4 Digital Media Trends that Will Dominate 2017

2017 is going to be a big one. We’ve got a new president, technology is advancing faster than ever before, and most importantly, the second season of Stranger Things will be released on Netflix (If you haven’t watched the first season, close this window and start the first episode immediately. Seriously, so good). But we all know that with cultural changes come changes in marketing. Based on the trends we saw in 2016 and even the changes we’ve seen in the first couple weeks of the new year, these are our digital marketing predictions for 2017:

Influencer Marketing

A new form of stardom has taken the world by storm, and we’re not talking about traditional celebrities like musicians and movie stars. “Influencers” in marketing are people who have grabbed the attention of large audiences through some sort of skill or achievement. Social media and influencer marketing go hand-in-hand because most influencers’ fame is reflected through large social media followings. Often coined as “Instagram stars,” these people are paid by brands to promote products or services. They’re already established and trusted by their followers, so it’s expected that more of these personalities will jump on the advertising bandwagon this year.

Live streaming

Even though live streaming had been introduced previously by platforms like Periscope, the release of Facebook Live in 2016 was a real game changer. Live broadcasting allows brands to reach their audiences in real time and in a genuine, unedited way. Facebook Live allows two-way text conservations as well, giving viewers the chance to personally engage. Before you get too excited, know that Facebook Live can be very hit or miss. If you live stream just for the sake of live streaming, you probably aren’t providing any value to your viewers and might come off as annoying. As with anything else, content is key in live video. Either way, we expect more brands to utilize Facebook Live and more consumers tuning in.

Chatbots

The phrase “tech support” alone makes anyone groan because it used to involve calling a 1-800 number, waiting a half hour to get a real human on the phone, and then inevitable frustration when the person on the other can’t help you. Chatbots are a new customer service trend, and we expect to see a lot more of them in 2017. A chatbot is a basic form of artificial intelligence that is programmed to address customer inquiries, solve problems, take orders, and perform other previously-human functions. A 24/7 live chat feature gives customers the ability to get instant solutions without even having to talk to another person. Chatbots are also able to collect data and provide insights about the traits and behaviors of those they communicate with. Truly a double whammy for marketers.

Snapchat

2016 was supposed to be the year of Snapchat, and it was, kinda. But we expect to see more Snapchat growth this year, especially in terms of advertising. Snapchat’s expiring content creates a sense of urgency and significance, simply because it will be gone forever in a matter of a few seconds. We foresee more individual brands maintaining native Snapchat channels as well as more paid advertising opportunities.

We can make predictions, but only time can definitively tell what kind of content and media people will respond to this year. Our days at Transformation have been filled with meetings and research in the past several weeks in an attempt to plan and prepare for the coming year. The start of a new year is a great time to kick your marketing efforts into gear, especially if you’ve gotten lost in recent incoming and outgoing trends. To find out what we can do to make your business more relevant than ever this year, drop us a line here.

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Coca-Cola: Just Dance Now Mobile Campaign

Coca-Cola has teamed up with Ubisoft on the new ‘Just Dance Now’ mobile game that is sweeping the world, in an integrated content play that sees players scanning Coke cans to unlock special content and activities inside the game. Further pushing the growing trend of native content plays for big global brands into the gaming world.

To launch the new game, Coca-Cola crated an interactive Dance Off installation using the mobile game against the Les Twins.

The launch marks the latest phase in Coca-Cola’s ongoing ‘Movement Through Happiness’ campaign and follows the renewal of its global partnership with entertainment content brand Ubisoft, along side the ‘Flash Fitness Monitor’ will be available from November with a $50 price tag. Further showing Coca-Cola’s push towards healthy living after shrinking its cans across the US.

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A Fast Guide To Making Your Brand Story More Persuasive

Ever wondered why Mousetrap continues to be promoting? Whatever your model presents, it will have an origin and a distinctive story to inform. Frequently, by a fascinating intermingling of details with feeling attracts you actually near to your potential customers and places you in another group. Do not simply produce a manufacturer; PRODUCE it!

What you ultimately did when this occurs of time brought you to where you're right-now. Reveal that account with style. Recommend the manner in which you resolve your customer's issues in a distinctive and solid method.

• Motivate customers and your employees to request what they think about the manufacturer's development. Share your enthusiasm for the friendship and that market you produce. Come up with your original challenges in your website; powerful competition et al. Produce movies that formulates what your potential suggestions for development could be and the manner in which you increased previously.

• Reveal a genuine time case, It's always fantastic to provide a fascinating history about your transactions with a meticulous customer, even although you are proven in periodic discomfort. Clarify how you provided them a healthy answer that left them and how they kept picking out issues and inquiries spellbound. You'll discover that customers will frequently connect themselves with one of these tales. Substantial utilization of social networking systems to distribute the job is recommended.

• Include particular places which have a brief history together with your development. Attempt To target the market at that area. Determine your objective and be certain about your potential reasons.

• Evaluate the down sides identified from the various sections of one's organization and how they cooperate and interact to produce a great answer. Take a look at strange feelings.

• Operate an investigation to check on what's the understanding of one's company among your market. Identify your USP which makes you stand in addition to the rest of one's rivals. Determine with poise and yourself suggestively. Do not be universal; that's a put off. Keep in mind that a freelance reporter appears to be awkward-sounding such as for instance a typist.

• Your story should have the essence of enterprising brand equity. You automatically name Marie Curie when asked about a woman scientist. J K Rowling elicits the vision of Hogwarts, Dark Lord and the Boy who lived!

Reena Jagwani is now a terrific web expert that also can potentially benefit your site boost your primary web-based business enterprise and additionally obtain much more website visitors .

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Where To Find Advertisers For Your Site?

When it comes to making money online, one option is to display advertisements for complementary products and services on your website. This is great for all types of websites and blogs, whether you write for a living, have a photography hobby website or are a multi-national million-dollar company. The question is where do you start looking for advertisers? How do you make it clear that you have available advertising placements?

Check Out Your Competitors
The first thing to do is looking at the competitors in your niche. They possibly have some marketing placements and are encouraging interested companies to purchase them. This gives you a way to find the names of companies that are already willing to pay for advertising slots. Companies proven to opt for this route are more likely to be open to placing their ads on more websites. At the same time, you can also gather information about business model and pricing structure from your competitor's websites.

Search Your Industry Directory
Check your industry directory for the names of companies within your business sector. A simple online search for a product that is related to your website can yield many leads. You could open ad slots specifically for those that offer something you do not offer or sell, as a way to encourage partnership and opportunities for cross-selling complementary products and services.

Attend Industry Networking Events
Many conferences and networking events are organized every month. You can find an event near you and attend to find potential advertisers and also explore other business opportunities. You do not need to rent a booth at the event to raise your profile, even though that certainly helps if your marketing budget allows. By being a normal participant, you can explore the booths and talk to other visitors to expand your business network. Use these events as a starting point for further discussions and meetings.

Explore Your Business Contacts
Referral is one of the most powerful and convincing channels. You can email your contacts or post on your social network profiles to let them know that you are looking for advertisers. Your friend might know someone who might want to sponsor a section on your website. Or they can give you more leads to explore on your own.

Let Them Find You
Potential advertisers are often your website visitors. If they browse your website and want to advertise their products or services on it, you should make it easy for any potential advertisers to get more information about your advertising program and how to contact you. A media kit can provide this information. It lists the available ad placements on your website and description about your audience. A more advanced media kit can allow potential advertisers to place the ad order directly from your website on their own and you can then review and approve the incoming orders. For a self-service advertising setup like this, you can use a comprehensive ad server that provides all the necessary tools: from placing ad orders to ad serving to performance reporting.

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How To Place Advertisements on the Website?

Proper placement of your advertisements on your website can boost your click through rate (CTR), in turn, increase your advertising revenue. With so many locations to pick from, where is the most profitable placement for your website? You may also be wondering how many ads you should have per page and how many times a visitor should be shown a certain advertisement for optimal performance. Some of the answers to these questions can depend on your site content and page layout. Here are some factors to consider.

In general
All experts agree on one thing: above the fold is better than below the fold. This is because scrolling is not required for the visitor to see the advertisement. You need to consider that visitor’s browser type and screen resolution may change what is above and below the fold. WhereIsTheFold.com is a tool you can use to find the fold location for your website. In contrast, if your website contains an article, placing a relevant ad right after the end of the article is a great location. Once the visitor has finished reading the article, they will wonder what to do next and this creates a perfect opportunity for the advertisement to be seen and clicked.

Now that we know above the fold is better than below the fold, is the right or left side of the site a better location for your advertisement revenue? Google has made a heat map showing the best locations to place their Google Ads. Taking a quick glance at the map would make you think that the left side is better than the right side. Yet, studies show that ads placed close to navigational aids are more successful. So, if your navigation aids are on the right side then consider placing your ads on the right side and vice versa. If you are creating a new website and are wondering where to place the navigation bar, either side is fine. Expert opinions vary but many studies shows that it does not make a difference.

Lastly, place the ads in locations where you believe your viewers’ attention will be focused. This depends heavily on your site and its content. At the same time, overall aesthetics is also important. If a visitor turns away from your page due to poor aesthetics then there is no chance to view or click on any advertisement.

Things to watch out for
You do not want to clutter your page with advertisements, hoping that at least one ad will catch the viewer’s attention. Clutter can create visual blindness drawing the visitor’s attention away from the advertisements. Along the same line, even though it is more effective to place advertisements above the fold, placing too many ads will end up making your primary content harder to find. The visitor is there to view the primary content, not the advertisements, so make sure they can find it easily. Otherwise, your bounce rate will rise and decrease your advertisement revenue. Even more importantly, Google has recently announced that websites with too many ads above the fold may be penalized and downgraded. Also noteworthy, too many advertisements will certainly cause the page to load slower, giving the visitor yet another reason to navigate away from your website.

Optimal advertisement repetition
Although most studies and experts do not provide an exact frequency for which an advertisement should be shown to a visitor for optimal revenue, they do agree on two things. First, repetition is important. Showing an ad five times or more will increase the CTR and banner interaction. Second, "banner burnout" is a reality so frequency capping is an important measure to maximize advertising revenue. You can also rotate banners or refresh the page to keep the visitor engaged.

Experiment, experiment, experiment
The only real way to truly maximize your advertisement revenue is by trying different things. With the above advice in mind, you can experiment by moving ads to different locations, different pages, and with different frequency caps. A good ad server should have great tools to help you do just that. Furthermore, the ad server can provide you the needed statistics to make the comparisons pre and post changes. Always keep in mind that there are seasonal changes so, for example, if your revenue increases from the month of November to the month of December, this could simply be the effect of online Christmas shoppers and not the changes you made to your website. Now go out there and make some money!

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Where Can I Find Website Traffic Information?

Website traffic information is very important for many people such as publishers, advertisers, and website developers. This article describes why it is important and how you can find the traffic numbers. Publishers are always interested in the traffic that their website is getting in order to understand how it is performing and to see if those recent website changes create more traffic or less. They may also want to look at how their competitors are doing. Advertisers want to know how much traffic is going to particular websites. They want to know the reach of their running advertisements and they want to gather traffic data on a new website for a future advertising order. Website developers want to know if the websites they built are successfully receiving traffic making their clients happy.

Web Analytic Tools

If you own a website, the best way to track your traffic is using a web analytics tool. The most common free web analytic tools are Google Analytics and Yahoo Web Analytics. These tools will provide detailed statistics such as unique visitors, page views, and time on site. This data will be very valuable if you plan on selling advertising space to your potential buyers and can be used to develop a media kit. Website developers should install a web analytic tool on all websites that they build. If you are willing to spend some money and feel that the free basic tools are not giving you what you need, you may want to try a more advanced solution like WebTrends, Adobe’s Omniture or IBM’s Coremetrics.

Online Traffic Estimators

If you want a quick and free estimate on the amount of traffic a website is getting, visit any of the popular ones briefly described directly below. These sites are great if you want to spy on your competition or as an advertiser, want to confirm the data provided by a publisher.

Alexa provides an estimate on the percentage of Internet users that may have visited a website during a certain period of time. It works better for websites with high traffic. The estimator can be used to understand traffic trends as well. Furthermore, Alexa supplies audience demographic data such as age and education level.

Compete displays an estimated amount of unique visitors in the U.S. Data is gathered using ISP data, internal tools, and other data sources to provide a fairly accurate estimate of traffic statistics. Again, if the website has a low amount of traffic, only a very rough estimate is provided and in some cases, there is no data available. Compete allows you to export the report into different formats if you wish to analyze or share it.

Quantcast is another traffic estimator which provides a rough estimate of traffic in the U.S. In terms of demographics in the U.S., the site displays data on gender, age, race, education level, whether the visitor has children, and income level. These statistics are again just estimates. Interestingly, the site also offers data on traffic frequency (i.e. regular visitor vs passer-by).

Data Aggregators gather information from multiple sources such as Alexa, Compete, Quantcast, Google, Yahoo and other data sources to provide a comprehensive report. For example, MyDomainStats displays different traffic estimates, a graphical snapshot of the homepage, backlink statistics, Google page rank, and even an estimated monetary value. You can click on the individual data points to go to the particular site of interest if you want more in-depth information from that specific site. These tools are great if you want data from multiple sources as it saves you the effort from visiting each one individually.

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How To Calculate Your Advertising Budget

To calculate your advertising budget, you need to determine your gross mark-up, or gross profit. This number is important because you can use this fund to help your business grow. Say you take in $7,000 a month as gross revenue and $3000 is your gross profit. From this total, you will need to subtract any mandatory expenses. One of the most common mandatory expenses is rent. If your rent each month is $1,000 that will leave you with around $2,000. You will use this number to determine the fund that you can spend on advertising services, such as creating the ad, buying ad space, serving and tracking ad views and clicks via an ad server.

You will now take your $2,000 and multiply that by 12 to get your annual amount, which is $24,000. Next, you need to choose a range that you can or want to allocate for advertising. Depending on your business stage and type, this range can be low or high. Newer businesses might need to spend more on advertising so that people get to know your products and services. On the other hand, word-of-mouth businesses do not need to spend as much. For example, if the range is between 10% to 12%, then you have about $2400 to $2880 per year, or $200 to $240 per month, to spend on online advertising with the goal to boost sales, which in turn can allow for more advertising in the future.

When you have a budget, you need to consider your ad targeting. Unless you have a specific preference and/or previous experience, you will want to consider different traffic sources and audience as an effort to boost and diversify the amount of potential customers. That means working with an ad management company who can maximize your click-through rate with your available budget.

You should not use all of this fund to focus on one or two ads on any single website. It is like putting all eggs in one basket and that is risky. Depending on the budgeted amount, you may want to consider some or all of the following forms of advertising. If you have more money to spend, you can use some amount to explore and experiment with a new marketing channel. Conversions and leads will likely come from multiple sources, including from online publishers or ad networks to local community newspaper ads.

- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can help boost online sales from organic traffic

- Pay-per-Click can help drive direct results to your business and you only pay when potential customers click on your link

- Local Marketing should be in play to ensure that you have foot traffic if it is suitable for your business type

- Email Marketing can be useful if you have relationships that are already in place

- Press Release (PR) is great for generating new buzz and interest in your products and services

Make sure you obtain a realistic and specific advertising budget and then utilize it to help your business grow. Ideally, what you find is that over time, this amount will continue to grow as you generate new business and that can help you to invest more into the types of advertising that are giving back the best returns on investment.

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What Is Media Buying?

Media Buying is the practice of ensuring your client's advertisements appear where they want them to and that they pay the best price possible. As an advertiser, the most common ways to purchase large amounts of online ad display is directly from the individual publishers or from ad networks. There are many steps involved in finding, negotiating and booking ad inventory. When you are buying large amounts of ad space from different places, it is very important to have a suitable ad server to help with ad serving, ad tracking and ad reporting.

Ad serving describes the process of placing ads on websites. Ad serving companies run proprietary software on multiple computer servers, often called ad servers. These servers will choose ads that are the most suitable and/or profitable, deliver these ads to the web sites, count ad views, clicks and other metrics, and report the progress of different advertising campaigns. Having your own ad server gives you accountability. You definitely want to track your own campaign and not leave that in the hands of the publisher.

Having your own ad server means that you hold the publishers as well as ad networks accountable. Any reporting discrepancies can be compared and analyzed using reports from multiple parties. It also gives you control over the type of ads that are going out and to which users they are going to. You can also control the format of the ads that are run as well. Ownership of your own ad server puts you in complete control of your own campaign.

Small businesses can also gain from the media buying process. You must be able to take advantage of market knowledge in a quick manner; by doing this you can take control of your own advertising when you are ready to do so. But how do you expect to compete with your larger competitors? Digital media buying companies can help you to find the best rates out there when it comes to media buying. This can help you to stay on top of your business needs and get your media buying needs met at the same time. They can put together a plan for your media airing and everything that you need is at your fingertips. These companies will do the research for you.

When searching for the best media plan have a basic media plan in mind. This is great because you can give eager sales representatives some different guidelines to include in their proposals. You also want to have a budget in mind; you do not want to get talked into something that you cannot afford. When contacting these people keep a record of who you have called to save some time when you go back and finalize contracts. And finally leave some wiggle room in your budget for ads or events you may want to run mid-year. Don’t spend it all at once. This all may seem a little overwhelming but it doesn’t have to be; make a plan, stick to that plan, and get ready for positive results!

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4 Reasons Why Customer Engagement Is Important

With a lot of small businesses popping out of the blue all over the world, customers have become spoilt for choice. With so many companies offering similar services, your business needs to stand out. But how do you go about doing this? By placing your customers before your business. Unlike long-standing traditional businesses out there, small businesses dwell deeper into the client’s support wrecking down the wall that separates the client and the firm. With so many firms depending heavily on customers, you might wonder why it is so? Well here are a few reasons as to why customer engagement is an indispensable asset for small businesses.

1. Reach Out To The Customer, Don’t Wait For Them To Come To You

One of the most horrid ways you can get bad reviews and lose revenue is not to create a proper channel through which you reach your customers. With more than half the adult human population glued to the internet, they are forever put in front of advertisement and content promotions by businesses on social media. You can’t beat the higher ups in promotions, so you might as well join them. There have been many cases where active promotions have boosted the sales of a particular product thereby expanding the reach of the brand as well.

Also, by setting the stage for your firm, you simultaneously open up a platform for your customers to get you. In other words, use social media to promote your brand. Let your customers know about you before your services/products hit the market. That will create anticipation among your crowd.

2. Customers are your promoters

A lot rides on a real customers’ praise for your firm. But how do you get customers to come to you and give you the praise you need. For customers to come flooding in, you will need to open your ears and listen to what your customers have to say about you. Instead on focusing on your business alone, divert your attention to how clients and take notes of how they react to your product- are they happy about it? Do they find it useful? Is there a mishap? Or do your customers find it difficult to use your services or products? Some of your clients might also have a few sound suggestion for you to improve on.

3. Befriend Your Customer

In the Marketing world, your customers are your best supporters and your most fierce critics- brutal in the sense that they are real about their opinion. For you to accurately find out where you lack as a business, your customers will tell you how. Create a space for your customers to voice out their opinion- set up a review or a contact us page for your clients to reach you unhindered.  Sometimes, your customers might also voice out their opinion on your social pages as well so keep your eyes peeled. Make sure you go through what you customers say about you and if any of them have a query or doubt, clear it out personally. Be precise and quick in your response, you will appreciate it. By showing a willingness to help your customers out, you demonstrate that you are eager to help. Break the wall and get connected with your clients. By doing so you…

4. Build Trust

One of an essential trait to every business is trust- trust in your firm, with your staff and between you and your customers. One of the fastest ways to build trust is to be consistent. Consistent with your brand image, your services, and your reputation. As the owner of your firm, you have the power to build and manipulate your company to your heart’s desire. With that being said, the image you portray will define your business. So work hard and be consistent in delivering your services/products. The level of your consistency will, in turn, bring up a level of trust. Your customers will recognize and relate to your brand more quickly.

The saying ‘Rome was not built in a day’ doesn’t comply only to Rome but to every other tumultuous task in the planet. So do not rush in completing your task as work done in haste has never been fruitful. Take your time in completing each task, note them as monumental milestones towards building your unshakable firm. 

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Reviewing 7P’s Of Marketing

It’s the very first lesson that everyone learns in their course of MBA, and carry it on all throughout their lives. The 7P’s not only engulfs the 7 most important attributes of marketing but also entails the birth of all popular sales and marketing concepts ruling the boardrooms of all major companies.

Reviewing 7P’s of Marketing

The 7P’s of marketing has been ruling the marketing space and has existed well before the explosion of social media. The initial 4P’s of marketing is more widely used whereas B2B and international marketing are more suitable for the use of 7P’s. However any business in any industry can use the 7 P’s, but can we apply Social Media to all 7 elements?

1. Product

Evaluating:

• Customers feedback on the products/services you sell to them
• Any ideas for a new concept or a star product
• Customers willingness to pay more for a premium priced product

You can co-create while involving your target group at the stages of idea generation and product development; also conduct a focus group on a webinar, groups of forums. Run polls on Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and Facebook or post videos on YouTube or pictures on Pinterest and at the end get feedback from the people who ultimately buy your goods and services.

2. Place

Social Media can be a one-stop solution to sell your products without any entitlement to own a shop, fancy website or offices to sell to your customers. Small businesses are the biggest beneficiary as they find it easier and cheaper ways of reaching target customers maneuvering marketing campaigns.

3. Price

Various social media has different demographics that open up the possibility of charging more or less according to each target segment. Facilitating targeting to high net worth individuals to sell at a premium price whereas lower income earners targeted with discounts or budget ranges.

4. Promotion

Though content marketing and customer engagement is necessary is necessary while promoting your company over social media, as it is here that most people communicate. Narrow your target market and keep the conversation flowing to maintain engagement

5. People

Use social media to get connected with wide stakeholders to your business such as community, competitors, trade associations and public bodies. Employees can also be used as an asset but makes sure they are trained well enough and have a strong social media policy to fall back on.

6. Processes

Re-engineer your processes to facilitate customer service on social media sites, accelerate response to customer complaints and re-tweets, share and post any testimonials or positive feedback. Check your social media presence twice daily and duly conduct keyword search about your company.

7. Physical Environment

Mobiles are omnipresent, people’s world of physical environment is in this device talking, laughing, crying and sharing their lives in social media. Get into their world of social mobile advertising and target consumers according to their habits and businesses.

Implement social media in business processes as a way to be seen as a compliment to enhance traditional marketing while slowly involving the 7P’s of marketing.

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Being Your Own Boss Could Be Easier Than You Think!

Going into business used to cost so much that it was impossible for about 99% of us. Being your own Boss was a headache! Not only did you need enough for start-up, but you needed enough to last through the first couple of months until you got traction. You also needed a lot for lawyers, real estate people, infrastructure, and employees. You had to be aware of stocking inventory and rotating it, all the laws around storage, and all the many laws around employing people. You had to invest a lot in advertising, and you had no idea whether or not it would pay off. To top it off, you had to deal with customer complaints!

The Internet changed all that. Nowadays, you can go independent and get out of the rat race without a huge financial investment or a lot of 18-hour days cleaning up behind the janitor! In fact, with certain business models, you can learn the essentials very quickly and start becoming profitable almost immediately.

Here’s some cost-comparison info for you: Opening an Arby’s costs anywhere between $399,000 to $2,347,500 depending on whether you lease or purchase the site, and what options on the menu you choose to serve.

In addition, there are ongoing fees of 4% of gross sales, advertising co-op fees, training fees, ownership transfer fees, association membership fees, additional training fees, sample fees, attorney’s fees, insurance fees, and your own taxes. These could easily run you up to another $40,000 – $80,000 per year.

Opening a business online is a whole different ball of wax. First of all, there are a million choices. You have to be careful when you work online, because there are some people out there who will just take your money and deliver nothing. But there are some really huge business opportunities that don’t cost as much and don’t carry the same headaches.

For example MOBE (My Online Business Education) specializes in information and educational products. If you want to learn how to do something, especially in regards to starting, growing, and maintaining a successful business, you can order information online from MOBE and the products will be delivered straight to your inbox. Can you imagine how wonderful it would be to sell an information product? You don’t need to worry about spoilage or shipping.

MOBE’s starter kits run right around $49. Inside, you find out how a successful online business model works. You find out how other successful people make their fortunes online. You get an understanding of the pricing model of one of the most successful online businesses in the world. What’s more, should you decide to invest in other info products from MOBE, the $49 could be credited to another information product.

Compare for yourself: deal with employees, food spoilage, rent hikes, returns, and a huge investment – OR – sell information products online, work with the kinds of people you choose, forget about paying overhead on your own building, and get started for right around $2,200. Being your own boss doesn’t have to hurt.

To ask me any questions, learn about getting started, or make a comment, please click here to reach me.

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Why Go For OOH Advertising?

The critics of Advertising may profess that a brand that performs does not need to be advertised. Unfortunately, this utopian ideology does not hold ground in markets that display competition at levels that exist in the real world. Advertising is thus not a luxury but an integral part of a brand’s success saga. Among the various Advertising Media, OOH Advertising or Outdoor Advertising has been conferred a special designation. So, what is it about this medium that the top brands from across the sectors hold dearly? In other words, what makes the brands go for OOH Advertising? This article discusses a few reasons for the medium to have never gone out of popularity.

Time Spent By an Individual

When one thinks about the period of time that an individual spends out of home, it comprises a significant part of his day. At the airports while travelling, at the metro stations while commuting to office / schools, etc., at the markets while shopping, and the list goes on and on. An OOH Ad is thus more likely to catch his glimpse than any other form of Advertising. These periods significantly increase in duration during the weekends and holiday seasons. In fact modern day demands for associations between institutions ensure that the professionals do not even have to wait for the weekends and holidays to spend time out of homes or office buildings. These high periods spent out of doors convert into higher durations of viewing time for the OOH Media.

Organized Audience Segments
Modern day transit stations are organized to such extents that it is possible to conveniently form Target Segmentation of the audience at these places. For example, airports are popularly known as the ideal places to target an affluent audience while the metro stations are utilized for targeting audiences from different segments of life. An accurately targeted ad is much more effective in terms of impact and Returns of Investment (RoI) than the other conventional methods. OOH Advertising Platforms allow for this targeting to be done with more accuracy and convenience.

A Natural Part of the Environment
OOH Ad Sites, when used intelligently, can be used to increase the decorum of the environment. They add color and life to the surroundings, amply adding to their modernization. This is an important reason, apart from the revenue generation, for the relevant authorities to release tenders of Advertising. An ad which assumes a natural place in the surrounding does not distract but rather arouses the interests of the audiences. For example a display on the Airport Aerobridges is bound to have a high impact on the audience.

Can be used at a Point of Sale

A sales head of a leading pharmaceutical company once said, “One of the vital tasks of a telesales is to create an environment where the potential consumer cannot utter the words: call back tomorrow”. In such a scenario the entire force that had been cultivated in the period prior to the utterance of those words has gone to waste; for tomorrow means a new day, a new mood, and a new attempt. OOH Advertising can be effectively used at the point of sale itself. An OOH Ad Display at a point of sale, like a Mall, increases the fluency of the conversion of an audience into buyers.

The above are the top reasons to go for OOH Advertising. The uniqueness of the advantages served by the media is such that the outdoor format will continue to stay popular with the brands from across industry segments. When we consider the large scales at which innovations are allowed by the medium, the medium will continue in its position of the most popular Advertising Medium for a long time to come.

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Social Currency Is The New Mantra Of Mobile Advertising

The advent of Mobile Advertising has changed quite a few dimensions of the world of Internet Advertising. Mobile internet services made instant replies possible which led to active discussions in the online social and professional platforms. These discussions and sharing of ads and posts led to the beginning of brand new techniques like viral marketing. New concepts like Online Reputation Management (ORM) and Social Currency, etc., emerged. Of them, Social Currency has become an object of pursuit as the rankings are now prominently depended on it.

A recent survey by Yahoo re-affirmed that creative expression and fun factor are the key factors in a Mobile Ad. A new addition to the list of the key factors is Social Currency. According to the report, 67% of the total taking part said creative expression should be facilitated, 61% said increase in Social Currency, and others said that the Ads on the Mobiles should be shareable, interesting & fun. Social Currency can be defined as a collective of the potential and actual resources that occur due to the shares and discussions in the online medium. Thus, the success of Social Media Optimization (SMO) is directly proportional to Social Currency. With the intention of the Mobile Ads shifting from mere visibility to active visibility, Social Currency gained grounds prominently. Keeping a post active and alive with discussions and shares has become the target of Online Advertising. Mobile Advertising, due to its nature of being targeted at mobile users has the biggest scope of ensuring shares and comments. New shares and comments are immediately notified, allowing for instant replies. This urgency of action brought on by Advertising on Mobiles has changed the dynamics of Advertising. Apart from posts and ensuing discussions, another factor which contributes to the Social Currency is Mobile Advertising Apps. Mobile Ads are carefully embedded into the various apps. Both the above methods allowed an automatic targeting of the relevant segments. A user using a banking app can be shown an ad on home loans. A post on current affairs is an intelligent way of marketing a newspaper as the readers would primarily be those interested in staying updated on news. This automatic segmentation saves a lot of efforts of the surveys and the better targeting results in better conversions to sales. Since Mobile Ads also enjoy a higher level of interactivity, they can be easily converted into personalized ads. Thus, they concentrate on creating a relation with the audience instead merely being visible. As the feeds and reviews on practically any product or service can be easily obtained online, Online Reputation has become a huge factor. Mobile Ads strive to fill the internet with good reviews born out of the relationship it creates with the user. A Mobile Advertisement, using dollops of creative expression and attempting promotion using humor, thoughtfulness, or any other relevant emotion which the users can identify with, will automatically become popular. The shares and comments will then generate positive reviews about the advertised brand, creating a relationship which was originally intended by the ad.

Social Currency is thus the targeted result of the Mobile Ads today. They attempt communicating with the users in such a way that a relationship is developed, which then plays a vital role in conversion to sales. Thus, accurate targeting of the audience, which would aid in the formation of relationship is what the Mobile Advertising Agencies target today.

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Avoiding Common PPC Mistakes

The digital marketing world is vast. It encompasses many aspects: search engine optimization, social media optimization, web design, up to paid advertisements. All these practices have one goal: to increase online visibility and establish brand authority.

Mystech Dynamics Inc. is a web development and optimization company that is committed to helping its clients establish their brand’s digital authority. Our services include web design and development, web maintenance and security, SEO, SMO, and PPC.

What is PPC (Pay Per Click)?

Pay-Per-Click is a digital marketing approach that aims to increase web traffic through advertisements. Essentially, the implementation of click-through ads is an effective marketing strategy to increase sales. For instance, $3 payment per click is a small amount compared to the $300 sales your company will garner through PPC.

A well-executed PPC campaign can generate online sales in just a snap. However, a single error in execution can lead to more loss than gain. Here are the most common PPC mistakes you need to avoid to secure an increase in click through rates.

• Redirecting online users to your home/ contact page. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to redirect your visitors to other pages – such as the home or contact page of your site. Keep in mind that the advertisement was specifically set up to run whenever the keyword is searched. Make sure that the search results containing your advertisement are related to the user’s inquiries.

The key is to put ads on the correct places. Attach advertisements to relevant pages. For instance, if online users are looking for products and services, avoid frustration and bring your customers directly to your products and services page where they can quickly look through and purchase what they need.

1. Failure to split-test advertisement. Avoid running PPC ads without doing initial tests. Ensure that you split-test your ads. Create a multiple version of the ad’s text for each PPC ad groups to determine which exact words generate more clicks and lead to higher on-site conversions.
2. Sticking to the ordinary. Always conduct research and employ creatively crafted advertisements. Do not rely on keywords and methods that have already been used by competitors. Offer something unique, useful, and relevant to the clients. Tell them what sets your products and services apart, and make them want your deliverables. The key is to clearly identify who your target consumers and apply the golden rule: Always know they audience. Determine what they like, what they hate, what makes them buy.
3. Not using keywords. The digital marketing world is a keyword driven era. Always, always know which keywords and key phrases to use and put them into your ad copy to secure relevance and immediately captivate the user’s attention in just one glance.

PPC marketing is good for any businesses and also can be risky if not properly planned and executed. Our team of PPC experts ensures that all your online advertisement needs are covered from keyword research, identifying target products and services, conceptualization, budgeting, up to ad creation.

Establish your brand authority and secure sales increase with our PPC advertising services.

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4 Most Important Practices Of Re-marketing Campaign

Remarketing is considered one of the most powerful and potent marketing technique available out there at the moment. But what does it mean? Remarketing is also known as retargeting, and it means to pursue the goal of pushing those persons that may be interested in your services or products, even further down the funnel of sales. This method will make your brand even more visible and help you increase the ROI in a significant manner. But, you should be careful about the way you implement this method because you risk becoming very annoying in the eyes of your potential clients if you do it wrong. So, the following practices may come in handy if you want to do things right.

1. Utilize the user intent to segment the audience

The best remarketing campaigns are made when your audience is properly segmented. For instance, people that check out the product page of your website are more likely to convert into customers than people who just check out your homepage. They may be persons that just found out about your company and brand and would like to know more about it, so make sure you add sufficient resources to your homepage. So, if you segment your audience based on user intent, you will be able to develop more efficient remarketing campaigns, which will address their needs in a much better way.

2. Your remarketing campaign should have a frequency cap on

If you are using Google AdWords platform, you should know that you can set a frequency cap on your advertising campaigns, so that your audience will not be bombarded with ads around the clock. Such a thing may be very annoying and you may chase away your potential clients instead of drawing them closer, so do have this aspect in mind.

3. Stay away from spending funds on the users that are converted already

In many cases when a person ended up making a purchase, that person will still be able to see ads from that particular company, even if he or she became a part of the list with converted clients. Such a thing is a waste of money because once the purchase was made you don’t need to keep sending ads like trying to convince the person to buy the same thing. So, on Google, for instance, you can create a separate list of converted customers, which will be used as a negative audience for your remarketing campaigns. For this list, on the other hand, you can create new ads, for upselling or provide other solutions.

4. The traffic from remarketing should be directed towards specially created landing pages

Proper landing pages for remarketing campaigns can help you in a great deal when it comes to conversion rates. Because you now know what sections of your web page were visited by what particular audience group, you can create a specific landing page that will contain what you know that group would like to see and what it is interested in. It is true that this means a more work for you, but the sales that these landing pages will generate will be worth the effort.

At Social Catwalk we provide the solutions for responsive website design and Seo services, in technologies, we provide iPhone app development, PHP web development, WordPress website development, Magento and much more. So, we have the solution for your every issue.

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Great Ideas For Direct Mailing Campaign

Regular email is an extraordinary approach to your overall digital media strategy. On the other hand if that is done rightly, the effective email campaigns can also help you create leads, get new clients and increment your income. To get your immediate mailing activity geared up and running, here are a few pointers that you might need to consider: 

Customize Your Approach 

Consider composing your message as though you are correspondence with an old companion. You ought to know that many regular postal mail pieces fall flat since organizations make a decent attempt to sound so legitimate and formal. It is alright to exhibit your business and discuss how enormous your organization is and what you can do to talk about these things and market your services. Coordinate mailing ought to be gone for getting a positive result for various digital campaigns. To accomplish that, you better not speak condescendingly to your imminent clients but rather, have a "benevolent visit" with them. You may address them in their own particular names as opposed to alluding to them with the bland "dear client." 

Ensure You Have an Exact Mailing List 

A standout amongst the most imperative things that you should remember – keep in mind the hugeness of having a precise rundown. So pose these inquiries: How old is the information you are intending to utilize? Did you get the rundown from a dependable source? On the off chance that you will depend without anyone else database of clients, ensure that you have stayed up with the latest. Or, then again if are wanting to purchase a rundown from an outsider specialist co-op, ensure that you completely comprehend what you are purchasing and that the source is of good notoriety. 

Comprehend Your Prospects 

Beside profiling your prospects, you ought to likewise attempt to comprehend them. What will they think or feel about accepting your immediate mailers? When you have considered that inquiry, figure out what you mean for them to do after perusing your message. Having a decent sense on how your prospects will respond will give you a chance to think of a strong suggestion to take action. 

Setting Up Your Message 

In composing the direct mail advertisement, remember that many individuals will scarcely go past the title or the opening sentence. You have to stand out enough to be noticed straight away. 

Make your opening passage as short as would be prudent and promptly clarify your explanation behind composing. Give the body of the letter a chance to clarify the subtle elements to make certain to concentrate more on the advantages that your beneficiary will get from utilizing your item. Toward the finish of your letter, the prospect must have unmistakably comprehended what he or she would do in the process of reading the message. 

Tending to and conveying your mail pieces can be tedious and tiring task so you might need to procure an immediate mailing server. On the other hand a great direct mailing organization can help you with your mailing needs paying little attention to your client’s needs. You can find a dependable Digital Media Consultant to coordinate for the mailing activities of your organization in the event that you do a touch of research first before beginning your post office based mail battle.

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