In today’s digital age, where communication channels are abundant, email marketing continues to be a fundamental component of successful marketing strategies. With its extensive reach, cost-effectiveness, and potential for personalization, email marketing provides businesses with a powerful tool for connecting with their audience and increasing conversions. However, developing an effective email marketing strategy necessitates meticulous planning, strategic execution, and ongoing optimization. In this guide, we will delve into the crucial steps for creating a successful email marketing strategy that yields tangible results.

Establish Your Goals:

Before delving into the details of email content and design, it is essential to define clear objectives for your email marketing campaigns. Whether you aim to drive website traffic, generate leads, increase sales, or improve customer retention, having a well-defined goal will guide your entire strategy.

Understand Your Audience:

The key to successful email marketing lies in understanding your audience – their preferences, interests, pain points, and behavior. Segment your email list based on demographics, purchase history, engagement level, or other relevant criteria to deliver personalized content that resonates with each group. By tailoring your messages to the specific needs and interests of your audience, you can boost engagement and conversions.

Build a High-Quality Email List:

A high-quality email list is the cornerstone of any effective email marketing strategy. Focus on growing your subscriber base organically by offering valuable incentives like exclusive content, discounts, or freebies in exchange for email sign-ups. Avoid buying email lists or using unethical tactics, as they can harm your sender’s reputation and result in low engagement rates. Instead, prioritize building a permission-based email list of engaged subscribers who have willingly opted in to receive your emails.

Crafting Compelling Content:

The success of your email marketing campaigns relies heavily on the quality and relevance of the content you provide. It is crucial to create captivating subject lines that intrigue recipients and encourage them to open your emails. Delivering valuable and engaging content is essential to keeping your audience interested. Whether it’s informative blog posts, product updates, promotional offers, or curated industry news, aim to offer content that enriches your subscribers’ lives and caters to their needs and interests.

Optimizing for Mobile:

In today’s digital landscape, the majority of emails are opened on mobile devices, making it imperative to optimize your emails for mobile viewing. Ensure that your emails are mobile-responsive, featuring clear and concise copy, visually appealing graphics, and easily accessible calls-to-action. Pay close attention to email formatting, font size, and image dimensions to provide a seamless experience across all devices. By prioritizing mobile optimization, you can enhance engagement and conversion rates among your mobile audience.

Testing and Iterating:

Continuous testing and optimization play a vital role in refining and enhancing your email marketing strategy over time. Experiment with various elements such as subject lines, email designs, CTAs, send times, and segmentation criteria to determine what resonates best with your audience. Analyze key metrics like open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and unsubscribe rates to gain valuable insights into your email performance. Utilize this data to make informed decisions and optimize future campaigns for greater success.

Conclusion:

Developing a successful email marketing strategy involves a strategic blend of planning, understanding your target audience, creating engaging content, and continuously refining your approach. By setting specific goals, identifying your audience, cultivating a high-quality email list, producing compelling content, optimizing for mobile devices, and regularly testing and refining your campaigns, you can create email marketing initiatives that captivate your audience, boost conversions, and yield tangible outcomes. With a focused strategy and a dedication to ongoing enhancement, email marketing has the potential to be a potent tool for achieving your marketing goals and expanding your business.

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) is definitely causing concern in a number of different industries.

According to some, it will also fundamentally alter how marketing and sales are carried out, causing a shift in the demand for digital marketers.

However, the precise impact of AI on digital marketing roles over the coming years is still not well understood.

What is certain is that creative individuals will continue to be needed to implement current practices along with the requirement to develop better and better marketing tactics.

But at the same time, marketing’s use of artificial intelligence is gradually growing.

Why is this happening?

AI is becoming more and more appealing every year as a result of the daily increase in the amount of data that is available and the methods for gathering, analyzing, and using that data for marketing and advertising.

The attraction of AI and marketing automation will also grow as more businesses gather human resources with expertise in data science and market analysis.

Will AI eventually replace digital marketers? To find out the response, continue reading.

First of All, What Is Marketing Automation?

The ability of artificial intelligence to automate particular jobs or groups of related tasks is one of its benefits.

Such automation has clear advantages, such as streamlining procedures and effectively assessing results with less time and effort.

These advantages of marketing automation can be seen right away and will improve your future work.

In order to create capabilities that go beyond what each of these might do on its own, marketing automation makes use of the capabilities of numerous systems, programmes, and platforms.

The capacity to speed up data collecting and processing is one of the most advantageous outcomes of this kind of automation.

Using AI, trends can be found more quickly, producing more predictions to help in your marketing strategy.

Overall, marketing automation can assist you in better implementing your marketing plan, making the most of your workforce, and saving time and money.

Ok. But Will AI Replace Digital Marketers?

If you work in digital marketing, you might be worried that AI will eventually replace you and force you out of the industry.

The quick response to your question is no, not yet, and possibly never.

Even while AI is helpful, those of you who work in the digital marketing sector is aware that it still requires uniqueness, inventiveness, and creativity to create new ways to interact with clients.

In other words, human interaction is still necessary for digital marketing.

It requires storytelling and emotion, two skills that AI lacks in the ways that are now required for successful marketing.

The objective of the majority of businesses and marketing departments today is to figure out how to use AI to their advantage when it comes to their digital marketing strategy rather than to completely replace human employees.

As a result, AI won’t eliminate all of the professions in digital marketing; rather, it will drive these positions to change in order to take advantage of what AI can do to improve digital experiences.

What Can AI Do Already?

In general, AI may improve and simplify a variety of elements of your marketing initiatives. Additionally, it might lower your error rate and increase productivity.

The following are some specific useful jobs that AI is already capable of performing:

Automate routine and repetitive tasks and processes

With the automation of repetitive operations and procedures, AI can be developed with the intention of partially replacing people in daily tasks.

Even for marketing requirements like content curation, pay-per-click ad management, and email reacting to specifics, it is increasingly achieving this.

Take over the compilation and analysis of large data sets

Because AI is programmed and has acquired knowledge, it can work with massive data sets, which are difficult and time-consuming for humans to handle.

As a result, it can:

• Identify patterns in data sets more quickly.
• Using the patterns and other outputs, make predictions.
• Provide you with insightful data on your customer base, enabling you to customize your audience’s whole digital experience according to their defined needs and preferences.

Using the available facts, predict future customer behavior.

Create digital assistants

Chatbots and other digital assistants can offer clients access around the clock.

The bulk of digital assistants available today have limited functionality and interact with your clients through scripts and pre-packaged workflows, the majority of which schedule tasks or direct requests.

Nevertheless, they might be seen as assets that force marketers to reconsider how their digital consumer engagement plans are created.

Save time and increase productivity

The use of AI is saving marketing teams a lot of time, which could result in increased productivity.

Digital marketers’ time and efforts are being transferred to more challenging and creative activities because of AI automation and data analysis.

Efficiency and production are increased by this redirection.

Allow for Pilot Programs and Experimentation

By establishing pilot programmes and evaluating its capabilities, businesses continue to experiment with AI to see what it is capable of.

At the moment, these involve tests with the following:

• Writing copy for advertisements.
• Buying digital advertisements.
• Creating composite images of buyer personas.
• Creating email subject lines and banner advertisements.
• Assembling data-based news items in order to increase the weekly posting of such articles.
• Even some brands are placing bets on influencers who are powered by AI.

As long as you choose to view AI as a useful tool rather than as a technology that will render your work obsolete, there is a lot of exciting potential for AI in the future.

What AI Can’t Do Currently

AI still has a lot of limitations, particularly when it comes to marketing and human interaction.

Here are some limitations of AI at the moment:

Operate on its own

For specific jobs, AI devices need human programming, as well as ongoing updating.

As the demands of the various industries change, AI systems will occasionally need to be replaced.

Be creative

AI and other modern technologies cannot take the place of a human’s capacity for creativity and innovative problem-solving.

The information that AI can understand and draw from is constrained by the data that it is given.

Don’t count on it to create anything new, make new music, edit films and images, sketch landscapes, or edit anything else.

Transmit emotions

AI is unable to express or transfer emotions.

As a result, it is impossible to translate these feelings into material that customers can relate to throughout their buying process.

Make human connections

AI cannot establish true human bonds because it lacks emotions.

AI-based systems are only capable of what is specified in their programming. They lack empathy and are unable to comprehend moral and cultural issues and take appropriate action.

Offer critical thinking

Artificial intelligence is not employed to make important decisions.

While AI is excellent at obtaining and even evaluating data, human critical thinking is still required for plan development and strategy.

Just taking into account these limitations of AI should help you see why digital marketers are still necessary now and will be for the foreseeable future.

How to Keep Growing in Your Career with AI

The good news is that not all occupations in digital marketing will become redundant as artificial intelligence becomes more prevalent.

You can take a number of notable actions to advance your marketing profession with AI. Simply maintain your willingness to do so.

What you should do to advance your career with AI is as follows:

1. Stay up-to-date on AI news and trends

Start by staying pace with the most recent developments in AI and how they may be applied to marketing.

One of those professions where knowledge is power and power is knowledge is this one.

2. Recognize replaceable skill sets

Recognize the skill sets that artificial intelligence (AI) solutions will eventually—if not already—replace.

These are the repetitive and routine duties that take a lot of time and are quite uninteresting.

3. Identify skills AI cannot replace

Continue by listing the non-repetitive, artistic, and other abilities that AI is not anticipated to replace in the near or far future.

Do you already possess knowledge of any of these? If so, pay closer attention to them.

4. Always be ready to adapt

The next step is to adapt, adapt, adapt.

Changes cannot be stopped, but you can decide how they will impact you and your employment prospects.

5. Become versatile

Update your skill set frequently, and above all, continue to be adaptable.

Learn the most recent techniques to help you gain and stay ahead by getting trained on new technology as it becomes available.

You already know that there is a constant demand for digital marketers to drive online charges for businesses all around the world.

Although you could see artificial intelligence as a threat to the career you love, you can advance in your career while still accepting what AI has to offer.

Wrap-Up: Stay in Digital Marketing by Using AI to Your Advantage

The question “Will AI replace digital marketers?” has now been answered.

AI will continue to play a part in the ongoing evolution of digital marketing.

By remaining informed and engaged, continually adding value to yourself and your marketing skills, you can do it too.

You might hear about the value of digital marketing while you explore new ways to market your company’s products and services.

Digital marketing is a crucial component of the expansion of your company and helps in building an authoritative online presence. In actuality, SEO techniques, according to 89 percent of marketers, are effective. Furthermore, strategies like pay-per-click (PPC) marketing boost brand awareness by as much as 80%. This is just to name a few digital marketing strategies. 

By making investments in your digital marketing strategy, you will directly support the growth of your company.

We are exploring the six reasons why digital marketing is crucial for your company and the benefits of implementing an online marketing plan.

1. Target your clients where they spend their time

With the growth of the Internet, more people are spending their time online. The number of individuals using the Internet worldwide is above 7.7 billion. Online searches, social media checks, and product purchases have all become regular activities.

Because your clients are online, your marketing plan should include a digital marketing plan on how to reach them. They are searching the internet for your goods or services. You run the risk of giving those leads to your competitors if they can’t find them because you don’t have an online presence.

You need to develop your internet presence if you want to get the greatest outcomes for your business. More leads who are interested in your goods or services will come to you.

2. Your competitors are online

Your competitors are already using various digital marketing strategies, and are way ahead of you, that’s also why they are succeeding. To reach new leads, they’ve made social media profiles, optimized their website for search engines, and used paid advertising.

One of the reasons you should employ digital marketing is because of this reason alone. You must go above and beyond what your rivals are doing if you want your company to be competitive. You’re already lagging behind the competition if you ignore digital marketing.

Because you don’t spend on digital marketing, your competitors are getting traffic that could be yours. They won’t be aware that your company is a choice and will ultimately choose a competitor. To enter the battle and attract leads to consider your company as an alternative, you must engage in digital marketing.

You must spend money on digital marketing if you want to keep up with your rivals.

3. Compete with larger corporations

The hardest aspect of operating a business is competition. It’s challenging to compete with larger companies as they usually have a strong reputation, which encourages customers to deal with them based on trust.

However, through an effective digital marketing strategy, your company can very easily compete with larger businesses – it is all about reaching the customers by using the same strategies as bigger businesses, and this way finds quicker ways to connect with prospects before your competitors do.

The playing field is leveled through strategies like SEO and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising.

Your website’s position in the search results using SEO is determined by relevancy. A company cannot purchase its way to the top of the food chain. The same as a little mom-and-pop store, they must optimize their pages.

Google ranks advertisements based on relevancy when you utilize PPC as well. Even if a company offers twice as much per click as you do for the same term as your company, it still won’t guarantee them the top spot. Since the rank is determined by how relevant your ad is, they are unable to purchase a top-ranking ad place.

Smaller and midsize firms now have the chance to compete with larger corporations. No amount of money will allow your corporate rivals to outrank you if you can provide content that is more relevant to the chosen keywords.

Your company has a fantastic chance to compete with larger businesses for more relevant leads by using digital marketing.

4. Target your ideal audience

One of the most evident benefits of digital marketing is the improvement in audience targeting.

Imagine being able to communicate with customers who are interested in your goods or services directly. You have the option to immediately contact leads who are interested in your business through digital marketing. You don’t need to cross your fingers and hope that people will notice your traditional marketing efforts and get in touch with you.

Compared to conventional strategies, digital marketing allows for more specific audience targeting. You can enter crucial data about your target market and utilize that data to mold your digital marketing initiatives. You can easily contact the appropriate people thanks to it.

You could easily establish various parameters (such as demographics, behavior, age, and interest) for your social media marketing campaign if you wanted to specifically target those traits. This would guarantee that your advertisement only reached the targeted individuals.

Your audience might also be divided, and you can easily segregate between for instance two groups with a tailored ad experience that is pertinent to them.

You obtain better campaign results when you can more precisely target the members of your audience. More leads who are interested in your goods or services will be attracted to you.

5. You can monitor your campaigns and optimize for better results

Digital marketing is significant since it makes it simple to manage and monitor your initiatives. You want to know that your campaigns are effective before you invest time and resources in them. You can easily track your initiatives using digital marketing, which enables you to make adjustments and get greater outcomes.

It can be difficult to determine the campaign’s results when using conventional techniques. If you have a TV commercial, you might have to ask each customer who enters your store how they heard about you. It would take a lot of time and might irritate customers who come into your store.

You don’t have to be concerned about annoying your audience while using internet marketing, and every campaign can be tracked. To determine whether a campaign is producing worthwhile outcomes for your company, you can easily track its ROI and other indications.

Metrics like impressions, clicks, likes, shares, comments, conversions, and more are available. The media and what you wish to assess will determine the kind of metrics. Your tracking system can be readily configured to track particular campaign KPIs.

It’s simpler to make corrections and accommodate adjustments when you can monitor the performance of your campaign. A traditional advertising campaign usually has a set timeline within which adjustments can be made. It can seem like you spent money on the prior campaign because it only helps the following one.

You keep an eye on your campaigns as you go using digital marketing. You can see if they are effective or could use some tweaking. You can make rapid changes and put them into effect at any time during your campaign if your campaigns could use some enhancement.

When you can make improvements right away, you save money. It enables you to maximize the effectiveness of your campaign and make better financial decisions.

6. Get an impressive return on your investment (ROI)

Examine the effects that digital media has on businesses to see how important it is. Online marketing techniques offer excellent returns on investment (ROI). You’ll obtain a better return on investment when you use these strategies.

Using online marketing strategies varies from country to country, and is based on each business requirement. It can be a cost-effective strategy, once you have created the framework and understand what are your KPIs. Either way, it is beneficial and it pays off given the right approach and plan. Compared to certain traditional approaches, running a PPC campaign or social media marketing campaign doesn’t cost a lot, giving your firm a chance to expand. To create a tailor-digital marketing plan, connect with our team of specialists today: [email protected]

Every year, we see brand-new, surprising digital trends that set the stage for the direction of marketing. Even in the difficult year of 2021, we haven’t been let down. The digital marketing trends for 2022 are expected to be among the most innovative yet.

TikTok, which has now surpassed all other platforms as the most popular social media site among Gen Z users, continued its upward trend at the beginning of the year. NFTs and cryptocurrencies kept growing, igniting discussions about the financial industry’s future. By 2023, Google said it would phase out third-party cookies, giving advertisers and online marketers just two years to find alternative ways to connect with their target audience. In a gesture to the company’s desire to embrace the metaverse, a 3D virtual world, Facebook most recently changed its name to Meta.

Overall, the digital world is experiencing many innovative and exciting advances that will change how we interact with our audience. We’ve outlined the most important digital marketing trends to watch in 2022 to make it easier to understand and manage the coming year.

Here are the 9 digital marketing trends to get ahead of in 2022:

1. Short, DIY videos

Short video posts have replaced status updates and carefully managed photo grids on social media thanks to TikTok. Other platforms quickly joined the trend, with Youtube focusing on “shorts” and Instagram debuting its Reels feature.

Short videos draw attention to how quickly we consume content and the need for clear, concise messaging or interesting content that invites participation, such as learning a new dance, taking on a challenge, or answering surveys and polls.

The beautiful thing about these brief videos is that anyone can use their phone to put together a quick video that isn’t super polished. Younger viewers like candid, behind-the-scenes, DIY, authentic stories, and brief, entertaining video content that has a less polished appearance.

2. Tell a real story

Storytelling is crucial to brand marketing at all times. However, consumers are sick of hearing how you, the brand, think your products or services are superior to the competitors when it comes to selling your product in the contemporary market. They are interested in learning how you met their needs and expectations by keeping your commitments.

This does not imply that businesses should back off and let customer feedback speak for itself. Instead, businesses should explain through tales and client testimonials how the product or service may help to address a particular problem, rather than just telling consumers the advantages of their product or why it is superior to that of their competitors.

Although it might not result in immediate sales, it’s a terrific method to position your brand in front of customers who are thinking about a certain problem. In this manner, you will be the first person people consult when they encounter that problem.

3. Focus on your audience

Social media users have grown restless, worried, and occasionally sad as a result of the constant attack of content in their feeds for more than a year during lockdowns. Some people have even canceled their accounts after biting the bullet. It would be an understatement to suggest that the daily barrage of advertisements, campaigns, and news that floods social media feeds are overwhelming for those who choose to stick around.

Be aware of how many sales-related postings each individual sees in a two-minute scroll and think about how and why yours would stand out. You’ll find that your messaging reaches those who are most interested in what you do if you concentrate your strategy on connecting with your current audience and developing your database.

Consumers are becoming pickier about the material they receive and consume as the digital landscape changes, and as a result, their expectations are high. Don’t be one of the accounts that get unfollowed.

4. Privacy, transparency, and trust-building

Consumers are becoming increasingly suspicious of the content they are targeted with as a result of the overabundance of digital advertising. Because of this, digital marketers should get ready for stricter privacy regulations in 2022 that will change how they may track the activity of their users.

Google has actually stated that it would stop using third-party cookies by 2023. This implies that many marketers and advertisers will need to review their tactics.

However, data-driven content and marketing are not yet over. Even so, targeted advertising is not yet over. It’s the start of a new era of trust and transparency between business and customer if you’re searching for a way to look at the demise of digital marketing monopolies as we previously knew them. Informing customers of the information you are gathering and why is important. Make it simple and available for anyone to opt-out at any time. Additionally, only get the data you absolutely need.

Customers are more interested than ever in “keeping it real,” therefore if you embrace this new approach to digital marketing, it will probably have a positive impact on your customer relationships.

5. Personalization

In 2022, personalization will be very important. Making targeted advertisements that speak directly to your target market will produce better results than general content that tries to appeal to as many people as possible. You need to get more than just the material correct, though. In a landscape that is overly saturated, it is essential to make sure that your audience sees those advertisements at the appropriate time and location.

You can develop tailored messaging for each group by taking the time to comprehend the platforms your target uses and how they use them. This will make your advertising dollars go further and ensure that your message reaches the proper target in the method that appeals to them most. It may also result in enhanced customer loyalty.

Even if you’re marketing the same product, it’s important to consider diverse locales and cultural associations in addition to personalizing your marketing efforts for each social media platform. Because the customers who watch your campaign at various touchpoints will be persuaded by various content at various times and in various ways. Make your audience feel heard and understood; it’s time and work well spent, we assure you.

6. Content segmentation

The majority of businesses use segmentation to target clients with comparable demographics or related interests. Segmentation has been around for a while. Additionally, segmenting communication channels like e-newsletters, news, updates, or offers and promotions is a popular practice.

However, going beyond the conventional opt-in or -out marketing techniques, firms can focus on more thorough and attentive tagging of their email content that enables a user to really opt-out of getting particular sorts of content.

Bloom & Wild, a flower company that offers its consumers the option to opt out of marketing related to delicate events like Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, is a perfect example of content segmentation in action. The Thoughtful Marketing Movement was also introduced in 2019, and it is based on the idea of “treating customers with the same care you would give your own friends and family.”

It doesn’t look good in the increasingly customized digital world when those who don’t celebrate Christmas are bombarded with holiday advertising every December.

7. Conversational marketing and quality interactions

Conversational marketing is nothing new because brands have been interacting with their consumers for a long time. However, with the growth of social media and chatbots, conversational marketing is expanding on a much bigger scale and altering the way companies connect with their customers.

The shift in consumer behaviors brought about by the rapid advancement of technology in recent years—namely, the expectation of instant and direct messaging in real-time, whether that be with friends, colleagues, or businesses—is likely the cause of the increased interest in conversational marketing. And now that chatbots are more popular, these discussions may take place more quickly and smoothly than ever before. Large amounts of data are generated as a result, which aids in understanding client wants and expectations.

This improves the brand’s relatability and gives the customer a generally favorable and satisfying experience. But it’s a challenging market to dominate; you must be well aware of your client’s expectations and demands to avoid having a fruitless or ineffective conversation.

8. Artificial intelligence in digital marketing

The development of artificial intelligence (AI) in recent years has made reporting more user-friendly and automated typical marketing activities like tracking website traffic and enhancing search engine optimization for natural reach. But now is the moment to consider how AI will affect digital marketing in the future, not just what we have already learned from it.

The capabilities of AI technology are expanding as well, from automating activities and advertising to predicting what clients are likely to want next. In comparison to humans, AI can evaluate more data more quickly. Because of this, it can use the extensive data set to examine client behavior and purchase history. After that, be able to advise a certain product or service or even tailored marketing.

You may target your customers with the goods or services they require at the precise moment they require them by using AI to predict their next action. High conversion rates and the impression that you comprehend your clients’ wants without being invasive or overpowering them with irrelevant targeting will result from this type of targeting.

9. NFTs and crypto in social media eCommerce

Even if you don’t personally invest in cryptocurrencies, it’s been hard to ignore the growth of NFTs and online currencies in recent years. On the surface, it might not seem like a trend that has an impact on your marketing plan, but in 2022, that’s not the kind of passivity we’re looking for!

Now is the moment to think about how your business may join the movement, with social media platforms like Twitter taking measures to integrate cryptocurrency payments and a growing trend for display tools that highlight in-app NFT sales. Avatars and NFT display options are already being promoted by Facebook, and we anticipate seeing more businesses follow suit.

With NFTs and cryptocurrencies, the emphasis is on considering how to market a brand beyond its goods and services, possibly even including the company’s ethos.

Ready for digital marketing in 2022?

There you have it: a simple guide to the top digital marketing trends that will be big in 2022. You won’t want to ignore them since it’s difficult. The greatest approach to maintain competitiveness and growth, and ensure client loyalty will be to keep on top of current developments.

Whether it’s NFTs, AI, or data privacy, technology will continue to rule in 2022. If you’re going into the new year with any resolutions, they should be focused on your agility, flexibility, and openness to change with the times. This year is going to be a significant year for breakthroughs in technology, marketing tools, and forward-thinking methods.

Every marketer’s aim is to create a video that goes viral. It is the most reliable method for breaking through the massive online clutter and beating the competition. Additionally, research demonstrates that social viewers—those who watch shared content as opposed to films they’ve found while browsing—are significantly more inclined to purchase a product and share it with others.

Why do some videos burn to a crisp while others just fizzle out?

The two most potent forces behind viral success, according to the analysis of nearly 430 billion video views and 100,000 consumer data points, are:

• Psychological Response – How the content makes you feel, and
• Social Motivation – Why you want to share it

People are more likely to share anything online that makes them feel strongly, making word-of-mouth marketing the most powerful type of promotion!

As per the latest reports, the bulk of sharing happens quickly after a video is released, and the great majority of sharing is carried out by a small number of individuals.

Why People Share

Social Motivation

There are 10 reasons for sharing on social media. The best videos generate a variety of motivations from viewers. The desire to express one’s opinion was a common one, but 75% of viewers discovered other compelling reasons to do so.

Emotional Response

The majority of individuals believe that comedy encourages sharing, yet this belief is difficult to prove and culturally sensitive. To ensure that the material resonates, businesses should attempt to create a variety of pleasant emotions—again, the more vital the response, the better.

Super Sharers Move The Needle

On average, 18% of internet users share movies at least once every week, and 9% do so every day. These “mega sharers,” who account for more than 45% of all shares, should be targeted by businesses.

Timing Counts

A video’s viral peak and total volume of shares increase with the number of shares it receives in the first two days following launch. Marketing professionals must think about front-loading initiatives to optimize exposure during this opportunity.

The day of debut also has an impact; the best days for sharing are Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

How much of an impact does video have in the current digital environment? 93 percent of marketers claim that video has brought them new customers, according to a recent research.

Video is the most popular form of digital content on social media, with everything else comiin order to connect with their target audience on social media.

This strategy becomes more important for small businesses that use social media to expand their online presence. When 5G networks are deployed and speed is no longer an issue, video consumption will only increase in the years to come.

Consumers

The report that included more than 1,700 participants unveiled that 73 percent of consumers claimed they have been influenced by a brand’s social media presence while making a purchasing choice. 45 percent of respondents cited video as their preferred form of brand material, with photos at 22 percent, links at 13 percent, and text at 10 percent.

How do social media and television compare? The percentage of consumers who watch more video commercials on social media than on television falls to 46% among non-millennials.

Additionally, social media is what enables customers to find brands. This is primarily caused by the fact that 32% of respondents first check a brand’s social media pages before visiting its website.

45% of consumers cited it as their initial introduction to the company or product before making a purchase. Another 31% claimed it was based on suggestions from friends, followed by Facebook Groups at 30% and sponsored influencer posts at 29%.

Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram were the top three platforms for viewing social media videos from brands, in that order.

How-to videos, videos promoting sales and promotions, and top five lists are the top three categories of branded videos that viewers most enjoy.

Marketers

73 percent of marketers claimed to produce at least two videos every month specifically for social media marketing. 93 percent of those who create videos claim that doing so results in the acquisition of new clients.

For 63 percent of businesses, video production yields the best return on investment for their social media marketing efforts. Following this, 56% replied images/graphics, 25% said blog entries, 23% said texts/quotes, and 22% said infographics.

The time it takes to create the videos, the complexity of the tools used to create them, and the budget were cited by marketers as the top three difficulties with employing video.

The infographics below contain the remaining survey data for both the consumer and marketer perspectives.

Email marketing is a powerful tool, as any marketer or business owner knows. You may have already implemented certain aspects of email customization, such as addressing clients by name, but you can go even further.

This article examines 15 email personalization strategies that you can use in your marketing.

Let’s explore whether email personalization actually works.

Is Email Personalization Effective?

A resounding “Yes” is the short answer. According to HubSpot’s State of Marketing study, 78 percent of marketers have noticed an increase in email engagement. According to HubSpot’s research, 20% of e-commerce, retail, consumer goods, and service businesses customize emails based on certain demographics.

Email personalization, or adapting email content to the recipient’s identity, interests, location, and other characteristics, can help boost sales.

Personalization of emails has a number of other advantages, including:

• Better open and click-through rates, as well as lower unsubscribe rates, lead to increased customer satisfaction 
• Customers can be re-engaged in a variety of ways
• 72% of consumers only interact with personalized messaging, and the majority of customers expect brands to understand their specific demands

Personalization of emails is also simple to achieve. You could, for example:

• Only send an offer if the recipient has recently purchased anything
• Change the phrase depending on where you are or what time zone you are in
• Make the words and imagery more personal

Email customization, like any other aspect of marketing, has its limitations. Some methods, such as consumer suggestions, may or may not work for everyone.

You can also sound too familiar and over-personalize, which might frighten folks. Stick on the essentials, which we will explore later.

Here are 15 approaches that work now that you have a better understanding of email personalization and its benefits.

1. Collect the Right Data

You won’t have a suitable starting point for personalization if you don’t collect the correct kinds of data, by using sign-up forms to collect information from readers.

You can ask subscribers some additional questions when they sign up for your email list, in addition to the usual email address and name.

For instance, you could ask for their:

1. location
2. birthday
3. interests
4. occupation

Keep your requests for information short and sweet, then gather even more data, implement integrations. 

If you don’t have all of the necessary resources to acquire data, integrations are ideal. You should also develop a subscriber preference center to find out what your readers want.

Personalize your subject lines once you’ve started collecting the correct kinds of data.

2. Personalized Subject Lines

In the world of email marketing, subject lines have always been crucial, but they must be specific for the best results. Ensure they differ from industry to industry and audience to audience.

You can put them to the test to see which ones are the most effective. You may use testing to change the content of your subject lines based on all the information you’ve gathered about a subscriber’s demands, interests, age, location, and more.

The open and conversion rates are only going to get better, and after you’ve mastered subject lines, you should concentrate on triggered emails.

3. Use Behavior-Triggered Emails

Customers’ interactions with your products or services prompt automated responses in the form of behavior-triggered emails.

This is where email marketing is going in the future, and triggered emails have a high open-rate.

These emails also allow you to connect with customers on a more personal level. Connections can be made easier with behavior-triggered emails. They allow you to communicate with customers without having to think about it, assist with reader conversion, and potentially increase the lifetime value of existing clients.

You may not know it, but you receive these types of emails on a regular basis.

Have you ever received an email from a website because you haven’t signed in or made a transaction in a long time? This is a behavior-based email.

Furthermore, you can send triggered emails for a variety of purposes, including to welcome readers, re-engage them, and promote items or services.

In addition, depending on your industry, there are a variety of solutions for sending effective trigger emails.

4. Use Subscriber Tags

Subscriber tags allow you to include personal CTAs in your email content as well as use them to send triggered emails. You can tag subscribers using this method based on their actions, such as visiting a specific page on your site or clicking on a link. Then, using matching tags, send emails to recipients.

Because you can segment all of your workflows with only one email, this method saves a lot of time. This is a feature that most email list providers, such as ConvertKit, provide.

5. Ask the Right Questions

Asking questions to your audience is a simple method to begin segmenting them. It’s a simple method, but you have to ask the right questions.

Customers, for example, can be asked:

• What drew them to your site in the first place?
• What made them decide to use your service?
• What are the most pressing issues that they require assistance with?

These questions may immediately reveal what you’re doing properly (or poorly), and they make sending targeted emails a snap, avoid getting too generic. Customers can be enticed with emotional appeals, emoticons, humour, and gifts to help you stand out.

Alternatively, you may ask for people’s opinions. People prefer to know that you care about what they have to say.

6. Add “Recommendations for You”

We’ve already discussed several email personalization strategies; now it’s time to dig a little deeper. Start customizing your emails by promoting additional purchases or actions based on a reader’s previous purchases or actions.

With its “Frequently Brought Together” upsell function, Amazon is well-known for this, while Netflix uses a similar strategy to entice users to watch another movie.

It works because readers love “recommendations” when they’ve previously enjoyed similar items.

Instead of attempting to reach all of your readers with a single promotion, send it only to those who have expressed an interest in a relevant topic.

You may accomplish this in any sector by recommending items and services that are related. To promote sales, consider offering a discount.

7. Use and Optimize Landing Pages

Yes, email personalization can help you increase the number of people who open your emails. The ultimate goal, though, is to turn readers into consumers.

To do so, make sure the landing pages you link to correspond to the concepts in the messages you send.

Consider what would happen if Amazon sent out product recommendations without any links to the real products. Doesn’t it appear pointless?

As a result, you should include as many relevant landing pages as possible in your emails. Make sure the landing page is relevant to the people you’re targeting and their current purchasing stage.

8. Add a Sense of Urgency

There are numerous tools available to assist you in incorporating dates and times into your emails.

This is an excellent strategy for increasing engagement because limited-time offers emphasize urgency, which motivates individuals to take action.

You can build up to a paid offer by establishing a sense of urgency. Just make sure your customers don’t forget to order or hesitate to do so. That’s why setting up a custom deadline is so useful.

Are you considering implementing this strategy? Templates are available online, or your mailing list provider should have one.

You may also integrate countdowns for sales, product releases, and giveaways into your emails.

9. Build Customer Personas

A customer persona is a fictional character who represents your ideal customer. Companies utilize them to determine the characteristics of their ideal customer as well as their typical behavior.

You’ll have a better understanding of who your consumers are and what they need from you if you become more precise with these personas. Finally, by meeting their wants, you may strengthen your business and boost email customization.

Customer personas are created utilizing a variety of data sources. Rather than asking a single question, you can classify clients based on a combination of traits and activities.

There are numerous step-by-step tutorials on creating personas available to assist you in developing them according to best practices, including:

• determining who your target market is
• Understanding your consumers’ requirements and frustrations through conducting research using data about your target audience’s online behavior, likes/dislikes, and other factors
• Using email personalization tactics to cater to the demands and needs of your consumers

10. Use Location and Time Zones

It’s no secret that certain times of day are better for sending emails than others.

For example, your consumers may prefer receiving an email at 8:00 a.m., while they may prefer receiving one at 5:00 p.m.

However, it’s unlikely that all of your clients are in the same place. They could be located all over the world, in different time zones, and maybe receive your emails at inconvenient hours.

How do you get around this? By utilizing your clients’ information to deliver emails at the most appropriate moments.

Personalization at the moment of delivery is simple to set up with a few clicks, and firms like MailChimp make it possible.

11. Personalize Your Business

You don’t have to limit email personalization to your customers’ information: you can also personalize your brand.

Customization has the potential to make a significant difference in your company’s success rate, and it’s not difficult to apply. You simply need to make a few adjustments, and many of these can be automated.

Nike is a great place to start if you’re looking for inspiration. Welcome messages and emails are sent out by the brand for:

• birthdays
• seasonal campaigns
• promotions
• order confirmations
• hot-this-week offers

Test things like conversational tone, words like “we” and “I,” and making your emails look like they’re coming from a real person. Customers respond positively to it.

12. Mark Milestones

Another successful email customization strategy is to mark client milestones.

It demonstrates to your customers that you are aware of their accomplishments and that your firm values them. As a result, consumer involvement improves, and they feel appreciated.

The following milestones are worth noting:

• the first anniversary of your customer
• a client’s birthday
• the amassing of a predetermined number of points
• completion of a course or something comparable

13. Imagery

A picture is said to be worth a thousand words. To put it another way, a single image can better represent a thought than a paragraph of writing.

People nowadays tend to skim scan emails on the go, so keeping your communications short is critical, but it’s not only about that. Your clients can be influenced by imagery in a variety of ways.

Marketers may use images in their emails to create an emotional connection with their customers, encouraging them to take action and possibly influencing their purchasing decisions.

Another benefit of photographs is their adaptability.

Images can be used for a variety of purposes, including presenting products, illustrating the benefits of a certain product, and simply brightening a customer’s day.

There are only a few things to think about.

The following images must be used:

• eye-catching
• eye-catching
• relevant
• You can also customize images for specific customers based on their data, preferences, and geography.

14. Reach Out to Customers

Cart abandonment, poor interaction, and a lack of follow-up all have an impact on your revenue. Email personalization, on the other hand, can help you overcome these obstacles.

Reaching out to customers can help them get back on track and avoid abandoning their shopping carts. You could, for example, send

• a coupon code in your abandoned cart emails
• an offer for something a customer looked at but didn’t buy
• an email asking why they left without buying and offering assistance
• a follow-up email three days after their visit

After that, get involved.

Sending out email tutorials or something similar is a good idea. Look at your data to understand how your customers use their purchases and where they most need your aid to tailor these communications.

Finally, make sure to follow up.

• Is your consumer aware of all the benefits that their purchase provides?
• Are there any features you think they should add?
• Is there anything unique about the product/service that could make a buyer’s life easier?
• Yes? Then follow up and help them with their issues!

15. Pay Attention to the Small Details

You can utilize email personalization in addition to the areas just mentioned:

• A/B testing different email versions
• depending on client data, modifying the copy of an email with each click
• dealing with any past interactions
• including a call to action
• dividing your target market into groups with comparable interests or uses for your product

As technology continues to progress and gain importance, modern businesses adapt to a variety of marketing and advertising strategies to reach potential customers and increase sales.  In part, this is due to the effectiveness of marketing and advertising strategies in driving success for companies of all sizes.

Marketing and advertising are often confused, but there are actually many differences between the two. Marketing is the process of identifying customer needs and deciding how to best meet those needs. In contrast, advertising is the process of promoting a company and its products or services through paid channels. To put it another way, advertising is part of marketing. However, the differences do not conclude there.

What Is Marketing and Why Is It Important?

Marketing is the process of identifying, predicting, and meeting the needs of customers. Businesses can maximize revenue by using effective marketing strategies to determine how to best serve their client base. Marketers direct their marketing efforts toward consumers in business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing. Business-to-business (B2B) marketing focuses on marketing to other businesses.

When developing a marketing strategy, B2C and B2B marketers should consider a number of important factors. In particular, savvy marketers will evaluate:

• Orientation — Marketing orientation refers to the guiding principles of a business, often referred to as corporate philosophy or corporate culture. Organizations often choose to focus on product development, sales, production, or marketing. 
• Mix — As a guide for companies’ marketing strategies, the marketing mix serves as a decision-making tool. Modern marketing mix usually revolves around the four Cs: client/customer, cost, convenience, and communication. 
• Environment — Marketing environment refers to everything that can have an impact on the execution or decision-making of a marketing strategy. Therefore, companies should also consider their internal environment. External factors—such as macro and micro environments—must also be taken into account. 
• Market — An organization’s target market refers to the characteristics of its ideal client. The research and segmentation efforts of a company can help identify the geographical and demographic factors that will help it market and sell its products or services.

Analyzing the orientation, mix, environment, and market allows one to assess the costs and benefits of various marketing strategies. Marketing efforts can be carried out in many ways, so this part of the planning process is crucial.

What Are Several Common Types of Marketing?

Marketing efforts traditionally used four channels to connect with customers: print, mail, TV, and telephone. These four channels can be utilized by companies to enhance branding efforts and deliver corporate messaging.

The dominant marketing approach throughout the 20th century revolved around print and broadcast media, combined with effective messaging and advertising.

As the world turned to the 21st century, marketing strategies have evolved to accommodate the rise of the internet and e-commerce. Digital marketing has transformed the way businesses communicate with their clients since the transition to the internet. Messaging platforms, such as social media, allow businesses and clients to communicate in two ways. From a marketing perspective, specifically, modern technology has made it much easier to gather information on customer behaviors, needs, wants, etc.

Several types of marketing are common today, including:

• Digital Marketing — The term “digital marketing” refers to marketing strategies applied to electronic communication devices such as computers and smartphones. Often, digital marketing strategies rely on search engines, email, websites, blogs, and other techniques to reach customers.
• Social Media Marketing — Digital marketing includes social media marketing, in which social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are used to reach potential clients. Through this style of marketing, companies are able to use earned media from people outside of their organization. Influencer marketing is part of social media marketing where popular users are compensated for promoting a company’s products. 
• Global Marketing — The internet and globalization have enabled some of the world’s largest companies to become global brands. Therefore, global marketing allows these companies to employ a unified approach to reach their customers on a local, regional, national and international level at the same time. 
• Relationship Marketing — Relationship marketing eschews invasive tactics such as commercials and advertisements, instead focusing on customer happiness. In order to establish a long-term and loyal client base, relationship marketing relies on strategies that help retain and satisfy clients. 
• Brand Management — Brand management involves creating a bond between a company’s brand and its customers. This requires evaluating a company’s products or services as well as its logo, design, packaging, and other aspects. Additionally, brand management considers aspects of the target market, direct competition, and current relationships with customers. 
• Product Development — Developing a product or service from a business opportunity is known as product development. Both existing and new products may be developed. Developing a successful product involves many marketing concepts, including identifying client needs as well as conducting market research and analysis. 

Despite not being as common as the methods above, it is important to mention societal marketing in our discussion. The concept of societal marketing goes beyond the traditional boundaries of identifying, predicting, and satisfying customer needs.

A company’s culture, brand and operations should incorporate the greater needs of society and the world. Triple bottom line reporting is common in societally oriented businesses to track and measure progress. These include social and environmental impacts as well as financial performance.

Advertising: What Is It and Why Is It Important?

The practice of advertising involves a company paying to place its message or brand in a particular location. Companies use advertising to promote their products and services for sale as well as establish corporate culture and branding. When used properly and strategically, advertising can drive customer acquisition and increase sales.

Advertising creates a one-way communication channel, where companies can broadcast non-personal messages to a general audience. Unlike other types of marketing or even public relations, advertising is completely under the control of companies. Whenever a company pays to place an ad, it has full control over how the content is promoted.

A successful advertising campaign has countless benefits. Businesses can use advertising to:

• Educate customers about the nature of the product or service
• Sell superior products or services to customers
• Enhance customer perception of a brand or culture
• Create a need or desire for products or services among customers
• Demonstrate new applications for products or services
• Promote new products or services to potential customers
• Sell new products and services to new customers
• Retain your existing customer base

As a whole, companies that dedicate resources to advertising can reap many benefits. Many businesses use one, or several, of the common types of advertising described below in order to achieve those benefits.

What Are Some Common Types of Advertising?

In the 21st century, advertising has evolved significantly, too. Digital advertising has opened up new avenues for companies to advertise, from search engines to social media and websites of all types. As a result of this new reality, businesses can achieve advertising goals and reach potential customers virtually anywhere, particularly with the prevalence of smartphones.

Many businesses prioritize any or all of the following methods in the realm of common advertising techniques:

• Traditional Advertising — Advertisements are placed in traditional print and broadcast media. Newspaper ads, TV commercials, and radio infomercials are all examples of traditional advertising. 
• Retail Advertising — Retail advertising refers to placement and advertising within retail stores to maximize sales. Product placement in stores, ads on shopping carts, and product display are examples of retail advertising. 
• Online Advertising — Ad placement on the web refers to the placement of ads in media and other websites. The most common types of online advertising include contextual ads in search engines, banner ads on websites, promotional videos, and sponsored content. 
• Mobile Advertising — Mobile advertising refers to the placement of ads on mobile phones and smartphones. Mobile advertising examples include automated dialers, banners to download apps, and click-to-call ads. 
• Outdoor Advertising — Included offline and online billboards, posters, banners, LED screens, lamp poles, vehicles and more intended to attract the attention of mass audiences that use specific areas or roads for commute. Placement of ads on outside structures is generally in heavily trafficked areas to attract the most attention. 
• Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising — It refers to the placement of online advertisements designed to drive traffic to a company’s website. These ads provide companies with extensive information about their customers, and they only pay when users click the links.

Marketing vs. Advertising: What’s the Difference?

One of the major differences between these two business practices is that advertising is a part of marketing. The most successful marketing strategies allocate resources to advertising at multiple levels, leveraging different types of media in corporate marketing communications.

It would be helpful to review the differences between paid, owned and earned media in order to better understand this question:

• Paid Media — Media of this type involves a company paying a publisher to place marketing communications. Billboards, broadcast and print ads, search engine ads, social media ads, and direct mail and email are examples of paid media. 
• Owned Media — The company uses its own channels to place marketing communications in this type of media. Owned media includes retail merchandising, websites and business blogs, brochures, corporate social media accounts, and press releases. 
• Earned Media — This media type involves external communications about a company from third parties. Among the types of earned media are online reviews, newspaper articles, social media endorsements, customer demonstrations, and other forms of publicity. 

Advertisements are typically limited to paid media, as described above. This is inherent in the nature of advertising as a business practice – placement of messaging or branding in exchange for compensation. When a business advertises, it usually comes with a price tag.

Alternatively, effective marketing strategies can influence paid, owned, and earned media. Marketing manages paid media advertising by identifying customer wants and needs, and determining the best way to satisfy them. A company’s marketing also determines how it communicates through owned media and how it interacts with others via earned media.

Which is more valuable, marketing or advertising?

Many successful businesses include a variety of advertising strategies in their overall marketing plan. Marketing strategy and advertising placement for global companies must take into consideration customers around the globe. Even so, it is also applicable to small and medium businesses, especially now that digital advertising is affordable through search engines and social media.

Despite this, there is a situation when marketing is more valuable than advertising. The priority for startups and other new businesses should be developing a marketing plan. Spending too much money on advertising at the beginning without a marketing strategy can be disastrous for these organizations.

Identifying the wants and needs of customers is paramount at the beginning of a company’s existence. Thus, any future marketing or advertising efforts will have a defined approach and a better chance of success.

There is no way to ignore digital marketing, regardless of your industry, business, or location. However, there isn’t just one option – there are infinite possibilities. If you’ve got a small budget and are looking for something incredibly cost-efficient to launch a new startup, or if you’re a big brand with a really big budget trying to make some noise, there are many channels, platforms, and types of digital marketing you’ll be able to use for your marketing strategy.

It’s important to understand why digital marketing is so exciting, and why you should be interested in the vast world of digital marketing before getting started. So what makes digital marketing so exciting?

1. It’s affordable. Paid digital marketing is quite cost-effective, and allows you to spend your marketing budget more strategically. While the costs of each digital marketing platform can differ, there’s something for everyone. You can distribute your content for free through your own digital marketing channels if you are not utilizing digital marketing for paid (e.g. content marketing – we’ll get to that later).
2. It’s targeted. Speaking of targeting, digital platforms are able to identify who is online and show them specific content. Traditionally, marketing involved hoping your message reached your target audience, but digital gives us the confidence to know.
3. It’s full of data. Have you ever seen a television advertising report? There aren’t many reliable or actionable data points. Digital platforms give you the ability to see who’s seeing your content in real time, whether you’re running a paid campaign on Google Display Network or checking your website statistics through Google Analytics.
4. You’re where the people are. Our lives are increasingly surrounded by technology (the average internet user spends 6 hours and 43 minutes online every day – eek! ), so it makes sense that we should focus our efforts on reaching people where they spend so much time.

Below are 11 types of digital marketing you should consider when trying to reach your target audience.

1. SEO
2. Content marketing
3. Social media marketing
4. Paid search
5. Display advertising
6. Email marketing
7. Messenger marketing
8. Affiliate marketing
9. Influencer marketing
10. Video advertising
11. Audio advertising

1. SEO

Search Engine Optimization is one of the most important tools in digital marketing – but what is it? It optimizes your online content so that it appears higher in search engine result pages (SERP), and it’s free. With SEO tactics, you can increase your organic search position on sites like Google and Bing, and get the most out of one of the best qualities about search: incredibly high intent. 

In terms of intent, there aren’t many traditional marketing channels or digital marketing channels that allow you to get in front of customers who have such high conversion intent (we’re talking way down the funnel). Search engine optimization helps your business provide exactly what your customers are looking for at that moment, and your customers are telling you what they need.

An introduction to SEO. Search engines rank results based on three main factors: quality, relevance, and authority. As long as we create relevant content, provide users with a quality experience, and build authority throughout, shouldn’t that be easy? Content-related and technical organic search engine optimization are two types of organic search engine optimization, both of which are of utmost importance for your digital marketing strategy and for gaining free traffic to your website. If you implement an organic SEO strategy for your blog posts or on-page website copy, you will not only increase your website traffic but you will also support your search engine marketing efforts.

2. CONTENT MARKETING

Social media, blogs, videos, and emails, to name a few, are all part of content marketing. However, content marketing is what most people refer to when looking at jobs in this field, or building out a digital marketing strategy for their business. If you think about content marketing, it’s giving information and solving problems with high-quality and useful content; whether that’s a blog post like this one, or a quiz explaining what type of bread you are (maybe not so useful), all of that falls under content marketing.

Content marketing is typically used as a “top of funnel” marketing strategy to establish your authority and influence user behavior later in the buyer’s journey. It is also used in other digital marketing tactics, such as blog posts for SEO (did someone say authority building?). Have you heard the phrase “content is king”? That’s for a reason. You’ll find better results across the board if you start with your content first. Good content is the foundation of almost all types of digital marketing.

3. SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Although social media isn’t new (you’ve probably read plenty of content about social media marketing), there are constantly new platforms entering the market, new formats, and new ways to make the most of one of the most popular platforms out there (more than half of the world’s population is on social media!). Digital marketing campaigns have two options: where to play and how to play.

Let’s start with the where. There are so many social media marketing platforms available today, choosing the right one depends on your digital marketing strategy and where your typical customers hang out. Are they a younger, more savvy audience who scrolls through TikTok all the time, or are they avid Twitter users? Knowing who your customers are will help you decide where to focus your efforts. What are the top social media platforms? We’ve got you:

1. Facebook 
2. Instagram
3. Twitter 
4. Snapchat
5. TikTok
6. LinkedIn 
7. Pinterest

Secondly, the how. With social, you have two options: organic (publishing regularly on social media for free) or paying for ads to target specific audiences.  Social media helps to build brands’ community, keep their audiences updated, and humanize the brand (for a level up, read about social listening as a business tool). Paid social advertising allows brands to reach a very specific audience in a social context, and to push them to complete the desired action. For any business or aspiring digital marketer who wants to up their digital advertising, social media marketing is one of the most sought-after skills in digital marketing.

4. PAID SEARCH

Paid search operates on the same principle as SEO. Paid search is used for immediate results when you don’t have time to invest in a long-term digital marketing strategy, like SEO. It involves paying to appear in front of people when they search for specific terms related to your business. Most of the time, this is a PPC (pay per click) solution, which means you only pay when someone clicks on your search listing. It sounds great, right? It definitely is. Due to the high level of user intent, there is fierce competition for the top spot, which can often mean high prices depending on the terms you are bidding on. You’ll have to consider things like quality score (yep, Google is judging you) and landing pages in order to keep your costs low.

Confused? If I want my business to appear when someone searches for “digital marketing services,” I’ll bid on the opportunity to be seen for that keyword and tell the search engine how much I’m willing to spend to get someone to click, which will be cheaper if I have a quality website. Imagine it as an almost instantaneous auction between advertisers that happens every time someone searches.

5. DISPLAY ADVERTISING

Know those banners you see on websites encouraging you to take notice of whatever they’re selling? That’s display advertising! Using any type of visual – images, videos, GIFs, and text – to advertise your business on publisher websites can be one of the most effective forms of digital marketing for reaching the masses. Do you want to show your banner to a business-savvy female audience? Advertise on women’s networking websites!

The most common way to advertise through display is through a network like Google Display Network, which boasts a variety of publishers and websites you can advertise across, or through a publisher that matches the audience, you want to reach. You can use it for brand awareness, and it’s a type of digital marketing that’s always evolving.

6. EMAIL MARKETING

Often described as “more valuable than gold,” an email list is the holy grail of any business. You can reach a qualified audience every day for free if you build a strong email list. How do you make the most of your email list and what do you do with it? This is where email marketing comes into play.

Your subscribers can be updated with useful and relevant content through email marketing – new collections, sales, and sharing your blogs each week, for example, are all great ways to help you find success on the platform. The biggest rule to remember? You need to use email marketing strategically to avoid spamming your audience while promoting your products and services. Begin with newsletters and updates and progress to creating powerful automated and segmented email series for purposes like onboarding or winning back lapsed customers.

7. MESSENGER MARKETING

There is a lot of talk about 1:1 marketing and how digital platforms help brands target their audiences more effectively. Messenger marketing is a whole new level of targeting. Conversations have grown in popularity over the past few years as brands seek to build personal relationships with their customers in a comfortable environment, helping push them to convert or answer questions that might influence their decision.

Using messenger marketing is something that can either be done manually or in combination with chatbots to automate much of the conversational workflow. Due to the proliferation of messaging apps like WhatsApp and WeChat as well as the fact that most social media platforms offer their own direct messaging features, many brands are now using messenger marketing as a way to qualify leads or provide 24/7 customer support without needing to hire additional staff. Over 2.6 billion people use messenger apps worldwide, so it’s important to think about how you can use the medium to connect with your customers.

8. AFFILIATE MARKETING

Affiliate marketing may fall under influencer marketing, content marketing, or both, and involves paying commissions to content producers for conversions that are attributable to the content. Imagine that we ask a publisher to write an article for our business with a link to our product. By offering the publisher 10% off all sales that come through their site, they become an affiliate for us.

This may have happened through tracking links (e.g. long URL strings that help businesses track where their sales come from) or a special discount code. Affiliate marketing networks are many, some of them general and some specific to a niche, like fashion or tech. Another option is to start your own affiliate network, which is a bit more work but can cut out the fees associated with signing up with a pre-existing network.

Affiliate marketing is loved by digital marketers regardless of how you do it. Publishing companies and content creators are encouraged to create original content for your brand, and you only have to pay if a sale is made. Do you agree?

9. INFLUENCER MARKETING

It is well known that the Kardashians earn millions of dollars per post. How does influencer marketing fit into the digital marketing landscape? Influencers typically help brands with social proof and brand awareness, almost like a paid version of word-of-mouth. We hope that if an influencer recommends a product or service to their loyal audience, the audience will trust the recommendation. The digital marketing world has found a number of uses for influencers, whether it’s the common payment for posting, a collaboration on a product, or a guest post. Influencer marketing is the use of someone’s credibility and audience to promote a product.

Consider who influences your audience when selecting influencers. Who do they listen to or rely on for advice? Find someone who shares your passions and values – this is where the magic happens. Looking for ways to make the most of influencer marketing? To further build social proof for your brand, include your influencers in your paid advertising.

10. VIDEO ADVERTISING

Have you ever fallen into the YouTube black hole? You’re not alone. There are over 2 billion people scrolling with you every month. Utilizing video as part of your marketing is an easy way to reach people not only when they’re looking for content to watch (#dogvideos anyone? ), but also when they’re looking for reviews, how-to guides, and product information. Using video is similar to how people search!

There are two types of digital marketing platforms: paid and organic. Our organic approach to video is similar to how we approach our website and social media – keeping people up to date, as well as sharing useful, relevant content. In paid advertising, we take advantage of contextual moments to deliver relevant video content. Let’s say I am a new health food company and I want to target people who watch workout videos with a relevant message.

11. AUDIO ADVERTISING

With podcasts on the rise and music listening habits changing thanks to services like Spotify and Apple Music, we now have a new medium to play in and for reaching new audiences.

 Branded podcasts can also be considered content marketing. There are more basic options like audio ads within podcasts relevant to your business, as well as more advanced options like audio ads tailored to specific demographics, interests, or contextual moments on Spotify. The world of digital audio advertising is only just beginning. Even though we’re still exploring ways to track listens that lead to purchases and sign-ups, audio advertising offers a unique creative way of thinking and reaches audiences at key times.

CONCLUSION

The world of digital marketing is endless, with new platforms, ideas, and new types of digital marketing appearing daily. Although it’s always difficult to know where to begin, we recommend starting with you, your business, and your customers. How do you know who to talk to, where do they spend their time, and what makes sense for your business? There are plenty of opportunities out there, and now is the right time to get started!

In the past few years, the digital marketing world has seen social media gain increasing traction as a tool that can give maximum exposure and greater marketing mileage for any brand, product, or service. The platform has evolved from being a mere fad, or just another platform for publishing content – and has become one of the most effective marketing and advertising tools and strategies available.

Online users in the United States are spending more time on social media channels than anywhere else on the Internet, according to Small Biz Trends. As a result, 86% of marketers acknowledge that social media provides maximum exposure for their businesses. It was reported in another report published by HubSpot that companies have at least one dedicated social media person or a social media team.

However, the Small Biz Trends report also indicated that 88% of businesses using social media admitted that they have a lot more to learn about social tactics. Specifically, they are interested in learning more about strategies that would be effective to engage targeted audiences and increase brand awareness. Listed below are 10 amazing social media marketing strategies that deliver more and better-targeted results for your business.

Increase online visibility on more social media networks

Even though it seems like yesterday, social media giant Facebook turns 10 this year. Facebook is still the dominant force in social media with 757 million Daily Active Users (equivalent to 1.23 billion Monthly Active Users according to official Facebook reports). While the platform is the primary arena for social media marketing activities, it should not be your only social media outlet.

Many other social networks are also gaining ground, with many focusing on graphics, pictures, and videos as their main content. Pinterest, Instagram, Vine and Snapchat are examples of social media sites that target specific user categories and demographics. In order to gain maximum exposure for your business, you should develop a strong social media presence not just on Facebook and Twitter, but also on other upcoming and highly dynamic social media networks.

Tailor Your Content to Specific Social Media Platforms

Businesses and digital marketers often make the mistake of posting the same type of content on all of their social networks. By doing so, businesses fail to provide social media users with the unique experience they want from each platform. Every social network caters to a certain demographic and social user category, so broadcasting the same type of content to all will not produce the desired results.

Pinterest and Instagram users are more likely to be interested in content with a visual nature and more likely to click on really high-quality images and graphics telling your story. In this regard, the key to success is tailor-fitting your content to the various social media platforms and checking which format will work best.

Instead of selling stuff, tell stories

While social media is still a digital marketing tool, using it to sell your products directly to consumers will do more harm than good to your brand or business. Social media networks are full of stories and people go to them to read stories, be amazed by interesting features, and learn new things from uploads and shares. In order to use social media effectively, you need to learn how to tell a story before you can sell anything.

Your brand will get more attention if you tell stories. As a result, they would want to know more about you and read, view, or watch more stories, photos, and videos about you. As their level of interest grows, they will be able to show an interest in your business, in what you do, and in what you sell – and this will be the right time for profits to roll in.

Share more pictures, graphics, and videos

As soon as Facebook introduced a new feature that allowed Instagram videos to be uploaded, the social network experienced up to 5 million video uploads within the first 24 hours of the launch. That is the power of video and other visual elements, and learning how to use these tools and elements can give you maximum exposure for your business. Now, micro-video is gaining ground, providing another form of content that will revolutionize social media.

As the Internet becomes more accessible to smartphones and other Internet-enabled mobile devices, Snapchat, Twitter’s Vine, and the new micro-video sharing feature on Instagram will certainly gain in popularity. Pinterest is fast evolving, shedding its “women’s only network” tagline to gain more subscribers from more and more online users regardless of gender or demographics. As well as Mobli, Path, Slideshare, and Tumblr, other networks with a visual content focus are gaining traction.

Organize contests and promotional activities

Getting your targeted audiences directly involved in activities is one of the most effective strategies for social media in general. The best way to drive their interest and solicit their participation is by conducting contests and other promotional activities. You can be as creative as you like when it comes to the type of contests you can run, but using the sharing features and other viral components provided by your social network can bring your brand or business even more exposure, as more and more online users participate.

Provide more educational content

According to Social Media B2B research, businesses that use social media strategies for content marketing, such as maintaining blogs, generate 67% more leads than companies that do not. Using social media marketing, they can gain more of their target audiences’ trust, and to do so they have to create educational content that their readers will find very useful for whatever purposes or needs they have.

Using and sharing educational content is a very effective strategy if you want to gain more exposure for your business and build a bigger and more diverse audience, according to a recent HubSpot study. Through the use of educational content that your targeted customers find relevant and interesting, you can extend the reach and coverage of your brand and business.

Make mobile social media marketing a priority

Facebook announced that there were an average of 556 million Mobile Daily Active Users, a 49% increase over last year. This translates into 945 million Mobile Monthly Active Users, a 39% increase year-over-year. These numbers illustrate the power of mobile social media marketing, which should encourage digital marketers to create more content and location-based advertising targeted at mobile social media users.

Response to ALL Comments, Suggestions, Inquiries, and Complaints

Social media users comment, suggest, inquire, or even complain about business pages and social profiles. In return, they expect a response or acknowledgment from you or your social media manager. Approximately 42 percent of social media users expect to receive a response within 60 minutes according to a study by Convince and Convert.

Users expect some form of interaction from business owners and digital marketers through social media. Businesses and digital marketers who respond to these comments and inquiries will be at an advantage over those who do not. Also, you should know how to handle or address complaints in a way that will satisfy online users. Don’t delete complaints, otherwise, you’ll be removed from their lists.

Also, show your gratitude for the time spent by online users reading, liking, and sharing your content. It will put you in their favor and there will be more opportunities for them to come back, read more of your content, and even tell others about you and your brand.

One of the most dynamic and fastest-growing digital marketing channels is social media marketing. These social networks are maturing to their full potential, and digital marketers need to learn how to utilize them so that they can deliver better brand awareness and maximum exposure for their business. You can start with a tweet, an upload, or a post – and let it grow from there.