The world of Digital Marketing is gradually expanding and newer aspects are coming to the scenes. If we compare the work done in this field to the one done a decade ago, all of it can be just described in simple words. But not anymore. You cannot define Digital Marketing in one simple word or sentence. There have been a lot of advancements made in this form of marketing and it has moved quite forward. It has become a common thing for a brand to have an online presence. It doesn’t matter if the services are provided in digital space, but the presence is a must.

Social Media is a prime example of what we are trying to say. A social media account has become the norm for big brands. Businesses focusing on Real estate, agriculture, automobiles, manufacturing parts, etc. have now allocated their budget in Digital Marketing. They know what the market needs and to keep up in the game, it has become essential for them to allocate a certain amount of their total budget to this marketing. One of the most sought after platforms is WhatsApp. It has become a game changer. Don’t make the mistake of considering it as just a platform to chat with your family and friends. It is actively used in Digital Marketing strategies. More than a billion people use this app and nothing can better than this. There are several ways of using WhatsApp in digital marketing. Some of them are explained below

• Give your campaigns a personal feel

Before starting with WhatsApp marketing, remember that there are strict privacy policies and almost zero buying potential for third-party advertising. Remember this and start your Digital Marketing campaign by providing something personal to the users. There are hundreds of brand out there in the market and you want yours to stand out. This can be done by creating a campaign that has a personal touch. Consumers need to feel a human connection in the whole buying process. It should be a pleasant experience for them. You need to create a brand persona without invading their privacy. Make users feel special by engaging in any activity and this can be done by having a contest or something similar.

• Cross-platform marketing

In simple words, WhatsApp is an interactive tool. People use it to communicate with each other. It is a cross-platform app and this is the aspect which should be capitalized. The benefit of using an app in Digital Marketing is to reach social media networks as well as people who are not in your reach. There is traffic analytics present to help you in this task. These analytics helps you in gauging your target audience and seeing which networks are popular among them. As this app is developed using open source software, website traffic analytics are available for anyone to see. You can analyze the results and tweak your social media strategy accordingly.

• Give users some kind of incentive

On the outset, Digital Marketing with WhatsApp’s use seems like a simple process. But how are you going to get users to give their contact number? It is essentially an app that people use for private purpose so they may not be comfortable in giving you their phone number. This is where you have to score. As a brand, you have to create incentives for the brand to make people willing to share their contact information. One of the effective ways is to run a competition in which the selected user wins some kind of money. It is a fun and creative way of enhancing customer interaction and spreading your name across.

• Excellent Customer Service standard

Customer service is an integral part of any service offering. It doesn’t matter if you provide products or services. There has to be an impeccable customer service. If you have decided to do Digital Marketing on WhatsApp, make sure to keep up with your customer service game. Customer service should be your top priority as it the perfect platform for instant messaging. The manner in which you are able to create rapport with your customers will decide your brand’s reputation. You have to understand why people are connecting with you on this app. One-on-one requests are going to be aplenty and make them feel that you’re available at just one tap of the button. For big businesses, it will be wiser to form a separate team for this work.

• Take full use of the Broadcast list and Group Chat

What makes WhatsApp an effective app is the ease of use. There aren’t many windows in it. It is pretty simple to use and has and there are no hassles. If you are opting for Digital Marketing on WhatsApp, you have to use the Broadcast list for sure. The lists should be made according to specific topics and then the information needs to be shared to enhance the engagement. Including links of your offering is a must. The same can be achieved with the help of a Group Chat. More than 240 people can be added in a Group and shared info will be grasped by all of them. Getting information from all of them can be very helpful. The best use of this feature can be taken when performing market studies prior to a product launch.

• Other Uses

WhatsApp is a free message site. There is no cost involved in sending any number of messages. It is available for Android as well as an iphone. All you need is an active Internet connection and you are good to go. You can even reach the International audience too. WhatsApp has started voice as well as video calls. If there is any user query, it can be solved via a direct call. Instead of redirecting, it will directly reach the customer service agent. Another aspect is of Content quality. Unlike Twitter, which has a character limit of 280 words, you can write long sentences on WhatsApp. There is no problem in creating quality content and sharing it with the users.

There is a separate place for Online Reputation Management in every marketing strategy. The reason for this is because everyone now has an online presence. You cannot imagine to run your business and earn a profit without having a digital imprint. Users have become more pro-active and before purchasing any offering, they go online and check all the details about what they are going to buy. Right from checking the reviews to searching for a cheaper and better alternative, the Internet provides everything to them. And business owners have started to realize this too. Having a website has become a norm now, irrespective of the offerings. This has also called for Online Reputation Management services.

Online Reputation Management or ORM plays a crucial role in a digital marketing strategy. Whenever people purchase your product, they may review it online on different platforms. Some of the reviews may be excellent but some of them may not be encouraging. What Online Reputation Management does is, remove all the negative reviews about the brand from different search engines. Reputation is what makes or breaks the brand. If the word-of-mouth is not positive, people will shy away from the brand and that can seriously hit the ROI. To negate all these issues, ORM services are usually preferred by the brands. There are different software and tools that help in actively managing your reputation. Don’t wonder how, just read the below-given pointers to get the accurate information –

• Radian6

Your business cannot escape the wide world of Social Media. The Internet combined with Social Media has increased the importance of Online Reputation Management. One of the best tools for social media is Radian6. It can be used for two purposes at once – managing the online reputation of a brand and engaging with the audiences across platforms. If your brand is on the top of its game in social media and people speak about you on a regular basis, then this is the tool you are definitely looking for. It is a paid tool but the cost is minimal as compared to the benefits. It is ideal for large scale monitoring. The benefits include Excel Add-in, Real-time dashboard, and managing an online social conversation.  

• Brand Grader

As we talked about Radian6 above, which was a paid tool, let’s talk about a free tool here. Everyone loves a free tool. And especially when we talk about Online Reputation Management. A free tool gives you the option of trying something new without shelling out extra money out of your pocket, in case it doesn’t work out the way you wanted it to. The Brand Grader is a tool which gives you a quick overview of the brand within a few seconds. The use is very simple. You just have to select the company or product you want to analyze and you will get to know about different things such as their biggest web influences, major sites which are talking about them, their top sources i.e. whether the mentions come from blogs, images, or news sites and many more things.

• Reputology

The name says it all – it’s about reputation! Reputology is the tool which many brands use to enhance or maintain their reputation. This tool’s specialty lies in tracking online reviews. It not only tracks reviews from common review platforms such as Google and Facebook reviews but also industry-specific websites such as real estate, hospitality, FMCG etc. In today’s time, reviews play an important role in impacting sales, therefore, this tool is the one you should be investing in. It holds a big advantage in Online Reputation Management – it is location specific. It delivers all the reviews in one place and you also have the option to respond to them.

• Awario

Awario is a popular social listening tool that lets you monitor what people are saying about you. It lets you track mentions of your brand along with monitoring the competitions all around and find sales opportunities. It also has an additional feature of discovering niche influencers. All of this happens in real-time and you can respond to any query right from the app. This tool is quite popular in Online Reputation Management as it lets you locate the people who are stealing your content. Spotting copyright infringement becomes much simpler with this tool. There are three different plans and you can choose according to your convenience.

• uberVU

When it comes to accuracy, uberUV is the tool to beat. It is a real-time social media marketing platform that thoroughly analyzes your brand’s social media data and shows detailed insights like influencers, stories, changing trends etc. in real-time. The setup is simple to use as it is designed for daily use. The biggest challenge of using this tool in Online Reputation Management is the cost involved. The basic pack starts at $449 per month which is a lot considering it is just one tool. Before opting to buy it, you can go for its free trial and see if it fits your strategy.

• Reputation Defender

It’s pretty obvious from the name what this tool does – it defends your reputation. The best part of this tool is that you can use it for your brand as well as personally. Reputation defender helps in removing blemishes from your online presence. It is a paid tool with different options to choose from. If you are looking for a tool with SEO in mind, then Reputation Defender is the best option. It is a personal marketing machine that monitors your reputation and tracks your popularity.

• Other tools

There are many other tools for Online Reputation Management. One of the interesting ones is Similarweb. It is mainly used as a website ranking site but it also has an enterprise monitoring tool that lets you benchmark your website against the competition for factors such as average time spent on site, bounce rate and page per visit etc. Some of the other bonus tools are – The Website Grader, to evaluate your website, TheMozbar, to assess your website authority and traffic, Go Fish Digital to shows negative reviews of any brand.

The work of a digital agency is very clear and includes an increase in the website traffic. Whenever a brand gets associated with any agency, it has certain expectations in mind. They are shelling out a good chunk of their resources by investing in a digital agency so the expectations are fair. The main aim of any business owner is to see a visible impact in their online space. Right from the website traffic to the leads they receive, everything should be in order. There are various different components of digital marketing such as Content marketing, SEO, SMO, PPC services, etc. With the help of these services, the growth is seen.

Among all these, website traffic also plays an important part. There are millions of users present online and to cater to them, there are thousands of websites. If you search any query on the search engine you will see there are endless results. This tells you about the competition. Everyone is out there to provide you information. This makes it harder for the brands to make themselves more approachable. More the number of people who visit your site better will be the conversion rate. Therefore, you need methods to boost your website traffic. Only when you have considerable traffic, it will turn into a lead. A lot of time and hard work is required to get the traffic and the next step is to convert them into leads. Some of the ways to do it are mentioned below –

• Landing pages

The importance of landing page is signified as the other name of a landing page is ‘lead capture page’. It is a standalone website page that is created specifically for an advertising campaign. Whenever a user clicks on the optimized Google search, they land on a particularly made page. Landing pages are one of the most effective ways of converting website traffic into a lead. The homepage of a website is not always the first opened page. Emphasis should be made on the quality and design of a landing page. According to stats, a well-made landing page gives the conversion ratio of as high as 50-60 percent at least. The trick is to plan a landing page by using plugins and themes that are accessible in the market. The formation of a landing page has also become simpler. Don’t just trust one landing page. Different people have different taste and more than one page should be designed.

• Notification bar

What does your website offer that others don’t? Why will people stay on your website? These are some questions whose answers need to kept ready if you want to boost your website traffic and convert them into leads. In a website, this work is done by a notification bar. These bars are not a big part of the website but play an important role. They are designed as an attention-grabbing tool. You can configure it to stay on the top even when you are scrolling down. The relevant information always stays on top. One common strategy used by the web owners is to add an option of subscription to collect information and data.

• Unblockable pop-up forms

9 out of 10 websites take the use of a pop-up form. Whenever you visit a website, you must have noticed some pop-ups trying to give you some information or asking you to sign-up for something. Now, there is a new type of pop-up window that cannot be blocked by any feature. It is a tool which is loved by every business owner. But you should use it carefully as far as the website traffic goes. Using this tool excessively may annoy your visitors and they may not come back to your site. One clever way of using this pop-up is setting it up when the visitor is leaving the website. A pop-up will appear on the website, thanking them for visiting. This will create a positive image in their mind and they might refer the website to their colleagues.

• Opt-in forms

Data collection is a process which is desired by every business owner. Have you ever wondered why? Why do people want to collect the data? The answer is simple. The solution is evaluated accordingly. It is done to find the latest trends and the interest of the user. Retargeting is another reason why brands want to invest in collecting data. Website traffic also depends on collecting useful data. The opt-in forms are perfect in the sidebar of any blog area. If you have an offer that is appealing to the users, they will surely opt-in for that. If the offer is great, then around 2-10 percent of the blog traffic can be converted into leads. There are different plugins available if you have a WordPress site. Give opt-in forms a thought and you will not regret it.

• About Us

The About Us page of a website is not just a page. The home page is usually the page where the user first visits. If the user finds the site to be useful, then he/she explores the About Us and other pages. This encourages the user to trust you. The content shared on this age should be engrossing as well as inspiring. Have a motivational story about yourself, give an impression about your offerings and showcase all your clientele to make a great impression. Having a sign-up page in this section can work for you as the information will be given by people who are interested in your offerings, thus successfully converting website traffic into a lead.

• Other factors

Having a contact number on your website’s Home Page is another good idea. Users can ask questions directly. They trust you and are impressed by whatever you have to offer. If you give them whatever they require, then the website traffic can easily be converted into a lead and a potential customer. Welcoming redirect is a clever idea. Grabbing the audience’s attention by giving them a free in exchange of registering to the website will give you leads that can later be converted.

The idea of Content Writing is to make sure that you are making the audience come to your website. A website is an important tool to sell your brand. The market is growing at a fast pace and the only way to go ahead is to go digital. Every brand is now present online and to take its full use, you need to embrace it with arms wide open. Understanding every bit of digital marketing increases your reach to potential customers. And the first thing to do is to have a website. Only when you have a website, you will be able to sell yourself to the customers. People take you seriously when you have a site. After building a website, you need to have Content Writing done.

Content Writing, in the basic term, refers to the type of writing that is done to sell and promote the brand’s offering online. It is closely related to web marketing campaigns and the main aim of Content Writing is to use bring traffic to the website so that the users can know about the brand’s product or service. But being a content writer isn’t an easy skill to master. It requires learning at different stages and knowing what is trending in the market. Some of the skills come into play when you go forward with time. And these skills keep on changing accordingly. In 2019, there are some of the skills which are mentioned below –

• Be SEO ready

When we talk about Content Writing, SEO is one of the first things that come into mind. You cannot expect users to redirect to your website without any external help. Even if you have engaging content, users will come to you only when you have engaged in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). There are certain keywords which you have to incorporate into your content so that it ranks higher on the search engines. Only then you will be on the top of the search page leading to more clicks and better traffic on the website.

Readability is something which is quite important in SEO writing. Have clarity in your writing and make sure to keep it all simple. Images are a great way to go in SEO. According to research, blogs and articles with image enjoy 94 percent more views than the ones without any images. Keep this in mind about SEO and you will find success in this department.

• Manage your time

When you first think of it, time management is not the first thought that comes to your mind when we talk about Content Writing. But you need to manage time in order to be a proficient Content Writer. Organizing and prioritizing the given work is the first thing to do. There may be different pieces of work to be written and may overlap. You need to prioritize it and complete the most important work first. If you are not managing your time, there will be a lot of last-minute work whose quality won’t be top notch. To balance everything, you need to have good time management skills.

• Fluent English

Your writing skills are dependent on the fluency of your English. You need to be clear on the writing skills you need. Being clear gives you a tonal platform and the whole content is based on that tone only. You cannot expect Content Writing without being fluent in English. This is pretty much a basic requirement. Reading online content makes you learn new words that may help you in going forward. Adding words to your vocabulary is only going to take you forward. Use those words in your writing piece and see if the quality of content is enhanced or not. Take your time to learn and don’t shy away from it.

• Marketing efficient skills

As a Content Writer, you don’t have to be an expert in Marketing but having some marketing skills is not going to hurt you. While writing the content, don’t work too hard on editing it simultaneously. First, prepare the draft and then edit it at the end. Being a good marketer will help in satisfying the need of the client. Content Marketing, along with marketing helps in delivering the content your client needs. Understanding the need of client according to the marketing plan helps deliver the right set of requirements. The marketing skills you acquire will make you a better writer.

• Flexible tone of writing

While working as a Content Writer, you will have different work such as writing blogs, articles and sometimes social media posts too. The clients may spread over different genre and all you can do is to prepare yourself for all that. The work that you do may be of different tones and poles apart. You will be benefited if you have the ability to change your tone according to the demand of the client. They should have the ability to change the tone at a moment’s notice and without losing the individual voice.

• Creativity

Success in Content Writing depends a lot on how creative you are. The way you craft your content will tell how far you are going in that field. All of this is decided by the client. Maybe, the requirement is to stick to the point and write a simple and compact content but sometimes, the client is not very specific about the topic and only throws a bunch of keywords at you. This is where your creativity will come into play. Being successful means to work with every type of client.

• Communication skills

The final and one of the most important skills to have in Content Writing is communication skills. Writing skill is a bare necessity for a writer but exceptional verbal communication is a must too. There are some clients who want every bit of update and that includes verbal updates too. Another thing is to write crisp e-mails. The world of Digital means communicating in different verticals.

These above-mentioned skills are necessary in 2019 for your growth as a Content Writer.

Search Engine Optimization is a necessary component in every Digital Marketing Strategy. Brands want to do a lot more when it comes to online advertising. They have realized that most of their audience and potential customers are present online and if they are to be tapped, consideration should be given to them too. Marketing in Digital space gives you much more than you expect. You get to know customer’s behavior, interest, and purchasing patterns. After comprehending all of this, you can create a successful marketing strategy. For doing this only, brands have a website and their primary job is to bring the audience to their website. This is where Search Engine Optimization fits right in.

Search Engine Optimization became popular more than two decades ago, a bit later than the world wide web came into being. But ever since, it has become a vital strategy in every campaign. The competition is higher and the search engines are loaded with different answers for one query. Higher the rank of the website in the search engine better will be the chance of opening that link. This does not happen naturally. You have to take certain steps in ranking higher on the pages and Search Engine Optimization helps you in doing that. Every year or so, there are some trends which take SEO to the next level and these trends keep on changing. Some of the trends that may be crucial in 2019 are explained below –

• Answer dominated search engine

People come to the search engines to find answers. They have questions that need to be answered and the best source is the Internet. “People Also Ask” become trended last year because of that. Suggestions of the related topics were given to see what people may be interested in and help them in the query. This year, Search Engine Optimization is going to be benefited by answering questions in as many devices as possible with accuracy. Targeting featured snippets with to the point information is going to be rewarded with high the ranking. Feed people with relevant information to bring them back and establish the brand.

• Voice search is on the rise

Don’t confuse voice search with a fad. It is not just a spark that is going to fade out soon. It is here to stay. Voice search has gained mileage because everyone is doing it. Search engines have also started to welcome voice search. Users are given all the options of doing voice search. According to Google CEO, Mr. Sundar Pichai, one-fifth of the queries on Google are voice searches. This will give you a rough idea of the importance of Voice Search. Optimization for the featured snippets is a good idea. Don’t take voice search for granted if you want Search Engine Optimization to become successful.

• Mobile first indexing

Desktops and laptops are passé, as far as Digital Marketing is concerned. It is the era of mobiles. Be it youngsters or older generation, you will see everyone with a mobile in their hands now. If you want your Search Engine Optimization strategy to be successful, then focus should on mobiles. Mobile-first indexing is the answer to this. Google has started to consider the website of your mobile device as the beginning point of the indexing. This is how rankings are determined. A lack of mobile-friendly experience can easily be seen on the rankings of the site.

• SERP taking over organic search

Which brand doesn’t love organic search? Everyone wants to have an organic audience in their user base. This is why some business owners have become irritated as Google is aggressively taking over some verticals that have in-SERP features. It was being done previously too but the impact on businesses is visible now only. Google has started to understand what people search for and want to give precise information only. None of this is going to stop. On the other hand, Google is only going to push this further. Sooner you understand this better will be your Search Engine Optimization.

• Video is the future star

Okay then. This point has to be certified as a universal truth now. Video has been wholly accepted by the online community as the most convenient medium to receive and post information across different channels. Different forms of videos such as Featured Videos, Video Carousels, and Suggested Clips are some examples that are famous in the category of Video. Allocate your resources in optimizing your video to be ranked and indexed on the search engine pages. Choosing the right video hosting platform, inserting a video transcript, engaging thumbnail image, embedding the video etc. are some of the tips.

• Marketing local business

Google asks a lot of questions regarding your business to help customers. Questions such as – What are the timings of this place? Is it disable friendly? Is there a lift service? etc. These sort of questions are put up by Google to help users get more information about the Local Businesses. This is only going to escalate in the future. It is doing its best to acquire accurate information about the local businesses so that it can provide correct information to the users.

• Monetize your website

Search Engine Optimization can be ably used to monetize your website. There are different ways of doing that. Have Adsense for your website. It is a whole process that starts generating strong content and then ranking higher on the search engines with SEO. This will lead to an increase in traffic. Good traffic to the website will give you an opportunity to place ads on the website and earn money. For e-commerce websites, selling the products will generate revenue.

• Target topics, not queries

2019 will be the year when you will notice the decline of search queries. Instead, people will focus more on the topics around the particular query. See it for yourself. Search anything on Google and instead of what you have typed, suggestions will be given around a particular topic. Search Engine Optimization will focus on clustering their search queries into topics to measure visibility.

Digital Marketing is everywhere. Yes, we are talking in a literal manner. Let’s take an example of this. You go online on social media to see what your friends are up to. But that is not the only thing that you witness. There are a lot of random videos popping out of pages that you haven’t liked or followed. And once you view one of those, the feed has completely filled those videos. Those are all sponsored videos and a perfect example of Digital Marketing. And this trend is on the rise. There are sponsored ads everywhere. You see them even when you haven’t signed up for them. And every social media platform is doing this.

There are a lot of different verticals in Digital Marketing. Content Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Pay-Per-Click Services, Web Designing etc. are some of the common ones which are considered are necessities when it comes to Digital Marketing. Incorporating these verticals makes the whole Digital Campaign successful. But it isn’t as easy as it sounds. You have to keep in mind that the campaign you are running is ticking off all the boxes and not just moving ahead in one direction. The biggest challenge that comes is in maintaining all of these tasks at once. It can become rigorous and can only be sustained when there is a balance of everything.

Below given are some tips, combined with the tools that help in getting all the work done –

• Don’t discard Paper

Working in a Digital Marketing is a different experience than working in a normal marketing agency. Right from the culture to the way of doing things is different. Quicker you are in adapting things better will be your productivity. Paper is one of those things whose use is minimized in Digital Marketing. But don’t make the mistake of discarding it completely. It is a good tool to keep track of the scheduled tasks. There are different tools present online to keep track of these things but nothing works better than paper planners. Combining them with digital calendars and project management tools will help you a lot in organizing your work in the manner you like. Don’t focus on annual goals, instead maintain your day-to-day work target to succeed.

• Trust yourself to be the best resource for yourself

In the field of Digital Marketing, you are introduced to different tools that are supposed to help you in your work. These tools save your time as well as the efforts. But these tools go as far as the technology permits them too. There is no resource better than yourself. If you want to succeed in Digital or for that matter of fact any other field, then you have to trust your ability. You are the best resource that is available and better than anyone else! In the end, tools work only when we want them to work. You have personal accountability that is in your hands. Prioritize the things you want and follow them accordingly.

• Collaborate with others

As a manager of a Digital Marketing team, you have to oversee the work of different fields. You not only have to manage different people but also multiple clients in different genres. There is a requirement of personal accountability as well as accountability to the team. Use of digital tools is really going to help in doing this. One of the common tools in collaboration is Airtable. It’s simple to work with and free to use for everyone. Consider it as an amalgamation between the Excel spreadsheet and Google Docs. Assigning of tasks to different people becomes easy and also helps in accountability too.

• Repurpose your content instead of creating new content

Content creation is one of the most important aspects of Digital Marketing. A well researched and thorough content is the need of the hour. Every other agency is on the lookout for content that is trending right now. Sometimes, the final content is not what is was desired. There may be many different reasons for that but that shouldn’t deter you. Don’t make the mistake of creating new content and discarding the old one. Instead, repurpose the old content. Thanks to digital marketing, there are different ways of promoting content. Promoting old and successful content requires half the efforts than creating new content.

• Take assistance from Google as much as you want

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the future of the Internet. It includes everything from Digital to Purchasing. Brands have started to do whatever it takes to enhance the user’s experience. As a digital marketer, you should take full use of this feature. Google Autofill is a great feature that eases the efforts. Digital Marketing is a field where this feature can help a lot. For example – if you type Content Marketing in Google, then it will tell you about everything related to Content Marketing that is going around you. Google Autofill tells you well about industry topics and what to write around them.

• Be wary of Social Media

Now, this is a tip that will surely help you in the long run. Social Media is one of those platforms where everyone spends a considerable bit of time. While working in a competitive environment, it can get a bit stressful. But don’t fall over to the dark side known as Social Media! Manage the hours you are spending on social media with the help of tools easily available online. Use a tool to monitor excessive usage and cut down on the hours.

• Organize the calendar by blocking time for specific tasks

When you have been assigned some tasks, you are expected to complete them on time. The problem arises when there are multiple jobs in hands. To succeed in Digital Marketing, you need to prioritize the work. And this is done by having a calendar. You don’t know what to put on the calendar and what to avoid? Don’t worry. The best way is to put everything there and then calculate. This will give a clear and more realistic way of the day.

Are you a business owner and have given importance to Social Media Marketing? If the answer is yes, then you are going down the right path. The rise of Digital Marketing is a fairy tale which needs to be experienced by everyone. The way to run a business has completely changed since the inception of digital. If we talk about marketing a product or service, then having an online presence is what matters the most now. Brands understand this quite well and don’t shy away from allocating a proper budget to these marketing activities. If we look at different verticals of digital marketing, then Social Media Marketing is one of the most important.

Social Media Marketing implies to all the marketing and advertising techniques that cover the domain of websites and social media channels. Some of the common channels where it is aggressively done are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest etc. If we compare the growth of other digital marketing methods, then all of them pales in comparison with Social Media Marketing. It was once considered a risky investment. Brands weren’t naturally interested in investing in this form of marketing but as time went by, the conversion rate became too big to be ignored. It has become a vital cog in any marketing campaign. But what makes it important. The reasons are explained below –

• Every brand is aggressively doing it

As a brand owner, you need to do what’s best for your business. It also means to look out for the competition. Keeping an eye on the work of the competitors helps in this. 9 out of 10 brands are actively doing Social Media Marketing. The main reason for this is because everyone has an online presence these days. The range of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter has widened a lot and an individual is present on at least one of these channels. It has become apart of our regular lives. Not only the younger generation but the older generation too is influenced by it. It has made an impact on the way we communicate with each other which shows how huge it really is.

• It drives targeted traffic

When brands decide to invest in any form of marketing, focus is given on ROI. Whether people prefer it or not or whether there are some conservative techniques takes a back seat in that consideration. Social Media Marketing has the advantage of identifying the exact age group of your customers. You can know which segment of the crowd is interested in your offering and target them specifically. If you have access to all these details, then it helps in boosting traffic. It is particularly true if you have a brand new website. It may take some time to build the audience for a new website but targeted traffic can solve this problem.

• Acts as a great PR

Public Relations (PR) is important for an organization as it builds up credibility. It acts as a joint between the organization and the audience. In that case, Social Media Marketing acts as a great PR. Any important news and announcement can be communicated to the users with the help of social media. A platform like LinkedIn is the best example of that. It allows more press-like communications and you can take the help of different social networks to get the news out to customers as well as the stakeholders about the latest offerings and what the company is doing in its field. Higher engagement rates means more effective mean of communication.

• Advantage with SEO point of view too

In today’s time, a website cannot be imagined without SEO strategies. You need to optimize your website to get the best results. Only when people open the website, they will be informed about the offering. There are proven results which prove that SEO and Social Media Marketing are related to each other. Driving traffic to the optimized page is done by SEO. These crawlers know which pages are earning traffic on a daily basis and which have fizzled out. There is a simple method to enhance the search rankings – re-sharing of the content that is bringing traffic to you. It should be done at least once a month.

• Gaining industry insight

Digital marketing is a fast-paced world. Trends keep on changing quickly and if you want to remain relevant, it is important to keep walking at the same pace. Social Media Marketing helps a lot in this. With the help of this marketing, you can post your work and listen and observe what is going in the world. It can be used as a tool to learn about the new developments. One of the most important things that can be done with social media is to monitor the competitors and keep tabs on the shifts among the audience. These insights can then help in creating a strategy and decide future campaigns.

• Understanding what the audience wants

Social Media Marketing is mainly done for users. They are the priority in every digital marketing campaign. Interaction with customers has turned out to be a successful way of tapping the potential in Social Media. Various important questions such as What websites do they visit? What are their purchasing habits? What kind of posts do they like and share? The kind of images they upload, tweets they share and status they post tells a lot about all this. Understanding what the customer really wants helps in restructuring the marketing strategies for good.

• Other factors

Social Media Marketing is a cost-effective way of marketing. When starting with paid advertising, always start small to see how good the strategy is. Investing a small amount of money can lead to higher ROI. This type of marketing also makes it easier for the customer to find connections with you leading to customer retention and increasing brand loyalty. People take Social Media very seriously. They listen to what is being said in this platform. You can bring more people to your website ultimately leading to more conversions.

Brands have made the best use of technology and have successfully made the transition to Mobile App Development. You can see the example of this in daily lives. Every big name that you hear has an online presence. They are present on every vertical of social media even though it may or may not be relevant. The competition is tough and in order to stay relevant, they have no other means. Their competitor is doing the same exact thing. But now, there has been another significant improvement. Being on the web isn’t the only thing. There have been calls for Mobile App Development. And given the popularity among the general crowd, it is going to become quite huge in the upcoming future.

Right from day 1, customers are given top priority. Their purchasing experience is the main focus and brands have been putting efforts to make it as smooth as possible. And all of this has lead to Mobile App Development. The customers are always on the move and it may not be possible for them to be in touch with their desktop or laptop. This is why the paradigm is shifted. Apps have become the preferred source of purchase. They have all the information a user needs. That is why these apps are important in today’s business environment. There are several trends to look out for in the Mobile App Development in the future. Some of the important ones are mentioned below –

• Wearable Devices growth

The first thing that comes to the mind while talking about Mobile App Development is wearable devices. The stats are there to prove it. In 2015, 79 million wearable devices were shipped. The numbers rose up to 101 million which shows a staggering growth of 29 percent. Fitbit, MI band and Apple Smartwatch are some of the prime examples of that. These show an upcoming change in the buying process. People are more interested in going for smart things rather than staying basic.

 A new window of opportunity is opened up for the app makers as well as their vendors. And this is where apps will come into play. All these wearable devices will communicate with the help of mobile apps only. Areas such as sport, fitness, lifestyle, and fashion are going to be heavily influenced by these devices in the near future.

• Internet of Things (IOT)

The concept of the Internet Of Things (IOT) is relatively new but is fast becoming a reality. The adoption rate of IOT is neat. According to the experts, IOT will include more than 34 billion devices by the end of the next year. This figure cannot be ignored. You will be surprised to know that simple device such as LED light bulbs, power sockets, toys, and even medical devices are included in this.

They will become a part of Mobile App Development as they will be operated only with the help of an app. They will act more of a remote control. Microsoft has already started adding IOT to its capabilities. Google isn’t far behind with Nest and Brillo targeting IOT. This shows how important IOT is to the future and how well it can be used.

• M-commerce

E-commerce took the world by storm when it went full throttle. Paytm and Flipkart are a prime example of that. That time has also evolved now. It is time for M-commerce. The M here stands for Mobile. The future seems bright for m-commerce websites. It is the best time for Mobile App Development as the positive trend is going to take it places. There are going to be no inhibitions in purchasing, at least for the next 5 years. Google Pay is already very famous in India and it’s just a matter of time when Apple Pay become a regular here. When this happens, there will be a need of Mobile App Development. Developers will need to build a mobile app that can process transactions sans any credit or debit card.

• Location sensing

The use of mobile is not just for sending messages and accepting calls. It has not been like this for a long time. Every smartphone has location sensor capabilities and to provide data from different locations. It is done with the use of multiple positioning methods. In simple words, phones use the Global Positioning System (GPS) to find the location of the device. Providing contextual information is possible when an individual’s location is known. They can easily be used in Mobile App Development. Motion sensing apps are used in security and anti-theft. The whole security sector can benefit a lot with the improvement in app development. In the future, extremely personalized services will be possible by combining mobile apps with precise indoor location sensing.

• Enterprise Mobile Management

We will first explain what Enterprise Mobile Management is. It is a set of tools that manages and processes mobiles access to data and networks. EMM basically looks at security, application management as well as financial management. These tools are basically new in the market and are only going to grow in scope in the future. These tools will the answer to Mobile App Development as they will answer many different issues in the field of mobile management needs across various Operating Systems on smartphones. There will be a need of apps to control and figure out the type of access given to different individuals at a given time.

• Other important trends

The importance of Mobile User Experience Design cannot be ignored in this evolving time. Only when the display is effective, the content can add some value. Apps such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc as founding success because of an impressive user experience design. Mobile App Development will be required to accommodate partial user attention and interruption. Consumer apps understand this and are setting a higher bar for user interface design. Then comes Application Performance Management (APM) which has improved the testing and quality. This tool provides visibility into app behavior about which devices and OS’s are adopted. Be sure to adopt this into your app development strategy.

Content Marketing is something which is understandable from the name itself. Digital Marketing has become quite important in recent times with the onset of the Internet. There are different things which you need to align it according to the marketing strategy. If we compare this kind of marketing with the ones done 10 years ago, then the meteoric rise in the development done will be easily seen. Brands have identified and understood the importance of Digital Marketing in enhancing their image. This is the main reason for the development of marketing tools. If you have a targeted online audience, then there is the need for Content Marketing to lure them to your website.

Marketing your brand means doing everything beneficial for the brand. Content Marketing lies quite high on that list. It is also a clever technique to do marketing. Instead of promoting the brand directly, users are attracted to the website. This leads to further interest in the offering of the products and services. Now comes the readability of the content. You may have quality content but that does not guarantee you the traffic. If the traffic is not as much as you desire, then Content Marketing you do will not be of any use. There are some ways on which you should keep an eye on while focusing on this marketing. These ways are explained below –

• Use a robust distribution strategy

Before starting with the ways, let us explain why content is necessary. As it educates the users before making the purchase, the buy will be better as there is complete knowledge of the product. If this process is to be made successful, then there should be full sharing of the content. The best way to go forward is to be your content’s PR team. This is not an actual or an official term but behaving like one will be highly helpful. More the amount of content shared, more will be the readers.

Just like every expert say – You won’t be helped in Content Marketing if you don’t have enough shares. It has to do something with the monitoring of all the social media channels and see how they behave when sharing any piece of information. The strategy differs for different channels. This approach will surely lead to an increase in shares every month.

• Sharing the content with innovative means

The first point explains why there is a need for sharing of the content. With increased sharing, there will be better results. But what are the methods that will help in sharing of the content? Get on every bit of your technical part. The first thing to do is to customize your social media tags. Custom title and description will make your page quite attractive. There are different tools which help you in doing this work.

Use of an image is a great way to attract more shares. People just love images. They have a tendency to incline over content that is filled with images. Fill your content with relevant images and you are good to go. Adding social sharing buttons is only going to help Content Marketing. Placing the share button on top of the post is the best way. The audience will see it first.

• Put your best foot forward

Everyone needs to be the best. There is immense competition out there in the digital world and to show people what you are actually made of, make sure that you put your best foot forward. It is a basic fundamental that is important in Content Marketing. You have to understand that even though you have a budget in your hand, you cannot allocate that budget to something that is not of high importance. If you want the impact to be deep, then spend it wisely. Using the service of paid media is the best thing to do. Having a budget means that sharing via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn is possible only when right content is shared. Promoting individuals rather than business will build the credibility of the brand.

• Be thorough with what you preach

Why will user flock to your content? What is the main reason they are going to go through your content? If you Google any term, you will see that there are numerous answers to all the queries. To nudge ahead of all of them, you have to be an expert on the topic. It is practically impossible to master every topic. Instead, be thorough with one particular topic and become an expert in that. Make sure that you have an in-depth knowledge of whatever you are posting which is reflected on the quality of the work you are doing. Every successful person will advise you to double down on a singular topic instead of doubling down on the number of posts. Focus on the topic that is of your genre and of the most value to your audience. Make sure you have added this aspect to your Content Marketing.

• Jump between different formats

You have particular information to share that will generate the interest of the public. There are several ways to do this. Why share it only in the form of a blog. Not everyone may be interested in reading a particular piece of information. Videos are rapidly becoming a trend now. Instead of posting regular blogs, you can make a video to share the same set of information. It is a sure shot way of getting more audience. Posting them regularly on a channel like Youtube will mean that you have an increased audience base directly related to your Content Marketing.

• Use of marketing automation

Marketing automation is a real thing. With technology going full throttle, there are software platforms which help in effectively marketing on multiple channels. They help your content to reach the audience in another way altogether. This method lets you send the right message to the relevant people at the right time. Triggering content is the right way to do this. Based on personalized user experiences, triggering will sort your Content Marketing strategy by promoting content to those who desire it the most.

All these ways are surely going to help you to get more people to read your content.

You cannot stay away from Digital Marketing. It doesn’t matter if you are into marketing or not. The only thing that matters is if you are online. Times have changed. The way how to access things is controlled. The Internet is filled with all the remarkable things and what makes it remarkable is the fact how well it has been controlled. There is infinite data present on the world wide web. The way how it is accessed is controlled by Digital Marketing. Business owners are fully aware of it. They realize the importance of this form of marketing and have started to allocate a good chunk of the budget in it. One of the most important aspects of this marketing is SEO.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an integral part of Digital Marketing that enhances the online visibility of a web page. The content that you have with you is optimized in such a way that the search engine shows it as a top result. The primary aim of SEO is to be ahead of the competition and feature higher on the search list. Just like Digital Marketing in general, there are trends that keep on changing and evolving in this vertical too. You have to adopt them as soon as possible otherwise you are going to perish. This year is very exciting for SEO as many new breakthroughs are waiting to happen. These will determine how well your overall strategy is –

• Ascend of voice search

Voice search is one of those tools that have prioritized human convenience. In the point of view of the consumer, the whole concept of Digital Marketing is to minimize the effort. Voice search is exactly doing that. It has increasingly become an essential part of search engines. The stats have a similar story to tell. According to a study, the average voice search result page loads in 4.6 seconds which is 52 percent faster than the average rate. If an advancement is to be made in SEO, then it is of high importance to target voice search. Google’s voice search algorithm may use PageSpeed. It is used as a key ranking signal. The ranking is directly related to the page load speed. More the speed, better will the chances of ranking it higher.

• Chatbots, AI and everything related to them

Chatbots, along with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Augmented Reality (AR) has become a lot better in recent times. With the help of them, users are now connected to the brands 24/7. This was not possible in earlier times. AI technology is used by big names such as Google to interact with the people. Alexa, Siri, Cortana have become a common part of our lives. When we talk about SEO point of view in Digital Marketing, then it allows more automation to a website. The users will be provided with a guide that gives them an option to navigate further on a website. They can also impact the buying decision which enhances the conversion rate. This shows the importance of Chatbots and AI.

• Original content

In Digital Marketing, the need for quality content has been there since day one. Every year, its the similar story – back your website with the help of strong and authentic content that will hold and engage the users. But the main question is, how to bring users to the website. The most plausible way is in the form of content. SEO works most closely with the content team. A lot of SEO work is dependent on the quality of the content. It has become all the more important as the recent Google Algorithm stamps that only the quality content will be prioritized higher on the search engine. Better the content quality better will be the website rank.

• Focus on Social Media

Almost every blog explains how Social Media has become an imperative part of our daily lives. We have an identity in at least one of the social media channel. This is where users are spending their time. If a user is to be tapped, Social Media should be one of the first places to be targeted. Some may argue that SEO and Social Media are two different segments and are true in thinking that but they shouldn’t forget that both of them have overlapping goals. Social engines are slowly turning into valuable search engines. You cannot invest in SEO without investing in Social Media. Make sure your Digital Marketing strategy is also in align with this fact.

• Let Snippet have a major say

Users are only going to see what you are showing to them. This is how Digital Marketing works. You have the power in your hands. Snippet helps you massively in that. A snippet is required if you want the search engine to understand what kind of information a particular page contains. Consider it as a result that Google shows to the user in the search result. It shows the title page as well as the description. Additional information can be added by entering some additional information. They are ideally 40-60 words long.

• Add LSI Keywords in the content

Keywords and Content go hand-in-hand. The content is SEO friendly only when it has a specific number of keywords in it. This year, content that has LSI keywords in it will become popular. It is to be understood what these keywords are. Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) are keywords which contain synonyms as well as specific words that occur when a topic is written about. To help the content rank better, addition of LSI keywords is a must. It helps Google understand the content in a more efficient way.

• Amazon search

When we talk about SEO, the only thing that comes to the mind is Google and there is nothing wrong with that. But your efforts shouldn’t only be limited to Google. Digital Marketing strategies have also identified Amazon as a major player. For many businesses, Google isn’t the only place to sell. Amazon has become a major leader in an online transaction. A project page on Amazon means that you want the customer to see your product in the top which means the use of SEO.

The world of Digital and web designing, in particular, is not a small one. It cannot be comprised in a few sentences. There are a lot of verticals and as time is going forward, this world will become bigger. The addition of marketing in all of this has made it quite exciting. If you look at the business point of view, then the opportunities are endless. It is a great way of establishing the brand name in this competitive world. Indulging in different marketing activities like web designing, search engine optimization, content development etc. will give your brand name a much-needed push. We will talk about web designing in detail.

What is the need for web designing in building a brand name? No matter what kind of business you have, there is an objective in mind. An end goal is set in the beginning. And web designing is imperative to any objective. It is related to many other verticals. If not for a solid website, then what use is Search Engine Optimization? There will be no use of content when SEO is not needed. Everything is dependent on the other. When we speak of web designing, we also need to consider the problems it brings along with it. One of the most common is of burnout. The process of our work and the office culture leads to this burnout. It is going to happen at some point if it isn’t taken care of. Some of the ways it can be avoided are mentioned below –

• Take necessary breaks

The office life consists of spending 8-9 hours in one place. It is done by every individual but just like everyone, a web designer deserves a regular break. Getting away from the desk is important otherwise there will be fatigue. Schedule a specific time to devote outside of work hours. The work done in web designing is imaginative and innovative. The brain cannot function out of the box ideas if it is stressed out. Priority should be given to the break time. The time shouldn’t necessarily be specific but it should be an everyday thing. Take a walk, go to the gym, step outside the office or whatever you need to get a break.

• Pause. Work

Have you tried this formula yet? If not, then its high time to try it. We cannot think of any reason why you shouldn’t. Working with full attention, taking a social media break and then getting back to work with full attention is a great way of doing work. Working continuously in web designing without a break can take a toll and the results are shown in the quality of work. It is not always possible to take a mini-break and get away from the cubicle. But what a web designer can do is to pause the official work and surf social media sites or whatever to ease off the mind.

• Challenge your designing work

One of the biggest challenges that anyone from digital marketing observes is that of stagnation. People in this field often complain about the lack of growth opportunities. Web designing also suffers from this issue. A designer should be able to challenge himself. There is a need of others in doing this. Taking a design challenge is the best way. You just need to go to some websites which provide these things. Ideally, a theme is assigned to you around which you need to design certain things for a period of time. It is not only a challenge to grow yourself but also a much needed fun break.

• Take a much-needed vacation

When was the last time, you gifted yourself a vacation? We are pretty sure, you won’t remember it because you haven’t taken the time off. The brain needs rest and nothing works better than a vacation. It is important to be present in the office but instead of accumulating all the holidays, use them and enjoy the time out. Don’t confuse this with slowing down. You are just taking some time off and not slowing down. The life in web designing can be hectic, especially when the final dates are nearing. After all of this is completed, go out and have some fun with your family and friends.

• Network with others

No matter how good you are, you need someone to help you out. Web designing is all about learning at each step and evolving. As you keep on working, you will realize the real challenges and what all is needed to overcome them. For that to happen, there is need of a peer group that will help you out in case of difficulties. To avoid burnout, what you need is to engage in regular communication with professional networking organization or your manager or your co-workers. The trick is to be in touch with the people who have the skills same as yours. Having a different perspective is always a good idea.

• Prefer remote environments

Not everyone is blessed with having an office at a nearby distance. The issue of traffic is a major one and becomes troublesome when the problem is to be faced daily. Tackling all this and then beginning the day can be cumbersome. In web designing, you need a fresh mindset to begin the work. If you have the option of working remotely, then do use it. If you are an individual who thrives in quiet spaces, then your productivity is going to soar higher. It is one of the best ways to keep yourself away from burnout.

• Health should be the top priority

Remember the old school time tip – Health is Wealth. It is going to be of a lot of importance. We know it for a long time but still ignoring it. In web designing, most of the spells comprise of coffee and continuous work. But this cannot go for long. Health should be given top priority. Eating good food and incorporating fruits in the diet is quite important in the long run. Also, learn to say no to people who take up your time. It’s completely okay to say no to a friend’s friend who is looking to make a website for his marriage!

Let’s begin the blog by mentioning what Content Marketing really is. It is that marketing approach which involves sharing of online materials such as blogs, articles, classifieds etc to attract the audience to the website. It can be considered as an indirect way to earn potential customers as there is no explicit promotion of brands. The primary aim of Content Marketing is to generate interest in the product with the help of strong and impressive content. Better the quality of content you share, higher will be the chances of users reading your content. The ultimate intent of this type of marketing is to drive customer action that earns profit for the brand.

Take the example of any brand and you will see that there marketing heavily focuses on Content Marketing. The reason is very simple – Because it works! It is the present and very much the future of any Digital Marketing company. In the age of digital, when it has become easier to indulge in bogus activities, Content is something which is authentic. People still believe in content as it is perfectly suited for the internet savvy generation. As 2019 approaches, Content Marketing becomes even more essential. Just like other forms of digital marketing, there are some trends which will dominate this vertical. Keeping an eye on them will be helpful. A list of those is mentioned below –

• Transparency and credibility

Lets start the list by mentioning transparency and credibility. One thing a customer wants is credibility and transparency. People are engaging with your brand as they believe in what you say. But if they are not able to relate what you are trying to say with the company values and image, then it will be hard to attract them. More than 85 percent of the consumers say that transparency is a key factor in going for a brand. Even if you are successful in attracting the clients, it will become difficult to retain them. Create content by aligning it with the overall mission and vision of the company. It will also make consumer more comfortable in further engagement.

• Personalized content

Everyone likes to get attention. When we talk about the consumer, this attention is in the form of Personalized content. In 2019, brands will be benefited by personalization. There are different kinds of consumers and if you want to attract them, you need to indulge in customized serviced. It will be a waste of energy to direct your Content Marketing services in the same manner. According to 75 percent of the consumers, personally directed content is the biggest factor in purchasing. More you personalize, better will be the consumer spending. Any lack of relevance leads to decrease in engagement in the longer run which is ultimately going to hit the ROI.

• Collaboration

You have to understand the importance of collaboration to know why it is so important. It is interesting to see different brands working together and create content of different variety which wouldn’t have been possible if there was no collaboration. Without going on specific examples, let us see what the potential is. When two different brands are involved, the impact will be twice. The content will be seen by twice the number of consumers. Content Marketing done this way will be shared in on both companies’ platforms. The footfall will double and will double the probability of increasing the engagement. All you need to do is find the right collaborative partner and start with it ASAP.

• Influencers use

Okay. You may have one question in the mind – How do Influencers come into play in Content Marketing. As the buzz around Influencers is growing, using them wisely in 2019 is going to be a game changer. In the coming year, you need to target those influencers who are comfortable in penning down finely detailed content for your brand. A bit of different thinking is needed here. This will add some credibility for your brand. When people with a large number of followers will read something encouraging about you, they will give some attention to what you are saying. Give this a thought and you will realize how important this is.

• Rise of Video

Okay then. Finally, I am mentioning the importance of video now. There are many different blogs related to Digital Marketing which always focus on use of video and Content Marketing is one of them. As the time is evolving, video marketing is becoming a necessity now. More than 3/4^th of the user base watch video on a daily basis. You cannot succeed if you do not think of ways to incorporate video in your Content Marketing plans. The best way to use this feature is to create short and crisp videos with perfect editing that will convey your brand’s message in the way a blog does.

• Focus on micro-moments

Micro-moment is a term coined by me. If you search a bit, you will know that Google came up with this term. Consumers experience different micro moments on a daily basis. For ex- there are ‘I want to know’ moments when an individual is exploring and searching something. Then there are ‘I want to buy’ moments when someone is interested in buying something. The search is done to assist them in buying. Content Marketing can be done by answering all the queries of the customer. You need to provide the answer in a simple format so that customer doesn’t look at other options.

• Other trends

Use of chatbots and Artificial Intelligence is going to be a talking point in 2019. Content Marketing is going to revolve around this feature. Brands will profit by providing swift answers to frequently asked questions. The solutions provided should come with provisions of 24/7 solutions. Another point is to develop content with the help and input of other team members. Ground level employees should have freedom to provide inputs in content creation. There is a big benefit of doing this. They will also provide feedback which will be real and unbiased. Make sure you are doing all this in 2019.

Digital Marketing is about creating an online presence with the help of Content Writing, Social Media Optimization, Search Engine Optimization, Pay-Per-Click Services etc. You cannot imagine Digital Marketing if not for these services. Everyone has an online presence and this presence is not just limited to personal use. Big brands have realized how important it is to make their mark online. As people will see more them, it will obviously increase their revenue. Coming back to digital marketing, you cannot just focus on one aspect. For example – you want better ranking for your website. For that you will have to focus on Content Writing. But that alone is not enough. You have to also indulge in SEO services if you want it to rank higher.

This blog is, particularly about Content Writing. When you plan out how to reach more audience, then Content will surely be mentioned. But why is content important? It is important to have interactive content as the results of content writing are encouraging for the website. You will gain more clicks and traffic with the help of good content. The traffic will ultimately lead to conversions. Just like any other form of digital marketing technique, Content Writing has its own sets of Dos and Don’ts.

These dos and don’ts will keep you on the track and help in writing the desired content. Some of them are mentioned below –

• Do write for a cause

We are starting with a fairly simple point. This point is important as it is the basic requirement of Content Writing. The need for Content is for a particular reason. You have a purpose before you begin writing. In Digital Marketing, it is done to bring more users to the website. Always remember this while writing. You have a particular purpose in mind while writing. Don’t create bland content or just for the sake of it. You have a responsibility on your shoulder and the results will be seen only when all of this is kept in mind. Choose a subject that will generate interest in the mind of the reader and also portrays the importance of the brand. Start by making an end goal and don’t divert from it.

• Don’t forget the audience

The primary objective of Content Writing is to bring more visitors to the website by keeping the brand’s image in the mind. The flow of content should be in that terms but don’t forget to understand the audience interest. One of the biggest mistakes that a content writer can make is to write content without understanding what the audience really wants. Writing regular content without getting any hits is of no use. There is so much of content present online that you cannot expect users to devote all of their time to your site. If you are able to hold their attention in the start, then only your content can weave some magic. Taking the assistance of Google Analytics can be a good idea.

• Do emphasize on Keywords

In digital marketing, content and SEO are interrelated. They have to hunt in partnership. The requirement of a business can be fulfilled with the combined efforts of SEO and Content Writing. To rank higher on search engines and subsequently get more hits, you need to incorporate some specific keywords that are necessary. After all, SEO is the end goal and then only Content can prove to be useful. Remember to use keywords in such a way that they are dispersed all over instead of stuffing them all over. With the help of Google’s Keyword tool, you can understand which are the relevant keywords as it tells you about the competition among them.

• Don’t plagiarize

Writing content is by no means an easy task.You have to research everything that you write and be sure that the content is relevant and devoid of any mistakes. But one of the most important things in Content Writing is avoiding plagiarism. It is a serious offense and copying else’s work without giving due credit is going to lead to failure. It is just equal to stealing and even if it is unintentional, the results are not going to be encouraging. If you don’t want to face these issues, then there are different free apps to check if the content is plagiarized or not.

• Do have a Call-To-Action

Great content is how well you are able to hold the attention of the audience. A content writer may not notice but having Call-To-Action is also a part of Digital Marketing. It is an essential feature as far as providing brand value is concerned. With CTA, Content Writing will just be like any another futile exercise. Providing useful information is not enough. There is a need of engaging the readers and encourage them to take an action. This can be done by CTA. Place it strategically and you are good to go.

• Don’t neglect to promote it

Researching and jotting down the content gives a feeling of satisfaction. After all, you have done all the hard work and you deserve to feel good. But don’t just stop there. There is one more thing to do. Once Content Writing is done, there is a need for proper promotion. You can’t expect the majority of people to read the content without any promotion. After the content has been published, promote it in social media. If you are in a B2B market, then LinkedIn can be quite helpful. Including the content in email newsletters can also prove to be a great idea.

• Do sound like a normal human being

Why do people read the content that you write? It’s because people are looking for some information and your website seems like a good place for them. Don’t let that opportunity go. It is important to build a connection and that can be done only when readers are able to comprehend what you are saying. The content shouldn’t be too difficult to understand. Being friendly and using simple words are two tips which will help you in doing this. This will also help in having better access to Call to action. 

Ask any Digital Marketing Agency and you will get to know how vast the digital world is. Once you get into it, there is no stopping. At no moment in time, can you will fully educated as there are new advances every now and then. There are different aspects which a Digital Marketing Agency needs to keep in mind. Technology is not going to stop advancing. If you want to benefit from it, all you need to do is embrace the technology and walk along with it. Be it Content, SEO, SMO, PPC or designing services, you will find updates very often. It may be difficult to comprehend them initially but once they are incorporated, you will understand the ease of using them.

But how does a Digital Marketing Agency prepares itself for these changes. The most important thing to do is to make sure that you have a competent team that is not afraid of change and can be up to the challenges thrown to them. Just like every year, 2019 is going to bring a whole lot of changes for a Digital Marketing Agency and there are some key aspects which will change the face of digital marketing. There are many predictions made for the future of marketing in 2019 but some of the essential points are described below –

• Transparency

To be honest, there are other aspects which are considered more important than Transparency but this point needs to be described for the betterment of a Digital Marketing Agency. Ethics are as important as revenue and therefore transparency plays an important role in the functioning of an agency. Many big brands has cut down on their marketing budget because of ineffective ads and lack of transparency. Agencies don’t understand that being transparent is going help to help them in the long run. It is important for the client and the brand to be on the same page and in 2019, only the transparent ones will be considered as the leaders of the pack.

• Artificial Intelligence

This is one of the most obvious points to be made for the future of a Digital Marketing Agency. AI is the future and it is present everywhere. Different business owners are adapting methods to incorporate AI in their marketing. And why not when it has the capability to do any and everything. If you want to identify the behavior of your customers and the pattern of their search queries, there is nothing better than AI. In fact, Facebook and Google Adwords have already started to use it. They find users who are more likely to perform actions as desired by the advertiser. Another area where AI is going to dominate is chatbot. Be it WhatsApp, Facebook or any other platform, it is going to be there.

• Programmatic Advertising

Programmatic Advertising isn’t a new term for a Digital Marketing Agency. If we describe the working of programmatic advertising, then it allows the brands to approach the customers in real time. It has become cheaper and swifter for the brands to buy ads for the advertisers. But how is it possible? All of it is the work of algorithm. Programmatic uses algorithm efficiently to position an ad in a better way, thereby saving time and money. The future of this type of advertising looks highly promising. It can be directly used by the brands to target the loyal customers by showing the personalized ads. This will lure the customers to use their products and regularly.

• Video Marketing

The rise of social media has brought in a new culture and it goes by the name of video marketing. People have started to make videos frequently. They have started to chronicle their daily lives in the form of video and post it on different channels. A good brand will hire a Digital Marketing Agency to take full use of this. If stats are to be believed, then 70 percent of people have shared a brand’s video at least once in their life. If we look at the point of view of an agency, then businesses have also seen good results. Around 3/4^th of them have seen improvement in businesses with video marketing. Be it Facebook Live or WhatsApp stories or Instagram’s IGTV, video is present everywhere.

• Influencer Marketing

Influencer is a word which has a lot of responsibility attached to it. Influencers are used by the brands to attract customers. People with more than 100,000 followers generally come in this category. They talk positively about your brand and users get to know about the brand name. But 2019 is going to bring a change in this trend. As it has become quite easy for people to buy followers, a Digital Marketing Agency will emphasize on reach rather than the number of followers. More the reach of the influencer, better will be the chance of succeeding.

• Messaging apps

The craze of social media is not just limited to Instagram and Facebook. There are other apps which has been benefited by the onslaught of digital marketing. Being active on Social Media apps just for messaging friends has become the thing of past. Look at the stat of Facebook Messenger – more than 1.3 billion monthly users are actively present. The same figure is also for WhatsApp. This shows the popularity of these channels and how they are leading people to spend more time there. In the long term, these ads will thrive on ads without charging the users anything.

• Image search

When everything is evolving, how can Google be left behind. Google is the most preferred search engine and is likely to consolidate its place in 2019 too. All of this has been possible because Google knows the importance of evolving with the technology. Image search is a feature where a user uploads an image to search and get specific results. In future, a Digital Marketing Agency will benefit when Google integrates visual search in Google Maps. A feature known as ‘Google Lens’ identifies objects with the help of camera. For now, it is only limited to Pixel phones but in 2019, this feature is expected to roll out in more phones.

Design & Development has made it fairly simple for the audience to see what the brand portrays. It has become imperative for every kind of businesses to have a website. When Internet was fairly new without many takers, the biggest task was to create a website no matter how basic it was.. With the advancement of technology, many different forms and styles were born which just helped Design & Development. It has become one of the most important aspects of any running business. If we talk about a digital marketing company, then a good chunk of resources are allocated in this regard. Every company realizes that output will weight much more than the input.

But why is a website necessary? One way is to look at the competition. Everybody has one! It is also a good way of knowing where the consumers are present. When done right, it is a cost effective way to take a business ahead. For a competent website, you need to have a good web designer on board. As a web designer, you need to grow continuously. Web designing is much more than knowing tangible skills like Photoshop and jQuery. There are other things to keep in mind if you are an aspiring web designer. If you want t be a part of a capable Design & Development team, below given tips are going to help you immensely.

• Strong communication skills

Communication skills play a big part in Design & Development. In fact, communication skills are necessary no matter which role or position you are in. It can make or break your career. But it becomes even more critical if you are a web designer. There should be strong communication with the manager and client, if needed. You may not be outspoken in nature but if you want to achieve professional success, you have to become bold and communicate with the team fearlessly. Good communication also makes sure that there are no misunderstandings and even if they arise, they are disposed immediately. You may also be asked about the deigns and other aspects and clear communication will let the client know why a certain design was selected.

• Proper planning

Call individuals from different team and ask how they perform their respective task. You will notice a pattern in their working. Before a task is performed, there is proper planning. The first stage is always planning and then comes everything else. Planning and research do wonders for a web designer. Study about the client’s history and communicate with them to create a plan. It is an uphill task as boredom can arise while doing this but in no case can it be avoided. In long term, it is only going to help you. The chances of failure will decrease and will save your time and effort as well.

• Web,not Graphic Designer!

You are a part of Design & Development team, not the graphic team. Always remember this while making a design. The main focus should be on designing a website. You may have great graphic designing skill but that isn’t your area of expertise. Both of these platforms are quite different and should not be handled by a same person. Even the objectives of a web designer differ to that of a graphic designer. As a digital marketing agency, you need to hire a person whose specific role is to be a part of only the Design & Development team and not waste his time and effort on graphic designing.

• Keep up with technology

All of the digital world is running because of technology. Technology has made possible to build a design from scratch and present in a manner that showcases the capability of the business. It will always play an important part in future too. But it keeps on changing every now and then. There are regular updates and if you want to be relevant, then you must be up to date with those changes. Take out some previous time form your weekly schedule and learn about the latest developments. The main focus in Design & Development team is on theme and templates. You can see what the latest trends are and what the audience are looking for.

• Focus on Soft Skills

Soft skills is a term that you may have heard during your graduation time. In Design & Development, soft skills is considered as one of the most important factors. You need to learn all these skills and more importantly know where to apply them and how it is going to benefit you. Having knowledge of core design skills is always a plus point but being familiar with topics such as HTML coding, high quality CSS, Javascript UI techniques etc. is what will really help you. A website is always a work in progress. There may be requirement of adding more pages in future. It is possible only when you have sufficient knowledge.

• Team player

You are a part of a organization. Don’t just consider yourself to be a part of the Design & Development squad. You will go forward only when the organization goes forward. For this to happen, always be a team player. Web designing is not a one man show and you will need help from others to make a website. Look in a different way and consider your role in the larger scheme of things. Collaborating and receiving inputs will also open doors to different ideas which are always a welcome. It will definitely help to improve and grow professionally.

• Other factors

Whenever you are given a project, always have a sense of ownership. Showing that you have authority means you are taking responsibility which impresses the client. Having a business mentality means that you have a sense of finance and the solutions you offer are for the greater good of the organization.

In the end, after your work is complete, make sure to get it evaluated. Getting feedback should be considered as a priority as it will give you a different point of view.

If you want to be a part of a successful Design & Development team, make sure that you have covered all of the above mentioned tips.

Social Media Marketing targets the users who are active on social media platforms. And in today’s time, almost everyone has an online presence. 15 years ago, no one would have thought that billions of people will come together with the help of Internet. There were a few sites before Orkut but it was the Social Networking site that started this revolution. The potential and future of Social Media Marketing was seen through the rise of Orkut. And then came Facebook. It was the turning point that left Orkut behind. Then came Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and many more. Everything else is history.

But the story does not stop here. As internet was rising quickly, agencies also took full advantage. They came up with digital solutions that assists brand in enhancing their image. The solutions include Content, SEO, PPC and Design & Development Services. As Social Media frenzy started, one more Service aspect was born – Social Media Marketing. The main aim of these services is to gain traffic and earn ROI through social media sites. It makes the user learn more about the brand and increase the visibility. The reason why this marketing has succeeded is because the user is able to interact and give feedback. Cut to 2018 now. There were many different trends in Social Media Marketing that changed how it was done.

Some of the trends are as follows –

• Going Live on Video

First thing first. Social Media is all about presence. As a user, more you are active here, better will the likes, comments and shares. To make sure this happens, new methods are happening. One of those was going Live. Social Media Marketing was all in for going live in 2017 but it went full throttle in 2018 as it got a great reception. Brands were so sure of this tactic that around 95 percent of them included this feature in their marketing strategy. Consumers just love videos. They prefer it more than the blogs. 4 out of 5 people always prefer to watch a video than read a blog. Facebook leads the way in Live video by a distance and is followed by Instagram.

• Rise of chatbots

Have you ever booked an Ola or ordered from Swiggy. After the ride/delivery, if you have any complaints, you don’t directly talk to an agent one-to-one. Instead, you talk to chatbots. The same also happened on Social Media. It was a great example of evolution. Chatbots are not just limited to these, they are now integrated with different Social Media platforms. Businesses became active in communication with the customers. Lets take an example of Facebook. In the first year, there was just 33,000 chatbots but this number jumped to 100,000 and when the rise is steep, how can Social Media Marketing be behind.

• Influencer Marketing

Social Media Marketing also took advantage of another aspect – Influencer Marketing. It isn’t a new term but its incorporation in Social Media was new in 2018. Micro influencers have become very famous. They are the ones who are not considered as celebrities but enjoy a great deal of fan following in social media channels. They have thousands of followers in their social media page and the followers follow them closely and read whatever they have to say. They are better than celebrities as the followers can connect with them easily. In 2018, micro influencers had 60 percent higher engagement rate as compared to celebrities. Brands partner up with them and market their products and services with their help.

• Full use of Paid advertisement

Watching videos on Youtube became irritating when a lot of ads started to pop in between but this is how revenue is generated. Platforms like Facebook took a cue and started to display ads. You will be surprised to know that Facebook alone has more than six million paid advertisers. Instagram, again, is second with more than 2 million paid advertisers. It became fairly simple in Social Media Marketing to target specific demographic and this is what is achieved in paid advertisement. You can show your ad according to location, age, gender and language of the user. Only these filtered people will be seeing the ad.

• Social Media listening

I want you to take a deep breath before reading the next sentence – Social media platforms are listening to what you are saying. It sounds creepy, right? But that is the truth and Social Media Marketing is taking full advantage of this fact. One such example is of Sprout Social. It offers different social listening tools to help the brand analyze what the audience is saying and how can the services be improved. Additionally, a brand can also see the health of their hashtags and keywords. Using the data, there can be different adjustments to the strategy and target audience.

• Clever use of user generated content

Individuals involved in Social Media Marketing are a clever lot. They benefit from the users to ease their work. User generated content was one of the talking points of 2018. In short, it is the ideal way to grow your business by doing less amount of work. Let audience say something about your brand. Ask them to use relevant hashtags and post using these hashtags. More the hashtags used,better will be visibility. It is an automatic way of promotion. If a user says something true, it will be viewed as an unbiased opinion with no monetary and financial benefits.

• Breakthrough of augmented reality

Lets begin with what augmented reality is. A computer generated image is made and superimposed on the real image as required by the user. With the help of technology, real things are altered. Users have embraced this option with open arms as there is a fun quotient related to this app. People access the front camera and make wacky faces and post them on social media. Snapchat is the biggest example of this. In fact, augmented reality is the backbone of their operations.

2018 brought a lot of new things for Social Media Marketers. I am pretty sure 2019 will bring even more!

Before going ahead with PPC Services, let us discuss digital marketing in general. The increasing rise around us and how it has easily become a daily part of our lives makes digital marketing a complete winner. The primary reason of this, is the way how we have welcomed internet. It has opened a new dimension which is huge. Right from using it as necessity to exploring the luxury end, everything has now become digital. The stupendous rise has also meant seeking of financial benefit and as long as everybody is in a win-win situation, there shouldn’t be a problem in the future. Marketers and brands understand this and have come up in a way which captures the attention of the audience. PPC Services are one of those ways.

Along with SEO, SMO and Content Development, PPC Services form a team which has become the backbone of digital. But what is this PPC? In simple words, it can be considered as a tool to promote your business in the online universe. Pay-per-click runs on the fundamental that you will run an ad online and will be charger on per click basis. You will have to pay each time someone clicks on your ad. Money will be charged from you but this will also drive traffic to your website. Now, coming to how PPC benefits us. There are several benefits as explained in detail below –

• Contribution to the overall goals

Team goal is more important than any other thing. All the other goals should be aligned by keeping in mind the long term and overall objective. And this is why PPC Services are sought by the companies. In fact, this is the most imperative reason of using there services. They easily gel with achieving a large number of marketing goals. Right from e-commerce sale to brand exposure, PPC Services are there to provide you with everything. The best part is of tracking. Almost every type of conversion goals can be tracked with its help. If you want to bring audience to your website, then PPC is the way to go. It is the best medium to convert audience into potential customer.

• Swift results

One virtue to have while engaging in digital marketing is that of patience. When the strategy has been made, its implementation takes time and the results may take even more time. But as compared to others, PPC Services are known for swift results. PPC is considered as the swiftest way to yield measurable results. You just have to put your card in use and the results will be there. For a running website, all you need to do is create an adwords account and align your ads. Run them in the Google network and you will start getting considerable traffic.

• Independent of SEO algorithm change

If you will look at your PPC team, then you will notice that they are also competent in doing SEO. Both of them goes hand-in-hand. One of the major issues in SEO is the constant algorithm change that happens. The strategies need to be chopped off accordingly. This can be a headache but PPC Services are immune to these changes. A website is made keeping SEO in mind and all the steps should be taken to make it SEO friendly but all of this does not clashes with PPC. Fret not if there are changes to Google algorithms, your PPC campaigns will work smoothly and you can continue to run ads smoothly.

• Be in control

As an owner, it is obvious and common to be in control and when we talk about Digital Marketing, this becomes even more important. You are the one spending money, so you want to know where it is going. There are different campaign settings but in the end,you have the authority over the options to reach your potential customers. You control all the set of keywords that you want to target an how they are placed. Allocation of budget also depends on you. PPC Services are helpful if you want to start small and don’t have a massive budget. If the results are positive, the budget can be increased according to your preference and vice versa. Even when you have running ads, you have the option of quickly editing them and making necessary changes.

• Gels well with other platforms

You don’t have to worry about PPC being left out of the team or not working in sync with other services. As mentioned above, SEO and PPC Services are linked with one another. The target audience for both of the platforms is same. People who use search engines are targeted by both of these services. The analysis of PPC in terms of impressions, clicks and conversions van be really helpful and provide quite a lot information in SEO. With the help of these results, you can prioritize your SEO efforts If you want to do away with expensive techniques and need real time data, then it can be quite handy.

• Numerous targeting options

Marketers are known to play safe and analyze carefully before taking a big step. It includes multi layered approach to test full coverage. The target type is fully checked to see if brand exposure can take place. It can be done through text ads or audience demographic. Text ads also include the tactic or remarketing. The full potential of Adwords will be known only when you have tried out various different things. It will lead to getting impressions without deviating from the prospective audience. PPC Services are helps in reaching to the audience who already know about you but haven’t showed much interest.

• Other benefits

There is a wealth of marketing data which is used in PPC. If you want to see how you fare against the competition, then there are several tool such as SpyFu and KeywordSpy. PPC Services are also highly successful in brand recognition. People will be drawn into clicking your ad and coming to your website. If you want to target lost customers, there is nothing better than these services.

In short, PPC comes with it own set of advantages. Do a bit of market research and see where to show the ads and you will see encouraging results.

If you do a Google search, you will find that a Digital Marketing Agency is present till the 10^th page of the search result. This shows the growing need of marketing in today’s time. As everything is going digital, its importance for brands to have online presence. Your competitors are already doing this and if you want to be relevant, its high time you also do that. In the description you will see every agency classifying itself as the best but that is not the case. As you search for the best Digital Marketing Agency, you should look for the one which will be able to provide you customized solutions.

There are different components when it comes to Digital Marketing. Content Development Affiliate Marketing, Social Media Optimization etc. make up the Digital world. SEO is another vertical which cannot be ignore. A good Digital Marketing Agency emphasize on SEO in a serious manner. SEO stands for search engine optimization. It is considered as one of the most effective techniques in increasing traffic to a website. If the website has good SEO, then it will get better ranking in the search engine resulting in more clicks. But you need to understand one thing about SEO. The trends keep on changing rapidly.

Keeping an eye on the future, the trends of 2019, as mentioned by a Digital Marketing Agency are as follows –

• Importance of RankBrain

I am pretty sure you haven’t heard the name of RankBrain but every Digital Marketing Agency is closely monitoring it. It is an artificial learning system which helps Google process some of its search results and is also helpful in ranking web pages. According to Google, RankBrain ranks third on the importance of the ranking factor. The word brain is quite important in this!

A relevant search result in 4^th rank is consequently ranked higher than the 2^nd rank. If the bounce rate of 2^nd ranker is higher, then it will be booted from its position. Its simple – people will stay for longer time only if they like what the site has to offer. Google will notice it and improve its rank. You can ask any Digital Marketing Agency and you will see the attention given to Rankbrain nowadays.

• Be a master of CTR

Click Through Rate (CTR) is a potent weapon of any Digital Marketing Agency. A PPC campaign is directly involved CTR. It is considered as a commonly used measurement tool for gauging the success of any online campaign. And if you want to do well in SEO, you need to master CTR. For that, you need to keep in mind the Google Algorithm and rank higher. Higher the rank, higher will be the CTR. One way to do that is to give importance to snippets. Snippets are some words that you read just below the SERP result title. Allocate a bit of resources to write clever and engaging snippets so that people are compelled to click to the website.

• Content is the ultimate king

When it comes to Digital Marketing, there is nothing more obvious than this line – Content is the ultimate king. Right from the time when even the oldest Digital Marketing Agency was a newbie to the foreseeable future, content is always relevant. It has been the mainstay of every strategy and will remain so in 2019 too. Google rank the pages according to the relevancy of the content. Keyword plays an important role in content but the top ranking pages cover in-depth content. One of the tips is to publish content that is at least 2000 word long. It may sound too lengthy but that is the trend.

• Focus on mobile first index

Mobile first indexing is the term which came to limelight in early 2018 and going to play a role in a Digital Marketing Agency. Today, more than 60 percent of the search results are from a mobile device and it becomes obvious and Google has started to consider the mobile version of your site as the preferred version. It isn’t up and running for everyone yet but as 2019 approaches, you cannot ignore it at any cost. Th content across the desktop as well as mobile should be consistent.

• Give priority to Video

SEO’s working in a Digital Marketing Agency have now realized that large number of links are not enough in the long run. There is need of using high quality content and one of the ways is to use online SEO. More than 40 percent of the people want to see more videos and that is just the starting. By 2021, 80 percent of the content will be in video form. One of the ways is to tap into Youtube. It is already the second largest search engine. The tip is to optimize the content specifically for Youtube only.

• Optimize voice search

Mark my words, Voice search is going to be the future in SEO. When there is ease of searching with the help of voice, why will anyone not use it! And the stats are there to back this. More than 40 percent people use voice search at least once a day. The figure has risen 35 times since 2008 which shows the progress. You need to put your content in the featured snippet if you want to benefit it from it. Four out of every ten audio search results come from a featured snippet.

• Don’t ignore the use of content and links

No matter how many new trends come and go, there are some things which will always remain important in a Digital Marketing Agency – use of content and links. If the content is not up to the mark, you won’t be able to generate links. And if there is no link building, there will be no first page success for you. No algorithm comes to play unless you are on the first page. In short, no matter which things trend, Content and links are here to stay.

These tips will definitely shape up SEO in 2019 and can be considered as a definite SEO guide.

The working ways of a Digital Marketing Agency has evolved a great deal. There are new technologies and tools every now then which open a new dimension in the sector of digital. With their use, new possibilities have open up. The growth has been remarkable and businesses are embracing it with open arms. Right from Content Marketing to PPC, separate resources have been allocated to each and every department. One of the rapidly growing vertical is Social Media. If you look at a decent Digital Marketing Agency, you will see that proper attention has been given to Social Media by assigning a competent team.

Social Media has become a potential vertical in enhancing a brand name. Social Media Optimization ensures strong web presence. A whole set of people are introduced to the brand and there is a massive potential in converting them to customers. Promoting of business has become quite simple since the birth of Social Media Optimization. If you ask a Digital Marketing Agency which is the most important Social Media platform, the answer will always be Instagram. When Instagram is used to grow the business, the first thing kept in mind is to build a loyal audience who are interested in what you have to offer and will remain for a long time.

There are several ways to boost Instagram engagement. Following are the tips mentioned by a Digital Marketing Agency to enhance the engagement ratio –

• Be connected with the followers

This is one of the basic tip or can be considered as a tip. But most of the people don’t take it seriously. If you want to be a social media giant, then take your followers quite seriously. They are the ones who are interested in your offerings. If you are posting something on Instagram, then be ready to answer the queries and questions put by the followers.

One of the better ways is to highlight the questions in the stories. By this way, you can let other know that people are interested in your brand and you care about them by answering to every reply. Reaching your followers shouldn’t be the only aim. You should engage them in activities such as contests and giveaways. Story is another way which lets the follower see everything you have done in last 24 hours. A Digital Marketing Agency keeps this in mind.

• Keep up with Instagram’s evolving style

A brand has its particular design and logo. A set pattern should be followed everywhere. This gives the feeling of uniqueness. But your style and voice needs to be in sync with Instagram’s in house designs as well as titles. With every update of the app, you need to keep up with the times. It will be a grave mistake if you think that by going with the last year’s trend, you will earn moolah. Followers will lose interest if you become repetitive. For this, a Digital Marketing Agency keeps an eye on the updates and what is currently trending.

• Promote your content in every platform

Social Media has branched out. There are different platforms where almost everyone is present. Be it Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or any other, users are present almost everywhere. But one thing is common in them – connections. Connections make marketing possible. You have to connect Instagram with other channels and tools if full utilization is to take place.

One of the best use can be by integration of Instagram and Facebook. Ads on Facebook can be used to broadcast the posts on both the platforms. Another in-house feature is to use stories and posts simultaneously. Posts can be highlighted on the story and vice-versa. If there are different platforms integrated in one, a Digital Marketing Agency is profited by mixing the followers.

• Use ready-to-use templates

Okay, this trick is a secret. Consider this as a Diwali Gift from my end! One basic issue that arises is of being a pro photographer or a ‘pro-grapher’ as I like to call. People think only professionals can succeed on this platform. But this is not true. A good Digital Marketing Agency knows that there are many tools present which tweak your content in more than presentable manner. Some of the great examples are Spark Post, Canva and Venngage. They are incredibly powerful when crafting attractive visuals. Going with the template is always a great idea. You can go with plain or patterned background, according to the requirement. For a small community of fans, things like this matter greatly. Next time, do give this feature a try and thank us later.

• Repost content from your niche (Conditions Apply)

This tip comes with a condition apply tag. Reposting isn’t something done by every one due to ethical or other means. If you are okay with it, then it is definitely going to help you. You might be busy in dong other things that there might not be time to post regularly. But you need not worry about it anymore. With the help of repost app, you can legally post other content that you like by giving proper credits.

Finding the content is very easy too. As a Digital Marketing Agency, advice to every brand is to follow hashtags and discover quality content. You can save the best posts in collection box and can easily select out of them all.

• Reward active followers

As mentioned above, followers are the most important part in Social Media. They are the judge and jury. Its of vital importance to attend them. But as there is competition all around, it becomes difficult for a Digital Marketing Agency to do that. As they have so many options, it is advisable to grasp their attention by rewarding their continuous and active support. User interaction is enhanced by giveaways. Be clear of what the deal is and how the followers will be benefited by participating in that giveaway. Word-of-mouth can also attract other users too.

These are some of the tips which are regularly used by everyone who wants to succeed in Social Media because after all, Digital Marketing will remain incomplete without Social Media Optimization.

A Digital Marketing Agency understands the importance of technology. In fact, no one understands it better than them. The process of incorporating it in our daily lives has been very smooth. It is not just limited to working on our system and taking full use. Now, mobile phones are laced up with latest technology and all the work that is possible in desktop can now be completed in mobile. In fact, there has been a continuous rise of mobile users and the trend is not going to stop anywhere in future. If stats are to be believed, mobile apps are rising the charts as far as digital marketing is considered. But there are certain things that need to be considered when exploring the idea of building a mobile app.

Before starting with anything, a Digital Marketing Agency needs to fulfill a particular purpose. There should be an audience out there who will embrace and the app and enhance the ROI. To ward of the competition, there is need of creating unparalleled experience. This creates a loyal user base which will stick to you no matter what. One of the better ways to do this is to take use of the already existing tools and hardware and integrate them with into the functioning of the mobile app.

Some of the tips mentioned by a credible Digital Marketing Agency are as follows –

• Camera

As the culture of taking pictures of their own and the surrounding is increasing, it isn’t a bad idea at all to invest in this feature. A Digital Marketing Agency understands the power of camera and wants to use this feature increasingly. There are already different apps such as Snapchat, Instagram etc. which focus on photo content and allow them to dive into extra features of the app. The use of camera is not just limited to this. Apps such as Dineout helps you in saving money by clicking the picture of the bill and uploading it on their website. With the use of camera, one can perform different task making it convenient and helps in financial savings too.

• Touch ID

Along with the use of camera, Touch ID is a feature that is now found in every mobile. Ever since Motorola came up with this feature, it is now considered a basic requirement in almost every smartphone. Businesses were not far behind in using this feature to their benefit. Heavy usage of this feature is now seen in banking sector. Different banks now ask for fingerprints before moving ahead with the use of the app. In some of them, logging in is possible only when you have used the Touch ID feature. A Digital Marketing Agency understands this fact quite nicely.

• Microphones

Microphones are not new or something that revolutionized the mobile industry. But the use cannot be sidelined. Traditionally, they have been used for hands free calling and asking questions to virtual assistants like Siri, Alexa, Cortana etc. This feature has been smartly used by apps to learn a new language and every Digital Marketing Agency is keeping an eye on it. There is an app by the name of Wireless Mic which allows the smartphone to be used as a wireless microphone. It also has use in leisure activities like Karaoke. When used properly, Microphone can come in very handy.

• GPS

Everybody must have heard about GPS. But few people know that it is the property of US government. It doesn’t mean that nothing more than getting directions can be done from that. Food delivering apps are using it judiciously now to give option to the customer of tracking food. They can just open the app and track the live location of the delivery guy. Every Digital Marketing Agency is also aware that GPS isn’t just limited to this. Millennial are heavily focused on games like Pokemon Go. There have been more than a million downloads of this game from the app store.

• Keyboards

Since the use of the first mobile phone, way before a smartphone was invented, keyboards have been an integral part. They were not advanced but the use was heavy. The same can also be said for smartphones now. The basic and common use include dialing numbers and sending text messages But the sudden rise in use of Emoji has become a blessing for app developers as dedicated apps are now made for this use. Options like Gif keyboards and numerous Emoji allow you to switch back and forth. Without putting load on RAM, many features are explored. One more advantage of integrating hardware, as mentioned by a good Digital Marketing Agency is the use of different languages. More than hundred different languages are available. This has made communication capability more diverse than before.

• Bluetooth

Bluetooth is an automatic choice in this blog. The importance of Bluetooth an be judged from the fact that the iPhones are now loaded up with its compatibility. This change in paradigm shows how serious people are to use this feature. It can be called as the future of mobile apps and that can be seen by the efforts put by a Digital Marketing Agency. One of its biggest use is in the audio sector. How users consume their audio content will be largely in the hands of Bluetooth is the near future. If you want your mobile app design to stand out, make sure to invest in In-app options that allow you to hook up to bluetooth devices.

• Flashlight

Last but not least, flashlight also features in this blog but a Digital Marketing Agency needs to be careful about building apps that uses flashlight. One thing to keep in mind is that there should be minimal permissions to seek personal information. Color flashlight is one such app that takes judicious use of this fact. Flashlights of various colors and shapes are shown with this app. It has now become a norm of incorporating flashlight in every smartphone. It will be interesting to see how the app developers use this feature in the future.

These were some of the tools already present in the phone that can be easily and profitably used in integrating in a mobile app.

In the vast world of Digital Marketing, the trends change every now and then. It is important to keep up with them if you want to be ahead of the competition. If you want to succeed, then proper attention should be given to SEO. One thing which every Digital Marketing Agency understands is the importance of SEO in online business. Not focusing on it means you will lag far behind. When it comes to Inbound marketing, more than 60 percent marketers prefer it. It can be tricky to start. But one thing is sure – you cannot ignore it at any cost.

The most simple and convenient way to start is by SEO audit. It helps you in knowing the current rank of your site and what all can be done to improve it. A competent Digital Marketing Agency knows the importance of it as it takes less time but the result is quite significant. Keyword stuffing, multiple setup of pages, use of multiple micro sites to drive up traffic etc are a thing of the past. The criteria as well as the ranking factors have changed dramatically. Crawling plays a huge part and determine the ranking of the page. Regular update of the content is a must. As 60 percent of the searches happen on mobiles, Google has changed its algorithm too.

Keeping every bit of information in mind, there are different steps taken by a Digital Marketing Agency –

• Start the audit with crawling

Crawling is considered as the most important step in audit. Before doing anything else, start with crawling. But you also need to understand what crawling is. It is a process in which Google ‘bots, or ‘spiders’ analyzes all the content and code. Additionally, it also helps in diagnosing duplicate content and excess redirects. With the help of Google Search Console, you can also get to know how frequently Google crawls your website.

A Digital Marketing Agency engage in crawling with the help of different tools like Screaming Frog SEO Spider Tool, SEMrush, Ahrefs, DeepCrawl etc. Not only are these some of the leading tools used in the industry but also provide a terrific platform for you to get started. Extra benefits of crawling include identification of broken links, bad keywords, poor images, title issues etc.

• Only one version of your site should be browseable

Your website has different versions. It is of utmost importance to use the right ones. Only one version of your site should be browseable. Considering all the permutations of the URL is the right way to go ahead. If there are more than one version of your website, you are not giving the ideal message to crawl your website. Crawlers are just bots without any intelligence associated with them. They don’t know which version is the right one. This will negatively impact the ranking your SEO ranking as the search engine don’t know how to present your website to the users. A Digital Marketing Agency is wary of this and works accordingly.

• On-page SEO checks

Optimization of the site requires completion of different processes. All of them are necessary when it comes to SEO. There are various checks done in order to do that. You can begin by looking for duplicate pages, headers and title tags. There can be some confusion if the content you have published is of similar theme. A possibility of showing up of unrelated content while crawling is there. But fret not. Your Digital Marketing Agency knows how to handle that. The problem arising from duplicate data can be solved by using tools such as Copyscape. Some of the other things you can focus on are – age of the page, keyword in domain name, meta description etc.

• Management of internal and external links

Improving SEO rankings is done by going ahead with the logical hierarchies. This is done by thoroughly checking internal as well as external links. When the web pages are moved or even deleted, broken links are created. There are tools like Integrity which helps in identification of the broken links. The best part is the simplification of the use of these tools. You have the option of viewing the results by link, page, status, or flat view. A Digital Marketing Agency use this process to comprehend the results in a smooth manner.

• Check the speed of your site

One of the very basic yet important thing to note is the speed of the site. Users that visit your website have the option of other sites too. One of the reasons why they come to you is because of the ease of loading the page. You don’t want to make them wait. Longer wait period will reflect in the bounce rate. More the page load time, more will be the bounce rate. To check the speed of the site, every Digital Marketing Agency takes help of Google’s PageSpeed Insights. It tells you how your site is performing against the competitors and how the rankings can be improved.

• Use of analytics

Reporting of live metric data is also essential. A Digital Marketing Agency does this with the help of Google Analytics. If the reporting is successful, it means the code is installed correctly. Remember one thing – the tracker code should be placed above the header of each web page. The metrics can then be checked with the help of ‘The Mozbar’. This tool exactly gives you various SEO details of web pages. Additionally, Google Analytics also help is assessing the page’s bounce rate.

• Backlink Audit

Last but not least, backlinks are the backbone of SEO. It helps in knowing the search engines if the page is relevant and to what extent it will be helpful to the user. As the crawling of the site is also done for brand mentions, attention should be paid to both on and off site. Backlink audits also help in identifying the areas where focus can be shifted on getting more high value links.

The best part about these steps is that a competent Digital Marketing Agency completes this whole process in an hour. If you are consistent with the process, the results will be better than ever.

A Digital Marketing Agency has to fulfill many roles. The world of digital is quite large and you have to make sure about each one of them. The content needs to be curated according to the preference of your client. It may be niche or may cater to different segments. But one thing is constant – Quality. The quality is only going to take you forward. With many agencies setting up every day, getting ahead of the competition is the sure shot way of success. One of the most important components is Inbound Marketing. The success rate of Inbound Marketing is high and that is why preferred by everyone.

With the advent of newer technologies, Inbound Marketing is being used by every good Digital Marketing Agency. Cost-effectiveness and success percentage makes it a potent service. It attracts the attention of the potential customer even before they have made their mind to buy. It also makes them come back for more. Unlike outbound marketing techniques such as Cold-Calling, Spam Mails, Sales Fliers etc, inbound marketing targets the potential customers by giving them want they really want. It comprises of techniques such as Social Media, SEO, Whitepapers, Blogs, Podcasts etc. All of them have been quite successful in doing that.

There are certain things which every Digital Marketing Agency needs to consider when it comes to Inbound Marketing. There strategies helps in creating a solid platform for the overall growth. Some of them are mentioned below –

• Focus on Facebook Page Insights

It is the most solid platform to understand the target consumer. Ever since Facebook Insights have become popular, many agencies have benefited from it. It is a very simple-to-use yet effective form of understanding the demographics that explains almost every customer. There are various different things which are found from Insights. Factors such as Age, gender, location etc tells exactly which section of the population to target. The content is created to appeal those who truly affects your business.

• Understand the current customer and leads

Ask Any Digital Marketing Agency about Inbound Marketing techniques and everyone of them will tell you to understand the current customers and leads. The best way to understand them is through a survey. It is a very simple process which is further helped by the use of previously compiled E-mail list. The main aim is to understand what problems are faced by the customers and what all solutions can be presented to them.

• In-depth Interviews

The next step of a Digital Marketing Agency is to find out more about the problems and struggles of the consumer. A survey tells you about the general problem but covers only the outside problems To get the in-depth knowledge, personal interviews should be conducted. Seeking out individuals is a solution to know about the specific problem. It can be done over phone calls or a video chat, whichever is convenient to both the parties. It will be also helpful to know what all strategies have been tried earlier but weren’t particularly successful.

• Content is the king

Be it any form of advertising or any vertical of marketing a Digital Marketing Agency knows that nothing beats the importance of good content. It is the most important aspect of digital marketing as content has the potential to every one. You just have to prioritize it and make it reach the right set of audience. You should be aware of not producing generic content and instead focus on attracting the audience with to the point information. Just remember to adapt the content according to the client needs and give them what they need.

• Begin with a great headline

Capturing the audience’s attention is a tough nut to crack. And there is nothing better than a catchy headline. If you see the example of a good Digital Marketing Agency, you will understand that headlines are given special attention. They understand its importance and craft it nicely. New traffic is heavily influenced by the use of proper headlines and important in increasing the traffic.

• Use of GIF and video in the content

The content is data driven and everyone is aware of that. Every Digital Marketing Agency knows this and devoting extra time in making content that is suitable for everyone but you can go ahead by incorporating different things in your content such as GIF, video etc. It is the basic human behavior to be curious about visuals and other type of media. To make your content appealing, add different forms of media and don’t just limit the content to text.

• Lengthy and data driven articles

When it comes to writing articles, there has been significant development over the few years. The appropriate length of the articles have increased and instead of writing short ones, you should do extensive research and fill your article with in-depth content. This facts holds true for any mode of content. If you are going for videos, then 10 minute should be the ideal duration. A good Digital Marketing Agency understands this and does not ignore it.

• Give attention to guest posting

As a Digital Marketing Agency, you need to constantly engage in guest posting. Your current user base is interested in what you show to them but you can expand this base by targeting other blogs. Guest Posting is a great way to do that. Before that, you need to be credible. Your previous blogs should be engaging and good in numbers. Then only you will be considered as a prestigious guest blogger.

• Optimization of keywords on each page

Today’s search driven marketplace is very much dependent on the proficient knowledge of SEO. In fact, a Digital Marketing Agency can grow only if it is competent to do SEO. There are many different ways to improve your search engine results but one of the basic one is keyword optimization. A list of specific keywords should be compiled to target your client. This trick attracts quality visitors to your site and enhances the visibility too.

When doing inbound marketing, these tricks are surely going to affect you and should be used to make your business better than the rest.

In this era of technology, the time spent on any activity is fairly reduced by a Digital Marketing Agency. They have the means of different tools to gauge the performance of every activity. There are difference activities that are needed to run a successful campaign. There was a time when all the lead generated metrics were providing the data and you were elated with this breakthrough advancement. But they were not able to find the impact made by the data you can track. This problem is also now of the post. You have the means of measuring the revenue directly linked to the marketing efforts.

If you look that the marketing agencies from the era gone by, you will notice that the goal of those agencies was also to enhance the brand image which also impacts the overall revenue. The only difference is the space where the marketing takes place. Nothing is better than a Digital Marketing Agency and you have to understand how to measure the achievable revenue. It’s specially important in these times when knowing only the number of leads is deemed unimportant. You have to know how much sales is generated from them. There are various ways to achieve this and all of them are mentioned below –

• Understand the user

The first thing any Digital Marketing Agency needs to do it understand what the user wants. This is the basic step and no strategy should be built without this. The buyers have the understanding of the products and services as the details of the products are out in the open for everybody to read. Right from social media to blogs to webinars, they are active in all the different platforms. They know what type of solution is ideal for them. And this should be very well known by the Digital Marketing Agency. The new buyer should be embraced as it will be easier to track the revenue with this way.

• Keep an eye on the purchasing cycle

The revenue cycle is proper and a long one. It starts from the first interaction with the brand and ends at by seeing the effect on the total revenue. But before revenue gets influenced, there is need of understanding what the purchasing process. It is ably done with the help of CRM. It perfectly balances sales and marketing which means that both of the are equally accountable for tracking the revenue. This will help you in showing which part of your sales initiatives are taking off and which ones aren’t.

• Alignment of team

The success of any organization has been pinned down to team work. If you work in an organization, then co-related departments should be encouraged to work together. This holds true in a Digital Marketing Agency too. Marketing as well as sales team should work together to find a common solution. Both of them should collaborate for the success of the campaign. Not being in sync is the most common mistake that happens. All the terminologies and methods should be same. More importantly, the communication should be proper.

• Zero out the best tools

The growth in marketing also means that a plethora of tools are now available in the market. Tools in content hubs and social media listing platforms are expensive as well as fragmented. A streamlined method is desired for seamless revenue tracking in a Digital Marketing Agency. The need of the hour is a CRM solution that has the capability to perform all the tasks and collect data that matters the most. You only need the help of the team to segment the leads and determine the campaign which is most suitable for it.

• Integration of conversational user interface

In the end, it is all about the consumer. The consumer should be the kept in mind before going ahead with any strategies. And helping the consumer with answers at the exact moment is used by every Digital Marketing Agency. Siri, Cortana, Alexa etc are being incorporated in everyday lives. They are activated with the help of voice and and you can converse with them. If you have a website, then there can be nothing better than the chatbot. It is an excellent solution which if added properly will help you in achieving measurable revenue.

• Use Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence is being lapped up by anyone who seems it convenient to incorporate it anywhere and no Digital Marketing Agency is left behind. The biggest benefit of AI is to build personalized marketing strategy. With the help of machine learning and data analysis, AI predicts what the customer wants and how you can provide it without using much of your resources. Indirectly, it helps you in achieving measurable revenue indirectly. According to a survey, more than 98 percent of the companies foresee the benefits of AI for their marketing strategies.

• Focus on client onboarding process

The whole process of onboarding a new client should be done properly. Shortcuts and deviation from proper process should be avoided. This makes the relationship with client effective and fuss-free. Client who has partnered with your Digital Marketing Agency may not know much about marketing. There should be proper communication with the client to filter all the problems. You should be able to present yourself in a proper manner. You may include company manifesto, scope of projects, presentation of how you can help the brand name etc. This will help in creating trust in the mind of the client.

• Review your processes

Digital Marketing Agency has come into being because of the rapid growth an evolution. You need to evolve even now. This is done by reviewing your current process. This will tell you how to create analyze the current processes and come up with the ways that can improve the new ones. Then, testing of the new process is the way to go ahead. This is done to tweak the existing ones. The final step in this stage is to evaluate the process. Always growing is the motto which will take you ahead.

Only when you have the methods to achieve measurable revenue, you can truly gauge the success of your agency and beat the competition.

Dear friends, in my last video and blog I discussed about the significance of India Panchayati Raj System for your planning and execution of rural marketing strategies. While simplifying rural marketing, today I am introducing the first blog on the series of The Great Indian Rural Mall. With this, I’ll discuss the effectiveness of rural haats in reaching the maximum number of rural consumers.

It is imperative for the rural marketers to understand the a ready-made distribution network of over 43,000 rural haats which outnumbers the total number of outlets of world’s leading retailer Walmart. It is fascinating to know that rural haats generate around Rs 50,000 crore business for marketers.Generally marketers are worried about When, Where, Why and How to enter the rural markets. The challenge of spurious products along with scattered markets discourage them to step into rural markets. There are two reasons marketers need to be in rural India 1) large consumer base and 2) huge untapped markets. Here rural haats are providing you a big platform to anchor your ship into the untapped glodmine, called rural markets.

Haats are the periodic rural bazaars that are set-up either daily, weekly or bi-weekly, depending on the area. Each haat covers 20 to 60 villages with an average footfall of 5000-10,000 people. These haats are just not the place to buy and sell commodities but are also a great socialising area. Here, villagers like to touch and feel the products, there are almost 300 to 500 stalls with average sale of 2.5 lakh a day per haat. Imagine the sale in 43,000 haats, you really need a calculator to calculate these figures…

If we discuss about the commodity-wise business in the rural haats, according to Rural Marketing Association of India, 53 percent stalls trade for agricultural produce, followed by manufactured goods, mainly fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) with 19 percent, processed food 6 percent, handicrafts and forest products 5 percent each, services 4 percent, meat and poultry 3 percent and others 5 percent.In order to leverage rural haats, FMCG, auto and agri companies have already entered these markets by doing regular activities. They have built their brands over the years and are getting good returns. These brands have been extensively using all forms of marketing activities like experiential marketing, van activations, nukkad naataks, wall paintings and CSR activities to engage and attract the eyeballs.

Today marketers are innovating by using technologies like Augmented Reality, Internet-of-Things, social media and even keeping an eye on Big Data. With such huge engagement there is still a large market for new entrants. The market has lot of opportunities for companies who are into solar, banking, technology, insurance, healthcare, education among many others. The market is now open for all categories.

FMCG companies like Hindustan Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Dabur, Colgate-Palmolive, Emami, Godrej; auto companies like Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Motorcycles, Mahindra, TAFE, Escorts and agri companies like Syngenta are amongst many that have successfully established their sales and distribution networks.

So, in order to take over the haats, marketers need to first identify the 4As and the 4Ps, which I discussed in my previous blog and video . For detailed information, you can click on the link Entering the Rural with a Punch of Gram Panchayats. The most important factor that needs to be taken into serious consideration is product innovation, product design along with crazy marketing strategies. For example, the introduction of sachet in shampoos, revolutionised and spiked up its sales in rural areas.

The marketers need not worry about the desire of the product among the rural as with the digital boom through mobile and extensive media penetration, the desire and aspirations have already been created. If you would like to get a detailed plan or any assistance, write it in the comment section, we will be happy to assist you in planning your rural outreach programme.

To get more informative videos, blogs and easy tips to simplify your rural marketing activities, subscribe to our YouTube channel. And don’t forget to like, comment and share the videos and blogs.
To watch the video on How to win big in Rural Haats.

A Digital Marketing Agency can survive only when it has the means to evolve with the demands of time. Technology has changed over time and there is no stopping. New inventions are made every now and then. This has also simplified the work. With the incorporation of Digital in advertising world, a whole new world has been explored. Now marketing is done by sitting in the premises. It is now considered as a breakthrough in technology. If you look out, you will see many companies providing digital services in different verticals. But are those worthy to spend your well earned money?

This is the main question. If you check them out, they promise you the best services and working process but not many of them have all the necessity tools. If you want to go ahead with the best Digital Marketing Agency, then do give a consideration to their previous app marketing services. Mobile app is the future of marketing. Its funny to use the word future for digital as it is considered future in itself. There is tremendous impact of mobile app and it has been recognized by everyone, therefore, untiring efforts are being made in that sector.

The stats are out there for everyone to see. More people are now active on mobile than desktop and this gap is increasing every year. Be it music, tv shows, games or any other source of entertainment, there is an app present for every source. Steadily, everyone is now moving towards app and marketing is not left behind. If you want to connect with the customers on a regular medium and want them to take the maximum benefit, mobile app is the best thing. Every Digital Marketing Agency should be able to provide App Marketing services to get ahead of the time.

There are several marketing strategies for mobile apps. In any Digital Marketing Agency, those strategies are mentioned as below –

• Focus on Key Performance Indicator

To keep pace with the long term strategic goals, identifying Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is a must. One advantage while setting up KPI is that it is very much similar to other marketing goals. The difference lies in the strategies and nuances of the specific app.

A good Digital Marketing Agency focuses on points such as app store rankings, app store optimization, organic & loyal user acquisition, cost-per-download among others. This all may be new for many marketers which means that there is need of team which has experience in this particular field. Although you need to focus on the KPIs specific to app marketing but it needs to coincide with other marketing strategies.

• Give your App all the deserving resources

As mobile app marketing is a new vertical, marketers don’t allocate the deserving budget to it. At times, it is even less than 1 percent of the total budget. This is where the expertise of a good Digital Marketing Agency comes. According to a study, more than 79 percent consumers wish to receive location based alerts on their mobile phones.

The normal spend on app marketing should be around 8 percent. But the job is not done. There should also be planning of how to spend the budget. One of the key things to do is to enhance your app’s visibility in the required marketplaces year-round.

• Keep your attention unidirectional

Every Digital Marketing Agency is fighting to be the numero uno in app development nowadays. Even the individual departments are doing the same. There may be turf war arising inside the office as to who owns this department. The solution to this problem is to align all the different stakeholders into one team.

This way, everyone will have a say in app marketing strategies which will help in making these strategies successful. It won’t be a simple task to do this but is a necessary step. But it will increase the creativity and ease the planning of any campaign related to app.

• Market the right platform, not just the App

Gone are the days when the app was designed just for the sake of it. At that time, it was okay to market the app but now this is not feasible. As your Digital Marketing Agency is serious on advertising the app, the aim should be more than just to sell the app. Instead, the focus should be on selling the experience provided by the app.

The app should also be presented in a way which makes itself distinguishable from the previous experiences on mobile websites. It is of prime importance to be clear and specific about the use of app and how it is going to simplify the everyday lives.

• Lift your App organically

If your Digital Marketing Agency focuses on doing work organically, then you are in safe hands. Paid media buys will definitely give your app the required boost but eventually, its success will be gauged by the numbers of users who install your app on their own. They discover it and find your app to be relevant of their space and data.

One of the better strategies in this regard is burst campaign. It is the most prominent strategy to achieve organic lift. The primary goal is to achieve your app’s optimal rank. It is possible when your app has organic downloads. It is going to help you on the long run.

• Don’t confuse App downloads with Success

The fist step is to make people download your app but this is not the end result. Many people may download the app just because of curiosity. But don’t use it and uninstall. What a Digital Marketing Agency needs is target the loyal customers. They are ones who will let your app turn profitable by generating revenue and giving you a better ROI.

These people actually use the app and its features. It is important to acquire loyal users. If there are no loyal users, it means there is something is wrong with the design and functionality of your app.

These strategies are very much important, no matter how old or new you are in the app marketing business.

If we look back at the history, then marketing can be dated as late as twentieth century. It was in early 1950’s when the businesses started to take it seriously. For a term which isn’t even a century old, marketing has done a commendable job in strengthening its foothold. Throughout the history, it has evolved at a rapid base and there is no sign of stopping. This is the age of digital and marketing has adjusted to it very well. When everything is turning digital, how can social media stay behind. This has meant that the strategies has changed and there is now need to capture the audience who are dominating the digital market. Now, we have gone one step ahead and amalgamated Artificial Intelligence in this sector.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is defined as the sub-field of computer science which emphasizes on the creation of the human like intelligence in machines. AI is associated with computer or robots performing tasks which are usually associated with human beings. Ten years back, if someone had told us that AI will play an important role in digital marketing, then we would have laughed it off. Its quite commendable how far ahead technology has gone.

Take an example of any Digital Marketing Agency and you will see them using AI to the core. The ease of which we have welcomed it is one of the reasons why it is getting so famous. There are various different tools which are the need of the hour of every digital marketer but the outcome has not always been true to the effort put. This is where AI helps in making the life easier of a digital marketer.

Data is everywhere. It is present in different forms and being asked to get used. As more data is being created in immeasurable quantity, everything can get complicated if there is no system or knowledge of how to use that data. A good Digital Marketing Agency uses it effectively to help the brand. AI helps in understanding a heap of data. Not only the data is analyzed but also understood. After all, this is the major role played by AI. One of the things which AI offers is personalization. Every user wants to feel important. It plays an important role in taking user experience to the next level. This is only possible by analyzing the data which is in big numbers.

For a marketer, AI makes every dream come true. When there is heaps of data arranged in a particular manner, it becomes easier to formulate a strategy. Digital Marketing Agencies are taking full benefit of AI. Lets take a look how this is done –

• Targeting potential customers

Huge sets of data is being analyzed before making a strategy. At every single step, these strategies reduce the unwanted part and are customized according to the user’s needs. There are smart ads which target the users who search some particular queries. With the help of AI, it has become highly effective in knowing what the customers want.

• Improvement in search engine searches

Search Engines weren’t as smooth as they are now. AI enabled marketing has made them smart and hassle free. The results generated through it are highly accurate and it can easily track search queries, navigation processes and purchase patterns. One such example of this is Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) which generates keywords which are more relevant. For ex – ‘Google’ and ‘Android’. Both of them are different words but many times used together.

• Customized user exeperience

As the user base is growing, the potential of a customer is also increasing. All that is needed is catering to their needs. This is done effectively with the help of AI. Smart Digital Marketing Agencies provide the website with chat interface. It allows the customer to chat directly with the agent. The advantage of AI based chatbots is that they can hand multiple requests at a time and are available 24/7. But they need to be enhanced by learning the language in order to give convincing responses.

• Improvement in Return On Investment

The primary aim of any business is to get optimum Return On Investment (ROI). AI makes it possible with the help of analytics and smart digital campaigns. With the help of Machine Learning, an application of Artificial Intelligence, identification of the patterns & trends in behavior and improvement from that experience is possible. Amalgamation of AI and digital marketing has ensured multi-layer strategies. It has a direct impact on customer experience as they receive the exact information they asked for. It takes them ahead on the next stage of the buying journey.

• Breakthroughs in AI

The best part about AI is that it hasn’t stopped evolving. The idea to accumulate and gather information from it has already made the lives of Digital Marketing Agencies easier. AI has integrated with different field of studies that has made it easier for the marketers to incorporate them. For ex – Natural Process Learning (NLP) is the field that focuses on the ability of a computer to learn and process a human language. This has helped brands to understand customers on a larger scale rather than just local entities. Similarly, there is Semantic Analysis. It is an important part of NLP, which helps in extracting relevant information from heaps of unstructured data. Not only a lot of time is saved but also inconvenience is avoided.

Even the field of Content Marketing is not left out. AI generated content helps in scaling up content marketing. One of the famous Natural Language Generation (NLG) engine, Wordsmith, has the ability to turn data into text in any format and language. Another example is Acrolinx. It is an AI-powered tool which creates content for big brands like Facebook, IBM, Nestle, Caterpillar etc.

To summarize, AI has just begun its journey. The use of AI in Digital Marketing has been extensive and it isn’t stopping just yet. In the next few years, it is going to spread out and help marketers to explore different possibilities.

Hi friends, in my previous blog you read about how demography, psychography and socio-economic classification play a major role in planning your brand’s rural marketing.

Today I am going to discuss few more important things which is imperative for the marketers to understand before making rural marketing strategies. Going ahead, the rural socio-cultural behaviour plays an imperative role in consumption pattern. And thus, it assists in shaping-up the strategy. The challenge is in understanding the diversified characteristics, which are determined by various factors; primarily people, income, traditions and cultures, dialect, buying and selling periods, cropping pattern, regional flavours among many other local factors.

Hence, to make this big data look simpler, the country is classified into 58 socio-cultural regions (SCRs), for example Mithila in Bihar; Vidarbha in Maharashtra; Mewar in Rajasthan; Mewat in Haryana; Rayalseema in Andhra Pradesh and so on. As each SCR is socially, culturally and economically different from each other, thus, any product, service or marketing strategy designed for one SCR may not work for another. A marketer, hence, needs to customise the strategies according to a particular SCR. This will result in more success and revenue.

Another big factor is the rapid development of rural infrastructure and spread of services. Following are the basis that has made rural spread its roots and become a flourishing ground for the marketers such as literacy,: infrastructure, mobile usage and banking network.

The literacy rate in rural India has seen a sharp growth from 44.69% in 1991 to 74% in 2011, making it clear that rural today is just not a mass of illiterates. Communication becomes easy when the receiver can decode with ease and the increasing rate of literacy in the rural, to a large extent, has resolved the issue. The growing literacy rate is opening avenues for the marketers to explore the rural market swiftly and recognise more opportunities.

Rural infrastructure plays crucial role in reaching the rural consumers whether it’s roads, electricity or telecommunication. In last two decades, the rural infrastructure development has seen a major boost. According to the Census 2011, due to the Centre’s flagship rural roads programme,Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), 67 percent villages are now connected with all weather pucca roads, 75 percent households are connected with electricity and 63 percent are living in pucca houses. Seeing the ongoing development, it is expected that in next 10 years, 100 percent villages are estimated to be connected with pucca roads and similarly 100 percent households are expected to be electrified and are estimated have pucca houses.

Rural roads have not only increased the sales of automobiles in rural India but also eased the rural distribution network which has resulted into growing sales of FMCG and consumer durables in the villages. Rural electrification has boosted the sales of consumer electronics and perishable goods in the villages. This paradigm shift in rural infrastructure is going to drive the growth story for rural marketers by providing them access to this untapped rural consumer base.

Today, out of 84 crore rural population, 50 crore use mobile phones while 19 crore access internet connection on their mobile phones. Penetration of mobile phones in rural India has paved the way for mobile marketing, moreover it has given a boost to literacy. Children here can learn through e-books, online classes, smart classes etc. Thus, opportunities are at large for e-commerce, online educational institutes, call centres etc.

This rapid advancement has made rural India a giant market that has awakened a new opportunity for the marketers. Rural today is a market no brand can afford to miss.

Thank you for reading the blog. If you have any question, query, suggestion, or want me to cover any specific topic, do let me know with your comments. To get more instructive blogs for simplifying rural marketing, stay connected and take care. I’ll see you next week with the next video and blog in this series.

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To watch the video on Understanding Emerging Rural India, click here
I’ll see you next week with the next video and blog in this series.

If you want me to cover any topic, in particular, let me know in the comment section. I will try coming-up with the same in the video and blog.

Dear friends, in my last video and blog you saw that what rural India is and how it is an untapped glodmine for the rural markets. In the series of Simplifying Rural Marketing, today I want to take it to your notice that it is imperative for brands to understand the Panchayati Raj system and its effectiveness for reaching the interiors of rural markets.

The Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi had said in 1942, “My idea of Village Swaraj is that it is a complete republic, independent of its neighbours for its own vital wants, and yet interdependent for many others in which dependence is a necessity.”

And thus, to provide Village Swaraj (self governance to the villages), Panchayati Raj was formalised in 1992 by the 73rd amendment to the Indian Constitution. This village self governance system has three layers, Zila Parishad at district level headed by a President, Panchayat Samiti at block level headed by a Chairperson and Gram Panchayat at village level headed by a Panchayat Mukhiya or a Sarpanch. If we talk about numbers, there are 595 Zila Parishads or District Councils, 6283 Panchayat Samitis or Block Panchayats and 247,166 Gram Panchayats or Village Panchayats in India.

There are certain functions, which are performed by the Gram Panchayats such as development of agriculture, rural infrastructure, rural housing, rural roads, employment generation, poverty alleviation programmes, primary healthcare among many other development works on community’s demand.

To reach the consumers in the remote villages, your point of contact is the Sarpanch in the Gram Panchayat. He is elected by the people, he thus, is a strong influencer and people are ought to hear him. Sarpanch functions as the head of the village who is looked up by the villagers. Majority of the present Sarpanches are well-educated, tech-savvy and are aware about the happenings of in and around the world.

As the majority of India lives in rural, the role of Gram Panchayat is important. The government has been unstoppable in making policies to uplift the villages of the country. But unfortunately these policies either deteriorates due to maintenance or fail to reach the last mile.

Thus, comes the role of corporate, with their massive network, they can reach the right place, but all they need is right time, and the right influencer. At village, Sarpanch is the key influencer, as what he says is taken holy and true by the villagers.

Before pushing the brand, marketers need to strategise, keeping in mind, the long or short term vision and deciding whether they want to generate sales or build their brand. The brands or corporate thus, always ensure the 4Ps – product, price, promotion and place along with 4As – affordability, approach, awareness and acceptability are in right place.

On the other hand, they also need to understand the role of government, community and corporate which is also called GCC Model. The recognition of districts as aspirational by NITI Aayog has made planning of the GCC model simpler.

Syngenta, the global agribusiness company, manufacturer of fungicides, insecticides and herbicides, identified that mandis, where communities come together to sell and purchase the commodities, are unhygienic and there is a need of a clean environment for them. Here, Syngenta mapped the opportunity with government’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

They named the drive, I- CLEAN, that stands for Cleanliness, Learning, Education, Awareness and New Habits. They adopted villages in East Champaran district in Bihar, but Syngenta needed somebody to influence the villagers for executing the drive. They got in touch with the Sarpanch, convinced him about the need and benefits of the drive to the villagers. The Sarpanch came forward as it benefitted the community and villagers supported in revamping the mandis.

Today, as a result, mandis now have permanent sheds, drinking water facility, and solar lights, making their lives easy, convenient and clean. The impact of I–Clean drive was huge. Syngenta not only made headlines but it also increased brand awareness, enhanced brand image, established brand credibility, evoked brand feelings, created a sense of brand community and drew brand engagement.

As you see, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has now become a successful model for sustenance of the projects. This model can give easy access to the marketers to reach the rural consumers. Today, finding details of Sarpanch is easy. Just Go the website of Ministry of Panchayati Raj, select the state or union territory to get contact details of Gram Panchayats. With these contact details of the key influencers, marketers are all set to strategise their marketing plans.

To get more informative videos and blogs and easy tips to simplify your rural marketing activities, subscribe to our YouTube channel. And don’t forget to like, comment and share the videos and blogs.

To watch the video on Entering the rural with a Punch of Gram Panchayats

Dear friends, in my previous blog you read about I am going to present you a series of instructional videos and blogs every week for simplifying your rural marketing strategies. Today, I am going to discuss why it is imperative for brands to understand Rural India- an untapped goldmine for the marketers.

To understand rural and urban India, it is important to understand that 70 percent of country’s 121 crore population which is around 83.3 crore, live in the rural areas who contribute 50 percent to India’s gross domestic product (GDP). According to the Census 2011, 12 percent of country’s populations is living in 44 large cities, contributing 25 percent to India’s GDP while 18 percent of country’s population is living in 7,834 small towns, contributing 25 percent to India’s GDP. Now, I am going to tell you what is the untapped and unexplored goldmine waiting for you to explore. The 70 percent of country’s population is living in the 640,000 villages who contribute 50 percent to India’s GDP. As the urban markets are now getting saturated, the emerging rural India is opening doors for you.

To make concentrated efforts in rural markets, further as a marketer you need to understand where do the rural population live? If you see, 50 percent of rural population living in 107,000 villages with population between 2000 to 10,000, account for 60 percent of rural wealth. They are performing economically better than rest of 50 percent rural population fragmented into 83 percent villages who account for 40 percent of rural wealth.

Now, as a marketer, you can penetrate 50 percent of rural population which account for 60 percent of rural wealth by going to only 17 percent villages. It will certainly minimise your efforts while give you maximum results.

Though we call rural India as a single term or unit, but it is in itself diversified into various socio-economic parameters. These indicators immensely affect the consumption pattern and behaviour among the rural populace. And thus, one group of people or one region is completely different from another. To market them, you have to make a different and customised marketing plan. For this, it is imperative to understand these socio-economic indicators.

First, we need to understand the socio-economic classification of rural India which is based on three major factors, agricultural landholding of the household, education of chief earner and durables owned by the family. By this method, rural India is classified into four categories, R1, R2, R3 and R4.

R1 comprises of educated and landlord farmers with urban lifestyle. They own tractors, two wheelers, cars, televisions and refrigerators. The products and services sold in the urban areas are similarly consumed by them. They purchase their daily needs from feeder towns.

R2 comprises of farmers with five acre of landholding, maybe educated, own durables such as tractors, televisions, cars and refrigerators. Similar to R1, they also constitute a big market for urban brands and they also purchase their daily needs from feeder towns.

R3 comprises of farmers with 2-5 acre landholding, use tractors on rental, their children attend schools in villages, manage small savings, lend from microfinance institutions and purchase daily needs from village shops and haats.

And finally R4, comprises of farmers with less than two acres landholding and farm labourers, relatively poor, living below-poverty-line (BPL) and major consumers of subsidised food supplied under public distribution system (PDS) and similar to R3, they purchase their daily needs from village shops and haats.

This is a vital insight for the brands to penetrate the rural hinterlands. You need to customise your marketing strategies according to the buying power of such customers.

Coming to the psychographics based on the geographic distribution of the country, it has been divided into four geographic regions which is crucial for identifying the consumer behaviour.

In the seven states of north India – Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan – customers are aggressive and dominant where big is beautiful them while in five south Indian states – Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala – customers are sensual, rational and diligent. Further in 12 states in east India – Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Assam, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Mizoram, Nagaland and Manipur – customers are sensual, assertive, socialist and idealist while in five states in west India – Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Goa – customers are leisurely, democratic and simple. This clearly puts brands in a capacity to target the TG’s psychology and build brand strategy accordingly.

Friends, next week in my next blog, you will read the remaining indicators which are vital to understand the emerging rural markets of India. I am hopeful that these insights will help you in simplifying your rural marketing strategies.

Thank you for reading the blog. If you have any question, query, suggestion, or want me to cover any specific topic, do let me know with your comments. To get more instructive blogs for simplifying rural marketing, stay connected and take care.

To get more informative videos and easy tips to simplify your rural marketing activities, subscribe to our YouTube channel
And don’t forget to like, comment and share the video.
To watch the video on Understanding Emerging Rural India,

I’ll see you next week with the next video and blog in this series.

If you want me to cover any topic, in particular, let me know in the comment section. I will try coming-up with the same in the video.

It is truly a great feeling as I put my experience in a video series and blogs, they would assist businessmen and organisations to scale up their businesses in rural India.

My love affair with rural India began in the mid-90s, and it has only grown with time. In those days, there was no internet, no smartphones, terrible roads, no connectivity and almost no electricity, even the literacy rate was very low. Hence, reaching the rural consumers was a grave challenge.
While serving the communication needs of big rural brands, ranging from automobile to farm machinery, consumer durables, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), healthcare, telecom to social sector organisations like National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), Eicher Tractors, JCB, Coca Cola, Nokia, Airtel, Maruti Suzuki among various other brands, I had to travel to remote corners of the country and communicate through simple techniques using various below-the-line (BTL) activities such as visual aids, roadshows, exhibitions, melas and haat activations . As a result, I met many ethnic groups in their backyard who shared insights on demographic, psychographic and behavioural segments. Taking the cue from there along with today’s age of viral campaigns and targeted social media, resulting in improved infrastructure, I bring to the table my extensive experience of what works and where.

In the latest video which is the first in this series of communication made for simplifying rural marketing strategies, I have discussed three prominent reasons why these videos make sense for marketers?

First, I have understood from my experience of over two decades of deep insights in advertising and rural marketing that there are numerous organisations big and small who wish to penetrate 70 percent of Indian population living in the rural areas, with 50 percent of purchasing power and contributing over 50 percent of country’s GDP. The 84 crore population, as per Census 2011, in over 640,000 villages constitute humongous consumer based for products and services.

Second, according to a TRAI data, by February 2018, 49.9 crore people in rural India were using mobile phones. As per a recent, IAMAI data, as many as 19 crore of them are using mobile internet. With 57 percent, youth are constituting the largest segment of mobile internet users in rural India. Meanwhile, since 2001 to 2011, rural literacy rate increased from 64.8 percent 74 percent. This big demographic development with infrastructural growth and rising incomes have collectively minimised the rural and urban consumption divide and creating similar aspiration as their urban counterparts.

Third, rural India is, today, accounting for 58 percent of country’s FMCG sales, 60 percent of consumer durables sales, 50 percent of motorcycles and television sales each. In almost every segment, rural demand has touched or surpassed the urban demand.

Considering the big demographic and psychographic shift in rural India, resulting into spike in demand for goods and services, most leading FMCGs, consumer durable brands and service providers want to catch the maximum number of consumers, but get caught into the massive complex maze of over 600,000 villages and are unsure about what strategies would work and what would not.

And therefore, in order to simplify rural marketing, I felt a compelling need to share through my series of videos and blogs on understanding rural social infrastructure, government initiatives, disruptive technologies, successful marketing mantras, myths and realities, useful tips, case studies and much more. Each of which is to help your business achieve significant impact as you plan to penetrate rural markets in India.
To get more informative videos and easy tips to simplify your rural marketing activities, subscribe to our YouTube channel
And don’t forget to like, comment and share the video.

To watch the video on Introduction to Simplify Rural Marketing,

I’ll see you next week with the next video and blog in this series.

If you want me to cover any topic, in particular, let me know in the comment section. I will try coming-up with the same in the video.

Today, advertising in India is thousand pages ahead since its inception. Here advertising dates back to Ajanta-Ellora fresco pictorial images carved on the rock, which was mostly used to advertise religious things back then. The other aspect was the hawkers in the old bazaars, which existed right from the concept of civilization to till date. The advertising in India really took a leap since the dawn of printing press, this was the time when advertising was just an informative space in the newspapers. Gradually, these small informative ads made people understood the major business potential lying under it.

This newfound glare in the Indian newspaper during pre-independence era attracted the agency culture in India. This marked the advent of advertising agencies in India. With increasing industrial revolution many agencies emerged at that time after observing this newly found cherry in the market. But most of the advertising agencies in India failed against competitive American and British agencies. The advertising shine took over the entrepreneurial sector as well, as they started to establish their own brand with the help of advertising. One such renowned brand today is Lipton tea. Lipton tea came with the print ads at that time with images of British and elite Indian families.

After the conclusion of World War I, professional advertising gained momentum, many of them become a big name among the advertising agencies in India. This was the age when agents flourished as they obtained the spaces in well-known newspaper spaces, and become contractors for the brands. The newspaper like The Times of India, The Statement opened their own advertising departments which proved to be advantageous for both the advertiser and the publisher. As the advertiser now didn’t require to invest their time thinking about the suitable layout for the ad and the publishers achieved a certain kind of standard for the advertisements featuring in their column

Post World War I era, the advertising agencies, which garnered the recognizable status, were LA Stronach & Co and Keymar. At this particular time, many British and American renowned agencies also started to increase their foothold in the Indian market. The year was 1929 when American heavyweight JWT announced their arrival in Indian market with brands like Horlicks, General Motors etc. By this time first Indian talking movie “Alam Ara” was released which marked an exciting prospect for advertising in India. In 1941, Lux created a stir by signing Lela Chitnis, the first ever Indian actress to endorse a toiletry brand. After this JWT gave Indian advertising their first ever mascot while working for Air India, which had famous Indian swirled mustache with head bent for a gesture of hospitality.

From here on advertising grew leaps and bounds on the verge of growing technology. Advertising in India have learnt to amalgamated the technology flawlessly under the arms of their operation. In fact, in the passing years advertising work has gloriously maneuvered innovative communication around the arc of technology. With the inclusion of VR, other remote sensing technologies, the advertising agencies in India have contributed to the total makeover of ATL advertising in India.
Over the years the advertising agencies in India have mastered the real aspect of advertising, that is manipulation of the audience mind. While rooting the core essence of the brand in the lifestyle of brands target audience, they have also been successful in developing a certain behavior, which is certainly the most incredible accomplishment of advertising.

Like Axe, the major deodorant brand in the Indian market, in the past showcased in an ad a well-chiseled guy who sprays the deodorant all over him in a wild manner. This ad implanted a behavior with reference to the usage of the product in the minds of consumers which ultimately resulted in more consumption of the product.

From the early eighties, advertising agencies in India adopted relationship building of brand with their consumers. They implemented positioning of the brand centered around emotions of the people. For reference, the famous Bajaj’s nineties Hamara Bajaj campaign is still fresh to our memories, which targeted the feel of nationalism and positioned the brand as the nation’s pride. Campaigns like these resulted in more brands advocates and evangelist. They are the ones who carry forward the brand’s message and results in wide-spread of the brand.

With the advent of digital platform and their massive reach among the diverse categorize, the advertising has become more dynamic with a straight on the face attitude. But it has also become more creative and artistic as well, which every now and then grab eye-balls. Today advertising has moved beyond the point of just talking about the brand’s features. Advertising is more like a wild-fire, which is not limited to any territory if it gets the hold of the right rhyme to which the current generation grooves.

Today brands are going above and beyond, they don’t restrict themselves form attaching themselves to any social issue. Advertising has evolved to more boldface which takes up every critical aspect of the society and they are not ashamed to even an inch while breaking the age-old parasitic stereotypes. The prominence of smart-phones has made advertising more efficient and effective because of their direct connect with brands potential consumers.

Since its inception advertising has always been the reaction to societies reflection. Advertising agencies have mastered the power of manipulation, using the general emotions of their target audience to brands positioning and image building. At present, advertising agencies in India rule the roost at world level, they have conquered today and initiated their march towards tomorrow.

One pad to rule them all. One pad to find them. One Pad to bring them all and with a great script …bind them!

Bollywood’s romance with Indian villages is all too well known. However, most films we watch, show only a romanticized version of rural life, often ignoring the real difficulties faced by its denizens, especially women.

It was only recently, on a lazy Sunday afternoon, I got the chance to watch Padman, the inspiring story of Arunchalam, whose invention, the low-cost sanitary pad helped millions of rural women come out of the dark ages.

The film has been studied, admired and reviewed by competent critics and movie buffs. So this piece of mine won’t be a film review but rather an exposition of Padman’s enterprising spirit.

Don’t wait for Society’s approval. Believe in Yourself

If there’s something you truly believe in, don’t let society dictate your decisions. Padman faced a world of criticism, derision, and anger from everyone including his own wife. However, such was his belief in what he was trying to accomplish, that he allowed nothing to bog him down, and persisted, till his invention received international recognition. For an 8th pass workshop mechanic, with no exposure or resources, Laxmikant Chauhan’s resilience and determination are truly remarkable.

Get Yourself a Mentor 

A lot of young ventures fail because they don’t receive the right support at the right time. Support doesn’t just come in the form of angel investors, who fill your coffers but as mentors who can guide you competently, and provide you with intellectual and moral support when the going gets tough. In the film, laxmikant Chauhan approaches a professor at whose house he works as a manservant. There he learns to use the Internet, and slowly pieces together the information he needs to build the machine.

Don’t Underestimate the Power of Jugaad

Jugaad, the much admired and much-maligned euphemism for India’s need-based innovation, has been beautifully showcased in the film. Laximikant Chauhan faced a huge challenge when he learned that imported sanitary pad machines cost a fortune; the kind of money he could never hope to raise. Instead of giving up, he started experimenting to build a stripped-down machine, which could produce high-quality napkins at an affordable cost. Through trial and error, he created a wooden contraption, which looked crude but got the job done. This goes to prove, groundbreaking innovations don’t need huge R&D funds to succeed.

Know Your Target Audience 

A lot of young ventures aren’t able to live up their initial promise and collapse, because they lose touch with the core needs of their customers. In the film, Laximikant Chauhan does everything short of wearing sanitary pad himself. Actually, it’s exactly what he does, and goes a step beyond to wear it with a balloon filled with goat blood. His obsession to put himself in the shoes his target audience even get him branded as a vagrant and pervert (courtesy of his bloodied trousers). From the point of view of a startup, this is exactly the kind of obsession, you need to become one with your buyers. When you offer them exactly what they need at a price point they are able to afford, you have a winner in your hands.

Work towards a Larger Cause 

Money should never be the sole motivating factor pushing you in your enterprise. For startups, attaching a greater cause to their goals often acts as a totem pole, providing them crucial inner strength when the going gets tough. The sight of his wife sneaking out with a dirty rag during her periods, turned Laxmikant from a lowly mechanic into an innovator. Had he been motivated by money alone, he would surely have given up when faced with overwhelming odds.

So there you go. These are the top 5 reasons which make Padman, one of the best films to watch for young entrepreneurs. At Infinity Advertising, we always welcome the opportunity to work with budding startups. If you have the Padman spirit, you can count on the Infinity team to turn your business into a brand!

Let’s talk straight, to the point. Digital marketing was never an easy game and is becoming more complex with time. Today’s marketers are not satisfied with revenue, they look for getting maximum ROI. Every penny that is spent must worth the effort. And therefore they experiment, take risks; however, often ignore the underdog of digital marketing- Email Marketing.

E-mail marketing provides immense opportunities to the marketers to promote their brands. Since, the communication is targeted to the filtered audience, higher are the probabilities for lead generation as well as conversion. The benefits coupled with less investment also make it more lucrative.

The Value E-mail Marketing Adds

Branding Made Easy with E-mail marketing

Branding is the toughest task of marketing. E-mail marketing gives you an opportunity to brand your product/service to the right audience at the right time. Digital advertising agencies like Infinity Advertising vouch for its incredible role in digital marketing. If crafted smartly, e-mails can immediately generate leads with higher probabilities of conversion.

Gives Your Communication a Personalised Touch

The secret of all successful marketing campaigns is the personalised touch that marketers incorporate while communicating with their target/potential consumers. Suppose, you are offering a great discount offer on Apparels & distributed flyers at certain places. You invested a lot to print & distribute those flyers but didn’t get the expected footfall. You’re scratching your head thinking about ‘what went wrong’ factor. In contrary, your competitor leverage the e-mail marketing route, crafted a personalised communication with the name of the person it was directed to, giving a sense of urgency while being upfront about the key benefit that is 70-80% off on all apparels & got a huge footfall. The crux is investing money doesn’t guarantee you success, you need to keep emotion intact.

Helps You to Save Money as It’s a Low Investment Affair

Forget the ‘in-comparison-to’ factor. E-mail marketing is very-very affordable in every sense. You can invest as low as you want and get leads. It is multipurpose- giving you many solutions at a time. That’s the reason why along with big businesses the medium as well as small size business too incorporate it into their marketing strategies.

Enables You to Target Better

The best part of e-mail marketing is it enables you to filter your target audience/customers at multiple levels. You can do segmentation first and then send your emails. As, if you have the e-mail address of somebody that means he/she must have shown interest in your business directly or indirectly. When you send your communication message to those people, chances become high for lead conversion.

ROI Measurement Becomes Easier

E-mail marketing allows you to measure return on investment in a better manner. With this, you can maintain records of every e-mail that is sent, number of people who clicked and opened it as well as every lead that got converted. These statistics help you to plan your marketing strategy more smartly.

Thus, E-mail marketing is one of the smartest tactics of digital marketing with higher conversion rates. With more & more people using smartphones & accessing their e-mail 24*7, this plays instrumental in increasing the traffic on your website. However, a lot depends on the message & approach. If you want your e-mail marketing campaign really work then follow these mundane-looking but very important points:

Always take the long route that is first introduce yourself, then talk about your target-audience needs, later tell about your product & sell in the last stage.

Devote time to the subject line as this is your first & last chance to grab attention

Craft message in a smart way. Tell your TG the benefits upfront. Use simple words, make it clear & arouse their curiosity.

There is always room for experiment in e-mail marketing. Try new techniques, new ways to attract your target audience but never misguide them or make false promises to them. At the end of the day, trust is the real pillar of marketing building.

If you seek to run a successful e-mail marketing campaign OR want to know more about it, visit our website http://www.infinityadvt.com/.

The one big thing everyone is talking about is the latest trends in Digital marketing. Since digital has been declared as the future by the market experts, players are focusing to devise & explore industry’s emerging trends. Doing the same, we have come across some interesting facts that we are sharing with you in this blog. Let’s venture into the fascinating world of digital marketing.

1. Vow for Video Content
There is an age-old saying, a picture is worth a thousand words. Digital marketing has added another extension to it with the concept of video. Content has been the king but it is time of engaging content that catches attention with just a glimpse of it. Statistics reveal that people are more inclined towards interesting video content rather reading long articles or viewing static images. Digital marketing is dynamic & so should be its tools. Right!

2. Mobile Apps are Show-stealers
We are not saying this, your mobile phone cluttered with apps is vouching for this fact. Just look around and you’ll find this small device in the hands of people, bringing a revolution with each passing day in the communication & marketing world. In fact, with millions & billions of mobile users, digital has become mobile & mobile is the most used digital tool. That’s the reason why marketers are spending huge sums of money to develop their apps. As today’s generation is omnipresent owing to this 21st century magical device, marketers cannot but bound to develop a hand-in-glove relationship with mobile apps.

3. Storytelling is Nailing
Storytelling has always been there. It developed with civilization and still carries the same value that it was used to have. Mediums have changed but its impact on people hasn’t. Digital marketing is exploiting this powerful tool to strengthen its roots. People love listening to stories which have an instant connect. It takes them to some another world where they are free to play the role they always wanted to. Marketers who have got the nerve of storytelling, and incorporated it in their digital marketing strategies have written history and shaping future in a phenomenal way.

4. Chatbots are Game-changing
You heard it right. Chatbots are acting as game-changers in the digital marketing world. Meeting customer service requirements demand manpower and attention. However, the artificially intelligent chatbots have made this task an easier one. Chatbots provide instant assistance to the customers thereby, infusing trust that company always keeps customers at the top of their priority list. It is also predicted that in future, chatbots will be handling approx 85% of the customer service interactions.

5. Users are the king-makers
It’s a basic human psychology that people tend to trust the experienced ones. For instance, if somebody has bought a mobile from some e-commerce company & has written a good review, others will find it more authentic than a brand ad displayed on social media platforms. Studies also reveal that 66% of people make their online purchase decision only after going through the reviews posted by others. So, here users are the undisputed king-makers.

6. Leverage Social Media Channels
Social media channels are gaining tremendous popularity. Your target audience is everywhere; on Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram, Pinterest and the list continues. You need to tap them and therefore you leverage these platforms. That’s the reason why marketers are extensively promoting their brands on these platforms.

7. Interactive Content Connects
Trends have been changing. The beginning of digital marketing marked posting of social ads in exuberance. But with time, interactive content came into the scene. Now, users are not interested in reading or watching what you have presented to them rather they seek to participate. Interactive content like opinion polls, quizzes, videos etc. engage users and therefore are in vogue.

Millions and billions of people are active across all social media platforms, browsing through every kind of content available. It’s a testimony of the infinite scope of digital marketing. The world has witnessed the way digital marketing has leapfrogged other marketing ways & the dynamic trends it has been setting with each passing day.

If you wish to trend everywhere, connect with us today!

Brand doesn’t mean a product, it’s an experience and creating this experience is the basic to every advertising & branding exercise. Every brand is unique in its own way. Branding is making the uniqueness visible to everyone, be it consumers, potential customers or anybody else. In fact it’s a game of perceiving.

The instant connect that one feels with a particular brand makes it different from others. Products are ephemeral opposed to brands that are if not forever, stay in mind of people for long. Take an instance of Nike, world’s famous sportswear brand. The famous Nike logo & its tagline “Just do it” has something that urges people to do things of their choice, to do things now & not postpone it for later. This communication is same for every product that comes under the umbrella of the brand Nike and that’s the beauty of branding. It persists. Similarly, Apple is a brand that has become synonym to trust & reliability. People want to have it because it makes them feel special. They feel as they are representing the legacy of Apple.

Why is Branding important? Many people still have this feeling that if somebody likes a product, he’ll buy it. Why to waste money on branding? After all branding is not cherry-like. It demands countless hours of brainstorming sessions, extensive background research and huge sums of money, of course. To all those, the answer is, branding is the most valuable asset a company can develop for itself. In modern times, it is way more than just a logo, symbol, tag line or a combination of all, it is actually a possession that nobody can takes away from the company, be it thick or thin times.

Branding basically plays around consumers’ psychology. It explores the layers of emotions hidden inside a person. It is done best when people perceive a brand in the same way it is desired by the creator/company. It adds value to the business, garners investment from across the world and bridge trust between a company & consumers. Reliance is the best example in support to this statement. A small company that was started by a small-town, lower-middle-class man is today one of the biggest companies across the world. Though so many factors have contributed to make it a massive empire, branding played as the centripetal force driving people’s trust towards the brand ‘Reliance’.

It is usually said that the best branding is done by the satisfied consumers. However, modern branding is an effective combination of science, art, culture & strategy. When all these factors come together in the right way, magic happens. Thus, in today’s world branding has a value that it never had earlier. It is core to every marketing exercise & have become a necessity for every marketer who strives to build a long-term profitable asset.

A Creative Design Agency is an essential part of any advertising campaign. A bad creative has the power to ruin even the greatest and most creative campaigns. The sensory organ with which the audience first judges any creative campaign is the eye. If a creative is appealing to the audiences’ eyes the campaign is sure to grab attention. This is why the creative design of any brand is given so much importance, be it the design of the product or the design of the ad campaigns. Creative Design Agencies understand this importance of the design and are committed and focused to deliver the best eye-catchy designs.

However, clients more often than not are involved in a conflict to choose between a large and a small creative design agency. The tussle is because a large agency offers a brand name and a sense of quality that comes attached with it while a small sized creative design agency is a great example of the fact that creativity can dwell everywhere and the creativity in ideas and design that it presents is exemplary. Besides they are also easy on the pocket.

Let’s venture into the perks and demerits of both big and small sized creative design agencies:

• Budget
  Now let’s admit advertising is a costly affair and huge sums of money are demanded by agencies. Large creative agencies are of course big in structure, staff and therefore in their costing as well. Small advertising agencies are comparatively more economic but the efficiency of work might be a matter of concern.
• Management Ability
  A big agency can definitely handle advertising campaigns that have a National outreach while a small sized agency is a beneficial choice with campaigns that cater to a niche or are campaigns executed on a small scale.
• Creativity
  Indeed it is a fact that creativity cannot be determined by the size of an agency. Creativity is limitless and can dwell in any and every place. However, larger agencies are bigger places that harbor more creative individuals thus more creative minds work on a particular creative campaign. Smaller agencies however are capable of offering creative designs at a lesser cost while the quality is not much compromised.
• The solution: Brands are always inclined towards achieving maximum profits when making a decision regarding the type of creative design agency they opt for. They are in always trying to receive the merits of both the large and small sized agencies clubbed into one.This conflict between the small and large sized agency is solved as we include the mid-sized creative design agency into the picture. A mid-sized agency is not too big to fit into the category of large sized agency yet not so small to be classified as a small sized agency. It is thus, metaphorically the meat between the two bread slices. Indeed, mid-sized creative design agencies are the meat which most brands crave for!

Let’s now explore the plethora of benefits that a mid sized agency can offer:

• Budget
  Any brand would want quality as an essential feature because well, when you decide to invest in an advertising campaign you already have made your mind on spending a certain amount of money. Mid-sized agencies are neither too expensive nor are they willing to compromise on the quantity.
• Management Ability
  Mid-sized agencies owing to their unique size do scream ‘bring on any challenge’ all the time! These agencies are well equipped at handling national level campaigns as well as campaigns that cater to the niche. Their economic pricing further adds the icing to the cake.
• Creativity
  The most important quality which forms the establishing stone of the entire advertising industry is creativity. Mid-sized agencies are a store house of creativity for the very reason that they have the budget to hire the perfect mix of experienced as well as fresh talent.

A brand can reach greater heights if the right agency that suits your requirements is hired!

Choose right! And see your brand become a crowd favourite!

Digital Advertising agencies are on a rise and indeed the world is getting smart and technology smarter. With new versions of android and ‘smart phones’ making the immense pressure on human minds easier or rather enslaving the human mind to be technology dependent. The small needs like checking time or remembering dates or the big important tasks like exchanging official mails or connecting to the world with social media are all largely accomplished through the mobile phone. Technology has now become an inevitable part of everyone’s life and a look around us will validate this as every person is busy checking their phones and spending a large amount of their time specifically on social media. Digital advertising agencies have started to take advantage of this very fact.

Advertising is all about displaying a brand in positive light such that consumers are compelled to purchase it. Advertising on platforms which consumers use the most is a priority and digital advertising agencies are therefore stressing the importance of digitally advertising brands. The growing dependence of consumers on social media and their obsession to constantly check their phones has turned out to be a boon for digital advertising agencies. Top of the mind brand recall is ensured and social media platforms also help establish interactive relations with the consumers. Companies should thus invest more in social media advertising to achieve top of the mind recall and attract more and more customers from all over the world.

According to a report by the Guardian, the expected generation for 2017 of Facebook and Twitter was around $17.50 and $12.56 respectively per user. As of the first quarter of 2017, Facebook had 1.94 billion monthly active users, while Twitter boasted an average of 328 million monthly active users.These figures substantiate the fact that we now live in an age of mobile addiction, an era where people pay attention to the digital buzz on social media. Even while watching TV or listening to the radio people are obsessed to check their phones providing advertising agencies greater opportunities to penetrate
deeper in the lives of consumers.

Besides, social media advertising offers many more advantages such as:

1. Increased inbound traffic
Social Media Advertising not only attracts the usual customers of a brand but also provides greater opportunities to the unaware customers to transform into brand-loyal customers. Social media advertising leads to increased inbound traffic, thereby attracting all kinds of consumers.

2. Higher Conversion
Increased visibility provides more opportunities for conversion. A variety of awareness platforms such as blog post, image, video, or comment may lead viewers to your company’s website increasing traffic and inducing purchasing behaviour.

3. Increased customer satisfaction
Due to the highly interactive nature of social media platforms, advertising and promotion through them increases transparency and makes the company more accountable to the consumers. This increases the trust between consumers and the brand, thereby increasing brand loyalty.

4. Cost Effective
Social media advertising is cost effective as compared to the variety of options and facilities it provides to skyrocket your brand image and brand personality.

Social media advertising is thus a great avenue that provides a plethora of opportunities and a scope for instant growth. It reaps greater benefits in comparison to the investment required. It reaches out to customers all over the globe and makes your brand global in an instant. Embrace Digital advertising as it is the new and greatest advertising trend to
skyrocket your brand!

Any brand image is not just made by one successful ATL campaign or a successful BTL event. Of course, a successful campaign does impact the consumers and creates a brand memory in their mind. But all memories have a prominent attribute in common: memories tend to fade away with time. The only way to make a memory last is to iterate the same brand message repeatedly in all aspects of a consumers’ life. For instance, if a brand philosophy wants to convey the message “ The taste of India” then just stating it through a banner ad or an event will not give the desired impact. However, if the brand represents itself as “The taste of India” on all platforms such as through print, radio, TV, events, exhibitions as well as digitally, the brand philosophy will register in the minds of the consumers and the brand will become synonymous with its philosophy. That’s the beauty and the impact of 360 degree advertising as it helps in building a strong brand identity and brand personality.

What does 360  advertising mean?

360 degree advertising is a consumer-centric approach towards branding. Branding is an effort towards building a brand identity such that the brand is visible to the consumers at all times. Such an approach towards advertising helps to cater to all aspects of consumer needs. This strategy is specifically important when a brand is new or just entering a market as the impact of 360 degree advertising is significant on the recall value of a brand. It increases brand visibility and thus successfully builds a brand image.

The perfect combination: Integrated and Digital Advertising

For a matter of fact, united one stands, divided it falls. The same is true for brands. When all the branding efforts are integrated and unified, it is sure to stand firmly against all the competition and obstacles in the market. However, if the efforts are huge but vaguely distributed and divided among different platforms, it becomes difficult for the consumers to holistically understand the brand philosophy and eventually the brand is unable to withstand the obstacles and earn a place in the minds of the consumers.

360 degree Advertising agency to the rescue!

A 360 degree advertising agency is the perfect investment as it knows how to perfectly utilize the benefits of both Integrated Marketing and Web 2.0 i.e. Digital Marketing. While integrated marketing has a prime focus to use offline tools to create a buzz and top of the mind recall of a brand and integrated communication also ensures that the message is consistent throughout irrespective of the channel, digital marketing ensures that attention
is paid to customer rating and social media as consumers not only remain passive receivers of the brand messages but also begin to interact and respond to the brand message. Thereby, they establish an emotional connect between the consumers and the brand. A 360 degree agency closely analyses different advertising elements like print, radio, TV, email, phone, social media platforms etc and ensures that each of these elements run according to the essence of the brand and the strategy.

Choose a 360 degree agency when your primary concern is holistic brand building and brand personality development. The more the recall value the more your brand will rise. It’s time you wear the 360 degree lenses and see your brand from a new perspective.

“Amul doodh peeta hai India” an ad jingle by Amul famous pan India, everybody can easily sing along owing to great marketing efforts that targeted the entire nation. However, how many of us pay attention to an ad of say, Pedigree? Only pet owners will show interest because Pedigree is a niche product and niche products are not meant to target the masses but only a few classes. Let us first understand what exactly niche marketing is…

What is Niche Marketing?

Not all brands aim at gathering the attention of all the consumers in a vast universe of brands. Some brands aim at being the only trusted brand in a specific yet small segment rather than trying to be a small brand in a big segment. For brands that aim at being a big fish in a small pond, Niche marketing and advertising is the most beneficial strategy. Niche Market is a consumer specific market. It refers to concentrating all marketing efforts on a small but specific and well defined segment of the population. A Niche does not just ‘exist’, a brand has to carve out its own niche by identifying needs, wants, and requirements that are being addressed poorly or not at all by others first, and developing and delivering goods or services to satisfy them.

Why choose Niche marketing?

Niche marketing provides a variety of advantages:
1. The segment chosen is unique and thus there exists no or little competition.
2. The company can easily become a market leader and enjoy unrivaled monopoly in that segment.
3. Building strong customer relationship is easier and a more attainable task as the segment is small. A strong bond between a brand and the consumers forms the key in establishing and building customer loyalty.
4. Niche businesses are often high margin business.Customers do not mind paying a little extra because, they are only able to get that service through that particular company or brand.

Who are the Niche audience?

A Niche audience is formed when a set of people share a common need, want or interest. The brands that cater to the niche audience manufacture product or provide services valid only for that limited segment of audience. For example: A company manufacturing airplane neck supporters is limiting its audience to only frequent travelers who travel by air often and for long hours. This audience will then be reached not through TV but through travel magazines, travel websites, print ads inside the airport etc.

How to advertise Niche products and services?

Once a niche brand identifies its audience advertising decision is taken as to how to reach that audience. BTL advertising suits the best when it comes to niche advertising. A Rolex watch will be best advertised in hoarding inside a mall or a print ad in a lifestyle magazine read by the elite. A niche brand is seen to be more premium. Best advertising for Pedigree would be to advertise in pet shops, vet clinics, parks etc. Hence, when you want your brand to have a premium appeal you must venture into the niche.

Niche marketing is not just a way of advertising but an advertising strategy that ensures a profitable return. When one clearly demarcates their territory of operation, they make sure that they do not waste their time trying to convince uninterested consumers rather they invest their precious resources, time and money in convincing the already interested consumers about the quality and relevance of their product. Niche marketing is a tricky task and can be described as the art of gaining more profits while eliminating wasteful expenditure. Thus niche marketing is not for the mass but for the class. Venture into the unexplored avenues with niche marketing.

Brand positioning refers to “target consumer” the reason to buy your brands other than the other brand present in the market. It is ensured that brand activity has a common aim, is guided, directed and delivered by the brand’s benefits/ reason to buy the product. It basically focuses on the needs of the consumer and their points of contact.

In order to create a distinctive place in the market, a niche market has to be carefully chosen and a differential advantage must be created in their mind. Brand positioning is a way in which an organization can portray its customers what it wants to achieve for them and what it means to them. It forms customer’s views and opinions.

Concept: The basic concept behind brand positioning is that identifying and determining points of similarity and difference ascertain the right brand identity and to create a proper brand image. Brand positioning is the key to marketing strategy. A strong marketing strategy indicates a strong brand positioning. Positioning is the base for developing and increasing the required knowledge and perceptions of the customers. It is that single feature that sets your service apart from your competitors.

Brand identity vs Brand image

The organization should rather concentrate on shaping brand identity, brand image will follow.

Case study of successful brand positioning: If we talk about two of the leading beauty soap: Lux vs. Dove. Lux as a brand stands for glamour and beauty. Lux has offered a wide range of soaps in different shape, color and fragrance. Lux soaps targeted specifically at ‘delicates’. Whereas Dove is a personal care brand owned by Unilever. Dove is sold in more than 35 countries and is used both by men and women. It offers consumer product for self-grooming.

Patanjali vs. Himalayas
Patanjali is an Ayurvedic, herbal and wellness products. Whereas, Himalayas has been in the market before patanjali. Due to Patanjali strong positioning on Ayurveda and health consistently and since patanjali’s brand ambassador Ramdev just added a social cause to the same which made it more prominent in the market.

Advertising is a creative world. A world full of creative people who feed on innovation and give birth to some of the most extra ordinary campaigns in the world. However these carefree souls are forced to work under strict deadlines and deliver their creative best in a short span of time.

Creativity as a concept
Creativity as a concept involves entering a world of differential perception to think of strategies that are out of the box. To explore possibilities and bring about innovations. This creativity can never be bound in the shackles of time. Creativity is timeless and knows no boundaries. Thus deadlines and creativity are two abstracts that can never be combined in a single string.

Creativity in practice
Creativity in practice can never be seen in isolation of time boundations. Especially in the advertising industry every creative thought whether in the copy or in the design is born within strict deadlines. These deadlines act as both enhancers and destroyers of the creative strategies. While on one hand, having a deadline stimulates the mind to think, on the other hand, a great idea might be killed in its initial development stage due to the paucity of time.

Surviving the deadlines of the industry
In an advertising agency, deadlines are an unavoidable part of routine office life. A person must evolve the right balance between creativity and the deadlines to survive in this industry. Client briefs and requirements change by the minute and it becomes necessary for creative strategies to develop within time limits. Deadlines help to focus our attention and make sure we get work done rather than worrying about inspiration. The key is to sit and suffer through it. It comes to you when it has that pressure.

The key lies in:

1. Make and follow the schedule:
Keeping a log of how long a particular task will take to complete can help in setting up realistic deadlines for the future, which is the first step towards meeting those deadlines.

2. Break it Down:
It is important to break up tasks into smaller sub-tasks and create small milestones out of each of these tasks. This will help to keep you motivated and it will also give you a better idea of whether you’re on track or falling behind.

3. Start with the difficult
Knocking out your biggest tasks first will help keep your timeline from slipping and set you up for hitting that deadline.

4. Take responsibility
What is at stake is big, clients invest a lot of money for advertising. In order to meet the deadlines you must take responsibility of your actions. The more you feel accountable, the more motivated you shall be to meet your deadlines.

Tackle the obstacles and beat the deadlines! Once you are in it (advertising industry) you are their to win it (the world with your creativity).

“A good copy is always written when the design is known”, A frustrated copywriter. “A good design can only be made when the copy is known.”, A frustrated designer. And as the tussle gears up, the client servicing person becomes the ping-pong ball, trying to manage the perfect balance between the two. However, a great ad campaign requires that despite the tussle, both the designer and the copywriter should work in coordination to strike the perfect balance and crack the perfect campaign.

The irony is that copywriters and designers have as much similarities as there are differences between them. In terms of differences, both the rivals see each-other as worlds apart and superior to one another. Copywriters believe that a strong ad campaign with a hard-hitting copy is what induces consumers to purchase a specific brand while on the contrary designers believe that consumers are less interested in all the content written and pay more attention to the overall look and feel of a product. This creates a serious tussle between the two and what is at stake is the client’s investment and the brand image.

Their similarities also provide them a set of principles that can help them to collaborate and coordinate. Despite their belief of belonging to different worlds, both of them indeed have a lot of commonalities. Both, the designer and the copywriter belong to the creative world using their talent and creativity to deliver great campaigns. In addition, the ultimate aim of both the designer and the copywriter is to portray the sponsored brand in the most creative way possible to boost sales and create a positive impact in the minds of the consumers.

So, we must spare the client servicing person the back and forth hustle and adopt strategies that usher collaboration. These include collaborative initial brainstorming on any concept so that both the designer and the copywriter have a clear idea or presenting the designer with a written brief with a concept note describing what is required from the creative. Most importantly, both of them should provide space to the other by showing trust and letting each one handle their own creative fields without constant interruption.

The Cold War is indeed fun, But let’s collaborate and celebrate award winning ads.

In a world full of people, we see many, talk to a few and become friends only with the ones that have a vivid attractive personality. The same is the case with brands, in a world full of competing brands, consumers see many ads, pay attention to fewer and remember only the ones that have a strong brand image and brand personality.

The more we provide opportunities for consumers to connect with a brand, the more likely they are to recall the brand and purchase it. Remembering a brand name is more difficult but as soon as a brand is given a face with the help of a mascot, an instant connection is built with the consumer. This increases the recall value of the brand manifold as well as provides a strong brand image and builds a brand personality.

A mascot is an effective symbol for positioning a brand’s personality to sell its products. It can provide a vehicle for customers to express their own identities or simply highlight the functional benefits of the brand. This makes the identification of a brand personality an extremely important task to drive communication, enrich target audience understanding, contribute to a differentiating identity, guide the communication effort as well as create equity in a brand.

The success of giving a face to a brand is quite evident from the many examples currently present in the market. The line’ Utterly butterly delicious’ can never be imagined without thinking about the Amul Girl with her little pony and dotted bow. Amul as a brand is now incomplete without its mascot. The consumers seem to have formed an emotional connect with the Amul Girl and thus they tend to believe whatever she tells us about the brand. Similarly, Hutch chose the pug dog as its mascot to popularise the brand as a loyal and customer-friendly brand. The campaign became so successful that now the pug breed is inseparable from the brand even after its disappearance from the market.

As compared to brand ambassadors, mascots are a better and more effective advertising option because brand ambassadors are prone to falling into scandals, sickness and aging which will affect the brand image as well. Brand ambassadors may also endorse a variety of brands but mascots are unique, ageless and reflect the entire personality of the brand and are consequently more reliable.

So when there is a missing link between a brand and the consumer, bridge the gap by giving a face to your brand!

Advertising is particularly aimed at influencing the consumer and inducing purchase behavior. BTL advertising is a less conventional form of advertising but has a deep hard-hitting impact when the purpose of advertising is to communicate directly with the consumer. It is primarily a form of one to one communication between the business and the consumer.

BTL advertising has recently become a popular trend because of the fact that the consumers are over-stuffed and continuously encountering numerous brands of products/ services and their advertisements. Each ad struggles to communicate and interact with the consumer. BTL activities help you to strengthen your brand communication and provide context to the consumers regarding the brand campaign.

BTL activities such as in store promotions, events, ground activation enable the consumers to touch, feel and communicate with a brand before they purchase it. The ability of BTL advertising to connect the brand with the consumers and help them to not just see a brand but holistically experience it. This increases the recall value of a brand and builds an emotional connect with the brand thereby increasing consumer loyalty.

The benefits of BTL advertising include:

• Customisation: Customization of target audience even on the individual level is possible. If the information being given about a brand is customized according to the needs of different consumers, customisation will lead to a positive brand perception and yield greater sales.
• Deep Impact: The more personalised a brand communication is to the individual consumer, the deeper will be the impact of the promotion. A connect is established through below the line advertising which enables the consumers to relate with the brand on a deeper level.
• Precision: Some audiences are difficult to reach through direct advertising. Precision is achieved through BTL advertising.
  BTL advertising believes that any and every space is an opportunity to advertise. From cupboards to lifts from cricket fields to escalators in malls, every space can be creatively molded to turn it into an opportunity to advertise a brand. Such advertising increases the recall value of any brand as the means of imparting the information is unusual and queer and thus registers instantly in the minds of the consumer. Such advertising is thus receiving increased attention as brands are now competing to capture the minds of consumers in various different yet creatively interesting ways.

If done right than humour can achieve great success. Humour in advertising can play a vital role and is a delicate method of attracting a viewer’s attention to the product. When done properly it will not only engage people but get them to remember the product. According to a theory which states that “humour can be something unrealistic and unexpected”. If our creative strategy is based on humour, it might be the best ad, but it will certainly catch the viewers’ attention. When we see funny advertisements, we tend to discuss it with our friends which further leads to higher consumer engagement.
Though humour is tricky but these Indian and foreign brands have got it right and are worth noticing:

1.Aur Dikhao: A social ad by Aur dikhao has left a longing effect on the people by using just about the right amount of humour. The basic motive behind this ad was to educate people about the importance of their life and how they are taking their life for granted by being addicted to smoking . The ad shows how a dying man who has been smoking, has his last wish to get married before he dies. But just when his wish was about to get fulfilled he dies since every cigarette consumes 11 minutes of our life and it could even cost our last wish. A structure like this always works with brevity. The story telling is extremely nuanced and in a minimal way gives us the powerful message on how smoking habits can harm you and to what extent. And they say you can’t convince a smoker to leave it for anyone else. They must leave only for their incentives.

2 DUREX: Another campaign was initiated by durex on father’s day which was by far the most unconventional way of enlightening the youth as well as the public about the importance of protective intercourse. The tag line was as quirky as the campaign “to all those who have used our competitors product, Happy Father’s day”. This was by far the most well-made ads of all the time which not only depicts how important it is to remember that fatherhood is a serious thing, and it is necessary that everyone can prepare for, but it’s good to know you want kids before you have them.

3. Havells Appliances Steam Iron Ad- Respect for Women: Havells has always surprised us with their interesting take on a subject in a humorous manner. Havells came up with a series of ads focusing on the concept of respect for women by showcasing the same with the ad of domestic appliance by spreading a message to respect women for who they are and their very existence and not considering them as the sole operator of kitchen appliances. It’s high time that people should start respecting women and not follow the taboo that women belong in the kitchen.

4. Fevikwik: A 40 second ad which was strategically planned and launched around the time of India-Pakistan match in which the soldiers of the respected nations were trying to outdo one another in their usual border-march, the sole of the Pakistani soldiers shoe comes apart. He looks at his rival in an appealing manner, who in a matter of second miraculously fixes it for him. They salute each other and at which point the voice-over and super go ‘Todo Nahi Jodo’. In a seamless manner how the brand elevates the attribute of bonding from a functional to emotional level. It promotes the broader message of strengthening bonds between people.

5. Nescafe-It all starts with a Nescafe: This ad became a part of countless social media conversation and fetched over 5 million views on YouTube. Everyone has some or the other hurdle in their lives. But, what the brand wanted to do Is to motivate people to not to be afraid of their hurdle, but to turn their weakness into their strengths. We all fall, get up and complete the race of life. It is our strength that silently stays by our side all through the journey. That’s exactly what the campaign wanted to do and to empower people to embrace their weakness.
Thus, humour is a powerful tool that can be used to convey messages with a vast meaning more efficiently!

As Jimmy Maymann, Chairman, GoViral puts it “A Good engaging advertisement has one core feature: stickiness. Stickiness is the quality of something which catches our eye and makes us stop; something original, intriguing and enjoyable; something that pushes the attention button in our brain and makes us investigate further.” The purpose of any ad campaign is to create a positive impact, a memorable influence in the minds of the consumers. Advertisements must possess the essential feature of stickiness that is important for the success of any ad, as it not only registers the brand in the minds of the consumer but also makes the ad enjoyable for the consumers, drawing their attention and generating curiosity. All campaigns that are able to achieve these objectives can be termed as successful ad campaigns.

Some of such advertising campaigns that are way too original include:

1. Fevikwik- Todo Nahi Jodo campaign

This campaign was launched in 2015 during the India vs Pakistan ICC Worldcup match. The ad was launched on the TV platform; it was set in the backdrop of the ‘Beating Retreat’ Ceremony at Wagah Border featuring the soldiers of both India and Pakistan. It beautifully captured the sentiments of competition, excitement and pride between both the countries while also simultaneously focusing on the maintenance of friendly relations between them. In the Television Commercial, it is shown that while performing the parade, the Indian soldier notices that there is a problem with the shoe sole of the Pakistani soldier. To save his fellow mate from embarrassment the Indian soldier applies Fevikwik in a jiffy. Due to the fast action of the adhesive his shoe sole is fixed and both of them continue with the parade with the same competitive spirit with which they began. The Tagline “ Todo Nahi Jodo” subtly highlights how Indo-Pak relations must be maintained. The accurate direction of the TVC, The catchy tagline and the timing of the launch of campaign ie during the India-Pakistan world cup match made the ad successful and unforgettable. The success of the ad can be witnessed from the fact that it crossed 9,50,000 views! The brand was also promoted on social media with the #TodoNahiJodo.

2. Coca-Cola – Small world machines

In this event based campaign Coca-Cola aimed at achieving widespread coverage for its ‘open happiness’ campaign. In this innovative campaign two Coca-Cola vending machines were installed in India and Pakistan. The initiative was aimed at making friends from across the border through the webcam installed on the vending machines and perform activities together as a result of which both the participants would be awarded with a free a Coke can. The ad was successful as the consumers felt happy and they could experience happiness with each can of Coke. The brand recall value increased manifold as well as this campaign also received many awards in the category of Best Campaign.

3. The Hindu-Matrimonial Placement

In response to the Wake up campaign launched by Times of India, The Hindu launched a brave campaign that no one could have thought of. The Hindu placed an advertisement in the form of a matrimonial ad in TOI newspaper and the advertisement read: Wanted: A groom who reads The Hindu, because it reports the truth. The writing is crisp and brilliant. And they read their ads before they post it. This advertisement was not only an original and creative way to advertise but also gathered the attention of TOI readers.

4. Coca Cola- Let’s take an extra second

This campaign was released during Ramadan and it targeted the Middle East. The campaign was a very creative and unique attempt to encourage people not to judge people by their appearance. To give shape to this campaign, the company removed its label from the can. This was an attempt to encourage people to end the stereotypes that emerged from appearance. The ad was launched with the tagline ‘Labels are for cans not for people’ which conveyed a powerful message. The timing of the launch made the campaign very famous.

5. Nescafe- #ItAllStarts

This digital campaign by Nescafe was aimed at taking forward its tagline ‘It all starts with a Nescafe’. The creative digital campaign associated the tag line with real life stories with a common hashtag- #ItAllStarts. For example: One of the digital posts featured a single lady with the following copy: “30 and Single. That’s your plan? NOPE, 30 and SUCCESSFUL I said. #ItAllStarts when I feel complete as I am.” The emotional connect with the consumers in this campaign makes it a highlight among others.