QR codes, once considered to be a long-dead relic of the earlier 2010s, are finding a fresh take on life on the coronavirus pandemic. How is it being employed for innovation in 2020, and can they have a far better chance of making it this time around?

QR codes are getting pushed into service all over the world in a variety of means targeted at fighting the pandemic: from tracing possible origins of infection, to employing “contactless” options to things which will probably spread the infection.

Instagram threw its hat to the QR code ring having a feature which will create a QR code heading back to your Instagram profile, made to be suitable for any third-party camera or QR code scanning application. Even though a few social networks have the same features, Instagram is just the 2nd social networking - right after Twitter - to utilize universal QR codes rather than a proprietary version such as Snapcodes (or Nametags, that the QR code feature is changing).

Having QR codes growing throughout the hospitality and healthcare sectors and among the most famous social networks throwing its weight in it, is it here to stay for real this time around?

Let’s check out how QR codes are now being employed in 2020, and how the present QR renaissance may differ from their early 2010s in important ways.

Just how are QR codes being utilized in 2020?

Healthcare

As the coronavirus pandemic happened in China, Chinese authorities started to press QR codes into service being a tool for monitoring and tracking the actions and infection status of numerous citizens. The software, that calls for residents going out in public to scan a QR code whenever going into and departing a place, as well as getting their temperature, was developed in Wuhan and later on used by over 100 Chinese cities.

Although the use of QR codes in China is certainly not new, since they're inserted into day to day life as a way of connecting the offline and online worlds, using QR codes for contact tracing has finally being used all over the world - coming from Singapore to New South Wales, Paris to California. Possibly even companies, just like Woolworths supermarket in Australia, now utilize QR code-based contact tracing in an opt-in basis.

Hospitality

The infamous hospitality sector is quickly adopting QR codes being a key element to locations safely reopening. On restaurants, in which passing all over a physical menu has become a possible vector for infection, QR codes are becoming popular as a way of accessing an electronic menu, scanned using a sticker or a disposable card.

Using ‘contactless’ electronic menus includes a lot of benefits for restaurants: they could be made interactive, easily updated to show dishes while they're added or sell out, and have coupons or special deals. A few electronic menu platforms also provide data analysis. However keying in a webpage URL or downloading a related app presents lots of friction to the procedure of utilizing these menus - that's where QR codes come into play, quickly bringing the user to the related page when they're scanned.

Social media

Instagram’s brand new QR code feature can help businesses motivate visits into their Instagram profiles by providing them a scannable code which they could print on anything from advertising material to signals to cars as well as the sides of buildings.

Having the restored interest in QR codes caused by the coronavirus pandemic, there's a pretty good chance that they'll catch on with customers, that bodes well for brands to whom Instagram is a vital site of consumer engagement, and also those which utilize it to market products.

You will still find drawbacks to utilizing QR codes, of course, like the need to be familiar with the related technology. However, no piece of technology or method of doing things would be totally perfect. However QR codes have the possibility to be a beneficial and adaptable tool in brands’ and businesses’ arsenals if they could defeat the obstacles caused from their gimmicky reputation and previous failings - and to this point, the view is increasingly good.

With TikTok rising, everyone is now rushing on their respective app stores looking to download the trending application to understand what all the fascination is all about - and for entrepreneurs, whether they could utilize it to advertise their products.

Listed here are 8 of the best examples of brand marketing we’ve found on TikTok now.

Elf Cosmetics

Having 4 billion views and 3 million user made videos, Elf Cosmetics’ ‘Eyes Lips Face’ challenge has actually been referred to as the ‘most influential campaign on TikTok’ until now. The marketing campaign required the making of an original song (known as ‘eyes lips face’) to go along with the brand’s hashtag challenge.

Many influencers advertised the song in their own personal videos, which in turn sparked on other stars and users to perform similarly. The song have been getting viral - not just in TikTok but some other platforms such as Instagram as well as YouTube. In answer, Elf Cosmetics made its own music video in order to correspond with the launch of the song in full.

NBA

A primary reason NBA content is really successful in TikTok is the wide variety of content it creates - that varies from sporting challenges to behind-the-scenes pranks - and also the number of videos, with the brand usually posting 5 to 6 times daily.

Having 11.6m followers, the NBA has generated a huge and loyal following in the platform. While sports activity is obviously its primary attraction, humour continues to be a core USP - among its most favored videos includes NBA mascots tossing cakes to fans’ faces.

Fenty Beauty

Fenty Beauty was among the first brands to make its very own collab house, creating the ‘Fenty Beauty House’ with 5 TikTok makers earlier this season. Although coronavirus pandemic has pressured the makers to keep doing work remotely instead of with each other, the group is constantly on the post of entertaining and subtly-branded content.

The focus is on subtle here, as outlined by Vogue Business, the brand hasn't manage any paid media to advertise Fenty Beauty House. Rather, it just depends on the popularity of the influencers and also audience investment on the brand and its goods.

Gymshark

Gymshark is one other brand which addresses TikTok independently from various other social media platforms, generating completely unique content which attracts TikTok’s users list, and that fits the style of content which TikTok’s algorithm is likely to favor.

For its sixty six Day Challenge on 2019, Gymshark partnered along with 6 fitness and dance influencers who've got a greater following in TikTok compared to Instagram. This made sure the brand could get to a big audience in the platform, capitalising around the current viewers of the selected influencers. In general, the campaign hashtag, #gymshark66, received 45.5 million views.

Converse

Converse is one other brand to take advantage on TikTok’s hashtag challenges, that requires users to take part in challenges and build user generated content relevant to a particular theme.

Early this year, Converse released the ‘Creative All Star Series’, requesting creatives to personalize some sneakers and show their masterpieces while using hashtag, #ConverseAllStar. Up to now, the hashtag has produced 54.3m views.

Seeker

Seeker is a US digital media network specializing in as well as technology content. You may not are familiar with it yet, however Seeker is gradually developing a mass following in TikTok, in which the brand has made more than 4 million engagements in the platform since joining last July 2019.

Among the major reasons for its flourishing success in the platform is its emphasis on environmentalism, that's also an increasing concern among Generation Z. Its videos incorporate humour with a mixture of scientific facts and myth busters, usually associated with arresting visuals and awesome, stimulating soundtracks.

Chipotle

A few companies still view TikTok as a bit of a risk, possibly with the memory of now-defunct Vine stopping them from making an investment. This is not the situation for Chipotle, who had become the first leading restaurant chain having an official TikTok account around 2019, with the goal of making the brand based on a new and young market.

Chipotle definitely became popular in bringing presence and brand awareness. Its marketing campaign, #GuacDance, drove more than 250,000 video submissions, and almost 430 million video begins in the course of its 6-days run on TikTok.

Uffizi Gallery

Lots of galleries and museums are already leaning to immersive digital experiences throughout the coronavirus pandemic, allowing users to still ‘visit’ via virtual tours. Other people are also fast to accept social media platforms, with Italy’s Uffizi Gallery particularly find an unexpected success in TikTok.

The gallery has actually been placing an irreverent spin in classic art by switching a lot of Renaissance paintings into memes. One of the most favorite include Caravaggio’s painting of Medusa transforming coronavirus to stone (Medusa with a face mask), and Bronzino’s portray of the dwarf Morgante.

Having huge amounts of people practically locked in their homes, the COVID-19 crisis has caused big adjustments to the global economic system. Entire sectors have already been suspended, like travel and accommodation. Other people are having difficulties in adapting the situations while others are having more free time.

It’s a difficult time for all, including marketers. That is the reason why we come up with content ideas which are worth your attention throughout the global lockdown.

Topics for travel marketers...

There isn't any avoiding the effects of COVID around the travel sector. However, a few topics offer potential for content creators, so there isn't any reason to become inactive.

In spite of the shutdown, travel insurance observed an increase since vacations were terminated and flights are grounded. Therefore, it would be a great time to show readers methods to protect their trips or request for compensation.

The situation also has exposed new possibilities which wouldn’t usually be available. For example, whenever who have drones to capture tourist spots such as Florence or Venice without the crowds, the footage can be incorporated into virtual tours, providing a glimpse of what to anticipate whenever travel resumes. Broadly shared images of wildlife showing up in tourist cities may also be included into the content about sustainable travel.

Life under lockdown has generated opportunities...

Some other trending topics connect with the lifestyle changes which all have encountered because of lockdowns, and might well work as anchors for content which draws in attention. For instance, homeschooling has certainly experienced a big uptick in traffic. Educational content ideas will definitely strike a chord, even when it features a business slant.

Online classes have already been accepted all over the world. So, when you have an area of expertise, take some time to transform that expertise into pieces of instruction - there can be gains to be made.

After that there’s the big concern of working at home. Readers would like doable ideas about ergonomics, what apps to utilize, how you can handle time, office room decorations, easy games to play between work, snack choices - whatever that could make a home based job more productive. There’s so much to be achieving with there, and it pertains to nearly every sector.

Lastly, it’s essential to remember that lots of people are going through serious financial and professional insecurity because of COVID, and it is shown in search trends too. If you're able to assist with financial guidance, suggestions for training, sharpening up CVs, or simply offering reassurance, this could get a ready audience.

Bring in traffic by creating entertainment part of your content...

Working at home isn’t the sole lockdown-related problem which is generating web searches as well as trending topics. Obviously, the billions of individuals restricted to their homes due to COVID should also be kept entertained.

There haven't been a lot of people looking for ways to divert themselves and fill up vacant time. That may potentially be a goldmine for knowledgeable creators.

Common topics can include doing suggestions regarding Netflix shows that connect to your topic, or recommending video games for clients to play. However you can go even more, making online challenges and quizzes, as well as advertising this content to raise your audience.

People also are continuing to go shopping and SEO is more essential than ever before since the majority of this business is happening online. Thus, businesses which haven’t streamlined their online purchasing services must take time to do this. Also, the public will still be romancing one another through sophisticated “home dates” or online relationships. Therefore dating, eating, dancing - all these things still need a notable place in search stats.

Make use of search trends to make an audience during lockdown...

This isn't any time to reduce the pace and range of content creation jobs. Definitely not. With a lot of people having mobile phones or computers, it’s time for connecting with the public and present as many people as you can how perfectly you could communicate, and just how important your goods or services actually are. Ideally, this run-down of trending subjects provides a few tips for content ideas.

As a small business owner, you certainly recognize the importance of your advertising budget. It's important to recognize the role of digital advertising in the growth of your company. What are the advantages? Here are the top 5 benefits of digital advertising for small businesses.

Digital marketing is as efficient as it is effective. In other words, there are many low-cost strategies that can provide the results you are looking for. When looking to compete, especially with larger businesses, cost efficient advertising certainly helps. Let the big businesses take on television ads. As a small business owner, you can think outside the box and save some money.

Another advantage to digital advertising is that you can make measured moves. Marketing campaigns can be tailored to your needs, and it's also easy to track and measure results. Did you know that you can even track leads? This is very helpful and a big advantage over traditional advertising.

In fact, all metrics of a digital marketing campaign can be tracked and monitored. And this should tell you that another advantage to this type of advertising is that you're better able to target the right audience. When you target your customer base efficiently, your conversion rates are going to be better. This means saving money, and it of course means more sales.

Traditional marketing is all about targeting a much larger audience without the extra tailored tweaks that digital advertising puts in your corner. Think about PPC campaigns and how you can target specific keywords, tailoring your advertising efforts to specific audiences that are searching for certain types of products and services.

Now it's time to think outside the box. How do people start searching for products to buy? They may or may not end up at the store, but more often than not, the journey starts with the search engines. Whether people make the purchase online or not, they often start searching for products online. That is where you have the advantage when it comes to digital advertising.

If you can get your business in front ot those people first, then you have just won. Then it will be up to you to convert the sale. Think about all the innovative ways that you can use digital marketing to get your small business in front of prospective customers.

When you are competing with larger businesses online, customers don't necessarily know that you have started at a disadvantage. The online world in general helps you compete with larger companies, and that is yet another advantage of digital advertising.

It's also easier to make changes to your digital marketing campaigns. That's not the case when it comes to many forms of traditional advertising. It's important to be able to make these changes after you find out what works and what doesn't. And those small changes can also simply improve your ability to reach all of your target audience and convert inquiries to sales.

Think about social media campaigns and how easy it is to make simple changes. The same goes for SEO campaigns. The fact of the matter is that if you want your conversion rates to improve, you can certainly count on digital marketing when it's done correctly. It's not a fool proof plan so to speak, but the advantages are quite clear.

As a small business owner, you want to make budget-conscious decisions. Do be sure that you vary your strategies, and don't be afraid to pull the plug on something that isn't working. Every business is different, and you can always try out new campaigns. The point is that digital advertising provides many advantages that do not need to be overlooked.

Businesses are now in competition to get the most out of their online customers. In this digital age, entrepreneurs now have websites where they sell their products and services. Websites ensure that they are well-positioned online.

Website marketing can help entrepreneurs beat their competition. Through the use of creative website marketing strategies, website traffic can be increased. These strategies also help in website promotion. Entrepreneurs need to implement the following 10 creative website marketing strategies for them to realize their goals:

1. Being SEO Friendly

SEO needs to be readily adopted by business owners. This is because it can work wonders for virtually any website. Your website can be easily discovered through the implementation of SEO. Through the adoption of a strong SEO strategy, an increase in traffic can be witnessed. Ensure that your keywords lead to conversions rather than just traffic.

2. Develop A Useful Online Tool

A lead magnet can help you get people’s contact information. Rather than buying an email list, you need to create a tool that will interest people as well as benefit them. People should freely give you their information. A guide, an ebook, a coupon code, and many more tools can help you capture direct leads.

3. Join Facebook Groups

You need to find your audience first for you to connect with them. Join groups where your target audience is. Provide insightful comments on any queries they have. Don't forget to promote your website while doing so.

4. Incorporate Interactive Content

Interactive content can help you with marketing your website. Why not add images, an infographic or a video to your content? Visitors to your site will share content that they love and enjoy. For optimal conversions, don't forget to add robust calls to action to your content.

5. Create Great Content

Entrepreneurs need to have great content. You need to exercise great care when developing your website's content, more so for written content. Your content needs to be captivating. A potential customer should purchase your products or services after reading your content. Great website content needs to be interesting, continuous, and consistent.

6. Capitalize On Existing Frameworks

You don't need a fancy or complex website. This is mainly for startups and small businesses. As an entrepreneur, you need to understand your website's purpose. You should make your site more accessible and faster using existing frameworks. You can save lots of marketing costs by embarking on this.

7. Develop A Conclusive FAQ Page

Every business longs for a top-of-the-funnel marketing strategy. By having your FAQ page, great service is provided to your site's visitors. A FAQ page provides the needed transparency within your website. They can now turn into actual customers once they've trusted you. Always provide clear and honest answers on your FAQ page.

8. Use Images Optimally

People love sites that load fast. As part of your creative website marketing strategies, why not implement that? You'll enjoy more traffic by optimizing your images. This can be accomplished using several tools.

Also, remember to keep image sizes small. More time is taken to load a large image. Google also doesn't favor slow page speed.

9. Adopt Engaging Videos

Use videos for your site if you are in for creativity. To produce engaging videos, you need to incorporate them in your blogs. These videos can be hosted on sites such as Vimeo or Youtube. Your videos then need to be embedded in your website.

10. Become A Guest Writer

For this to work for you as an entrepreneur, you have to be an expert in your niche. Get in touch with reporters or writers within your niche to find out whether they will accept your content. Traffic to your website can increase when your content is published in a media outlet or a leading website in your niche.

A website is important for any entrepreneur. It can help you reach out to many people and grow. You need to adopt the discussed creative website marketing strategies to help you as an entrepreneur and your website.

Marketing is always harder for small businesses in comparison to well-established ones. Let's face it, starting a business is a challenge. Putting your business products or services out there can be a challenging task. Manpower and financial hurdles can be faced by small businesses. This also applies to medium-sized businesses.

SMB marketing is the key to dealing with the marketing challenges faced by SMBs. They help with SMBs with cost-effective ways to operate in harsh business environments. So, have you already embarked on the implementation of an SMB marketing strategy? Here are 8 proven SMB marketing strategies that will work for you:

1. Setting A Goal

You need to have a goal for you to start marketing your business effectively. What do you want for your business? Where do you see your business in 5/10 years from now? You need to set a realistic and attainable goal for your business that can be accommodated by a reasonable budget.

You also need to align these goals with your business budget. Don't overstretch yourself with a huge budget that isn't realistic. Be practical with your goals and budget.

2. Capitalize On Google's Local Offerings

Make sure you take full advantage of local offerings on Google. Google is the largest search engine out there. Why not take advantage of that?

An online presence can be vital for the growth of any SMB. A Google My Business account is important for any SMB. This is a powerful tool for businesses that are targeting local customers. This account gives you control over the information about your business while online including your business phone number, address, hours of operation, and website.

3. Choose Social Media Platforms Wisely

Having social media accounts on all platforms may be the way to go. But for an SMB, you may not have adequate personnel to manage every account. Be wise and focus on platforms where your target audience mainly is.

Let's say, would a plumber really meet many of his or her target audience on SnapChat? You'd rather have a fashion blogger on such a platform. Ensure you analyze platforms in which you have lots of engagements. By going for the right platforms, you can grow your traffic and get more clients.

4. Content Marketing

Long term results can be realized through the adoption of content marketing. This SMB marketing strategy is ideal for you if you have a tunnel vision for your business. You need to create content that's relevant, valuable, and consistent.

This content needs to be targeted to your audience using relevant keywords. Content marketing isn't just about blog posts, it also includes podcasts, videos, and much more. Remember, patience is key when it comes to content marketing.

5. Email Marketing

You can easily create connections with your audience through email marketing. This strategy can help you build loyalty. This is best achieved when customers subscribe to your feed through submitting their email addresses. You should send them sales, events, and promotional notifications.

6. SEO

Who wouldn't want to rank on the first page of Google? SEO can help your website rank highly on Google when you use certain keywords or phrases. You need to find out what your target audience is looking for while on Google.

SEO can help drive unpaid organic traffic to your business. A lot of traffic can be driven to your business if SEO is done in the right way. This, however, isn't a one day's job. It's a longterm strategy.

7. Blogging

Blogging can help create brand awareness. It is an effective SMB marketing strategy to showcase your products or services. A blog can be filled with lots of information about your business. This helps create interest and drive traffic to your business.

8. Stand Out

Don't be like everyone else in your niche. Show your target audience what sets you apart. Brand your business to help create an impression. Don't forget to advertise this brand thereby spreading awareness.

Small and medium businesses usually face many hurdles. SMB marketing strategies can help these businesses gain a competitive edge over well-established firms. The 8 strategies discussed above will work for you if they are effectively implemented.

Search engine optimization is a process where you improve the organic rankings of a particular website for particular keywords in the search engines such as Google. For example, if you have a website that is about dogs and you have a page that reviews different dog foods, you can do SEO so that page ranks on the first page of Google for keywords such as "dog food reviews", "best dog food" etc. The higher your page ranks in Google and other search engines, the more traffic or visitors you will get. This is highly effective, especially if you sell dog food on that page. The more visitors you get, the more people will convert into buyers. For example, if you only get 50 people visiting the page every day and your conversion rate is 10%, then only 5 people will buy dog food. However, if you use SEO to increase your search engine rankings and you now get 200 people visiting that page per day, then you will likely get around 20 people buying dog food. So, once you understand this well, you can easily see how valuable SEO is for small businesses.

SEO can help you to get thousands of new and targeted visitors to your website every day which can greatly boost your business. It is a digital marketing strategy that is extremely affordable especially when compared with other forms of getting traffic. For example, when compared to paid advertising, SEO always wins because it doesn't cost much and you will be able to get lasting traffic that will continue visiting your site, many months and even years after you've stopped doing SEO. However, with paid traffic, you will only get the traffic that you pay for. So, if you stop paying for traffic, then your traffic will go down to 0.

Now, it is best that small businesses add SEO to their marketing strategy, especially if they want long term growth. SEO not only gets you traffic but it is also great for your branding. When you do SEO and get your business ranked number one on Google, then this will provide a positive branding effect. Many people go to Google first when looking for businesses and by being number one, most people will see your business as being the better business to purchase from. It will also increase the popularity of your brand and you will soon have many loyal customers who keep returning. This is the goal of most businesses; to have loyal customers that always keep coming back.

In order to do SEO, you will have to focus on the on page elements of your website as well as the off page. This means figuring out your keywords and then optimizing each one of your pages for relevant keywords. On page SEO has become more complicated over the years and its not just about keyword density. You now have to ensure that you use your keywords and related keywords in the most important parts of each page such as the title, URL, headings etc. Also, you will need to ensure that your entire website is fast and it doesn't have any errors or elements that would cause bad user interactions.

Off page SEO refers to backlinking which is also a bit tricky. Google is quite quick to penalize unnatural looking links or any hints that you're buying links. So, you need to be very careful where you build your links and you have to strive to have a natural backlink pattern.

To wrap things up, we have just looked at how important SEO is for business and a few quick tips on how to get started with it. So, be sure to implement SEO on your site so you can enjoy the immense benefits that will move your business forward.