5 Common Digital Marketing Mistakes You Need to Avoid

With time the digital space is continually & constantly evolving and this alone makes it very different from the offline world. Therefore, it's only logical that the marketing techniques you employ to attract a digital audience should be unique and creative.

You might think your digital marketing strategy produces an effective return on investment. What if you're wrong, and simply wasting your money? Let's explore the following mistakes for you to avoid them and make a success of your business.

1.     Not Having Goals

It can be almost difficult for you to market your website and rank higher on Google if you don't have a target or plan set out. It's important to have clear goals to find out how to market to your target audience and how to get more people to enter your company. All will follow your clearly established objectives, from your website to the advertisement campaigns. This way, your audience can see a common thread going through everything you do.

 

2.    Not Listening to the Audience

The life-blood of your business is your target audience and customers. Not listening to them could create a negative image of your business. Users hate it when their speech sometimes goes unheard of. You have to try to solve problems and problems people experience by listening carefully to feedback from the audience. This can tell you what you are doing right in the future, and what you should skip.

 

3.    Not Engaging on Social Media

In this digital world, it would probably be considered a shame if you still haven't built profiles or been engaged on social media. Keep in mind that social media marketing is crucial to your digital marketing strategy and helps you communicate with your target audience and engage them personally. You connect with your audience on a more interactive level by commenting, liking, and sharing.

 

4.    Producing Content for Content’s Sake

The days are gone where writing the same old redundant content found on any other site would get you on Google rankings. With the updated algorithms from the search engine, it is now imperative that your approach to content development be unique and distinctive. To get your viewers excited about what's happening, be imaginative with creating material.

 

5.    Not Properly Understanding the Use of SEO

SEO plays a big role in digital marketing, much as Dr. Watson does in the life of Sherlock Holmes. You are on the wrong track to success if you don't understand its meaning. Hiring an SEO agency is a good decision because it can make the requisite adjustments to help you rank your website. Tactics like keyword stuffing, backlink overloading, and hidden text won't get you too far.

So, if you wish to rank better on the results pages of Google, make sure to avoid these five common digital marketing mistakes.

Read more »

Social Media Etiquette for Business Owners: Do’s & Don’ts

Social Media Etiquette for Business Owners: Do’s & Don’ts

                        

When it comes to social media, chances are your target customer is using it.

• 2.8 billion people were using social media by the end of 2016, up 21 percent from 2015
• 83 percent of Americans have a social media account
• 48 percent of Americans have interacted with companies on at least one social media network
• Mobile use of social media increased by 30 percent in 2016, surpassing 2.5 billion users globally (91 percent of all social media users)
• Young adults were among the most strongly represented social media adopters but usage by older adults has increased in recent years

As a business owner or marketer, you know the impact social media has on the connection between companies and consumers. But are you making the right impact?

The constant evolution of social networks can make it difficult to remain on top of best practices in social media etiquette. Business owners who log in to these social networks only occasionally may find it difficult to fully understand all the nuances that act as unwritten rules of use.

When it comes to business, actions and what to do or not to do with the social media etiquette, it takes experience to truly understand how these tips relate to your everyday behavior. Here are 7 do's and don'ts for business when it comes to social media etiquette:

1.    Don’t Just Advertise on Your Brand’s Social Media Feed

We don't fully rule out the marketing, but the trend shows people want to seek brands with a varied, detailed, and sensitive social media stream. Brian Solis, principal analyst at Altimeter Group has put forward the following three pillars on which the brand promotion base lies: listen, learn, and engage. If you want loyal customers who bring in more, the sole purpose of your social media feed should be to listen to the concerns of customers, to use that knowledge to improve your brand/service, and organic likes and sales will naturally, follow.

 

2.    Do Promote and Build Your Brand’s Culture Through SMM

Share your brand stories more than the specifications about the product. You can make your social media feed a better experience for the visitors by promoting the following:

·        The story that inspired you to start the brand/business

·        Welfare is what causes the company supports and the research you did for it

·        Your consumer and employee interactions/stories of your brand

·        Creating a themed environment in which your clients communicate with one another

·        Other blogs and articles conveying useful information about your niche

 

3.    Don’t Spam Your Followers’ Feeds

Don't spam your audience again and again by posting unnecessary or the same information. When you continuously inundate your followers several times a day with the above, they will most definitely hit the 'unfollow' button, most soon. And quite rightly so! Make sure your posts don't revolve around the same topic, the same information, or nonsensical, irrelevant topics.

 

4.    Do Understand Your Audience

The 80/20 rules state that your social media strategy's 80 percent focus should be on your audience, or how your brand can be useful to them. Only 20% of the strategy should focus on self-branding. Therefore, to be successful in social media marketing, you must prioritize understanding of your audience. Your social media feed has to be tailored to suit the following factors about your target audience:

·         Age range

·         Gender

·         Country/region

·         Occupations

·         Peak times of the day when the audience activity is very high.

 

 

5.    Don’t Use Inappropriate Media

It's easier to select from the range of social networking platforms open to you, rather than run a campaign anywhere mindlessly. If you don't have enough manpower to fuel all of your campaigns, unique and independent of one another, the later can get you in trouble. Additionally, not all social media platforms can match your target market and business needs. For example, if you run a bespoke jewelry business, Instagram would serve your promotion far better than LinkedIn. Make more emphasis on quality than quantity. Run successful, effective campaigns on social media sites that your target audience most frequently visits.

 

6.     Do Provide Customer Service

Social media has become a vast customer care center where people pose issues and concerns about a brand and brand owners tackle the issue in the form of comments or tweets! Don't trim the cord. Have a customer service manager handy at all times who replies to your customers with free advice and solutions. Train the customer service managers to get things done for your customers over the internet and see how this helps in sales.

 

7.    Don’t Get Comfortable

It's always reviving out of one's comfort zone to indulge in experiments, try and make errors. If you're getting comfortable with only one social media marketing strategy, people won't stay interested and engaged for long. Therefore, ensure that you continue to tweak your products as well as the social media campaign, introduce bizarre new features, and develop new links with other communities.

Read more »

What and Why of Mobile Marketing!

What is Mobile Marketing?

Mobile marketing is the art of selling the business for mobile device users to cater to. When done correctly, mobile marketing provides personalized, time- and location-sensitive information for customers or potential customers using smartphones so they can get what they need exactly when they need it, even if they're on the go.

Mobile affects the way consumers interact with the brands. Everything you can do on a desktop computer is possible on a mobile device now. It's all accessible via a tiny mobile screen, from opening an email to visiting your web site to reading your material. Consider:

• 80% of the internet users own a smartphone.
• Mobile platforms, such as smartphones and tablets, host up to 60% of digital media time for users in the U.S.
• Google anticipates search queries on mobile devices to surpass desktop searches by the end of 2015.

Effective mobile advertising means understanding your mobile audience, designing content with mobile platforms in mind, and making strategic use of SMS/MMS marketing and mobile apps.

 

Why should we go for Mobile Marketing?

Nowadays, the value of mobile marketing is important for companies to reach out to their clients and potential clients. Yet because everybody is interested in their phone, marketing campaigns need to find a way to get there to meet them.

Top 7 Benefits of Mobile Marketing

1.   Mobile Marketing Reaches a Broader Market

With billions of phones out there now, more people – who have not been able to do so before – can more connect to the world via the Internet. That means millions, if not billions, of people, are out there to sell your product to.

2.   Instant Results

Since phones are so mobile, lots of people are either holding a phone on or right next to them. Without them we cannot leave the house even. This ensures that our phones will be dinging to give us feedback the second time it happens. You can watch and stay updated from your fingertips on anything relevant to your company.

3.   Convenient to Use

Since a mobile phone 's screen size is small, it restricts the content selection that can be viewed. Which makes it easy for the content creators, who can keep it simple and basic. Simpler content can also help adapt itself to the various mobile platforms.

4.   Direct Marketing 

Mobile marketing is direct marketing because a smartphone is normally often next to others. In addition, advertisers may have direct interactions via costumers via social media to get immediate feedback.

5.   Large potential for Getting Viral

You've got this domino effect here. Because mobile content can be quickly shared by users, mobile marketing enhances the opportunity for virality or a piece of content-usually a video-" going viral. Users are more likely to share good information and deal with their friends and family, and companies get a lot of exposure with no extra effort.

6.   Put You Ahead of Your Competition

While you may think many companies are online, there are still many companies that have not adapted to mobile marketing yet. But, if your company first reaches out for all of these mobile marketing opportunities, then your company will be at an advantage.

7.   Mobile Payment

The new mobile payment system is nowadays very convenient for consumers. Here, a secure online payment platform is provided to users that work via advanced mobile web systems. This means that each time the user wants to make a mobile purchase or pay a bill online, he does not need to cough up the physical currency.

Read more »

Email Marketing

Email marketing is a form of email promotion of products or services. Email marketing is a top digital media source, and essential for attracting and maintaining customers. Send pulse provides a free program to their email marketing platform.

                      

 

What is E-mail Marketing?

E-mail marketing in the simplest sense is the use of email to advertise products or services. But a better description of email marketing is the use of email to create relationships with potential clients or customers. Email marketing is one segment of online marketing that includes online marketing through websites, social media, blogs , and more.

 

Basic facts related to email marketing is important

In the age of social media, it's tempting to write off email. But consider the following statistics:

·        91% of email users check their email at least once a day. 

·        Email marketing returns an impressive $42 for every $1 spent. 

·        59% of survey respondents say email influences their purchase decisions. 

·        Email marketing has a conversion rate of 2.3%, compared to 1% for social media.

The big advantage email has over social media is that prospects and clients are more likely than social media to receive an email. Simply posting something on social media doesn't mean your message will be seen by everybody you want to see. An email will however sit in an inbox until it is read (or deleted).

Ideally it should go hand in hand with social media email marketing. Adding "Like" or "Share" social media buttons to your marketing emails gives clients an additional way to connect with your brand. You can provide snippets of favorable feedback from social media fans in newsletters, and conversely, social media posts can be used to invite fans to subscribe to your email newsletter.

If you do it correctly, email marketing can substantially increase your revenue. It's a perfect way to get people to visit (and revisit) your website or blog, and more visits typically means more sales.

Why E-Mail Marketing?

1.   Your customers check their email every day

How many times do you have your emails opened on your computer or mobile device? Whether it's personal or work-related, most people check their email at least once a day to see what new messages they have got. They check their inbox 20 times daily, to be specific. And 68.9% of these recipients open marketing messages 2-3 days a week with their mobile phones.

2.   You can drive more conversions with email marketing

A major benefit of email marketing is that it often offers higher conversion rates than other marketing strategies. McKinsey actually reports that an email's average order value is at least 3x higher than the average order value of social media posts. Your business can drive more conversions through email marketing, after developing an effective communication strategy.

3.   It is more cost-effective than traditional marketing tactics

Compared with other traditional marketing methods, such as direct mail and print media, e-mail marketing is fairly inexpensive. While these traditional print marketing tactics require that you spend money on printing and advertising space, e-mail marketing requires only a small amount of time and resources to develop effective content. Email marketing also provides an attractive return on investment (ROI) in addition to relatively low operating costs. Businesses can expect an average return of $38 for every $1 they spend on email marketing according to one DBS Data report.

4.    It can increase traffic to your website

Email marketing messages can also boost traffic to your website. Within your email address, you can connect to relevant website material, or build a convincing CTA that asks readers to go back to your website to take a particular action. If you really want to make your CTA stand out, you may want to use a colorful button which makes it easy for readers to notify your CTA and return to your website.

5.   You can increase brand awareness through email marketing

Brand awareness is one of the most important email marketing advantages. By getting your email messages into the inboxes of potential new customers, email marketing helps you to increase your brand awareness. The clearer your contact is with your email subscribers, the more likely they will be when they are searching for your goods or services to think about your business.

Read more »

Content Marketing

“Great content is the best sales tool in the world.”
~Marcus Sheridan

In today’s scenario the traditional marketing methods are getting unpopular. Customers are either media savvy or tech savvy and they are least interested in reading banners. But surfing the internet is the new trend and that’s where content marketing comes into the role.

Now let’s understand what is content marketing and why it is that important!!

What is Content Marketing?

If you hire 10 experts to explain you about content marketing, you will end up having 10 different definitions of content marketing. But all their definition will have one thing in common that is the core concept of content marketing.

Content marketing is a marketing strategy that focuses on creating, publishing and distributing content to a target audience to bring new traffic to your business.

This is almost always done online through the use of social media, blogs, e-books, and other downloadable or interactive tools that share your brand and expertise with your buyer.

Why Content writing is important?

1.    It Builds Brand’s Goodwill and Gains Trust of the Consumers

One of the greatest benefits that really shows the importance of content marketing is the goodwill building qualities of great content. In today’s busy digital marketplace, it’s important that businesses work to build trust with their customers. Building trust can help your business establish a goodwill of the brand.

2.    Great content leads to more conversions

It is very true that a content that is of quality always influences the readers and also persuades them to attain CTA. Let’s talk about stats that shows the influencing power of great content:

 

ü Content marketing provides conversion rates about 6 times higher than other digital marketing methods. (ABG Essentials)

ü After reading recommendations on a blog, 61% of online consumers in the U.S. then decided to make a purchase. (Content Marketing Institute)

ü According to 74% of companies surveyed, content marketing has increased their marketing leads, both in quantity and quality. (Curata)

ü Video content can help provide a great ROI and significantly increase conversions, according to 72% of businesses surveyed. (CrazyEgg)

ü Inbound marketers are able to double the average site conversion rate (from 6 to 12%), in part due to their content marketing efforts. (HubSpot)

 

3.    Creating Brand Awareness

Let’s be honest, most people don’t know about the existence of your business and its time to change that. If done correctly, you can use content marketing to increase traffic to your site so you can get consistent, quality traffic and inbound links to your site, and introduce them to a brand they never knew existed. You’ll be able to generate more awareness and leads for your business through your content and use it to demonstrate your skill and expertise again and again.

 

4.    Helps with Digital Marketing

Content is a pillar underpinning all Digital Marketing Strategies and services. Let's take SEO (Search Engine Optimization) as an example. To begin with, SEO, the first thing that comes into one's mind is a keyword, a part of the content to be inserted into the website (Web Content). A picture or video are also forms of content that are used in particular for social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn to help promote a product or service through Social Media Marketing. When it comes to delivering results for the digital marketing techniques one uses for their business, expert content is essential. Search engine algorithms change from time to time, but the only thing that remains constant is the content reliance for a better-ranked website, particularly the text material.

 

5.    Helps with Educating your Audience

In particular, material should be created for the sole purpose of informing your clients. After all, a visitor is eager to find answers to his / her questions and has come to your website. With such kind of informative content, not only do you provide them with what you need, but you also build a strong relationship with them in the process. People are just going back to websites that they can trust. The more that you keep engaging your audiences the better it is.

 

 

 

Read more »

5 Reasons Why The Future of Digital Marketing is Bright in India

India, a densely populated nation with a population of 1,339,180,900 (as of July 2017) is ranked second in the world. There are plenty of opportunities created for people every minute. And when we say digital marketing, then remember that in the coming years the future of digital marketing in India and the future reach of digital marketing will shine brighter. A mobile phone has become a basic requirement for everyone.

And if your mom decides to try out a new recipe, she’s probably using YouTube to get the jot down on what's needed and how to do it. And when it comes to the company, there's no question the digital marketing trend is on the boom.

To increase coverage, everybody wants to sell their goods and services over the internet. These are some main advantages compared with traditional marketing which makes this marketing strategy more effective and affordable.

Let’s list down the top 5 reasons as to why the future of digital marketing is going to be bright in India.

1.    Significant changes in Traditional Marketing

The previous conventional marketing range was limited to door-to-door and mouth ads. The advertisers had previously been using physical energy to sell their goods. Yet now people want everything at their disposal, with the changing times.

How was the marketing of many of the big companies earlier? They used to promote their products through mediums like banners, newspapers, or television.

But today maximum of them are present of different digital platforms and promoting their brands aggressively.

Through this way we can all see clearly the contrast in whether a dramatic shift has been made in traditional marketing. And the digital marketing has absolutely taken over.

2.    Digital is the New Game

In the country everybody prefers digital marketing over everything else. Even the startups launch their business through digital marketing. This platform is making every business process easier. The business doesn't have to expend the manpower to enter the market physically and promote the product.

It offers a broad array of economic, powerful, and contemporary marketing mechanisms and media. Every type of product and service now opts for the Digital Marketing alternative. Since they know this is the established platform. There are on the digital platform right from the tech giants to hoteliers.

 

3.    Government’s “Digital India” initiative backs up

The Government of India has launched the Digital India program with a vision to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy in order to transform the entire ecosystem of public services through the use of IT.

Now, the opportunities are accessible not only in metro cities but in small towns as well. The government has also come up with the Jobs Plan proposal. These days everything goes digital. So if we're talking about a digital marketing career in India, you 're in the right place. Stop arguing the options and find out what advantages it brings.

The Indian Prime Minister announced that more than 20 Lacs would be available to students on the digital space by 2020. Additionally, many industries joined hands with the government during the launch of Digital India Week to make e-India a reality.

 

4.    Reaching Global Markets

It's said today that "Being Digital is Global" And the truth is this. One can touch the audience of every corner of the world through digital channels like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. The scope of these social media sites is so massive you can now relate to virtually anyone.

Many people do business in India whose target audience is only the USA. With social media, then, anything is possible. In addition, many US companies prefer Indian Digital Marketing Agencies to plan their social media campaigns.

 In other words, a great deal is happening in the digital marketing space in India. Many people talk about it and also look for it.

 

5.    Affordable

Digital marketing is one of the most inexpensive outlets to sell the product as compared with other marketing channels. Gone are the days one spent thousands and lacs n having a newspaper ad printed. It's become so easy with digital media. If you're a real estate firm, you can support your latest social media project by hitting thousands at once.

  Creating an ad on Facebook hardly costs around ₹42 per day, which is nothing. Average CPC (Cost per click) is ₹0.52 to ₹2.3. Spending lacs of rupees on a single ad and spending just ₹42 per day can give good results.

Many industries and new start-ups, all are heavily investing in the digital marketing activities. They are looking for people who can devise and implement digital marketing strategies that suit their needs.

 

Read more »

6 ways of Improving your Social Media Engagement

Social Media is one of the most important aspects of digital marketing. In the current scenario if you are not using social media platforms for the marketing of your business then you are missing out on a major opportunity. And to grow our reach on the social media platforms we need to put in some efforts that will give us results for the long term.

 

Create content that people can engage with

 If you want to increase social media engagement, you need to create content that people like and want to engage with. It could be a poll on Twitter, a video people can relate to, an image that makes people laugh, or a quote or meme that encourages someone to tag their friends. Choose to post content that will receive a positive reaction from the followers. Is your post about something beautiful, helpful, inspiring, funny, or relatable? Choose content that triggers the emotions of the people. As you’re building a brand avoid posting things that’ll make people angry at your brand such as sensitive or controversial issues.

 Create Unique Content

 Creating unique content always makes you stand out from the crowd. If you have just started posting, then you’ll want to have a mix of your own content and popular content you’ve found on the internet. If sharing someone else’s content always give them credit them on your page. When it comes to your own content, you can create quote graphics, funny gifs, viral videos, memes, and more. Creating your own content can take time to create. However, with good efforts, you’ll find that you eventually get more shares which will help you to grow your social media following.

Respond to comments & messages

To increase social media engagement, you need to be social with your followers too. When customers send you a message or leave a comment on a post, they’re giving you an opportunity to interact with them. Whether they leave a positive or negative message, you should always be responding to each customer. You can show appreciation for positive messages and suggest a solution for negative ones. The only time you wouldn’t respond to a comment is if someone tags their friend as they’re not directly engaging with you.

Encourage Readers to Comment, Like, and Share

When you create a post add a call to action at the end of it. Make sure that your followers help you with your growth. You can ask people to tag, like, comment, and share with their friends. People are more likely to share a post if you ask them to do so.

Use Images

 According to Buffer, tweets that include images tend to gain 100% more retweets than tweets that don’t include them. Pictures capture more attention when scrolling through newsfeeds than just plain text. Adding relevant images to your post will help you with more social media engagement.

Use Right #hashtags

Using the right hashtags can not only lead to an increase in the number of likes & comments but can also drive the right traffic (Target Audience) to your page. Using right #hashtags is something in which many of the people face difficulties in so there are many websites on google that can help you by figuring outright #hashtags as per your services.

 Bonus Point

Have Patience 

Social media growth is a marathon where a person who knows when to put how much effort wins the race. Here steadiness is required than being much faster. Because it takes a significant amount of time for any brand to be a leader on social media platforms.

Read more »

5 reasons why Social Media Marketing is Important for your Business

Social media is quickly becoming one of the most critical elements of digital marketing, offering enormous benefits that help attract millions of consumers around the world. And if you don't use this profitable source, you 're missing out on an incredible marketing opportunity because it helps you to spread the word about your product and mission easily.

Brand awareness improved

Social media is one of the most stress-free and efficient digital marketing channels which can be used to increase visibility for your company. Develop social media profiles for your company to get started, and start networking with others. This will help you to tremendously increase your brand awareness by implementing a social media strategy. Over 91% of marketers claimed that their social marketing efforts greatly increased their brand visibility and increased user experience by spending only a few hours a week. Undoubtedly, creating a social media account for your company will help your business and be able to create a large audience for your business in no time, with daily usage.

Cost-effective 

Social media marketing is probably the most cost-effective way of running an advertising campaign. Nearly all social networking platforms are free to create an account and sign up. But if you want to use paid social media ads, always start small to see what you'd expect. It is important to be cost-effective as it helps you obtain a greater return on investment and hold a higher budget for other marketing and business payments. Just by investing a little bit of money and time, you can increase your conversion rates significantly and ultimately get a return on the money you've primarily invested.

Improved brand loyalty

When you have a presence on social media, you make it easier for your clients to find you and connect with you. By connecting with your clients via social media, you are more likely to boost customer retention and customer loyalty. Because developing a loyal client base is one of almost any business' main goals. Commonly, customer service and brand loyalty go hand in hand. It is essential to engage with your customers frequently and to begin developing a bond with them. Social media is not only limited to promoting the company but is also a leading advertising marketing site. A customer sees those platforms as channels of service where they can communicate directly with the business.

Marketplace awareness

Marketplace awareness is one of the best ways to find the needs and wants of your customers, instead of communicating directly with them. It's also seen as the social media's most important benefit. By observing the activities on your profile, you can see the interests and opinions of customers that you might not know otherwise if you don't have a presence on social media. Social media can help you get information and a better understanding of your industry as a complementary research tool. Once you get a great deal of information, you can then use additional tools to examine your consumers' other demographics.

Increased traffic

Another advantage of Social Media is that it also helps to increase the traffic on your website. By sharing your content on social media, you 're giving users a reason to click your website through. The more quality content you share on your social account; the more inbound traffic you will generate while making conversion chances.

Conclusion

There is no doubt that social media marketing provides a lot of benefits to startups and proven brands. It will lead to increased traffic, better SEO, stronger brand loyalty, higher customer satisfaction, and much more through daily updating of the right social media marketing strategy. Your competition on social media is now growing day by day, so don't let your rivals take your likely clients. The earlier you start, the faster you'll see your business grow.

Read more »