Why Marketing Strategy must include Video in competitive market

Why Marketing Strategy must include Video in competitive market

   November 25, 2015       prabhakardalvi

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Today my B2B marketing tip features the need for video in your marketing strategy. It is said that visual memories are the stronger memories, then imagine what message a video can send to your potential customer or prospects. Video gives you a platform to present your company’s message in a way that makes your business feel more human to viewers.

Creating video may not be an easy task, but that doesn’t mean you can’t tackle the job internally and/or under budget. Here are some useful tips that can help you through this process:

1. Keep it short: – Researchers say, 50% more people will watch a 1 minute video than a 2 minute video. So keeping your video short and to the point, will help customers to receive your message more clearly.

2. Make a video script: – You should always take some time and write out what you want to convey in your video. Make sure you gather some feedback around the script by reading it out loud to others, as reading it loud will allow you to hone your message to right length and tone.

3. Include some fun elements: – I hope you guys know that you are not launching a rocket, so why can’t you have some fun elements while you are trying to sell your vision. Show your potential customers or prospects that you have real humans working for you. Showing your human side can go long way in building trust within your audience.

4. Do not self-promote too much: – Tone of your video is very important. You need to make your potential customers or prospects feel comfortable. Tell a story instead of just pushing your viewers in the direction you want. Have them follow along instead of telling them where they need to be.

The most important thing that you as marketers need to keep in mind is that once your video is created it will not be seen by millions of people right away so it doesn’t make it a failure. View count is not the only metrics you should look at while measuring the success of your new video. To know more on metrics to track your video success STAY TUNNED!!

{{ The Guest Post Blogger organization was not involved in the creation of this content. - Dalvi Prabhakar B, Founder & Digital Manager (SEO,SEM,SMO) }}

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• Customer Segmentation Analysis And B2B Brands - Creating Profitable (guestpostbloggerworlds.blogspot.com)
• Competitors through Market Intelligence with (b2bsaleleads.wordpress.com)

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Video Marketing Strategy - Key Metrics For success

Video Marketing Strategy - Key Metrics For success

   November 25, 2015       prabhakardalvi

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In my previous post you read about why as a marketer you should include video marketing in your marketing strategy. As video marketing is an important aspect of your marketing strategy, their must also be an way out to track the success of your video. According to most of marketer view count is a metric to track video success, but that’s only the partial truth.

There are many other metrics through which you can track your new video success. Following metrics are good indicators of success:

1. Play Rate: - This educates you if video is the right medium for your message. In case your play rate is extremely low, be sure to test the location of the video. Videos below the fold are less likely to be played than those that are visible on load. Also you must make sure that the video is of a decent size on your page. Having a smaller size could decrease the rate at which it is played.
2. Engagement Rate: - This can help you to measure who have clicked play and how far they have watched your video. It is your creativity, it’s obvious that you will want people to watch your video and finish it, but necessarily it may not happen. Try to look at spots in your video where viewers have stopped watching – this could be a confusing or unappealing message to your viewers. You can re-shoot or change your video based on your inputs received.
3. Conversion Rate: - For videos whose purpose is to collect email address or convert leads, make sure you measure the video performance. Send a custom event to Google Analytics when the video is played and finished, so you know which interactions converted views have had with your video.

Video does not have to be the only channel for your business. Your first try doesn’t always have to be perfect, but it’s essential to remember to keep learning and changing strategies that doesn’t work for your business.

Related :-

• How Video Marketing Can Be Useful For Marketers?
• Reasons why your Marketing Strategy must include Video

{{ The Guest Post Blogger organization was not involved in the creation of this content. - Dalvi Prabhakar B, Founder & Digital Manager (SEO,SEM,SMO) }}

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Calculate Business ROI for Measuring Marketing Campaign

Calculate Business ROI for Measuring Marketing Campaign

   November 24, 2014       prabhakardalvi

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Calculate business ROI for measuring marketing campaign

Some goldy-oldy said about Marketers mission 

Calculate business ROI for measuring marketing campaign

“marketers must prove that they able close business in a market for own company. With global economy and company financials periods up & down. Marketers find out Good timing to prove they reach to bottom line for closing business. Vice versa in bad time they have big challenge and company expectations from marketers and set a miles-stone meet in given period. Goals and marketer’s contribution in marketing activities “engaging”, “developing customer strategy”, “handle customer experience for improve business”.”

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Why Twitter Will beat Facebook in Future Digital Market

Why Twitter Will beat Facebook in Future Digital Market

   August 20, 2014       prabhakardalvi

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Now, those who are still Facebook addicts and find it impossible to unplug from your "FB" network of friends, fans and likes, not to fear. There will always be a Facebook-like app out there that connects people, it's just that it may have a different name with different features.

Still, here are six reasons Twitter will have more staying power than Facebook:

• Twitter is a news source. We can follow news outlets and more importantly newsmakers on Twitter and get up to date, quick information. We are seeing this more and more in politics and sports where the person of interest is "broadcasting" the information they want disseminated. They determine when they want the public to "get the news." In many cases, it's unfiltered and spoken directly to that person's following. They can and sometimes do, respond directly to questions. Can Facebook be used as a news source? Absolutely, but it's predominantly a neighborhood for people to connect and share. Even more interesting is the way that media have started to quote people's Twitter posts - as if it's a quote in the paper or a soundbite for television.
• News media members have embraced Twitter. A while ago, I wrote this piece on how media members can now create and demonstrate value to their employers by creating their own personal fan base. Television news organizations have relied on things like "Q" ratings to see how "likable" their viewers find their talent. Anchors and reporters were usually not privy to that information. Today, if you want to see how well watched a news personality is, check their fans. Check their TweetReach. Consequently, savvy "social media" members are actively engaging their followers through insight, inside information and live updates on Twitter. Best of all, many are also talking to people through Twitter. Yes, they can do this on Facebook as well, but real time engagement isn't as effective as it is on Twitter.
• Engage with "famous" people on Twitter. Let's face it, famous people have Facebook Fan pages, but mostly it's one way communication. Typically, there's not much chance you're going to engage with a famous person on their Facebook page. I believe there are many reasons for this, but one may be due to the "public" nature of the wall and how information is posted. In my experience, it's easier to receive a comment back from a famous person on Twitter than on Facebook. One reason for this may be that it's simple to reply a 140 character (or less) message to someone on Twitter than on Facebook.
• Twitter is easier to use on a mobile device. Don't get me wrong, it's pretty simple to post stuff on Facebook from your mobile device, but Twitter is crazy simple. It's a matter of opening your app and posting a thought, picture or video. It's actually easier than texting. There are no "notifications" that you have new messages, no waiting for pages to open, it's quick and easy.
• It's easier to avoid annoying people on Twitter. Let's face it, we all have a handful of people that drive us nutty on Facebook. So, rather than "unfriend" them, we either put up with their inane, boring, self-serving posts or we "hide" them. My gosh, you'd hate to insult one of your Facebook "friends!" On Twitter, it's real simple. If someone bugs you - don't follow them. Honestly, how often do you comb through your Twitter followers to see who is following you? There is a personal "distance" that is built in to Twitter. A polite separation can get closer if you'd like, but generally speaking, it's not nearly as intimate as the Facebook connection.
• Commercialization will kill the Facebook experience. Marketers will ruin Facebook for a large number of people. Facebook was cool when it was like the band you liked that no one else had heard about. As soon as the band makes it big, they aren't nearly as cool. Facebook has already become that for a lot of people and now that it has become so household, marketers have found ways to tap into that audience. We can learn about our audience and find out what they like and dislike and then go sell to them. Sorry, but what about just hanging out and re-connecting with friends? It's like being at a restaurant and having someone come by every few minutes to sell you something that aligns with their demo. Ok, gasp marketing friends, but I think somewhere deep down we all know this is true.

Like I said, I'm no prognosticator and my disclaimer is that I've been wrong a million times before and that some of these points are generalizations. That said, it's just my opinion, I'd love to hear yours.

{{ The Guest Post Blogger organization was not involved in the creation of this content. - Dalvi Prabhakar B, Founder & Digital Manager (SEO,SEM,SMO) }}

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Important Ten Questions to Ask Your Digital Marketing Partner

Important Ten Questions to Ask Your Digital Marketing Partner

   July 16, 2014       prabhakardalvi

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The Top Ten Questions to Ask Your Digital Marketing Partner - Max Starkov & Mariana Mechoso Safer

It's challenging to find a good digital marketing partner these days. As more and more companies join the market as 'experts in hotel website design and digital marketing,' hoteliers are faced with a difficult decision. 

1. Do you consider yourself my property's digital marketing partner or vendor?

To achieve the highest long-term success rate, the hotelier-agency relationship must be based on trust and the client's best interests must be at the heart of everything the agency does. What does it mean to be a partner vs. a vendor?

Your digital marketing agency consistently offers proactive recommendations vs. simply "taking orders." Is your agency just an "order-taking" outfit or do they come up with consistent recommendations on how to tackle your occupancy, seasonal and other business needs? If you find yourself making all the effort to communicate with your agency first, you are working with a vendor.

Your digital marketing agency is an extension of your property's sales and marketing team. Are your agency's recommendations based on what's best for your property's business needs and what will generate the highest ROAS (Return-on-ad-spend)? Or are these recommendations based on how high a commission the agency receives? You'll need to do your research to find this out.

Your agency's company values are aligned with your values. If your partner has not identified any brand values, it has not clearly positioned itself in the marketplace. A team that stands behind its values strives to provide excellent customer service and produces better results for its clients. Aligned goals build authenticity and trust between a digital marketing agency and its clients.

2. Are you utilizing any proprietary digital marketing technology?

Digital marketing is becoming increasingly complex, especially compared to what it was just over 3-4 years ago. In this day and age, there is a complete convergence between digital marketing and digital technology. Crucial revenue-generating initiatives such as Meta Search Marketing, Dynamic Rate Marketing, and Content Management Systems equipped with personalized marketing capabilities are an equal part technology and marketing.

Today, you should choose a partner that has both digital technology and digital marketing capabilities under one roof to help you keep up with the rapid development and marketing opportunities available in the industry.

In this multi-device world we live in, hoteliers must meet the needs of their guests on each device. This means investing in technology that allows for the best user experience on the three screens: desktop, mobile and tablet, which many hoteliers find hard to do due to their website's antiquated Content Management System (CMS) technology.

Your digital marketing partner should be able to develop technology in-house that you can benefit from. Examples include a CMS with functionality developed specifically for the hospitality industry, interactive marketing applications, social media applications, dynamic rate marketing technology, and meta search marketing enablement technology.

3. What percentage of your total business is dedicated to providing digital marketing and web services?

A company that has too many 'core competencies' often finds itself not excelling in any of them. Giant global companies like Sony claim to have only two core competencies. Ask your marketing firm what percentage of their business is dedicated to digital marketing and web services. If you are working with a firm where these services constitute only a small part of their overall service offerings, you are taking a risk that your business will not be as important to them. There is also the chance that the team dedicated to your account, if you do have a dedicated team and not a general 'client services department contact email/phone number,' also has other responsibilities that can take them away from providing your account the attention it deserves.

4. What percentage of your clients are in the hospitality space?

The answer to this one should be close to 100% because of the uniqueness, complexity, and fast moving dynamics of the industry. Hoteliers need customized, expert advice that is specific to their needs.

This multi-billion hospitality industry is so large and dynamic that specialization in hospitality provides a unique and competitive advantage to mixed-industry and GDS-focused companies that are late and inexperienced to the online hospitality channel.

5. Do you offer full-service digital marketing?

Managing multiple vendor relationships is a job in itself. By partnering with an agency that offers full-service digital marketing, your team can stay efficient and focused. Does you agency offer the full spectrum of digital marketing initiatives such as website design and CMS technology to SEO, SEM, online media and retargeting, dynamic rate marketing, meta search marketing, social media, mobile marketing, and email marketing?

Additionally, the more vendors involved, the higher the chance for mistakes, campaigns that do not produce, and communication struggles.

For digital marketing campaigns to generate the highest ROIs possible, goals and teams need to be fully aligned. For instance, Paid Search and SEO go hand in hand. Google updates its search algorithm 500 times each year, and the Panda and Hummingbird updates directly affected how Google indexes and values the underlying website landing pages. With Google constantly updating its algorithm, paid search professionals must treat search dynamically. SEM should align with the site's SEO in order to maintain a high Quality Index. Managing your SEO strategy should include a business analysis, comp set analysis, keyword analysis, etc., and having another company manage paid search, which includes exactly the same business analysis, comp set analysis, and keyword analysis, translates to double the work and double the cost.

6. Is multi-channel marketing part of the overall strategy for each client?

In today's multi-device, multi-touch world, digital marketing must be handled in a multi-channel campaign fashion to reach consumers at every touch point. All three screens (desktop, mobile and tablet) must be integrated in the hotel's multi-channel marketing strategy. These campaigns utilize the right combination of online channels effectively (paid search, email marketing, SEO, online media, social media, etc.) to promote one campaign theme. This strategy is the most effective way to increase reach and boost revenues for a need period.

7. Do you offer Dynamic Rate Marketing?

Today's always-connected traveler demands instantaneous hotel information with real-time pricing and resents any type of price promotion that feels like bait and switch.

The latest digital technology and marketing innovation available to hoteliers, Dynamic Rate Marketing, enables marketing campaigns featuring the property's real-time availability and rates. DRM is a next-generation direct-response marketing category, which allows real-time hotel inventory availability and pricing to be inserted in various marketing initiatives: from meta search to banner advertising, paid search to email marketing.

Does your agency utilize the technology needed to support Dynamic Rate Marketing? Dynamic Rate Marketing offers a multitude of benefits for both the travel consumer and hotelier. By combining online advertising and marketing campaigns with real-time hotel inventory availability and pricing, hoteliers can satisfy travelers' demands for instant and truthful hotel pricing information, as well as respond in real time to changing market conditions and comp set behavior. The main benefit here is that advertised rates in ad campaigns (banners, meta search, email, etc.) change automatically when the hotel changes their rates in the PMS or CRS.

The results? DRM dramatically increases campaign effectiveness, boosts conversion rates, and increases direct online bookings

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8. What percentage of the work on my account is handled in-house?

In-house services translates to total control over the quality of the work as well as the ability to offer services at more competitive prices. If your partner is outsourcing any or most of the business, you may be charged a higher commission than you realize and you will not have direct communication with the people who are handling your account. More services done in-house means less room for error, more intelligence surrounding the status of your marketing initiatives, and quicker turnaround times.

9. How many people work at your firm?

A team of 60-70 people is the absolute minimum for a digital technology+marketing firm to be able to handle all of the complexities of today's digital world: from SEO and Paid Search, online media and retargeting, social media and mobile marketing, dynamic rate marketing and meta search, website design and CMS technologies, dynamic content personalization, and more. Smaller and "one-man-team" agencies simply cannot handle today's complexities and there is a high likelihood of outsourcing or not having the resources you need available to drive the online revenues your property is capable of producing.

10. Are your employees considered industry though leaders and experts?

The management and employees of many digital marketing agencies that offer their services to the industry have no hospitality experience. They don't understand the needs of the hotelier, do not speak their language, and are incapable of providing the consulting and strategy services needed to grow the direct online channel.

Are employees published authors on hot industry topics and best practices related to online distribution and marketing? Also, ask your agency if their principals and experts are frequent guest speakers at major hospitality and digital marketing industry events and conferences. A company that employs team members who are frequently asked to share their expertise at major industry events every year is a company made up of thought leaders. The wider the variety of subjects they are asked to speak about, the better.

A company that is passionate about what it does also wants to stay ahead of the curve, creating products and services that will benefit the marketplace and its clients. In the highly competitive hospitality industry, this is a must. Hotels that fail to work with innovative digital marketing partners run the risk of losing market share, operating inefficiently and running campaigns with decreasing ROIs.

Important Ten Questions to Ask Your Digital Marketing Partner

When choosing your digital marketing partner, look at the web as the most critical and fastest growing revenue stream for the property. You should not settle for anything less than the best, a firm that will lead your property in achieving maximum revenue from the property website/direct online channel.

{{ The Guest Post Blogger organization was not involved in the creation of this content. - Dalvi Prabhakar B., Founder & Digital Manager (SEO,SEM,SMO) }}

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Tips For Promoting Your Business Page On Facebook - Prabhakar

Tips For Promoting Your Business Page On Facebook - Prabhakar

   July 14, 2014       prabhakardalvi

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Tips For Promoting Your Business Page On Facebook – B2B Marketing And Sales Tip 

Written by Ellie Mirman, blogger at the HubSpot Internet Marketing Blog and Inbound Marketer at Internet Marketing company HubSpot.

So you’ve got a Facebook Business Page… Now what? Building a Business Page is one of the best ways to increase your presence and engage more potential customers on Facebook, but it’s more than just clicking “Create Page”. As you venture out into the social media world, here are a few tips to help you promote your Page and reach more of the 100 million Facebook users.

Create a Facebook Business Page worth becoming a fan of.

To quote David Meerman Scott, nobody cares about your products and services (except you). People care about how you can help them solve their problems. To extend that thought to Facebook, don’t use your Facebook Page to talk about your products all the time. People aren’t interested. Instead, create some interesting, useful content that people want to receive. This could be blog posts, whitepapers, or simply discussions.

Take advantage of the viral nature of Facebook.

Facebook provides great opportunities for viral marketing. Facebook creates a “News Feed” of your friends’ activities on Facebook, like posting photos, changing statuses, or becoming fans of a Page. What this means is that every time someone interacts with your Page in some way, that action is published across all of their friends’ News Feeds, giving you exposure to that person’s entire network. The best way to take advantage of this is to engage your users and give them more opportunities to interact with your Page, for example, by fostering discussions, inviting them to events, allowing them to post links. Leveraging the power of the News Feed is a critical part of establishing your presence on Facebook and building a fan base for spreading your messages.

Don’t forget to draw on your network.

All promotion does not need to take place within Facebook. Feel free to email your opt-in e-mail list, blog about your Page, and post a link to your Page on your company website. The best people to help you build up your fan base for your Business Page on Facebook are those people already subscribed to your blog or engaged with you in some way.

Optimize your Page for Facebook – and public – search.

Another way to get found and build your fan base is through Facebook’s search. Facebook – like all other search engines (Facebook was noted the most used people search engine) – has an undisclosed algorithm that ranks search results in a way that aims to return relevant and useful results to the searcher. The best think you can do to show up higher in these search results is to build a large following of your existing fans, because entities with a larger network tend to show up higher in search results. Also note that Facebook Business Pages are public and indexable by search engines. This potentially gives you exposure to those searching in broader search engines like Google. To make the most of this, start lots of engaging discussion threads on your Page, so that if someone is searching in Google on that very topic, they can stumble upon your Facebook Page and discussion thread.

Get an extra push with Facebook Ads.

If you want to give your Business Page an extra push at the beginning, you can also buy some advertising slots. Note that Facebook ads are much less effective than the viral marketing options on Facebook, and the click through rate for Facebook ads is notoriously low. Facebook advertisements show up on the sidebar as users browse through their friends’ profiles, groups, and so on. When you set up your ad, be sure to include “social ads” – these draw on a users’ network to see who in their network has already engaged with your Page and shows, for example, “Jim Smith is a fan of Company ABC” next to your ad, potentially improving your click through rate. Also, make sure that you give viewers a relevant reason to click on your ad by inviting them to connect with industry peers or offering a free whitepaper, for example. Also in this vein, note that you can target your ads by age, gender, interests, geography, and other factors, to reach users who may be more interested in your Business Page.

Bonus Tip: Measure your results.

Once you’ve built up your Facebook Page it’s good to measure what you’re actually getting out of your social media program. Some metrics you may want to measure are:  number of fans, page views, and unique users. Facebook’s “Insights” provide some of these metrics, including demographic data. You’ll also want to track actions beyond your Facebook Page, namely, website traffic, leads, and sales that come from Facebook. Hopefully some of these tips will help you get your Facebook Business Page off the ground and build it into a valuable channel for reaching your potential customers.

All this said, social media, including Facebook, is by no means static. It is constantly changing and we, as marketers, are constantly learning the right way to leverage these channels for marketing. If you want to see what we at HubSpot have done, you can become a fan of our Page at http://facebook.hubspot.com. And, if you’re looking to network with other marketers on Facebook, you may be interested in the Facebook Pro Marketers group, a group for marketers passionate about marketing. Perhaps there we can continue discussing ideas for marketing on Facebook.

{{ The Guest Post Blogger organization was not involved in the creation of this content. - Dalvi Prabhakar B., Founder & Digital Manager (SEO,SEM,SMO) }}

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Metrics for E-commerce Retailer with Content Marketing

Metrics for E-commerce Retailer with Content Marketing

   July 03, 2014       prabhakardalvi

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Online retail marketers spend a significant amount of time and money attracting visitors to their stores, converting these visitors to customers and retaining them as customers over time. Content marketing helps at each stage of the marketing funnel.

Right at the top of the funnel, content marketing in the form of blogging, visuals, videos, guides, articles and media engagement all work to drive relevant traffic through to a store as well as kick off brand awareness. When visitors start to browse through products in your store, content marketing in the form of product videos, quality reviews (user generated content), FAQs, product description and images come to play with converting traffic to sales. Finally, customer loyalty efforts geared to generating more repeat customers are largely fueled by an email marketing strategy that imperatively connects with your brands overarching content marketing strategy.

It is vital to measure the effectiveness of these measures as a guide to future efforts. 

The word “metrics” is on everyone’s lips in the content marketing world, as metrics are a gauge on the effectiveness of marketing spend. There is, however, a slew of different metrics available to marketers. Which ones merit scrutiny?

1. Returning visitors

This is an important metric from a content marketing viewpoint because visitors who return to your site directly — who aren’t funnelled there by other marketing channels — are a guide to how useful people found content from your site the last time they came.  In other words, it’s a measure of how good your content is!

The quality of your content matters because it increases the “stickiness” of your site, and because it increases the likelihood of turning visitors into customers. Furthermore, high quality content that delivers return visitors is one of the means by which you can build relationships with your “top 1 percent” customers.

Ideally, what you want is your top 1 percent customers returning often, rather than many “bottom 90 percent” customers returning once or twice. That’s about targeted content and fragmented phased-out content that stimulates audience suspense similar to TV sitcoms.

2. Pages per visit

The average number of pages a visitor looks at during a browsing session. This figure provides some indication of site engagement in broad terms. If visitors read only one page, it indicates they aren’t finding the site very useful. If they stay and read 10 pages, they’re obviously seeing value in what your site has to offer. In e-commerce, this is a vital metric because visitors are most likely “window-shopping” on your site. The longer a visitor spends on your site, the more engaged they are and more likely they are to buying.

A vital part of this is bounce rate – how many visitors simply bounce right off the site after viewing only one page? Factors known to increase bounce rate include page load times, as well as a poor connection between content marketing and site content. If your content marketing attracts visitors who are basically uninterested in what you do, they’ll bounce. This is worth looking at in isolation as well as part of the whole picture provided by pages per visit metrics.

3. Time on site

Time on site indicates the amount of time a visitor spent doing anything at all on your site. As such, it indicates interest, engagement and likely purchase. As a general indicator of site performance, this is key. It’s also important because more engaged customers are usually better customers. Comparatively high time on site is an indicator of commitment to your brand – a feature of the “top 1 percent” customer. You can break down the time on site figures to see which people are spending more time with you, allowing you to optimize your content for the customers who make the biggest difference to your company.

4. Increased traffic

Increased traffic is the basic aim of content marketers. From social media to your blog to your sales pages, good content marketing should increase your traffic.

For e-commerce, more people coming in through the door means more sales and more revenue. Again though, it’s wise to differentiate between more traffic and more useful traffic. More visitors who display lower secondary conversion, lower pages per visit and so on, are not necessarily what you should be looking for. Boosting traffic should be seen as a way to increase the number of potential top 1 percent and top 10 percent customers coming to your e-commerce store. That’s about targeted content.

Engagement Metrics

5. Sharing content

How much of your content gets shared across social networks? That’s a key metric for content marketers in any sphere: it’s a measurement of how many people think your material is good enough to show their friends or pass on to professional contacts. It also feeds into your social marketing strategy: knowing which channels your content is shared on lets you know which channels to concentrate on, and which to optimize your content for.

From an e-commerce standpoint, sharing content is another indicator of the engagement of your top 1 percent customers. Higher engagement from this group is disproportionately rewarding in terms of sales and per-sale revenue. called “comments per post,” and it measures the number of times visitors post responses, feedback, reviews or any other form of commentary. This is a key metric for content marketing because it’s a measurement of engagement. This can provide insight into the topics that customers want to engage with.

Specifically for e-commerce, a reviews section provides an important guide for future customers. Customers and prospective customers take reviews extremely seriously, and they make a major difference to sales. From personal experience buying running shoes online, I value reviews from customers in specialist running online stores against reviews from behemoths such as Amazon or eBay because my inclination is that specialist store customers would be more discerning and knowledgeable. Online retailers should create a stimulating experience that encourages reviews and user-generated content in general — there is so much value to be had here.

7. Time

Most social media management tools offer metrics that let you find out what time of day and which days your posts see the most engagement. Obviously, you’d expect different demographics to have different engagement profiles – if you sell products aimed at middle-aged fishermen you’d expect to see a lot less action at 2 a.m. than if you sold concert tickets to youth-oriented events, for instance. Checking out when your audience is active lets you build your posting schedule around those times. You can take that information and measure it against your conversions at your store.

Suppose you get the most social media engagement at 9 a.m. on Thursdays, and most of your sales are at 9:30 on Thursdays. A link that fast seems unlikely to be causal. But what about secondary conversions? A spike in social engagement, followed by a spike in traffic, followed by a spike in sign-ups, all suggests that your social and other content marketing is working extremely effectively.

Business Metrics

8. Conversion rate

In online retail, sales are primary conversion metrics. Drawing a direct link between content that you create at each stage of the marketing funnel and your sales can be tricky, but multi-attribution modeling helps establish a link to sales conversions more easily. Also consider measuring “secondary conversions” such as email list subscriptions, buyer guide downloads and any form of engagement that requires commitment on the part of the visitor. Growing an email list is a vital conversion metric to measure.

It is a vital metric because it indicates a wider spread of visitors who might not be buying yet, but they’re interested enough to download material, to sign up or to otherwise indicate their interest. Additionally, higher engagement is a characteristic of the top 1 percent of your customers – the ones who actually contribute the most to your success.

9. Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

Customer lifetime value is a measure of how much a customer is worth to your company overall, across the time of their association with your company. The average customer is going to make around two purchases throughout their association with you. The top 1 percent of your customers will, measured across their CLV, be worth around 30 times more than the average – reason enough to concentrate on these high-value customers.

Analyzing customer lifetime value lets you see whether you’re getting the customers you want. It’s actually more efficient to appeal strongly to a smaller number of customers than to appeal weakly to a larger number of less engaged, less interested customers who will, ultimately, spend far less with you. If you’re appealing to high value customers, your content marketing strategy is working!

10. Revenue

Finally, what it’s all about. Revenue is the most important metric, for obvious reasons: you can’t pay your employees with click-through, or make a house payment with secondary conversions. But how do we look at revenue from a content marketing perspective?

One way is to track purchases through the whole process, and see what content they viewed prior to the purchase decision. If a visitor viewed three pieces of content on your website and then made a €90 purchase, each piece of content is worth €30, right? Sort of. But that’s too simplistic for such a complex picture. It doesn’t take into account social marketing, or repeat customers – in their case, you’d need to factor in the content they looked at last time too. Use purchase value/pieces of content viewed as a rule of thumb, but remember how vague it is. It will give you an average at best.

Another way of looking at revenue is to measure conversion value. It’s a broader approach that looks at all the costs involved against the sales value and it usually means looking at the mass of sales.

Conclusion

The most useful metric for tracking success overall is customer lifetime value measured against the aggregate cost of customer acquisition. Customer acquisition costs include all marketing costs, not just content marketing. But content marketing costs will be significantly reduced per customer if those customers have high lifetime value, because high lifetime value customers are interested in more of your content, so less of it “misses.”

{{ The Guest Post Blogger organization was not involved in the creation of this content. - Dalvi Prabhakar B., Founder & Digital Manager (SEO,SEM,SMO) }}

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Marketing Strategies for Developed And Developing Markets - Prabhakar

Marketing Strategies for Developed And Developing Markets - Prabhakar

   July 01, 2014       prabhakardalvi

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Interest in developing markets such as China, India, Brazil and Russia has increased rapidly over the past ten years, meaning that market research and intelligence agencies are exploring a wider variety of geographies than ever before. This presents numerous challenges throughout the market research process, for fieldworkers, managers and analysts alike. This article discusses perhaps the most important issue of all – the different insights that tend to arise in different geographies. In particular, how do the critical marketing success factors in the developing and developed worlds differ from each other?

Developed And Developing Markets Product

In most business-to-business markets, customers regard product quality and durability as a ‘hygiene’ requirement; performance must be high in order for the supplier of that product to even be considered. Companies with low quality are not in business for long, leaving serious market players to differentiate on the extended offer – service, brand and the like. In developing markets, good quality is often not even a hygiene requirement, let alone a differentiator. 80%-90% of buyers of pump and instrumentation products in Russia or China are happy to buy products that last 18-24 months whereas their Western counterparts demand a lifespan of 6-7 years or more. This results in a preponderance of low-quality buyers in the developing market, and quality becomes a key differentiating factor for the small group of customers that demand it.

To the Western company with a high cost-base and high-quality product, the best strategy in a developing market is to cream-skim the market by targeting the 10%-20% of quality-focused buyers. In developed markets, suppliers are best advised to focus on service quality, knowledge and people, while of course maintaining high quality standards. -- Recommended Marketing Strategies In Developed And Developing Markets

Developed And Developing Markets Price

Value-added pricing is common in developed markets – that is to say buyers are willing to pay more for a superior offer, usually based around service, brand, consultancy and other benefits beyond the product itself. In developing economies, the willingness to pay extra for a superior offer is far less prevalent, with most b2b buyers relating price primarily to quantity.

Developing markets 2 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Western clients tend to premium-price in developing markets, communicating high quality to a small part of the market and receiving high margins in return. Even companies that are relatively undifferentiated in their home markets frequently succeed when premium-pricing in developing countries. Consumer brands such as Pizza Hut have experienced huge success with this strategy.

In developed markets, the picture is far less clear, with customers generally more demanding and high-quality competition more prevalent. This is where specialist pricing research comes into its own, be that competitive pricing intelligence or more model-based techniques such as SIMALTO and conjoint analysis.

Developed And Developing Markets Place

Western businesses frequently underestimate the difficulties associated with routes to market in developing economies. Whereas market channels in the company’s home market may be long-established and familiar, channels in a developing market may be unrecognisable, fragmented, ephemeral and highly dependent on local knowledge and relationships. Many Western consumer-facing companies are experiencing real success in developing markets in this respect, with shampoo and cosmetic providers, for example, making huge profits in rural cities via local distributors and retailers. Industrial companies have been slower to build up their knowledge, many still relying on generic import-export agents and a low-quality, poorly trained salesforce. Underestimating the importance of a permanent on-the-ground presence and even local-language capability is another common mistake.

Developed And Developing Markets Promotion

In any b2b market, promotional messages should focus on customers’ ‘hot buttons’: product quality or price in developing markets; and in developed markets, service, brand, consultancy and other value-added messages. Promotional routes will also differ. While direct mail is increasing in prevalence in most developing b2b markets, it is still a scarcely used and ineffective marketing channel in these countries. Relationship-focused promotion, such as trade shows and site visits, is key, since trust in brands is in short supply.

{{ The Guest Post Blogger organization was not involved in the creation of this content. - Dalvi Prabhakar B., Founder & Digital Manager (SEO,SEM,SMO) }}

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World of Industrial Distribution changing with B2B Revolutions

World of Industrial Distribution changing with B2B Revolutions

   July 01, 2014       prabhakardalvi

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Using distributors as an alternative to selling direct is very far from being a soft option, though it may be inevitable. Here we consider the manufacturer distributor relationship and look at its three commonest problems.

Industrial distribution has grown apace over the last 30 years. It has been driven by pressures of ever increasing selling costs and the demands from users for rapid service. Industrial companies which previously managed their own direct salesforces are having to learn how to pick distributors; and they are finding out the difficulties of training and guiding distributors' selling efforts. The skills which the industrial marketer needs today are not those of motivating reps to seek inquiries and stimulate sales but in pulling the demand through the distributor chain.

The term "distributor" is used loosely to cover a wide range of middlemen. In its strictest sense a distributor should:

1. Purchase goods from his supplier for stock;
2. Actively promote and sell this stock to users;
3. Provide advice and service as appropriate for the product he sells;
4. Invoice and collect money from his customers.

Usually a distributor is appointed by a manufacturer and may well operate a franchise for just one type of product. Kango hammer distributors could not sell Hilti or Bosch hammers but there is nothing to stop them selling a whole range of compressors and air tools which make a sympathetic product line up. Thus a distributor is very different to a wholly owned company depot, as independence allows it to stock a range of different products to suit customers' demands.

Mostly distributors are not formally appointed and sell whatever brands they like. Electrical wholesalers usually sell three or four brands of cable, and their allegiance to their supplier may stop with the price. The purist distinguishes between this wholesaling activity and the appointed distributor. From the manufacturer's point of view, selling trucks through distributors or lubricants via engineers' merchants pose similar problems of pulling demand through a sales outlet which they do not own.

To understand the motivations of the distributor and the manufacturer it is necessary to consider the driving force which brings them together. First let us consider how distributors begin. Often they start life as sales agencies - someone who has worked in an industry for a period sets up on their own selling a product he/she understands to customers he knows. Usually the product is a consumable or standard equipment costing tens to hundreds of pounds. It is a short step for the agent to add new and complementary products, get a small unit on a trading estate and buy and sell stock rather than take a commission.

The origins of the distributor require characteristics of local specialization and an entrepreneurial culture. The key to everything is stock turn and margins. A fast moving consumable may have a 25 per cent margin (i.e. a 33 per cent mark up) while a piece of kit which turns over at a slower rate may command a 40/50 per cent margin (i.e. a 66 per cent to 100 per cent mark up). - The Changing World of Industrial Distribution

The entrepreneurial distributor, originally the salesman, soon becomes desk bound and spends time on the important function of buying. A sales team is employed and being entrepreneurial the salaries are modest in the hope that commission will provide the incentive to sell.

Counter staff are paid peanuts. The whole essence of the distributorship has become a pipeline with buying and selling as the principal functions.

The manufacturer or principal on the other hand is moving away from being sales orientated. The manufacturer wants to cut back directly employed sales staff and focus on niches of demand. The manufacturer wants to concentrate on creating awareness and demand for the product through advertising. A system is needed for ensuring customers can easily obtain products anywhere in the country. A wholly owned depot is usually expensive and so the move to distribution. Distributors have a deep knowledge of local markets. They buy in bulk and save the manufacturer the trouble of sending out hundreds of invoices (which the law of averages says will have a fair peppering of bad debts). The distributor's stock saves the manufacturer space and money.

Of course, not all industrial products are suited to the distribution route. In general standard products pitched at a large and diverse target market and requiring a low level of technical competence in the salesforce are most readily suited to distributors.

The three most common sources of problems between manufacturers and distributors relate to excessive discounting, territorial disputes and arguments over the lack of distributors’ promotional efforts.

Disputes over excessive discounting by distributors.

Distributors work to a list price set by their principals and offer discounts to their own customers. Sometimes fierce local competition causes these discounts to get out of hand.

For example, since 1980 electrical wholesalers have been forced to offer larger discounts to stop their customers (the electrical contractors) buying from DIY superstores. The pressure on prices spirals backwards to the manufacturers who periodically try to tame the distribution network. Disputes are frequent where products are of high value (or bought in volume) and an extra one per cent is worth a fight. Office equipment, commercial vehicles and compressors have become battlegrounds with discounts the main weapon. Peace is restored if demand rises and the availability of products become restricted.

There is, however, much that manufacturers themselves can do. If Mita promote their copiers as being of a higher quality than others, their distributors do not need to cut prices as fiercely. Volvo trucks with a reputation for reliability and high residual values will not be discounted to the same extent as Renault or Ford.

Disputes About Geographical Areas

Distributors quite naturally want exclusivity in the territory where they sell. Manufacturers may be insensitive to this issue, preferring a multiplicity of distributors in a region - in the hope that the wider spread of sales outlets will ensure more product will hit the target.

If the product is a high turnover consumable such as abrasive discs, plumbers' requisites, cable, cutting tools and the like, the distributor cannot hope to be granted exclusivity. In any case the buyer of the consumable seldom specifies a brand for this type of product, and the distributor wins business by offering a wide range, a high level of availability, excellent service and good prices.

However, where makes or brands are specified, geographical disputes between competing distributors can occur. If buyers buy locally, as in the case of shot blasting equipment, the principal can afford to carve the country into regions. If buyers buy nationally, as in the case of trucks, truck bodies and associated gear, there cannot be any geographical boundaries, and each distributor must accept competition with others. In practice, the franchise of a truck distributor is one of around only 20 to 30 spread across the UK, and in any area a distributor has the advantage of a local following which gives a lead over his fellow franchisees in other regions.

Disputes About Distributors' Selling Efforts And Promotion

Manufacturers soon find out that they have little or no control over their distributors' sales efforts. In fact if a manufacturer tries to encourage a distributor's salesforce with training or incentives, it may well suffer a rebuff. The distributor doesn't want its salesforce locked in to one product. Furthermore a day out on a manufacturer's training course is a day ('off the road") and has to be paid for.

The manufacturer recognising these limitations of the distributor is tempted to adopt a hybrid approach, using its own salesforce to cherry pick the largest and most worthwhile accounts and leave the distributor to sweep up the rest. Distrust arises and the distributor starts to ignore the franchise guidelines and even double deal, offering alternative products even though a franchise agreement may prohibit this.

The manufacturer must be quite clear about the trading arrangements from the start. Amicable solutions can be worked out based on the purchasing power of customers (over a certain size could be handled direct) or by end use (military customers may be handled direct). Introduction fees can be given to distributors to maintain their interest and keep them happy. - B2B-Internet

{{ The Guest Post Blogger organization was not involved in the creation of this content. - Dalvi Prabhakar B., Founder & Digital Manager (SEO,SEM,SMO) }}

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How Today Digital Marketing Organization on Turning Point for Big Changes

How Today Digital Marketing Organization on Turning Point for Big Changes

   June 04, 2014       prabhakardalvi

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How Today Digital Marketing Organization on Turning Point Changes

The explosive growth of digital marketing is driving a significant organizational transformation in which chief marketing officers (CMOs) can redefine and elevate their role as never before. Today’s CMOs now have a broadest of tools to impact and optimize customer experiences and ultimately drive revenue for their company And thanks to recent advances in closed-loop marketing, CMOs can measure and demonstrate the effectiveness of their digital marketing efforts in terms of customer acquisition, customer retention, and revenue growth. His level of measurement is transforming the role of the CMO within organizations, paving the way for“21st-century CMOs” whose tenure is on the rise as they become an indispensable asset to companies.

In fact, according to a 2010 Spencer Stuart survey, the average CMO tenure has risen nearly 50% in the past two years, from 23.2 months to over 34 months. Today’s 21st-century CMOs are pursuing digital marketing across a large number of channels simultaneously.

As they do, they leverage the capabilities inherent in next-generation web content management (WCM) platforms to strike a balance between two conflicting goals: to spread branding and messaging as widely as possible, and to maintain control over their content as they deliver branding and experiences appropriate teach unique channel.

His paper highlights the advances in closed-loop marketing that enable measurement and optimization of digital marketing efforts. It also describes the challenges that CMOs face when pursuing digital marketing strategies and how next-generation WCM solutions help CMOs overcome those challenges.

Demonstrating CMOs top-line contribution

As recently as 2008, the average CMO tenure was less than two years, due in large part to the inability of Cost clearly identify and articulate marketing’s role and to prove its value to the organization (from Brand week ), “CMOs Are Staying in Jobs Longer,” June 25, 2010). This shortcoming has helped fuel the popular belief that marketing is not as critical to business operations as sales, engineering, or finance. In fact, the results of recent Forrester Research survey, “Corporate Marketing: Does It Matter?”, reveal that fewer than 50% of marketers view themselves as responsible for increasing top-line growth or increasing profitability.

But recent advances in closed-loop marketing are enabling CMOs to significantly raise the level of understanding regarding the origin and quality of sales leads developed by marketing, providing organizations with quantifiable business results that can either indemnify or indict a CMO. The following capabilities provide MOs with a wealth of data for measuring digital marketing results—everything needed to engage a prospect and move them through the sales funnel:

• Multichannel campaign management

• Campaign and email analytics, such as opens, bounces, click-through

• Multivariate testing

• Landing page optimization

• Email marketing and analytics with results in hand, CMOs have begun to step into the spotlight., As more and more organizations recognize the growing impact of CMO performance on their bottom line, CMOs are seeing their performance evaluations aligned more tightly to revenue.

Digital marketing: Addressing and re-addressing customers

Digital marketing essentially transforms marketing from a transaction-based monologue to an interactive conversation with customers and prospects taking place on any digital media, be it a smartphone, table device, kiosk, computer, or television. If done in an integrated and methodical manner, digital marketing can help marketers grow their pipelines with more of today’s savvy digital channel customers who seek to be engaged, rather than merely sold to, by vendors.

Addressing and re-addressing the customer is key to success. 

For digital marketing efforts to succeed, cozened to focus on the manner in which they address their customers across the differing online channels. Not all channels are the same. For example, customers using tablet devices might be drawn to an interactive, game-styled promotion while computer-centered customers seek in-depth educational materials.

The challenge for CMOs is to maintain consistent branding and messaging while delivering channel-appropriate experiences that engage each distinct audience. Having the right tools and processes in place to control and improve the user experience in each channel is essential. In essence, a multichannel engagement system—or next-generation WCM—is required to fulfill the digital marketing goals of 21st-century CMOs.

CMOs that do not embrace the benefits of interactive and closed-loop marketing will struggle to compete with their peers and can expect short tenures. Jeff Bell, vice president of global marketing at Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business, foresaw this trend years ago. According to Bell, “The shorter tenure is in part reflection of the change from failing traditional-marketing approaches to less-defined and more dynamic approaches. Clearly the skill set of CMOs is changing from ‘TV, TV and more TV’ to interactive media.”

But even the savviest CMOs face tremendous challenges when implementing digital marketing programs. Firsthand foremost, they are charged with numerous responsibilities that detract from digital marketing efforts, namely the critical activities listed in the following table. 

Marketing must usually manage the applications and external vendors that support these activities, which means overseeing a disparate set of systems and vendors to get the job done. The list can be quite daunting, and includes everything from marketing automation and business intelligence software to providers of customer data and event-triggered marketing.

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Digital Marketing Guidelines for who want to Increase Sales ROI

Digital Marketing Guidelines for who want to Increase Sales ROI

   June 04, 2014       prabhakardalvi

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In simplistic terms, digital marketing is the promotion of products or brands via one or more forms of electronic media. Digital marketing differs from traditional marketing in that it involves the use of channels and methods that enable an organization to analyze marketing campaigns and Understand what is working and what isn't – Typically in real time. 

Digital Marketing Guidelines for who want to Increase Sales ROI

Why is digital marketing so important?

Digital marketers monitor things like what is being viewed, how often and for how long, sales conversions, what content Works and doesn't work, etc. While the Internet is, perhaps, the channel most closely associated With digital marketing, others include wireless text messaging, mobile instant messaging, mobile apps, podcast, electronic billboards, digital television and radio channels, etc.

Because it is not only a rapidly growing force in the current marketing playing field, it is set to be the future of marketing, and it seems likely that digital media will soon replace more traditional forms altogether. Digital marketing is infinitely more affordable than traditional offline marketing methods. An email or social media campaign, for example, can transmit a marketing message to consumers for the merest fraction of the cost of a TV ad or print campaign, and potentially reach a wider audience. 

But one of the main benefits of conducting your marketing digitally is the ease with which results can be tracked and monitored. Rather than conducting expensive customer research, you can quickly view customer response rates and measure the success of your marketing campaign in real-time, enabling you to plan more effectively for the next one. 

The facts are that digital methods of communication and marketing are faster, more versatile, practical and streamlined, so it is perhaps unsurprising that once the technology became available we began quickly moving into the digital age. 

The good news is that digital offers just as much potential to marketers as it does to consumers. The bottom line is, the digital age is here, and those businesses that fail to adapt to the new marketing climate are at great risk of going extinct sooner rather than later.

The importance of using digital marketing channels, The use of digital marketing channels is key if you want to reach your clients, says Dez Derry. Law firms are still not using social media properly Article by asking you a simple question. When did you last go online? Being online is not just about checking social media, reading news stories or shopping.  

Your emails came to you online, the text messages on your phone may well have been transferred in part via an online system, and your TV broadcaster can use the internet to update your listings or subscription to your set top box. My point is online digital channels are everywhere, yet there are still a lot of law firms lacking any Desire to embrace digital channels fully. 

We’re now at a stage where an entire generation of young adults do not remember what the world was like before the internet. For them it is something that has simply always been there and in turn they’re influencing other generations to use digital channels to find the services they need. 

The legal sector needs to start acting now and make the most of what is no longer a digital revolution but is now a digital normality. Other business sectors have embraced digital marketing and it has done wonders for them. Looking at retail, it ’s hard to find anyone that’s not at least once purchased something online via Amazon or had their weekly supermarket shopping delivered. 

In fact the UK’s online retail association IMRG and consultants Cap Gemini predict that this year online retailers will earn over £10bn for the first time ever, and that’s just in December, so why shouldn’t law firms also Take a cut? Different digital channels offer different solutions for growing your business and using them together can make a massive difference.

Telling people who are:

Website: This is your most important digital channel and the place where your online clients will learn the most about you. Easy to understand content needs to be updated regularly with the whole site mobile optimized too, meaning it can be viewed on any device. This is increasingly important with figures published by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) showing that globally 1.2 billion people access the web via mobile broadband.

Video: A video on your website gives your firm a personality and allows you to get across information that isn’t always easy with text alone. It also keeps people on your homepage for longer which means your clients are more likely to get in touch and become a paying client. Showing how professional you are in your videos will also reflect how professional you are in the services you offer.

Search Engines: Following the previous steps will help your website appear above your competitors in the results of search engines like Google, when a potential client is searching for a service you offer. You can increase this further by looking at pay-per click (PPC) campaigns to refine exactly where you appear when certain search keywords are used. A full service digital agency can assist you in creating a PPC campaign so you’re able to generate good leads and analyses how well the campaign is working.

Reaching a wider audience:

• Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn are where peer recommendation come into play. Being on social media allows current clients to talk about how great your service independently. It also gives you a chance to add links to your blog and your website, while also interacting with potential new clients.

• Blogging: As explained earlier, writing a regular blog helps keep your website higher up in search engine results. But as experts in law, writing short articles on legal matters, offering basic advice, or opinions on recent sector changes show that if the reader ever needs a lawyer you’re the one to contact. It also gives you another chance to point your social media channels to your website.

• Email: Offering an email newsletter is a great way of keeping in touch with previous clients for repeat business. According to the Direct Marketing Association email marketing ROI was £21.48 for every £1 spent in 2012, proving it’s a fantastic investment.

Using digital channels does not mean you have to stop the traditional methods used to interact with new and current clients. But as more and more people look for services online, the importance of not accessing the market via digital channels become clear.

Challenges Facing Digital Marketers

Proliferation of digital channels. Consumers use multiple digital channels and a variety of devices that use different protocols, specifications and interfaces and they interact with those devices in different ways and for different purposes. Intensifying competition. Digital channels are relatively cheap, compared with traditional media, making them within reach of practically every business of every size. As a result, it’s becoming a lot harder to capture consumers’ attention.

Exploding data volumes. Consumers leave behind a huge trail of data in digital channels. It’s extremely difficult to get a handle on all that data, as well as find the right data within exploding data volumes that can help you make the right decisions.

Three Keys to Digital Marketing Success 

So, what does it take to do digital marketing right? Here are three keys to digital marketing success:

1. Manage complex customer relationships across a variety of channels – both digital and traditional. 

2. Respond to and initiate dynamic customer interactions. 

3. Extract value from big data to make better decision

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