5 weeks back , if someone had asked me if I am confident working on Internet/ Digital Marketing I would have said “Not Really”. Now after 5 weeks of highly focused learning and the opportunity to implement those learning in Internet Marketing course,  I am confident that I can do it. My role in the team pertained to e-mail marketing. I started by learning about Mail Chimp and I was extremely impressed to learn more about its features. When I sent my first mail , I was continuously checking the reports at Mail Chimp. I was really happy to see the result since I saw very high open rate and click rate. But what struck the most to me was that I saw clicks not just to the link I had provided but also to Twitter as well as to Webpage. I would like to share some more of my observations during the project time:

1. Internet is just a vehicle of communication. It gives us the opportunity to connect with people all over the world. However, equally important for a business is to understand the importance of customer segmentation. It is important to understand the segment that will be benefited most from the business. In our case , our client rFactr has very clearly defined customer segment. This proved very helpful since we knew which platforms will be most effective for this segment.
2. Another important component of campaign is CONTENT. The content needs to be as per the stage in marketing funnel where the customer segment lies. If they are unaware of the business then the content should try to educate them or inform them about the business service. Try to keep the stage of funnel in mind and the objective of the campaign when deciding the content.
3. I realised that social media marketing in not just about choosing the content but also the right platform for sending across that message. For example Twitter, LinkedIn and Slide Share are suitable for business segments while teenagers can be engaged through Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram.
4. Social media scheduling , content selection as well as analysis are the roles generally performed by the same person and it has to echo the message that Internet ads are sending or the message that e-mails are sending.
5. The impact of video is always higher than the impact of a lengthy/ wordy message
6. The timings of sending the message are very important. For example e-mails are most read if sent on Wednesday at 9.00 am.
7. Adwords are the key and so is the analysis. As much as adwords help in directing leads to the webpage, their analysis ensures that we make the best out of the budget by using the most effective words.

At the end I believe that both Social and Internet Marketing complement each other. Their roles can be interchangeable but the best way to use is to generate original and relevant content and push it through these channels.

 

 

 

The first time I heard this term, I had no clue what Inbound Marketing meant. I was told by a friend that Hubspot is a great resource to know more about it. However like any other curious person online, I googled it and landed on Wikipedia. It was defined as ” Inbound marketing is promoting a company through blogs, podcasts, video, eBooks, e-newsletters, whitepapers, SEO, physical products, social media marketing, and other forms of content marketing which serve to attract customers through the different stages of the purchase funnel. In contrast, buying attention,^[1] cold-calling, direct paper mail, radio, TV advertisements,^[sales flyers, spam, telemarketing^[and traditional advertising^[4] are considered “outbound marketing“. Inbound marketing refers to marketing activities that bring visitors in, rather than marketers having to go out to get prospects’ attention. Inbound marketing earns the attention of customers,^[1] makes the company easy to be found,^[2] and draws customers to the website^[ by producing interesting content.” This can be the most newest and different thing we have heard in a decade now. I got more interested in this new concept.

My next step was to visit Hubspot and understand further in depth about the whole concept. I was amazed to know that they provide free Inbound Marketing Certification, and have extensively covered all the topics. They introduced the customer conversion process which is very well integrated in all classes. It’s called “Inbound Methodology”

 

 

These 5 stages are the heart of this strategy. The concept is still catching up in the marketing world but is very important for those who intend to nurture their built client base. The certification can be done in one weekend. Inbound Marketing provides a good opportunity for the company to interact with customers who are approaching them and are interested in knowing more bout your brand. So make the best of this opportunity and dwell on this greates discovery to make your marketing funnel more functional.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.hubspot.com/inbound-marketing

In Feb 2015, advertisers spent approx. $ 4.5 million on broadcasting on sports channels. This happens every year. We all remember the cute dog from Budweiser but do we remember the KIA model that was highlighted in the ad that played in the same event? This brings me to my point whether the traditional advertising budget for Super Bowl is worth it?.

Super Bowl seems an attractive platform for advertisers and the reason is justified too. It one of the most watched show in America and the viewers enjoy these ads too. But there are 3 factors that we ignore as marketers:

1. People enjoy the game and the excitement to see their team winning or disappointment to see their team losing will be governed by their emotions. Their focus on ad may be less. A  fan will hate these ads if he is too keen to watch the game.
2. Half Time is the show stealer. Don’t we all remember Katy Perry and those super cute sharks dancing on her tunes! The half time hype and publicity always dwarves the best of the ads. In this battle of 30 minutes of pure entertainment VS 30 seconds of compressed messages , Half Time wins because the game is not being interrupted.
3. Hundreds of ads are released that day. The possibility of your ad sticking to people’s  mind is very low.

Overall, the ads that are played are fighting for attention at the most expensive event. If the same amount of money can be invested on Online Marketing where companies can collaborate with Superbowl and play the same message, they will get higher engagements and will be more effective.

 

In 2013, WestJet started its campaign of making Christmas special for its customers. It records these celebrations and uploads on You Tube every year to share the joy and celebrations with others. The culture of WestJet of being fun, friendly and caring is being spread through these surprises and videos. This ad has been viewed 42,819,136 times as on 6^th December, 2015. In 2014, when I was in India I saw this ad being shared by many of my friends. The ad has also been mentioned on the globe and mail, Financial Post, The Global News and CBC. It has been called a “Tear Jerker” ad.

When I came across Chip Heath’s video on “Made To Stick” , I was reminded of West jet again and I decided to find similarities between the theory and ad.

• Simplicity “Simplicity isn’t about dumbing down, it’s about prioritizing” as has been mentioned in the book “Made to Stick”. The core of the message in this ad is as simple as it seems. It’s about having fun, spreading joy and believing in miracles. There is no complex message that is being sent here and no hidden imagery that is thought provoking.

 

• Unexpected : This video has held attention right from the beginning. The “curiosity gap” in this video is the reactions of the customers. Another “curiosity gap” which was only for small time was what will WestJet do of the information it is collecting from its customers? Will it really gift these things that the customers desire? The ad has a shock value. The passengers never expected these wishes to be fulfilled. The element of surprise makes the ad more appealing and stronger. This also makes the viewer to share the ad since they want to discuss more about this.

 

• Concrete : “To be concrete, use sensory language.” This ad uses multiple ways to stick the message in the minds of the viewers. The rhyming description and customers sharing their joys is one of the best ways to use multiple types of memories. As the Voice Over narrates the perfect Christmas story, it adds to the appeal of the video. This penetrates the attention of a viewer and makes him engaged at many levels.

 

• Credible: The idea of the ad is original but is also common. As credible as gifting on Christmas seems, this idea is associated only to an event. Making customer happy beyond belief but it lasts only for an event. Once the season is over the customers may not remember it. However, if the customer service was highlighted more than the joy, it would have had a greater impact on the choice of the customer.

 

• Emotional: This ad has a very high emotional appeal. It captures surprise, joy, affection, celebrations and family values at the same time. The ad clearly communicates that WestJet cares about people and their emotions. This makes the ad a clear winner. Customers want to be cared and when a brand cares about their emotions, the brand wins their loyalty. The viewer’s get a joy out of watching these videos. By sharing this video they also try to share joy. This ads builds an emotional roller coaster. The viewer cannot leave this ad in the middle because it has been designed to engage the viewer emotionally till the end. Every age group enjoys the emotion of joy, gifts, and surprises. WestJet gives these emotions in its video and have been successful in stocking the message in the minds of customers

 

• Stories : “Stories drive action through simulation (what to do) and inspiration (motivation to do)” as mentioned in the book “Made to Stick”. The video clearly has one strong story and that is Christmas story by WestJet. The passengers are asked about their wishes and then the staff of WestJet rushes to multiple partner stores for gift shopping and as soon as the plane carrying these passengers’ lands they are surprised to see the gifts. The story has been spun well with all ingredients of a joyful story. Every time the story is mentioned, Westjet will be remembered by the customer. Its association has been cemented. The simulation for viewers is to spread the joy by sharing the video and the inspiration is the underlying desire to see miracles happening. Our minds love fairy tales and stories that make us believe in good emotions like love, loyalty, care, trust etc. These emotions are surfaced in this ad and act as motivation to share it and talk about it.

 

People also have strong associations in their minds to brands. As much as they enjoy stories, they do not prefer highlighting the brands over the story. This video successfully keeps the involvement of brand WestJet subtle and lets the passenger experience and happiness take the front seat. This creates an impression in the mind of the viewers that the brand genuinely cares about their emotions.

 

Holidays are the most beautiful time for customers. Huge discounts, bright lit stores and the festive season feel attracts customers to stores. Holiday season is a good time for businesses to attract customers online. The first step towards this is to inform the customer about the Holiday Deals. without any online ad campaigns, social media messages and websites that echo those deals. how will a customer be informed? This brings to my point that decorating the Christmas Tree inside your store is only one part of the celebration. Inviting the customers to those celebrations is another.

Let them celebrate those deals. Start by Google Adwords and ads. When they search for your brand or deals relevant to your brand, try to be explicit about the deals and special offers that your business has crafted for the customers. Let them feel special and add the joy of saving.

One of the biggest mistakes that brands make is advertising a deal on which, when a customer clicks he/she enters the website that has absolutely no ease of navigation. Take them to LANDING PAGES. Make the process of selection and navigation easy for your customers. Give the customers a sense of security by making the payment process safe. During peak seasons, customer worry that the data may be hacked or lost by the retailer. Association with trusted authorities such as VISA, MASTERCARD or PAYPAL gives a sense of security to customers when they are shopping online.

Another important part of the campaigns is the sensitivity to time. Ensure that the messaging is in line with the festive spirit. Sending a mail wishing Christmas on 26th December will not please the customer. So as a marketer try to stay updated on the different festivals celebrated by the customer segment if you have a global customer base.

So keep these small but important details in mind this year and make the customers a part of your brand’s celebrations.

Every year retailers design the Black Friday Sale to be the most awaited shopping extravaganza that Americans love. With huge discounts, they have been luring customers to line up in front of their stores for years now. Fighting extreme weather conditions, pushing their expenses towards end of the year, planning for Christmas, customers have been equally supportive in this extravaganza. Gradually, the lineups were dealt by opening stores one night early, hiring more temp staff and opening more payment counters. Even though the satisfaction of savings was huge among customers, the inconvenience was a big problem. I remember my Black Friday Sale experience in 2012. I left my house on Thursday evening at 10 pm to be among the early shoppers. But I was shocked to see Bellevue Square Mall parking which was full by that time. After 15 minutes of struggle finding a parking spot, my next struggle was to enter the mall which was fully packed. With Nordstrom, JC Penney, Macy’s, Sephora and other big brands present in one place, I should have expected this. I did not foresee any relief in future too. But last year, I was shocked to find a parking spot at 11 pm and a not so busy mall. Was it the sale that wasn’t attractive or were the shoppers not looking to save anymore? Later, I read in news and heard from many friends that Macy’s and many other big retailers had taken the experience online. But the crowd that went online was more than the retailers had expected and as a result sites kept on crashing. Later many ended up missing the purchase that they could have done in brick and mortar stores. Researchers and analysts broke down this decline as effects of economy, high customers spending year long. What they missed here was the fact that willingness to buy had not reduced, it was the lack of opportunity to buy. Also how can we forget Target’s credit card information compromise had gotten us all worried about the potential loss. This affected the sense of security that customers have while shopping. It took them some time but the trust has been re-established.

This year was better. As per Reuters, ” Shoppers in the United States spent $822 million online between midnight and 11 am ET, a 15-percent increase from 2014 but lower than the expected growth of 19 percent, according to the Adobe Digital Index, which tracked 180 million visits to over 4,500 U.S. retail sites. On Thanksgiving Day, online sales rose 22 percent from midnight to 5 pm ET.” Time Magazine’s article shows a gradual shift in shopping preferences of consumers. It mentions “Brick and mortar sales on Black Friday fell from $11.6 billion in 2014 to $10.4 billion in 2015, according to the retail researcher ShopperTrak. Sales on Thanksgiving fell from just over $2 billion to $1.8 billion. Both decreases are attributed to the increase in online sales, the Associated Press reports.”. These are clear indicators of what our shoppers want.

So, its time that marketers realise that they need to allocate more money to online and digital advertising in their budget rather than spending thousands and millions on pamphlets or newspaper inerts that go completely ignored. Give the shoppers a seamless experience. They must feel good about their decision to stay home and shop.

 

 

 

In today’s world where internet has become a part of our functioning, marketing professionals are expected to interact with leads or customers online as well as offline. Websites provide marketers the opportunity to understand what a customer needs and his/her decision making process to fulfill that need. Living in a start-up oriented city, I wanted to learn building a website in shortest time span. Being from a non IT background, my avoidance to coding is quite natural. As will be anyone’s instinct, I started looking for blogs and YouTube tutorials for a step by step approach. I started with Siteground and found it very helpful. It has an excellent step-by-step creation of website manual. However, I was looking for something more specific for myself and I learn better visually. So I looked for videos on YouTube and found Tyler Moore’s 2015 Video to be the most viewed one. The two and a half hour long video was very interesting initially. Building a website from scratch seems time consuming and an expensive affair but Tyler showed how easy and inexpensive it can be if done wisely. Some of the other things that I liked about Tyler’s approach were:

• Comparison between an effective and ineffective website design
• Step by Step approach to building a website
• Uses simple language and explains each step in depth

By the time video ended, I was excited to get my site up and started. So the first thing I did was to setup an account on Hostgator. Tyler also shares a discount code “ThirtyFive” to get a 35% off on the hosting site. It was helpful but I wanted to look for other hosting options too. Also, Tyler uses his own theme “Tesseract” and builds the site using it. I was looking for more options. I was looking for more information on criteria to choose a hosting site, a domain name, themes, plugins that are important. My concerns were addressed when a friend who runs a small bakery business recommended me to read “Create Your Own Website Using WordPress In A Weekend” by Alannah Moore. I received the book in a couple of days and started flipping the pages. My first impression on seeing the book was that it looks very simple and easy to understand. If you glance at the Table of Contents of the book you will find that the author has taken a very systematic approach and has kept in mind a beginner’s low awareness with all the jargons. In my opinion, the book delivers what it promises. With illustrations and pictures on every page, the author has kept the content minimum yet very engaging.

I began with the basics and learnt that WordPress has 2 different offerings, WordPress.com (provides free setup and hosting )and WordPress.org. (Hosting to be handled by the admin/owner).  The book provides good insight on choosing a professional domain name especially for small business. Hosting is well explained and multiple hosting companies are recommended including DreamHost, BlueHost, Hostgator etc. This makes me believe that the author is not a part of any marketing initiative of a hosting company and is genuinely interested in helping readers. Some of the steps like pointing a domain to a website look small but are important as they can affect the pace of the website designer(in this case ME!). I especially like the tip that author provided on choosing a hoster that provides “One Click Install”  to reduce manual setup for a beginner.

The next chapter, “Planning Your Website” is one of may favorite. Website objectives have been categorized into: Business Site, Portfolio Site, Magazine or Blog Site and E-Commerce Site. Each of these have been explained in depth in the later chapters with recommendations such as themes to be used, look and feel for the particular type, content to be included based on the purpose of the site. This was very unique about this book that I did not find online in beginner’s manuals and videos.

The author lays special emphasis on Header images and has explained in details about the Image usage guidelines, sources for stock images, a maximum width of 960 pixels tip and formats to be used. This was very helpful for me since I come from advertising background and understand the relevance of using images. Logo creation has also been discussed and the author also suggests using online logo creators such as 99 Designs and more. Throughout the book, I found very useful tips and tricks that I would have never known otherwise such as Image editing software and how to edit. It have already taken more than 2 days to read the book and still not over since I did not read it at a stretch. The book elucidates small to big details for setting up basic model website. My familiarity with the process of  inserting header image, choosing relevant background, home page specifics, text editor, adding pages, images, medial files and blogs to the site has increased and am more comfortable working with WordPress.

Another appealing part of this book is helping the reader understand that the process doesn’t end on making the site live. The book also educates the readers about growing audience for the website through various online marketing techniques. As a certified Inbound Marketing Professional, I was surprised to see the extensive coverage of the topic in the book and can say that these tips were derived from the best practices.

Overall, I believe this book is perfect for anyone who is willing to learn from the basics and is curious to learn multiple features that a website can be loaded with. After learning the basics in first 3 chapters, the user can expect the book to get more detailed and specific without losing its focus on easing the process for the reader. If you are at home and its snowing outside on weekend , I recommend you to pick this book and feel like a Website Designing Pro on Monday.

 

Resources :

https://www.siteground.com/tutorials/wordpress/

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Website-Using-Wordpress

http://www.amazon.ca/dp/0415662680