Category: General

For years, businesses have struggled to reach consumers online using traditional advertisements such as banners and embedded videos. These businesses are often unsuccessful in making an impact due to ad-blocking software that has become widely used. Additionally, numerous Internet users may find these forms of marketing to be more annoying than engaging because these are content that they did not choose to view. Rather than interrupt a user’s content with advertising, marketers can use inbound marketing as an alternative approach.

Inbound marketing is the strategy of engaging with potential customers through content and experiences in which they find value. This method is characterized by creating entertaining and informative content, using various media, which users will willingly seek out. This more personal approach to marketing has the extra benefit of reaching those who have already taken the initial step toward a purchase. This article will discuss and elaborate on what is inbound marketing, provide several examples, as well as enumerate current trends.

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There is value in the consumers’ perception of a brand’s image, whether true or false. Thus, it’s every company’s task to maximize positive user experiences and minimize customer pain points online in today’s digitized world. One of the solutions to this challenge is content marketing.

According to the Content Marketing Institute, content marketing is defined as “a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.” With this approach, brands provide genuinely relevant and useful content to prospects and customers to help them solve their issues rather than directly pitching products or services.

Within content marketing’s definition, the word “valuable” must be emphasized. This quality is what sets content marketing apart from other forms of advertising. Content can be identified as part of a content marketing campaign if people seek it out and want to consume it instead of avoiding it.

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In most places across the globe, comics are considered as something merely for children. However, in Japan, manga can be a brand’s key to penetrate the market. Manga are comics or graphic novels corresponding to a style developed in Japan.

Rather than being for children, manga can be for anyone. Manga is consumed by readers of any age, from elementary school students to senior citizens. In fact, a survey by Shinfield, a Japanese firm specializing in manga marketing, found that 69.7% of respondents aged 40 and up still read manga. One of manga’s greatest strengths is that it appeals to readers, whether young or old.

For a long time, manga has been a staple reading material in Japan, appealing to nearly all social classes and age groups. Even though the market for manga in Japan has been steadily declining and domestic sales of printed copies have been falling since 2002, the market has slowly started to rise once more in 2013 due to an abundance of newfound digital manga apps and services for mobile devices. In 2019,  digital sales for manga rose 29.5%, totaling 259.3 billion yen (about US$2.37 billion).

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