“Business has only two functions – marketing and innovation.” — Milan Kundera (Czech novelist, playwright and poet)
Online marketing includes any form of advertising that is conducted using the internet. This kind of marketing can be performed organically or can be paid for. It requires a number of effective strategies to get into the right direction.
Following are 6 aspects that comprise online marketing:
1. Search Engine Optimisation:
SEO is an organic method to boost the visibility of a brand on search engines like Google and remain on top of search results. Due to this reason, 61% marketers recommend improving SEO as a top priority for brands. Communicating the right information to search engines is very important to rank high on search results. SEO is also focuses on creating user friendly websites that are appealing to the audience and can drive engagement.
It is the fastest way to rank a brand’s website on the top of search results and drive traffic from targeted audience on an everyday basis. It involves a number of activities to promote a brand’s website and increase its visibility in the search results. It uses a paid advertising platform such as Google Adwords to target searched keywords. Marketers pay Google to run their ads to drive traffic to a brand’s website and generate sales.
3. Content marketing:
72% marketers believe that relevant content creation is effective for SEO. The objective of content marketing is to attract visitors and convert them into customers and the customers into repeat buyers. Content can be marketed in various other ways like webinars, infographics, social media or videos. If executed correctly, it can act as a growth driver for a business.
4. Affiliate Marketing:
Affiliates market products for other brands either directly through their own website or through email marketing. It involves the selling of products or services through partner sites like “Publishers”. The advantage that affiliate marketing has over other forms of online marketing is that, it involves low risk and it is a pay for performance type of marketing. It is helpful for brands with a small budget who are unable to bear huge marketing costs. It is generally used to drive incremental sales for a brand.
5. Email Marketing:
Email marketing is useful for a brand having a large number of subscribers. Here, a brand has to balance automation with a personal touch. Email- marketing is a cost effective measure that is easy to execute. The effectiveness of an email-campaign can also be measured through analytics. It helps to create an active and powerful follower base. E-commerce shoppers who receive multiple shopping cart emails are 2.4 times more likely to make a purchase than those who receive only one follow-up email.
6. Social Media Marketing:
Social media marketing uses a single or multiple social media platforms to engage with customers, build relationships and promote products or services. The main aim of social media marketing is to increase exposure and broaden customer reach. One-third of the world uses social media platforms regularly. 92% marketers focus more on building the follower count since this type of marketing is free and unrestricted.
The ultimate aim of online marketing is to create awareness about a product or service, boost visibility on search engines whether by ranking or advertising, drive engagement, build customer relationships, increase the number of followers, increase sales and generate ROI. For more information on how you can leverage online marketing to your advantage, leave us a message and we’ll get back to you.
“Video is the way we hang out with friends, the way we pass the time, but the way we watch it is changing. Teens might be watching less TV, but they’re watching more creators online.” – Kevin Systrom, Chief Executive at Instagram.
The second most popular social media platform on mobile, Instagram has recently launched Instagram TV (IGTV) – a new app for watching long-format videos. IGTV has been launched “keeping in mind the younger generation of content consumers who are spending a considerable time on mobile devices watching videos.”
Source: tomsguide.com
IGTV allows liking, commenting, sharing videos via direct messaging and providing suggestions. Here, the channels are actually individual account holders – and accounts can be created free of cost.
Here are thetop features that IGTV has in store–
You can put up a video as long as 60 minutes, and it can be played in full length, vertical mode for comfortable viewing.
The videos can be shared directly via DM (Direct Message) option with your followers.
IGTV can also be accessed from the main Instagram app, even if you don’t have the IGTV app.
The application has a simple user interface. There is no need to search for videos of your followers, it starts playing them automatically. Apart from that, the app also shows videos based on likes and interests.
Unlike Instagram stories, the videos do not disappear after 24 hours. These videos can be viewed till the time they are not manually deleted by the channel.
Viewers can subscribe to your channel so that they do not miss any single update. All new updates are notified with a Call Out button on their Instagram account.
While this new innovation has excited all social media lovers, this is no doubt an excellent opportunity for brands and marketers to connect with the audience in a more creative way.
Here are top 3 reasons how you can use IGTV for your business –
1. Reach out to more people
What’s new will attract people like bees to honey. IGTV, at present is a brand new concept and it’s a brand new opportunity for businesses to project themselves in front of a new audience as well as existing followers. With 1 billion people on Instagram, this feature can also bring back dormant users on the platform to check what you have to offer.
IGTV comes with a “Following ” tab where your followers can access latest content easily. Once they subscribe to your channel, they will receive alerts whenever something new is posted – thus encouraging engagement as well as discoverability.
Source: gsmarena.com
2. Display your creativity
Think of it this way – now you’ll have not 60 seconds but 60 minutes to inform your followers about your business. IGTV can be the perfect digital canvas where you can showcase your creativity and get people talking about your brand. For example, if you’re conducting a fashion show, the whole event – starting from behind-the-scenes makeup to the final walk on the runway can be shared with your online followers.
Apart from this, IGTV is also a great option if you are using influencers to promote your brand. For instance, beauty tips and tricks work well on Instagram. IGTV can be used for a complete makeup tutorial or DIY beauty hacks.
Source: delmondo.co
Tip: Put up a teaser for your IGTV content on Instagram story to spark interest among your followers and drive more audience.
3. Make purchasing easier
Normal Instagram posts do not allow posting a link along with the video, but on IGTV you can add a link along with the video description. Use the channel to introduce products in a friendlier way, let users browse through diverse categories and shop on the way.
It is a good idea to always include a CTA button on every IGTV video for users to learn more about a certain product, visit the website or make a purchase.
IGTV may or may not be ideal for your business, but it is definitely worth a try if you are using other channels for sharing content like Facebook, Twitter or YouTube. To know more about it can help you promote your business, leave us a message and we’ll get back to you!
According to a recent study, almost 90% of content used to promote brands are visual. Our brain processes images 60 times faster than words and since visual content drives more engagement than other forms of content, it makesInstagram more popular than other social media platforms.
Visual storytelling has become even easier with Instagram due to the optionof “multiple-image post”, also known as Instagram carousel. Brands use this feature to drive engagement, refine storytelling, enhance the beauty of news feed and also optimize placement of ads.
Following are 5 creative ideas to use Instagram carousel:
1. Share step by step tutorials:
Create quality content based on a course of events with each image showing detailed steps in a long process. For example,a brand that prides itself on its unique manufacturing can showcase the entire process using the carousel format. Food businesses can showcase easy recipes and skincare brands can show what ingredients go into their product etc.
Instagram carousel makes for a great event showcase because you can upload up to 10 images at once. It helps to commemorate special moments and bring together otherwise dispersed photos and information.
3. Showcase products:
68% of Instagram’s audience follows a brand’s profile and that makes it a great platform for brands to showcase their products. The carousel creates a scrollable catalog in a single post. Themed arrangements can be followed to display products.
4. Showcase Different Offers:
At present, only one caption per post can be added, even in a multiple-image post. However, you can add text to each image to highlight the same or even different offers. This way, brands can showcase a line of products and all their advantages. The Shop Now, Learn More or Install Now CTA button at the bottom also helps to drive interactions.
5. Integrate more videos:
The amount of time users spend watching videos has increased by 80% in 2017. This shows that audiences engage more in audio-visual content than in static photos.Through Instagram carousel a brand may post upto 10 interesting videos on a single post making a total of 10 minutes of video content.
Instagram is a versatile tool for brands to market themselves. Here, images bring ROI for a brand. Carousels can be used to add depth to the Instagram news feed, increase engagement, drive sales and make it easier to share content without overwhelming the audiences’ news feed!
To know more about how you can use Instagram carousel for your business, leave us a message and we will get back to you.
“Smart work pays best. Trust it.” – Conor McGregor
Knowing how to work smart while getting the same results is what really matters. Rather than spending hours on tasks which could be automated, focus on minimising effort. Everyone can benefit from using apps or extensions available on Google Chrome.
Whether you are a blogger, SEO expert, a web developer or even have nothing to do with digital marketing, there are tools which you can use to increase productivity and improve time management. These tools, or extensions have specific applications depending on your requirement.
Why Google Chrome?
Chrome is a browser that is easily compatible with most extensions and add-ons. Due to its smooth operability and universal nature, most developers upload their programs on Chrome. Hence, a simple yet effective browser like Chrome is the most appropriate platform for beta versions of applications and extensions.
Below is a list of tools that serve to satisfy all needs.
1. Hashtest
A hashtag while not imperative, is very useful to segregate content and make discovery easier. Coming up with a strong hashtag is vital for instant attention to your posts. Simple and effective hashtags can easily gain momentum and may end up on trending lists.
This simple extension lets you input any phrase in the form of a hashtag and the four legends ranging from best to useless will be used to tag your input.
2) Boomerang
When you’re dealing with hundreds of emails on a daily basis, managing them can become a pain. You can use Boomerang to help you manage your inbox better. You can schedule mails to go out at a particular hour of the day and even temporarily archive an unread message which is automatically brought back for you to read later.
3) Grammarly
Grammarly is quite a popular extension with content writers. Not just long-format, you can even check emails for incorrect grammar. It also helps in tweaking content and singling out any syntax errors.
Not only does it fix mechanical errors but also recommends qualitative improvements to a word or sentence. It helps you set the overall tone of what you write.
4) GIPHY
Giphy helps you express yourself in a more animated manner. It has a vast repository of GIF files which are either created on-site or are uploaded by contributors. Giphy has gained a lot of popularity because of its availability of content appropriate to multiple situations.
The next tool may be tough to get used to but it is one that we all need in this age of distractions.
5) StayFocusd
StayFocusd blocks all unnecessary websites for you to focus only on work. It provides a high level of customization and you can set the number of times a particular website can be viewed. You can also set the amount of time you want to spend on each website. If you surpass the limit, the particular web page will not be accessible for the rest of the day.
6) LastPass
If you make a list of all the important websites or social media channels you are a part of, you would notice the huge number of credentials generated. These credentials are vital and often time-consuming to alter. This is where LastPass comes in. Using its extension, you can create one master password which is then used to access all passwords across channels.
7) Night Mode Pro
Hours and hours of reading on a screen is bound to hurt your eyes in the long run. This is especially true for those who work constantly in front of a screen. Night Mode is an extension that inverts the colours on a website in such a way that it becomes gentler on the eye. It also darkens parts of the screen which are extremely bright. This makes reading on a screen easy and comfortable.
8) Buffer
This one is really helpful if your job is to manage social media content, multiple clients and multiple channels. Using Buffer, you can schedule posts across multiple channels and even specify the exact time upto a minute.
9) What Font
Another great extension for digital marketers and especially designers is What Font. This extension helps you identify particular font styles without opening different software. ‘What Font’ will allow you to identify fonts from the web-page itself.
10) iMacros for Chrome
If your job entails working on a webpage, you could use this extension to easily review past steps and make any changes that would otherwise be overlooked. The problem that comes up is in the form of syntax errors through lines of code. You can even record a particular step which needs to be repeated throughout. For example, if there is a line of code which comes up multiple times, you could simply add a preset and automate it.
The above list is by no means an exhaustive one and we would love to hear your recommendations in the comment section below!
