19, Dec 2019
Categories
Influencer Marketing

Influencer Marketing – A Different Perspective

Published On: 19, Dec, 2019

“Influencer Marketing” – You have probably heard this term already and would have some idea about it.

For those, who haven’t, let me share the definition of Influencer Marketing. Wikipedia defines Influencer Marketing as “a form of social media marketing involving endorsements and product placements from influencers, people and organizations who possess a purported expert level of knowledge and/or social influence in their respective fields.

Influencer content may be framed as testimonial advertising where influencers play the role of a potential buyer themselves, or they may be involved as third parties. These third parties can be spotted either within the supply chain (retailers, manufacturers, etc.) or among the so-called value-added influencers (such as journalists, academics, industry analysts, and professional advisers)”

In this article, I intend to present a slightly different aspect of Influence Marketing and how you can benefit from it. But that will come later. For now, let us analyse this definition.

If we go by the above definition, then we can broadly categorize influencers as:

  • People of great repute and social standing. For convenience, let’s call them “Celebrities”
  • People having great knowledge or expertise on the product or service you are dealing with. Let’s call these people “Experts”.

So, if you want your product or service to be accepted by the masses, you will need either a Celebrity or an Expert to endorse your product or service.

Now the question is, why would a celebrity or an expert endorse your product or service (unless he or she happens to be your relative )? Of course, for money. You will need to pay them to endorse. And bigger the celebrity/expert, higher the sum you need to pay.

If you are a start-up or a small business with limited funds, where do get the money to pay the influencer? That is where you lose the battle to a well-established, well-funded competitor.

Being associated with several start-ups and fund-strapped projects, I have faced this question umpteen times and that made me wonder – Is Influencer Marketing not for me? It is then I decided to look at the definition of Influencer Marketing again and realized how it is going to work for me.

So here I am, with my take on “Influencer Marketing”, especially in the context of Digital Internet Marketing.

In my opinion, Influencer Marketing is a process of getting more and more influencers to promote your products or services and thereby contribute towards your business’s growth.

Let us now look at the word “Influencer”. Who is an Influencer? Based on my understanding, an entity who can ‘influence’ another person in favour of buying my product or service is an Influencer for my product or service.

Furthermore, an Influencer

  • May not be a Celebrity or an Expert
  • May not even be a person (More on this later)
  • May not do it for money or any other personal gain

Now, let us look around ourselves and find out who could be our influencers, I mean, other than celebrities and experts.

  1. Our Customers: This is a as simple as it can be. Our customers are the biggest influencers as their feedback, experiences and reviews play an important role in prospects making their buying decision in your favour. The more customers give you favourable reviews, the more likely you are going to get new customers. So instead of spending a fortune to get a celebrity to endorse your product or service, pay attention to your customers and serve them with full honesty and attention (which they deserve anyway, and it does not cost you anything extra).
  2. Our Employees: Often, we fail to recognise the fact that our own employees can be our biggest influencers. Simply put, each one of your employees is connected to many people as family, friends, relatives, neighbours, social contacts and what not. There lies the huge potential of reaching out to prospects just by leveraging your employees’ contacts. And you don’t need to do much for that. Just make sure that they are reasonably paid, given the basic workplace benefits and cared for. Then if you make them part of any referral schemes with small benefits, they will gladly participate.
  3. Independent reviewers: There is a plethora of websites that offer independent product reviews. Some examples of such websites are https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/index.htm, https://www.bestconsumerreviews.com, https://www.consumersearch.com etc. Besides, there are websites/blogs dedicated to specific products and services. E.g., https://hostingfacts.com provides comparative analysis of top hosting providers. It does not cost a fortune to get your product / service reviewed on one of these websites, yet the benefits are immense. Often people give a lot of importance to these reviews since they seem to come from a third party. So, if you can get your product or service reviewed at one of these portals, that can do a world of good for your Influencer Marketing initiatives.

To cut the long story short, Influencer Marketing is not extravagant or expensive always. With a bit of planning and meticulous approach, you can carry out Influencer Marketing even at a very small budget.

Want to know more on Influencer Marketing? Watch out this space for the next article where I will describe various ways you can leverage your existing customer base for Influencer Marketing.

Until then, Cheers!

16, Aug 2019
Categories
Digital Internet Marketing

Who would be Your ‘Go-to’ Option for Scripting Your Digital Internet Marketing Success Story?

Published On: 16, Aug, 2019

Digital Internet Marketing is an inevitable and brilliant marketing tool in the modern competitive buyers’ market. It offers a perfect blend of neo integrated marketing communication over the internet where most of your prospects spend most of their time.

I assume you’re already aware of this and is planning to incorporate or upgrade your digital marketing plan of action. The daunting question is, whom should you trust with that responsibility?

“Should I set-up an in-house team?”

“Should I hire a one-man freelancer?”

 OR

“Should I rely on the expertise of a recognized digital marketing agency?”

These are the questions that you should start asking yourself.

In this article, we’ll help you answer these crucial questions and provide some interesting statistics.

Scenario 1 – Opting for an in-house Digital Marketing team.

Just keep in mind that digital marketing is a collective approach of several activities targeting several online channels. These channels include Search Engine Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Content Publications, Customer Data Research, Consumer Behavior analysis etc, each of which requires a unique skill set.

Let me give you an example.

The creativity of an experienced designer in the case of Social Media Marketing compared to the analytical skill of a certified professional in the Search Engine Marketing makes a huge difference. To combat that gap, you need to hire enough resources.

For big business houses, incorporating an in-house digital marketing wing is a good option as the team is completely in tune with –

  • The brand’s unique history
  • Vision & Mission of the Organization
  • Objectives

Besides, extensive collaboration with other internal employees, free flow of business information and departmental synchronization help a lot in fine-tuning a strategy.

But bear in mind that this is a costly affair. For small businesses and start-ups, this could be a challenge. So calculated risk is required.

A study conducted by Bersin of Deloitte found out that the recruitment process can cost up to $4000 USD for each individual hire. In addition, reality stats revealed that 82% in-house digital marketers do not have the appropriate training required to fulfil their responsibilities.

Scenario 2 – Opting for a Freelancer

COMPREHENSIVE, COMMITMENT & CONTINUITY.

These are the 3-C issues that most of the business owners and marketing managers are encountering.

Obviously, a freelancer is a one-man show and although he or she has a unique skill set, writing a good content does not necessarily make one a creative designer.

On the other hand, freelancers often switch to other modes of earning and thereby commitment and continuity get hampered.

Thus, it can be concluded that freelancers can and should be hired for minor projects, or for making specific studies regarding market trends. By doing so, they can help save time and resources needed to officially hire a specific expert into an in-house team to conduct necessary high-end tasks.

Scenario 3 – Opting for a Digital Internet Marketing Agency

In this VUCA (Volatile, Unpredictable, Complex, Ambiguous) world, digital internet marketing agencies offer the most comprehensive solutions which incorporate major digital marketing tools. Such tools include Mobile Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Analytics and Sponsored Advertisement.

Question: Why there is a growing demand of these agencies? I’ll tell you why:

  • Result driven
  • Cost-effective
  • Time-tested

Outsourcing the work to such and agency costs about half of what it takes to employ an in-house team. Besides, a team of specialized resources and certified professionals have much higher standards compared to a freelancer chain.

An agency knows exactly how to analyze key matrices from their collective experiences and has the capability to plan a result-driven online marketing strategy to justify the Return on Investments.  

The agency knows whether multi-channel/ omnichannel/ integrated digital marketing strategy will bring the best result for your business. Netnographic information with a SOSTAC approach are effectively utilized to examine, optimize and expand promotional campaigns.

Thereby if you are looking for a high-end, specialized and result-driven solution, outsourcing the responsibility to a renowned organization would be the best solution.

There are several digital marketing agencies that are offering quality services throughout the globe. Professionally managed Digital Internet Marketing Agencies are racing ahead with their dynamic approach and innovative skills.

09, Aug 2019
Categories
Digital Internet Marketing

How Digital Internet Marketing has become an Indispensable Tool for Start-Ups

Published On: 09, Aug, 2019

Oh, hey there! First, I just want to congratulate you on having the will to think, plan and start a new initiative.

Oh, hey there! First, I just want to congratulate you on having the will to think, plan and start a new initiative. The ball has been rolled and the canvas is all yours. So go on, draw your dreams.

After interacting with several clients who had taken entrepreneurship as a challenge, I found that they had mixed emotion after stepping into the world of entrepreneurship. That is a mixture of confidence and fear of uncertainty.

Perhaps you’re able relate to this case as well. Perhaps you’re thinking of how to establish your start-up, how to brand your organization and how to justify the bold decision you had taken.

In this Red-Ocean market, it’s a fish-eats-fish world. In other words, your challenges come in the form of having to compete with other established brands and dealing customers’ excessive demands.

Hanging your hat already? Don’t go there yet. I want you to be optimistic! You are a winner. Keep on repeating that phrase every single day.

I can help you acquire a chunk of the market share. All you need is an effective marketing strategy so make that your prime weapon.

An intelligent person like you is well-aware of this fact. My job and the purpose of this article is to help you a just little bit more by guiding you on how to choose the most effective marketing channel.

Before I elaborate, let me share a few statistics:

  • In India alone, there were 462,124,989 internet users (as of December 2017), making the country ranked 2nd in terms of Internet user base. That could be a huge portion of your customers using the Internet.
  • Google boasts an average of 63,000 searches every single second of the day. Every second, your customers are asking for your services. The big question is, can they see you?
  • Digital Internet Marketing has a 14.6% conversion rate compared to 1.7% for traditional outbound methods such as cold-calling or direct mail. That is a significant difference.
  • Close to half of the world’s population (3.03 billion people) are on some type of social media. Connect to your customers personally, establish the relationship and grow your network.
  • Based on stats, it was estimated that people spent an average of 3 hours 23 minutes on their mobile devices in 2018. This will only go upwards in 2019. Make yourself ready to connect to your customers through the device that is closest to their hearts.

Stats and figures supporting digital marketing are growing each day. However, for Start-ups digital marketing is indispensable because at this stage you will have to be very wise while investing. The digital edges are:

  • Highly cost-effective, compared to other forms of media such as print, television etc.
  • No real geographical barrier. Even if you’re in a small room, you can still easily reach your global customers, interact with them and convert them into business.
  • It’s measurable. Yes, analysis is the backbone of wise decisions. Digital marketing offers you big data for strategic planning.
  • Assured return on investment. Nothing matters more to a Start-Up than a satisfactory ROI. Digital Internet Marketing offers a substantial return on small investments.
  • Brand development: Digital Internet Marketing neutralizes the playing ground, where Start-Ups compete neck to neck with Big brands. User-compelling ArtWorks, Videos, interesting content and good reviews help to establish your brand and maintain your reputation.

Hence, digital internet marketing will help you to drive your Start-up car with the following wheels:

Reach Your Customers –> Alert them about your organization –> Highlight your organization’s USPs –> Create an Interest & eventually a Demand –> Ignite the purchase action –> Serve them as promised –> Request for reviews & advocacy.

So, what do you think?

08, Jul 2019
Categories
Digital Internet Marketing

How Technology is Changing Marketing Tactics

Published On: 08, Jul, 2019

Do you have a Shopping app on your mobile? Undoubtedly, it’s a big Yes!

This is the new trend. This is where marketing has shifted to a new facet. This is what we will be adapting to.

Ever faced a situation where you felt your world was crumbling down after knowing that the snatchy dress or those sparkly designer heels you’ve always longed for were SOLD OUT?

Thanks to the NEW digital era, even the retail world is going through a massive transformation. Gone are those days when the shopkeepers used to retort, ‘this was the last piece we had in our stock’. Fret not! Consumers can now shop to their hearts’ content ONLINE via a Click! And the stocks are unlimited.

The traditional way of marketing is no more the talk of the town. Things have gone Digital – to a more tech-friendly approach. Even a ‘Click’ makes a whole lot of difference.

With the rapid growth of technology, businesses are coming up with new trends and tactics for a win-win policy. Competitions and demands are constantly brewing. Hence, staying at par with the latest technology is a vital need for survival.

The technology that people use in their daily lives is also changing. To gain a higher engagement ratio, marketers need to grab users’ interests by becoming more advanced. True, marketing used to be about art and copy, but now it’s becoming more technical- programming, code, technology utilization and analytics.

Consider marketing data as a new type of digital storytelling that is woven into the behavior or pattern of your buyer’s journey. Brand stories today are not just narratives, they are your personal experiences. Furthermore, the app technology is not distinct from the content – they are inevitable components of the same customer experience.

Technology is also transforming the way marketers do business, work together and create strategies. Over the past few years, there have been several technological advancements that play a vital role in changing the marketing industry.

We’ve gathered some of the biggest technologies that have made a huge impact:

  • Big Data
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • The Internet of Things
  • Augmented Realty

The technology that’s just being introduced today may become a major game changer in the marketing industry tomorrow. For this reason, it’s crucial for marketers to stay updated on the latest technology trends.

THE BIG QUESTION

Are you optimizing the marketing technology opportunities for your company? Because at some point, you’d want to expand your customer experiences exponentially.

Drop-in your comments. We would like to hear from you.