With the rise in the expectations of the customer approaching businesses online, as well as with the influx of massive data from all corners, it has become increasingly complex as well as competitive for the organizations across the spectrum to use this information, to the best of their capability. To meet the demands of the consumers, especially during these times, where direct interaction is down to the minimum, personalization is what rules the roost, having said that, it is expensive and without a well thought of and a powerful digital marketing strategy it won’t be possible to unleash your campaign to its full potential.

Having said that ROI, is the most important feature to enhance and track the efficiency and efficacy of your digital marketing initiatives as well as, the key is to keep the rising costs within your budget, especially if you have recently started a venture or are running a non-profit, fret not, Zivanta Marketing shall help you with our cutting edge and straight-forward analytics to help you formulate the best decisions for your digital marketing campaigns.

(P.C.- Unsplash, @austindistel)

Ways to enhance your ROI

1. Establish your ROI targets – Before establishing your ROI goals, it is important to be S-M-A-R-T, i.e. Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound, as a general business practice, a good marketing ROI is that of 5:1, implying generating $5 in sales for every $1 spent. A ratio of more than 5:1 is considered strong across most sectors, whereas 10:1 is outstandingly high. Achieving more than 10:1 is achievable but not highly expected.

Therefore, it is best for organizations to set realistic and achievable goals and target those goals which are achievable, depending on various variables, like the industry, cost involved, etc.

2. Experiment and incorporate changes at regular intervals – With so many marketing activities at play, at once, it becomes over-whelming at times. But, it is important to take stock of what is working and what not, for instance was there an increase in revenue post adopting new marketing strategies, if yes, then what worked and if not, then what were the reason behind it, tracking unique website visitors, qualified leads, etc.

 For instance, Lenovo, effectively used the large data generated everyday to improve their services as well as introduce a new line of product, at the same time maintaining a direct line of communication with its existing consumers and building new ones. To leverage the large set of data collected, they built a team dedicated only for data analytics in their E-commerce team, to interpret and analyze data from 60 sources across the world.

3. Create targeted content for your audience – With constant bombardment of excessive information, inputs, and variable content from multiple sources, your targeted audience can be legitimately confused, therefore, your content should not only be unique but sell its own story, thereby, indicating that content is the king.

Before content creation, it is important to identify your targeted audience and then further segregate it on the basis of gender, geographical location, areas of interest, etc.

Therefore, these are some points to keep in mind, before going ahead;

• Creating user-centric and curated content- Creating personalized, informational, insightful content for the audience and keeping in touch with them regularly.
• Influencer marketing- This means targeting those individuals on the Social media who are related to your field and have a huge following, this kind of engagement not only generates trust and authenticity but also makes your product or services, more relatable.
• Conducting regular surveys – The best way to work upon and trust is when you directly hear from the horse’s mouth, i.e. engage directly with the consumers by directly sending them surveys, engaging in live Q&A’s, podcasts, etc., this won’t only give a genuine feedback freed from any biases but also direct communication creates a pathway for trust and direct engagement.

4. Leverage Automation technology and using predictive analytics– Marketers are increasingly on the look-out for efficient and effective market automation tools and services, which can regulate and automate simple and repetitive tasks to reduce their operational costs. This is the reason, perhaps why the automation tools industry is expected to by $6.4 billion by 2024.

Some of the benefits of using automation technology tools

• Reduction in overhead costs
• Work is streamlined, in terms of efficiency and productivity enhancement
• Team accountability can be maintained
• Help target potential customers with less efforts
• More time to focus on productivity and creativity

(P.C.- Unsplash, @austindistel)

With the help of predictive analytics, which has now, undoubtedly, become an essential and an imperative tool that helps people measure and boost their ROI. It heavily uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to draw conclusions generated via humongous datasets, models, and algorithms to predict the future behavior of customers.

Predictive analytics most importantly assists marketers in identifying and prioritizing leads to understand their ideal consumer base that is nearest to conversion. It also helps in improving those efforts which can yield customer retention and increase conversion rates, as marketers are well informed and equipped with relevant information that enables them to understand customers’ needs.

It also lends the intellectual capacity to the marketers to plan well devised, informed and efficient marketing strategies that shall result in the best outputs’, based on consumer behavior.

With our expertise across this domain, Zivanta Analytics shall provide you with cutting edge analysis to help you target your potential leads and convert them into your future consumers.

Thereby, increasing ROI isn’t as tough and worrisome as it seems, with a well-placed strategy in place, without any distractions and a strong consumer centric focus, aligned to reach out to them; and most importantly using the above suggestions to create opportunities of challenges, will yield desirable results for your organization and create a loyal customer base.

The importance of a well thought of and strategically placed digital marketing campaign can’t be undermined for any industry or any sector, more so, for small businesses or non-profits who wish to gain mass appeal and traction amongst the society, so we request you to lend us your ears and we will share some tactics to help you reach your way to the top.

How do you influence people to display a keen interest in your cause and resonate with what you say, is the most important key to directly hit upon the success tab, therefore ensuring that your message is well received.

To ensure that people hit upon that coveted share tab of their respective social media profiles and making your post go far-reaching, it has to generate high arousal emotions and connectivity. In today’s tough times, when people are reaching out to each other selflessly and want to be seen as kind and generous, that means they care about their reputation and this is applicable, for society per se.

How to emphasize on hitting the right chords?

1. Building Social Pressure– Why this works without fail is the fact that, there is a push from the very first person who initiates this and puts pressure on his/her friends, family and social circle in general. The most successful example was that of the Ice bucket challenge, where celebrities across the globe, lent their support and making it a resounding success.
2. Theory of Self – presentation- Self-presentation is behavior that tries to convey information about a person or project an ideal image of oneself to others. Imagine an act that makes you look so selfless! A good idea undoubtedly.

Imagine combining these two ingredients and you have a recipe for a successful campaign, for instance, let’s see a very successful charity campaign run by Charity Water, called as The Birthday Pledge, where people were encouraged to donate their next birthday to the cause and create a positive impact on the lives of others.

(P.C.-  Charity Water)

We will here list out Five growth hacking strategies which non-profits can implement, at no exorbitant cost and ensure success, because one small step ensures distance in miles;

1. Work upon your website footers – Who thought that the footer of your website can create an impact, but if used well enough then yes it can. Strategic placement of your social media profile icons, which when clicked upon can direct t your social media profile, thus increasing traffic and generating leads.
2. Optimizing Blog content for SEO- It is highly important to craft targeted blog content with the placement of right keywords, and this is of prime importance because of the fact that this will generate interest of users and increase website traffic. SEO is perpetually changing and shifting courses, therefore, simply adding meta-tags won’t help much.
3. Focus on Conversion Rate Optimization- How many clicks does it take for a user on your app or website to reach to the donation/fund-raising page and what is the conversion rate, is the key to the matrix which should be of prime importance. Prioritizing and optimizing this process, will make it not only quick and smooth, but give a facilitative experience to the user, who would carry a positive image of your website.
4. Explore Google Grants policy and other specific CSR initiatives- Google has an attractive policy for small businesses and non-profits to help them gain traction as well as train them on the ground, here Zivanta Marketing can help you in securing these grants, with a detailed hand-held approach. It will also be a wise step to identify those organizations whose CSR policies align with your interests’, this won’t only give financial leverage but also a much needed social image boost.
5. Participating in Group discussions- One of the most effective yet an under-rated way to increase your website traffic and enhance brand value is to constantly participate in online discussion groups. Most effective and advantageous groups are those which are closely aligned with your cause or the broader nonprofit community. This shall not yield immediate results, but with a continuous and a well-thought-of strategy in place, it can result in unmeasured growth in the long term.

Platforms like LinkedIn and Idealist groups are amazing for nonprofits and result in generating awareness, which is of prime importance. It is for you to decide and experiment to see which groups respond favorably to your pieces of content and insights.

Use these strategies to put your plan into motion, definitely, there can be more ways to and this may result in confusion, but some efforts, diligence, and ingenuity can lead to amazing results for your organization.

Something so unprecedented like the COVID-19 pandemic, has not only affected people at an individual level but businesses and more so, world economies in general, where people weren’t prepared to handle the setbacks, resultant of the pandemic. The, digital marketing industry has immense untapped opportunity to carve their way into unexplored forms of communication and relationship building; , be it business to business (B2B), business to consumer(B2C), or even fostering connections amongst people. But it is imperative for any looking to yield that power needs to understand how and where to start from.

The importance of correct use of Digital marketing can’t be emphasized more for small businesses, especially in USA where small businesses running since years now, are finding it tough to even stay afloat, for instance one amongst many of the struggling businesses in the area of Dallas, there is one in the southern suburb of Duncanville. A lady named Phyllis Lambert, who is 71-years-old and is operating a small jewelry store for nearly 30 years now, fears that she might go out of business, according to an article shared in The Dallas Morning News. Whereas major brands like KFC, Kroger, Aldi, Starbucks etc.  have come with interactive post-pandemic consumer attraction strategies, for instance, Starbucks used solicitude and sensitivity as a part of their strategic and intelligent COVID-19 marketing plan to counter the negative effects of coronavirus, affecting not only their business but the world in general, to spread positivity. Starbucks on its Instagram account recently shared a “thank you” message directed to all the first-line workers “who are working tirelessly to keep our communities safe” and offered everyone of them “a free tall iced or hot brewed coffee” at all the participating stores in U.S.A.

Ways to stay afloat after the Pandemic gets over

As an innovative and an out-of-the box thinking agency, Zivanta Marketing shall be your friend and guide in this journey of yours, so that you can successfully maneuver your way through this tough situation on hand:

1. Develop your brand identity and ease of approachability– For any small business to create their image and enhance their brand value via digital marketing can be pocket-friendly and accessible rather than the traditional channels, it therefore creates a leveled playing field across different sectors and markets.
2. Creating positive and enhanced user engagement with a targeted social media strategy – When creating social media info., it is imperative to be constantly aware of how one wants to project their brand image and the way it shall be perceived by the selected audience. So, it is not only important to be precise, positive, but also be appropriate and on time, because what’s trending today might be old news tomorrow.
3. SEO– To enhance your brand’s visibility, it is of utmost importance to have a proper play of SEO in background, i.e. to maintain and enhance web traffic, have a steady flow of high intent customers, etc. Investing in a well thought of SEO strategy won’t bring overnight changes, but in the long run shall ensure your success and ensuring your niche’.
4. Dynamic Creative Optimization- With DCO brands can automatically create all pervasive and applicable types of ad formats at a much quicker rate than what humans are capable of doing, i.e. enhancing and maximizing the customer experience through personalized ads. Automated optimization can not only save millions of dollars in marketing budget allocation but allows enhanced and effective creative flexibility and control of the message. With the coming in of DCO, brands can conveniently avoid duplication of work with regards to reformatting and resizing of ads to meet the requirements of multitudinous channels — therefore permitting them to do more with less use of resources. In such uncertain times, brands can effectively use DCO to cater to customer needs, within their budget restrictions.

 We understand that these are challenging times, but challenges always present themselves with opportunities, and this too, shall not last forever, therefore, we as a digital marketing agency are there to let your business flourish and adopt newer approaches to let you achieve the coveted business spot!

In a situation, where the pandemic has spread its tentacles, and left people grappling to ensure that sustainability is maintained; therefore it becomes imperative to have a proper well thought of marketing strategy in place, before entering the tough battle of digital visibility and impact creation.

While no one can deny the negative impact of COVID-19, but such dark hours always point out towards a dawn at the horizon, and hence innovative strategies to capture newer markets are also formulated, and Zivanta Marketing can successfully help you tide these tough times. In such times, it is essential to maintain a fine balance between being informative and helpful and being a spam bully.

There is always a new learning or development of latest technologies/products when any unexpected event strikes, for instance, a very glaring and a successful example is that of the Chinese conglomerate, The Alibaba group, which rose to the occasion and tapped the rising E-commerce market after the 2003 SARS outbreak and has maintained the tag of global leader in the digital market-place.

Digital Marketing Strategies to Overcome the Pandemic related Impact

1. Having a focused and integrated approach

Unlike pre-COVID times, where multiple engines of reaching out to the customer were tapped and worked upon, but in times like these, where people are afraid of venturing out, therefore, it becomes of prime importance to focus on digital marketing channels and also explore the untapped customer base. It would be in the interest of the marketers for they would have to understand the customer behavior and psyche continuously while using customized tools, data, and tech to stay ahead in the race. Traditional brand models tend to offer customers a generalized experience. But, it is important to realize that the buzzwords here are “personalized” and “relevant”, instead of a generic experience meant for everyone.

2. Emphasis on RoI

For any business entity it is the basic requirement to ensure success and sustainability, that their RoI remains higher. Therefore, it is important for any business entity to focus on higher revenue generating tools, like impactful SEO Practices, programmatic advertising and conversational marketing.

The buzzword these days is ‘Scenario Planning’, which is to see the impact of reduced ad spend on the sales.

3. Invest in Creative Campaigns

Due to no or less contact protocols being followed across the world, the marketing and advertising industry is no pariah towards this. Big brands like Nike, Google, Tesco are avoiding real-life shoots but investing more in VFX, animations, illustrations, motion graphics, stock footage, etc. Thus, indicating the growing market of these services.

There are many innovative campaigns which are run on social media handles, for instance, Ikea Israel, posted some instructions on their Facebook page, with instructions, to Simply stay at home, accompanied with a picture of a closed door and a toilet roll. Hence, not to under-estimate the vocal and immediate connecting power of digital media channels, the best part which is that these aren’t limited to the geographical barriers, thus carrying and building brand reputation across the globe.

4. Future Proofing

As an agency or a business entity, it is important to re-evaluate your client relationships, common purposes, joint philosophies, at regular intervals and evaluate, whether they shall last long, if yes, then you are on the right track, if not, then that implies there is course correction required. This is because, the impact of this pandemic shall stay but not long enough to shake the economical standing of the economies’, thereby, and this period shall be seen as a time to cover the lost ground and maintain a secure future with your existing clients and forge new relationships.

With the on-going pandemic, it has opened a Pandora ’s Box full of opportunities and untapped avenues, wherein the traditional go-to-market customers have turned to the space of e-commerce and other online activities. Though, the quantum of surge which is now being experienced could never be predicted earlier, but now is the time to stand up and deliver, because it is the moment to capture your place in the race of digital revolution and create your undisputed identity.

Fast-changing technology and user expectations can make Digital Marketing professionals obsolete rather quickly if, they do not keep a tab on the latest developments.  Not many summers back terms like artificial intelligence, data-driven marketing, voice search engine optimization (VSEO) were not in the dictionary of a digital marketer. Lo and behold, today, these innovative digital marketing tools are the must-haves in the digital marketing toolbox.

Programmatic Advertising

Programmatic advertising essentially involves using AI tools to automate ad buying/capturing, real-time bidding is one such instance. This automation is much more efficient, effective and fast, resulting in higher conversions and lower customer acquisition costs. Brands like Netflix, StubHub, Kellogg, Sprint, Proctor and Gamble, Intel amongst others have already entered the Programmatic Advertising foray. Display advertising purchases in the United States, worth almost $50 billion, were made programmatically in 2018-19.

Influencer Marketing using AI

The world’s top influencer, Kylie Jenner gets paid $1.2 million/ post on Instagram. She is followed by Ariana Grande and Cristiano Ronaldo each earning $ 1 million per post on Instagram. Social media influencers who promote brands need not always be celebrities, innovative content creators like Banza or the Butcherbox, are big brand builders in their own right amongst their millions of followers. AI has taken away the guesswork in the selection of brand influencers. Artificial Intelligence-based tools help in identifying influencers with targeted engagement, detect fake followers and accounts thereby ensuring a positive return on investment (ROI).

Micro-Moments

As more and more people are indulging in online activities using their Smartphone, tabs, and other gadgets, they leave clues and footmarks all around the web. They might be looking for a product, service, information, or entertainment on the web. By leveraging this data, brands deliver on their needs in micro-moments and continue to keep the brand at the top of their mind. Brands like Clorox, Booking.com, CVS Health have leveraged these micro-moments in their marketing strategy effectively.

Interactive content

Welcome to the world of 360 degree VR experience, online live quizzes and polls, embedded calculators, VR videos, etc. which marketers are using to engage customers. E.g. Addidas came up with an interactive Snapchat competition where the users could customize and show their designs of the product, and 4 winners stood a chance to turn their designs into a real Adidas collection. VenturePact, a software company built a calculator that helps its users estimate the cost of building an app, which also happens to be their target audience’s most common concern. In both the above instances there was a spike in user traffic and conversion.

SERP Position Zero

For the past couple of years, voice search has caused disruption in the market; it has immensely changed the way search engine optimization (SEO) functions. Remarkable is the rise of the featured snippet, which features in the highly craved for “position zero” in Google’s search engine results page.

Rank zero snippet or position zero, is the holy grail of modern-day SEO practice, as it straight away responds to user search queries without needing the user to click on any link. VSEO (voice search engine optimization) can give you an enormous competitive edge and credibility in the long run (notwithstanding, this can be a piece of amazing news for only one brand…and that brand can be yours, as Zivanta Marketing can help you scale those heights and let you attain the position of a market leader).

These were just a few snippets to give you a heads-up on the recent trends in Digital Marketing, but because of the ever-evolutionary nature of this field, the trends are dynamic and shall bring challenges and opportunities for any digital marketing agency.