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Tag: Marketing Strategy

  • 4 Digital Marketing Predictions That Could Shape the Post-COVID Economic Recovery

    4 Digital Marketing Predictions That Could Shape the Post-COVID Economic Recovery

    The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the entire world. Apart from our day-to-day lives, it has also significantly impacted global businesses and the economy.

    Major events that affect millions across the world, and for a duration as long as this current pandemic, have the power to transform lives in many different ways. The transformation often is a permanent one that could change consumer habits and behaviors for good.

    While the pandemic is still a significant threat to health, businesses, and jobs, digital marketing is all set to play a crucial role in the post-pandemic recovery. It is by adopting digital marketing and adjusting the existing strategies that businesses could better meet the new consumer expectations and accelerate their economic recovery.

    Here are four digital marketing predictions that could shape the post-COVID business recovery-

    1. Digital Marketing is Now a Must for Businesses

    According to an Ofcom UK report, people are spending a record amount of time online in the UK. Similar trends can be seen across the world. With the pandemic limiting our physical movements, the internet quickly became our source for entertainment, shopping, communication, and accessing the latest news.

    If you are not marketing online, your business is definitely missing out on a lot of potential customers. Post-pandemic recovery can be accelerated if businesses rethink their business models and aim for a marketing strategy that revolves around the digital landscape.

    2. Need for Seamless Online-Offline Shopping Experience

    While e-commerce platforms are witnessing record sales due to the pandemic, things might not remain the same in the future. The physical shopping experience is still essential for the consumers, and this might stand true in the future too. To prepare for post-pandemic recovery, retailers need to consider a shopping experience that combines the online and offline experience.

    The BOPIS (Buy Online, Pickup In-Store) practice is an excellent example of how retailers can offer a seamless online-offline experience. Contactless payment options and self-checkout are some other services that consumers can expect from physical stores in the future.

    3. The Growing Role of Social Media

    According to a study by DataReportal, social media usage witnessed a surge of 10.5% in July 2020 compared to the same month in 2019. The stringent lockdowns in many parts of the world turned social platforms, like Facebook and Instagram, the go-to mode of communicating with friends and family.

    The post-pandemic world will present a unique opportunity for businesses to use social media marketing and build meaningful connections with consumers. But amid the fear and anxiety, consumers don’t want to engage with brands that are only focused on selling. Listen to your consumers and provide all the help and assistance you can to turn them into loyal brand advocates.

    4. Making Digital Strategies Work with Reduced Budgets

    Reduced marketing budgets will only get more common in the next few months as businesses focus on recovery. In such a scenario, the marketers must ensure that every dollar they spend provides them with something valuable. Targeting the most valuable customers who are likely to convert can be an excellent strategy to implement when marketing budgets are running low.

    Deep learning tools can be used for analyzing first-party and third-party data and identify such customers. Their potential conversion rate can also be calculated so that you can only spend your marketing budget on customers with maximum conversion potential.

    Preparing for the Post-Pandemic World

    The current pandemic is an event that none of us has ever witnessed in the past. Something this novel can transform the consumers in unique ways. This also means that conventional marketing strategies might not deliver the results you expect.

    Businesses need to become more agile to keep up with the changing consumer habits and behavior if they want to accelerate their economic recovery and stay relevant in the post-COVID world. Tips like the ones discussed above can provide you with a head start, enabling you to make the best of this unique opportunity.

  • Digital Marketing Strategy during COVID19: What Should Brands Do?

    Digital Marketing Strategy during COVID19: What Should Brands Do?

    COVID-19 has completely redefined crisis with unprecedented effects on almost every industry. Businesses are no exceptions. As corporations have started facing the fact that the effects may be long-term, marketers are gearing up to invent new strategies to keep up with the sudden influx of new platforms and competition or lack of it in some cases.

    From erratic changes in buying behaviour to decrease in consumer spending in most industries, marketers have to grapple with unique challenges.

    Thus, marketers need to focus on building trust with their customers and rework their marketing strategy as per re-defined KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) based on new goals. Some strategies and ideas are listed below for marketers to strengthen their further approach.

    Change your Business Goals

    Brands, all over the globe, are having a hard time coping with the overnight shift in the market dynamics. Reviewing the basic and advanced goals of the company and adjusting them accordingly to make them more meaningful and valid might function as the company’s road to recovery. Keep in mind to reflect the changes in the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) you use to measure the performance of your digital strategy effectively.

    Communicate Responsibly To Your Audience

    While the negative effects of the pandemic are far too many to count, it is also true that the online viewing time has increased dramatically. The increased screen time also opens up a lot of opportunities for marketers to communicate effectively during these times.

    Although it is important to communicate with your audience, being sensitive is the key. When many brands are chiming in seeking an opportunity, most of them are doing it wrong. For instance, outbound messages need to be segmented as per the buyer’s journey. Make sure the communication is relevant and valuable.

    Consider the Shift in Buying Needs and Behaviors

    Brands need to consider the shift that has impacted its target audience. The buyer personas have transformed due to the pandemic situation and its after-effects. Preferences, priorities, interests, budgets, and mental well-being have shifted. Social distancing, lack of social interaction, and remote working conditions have impacted consumer choices and drifted them towards essentials. Hence, investing time to study and analyze the buyer personas and their buying behaviour becomes an important aspect of the new pandemic-friendly marketing strategy.

    Focus on Creating E-commerce Strategy

    While e-commerce has been rising steadily since the last decade, the pandemic has surely given it an added boost. Thus, it is essential to create an effective e-commerce strategy that complements a good email marketing, content marketing and video marketing strategy to create a rich consumer experience. From photos, instructional videos, to case studies, and Google Ads, marketers will need to use both paid and organic media to attract the attention of consumers to its products and services.

    Creating a Long-term Strategy

    The pandemic will not last forever, but the effects may. However, brands need to create an effective long-term strategy rather than focusing on short-term effects. Keeping the brand identity intact while adjusting it to meet the renewed KPIs is going to be a key challenge for all the marketers.

    While there are a lot of data and insights that show how the dynamics are changing, no one knows for sure what would be the post-pandemic scenario. Thus, brands need to redefine their digital marketing strategy while keeping their end goals and brand ethos in mind.

  • 7 Ways Businesses Can Leverage SEO & Marketing to Thrive under the Coronavirus Pandemic

    7 Ways Businesses Can Leverage SEO & Marketing to Thrive under the Coronavirus Pandemic

    The world may be on lockdown to contain the Coronavirus pandemic, however, the resilient world of digital marketing is rising to the occasion and working out ways to not only survive but also thrive during this confusion. The pandemic has given us all the time and opportunity to pause and look at things with a fresh perspective.

    Not one to be deterred, the SEO and marketing field has come together to identify ways in which businesses can use this time of work-from-home policies and social distancing to enhance their existing campaigns and identify weaknesses and gaps in content.

    Here are 7 illuminating ideas from Search Engine Journal on leveraging SEO & marketing strategies to help your business come out stronger at the end of the pandemic:

    1. Mini content audit

    When was the last time you checked your inventory of published content? If you’re like most other teams that get caught up with the everyday dynamic challenges of developing strategies, then we can safely presume that you haven’t taken a look at your webpages, videos, infographics, emails, blog posts, whitepapers or any other possible content you developed to market a business. The mini content audit will allow you to identify any duplicate content; remove unnatural links; find content which can be reused and repurposed; update content, links, CTAs; and much more. Who knows, it may even give you some crucial insights into your marketing strategies and smoothen your operations for the future?

    2. Conduct webinars

    If the lockdown has made you keep your impeccable suits in the closet, you can get put one on again and look professional for an enlightening webinar. With everyone’s online presence growing due to the quarantine, business owners or even digital media strategists, can reach out to their customer base and talk about their new products, services, or even reassure their clients of their commitment through this pandemic. Essentially, a webinar will allow the business to stay “visible” and reassure the stakeholders during these uncertain times.

    Webinars can act as your outreach strategy, too. You can choose to rise to the occasion and take charge- disseminate reliable information about how the pandemic affects your industry, how the industry is coping, or even share tips and tricks on how to cope with the situation. You can include links to your website with each webinar.

    3. Read & research

    Whether it is catching up on the latest trends in SEO marketing, or doing a thorough SEO clean-up, digital marketers can play catch-up on a lot of things which will eventually benefit the businesses. Research into webinar and maybe even podcast ideas can come through during this brainstorming period.

    4. Explore different sections on SERPs

    Some businesses often don’t go beyond simply having a presence on a Search Engine Result Page
    (SERP). Whether it is organic or paid search, there are many types of sections on SERP that you can explore and create strategies around during this time of introspection. There are innovative avenues such as featured snippets, position zero, video carousels, Google shopping results, Twitter, and once you plan it, even a knowledge graph. While you’re under quarantine, dedicate the time you save on
    commuting by developing the business/brand’s Wikipedia page, get it verified on social media, thus
    increasing the brand’s chances of appearing on various avenues of a Search Engine Result Page.

    5. Record videos

    The SEO space works great with videos, too. Use this quarantine time to create videos that target long-tail keywords and stand a chance of appearing on YouTube search listings. Embed the video along with a transcript on a blog post, make quote-worthy statements, and use video snippets from the video and use on social media.

    Here’s an example- a fashion brand can do a video on ‘summer fashion trends under quarantine’. Do a video using keywords; transcribe it accurately, make a blog post around the topic and include the video, images, and transcript. This will improve your SEO rankings and keep you relevant.

    6. Dig deeper into first-party data

    Even with Chrome’s new policy which dissuades third-party cookies, you still have a lot of first-party data to analyse. Grab a cup of coffee and take a plunge into analysing data that you may not have considered before. You will gather insights into leads that didn’t pan out, leads that did, and much more when you don’t have ten people insisting that you review only a particular trend or data set.

    7. Go online

    If you own a brick-and-mortar, look up ways to get it online and continue catering to your consumers. Being online could also mean offering doorstep delivery services (assuming it’s legally allowed in your city). Update your Google Business Profile to let your consumers know the special operating hours, safety and hygiene practices that you adopt, and your offers.

    At this crucial juncture where you can either react to the pandemic or respond to it, ensure that you base your business digital marketing strategy on wisdom and a long-term vision to come out stronger, and perhaps, even ahead of the curve.

  • Is Technology More Important than Your Marketing Strategy?

    Is Technology More Important than Your Marketing Strategy?

    One of the biggest problems with businesses today is that they are more focused on technology and trends that they lose sight of the core objectives. It makes no sense to apply the latest technology and trends, just for the sake of using it, especially when it does not align to the underlying core strategies.

    An excellent example to illustrate this point is the inability of VR technology to catch up. A few years back, a large number of businesses adopted VR in their marketing techniques, as it was the “in” technology at that time. However, this didn’t provide ROI or help businesses meet their marketing objectives, especially when the VR technology was not aligned with the products or services.

    Marketers have to first and foremost develop their strategy and then choose technologies and tools that align with their objectives, and not the other way around.

    First, let’s clear up the air,

    Marketing Strategies Vs. Marketing Tactics – What’s the Difference?

    There’s enormous confusion – among entrepreneurs, startups and corporates about marketing strategies and tactics.

    Most items associated with marketing like – social media, PPC campaigns, SEO, email, websites – are the details or tactics in marketing speak. These are tools that help companies reach their marketing goals. But, they are NOT the underlying marketing strategy.

    Marketing strategy is the destination, while marketing tactics are the tools.

    A business cannot rely only on tools to achieve their goals. All businesses have to start by defining their destination, and then decide on the right tools to reach the destination.

    Businesses often make the mistake of focusing on tactics without investing in the right strategy. Marketers need to outline their organizational goals and then detail the steps to reach these goals by using the right tools and tactics.

    Marketing Strategy – The Cornerstone for Marketing Success

    Long gone are the days, when marketing success was a static measure. Today, to achieve marketing success, businesses have to focus on improving customer experiences (CX). All companies – big and small – have to focus on each aspect of customer engagement to ensure that their marketing tactics are successful.

    Marketing requires a strategic approach. Businesses have to focus on what they want to achieve and not how. That comes later.

    Marketing Strategies is NOT a One-Time Process: It’s Continually Evolving

    Marketers have to remember that marketing strategy is not a one-time process. It’s a fluid undertaking. The strategy has to be revised and evolved to keep up with the changing needs of the customer.

    Businesses have to start by asking the question – who is our customer, and what do they do? Start by mapping customer journeys based on their profiles. Businesses have to work on finding more about their customers – what they eat, where they shop, the stores they visit (physically and digitally), the apps they use, the interactions they have with competitors. All this information helps in building a solid marketing strategy.

    Apart from marketing strategy, businesses also have to focus on marketing operations – the procedure of targeting and retargeting potential customers. Marketing ops is an essential part of all marketing plans and helps to boost the effectiveness of the marketing strategy.

    The Bottom Line – Marketing Strategy and Ops are the First Steps of all Marketing Campaigns

    Figuring out the tools and technology before strategy and operations is a futile exercise and don’t give the best marketing results. Marketing strategy and operations are the foundations of any marketing team, on which the rest of the marketing mission is built on.

  • E commerce sites

    Search Engine Marketing involves changes to be done in the right way at the right time. Here, a good seo needs to have the ability and the vision to read the minds of the buyer with clarity and distinctness. With may be experience and practice a seo, can clearly predict what the buyers are looking out for and at the same time show what they exactly wish to buy for on the computer screen.

    All changes though seemingly minor are extremely vital in pushing forth the targeted keywords to highly successful bided words and thus a highly successful marketing campaign. Generating reports on the basis of old keywords, new keywords, geographic location wise and any other change in trend irrespective of the degree of significance is of utmost importance…. these help in understanding the market and the forces which affect its behavior, which in turn go a long way in influencing the social media marketing strategy

    With regards to ecommerce sites product description when displayed with product images works best and proves to be a good decision making tool. This effort not only leads to display of vital product information but enables the viewer to quickly compare two similar products.

    Another critical point to make note of here is the display of items on the page should be crystal, clear and in uniform manner. Use of clear cut shapes and designs and use of few colors go a long way in enhancing the look of the product page.

    Similarly the flow or the navigation of the website should be the user friendly to the highest degree. The user should in no way feel blocked or have reached a dead end while browsing for a product.

    The final process of the viewer involves in purchasing a product online. The steps involved in him registering his/her choice and providing the essential personal details should be minimal and quick. At no point should he feel disinterested and bored, making him leave the payment procedure halfway.

    E commerce sites are very much going to rule the market scene. For any marketing campaign on the Internet, what is crucial is an accurate understanding consumer behavior, a high degree of navigation within the website and constant reviewing of changing consumer behavior.

  • Internet Marketing

    Internet Marketing

     

    Business new ones and old ones are adopting new business strategies in order to expand their market base and also earn more profits…. Internet marketing is the new and latest business strategy which is widening its roots all over the world.

    Internet marketing has redefined the boundaries of marketing a particular product or service and made the entire globe a potential client or customer. Surprisingly, this market never sleeps or never shuts down but is always open 24×7 and 365 days of the year.

    A lot goes into Internet marketing, in fact the entire product and its marketing strategy is designed to meet the requirements of an Internet campaign, in fact, your corporate identity rests on this, you could say. The sales goal, business model and its entire operation and functioning of a company is structured to comply with the Internet Marketing strategy.

    Within the Internet Marketing model, your product could be phased out in a step by step manner by including search engine optimization, search engine marketing, email marketing, lead generation, banner advertisements and so on.

    The best part of any internet marketing campaign is that each move and each hit is monitored closely and you stand to earn money depending upon the clicks, pay, action and impression too whichever is the option chosen by you.

    Similarly you can get accurate knowledge regarding the area or the geographic location from where the maximum hits have been recorded can be known which comes very handy in modifying the internet marketing campaign in time so as the maximize your returns.

    Apart from e-commerce sites which are doing quite well at present in selling good online, you could also opt for affiliate marketing, lead generation and other online marketing tools which are pretty for your successful internet marketing.

    Internet Marketing has changed working patterns of many companies and sectors. Be it banking, tourism, hospitality, pharmaceuticals, music and even entertainment – the entire scene in each one of this has undergone a sea of change. Now the companies can provide the companies with enhanced customer support and after service care making after sales care even more effective and worthwhile.

  • SEO Vs PPC The Preferred Marketing Strategy

    With the Search Engine it is also important to decide the preferred marketing strategy – Search Engine Optimization or Pay per Click.

    These are two different marketing strategies working on different aspects of a website. Before setting on the preferred method it is important to know the underlying facts about each.

    PPC familiarizes the user to your web site. If liked the user is then glued to your site. The more the user the better the Search Engines will like your site. This is one of the prime reasons of alluring huge visitors to your site. Search Engine Optimization gets more targeted traffic to your web site through the search engine thus; a lot of marketers would prefer SEO to PPC.

    PPC is text-based advertising on a Search Engine whereas SEO has a lot to do with page rank and link popularity. In PPC will have to bid money in order to be listed first but SEO will require content, design and links to make the site linked.

    Though it is difficult to manipulate, studies show that PPC brings stability and predictability to some extend whereas SEO involves a lot of tedious task. On the other hand SEO can be done free and you have to pay for PPC.

    Needless to say, people should constantly look for new and unique ways to bring traffic to their web sites eventually culminates into business gains.