WWhat is Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is a broad term used to define all the marketing strategies and channels taken together to enhance online presence, branding and sales conversion of services or products one has to offer. This

involves the design architecture and development strategy of web / mobile applications to co-ordinate with all other marketing channels such as SEO, SMO, email marketing, affiliate marketing, online referrals etc.

1. Start with a concept

2. Focus on how you can attract & benefit the customer.

3. Always think, plan & sketch UI / UX.

4. Involve Designers, Developers, SEO & Social Media Experts, Content Writers & QA in the process from the beginning.

5. Remember SEO is for Search Engines, Social Network & Websites are for Human, Content is for both. Add to the mix: Emails as reminder, Referrals as loyalty bonus, affiliates &

marketplaces as back-ups.

ASK YOURSELF:ASK YOURSELF:

What’s your priority: Is It Branding? Sales? Customer Care?

What’s your budget? How soon do you need to be ROI positive?

Important: You can’t do everything at one go. Do one thing exceptionally well, leverage it to move down your priority

list.

What’s your approach? Better safe than sorry or learn as you go?

So you have made your decisions. Now what?

Don’t look for shortcuts. Do it the right way.

Don’t jump to conclusions too soon. Allow time for testing.

Don’t be rigid. Keep testing & analysing.

DON’T TRY TO OVER-OPTIMISE.

ETA: Digital Success

Entire organisation should change and follow digital marketing best practices.

Always follow top-down approach, not bottom up.

Attach rewards to digital growth. “What’s in it for me?”

Everything is Measurable. Set goals. Execute. Raise the bar.

“Stay hungry, Stay Foolish”

Your House: Your Website, Your Emails

Does Your house look good? - Start with the right domain / brand name ( if it’s a new business or re-branding ).

How solid is the foundation? - Look for great web & email hosting providers.

Is it nice, cosy & clean? - Create a great user experience.

Have you got the room heaters? - Have all necessary features working properly.

The Perfect Content RecipeFocus on the title. Take a stand. Seduce the reader to

click.

Add value to readers. Value their time. Be crisp & precise.

Use keywords. Know the keyword density, don’t over-bake.

Write small, simple sentences. Prefer bullet points over paragraphs.

Seek And Ye Shall Find: Google

Gone are the days of random link building.Make your website mobile

friendly.The website should load fast.

Think of SSL certificates

Update your website regularly. A blog is absolutely necessary.

Content is king. Only if it has keyword in it. Keyword goes everywhere: page URL, page title, description, meta keywords, H1 tags, article tags and of-course in the content. Keep your

content more than 300 words if you can.

Anything changed? Use 301 re-direct or 404 error page.

Build Authority, Be Found

Go to the press only when you have news.

Build external links with caution. Look for quality websites only ( high PR ).

Local businesses should focus on various local listings first.

Guesting posts works, only if done correctly. Add value to the conversation. Do it regularly.

Use social bookmarking whenever you can.

Be Social on Social Media

Connect, Contribute, Engage.Building relations take time, just like in real life.Every social network is unique. Know the rules.

Create a loyal audience before looking for conversions.

Have a clear monetisation plan.10,000 followers should add value to your business.

Choose your network wisely. Say no.

It’s easier to manage social accounts through smartphone apps than desktops.

Facebook

Ideally should include 2 - 4 posts everyday.Organic reach is going down over time.

Limited use of #hashtags.You can schedule posts directly from Facebook.

Make full use of About section, Offers, Events, Notes etc. Most comprehensive demographic targeting options for paid

ads.Facebook groups work amazingly well to promote services &

products.Images & Videos do better ( Paid ads have text limit on images ).

Twitter

Ideally should include 15 - 20 tweets / re-tweets everyday.

Use Twitter Tools to speed up work: Hashtagify, Tweepi, Hootsuite etc.

Use #hashtags & @mentions properly.Tweets with images get more traction & generate more

engagement.Use full screen real-estate including cover pic wisely. This holds

good for Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn & others. Use Twitter analytics to track improvement. Do it for Facebook,

LinkedIn & Pinterest also.Twitter ads not available in India yet.

Know the best time to tweet for your chosen demography & location. This is useful for all social networks.

LinkedInGreat for specific use cases: Recruitment, freelance work, sales

leads etc. #Hashtags don’t work in LinkedIn.

Use it for networking more than anything else. Leverage content publishing it’s content publishing section Pulse

to reach out to wider user base.

Upgrade to premium accounts if you are a power user. You will get far more benefits.

For advertisement & sales use LinkedIn only if you’re in B2B segment. LinkedIn ads would normally have lower CTR but higher

conversion ratio.

Use SlideShare for branding through slide presentation. Repurpose the content on your website, use as PDF downloads or

create infographic with same content.

Tumblr, WordPress, Medium, Blogger

Use to share your website articles and blogs for extra visibility.

Helps immensely in content marketing and branding.

Tumblr added buy button recently from select web properties, such as Etsy.

Helps your website SEO & to increase website traffic.

Add-on useful Social Tools: AddThis, ShareThis, Livefyre, Disqus.

Helps in content repurposing.Try posting content snippet with website link to bring back traffic to

website.

Email Marketing

Use Mailchimp, Madmimi, Sendy etc. or have bulk emailing feature custom built in website back-end.Use authentic email server to ensure bulk

emailing.Promote special offers, discounts through emails. Use coupon codes

and link it to the website. You can use Google Analytics to track emails sent from your own

email server. Store email ids segregated by various categories in the website

back-end such as newsletter sign-ups, contact reasons, enquiries from specific web pages or based on purchase history to send

customised email when required. Design and use high quality HTML newsletter formats for better

results. Use auto-responders to reply to all customer enquiry

emails.

imageDigital Marketing & Analytics Resources

Infogr.am - Build custom infographics

pixlr.com - Edit Images quickly.

Google advanced image searchGoogle

WebmasterGoogle Analytics

SEM Rush or Moz Keyword Research Tool

Checkmysite website, social & branding analysis tool