Role of Mobile Phones in Purchasing

By today, Mobile phone has become the most useful technological tool among all human being all over the world. Before, the mobile phone was only an electronic tool which used to communicate with each other. But now, it has become the gadget which can play roles such as a computer, radio, calculator, Television and camera more than a communication tool. Thus, mobile phones calls as Smart Phones.

Smart Phones make people think wisely. Earlier advertisements had more power to encourage people to make purchase decisions. But today, People always search information through mobile phones before they make a purchasing decision and it gives more opportunities to customers when they are dealing with purchasing decisions. Smart Phone has become the shopping companion for most of the people by now. It provides people with price comparison, customer reviews & complaints, knowledge of discount offers and promotions, relevant product information and competitive brands etc.

Today, if a person has a mobile phone with internet connection, he or she can do all the shopping without stepping outside of their door step. This process is called as online shopping. Nowadays many shops encourage online purchase orders as they have understood the importance of Digital Marketing and how far they can increase their sales revenue by decreasing their costs such as distribution costs and sales person’s costs.

The evaluation of Social Media has a close relationship with mobile phone. People got the chance to keep in touch with the people who lives thousands of miles away trough social media due to high speed and low cost of communication.

Smart Phones have become such an important part of our lives due to above reasons. People use their mobile phones while they are watching TV, while they are travelling, while reading newspapers even when they are eating.

The advertisements people see through their smart phones affect them more than the advertisements they see through traditional media such as television, newspapers, magazines etc. it is proved that the tendency of making a purchase decision is very much higher when the advertisement is seen through the smart phone.

As a conclusion we can state that the effect which was provided by advertisements earlier is not effective anymore. People are more knowledgeable and aware of what they are going to purchase. Technology has inspired them to provide best value for the money they spend making them totally satisfied with their purchase decision. 

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Remarketing

Remarketing is the best way to connect with your website visitors who have not made the “desired marketing action” which is immediate purchase or enquiry. You can send your marketing ads to the defined audience that has previously visited your website and that process is called as the Remarketing. Thus, Remarketing is known as one of the most effective advertising strategy.

Remarketing ads can be delivered in either or both text and image display formats. These ads are managed in Google AdWords and they are display on web pages, which are visited by your targeted audience that accept Google advertising placements. Remarketing is very useful when there is a long sales process and considered and competitive. It helps you to improve your sales conversions and to rise your brand profile.

The process of Remarketing starts by placing cookies on your website visitors’ machine when they meet your criteria. Their cookie ID is added to your remarketing list. You can have multiple lists with a range of different criteria.

As an example you wish to target visitors who viewed your website but didn’t do any purchasing or complete and enquiry form. Some pages ask for email number even before the page is properly loaded.

The Google Remarketing feature has recently been through a revision & the Google has added more features and controls for social media advertisers. By now, the Remarketing feature is more flexible because of upgraded Google Analytics code.

Cross channel advertising is a method which can use to remarket your products to target customers.  Cross channel advertising is allows businesses to shorten the time needed become a recognizable brand by displaying ads on multiple platforms, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Twitter to previous website visitors. This theory happens when a visitor visits your website after clicking an ad on Google & it would recommended to advertise to the same user when he/she logs to Facebook or Twitter and when he /she visits other websites which are allows display ads.

The advantage which can take from Google Analytics also important here. Google Analytics is a great tool for companies who wants to start a remarketing strategy for their social media advertising. Google Analytics allows the creation of lists based on several information such as time on site, page views, exit pages, goals, and achievements. Google Analytics integrated with Google AdWords now. Thus, all the lists which are created with Google Analytics can be used with Google AdWords too.

Remarketing for search allows businesses to target people who visited website of the business while they looking any custom selected keyword on Google. For example, people who search the word “women’s office trousers” may visit your website too. When they leaves your website without making any purchase, you can send remarketing message to that customer. 

You can do your Remarketing using Google ads, Facebook ads, twitter ads, Youtube etc. YouTube ads are create and managed using Google AdWords & both Google & Facebook offer the opportunity to create dynamic ads to the businesses who has thousands of products and when it is hard to create a banner.

If you want to maximize your potential return on invest, you should experiment with both video and banner advertising and should focus only on the customers who were highly engaged with your website.

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Websites- Does a business really need one?

In today’s age of globalization and the rapid growth of technology, online transactions have become the norm. Almost every business has their own website through which customers can interact, purchase products and view available deals. It has come to the point where if you do not have a website for your business, you may not be able to reach most of your customers. Today’s customers value efficiency, speed and the luxury of shopping from their couches at home. The millennial generation does not bother to pick up a phone and make a phone call to place an order, they would rather just click a button. Thus, a business would run the risk of losing sales and not being able to communicate with customers if they did not have a functioning website.

Having a website is one of the main digital marketing strategies that can be used by a business. Websites have a global reach, as opposed to a physical space limited to those who visit the store. Geographical barriers cease to be an issue. Advertising on a website would allow a business to target many more customers than they could have with just a physical store. One of the main advantages of a website is that sales can be done at any hour of the day. Because a website does not take up physical space like a shop, there is not opening or closing time. Customers can do last minute shopping at midnight or at four in the morning. This convenience is of utmost importance to today’s fast paced generation. 

Having a website adds credibility to a business. It allows customers to share positive testimonials and allows the business to showcase their products. Websites are much more cost effective than print or television advertising. Because of this, a website could be vital for a small business. In order to save on advertising, they could simply market via a website, which could later expand into social media. Most customers check a store’s website before actually visiting it, and the first impression could shape the entire customer experience.

As useful as a website can be, there are several factors to remember in order to create a successful website. It should have a clean design, meaning that navigation should be fairly simple and it should be easy to read. The features should not distract customers from what is important. The company should also design the language depending on who their target market is. If it is a younger, hip crowd, the language can be catered to them. However, it the target market is an older population, the website should sound more professional. It is also important to design the website such that the customer does not feel as if the product is being forced on him or her. Instead, all the information should be given, so the customer can make the final purchase decision. Integration with social media could also prove to be beneficial, as most of the young generation prefers to spend time on various platforms like Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram and Youtube. 

Having a website would be an important component in the digital marketing strategy of a business and would impact the bottom line of the company, leading to maximized shareholder value.

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The Ins and Outs of Social Media Marketing

According to Armstrong and Kotler, "Social medias are online communities where people congregate, socialize and exchange views and information” . Social media marketing refers to leveraging social media websites like facebook, twitter, pinterest and instagram to engage customers anywhere, anytime via their digital devices. It is said to be the fastest growing form of direct marketing. Consumers can be engaged via their tablets, phones, laptops and with the widespread use of internet, both buyers and marketers have been dramatically impacted. Marketers have two options in how they choose to establish their social media presence. Companies can either set up their own, or interact with customers on existing social media. For example, 99% of global brands like Nike, Adidas, Mercedes-Benz, Pizza Hut, Dell and Coca Cola have their own instagram, facebook pages. Companies also have the option of marketing on instagram by having their advertisements inserted into users’ home pages while they scroll.

The first step to planning a successful social media marketing initiative is to ‘listen’ to what customers are saying about the brand. A company should monitor all online conversations about their brand, conversations about competitors and also conversations about industry/category. Having understood the power of social media, companies now have Chief Listening Officers to monitor how customers are reacting to their brand. This individual’s job it to identify the threats, opportunities and to recommend action steps to improve the brand reputation and bottom line profits. 

An important thing to remember when creating a social media marketing plan is to set goals with a specific focus. A highly focused social media and content marketing strategy can drive the company towards the success than a broad strategy that tries to focus on everyone’s needs. This would allow the company to focus on the quality of their marketing efforts. After deciding what their focus will be, the company has to make a decide which kind of platform they will use. That depends on their target market. The data which are gathered from listening to online conversations would help in this. If the company decides to establish a presence on multiple platforms, then they should cater to the specific audiences they intend to reach through those. As an example, marketing on Linkedin is different from marketing on Instagram. People who use those two platforms have different goals, so the company should be aware of those and adjust their campaign accordingly.

The biggest advantage of social media marketing is that it is interactive, thereby giving marketers the ability to know customer reactions in real time. For example, by creating a hashtag for customers to use, marketers have the ability to identify and react to the positive and the negative comments customers have regarding a certain brand. Consumers would also enjoy being included in the conversation, as it gives them the feeling of being heard by the company.(#sayitwithcoke) 

 After the initial cost to create a social media marketing campaign, it is relatively inexpensive to maintain. This would allow the company to enjoy high returns. Customer engagement keeps customers involved with the development of the brand. However, it is not all a walk in the park; social media marketing presents challenges as well. Not all companies have mastered the art of social media, as it is not a time tested platform as of yet. Social media networks are controlled by users, which means companies cannot force people to see their advertising efforts, as they would do with television commercials. Consumers have to decide to make the brand a part of their life, which may take time. There is also the risk of a social media campaign backfiring. Therefore, it is important to strike a balance between what the company really wants out on the internet and what information they need from consumers in order to improve their brand recognition. If managed effectively, social media marketing could prove to be a tremendous success for a company.

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Interruption Marketing Vs. Permission Marketing

There are two types of marketing in the world today, first one is Interruption Marketing which is most common, most expensive, and also most ineffective and most old-fashioned. Interruption Marketing always happens in traditional marketing methods such as TV commercials, radio spot, magazine or newspaper ads, telemarketing call or direct mail letter interrupts whatever you are doing to state your message. As an example, when you are watching a cricket match on TV, the channel puts a TVC (tv commercial) in the same time by using nearly half from the screen and it interrupts your viewing of the cricket match. Whether you like or not, you have to watch TV commercials during the tv programs/tele dramas you watch. That is interruption marketing.

The central idea of Seth Godin is that interruption marketing, the traditional approach to get consumer attention, is no longer guiding businesses to positive results. Most of the time this approach fails because the messages are not sent to specific clients and also massive marketing is becoming more and more costly, and is unable to get enough attention from consumers.

The other kind of marketing is Permission Marketing, which is the opposite of Interruption marketing, which is the newest, least expensive and most effective way of marketing which was introduced by Seth Godin. Search engine optimization (SEO), social media and content can be identified as the main three components of permission marketing and its target customers give their permission for you to market to them. As examples, Opt-In Email Chain, Freemium & White Papers using permission marketing as their marketing method.

When we consider the difference between these two approaches, Permission Marketing creates a stronger relationship between the business and the consumer by getting customer’s permission. When a stranger indicates an interest in a business offer, marketing messages are sent to him/her always after getting permission. That person understands every new message and the possibility that he/she gives the marketing staff to communicate freely over time to him/her. This guarantees that the business can turn this stranger into a customer of the company. That doesn’t happen in the interruption marketing. Permission Marketing takes advantage of new technology better than interruption marketing with low cost and permission marketing allows the business to choose the customers it wants to reach. Another importance of the permission marketing is if the consumer doesn’t want to receive marketing message any longer, they can turn off it or tune it out.

By understanding about both approaches, we can conclude that Permission Marketing is the best way to continue marketing with more advantages to businesses to be successful and to achieve their company goals in an effective way.

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How to Use Facebook as a Marketing Tool?

Nowadays we can see, almost every brand has their own Facebook pages for marketing purposes. Since Facebook is attractive and a very cost effective way to reach the target market, companies use it as a main promoting tool.

Businesses have several objectives for Facebook page. Page likes, Post engagement, Website clicks, Brand awareness are the objectives that every business need to achieve through a Facebook page. The Facebook ads are displayed at the News Feed and the right hand side of the news feed.

Things that you should follow when using Facebook page for your Business.

1 1.       Use a recognizable profile picture

The profile picture is at the top of the page & every time customer sees it with your posts as the thumbnail. Profile Picture is very important in order for your page to get recognized and liked. Thus it is best if you go with your company/ brand logo.

2 2.       Coordinate your cover photo, pinned posts & profile CTA (call to action button).

These three are very important things to promote marketing campaigns. If you want to maximize engagement with your campaigns use those three well.

3 3.       Customize your page tags.

Facebook lets you to create your page tags as needed. It is easy for your page’s visitors to get information, to see your work which has been uploaded to the Facebook page.

4 4.       Control Posts.

Posting too much won’t increase your page likes or engagement. So don’t post very often and control it as few post per day.

5 5.       “About” section is very important.

About section is the place where the customers are searching for your information. Thus, make sure to update it with relevant information such as product information, usage, user guides, website, opening hours etc.

6 6.       Use Multimedia Posts.

Research has shown that the use of visual content in Facebook campaign can generate 65% more engagement by one month. So it’s crucial to use multimedia posts if you want the customers to be more engaged with the company’s Facebook page.

7 7.       Don’t use Dummy Accounts.

Dummy accounts(another name for fake accounts) violate Facebook’s terms & conditions. So don’t use them.

8 8.       Tailor your organic posts.

Use Facebook targeting tools to segment your organic posts by age, gender, education etc. By being more specific with your targeting, you might be able to generate even better engagement.

9 9.       Use tracking URLs & Facebook insights to analyze your page performance.

Using URLs and UTM codes, you can identify which posts are driving traffic and conversion to the website. Using these insights, you can decide the content strategy to post more of what works and less from what doesn’t.

110.   Choose the best time for posting.

From the click through & share rates you can identify the strategic time of your page. Use that time for new postings and it will help to engage with more from targeted audience. As an example, if your engagement time is higher from 9am to 11am, you must use that time period for your new post uploading.

111.   Try Using Paid Budget to Amplify Successful Organic posts.

Get better Return on Investment for your ads by promoting content that you already know works. Always use content which encourage people to interact with your page.

112.   Don’t Make Assumptions.

Observe through analysis what strategies work; do not simply assume.

113.   Respond to customers as soon as you can

Normally customers expect a response within 60 minutes of time. You must respond to your customers without any delay whether it is a positive or negative comment. Ignoring is not a good option for negative comments.  That may create a bad perception about you in customer’s mind.

114.   Choose the best advertising tool.

There are two types of tools you can use for paid ads, the ad manager and power editor. Most of the time businesses use the power editor only when there is larger campaigns. Otherwise you can use ad manager for your marketing campaigns.

These tips will help you to create a better campaign by using Facebook as your marketing tool. After you implement the campaign, you can evaluate the performance of your campaign by measuring the Reach (did you reach the right number of people & right type of people), Brand Resonance (improvement of brand image) and Reaction (did the customer react after seen the campaign?) of your Facebook campaign.

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