Digital Marketing Strategies For Small Business (... My TOP 20 Tips & Tricks)

If you've got a small business to run then you know the importance of choosing your digital marketing strategy, wisely, after all the right digital marketing strategy, can either make or break your marketing efforts so in this episode we're covering 20 yes 20 of my top digital marketing strategies, for you to pick and choose from and combine into the perfect digital marketing strategy, for your business all, right let's get to it. Hey. There my name is Adam Earhart and welcome to the modern marketing show where we help you make marketing that matters so if you're interested in learning about the latest and greatest marketing strategies, tools tips tricks and tactics well you may want to consider subscribing all right let's, talk digital marketing strategies, specifically. In this video I'm gonna give you 20 of my absolute best digital marketing strategies, that you can use regardless, of what market, or business or industry you're in now, rather than dive into the nitty gritty details and, specifics, in each and every one I want to give you a kind of a high-level overview and, my key takeaways, on what, these strategies really mean and why they've been effective in all those small businesses I've worked with and coached with in order to help you generate more leads customers and, sales one more quick note you're gonna notice a little bit of overlap between some, of these things and this is intentional after, all sometimes when were taking a look at digital marketing strategies, it's important, to look at both the high-level kind of macro overview. As well, as the low-level micro, specifics, in order, to find which combination. Or two three or four items are really going to drive the point home for your business the goal here is simply to flood your brain with possibilities, and not just possibilities but possibilities, that have actually, been proven in the real world in helping businesses just like yours to, grow and generate more leads and do all the things that a business is supposed to do because at the end of the day it's less about the tactic, and more about the overall strategy behind that tactic because remember a well executed but only average strategy is going to massively, outperform, a terribly, executed, phenomenal, strategy at the end of the day it's what gets done and what gets done well that really moves the needle also, make sure to stick around right till the end of the video because while I've listed the first 18 points in no particular order, it's the final two points that I believe are the most important, for small businesses, to consider today all right all that said let's dive, in to tip number one all right tip number one is all about coming up with an irresistible offer now what an irresistible, offer is is pretty much exactly like it sounds. It's an offer that's too good to refuse now, sometimes, these are referred to as godfather offers, or IOT's or, other terminology, but they're basically all the same thing and what it is is that some kind of offer that you can put in front of your ideal target market, that directly, speaks to them and compels them to take action now here's the thing when we're designing an irresistible, offer we don't necessarily have to compete on price like, we don't need to give anything away for free here all we have to do is understand.

That It's important, to reflect that we understand, where the customers coming from meaning, we know that pains their problems their frustrations, and how, our business is uniquely, positioned to solve that for them one of the most important, points to consider when you're constructing an irresistible, offer is that you want to be selling a painkiller not, a vitamin meaning. What you want to do here is you want to solve a pain rather, than prevent, a future problem because, people are a lot more likely to act and take action when they're trying to solve an actual pain and problem that they're experiencing, right now I like to describe these pains and problems as miseries, and basically, what it is is it's some kind of pain or problem, or fear or frustration that, they're trying to get over but this can also be referred to as a bleeding, neck which really, stresses, the importance, of getting this thing solved fast meaning, you can either display this irresistible offer in an ad or, as, a call to action on a blog post or write on the homepage of your business the only thing to really remember here is the importance of actually having it so that you can compel someone to take action as soon as possible now it's here in tip 2 we're going to experience the very first part of overlap, that we're gonna see as we move through these 20 items meaning your lead magnet can actually, include aspects, or elements or, maybe even the entire part, of your irresistible, offer now a really high-level overview just in case you haven't heard of a lead magnet before, all it is is some kind of piece of valuable content, or information or, it could even be something tangible or physical like a book or a trinket, or a widget or whatever, it is but you're going to use this in exchange for your customers contact details meaning maybe their name maybe, their email address maybe their phone number maybe even their address now the reason it's so important and so valuable for your business to have a lead magnet is twofold. Number one is having an appropriate lead magnet positions, you as the authority and actually, shows that you know what you're doing by solving one of their problems through your content the second reason is you're going to use this lead magnet in order to attract. Leads not, surprising right now the wave, magnets traditionally. Work is you're gonna want to put this offer for the lead magnet in front of your ideal target market, you can do this through an ad or maybe even a link on your website and you're gonna direct them to where they can download their free pdf, or the free guide or, get their free book plus shipping whatever, it is once, they get to that actual landing page they'll in put their name and email address and in turn if they're gonna get the guide and you're gonna get their contact details which you can use to followup with them later my final point on lead magnets is this you don't need to limit yourself to just one lead magnet after all the odds of your customers having just one single problem might be pretty slim and you may want to approach their pains or frustrations, from a number of different angles which is what your lead magnets allow you to do all right tip number three in one of the top digital marketing strategies, that I've seen work for small business is none other than SEO, now, SEO, or search engine optimization, is by far one of the nerdiest, technical.

Most Geekiest, things you can possibly talk about in digital marketing but it's, also incredibly, important, in fact SEO is largely responsible for, the growth of my first marketing agency, back in the day that in content marketing but again there's some overlap because content, marketing and SEO kind, of work nicely together anyway. The point is this search engine optimization, or SEO is, incredibly, valuable now we obviously don't have the time to get into all the specifics and, details here, but the point is you may want to start allocating more resources to, SEO especially. If people tend to be searching, for one of the problems that your business solves now when it comes to SEO there's, a number of different factors that influence, it including on page rankings, and off page signals, now when we're talking about on-page, these are things like the keywords you use in your url your title, your, headings on-page, content all, sorts of things like that and when we're talking about off page ranking signals it really has to do with the number and the kind of links that are linking back to your content which is sending signals to the search engines that this is valuable content, anyway the goal here isn't to dive into the technicalities, of SEO but rather just to educate you on it being a valuable strategy and if you want to pursue it there's a ton of great content available I'll make sure to link to some in the description below all right the next point may sound similar but it's incredibly important to differentiate and that's Google three-pack, SEO now, this point is only really valuable if you've got a local business or, an actual storefront. Or actual physical location because. What you're going to be doing here is ranking, in the map, and this is incredibly, important, especially on mobile now where most searches are conducted now, the way to find out if you're ranking in the three pack is pretty simple first of all open and incognito. Or private, browser just so your history doesn't influence the results then type in whatever industry that you're searching for and your city name and see, what appears in the Mac results if you're not in the top three you're missing out which means you really need to spend some time some energy and some money optimizing. That Google 3-pack listing because they get a ton of traffic especially, from mobile where most searches occur now, this next tip is a little more out there and a little less common than say SEO or, Google three pack SEO and it has to do with audio marketing, now like I said at the beginning these tips are listed in no particular order again except for those last two so I don't want to over emphasize or under emphasize the importance, or relevance of, audio marketing to your business that said I know it can have a profound effect if, this, ends up being the right channel for your target market and therein lies the key you see to decide if audio marketing is something you want to pursue you first need to really clearly identify, your ideal target market, but we're gonna talk about that a little bit later now when we're talking specifically, about digital, marketing strategies, obviously, things like podcasts. And Spotify, ads and, things like that are gonna come to the forefront of your mind that said I also want you to consider offline. Audio channels like maybe even good old-fashioned, radio now radio, in my experience, certainly doesn't provide the same return on investment, that some of these digital channels do but, as a supplement, or accessory, or even.

Worth Considering, because you never know it might still provide enough, of a bump to make everything worth it alright our next point is one of my all-time favorites, and it has to do with email marketing now fortunately we already covered, lead magnets, and the importance of acquiring customer, contact information, like their name and their email address, well with email marketing it gives you that opportunity to follow up and provide more value and, make offers again and again and again now, there's a lot of people out there complaining, about lower open rates and how, email marketing is losing its effectiveness and. Well this is true to some degree just, think about yourself and how you personally, interact with content and how you consume information odds. Are pretty good you check your email once, twice three maybe even 10 times a day well the same goes for your customers, they're actively, involved with checking their email which it's a fantastic, medium to reach them and to spread your message of course, like all the strategies we're talking about here the Devils in the details which means you can't just family. Promote all kinds, of offers and all kinds of garbage to your audience or they're just gonna unsubscribe, and delete your emails as quickly as they receive them rather you want to be strategic and seek to provide as much, value as possible meaning, you're going to educate you're, going to inform, you're gonna provide entertaining. Content and overall, you're gonna seek to be authentic, and human and really provide as much value as you can but, when all that's done of course you still have to make offers, so don't be afraid to as long as they're relevant to your market our, next point is content, marketing then as I've already discussed, between SEO, and content marketing this is really how I built up my first marketing agency, it's a fantastic, tool because content, marketing allows, you again to educate, to inform, to provide value and to show that you're the authority in your field by, teaching people what you know now again, content, marketing is kind of a high-level macro. Overview, which entails, all sorts of things below it like podcasts, and videos and blogs and interviews. And lead. Magnets, and resource guides and all sorts of stuff like that so it really is again that high-level overview the point is if you're not creating, content for your target market you really should be in one, way shape or form the, key with content marketing is to choose the right format, and the right style for you and your audience meaning if you hate the idea of being on video video, is probably not going to be for you if you hate the sound of your voice maybe audio content, you're gonna want to stay away from and if you hate the thought of writing well then obviously a blog isn't gonna be the best for your style all that said if I had to pick one which is the absolute best form of content marketing that we're seeing right now it, really has to be video and there's a number of reasons for this we're gonna cover that in just a minute on video marketing all right and our next tip as promised, video marketing now video marketing is a phenomenal.

Tool For small businesses, in order to generate more leads customers and sales improve, your authority in the marketplace next, to having an in-person conversation. Or meeting face-to-face video, really is the next best thing in order to establish trust, and show your personality and, really humanize your brand and your business also. The fact that video has a relatively, high barrier, to entry especially, considering just typing up a blog post well this is actually a good thing because if you're serious enough to be watching this now and really intent on improving your small business means you're serious enough to overcome, that barrier to entry and do the things your competitors, are not willing to do specifically. You've overcome some of the discomfort that initially, arrives with video namely, getting all the equipment set up figuring, out what you're gonna say and then going, through the process of recording editing and uploading, your videos now as I touched on in the last point on content, marketing the reason I think video marketing is one of the most powerful forms of content, is because, you're able to take the video content, and then syndicated. Across a number of different channels meaning, you can strip away the audio and you now have audio marketing you can have it transcribed and you now have a blog post and, you can take a little bits of snips or clips or quotes, or anything like that and you've got all sorts of different quote cards for all sorts of different social media channels my, takeaway point on video marketing is this it's only going to grow in importance as we move on through the new year and into the next years so if you haven't yet now's the time to start investing, in creating more video content for your business our next point is copywriting. And when, we're talking about copywriting, we're not talking about copyright or the legal aspect, of protecting, your work but rather about creating, influential. And persuasive sales, copy the, reason copywriting, is so important, is because if you've got a small business which I hope you do otherwise why would you be watching this video now well, then it's important, to communicate and, to persuade, and to influence, the perceptions, of those who are communicating and dealing, with your business and the way we do this is through copywriting, but here's the thing with copywriting, rather than get bogged down in all the details the key takeaway point, is that pretty much any kind of communication that you're writing or putting on your website, or your, ads or anything like that really, comes down to the copy that you're writing so the, introductory hook some, of the benefits, some of the features how, this is going to help your customers, achieve what they're looking to do how, your business is uniquely positioned to solve their problems, all of that is copywriting, so there's a number of different formulas out there to help you get started with copywriting. But the biggest takeaway and the strongest, and most important, point I want to make is really.

Try To be empathetic to your customers, understand. Where they're coming from understand, their problems, and their pains and their frustrations, their dreams their wants their goals and their desires put, yourself in their shoes and, really, seek to understand, and your copy will become significantly. More effective allowing. You to make a lot more sales alright our next point is on YouTube marketing or, anok now no, surprise that I obviously believe YouTube is a phenomenal. Tool in order to communicate your message provide, some value to your marketplace and help, to grow your business and after all that's why you and I are both here now now there's two sides when it comes to marketing with YouTube the organic, side and the advertising side which spoiler, alert' gonna cover in just the next point but first let's touch on the organic side now to succeed, in the YouTube organic side it's all about understanding that YouTube acts like a search engine meaning, one of the best ways to initially, get liftoff for your YouTube channel is to create content that your ideal, customers, are actively searching for now, whether your video gets watched or not comes down to a number of different factors like the thumbnail you choose the title the competitiveness, of the keyword and just how good the video is overall but there's no better way to get started and really just, to get started in fact, even if you have no intention, of ranking, for different search terms or becoming, YouTube celebrity, it's still worth uploading, your content to YouTube because this can be a valuable resource for you to direct current or potential. Customers, to in order to answer questions, solve problems even provide some troubleshooting, information for, your product or service that they may have overall. Content. Marketing is important video marketing is a great part of content marketing and if you're going to be creating videos then what better place to host them then on YouTube now as I just touched on obviously the next part of YouTube marketing is the advertising, platform, and YouTube. Ads are quickly becoming one of the most profitable and powerful, forms of advertising. Available, online today I said that a little quieter because it's still a bit of a secret you see just, like we saw Google ads exploding. Costs over, the years well we're seeing the same thing happen with Facebook ads but this, hasn't happened yet with YouTube ads meaning we're still able to get in there and get views for pennies on the dollar the thing is the YouTube advertising platform, is a little more complicated than the Facebook ad platform, again which creates that barrier to entry but YouTube's making it a lot easier to get your ads in front of relevant, and ideal target markets and of course there's a number of different ways to do this including, pre-roll ads those kind, of annoying skippable, things that they put in front of the videos that everybody, come out, well. Those actually work same, thing goes for discovery, ads those ads that you see at the top of the search which show a little yellow ad thing well, those work as well and can appear for whenever your ideal target market is putting in a search term that you, your video to appear four key with really maximizing, your YouTube ad is to make sure to follow a really, good script and template, again I'll make sure to link to one in the description box below as well, as to make sure that your targeting is on point meaning you're only showing your ads and your videos to, those who are most likely to take action and do business with your company our, next, tip is something that I get a lot of kickback from and that's using your Facebook personal, page in order, to market and grow your business now the objections, I get are always, the same they range from I'm not even on Facebook, or I don't use Facebook to I don't want to be spammy and promotional. On my personal page and pretty much everything in between but the reality, is is that if you're good at what you do your business offers, a valuable service and really helps people well then you're kind of doing a disservice to people by not educating, and informing them of what you have to offer also, in today's world, where people don't like to do business with businesses, but like to do business with people it really, helps and goes a long way to humanize, your brand and to basically, become a lot more authentic in your business doings so how, do you do this how do you use your Facebook personal page to promote your business well it's actually pretty simple you really just need to be yourself and, talk about things that are of interest to you all the more power if you're able to do this in a way that ties, in to your business in some way shape or form maybe, by telling, customers stories, or talking, about things that are of interest to your market or sharing, successes or highlights or even new developments, that are going on in your world don't, be afraid to start slow here and maybe just put a few kind of tester posts out there just to get started but I think you'll be really pleasantly surprised with, how curious, people are about, this part of your life so don't be afraid to share it alright no video on digital marketing strategies, for small business would be complete without talking about Facebook, advertising, no I know we talked about how YouTube ads are quickly becoming one of the most powerful forms of ads available today but that doesn't mean Facebook is out of the running yet in fact it's, still an a phenomenally.

Powerful Tool in order to get in front of your ideal target market, now I've got a number of videos out on the topic of Facebook advertising so we'll make sure to link to a playlist in the description below, but the point is this if you've, got a small business you need to be using Facebook, Ads you can use them to create brand awareness you, can use them to promote your videos you can use them to generate leads and, away your lead magnet and pretty, much everything in between the, point is is that you've got to spend some time and possibly, some money and some energy as well in deciding, which is going to be the right strategy and the right approach for you but I know there's one out there if you're just getting started and seeing as we're talking a ton about video, in this video well a great place to start is with a facebook video ad the reason this is so powerful is because Facebook, is trying to promote videos as much as possible but you're also able to retarget, people who watch a certain percentage of your video meaning, if someone watches say 25, or 50 percent of your video they've, shown some interest they've shown some intent and they've taken some action by staying involved up to that point well you can now create an audience of these viewers to retarget later with other relevant offers other, videos and essentially, continue to build trust for pennies on the dollar takeaway, point Facebook, ads got, to use them which leads nicely into our next point on Instagram, ads now the, thing with Instagram ads really comes down to the fact is your target market on Instagram, if they are you obviously, want to be using Instagram ads as well the, beauty is is you've got a couple different formats to choose from including feed, ads and stories, ads now if you're not familiar with Instagram those are essentially, just the two main different ways that, people interact with the platform but the key is is choosing the right one for you and your business and then designing them accordingly, the beauty of Instagram, ads along, with Facebook ads along, with pretty much any other kind of advertising is that allows you to instantly, put your message in front of your ideal target market, which means you don't need to spend weeks or months or years building. Up an organic, audience, you can immediately go out there and put your ad right, in front of who you need it for to test whether it works or not or whether you need to refine your offer refine, your targeting and refine, your message in general takeaway point on Instagram ads is if your audiences on Instagram you need to be using Instagram ads they're phenomenally, powerful tool and this leads us nicely into, our next tip which is retargeting. Now retargeting. Essentially, is your ability to go out there and to show ads to people who have engaged with your content and some way shape or form before, now retargeting, is amazingly, powerful for, just a number of different reasons and I get really excited about it because the, beauty of retargeting, is that you can go out there and show your ad to someone and if they take any kind of action whatsoever you're able to go out there and follow up again and again and again which allows you to increase the frequency with, which you're, showing your message to someone and as human, beings we've, been kind of conditioned to associate, frequency, with trust meaning, the more touch points are able to go out there and get in front of your ideal target market, the more they're going to trust you and your business now here's the beauty Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and the Google Display Network all allow, you to use retargeting, here's, an advanced tip all you really need to do is get someone to your main website your, main landing page and as long as you have the pixels installed you're able to then cross retarget, across a number of different platforms, meaning, if you can get someone from Facebook to go to your website well then you can retarget them on Instagram or on the Google Display Network same, thing goes with YouTube if you can get them to go, from YouTube to your website well then you can retarget them on Facebook, or Instagram or.

Back On YouTube again if you want and really they all kind of play together so you create this Pawnee present multi-channel, marketing approach, it sounds super nerdy but it's super cool and this leads us nicely into, our next point on the Google Display Network now, pretty much everyone's familiar with Google as well as Google Ads those things that appear at the top of the search engines and show the little Add button beside, them but, what most people don't know is that Google also has real estate on all sorts of different websites allowing, you to put banner ads anywhere. You want pretty, much now, banner, ads used alone not, the best strategy certainly, not the most effective but when, used in conjunction with, the retargeting, strategies that we just talked about there again a phenomenal, way to increase, the frequency with, which someone, sees your message the beauty of the Google Display Network is that it's really cost effective meaning, you can go out there and show your banner ads to people who have engaged with your content and only, people who have engaged with your content for really really cheap now here's my big point with the Google Display Network I don't recommend using this for cold traffic meaning I don't want you to be going out there and showing this to people who've never engaged or interacted, with your business before it's gonna become really expensive and not that effective but, if you're, using it as a retargeting, method, in order to continue, the relationship to show relevant offers and stay, top of mind with your target market and it's phenomenal tool alright, our next tip on digital marketing strategies, for small business is no, digital marketing strategy, at all which, is exactly why it's a lethal weapon in today's digital. And that tool is direct-mail now, when it comes to direct mail I want you to think about it in the same lines that we just talked about with the Google Display Network meaning. I don't want you to use it to generate cold traffic but rather to nurture the relationship, with existing, customers you see in today's day, and age there's something really valuable about getting a physical tangible, piece of something in the mail this, is true across all kinds of different generations, including Millennials. Who actually value, and open and read hard, copy Direct Mail so, if you've got a customer list or a lead, list or even a prospect, list you definitely want to be taking some time to put together some kind of direct mail material, and my advice here is to keep it as personal, and as, relatable. And authentic, as possible, this means no glossy brochures required, no, really, polished, materials, but really, just a simple typed letter letting them know about what's, going on and why it's important to them and most importantly why they should care fantastic. Tool really, good way to build trust and nurture the relationship, alright our next point is on the lifetime customer, value now, what is the lifetime customer value and why is this important to your business well, for starters the lifetime customer value is, really, pretty much exactly what it sounds like it's the value of a customer over their lifetime to your business now why is this important, well when, you understand, what the value, of a customer actually is to your business it allows you to make really strategic, and really budget conscious decisions, about what, marketing decisions are good and which ones are bad take for example you know that the average, customer value, of a customer to your business over, their lifetime is $1,000 well you can then decide how much of that you want to attribute and allocate to marketing in order, to acquire new customer for, example let's say that you can go out and buy all the customers you want for five hundred dollars well, you may want to do this because you're gonna get a $500. Profit on each one of these decisions. Another. Example is let's say that you're investing, in a certain marketing strategy and it's costing you 1,200 dollars to acquire in your customer obviously you're gonna want to cut this thing off pretty short or make some modifications, soon because, what you're doing is you're acquiring customers and a 200 applause again, all sorts of different formulas, and strategies, and things we can look at later on this but the key point is you really need to understand, what the lifetime customer, value is of a customer to your business so you can make educated, and informed marketing, decisions on which, ones are gonna provide a return on investment and which ones are gonna lose all right so you've made it to our final two tips congratulations.

I Hope you've got a ton of good ideas that you can use and pick and choose and draw from in order to form the perfect strategies, for your business all that said, these next two tips are pretty much going to be powerful regardless. Of which ones you've chosen before because, they've been proven time and time again to deliver the most bang for your marketing buck so the next point that we have to cover here is the importance of testimonials. And case studies, now testimonials. And case studies have been around since basically, the beginning of business when someone said hey how's that business and they said well it's pretty good well, that, right there is a testimonial, what you want to do is you want to capture these and then display, them in order to prove that you actually know what you're doing to your prospective customers, now there's been a ton written about testimonials, and everybody says that you need them in fact so much so that it's often just kind of ignored because it's, assumed to be just something you need so everybody understands, it so everybody, ignores it counterintuitive, but that's the way it works so, don't be one of those people rather make sure to be one of those people that actually understands. The true value and importance, of a testimonial, and a, case study if that's the way your business operates, you see by displaying these and demonstrating, them it provides an enormous, amount of social proof and this is going to become increasingly more important, as we move into the next year and years beyond where skepticism. And cynicism and. Doubt about businesses, and companies is at an all-time high and people are looking for true proven. And authentic, businesses, in order to give their money to now, testimonials. And case studies is a bit of a weird thing if you're talking about when we're talking about digital marketing strategies, for small business but, it's incredibly, important, because acquiring. Testimonials, and building, out really thorough case studies is a fantastic. Way to prove that you actually know what you're doing social proof is one of the most important, influential factors in getting someone to actually trust your business and do business with you and testimonials. And case studies are that social proof that you need in order to do this they can then also be leveraged across all your different social platforms as well as on your website to clearly demonstrate that you're the one for job all right and our final tip and what I believe is the single, most important, element in a digital marketing strategy, above, all is having, a really clear really, identified, and really thoroughly built out ideal, customer avatar so, first a few details on what this avatar should entail and then why it's so important now when we're talking about an ideal customer avatar we're talking about building either a fictional.

Representation. Of your, best customers, or really. Picking kind of like that one or two of your ideal most perfect customers and and really describing who they are and what makes them different we're talking about demographic. Details like age gender income occupation, title, geographic. Details like what city state, province country, neighborhood, wherever, they live and psychographic. Details like attitudes, interests. Opinions beliefs, affiliations. Organizations. Things of that nature the better you understand, your ideal customer avatar the better you're going to be able to make them feel understood, when you're creating your marketing material and that's what really moves the needle and gets them to take action so here's why having an ideal customer avatar is so incredibly, important, well, when you have this ideal customer avatar in mind you know who they are you know what they like you know how they speak how they dress what they do well. Then you're able to make really strategically, aligned marketing, decisions, meaning, you're able to identify which social media platforms, your, ideal customer avatar is active and present on and which ones they're not you're, able to identify what messages, are gonna resonate with them and which ones are gonna fall flat and you're able to determine what types of campaigns to launch and which ones to completely ignore you, see when you look at your digital marketing strategically, and holistically, through the eyes of your ideal customer avatar everything. Gets a lot easier a lot more clear and a lot more effective which is why it's my talk tip on my top digital marketing strategy, for small businesses, all right so thanks so much for watching I hope you enjoyed the episode if, so make sure to give it a thumbs up subscribe to the channel and say hello in the comment section below for more great marketing strategies, tools tips tricks and tactics make sure to head over to Adam Ericom which is packed full of resources articles blogs and videos all designed, to help take your marketing and your business to the next level and way beyond that all right so thanks so much for watching I'll catch you next time on the modern marketing show.

2019-04-13 15:06

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