketing trends and tools, chances are that you’ve heard about digital marketing. 

Not only have you constantly come across the term but also seen how Facebook and Google ads are taking over traditional advertising. You’ve noticed how billboards are going out of trend and YouTube ads are the norm. 

Well, all of this falls under the large umbrella of Digital Marketing.

We will take a look at what digital marketing is and the various tactics one can use to fully utilize the digital era. 

What is digital marketing?

Digital marketing is the method to reach your product to the consumers via digital tools like, 

• Internet
• Mobile devices 
• Social media
• Search engines 
• And other channels. 

Digital marketing is also considered as the latest and quickly accessible mode of advertising. 

It rescues the companies from the burdens of running behind the advertising firms, spending a lot on them. Why waste your time and money while you have the easiest mode right at your hands!

Furthermore, digital marketing also helps in understanding the pulse of the costumers and developing your brand within the frame of the consumers’ thoughts. 

In other words, it is a broad field to attract costumers via search platforms, content marketing, social media, and all types of possible ways.

So why is digital marketing becoming the new trend amongst marketers?

Let’s say, for instance, your company put out a billboard in a populated area of your city. How many people do you think bought from you after seeing it? 

The answer is: you wouldn’t know. Because there’s no way to measure how many people saw it, opened their phones and bought your product, or even what type of people were interested in it. 

After all the money and efforts, your datasheet will still be empty. 

This is exactly the reason why marketers are turning towards the means of digital marketing. They not only help you measure the metrics but also help you precisely target the audience that will be most interested in your product or service. 

This saves a lot of time, effort as well as money and well frankly, who doesn’t like smart work…

Tactics used in digital marketing

As we have gone through the term digital marketing, let us take a quick journey through some digital tactics used by the companies for bagging their customers:

1. Search engine optimization (SEO)
2. Content Marketing
3. Social media marketing
4. Pay Per Click (PPC)
5. Affiliate Marketing
6. Native advertising
7. Native Advertising
8. Marketing automation
9. Email marketing
10. Online PR

Search engine optimization (SEO)

The main channels that get the benefit of SEO are Blogs, websites, and infographics. 

What ‘Search Engine Optimization’/ SEO is all about?

SEO is the process of making your website eligible to rank higher in search results. As a result, it increases the amount of traffic your website receives. 

The recipe includes the following as the ingredients or in simple words, the types of approaches towards SEO to get qualified traffic to a website are,

• On-page SEO – In the SEOs of this genre, we focus on the content that is “on the page”. By their search volume and meanings. In this way we can answer the queries of readers, helping us to earn our (SERP), making our website rank higher.
• Off-page SEO – focus on the things happening “off the page” or outside your website that helps in improving your ranking. 

What are the activities happening outside our website that can affect my ranking?

They are the inbound links or the backlinks. The number of publishers that link us and the relative “authority” affects our ranking of keywords and how much we care about them.

• Technical SEO; focus on the coding of our website. Image compression, CSS file optimization, structuring of our website, etc. are the factors that increase the loading speed of your website. These are the components that affect the ranking of our website in the views of major search engines like Google.

CONTENT MARKETING

It is our creation and promotion of content for creating brand awareness, traffic growth, lead generation, and costumers.

What are the factors that play a vital role in our marketing strategies?

• Blog Posts – writing and publishing work in a branded company, blogs make us depict as expert hands and create an organic flow of traffic to our website. Moreover, they help us improve our business, by generating leads and better traffic to the website.    
• E-books and white papers – generating ebooks and white papers help your website create long forms of communication with the visitor.
• Infographics are our contents that aim to visualize the contents rather than making the viewers read the whole thing. 

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Social media marketing refers to marketing and advertising using various social media platforms.

Some of the commonly used platforms include;

• Facebook, Instagram
• Twitter
• Snap chat
• Pinterest
• YouTube

What if you are new to the social media platform?

Don’t worry, tools like “HubSpot” can be used to connect multiple channels in one place. This will help you schedule as well as monitor your content for multiple channels much easier.

PAY PER CLICK (PPC)

PPC involves you paying a publisher every time somebody clicks on your ad. You don’t pay a lot per click, however, PPC is a great method to drive traffic to your website.

Google Ads is the most common example of PPC. You can get your ad on top o a search result page.

Ever searched for something and found a couple of links having “Ad” written on the top left?

That is an example of PPC

Other channels where you can use PPC include:

• Paid ads on Facebook 
• Twitter Ads campaigns
• Sponsored Messages on LinkedIn 

AFFILIATE MARKETING

It is a performance-based advertising method, where one gets a commission for the promotion of other’s products or services on their website. 

So, what are the types of marketing channels?

• Hosting video ads through the YouTube Partner Program
• Posting affiliate links from our social media accounts

Affiliate marketing is a cheeky way for both businesses and individuals to conduct business together. The online presence of an individual helps them sell the product for which they are rewarded in cash. 

NATIVE ADVERTISING

‘Native advertising’ points to the advertisements that are primarily content-lead, and are featured on a platform along with other non-paid content.

Buzzfeed sponsored posts are a good example of native advertising. Social media advertising is also considered to be “native” by the new generation. 

Facebook advertisements as well as Instagram advertising are examples of native advertising via social media, which is the best way to advertise in the present scenario.

MARKETING AUTOMATION

The term refers to the software, which automates our basic marketing operations. It helps us to do many marketing departments but automated.

What are such automated departments?

• Email newsletters allow us to automatically send emails to our subscribers. Moreover, it can make sure that your newsletters are going only to the people who are willing to see it.
• Social media post scheduling helps to grow your company’s presence on a social network. For this, you will need to post frequently. Social media scheduling tools push your content to your social media channels so that you can spend more time focusing on our strategy of the content.
• Lead-nurturing workflows Generation of leads, and converting those leads into customers, can be a long process. 

However, we can automate this process by sending leads specific emails, and contents after they fit certain criteria. For example when they download and open an e-book.

• Campaign tracking and reporting – Marketing campaigns can include different types of people, emails, contents, webpages, phone calls, etc.

Marketing automation will help us sort everything we work on, by the campaign it is serving, and track the performance of that campaign. 

E-MAIL MARKETING

Email marketing is one of the biggest ways used by companies as a way of communicating with their readers.

Email is also used to promote the content, discounts as well as events. Moreover, it used to direct people towards the website of the business.

What are the types of emails that you will use for marketing?

• Blog subscription newsletters.
• Follow-up emails to website visitors who have downloaded something.
• Welcoming emails to the costumers.
• Holiday promotions to program members.
• Tips or similar types of emails for customer handling.

ONLINE PR

Online PR is known as the practice of securing earned online coverage with digital publications, blogs, and other content-based websites.

Simply put, think of online PR as earning a reputation amongst the digital media

Here are the channels that can be used to maximize your PR efforts:

• Reporter outreach via social media

Talking to journalists on Twitter or any social networking site is a great way to earn media opportunities for your company.

If a well-known blog or author writes about all the good that your company has been doing, people are bound to notice you, in addition, to even buy from you. 

• Engaging online reviews of your company 

Engaging company reviews help you humanize your brand in addition to protecting your reputation.

Replying to the comments as well as reviews is a great way to build trust amongst your customers. Moreover, it shows that your company is active and listening to its customers. 

Cha-Ching! That is the only sound that comes to our mind when we hear the word stock market and for good reasons. 

There’s a lot and we mean a lot of money-making potential in the stock market. 

The equity market has opened the doors to many opportunities for Sensex and nifty enthusiasts in India. All of these opportunities are highly lucrative and perhaps is the reason behind attracting so many people including you. 

So what are stocks?

Well, stocks directly represent a particular share in the ownership of the company. Simply put, when someone buys or invests in a company’s stock, he/she becomes a partial owner of the company. 

When you first set your foot in the financial world, it is easy to get overwhelmed and confused by the pool of information present on the internet. 

Moreover, that friend of yours who invests in stocks is also not able to clearly explain to you how you can enter this lucrative world. 

Worry not, this article will help you understand the various types of careers you can have in the financial world. Hopefully, it will help you understand how to make a better career choice in the financial world.  

Let’s begin…

Stock trader

When put into simple words, stock traders are financial investors. There are mainly two types of traders: Individual and professional. 

Individual traders trade for themselves and are also called retail traders. Professional traders are those who buy and sell (basically trade) stocks on behalf of a firm or a financial company. 

The primary job of a trader is to buy shares when they are at a reasonable price and sell them when it is profitable. They do this either by working with a stockbroker or a brokerage firm. 

Stock trading is more of a business opportunity than an employment opportunity. As a result, it doesn’t require you to have a certain degree or experience. However, you will require deep knowledge of the stock market as well as the passion for it to become successful. 

Sub-broker

A sub-broker can be called as the right-hand of a stockbroker. They are appointed by a stockbroker and act on behalf of them as an agent to assist investors in trading. However, they are not a member of the stock exchange. 

They earn the commission between a real stockbroker and a trading member. 

Sub-brokers are required to be registered with SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) and the stockbroker is responsible for all acts of commission. They also need to clear 10+2 to be eligible for the job

Stockbroker

If you wish to trade or invest in the stock market, then you will need to open a trading and Demat account. These accounts are offered by stockbrokers. Moreover, stockbrokers also have a good understanding of the market. 

They advise the clients before making a trade or investment and in exchange for making a trade, stockbrokers get a commission. Additionally, trading cannot be executed directly by an investor or a trader. 

It has to be done through stockbrokers as they are the members of the stock exchange. 

You don’t need a specific educational background to become a stockbroker in India. There are many engineers that got fascinated by the financial world and switched their career to become a broker. 

However, you do need to clear the NISM exam and get registered with SEBI. Additionally, you will need to get graduated in any stream and gain a minimum of 2 years of experience in a brokerage firm. You also need to be at least 21 years of age. 

Investment Banker

If you have watched the TV series Suits then you probably know the basics of this one. But if you haven’t, here it is

Investments bankers are financial professionals that help businesses and corporations raise money in the capital market. They do so by finding investors, issuing debt, or selling equities in the company. 

Investment bankers need to have deep knowledge of the stock market to be able to estimate the value of a company. 

You will need to have a bachelor’s degree in order to get an entry-level job as an analyst. There are many investment banks that allow you to climb to the position of an investment banker without an MBA but most don’t. 

So we suggest gaining an MBA (Masters in Business Administration) if you wish to become an investment banker.  

Accountant/ Auditor

Accountants are those who handle all the paperwork with occasional financial advice. They prepare financial statements and reports as well as ensure that the taxes are filed properly. 

Accountants play an important role in keeping the registers up-to-date in the ever-changing world of finance. 

To become an accountant, firstly you will require a minimum of a bachelor’s degree in the commerce field. Without it, nobody will be willing to hire you. Secondly, in order to advance in your career, you will need to clear a series of exams and become a CPA (Certified Public Accountant)

Financial or Investment Advisor

As the name suggests, financial advisors are professionals in the stock market that advises investors to make the best possible investment. 

Investment advisors work in consultancy firms and then move to open their own consultation house. If you wish to provide financial advice to many and make big bucks while doing so, becoming an investment advisor might be the right choice for you. 

To become a registered investment advisor you either need educational qualifications set by SEBI in finance or commerce or you will need at least five years of work experience at a financial institution. 

We suggest getting both work experience as well as a post-graduate degree in finance to become successful in this field. 

Financial Manager

Financial managers are responsible for maintaining the good financial health of the company. Their job includes looking after employees, taking care of financial documents such as budget reports, and giving suggestions regarding investments. 

They need to stay up-to-trend with the market and need to know the current value of the company’s shares. 

Becoming a financial manager has the same requirements as becoming a financial or investment advisor. Some companies even hire one person to perform the job roles of both a manager and an advisor. 

Apart from the career choices mentioned above, there are many kinds of research analysts present in the stock market. Their primary job role is to analyze stocks and give investment advice based on research and analytical data.  

Major employment opportunities arise in the following: 

• Brokerage Firm 
• Mutual Funds
• Financial Institution
• Investment Banking
• NSE/ BSE/ CDSL/ NSDL/ SEBI

Look for job opportunities in these and remember that its a very practical industry. If you get a part-time entry-level position while you are in college, take it and give your CV some weight by adding work experience.