Digital Marketing

People are becoming more sophisticated, the technology is evolving at a rapid rate and digital advertisers are keeping up with the changes by employing advanced tools and techniques; native advertising is one such format that allows marketers to convey their messages more efficiently to the customers.

Introducing Native Advertising

“Ads that blend in”

Native ads are paid ads that blend in with the content being consumed. These forms don’t stand out obviously as advertisements unlike banner or display ads; rather they fit in with the content flow of the site in which they appear. This ‘fitting in’ is because the ads mimic the function, look and feel of the site or the app in which they are placed. Such seamless integration with the user experience imparts a certain amount of trust to the audience. 

With the change in user behaviour towards discovering and consuming content on media, and with increased resistance toward traditional ads, digital marketers are leaning towards native advertising to cater to and engage with modern customers.

A Brief On The Types

Native ads, just like other forms of advertisements, have different formats as illuminated below.

In-feed ads

In-feed ads are those that are seamlessly displayed in our social media feed or publishers’ websites such as The Times Of India. These placements are paid for and appear in-line with other published content without any flow disruption.

Since in-feed ads fit in with the content flow of each site, their appearance varies from site to site, depending on the user experience offered by each of the sites.

Paid search ads

Advertisers and marketers use native ads as a form of search engine advertising. These are basically ads that appear on the top of the search results page. These native paid ads look like organic search results instead of standing out as an advertisement. This blending-in makes these ads more likely to be clicked by the users.

Recommendation ads

There are other spots on publisher sites, search engine results page and social media, where one can find a native ad. These are the recommendation widgets that appear at the side of the page or the bottom of an article. These ads recommend other content that we may like.

Sponsored ads

Promoted or sponsored ads appear when we use e-commerce websites or shopping apps. When we perform a search for a particular product, these promoted listings, which are similar to our searched product, appear in the search results and look similar to organic listings. This appearance prompts a customer to click on these promoted products as well.

Native display ads

These are display ads with native ad elements. They are similar to any other ads we might see on the web, but the difference is that these ads will have contextual relevance; they will not look out of place on the page where they appear.

“A/B test no matter which type you choose”

Parties That Benefit From Native Ads

We might believe that it is just the companies and businesses that gain from native advertising, but here is the case:

• Users also gain benefits from native ads! Native ads cater to the tastes of the consumers. They can discover and engage with the content of their interest or preference when such native ads are displayed.
• Native ads benefit publishers as well. Publishers monetize their content across multiple devices and platforms using native advertisements.
• Of course, businesses as well gain benefits using native ads. They use native ads to reach target audience at impactful moments when users are already consuming similar content.

“Consumers engage 53% more with native ads than other types”

Choosing The Right Platform

To optimize native advertising, one needs to choose the right platform for content discovery. The platform should be capable of reaching a substantial number of users for effective functioning. Taboola is one such platform that has gained traction. These content discovery platforms use predictive algorithms to show users those ads that are aligned with their interests. Below, we have listed out the prerequisites to check before choosing a content discovery platform.

• Network quality of the platform: The websites and page placements to which the platform has access.
• Platform compatibility: The platform should be checked for its compatibility with various software solutions such as CRMs, operating systems and various devices as well.
• Tracking functionality: One should be able to track the required performance metrics.
• Targeting capability: We should check the targeting and retargeting capacities of the platform, the possibilities for B2B and B2C targeting, targeting based on demographics, behaviour and more.
• Reach: It is also critical to check if the platform can reach a large user base in the targeted regions.
• Service: It is a huge added bonus if the platform offers flexible self-service options as well as account management support.

The Programmatic Native Ads

Programmatic native advertising is nothing but serving native ads to targeted consumers in real-time. Businesses and brands can optimize their already advantageous native ads for RoI by using programmatic auctioning of the ads in the real-time bidding process. This process happens within a fraction of a second to deliver the best user experience. Programmatic native advertising helps optimize campaigns by pausing ads that don’t work and investing more in those that do work. These ads increase user engagement and this translates to higher conversions. 

“Native ads have a significant positive effect on purchase behaviour”

Leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to boost business is no longer an anticipated future. Companies have already begun exploiting AI and ML, although the comprehensive effects are not yet completely foreseeable. With the rapid advancement in technology, today marketing and ML function in tandem.

As with many other sectors, the emergence of AI and ML is impacting the landscape of digital marketing as well. It provides marketers with data insights that help gain a deeper understanding of the target audience and efficiently anticipate their behaviour. This is the key to establishing enhanced interactions with them by streamlining marketing efforts. According to a Gartner report, 85 percent of customer interactions will be facilitated without a human intervention by 2020.

Companies that use AI and ML will reduce their time spent in certain business functions and thus can invest this additional time to focus on other key areas such as innovation and strategy. To remain competitive in this rapidly evolving marketplace, it has become imperative for companies to advance and equip themselves with the new tools. 

This writeup explores the influences of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in different aspects of digital marketing.

Content generation and curation

Although it is impossible for AI and ML tools to replace humans’ perspectives, news pieces and reports can be generated by ML tools based on the available data and inputs. Tools such as Quill, Articoolo and Wordsmith are already being used to compose news by the likes of Forbes and are efficiently acquiring clicks to the respective websites. By creating ‘fill in the blanks’ to input relevant keywords and data, the tools can generate content that appears human-written. We have all been exposed to AI-generated content from big names such as Reuters, New York Times and BBC.

AI is beneficial not only for content generation — with AI and ML it is possible to curate highly relevant content to showcase to website visitors. The advanced tools can add a touch of personalization by analysing and identifying the type of content and keywords that are most relevant to the target audience. A visitor is more likely to spend time on a website where their interests are being recommended and displayed on the screen.

Search engine optimization (SEO)

SEO is essential for a robust digital strategy. With the recent advances in the way a user makes a search, it is time to rethink the methodology of content optimization. Today, a user can search the web using the voice search. Google Home, Microsoft’s Cortana, Apple’s Siri and Amazon Echo are innovations that are here to stay and considering this, web content needs to be optimized to provide the best results from the interpretation of the voice searches. Given that voice searches taken on a more natural, conversational tone, keywords will no longer be of high relevance. The quality of the content itself will matter when voice search takes over completely. Google’s RankBrain, a Machine Learning algorithm can efficiently interpret voice searches and extract highly relevant results.

Email marketing

Businesses are utilising AI and ML to analyse user preferences and behaviour patterns. With the insights gained, the marketers are personalizing email marketing campaigns to appeal to individual users more effectively. This touch of personalization will be pivotal to a prospect converting to a client.

With Machine Learning, one can analyze large sets of data and peg down the best days and times to contact a prospect, the ideal frequency for communicating with customers, the specific content that grabs their attention and even the email titles and subject lines that have high potential to generate more clicks from the audience. With such detailed insights, time spent on A/B testing can be reduced and marketers can easily personalize their emails to each subscriber. Some of the AI-based email marketing tools are Phrasee, Persado and Boomtrain.

Website design and UX

We might not require a programmer or a developer moving forward. AI-based applications such as Grid can build a professional website in no time and at a reasonable cost. The application attains user-provided data, such as call-to-actions, images, specific texts with the help of AI and based on these, it builds a website that highly appeals to the user. 

The user experience on a website can also be personalized using AI. With AI and ML, large sets of data, including devices used, locations, demographics, interactions with the website can be analysed for a single user, which can then be utilised to display content and offers relevant to the specific user. This personalized user experience is capable of driving high conversions.

Chatbots

Chatbots are virtual robots that are capable of engaging in conversations with consumers through text or voice. For digital marketing purposes, chatbots can be used to interact with specific target groups in a personalized manner. With the diminishing patience of humans, chatbots can be taken advantage of to provide immediate responses to user queries, perform quick and relevant searches for users and provide appropriate information on time. Chatbots with natural learning process (NLP) are capable of conversing in human-like tones and this, in turn, enhances the user experience. Via Machine Learning, these chatbots can learn from the user interactions, collect and interpret the data and provide accurate responses with time. An AI-powered chatbot will be able to answer open questions and not just the frequently asked ones.

The advantages of a system that can quickly chart out patterns, recognise trends in real-time and return appropriate responses are unparalleled. This facility to learn on the go will make Machine Learning an indispensable asset for marketing in the near future. Adopting such advanced tools to provide optimized solutions will prepare the business for an AI-dependant future.

Consumers also begin to change their expectations with such advancements. This, in turn, gives companies an opportunity to develop new products and services that meet the changing consumer needs. One such product is Baidu’s deep voice which is capable of generating synthetic human voice by imitating the pitch, pronunciation and tones of real human speakers.

As final thoughts, regardless of the presumption that tools will soon replace human services, AI and ML are merely meant to assist and enhance the role of digital marketers; human intervention will never lose its significance. At Digital X, we are ever-thirsty for knowledge and adapt quickly to changing business-scapes. We do not limit ourselves to our existing skillset; we believe in continual learning for the purpose of your growth and therefore ours!

The latest trend observed in searching for information is the ‘voice search’. With the diminishing patience of people, newer ways to get quicker results are being sought after. The voice search helps in finding information on the internet much easier while reducing the time and effort in doing the same. The voice search technology is undergoing exponential growth every year. This promising future of this advanced technology is causing major brands like Amazon and Google to leverage it.

Explaining The Voice Technology

The voice search technology allows users to search the internet using just spoken words (voice). There is no more need for typing out the queries. One can just voice out their questions to their smartphones, computers and other smart devices to trigger an action — a digital assistant will answer the query. This voice technology is not limited to just browsing the web and getting queries answered. Other domains like playlist management, placing a call, calendar management, email management, shopping and more are being served by this technology, with this list only growing by the day. Today, some of the popular and effective voice-based systems that answer questions are the Google Voice Search, Siri, Cortana and Amazon Echo. These are basically dialogue-based systems, making them quite interactive.

Below is a list of the top devices and software that allow voice-based search:

• iPhone – Siri
• Amazon Echo – Alexa
• Smart devices like laptops and smartphones that have Google Assistant and Microsoft Cortana
• Google Home

Voicing Out In The Future

In the constantly evolving digital sphere, the progressive changes in user demands are the main drivers of this shift toward voice-based technology. In a quest for optimizing the efficiency, speed and user convenience, the voice technology evolved creating a new trend. The millennial consumers are demonstrating greater comfort with using this technology. The increased adoption of smart devices based on IoT is another major factor that is fuelling the demand for voice technology. Smart IoT-based devices such as speakers, thermostats, remotes and appliances are paving the way for voice technology in the consumers’ lives. The usage of this technology might not be restricted to just basic home and office needs. Experts predict that most applications will be integrated with voice technology in the coming years, making it a fundamental of the modern-day.

For the year 2020 and beyond, let’s have an overview of the major elements that this technology might leave a mark in:

Search Behaviour

Voice search is something that is already in use, especially by the millennial crowd. It is predicted that the search behaviour will take a long leap forward by dominantly using the voice search. Juniper Research predicts that ad revenues generated by employing voice tech will reach nearly $19 billion by the year 2022 and that this will be driven by the increased establishment and usage of voice search apps on smartphones. There is now a shift from touchpoint to listening points, making organic search extremely critical for brands. Data from Comscore show that by 2020, 50% of web search will be via employing voice tech. With the advancement in voice tech, marketing and advertising agencies will also shift to the new platforms and align their marketing strategies that will include different formats of paid messages to their strategy.

Voice Push Notifications

Push notifications focus on re-engaging customers with apps. These notifications are generally user-centric, aiming at customer retention. Voice technology will change the means of distributing these notifications. As an example, Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant now allow consumers to hear rather than read the notifications from any compatible third-party apps. These notifications could be calendar appointments and reminders.

Device Integration

Integrating voice technology to multiple smart devices allow manufacturers to create custom voice-assisted products that will continue to carry out the innate functions. The foremost examples are the integration of Amazon’s Alexa to a wide range of products like Samsung’s Family Hub fridges and Alexa-enabled wall clock. The usage of such voice-assisted devices is set to grow exponentially in the year 2020. These devices could include mid-level devices that do not have full-blown smart speakers but rather function via Bluetooth connectivity to other smart devices like smartphones where any processing would take place.

The Helping Voice For Your Business

As the voice technology proceeds towards becoming a necessity in tomorrow’s business-scape, here are strong reasons why you should embrace it:

Voice-optimized SEO to drive website traffic

SEO depends on the search terms users type in their web browser, but with the voice technology replacing the habit of typing, a fundamental change in SEO practices is something that one cannot ignore anymore. Voice-optimized SEO successfully established for your website will mean, tomorrow when users search online for information using the voice search, your website will appear higher in search results. This increased traffic to your website will reflect in the growth of your business.

To stay a step ahead of your competitors

Charting out a strong voice-based marketing strategy is not only essential to allow your customers to find you, but it is also required to ensure that your prospective customers do not find your competition instead. There is a high possibility that when a voice-friendly user searches for a product or service offered by you, he or she can be directed right to your voice-optimized competitors. To have a leg up in the competition, adopting voice technology is the path to take.

To nurture loyalty amongst customers

Employing voice technology is not just required for staying ahead in the competition — it can also help you offer excellent customer experience. The voice recognition skill can be used generate more personalized content and responses, enabling a more natural interaction with your brand for each individual. With the speed of voice search results, a customer can experience instant gratification in today’s busy life. This personalization combined with high speed encourages customer loyalty and retention.

Let’s Talk Stats

The numbers below show that voice technology is here to stay!

• The global market for smart speakers reached a tremendous 20.7 million units being sold in Q1, 2019, which accounted for the triple-digit 131% growth in that quarter.
• Alpine.AI’s 2018 stats revealed that as of January, the number of voice searches averaged 1 billion per month and this number has only been growing since then.
• Global Web Index studies show that 34% of people who do not yet own a voice-assisted device are interested to purchase one.
• Sourced from BrightLocal, it is shown that 76% of those who use smart speakers perform weekly voice searches.
• Another information sourced from BrightLocal shows that 51% of users use voice search to get information on restaurants.
• PwC’s report states that 93% of users are highly satisfied with their voice assistants.
• By 2022, voice-assisted consumer spending is expected to increase to 18% as per Martech.
• Gartner data reveals that 30% of internet browsing will be screenless by the year 2020.
• Comscore experts predict that 50% of internet searches will be via voice search by the year 2020.

From starting out as a novelty feature to becoming a modern-day trend, the voice technology is witnessing tremendous growth with the capabilities of becoming fundamental in the near future.

The Required Tuning

Though the voice technology has become a popularised one, there are still certain problems that need to be addressed for the optimal usage of this technology.

Of these issues is the challenge of visibility during voice search. The visual interface has been a neglected element when developing voice assistants. Consumers will not be able to see the voice interface unless connected to the app for Google Assistant or Alexa.

Another issue currently faced by the consumers is phrasing used in searches. The UX that is employed relies on specific phrases that trigger specific results. People expect conversational functionality from smart speakers without being replied to with “I’m sorry, I do not understand the question.”

Trust and privacy are other major concerns when it comes to using the voice tech. On a day-to-day basis consumers can research a place, shop, book cabs and make voice payments using this advance technology, but the concerns regarding sensitive information being secure are well-founded. Keeping customer sentiments in mind, security should be a major focus as the voice tech is being improved to suit the evolving consumer demands.

There is no doubt that voice search will be a milestone in the technology space, but the issues currently faced have to be resolved to reach the prime. By keeping an eye out for growth in voice tech, brands can keep themselves abreast of the market by adapting to it at the right time and exercising the appropriate marketing strategies. Here at Digital X, we help companies and brands stay informed about the technology trends so that they can make informed decisions without any delay.

Good marketing is never a coincidence. The effectiveness of marketing is directly proportional to sufficient research and planning. Bringing together the right elements might sound like a simple task, however, it’s not the case when one dives into setting a befitting framework. Marketing mix modelling and choosing the right one can help steer your brand towards efficiency and achieving its goals!

What Is A Marketing Mix?

The term “marketing mix” was first coined by Neil Hopper Borden. According to Neil, the most unique elements of a brand that differentiate it from the other brands and that play a crucial role in brand promotion framed the marketing mix. With the increasing popularisation of the term, Edmund Jerome McCarthy proposed the concept of 4Ps marketing mix, which comprises of the base elements for marketing mix modelling.

These 4 Ps or the base elements of the marketing mix are:

• Product
• Price
• Place
• Promotion

Although this was a widely accepted concept, with the constant evolution of the marketing world, contemporary elements have been introduced, which keep up with the present-day trends. These elements are the 4 Cs:

• Customer
• Cost
• Communication
• Convenience

While the 4Ps have been formulated keeping the business in mind, the 4Cs put forth a customer-centric approach.

What Is The Importance Of Marketing Mix?

A right marketing mix will determine the success or failure of a service or a product in the market. These elements, when combined in different ways, produce different results as required by the business goals. One can strategize and create the right mix of these fundamental elements to influence the target audience. These elements will also help a brand understand and set a great framework for successful marketing and brand communication. To create an effective marketing mix, one needs to have a good comprehension of the metrics involved.

Understanding The Base Elements Or The 4Ps

These elements help evaluate a company from a business perspective.

Product:

Today, a product could mean something tangible or it could also mean a service offered. For example, one could be selling clothes or e-commerce applications for the retail industry. The key to introducing effective products into the market is to have the right one at the right time – one that satisfies the customers’ current requirements.

Price:

The price of your product or service is the second important element that has to be continuously assessed. This is to be in line with the current market rates. An overpriced product could lose its market and under-valuing your product can also have a negative impact on the business. To peg down the right price requires adequate analysis of competitor products. If there is any resistance in sales and marketing, it probably is time to consider repricing the product or service.

Place:

This element is often forgotten when setting strategies for branding and marketing. However, to erect an effective marketing framework, this is a crucial element. The placement of the product or service determines its accessibility to potential customers. This requires a deep understanding of the business’s target audience. The better one understands the target market, the better can they place the products and services in the market. This, in turn, will lead to a successful marketing campaign.

Promotion:

This is one of the most essential elements for marketing mix modelling. Promotions include all types of communication that let the target customers know about the products and services. These could include advertising on multiple mediums, PR activities, on-going offers and more. Even a small change to the promotional strategy can cause a snowball effect on sales of the product. It is also important to keep in mind that a promotional strategy should continuously evolve to be at par with the marketplace changes.

While these 4 elements were initially the only consideration for creating a marketing mix model, companies today are revamping their marketing and branding strategy. This leads to the 4Cs which are taken into account for bossing the efficiency of marketing.

Understanding The 4Cs

The 4Cs help a business evaluate itself from a customer’s point of view.

Customer:

The first C is, of course, customers themselves. It is essential to understand the customers, find out their wants and needs, and figure out the relation between customers’ requirements and the products or services. The company or the business needs to understand how the customer can gain value from its products or services offered. It is also essential to understand the value of the products to the customers. Once the understanding is gained, the company can fine-tune the marketing strategies to target a specific audience.

Cost:

While cost and price might sound synonymous, in the business world, it is not sufficient to look at just the cost of the product or the amount a customer might be paying for it. While pricing the product or service, it is important to consider the benefits a customer will gain using the product as opposed to the risks of using it. It is also necessary to look at the existing pricing figures of similar products in the market. One also needs to estimate the total amount a customer might be paying, which includes the cost of shipping, taxes, etc. Finally, the company should also evaluate the profit it will gain post the product pricing.

Communication:

Communicating to the target audience is a focus area today among companies while creating a marketing mix model. Empathetic communication is imperative. Connecting with customers in a meaningful way creates a bond of trust and encourages customer loyalty. Using the language of the customer will help them understand the brand better and make the marketing mix model more efficient.

Convenience:

The final C is offering convenience of sales to the customer. With ever-improving technology today, customers choose how and when they spend their money. A customer might choose to swipe their cards instead of paying with notes. Another customer might choose to shop online rather than buying from a physical store. It is up to the company or the business to provide convenient and simple ways to purchase the products or services by negating any barriers the customers might face.

The Advantages Of Choosing The Right Marketing Mix Model

Considering the multiple choices available to the business and using the 4Cs or 4Ps or a combination of both is vital in determining the effectiveness of the branding and marketing strategy.Efficient and productive marketing mix modelling for your brand requires extensive research and analysis. One needs to consider many factors, both from the business’s perspective as well as the customer’s perspective. One can use the regression technique can be used to predict the most efficient elements and hence build a successful marketing mix model. Some of the advantages of choosing the right model are explained below.

• Once a market mix model is framed, a company can appropriately allocate resources to various departments. A strong model will act as a strong foundation to strategize and develop successful marketing solutions to meet business goals.
• While building a marketing mix model, a company can also evaluate the factors of product development with a better understanding of pricing strategies, product placements, promotions and sales process.
• A model that incorporates physical evidence – evidence that the product exists in the market – can help enhance customer loyalty. It is beneficial to managing how the product is perceived by the customers.
• A good model will assist in creating value that a company can sell to its customers. A customer will want to buy a product that offers the best value for the price. Value creation can be achieved by implementing unique marketing campaigns and incorporating discount pricing strategies.
• A brand can stand out in the crowd with a great marketing mix model. To set a model, the company is required to study its competitors. This can, in turn, be used for better product placement and brand promotion strategies, thereby differentiating themselves from the rest.
• A strong marketing mix model can deliver clarity to customers. It is all about sending out the right message, to the right place at the right time. A company can evaluate the best format of messages with the right emotions and the best mediums to communicate and thereby create a trust-based relationship with the target audience. The better the clarity a customer has, the more likely he is to make a purchase.

Companies’ marketing strategies are not some guesswork. Finding that perfect marketing mix model is crucial to any company’s success. While building the perfect model, one should also be mindful of using outdated methods and be open to changes considering the evolving trends in the marketplace. At Digital X, we ensure the concoct the perfect marketing model for your brand and digitally transform your business for a successful run moving ahead.

Building your business’s online reputation and managing it further is one of the most critical facets of the business to focus upon. In today’s digital world where every individual has access to publish, comment and review, maintaining a good reputation is quite an industrious task. 

As a business, your online communication can affect the audience’s perception of your business. You can influence a colossal number of people and at the same time, you could also create a negative image for your business to an equally great number!

Given the fact that any business’s audience is quite diverse in nature, catering to every type is near impossible. Despite this, you can employ certain steps to avoid any negative buzz and ensure you do not strip your business off any leads or the hard-earned customer loyalty.

The benefits of social media reputation management are not just the elimination of negative impact but also gaining the highly sought-after credibility by customers. This aids in gaining or even further strengthening the customers’ trust in your business. Below, we have collated a few tips and tools that will help manage business reputation on social medial.

Know What To Monitor

It is essential to know the parameters you need to monitor in order to assess and manage your business’s social media reputation. 

• Business’s name: 

You have to monitor all comments and messages that revolve around your business’s name. You could be a popular name in the region or you could be an upcoming one. Famous or not, ensure to monitor all possible misspellings associated with the name of your business. Misspellings are after all human errors that are likely to occur.

• Product’s/service’s name: 

Customers might choose to mention your product or service rather than your company’s name. It is thus equally important to monitor these and the associated misspellings as well.

• High-profile personnel: 

Your company might have well-renowned employees and it is necessary to monitor talk around their name as well. Any negative or positive comments on their work will have a direct effect on your company’s online reputation.

• Trending keywords related to your business: 

It is important to keep a track of the prevailing buzz about your industry, the medium used to convey the buzz and the impact it could have on your business.

• Competitors: 

It will serve good to do a thorough competitor analysis. This will help you compete efficiently and also analyze your own position in the industry as opposed to their’s.

In addition to monitoring the essential parameters, it is vital to religiously lookout for information and maintain an online reputation that the industry’s standards demand.  

Assess Your Current Reputation

While managing your social media reputation, it is ideal to assess the current scenario. You need to figure out how your audience is perceiving your business or brand before scripting a plan.

You can begin by assessing the strengths and weaknesses of your online presence using a tool like Brand Grader. Google Alerts is another useful tool that will help you track the talk people are having about your business on social media. To monitor those negative feedback and reviews, Go Fish Digital is a tool that crawls through various complaint-related websites. Once you assess your current reputation, you can chart out an effective social media reputation management plan.

Encourage Customers’ Digital Reviews

This step will give you the chance to improve your business reputation on social media. Discouraging customers to give reviews or feedback will only create doubts in their minds, thereby resulting in them losing their trust in your company. Instead, allow them to review by providing them with an easy route. It could be a simple five-star rating system, a ranking system, a scale-based rating system or space where customers could type out their feedback. This action should, in turn, be complemented with the right responses to the customers’ reviews and comments.

Respond To Comments On Social Media Appropriately

Individual these days have access to post any comment on social media, positive or negative, relevant or irrelevant. Do not hesitate to take action and reply. When someone has posted or started a thread of offensive content such as hate speech or inflammatory words, it is best to nip the problem in the bud. If someone has given your business negative feedback, you can respond directly and attempt to solve their problem. This human intervention and transparency will show your customers that you care and ultimately they will start trusting your brand more! Similarly, if someone posts a positive comment on your page, it goes a long way to respond to them with gratitude. Giving your customers this individual attention and letting the entire world see it will help form a positive bond with your customers and maintain a positive online reputation.

Communication And Leveraging Hashtags

People acknowledge and appreciate content-rich social media pages. It is important the content is relevant and relatable to your customers. You can communicate the efforts you take to maintain your corporate social responsibility. Humanizing your brand voice will help your customers to connect with your brand easily. You can also provide product or service-related information and promote transparency. When it comes to effective communication, leveraging hashtags will be a favourable step. A trending hashtag in today’s digital medium forms a critical ingredient of the communication mix. It is essential to research the hashtags to avoid any misuse that might create a dent in your business reputation.

Reputation Management And ROI

Effective reputation management should also result in a healthy return on investment. You can invest in competent social media management tools and track the ROI in the form of positive feedback as well as lead generation and conversions. Today, social media referrals are equivalent to word-of-mouth marketing and might even have a greater effect in convincing customers. Individuals place a great amount of trust in an online review from another individual. With analytics tools like Google Analytics, you can track the results of your online reputation management efforts and dynamically chart out plans that address any concerns alongside improving your business. 

Final thoughts:

Building a strong and positive online reputation and managing it can be a tricky and tedious task. You might not know where to start and the steps to take. While every business is unique in its own way, the tips listed will help any business form a strong foundation for online reputation management. 

Digital Marketing is a consortium of important things – Social Media, Search Engine Optimisation, Marketing Automation, Social Commerce, Influencer Marketing, Video Marketing, Omni-channel Marketing, Artificial Intelligence and a few others. New techniques, everyday evolving technologies, and constantly changing Google, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat algorithms keep many digital marketing teams on their toes. 

As we embark on a world of ever-changing technologies and the digital world, find out how digital marketing will continue to safeguard its influence in 2020.

Social media: 

By now, we obviously know that social media is contributing a huge share to online marketing. What we might not have thought about is how many millions of people depend on social media for their shopping. 60% of Instagrammers find new products on Instagram and in a survey of over 4,000 Pinterest users, a massive 70% confirmed Pinterest helps them find new products. These platforms have apparently recorded the visits and stats that people are using them to shop and have made it easy for retailers to showcase and sell items through social media. And this goes for online retailers – a great way to boost traffic to their product pages. 

Search Engine Optimisation: 

It is the process of getting traffic from the “free,” “organic,” “editorial” or “natural” search results on search engines. To think about SEO strategy in advance, some game-changers will influence how we build an SEO campaign. Mobile-first indexing, it means that Google uses the mobile version of your page for indexing and ranking. Page speed, mobile page speed’s become a ranking factor for mobile and metrics matter for Google in terms of page speed evaluation. 

Social Commerce: 

Social commerce is a subset of electronic commerce that involves social media, online media that supports social interaction and user contributions to assist online buying and selling of products and services. More precisely, social commerce is the use of social networks in the context of e-commerce transactions. Social commerce allows companies to sell products directly through social media networks. There is a thin line between Social Commerce and Social Media Marketing. 

Influencer Marketing: 

Influencer marketing is a branch of the social media marketing that entails endorsements and product placements from people, celebrities, influencers and organizations who possess an expert level of knowledge and/or capable of socially influencing people in their respective fields. Influencer Marketing has its pros and cons, where the number of followers and reachability can be compromised. Brands and collaborators like to collaborate with well-known people, celebrities and YouTubers with larger visibility. 

Video Marketing:

Video Marketing is also another booming digital marketing trend that has dominated the buyers to buy products more impulsively on a different level altogether. Video marketing is, simply, using videos to promote, aggrandize and market your service or product or business, increase customer engagement on your digital and social media platforms, tutor your consumers, and extend your audience with another new medium. Consumers like it because it’s pleasant to watch, easy to understand, entertaining and engaging. Marketers love it because – when videos are done right – it will give a potentially huge return on investment (ROI) through multiple channels. Video is very accessible to everyone that has internet access – to watch and to produce. 

Omni-Channel Marketing: 

Omni-channel is a multichannel approach to sales. Its aim is to provide customers with an uninterrupted and a most appropriate shopping experience – be it from shopping on a desktop, mobile. Brands work to create united experience between channels and people, and this is one differentiator between traditional and omnichannel marketing. The old approach was to let every channel optimize on its own, without any consideration of the factors or wider experience. 

Artificial Intelligence: 

Artificial Intelligence has enabled marketers to create a more personalized consumer experience. To everyone’s surprise, the cost is notably less than the old-schooled campaigns. Every interaction that is enabled and made by a potential or a customer about the business is recorded and made use for future optimization. It takes forecasting and prediction to the next level by giving a very finite understanding of – both, your customer and digital advertising campaigns. It also creates a comprehensive customer profile and can be set up to enable a real-time conversation with the customers. 

Content Marketing: 

Content marketing is a strategic and coherent marketing approach. It focuses on creating, building and delivering valuable, pertinent, and reliable content to attract and maintain a clearly-defined audience. And most importantly, to boost profitable customer action. Not only does content demonstrate knowledge and expertise to potential customers reading your articles or pages, but it’s also what search engines put in their search results. In short, content fuels the fire that is your search engine optimization, so it’s best to never stop creating content. Also, focus on creating interactive content and videos. 

Google Ads: 

Automation is existent in the digital marketing world since long, however, appreciation to the latest updates of Google Ads, that was announced at Google Marketing Live – we expect smart bidding and automation to become the standard for account managers. Google Ads are dependent on machine learning to optimize your bids so that you can get the best value out of every conversion. The improvements announced at Google Marketing Live will make you optimizing your bids at its best than ever with the capability to select the conversion actions at every campaign level. These improvements are sure-fire to help you maximize your conversions. 

Social Messaging Applications: 

Social Messaging Applications like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram Direct Messaging and WeChat isn’t just a messaging platform anymore. These apps are now the most approached method to communicate with the customers in a business. There are close to 10 billion messages shared on Facebook Messenger. 

Messaging apps are new business trends because customers use it daily and find it the most convenient to have direct contact with companies. Besides, it also makes personalized marketing easy which most customers love and appreciate. Messaging Applications encourages contact and building relationships whilst also educating the customers about the product, inviting people to events, boosting sales, regaining potential customers and providing customer support. 

Digital Marketing is definitely in the hands of evolving technology. Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Big Data, Smart tech and lots of others are changing the trends brands analyse and settle on a decision. This is directly influencing the way the brands can communicate and interact with their prospects and customers. Everyone is expecting a more personalized interaction just because of the internet and easily accessible smart phones.

To stay ahead of the competition and boost conversions in the upcoming years that are most likely dependent on digital, you’ll need to get better and upskill yourselves at producing custom, engaging and conversational content – particularly audio and video – to extend to your custom audience. 

And looking ahead, you might need to invest in some insanely futuristic tech to have your ducks in a row. 

Are you a startup? Are you a small business? 

Did you know – you have two cogent yet cost-effective response operators that you can hire for your business at your fingertips – Facebook Advertising and Email Marketing. Facebook Advertising gives you the option to target and filter the extremely narrow audience apt for your business. You can utilize its powerful lead generation techniques and tools. And then, there is Email Marketing, which is efficient, cost-effective and yet again, powerful. You can use it to introduce your company, launch new products, etc and filter your customers through sales funnel. 

A study says that:

• Email is used as the main medium for customer winning by up to 81% of SMBs 
• 49% of customers have shown interest to receive emails on a weekly basis from their favourite brands
• In the woo to receive special offers, 39% of people on Facebook follow business pages 

When Facebook and email marketing platforms are used together, the results will be supreme. 

Read the three tactics that you can effectuate in your business today to accelerate your growth and spike your sales.

Utilize Landing Pages to interlink Email and Facebook

With the help of a landing page, you can make use of Facebook Ads to help with structuring your mailing list. The landing pages can be created effectively with a planned approach keeping in mind the business objectives and goals. 

It is a general rule with the landing page to be offering something valuable to your customers. Eg: Ebooks, guides, cheat sheets, etc. And for the value you offer, you can in return get the most valuable information – email address and sometimes the contact number. And that will get automatically added to your mailing list.

This will become a winning situation for both the sides, as the customer will get what he or she needs and you will get their contact information. This information can be used in future for spreading more information about your business and get them to use your service more. 

So the whole deal lies here in building an effective landing page with CTAs that will persuade your user to click more and not distract or leave the page. 

Broadcast to similar audiences

Facebook is outstandingly brilliant and efficient when it comes to its targeting capabilities. With Facebook, you can target as wide as possible and as narrowly you need. You will have the facility to get to the basics of the targeting in order to get your message to the right audience. 

The most favourite option is to create similar or lookalike audiences. These groups of audiences already exist on Facebook with similar profiles. And that’s where the unison happens with Email Marketing. 

Example: 

You have 10,000 email addresses and if you upload them to Facebook, it will automatically match those to the maximum possible Facebook profiles as it can. Let’s assume that it can locate 8000 exact matches. This is called a custom audience. After matching the names, Facebook will then look for commonalities in these 8000 profiles for building a new audience of profile customers who are not on your email list, but with commonalities. This is called your similar or lookalike audience.

With the lookalike audience sorted out, you can start sending ads to everyone in that list. The best thing about this cadre is that most of the individuals are likely to be a new audience. They perhaps don’t know you, however, they would share commonalities and interests with people that know and like you. The likeliness will attract them to your brand and eventually make them your customers. 

Identify the people who didn’t open your email

The prime need for every small scale and large scale business is to build a genuine email list. If someone has given their email address to you, it is a sure shot that they would like to receive information from you or buy from you in future. Making use of this opportunity is striking the chord and showing off your service. You can send them an email about your brand, promotions, news, offers and other information that may entice them. Emailing is probably the most efficient messaging method either for free or at a minimal cost. 

The challenge here is, not every email will be opened. The reason could be – either you have sent at the wrong time or it could contain a history of boredom. 

Did you know, 80% of emails are ignored and only 20% are opened.

So the challenge lies in reaching that fugitive 80%? 

And the answer is: Move into Facebook advertising!

With the help of your email marketing software, you can identify the people who haven’t opened your email. And that list can be uploaded to Facebook as a custom audience. As mentioned above, Facebook will, by itself, group them and match those email IDs with the names. And boom, with Facebook, you can communicate to that set and fortify your brand, drive engagement and start making sales. 

Sponsored messages

What did you think of Facebook Messenger? Just a chatting tool? 

OMG! There is much more power to that tool. 

The intersection between Facebook and Email is Facebook Messenger. It was introduced to send private messages to friends and people inside the Facebook environs. 

Knowing the value of the tool, Facebook launched Messenger to communicate with brands in 2017. This paved the way for the brands to interact with their customers in a more personalized way, called Sponsored Messages. These are the messages or promotions that you can send to Facebook profiles directly with whom the brand has already got in touch, earlier. Although you this won’t help to contact new people or the first-timers, you can use this tool to its fullest with the existing audience. 

You can use it to start a conversation about your brand, understand what your customers like and dislike, what they are looking for from you and more things that could give you sales. It is definitely a tried and tested medium for generating sales. 

Although you have an option for a chatbot, it can never beat personalization. 

Digital Marketing Panacea for your small, medium and large-scale business

With the help of Facebook advertising and email marketing, you can use it to generate sales and make a significant impact on your ROI, but all with the help of marketing experts.

At Digital X, we understand the game that will help in reaping the maximum benefit from Facebook advertising, email marketing and both. Our main proposition is we are affordable, transparent and we really listen to your business objectives. This has made us the ideal comrade in the past and also in the present with our customers to enhance your marketing.