“93% marketers use Facebook advertising regularly, which translates to about 3 million businesses that use Facebook to market their business.”
Be it a local business or a multinational company, almost every brand seems to have a Facebook presence nowadays. The reason is that the social networking site has become the go-to platform for communication between businesses and customers.
While most of us know the regular features used to share updates and post routines, there are chances that you may overlook some lesser known features that Facebook has to offer. Some of these unknown features can have a positive impact on your business, attract leads, help you get feedback from your loyal customers and secure your page online.
Here’s a list of amazing Facebook features you need to know that will help you and your brand on your social media marketing journey –
1. See if anyone’s snooping in your account
You can check if someone else has logged in to your account without your permission. You only have to go to the Settings page and click on the link ‘Where You’re Logged In’ under the Security folder. All active Facebook logins from both desktop and mobile will be listed in this section.
Usually, Facebook also provides data on the browser, location and device used. You can ‘end activity’ from a single or all devices if you notice something fishy. This information also comes handy if you had logged in from a public system or a friend’s computer and forgot to log out of it.
Source: wikiHow
2. Save relevant links
Facebook’s Save feature allows you to save the link of articles, ads, photos, videos, music and other posts. It is actually a good way to curate good and relevant content for later use. It will be beneficial both for your personal use and also for your business.
Click on the right hand corner of the post that you want to save, and select Save Link.
3. Download your complete Facebook history
Facebook allows you to download your entire history so that you can review all the photos, videos and posts that you have shared since the time you created a page. It also shows you all chat conversations and messages, historical data like all IP addresses, the ads you have clicked on and others. You can model your present campaigns based on this past information.
To get your Facebook history data, click on Settings and then on Download a Copy.
Source: The Windows Club
4. Split Testing
Split testing allows different versions of ads to be tested to understand what will work better in future campaigns. For instance, the same ad can be tested with different audiences to see where it performed better or to test two or more delivery optimizations to see which of them yielded better results. Split testing is not based on cookies, it’s based on people and can gather results across multiple devices.
You will find the option of split testing in ‘Ads Manager’.
Source: ZenDesk
5. Customizing the Thank You screen in Lead Ads
Previously, the thank you screen in Lead Ads could not be customized or edited. However, now there is an option of customizing the headline and description of the thank you screen. So you can place a catchy headline that will attract attention of your leads.
You can also customize the button type and the button text. The thank you screen update will help people know what exactly they should do after they have completed the registration process – whether to check their email, download a PDF file or watch a video.
6. Poll Creation
The well designed and extremely easy to use poll feature on Facebook can help you connect with followers and receive feedback. While this feature was previously available, the interface was different for everyone. The new poll creation feature enables pages to publish 2 or more options for a poll. You can also add a photo or a GIF with each option.
Go to the status update part of your page and choose ‘Create a Poll’. Enter the question, the options, image/GIF and the timeframe – and you’re ready to go!
Source: Social Media Examiner
Facebook is constantly evolving and it is important to keep yourself updated to make the most of this social media channel for your business. To know more about such amazing Facebook features and how it can help your business, leave us a message here and we’ll get back to you!
Content helps a brand connect with its customers and provides a nice personal touch. Good content also helps to increase engagement and brand loyalty, boost conversions and thereby sales. Content marketing can increase the conversion rate of visitors into leads by almost 6 times.
“The average conversion rate with content marketing is 2.9%, compared to only 0.5% for sites not using it.”
Following are 15 ways to get started with content marketing for your e-commerce website:
1. Choose one form of content:
It is difficult to tackle all forms of content across all platforms. So, choose a particular form of content and a single platform to begin with. The best form and platform depends on your customer type, niche market, product and service. If you have some amount of customer data, a good place to start is email content. 74% successful B2C marketers distribute their content through email marketing. Automated emails like welcome emails, promotion emails and abandoned cart emails provide the highest return on investment.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/
2. Create product and service guidelines:
Since customers give up tactile information while shopping online, providing detailed information about products and services is very important. Create customer guides (like size charts) that inform the customer and answer questions rather than sell the product. This helps to build trust and retain customers. Customers should understand that you are trying to help them in their decision making process. Make use of infographics since customers like to visualize how things work and what they look like.
https://enakshi.com/
3. Upload videos:
People are usually more visually oriented than anything else. In order to make videos appealing to your customers, spend some time in deciphering the video length that works for them. Most people watch a video for 45 seconds to a minute. So invest in creating snappy videos (tutorials, product demos, tips and tricks) that will help keep customers engaged and thereby boost sales.
4. Promote customer stories:
Your customers are your best salesmen. Speak to repeat customers and hear their stories about why they like your product/ service and what makes them keep coming back. Request their permission to share their stories in either text or video format. Encourage customers to share reviews and feedback on your product/ service. Use positive reviews to attract more customers and deal with negative ones promptly to build trust and credibility.
https://dogseechew.com/testimonials/
5. Provide information:
Offering detailed size charts are helpful for products like furniture, tools, equipments and of course clothes and shoes. Research the most probable questions your customers may ask and address all of them in a dedicated FAQ page on your website. Answer as many as possible to reduce bounce rates and customer queries.
Publish case studies to showcase how your service or product has helped customers. These case studies are great to target similar customers because they can read the case study and immediately visualise how it will help them. In B2B products and services, case studies are often what help to seal the deal.
7. Share user manual, product hacks and tricks:
Customers are always interested in using a single product multiple ways. If this is true for your product, lay it out for all to see. Share manuals, product hacks and insider tricks. Also invite long-term customers to share their personal ideas of using the product in more ways than one. You can even run a contest asking customers to share the most inventive ways of using the product along with pictures and videos. This will increase the customer engagement and people might even buy your product based on the hype that has been created.
Prepare checklists based on customer activity and include the different products you are selling. Checklists like what to pack for a backpacking trip can include products like backpacks, water bottles, apparel etc. Create innovative checklists based on your business to help customers make easy decisions.
9. Add a personal story:
Personal branding has a great impact on sales. Sharing your personal story on the website not only adds a personal touch but also builds trust and credibility and showcases transparency.
Lastly, as important it is to create exciting content, it is equally important to promote that content. Google adwords, social media ads etc are simple, inexpensive and effective ways to promote content. With the right advertising strategy, you can also improve visibility on search engines which will lead to more organic traffic.
While traffic is important, conversions are even more crucial to ecommerce success. Use a combination of the above mentioned steps to curate a content strategy that works for your brand and its customers. In conclusion, content marketing costs almost 60% less than other forms of marketing but generates almost 3 times more leads. It is the best way to drive customers to your e-commerce store.
Around $300 billion revenue is generated every year through online stores and with 206+ million shoppers around the world, there has never been a better time to start an online business. Success depends majorly on what you sell, the offers that you make available to customers and the overall experience you provide. However, once you decide to start an online store, it is most important to get the basics right so that you can build on the experience rather than start from scratch again in the future.
Below is a checklist to guide you through the basics of setting up a new online store:
Structure your Business
Decide on what to sell: After a thorough research on market trends, decide on what you want to sell. Keep demand in mind while deciding.
Name your business: Choosing a unique name for your online store is the next thing you should do. Ideally, the name should be easy to pronounce and remember. Make sure that it not pre-owned by anyone else. Once you choose the name, register it. If possible, insert a ‘keyword’ to give it a SEO boost.
Securing the domain name: Preferably, make your business name the domain name for your e-commerce website. But if you do not get a domain name similar to your business name, then, choose a domain name that relates to your business and is easy to spell.
Build a website: To build a successful e-commerce website, do the following:
Choose an e-commerce template that can be customized.
Build an interesting homepage or storefront featuring all your popular products so that the customer is eager to explore your collection.
Choose fonts, colors and images based on your brand aesthetic.
Write easy-to-read and understandable content. Make sure that you include an FAQs page with details about returns/ exchanges, delivery time and cost etc.
Shipping and Tax: You can choose shipping options like ‘free shipping’ or ‘no shipping charges’ or ‘free shipping on orders above a particular product price’.
For taxes, you can choose from ‘no taxes’ or ‘same tax on all regions’ options.
Language settings: If your website is accessible globally, consider having different language settings. Having currency settings depending on geography is non-negotiable.
Track your orders: Make it simple to view orders, track different shipping stages, view past orders and payment information.
Different payment options: You can provide various payment options like debit card, credit card, mobile wallets, cash on delivery etc.
Automated emails: Send automated confirmation emails regarding the customer’s onboarding, purchase, shipping and delivery for good customer service.
Build Trust for your Customers
Accessibility: Provide a valid email address, phone number and address (if you have a physical store). It will be an added advantage if you have a template based contact form making it easier for customers to contact you.
Transparency: Make your ‘About Us’ page catchy yet honest. This is where you can strive to build a personal connect with people.
Customer reviews: Invite customer to review your website/ products to build reliability.
Clear doubts: Prepare answers for the most obvious questions in the form of FAQ sheets to reduce customer queries even before they occur.
https://www.myntra.com/faqs
Detailed shipping policies: Put up detailed information about your brand’s shipping policy and rules. This is especially important if you sell products globally.
24/7 assistance: Use chatbots and even social media to connect with customers 24/7 in case they require any assistance.
https://enakshi.com/
Marketing and Promotion
Social Media Marketing:Social media marketing is very important. Channels like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest are great ways to build awareness about your brand and even influence sales.
Seo Friendly: To make your website accessible and visible to all, make sure that it is SEO friendly. Keep a track of website traffic, optimise functions and analyse behaviour in order to drive better ROI.
Blog: Set up a blog page to supplement your content marketing efforts. If your blogs are of good quality, it will help with SEO and also bring quality traffic to your website.
https://enakshi.com/blogs
Run Ads on Google & Social Media: These advertisements are inexpensive and effective ways of promoting your website. You can promote products, offers, sales, showcase new merchandise and even increase traffic on your website through paid campaigns.
Launching a website is the beginning of a new inning, not the end. Follow the above checklist so that you don’t miss out on the small but important elements. For more tips and tricks, leave us a message in the comments section below.
Film marketing that earlier depended solely on positive word of mouth and the odd promotional event, has today evolved into much more. Promoting a film today is the same as promoting a brand- the only difference being the time involved. Today, social media plays a huge role in promoting and increasing awareness about a movie from the time the trailer comes out until it makes a couple of 100 crores.
“Twitter is one of the most popular social media platforms in India which many celebrities intensively use to connect with their fans.”
One such movie that leveraged the use of social media marketing was the Akshay Kumar, Radhika Apte, Sonam Kapoor starrer Padman, based on the life of Arunachalam Muruganantham, the inventor of a low cost sanitary pad making machine.
Padman had collected Rs. 78.25 crores after it’s release and received a lot of positive reviews. While the story is no doubt the hero, the movie marketing strategy by Akshay Kumar and his team also deserves an applause.
Here’s how team Padman created noise on social media that helped the film become a huge success –
1. The #PadmanChallenge
The #PadmanChallenge created an uproar on social media with Bollywood stars, TV actors and even common people taking part in it. Taking a cue from the ice bucket challenge, the idea was to nominate celebrities who would post a picture with a sanitary napkin on their social media accounts, and in turn nominate 3 more people to do the same.
Eminent celebrities from Aamir Khan, Shabana Azmi, Anil Kapoor, Alia Bhatt to Deepika Padukone, Anushka Sharma and Mahesh Bhatt took part in the challenge.
Not only Bollywood celebrities, even sports personalities like PV Sindhu, Geeta Phogat and Ravi Shastri took part in the challenge.
2. Tie-ups with other content platforms
Padman tied up with various digital channels to educate the general public and increase awareness about menstruation. It also touched upon the various problems faced by women in society.
ITC Vivel and Blush – the digital channel created a video #AbSamjhautaNahin – The Shopping List in collaboration with the Padman team. The video listed the alternatives that women who don’t have access to sanitary napkins use.
The video received 2.6 million views, 14K reactions and 4.9K shares on Facebook.
Miss Malini, known on social media for celebrity gossip, fashion and lifestyle tips teamed up with the actors of Padman for a video ‘If your period was a person’. It received 1.5 million views on YouTube. Facebook gathered 15K reactions, 1.4 million views and 2K shares.
Bollywood Life, another popular channel featured a video where Akshay Kumar busted 5 myths around periods.
Apart from that, Being Indian also did a social experiment named ‘Pad Man ki Nayi Soch’ that showcased the awkwardness of men on seeing a sanitary napkin. With 1.7 million views, 8.5K shares and 38K reactions on Facebook, it was indeed a hit among the audience.
Mumbai based poet Aranya Johar, who is now an Internet sensation, especially for her poems on feminism presented #BleedingRani, a poem related to menstruation in India with Akshay Kumar. It managed to capture the attention of the youth on such an important topic.
The video garnered 373K views, 7.2K reactions and 513 shares on Facebook.
A part of the promotions, Akshay Kumar announced the auction of the bicycle that he rode in the film on Twitter. The amount raised was to be given away to ‘Laadli’ – a girl child campaign by Population First that works for improved menstrual hygiene among women in various parts of the country.
5. Tinkle and Padman
The film Padman also collaborated with popular comic series Tinkle for a “Tinkle and Padman” issue. It featured three short stories where Padman rescues Suppandi in difficult times in quite innovative ways.
Suppandi has been a lovable comic character for more than 35 years, and collaborating with the comic was another feather in the hat for Padman where their marketing strategy was concerned.
A film may have the potential to work wonders at the box office, but the right promotional strategy is always makes a difference. Digital marketing has been a great help to promotional activities of mainstream cinema in recent time. It not only creates an environment where people can talk about the plot, but also helps to develop a more meaningful relationship between the film and audience.
Were you impressed by any other film’s promotional strategy? Tell us in the comment section below.
2018 marked a significant change in digital marketing. 226 million Indians are on social media and 26.47% use mobile phones to access the Internet. The Indian digital marketing industry is also slated to see a growth at 32% CAGR. As consumers today demand a more integrated experience, digital marketing has to evolve at a much faster pace. Let’s take a glance at the upcoming trends in the digital world!
1. Live videos are in demand
If 2017 was the year of videos, 2018 will prove to be the year of live videos. 80% of audience would rather watch a live video from a brand than read a blog. According to Google Trends, the search popularity of ‘Facebook Live Stream’ has increased 330% from the time of its inception till date. Instagram Live lets the user broadcast a video to followers in real-time. Advertisements displayed on a live video are also increasing with 113% year-on-year growth.
By 2020, not using chatbots may serve as a deal breaker for brands since 85% services that involve customer interactions are done by bots. Today, chatbots are personalised with a name and photo to encourage a personal connection with customers. Almost 27% customers are unable to distinguish whether their last conversation was with a customer service executive or a chatbot. In data-driven marketing, the open rate of chatbots has increased to 80% with an engaged audience. These rates are far superior than email-open rates. This particular trend has already begun to dominate the industry, and the financial savings for companies will fly up to approx. $8 billion in the next three years, if they opt for virtual assistance.
84% marketers choose to use influencer marketing at some point as the ROI is almost 11 times more than traditional marketing. 71% people make purchases based on social media referrals from their chosen influencers and 60% claim to be influenced by a blog or post review. The purchase intent of a shopper also increases 5.2 times when an influencer tweets about the brand. However, credibility of an influencer plays a crucial role here. The influencer’s credibility rubs off on the brand and vice versa. Hence it is very important for a brand to correctly identify influencers who will be able to drive business goals.
4. Focus on Video-marketing
Visual content is infinitely more impactful than written content. With a decrease in people’s attention span, marketers are focussing on creating more video content to increase SEO rankings, boost engagement and increase website traffic rates. Around 81% of businesses use more videos that written content and 97% say that videos have increased user-understanding of their products and services. 76% claim that videos have helped them increase sales and website traffic. Not just sales metrics, videos can influence other types of marketing exercises as well. For eg: using the word “video” in the subject of an email address increases the open-rate by 19%. Product videos, customer testimonial videos, explainer videos, event-recap videos are popular on social media. If video and text are both available on the same page, studies show that 72% people will use videos to learn about a product or service instead of reading the text.
In recent times, almost all popular social media platforms have started using the format of ‘stories’, pioneered by ‘Snapchat’. It will now be difficult for the ones who have still not accepted that format to ignore it. Instagram has already adopted this format and Youtube has also recently taken up the format calling it, ‘Reels’. The underlying concept remains the same with a change in the features and presentation on each of the individual platforms. WhatsApp and Facebook are rolling with it too.
To validate the reach and effectiveness of ads, marketers are trying to target exact audiences with the right message. Brands spend a minimum of 25% of their marketing budget on digital ads targeted towards a specific audience. According to a survey, most brands consider investing in display ads and digital videos because it helps them reach the right audience. In this case, what matters is the timing, placement and relevancy of the ad. 77% people say that they would like to filter ads instead of blocking them completely. Hence, is it important for brands to ensure that their ads are reaching an engaged and interested audience.
7. Voice Marketing
With the growing popularity of voice assistants like Siri, Cortana, Alexa etc, the number of voice searches have shot up. According to Google, 20% of all mobile queries on its platform are voice searches. 21% of mobile voice searches are done because consumers do not like typing on their mobile. It has now become more convenient for people to simply ‘talk’ to their virtual assistants and ask for the information they would previously type. Therefore, marketers need to concentrate on appearing on the top of voice searches and channel their efforts accordingly.
8. Data-driven customer journeys
Data-driven marketing is already popular but using this data to enhance customer journeys will be paramount in achieving digital success. Implementing data-driven marketing means analyzing and deriving meaning from data that is already available to businesses. It focuses on understanding where target consumers currently are in the sales funnel and helping them along the way. This helps the brand enhance the customer experience and emerge as more “customer-centric”.
In our opinion, by the end of 2018, marketing will become even more analytical and data driven. Old techniques, trends and strategies will need to be re-focused towards what will bring the business incremental results, and businesses that provide jaw-dropping experiences to their customers are bound to lead.
“If you have anything important to tell me, tell me tomorrow cause I won’t believe you today.”
This is exactly what everyone believes in on April 1st – April Fool’s Day. You may strategize and plan the best pranks to trick your friends, but you’re not the only one. Brands have taken up this day as a wonderful opportunity to connect with their audience. Moreover, social media is the best platform to showcase such creativity – pranks that look so real that its difficult to believe they’re unreal.
Here’s our take on some of the best April Fool’s Day pranks by top brands –
1. McDonald’s India
The iconic fast-food brand, whose burger and fries are a great hit among both children and adults posted a contest on April Fool’s Day. The interesting part was that the brand also gave a hint on how to win! The prize of the contest was ‘free supply of fries for a year’ with the hint – “You may want to look on the upper left corner” of the creative they posted.
The upper left corner of the image read ‘Check out on the right bottom corner’. From there the users were directed to ‘Find the code at the left bottom corner’ and ultimately to ‘Use code – Happy April Fool’s Day.’
The post featured on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. It fetched 2400 reactions on Facebook, 600+ comments and 100+ shares, 8000+ likes on Instagram.
2. NetFlix
The American entertainment company, Netflix announced on April 1 that they had acquired not a company, but a person – Seth Rogen.
The statement read that Netflix had acquired the “world-renowned Canadian, prolific marijuana-doer, and winner of the 2015 MTV Movie Award for ‘Best Kiss,’” Seth Rogen. They also published a fake video and press release on Twitter where Seth Rogen read out the terms and conditions of the contract – which stated that Rogen’s ‘full ownership of his personal autonomy’ would be transfered over to Netflix.
The post received 9.3K likes and 1.9K retweets on Twitter.
Netflix, India also pulled out a prank on Narcos fans by releasing a teaser of season 4 of the crime drama series, that would never come. The video received 11,000+ reactions on Facebook, 5000+ comments and 5200+ shares.
Keeping up with its popularity, Jio made a commercial #JioJuice, which tricked people into believing that they are launching a technology known as Jio Juice where smartphones can be charged wirelessly using a special sim card.
The video received 318K views on Facebook, with 12K reactions, 2000+ comments and 5400+ shares. On Twitter, it received 675 replies, 1100+ retweets and 2700+ likes. YouTube received 50K views and 1.8K likes in just 2 days.
Ola, the app cab provider dived into an intensive campaign by announcing that Ola was introducing ONN – Ola News Network where the cab drivers would provide people with information about the latest happenings.
Ola also posted news updates on their social media pages about a 10-hour long power cut in Niladri Vihar, the reasons for traffic snarls, whereabouts of ‘Superstar Bhai’ etc. All videos received 600+ views, 2.5K to 882K reactions and 100+ shares. This was indeed a great example of video marketing by the brand.
Xiaomi mobiles tried fooling their customers this April Fool’s day by announcing the launch of a new smartphone with not 1 or 2, but 6 cameras!
The prank post gathered 39K reactions, 3.8K comments and 8100+shares on Facebook. On Twitter, the post received 4400+ likes, 880+ retweets and 787 replies. Engagement was high with the audience weighing in on the prank and coming up with suggestions of their own!
Have we missed out on some great pranks by brands? Tell us in the comments section below – we’d love to hear from you!
About 650 million people in India use mobile phones out of which 300-400 million own a smartphone. This means that they access the Internet through a mobile device. Almost 3 out of 4 Indians are planning to upgrade their phones this year, which means that India will have the second largest number of smartphone users in the world (approx 530 million) after China. This increased use of smartphones indicates larger interaction opportunities of a brand with customers which is why a mobile strategy is absolutely imperative for all brands.
Deciding whether to invest in a mobile app or stick to a mobile website is an important factor in the future success of a brand. In this blog, we highlight key differences between the two that can help you make the right decision.
What is a Mobile Application?
A mobile application is a small individual software with limited functions designed to run on a mobile device such as a smartphone or a Tablet. Apps like Google Play Store, Apple’s App Store are pre-installed app stores on individual mobile devices. Various mobile applications that are downloaded from such portals and installed on a mobile device are not rendered within a browser.
What is a Mobile Website?
A mobile website is a condensed version of a full desktop site. It consists of browser based html pages and has to be accessed through internet connection. It is actually designed for smaller display features as in smartphones and tablets and touch screen interface.
How are Mobile Apps and Mobile Websites different?
Means of Access:
A mobile website has to be accessed through an internet browser by typing the URL address in the search navigation bar. It does not need to be downloaded. To gain access, only internet connection is required.
A mobile app has to be downloaded from an online portal or store such as Google Play Store or Apple’s App Store and then installed in the smartphone or tablet for further use. In majority of cases, it does not need an internet connection.
Upgrading Setup:
Since a mobile website update is an online process and takes place automatically, the user is not usually aware about it.
The users of a mobile app have to authorize and install an update which might increase frustration for users and somewhat reduce the flexibility for the companies.
According to Purpose:
A mobile website is usually targeted with the purpose of informing a large audience, for a longer time window or for specific events and promotions.
A mobile app can be used frequently and repeatedly because it can be downloaded and stored in a mobile device. It is subject to specific needs and user loyalty.
Availability:
Mobile websites can be accessed immediately via a browser through the internet across different sets of mobile devices.
Mobile apps on the other hand have to be downloaded and installed, before the content or the application can be viewed.
Pages of mobile websites are displayed in search results and listed in industry specific search directories making it easier for users to search for it. Using device detection, users of a regular website can be sent directly to a mobile website on a hand held device.
Visibility of mobile apps are restricted to app stores and cannot be located easily without prior knowledge about the app.
Reach:
Mobile websites can be easily shared among users or a broader audience by sharing the URL address of that particular website through emails, social media platforms, or text messages.
Mobile apps, on the other hand cannot be shared easily since it has to be downloaded and installed from an app store based on device compatibility.
Since mobile websites cannot be downloaded, hence they cannot be deleted as well. They are available for users regularly for repeated usage.
According to research, the average shelf life of a mobile app is 30 days. Therefore the app has to be very important, useful and unique for the user to continue keeping and using the app.
Maintenance:
Maintaining a mobile website is not much of a hassle and is cost effective because it does not have to be developed for multiple platforms. Only a single version has to be maintained. Also, there is no requirement for app store compliance and application.
The investment made for development of a mobile app does not end with the launch of the app. Proper maintenance and support regarding upgrades, testing, device compatibility and ongoing developments are quite expensive and time consuming. App store application and compliance regulations also need to be dealt with each time an update is required.
In conclusion, both mobile applications and mobile websites are popular and have their own pros and cons. Many apps and websites have similar features and options, however the customer experience definitely differs. The appropriate choice about whether you should choose an app or mobile website depends on the end goals of the brand. If you want to know more about which is a better option for your brand for mobile marketing, leave us a message and we’ll get back to you.
