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Digital Technology

The Publishing Industry Landscape in the Digital Age

Needless to say, books are the backbone of human history and knowledge. In fact, the first-ever text written dates back to 3500 BC! And here we are in the world of eBooks and documents, or are we?

Recent studies show that eBook sales have flattened and printed book sales have only boosted with the rise of the digital era. With physical books outselling eBooks, there’s been a 2.1% rise in the printed book industry valuation over a year from 2017 to 2018. 

What does this trend tell us? Are the advancements in the tech world still lacking, or is it a mysterious driving force pushing our generation into this publishing renaissance? Analysts believe that among many other factors, this trend is being driven by the absolute pleasure a reader gets by having a new book in their collection.

With the advancements in the publishing sector and budding artists, readers are attracted to these beautiful-looking books that are just much more than written texts or stories. They’re buying an off-screen, immersive experience.

“The book lover loves to have a record of what they’ve read, and it’s about signaling to the rest of the world. It’s about decorating your home, it’s about collecting, I guess, because people are completists aren’t they, they want to have that to indicate about themselves” says Meryl Halls, managing director of UK’s Bookseller’s association.

Let’s dive deeper into this interesting world of digital publishing. We’ll be breaking this down into five simple parts:

  1. Digitizing Publications
  2. Diversifying Marketing 
  3. Busting the rivalry myth
  4. Role of Amazon
  5. Author’s blueprint to Marketing 

Digitizing Publications

While the eBooks market doesn’t seem to cannibalize printed books, digital publishing seems to take different turns over the years. Chris Lavergne, the CEO of youth culture magazine, documented that even when he had more eBook units sold, the printed copies generated over 7 times more revenue. 

This simply tells that the market for printed books is diverse and generates more revenue. When writers like J.K. Rowling say that they still love to write by hand, it’s quite obvious that readers still love reading from matt papers with a distinctive scent.

Nowadays with the availability of features like Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), budding authors can publish their own books independently. But with the rise of this eBook revolution, rises bigger problems.

With the sheer amount of books constantly being published, the readers will have a blitz of content at their disposal, and eventually, the value of eBooks will decline. A testimonial to this is the 4.5% decline in eBook sales in the first quarter of 2019.

Diversifying Marketing

While 2012 marked the start of a constant decline in the sales of the Amazon Kindle tablet, there’s a new format of books that the population seems to enjoy, and the sales for which only seem to skyrocket.

With the upcoming audiobook platforms like audible, people are having the liberty to multitask while they relish their prose of choice. This draws a new scape of possibilities to the upcoming era of digital publishing.

Diversifying your marketing strategies and using a mix of all the present-day technology can help you reach your target audience. The period we are living in, has seen an upsurge in e-marketing tactics and makes it way easier to advertise, market, and distribute your content.

The most evident & successful example of hybrid marketing is the journey of Penguin Random House. Penguin has been the household name to readers for generations starting all the way back in the 1930s. The brand has shown constant growth with time.

With the emergence of the audiobook culture, penguin launched their own podcast and earned a listening time of 13 million minutes. Swiftly ranking in the top 30s charts of UK podcasts. Similar strategies of hybrid marketing have been implemented by independent sellers by teaming up with distributors and vendors.

Busting the Rivalry myth

After considering the distinction between the digital age of publications and the traditional market for printed books, is it really worth considering this as a rivalry? According to many experts, digital books just serve as an extension of the publishing industry.

If the example of Penguin Random House isn’t enough to convince you that all the channels are serving the same audience, then this statement by the CEO of McGraw-Hill might surprise you. He stated, “maintaining both print infrastructure and digital infrastructure means lower margins, or say a larger readership.”

Digital publishing has its own cons too, it makes it easier for people to get pirated and even free copies of books, but the worst part is they get circulated and affects the sales of eBooks massively. If this issue is somehow taken into account and solved, we could see a new scape of users.

Role of Amazon

Amazon first started as an online book store and later turned into an e-Commerce giant. Something that hasn’t changed over the decades is the love-hate relationship between publishers and Amazon.

It’s a wonderful place to establish your own online store and start selling, but with a big audience comes bigger competition, the sheer amount of sellers present on the platform makes it exceptionally difficult to compete with the bigger sellers that might overshadow your small store.

Author’s blueprint to Marketing 

For individual authors to grow and build an audience for themselves, they need to be prudent marketers. An alternative to this could be having a former audience on social media platforms. Humble the poet and Ravinder Singh are great examples of this.

Utilizing the audience an author has on social media is a great way to headstart your career as an author but it should be known that the process can be tedious if you aren’t familiar with the needs and likings of your target audience.

Almost every city has its homegrown publishing house, it is getting easier to automate and personalize the experience an author is willing to publish and distribute. Hybrid marketing opens up new pathways for reaching your desired audience.

With a unique approach and talent, you can always have hopes of putting out your words into this widespread passion of reading and collecting books. As evident as it is, Books will never go out of trend- they are a culture to relish and preserve. And if you are willing, you are welcome.

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SEO

Creating A Customer Journey Map for your brand

It goes without saying that a unified customer journey is critical to success. These marketers understand how a customer or user journey map can streamline processes and provide customers with a unified brand experience. Ideally, a customer journey map turns the online customer journey into a visually accessible method that digital marketers can use to their advantage. 

To streamline your customer experience and be constantly available to consumers throughout their online experience, read on to learn how you can create the best customer journey map for your brand. 

 What is a customer journey map? 

 A customer journey map is “a visual representation of each of your customer experiences.” Throughout their experience with your brand, a customer will likely interact with or remember your brand on multiple platforms and in different ways. A customer journey map helps your brand provide a seamless narrative of the customer experience through the online sales funnel. 

 Although it may seem that the journey from first contact to sale is quite simple, it is anything but. The customer is bombarded with countless daily advertisements, newsletters, and competitive content. This complicates their journey with your brand, and a comprehensive customer journey map is your solution to making the experience easier. 

Customers can interact with your brand in many ways in today’s digital environment. Some examples are: 

  • Reading a  blog post related to your brand 
  • Accessing your website through a search engine platform 
  • Following your brand on various social media channels 
  • Creating a clear visualization of all the possible ways a customer can interact and connect with your brand. A journey map helps you keep customers engaged while increasing conversions and revenue. 

 Why create a customer journey map? 

 With so much travel happening digitally, it’s critical that digital marketers understand exactly where customers interact with your brand while providing regularly accessible, high-quality content. With an effective customer journey map, digital marketers can better understand how their customers interact with their business and gain useful information about which channels are most effective in converting leads and prospects into loyal customers. 

 Gone are the days when products with special features were traditionally marketed. Modern buyers are interested in the brand as a whole, how it interacts with them personally, and most importantly, how the offer can solve the problems they face. A simplified customer journey map helps explain how digital marketers can most effectively provide this information to potential customers and keep them engaged and committed to making a purchase. 

 Get started with a customer journey map 

 Now that you understand what a customer journey map is and how it can take your digital marketing efforts to the next level, let’s move on to online journey mapping. Your customer journey is complex, so a map’s job is to make it as focused and straightforward as possible. 

 Step 1: Use Your Sales Funnel to Define the Buying Process 

 Ideally, your brand already has an online sales funnel that shows how leads move through your content and marketing strategies to ultimately complete a purchase. This data gives you guidance on how many potential touch points a customer has with your brand and content, and how each interaction impacts the next. 

 Step 2: Think Like a Customer 

 Despite the massive growth of customer data, it is difficult to truly think like a customer. Each prospect is a unique individual with different needs, feelings, personalities, responsibilities, etc. So how can you, as a digital marketer, understand how your customers choose to reach the bottom of your sales funnel and buy your product or service? 

While you can’t completely predict a prospect’s next steps, you can target them at different stages of your sales funnel as you go through the process yourself. Follow these steps as you cycle through different combinations of touchpoints and options. If you find a part of your buying journey that doesn’t seem like a natural next step, take note and optimize that step to make the customer journey more logical and understandable. 

 If you really want to optimize your customer journey, review your support call and email transcripts so you can track errors and resolve issues in the purchase process  before moving on to the next step. 

 Step 3: Develop  customer interaction touchpoints 

 Simply put, a touch point is any digital place where a customer can learn about your brand or interact with your website. Each touch point in turn is critical to communication and conversion from a business prospect. 

Many of these touch points were traced in the second stage of this process. But now it’s time to design these touch points logically. For example, having a customer “like” a social media post counts as one touchpoint while clicking a link on that social media post is another. Group these touchpoints into logical areas such as “social media touchpoints” and “website touchpoints”. 

 Step 4: Implement Your Customer Journey Map and Do Your Research 

First, create a visually appealing customer journey map that is accessible to all necessary team members. A graphic designer helps bring together findings and touch points in a visual sequence that is understandable, logical, and beautiful. 

Now that you’ve identified all the potential touchpoints, grouped them into logical sets of regions, and created an easy-to-use customer journey map, it’s time to put your new discoveries to work and see how they perform digitally.

Platforms like Google Analytics are a big help if you want to see where buyers regularly go in the customer journey. If you notice patterns, such as a lack of clicks on newsletters or customers abandoning right before purchasing, analyze those touch points and make the necessary improvements. 

Target customers want their journey to be as easy as possible, so including too many touch points in the purchase process may not keep them engaged throughout the journey. When looking at your customer journey map, make sure the journey is simple enough to keep them in the perfect logical steps, while still providing the personalized and educational content they need to keep them engaged. 

Step 5: Optimize Your Customer Journey Map Regularly  

 Like most aspects of your digital marketing strategy, your online customer journey often changes as technology evolves and new digital platforms are integrated into the buying cycle. By regularly monitoring how your customers are progressing through your buying cycle, you can identify gaps and develop processes to streamline the customer experience. 

 According to Aberdeen Group’s 2016 report,  Customer Journey Mapping: Lead the Way to Advocacy, organizations experienced a 16.8 percent increase in sales cycle size when a user journey map was successfully developed, implemented, and maintained. While creating a customer journey map can be a timely endeavor for a digital marketer, it offers unparalleled value to your brand and your customers. 

Conclusion 

 Providing your potential customers with a smooth and enjoyable online experience will help them increase sales. By understanding your customers’ needs and preferences, you can increase your productivity by focusing your digital marketing development on the touchpoints that need the most help. Empower yourself to create consistent customer experiences that connect your digital marketing strategy with the quality digital content your customers expect from your best-in-class organization.

Categories
Digital Technology

Growth Hacking #101

“Growth is important, and most great companies take it seriously” quotes Adam Nash, the CEO and co-founder of Daffy. Growth hacking means figuring out one specific goal and then tackling it with all cylinders firing.Scaling growth hacking is like scaling any business. Growth hackers are really good at doing technical things, being creative, and exploring new things. 

3 things to know before starting hacking your way into growth:

  1. Who are your customers?

It is necessary to figure out what channels your customers are using.

Five different strategies

  • Integrations

If you leverage their user base, you can grow yours. 

How to optimize integrations?

  • Integrations have to make your product better
  • Measure your conversions and revenue 
  • Discover valuable integrations
  • Ask users about integrations
  • Make your partner pages awesome.
  • Work Emails

Everyone has to have an email account. If you can figure out how to tap it, you can definitely get a huge customer base quickly. When people put in an email, you want to try to entice them. With emails, you got to optimize onboarding. It is not that difficult to get people to put in their emails. Good onboarding is important. You have to optimize the onboarding and continually tweak and test it. Without doing that, you will get a big drop-off from emails. It’s all about onboarding. 

  • Embeds

When you are doing the embeds, you have to give people a reason why they should embed. You can’t get people to embed your product or service if there is not a good reason why people should embed it. 

How to optimize embeds?

  • Make it as much easy as possible to embed.
  • Track how well your embeds convert
  • Test relevant call to actions
  • Optimize for search but don’t obsess.
  • Powered by

This option can play a major role in influencing the customer to sign up for your domain and be a part of your customer community. Hence optimising this gesture is of great importance. So test and ready your copy top call action to occupy and make your website fully functional with this feature. Also, make sure to optimize and provide a smooth experience while directing to different pages. It would also be very helpful for you to analyse and study the trends of the users and consumers in your website and these landing pages, their clicks, conversions and LTV. 

  • Free Tools

When you are doing free tools you need to map it out to the customer decision making. You want to educate your prospects a lot of the best free stuff out there like ebooks and information, how to use products, how to get more value out of a service, whatever it may be anything that benefits your user, built a lot of goodwill and it causes them to spend more money with you, tell other companies, friends, about your product and service. Finally, you also want to measure and optimise for revenue. 

  • Think about what you can repurpose
  • Educate your prospects
  • Test your ideas minimally
  • Measure and optimize revenue
  1. Find what’s best for your product

Things to know while starting a business

  • Knowing what you are getting into
  • Keeping a winning mindset
  • Knowing how much is coming in
  • Organizing growth
  • Diversifying

Focus is the most important thing. Keep working on what works.

  1. Some major tactics you need to be aware of:

Growth hacking strategies

  • Shift to high ticket sales

In your industry, you need to figure out who is buying a high ticket and what you can create and package together that gives a high-value high return offer for your clients. If you even just shifted from being low to a mid-price point and went to high-end sales, you would have more loyal customers, you would like your customers better, and it would be so much easier to increase your sales in the short time frame.

  • Revamp your sales scripts

Scripting gets stale, it gets old and if you watch your sales scripting you will see that it works really well for a while and then all of a sudden it becomes a little bit less effective. If you never had sales scripting in the first place you absolutely need to get it, and if you have had great sales scripting, that has worked really well in the past but is not converting as well right now, it just needs an update. 

  • Build a sales system

Your sales system should be telling you who needs to be called and who is ready to progress to the next lead stage. It should be telling you what is your tracking for the month and what the deals are that are in the pipeline so that you know that sales are coming. 

  • Build a sales team

At times the sales owner would not be able to manage everything. So if you want to dramatically increase sales, get an appointment setter to call and schedule qualified conversations for you

  • Call every single lead that comes through your business. 

If you want to dramatically increase your sales, call every single lead that comes through your door. Outreach is very important. Never wait for the sales to reach you. Make sure that you go out and get them. 

  • Converting Ad Creatives by Artificial Intelligence: When you’re scaling up using Facebook ads, testing various audiences with different creatives becomes key. Certain challenges come along with it. So make sure you create high-converting creatives for yourself.
  •  Your Competitor is Your BEST FRIEND: There’s no denying the fact that you learn a lot more from your competitors than anybody else. You might not like them but the best business lessons can be learnt from them. 
  • Find the best Color Combination:The biggest reason why some landing pages don’t convert is the colour combination. Colors have their language which is true in the case of landing pages.
  • Grow with Technology: It’s pretty well-known that if you want to win high-paying clients, your research work on them before pitching, needs to be super strong and what’s better than pinpointing their weak points. To identify the weak points or suggest better ways to get more leads or sales, you can understand the technology they are using on their websites.

Growth hacking as we have discussed here will come in real handy if you wish to boost your brand and its reach. To scale growth hacking as a skill using multimedia resources would be a very choice. Making a shirt video explaining how to go about certain activities pertaining to your brand or tutorials or other interesting content is a very simple way to scale growth hacking as a skill. Set your system up in a way that is occupied for scaling and add elements into your product that will give it a certain zest and feel that will surely make it viral in an instant. With more desired features added, your product will surely shine in the market. Iterate about the things you want to the customers but in a new and fresh way each time. The goal is to keep the customer happy and satisfied. Also, try to get VIP customers onboard manually giving them that special attention making the VIP service more relevant and worth having. With such a mindset you should be able to reach the aim and goals that you aspire to achieve in no time through growth hacking.

Categories
Social Media

Brands doing CSR Successfully

CSR refers to the awareness of a brand about social and environmental issues to build a brand identity that connects with the masses. A random user could be impressed by the vision of the brand and can be a potential customer.

At the same time, this brand value can be a point of conversion for a potential lead to a customer. This brand image or brand value is not something that you can implement with payable methods, marketers can’t buy it overnight – it must be earned. The consumer base that consists of environmental activists and socially aware people is constantly willing to be a part of any social reform that leads to the betterment of our surroundings.

 These users are greatly moved by such campaigns and once you as a brand, earn their trust and loyalty, they’ll always set their best foot forward to not just be a consistent customers with you, but also as a promoter of your brand. Now let’s see in what ways can CSR be implemented.

Ethical Approach

An ethical approach to CSR demands equal treatment for employees and customers of all races, gender, age, or ethnicity. A synchronous treatment of people from various backgrounds is the gist of corporate social responsibility.

A fair opportunity for job openings at a marketing firm to aspirants regardless of their personal differences and similar open-mindedness in opting vendors for distribution or sales of the product can be shown to enhance the positivity of the brand message.

Environmental Approach

Moving forward, thinking of the ecological sustainability of your firm is a clear indicator of the brand’s wisdom. Ecology refers to the study of all the biological creatures and the environment they live in as a whole, termed ecosystem.

A company should always take into consideration and plan the management of the carbon footprint they leave, the resources they exploit, and the wastes they produce. This has proved beneficial for brands multiple times and has emerged as one of the key approaches to successful CSR implementation.

Philanthropic Approach

The philanthropic approach of an organization mainly refers to the good deeds they get involved in. Apart from making profits and creating employment, an organization can play a key role in making the society we live in, a better place. These could be donations, fundraiser events, or even free or discounted services to the needful.

Brands should understand that while people connect with the ecological and ethical influence the brand has, they also keep their eyes on the occasional acts of kindness towards humanity. Not just with the customers, an organization is also expected to show the same kindness to their employees at times.

Financial Approach 

While all the other approaches are centered on getting the attention of the user or employee, the financial approach lets the organization focus on planning the sustainability of funds involved in implementing CSR effectively.

Costs involved in the research and development of strategies that directly affect the sales and productivity of the organization while constantly targeting the crosshair of CSR.

Takeaways 

While we are on it, let’s take a quick look at the takeaways or benefits of complying with a planned CSR strategy:

  1. Engaging Employees

As we just saw, the benefits of CSR to an employee are far greater than a financial bonus that wraps up with the month-end. It creates a long-term impression in the employee’s minds and lives on with them as the legacy of the organization.

  1. Lower Risks

Unawareness of employee rights or user sentiments may give rise to disagreements and have a higher chance to convert into lawsuits. These acts further lead to the decline of the brand’s reputation in the market.

  1. Brand Identity

Apart from reinstalling the positive brand message into the existing customer base, CSR naturally increases the reach of the organization and highlights the kind and more human side of it.

  1. Investor’s trust

Companies that have an edge in environmental and social issues are observed to have a higher valuation by investors. Moreover, participation in CSRs shows the growth and awareness of the organization.

10 Brands heading the right way:

Now that you know the types and benefits of CSR, let’s see which brands have been using it for years and have earned the current reputation in the market:

  1. Google

The first name that comes up when thinking of effective CSR practices is none other than Google. The company has an ever-growing list of loyal customers, not just because of their user-friendliness but also from the incredible communication they’ve established through their CEO. Google has also pledged to dedicate over a billion dollars for renewable energy projects and is already working on many as their data centers reportedly consume roughly half the power as compared to all data centers across the globe.

  1. Tesla

With the incredible CEO and unstoppable engineers, this brand is overflowing with talent while not failing to build a brand reputation bigger than any other motor company of the century. With the sole purpose to make all-electric cars and reduce the overall carbon footprint of their brand, they’re not just selling cars, they’re selling the exact same satisfaction to every happy customer. Undoubtedly Elon Musk will be counted among the most successful entrepreneur of the century.

  1. Johnson & Johnson

The brand that normalized baby care products and brought the most affordable versions of the same into the market, has successfully built a castle of trust in the market for the last three decades. Their aim to provide safe drinking water to poor communities across the world as well as the initiative to reduce their carbon footprint has resulted in never-ending trust and loyalty among businesses and customers too while also enriching the existing consumer base of the brand.

  1. Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola stands out as a brand that never was expected to announce something as reforming as reducing its carbon footprint by 25% in the coming eight years. They have the surprising aim to recycle every Coca-Cola bottle on earth and thus make their packaging 100% recyclable. They’ve also promised to return all the water back to the environment that is used in making their world-famous drinks.

  1. Netflix

The world-famous OTT platform Netflix provides a lesser-known scheme to their employees. They aid the upcoming child of their employees by offering them a 52-week paid leave. Usually, big organizations offer a regular 18-week parental leave but Netflix took a step forward to keep its employees happy and loyal. Netflix has also never thought twice to spread awareness about social issues through its content.

  1. Toms

Toms footwear had pledged to donate a pair of footwear for every single unit sold. And they sure stood for the claim donating more than 100 million pairs of footwear to date and spreading double the smiles. They went further to donate eyeglasses for the visually impaired and provide safe drinking water to the masses. Later the company discontinued the mentioned kind of practices due to NGO backlashes. They now continue to donate a third of their total profits to social campaigns.

  1. Disney

No one saw this giant stepping forward to step back from its carbon footprint. They are putting an equal foot forward towards improving the lives of their employees and customers. Even during the pandemic, Disney donated over $27 million towards food donations and PPE distribution. They’ve also committed to reducing their water wastage by a significant number.

  1. LEGO

Lego heading towards sustainability has pledged to donate over $400 million following a period of the next 3 years. Their goal is currently their biggest challenge, which is to remove the single-use plastic from their products completely and make their packaging sustainable too. This is a huge and admirable step from a brand based completely on single-use plastic, it seems that it will be worth the wait to see the brand emerge as an even greater legacy in the coming years.

  1. GE

General motors with their EV production line, made a comeback in the market they largely dominated for decades. SUV lovers are not new to the name of Hummer and the fan base that beast had. With GE launching Hummer EV, the dream of owning a military-grade road dominator became the reality for many fans. Along with the lighter carbon footprint of electric vehicles, GE also conducted a campaign rewarding $500,000 to people who innovated ideas capable of saving our environment.

  1. Starbucks 

Last but not the least, call it your favorite café or the coolest remote workplace – Starbucks along with their excellent warmth and services, decided to pay respect to veterans who served the nation by providing them and their spouses with over 25,000 job openings. And in no time, they were already there, now employing over 5,000 veterans every year. This in itself is one peak respect to the devotion of soldiers and makes the bond between Starbucks, Armed Forces, and the civilians even stronger.

These were some of the many known examples of brands adopting CSR effectively and with the aid of humanity and the ecosystem. Brands of all sizes and sectors have a lot to learn from these pioneers of success and kindness.

We surely missed some other examples, feel free to add them in the comments down below. If you liked the article, consider subscribing to our newsletter for future notifications. Find us on social media and we can have your queries solved there.

Categories
Influencer Marketing

Marketing with Memes: What difference does it make?

What are memes? 

 Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins coined the term “meme” in his book (1976) The Selfish Gene. The word is a combination of the Greek words “mimeme” (something imitated) and “gene” which rhymes with “chorus”. 

In Dawkins’ definition, memes involve how “our ideas, ideals, culture and habits reproduce themselves. Almost like a virus, they move from person to person by copying, sharing and replicating.”

Dawkins suggested that egos also exist in the animal kingdom, suggesting that they have some evolutionary basis. We are all willing to pass on  memes that serve a purpose. Memes that aren’t worth sharing  die out fast. A University of Vermont study even found that infectious diseases follow similar  patterns of spread to Internet memes. 

Today’s social networks  are perfect for passing on these cultural genes. Once a message resonates with an audience, it can go global almost instantly. The most successful memes usually capture a moment, thought or feeling in a visual, social media form. 

This timeliness does not have to be in the original self; The user can add it with new text or  using it in a new context. Take the classic “distracted boyfriend” for example. You can’t say you haven’t seen this image — which first appeared online in 2015 — in one form or another. 

 Reasons to Use Memes in  Marketing 

 In an interview with Wired magazine, Richard Dawkins confirmed that Internet memes are similar to what he imagined, saying, “It’s all that happens.” As such, anything can be a self; Dawkins himself received the self-treatment several times. 

  Reasons to Use Memes in  Marketing 

This meme started on Reddit , where users Photoshop beautiful images of Shiba Inu dogs into various backgrounds. The dog’s curious expression creates a humorous confrontation with its new environment.

The meme spawned the satirical cryptocurrency Dogecoin, which was later backed by Elon Musk and is now the shirt sponsor of Premier League football club Watford FC. This trajectory is crucial to the life cycle of online memes; they are contagious, but they are also infinitely adaptable and  take on a life of their own.

 Another new form of currency where memes are showing their value are non-fungible tokens (NFTs). A woman whose picture in front of a burning building as a 

-year-old sparked the “disaster girl” meme just received half a  million dollars after selling it as an NFT and used the proceeds to pay off her loans and donate to charity. 

So memes are a cultural phenomenon that seems to have been with us for a while. Does this mean that  brands should use memes in their marketing? 

 Advantages of using memes in marketing 

 1. Memes are cheap to create 

 Internet memes have a certain homely charm. Anyone can contribute and add text to the classics of the genre using sites like Meme Generator. 

Brands can use memes created by others in their marketing campaigns, but  if you intend to use them for marketing purposes, it is recommended that you create your own memes. Marketers have to work a little harder to keep up with cultural trends. 

The hardest part is coming up with a witty title. This example from BarkBox provides a handy reference point: 

It relates to your brand and audience without destroying the relationship with a pushy sales message. 

Skillfully executed  memes are a cheap and cheerful way to attract interaction on social media. 

2. Memes can be a powerful brand marketing tool 

You can also create  content suitable for memes. In other words, brands can create content that can become  its own self. 

For example, when Netflix released a preview  for its Bird Box series (like the image below), it was the basis for countless memes: 

Bird Box reviews were not very kind.  Melanic McFarland of Salon wrote, “Is it good? Not really, but it doesn’t have to be.” Thanks to what we might call the “meme effect”, people watched Bird Box anyway – it had 5 million views within 7 days of its release. Netflix even had to warn people not to try eye contact tricks to recreate memes. 

Recently, the huge success of the Netflix Squid Game has spawned countless new memes, many of which – like those that fit the format and boost Netflix ratings – are understandable only to those who have seen the show. Brands also quickly began to get involved. Pepsi has already gotten over 37,000 likes on this Instagram photo with the iconic Squid Game visual reference (no spoilers!) next to one of  the drinks titled “When You Know You Know.” 

It is important for marketers to embrace the spirit of a trend like the squid game if they want to use it as a  brand communication tool. The Pepsi example is playful and the text “If you know that you know” gives a suggestive nod to other fans. 

A company like Netflix has an advantage with its content factory and Hollywood stars. However, memes don’t need that gloss to appeal to a mass audience. The more widely known, the more people see the brand. And the best memes last for years. 

 3. Memes can show your company its human side  

When companies use memes, they inevitably show their human side. That could mean gently poking  fun at the brand’s traditional ways, as in this picture of Denny’s: 

Denny’s jumped on Facebook’s “10 Year Challenge,” which has already gone viral. It didn’t try to hijack the trend for its own purposes, but combined it with fun in  a different way than the self format. 

A 2017 online study of complex contagion patterns that accurately predicted the duration of the ALS Ice Cream Challenge  found that when people see a meme that reflects their current mood, they feel seen. As a result, they share the meme in hopes of finding social validation from other social media users. 

That said, memes don’t always have to be funny. They can be thought-provoking and insightful, not just  frivolous. However, it is safer for brands to start with  lighter memes,  as  more serious images tend to be political. Denny’s offers a convenient plan for this; brands do best when they show some self-awareness. 

4. Memes Generate Instant Reactions 

Memes appeal to marketers for all of the above reasons. Their raison d’etre is to go viral, and that’s what every brand has been talking about since the advent of social media. 

There are no guarantees on this side and most memes  die out quickly. But brands should see this as a learning opportunity, not a reason to abandon the meme. While the meme experiment isn’t destructive (we’ll get to those examples  later), marketers can use memes to get instant feedback from their audience. 

If it fits your brand, you should try creating a meme. They are cheap to make and usually fade quickly if not raised. And when they  go viral, you may  find you’ve tapped into something you never knew about your audience. 

The Running World meme promotes a sense of community and is essentially a “joke”. really just runners (and their friends). This approach might not work as well if the audience didn’t get the joke, but  it wouldn’t hurt to try. However, brands should be careful. This example from the potato chip brand Ruffles is common in social media folklore as an example of how not to do it: 

It’s too focused on the brand, doesn’t give the user a reason to share , and uses a format that has  been seen too many times. Every time someone adopts a meme, they have to add something new to the existing list.

It’s also worth noting that the cultural (and political) meaning of memes can change over time, as  this documentary chronicles how Pepe the Frog went from an innocent amphibian to a divisive symbol. By following the basic principles of self-marketing, brands can avoid these pitfalls. 

 Reasons to use Memes in Marketing :

Brands need to be aware that memes only help achieve certain marketing goals. When they publish a sales message, users are immediately rejected. This brings similar considerations to our marketer’s Reddit guide. The most important thing is to understand the pulse of the audience and join and add something that affects the moment. Brands that wrongly undermine morality and pay the price. 

However, memes can be part of a serious strategy. When adding memes to your marketing plan, keep these tips in mind: 

  1. Keep Up With Pop Culture: It’s important to keep up  with current trends; relevancy is the lifeblood of a viral meme. 
  2.  Show  self-awareness: If you want to convey your brand’s message, use humor to turn around and  show the human side. 
  3.  Finding the right channel: Memes are everywhere, from Snapchat to LinkedIn, but they vary in form and tone between channels. For example, TikTok memes  use music as an additional element. 
  4.  Use an on-brand tone: It’s important to remain professional even when participating in  a social media challenge. Customers expect the brand to act according to its traditional identity. 
  5.  Research your audience’s preferences: Identify these cultural preferences using social media marketing tools before launching a marketing strategy. 
  6.  Join Trends and Challenges: Because they are already viral, they offer guaranteed visibility. Just make sure you use this coin wisely. 
  7.  Build a meme library: The same memes keep popping up all the time, and their familiarity is comforting. Keep a  library of memes and quickly edit text  when an idea strikes. 
  8.  And look at image licensing: a bit of a boring point to cover, but an important one. If you’re collecting images to create new memes,  check for possible licensing considerations.
Categories
Digital Media

Digital Marketing for B2B

This might be a challenging question, especially when you are facing several marketing challenges. There are so many things that you need to think of and plan if you want to achieve success with your B2B business. 

With so many businesses focusing on digital marketing, your company must find ways to stand out and build trust with potential customers. If you’re ready to take your B2B business up a notch, read on for 6 effective digital marketing strategies that will get you there quickly!

If you want to achieve this, you’ll need to understand the digital transformation process and how it impacts your business. With this in mind, let’s take a closer look at the role of digital marketing.

How Digital Marketing Works

Digital marketing is the process of developing and maintaining a relationship with your audience through creating, accessing, and sharing content on digital channels such as social media, email, chat, and other forms of communication that are open to your audience. 

As a marketer, you must be able to integrate all these different channels into one cohesive message. This requires good communication skills. You must be able to effectively communicate with all audiences—including B2B ones—and ensure that everyone understands what’s happening in your company by using the right tools. 

This requires creative thinking and data-driven communications that are integrated into a consistent experience for the entire environment. The key is to build relationships with people who can help you accomplish these goals.

Building Relationships

You need to understand how well each person understands what you’re selling or helping them do so they can make their voice heard in their own way—for example, by creating content for social media or interacting on an e-commerce marketplace site; by providing feedback; by offering advice

In the B2B world, things can get a little tricky. It’s not as simple as reaching out to as many people as possible and hoping they’ll eventually buy your product or service. In fact, something like that will probably backfire on you.

 Instead, B2B requires a more strategic approach to digital marketing. You must think about who your target audience is and how to reach them authentically without coming across as salesy or unprofessional. 

After all, no one wants to be sold to all the time! So we’ve compiled a list of 6 effective digital marketing strategies for B2B businesses that will help you grow your business in the right direction while keeping it personal and professional at the same time.

  1. Consistently publish quality content

It sounds obvious, but it’s important to remember that you have to have content for your B2B marketing strategy. Most B2B companies focus on content about their product or service. You, however, can also publish helpful blog posts about your industry and your customers. 

As you create these blog posts, make sure they are consistent with your brand and that they are of high quality. Always aim for above 80 percent quality on your blog posts. This will keep your readers coming back for more and will help you build authority and trust in your industry. 

If you have a marketing team, make sure they have scheduled content creation times each week. This will ensure you have a consistent flow of content to keep your readers engaged and it will take some pressure off you as the marketing director.

  1. Integrate email marketing with lead nurturing

Email marketing is a great way to nurture leads and create a one-on-one relationship with your customers. Think of email marketing as an ongoing conversation with your B2B leads. You want to constantly be engaging with them and building trust through your content and emails. 

To engage with your leads and nurture them, you can create email sequences where you send emails at different stages of their journey with you. You can send emails to new leads right away to let them know you exist and are here to help.

Sending emails to your leads at various stages in their journey will help you increase your conversions and sales as your leads trust you more and become customers. You can use email marketing software like HubSpot or Convio to create email sequences, send emails, and track your results.

  1. Implement ad automation with personalized ads

Ad automation with personalized ads is a great way to scale your B2B marketing efforts and make sure you’re reaching as many people as possible. You can do this by creating several ad variations with different calls to action and different audiences. 

As you run these ads, they will show up in different places across the internet. On social media, on Google and other search engines, and on third-party websites and apps. As you run these ads, they will also personalize the ad for each person who sees it based on what ad they were shown and what they click on. 

This way, even though you’re running one ad that is being shown to many people, everyone sees an ad that is relevant to them. You can use advertising automation platforms like Sprout or HubSpot to set this up and scale your ad campaigns.

  1. Create SEO-optimized Quality Content

This may sound similar to the content creation strategy above, but there is a difference. The consistent publishing of quality content will help you to rank higher on search engines like Google. As you write blog posts, you can include keywords that are relevant to your industry and product or service. 

You want to make sure these keywords are natural and not forced. When you write, allow your readers to be your focus and not the search engines. Then, when you publish your blog posts, you will use SEO best practices like title tags, meta descriptions, and other elements designed to help your posts rank higher. 

This will help you reach more people in your industry and people who are looking for your products or services. This will also help you reach more leads and increase your sales.

  1. Leverage LinkedIn for B2B Marketing

LinkedIn is a great place for B2B marketing. It is a professional network where people go to learn about their industry, see what their peers are doing, and network with people in their industry. This is the perfect place for B2B marketing!

You can join groups related to your industry and post helpful content like blog posts or articles. You can also comment on other people’s posts and engage with your industry. You can also look for people in your industry and try to build relationships and make connections with them. 

This is a good idea because you don’t want to spam people with sales pitches. You want to engage with them and help them. This is especially important if you are looking to build a long-term business relationship.

  1. Build a Solid Brand

We’ve talked a lot about building relationships with your leads and prospects, but what about your brand? Your brand is the first thing people see when they come across your business online. It is the image you create and the reputation you have. 

When you are marketing yourself, you want to make sure you are building a strong brand that is consistent across all your marketing channels. You do this by having a clear mission, creating a strong logo and brand colors, and defining your voice. Your mission statement is a one or two-sentence statement about what your company does and what problem it solves. 

Your logo and colors are the visual elements representing your company. The voice is how you speak to your audience. It is how you write your content, tweets, and posts. It is how you communicate with people. When you are building a strong brand, you are creating consistent connections with your leads and customers.

Summing Up

Digital marketing is an essential part of any modern business. It’s how you reach new prospects and introduce your brand. That being said, you can’t just start posting on social media and expect people to find you. 

You need a digital marketing strategy that’s tailored toward your audience, and one that considers the various channels available to you. With the right mix of content, targeting, and timing, you can build a strong online presence and generate leads for your business.

Now that you know how to get started with marketing for your B2B business, take a moment to subscribe to our newsletter for similar informative content. You can drop down your questions in the comments below or contact us through social media.

Categories
Social Media

Developing ROI Driven Social Media Strategies

What is a social media strategy? 

Simply put, a social media strategy is a plan that outlines your social media goals, the tactics you will use to achieve them, and the performance metrics that will be tracked. Your strategy doesn’t have to be complicated. You want  a simple and precise plan in meaningful, measurable ways. This will help you identify  channels and tactics that succeed and those that fail. Watch this webinar to learn how to love your social media strategy! Ultimately, your social media strategy should increase your target audience’s brand awareness and engagement across social media. 

What are the benefits of  a social media strategy? 

 Maybe you’ve run a successful social media campaign or you’re good at engaging with the content you post. This one time success is within reach. However, the hardest part of social media marketing is consistency. Do you understand why the campaign or post was successful? Can you copy it easily? Creating a social media strategy can be scary to think about, but it offers many tangible benefits for your business, such as 

  •  A Guide to All Social Media Activities 
  •  Improving Brand Awareness 
  •  Providing Communications Customer Service and Support 
  •  Improving Audience Targeting 
  •  Driving and Increasing Website Traffic 
  •  Content Optimization 
  •  Generating Higher Quality Leads 
  •  Creating Social Media Influencers 
  •  Promoting your unique content that can go viral (remember the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge?) 
  •  Offer social commerce and shoppable posts 
  •  Information, which you can analyze and measure

 As you can see, social media has huge benefits, so creating a strategy will help you achieve your business goals and increase customer engagement. 

 Although content Marketing and Social Media Marketing are closely related, there is a difference between them. 

 Marketing strategy is the right place to start if you want to direct and improve your social media activities. It includes some basic elements like audience research, creating personas, choosing  social media platforms and  more. Content strategy focuses on  content formats and results. So you should look at content creation, communication and tone, content timing, etc. 

What is a social media engagement strategy?

Your social media engagement strategy is important because it creates relationships with your audience across different networks. It helps you  manage your community through social media  and build your brand. 

 The two main goals of an engagement strategy are: 

  1. Community management: This can be done by offering advice via a blog, responding to post comments, answering channel surveys and taking surveys or polls to learn more about your customer base. . 
  2. Grow your following: Interaction is key here, so provide valuable content  such as engaging video content, attract potential customers with free content or contests, or simply present your brand as active and helpful by engaging people in your networks in a responsive manner. 

 User Generated Content (UGC) can play a key role here because it is proof that the people who support your brand are talking about  it and are not coming from your company or marketing team. Here are four great examples of UGC to inspire you.

 What are the steps to building a successful social media strategy? 

 Now that you understand the basics of a social media strategy, let’s move on to the  steps you need to take to create a strategy. We’ll also highlight where you can integrate your content strategy and engagement strategy into your overall social media activities to ensure you’re covering all the bases. 

 Here are 5 steps to creating a successful social media strategy, including:

1. Know your target audience 

 The first step in developing any  strategy is to know your target audience. There are thousands of different categories of people on social media, and you want to target your ads and  social media posts to those few who will actually convert into potential customers. And for that, Ms. Alka Thakur uses her expertise to help clients identify their right target audience on social media and then figure out ways  we can serve that  audience. 

 The second part of this step is also to do a lot of research on anything and everything related to your product and service category,  from  competitors to other  market entrants with similar service products, and only then can you develop appropriate strategies to proceed. your business marketing plan 

 2. Create interesting content 

 The second and most important step would be to create  content that your target audience would not only be interested in seeing, but would  be interested in. The  content you create defines your current customer base and helps attract new  customers. Our Nagpur social media marketing company at OSK works round the clock to help  clients create the best  content for  social media. 

 3. Engage with your followers 

 Your followers can be existing customers or potential customers who are interested in your brand. Either way, it’s the best way to get a return on investment from whatever you’ve spent  marketing your brand on social media. communicate with  followers, not only to retain them, but also to engage them and know their feedback to improve our products and services. In this century, where the customer is  king, it is important to know exactly what the customer wants and needs. Running regular sweepstakes, contests and other engaging activities will help your customers connect with you on a brand level as they would benefit from the brand  more than just the product or  service. 

4. Use a separate content strategy for different social media platforms 

 Now we all know that there are some different groups of people who have adopted different social media platforms and  to target them you  need different social media strategies for each platform. If you post content on Facebook aimed at the younger generation, which is often used by Gen x and boomers today, the result will obviously not be as effective. Ms. Alkal has always had a habit of using different social media strategies for each client for their different social media accounts and this has been very beneficial to the clients  we serve. 

5. Stick to your brand theme 

 Every brand has a theme created from the beginning that later becomes their identity. But for it to become their identity, they need to be consistent with their theme and allow customers to associate your brand with that  theme. Only if a customer can retain and remember the small but important details of your brand are they  likely to stay or return. By creating a specific color palette  on Instagram or using a similar pattern in their posts, the client connects with them and thus increases  brand awareness for their customers, ultimately increasing their ROI.

Categories
Digital Technology

QR Code Marketing

What exactly is a QR code?

The QR stands for quick response. They’re essentially squares with black and white symbols on them. Every QR code is unique and holds encrypted information like a website link, product landing page, promotional details, coupon, or other information. Whenever someone scans the QR code with a smartphone or tablet, the code reveals the encrypted information, taking the user to the desired destination. This is very similar to that of a barcode, but it can hold more and different types of data. 

How to use QR codes for marketing?

To have a successful marketing campaign, you have to know who it is you’re marketing to. Whether you’re conducting a survey or poll, asking people to sign up for an email list or taking orders, it’s important to get information from customers through some kind of an online form.

The most common purpose of a QR code is to direct users to a specific landing page. This page could have a sign-up link, a campaign page, or even a product catalogue. The possibilities are virtually endless. Make sure your QR code directs users to your campaign’s landing page rather than a home page. This way, users don’t have to navigate to the correct page. Also, make sure your website is mobile-friendly, as many users will be scanning on the go. Make QR codes fun and exciting by including instant coupons, freebies and offers. Instead of having a customer clip a printed coupon, you can create a QR code that saves the offer directly to the user’s mobile wallet. Users can then easily provide the digital coupon during checkout at a physical retailer. You can also direct QR scanners to an online store. Instead of asking them to manually enter a promo code, you can set it up so the discount is already applied at checkout.

Promotional QR codes are very versatile. You can integrate them into print ads, direct mail, or even a giant billboard. A whopping 92% of consumers consider online reviews when they’re searching for local businesses. So turn your biggest customers into your biggest advocates? Simply include a QR code on product packaging along with a brief message encouraging customers to scan the code and leave a review on platforms like Yelp. Throwing in a freebie for leaving a review won’t hurt either. Use QR codes to incentivize customers to download and use your branded apps. Context is key here the QR codes direct users to apps that complement the ad or printed material where the code appears. 71% of shoppers report that digital billboards grab their attention more than online ads do. Pairing outdoor spaces with QR codes can enable innovative marketing ideas to flourish. 

What’s great about using QR codes in your marketing campaign is the convenience of tracking and reporting. With web analytics and other campaign measurement tools, you can easily track the number of scans over time, capture geographic data, and gather additional info to measure your return on investment.

No matter how you decide to integrate QR codes in your next marketing campaign, they’re a great way to promote interaction and engagement, not to mention super efficient.

You can drive data collection from an online form, direct customers to a website, or deliver instant coupons, freebies and offers. You can also direct customers to social media pages, download or launch apps from QR scans, and even conduct scavenger hunts. Whichever way you choose to use QR codes, one thing is for sure your customers will have a unique experience. 

Five tips- How to integrate QR codes into your marketing strategy?

  1. Determine where the QR code should go. So what landing page or page on your site or where do you want the user to end up when they use the QR code? What’s that destination? Figure out what that URL is.
  2. Take that URL and create a Trackable URL from it. One way to do this is to add a simple ref code to the end of your URL. To do this, simply add a question mark, reflected by whatever you feel, which will help you identify the campaign. This is a really important step because you’re going to track the performance of your QR code, and without doing this, you won’t be able to do that.
  3. Generate your QR code. There are many free QR code generators. Just go to Google and search QR code generator and you’ll find several tools. Pick one that you like. Use the Trackable URL, paste that in there, and generate the QR code. By doing this, the QR code will fire that URL that you created when somebody uses it.
  4. Once you have generated your QR code, download that image and add it to your marketing materials or your ad campaign so that it’s in your TV commercial or on your flyer or wherever you want it to be, so somebody can use it.
  5. Track the performance of your QR code over time in analytics. So within analytics, because you created that Trackable URL, you’ll be able to see the performance. You’ll be able to see how many people use the QR code, how many people landed on your landing page, how long they stayed, if they converted, if they became a lead, if they made a purchase, everything. That’s the beauty of using the Trackable URL. Now you can track the performance of things like print materials, flyers, direct mailers, TV commercials, and brand campaigns of all sorts by using your QR code, you can then track the performance if you use the Trackable URL.

Some ways you can use QR codes in marketing campaigns.

  • You can boost brand identity because QR codes could impact retention, loyalty, and brand advocacy. By providing creative, convenient ways to use your codes, you can reach the right people on their terms. 
  • Brands can now customize QR code designs, including their colours, CDAs and frames. After personalizing your QR code to fit your brand, you can then drive traffic to your website, link them to Google Maps, or send them to social media accounts. 
  • You can increase brand transparency because QR codes can help drive that transparency. Manufacturers and brands must be transparent about what’s in their products and how it’s made. By placing codes on packages, wrappers, and containers, brands can make it simple for consumers to click through to find out more about the product. This transparency promotes engagement and also builds trust and improves brand reputation.
  • Increase Customer Engagement- Empowering customers to pay on their terms not only makes life easier but can also help increase engagement.
  • QR codes can avoid the situation of customers carrying cash or cards and enable convenient and contactless point-of-sale transactions.
  • What most folks care about the most is generating more leads. What’s important to keep in mind here is being cohesive with the customer journey and adding value. It’s great to get more leads, appointments, phone calls, and all those bottom-funnel metrics that we all care so much about. But maybe it’s adding value somewhere at the top of the funnel that shortens that customer journey and leads to a higher lifetime value.

Are QR codes still relevant?

They’ve been around for years, and marketers have debated whether they are the next big thing or are nearing extinction. Many businesses are trying to keep their daily operations safe and contactless. And it turns out QR codes are the solution.

Categories
Digital Media

Digital Marketing Transformation Roadblocks

Digital marketing transformation is a process. It’s not something you can do overnight (or even in a month or year). It involves change, which means resistance, friction, and challenges along the way. 

You cannot just expect to magically transform your marketing department; you have to work at it every day. Many obstacles stand in the way of digital marketing transformation –at every step of the process. 

If you’re serious about making progress, you need to know what those roadblocks are and how you can overcome them. Read on to know the 6 most challenging roadblocks to Digital Marketing Transformation and how to overcome them.

  1. Lack of budget and resources

The first thing that comes to mind when thinking about obstacles to a digital transformation is a lack of budget. This can be a big problem, especially for smaller companies that don’t have the budget in place to invest in digital marketing. 

Ideally, you want to put around 25% of your marketing budget towards digital channels. But if you don’t even have that percentage allocated to digital marketing, then how are you supposed to implement a digital transformation? 

While you didn’t expect it, there are many ways to square off the situation. One, you can do a proof-of-concept to show that your solutions are effective, and then seek funding based on that. Two, you can partner with an agency with the resources you need to scale. 

Another way around it is to use the in-house resources you have by outsourcing non-core activities. Lastly, you can buy in from the C-level, including your CEO and CFO. Convince them that this is where the future lies and that you need funding to get there.

  1. Change Management is your biggest obstacle

You can have the best ideas and most sophisticated technologies, but if you don’t have buy-in from your team, you’re not going to get very far. Whether you’re managing a digital transformation in-house or through a consultancy, you need to instill trust in those around you that this new approach is going to be better than what they’re currently doing. 

You need to show them that you’re not just here to “fix things”, but that you’re actually looking to improve their situation – and that of the company as a whole. This is why change management is the biggest obstacle to digital marketing transformation. 

If you don’t do a good job at managing the change, you might overwhelm your people. Or, you might end up with a lot of pushback and resistance that could potentially put your transformation on hold.

  1. Lack of talent

If you were to poll marketers about their biggest challenge, many would say that they need more talent. The sad truth is that the digital marketing industry is short on good people – especially skilled professionals who can handle complex marketing transformations. 

If you’re managing a transformation in-house, you need to be very careful that you don’t bite off more than you can chew. You don’t want to take on tasks that are way above your level and lead your organization to fail. If you’re hiring an outside agency to help with your transformation, then you also need to make sure you have the right talent on the job

If you’re not sure about the need for a particular post, or you’re struggling with the quality of the work, try hiring a freelancer for the job. Once you’re comfortable with spending more, shift to regular employment if the freelancer is ready for it. You want people who are not just skilled, but who also have the experience needed to handle your situation.

  1. Data quality is a big issue

Data quality is a huge issue when you’re going through a digital marketing transformation. Whether you’re implementing new technologies or just trying to normalize your data across platforms, you’ll probably run into issues with data quality. You may have data that are not up to date, that doesn’t have the right attributes, or that has issues with quality. 

If you don’t fix these problems, they could cause serious issues when trying to give your organization a comprehensive view of customers. If your data isn’t standardized, you may have issues when trying to combine datasets from different sources. This is a challenge organizations will face as they move toward a data-driven marketing approach.

One way to overcome this challenge is to adopt a data-first approach. First, you have to identify the core questions your marketing team needs to answer and then find ways to get those data points. Once you have those data points, you can start cleaning, formatting, and linking them together to create a data lake.

  1. Brand fear and organizational silos

If you’re working in a large organization, you might notice that not all departments are on the same page. Marketing teams are often siloed from one another. In addition to that, a lot of people are afraid to “step out of line” and get creative or try something new. You need to find a way to overcome both brand fear and organizational silos. 

You might find that some departments are resistant to the changes that digital transformation could bring about. Or, you might find that there’s just not a lot of communication between departments. This can be a huge problem when trying to implement a digital transformation. 

Silos can form as a result of brand fear. One particular department could actually cause problems for the rest of the organization if it is trying to protect its brand or fear changing. Marketing transformation leads to change, so you need to make sure that other departments understand this and are on board with the changes you’re making.

  1. Marketing Budget 

One of the most infamous and talked about issues in digital marketing is the marketing budget of the organization. Small, medium, large or non-profit, every organization’s marketing budget becomes the gap between the seller and the audience. Marketers often seem to forget to integrate the legacy line of business applications.

While many factors affect the brand’s reach to potential customers, and some of them are almost free to implement and manage, reaching your target audience with guaranteed success comes at a cost that almost every organization struggles to get over. For more than half of all businesses, budget is the primary roadblock to marketing. 

Organizations should consider investing in platforms just as much as they invest in traditional marketing ways. One way to go around this hurdle is by pre-planning your budget. Every little consideration plays an integral part in the final marketing budget, be it intern training costs or software maintenance costs.

Conclusion

Digital marketing transformation isn’t easy, especially if you’re trying to do it in-house. But it’s something that every marketing team needs to do. If you want to stay relevant in the future, you have to make this transition. If you’ve been putting it off, it’s time to make some serious changes. 

Luckily, there are many resources out there that can help you. What’s important is that you understand what the main roadblocks are and how you can overcome them. You’re on your way to digital marketing transformation success if you can get buy-in from the C-level, instill trust in your team, and address data quality.

That said, if you found this article informative, consider subscribing to our newsletter, you can even spot us on social media and seek guidance, it’s free!

Categories
eCommerce Marketing

Impacts of AR and VR on eCommerce

The recent proliferation of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) technology has significantly changed the way consumers interact with e-commerce brands. Recent research shows that 80% of US consumers are aware of VR, while 79% of those who have tried it would do it again. 

Global adoption of immersive technology is definitely on the rise, led by the UK, US and China. In fact, 95% of the world’s VR devices are currently manufactured in China, and its own government is committed to supporting the development of virtual reality throughout the country. 

 How will AR and VR affect e-commerce retailers and what does the future hold? 

Both AR and VR offer today’s digital consumers a unique opportunity to go (of course) into an immersive experience where they can get up close and personal with a brand and its services or products. This bold new online shopping trend brings with it a wealth of possibilities. 

 Here we explore how VR and AR are impacting e-commerce, as we ask what the future holds for the relationship between these new technologies and e-commerce. 

 Bridging the Digital and Physical Worlds

While many experts and publications have announced the death of the high street, it appears that we are in the midst of a brick and mortar renaissance. 

 E-commerce brands are now able to deliver a more personalized customer experience than ever before, turning brick-and-mortar stores into an extension of e-commerce and vice versa. And with huge e-commerce players like Amazon gearing up for the brick-and-mortar arena, AR or VR-based features seem to have great potential to bridge brick-and-mortar and e-commerce experiences. 

While many established e-only brands are reluctant to set up brick-and-mortar stores due to cost and resources, it is possible to partner with brick-and-mortar retailers using AR and VR platforms, programs and brand awareness initiatives. 

To illustrate how these ubiquitous technologies are shaping e-commerce in physical terms, let’s look at the well-known American retailer Macy’s. To improve its in-store shopping experience and accelerate its business growth online, Macy’s has selected 69 furniture stores in the United States that now offer innovative, engaging features, functions and displays. 

Using the seamless combination of VR and AR to its advantage, Macy’s has combined online and offline shopping into one seamless, highly connected experience. Its latest initiative, “Visualize Your Space,” allows shoppers to place different pieces of furniture in their home environment while shopping in-store. 

Here, customers can see, touch and experience products in person and use comprehensive technology to decide whether they are worth buying. As a result of this AR-based initiative, the typical cart size in these tech stores is said to be 60% larger compared to other Macy’s furniture departments. 

Additionally, this success based on AR and VR has had a positive impact on the brand’s e-commerce sales, with its in-app sales growing by 50% at the beginning of last year. What a testament to the power of the marriage of VR, AR and e-commerce. 

Extreme Personalization and Immersive Online Shopping:

The interactive nature of VR and AR means that online consumers can now enjoy a much more personalized and meaningful shopping experience.

Although many are aware of AR and VR-based technologies, and despite their proven e-commerce success rates, 61% of brands do not use the technology at all. More and more e-commerce brands are now using these features to personalize and differentiate their customer experience. 

Many Fortune 500 companies such as Walmart, Boeing and UPS are using VR for consumer marketing in addition to educating, training and inspiring employees. 

One of the early adopters of VR technology, Amazon recently patented a mirror with Body Labs that can dress you up in virtual clothes, adding extreme personalization to the brand’s customer experience. 

This part-reflective, part-transmissive device, when fully realized, zooms in on the wearer’s face and transports them into a reflective environment where they can virtually try on different outfits, allowing them to make informed choices based on real-world interaction. without leaving home. 

Another notable example of brands using VR to drive extreme personalization while creating an immersive shopping experience in practice is the growing Snapfeet. An AI-powered algorithm uses a 3D biometric image to allow customers to scan themselves with its proprietary app, offering a series of “custom” recommendations based on characteristics such as shoe size, foot shape and style preferences. This immersive application also presents its recommendations with an interactive 3D image that allows the user to visualize the products before buying them: 

Although this innovation is in its infancy, it has already been well received by critics and consumers, suggesting that it will see a lot of growth of this type in the near future.immersive online shopping experience in boom. 

AR, VR and the Future of E-Commerce:

Research shows that in the US alone, around 22 million people experienced VR in 2018, and that number is expected to rise to 

9 million by the end of 2019. That’s an incredible adoption rate. 

However, here are some predictions about AR, VR and e-commerce in the near future: 

  •  AR and VR will continue to drive and shape experiential marketing, giving e-commerce brands more tools and opportunities to deeply invest their audiences in their offerings. . . products, services or content in a mobile or virtual sense. 
  •  The continued growth of immersive technology allows e-commerce brands to make brand storytelling much more interactive and engaging, allowing the user to control content and connect with the company on a deeply personal level. 
  •  As AR becomes more and more integrated into our daily lives and applications and virtual touch points are readily available at every turn, e-commerce companies can use the data generated by these touch points to completely customize the user’s online shopping experience.

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