Nowadays, businesses are becoming very competitive and as such, the need for internet marketing strategies has become crucial in helping you to increase your online presence. This means that it is vital for every business to make use of the internet and social media platforms to market their products and services.
Here are some effective digital marketing strategies:
1. User data analysis
This is a marketing strategy that basically focuses on data gathering and analysis. Understanding the needs and desires of your customers can be done through this process. Professionals at smartboost.com understand how to serve your customers better by understanding their digital footprints and all things related to design. This will greatly help you to improve the way you market products and services.
2. Social media presence
The best thing about social media platforms is that they make it easier for one brand or company to interact with other brands and companies in an online space where content sharing takes place. This means that you can share your content on various other platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter among others without necessarily overloading your end users with lots of information. Having a strong social media presence also gives brands more opportunities to interact with their customers.
3. Website design
A website is the main channel that companies use to market their brands and services effectively, which implies that it should be designed in a very special way that will attract more customers. Having a beautiful website design helps bring visitors to your site, who can then be written about your products and services.
4. Social media app development
Social media apps are becoming increasingly popular among people all across the world because they allow for easier sharing of content among different social media platforms. This means you need to focus on developing attractive social media apps to increase traffic to your website. These apps should be easy to use by everyone, irrespective of age or location.
5. Live-streaming
This is one of the best marketing strategies that will allow you to share content with your customers. This can be done in form of videos or images on different social media platforms. By doing so, it keeps your target audience more engaged, and this keeps them coming back to see what’s new about your business. It also allows for customer feedback, which can help improve products and services offered by businesses.
6. Email marketing
Email marketing is a very effective type of digital marketing because it gives you an opportunity to interact directly with your target audience who are into making business deals. You just need to send out emails that advertise the deals that are being offered by your company at different price points compared to other companies that may offer similar products and services.
7. Search engine optimization
SEO is basically a process of ensuring that your website gets ranked high on search engines for keywords related to your products and services to attract more customers who are interested in what you have got to offer. It also involves making sure that the content of your website is original, relevant, and easy-to-read to encourage sharing, which ultimately boosts traffic to your site. SEO becomes more effective when combined with social media marketing.
8. Digital PR
This is not usually done by most businesses, but it is an effective strategy for boosting digital presence. This kind of PR is better suited for websites that are likely to be referred to by other sites because it helps them boost their traffic too without necessarily compromising your integrity.
9. Mobile marketing
Having an app on different mobile platforms gives you more opportunities to interact with your customers and also get feedback about what they like most about your brands and services, which makes it easier for you to market it in the right way. You can even use Wi-Fi or Bluetooth technology to make sure people can easily find information about your brand, product, or service while they are on the go (on buses, trains, cars, etc.).
10. Video marketing
This is one of the best ways of communicating directly with customers through video sharing on different social media platforms. It also gives you an opportunity to showcase your product or service in a very attractive way, which will help increase traffic to your site and at the same time create awareness about what your company is willing to offer. This can be done through television ads, YouTube videos, podcasting, etc.
Why is online presence important for marketing strategies?
For any business to grow and be profitable, they need to have a strong online presence. This is because more and more people prefer doing their shopping, booking tickets for events, and making other business transactions online. When it comes to marketing strategies, businesses cannot afford to ignore the internet when they want to attract new customers or retain the current ones.
However, not all websites get the same number of visitors who can convert into customers. That means that some sites are likely to perform better than others, depending on how easy it is for potential customers to find information about them and actually go ahead and make a purchase. Prospective clients prefer visiting sites that are easy-to-read, professional-looking, with lots of information about products and services offered by companies.
What are the benefits of having a strong online presence?
With a strong online presence, your business will gain more visibility, especially with the help of social media platforms that are always available for people to search for products and services. This is why you need to use different marketing strategies because they give you the opportunity to be close to potential customers who may become lifelong clients if they see your site as a source of quality products or services.
You can also make good use of social media tools by sharing customer reviews about your brands, upcoming deals, and discounts, etc. which is bound to make them pay another visit to your site. If this continues over time, chances are you will have a steady flow of traffic on your website that is likely to increase as people share news about it with their friends and relatives through different social media platforms, making your online presence grow rapidly.
Marketing strategies are the best tools you can use to promote your brand or services online. This is because they effectively help you attract more customers as well as retain the ones you already have as potential clients. When you have a good number of visitors, it means that your online presence has been boosted and this is the beginning of the success of your company.
Traditionally, brands advertised in the mediums of the day, namely print (newspapers and magazines), television and radio. While those mediums are still used today, the digital marketplace has opened up a multitude of new digital marketing opportunities, including:
Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Social Media Marketing
Content Marketing
Email Marketing
Influencer Marketing
Mobile Marketing
Viral Marketing
In this article we are going to take a close look at the 8 most popular digital marketing mediums, and tell you how they can be used to your advantage.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
Pay-per-click (PPC) is a digital advertising model that is used to drive traffic to websites. An advertiser typically pays a search engine (Google Ads, Amazon Advertising, or Microsoft Advertising) when the ad is clicked. You have likely seen PPC in action when you search for something on Google.
In the image above you can see the first two results of a search for “CRM platform” are ads. In fact, the first four results are PPC ads.
Brands bid on a chosen keyword or search phrase, which then puts the ad into one of four ad spaces offered by Google, for example. The cost per click (CPC) is based on the quality score of the site and the competition of the chosen keyword. Brands typically use the tools provided by Google Ads to determine their keywords and the CPC.
Nate Tsang, founder and CEO at WallStreetZen, a stock market analysis service provider, said that pay-per-click marketing can be a very powerful digital marketing strategy when it is done by those who truly understand the practice. “You should only do this strategy if you are familiar with it or hire someone who is an expert in this field. Doing it on your own without the proper knowledge can be a waste of money,” said Tsang. “I have seen many brands waste thousands on pay-per-click campaigns because they are leading them to the wrong webpage or not being specific on what the visitor must do on the page. A successful PPC campaign must have a great and straightforward landing page so you can convert your visitors and not waste your budget.”
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the art, as it were, of optimizing a website so that when a potential customer searches via Google, or to a lesser degree, Bing or other search engines, the web page will show up at the top of the search engine results pages (SERP). If a brand sells monitor speakers for recording artists, and they have a local store in Cleveland, Ohio, then SEO could be used to bring the website up in the listings by using appropriate keywords throughout the website, in the titles of the pages, in the meta keyword and description tags, and in the various headers throughout the page or site.
This is not to say that the site or page should be keyword spammed, that is, stuffed with keywords without relevant content. Content is still king, and long gone are the days when black hat SEO tactics can be effectively used. Tactics today should include backlinks to the site from all of the brand’s social media presences, and web pages should include relevant content. Content can be created about the topic, as in our example, a page that discusses the various types of monitor speakers and their use, with links to the various monitor speakers the brand sells scattered throughout the page (this is Content Marketing, which we will also discuss). Keyword and Description meta tags are still used, but content relevance is more important today. Also, especially for localized businesses, having a Google business page, which puts a brand on Google Maps, as well as a Yelp business page, will help to pull a brand up to the top of the listings.
Below the PPC ads are the organic (non-paid) results, which also include the “People also ask” section, which features pages in which a specific question is answered by the content of the page (search engine gold — this tactic is heavily used by SEO marketers).
PHOTO: CMSWire
Often, SEO is done through a third-party company that specializes in SEO, rather than an in-house SEO team or the marketing department. SEO used to be fairly simple, but continual changes in Google’s algorithms have made it more of a precise practice that involves specialization.
Ian Sells is founder and CEO of RebateKey, an online rebate provider, and like many marketers we spoke with, SEO is at the top of his list, because if customers cannot find your website, no business can occur. With so many websites out there on every possible topic, it’s challenging to get on top of the search engine results pages. “Being on top of SERPs, that is, being on page one, gives you a lot more traffic since your site gets seen by more eyes. The advantage of this is, while it takes a lot more effort initially, once your site gains the momentum, you don’t have to spend so much on it, unlike in ads where you have to continuously spend,” explained Sells.
Social Media Marketing
As one would imagine, social media marketing is when brands use their social presences, such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or Twitter, among others, to target their customers. This is accomplished through targeted marketing ad campaigns, “like” campaigns, and posts offering special offers and discounts. Detailed demographic information about gender, ages, locations, times on the site, and more can be used to target specific demographics and groups of people.
“This is actually very powerful since a lot of people are on social media. We’re actually revamping our Instagram strategies as well as our Facebook strategies because we’re seeing the potential of the traffic they bring to our site,” said Sells. “The disadvantage of social media marketing is, sometimes, the engagement stays there. That’s totally useless, if your conversions happen on your site. So you have to make the effort to bring the traffic from your social media handles to your site.”
Content Marketing
We briefly discussed content marketing in the SEO section of this article, when we spoke about creating pages that do not directly sell products or services, but provide information and details about specific subjects that are related to the products or services a brand sells. By providing relevant content that appeals to a brand’s target audience, brands can attract customers to their website, and this content also helps improve SEO for the website.
“Content marketing is broad. In our case, we use several kinds of videos on YouTube, primarily informative ones,” said Sells. “These are helpful to increase awareness about your brand and help people who are interested to get to know your brand, product, or service even more. Sometimes, just a little explanation is enough to convince people to try your service.”
Brad Touesnard, founder and CEO of SpinupWP, a cloud-based server control panel designed for WordPress and he can attest that the right content can be a gamechanger. “We are in the server industry and our most popular blog post compares five of the top server providers. Our experts ran tests on each provider and we shared our results in our blog post. The blog post generated a lot of interest from industry professionals who were eager to see our data,” Touesnard said. “Currently this blog post generates 23.4% of the total search engine traffic to our site and ranks on the first place of Google’s search results for its primary keyword.”
Email Marketing
While many marketers might believe that email is a dying marketing channel, the opposite is true — email marketing is still one of the most effective channels a brand can use. This really shouldn’t be surprising, given the number of email users worldwide. According to a report from Statista, in 2020, approximately 306 billion emails were sent and received each day, with 3.9 billion people using email every day. That’s half the global population! Marketers should take note that according to the DMA Marketer Email Tracker, for every dollar that’s spent on email marketing, the average expected ROI is $42.
Unlike other marketing channels, marketing emails are only sent to those customers who have given permission for the brand to do so — which means they are actually interested in what brands are offering, unlike ads on social media where they do not have a choice but to see ads.
Typically, marketers use email marketing software which allows them to automate the process, send personalized emails, and often includes performance optimization and analytics functionality. By tracking key performance metrics, brands are able to determine which email marketing campaigns are effective, and which ones are not.
Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is still relatively new, and relies on people who have gained a following on social media either for being entertaining, informative, or being an expert in their field. Influencers typically promote themselves through blogs, videos, and social media posts. Brands look for influencers that are connected to their customers in some way. Perhaps the influencer has a cooking show on YouTube, such as Sam the Cooking Guy. Not only does he sell his own line of cooking utensils and books, but he is sponsored by Catalina Offshore Products and Lars Remodeling and Design. In the case of Sam the Cooking Guy, these two brands recognized that Sam, who has 2.93 million YouTube subscribers, reaches many people who are likely to be interested in their products or services.
“Majority of the videos we have on YouTube by other people are not sponsored. A lot of sellers and buyers really enjoy our products. And to be honest, this is really more powerful than paid ones. People trust other people’s reviews. Videos from influencers or at least people with a following are also helpful. If influencers say your product or service is cool, people who are following them are more likely to try your product primarily because the influencer said so,” explained Sells.
Dave Herman, president of EZ Surety Bonds, told CMSWire that thanks to the constantly changing digital landscape, there are many different types of digital marketing to take advantage of, but not all of them are appropriate or effective for every business. “Influencer marketing is becoming increasingly popular these days as more and more people gain fame and recognition on social media platforms. This is why a lot of businesses are taking advantage of it. While it really helped many brands grow, not every business can get the growth they need from this type of marketing. It is also not as easy as most people think it is. You need to research the right influencer that will represent your brand and ensure that they get the engagement you need to market your products or services.”
Mobile Marketing
It makes sense for marketers to focus on mobile marketing, given the vast number of mobile users. A report on mobile usage from Statista indicated that in the third quarter of 2020, mobile devices accounted for 50.81% of global website traffic. With those kinds of statistics, it’s pretty obvious that mobile marketing can be used to reach millions of customers.
Seth Lytton is chief operating officer at The Detroit Bureau, an automotive industry news publication, thinks mobile is a big opportunity for marketers. “Millions use their phones every hour. Mobile marketing gives you access to millions at once, and many customers have their phones with them at multiple times during the day. You can accurately determine your audience with mobile marketing,” said Lytton.
That said, as Lytton explained, brands must be careful not to overuse mobile marketing, at the risk of losing their customers completely. “On the other hand, many find ads annoying on their phones,” said Lytton. “Some people go out of their way to avoid some advertisements by using ad blockers, and more still get so annoyed with advertisements that they may blacklist the company entirely.”
Viral Marketing
Viral marketing typically relies on social media networks, but unlike social media marketing, the marketing is done by customers themselves, as they spread information on various social media networks about a product, service, or brand with other people. Marketing is thought to be “viral” when it reaches the point where it’s being shared by the general public, not just the brand’s target audience.
An example of viral marketing is memes, which may include funny text written above an image. Crazy Nate created a meme that features the character Nemo swimming in the ocean, next to a box of McDonald’s fries, with the words “Watching Finding Nemo; Why I Want McDonalds” superimposed on the image. McDonalds obviously had no part in the creation of this meme, but one can be fairly certain that they definitely do not mind that it went viral.
Brands such as Wendy’s, Dennies, and McDonalds will often create funny, light-hearted videos, Tweets, or memes themselves, and post them on social media such as Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and other sites. They will then be shared by people who found them to be humorous, and those they shared them with will also share them with others, causing the video or meme to go viral. Here is an example of a Tweet from Wendy’s roasting McDonalds:
Keep in mind that viral marketing is never a certainty — one cannot force something to go viral. Either it goes viral, or it doesn’t. Whatever the case, social listening should be used to monitor mentions of the brand on social media.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, there are many digital marketing strategies that are available to market a brand. Brands are able to take advantage of their social media presences, and use influencers to spread their message, or they can use the more traditional email marketing and content marketing techniques. PPC and SEO are still extremely useful marketing strategies, and mobile marketing has never played as large a role as it does today. Using a combination of these strategies, digital marketers are able to promote a brand’s products and services, and turn leads into customers.
What was once a trend is now a way of life. Mobile is No. 1 when it comes to media consumption as 72% of people across the globe will use just their smartphones to access the internet by 2025. Now is the time to ask yourself: How mobile-focused is your marketing strategy, your campaigns and your content? Are they still made for desktop?
It’s Not About Hype — It’s About Agility
Whether chatbots, Clubhouse, App Clips or AI, new technologies are necessary for your marketing strategy and you have to master them. But ultimately, it doesn’t matter if TikTok becomes more popular than Snapchat or if Twitch is the latest and greatest social platform. In the long run, the brand that reaches people on the right channels with the right messages and understands their wants, needs and demands will prevail. New technologies are just hardware, a new tool to deal with. What counts in mobile marketing is flexibility, agility and creativity. Fixed annual plans, rigid budgeting cycles, exhaustive decision-making processes and approval dynamics do not fit into this mobile world. Agility is the keyword, but this does not mean acting rashly.
Video Is King
We learned that brand loyalty suffered during the pandemic. One lasting mistake many marketers will regret is cutting back their content budget during the pandemic. To get people excited about your brand again, mobile video content is the best tool. We can’t resist video. It’s one of the most powerful and evocative mediums. We can still remember slogans and jingles years later. Video can increase credibility, serve as a source of information and can be an inspiration. In short, videos have a magical attraction.
According to a 2018 study, American adults spend an average of three hours a day consuming media on either a smartphone or tablet. Additionally, “64% of adult smartphone users who watch video on social networking sites and apps, do so at least once per day,” with that figure up to 72% for younger adults (ages 18 to 34). If you want to appeal to both your loyal and new customers with your messages, mobile video should be your first priority.
Video And Values
When my team and I talk about videos, we also talk about brand health. Brands should use video to communicate their values rather than their products. Here are three steps to success for value-driven videos:
1. Be selfless instead of selfish. It’s about the customer, not about you.
2. What’s the value? Tell a story. Award the people’s time. Give, don’t just take.
3. Empathy wins. Create an emotional connection between people and your brand.
But for mobile video to convert prospects and bring in ROI, there are also craft aspects to consider. Here are a few craft tips to keep in mind:
• Create content regularly. Use the full range of content — think fun, hero content, but also storytelling, campaign or how-to videos.
• Pay attention to different ratios during conception and production and consider where the video should run. As an Instagram story or post, Facebook or YouTube? At a ratio of 1:1 or 4:3? One-size-fits-all does not work.
• Run a “stop scrolling test.” The first five seconds must work without sound!
• Include a call-to-action. Videos should trigger an action from the viewer — visiting your landing page, subscribing to your channel or learning more from a blog post.
• Avoid too much generic content. This includes generic or stock footage. No message means no effect.
• Refrain from using an iconic voice as a voiceover. Let real people speak.
• Establish fixed content formats and faces. Use the same hosts/role models again and again.
• Use a mix of quality storytelling and user-generated content.
• Don’t script the words. This can come across as fake to a viewer.
• Use real people/customers to tell real stories that authentically convey the brand’s core values.
Mobile Marketing In 2021 And Beyond
Looking forward, the most important aspects of mobile marketing will be personalization and localization. The main task for brands will be to create as many mobile touchpoints as possible. Content partnerships, blogs, QR codes and audio are all ways to make your brand communication mobile-friendly.
While mobile video is still the best way to communicate with your customers, there are already several new mobile megatrends on the horizon that are worth your attention. The first is mobile audio. Branded podcasts are the perfect way to reach your target audience. Some successful examples include “The Message” by GE and pasta playlists — Spotify playlists by pasta brand Barilla that play music for the exact length of time it takes to cook different kinds of pasta. Another upcoming mobile trend is to use SMS. While posts and stories disappear or get lost in a never-ending feed, SMS is firmly entrenched in our phones and captures subscribers’ undivided attention.
Richard Breitengraser (CEO, VOID International Media Group) is a global brand, content, video, marketing & strategy executive. Read Richard Breitengraser’s full executive profile here.
Ninety-Eight Percent of Global Mobile Marketers Have Increased Their Focus and Investment on Data in the Last Five Years, with 97 Percent Citing Improvements as a Result
Industry analysts and market experts alike have predicted data would play a central role in mobile marketing during 2019. In an effort to better understand its impact, YouAppi, a leading growth marketing platform for premium mobile brands, reached out to more than 540 of the world’s top in-house and agency marketers to find out how critical data has become for the brands they represent. A full 98 percent of respondents said they have increased their organizational investment in data, spending that has been substantial from both brand and performance marketers alike. These investments are proving worthwhile, as 97 percent of all marketers have seen improvement, more than half of those calling improvements ‘significant.’
Areas of investment include reporting and dashboard technology (81 percent), in-house data analytics teams (64 percent), purchasing 3rd party performance data (47 percent), adding more data-centric roles on internal teams (46 percent) and hiring outside agencies for data analysis (24 percent).
The Impact of Data on Marketing Duties
In addition to increased spending, 96 percent of marketers say their job duties have also required a larger focus on data, with 57 percent categorizing that increase as significant. Though every level of the marketing team has been impacted by the role of data, executives have seen the largest change, with 62 percent citing a dramatic increase in their focus on data and metrics.
This increased reliance on data is also creating the need to develop new skills. Ninety-six percent of all respondents agreed that brand marketers would benefit from adopting the data expertise of performance marketers, and 91 percent said performance marketers need to adopt the positioning and creative expertise of brand marketers.
“It’s fantastic to see more organizations take advantage of the skills and expertise that performance and brand marketers bring to the table, and create an environment where these two disciplines can better complement one another” said Moshe Vaknin, founder and CEO of YouAppi. “As marketers continue to invest in more sophisticated data analytics, and find creative ways to make that data actionable, they will see measurable results that connect them in powerful ways to their end customers.”
A Rosy Outlook
The majority of marketers feel confident in their own job security, with 64 percent citing zero concerns about impact to their employment. Over the last two years, the bulk of hiring has happened at the performance marketer level (46 percent), while an additional 32 percent of respondents say their companies are hiring both brand and performance marketers at equal rates.
What’s more, marketers anticipate ongoing investment in marketing efforts throughout 2019, with 91 percent of performance marketing teams and 54 percent of brand marketing teams anticipating additional budgets and expenditures in their departments.
The survey included 543 mobile marketers from around the globe, all of whom had responsibility for brand and/or performance marketing either in-house, with an agency or at a marketing technology provider. For the purposes of the survey performance marketing was defined as marketing with clearly measurable goals or actions such as driving clicks, installs, or post-install events; brand marketing was defined as marketing focused on reaching audiences through relationship building, storytelling, and creative with actions that are less precise to measure.
Building brand awareness and successfully interacting with consumers is a crucial part of doing business today. Customers enjoy and expect a personalized experience, and delivering just that will set you apart from your competition.
Voice search and live videos were just two of the methods marketers explored to improve consumer interactions and brand awareness in 2018. As innovations in technology and ideas come forward, 2019 is also sure to see its share of trends having an impact on marketing. Below, 11 Forbes Agency Council members shared their predictions for the year ahead.
Members of Forbes Agency Council offer insights on what marketing trends to expect in 2019.Photos courtesy of the individual members.
1. A Bigger Role For AI In Personalization And Automation
We are all watching the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) in marketing and how it affects our clients’ relationships with consumers. As a company that focuses on bringing out emotional connections through physical environments, we’ll see AI play an even bigger role for brands as they look to personalize and automate more digital and traditional communications. – Jessica Reznick, We’re Magnetic
2. Smart Speaker Advertising Opportunities
Smart speakers and voice assistant devices are more affordable than ever before, making them a huge potential marketing tool in the upcoming year. As the relationship between big tech and the consumer grows deeper, marketers can more effectively reach their target audiences with personalized messaging and content. Expect to see more ad opportunities surrounding smart speakers in 2019. – Timothy Nichols, ExactDrive, Inc.
3. Growth In Content Marketing
Content marketing will always have a strong impact because of the exposure and backlinks you can receive for your brand. Writing interesting content and marketing it to influencers is a win-win. You are helping people with solution-oriented content, and the influencers help your exposure and outreach so it’s widely seen by the right audience and shared with their peers. – Peter Boyd, PaperStreet Web Design
4. A Turn To The Human Side Of Marketing
We are fortunate to live in an age of advancing technology, but we run a risk of oversaturating our market with off-the-shelf tools that gather faceless data and create ineffective content. Marketing has a remarkable power to inspire audiences. Instead of an influx of new tech to adopt, I predict we’ll embrace a deeper understanding of human behavior that will foster more meaningful relationships. – Hamid Ghanadan, LINUS
5. Integrated Online, Social And Mobile Marketing
2019 will be all about the integration of online, social and mobile marketing. Many businesses have dabbled in one or all of these marketing strategies, but true success in the year ahead will be marked by a fully integrated marketing program that incorporates all three. This will eliminate redundancies, increase efficiency and fully leverage content across these three major players. – Laura Cole, Vivial
6. The Growth Of Micro-Influencers
As influencer-tracking technologies continue to improve, brands are becoming better equipped at fielding and managing large networks of high-engagement, low-following micro influencers for their campaigns. This largely untapped market will soon allow for more brands to avoid the significant costs of mid- to high-level influencers and invest in more down-to-earth and relatable influencer marketing. – Jordan Edelson, Appetizer Mobile LLC
7. Audiences Made Part Of Brand Stories
The ability to engage with audiences (that is, making audiences part of the brand story) will have a huge impact. The less friction there is to engagement, the more connected people feel. Brands that are more willing to interact with customers publicly will have a strong impact—and brands that can show how this engagement influences their products and services will make an even bigger impact. – Bernard May, National Positions
8. Thought Leadership
Audiences seek expertise, critical insight and ways to be better at all points of interest. Experiential and interactive engagement with a brand is the future of consumer-brand connectivity. From live video, to recorded advice, to content with real-time responses, to contests and beyond, it’s about offering information and encouraging feedback from stakeholders in a way that establishes trust. – Scott Kellner, GPJ Experience Marketing
9. Transparency As Key To Winning Customers
Technology is giving us so many new tools and platforms that sometimes we forget that communication always happens between human beings. Brands are groups of people who try to communicate with other persons: their customers. In 2019, I expect transparency to be the key to winning the hearts of consumers, who will reward those brands that share their values in an authentic and transparent way. – Daniela Pavan, The Ad Store New York
10. Quality Trumping Quantity In Marketing
Content marketing has been preached to death by most marketers. Content marketing is important, but oftentimes companies are capitalizing on this strategy with over-optimized and bland content that is largely regurgitated from other companies doing the same thing. In 2019, I believe we will get more discerning and choose low-volume, high-quality content instead of high-volume, low-quality. – Brandon Stapper, Nonstop Signs
11. Customers Empowered As Brand Ambassadors
By utilizing tools like YotPo and BazaarVoice, we can now chalk up a percentage of a marketing campaign to leveraging our customers as brand ambassadors by asking them to share info on a product to their own networks. This helps bypass “influencer marketing” to an extent and lets us empower our customers to do the talking. – Loren Baker, Foundation Digital
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only, fee-based organization for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Find out if you qualify at forbesagencycouncil.com/qualify. Questions about an article? [email protected]
As the landscape of Ecommerce evolves, so do digital marketers’ specializations in order to stay relevant, visible, and engaging to consumers. One of the most repeated predictions digital marketers have heard in recent years is the rise of mobile. Put differently, it’s the rise of opportunity to reach consumers via their smartphone.
What Research Studies Say:
Numerous research studies support this mobile forecast. People across all age demographics are increasing the time and money they spend on smartphones year after year, and as of 2016, mobile accounts for 67% of total time spent with digital media. Perhaps most interesting is the breakdown of said mobile traffic. While a majority of websites are found through mobile web searches, mobile users are most engaged through apps – with 20 times more monthly minutes per visitor.
Other bodies of research have zeroed in on mobile app usage and discovery behaviors. Results conclude that 75% of mobile shoppers have their favorite retailer’s app on their phones, and 60% of those shoppers use the app weekly or more. Mobile shoppers are most likely to discover an app through general browsing in an app store, on both iOS and Android devices.
Digital marketers have responded to these types of shifts in consumer behavior by developing a new specialization referred to as App Search Optimization, or ASO. It refers to the manipulation of app store algorithms to improve apps’ organic visibility in search.
How To Optimize For App Stores:
Though ASO may sound similar to SEO, the platforms and tactics used to do the optimizing look quite different. Check out five elements of mobile apps to be sure to optimize for, plus examples of each.
App Icon
Your app’s visual icon doesn’t have a direct influence on rankings; however, it is the first impression searchers will have of your brand. For this reason, it is a vital element of your optimization efforts.
Best practice for icon size differs depending on the type of device. For iOS devices, Apple requires 1024×1024 px. For Android devices, Google Play requires 512×512 px. Bright colors, unique shapes, and simple imagery have been proven to help an icon stand out from the crowd on both types of devices.
Instagram’s app icon features bright colors, unique shapes, and simple imagery to stand out in app stores.
Get more in-depth tips on designing an app icon here.
App Titles
App titles have a direct influence on app store rankings, and are in fact the most important ranking factor for both Apple and Google Play’s indexes. If users cannot tell what your app is and does, they are going to move on.
Best practice calls for placing the brand name first, followed by keyword rich tagline of two to three features that it offers. The average length of the top 200 free apps are 26 characters and 4.5 words. However, Apple places a hard cap of 100 characters on titles in an effort to avoid spammy titles from performing well.
Waze’s app title begins with its brand name, separated by three features it provides – all of which have nice monthly search volume. At 6 words, it does slightly exceed top-performing app title averages.
App Description
App descriptions don’t have a direct impact on rankings. However, they help drive downloads by providing searchers with valuable context as to what your app does and how it would benefit the user to download it (and downloads are a direct ranking factor).
App descriptions offer five lines of text before becoming cut off with the accordion script, equating to roughly 3 sentences. It is these five lines where you need to capture your audience’s attention (though longer descriptions are beneficial for seriously interested searchers). To do this, keep language simple and concise, include keyword rich sentences, and incorporate a strong call to action.
Photoshop Fix describes the purpose of the app in language that’s easy to understand, using strategic keywords, and makes powerful calls to action that persuades users to download.
App Reviews
App reviews are a direct ranking factor in app stores, and also a significant driving force in app downloads. Though you must rely on users to create positive reviews, there are tactics available to help generate them. Such as:
App Plugins – There are numerous app plugins for both iOS and Android devices that prompt users to rate their experience while they’re in your app. Find one that’s right for you here.
Incentivize – Award your customers with a free gift for leaving a review.
Customer Service – The most reliable path to a positive and well-deserved app review is by providing great customer service. Provide an outlet for customers to provide feedback and get in touch with you when needed.
Uber has a comprehensive help section within the app that allows users to get in touch them regarding a variety of common questions, comments, and concerns.
Screenshots & Video Trailers
Screenshots and videos don’t have a direct influence on rankings. However, they do help drive downloads. They are displayed more prominently in listings than the app descriptions itself, and is therefore an important asset to get right.
Best practice calls for putting your two most important screenshots first. For video trailers, it’s recommended to keep them short and sweet (between 15-20 seconds) and showcase app interactions. To help you decide what screenshots and vide to feature, experts recommend asking yourself the following questions:
What’s the goal of your app?
What are the fundamental interactions users will do inside your app?
What unique functionalities does your app offer?
What is your brand story?
Who does your ideal user look like?
What elements have helped your app gain traction? Share with us in the comments section below. Want to learn more about mobile marketing? Check out our other related posts here.
