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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- The impact of video is always higher than the impact of a lengthy/ wordy message
- The timings of sending the message are very important. For example e-mails are most read if sent on Wednesday at 9.00 am.
- 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.