Have you thought about what can you do, as a marketer to improve your digital marketing for the coming year 2016? Well, that is exactly what we analyse in this webinar. Join Prateek Shah – a digital marketing trainer as he enumerates 16 ways to perfect your strategy! The webinar was a resounding hit. Due to the number of questions from our enthusiastic audience, we have split them into two posts. You can access the first part here. This is the second half of the Q&A session. For those of you who couldn’t attend it, you can view a recording of the webinar here.
Question 1
Can we work on digital marketing only through messages and GSM (through phone?)
Not entirely no. We still need a little bit of online assistance for digital marketing. By looking at only message and GSM, you will be losing out on PPC and email marketing – two powerful tools required in the marketing mix for any company.
Question 2
What are the best practices in digital marketing for a B2B company?
- Stop spamming – target your audience specifically and send them content they are interested in. Sharing content because you have it, for the sake of sharing is definitely classified as spam.
- Integrate offline and online channels of marketing – Recently published a campaign on newspaper? Well, promote it online as well! More the channels, better the reach.
- Personalization – Don’t send generic emails or offers to all. Take the time to know your lead a bit better. Right from the form of addressing them to perhaps sharing custom content and tailoring services to their requirements – show your leads that you are genuinely interested and remember them.
- Context – Yes. It is understood that ultimately you are promoting your services. But try to make it as relevant as possible to the prospect and keep your content and pitch in context.
Question 3
How to increase traffic to lead conversion?
That’s a very broad question. Your tactics will depend upon the product, the industry and how you are selling it. As a general rule of thumb, provide value – adding content behind a lead capture form. Keep in mind two things –
- The content behind the form should be of interest to your prospect. No one would want to sign up to read, say, your company’s core values. So think of e-books, white paper downloads, a free trial, perhaps a free consultation or a discount – something that encourages the visitor to take the effort to sign up.
- Keep as little fields in the lead capture form as possible. Usually, the user name and the email id would suffice. If you need more information, you can always mail them for it or get it through progressive lead capture.
Question 4
I work at a Builders company and we have 2 properties that are dry on leads. What is an alternate way, apart from content and posters, to draw interest on my campaign?
Think of watsapp sharing and promoting. Numerous builders and real estate agents are sharing information about their property through their mobile phones. So ensure that you have a watsapp sharing link on your content. Also, instead of constantly selling, offer useful information – like 3 things to ensure before you buy a house and general tips for home owners. This will generate interest and keep your audience hooked. You can also refer creative real estate marketing ideas for more.
Question 5
Can we generate the B2B leads through social media? How to effectively use Twitter, Fb and LinkedIn for the same?
Of course! It doesn’t matter if you are a B2B company – social media is not something you can afford to overlook. The biggest advantage is that you don’t have to build a community or hunt for prospects – the audience is already there. All you have to do is build a solid online presence and update frequently. Have you tried using the Facebook Lead Ads that have been recently rolled out? Also check out Twitter Ads. This is a bit more expensive, but if a lot of your audience is on that platform, you can definitely invest.
If you have content to share, go ahead share it on social media. You can also hold contests and announce give-aways and discounts for the winners. That will definitely promote interest.
Question 6
How can we improve open rate in E-mail marketing?
Focus on three things:
- Subject – Yes, a subject line has to be interesting and catchy so that the recepients click on it. But the subject should also give the gist of the content inside. Totally unrelated subject lines used solely to capture attention are to be avoided.
- Sender name – an aspect that is generally overlooked. Receiving emails from a nobody or from a faceless company will generate little interest. Have name, followed by the company name to give context to your emails (perhaps you met him at an event, perhaps you remind him you offered him a service).
- Send from different email ids – . An email from a CEO’s account will definitely get opened as opposed to a mail from any other staff.
You can also get more useful information from this webinar on email -marketing.
Question 7
How can we use SlideShare and AuthorStream for lead generation?
SlideShare is a pretty good tool to use. You can use it for content re-purposing – a very effective strategy to reach more leads with the already awesome content you have. However, it is more useful in the long run and short term benefits might not be much.
Question 8
We are already using FB for lead generation. We want to step it up, any suggestion in terms of targeting?
Well, be as creative with your targeting as possible. Target influencers and decision makers. If you are an education company, target the parents (and the students). If you are a B2B company, target people with the job description who can make a buying decision.
Question 9
We are into Health Spa business. We send out 2 emails every month with offers. However email open rate is still an issue. Can you give us tips?
Stop sending offers. People don’t want to buy all the time! Send them interesting content or tips like “5 exercises you can do to keep you healthy at your work place” or “How to eat healthy while managing a busy work schedule”. The more interesting it is to the audience, the more likely they are to click on it.
Question 10
I agree that impressions are not the bench mark of a successful ad. But how to ensure conversions?
We have already seen that for conversions, context and relevance are important. You can’t put up an add for sweaters in summer! To add to that, also ensure that once the user clicks on your ad, he is taken right to the product page and not a home page where he is again forced to search for what he wants. Check your bounce rates. If it is pretty high then it shows that your visitors are not getting what they want when they land on your page.
To make them click on your ad, make your CTA as attractive as possible – it is the item that should stand out the most and be right beneath the hero shot. Boring, passive words like – “click here” or “subscribe” will get lesser attention.
Question 11a.
We are an Institute trying to enroll students. People submit their details but have not seen results in admissions.
Honestly speaking, marketing can only do so much. Conversions ultimately happen depending upon the the product. Relook the product, the services you offer and see how you can improve it to add value. Also check your process after obtaining leads. You can perhaps identify what you are doing wrong after leads come in.
Question 11b.
Would email campaigns that engage the students with information about the institute be helpful?
Yes. Definitely. Also try partnering with a few companies could help. Also, look up this webinar on education marketing. It will give you some ideas of your own.
Question 11c.
We are an Entertainment related institute. The course we offer is Sound Engineering, so what is the best option for targeting audience?
Targeting specifically through Facebook and other channels might be difficult as people don’t give out such specific details (unless asked “are you interested in sound engineering?”). So your leads have to be generated through organic traffic. Google Ads is your best bet. Try also blogging and sharing content.
Question 12
How to get the most from Google Adwords?
There is another webinar on Google Adwords that LeadSquared has conducted with an expert. I am sure it will help you.
Question 13
Simple tips to develop website for start-ups?
Try Indiagetonline. It is a host creator with google collaboration. You can always try WordPress as well. It is simple and easy to set up. For e-commerce companies, bazaar.com is a cost effective way to get online.
Question 14
Reddit is a very underused platform when it comes to digital marketing. How to use Reddit to build an audience?
Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Scoop.it are options you can try. Try to participate and have a presence. It is majorly also for promoting your own website. If you dont own a website, it might not be relevant. Also, be patient. Don’t expect miracles. Plus, your content has to be truly globally relevant to do well on these platforms.
Question 15
How to overcome competitors?
Check out this webinar on how to stay ahead of your competition. You can get some actionable insights.
Question 16
What is the best digital domain for connecting B2B companies.
LinkedIn. Without doubt. Check out LinkedIn Pulse for blog posts and content related to B2B.
Question 17
Is it the right time to start a digital marketing company?
This is a very interesting question. We are slowly approaching a saturation point in this sector. Only if you have a clear vision for the company, know how big you want to make it grow and know the industry well should you venture into it.
Question 18
What are the best tools for extracting website audit report?
So, website audit tools crawl the website – one link and one page at a time. The give their findings as a report – the output format varies with every tool. So depending on your requirements pick the tool you want. There are web based and desktop based tools that you can use, a concise list of which is given below. Source: Raven tools blog.
Desktop programs
- Screaming Frog SEO Spider v2.3
- Beam Us Up v1.0.0.0
- Xenu’s Link Sleuth v1.3
- Microsoft IIS SEO Toolkit
Web-based
- Google (Webmaster Tools & Analytics)
- Raven Tools Site Auditor
- WooRank
- DeepCrawl
- Moz Pro SEO Web Crawler
- Alexa’s Site Auditor
- Site Condor
