We made a telling progress and had a great year with our clients, partners, and learners. Here’s an interesting infographic on what we have achieved till now.

The post Mapplinks Achievements Infographic appeared first on Mapplinks Academy.

In this post, we will learn ‘Minimum Viable SEO’ and how you can optimize your website and content without a dedicated SEO team.

There are a lot of things we can learn from entrepreneurs but the most important of them all is learning how to go lean. Lean methodologies allow entrepreneurs to execute fast (and fail fast!).

If you’re an SEO expert handling multiple clients with different budgets, or if you’re a marketer or entrepreneur who wants to maintain and grow your search rankings without a dedicated SEO team, this method is essential for your SEO success in 2018.

The entrepreneur’s MINIMUM VIABLE SEO method is inspired by the concept of the Minimum Viable Product (MVP).

Minimum Viable SEO has 5 major components:

   1. LEAN SEO AUDIT

As part of the Lean SEO Audit, make a list of the 5 most important on-site SEO factors and audit them at the start of each month.

These could be title and description tags, image ALT tags, and so on. Make sure you pick only the 5 highest impact ones.

   2. LEAN SEO STRATEGY

Develop a lean strategy which allows you to perform SEO by dedication only a few hours each month.

This must include a lean audit at the start of the month (2 hours), a Lean Keyword Research at the start of each week (1 hour), a Lean SEO checklist whenever you publish content (30 minutes) and a Lean SEO Report at the end of the month (2 hours).

You should be all set for your essential SEO goals by just investing less than 8 hours a month on SEO.

P.S. Professional SEO teams would spend much more than this and work on various factors and optimizations however, as entrepreneurs and small teams, I want you to focus only on the top 20% factors. (And you know why!)

   3. LEAN SEO KEYWORDS

Use Google suggestions and tools like Uber Suggest and you can come up with a list of 50 keywords in less than 30 minutes.

Don’t believe me? Try it out now!

   4. LEAN SEO CHECKLIST

Each time you’re going to publish new content, just check for the top 5 factors in your content and make sure they’re optimized.

You can pick these factors from this checklist.

   5. LEAN SEO ANALYTICS

Make a list of the top 5 factors which can best measure the results of your SEO activities.

Hint: Traffic source, Time on page and Bounce Rate are crucial.

As you would’ve noticed, this is more of an assignment than a blog! But it’s really important for you to have Lean SEO in place for 2018.

You should also check out the ‘Ultimate SEO Mastery Course 2018’ to learn extensive SEO techniques for 2018 and 10x your search rankings in the coming year!

Cheers!

The post Minimum Viable SEO 2018 for Entrepreneurs & Marketers appeared first on Mapplinks Academy.

Ready to hit ‘publish’?

Think again.

Now that you’ve created amazing, unique content. It’s time for you to make sure it gets the love it deserves.

Remember:

Your content won’t get all the visibility just by being awesome. You have to make sure you follow SEO best practices according to the latest search algorithms.

This checklist is a complete list of things you need to optimize your new content with before you hit the publish button. And the list has been updated to match 2018 search algorithms.

It might seem a long list and you might find a ‘short and sweet’ SEO checklist somewhere on the internet but then you’ll be doing it wrong. You need to follow this exact checklist for your content.

Really want the traffic your content deserves?

Here’s your checklist:

1. Use the main keywords in the page title
2. Use a page title under 60 characters
3. Use the main keywords at the beginning of the page title
4. Use the main keywords in the page descriptions
5. Use a page description less than 160 characters
   

    

   Note: Even though you can now fit 230 characters in meta descriptions for Google Search Snippet you don’t have to go changing your existing ones as it is more of a “Dynamic Process”. This means that the whole 230 characters would only show up if Google thinks that it’s the best way to satisfy a user’s query.
   
   Believe me there are more important things to focus on.

    

6. Use the main keywords in the heading
7. Don’t follow the one-keyword per content rule. Include 2 or more keywords throughout the post
8. Generate LSI keywords — You can use the tool at lsigraph.com for this
9. Include LSI keywords in the page body, content, and heading tags
10. Use a short URL for the post with keywords included
11. Remove common words from the URL
12. If using SEO for WordPress, choose only one category per post
13. If using WP, use a maximum of up to 10 tags per post
14. Include an image or creative within the first 25% of the blog content
15. Use the keywords in the image alt tag
16. Create content with at least 1800 words if pillar post or at least 800 words if cluster post OR with 500 words if the post includes an infographic*
17. Include synonyms of the keywords in the content naturally
18. Add a media embed — video or presentation (more the merrier)
19. Include a downloadable file — PDF guides or template docs
20. Include 3+ external links
21. Include 3+ internal links within the content
22. Do a grammar and spelling check using an online tool
23. Use numbers in the content title or headings
24. Include a share to social media option in the content — you can use a plugin for this
25. Do the keyword research before writing the blog post
26. Include CTAs in your content
27. Ensure the publish date of the post is visible in the content
28. Include the most important keywords naturally in the H1 tag
29. If publishing Pillar content, make it at least 2000 words long and link to the respective cluster content*
30. If publishing Cluster content, make sure you link to the corresponding pillar content*

*Pillar and Cluster content explained below:

The pillar-cluster content architecture is more structured for SEO and all the content you publish in 2018 should follow this model. The idea is to have a Pillar content which is very long-form broad topic content and cluster content are relatively smaller posts on more specific topics. For example, ‘The Ultimate Guide for SEO 2018’ could be a 3000-word pillar content with videos, infographics, and multiple embeds while ‘The Ultimate 2018 SEO Checklist before Publishing Content’ can be a cluster content. There can be multiple cluster posts like this one for the pillar content, linking back to it. The pillar content should include a link to each cluster post while the cluster posts must link to the pillar content and can also have links to other associated cluster posts in the same pillar.

Ready to dominate search traffic in 2018?

Make sure you follow the exact checklist and watch the magic happen!

CLICK HERE to download the checklist excel version. You can track the SEO of all your content using this.

If you have any questions regarding the checklist or would like to add something to the list, tweet to me @reachrishabh and I’ll embed your tweet in this post!

And.. wait.

Here’s a little extra for you:

Want to 10x your traffic in 2018?

Check out the ‘SEO Mastery Course for 2018’ to not just optimize your content, but also learn SEO, website optimization techniques and marketing strategy for 2018. The course also includes the top 10 best SEO techniques for the coming year.

P.S. If you want to enroll in the course, just email me at rishabh@mapplinks.com 

Moreover, The first 10 People who email me regarding the course will also get a special discount code!

The post Ultimate 2018 SEO Checklist: 30 Steps Before You Hit Publish appeared first on Mapplinks Academy.

Let’s start with a fun fact:

Only 20% of the targeting fills 80% of the marketing funnel. The rest 80% of the time, marketers target keywords and phrases which the users never really search for.

The core problem is this:

Marketers use the phrases to match what they’re trying to sell, not what the user is trying to find.

That’s not the only problem. Here’s the other problem to think about:

Everyone’s doing keyword research the same way. This means your competitors are choosing the same keywords as yours. Which means you’re always competing in a very crowded space.

In this post, we solve this problem using our growth mindset.

Want to know how? Read on.

Most digital marketing and SEO executives use the most common keyword search methods like Google’s keyword planner tool.

To beat our competition and make sure we’re targeting the right keywords and phrases, we must leverage some offbeat keyword research methods.

Ready?

Here’s the list of 6 offbeat keyword research channels you can use:

1. Google Suggest

Enter a keyword on Google and.. don’t hit ENTER! Make a list of the keywords Google suggests.

PRO TIP: Put a new spaces before your keyword so Google will suggest more keywords.

2. Ubersuggest

This works like Google Suggest on Steroids.

3. Reddit

Known for direct critics, great for genuine keywords. The anonymity on the channel ensures marketers can find the REAL keywords people are looking for.

So go to reddit, search for your topics and check the words and phrases that show up in the threads.

4. Quora

Another channel for absolutely GENUINE keyword tracking.

Look for what people are asking, then answer those questions with your content. Your product or service should add value and provide a solution for the questions.

5. Google Related Searches

Enter a topic in Google search. Hit ENTER.

Go to the end of the search results page and see the ‘Related searches’.

 

6. Wikipedia

Enter a topic on Wikipedia and open the article for that topic.

Check all the phrases that the article links to and the table of contents for the topic.

These would be potential keywords for you to target.

Once you have the list of potential keywords, check the search volumes, shortlist your top priority keywords, and include them in your SEO strategy for 2018.

I’ve created a step-by-step actionable method called ‘The Growth Marketer’s Keyword Research Method for SEO 2018′ as part of the ‘SEO 2018 Mastery Course’.

If you’re looking to dominate organic search in 2018, don’t miss the ‘Ultimate SEO Mastery Course for 2018’ where I teach SEO for 2018 through 30 unique, actionable lessons.

P.S. If you want a coupon code to avail an early bird discount on the course, just comment on this blog or send me an email at rishabh@mapplinks.com 

P.P.S. The early bird ends on 15th November 2017. Act fast and join the first few 2018 SEO-ready professionals.

The post [SEO 2018] 6 Offbeat Channels for Keyword Research appeared first on Mapplinks Academy.

She won’t just find you. You have to let her know. That’s what SEO is all about.

One of the best ways to predict and understand how Google works is through experiments and experts. Over the past few weeks, We had the opportunity to interview SEO experts and get their best tips and advice for the changes in the SEO landscape for 2018.

Here’s what we asked the experts:

What are your predictions for the state of SEO in 2018? Do you see any major trends that could potentially reshape the current landscape?

Let’s learn from the expert advice we’ve compiled for you and use it to boost our search rankings in 2018!

Hopefully, these tips and foresight shared by these top SEO experts will inspire your own personal quest to better your SEO prospects for 2018 and help you rank better this coming year! Read more about these expert insights at SEO Experts share their Insights.

We’ve also created the ‘SEO Mastery Course 2018’ which includes 30 lessons of actionable strategies and techniques for dominating organic search traffic in 2018.

We would love to hear and include your thoughts on the SEO Experts Roundup for 2018! If you have any ideas and insights to share with us, mail us at connect@mapplinks.com.

The post SEO Experts Share Their Insights for 2018 [Infographic] appeared first on Mapplinks Academy.

Growth Hacking Tools Don’t Exist.

There are no growth hacking tools. There are tools which can be used in growth hacking.

 

Once you have a growth hack, you will try to speed up one or more steps of the growth hack — this is where a tool comes in.

As a growth hacker, you are a craftsman: You find the right tools for the job and not the job based on the tools.

Here’s what I mean:

Growth hackers have the same tools available to them as everyone else, they just use them differently. Usually, a tool will be deployed in a way to make something easier, faster, cheaper, or scalable.

Example:

For example, a travel hacker would use a credit card to leverage travel benefits and hack into better deals to find loopholes to make the most from credit card companies. Remember, there are so many others who might have the same credit card but they’ll not be able to leverage these benefits.

Below are a few examples of the various tools I’ve used in 2017 for growth hacking campaigns. This will help you understand the difference between ‘what the tool is for’ vs ‘how a growth hacker uses it’:

#1. Tweepi

Tweepi can be used to get Twitter followers but can also be used for competitor spying and research

#2. Slack

Slack can be used for team communications, but it can also generate B2B leads using public Slack channels

#3. BuiltWith

BuiltWith can be used to find which technology is ‘built with’ but it can also generate huge databases of businesses and associated contact details

#4. Google News

Google News can be a good news reader but it can also be used to scrape journalist contact details for your PR outreach

#5. Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a great social media scheduling tool but it can also be used to automate your social media calendar using RSS automation.

I call this process ‘DEEP HUNTING’ which means finding the growth hacking application of any tool.

It’s easy to search for ‘growth hacking tools’ and find a few tools which help you run some growth hack tricks. But a real growth hacker can turn any tool into a growth hacking tool by realizing the growth opportunity and application of the tool.

I avoid teaching tools and prefer teaching the mindset to find the right tools so future growth hackers can hunt their own!

Are you ready?

Here’s a starting point for you —

The following 40 tools have applications in growth hacking campaigns. I’ve used each one of these for my client campaigns and I leave it to you to find your application of the tools and how you can leverage them for your business growth:

1. Hotjar
2. Click to tweet
3. SERPDigger
4. CrazyEgg
5. Pay with a tweet
6. MozBar
7. BuzzSumo
8. Outbrain
9. Zapier
10. IFTTT
11. KissMetrix
12. Unbounce
13. Hello Bar
14. ConvertKit
15. Agora Pulse
16. SendGrid
17. Intercom.io
18. MixPanel
19. Ninja Outreach
20. SEMRush
21. HypeGrowth
22. Typeform
23. Slack
24. Colibri.io
25. Marketo
26. Tribeboost
27. PollDaddy
28. Optimisely
29. ListBuilder
30. Infusion Soft
31. Hubspot
32. Buffer
33. Marketo
34. Email Hunter
35. Hootsuite
36. SimilarWeb
37. VisiStat
38. WooRank
39. Reply.io
40. MixRank

There are many tools with clear growth hacking applications but many others where we need to deep hunt for them. This is where the real opportunity for growth is.

So go on and grab yours.

Cheers!

P.S. In case of any questions on how to use the above tools to SUPERCHARGE your growth hacking, email me at rishabh@mapplinks.com.

P.P.S. Join my free growth hacking course and learn growth hacking in 2 weeks: bit.ly/learngh

The post Growth Hacking Tools Don’t Exist appeared first on Mapplinks Academy.

Understanding SEO and changes in SEO is crucial to multiplying your traffic.

As per Hubspot, 80% of a website’s traffic begins with a search query. A lot of ways in which Google decides your search rankings is changing. If you can’t keep up, you will lose the traffic to your competitors.

Remember, the top 3 search positions get most of the clicks from Google search. Staying on top of SEO for 2018 will take a lot of research and experimentation. Not just this, you need to find alternative and offbeat methods to rank higher as fast as possible.

I’ve done this for you and compiled the top 10 SEO techniques for 2018!

Here’s the complete list:

Method 1: The Growth Marketer’s Keyword Research Method

Keyword research plays an important role in the ranking of your website on search engines. Put on your growth marketing hat and leverage some of this offbeat keyword research method that uses various lesser-known sources of keyword generation.

Method 2: The Content Writer’s Context Method

Your content should be consistent on mobile and desktop, make sure you optimise the mobile site and your readers love the mobile experience of your site.

Method 3: The Web Tester’s Broken-Links Method

Build your own links from scratch or leverage other people’s broken links (OPBLs) to your advantage. Each broken link on the web is an opportunity for you to improve your search rankings.

Method 4: The Copywriter’s CTR Boost Method

Google wants to show users the best result for a keyword. They look at shares, backlinks, on-page tags, etc but they also use your CTR to determine your ranking.

Method 5: The Growth Hacker’s OPSR Method

We’re basically hacking into Other People’s Search Rankings (OPSR). They’ve already spent their time, money, resources and efforts to achieve the rankings and need to LEVERAGE the same. You can also get SEO link juice by placing yourself on these results which will improve your own domain’s long-term rankings too.

Method 6:  The PR Executive’s Link Building Method

Another fast method to rank for your search results. Reach out to everyone who’s linking back to the top results and send them an email.

Method 7: The Designer’s Guest Infographic Method

Create and publish a HQ infographic which would contain the necessary information. The same information or content can be republished and repurposed.

Method 8: The Team Leader’s “RANK 0” Method

Rank 0, also known as a featured snippet.Rank 0 results generally answer questions for a search query term. In addition, typically, they contain a URL and clickable display title but also may contain an image, lists or tables. The fight for Rank 1 to 10 will move to the fight for Rank 0.

Method 9: The Entrepreneur’s Minimum Viable SEO Method

This is the minimum optimised SEO that is required to achieve quality and efficient results in a short span of time. You have to do SEO only 4 times to achieve good SEO.

Method 10: The Visionary’s Future-Proof SEO Method

SEO landscape is constantly changing and improving and hence, it is important to find methods for FUTURE PROOF LINK BUILDING.

Like what you see? To learn how to use these methods with step-by-step explanations, check out the ‘SEO Mastery Course 2018’ which includes details about each of these methods and 20 other lessons of actionable strategies and techniques for dominating organic search traffic in 2018.

The post SEO Methods for 2018 [ Infographic ] appeared first on Mapplinks Academy.

Startups need to stay lean & agile in everything they do.

The business model has been replaced by the Lean Startup and the MVP.

Validation is key to any new idea.

But what’s the equivalent of full-blown marketing campaigns for validation? Enter Validation Marketing.

The Problem Statement:

There is a lack of process-oriented marketing methodologies during the validation phase. While marketing campaigns need high budgets, growth hacking usually comes in only once the startup has a product-market fit.

Growth Hacking solves the time and budget problem as defined by the growth hacking triangle, but entrepreneurs and marketers still don’t have the right approach, toolset and skillset to validate.

The Solution: Validation Marketing

Let’s set the founding principles for Validation Marketing:

1. Validation Marketing relies on lean marketing strategies to test and validate an idea or product.
2. Validation Marketing works well with the concepts of a lean startup to validate ideas, messaging, features and product design.
3. Validation Advertising, a part of Validation Marketing, involves setting up low-budget micro-targeted tests on digital ads to validate a specific marketing hypothesis.
4. Growth hacking happens after you find a product-market fit. Validation Marketing is what helps you find the product-market fit.
5. Validation Marketing can able be used to find the best performing growth hacks for your startup or business.
6. Validation Marketing results are an important input to the future Inbound marketing campaigns too.
7. Validation Marketing can be used as a tool to refine your digital marketing strategy.
8. Validation Marketing is a tool to help market research and market validation.
9. Validation Marketing uses A/B testing for validating results and campaigns.

 

Now, let’s see a few examples where validation marketing can be used. These examples are not just from startups, but any size of business.

Validation Marketing can be used for the following:

1. Finding the right market for your product or service
2. Finding the right features to build for your product
3. Finding the right target audience for your product
4. Finding the right title for a book
5. Finding the right headline for a blog
6. Finding the right content buckets for your marketing calendar
7. Finding the right audience for your blog
8. Finding the right messaging for your campaigns
9. Finding the right brand messaging
10. Finding the right brand colors, logos, and other collateral

USE CASE 1: How to use Validation Advertising to decide whether to build an MVP or not

This is a classic startup situation. You build an MVP and get feedback from the market. You go agile. You build, you get feedback, and you change until you’re ready with something to ship to the world.

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to use validation advertising to validate your startup idea:

The core idea is.. Instead of building an MVP, showcase an MVP.

Step 1: Make a landing page showcasing all the features of your MVP and treat this landing page as your MVP (or pre-MVP).

Step 2: Now, run validation advertising campaigns on this landing page with as low as $10 per potential target audience and decide 3 likely TAs.

Step 3: Include an early bird on each landing page and track % conversions to early bird email ID fills. Pick the target audience with the highest % conversions.

Step 4: Next, ask them to pay a small amount to confirm their early bird. Include screenshots of the MVP at this stage. Note that these are dummy screenshots made by a designer since your product doesn’t exist yet.

For one of our clients, we decided to hit a 20% email to payment conversion and if we hit 20% we would develop the product MVP else we would refund the money and plan a revised product.

USE CASE 2: How to use Validation Marketing for Blogging

The secret to our happy clients with low-budget growth hacking for their lead generation process, is again, validation marketing.

Here’s an actionable way you can use validation marketing for blogging:

Step 1: Create 3–4 blog posts to A/B test using Validation Advertising.

Step 2: Run small budgets (starting $10 per blog) and run ads on these blogs with a tracking pixel on each of the blogs.

Step 3: Once you have the stats of which blog performed well, create a landing page with offerings based on the problem statement addressed on the blog.

Step 4: Then run ads on this new landing page to the traffic tracked by the pixel. Or remarketing through emailers sent about the blogs.

This is one of the best ways to reduce ad costs using validation marketing + remarketing.

USE CASE 3: Digital Marketing for our agency clients

Here’s a specific application of Validation Advertising at Mapplinks for our digital marketing clients.

We get all kinds of clients at Mapplinks. But for the sake of simplicity, let’s divide it into 3 types of clients:

TYPE 1. Clients focused on lead generation with immediate results (Read: Put in ad budgets and get results.. ON REPEAT)

TYPE 2. Client focused on building a long-term inbound marketing pipeline (Read: Create high-quality content and start distribution through various channels, ultimately get high quality long-term visibility)

TYPE 3. Clients who want a combination of content and leads from the first day (They want the whole deal)

Now, I personally love clients with focus #2. But I usually move or ‘UPGRADE’ them to somewhere between #2 and #3 using multiple growth hacking strategies and ensure they get the best of both worlds.

Now Here’s how the validation budget comes handy:

Instead of running ads from Day 1 on content which the client or management likes, we validate the budgets with the target audience and then decide which content buckets should be promoted.

For instance, the first 5 weeks marketing calendar is a mix of all content types (blogs, infographics, videos, calculators, side-projects, creatives) under all the different content buckets.

Each combination of a content bucket + content type is treated as one validation set. We run multiple validation sets in the first 5 weeks (at least 2–3 each week) with a very small budget per advert (In some cases as low as $10 per advert).

We eventually know what works with our Target Audience in under a $100-$200 budget. With this information, we can continue to create a marketing calendar for 3 months. In between these 3 months, small validation budgets of $50 / month can be added to ensure the best content is being distributed.

Next Steps for Validation Marketing:

We’ve seen amazing results when validation campaigns are guided by the principles of validation marketing and not just random interviews and questionnaires. There is no reason to limit validation marketing to startups as you would’ve seen in the use cases.

I also shared a couple of real life validation frameworks you could use for your own startup or blog. Please share your results with me in the comments below. Have questions? Let’s discuss them below.

To make it easy to deploy Validation campaigns, we’re drafting our validation marketing process we’ve used with multiple startups and businesses.

Want to learn the Validation Marketing process? Just send me a mail at rishabh@mapplinks.com.

The post The ‘Validation Marketing’ Framework appeared first on Mapplinks Academy.

Mapplinks: As they say there is no time like the present to research ways to integrate live streaming into your marketing strategy. How did you come about creating a niche for yourself in live streaming?

Malhar Barai: I would start with, it addressed my FOMO (fear of missing out). I have always looked up to folks in the US while following a certain trend. And like my Twitter Chat #SEOTalk (which incidentally completed 5 years and is the longest and oldest India based Twitter Chat) which addressed an industry whitespace, my live streaming shows also address such whitespace. What we usually find is, recorded show/tutorials of any marketing practice but our show ‘The FnM Show’, previously Blab2Learn, intends to bring the industry learnings via Live streamed shows. Also chew this – 80% would rather watch live video from a brand than read a blog, and 82% prefer live video from a brand to social posts. So we HAD to do it!

Mapplinks: Our subscribers would like to know when they should choose to incorporate live streaming ? Is it for all businesses or works only for specific industries? What are your thoughts on this?

Malhar Barai: The beauty of live-streaming is, it is industry agnostic. An ecommerce brand can bring their fan experience live similarly a pharma brand can easily give information about a certain medicine. The possibilities are unlimited! But I would say, they have to tie-in with the brand’s overall marketing strategy. Live streaming cannot exist in silo.

Mapplinks: There are many channels that provide and promote live streaming. Which is your favourite digital channel to live stream? And why?

Malhar Barai: While I started with Meerkat and still love Periscope, but in terms of reach and engagement, I find Facebook Live giving better bang for bucks. Instagram Live is good too, but that’s only for brands in certain segments like lifestyle and entertainment. In a larger landscape, Facebook Live still performs better.

Mapplinks: We understand that live streaming is much harder than a recording, Phew! There are no retakes. How did you get accustomed to the hardships in live streaming ?

Malhar Barai: Tough!! But trust me, it will only last for few initial streams. Then you’ll gain confidence and you’ll also know what your audience wants. I remember starting with 0 viewers but when you get consistent, they come and start engaging. They will start accepting your mistakes, your technical constraints or glitches. I have experienced Rishabh Dev’s live video hitting 2000 views, secret was great content.

Mapplinks: What is your advice to our digital viewers who are taking baby steps in the live streaming industry and Why is this something we should invest in now?

Malhar Barai: Start TODAY! Live streaming is surely getting bigger and better. You know, early bird gets the worm. So start building your brand early and leverage the power of instant reach and gratitude. There might be mistakes, silly ones too, but trust the viewers to ignore them (yes they do). Just give value!!

Mapplinks: That was an interesting session. What sets live streaming content apart from the other kinds of content creation?

Malhar Barai: The best part is, it is REAL. Brands can glam it but it is all ‘in-the-moment’. The mistakes cannot be edited unlike  recorded videos, they are your own. This makes the brands more humane, which is what people want to see. Don’t we??

Mapplinks: We had a look at your blab2learn series. It was informative and engaging. How was your experience? Share your thoughts!

Malhar Barai: Blab was a new platform and as I said earlier, I saw and participated in many of the US based similar talk shows. Plus, I am a fan of Google Hangouts on Air and saw a whitespace in no Indian live-video based talk show. That’s when I talked with the good friend Dr. Falguni Vasavada-Oza and we decided to dive in. While Blab as since sunsetted, we rebranded as TheFnMShow and partnered with Social Samosa and do our fortnightly show on their Facebook Channel. I still do few live talks on my Periscope. I love the experience of engaging with viewers live on the show, tough to replicate in any other medium.

The post Digital Influencer Digest – Malhar Barai appeared first on Mapplinks Academy.

FlippAR is an augmented reality app that helps companies provide better customer experience with customer service + technology integration.

There has been a radical shift in the way customers access information and make purchase decisions. It is the ‘need of the hour’ to be able to adapt to the new ways of delivering information and FlippAR is providing an interactive platform for customers to make better purchase decision.

Overall Objectives

1. To increase audience interaction with the brand and brand recall
2. To increase the user base for the app

Process

Mapplinks team ideated and strategized Growth Hacking experiments for FlippAR to help them create a brand recall among their customers and also increase their use base.

We worked on 10–15 growth hacking ideas to start with. For each idea an OMTM was set which focused on either of the two goals — brand building or expanding user base. The best ideas were then shortlisted using the ICE (Impact, Confidence and Ease) score analysis.

Channels

Two experiments were decided to be executed by Mapplinks on Facebook and Tinder.

Facebook was to be used as a channel to run organic contests and Tinder was to be used to find potential users for the app.

OMTM (One Metric That Matters)

1) The metric for Facebook contest was number of engagements in terms of reactions, comments and shares and it was focused on branding

2) The metric for Tinder experiment was link clicks on the app download page

Results

The organic contests were executed (without any budgets) and resulted in 100+ engagements and 200+ reactions from both the contests.

The experiment phase of 7 days resulted in the increase of Facebook page likes from 2961 to 3051

The Tinder experiment did not fare as well as it was expected to do and we could track it in just 2 days into the experimentation phase. That’s the beauty of growth hacking you do not have to wait till the end of a campaign to know if it would be a success or a failure.

Hence we moved with the same approach but on a different channel, Facebook messages.

The Facebook message growth hacking resulted in 483 app page clicks with 70% conversions and it was all organic.

The selected growth experiments’ success in the trial period helped us to continue them as growth hacks and create a process for the same.

Conclusion and Learnings

We received a good response from even the channels that seems to be very unconventional for the outreach solidifying the requirement of the experiment phase in the growth hacking process. This phase helped us try out channels which would definitely not be a marketer’s go-to channel for outreach.

All in all, the growth hacking campaigns with FlippAR helped us generate astounding organic outcomes and find ideas that can be scaled and incorporated to continue achieving similar results.

FlippAR has recently onboarded the cricketing sensation, Chris Gayle, as their brand ambassador and investor and we congratulate them for their achievements and future endeavors.

The post FlippAR – Growth Hacking Case Study appeared first on Mapplinks Academy.