How To Use Your Competitors To Fuel Your Success

 How Your Competition Can Lead To Your Success Online

It is easy to feel like an underdog when starting your business. You are the new kid on the block, the new product on the virtual shelf. You have no experience, no legitimacy. No matter what field, there are thousands of companies catering to that industry. There is also going to be, a big shiny competitor that seems to have it all together. Don't be intimidated! I'll show you how to use your competition as fuel for your company's success. 

Average Market Price

When deciding to launch a product it is important to understand the average market price for your product. You should know the average market price even before beginning production or shopping for raw materials. When you decide to venture into production, branding, and shipping, your product price should be way below the average market price in order to make a profit.

 If your market price is projected to be above the current market price, you must justify it to the consumer by increasing the quality of materials used or making it desirable by offering it to exclusive high-end customers. You can also go above the average market price by making the product customizable to each customer or to a customer base that will be willing to pay more for this product. This is how you use your competitors to determine the market price that will do well in the market.

Find A Target Market

You could look at your competition to determine the target market that is currently being served and the niche groups that are underserved in any industry. You never want to serve the same target audience as your competition. Your company will thrive when you find an underserved group within a community and cater specifically to them.

A good example of this is the sock industry, we all wore socks that were generic, basic, and cheap. Until the evolution into customizable socks. People now can wear socks with their names, their pets, and choose the colors they want. This is a more specific niche of consumers that are happy to pay more for socks with the face of their puppy.

Consumer Needs

In my country, we have a huge bank with ATMs nationwide and branches on every corner of every street. It's easy to open an account with them because they are everywhere, however, once you have an account, you get to know how unprofessional their staff is, and how difficult it is to get any issue resolved because of backlog.

If you observe this in any industry, you have very valuable insight that can propel your brand new company to success. Observe large, medium, and small businesses in your industry and look to find where consumer needs are begging to be met. Provide a solution to customer needs and you are as good as gold.

These are simple ways in which you can use your competition to fuel your success. Which one of these do you plan on using to propel your new company to success? Comment below and share with our community of African freelancers and founders.

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Creating Content That Converts

 5 Tips For Creating Content That Converts

With an increasing number of platforms where creators can publish their content in the form of videos, photos, or the written word. It is amazing how difficult it can be to create content that converts. It may be free to publish your content but it isn't always easy to show up at the forefront of your target audience. 

The quality of your content may not be as effective if it is not relevant to your audience. I will give you tips for creating content that converts

User Intent

Every online query leads to an online search. It is important you know how the user intends on using the content. Is it for their own knowledge or research for more professional use? Such as work reports or course assignments? Are they using the content to pass time or to get entertained? Knowing the user intent can help you create content that converts more users.

Keyword List

A keyword is a word that acts as the key to a cipher. It is a word of great significance to its user pertaining to their search for answers. These are the words that people think about and in turn type into search engines to find what they are looking for. 

Your content serves a target market that has the same need and seeks answers for it. Know the words most relevant to your target audience and use them to create content that converts more followers.

Solve A Problem

Know what your audience is trying to solve and solve their problem for them. What condition is your user in, and how urgently are they trying to solve it? Know how urgently the issue needs to be solved and deliver a solution that solves the issue in the relevant and appropriate time frame.

Read The Tone Of The Room

A target audience could determine the tone that you take when trying to address them. You cannot address an Afrobeats audience with Rhumba terminology. You cannot address Bankers like they are Doctors. Each of these fields has jargon or special words of expression that are common in communication. Also knowing if it is necessary to be more casual versus more intellectual or professional could be the difference needed in creating content that converts people that come across your content.

Be The Voice Of Authority

Often times if you focus on producing relevant, consistent content for your community, you can begin to be seen as a voice of authority on the topic. When users return to your platform whenever they seek a solution that is common in your target audience, they will automatically start seeing you as an authority voice that they refer others to.

With great power comes great responsibility, at this level, you will also need to ensure that your voice represents the majority of your target group by being accurate and well researched with examples and scenarios.

This is how to create content that converts. What content do you currently create? Share your link below and share your target audience with our community of African freelancers.

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My Experience on Afrisight

Take part in paid surveys. Earn cash on mobile wallets and PayPal. Step-by-step instructions. Registration process. Follow-up emails. New videos every week with tips on online work, remote work, and freelance work anywhere in Africa. Check out Afrisight website

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Free Ways To Get Traffic For Your Content in 2022

5 Ways To Get Free Traffic To Your Website 

Social media

Social media apps are interactive digital channels that create and share information often among friend groups and families. There are also groups that are built around hobbies, interests, and values. Most people will log into their social media accounts every day looking for information, products, and services. By manually searching these queries you can direct users to your website, blog, or videos and generate free traffic.

Reddit

Reddit is a network of communities where individuals can delve into their interests, hobbies, and passions. There is a community for every niche, topic, or fandom. By knowing your target audience you can use their interest and hobbies and connect with them and redirect them to your website. You can also join these communities in order to understand the content that is valuable and relevant to a target group in order to create more relevant content and generate organic free traffic.

Quora

Quora is a question and answer website where people go to find information. Since it's an organic website where the users ask and answer each other's questions, you could insert yourself in this equation and use it to redirect users to your website, blog, or Youtube video to get the answers they seek. By actively answering user questions and good questions that generate responses, you can direct these communities to your website as free traffic.

Simple Traffic

This is a website that promises to send real visitors to your website or affiliate link. They offer a 5-day free trial and then after that offer payment plans from $15 to $400 depending on how many visitors you want. You can use this to lead traffic to your Youtube Videos, referral links, website, or blog. Simple traffic has an excessive amount of traffic that comes to their website that they categorize. If a visitor matches your targeting they will direct them to your site. You can start out with Simple traffic's free trial to see if they deliver before deciding to get the paid subscription.

Sigma Traffic

This is an affiliate service that resells traffic from vendors both paid and free accounts with website traffic. Every user can count on a free account for an unrestricted period. If more traffic is needed then users pay for it. This is how they can offer free traffic. Sigma traffic offers 6000 page views per month and other services with their plans.

These are easy free ways to direct traffic to your website. Which ones do you plan to use? Comment in the section below with our community of African freelancers.

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Creating A Brand Identity

 How To Create A Brand Identity From Start To Finish

Brand identity is the visible element of a brand. These aspects include color, design, and logo that identify and distinguish the brand in the eyes of the consumer.

Brand Strategy And Creative Direction

This is how a brand intends on building rapport and favorability in the market. There are four brand strategies;

• Line extension. Creating additional products in response to consumer needs.
• Brand Extension. Introduction of a new brand in a market, after consolidating in a related field.
• New brand strategy. When a firm creates a new brand to go with a new product.
• Fight brand strategy. This is the placement of a new brand or sub-brand in a higher or lower price point to capture a new market segment.

Logo Exploration And Design

A good logo should instantly be recognizable to the consumer, by being simple, unique, appropriate, and memorable. It should convey clearly a company's goal and why the brand exists. A good logo should also be able to exist in different sizes and be applied to different products, packaging, and signage.

Brand Elements And Assets

Brand assets are elements such as color scheme, specific font, or ad jingle that help to identify a certain brand. These only become assets once customers associate them with a brand. These brand elements serve a specific purpose to a brand;

• Unique to the brand
• Purpose-driven for the brand.
• Knows its target market
• Stays on-brand at all times
• Authentic to the brand
• Thick-skinned as a way to protect the brand

Brand Inaction

Brands must decide even before any incidents, where they will take action or where they will choose inaction. A brand should not respond to every opposition, query, or instance that occurs. For example, a bank robber may choose to wear a Nike jersey while robbing a bank and get caught. The press will blast images of a bank robber wearing a Nike logo jersey. This kind of instance requires brand inaction, by not responding to such incidences. Based on the product or service offered a brand can expect its name and image to get caught up in a way that disparages the brand name and brand inaction will be the most logical way to respond.

Presenting The Branding

Time requires that brands present themselves to the consumer in a way that is appropriate for societal norms that come with the changing of eras. A brand must be adaptable in order to survive the test of time. This could include changing the shade identified as their brand color from lighter to darker blue. Changing fonts to appear more modern yet true to its identity. Constantly tweaking aspects of the brand identity in order to remain relevant to the times.

This is how to create a brand identity from start to finish. Have you worked on a brand identity before? Was it for your company or a client? Comment in the section below and share with our community of African freelancers.

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Side Hustles You Can Start On Your Phone

Free Money Making Apps To Make Money Online

Sagapoll

This phone app sends you daily polls in exchange for points. You can make about $20 for each billing cycle on this platform. They work specifically with Africans on their platform and they want your opinion on brands and companies. The surveys are short, usually, about 5 minutes, and they are sent to your phone each day. You can use this app on your commute or during a break because these surveys are quick and easy. 

To access the sagapoll app, look for it on your play store, download, and use my code QY34T to get you started with 5 extra points. The rest is easy, answer your daily polls and gather points that are convertible to cash or airtime vouchers.

Jumia

This is an e-commerce website that allows users to list their goods on the platform. It is available in many African countries but allows you to only sell in your country of residence. You can list your products on  Jumia for free and will only pay fees and shipping charges once you make a sale. These fees are deducted from your sales revenue. E-commerce is a great way to start a company online.

Redbubble

This platform allows you to create print-on-demand products for sale. With catchy designs, you can sell t-shirts, pillows, beach towels, stickers and so much more that will be produced by redbubble and shipped out to your customers.

Userbrain

This is a user-testing tool that allows companies to set up tests of different aspects of their website and watch a video of real-time experience from a customer's perspective. It is a very useful aspect that web developers use to improve the usability and ease of navigation on a website or app. Userbrain has two categories of tests for Phones and computers. Their phone tests are usually for iPhones but there are sporadic android tests on this platform. Each test pays $5 and you are required to take the test using your device screen share and headphones. You will also need to be in a quiet well-lit room to take these tests.

Youtube

Youtube income for content creators is one of the highest paying online jobs. With channels consistently making $70,000 to $300,000 you can create content and get your channel monetized with 1000 subscribers and 4000 hours of watch time. You can upload videos directly to Youtube and do interesting live videos directly from your phone. If the content is interesting enough and you use the right tactics to reach your target audience you can make a good income on this platform.

Which apps do you use to make money from your phone? Comment below and share with our community of African freelancers.

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Digital Marketing Gigs For Freelancers

 5 Ways African Freelancer Can Monetize on Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is basically internet marketing. It is the use of online-based approaches to promote goods and services to customers. These promotional approaches are usually directed to;

• Search engines
• Social media platforms
• Email blasts
• Websites
• Videos

There is a huge opportunity for African freelancers to help brands and companies use these mediums to market their goods and services. Here are ways you can make money in digital marketing.

Creating Social Media Posts

You can create social media post gigs for clients who want to strategize their social media timeline. Infographics, memes, video clips, and sales promotions are a common way to make money online by creating social media posts customized for each brand. You can break it down for 10 days, 30 days, or even longer. Create engaging, relevant social media posts as a gig, and many brands and online companies will pay you for it.

Online Ad Strategist

You can create google ads, ads on search engines, and ads on social media for clients. The world of online ads is a confusing, time-consuming yet completely essential part of operating an online business. You can improve your skills in social media management by using google. Google digital garage is an online course by google that trains in digital marketing. You can receive certification for Digital Marketing completely free. This will give you the skills you need to deliver great online Ads strategies. There are also useful sites such as Ad Box, that will show you high-performing ad examples that you can use as templates to find success in your online ads.

Refining Target Market

Sometimes brands start out with a vague idea of what their target market looks like. A target market is a particular group of consumers at which a product or service is aimed. These people exhibit similar characteristics, have the same values, and share certain demographics. A good example of this is Tea drinkers versus coffee drinkers. These are completely different target groups, and even among the coffee drinkers, there are those that drink instant coffee versus those that buy whole beans and grind them each time they make a cup of coffee. A target market is very specific, and getting it right will determine better results while marketing to a group of people online. You can help brands find their target market.

Brand Identity

Just like matching your curtains to your furniture, it is very important to have a cohesive brand identity. A brand identity is an imagery, colors, and symbols used in a company's website, apps, and social media pages. You can create brand identity that will help them in creating logos, banners, posters, and images that they will use as a guide in their online presence. Websites such as Canva make it easier for us to create illustrations, graphics, and images that a brand can use to refine its brand identity online.

Sales Funnels

A sales funnel is the journey that the customer goes through in order to purchase goods or services from a company. Each step of the funnel takes the buyer one step closer to making a purchase. A well-planned sales funnel will define the actions a business needs to take to push prospective clients to the next step. You can create a sales funnel from search engines or social media ads and guide people from seeing the marketing online to a landing page on a website that shows product descriptions and guide them to buy from your client. Sales funnels are complicated and effective and this is why brands will hire you to create e-mail capturing, landing pages, and other means used in sales funnels.

These are five easy ways to make money using digital marketing. There are free certifications and great templates you can use for success with this gig on Fiverr. You can also create a Fiverr seller account to offer your services online.

What are some good resources you use for digital marketing? Comment below and share with our community of African freelancers.

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