Narveer Singh

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Marketing has evolved like never before. Traditional ways and means of marketing have been shattered, and this has led to the breakthrough for the all new, evolved version of marketing. 

And this new version is nothing but what we have termed ‘Digital Marketing’.

The numerous advantages digital marketing brings along with it is something that changed the face of traditional marketing. 

Digital Marketing is in vogue currently and those who know the tricks and techniques of the trade…

…are in for fantastic opportunities, especially in the current scenario.

However, being new to the field of digital marketing (especially if you have been a part of traditional marketing earlier) can be a bit intimidating. 

But let me assure you, once you learn the tactics of digital marketing, there will be no turning back from this ever-dynamic, interesting field of marketing!

This post is an all-out guide that will help you learnt the nitty-gritties of Digital Marketing. 

We have elaborately described everything you need to know about digital marketing. We have also covered the aspects that would equip you with…

…better knowledge and help you stand apart form the whole crowd of digital marketers out there! 

Once you get the hang of all these important points, it will not take you much time to go out there and implement these ideas. 

And your career as a digital marketer would take off and skyrocket in no time!

 

What is Digital Marketing?

Advertising via different modes of electronic media is what Digital Marketing is all about. 

The whole and soul of digital marketing are digital channels. All modes of electronic media are capitalized to promote products and services. 

A plethora of aspects encompassed by digital marketing include –

  •   Social Media Marketing
  •   Search Engine Optimization
  •   Email Marketing
  •   Content Marketing

 

Digital Marketing is not quite similar to traditional marketing as it has a completely different approach to marketing goods and services. 

And without any doubts, digital marketing is way more impactful as compared to traditional marketing.

It is lot more than just a fancy word – it has revolutionized the manner in which businesses connect with their target crowd. 

Although the term ‘digital marketing’ was coined way back in the beginning of the year 2000, it has actually been around a lot longer. 

Just that in the year 2020, this dynamic concept was finally given a name.

The word ‘internet’ has always been associated with the word digital marketing. 

Interestingly, digital marketing can be done in both online and offline modes. 

Right there, we have busted a huge myth revolving around digital marketing. 

However, since the number of people on screen is simply shooting up by the day, offline digital marketing is slowly losing its sheen. 

And all that has ultimately stayed back is online digital marketing,

 

Why Digital Marketing?

The logic behind why digital marketing is booming is pretty simple– the target audience is on social media. 

Directing effort to where your target audience has an active presence is the whole idea of digital marketing. 

The average screen-time of people across the world has shot up by 33%. 

This means that on any given day, an average person spends more than 8 hours staring at their electronic devices.

As horrifying as it may sound, this, right here, is a huge opportunity for the field of digital marketing. 

Businesses require exposure and awareness. Being a digital marketer, you can help these businesses build a solid, unshakable online presence – one that would help them connect with their existing client base while simultaneously generating a lasting impact on their target crowd too.

Every business owner is competitive and in the cut-throat competition out there, having an edge over your competitors out there is something really essential. 

And digital marketing is what will help you get this edge.

 

How does Digital Marketing function?

Digital Marketing is not starkly different as compared to traditional marketing – the main intention is to connect with the target audience. 

Whether you are a big, small, just started out or an established organization, you will have global access and reach, thanks to digital marketing.

Fetching leads and converting these leads into sales is a critical aspect for businesses. 

Digital marketing aids you in generation of leads and converting these leads into prospective clients is in your hands. 

Having a powerful online presence will surely help gain exposure like never before.

Another plus point of digital marketing is that your client base gets an opportunity to leave back their reviews for your products. 

These reviews will be globally accessed giving you a great deal of exposure, which you wouldn’t otherwise. 

The publicity that you can get from these widely accessed reviews will be a lot more than what you would gain from word of mouth publicity. 

Plus, these will be reviews that are honest, straight out from your client base, which makes them even more effective.

Secondly, it’s pretty obvious that these days, every purchasing decision begins with online research. 

And this makes it essentially critical to not merely have an online presence, but to make sure you have an impactful online presence.

Understanding More About Digital Marketing

The term ‘marketing’ was derived from the latin word Mercatus, meaning market place. 

Marketing means to persuade someone to buy or sell a product or service. 

It first originated in the 1800s as an early form of advertising but had a feeble output.  

Over the years, it evolved from door to door marketing and sales and eventually moved into the virtual world of technology – and is now called Digital Marketing.

Today, it has become the most powerful persuasive tool on the planet.

 

What is digital marketing?

Simply put, this term encompasses marketing that happens online, i.e. it uses the internet and digital technologies (computers, laptops, and phones) to promote products and services.

The late 1900s and early 2000s saw a steady rise in personalized computers, the growth of the World Wide Web and the evolution from print to digital. 

The world is now almost completely virtual. Everyone likes to do things quickly with just a swipe of their finger, and this includes mundane things like shopping, banking, booking etc.

 

Before we get into the different types of digital marketing, we will first understand why it became so crucial in our day to day lives.

 

Why has digital marketing become so popular?

Anything online is slowly starting to become more popular than offline experiences. 

Here are some of the reasons why digital marketing seems so advantageous and appealing to its users:

  1. Global reach: no offline service can beat online services in terms of instant global reach. You can touch (virtually, of course), millions of people with a click and just as instantly get a response. Nobody has time to wait around anymore!
  2. Low cost: Traditional marketing methods are expensive. It covers ground work, physical copies of everything, transport etc. A lot of costs get cut down in online marketing making it a very cost effective option for many.
  3. Personalization: This is perhaps the greatest advantage for digital marketers. With digital marketing, you can know who your consumer is, track them, map out their likes and dislikes and create personalized messages, services and products so that they feel more involved and taken care of. It is the age of ‘Consumer is King’.
  4. Trackable results: Web analytics and online metric tools are your best friend in digital marketing. In traditional marketing, you have no way of knowing exactly how effective your campaign has been – how do you really know if the consumer has watched the ad about your product, or even bothered to remember the name of your brand? With these AI powered tools, you can now track everything – clicks, views, shares, you name it.
  5. Social currency: Another great advantage is the power to create something out of nothing. Hashtags and campaigns (using images, videos and other engaging online content) have the potential to become viral if marketed in the right way. With the right words, skills and timing, you can help any content gain social currency.

 

What are the different types of digital marketing?

  1. Search engine marketing.
  2. Search engine optimization.
  3. Social media marketing.
  4. Content marketing
  5. Email marketing.
  6. Conversion rate optimization
  7. Website analysis
  8. Data tracking.
  9. Growth hacking.
  10. Marketing automation.

 

Before we go in depth into each of these, we must first rehearse the planning, implementing and  optimizing of any given digital marketing program.

  1. Identify your audience. Without knowing who you are going to give a product or service to, how can you even begin to do anything else? So first identify your market and in that audience market, segment them based on variety of factors- gender, age, subscription status etc.
  2. Set your goals. No matter what you do in digital marketing, whichever platforms you chose, you need to set your goals. You have your audience, what do you hope to get back in return or the goods and services you provide?
  3. Launch and optimize. Optimizing is the next key step in the process. You cannot under any circumstances hope to gain good or fast results without optimizing. A chisel must be sharp to shape a gold necklace, not blunt. In the same way, you need to optimize (sharpen) everything so that you have an effective strategy in place.

 

Who is digital marketing most useful for?

B2B –  Business to Business type is the basic type of business relationship. They may do digital marketing to help get the maximum conversions from their leads. For b2b, platforms like LinkedIn, Reddit and Twitter may come more in handy.

B2C – Business to consumer is the most common and popular type of business relationship. Here the idea is to get as many people as you can to your website and make them a customer without having to talk to a sales person (unlike in b2b). For b2c, Pinterest, Snapchat and more casual social media apps may be of use.

 

SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING(SEM)

Search engines are web tools that help users access information across the World Wide Web. Some of the best search engines in the market are Google, Bing, and Yahoo – which comprise 90% of worldwide users.

Ever wondered why some pages appear on the first page of Google and others are pushed to the other pages? This is the result of good SEM or Search Engine Marketing.

 

SEM is the process of promoting a website by increasing their visibility in search engine results – this means that marketers use SEM to make their website appear on the first page result – this gives the website a higher chance of being viewed by the user and therefore a higher chance of getting clicked.

 

Like every other type of marketing, this can be done in both paid and unpaid ways.

    1. Paid Advertising or Paid Per Click (PPC)
    2. Unpaid Search Engine Optimization.

How is PPC done?

   1. The product or service seller first contacts a PPC advertiser:

This is similar to traditional advertising methods where a brand or company reaches out to an advertising agency.

  1. The seller and her/his competitors make bids on keywords:

The seller will not be the only one who is reaching out to a PPC advertiser. 

There will be many other competitors who are doing the same thing. 

So in order to decide who’s website will appear first, Google and other search engines have come up with a system called an Ad Auction

As the name suggests this is a bidding system – the highest bidder wins.

 

Let me give you an example.

Say your company sells hiking gear. 

Obviously you’re not the only one who is sells them or the only one trying to get immediate traffic to your site. 

So the keyword that you and other companies similar to you will bid for is hiking gear

The highest bidder wins – their website will appear on the top of the Search Engine Results Page (SERP).

In this case, the highest bidders are Amazon and Flipkart, so their results pop up under Ads (shown in the picture below).

 

3. The PPC advertiser then creates an ad and generates landing pages for the ads to appear on.

  1. Every time a viewer clicks on the landing page, the PPC advertiser will pay the product or service seller an amount.

 

This is the fastest way to gain visibility and traffic to your website. But it lasts for a short period of time. 

Unlike organic results, this will not fetch you long term profits or customers. It is just an inorganic way to get traction to your site.

 

Speaking of long term customers and organic results – it is not impossible, although it does take strategies, time and effort…but most things are like that anyway.

 

Now that we spoke about the bidding system and the ad auction, we will talk about something called the quality score.

Quality score is the estimation of quality of your ads, keywords and landing pages. 

This score is just an estimate of your performance and never has any say in determining your Ad rank in auctions.

If your ad and content and landing pages are all related and relevant, then you’re more likely to see a higher quality score.  

If your ad quality is high then there is always a chance that the price reduces and your ad gets a better position.

 

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

This is also a method of search engine marketing that comes under digital advertising. 

This is a way to organically get results (be seen on the first page) without having to pay anyone for these results. 

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a way to optimize your website in a way that it improves the quality and quantity of traffic that comes to your site. 

Basically you don’t want random people to come to your website because they will not become a consumer of your product or service. 

Instead, you need your intended target audience to come into your site so that they can become customers. 

SEO bases itself on long term relationships and good brand building and this ensures that in the long run, you’ll probably be the most visited site in the market.

 

Think of it like needing to hands to clap! The search engines and you have two separate roles that can make this work.

Search engines gather all the information on the web and match it to the information that the consumer is trying to find. That’s their job.

Your job is to make sure that the content you have is the best possible match for the user’s search in the search engine. 

This can range from title tags to meta descriptions

 

Title tags: 

they are the title of your link. The clickable headline that the user sees on the SERP.

Meta descriptions

this is the short description that comes right below the title tag.

The very first and best way to get people to see your website is to make them WANT to come there. 

And what better way to do it than a catchy headline and description? 

This is what people read first and if they are impressed, then there’s no doubt that they’ll click on your link.

 

This is the basic process of search engine optimization. 

There are three main ways that you can do it.

  • WHITE HAT SEO
  • BLACK HAT SEO
  • GREY HAT SEO

They are called ‘hats’ because in early Western movies, the hero used to where a white hat and the villain used to wear a black hat. 

The SEO industry has used the same phrases to make it easier to understand the different methods you can use to optimize your search engine.

 

White hat SEO

Search engines have certain rules and guidelines that need to be followed by all the people or businesses that are using it. 

Which means that anyone doing white hat SEO is someone who is following all the “rules” that are laid out and is using ethical means

This is the most transparent and legal way of doing SEO and therefore if anyone is doing this, you can think of them as the hero.

 

Black hat SEO

This is the opposite of white hate SEO. Strictly speaking, this may not exactly be legal (although it is not illegal) and only in the worst cases can it lead to punishment. 

This includes processes that go against some of the search engine’s guidelines but it helps to push the website’s ranking to the top.

 

Grey hat SEO

White and black mix to form grey, and that is exactly what grey hat is. 

Grey hat SEO practitioners mix methods from white and black hat SEO. 

Although, these practitioners may violate some guidelines, they don’t have the same intent that black hat SEO’s have (only thinking about ranking).

 

To better understand these three types, let us look at an example.

 

Let’s say there are three people – A, B and C

A does White hat SEO

B does Black hat SEO

C does Grey hat SEO

 

 
What does A do?

White Hat tactics include using keywords (bought during the ad auction that was mentioned earlier) to make the content more relevant to the user’s search. 

Some of the other techniques include:

  • back-linking: this link is created when one website is connected or ‘linked’ to another. If you’re writing about the best masks in the market, and you include a link of a product from another website (which may or may not be sponsoring your article), then it will become an ‘inbound link’ because it will take the user from one website to another.
  • link building: this is like collaborating. Basically, you’re trying to get other websites to link back to your websites. The best way to do this is by growing outreach and creating a network. You can reach out to bloggers, brands, even businesses so that they link back to your website, that way, both of you benefit.
  • writing content that focuses on audience engagement. In other words- giving them what they want. Write about things that the audience wants to read about!
 
What does B do?

Now instead of using a few keywords, black hatters do something ‘keyword stuffing’ – 

this means that using excessive and trending keywords even if they have no connection with the content on the site – this is only done to get traffic into the website. 

  • Using unrelated keywords in page content – this pushes the website link to the top of the SERP, but doesn’t have any relation to the actual content.
  • Invisible text: also called ‘hidden text’. Black hatters hide text in the web page and stuff them with keywords so that their website pops up. The content may be unrelated, but because the suer can’t see the keyword, they won’t know they’re being fooled with.
  • Doorway pages: This is similar to stuffing keywords. It’s like telling the user that what they need is behind this door, but in reality, this door is going to lead them to some other website.
  • Redirects: have you ever seen “301” or “302” after clicking on a webpage link? This is the most common way to redirect both the user and the search engine to a different site. We usually close such tabs without giving them much heed, but the website benefits by our click and view.
What does C do?

Grey hat is just black masquerading as white. The best example for this is clickbait.

When Youtuber’s or bloggers post something with a very catchy headline, users are tempted to click on it. 

This isn’t wrong, because it’s a way to earn revenue, but some times it may lead you to trouble if the clickbait doesn’t match your content.

Eg: “Get abs in 2 weeks! Summer shred program!”

Which type of SEO should you go for?

Without a doubt, white hat should be the way to start optimizing your content. 

But it doesn’t mean that you later move on to black hat because when the search engines catch up to you (and they will) they have the power to stop or block your website for good. 

If you do want to try some quick results, then click baiting through grey hat will do the job, but make sure to not trick the users or the search engine to avoid getting your site banned!

 

To conclude, here is a very important diagram of Mozlow’s hierarchy of SEO needs.

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Social media is almost as big and interconnected as the World Wide Web – kind of like a world within the world. 

It is also now the most popular form of internet interaction. Human beings are social in nature – be it in reality or virtually. 

This market of social media is a massive sea of untouched, potential customers and marketers have wasted no time in exploiting it.

 

Social media marketing is therefore a way to promote a product or service using social media as the medium for promotion. 

There are various social media platforms and each platform has a different approach to promoting a product or service. 

Here are some of the top social media apps and their unique styles of marketing:

 

  • FACEBOOK MARKETING

As of 2020, there are 2.60 billion active monthly Facebook users all over the world. 

Not just that, on a daily basis there are about 1.73 billion active users which is enough to conclude that it is one of the most popular social media conglomerates in the world. 

This has not only become a place for people to interact but also a place for businesses to interact with people and vice versa.

 

Here are some of the ways businesses or brands use Facebook marketing:

  • Facebook business page:

Facebook, when it first came out, was a great way to make new friends, socialize and keep in touch with people we often couldn’t meet. 

But soon, it added more than just private profiles – you could now make a business page. This marketing tool is free of cost!

They can not only list the products or services they offer but can also share photos, videos, and links for consumers to check out! 

It’s also a fun way to interact with consumers since social media is mostly for entertainment purposes and brands have access to free engagement tools (story, post, share etc).

  • Using Facebook ads:

    Also called Marketplace Ads, Facebook has their own line of advertising for brands to use. These are sponsored ads – brands pay the Facebook franchise an amount to push their ads to private and public profiles of users. The amount of time the ad is active, the number of people it reaches, and the type (age, sex etc) of people it reaches… all determines the price.

  • Sponsored stories:

    Let’s say a user liked a Facebook ad or post. This action is shown to the user’s friends so that they too get the itch for viewing or liking that post. This works very similarly to word-of-mouth strategies. The user is more likely to click on an ad if she/he sees that a friend has liked it. This makes them want to pay more attention to the post rather than an ad which had no familiar names liking it.

  • Facebook Exchange (FBX):

Have you ever visited a cosmetics (Nykaa) or phone and digital gadget website (Samsung) and you suddenly notice that your Facebook page ads are all about cosmetics or cameras or phones? This is Facebook Exchange. Websites ask you if you’re okay with them collecting cookies and you dismiss it thinking it’s nothing – but what’s actually happening is that they are making a note of your online history and the products or services you looked for. The retailers can then display the products or services that you saw on their website on your Facebook page as an advertisement!

  • Facebook Open Graph:

    This is a bit tricky to use but nevertheless ha rewarding results. The Open Graph is a powerful API (software) that integrates your website to your Facebook page! It’s a program that helps you get information in and out of Facebook much faster and more efficiently than before. The most famous use of this tool was and is the LIKE BUTTON. When people who visit your page click the Fb like button, then they become “fans” of the page. This means that you can now add content to their Facebook feed and that’s pretty powerful! The only downside is that users who click this button don’t really know what they’re signing up for!

While Facebook’s video ads are the most effective ways to get more quality leads, getting your Facebook page up to date will also clearly define your voice on the platform. 

Here are some tips to do just that:

  • Post links to your blogs or web pages while posting.
  • Post links to articles that are related to your company – maybe there was a favorable article on you by an influencer!
  • Give coupon codes
  • Links to online tools that your consumers may find useful

You can also create Facebook groups – you can call out to your consumers to join groups where you can market separately and even create fun group events or games. This way you are communicating casually and more personally with them and have formed a sense of community with the people.

 

  • INSTAGRAM MARKETING

Instagram is THE most popular social media app for the last 3 years with 26.9 million users. 

Although Facebook has more, there is no app that beats Instagram’s rising popularity and daily usage – especially when it comes to digital marketing. 

We see almost more than half of our posts as “sponsored” which means millions of businesses and people are promoting themselves and reaching out to the world to get more likes, followers and engagement on their Instagram feed!

YouTubers and bloggers have a lot of posts and videos about how to grow on Instagram because – let’s face it – people are obsessed about getting more followers and maybe even earning from their posts! 

There are again, two ways to go about growing and marketing on Instagram – organically and paid.

Nevertheless, Instagram marketing is a great way for brands to connect with audiences on a personal level and make offers to them based on their likes and dislikes.

 

First and foremost, if you’re looking to market on Instagram, you must make a business profile! 

This means that your page is public and you have access to a tool called Insights which gives you a breakdown of your audience demographic, engagement rate etc. 

We’ll get to that later.

Before diving in to see the different kinds of marketing strategies, we must first look at all the available options that Instagram gives to increase your reach organically.

 

 

Posts and feed – 

Easily, this is the most popular part of Instagram – sharing photos and videos. 

Brands do it too, just like everyone else, but their agenda is not just to tell their story but also to get customers. 

Which is why you must follow certain steps to maintain your feed and following:

  • Have a theme – This cannot be stressed enough. The overall look and feel of your feed should be unique to only your brand. This can be in terms of color, pattern of posting etc.
  • Consistency – you need to post frequently if you want to come up on other people’s feed. Post once a week or thrice a week, but don’t post two in one week and post nothing at all for the next month. It is good to establish a pattern of behavior.
  • Decide your story – what do you want to tell the world in the most simplest way? Your posts should convey the story you wish to tell.

 

 

Stories and Highlights – 

Stories are short term but are a great place to start engaging. You have options like “Ask me anything”, “Polls”, “Quizzes”, “Mentions” etc. 

All these tools call for action and have a counter reaction that they expect which is why many people chose to engage in such activities.

 

 

IGTV – 

A much longer and more permanent story like feature, this gained popularity most during the Covid-19 pandemic – people put out tutorials, monologues, conversations etc which ranged from 5 minutes to 20 minutes. 

Brands could use this as a collaborative method. 

Eg: if you own a cosmetic brand and you want to post a make-up tutorial. 

The post and story restrict you from posting longer videos, so consumers earlier had to go to other platforms like YouTube or your website to check it out. 

But now with IGTV, you needn’t go anywhere – it has become a sort of personalized and customized diary of brands.

 

Reels (2020) – 

Released in 2020, reels are like a mix of post and story. 

They’re short videos but they are seen all the time and not just for 24 hours. 

The bonus point is that you can combine, cut and add different video clips and then sync them with audio clips to make your video! 

This is similar to TikTok and came as a huge bonus for TikTok fans in India and Indonesia after it TikTok was banned.

 

 

How to advertise on Instagram: ADS

Like said earlier, there’s nothing you can promote or advertise if you have a private account. 

But with the business account (that is linked to your Facebook profile), you have so many options to explore:

The main way to do this is to use the “PROMOTE” option that appears under the post you’ve made.

  • Photo Ads – this is the most basic type of ad you can do. All you need to do is promote a photo you have posted (look at the image below).
  • Video Ads

    – this is similar to photo ads. Just that instead of a photo, you’ll be promoting a video.

  • Stories Ads

    – Instagram’s recent feature gives business account users the advantage not only to promote posts but also their stories.

  • Carousal Ads

    – if you’ve seen a series of pictures in a sponsored ad, then it’s a carousal. These ads are best used to showcase a collection or a theme (a carousal ad for party gowns).

  • Collection Ads

    – they appear to be a collage (a big picture and smaller pictures below it in the post)

  • Ads in Explore

    – Explore in Instagram is where people go to find content related to their interests from accounts that they don’t already follow. 50% of consumers use Explore which is the best place for them to discover, shop and connect with people and businesses. Almost 80% of people follow businesses and more than half of them interact regularly with them.

  • IGTV Ads

    – from June this year, Instagram introduced ads that could be run on IGTV as well but as of now this is still in the initial testing phases. Businesses will have to wait till 2021 to start to earn revenue from IGTV ads.

 

 

What does the PROMOTE option do?

The best thing about promoting in-app is the fact that you can customize your ad. You can control:

  • Who the ad reaches – this includes age, gender, location, similar interests etc.
  • How long the post is promoted – from a few hours to days or even weeks

Depending on these factors, the price of the ad will be determined. 

There is a minimum amount that you must pay – this is the amount from which everything later increases depending on the time and the location/audience market.

Once you have promoted, you can check your insights for:

  • Likes and comments
  • Number of people who viewed your profile
  • Saves
  • Actions taken from story or post
  • Engagement percentage
  • Audience demographics

 

Some other ways to advertise:

  1. Ads Manager – this works similarly to the ads manager that Facebook uses. If you want some more powerful and helpful tools than just the insights that Instagram provides, then you can use ads manager by Instagram.
  2. Instagram Partners – the Instagram partners program is about helping individuals who are short on time or are in dire need of assistance. You can reach out to different people and “Partner” them. They mainly help in three areas – Ad Tech, Community Management, and Content Marketing.

 

 

 

 

  • REDDIT MARKETING

Reddit – the front page of the internet

Reddit is often not heard that commonly as any of the other social media apps, especially among the younger demographics. 

They are social but a social news website that allows users to vote up or down any content that is being put out on the pages.

Reddit is a bit more strict than other platforms and is very protective of the kind of content and marketing that goes on in the website. 

Unlike other apps, there is no marketing that happens in the strictest sense. 

However, the best way to make a presence on Reddit is by coming on its front page.

 

 

How can you best market on reddit?

  • Be a member – this doesn’t mean you just sign in and hope to start marketing. A member on reddit is always active. You need to vote, talk, engage, debate, and be consistent in what you. You need to be a legitimate member and not someone who keeps self marketing – if you do that then you are most likely to receive a lot of hate from the reddit community.
  • Give more than you can take – if you spend 70% self marketing and 30% actually communicating and socialising, then you are going to go nowhere. The ideal marketer contributes 80% time to participate and only 20% on promotion.
  • Give valuable content – this means that your content should mean something to people. It should benefit them and give them a reason to come back to you.

 

Don’t even think of making a fake account, or using bots because Redditer’s are

No-nonsense people and can see through anyone who is not genuine.

 

 

What are the best graphics you can use?

  • GIFs – all GIFs originate at Reddit and are then sent to other social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. If your business is in the entertainment sector, then you can use GIFs to the fullest extent. But they don’t come in handy if you are in, for example, the cosmetic or clothing industry.
  • Photos – an all purpose element, photos are by far the most famous and widely used feature on Reddit (and other platforms).
  • Videos – not really mobile friendly if they are used in the horizontal orientation. Stick to long form videos like on Instagram for highest engagement. This is only regarding the layout and has nothing to do with the content in the video.
  • Texts – they are not the first thing that people look for, but when someone clicks on your subreddit, then they are more interested and therefore expect more text to be there.
  • Blogs – DO NOT upload your blog directly on reddit, always link it to your website. Use graphics, photos, videos and share your blog link in the caption.
  • AMAs – (ask me anything) this is a feature that is very popular on Instagram but first originated on Reddit. This becomes successful if the person who is posting the AMA is already famous. So if you have a significant number of followers, then go ahead and do an AMA because it is great for engagement and puts your profile in the non-follower’s feed.

 

 
  • TWITTER MARKETING

 

Like Instagram and Facebook, you can market and grow your followers on Twitter both paid and organically. 

But it’s a bit more tricky because the shelf life of every tweet is about 18 minutes (half of Facebook) and it’s easy to not get noticed. 

People want current, relevant and catchy information – it’s like telling a story by using the least number of words possible.

 

 

How to grow on Twitter organically?

  • Profile – start with the basics. Your username should be simple, catchy and easy-to-remember. Nobody wants to tag a complicated business name. Along with your username (handle), your profile picture and the header image must go hand-in-hand. You can get as creative as you can – use the right colours and design templates so that it’s eye catching to the viewer.
  • Bio – this is your strongest suit after the content you post. Your bio should speak about your brand. Not just what they do, but also the tonality of your brand. Are you friendly and casual? Or professional and strict? Eg – if you’re a brand who sells luxury perfumes, you cannot use the words “Cool, bro, awesome etc” because it doesn’t match with the product or service you are offering. “Elegance, timeless and beautiful” are the words you could use instead.
  • Hashtags – Yes, hashtags and keywords get your tweet to the people you want it to go to – but using too many is a turn off for consumers. It shows that you are in a desperate attempt to gain as many retweets and likes as possible. This doesn’t mean you don’t use hashtags at all. Use them but only sparingly. Less but precise hashtags are the way to go.
  • Peak hours – this goes for any social media platform there is: post during the peak hours! There will be so many more people that will look at your tweet and your chances of retweets increases greatly. This also ensures greater engagement and if there is greater engagement then your followers are bound to increase.
  • Add pictures and videos to get more people to notice you. Pictures instantly up your game because let’s face it, plain text is not as appealing to mobile users.
  • Polls and other engaging activities to interact with your followers.

 

Paid marketing on Twitter

  1. Twitter ads – they are a bit more expensive than Facebook ads, but get the job done especially if you don’t have a large following. First thing you need to do is go to Twitter Ads and fill in your location and time zone. This narrows down the local area of your profile for twitter.

 

Next you need to tell Twitter what your objective is. What do you want? Views? Website clicks? App installs? Followers? Engagement? Depending on this, twitter will customize your ad before sending it to the audience.

You will then choose the budget and duration of the ad and finally customize the demographic that it has to reach – region, gender, interests, language, devices, features etc.

And you are finally ready to launch!

  1. Marketing packages – a lot of websites offer marketing packages. This covers business page creation, key-word rich bio optimization, tracking influencers, sending direct messages, mentions, retweets, infographics, video optimization, target audience behaviour analysis and much more depending on which package you choose.
  • SNAPCHAT MARKETING

Snapchat is an American messaging app with its main feature being that pictures disappear after being available to recipients for a short period of time. 

People who ‘snap’ each other frequently create a ‘streak’ with them that they have to maintain in order to save the streak – this is a clever strategy as it makes the user use the app at least once every day!

The first thing to know about snapchat is that it’s not for every business. 

So before you go ahead and make an account and start marketing left, right and centre, first ensure that your brand or business coincides with the following pointers:

  • A young demographic: 82% of Snapchat users are 34 years old or younger. This means that teenagers, young adults and adults will be the main audience market. If your brand is focussed on such an audience, or wants to interact with such an audience, then snapchat marketing is the way to go.
  • Interaction: there is a 60% more chance of users making an impulsive purchase on Snapchat than on any other social media platform. Under the Discover section, users find new brands and content creators that they can easily interact with.
  • Stand out and show the playful side: as this platform is mostly used by a younger demographic, it also means that you need to appeal to a very volatile set of people. Younger generations like to do things the fun and casual way – so if your brand has a fun side, then this is where you show it and impress your audience.

 

To market on Snapchat, follow these steps:

First thing to do is to create a business account – doesn’t matter how big or small your business is, a business account is what you should have. With a business account, you’ll have

  1. Advertising through Snapchat’s Ads Manager.
  2. Age targeting – here you can customize the age group that your ad has to reach.
  3. Location targeting – here you  can customize the geographical location that your ad has to reach.

 

Once you create the business account, you can go to the ads manager and start snapping and launching campaigns.

To make people more aware of you on Snapchat, the easiest way to start is by cross-promoting. 

This means that you can upload your snapchat scan code on Instagram, and your Instagram followers who are on Snapchat, can then follow you!

 

Why is advertising on snapchat a good idea?

  • There is less competition – Every brand that has existed seems to have a presence on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter. But not all of them are on Snapchat. In fact, get onto Snapchat way before your competitors can so that you have an advantage over them in this platform. This way, the consumers see only you and how well you’re doing instead of getting distracted by competitors.
  • It’s different – consumers are bored of seeing the same type of ads. So snapchat gives you the opportunity to be something completely different and appeal to a huge audience.
  • Free and new audience markets – snapchat users are new generation users. They may be most active on snapchat and may not even use FB or Instagram. So this way, you are covering the users that you can’t on other platforms.

 

To be successful on snapchat, you need to keep one thing in mind – build curiosity. Snaps are barely seen for a few seconds, less than Instagram stories, so the more curiosity you build using these, the more likely you are to get more people to your account.

  • Offer coupon codes – people will definitely play back your story or snap when they see a coupon code.
  • Connect with influencers – this is a given for all social media apps because influencers are like the new mass media. You need them if you want your product to grow and reach new potential consumers.

 

The brilliance of Snap codes:  

Snapchat has a unique feature called a snap code for every user.

People just have to take a picture of your snapcode and click on it within the camera roll of the app to follow you. 

Share your snap code everywhere, so people can follow you with ease!

 

Measuring how well you’ve done on Snapchat:

A simple way to do this is by dividing the number of snaps opened by the number of snaps you sent out. 

This will give you the Snap Opening Rate. higher the rate, the better you are doing on the app.

Snapchat metrics tell you

  • How many people viewed your story
  • How many people screenshotted a story or snap
  • How many people shared it

 

Using these metrics, track your progress over the weeks and make sure to keep an eye on your snap opening rate. 

This is best used if you are running a campaign and you can use the results of these on improving this campaign or implementing what you learnt into the next campaign.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • LINKEDIN MARKETING

Out of all the social media apps, LinkedIn is the most professional of the lot. 

It’s an American employment service where people can find recruitment, companies or fellow co-workers. While other social media apps may be helpful for you to get an audience, LinkedIn is mostly helpful to get your brand’s name across to other businesses. 

So it’s a good idea to invest 30 minutes to set up your profile and make it professional and appealing to potential employees, brand partners etc.

Considering the different market that LinkedIn caters to, the marketing also differs.

Here is what LinkedIn itself advices to businesses or professionals for marketing while setting up a profile:

  • Profile – as said earlier, your profile should aim to be 100% complete. Don’t leave out any detail to the imagination of the viewer, everything should be transparent. If there is any development, then keep updating it on your profile: this can be new achievements by your company or a sample of your latest work. The important thing is to make it authentic. Make the profile radiate your company’s tone and energy. That way, your profile stands out and is unique to your style.
  • Page – the page is where you post content (like a feed). Here, potentials will see your work and brand you as good or bad so you need to make sure your page is the best version of you. You can post, respond, share, comment and even upload big files like PPTs, PDFs and Docs.
  • Audience and goals – this goes for every marketer. Defining goals gives you a clear idea about who your audience will be. And once you know these two, you can decide which tone and words to use in your page – this comes especially handy while deciding job titles for potential employees. The clearer it is, the more leads and conversions you can get.
  • Optimize – this cannot be stressed on enough. Optimizing is the strongest way to gain organic followers. Whatever you do, optimizing cannot be ignored when you are marketing.
  1. Keywords – we have discussed this under SEO. keywords are those words that people may use when running a search on Google. So your page must contain such words so that potentials are drawn to your page and you appear in the initial search finds on LinkedIn. You should also include them in your ‘About’ section, so that it is clear to the people who you are and what you do.
  2. Link to your page – LinkedIn is like your business’s resume. And a must in the resume is the link to your website. It will boost your search ranking as well. Make sure to also keep your current employee’s details up to date.
    • Content – Goes without saying that you have to post what people want to read. Sales type content does not do well on LinkedIn so you mustn’t market blatantly. What does best is new ideas. Anything fresh and not seen before gets any business wonderful traction. Content on leadership is also a huge audience puller.
    • Followers – the higher the followers on your page, the more authentic you will look and greater the engagement will be. Use the follow button excessively. Make sure every part of your page is enhanced in a way that people who see it will want to follow.
    • Rich media – rich media includes custom images, videos, live videos, PDFs or PPTs, and shoutout messages to appreciate employees. Such media is much more interactive than normal text and is therefore more engaging on LinkedIn.
    • Highlight your best content – If your best content is not reaching the right audience, you can use LinkedIn’s targeting system or track the number of leads you are getting by conversion tracking.
    • LinkedIn CAMPAIGN MANAGER – this is the paid method of advertising on LinkedIn. It has self service ad campaigns. The types of ads include:
  3. Sponsored content
  4. Message ads
  5. Dynamic ads
  6. Text ads

 

The campaign manager helps you define your goals and your audience. Here you can set up any relevant features like “click” “follow” etc. you can also use analytics to find out which campaign is doing best and how many people are actually looking at your ads and how many conversions are happening.

 

Some more marketing tips:

  • Targeting: this is LinkedIn’s most powerful and useful tool. Why? Simply because LinkedIn is the only platform that has given marketers access to everyone’s job titles or the jobs they are looking for. This way you can target anyone who is in need for something you can offer.
  • Add a pro finder badge to your profile. Profinder badges help to promote your freelancing services. Your profile name, photo and the service your provide on Profinder. This is a way of adding authenticity to your website and business. It’s telling people that you are trusted by a community of professionals.
  • Join LinkedIn groups
  • Or better, create your own linkedin group and invite your existing employees to join. New potential employees and even consumers may then be tempted to join as well.

 

LinkedIn is a professional platform, so more than hoping to find consumers, you will probably find new potential employees. 

A LinkedIn business account is very much needed especially if you are in the information and technology or software building sector.

 

 

 

  • TIKTOK MARKETING

Tiktok has 800 million active monthly users with an hour of daily view time – this means it’s currently the hottest social media platform. 

Tiktok is probably the only platform with the most varied audience ever – from teens to elderly, from random people to celebrities – it’s got them all. 

It has therefore become a treasure box of audiences.

 

A video sharing platform, Tiktok is best known for it’s lip sync videos, viral trends and challenges. 

Ever since it was launched, Tiktok has seen a very steady growth of audiences, which is what makes it a really rich option for marketers. 

The best part about Tiktok is that even an account with zero followers can get millions of views and go viral through a video – this is not seen on any other social media account! 

Along with creating brand awareness, it can also help drive traffic through your website by clicking the link in bio. However, not everyone can link a website, but everyone can link to their other social media accounts.

 

This app is fun and so are its ads. Everyone on tiktok is going to want to see engaging, entertaining content so if you use the app’s features the right way, then you’re on your way to victory.

 

To know if your content will do well on Tiktok, you need to know what kind of content works best on the platform:

  • Viral culture – anything that is catchy and easy to replicate by the masses is what makes the cut on Tiktok. Not just dances, transformations, lip syncs, songs, makeup, fitness regimes, comedy, hacks and challenges are all a part of this trend centered community.
  • Tiktok’s discovery page gives the most insightful information on what kind of content is currently going viral.

How to advertise on Tiktok:  

Create a Tik Tok ads account.

Create a Tik Tok ad campaign – you can set your budget either daily or a total.

Placements – now you need to mention to tik tok the exact places you want the ad to be seen. This is not only Tik tok but also other platforms like BuzzVideo, News Republic etc. after selecting the platform, you can select your images, names and add about 20 keywords that you think will define your campaign.

Goals – you need to choose what goal must be achieved through the campaign. Do you want conversions? Clicks? Views? Downloads? So on and so forth.

 

Another feature in Tik tok is their Ad Creation Kit. This feature allows you to create a TikTok video that you can use for your ad.

 

Optimize your ad – this means that you need to make sure that the ad is appealing on the screen both in design and in its content. The design should have high resolution media, whereas the content should be any CALL TO ACTION. But make sure there is only one call to action in each ad because it will confuse the viewers. If you have an ad for download, let it be just that. If you want to give out coupon codes, make a new ad. If you mix the two, it may put off some viewers or even leave them to stay confused and decide to do nothing.

 

Types of Tik tok ads:

  1. Brand takeover – the name is a bit dramatic, but that’s because the consequence is dramatic too. Tik Tok allows any one brand to take over the screens before the user generated content appears. So, as soon as you open TikTok, you will see an ad by any brand. One brand gets the slot for one day – and this is pretty powerful. Users will only see that one brand throughout the day. They can appear in the form of gifs, images or videos.
  2. Native Video ads – these are also called in-feed ads. They are very short in duration (9-15 seconds at most) and they are among the user-generated content that people scroll through. They have a clear ‘sponsored’ label on top of them and they are usually call to actions- app downloads or sign ups.
  3. Hashtag challenges – to engage more casually with the audience, you may want to look into a sponsored hashtag challenge. For example, if you own a denim brand, you can create a short video under the hashtag #inyourdenim where you call for viewers to create similar, simple videos under the hashtag wearing the denim from your brand. Such challenges are similar but not the same as instagram challenges and are much more engaging and viral. This is sure to give your business a boost.
  4. Branded lenses – this is a bit like Snapchat’s filters. Users or brands can create filters on Tik Tok unique to their brand or company and then encourage users to use it and spread the word! Think about it… who wouldn’t want a filter from Disney, Nike, Nykaa etc? These filters can stay for up to 10 days and are the most fun way to advertise yourself and remind users and customers of your existence!

 

Influencer Marketing on Tiktok:

86% of marketers have used influencer marketing because it is the quickest and surest way to gain followers and traffic. 

But as someone who is looking for an influencer, how do you know which one will give the best results and has the same audience as you want to advertise to? 

To overcome this problem, TikTok has another feature called “Tik Tok Creator Marketplace”. Once you join the marketplace, the software will give you all the metrics you need to know about any given influencer

However, to join the marketplace, you need to sign up and submit an application. Only when your application has been approved, can you use any of these features available.

  • Tik tok analytics:

Like every other social media platform, tik tok too has an analytics measuring software. In fact, 67% of marketers say that decisions made from analysing data are far more profitable than decisions made using gut instincts. So it’s never too late to go ahead and get yourself a tiktok analytics measurement system. All you need to do is upgrade to a pro account, which is free! This upgrade will let you access detailed analytics collected and offered by Tiktok.

When you start to analyse your data, you need to keep an eye on what type of content of yours is doing good and which is doing bad. This way you can cut down on anything that isn’t adding value to your brand.

Some tips while using TikTok:

  • The best results from posts come when you post between 10AM to 6PM.
  • Have a detailed bio but make it something that is easy to remember.
  • Link to other social media accounts – this way your following will increase across platforms and you wont be isolated on just one platform.
  • Make a video on the most trending hashtag on tiktok. If you use this hashtag and make a video based on it, you’ll get your content across to millions of users within minutes.

 

  • PINTEREST MARKETING

Pinterest is very different from any other social media channels. And to be able to market or advertise here, you need to understand how and why it is different from other platforms.

Let me get this straight. Even if pinterest is included in social media, it is not a social media communication platform. It’s a visual search engine. This is not a place where you would go to find and meet people or influencers. Pinterest is a place of solutions and inspirations.

Don’t know how to make a DIY gift? Pinterest.

Don’t have any outfit inspirations for an office party? Pinterest.

Want a new tattoo design? Pinterest.

Want to see some cute home decor ideas? Pinterest.

Here, you need to generate ideas and inspirations so that customers get attracted to your brand and start to click on our website links. 

Eg- you own a clothing website, and you just released new pins on Pinterest on a winter wardrobe collection. 

If people like it then they will be sure to click on the link through which this collection came from – your website!

You can create these pins and drive traffic to your site both organically and paid. 

The best part about paid advertising on Pinterest is that once the ad on the pins is over, the pins are still visible on the platform! 

Just because the ad is over, doesn’t mean they remove the content – so it’s now open to organic engagement. 

While paid pins may have a shorter life span, they are then left to grow organically. 

And the beauty of Pinterest’s organic pin is that they are available for a  really, really long period of time.

Behavior of millions of users on the internet has shown that 72% of people say that Pinterest is the one that gives them ideas and inspiration to buy something. 

Can you imagine the number of people who depend on this platform? To help businesses even more, Pinterest also publishes a yearly report which gives information on all the things that have inspired people.

Pinterest has more female users than men, but this is changing quickly with more millennial men coming and signing up on the platform. 

So if your demographic lies within this sphere that uses Pinterest then it is definitely worth advertising over here.

Pinterest Marketing Strategy:

What you must not expect from Pinterest is fast results. When it comes to the long run, Pinterest will drive people to your website for months and years to come, 

but it takes a bit of time to gain traction. So how do you decide if Pinterest is the right fit for your business?

  • First make sure if your content has not already been shared on Pinterest. All you have to do is post your website’s name next to Pinterest’s URL (pinterest.com/source/your website address). If there are already shares from your sight, it’s a good thing because people know about you already on Pinterest.
  • Search for key words on pinterest that are relevant for your line of business. If this search gives a good result, then it’s a good idea to start marketing on pinterest. Look at all the pins under these keywords that are trending or really engaging and see how you can incorporate this into your business.
  • Also ask your current consumer database if they use pinterest. If they do, then go ahead and start looking fo more potential customers. If they don’t then it may not be such a viable option for you.

 

How to make a business work on Pinterest:

  1. 80% of users use Pinterest on mobile. So your website should be mobile optimized.
  2. Regular content. You cannot have an outdated website. People want to see something growing, inspiring and constantly giving. So if you regularly publish blogs, podcasts or any kind of content, then you are on the right track.
  3. A freebie. Everyone likes new things. So if you can give a potential consumer something for free, then they may be tempted to leave behind a part of themselves in your website -like an email address. And from here on out, it wont take you long to convert that potential into a consumer.
  4. Have a Pinterest Business Account
  5. Install a Pinterest save button on your website itself. This is so that when users see your website, they can directly pin your content without having to search for you on Pinterest.

 

What should you keep in mind while developing your strategy?
  1. Think like your customer. If you were a consumer yourself, what would you want from your business? Consumers don’t just want to see product images anymore. They need more content and more conversation. So instead of posting just a picture of a denim jacket, post a blog article on ‘10 ways you can wear a denim jacket’. This gives consumers a lot more than they asked for, which is why the conversion rate would go up.
  2. Keep your end in mind. WHY are you even marketing? Do you want more views? More conversions? Some downloads? What is your purpose behind advertising so much? Knowing the goal will help you make a strategy strong enough to get to your goal. So don’t move in blindly, be prepared. Think of this like a backward chain of events. Look at everything backwards, then go forward!
  3. Pinterest is a search engine. This is the first thing I mentioned. This is not like any other social media platform, but it’s like a search engine of images. Keywords therefore play a very important role here. Your pins and dashboards should have the same keywords that people type out on the search engine while looking for something that comes under your line of business. Search for keywords, and make a note of how popular they are and check out every related or suggested keyword as well. You need to dig deep to find water!
  4. Track your progress. This is a given for any marketing account you need to make sure you’re not driving your vehicle to a dead end. Do monthly check ups to see how far you have come in achieving your desired goal. If there has been little or no progress, then you’ll have to re work on your strategies and methods.

 

Effective ways of kick starting your marketing goals on Pinterest:

  • Build your authority – this means you need to put yourself out there and tell the people that you are a major player in the field. People only look at the team leaders, never at the substitutes. The idea is to make users believe that your Pinterest account is THE place to get useful information on any topic in the market you are tapping into. There are many ways to do this, but a sure way to start is by building trust among your audience. They need to see your brand as a reliable companion so that they not only become a buyer but also a loyal consumer who gives repeat orders. If you do well enough, they may even give referrals about your brand to their friends!
  • Grow your reach – the easiest way to do this is by approaching Pinner’s who already have a large following and engagement on Pinterest. They are like influencers. This benefits both the parties. It gives you more followers and reach and it adds more value to the Pinner you have partnered with.
  • Increase traffic – if done in the right way, Pinterest can bring more traffic than any other social media app combined. But it takes patience and strategy. If you want a high traffic rate then pinners must find your content useful enough to share to others and must constantly pin and repin so that your brand’s name comes up on the top.

 

Pinterest boards:

Almost every brand or popular pinner has a Pinterest board. 

Think of it like an empty bulletin board that you need to fill up – except, it’s online. 

Once you set up a board, it’s your responsibility to maintain it. You need to nurture it – post consistently, relevantly and engagingly. 

You need to keep updating it and keep looking for needs to fulfill. Your boards should reflect your goals, value systems and especially your unique style.

  • While deciding the board, be sure to decide the right keywords. As mentioned earlier, your boards should contain the keywords that users are likely to use while searching for something.
  • Although videos are rarely seen, it’s not a ghosted part of Pinterest. Along with static images, GIFs, videos and even infographics can be displayed. All are rich media but maybe not all will work for your brand. So do a bit of research to see what kind of content is working best in your market.
  • Keep an eye on your competitors. DO NOT copy their style, because Pinterest being the height of originality, won’t look at borrowed or lifted content. Take inspiration and also have a critical eye on the parts of their boards that are not doing as well as they should. The loopholes in your competitor’s boards could be filled up in yours and marketed as the best option.
  • Your content should be highly appealing. You can create the prettiest looking board and people may never follow it because the content is of no use to them. So give them a theme, a pattern, anything that makes sense or is useful to them. That’s the only way you’ll get people to follow you.

Pinterest is a longer term client. It cannot give you immediate results but will give you consistent, evergreen results once you’ve established yourself.

Just make sure to post high quality images because Pinners can be very picky that way!

 

  • CONTENT MARKETING

Content marketing includes creating, publishing and advertising valuable content to a very specific audience online. 

It focuses mainly on storytelling – because for as long as humans could speak and listen, we have always tended to lean towards storytellers.

This type of marketing focuses on creating a long-term relationship with the audience – think of it like your grandma is telling you a very interesting bedtime story every night. 

You want engaging stories, you want to hear them everyday (consistent) and you want them to have relevance and impact or help you in some way.

In the same way, the marketer is the grandma and the audience are children who want to hear high-quality, relevant and consistent content.

For digital marketing, it is necessary for you to develop a Content Marketing Strategy. 

This term is interchangeably used with content strategy and content plan. But what is it?

Content Marketing Strategy is the “why” of your business. 

Why are you creating content and who are you helping with this and most importantly: how will you help them better than everyone else? 

Your strategy should pin point why you are the best in the market you are hoping to advertise in.

What should your Content marketing strategy include?

  1. State your case: Reasons for creating content, the risks involved, mission and vision for achieving success.
  2. State your plan: You’ve announced what the plan is, so the next step is outlining how you are going to get there. This includes your business model, value systems, processes of achieving set goals and the content program.
  3. State your audience: List out your audience market – the size and in depth demographics. Here you will tell them the needs of the audience and how your product or service is going to help them satisfy their needs. State your story: characterise your brand. Decide what messages and ideas you want to
  4. Give to your audience. These should be different from your competitors because well how else will you stand out?
  5. State your platform: Which platform are you going to use to market your brand and its products? Why is this platform the best way to go and how will you build a comprehensive and cohesive brand conversation?

These are some of things you need to keep in mind while developing your content marketing strategy. 

It may look simple, but the best strategies root from in-depth research and knowledge on the subject and the area.

Why do you need a content marketing strategy at all?

  • You’ll find yourself to be able to do content marketing more effectively.
  • Because you have a plan in place, you will feel less challenged when new steps come along in the process.

Overall, it’s a broad topic but once you get the hang of it, you’ll realise that its application can have far reaching and effective consequences.

 

  • EMAIL MARKETING

Ah, Email. One of the earliest forms of virtual communication. You could call this the mother of all social communications. 

However, there are many more social communication platforms and now, email is a more formal way of addressing someone. 

Businesses and brands have used this opportunity to send commercial, inviting but formal messages to individuals. 

This way, it is more authentic and more serious than reaching out using other social media platforms. 

Let’s face it – which message would you take more seriously? 

An Instagram DM from an unverified brand or an email from the same?

Like different sections of marketing, email marketing also has its own variations. There are nine main types:

  1. Welcome email
  2. Standard promotional campaign
  3. Seasonal campaign
  4. Triggered email series
  5. Post purchase drip
  6. Connect via social campaign
  7. Newsletter
  8. Cart abandonment campaign
  9. Re-engagement campaign

The Welcome Email

You just signed up or subscribed to a website. 

You’d think that’s it but when you’re signing up you’re agreeing to get regular emails from them – and that’s exactly what they will give you. 

A standard “Welcome to ABC! We are so glad you are part of our community!” email will surely follow you just minutes after you register with your email ID. 

You can even go on to give them a little welcoming present.

This cannot be stopped at just one email. You must go on to send a series. The three main emails in the series are as follows:

  • Introduction – here you welcome them and give them a bit more information about who you are, what your brand does and what exactly they have signed up for.
  • Invitation – after introducing yourself, you can then invite them to any ongoing events that are happening on your site or in your social media pages. That way they get to have first hand experience in the promise that you gave them in the first email.
  • Interaction – from them on out, it’s mostly introducing them to newer events or things that might interest them.

Here is an example of the Welcome Email series –

Let us say you are a renowned website that hosts photography competitions. 

When an individual signs up or registers, the first email you send is “Welcome to our photography community! 

We are excited to see where you will go on this journey into the world of photography!” then you would go on to explain who you are, your history, your mission/vision statements and where you hope to be with the new subscriber.

The second email would then introduce them to any new competitions that are open for them. 

To make it more personalised, you would tell them that these competitions are for “new subscribers only”, so that they wouldn’t feel left out and it would be a great welcome to them as well.

The third email would be telling them “Now that you entered a few competitions as a new member, it is now time to explore which other competitions you can participate in!” 

This way you are acknowledging that the first few days at the new home is over and it’s time to settle down.

The Standard Promotional Campaign

This is the most common type of mail that consumers find in their inbox. 

If you have a new campaign or are launching something new, then the best way to promote it through email is using a promotional message.

Use lively font and bold colours for such emails because it needs to grab the viewer’s attention and not just be thrown into the trash folder. 

Another thing that could help you get people is by promising them a gift or using and reusing slogans from popular songs. 

Make it relatable, funny, eye-catching and interesting. 

You are promoting to get an audience and they don’t want to waste their time on anything boring!

The Seasonal Campaign

We have all received emails during festival time – this in essence is the seasonal campaign. 

During festivals, national, international and local holidays, brands find opportunities to send emails to customers. \

Eg – on Friendship day, valentine’s day, christmas eve etc.

Triggered email series

Just like the word suggests, this email is delivered after the consumer ‘triggers’ something. 

This works as a reaction to an action. 

Let’s say the consumer clicks on a promotional link, recently bought something or completed a survey- these actions are responded to with email.

Eg – if the consumer bought a camera from a Nikon website, they will then send an email saying “Since you bought this, why don’t you buy a tripod too? Look at our collection.” This is very similar to Netflix’s “Because you watched ABC, here are closer recommendations!” Except that this happens over email.

Post Purchase Drip

These emails are hardly ever seen and are restricted to a small percentage of websites. 

They are similar to the trigger email because it comes after an action made by the consumer, which in this case is buying a product. 

Eg- if you buy a cosmetic kit from Nykaa, they might then send an email on how to use it, when best to use it, maybe even additional tips to use with that particular product.

Connect via Social campaign

This is essentially connecting your email to your social media accounts. 

The brand may email you and ask you to visit their social media for feedback. 

That way, your opinion and rating is not only on their website but also on their social media pages which is a huge benefit for companies wanting to grow on that platform. 

Eg- you just purchased a kitchen gadget. The website you bought it from will then email you to maybe take a picture of the gadget and post it on your story by tagging them – and they will add that to their story! 

This is appealing for many consumers if they get to appear on a famous brand’s social media page.

Newsletter

Newsletters are most popularly sent by NGOs, news websites, campaign driven businesses, or even some of the regular businesses. 

This is not marketing per se, but like a long letter from the company to its consumer explaining about what has happened in the last month, 

what will happen in the coming months and any new offers or products and services to the consumer that are available. This is not a pitch. It’s education with entertainment.

Abandoned Cart Series

Did you ever put something in your online shopping cart but never really checked it out? 

Maybe it was too expensive and you were waiting for a price drop or an offer… so now it’s just stuck in  your cart not moving. 

That’s when the brand or company will email you reminding you that you have something that you have forgotten.

Eg – “Hey, your Sony camera is still in your cart but now it’s at a better price- we are giving a 10% off on it to encourage you to go on with the purchase!”

Re-engagement Campaign

There are a lot of consumers who sign up for emails but in a week or month, become inactive users. 

They don’t open emails, they don’t visit your website again…they just ignore you. 

The re-engagement campaign tackles this issue by emailing the consumer again and reminding her/him about your presence. 

But this is also a tactic to see if you will respond. 

If you don’t then it’s clear they are wasting their time on you and maybe won’t send you emails as frequently…or not at all!

Email marketing can go both ways – good and bad. 

If it’s good, then you can get your customers to do just about anything because it comes from an authentic and formal platform. 

If it goes bad, then you’re stuck in unopened or in the trash folder forever!

  • CONVERSION RATE OPTIMIZATION

We already learnt that people who come to our website can always become potential customers. 

And the way to get people to click on the link is by using search engine optimization (SEO).

Now that you’ve got the person to click on the website link, it’s time for the next step.

This is where Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)  comes in.

Conversion rate optimization is the process of increasing the percentage of people who take an action on your website.

For example, if your landing page has an action to subscribe to emails, your current CRO might be less – i.e. the number of people who click on your website may be high but the number of people who actually subscribe are very less.

So to get more people to subscribe, or perform an action, you need to start doing CRO.

Conversions come in all shapes and sizes. They can be small actions or bug actions, free or paid.

All weapons are broadly classified into two types:

Micro conversions- these are basic and usually what people start off by doing on the website.

  1. Creating an account.
  2. Signing up to get emails.
  3. Adding something to cart.

Macro conversions – this is the next step of micro, and usually involves bigger actions.

  1. Requesting a quote – this means that sometimes the website will not have the feeling details of a product or service, in which case you can enter your email or phone number for them to get back to you with a “quote”.
  2. Actually purchasing a product. In micro, you had just added it to your cart, but in macro, you went ahead and bought it. Because you paid money, it is counted as a macro conversion.
  3. Subscribing to a service – this is similar to buying a product. Let’s say there is a website that does SEO or CRO for companies. If you subscribe to their service then you are still buying a product, just that it’s more of a service done by someone else for you.

 

How to calculate conversion rate?

Before you try to increase your CRO, you should first look at the existing CRO. There are two variables that you must take a note of:

  • Sessions – the no. of times a person visits a website. Every new visit if theirs is their new session.
  • Orders – the no. of actions taken by that user.

Eg – If you are a first time Amazon member, then your first visit is your first session. You may not do anything on your first visit.

When you visit a second time, it will be your second session. This time you may add something to your cart, so it becomes your first order.

The third visit becomes your third session. If you now go on to purchase a product, then it becomes your second order (second action).

So what will your conversion rate be?

You have 3 visits – 3 sessions

And you have completed 2 actions – 2 orders.

Conversion rate = 2 orders/ 3 sessions

=> 66%

Same way, if there were 600 orders out of 2000 sessions… the conversion rate is 30%.

How to start CRO?

The key to a successful CRO is data analytics. 

You need to know your audience so that you can approach them in the right way to get them to convert into customers.

Start with simple but powerful tools like Google Analytics that give powerful numbers and statistics for you to analyse your audience and its characteristics.

When you get these numbers you’ll be better able to focus and decide on which page or part of the website you should improve.

What questions do the analytics answer?

  • Consumer demographics.
  • Which page of your website is most visited.
  • Which feature of your website is most popular.
  • Why people come to your website
  • Which browser, app, link, or device connected them to your website.
  • Why do people leave your website.

These are the main statistics and numbers that analytic forums give, along with anything else that you might specifically ask for.

However, these methods and tools are AI powered. There is a more basic and personal way to get certain information.

We have all at least once answered a survey. 

Be it short or long. We’ve also given feedback on any product we have purchased. 

Businesses ask you questions on the product or conduct surveys to measure customer satisfaction – This is a more personal and manual way to get analytics. 

It’s a win win situation because the consumer feels more important in this type of methodology.

Which pages should you do CRO for?

  • Homepage – this is the obvious. You need a good, eye catching homepage with the right words to grab the visitor into becoming a consumer.
  • Landing pages – landing pages are stand-alone pages that are static. They are also called destination pages because they take the user to the desired action page. They appear when a user clicks on any promotional link, online ad, or marketing email.
  • Fee page – you’ve managed to make the user come till this point – now you should just help them decide to make the payment. this is the best time you can give offers, product features that stand out, monthly or yearly subscriptions… anything that makes the viewer want to become a consumer. They should see an advantage if they pay you, so make sure to optimize price pages very well.

 

Marketing strategies for CRO

A lot of the techniques used will be mostly trial and error because you are dealing with the uncertainty of human decision making. 

You may have the best CRO strategy and it may work very well but you should always be ready to see that it doesn’t work on everyone. 

This is why, you must try and fail and try again until you find something that best suits your business.

  • A/B testing – This is a bit tricky to understand so let me give you an example. During a mock exam, a teacher gives one half of the class question A and the other half of the class question B. The students don’t know that half of them have gotten different questions. Depending on which half does better, the teacher can then decide which type of question to give the students in the final. This is exactly what A/B testing means in CRO. In CRO, let’s say you have two variants of the same webpage but you don’t know which will do better when you launch it. So you will show both the versions of the web page to the same number of different audiences (group A and B). Whichever does better, you will finalise on it and launch only that.
  • CTAs – Call to Action is the most powerful tool you can use to convert users into consumers. Instead of just listing products or services, talk to the consumers. Give them something to do and make it about them so that they see the pros in joining hands with you. You can include CTAs almost anywhere but the best place to do so is in blogs. Instead of a banner CTA (that almost everyone ignores), use text based CTA. If it’s embedded in the blog then it gives the action more authenticity and appeal.
  • Test your landing pages – As discussed earlier, there will be a lot of trial and error in the process. Landing pages are powerful if they have the right CRO done. So try out which feature of your landing pages work best and garner the most conversions. Cut out the ones that are not doing anything to create conversions. You need to stick to strong, relevant features ONLY.
  • Live chats – Have you ever gone to a website where a chat box suddenly pops up and asks you what you want? That’s a live chat. Once you engage with this chat, it’s first an AI powered robot that answers you. Once you give out the desired information (your enquiry), then the AI tool will redirect you to an actual person. Conversations are very strong tools to get conversions. They are more inclusive than any other kind of interaction because any confusion will be cleared by a person and the consumer won’t have to search the web page for this information.
  • Optimize your blog posts – Not all blogs will perform well. But make sure you optimize those blogs that are performing well on their own. This includes SEO. Good writing can always be used to persuade a reader into becoming a buyer. Don’t underestimate your blog section and use keywords, meta tags and other SEO techniques to improve CRO ratings.
  • Use heatmaps – heatmaps show which parts of your blog, article or page are read / viewed the most. If you have this, then you can ensure that you use similar techniques in other places as well.
  • How long does your site take to load – Consumers are impatient people. They don’t have time to wait around for a website that takes 10 seconds to load – they’d go back and click on one that takes just 1-3 seconds. Statistics show that the abandonment rate of consumers for slow websites is 20% higher than for fast websites. This means that they are more likely to leave the page if it doesn’t load quick enough. It’s a small thing but it can affect your conversions and you should therefore invest in optimizing your webpage load time.

 

  • WEBSITE ANALYTICS

In the previous subtopics (SEM, SEO, CRO) we talked about how to use numbers to get traction. 

But who is going to give us these numbers and how exactly is this done?

Web analysis is the process of collecting and analysing web data to understand and optimize a web page. 

The key to web analytics is understanding consumer behavior. The better you know the consumer, better the experience you can give to them. 

And if the experience you give is much more valuable to them than any other brand, then you get the competitive advantage. 

All web analytics use AI powered tools. Smart technology is the quickest, most accurate and customizable way of getting information. This

How does it work?

All the web analytic tools out there do more or less the same thing.

They insert a Java script into the web page’s code. It’s like a tracker and tracks everything that goes in the web page. What things does it track?

  • How many people visit the website
  • How many clicks a particular link gets
  • Which device the person is using
  • Geographical location of the user
  • COOKIES – cookies are the easiest way you could give permission to an analytic tool to access and track what you do online, what you browse, what your likes and dislikes are etc.
  • Gives the Bounce rate – if a user visits but doesn’t click on any other page than the one they landed on, and they leave… Then it’s called a bounce. Larger bounce rates mean that there is something wrong with : loading time, navigation or unattractive web design.

There are three types of analyses that it does:

Consumer data:

  • of visits
  • of returns
  • Geography
  • Unique users
  • Device

Consumer behavior:

  • Frequently visited pages
  • Favorite landing pages
  • Favorite features
  • Conversions

Campaign / event data:

  • Which campaigns did best
  • Which websites (competitors) got the most traffic
  • Which parts of the campaign were favorites
  • Break down of campaign data – who and how they reached, when etc.

 

Which are the best analytics out there?

  1. Google Analytics – they’re easily the most powerful and popular tool on the net. The best part? It’s absolutely free.
  2. Adobe Analytics
  3. Spring metrics
  4. Chartbeat
  5. Kissmetrics

You can choose any of the above famous analytic tools or widen your choices here.

 

  • DATA TRACKING

If you think nobody is watching you online, you’re wrong. Yes, even if you’re incognito. But who keeps an eye on you and why?

Data tracking is simply keeping a tab on your activity online. 

Third party entities or websites track your activity and can use this information in many ways.

First let’s look at data tracking through an example.

Imagine you just opened chrome and browsed through the net searching for Nike shoes. 

Then, on your way to work, you saw a pretty flower, took a picture and storied it on your Instagram. 

Finally you looked up a restaurant for an office meeting scheduled that afternoon.

While you did all this, third party entities tracked you – they made a note of which website you visited (Nike, amazon, flipkart), which shoes you liked and put in the cart, which location you were at when you posted a story, which restaurants you picked and if there are similar ones nearby.

But why are they tracking you?

They’re trying to figure you out! Third party entities are mainly advertisers. 

They want to know you and your preferences and habits so that they can customize and target specific ads towards you. 80% of people don’t know that they are being tracked.  

They don’t  notice that when they search for watches on Chrome, they’ll get related ads on their social media.

Tracking can be a little uncomfortable to digest. Nobody likes knowing that they are being watched, especially without their knowledge, which is why most of them are kept unaware of this. 

Tracking can be both good and them.  

Most of the time, the user itself will give them permission to track them – and this is using COOKIES. 

Cookies are the “legal” way to track user activity and preferences. Another legal way is terms and conditions. 

Eg- when you set up Google Maps, it is mentioned in terms and conditions that the browser will know and track where you are and where you have been if you turn on your location.  

This way if you search for a boutique near you on maps, you’ll get boutique ads on other platforms while you are browsing!

The bad side of tracking is that instead of personalizing ads for the user, entities will use it to make a profile on you.  

The extreme would be called “targeted surveillance”. To stop what is close enough to be intrusion of privacy, some companies provide private browsing experiences and ad blocking techniques. 

But not everyone is interested in this and it’s much easier for them to get targeted advertisements on things they like. 

The three main methods of tracking:

  1. Cookies
  2. Fingerprinting
  3. Beacons

Cookies – they are small files or packets of information that contain your activity on a particular website or web page. 

So the next time you come to the website, they can identify that it’s you and give a more personal and better user experience.

Beacons – they are very small, invisible or transparent images that appear on webpage or emails for two purposes – tracking and reporting. 

Advertisers use them to determine how many impressions their ads got or how many times the web page was loaded. 

Most beacons do not have malicious intent, those that do usually come with spam emails and give spammers information about whether or not your ID is active.

Fingerprinting – this is a bit more complex method of tracking. Unlike cookies and beacons they do not use small files to store information. Instead they look at:

  • Browser settings
  • Browser configuration
  • Browser version
  • Monitor size and resolution
  • Operating system

Methods of fingerprinting always change and get more and more complex.

Is tracking bad?

79% of all web pages on the internet track your information. This is a huge number and only 20% of users are aware of this happening.

Strictly speaking, data from tracking is used to give the consumer a better experience. 

But over tracking is unnecessary and invasive. There are many loopholes that entities use to sell your private data to another webpage or website altogether.

If you’re not comfortable with tracking, then you can always use a VPN.

A Virtual Private Network is a protected browser that connects various networks and encrypts them. 

This doesn’t really stop tracking but they won’t know that they are not tracking you, because VPN directs trackers to a different IP address. This way your information and data remain private!

 

  • GROWTH HACKING

This is a new field in the ever growing world of digital marketing. This is mainly aimed at start-ups and is slowly gaining popularity among new only entrepreneurs.

All start-ups want to get that one click that hits them off into huge profits and revenue. 

It should either grow fast enough or die. Growth hacking is a way to help new businesses grow in the fastest way possible. Growth is what they are after.

But what exactly is growth hacking?

It is an experimental way to to determine which methods are most effective to grow a brand or business (usually start-ups).

Growth Hackers

It’s simple. People who do growth hacking are called growth hackers.  

A growth hacker should be creative. They should come up with new and cost effective strategies that both get consumers and help retain them.

Some of the main things they do include SEO, A/B testing, email marketing, content marketing etc… all of which we have discussed above.

But there are some specifics that you need to know when starting growth hacking.

 

  • Pre-launch email list

This is here email marketing comes in handy. As discussed under email marketing, it remains the best way to achieve leads and conversions. 

Suppose you have a new product coming up for launch. You need weeks and weeks of preparation and marketing to build curiosity and appeal among the audience. 

Start by creating a list of emails. Who are all the people you’re going to mail this to? 

They need to be potential and active consumers and even new customers. 

When you email them about the launch, give enough information to get them curious but not too less or not too much.

  • Product hunt

Product Hunt is an online company that helps startups launch ideas on their platform. 

Here  audiences use the product and give feedback and it’s a great way to get attention to your new product.

  • Referrals

Referrals work in any industry. Word of mouth still remains one of the most effective ways of persuasion. 

Family, friends, celebrities… they can all be used as referrals to make audiences more aware of your product.

  • Adjacent markets

People think that most of Nike’s products are only focused on track and field sports but they don’t know that it includes almost all sports gear. 

This means that when they first started they were in the track and field section 

but then expanded into other areas as well. Adjacent markets expand your company’s niche and reach so do this once you are well settled into one particular area.

  • New brand partnerships

Collaborating and partnering with other businesses is never a bad idea. 

It creates buzz in the market and will definitely give you more organic customers and followers. 

The other brand’s consumers are more likely to move towards your brand as well. The buzz would create more people to notice you in the market.

  • Host and attend community events

MAKE CONNECTIONS. This field is full of people with power and it’s always better to be on the side that will benefit your business. 

Meet people in events, invite them to yours, make a professional family that helps you and which you help, put your business card in the hands of as many as possible. 

Be ready to learn from the best.

  • Build a community

This community is slightly different from the one you make offline. This community is online on social media!  

The advantage of social media is that in addition to getting new followers, you also have the opportunity to earn with every post you make if you have a significant following.

  • Go behind your biggest competitors (competition scans)

Yes they are your competitors, and yes they may be larger than you but there’s a reason why they are successful. 

You’ve heard of ‘keep your friends close but enemies closer’ right? Apply the same principle. 

Keep an eye on your competitors – see what their strategies are and if you can implement something similar or more unique than that. 

What do they have that you don’t? 

Monthly competition scans help you compare monthly developments between you and all your competitors.

Take a look at their blogs and the keywords they have used. Which competitor had the maximum impact and why? 

See their brand partners and all the methods they have used for growth and implement them.

  • Aggressive CM strategy

All content marketing strategies rely on getting feedback from consumers and creating value for your product. 

With the feedback they give, you need to work on any possible defects and tell your consumers that “look, we took your suggestions and made this a product you cannot say no to!” unless your content marketing strategy is not audience centric, you cannot grow.

  • Influencers

This is similar to partnerships. Instead of partnering with brands, you’ll be partnering with people who have a huge following or a celebrity status. 

Influencers are called this for a reason – people do what they do, be it clothing or makeup or accessories. 

If they endorse your product, then the people that trust the influencers will also trust you. 

This is of course given that your product should be of the highest quality and must deliver to the consumers what was promised.

 

  • MARKETING AUTOMATION

Have you heard of automation? 

Of course you have – almost everything is automated these days. Automation is the process of using technology to tasks and reduce human intervention as much as possible, 

we reduce human intervention because it means there is less opportunity for human error to occur.

When we are marketing there are a lot of things that humans can miss out 

because we are not machines and lot of factors can drive, deliver and hinder our output – we could miss out a name in the list of emails, we could make spelling errors, 

we may lose our cool with customers that are not so friendly, we may forget to post on time…

all these factors may hugely alter the outcomes of our digital marketing strategies. 

So the best way to stop such things from happening  is to automate the entire marketing process.

Essentially, this means that all the things we discussed above, from SEO, to all kinds of social media marketing, to CMS etc can all be done with the help of automated technology and minimal to zero human work.

Marketing automation is therefore the process of using software to market your product or service online. 

The software helps companies automate repetitive tasks and increases efficiency and therefore helps in getting higher revenue at a lower cost and faster rate of workflow.

With marketing automation, you can assign whichever tasks you want to the software, not have to do it yourself and then see how the software has done the job. 

As your business grows, you simply may not have time to reply to every email, comment or share. 

Or even post daily at the same time or interact and measure your business and consumers like you used to. 

You need someone to take care of it with no mistakes and hassles – so you automate parts of your marketing that you don’t have the time to do yourself or assign to someone else.

There are three main layers of marketing automation:

  1. Email marketing – remember we learnt about the various kinds of emails, from welcome to campaign to trigger emails? Will you or anyone else have the time to type out custom emails to about 2000 – 20,000 people every day? Or even more? Certain emails (trigger emails especially) can be done very easily with automation. You can even automate sign up forms. With email marketing, you can automate both the delivery and the distribution of content. The software can identify which user comes under which category – new, frequent, age-old? And after identifying that, it can then customize the email and send it over in seconds.
  2. Social media – This platform is so huge that it is now impossibly out of our control. We cannot imagine replying and interacting with each and every one who communicates with the brand across all social media apps. Who has the time or the patience? If you’ve seen someone’s reply section look like the picture below, then it means they have automated the process of individually thanking each and every person for following.

If a company posts at exactly the same time every day or every week, it is again that they have automated the process of posting so as to not waste time on the app and focus on much more important things.

With automation, you don’t have to worry about direct messages, replying to comments, posting, following etc

    3. Landing pages – it used to take hours and hours of coding in HTML to make a landing page. 

But now you get to use custom templates or copy templates over and over again.

Getting started with automating email marketing:

The first thing you need to do is to segment your customers. You cannot obviously send the same email to everyone. 

Categorize them according to your convenience – their gender, how old or new they are, their subscription status etc.

Once you segment them, you can then customize which email will be delivered to which customer. 

Maybe a special offer for new comers (like a discount on shipping) or a 10% off for an old consumer’s 50th purchase etc, or even a new gift for someone who paid for a higher subscription.

Therefore, the more you segment, the more specialised the emails become and also let users know that you are aware of their status and are willing to do more for them.

 

Forms and mobile optimization:

Automation comes with a form filling feature for consumers. 

Once the consumer fills information, it shows up on the software and you can then use this for marketing, promotion etc. 

Another great advantage of this software is they can optimize your content on the mobile screen. 

Reading the content or viewing products on the website may be appealing and easy but increasing people like to see their phones for everything. 

So it’s important to optimize content (readability and design) on the phone screen as well.

 

Autoresponders:

We have all sent an email and received an instant response – maybe the response told us to wait for a few days before the company can actually reply back to any query we have. 

Auto responders are used so that the consumer is given a certain time period to wait. It is better to tell the long que to wait for a while instead of not informing them at all and leave them hanging.

 

Starting with social media:

  • Posting and scheduling – when scheduling posts, you must keep in mind that you need to keep the posts ready to post. The only thing that the software will do is post it (you should keep the photo/video, captions, hashtags, tags etc ready to post).
  • Social listening – it is impossible to manually keep a track of who uses your brand or eve talks about it. Automation softwares searches the internet for any conversations or mentions of your brand or products so that you stay in the loop of what’s happening with your business. It’s like a fly on the wall – it will listen to everything, make note of it and then come report it to you.
  • Social interactions – same as receiving an instant email response, this is an instant messaging response on social media apps.

 

Few other features given by automations:

  • Personalized customer targeting – consumers NEED to feel as if they are your first priority, which they really should be. When you feed in the information, softwares can then target ads based on the specific and personal information of the consumers given.
  • Customized landing pages – the ad, the keywords and the landing page must go hand in hand. They must all come together to form a successful conversion. Most marketing automation tools provide you with customized landing page builders and lead capture forms that you can then customize on your own to fit your ad.

 

The difference between CRM and marketing automation:

CRM- Customer Relationship Management

The thing is, there is no clear distinction on which one is more useful. It depends on which stage your business is at. 

Depending on where your business stands in the funnel represented above, you can use either CRM or marketing automation.

 

When do you use CRM?

  • If you are reported to have bad customer service. CRM can help you reach out to all customers who have a complaint and help resolve them.
  • Customers are lost. If they are confused while navigating through your website, then CRM can help them get through any queries.
  • If you have too many leads to handle in a spreadsheet, it’s time to think of using CRM.

 

When do you use marketing automation?

  • Your customer list is getting too big – obviously, you can’t manage millions of consumers manually. You’d take years to reply to them! This is when you need automation to come in and make it easier for you.
  • Your customer list is too small – I know, this sounds a bit odd. But if your leads are too less and you need to reach out to a large, untouched audience, then automation is the way to go.
  • Your content is great, but it’s not reaching your audience – this has happened a lot of times that the content of a business or website is amazing but it’s shocking to see so little engagement or traction. This software will get audiences to see your content faster!

 

The best software for marketing automation:

  1. Eloqua
  2. HubSpot
  3. Marketo
  4. Pardot
  5. Silverpop

 

Remember that marketing automation is not something you should apply for every task. 

Most tasks still need human intervention otherwise your consumers will get angry that they are only interacting with bots and not real people. 

You can appear busy, not neglectful.

 

 

CONCLUSION

We have covered every aspect of digital marketing. We have covered what it is, why it is done, the different types under it in detail and even other services included under digital marketing.

This is such a huge topic, it is impossible to cover every nook and cranny in one go. 

And because it is so dynamic and ever changing, new developments keep coming and going. 

Some of the features mentioned in the article may be completely outdated within the year, or even within a month.

 

When it comes to marketing online, you just have to make sure you are prepared well in advance for anything that might happen. 

It’s twice as unpredictable as the traditional method of marketing, so solutions to any problems you might encounter should be on the tip of your finger. 

It can be bad growth on some platforms, or Instagram’s new algorithm is not giving you enough reach as you had anticipated, or your SEO strategy failed – these things are bound to happen but you mustn’t lose heart and just continue to dig in.

As uncertain as it sounds, digital marketing really is somewhat like a trial and error project. 

What works in one platform may not give you any results at all in another. 

So each part of digital marketing that we talked about above will have different methods that you need to apply effectively.

 

In conclusion, this is the new age advertising that is required for you to do because otherwise you’ll be left behind in this race to success, with nothing but stagnant pages on the internet.