Hardly 5% of senior marketers make it to a CEO. Why only 5%, what is the disconnect? Most of today’s CEOs were yesterday’s CFOs or CIOs. Why? The average life of a CMO in any business is less than 3 years and by the time he leaves, there is enough water under the bridge. As a result, marketing suffers and so does business sustainability.
Bridging this gap is critical for a business to grow. To grow, a business needs a growth hacker, aka CMO. Let alone sitting on high chairs, it is imperative to understand the differences and build bridges here. Though every business is unique and has its own DNA, let us look at a few generic differences, causes and resolutions.
To underline, the disconnect between a CMO and a CEO comes from both directions.
The art and science
The challenge faced by most chief marketing officers is that they don’t plan enough [a CEO insight]. But then, it is impossible to plan all variables on a shifting battleground. I personally believe that marketing is 70% science and 30% art, which is intangible. An understanding CEO will see the light and will always drop the 30% challenge. That’s how marketing works, changing CMO’s will not change marketing, does it? This perception of changing CMO, makes the ground brittle and it is passed on to the next one, as a challenge.
A survey by Smart Insights shows that about 69% of marketers do not have an omni-channel digital marketing strategy and only about 45% have a content marketing strategy. What use is content, if not distributed and leveraged for lead generation? And the story goes on. Believe it or not, it is still the same today. Check if all your marketing channels are barking up the same tree on a given day or a week.
Lack of strategy or planning
So, if a CMO joins mid-way and there is no marketing strategy, who is to blame? The CMO who resigned and left? Ownership has to be taken by someone, and the CEO wears all the hats by default. It is for him to accommodate or delegate, but most CMO’s join to a clean and empty seat with some juniors filling in with half-baked history. Assuming that there was no strategy at all, who is to blame.
There are strategies to understand, build and execute. And, mind you, digital marketing evolves daily and a fair bit of reading keeps a marketer ahead in the game. Be it SEO, SMM, Content Marketing, Email marketing, Search engine marketing and a myriad of them, it is he, who has to keep track.
Senior executives do not consider marketing an important enough function to warrant backups?
Anyway, more often than not, the shiny, brand new CMO has to create the game and tighten it up.
Pro-active marketing
Marketers should be proactive and dynamic to take the first dive into new tactics, channels or techniques that become available. Stop, look and proceed is not a marketer’s strength. If you stop and look, evolve a strategy and optimize it to business needs, success rate will always be better. But, by the time a marketer did that, things change and the opportunity vanishes. There will be something else to plan for, that’s alright. In such a scenario, a CMO will spend all his time planning, and never executing to achieve anything. A classic CMO failure brought on by his boss.
In the past, of course CEOs are mostly old school, did not believe that the marketing process demonstrates objective and commercial thinking. 70% + CEO’s thought marketers lack the ability to generate required growth since they lack business credibility. 80% + of them never trusted marketers and over 90% trusted CFO’s and CIOs. There is a reason for this – accountability of a CIO or a CFO is transparent and data-based since everything happens in-house. For a marketer, the entire process depends on the external world and putting that on paper for accountability is impossible, if not unjust. Remember the 30%? And that’s a lot!
Thankfully, those days passed and the percentages have come down. However, senior executives are still not on the marketer’s side. Percentages came down because the customer is highly connected than ever before and there are multiple opportunities to leverage and succeed. So, unlike a CIO or a CFO, marketers need independence to take decisions and drive new strategies. A CEO should not look over his shoulder, he should just get an eagle’s eye-view. The classic ‘trust’ factor comes to the fore here. A CEO, as a rule, never trusts a CMO, even today. Remarkable, but true, because they lack ‘business credibility’.
Expectations vs Outcomes
The marketing function in any business is a highly creative function, compared to others. And, if you are a startup CEO, who wants to scale the Everest overnight overtaking established brands, God help the marketers. A marketer has his limitations and even if he thinks out of the box or a superman, time ain’t on his side. Brands are not built overnight, however, they can vanish overnight. Use caution.
CMO’s commercial angle
Most CEOs have always looked at the marketing function as an expense. Marketing is an investment that brings returns. Add to that, the thin red line between sales and marketing has always been a bother. Sales function always wins the argument because they are the rainmakers and bring in the moolah. What the senior management needs to understand is that the same moolah will not flow in, if marketing didn’t perform.
CEOs expect marketers to drive revenue growth. And, they feel that CMO’s lack the leadership skills or the business sense to achieve that. And, I always thought revenue growth was the responsibility of sales, marketing only helps generate leads for sales.
Conclusion…
Marketing has an important space in the C-club because the mission and vision of the business creates direction for marketing. The C-club should understand this and inputs from marketing should be taken seriously, in fact, rewarded. There is no one who understands the market and competition better than a CMO, and those inputs, are critical to informed decision making across all functions.
The disconnect between expectations and deliverance will always exist for any function. The percentages may be a little higher for marketing. As I mentioned, it is 30% art and a grope in the dark with the ever-changing landscape. But then, every function has its dark spaces, only it’s a little bigger for marketing.
The most important reason for the disconnect between CMO’s and CEO’s is the lack of transparency. A CEO should tell marketing what he expects out of the function, and the CMO should take responsibility and deliver to the best of the team’s ability. Of course, the deliverables have to be decided across the table after a practical and sound discussion with all stakeholders.
Entrepreneurs are great marketers and and therefore, marketers make the greatest entrepreneurs. And that, is a fact that all of us have to accept. In that truth, lies the greatest lie – ‘CMOs cannot be great CEOs’.
I believe, all functions are equally important for business growth and marketing being the growth hack, should be supported by the rest, unconditionally. Everyone should act hand in hand. Internal differences and struggle, however small, will only affect business.
It is only wise to keep the peace, right from the bottom of the heart and hit the home run.
Read time: 9minutesThe Gist: An insight into the plight of SMB entrepreneurs during the ongoing COVID-19 lockdown. Please read completely, or I recommend not to waste your time.
As we pass time in the lockdown to fight the Novel Corona or the COVID-19 threat, the Indian Government has taken a plethora of steps to ensure that people are not hit drastically by streamlining the demand-supply chain for essential commodities, ensuring that the lockdown is imposed properly and isolating cases in addition to announcing some great economic measures to ensure stability and peace.
The Indian lockdown scenario:
Official (as announced) – 21 days.
Disturbance before announcement – 3 days
Assuming monthly weekends – 8 days
Other holidays in the period of lockdown – 9 days
Total – 41 days of lost productivity.
We support the government in its entirety and understand the magnanimity of the task, announcing and executing the same in so short a time, is a great challenge. The government has kept its word on every commitment made and we are sure that we will successfully thwart the COVID-19 threat. Kudos.
We thank every frontline health worker, from doctors, nurses, and paramedics to those involved in sanitary services who are risking the COVID-19 infection to ensure that we, the common people live in relative safety.
While everything looks hunky-dory at this stage, let us look at the economic ramifications from an SMB [small and medium businesses] point of view that could surface once the COVID-19 lockdown is over [the possibility of the lockdown being extended is not ruled out].
Most SMB owners in India do not come from affluent or rich families. Compared to the salaried counterparts, most SMB owners would have about 2-month revenues as liquid savings. The intelligent salaried normally would have 4 to 6 months of salary as liquid savings. And a good entrepreneur takes about 10% of the turnover home, as salary or drawings.
The Indian SMB entrepreneurs can be classified as:
The Upper Middle Class:
A family of 4 which can buy and maintain a car in the C2 segment such as a Honda city, or maybe 2 hatchbacks such as i10. Can think of buying a 2 bedroom apartment on loan in an average location in a city such as Bangalore. Or stay on rent in posh areas. Can send kids to good private schools and private engineering colleges. Can afford to watch movies in multiplex and eat in good restaurants on weekends. Go for holidays to Goa, Jaipur, Kerala once a year. And Thailand, Malaysia, etc once in 3 years. They save enough for a comfortable retirement and lavish weddings of kids. This needs an in-hand income of a minimum 1.5 lakhs a month. That is approximately 24 lakhs a year salary before tax. 1% Indians [about 1.5 crores] are in and above this class.*
How the lockdown pans out for an upper middle class entrepreneur:
Assuming a take-home margin of 10% (which is ridiculous in today’s market), he will make a turnover of INR 2.4 Crores.
A lost period of 30 days (assuming a month) converts to a loss of INR 20 lakhs in turnover.
The general ratio of gross turnover to salary is about 35%>. Therefore the salaries paid in the period of no productivity is about INR 7.0 lakhs.
For any entrepreneur, the cost of living would be about 60% of the take-home including EMI’s. Therefore for the lockdown period where he is making no money, he would be spending:
On salaries – INR 700,000.00
Home expenses – INR 120,000.00
Gross Spend – INR 820,000.00
EMI Moratorium offset – INR 30,000
Net Spend – INR 790,000.00
Remember, the liquidity is only INR 400,000.00, so liquidity and credit cards will be stretched.
Liabilities in the next 60 days:
Opportunity loss (20% of lost turnover) – INR 800,000.00
50% opportunity loss for the next 60 days – INR 400,000.00
Business Income Tax payable (approx.) – INR 700,000.00
Personal Income tax payable (approx.) – INR 700,000.00
With business suddenly in recession and cash flow constricted, his open liabilities are INR 26,00,000.00, more than his yearly earnings.
2. Middle class:
A family of 4 which can rent a 2 bedroom apartment in an average area of the city. Buy and maintain a car such as the Hyundai i10. Watch a movie in multiplex once a month and eat out at average restaurants. Dream to own an apartment but cannot. Go for vacation once a year to Goa etc. Can buy branded clothes but not expensive electronics such as big tv or expensive cellphones. Can send kids to private schools but Cannot afford private engineering colleges in India. They manage to save for a decent retirement and kids wedding. They have an in-hand income of roughly INR 75,000 a month. That is a minimum salary of INR 12 lakhs CTC before taxes.*
For a middle-class entrepreneur, doing the same math as the upper-middle class, with business suddenly in recession and cash flow constricted, his open liabilities are INR 15,00,000.00, more than his yearly earnings.
3. Lower middle class:
A family of 4 which can afford to rent a 1 bedroom house in low-class areas of the city, buy and maintain a two-wheeler or entry-level hatchback on loan. Car such as alto and keep it for 15 to 20 years. Provide food and education to kids in a government college and cheap private schools. Any other expenses such as watching movies in a multiplex etc are unaffordable. They buy entry-level cellphones such as Moto E and go on a vacation to places like Khandala once a year. This lifestyle is possible with an in-hand income of about 40,000 a month in Indian cities such as Bangalore. An annual in-hand income of 4.8 lakhs. Hence lower-middle-class status starts at approximately 6 lakhs annual income before taxes and savings.*
For a lower-middle-class entrepreneur, doing the same math like the rest, with business suddenly in recession and cash flow constricted, his open liabilities are INR 750,000.00, more than his yearly earnings.
How’s the cash flow in the COVID-19 lockdown:
The Rich and Affluent:
Big businesses that manufacture or distribute essential products are making good money for now, but the demand will diminish and balance out in a quarter following the lifting of the lockdown.
But, for now, they are accumulating the cash and riding the cash flow due to panic buying and rolling back the same into business, so a boost for them is inevitable.
Big businesses are run by the affluent or the government, therefore they are going cash-rich, albeit temporarily. This is more so since we are all paying or getting paid salaries on time irrespective of the COVID-19 lockdown.
The Salaried:
The salaried are not much affected by the lockdown financially since the salaries are mandatorily payable and they get to spend more and buy more due to savings on eating out, clubbing and all those expendable income activities.
The Below Poverty Line:
The most affected by this crisis are the people below the poverty line and the government has done well by ensuring the PDS [Public Distribution System] remains well-oiled and distributing free food, ration, and money. This is irrespective of the fact that their income has not taken a dent and they are being paid salaries on time.
The essential COVID-19 lockdown crisis:
As small business entrepreneurs, we are all between a rock and a hard place.
We are paying salaries irrespective of work done or not.
We have to run our homes, in a crisis.
No income comes our way, at least for the 41 days.
We are not being supported in any manner by the government.
We suffer with all the above, irrespective of the following facts**:
# Number of SMBs in India – 42.5 million – 95% of industrial units in India.
# Employment by. SMB’s – 106 million – 40% of country’s workforce.
# Deals in over 6000 products.
# Contribution to GDP – 6.11% of products & 24.63% of services.
So, if SMB’s are the backbone of the Indian economy, what is its future? How is the government looking at it?
The government has announced moratoriums on all loans and come up with a few sops. These sops are temporary, it is not that we do not have to pay taxes or interest, it is just that we need to pay later. That is all right, however, these 30/40 days of lost opportunity is not coming back.
Please keep in mind that as entrepreneurs, we are not looking for doles from the government, we are only looking forward to making the most of our opportunities.
And, in my part of the country, the lockdown seems ripe for an extension.
As always, the SMB owners are staring down the barrel.
On a more personal note, I would rather risk COVID-19 than die of disgrace or hunger. What do you say?
And, web marketing has changed, post pandemic, for sure!
While reading this, please note:
This is my point of view only and I do not expect anyone to subscribe to it.
The above points are purely apolitical and pragmatist and do not cater to any manifestos.
I am sure all the SMB owners and entrepreneurs are thinking on similar lines and it is time we came up with a solution before the business turns into a financial disaster. Prevention is better than cure and the government will not wake up to this.
And, what a perfect way to spend your isolation time.
First, I hope you and yourfamily are safe and in great health in this time of the pandemic, and you are not in what we call the COVID-19 isolation. Let;’s not harp on what, when, how, why and all that information overload, overly promulgated on the telly and the newspapers.
Second, the million dollar question – What are you doing in this COID-19 isolation quarantine?
Are you using your time to do something constructive or awesome instead of lying bogged down and stressed out with news of Novel Corona and the statistics?
Are you looking at this isolation, quarantine, lockdown or curfew as wasted time or as a gifted opportunity?
I was looking at this as a paid holiday, but sadly, cannot go out anywhere. That would be an irresponsible statement, yes, kinda realised it the first day. So, let me tell you what I am doing with my gifted time.
This is not to give you a peek into my personal quarantine diary [not that I mind], but to share a few ideas to better yourself, or to pursue stuff that you have been intending to, but never found the time.
Me, I am fascinated with words and digital marketing agencies. I have been writing for a long time , probably since 2003 or 2004, wherever I can find space – internet, paper, blank walls, even on empty spaces across the columns of newspapers and magazines and of course in the recesses of my unused brain. So, the favouritism to reading and writing will be prominent in this piece, but then, each to his own poison.
No, this is not about marketing, SEO, keywords, rankings, content marketing or everything else you can think about. Let’s give Google a break.
This is just about what I am doing to overcome the Corona boredom.
I started out getting bored within the first 4 days of COVID-19 isolation and went into deep thought. I began counting the number of things I wanted to do but never could begin doing them.
Surprisingly, the count was far beyond the number of fingers I have.
I wrote them down [as I am inclined to] and prioritised them as I would – numbered them as per my passion-measure for each of them. Surprisingly, I found that, if only I had given more time and thought to them when they first occurred to my mind/heart, I would have been far better man and more successful in my profession.
And this is not even the entire list. Let me list my top fifteen:
Plan my finances to tide through the crisis (remember, I am not salaried). – priority 01
Clean up my attic, my room and my storage. – priority 02
Get back to some great health by detoxing & exercise. – priority 03
Spend a lot of quality time with family and involve kids in most of the above activities. – priority 04
Rejuvenate myself with some great reading. – priority 05
Rethink on my contribution to the society. – priority 06
Try a few new recipes to ramp up on my culinary skills. – priority 07
Write some short stories that can be converted to films. – priority 09
Catch up on my to-watch movie list. – priority 10
Up my editing skills, both the written word and the video. – priority 11
Change the way I speak or turn more articulate. – priority 12
Revamp my website with some wonderful content. – priority 13
Create an app that will simplify marketing, so much so that a startup can market itself without the help any agencies – save money and time and have a more focussed approach. – priority 14
Practice my lowly guitar skills. – priority 15
Hmm…. So, we have a 40 day lockdown (could be less officially, but I am sure it is going to take that time to come back to normal). As you may know the. Corona Virus has a 40 day life-cycle and tapers bottom to top and then top to bottom in terms of an infection cycle. As I write this, the first 10 days are gone. What have I achieved in those 10 days of COVID-19 isolation?
I was traveling the first 4 days, so just tucked myself in my OYO Room, got drunk a bit on whiskey and ate what was offered by Swiggy. Wasted health, money and time. This for me, as usual, trying to lead a normal life in abnormal times. The ‘abnormal’ or ‘threat’ did not sink in, I guess.
The 5th day, I achieved the (2) above and was tired, it took an entire day and I realised how disorganised I was. The amazing part is that I found so many books that I never thought I had, and in fact many of them were unread or partly read. Time to finish and learn. That was a treasure.
So, (5) is in process and I hope to learn and grow at an intellectual level. The (12) too is happening in the evenings, in addition to (10) that is keeping me in excellent spirits, and these are ongoing processes. By the way (3) is also in the process with my new found love for cycling and it gives me an opportunity to go out whenever allowed to, by the authorities. Not to mention that alcohol and all kind of narcotics are off the shelves 🙂 in this COVID-19 isolation.
(7) has always intrigued me, and I am cooking 2 meals a day and wife is going crazy cleaning up after me. But, I am putting a smile on my chidden’s faces and its all worth it. This in on and probably continue at least with one meal. I am done with (1), there will be jitters, I will tide over.
Yet to clean the guitar (15), probably not now, but will try.
With writing this piece, I am in the process of perfecting the (8) and (11).
With (11) I am also curating some stories for (9) and (12)
I am also giving a great deal of thought to (13) while processing the (12) loudly.
The (14) and the (15) are on the after-burner and will be starting out with them, one after another. However, I am not so sure that I Will have the time to get to (15).
My sincere apologies to the numeric references, however, I put them here with the purpose of getting more read-time. You know, things have to sink in!
Let us hear about what you have been doing during your COVID-19 isolation and we could probable grow on a few ideas, now that we have time, albeit enforced. 🙂
I have been listing a few new year AI digital marketing articles to read. I am simply awed with the sheer numbers published. After reading about 25 of them with great attention, care, interest with an intent to learn, my top three are:
This is a trend that I have observed over the past few years. Every domain gets tonnes of “new year” articles that are published across every nook and corner of the internet. All of them are written very well, no doubt, and the effort taken to create such listicles is enormous. I love to read them year on year, especially those in my domain – digital marketing.
I read through each of those 25 with deep concentration and deepening concern. The end result is that I am really, really tired of them. Do you know why?
Many of these articles are recycled, the old one from 2018 is recycled and published in 2019 and then recycled again and published in 2020..! I mean how glorious does that sound?
As a result, they have the same information, most times and little more added to it. Has originality gone out of the window?
The best part is that all of us want to get indexed on the search engines and all that bots understand is text and a little more, a little variation here and there would get us through. What about the consumers, the visitors, the readers, mates? What about them?
Search engines are not paying us, visitors, consumers, readers are! Have we forgotten that, and what will you achieve putting stale food on the table? The table is what search engine props up, but the food needs to be fresh and different.
I will not go into any domains apart from mine and with all due respect to all those authors, AI digital marketing gurus and consumers and visitors out there, I write this with no malice towards anyone or an intent to criticize. And, this is what I found.
a. Let’s take a peek at the article a, listed out on top – “10 DIGITAL MARKETING TRENDS YOU NEED TO KNOW FOR 2020”. First, the capitalization of the heading puts me off, tells me that someone is shouting at me. Micheal Brenner’s perspective is very good and the quality of writing is just awesome. The article lists out 10 trends, where CX [Customer Experience], Employee Engagement, Visualization, Personalization, Tracking SERP positions, Voice Search, Customer retention and loyalty and live video which are all old concepts rewritten as new.
For example CX, employee engagement, visualization, SERP tracking, and customer retention and loyalty have been in practice for over 4 years now. Personalization, voice search, and live video are the stuff that we marketers have been practicing for the last three years or so.
We are left with Strategic marketing transformation that has been the underlying rule for all marketing practices and too generic, prevalent at all times. The only new trend is AI-based automation which is just entering the deployment phase and is not perfect.
Inference – I, as a marketer has learned nothing new, from the piece after spending 15 to 20 minutes of reading. Of course, budding or aspiring marketers could learn something, only if they are not on their toes practicing and learning every day.
b. In the article b listed above – “42 Digital Marketing Trends You Can’t Ignore in 2020”, Nidhi Dave has put across 42 beautiful marketing techniques that are not only old but also work. Of these, apart from Artificial Intelligence, Augmented reality and Neuro Marketing, the rest are all old concepts that we marketers always follow.
All those three are not perfected yet, so the options we have are all limited as of now. The beauty of this piece is that each of the 42 points is very well explained with illustrations and links to other resources. A very good piece all in all for marketers who are just entering the fray and not so much for the more seasoned ones.
A let down for me since I have been there and done that. Imagine, this took me more than an hour to read and at the end of it, I learned too little to write home about.
c. The article c listed above – “Marketing Trends for 2020: Here’s What Will Happen That Nobody is Talking About” by Neil Patel is expectedly the best of the lot since it speaks about AI digital marketing trends in 2020 and not so much about what and how to pursue the trends.
However, it does form a foundation to build upon our strategies after due diligence and research depending on the domain that we work in. However, it is a much shorter insight than expected. Where I come from, I am seeing personalization going off the marketing horizon by 2024 where AI takes on the mantle.
Interesting articles all of them. More interesting is that only article a, has the date of publication as 25th November 2019. Rest have no production dates or expiry dates.
They have been published a tad too soon, I guess since no one mentions Google’s January 2020 Core update or the crumbling of cookies or new methods on monetization that are in vogue.
I think we are all basking in the shade of old memories and writing memoirs. Being proactive is an essential quality of marketers, no need to write diaries but there is no harm in sharing experiences, that’s how the marketing community grows, harmoniously where everyone makes a worthy buck.
As for me, at efficaci, we have come up with some highly revolutionary ideas in content marketing and the application of artificial intelligence in AI digital marketing practices. In fact, we are already working hard on a few cloud-based apps that will bring about a change to the entire marketing landscape.
The online advertising world or the SEM industry is very compact yet a complex one. Search advertising or search engine marketing as some would prefer to call it, are being mainstreamed in myriad ways with the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning algorithms. And these changes have a significant, if not a critical influence on how you approach your search advertising or AI SEM.
Without a contention, Google AdWords and Facebook Ads take the major chunk of the search engine marketing market. In this post, we will look at how AI has influenced both these platforms, where they are headed, and how you can make the most of your campaigns, given that every business likes to get more out of the advertising buck.
Google AdWords – Getting more value
Google has been slowly incorporating AI into its AdWords framework as a result of which there is a greater scope of opportunities. They could be getting one up on the competition, or saving time for strategic thinking by automating low-level tasks. Let us look at a few ways in which you can make more from your AdWords campaigns.
Weeding out poor performing ads
The first scenario, clicks rolling in but no sales or conversions is a disastrous scenario for any campaign. This means you are leaking money without any ROI.
The second scenario, getting bids on an advert but not clicks, your quality score [QS] goes for a toss. End of the day, your ROI takes the fall.
Imagine the time taken to filter out these ads, analyze them and pausing them. If you are running a campaign for your business, it is easy, but in a scenario where you are handling multiple accounts, you will be spending all your time here without any time to create strategy.
How about using a machine learning [ML] algorithm to weed out these ads and pause them automatically? This will help in keeping your ROI intact as well as take care of QS.
Getting into the finer detail, your ML algorithm should be able to:
Abandon or pause the ad before it affects the ROI. Based on previous performance factors, it should be able to estimate potential gains and losses using statistical inference.
Analyze at a molecular level. The ML algorithm should be able to factor in other individual segments like mobile traffic, non-revenue producing browsers, times and days that see a poor performance and ad variations before it pauses the entire ad outright. With this analysis, it can close or fine-tune the non-performing factors one after another with realtime analysis.
“Automation and machine learning are a big emphasis on Google currently and our industry as a whole. The more we as practitioners can leverage these tools, the more time we can dedicate to higher-level strategy and other account growth opportunities.” – Josh Brisco, Sr. Manager, Retail Search Operations @ CPC Strategy
Using dynamic ads as a part of your AI SEM strategy
Dynamic search ads are a part of AI SEM and an ML-based tool offered by Google AdWords as a part of the platform. These ads generate automatic headlines that can capture the attention of the searcher. All you need to do, is to create and upload the list of landing pages that you want to generate dynamic ads for. The tool will identify searches that it deems fit for your landing pages and generate ad content using the phrases from your landing pages. Sounds easy, but imagine doing it manually, if you are running multiple campaigns.
Using ML, AdWords also generates ad suggestions. Ignore them at your peril because these are generated using prior performance data. Incorporating them after due diligence will boost your results.
Dynamic ads can also be created using a custom ML algorithm that should incorporate:
External factors such as days and times.
Mix and match the audience, imagery and copy with multivariate testing using self-learning or evolutionary algorithms.
If you are not looking at a custom dynamic ad ML algorithm, there are a few tools in the market that can be useful – Zalster, Sentient, Ascend, Refuel4, and IBM Watson.
Used with due diligence, they could save your ROI and time.
Using automated bidding for best results
Using machine learning algorithms to cap your bidding, is becoming popular today. Bidding is a very important mechanism in search engine marketing – keeping your bids low means losing out on opportunities, and keeping them high means an ROI sacrifice.
Google Adwords comes with an automated bidding interface, however, it lacks the intelligence of maximizing your ROI. Maximizing ROI would require the input of certain external factors like seasonality, consumer trends, demographics, purchase behavior, and customer lifetime value amongst others.
A good ML algorithm for automated bidding must:
Be able to estimate the price range of each ad based on previous bids.
Calculate and factor in the click value from each click depending on the previous click data. For this, it should factor in the website data and this is a challenge. If you have multiple landing pages and keep removing or adding new ones, previous data that is fed to the algorithm could be bad or zero. Therefore, use the algorithm for aged landing pages only.
Identify the bidding landscape changes and results and adapt quickly to them instead of assuming that past performance guarantees future performance. This could be a big challenge for want of niche data.
Make use of existing platforms
What we discussed above could lead to an assumption that a custom ML algorithm is a necessity. However, we are speaking about AI SEM and hiring data scientists would be a waste of money and time when there are a platforms that could be leveraged to do the needful. Let us look at some:
Trapica: The best part of this tool is that it can scale your campaigns by identifying the right audiences and matching them to creatives thus optimizing bidding.
Acquisio: Built for Bing, AdWords, and Facebook ads, this ML platform helps you cut CPC and CPA while raising clicks and conversions.
Frank: Works with Facebook ads and AdWords and connects to millions of publishers. Frank is automated to launch campaigns and optimizes them by channel, creative and target audience.
Cognitiv: This tool uses deep learning and predicts the best spends using customization based on historic data for each brand, based on historical data.
Google has already announced its “AI-first” future when Sundar Pichai highlighted their efforts of expanding and integrating AI and ML capabilities across their products, 2 years ago.
Apart from the Google AdWords platform, choosing an alternative to create and control spending could be a challenge, however, knowing your requirements well and comparing it with the features of your chosen platform, will be a wise way to go about it.
Facebook ads – Improving campaign performance
Unlike Google, Facebook has a lot more relevant data about users. The recent scandals, albeit negative, are evidence to this fact. Concerns over private and personal data are not misplaced. Commerzbank and Mozilla have taken a negative stand over these security concerns.
However, this goldmine of data that Facebook has, used with security and in a proper manner can result in much better insights about user preferences, tastes, and behavior. This will also help run relevant and personalized AI SEM campaigns that can get better results, additionally, users can breathe easy without the generic ad bombardment every time they log in.
This filtered data is used by Facebook to help marketers create ad campaigns and the platform churns out a host of automated optimization options, helping marketers run effective ad campaigns.
Let us look at Facebook’s ML capabilities that can help you achieve this.
The importance of campaign objectives
The best part of the Facebook ad manager is that it wants you to specify a campaign objective, unlike any other platforms. Most other platforms give you objectives that are not specific to a simple goal. For example, one ad campaign cannot raise brand awareness, get you more reach or traffic and still get you a good ROI. One campaign for one objective is what works.
First up, while creating a campaign, you must understand what is to be achieved. The ad manager gives you thirteen options to choose from. Remember, campaign objective is not a cosmetic attribute. It will define the reach and placement of your ad. For example, if you choose “video views, Facebook’s AI algorithm will place the ad in front of people where there is a better chance of viewing, derived from user behavior.
Once chosen, the campaign objective cannot be changed post-launch. If I was doing it for my business, I would choose “conversions” and choose the sub-objective higher up as a CTA. This will help me keep my AI SEM campaign, unique amongst all those ads looking for clicks.
Criticality of placement using AI SEM
Facebook looks at making money and this is the reason why most campaigns have placements offered this way. The more the ad serve, the more money Facebook makes, however, for marketers, choosing all placements will result in placement optimization through Facebooks’s AI algorithm. It is a win-win situation.
When chosen, the algorithm will decide where to place your ads considering the lowest CPM (Cost per thousand impressions). Placement optimization can save up to 20% costs when “Facebook newsfeed” and right-hand column are selected manually.
There are strategies that you can create using add-ons like Instant Articles, In-Stream and FAN, but brand safety becomes a concern there. Though there are AI SEM filters available to categorize the placement, the newsfeed is a better choice considering the brand. A small price to pay, but worth it.
Optimizing ad delivery
If using campaign objectives was one part of the delivery mechanism, you still have options to further customize “Optimize for ad delivery”
Here, you will see options depending on the campaign objective you chose, and you can further focus on building a user persona to deliver those ads. “Value” is the latest addition to the list of choices.
AI Marketing is the future and has already turned into a mainstream feature in the search engine marketing or the PPC space. Micromanaging keywords and bids is no more a marketer’s job, it can be taken care of by simple algorithms, while strategy takes the centre-stage for marketing success. Many industries are yet to include automation into their marketing and the first players to adopt AI/ML technology will see a quick boost.
Over 2.4 billion people across the globe and about 70% Americans use social media and it is critical that businesses leverage this channel with best marketing practices to shore up their bottom-lines. Be it marketing, support or sales, social media has become a big weapon in the marketing arsenal. It is an invaluable asset in terms of customers interacting with the brand and vice-versa. With millions of tweets, likes, and interactions being generated by the minute, it is impossible for big brands to keep up with the data flow. Human intervention in the form of employees takes the front seat, however, even the biggest of brands have at best, “tiny” social media teams. This is where AI SMM or Artificial intelligence-based social media marketing comes in. The situation today is – a business that ignores the capabilities of AI SMM loses out on a multitude of opportunities.
Automation is the only answer to the deluge of data that is growing by the day. But automation has its limitations and so does a human brain. Crunching huge amounts of data is not a human specialty and talking and interacting with humans is not a strong point of automation, at least not yet. Humans have to prioritize on data crunched by automation software (AI SMM) to create engagement opportunities, so the entire situation becomes symbiotic, where one part is human intellect and the other is artificial intelligence. Let us look at some areas in which AI can transform social media marketing for magical results. This is what we term as AI SMM.
The complement of human intelligence and AI SMM
AI applications and human beings form a complementary team in a social media marketing or SMM process. AI is growing leaps and bounds through extensive research in terms of natural language processing. However, real-time and targeted engagement remains a challenge. Whereas, human beings, on the other hand, are adept at engagement while they fail at crunching massive amounts of data that AI can achieve in seconds. This complementary relationship between AI and the human brain can be put to use effectively when deployed with a well-thought out strategy. AI SMM, fine-tuned, is also capable of removing noise and deliver useful data to an SMM marketer, so that he can be effective and quick in his approach to engage and convert.
Chatbots
Chatbots are not only used on website frontends but have also found use in the social media marketing niche. Chatbots are evolving quickly and today they are used to handle smaller customer issues while the bigger ones are delegated to human intervention. This translates to effective use of human potential. Chatbots are equipped to create and handle multiple conversations at the same time and are available 24/7.
The fact that over 60% of customers expect an answer to their complaints in 60 minutes or less is a reality. By deploying chatbots on customer support platforms, they can help keep customers happy and improve retention rates. Not that chatbots will resolve all queries, but they can keep a customer engaged while flagging humans for faster resolution of issues. Chatbots can also prioritize complaints and help boost social media engagement by better customer interaction.
Post intelligence
Artificial intelligence is capable of identifying engagement opportunities on social media. A business called post intelligence has developed an application called PI that can track social trends in a given niche. The tracking data is then matched to the user’s recent posts and level of engagements thus creating an opportunity to fine-tune or recommend content that can be posted. It also has the capability of generating social media posts. As a social media marketer, you can imagine the possibilities here.
Pinterest has acquired a business called Kosei to add to its AI capabilities and predict personalized recommendations for users depending on their interests and search data. Deploying AI SMM, Kosei uses a recommendation modeling algorithm to help Pinterest churn out relevant results.
Bright is a job search business acquired by LinkedIn in 2014. Bright used machine learning to match employment opportunities with candidates. The bright algorithm helps LinkedIn to assess hiring patterns, work experience, locational preferences, and other myriad data to score candidates for a given employer. LinkedIn adds a new dimension to its job opportunities section by integrating Bright in addition to its data making it a more focussed hiring portal.
Slack bots
Slack bots throw guesswork out of the window for social media marketers. This AI SMM tool helps them to develop effective posts to promote their brands more effectively while suggesting content. Slack bots are seeing deployment in content marketing too since they are adept at analyzing niche content and suggesting the next steps. In the case of SMM, they analyze the posts on specific social media platforms based on the suggested niche. Slack bots can also predict engagement success rates by comparing your posts to others, especially the promoted ones. In short, they help create effective and focussed social media campaigns by taking out the guesswork.
One of the best AI SMM technologies have been deployed by Facebook to engage and enhance customer interaction. Facial recognition saves time on tagging on the Facebook platform. It is still in the early times, but with facial recognition history, Facebook may use the data to deploy the algorithm to suggest products, offers, and places.
Marketing Automation using text mining
AI’s machine learning technology is enabling text mining and it will be very helpful for marketing automation techniques. Text mining algorithms are meant to analyze both, structured as well as unstructured data, analyze, and predict customer behaviour trends. In turn, this will help marketing automation in terms of hyper-personalization which is lacking in today’s marketing strategies. AI SMM can also predict the correct times for social media posting, and will help reach a diverse audience to create maximum impact of social media marketing campaigns.
There are many tools like Buffer, HootSuite, and Co-schedule that can help you automate social media marketing by scheduling posts for a month or more, depending on your SMM strategy. So, what will take weeks can be achieved in a coupled of hours. However, they will not help with interactions or engagements, and human interaction is necessary.
Conclusion
There are many AI solutions out there, but there is no holistic solution that can serve the purpose. It is necessary to choose wisely and ensure that your choices add value to business. They should be deployed to extract holistic, actionable intelligence for the business and not as a solution to a subset of a marketing process. In the case of social media, they should be capable of uncovering insights and should help build customer-centric social media marketing strategy. Using social media automation tools creatively is the secret sauce that CMO’s need to figure out.
For more help on creating an effective AI-based social media strategy, get in touch with us today.
Google updated its search engine algorithm on 6th of June 2019. And, now there is a chatter about an unconfirmed update on July 11/12th 2019. Result – the whole SEO community is shaken and stirred. Some lost traffic, while some gained and as an SEO professional, you must be running pillar to post to find out more and rectify, especially if your or client’s traffic dived southwards. Is AI SEO, the answer to your woes?
Let’s look at it at a deeper level. With all due respect to every professional’s knowledge and skills, there is every reason bother about search engine updates. Taken that, you have been honest, built a technically fantastic website (as per technical SEO recommendations) and marketed it organically without using or focussing on bad links or using copyrighted content. Only the market or consumer trends will effect your traffic and nothing else.
I have been following the updates just for the sake of
profession and never made unnecessary changes to any of mine or client’s
websites, apart from making them customer centric and none of them have been
hit, over the last 15 years. There is a secret to it, of course. September
2013, the Hummingbird update was what got me going.
You, me and SEO
Following AI SEO techniques to create an SEO strategy is a good idea, once and for all. I can understand that everyone is in a hurry to promote keywords and get to the top of Google’s organic results. What I do not understand is, if you you are not better than the one on the top, how do you expect to get there.
Following success and getting one-up is the game here, and
not gaming the search engines. If you are trying to game them, surely, you need
to think about damage control with every update. Search engine updates are here
to create a level playing field and playing by the rules is the only way to get
there.
AI or artificial intelligence “was” for the nerds. Today, it is effecting every facet of your digital life – Alexa, Siri, AdWords, FB ads, Amazon or Netflix recommendations, you name it and it’s there. So, it’s already made headways into digital marketing, so, what’s wrong with applying it to SEO.
AI SEO – The impact
and the relationship
What do you think the search engine algorithms are? They
understand more than we can perceive including irrelevant backlinks, keyword
stuffing, bad content etc. They rank your webpages depending on these and many
other factors and, are created to learn using machine learning which is an
integral part of AI.
Understanding AI and playing by the rules is critical to
success. This can help you create cohesive strategies and bring more bang for
the buck. Let us see, in this post, how you can leverage AI SEO for better ROI.
Today, the impact of AI is very strong. For example, the
search results on Google that you see, take into account a number of
considerations like favorite websites, geographical location, search history
and similar customers who searched the same query. This means that the impact
of AI on page rankings will be strong and can vary very quickly due to customer
behavior. Your SEO strategy has to consider this impact with a critical eye.
Role of Machine
Learning in search engine rankings
SEO or search engine optimization is an organic marketing
processes executed to tame search engines and get to the top of organic
rankings. Of course, marketing is ever-evolving (which keeps me interested in
the first place), and search engines also evolve at the same pace, especially
in the area of SERP or page rankings where they exercise utmost influence.
As SEO professionals, we have been meeting the algorithm requirements through keyword optimization, metadata, acquiring inbound links and adding new website content frequently. Did we forget something? Will get to it in a minute.
The leader of search engines, Google continuously improves
search results based on search trends and not by what you and me do. Google is
consumer specific and analyzes search trends over time using machine learning
and applies the same to its algorithms. How many of us SEO professionals have
tuned the search to consumers? We have always ranted ranking and ranking and
ranking.
So if traffic falls for some websites and rises for some
after an algorithm update as a result of an organic fall, don’t fret, you just
need to adjust your sails to the search engine winds. If you had the consumer
in mind, the adjustment will be small, but if you had rankings in sight, it
could still be your best fall ever.
Google estimates that 50% of search volumes will come
through voice in an interactive language, by 2020. And, Google is ready with
its voice assistant, image search and maps locations, bettering it by the day
to interpret natural language and provide relevant results. Are you working
towards it? Is your SEO working towards
using natural language keywords?
Applying AI is the only way to understand and tame the
search engines. There are many tools out there, like Moz, Yoast etc. that can
help you with keyword usage, optimize content and page optimizations. However, tuning your website to rank for
voice search is the the key to success.
Content is critical to SEO and we are not talking content marketing here. We are talking about shape, size and tone of content that needs to change effectively. AI can help you create opportunities to reach wider audience. However, it is for you to intertwine these opportunities and create a proper and sustainable search engine optimization strategy.
You could, but how? Every secret lies in the data. Check
your content, blog posts and other publications for traffic data and analyze
why some did well and some did not. How many of them appeared in voice search
and what did you get out of them? An AI
empowered digital marketing agency could help you do well here.
AI helps you leverage consumer insights and create
strategies around it. Kia Motors did this successfully by partnering with an
influencer marketplace to find the right influencers. And, do you know how the
marketplace found them? Using AI. Kia’s 2016 Super Bowl commercial is a perfect
example of attracting relevant consumer groups for their Optima model, using
branded content.
AI used in content can provide insights and ideas about:
Landing pages – performance of old ones and
suggest new ones.
Personalized content – dynamic content depending
on user preferences.
Experiences – Unique to customers according to
their preferences.
Additionally, tools like BuzzSumo or Hubspot are able to pin
point customer preferences in real time enabling you to act in time to win
business. There are many other AI tools out there that can help you leverage
your content for best use. As an SEO professional, you can well understand the criticality
of having those above in your arsenal.
The best way to attract or captivate a visitor to convert is
through hyper personalization. IF the messaging is fine tuned to the language
used by the visitor, messaging at times he/she prefers and using names is the
best way to further your interests. I
mean, wear the visitor’s shoes and you will understand what I am talking about.
Standing out amidst the impersonal content that rules the
internet is the only way to get to to the visitor’s heart. In fact, data says
that about 80% businesses achieved revenue targets and more using a proper
personalization strategy. AI based personalization that is customer intent
based can actually raise potential profits by about 15%. Personalization
engines created using AI will see a rise and obviously adding personalization
to your website, content and SEO will see hyper results.
Another great example of personalization success is
Starbucks, which offers loyalty cards by leveraging mobile app data. This
enables the business to provided menu recommendations on mobiles to customers
approaching the store. Their secret to customer success, despite having 90+
million transactions a week along with a lot of data. That’s what leveraging
data using AI for hyper personalization, can do for your business.
The future of AI in
marketing
Search engines like Google evolve continuously and as SEO’s
we cannot expect ourselves to know what’s on the inside of a search engine
algorithm. It’s only when the updates are deployed, we measure the results,
happily or unhappily. Sad, but true.
However, realising that all those changes are
customer-centric and keeping the customer in mind is of utmost importance. If search engines are leveraging AI to meet
consumer needs, why can’t you do the same to cater to search engine needs.
AI based tools are adept at measuring how your blog post or content will
perform in search. Isn’t it a great starting point to better your marketing,
with AI SEO?
Conclusion…
In short, AI has matured from a data collection and an analytics
tool to become an integral part of digital marketing. The sooner your business
realizes the impact of AI SEO to your marketing bottom-line, the better. The
bottomline is that your SEO has to evolve alongwith AI and that you will nomt
be able to do without the use of AI. Deploy and see results.
Get in touch with us for a more detailed discussion.
Cloud computing is no simple term, but it is neither as complicated as you may think. This post gives you the simplest definition of what cloud computing offers and its potential in the coming years. Once you read this completely, you should be completely convinced that you should move your website to the cloud immediately.
Why cloud computing?
Everyone is connected to the internet these days, at least everyone I know is. So, it does make sense to keep all your data and apps over the internet instead of your hard disks, USB drives and other storage devices, isn’t it? Simple, has the internet instilled enough confidence about the security of your data or apps to make use of it it on a regular basis, professionally? For example, whenever you use Google Drive or tune into iTunes you are using cloud services. So, it did, isn’t it?
In this article, we will see the
advantages of keeping your data on the internet a.k.a, the cloud.
Before I come to that, I remember it was 2013 when I was backing up my data on to Dropbox since I was quitting my job. Though I understand software, it seemed that I did that quite well and viola, I got home and never could access the data again, not even today, it’s just vanished. Dropbox has been there since 2008, the problem was that I was not an early adopter and never could figure out where I went wrong. What did you think I did? Of course, swore, never to use cloud storage again. I am sure many of us have gone through such harrowing experiences, some, more than once.
‘You’re pretty new to cloud storage aren’t you?’
But then, somewhere along the line, I got used to using the Google Drive [probably found it much simpler to use] and today I use many other cloud spaces including Dropbox. Along the learning curve, I found the cloud storage helped me to:
Be flexible with my data
Yes, I can access my data anywhere, anytime I need to including on the mobile phone. Dealing with AI databases, I do store huge volumes of data out there and believe me, it is so simple to use. And, since I run a small business, it also opened my eyes to using it as PaaS [Platform as a Service], SaaS [Software as a Service] or IaaS [Infrastructure as a Service]. Nothing to be confused about, it is just about how you want to go about using the cloud to suit your business needs.
A little more explanation – PaaS is used to host a customised application for your business so that your employees, vendors etc. can use it to fasten your business processes. SaaS deals with applications that are already on the cloud or your own application built on the cloud to offer subscription for business to use Example – Google Drive or AWS.
In a nutshell, we can say that PaaS allows companies to come up with customised applications suited to their needs, while SaaS requires them to choose an application to subscribe to. So for SaaS, the service is provided by a host that also manages the application itself. IaaS is about using the resources on the cloud to get your work done. [Example – Hosting your website]. Again, all these can be used in tandem, as required for your business.
Why I use cloud computing?
Available all times: Resources on any cloud computing platform are available all the time or you could say it is on-demand. You don’t need all that paperwork and the IT department to do the job for you.
Device independent: You can call and use any resources you need using your mobile phone, laptop, home computer or even a tablet, all you need is a consistent internet connectivity which is not a challenge anymore.
Shared resources: Cloud computing or storage is a multi-tenant model which means that the same resources can be shared at the same time by various users without any security risks since privacy is controlled through multi-layered security protocols and passwords. This kind of resource pooling is like living in a gated community but sharing the resources provided without any security risks. You still have to lock your house though!
Scaled resources: If you are running a business, you can well understand that you will need excess resources, probably for a short period of time and those requirements will be needed ‘yesterday’. Cloud computing is equipped to take care of such needs at a second’s notice. You can scale your requirements as needed, for as much time as needed and billed for it, as used, no more, no less. And, remember, in most cases, this is automated with detailed reporting.
Pay per use: Yes, cloud computing is based on a pay-per-use model, with detailed reporting of what you have used over a period, you are billed accordingly, so no extra money wasted or extra resources lying idle somewhere.
Why I moved to the cloud?
I am a very orthodox businessperson and believe in cost-cutting but not by cutting corners or at the cost of customer satisfaction. I look for value for money and cloud ensures that I get it. How?
Reliability: Assuming that your cloud provider is down due to some reason, which doesn’t normally happen, your data is automatically backed up on a parallel cloud where you can access it easily. So, the cloud is highly reliable. Cloud technology works on a distributed data management system [OMG, another acronym DDMS].
Flexibility: You could have employees or providers across the globe and yet get the best out of them using the cloud. Since it is omnipresent, the flexibility of scaling, costing and accessibility that a cloud can provide is enormous.
Recovery: Since your data is on the cloud, for example your WhatsApp chat data is backed up on Google Drive, it is very easy to get that data recovered in a matter of minutes even if your phone is bricked and you get a new one and login with the same credentials. In a business scenario, this becomes highly important once a local server or a laptop go bad suddenly.
Environment friendly: As a result of using cloud computing, your cost of maintaining IT infrastructure reduces drastically. You are not only cutting costs but also running a business that does not contribute to global warming.
Security: Believe it or not, cloud computing is the most secure way to store your data. Since most cloud providers use Linux servers, they are not prone to virus or malware attacks. Also, since clouds are simpler to configure, access level securities are quite possible offering no chance to the hacker community to test their skills.
Instant monitoring: Since the cloud is always at your disposal, it is very easy to figure out your reporting in a jiffy. It is easy to check how many tissue rolls you have sold in Indonesia and what is the inventory left sitting at your plush corner office in Chicago. You don’t need to send emails to-and-fro and find out inventory or sales requirements.
Implementation: Many still think that cloud implementation is a complicated process. Yes, it is, depends on the purpose of implementation, But, again the advantages it brings are enormous and implementation is only a one-time process.
Investment: Cloud computing is an investment, yes, but look at what it is going to save you over the next two years in terms of resources and time, and how it can bring efficiency into your business and elevate the opportunity costs. Not to mention, having that ever heavy-headed IT department around. Compare costs, you will see that the investment in cloud computing initially will only be a fraction of benefits it will bring.
Competition: Last but not the least, adopting cloud computing is going to shoot you up through your competition. Take for example, hosting your website on the cloud – your website becomes faster than most of your competitors and speed, as you may know is one of the marketing factors that matters most to your customers as well as your search engine optimization strategies..
Conclusion…
Cloud computing has been there for a decade now and it has improved leaps and bounds to create ripples in the business and technology arenas. In fact, most businesses are making it a priority to shift to the cloud because of the advantages it offers. More and more cloud services are taking birth every day, so it caters to more needs of your business than you may think. I can well understand that following the cloud industry is not your forte for you as a businessperson, but giving it an hour of your valuable time in terms of research and your competition can give you important insights that could boost your business.
If you are looking forward to migrating your website to the cloud and need some expert help, we are always here to help you make the transition.
Marketing is critical to any business that targets aggressive growth. There are many businesses that are often confused about finding the right marketing agency, so you are not alone. Even the seasoned ones (those who have used agencies before) are quite skeptical. And, they prefer to create their own checklists before choosing a good and compatible internet marketing agency. No internet marketing company is the same because there are no set rules apart from generating the right results. Having said that, marketing is a mix of too many spices and not everyone knows the right mix to bring out the exact flavour. There are a lot many factors that need to be considered before choosing one.
With more people looking at the digital space before they buy a product or a service, it has become critical that your business is omnipresent to catch the customer’s eye. Again internet marketing is not only about sales, it is also about branding and creating the right image. So, having a well-thought-out digital marketing strategy is very important to the success of your overall internet marketing efforts.
We will discuss why you should be choosing certain digital platforms [and why you should not, for others] and how you are going to market on them to maximise results.
Honestly, there are too many internet marketing agencies mushroomed because of the ever-increasing internet coverage and usage of devices to research and buy products or services online. The more the merrier, however, choosing the right one is the biggest challenge for businesses. Now let us look at a few pointers about the process of going about choosing the right internet marketing agency.
Expectations from the chosen internet marketing agency
As a marketer fishing for the right internet marketing agency, you need to create a clear list of expectations that you expect from the agency along with a process of how they could execute it. You can actually create one with the help of your internal marketing team and figure out what you can do in-house and what you need to outsource. Now that you know what to outsource, the task becomes easier. Of course, proper coordination of tasks should be planned beforehand with timelines and a proper schedule. However, keep that expectation list flexible.
Operational list
A digital marketing agency should be vertically aligned and should be able to do the following tasks with relative expertise:
Web development and design.
Email marketing in detail with all things like segmentation included.
Search engine optimization – the mother of all digital marketing practices, they should understand on-page as well as off-page factors including the technology that you use for your website.
Search engine marketing including online advertising (AdWords, Facebook Ads, Twitter Ads, LinkedIn Ads and other forms of PPC).
Of the above, what are the agency’s strengths and do they match your requirements is a critical question to ask, It is for you to choose which of the above are required for your marketing practices and which are not. So, evaluating an internet marketing agency is about matching requirements and strengths. Figuring out what you need and what you don’t need is important since they need to understand synergies that exist between all these processes.
Objectives
All the processes, in-house or outsourced should have a singular focus of attracting relevant and quality traffic, improve brand awareness, giving out the same message relating to the mission and vision of your organisation and bring in leads that can convert them into customers. Last but not least, they should also target existing customers for up-sell, cross-sell or re-sell. All in-house and outsourced inbound strategies should focus on omnichannel marketing.
Long term
While choosing the right internet marketing agency, look for a long term relationship, even if they have often made mistakes or failed since changing agencies will affect your marketing adversely and you will have to start at the beginning again. That would be a loss of resources as well as traction built, however small it could be. This means, you have to choose your internet marketing agency wisely and with caution.
Lead time
Always remember that creating a relationship and an understanding requirements take time, do give the internet marketing agency you choose a little time, probably a few weeks to get things working smoothly. And, when you choose wisely, the agency will give its best and that will be to your advantage. Passion and hard work are the hallmarks of any good agency and you should always look for those before anything else. Skills and technology can be acquired in a short time, but passion and hard work cannot be.
Research
Once you shortlist your choice of internet marketing agencies say 5 of them, always do or let someone do a background search on the internet for them. Many will come with fantastic reviews, some with bad reviews and some with a mixed bag. There is a huge challenge here. Most reviews you find on the internet may be wrong or misleading.
It is important to use some genius to figure out the best ones, by adding facts or by checking how the reviewer is related to the agency and so on. This can be a very tedious process and it is worth spending time on. Google reviews, on the other hand, are normally quite transparent and dependable. Again, a word of caution, not everyone wins the battle every time, so an internet marketing agency with a bad review need not be bad as it is made out to be. Research and find out why they got that one, in particular. There are many ways to check these out.
Past Work
It is also important to check the kind of work that the chosen internet marketing agency has done in the past, so most of them would have a portfolio section on their website. Please check those as well as case studies if available. This is the best way to assess the capabilities of the agency related to your needs.
Spy and try
Last, but not the least, try and find out agencies that your competitors are using and the results they are getting. I would not recommend using the same agency but you will get a fair idea of the kind of internet marketing agency you should use.
Now is the time to ask your chosen agencies for an RFP (Request for Purpose). This will give you more details of the agency you have chosen including their business background, ways of working, pricing, and any portfolios you may have missed. This should also come with target audiences, success rates, time-lines and many other details including terms and conditions they work with, contract and these will help you assess the agency better.
Conclusion…
The above cover the elements involved in choosing the right internet marketing agency. In case you have questions, please feel to ask away on the comments below.
First, I am up to my neck reading listicles daily – 5 points to remember, 7 tips to success, 10 things to decide upon and so on…. I know they create a titular interest for readers but most of them come with no or unimportant content most times…. I am sure that those serious readers who are really really interested in a topic would read the content anyway, listicle or not if it contains some great content. Listicles have been a part of everyone’s digital marketing strategy for too long now, and I have really stopped reading those, for me, they are a waste of time, 90% of the time.
So, I am not going to arrange this post as a list but will try and weave it logically so that it makes sensible sense and adds value to my fellow marketers and readers.
Before I dive in, I think we need to understand that a digital marketing strategy is bespoke for every business and depends on many factors despite being in the same domain. For example, the Coca-Cola company may have an objective of introducing 3 other flavoured drinks in the market this year, while Pepsi-Cola could be looking at launching in 5 other countries. So, the marketing strategy would definitely be different for both businesses, although the objective of enhancing sales and making more money lies at the heart of any business, always.
Sadly, most marketers have the same blueprint of digital marketing strategy for all businesses across domains. Create content, distribute, create more links, create AdWords campaigns and do scheduled social media posts, all with good intention, and with hardly any results to show. Businesses, today have become wary of outsourcing their digital marketing needs for the very same reason.
As a marketer, I will first try and understand the client’s business, the vision, mission, and short and long term objectives before thinking of marketing it. I would like to understand their mission and vision, more about their products and services and how they differ from their competitors and what their USPs are. Only then, yes only then will I analyse the competition and then get into the history of what has been done and achieved in the past in the name of marketing until now, either by their own team or through external agencies.
Getting into the groove, I will first create a
realistic marketing framework:
Marketing Framework
Before I do anything, I will check which of the competitors are doing the best and why so! They must be doing something good to get better results. There are many tools to achieve that, and most of them are reliable. Call it spying or intruding, but then the best best way to succeed is to follow success and better it.
Once I close this analysis, I would map my client
KPI’s and objectives and compare to the competition. The next step is to tweak
them to achieve what needs to be achieved. Remember, once these are frozen and
set in stone [which can’t be, but for now, yes], there is a lot more thought I
would give to understand:
How a frozen KPI is related to the goals to be achieved?
What are the metrics that need to be measured?
UX is of paramount importance – are the measurements catering to UX in any manner? If yes, how and how much?
What and how many metrics needs monitoring and how those variances contribute to the goals included in my marketing plan?
Now is the time when I would delve into the details
– timelines, content mapping, editorial calendars, AdWords creative and social
media tones. There are too many tools out there to help us marketers do that…
choosing the right ones is a different story.
Once I have the metrics nailed down to a “T” and link them to my KPI’s [so that I am on track with my goals], it is time for execution testing for a 4 weeks.
Ask a few KPI based question during
testing
Have I set the right metrics for goal measurement? What are the metrics I need to focus more and which ones can I ignore for some time…? I will try and analyse results weekly, probably daily too during this time and figure out which goals I have achieved and which I haven’t. For those that I achieved, which metrics got them across the line and for those that I didn’t, which metrics did I ignore? This tells me what I should improve upon and which should I ignore.
The digital marketing strategy can get tricky. It is not only about results and data but also about the human element and experience, the gut feeling as I call it. For me, traffic is not only about numbers but also about visitors/humans and each of them is different. The data I glean from here tells me more about the UX and visitor behaviour which will be a great help to improve upon at a later stage. End of the day, UX, user intent and user behaviour are the ones that will define the ROI, domain agnostically, every time.
Build an effective digital marketing strategy
The step-wise customer journey right from being a first-time visitor to a customer is what a marketing funnel is about.. Though it sounds simple, it is complicated due to data analysis and deep learning structures that AI is honing presently. The break-down, simply put can be:
The outreach: Website, landing pages, social media outreach, advertising, video marketing, content marketing, social media posts, and infographics – mostly attractive and useful content focussed on search intent, like this one.
The conversion: Visitors taking action, what the intent could be – to just leave their emails, read eBooks or even take part in contests or make a purchase.
The closure: Feedback, support systems, reviews and so on.
Customer retention: revisits, offers, email marketing, surveys, and many other outreach tools.
We call them marketing funnels because the widest part of the entire exercise is right at the outreach point where brand awareness is maxed out along with customer engagement. Of course, the numbers dwindle and the funnel begins to narrow down, irrespective of how artistic it looks, it is, after all, a numbers game. The funnel begins with relationship building and ends with a sale and then when we get to retention, it holds its shape.
The better a marketer is or the better the digital marketing strategy, the funnel will lose its shape slowly and of course, it comes with great tools, expertise, and experience. I don’t panic, I just give it some time and the funnel elongates slowly while I keep tweaking the marketing strategy through measurement, analysis, and experience.
Content is King! What works?
Content marketing is much more than writing wonderful blogs and tweets. Content marketing is meant to brand you as an expert in your field and to that end, learning new technologies and tricks to enhance your content is very important, each piece that you produce should inform the reader about something new and happening, not in a nerdy way but in a way that he/she understands. Personally, I keep it very simple and straight, obvious no one wants to waste time reading 10 pages and finding out that they are no wiser for it. Creativity and information that adds real value are what get you readership, not long content as Google recommends, sorry, that was not intended to be criticism.
Your services could be complicated or your product or technology, but, it is important to tell a story. A story that keeps the reader engrossed, so value and quality are the hallmarks of content marketing and not volumes as many marketers still like to believe, no offence intended towards anyone, everyone to themselves.
Content with information of value to a reader,
interspersed with proper CTA’s is what I would like to produce in the form of a
story. I always keep a repository of content produced well in advance, so that
I never fall short. However, the repository is always at the top of the mark,
since I keep revisiting and editing that stuff, forever.
Content marketing depends on a few more factors
Another issue with content is its importance to SEO, keyword usage, density, and yadda-yadda. I believe in it, but that is not as important as user centricity for me. If I can distribute my content to the right areas where my audience hangs out as an interesting read, search engines will waste no time in indexing it. That of course, is entirely my belief and people who cannot produce the right kind of written word would actually focus on the SEO part. Finally, I track the readership and ensure that it is read by most people and possibly go viral, while I keep my fingers crossed. No, I am not talking luck here; I am talking about my doing everything right. And, if that doesn’t work, I go back to my drawing board and learn all over again until I get it right.
Flexible planning
Any digital marketing strategy or plan that I create is always open-ended, means, it will have enough scope to better it or tweak it until it works perfectly and gets me the results I expect. I hate giving deadlines to clients, but then it is important to have a plan on a timeline, and to that end, I always keep some extra time on hand. In my experience, I have seen some unexpected events happening, what better example than search engine updates that turn your plans topsy-turvy. I have been there and done that, but gone ahead and forgotten the bitter experiences.
I do have some blank spots on deadlines, just that
I may fall back sometimes or to tweak a few things since the competition has
gone one up to get better results. New technology, tweaks, ideas as you go into
execution need some space to implement and so the blanks are important to me.
All through, I never lose sight of my goals and KPI’s though.
Have a clear direction
I normally plan my content marketing direction to be steady for at least a single quarter, unless something unusual comes along in the domain and things change drastically. The direction will be oriented to a particular goal and the goals are measured continuously in order to ensure that I am doing everything right. It should be aligned to your digital marketing strategy.
It is also critically important to understand that all distribution channels are oriented to the same or similar messaging so that a reader or a visitor is aligned to a singular topic or discussion. This will enable a visitor to search for your channels and read through more thus improving his/her chances of conversion or to turn into your brand advocate. This is also called omnichannel marketing.
Have highly informative, shareable and SEO-friendly
content ready to achieve expected results and make the best out of your
marketing strategy.
Conclusion…
To build a workable, effective and efficient marketing strategy, you should have some excellent content to fall back upon, of course, content is the raw material for marketing, be it articles, Facebook posts, tweets or any other form of content.
And, remember, executing a digital marketing strategy is a punctual time-line, having some project management experience under the belt could come in great use. All, digital marketing channels should be speaking the same language. Moreover, each and every detail is important including grammar, misspelled words and any other errors. One reader, coming across a simple overseen mistake could forever be gone, which means you have lost a prospective customer. Be a perfectionist and not a hobby marketer, it will get you nowhere in the long run.
For me, with over 20 years as a digital marketer, marketing is still an art and a science and, no strategy big or small, I have created was cut and dry.
The smallest elements that I give importance to are the brand story, visitor engagement, and the customer journey through the funnel, the rest is taken care of by the digital marketing strategy itself. I strive to engage the largest group of audience, remember, the larger the number of visitors, the larger the conversions and customers. Not that I give too much importance to numbers or analytics, but I strive to convert 5 visitors from 100 instead of 2 from a thousand.
I am confident that you get my point here, the idea
is not about numbers but about customers who will turn into brand advocates and
will keep coming back for more.
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