ImaginativePRO Blog

BRANDING IN THE DIGITAL AGE - DIGITAL BRANDING STRATEGIES AND COMPARISONS WITH DIGITAL MARKETING

Your consumers are online, why aren’t you? Brands today have to realize the importance of the ever growing and versatile digital age while integrating any communication strategy. Digital devices have been on a rapid surge, due to which the consumer is looking to connect with the brands digitally. Your consumers, on any kind of digital media, are expecting you to digitally communicate with them. This means that any brand now has to strategize a digital plan to integrate their communication with their consumers to understand their trends, behaviors and also increase their impact, interactivity and awareness of their products and services with them.

The necessity of branding in the digital age is as important as branding itself. We have already seen what branding is in “Brand Guidelines and Why Your Business Needs Them?” In short, a brand comprises of all the elements such as the logo, color palette, typography, taglines, symbols, etc. that help you differentiate your brand from the others. It could be a product, service or even just a concept that can be communicated to the public to make you stand out from the competitors in the market. The methodology of creating a unique and distinctive personality of any product with the help of various elements is known as branding.

Similarly, branding in the digital age, which is also called as Digital Branding, is a brand communication strategy that is implemented with the use of the internet and digital marketing to enhance a brand’s attributes, establish their presence and promote the brand. It gets its roots from direct marketing and is done via certain digital platforms such as the internet itself, mobile applications, social media and most importantly, digital media content. It also comprises of all the elements such as the logo, color palette, typography, taglines, symbols, etc. The content is in reference to blogs, organic videos, e-mailers, website content, etc. with its overall appearance as well, that appeals to your target group.

Whether it is traditional branding, or digital, successful branding can only be reflected on the target consumer’s perception about your brand. This successful branding will help you enhance your brand positioning in the minds of the consumers. Hence, on the digital platforms, it is important to strategize your communication in a manner that resonates with the positioning that you wish to have. Due to digital marketing and social media, it has become easier to connect and interact with the consumer online, but it has also become easier for the consumer to change his perception about you as well. To avoid this, it is important to stick to the brand guidelines, that defines the tone, color, typography and the overall appearance of your brand, even it if is to be done digitally. There cannot be any kind of inconsistency with reference to the branding tools that are used even traditionally. Your brand should have utmost consistency on all of the digital platforms, which increases your credibility and appeal, and also increases consumer loyalty.

Differences Between Digital Branding and Digital Marketing

Importance of Digital Branding:

Autonomous Consumers: With oceans of information flowing everyday on the digital platform, the consumer is often left in dilemmatic situations, especially in case of products and services. The consumers are often “spoilt for choice”, which essentially means that you have to make your brand stand out in terms of your product and service offerings as compared to your competition. The average consumer is smarter now, due to the information about all products and services available at his/her fingertips.

Change in Consumer Behaviors: The digital age has eradicated all kinds of geographical barriers in the world today. Due to this, social trends change almost every day, which directly affect the consumer’s behavior as well. The average consumer will still desire new products and services, but their social circles, perception, psychology and research will change their decisions very quickly, which means that your brand’s communication approach has to change with the trends as well, to stay ahead of the competition.

Lesser Importance to the Funnel Model: The funnel model is a consumer’s purchase journey that follows the sequence of awareness, opinion, consideration, preference and finally the purchase. Traditionally, a consumer follows this journey and brands integrate their communication in such a manner that this funnel model is smooth. But in the digital era, the interactivity with a brand is extremely high and directly affects the purchase decision.

Engagement: Digital branding’s greatest factors are the levels of engagement and interactivity that it allows between the brand and the consumers. A consumer will definitely prefer a brand that “connects”. This requires the brand to socially engage and provide interactive content through blogs, infographics, videos, etc. regularly, as it appeals to the consumer very well.

Digital Branding, just like offline branding, has a process that is followed. This process is in such a way that the brand establishes its distinct presence and personality on the digital platforms, and makes itself stand out from the rest.

Following is the process:

Target Group: In the digital era, identifying your target group has a somewhat different approach to it. As the consumer is present on roughly 250 digital platforms today, it is important to understand and map the consumer’s journey, to understand their behavior and segment them accordingly to match the category your offering fall into. This includes specific and detailed research that help you indentify certain factors such as the consumer’s demographics, income, behavior, age, gender, etc.

Brand Values: Your brand values are the factors that drive you to excellence in product and service offerings. Clearly defining your core values and mission for your brand help you remain consistent in your communication processes and implement those values in it. Having a definitive mission and core values help consumers feel connected to your brand and it appeals to them, especially if the values resonate with their own. It has also become easier to reflect the same values in your digital communication through blogs, videos, social media, etc.

Brand Positioning: Brand positioning is the influence and impact of your brand in the minds of the consumers. It helps them make a perception of your brand, and gives you a competitive edge in an already established market. If your brand has been successfully positioned, especially on the digital platforms, it gains certain popularity through word of mouth and the most important factor of digital media — virality. Due to this, it becomes much easier to add new products to your offerings if the consumer already trusts your brand.

Brand Identity: Your identity entails your message, personality, name, logo, etc. and anything that will help the consumer recognize your product first in the digital market. Consumers today tend to buy products that enhance and uplift their own personality. Integrating a strong brand identity gives your brand very high recognition in a market that already has products that are similar to yours. For a consumer that sees thousands of brands on his screen, your brand identity is what will make him consider you first. Brand names and logos are also equally important as they increase the brand’s recall level. Your brand name should resonate with your personality and identity, and also the kind of products and services that you are offering. Your logo is your greatest persona. With successful branding, consumers can identify your product on any digital platform by just looking at the logo, and it also gives certain credibility to it.

Brand Objectives: Now that you are on digital platforms, what is it that you want to do? What are your goals and what are you promising to your target group? Your brand must have a tagline that is extremely crisp, memorable and that resonates with your personality. This same slogan can deliver or showcase your brand’s promise, and this is where you as a brand position yourself in the market. If the consumers are clear with your objectives, you will most likely be the go-to brand for them.

Color Palette: Your color palette distinctly represents your brand’s visual identity. There are certain combinations of colors that help you position yourself and abstractly talk about your brand values, and also attract a certain niche group of people. This color palette helps you remain consistent on any digital platform and provides authenticity. Colors themselves hold meaning and carry a message.

All these factors help you successfully build a brand in the digital age today. Consumers are always looking for engaging content to interact with, and the digital era has changed the way the consumers think and behave, and also the way the brand approaches them. It has become extremely vital to have a digital presence, regardless of the brand’s offerings.

COMMENTARY:   Brands that developed and employed a consistent digital marketing strategy that incorporated a sound digital branding strategy across the entire spectrum of customer digital touchpoints tended to keep existing customers, win over new customers and strengthened brand loyalty during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In times of a crisis, it can be hard for businesses to know where to begin.  But every company needs a digital branding strategy, especially during the new normal of COVID-19.  The role of digital branding during a crisis should include creating a shared sense of an “in-it-together” camaraderie.

It’s a tougher competitive marketplace for many companies, but there is good news and that is, everyone is home, online and paying attention to different digital mediums.  Many companies have been pushed forward into realms they were originally uncomfortable with, yet have been finding success and opportunities, which will ultimately drive how business moves forward when recovery comes.

Companies are adapting to a completely digital environment and consumer mindset (see above) during the COVID-19 pandemic.   And brands are adjusting and innovating with new creative, pivoting to virtual events and digital solutions. A marketing tactic that was once unfamiliar to some is being fast-tracked partly due to the coronavirus pandemic. After some initial messaging about the disruption in business operations resulting from the coronavirus, companies are back to marketing. Without a physical product to ship, they have been diving deep into nurture campaigns and lead generation, planning for a successful future.

This “new” way of doing business online ensures that consumers have anything and everything they want, literally at their fingertips and in real time. Companies are presenting products digitally and substituting in-person events for webinars, virtual tours and video calls. It’s prime time for moving more heavily into social media, case studies, blogs and other thought leadership content to engage people now, as they are seeking escapism, entertainment and information.

Branding efforts need to remain strong, so customers will recognize, remember and consider your products or services amidst your competitors. What is important is how you portray your brand. What is your brand promise, beyond your products? How about your company’s value proposition? It is a great time to determine how you can make the same offering for people in a virtual setting. Track human behavioral trends, associate your brand with good, use social media to pivot as circumstances change and turn to digital mediums to connect with customers.

Creating a brand doesn’t happen overnight. It takes consistent work, long-term goals, digital strategy research, creativity and the right platforms. To create a digital branding strategy, you should:

Courtesy of an article dated September 30, 2019 appearing in Interics Designs, an article dated July 10, 2020 appearing in Marketing Charts, an article dated October 24, 2019 appearing in Designer People, an article dated April 2, 2021 appearing in Business To Community, an article dated March 15, 2021 appearing in Medium.com, an article appearing in Digital Branding Institute, and an article appearing in NXTBook Media

 

 

THE ULTIMATE EMAIL MARKETING GUIDE FOR BEGINNERS

Email marketing is one of the oldest forms of digital marketing and there’s a reason for that  - it works! Using the power of email, businesses can connect with customers, build brand awareness, encourage brand loyalty, and nurture prospects to become paying customers. 

Since the coronavirus pandemic, email has become even more important to consumers as a way to keep up with brands. DMA’s Consumer Email Tracker 2021 report found that for the first time, the relevance of received messages (55 percent) became the main reason consumers like brand emails, surpassing discounts and offers (53 percent).

But while email marketing may seem like a simple channel to use, there’s an art and science to using it successfully. In this blog, we’ll look at the nuts and bolts of email marketing and give you great examples to gain inspiration for kickstarting your campaigns. 

What is email marketing?

The definition of email marketing is a form of digital marketing that uses email to promote products or services to potential or existing customers. 

Email marketing is an essential channel leveraged by B2C and B2B companies to build brand awareness, grow customer loyalty and drive conversions. 

Why is email marketing important?

Email marketing is one of the most profitable direct marketing channels, with Statista projecting global revenue from email to reach $17.9 billion by 2027. That’s a lot of companies using email successfully! 

Let’s look at three of the most important aspects of email marketing for your business. 

1) Data collection

One of the key reasons companies leverage email is for data collection. As third-party cookies are phased out, getting email subscribers is a great way to collect personal data from people who are interested in your business with consent.

With consumers wanting to protect their information, businesses need to adhere to data privacy regulations such as GDPR or CCPA. Email uses first-party data to collect information in a way that builds brand loyalty and awareness.   

2) Inbound marketing

Email can also help you to attract prospects and leads by using relevant content. So, how can email marketing fuel your overall inbound marketing strategy?   

Email is a great way to engage with prospects who have already shown an interest in your company, product, or service. They do this by opting in or signing up as a subscriber to a newsletter.  

The nature of using email for inbound marketing means that your leads are warmer as they have greater intent and interest in your business. It also means the Return on Investment is higher and costs can be lower as inbound email lists tend to have lower subscribers. 

3) Personalization

As you know who you are making contact with, content and messaging can be segmented and personalized using email. This means you can group lists in a variety of ways by people who:

• Show an interest in a particular product or service
• Have specific preferences e.g. they like cats!
• Are based in the same location
• Are a specific age and gender

The more you know about your customers or prospects the easier it will be to write a prospecting email that gets replies! It’s not about bombarding your lists however, be clever about the frequency and make sure you A/B test subject lines and content to see what resonates.

How to get email marketing lists?

With so many benefits to email, it’s no wonder that companies are looking to start or build their lists. There are several ways to do this.

• Use CTAs - Use clear and directed calls to action (CTAs) on your website or landing pages to urge people to sign up for email updates 
• Use social media - If you use any social media channels, let your users know that you have an email list for special offers or exclusives  
• Offer free downloads - People love freebies, so think about offering a free downloadable ebook or whitepaper  
• Use pop-ups or forms - Pop-ups or forms are common across websites and urge people to give their email addresses to find out more   
• Run a competition - Competitions are a great way to get people to provide personal information, just make sure the offer is enticing enough!
• Advertise a special offer - A discount or a two-for-one offer can urge people to join your email list 
• Offer a blog subscription - If you have a blog, consider setting up a subscriber list to get the latest content. Find out how to start a blog if that sounds like a fit for your business. 
• Get customers involved - You can give existing customers a referral incentive e.g get 20 percent off your next purchase if a friend signs up 
• Ask for feedback - As part of a feedback or testimonial form, ask people to opt-in to email   
• Host a webinar or podcast - These offer high value and people will provide information when signing up 
• Create a newsletter - This can be a good way to keep people up-to-date on new development, discounts or competitions    
• Just ask! - Sometimes it is simply about spreading the word and asking for an email address, you may be surprised how many people like your brand

How to do email marketing: Step-by-step guide

Now that you know the value of email and how to start and bolster your email lists, how do you create and implement an email marketing campaign?  

Collate a list

When you create an email campaign, the key metrics for success are the growth and quality of the subscriber list. You should look at creating lists that are segmented by type. That can be by audience, preference, or category but avoid putting every contact into one pot and hoping it will work! 

Look at what prospects or customers you want to engage and why. Then collate an email list using Excel or your email marketing tool. Label each list clearly so you can find them again easily and also track performance. 

Choose an email marketing tool

There are a lot of email marketing tools out there. So you need to do your research and choose the best one for your business. 

Some tools are free to start using and then charge by the number of contacts in your database. This is why keeping on top of your lists is important as you’ll be paying for each one: so be prepared to audit your lists regularly. A few tools to look into are:

• MailChimp
• HubSpot
• Marketo 
• GetResponse

Check out ‘A Practical Guide to the Top Email Marketing Automation Tools’ to find out how to choose the right one for you.

Plan an email workflow

A workflow is a series of automated emails that are put in a certain order to nurture a prospect or guide a customer to take a certain action. There are a few steps required to set one up:

• Set a goal for your workflow - For example, it could be to convert prospects to enter a free trial
• Create enrollment criteria - This decides who enters the workflow by the settings you choose. For example, it could be anyone who downloaded a specific ebook
• Decide on your email assets - This could be a CTA to drive someone to a blog or a custom landing page for a free trial sign-up
• Create your emails - Once you know your goal and have the assets in place, think about each step in the journey and the touchpoints 
• Include a time delay -  i.e. space the first and second email with a day in-between
• Run a test - Always run a test using a test email before activating any workflow to make sure everything is correct

Make your workflow live and keep an eye on it! - Check-in daily to see that your flows are working and the right people are being added to it. Make any changes or tweaks as soon as possible. 

Plan a calendar

An email calendar is like an editorial or social media calendar. It’s about planning the frequency and audience regularly to target prospects and customers. 

Decide on how often you want to communicate with certain segments or groups and set goals for each campaign. Tracking your email marketing activities by date will help you to see who you are targeting and when. 

You also need to keep times and days in mind when sending. Some will work better than others depending on your audience e.g on a commute or first thing in the morning. Test these out to see what works for your lists.

Plan your Email Campaigns

Download our FREE handy calendar template to get started right away with planning your email campaigns into 2023! It includes a list of key holidays you can plan for and a color coded key to help you organize your campaigns to the max.

Write email copy

Now to the most important bit - the content of the email. As a marketer, you should know your buyer personas or ideal customer/s and understand their pain points. If so, then you’ll be able to target messaging in a way that prompts a click on an email. 

With an email, the subject line is super important as it’s the first thing a person sees in their inbox. Think about A/B testing subject lines with certain groups to compare performance and see if it can guide your copy. 

It’s also key to keep your messaging clear and succinct and use CTAs to direct people to take an action. Use a content and copywriting checklist to keep your messaging clear and focused when writing every single marketing email.

Tip: Check out ‘The Anatomy of an Effective Marketing Email’ to find out all the elements to include to implement a successful email campaign. 

Press the send button

Now you’ve done all the hard work, it’s time to see how your email does in the real world. 

Test before you send (check copy, subject lines, images and ensure your links work), and then let it free! 

Beginner-friendly email marketing campaign examples

When you’re starting it can seem overwhelming to figure out how to set up an email campaign and what content to include. There is a range of different types of email to keep in mind (depending on your goals) when crafting your campaigns:

• Awareness building - new product, welcome, announcement
• Lead generation - downloadable asset, blog article, custom landing page
• Nurture - new offer, additional product, reminder
• Traffic generation - relevant blog article, trial or offer on the website
• Revenue generating - conversion 

Here are a few examples of good email campaigns from some interesting brands, to inspire you. 

Nike - Just In Time Email

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Nike's "Father's Day Gift Guide" direct mail piece reminds you not to forget to give your dad a nice gift for Father's Day and provides a call to action link so you can select something for dad from Nike's gift collection.  This direct mail piece is effective because it is both a promotion for that special day for dad and a branding campaign that does not leave out Nike's famous catch line "Just Do It".     

BuzzFeed - Animals Newsletter

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BuzzFeed's "The BuzzFeed Animals Newsletter" direct mail piece is targeted at animal lovers every where.  BuzzFeed also wants users to know that it offers different newsletters that are dispatched on a daily, weekly, bi-weekly or monthly basis. This direct mail piece also includes a call to action box where users can subscribe to their newsletters by entering their email address and selecting their choice of newsletters from a list of 13 newsletters with check boxes.  It's simple and to the point and allows BuzzFeed to target users by their newsletter interests for marketing purposes. 

NerdWallet - Nurture email

Personal finance company, NerdWallet uses email to nurture prospects so they can entice people back who have shown an interest in their service. This example below leads with an enticing headline ‘New ways to get more from your money’ along with including the text ‘New and tailored to you’ to drive personalization. 

The email then uses clear and clever copy to entice people to click on clear actions - ‘Set your goals’ and ‘Start saving’ an attractive opportunity for most people. Clean and colorful imagery also helps to draw the eye with the predominant green, keeping it on brand. 

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NerdWallet's "New Ways To Get More From Your Money" direct mail piece is colorful, attention grabbing and reminds customers and prospects alike that they live up to their motto, "All Things Money, In One Place" by reminding customers and prospects alike that it is "new and tailored to you".  It offers customers tips on how to set goals and start saving with convenient call-to-action buttons. 

COMMENTARY:   This email marketing guide is for beginners, so it offers many examples of direct email pieces from other brands that should be studied so you can create successful direct mail offerings for your customers and prospects. There is no such thing as a "one-for-all" direct mail piece.  Your customers and prospects have different needs and wants.  They differ both demographically and socio-economically.  Having said this, it is important that you know who your ideal customer segments are and you should personalize your direct mail pieces for each customers segment.           

Courtesy of an article dated September 12, 2022 appearing in the Digital Marketing Institute

HOW THE VOLUME OF MARKETING DATA, INCREASING NO OF MEDIA CHANNELS AND PLATFORMS AND RESILIENCY ARE DRIVING CMO'S TO ADOPT DATA-DRIVEN MARKETING

Remaining resilient and competitive means doubling down on data.

Despite the tumultuous past few years, 75% of CMOs at SMBs say their team was resilient enough to adapt to periods of unpredictability.

Recent crises have catalyzed a focus on using data to make marketing budgets go further, by rewarding those who have invested time and resources into their data strategies, while many of the less data mature have failed to survive. And for those who have successfully ridden out the storm, data is now front of mind as another hurricane forms on the horizon.

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In fact, among the CMOs at SMBs we surveyed, a staggering 85% agree that being able to make data-driven decisions is a critical competitive advantage. As the global economy teeters on the edge of recession once again, marketers can look back to draw on a couple of lessons from recent economic crises.

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CMOs are cutting down on inefficiency - not ops spend

An encouraging number of CMOs are allocating more resources to bolstering their data operations and capabilities. As found in our recent study on the evolving role of the CMO, 73% have committed to investing in a marketing ops role, with 33% having only introduced this role in the last year. Combining management of the martech stack, data quality control, and analytics at once, the position is a smart addition to help eliminate internal silos and drive team efficiency by ensuring easy access to connected data, whenever it’s needed.

Our latest results also indicate growing interest in further enhancing data mastery, with 29% of CMOs increasing their data ops budget for 2022. The shift towards bigger spending, however, doesn’t run across the board. Almost as many (27%) say their budget has decreased while 44% are working with the same spending pot as last year.

Although unchanged budgets might simply reflect steady costs, other findings indicate there could be additional issues at play. An overwhelming 70% of CMOs name money, not time, as their most stretched resource. With finances already a significant concern, many may be under strain that’s leading them to tighten purse strings and cap their data ops spending.

While pausing investment might bring some short-term gains, allowing spend to stagnate will cause multiple issues over time. As analytics tools and practices evolve, teams will fall further behind and be less able to squeeze as much as they can out of marketing budgets. Continued underinvestment also makes it more likely they will battle with further inefficiencies that add to already unwieldy workloads and impact productivity. Businesses, therefore, need to balance costs carefully, running calculations of how much they can save from stalling data ops investment, versus the benefits a well-supported team can drive.

Key Takeway:

Stretched finances could soon result in budget cuts. CMOs need to use their resources and invest in key areas now if they want to tackle the recession armed with better insight.

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What’s shaping the CMO’s roadmap?

CMOs are struggling to keep up with new platforms and channels

Fast escalating digitalization is bringing a mix of opportunities and challenges for CMOs at SMBs. Where new platforms and channels bring more scope for audience engagement, they’re also seeing an exponential rise in data and complexity.

Keeping on top of sprawling multi-channel activity is getting harder and harder; pushing up time to insight and making it difficult for teams to achieve the real-time performance view they need to guide quick and informed decisions. With demand for frequent and granular reports from the rest of the C-suite growing, it’s easy to see why CMOs are feeling pressured. One-third (33%) cite multiplying channels and platforms as the biggest external factor impacting marketing today.

In contrast, there is a much lower level of concern around data regulation, such as the GDPR. Previously high on every CMO’s priority list, the European regulation is now seen as a major external impact by just 8%, relegating it to last place. Despite increasing fines for rule breaches, marketing leaders are more comfortable with regulations they know and have already adjusted to than the varied complications emerging channels and platforms create; highlighting the urgent need for them to adapt in line with rapid digital evolution.

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More channels and platforms have left CMOs buried under their data

As might also be expected, both capturing and using the data generated by increasing channels and platforms is proving a challenge. Nearly all (99%) of CMOs say their marketing team is working with at least 10 data sources, 52% say they’re working with 14 data sources or more, and 32% say their teams use external data sources for marketing analytics.

While similar research from 2019 revealed that nearly half (47%) of respondents had 6 or fewer data sources, three years on we couldn’t find a single respondent reporting so few data sources.

As more and more data streams in from different directions, teams are reaching their limit; with 67% of CMOs admitting they have been overwhelmed by the quantity of marketing data available in recent years. This may also explain why the unpredictability of black swan events and the growing complexity of audience behavior rank second and third in key external impacts on marketing, at 26% and 17% respectively.

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As marketers struggle to deal with infinitely increasing data sources, effectively tracking and responding to unpredictable events is becoming more difficult. The expanding variety of platforms and channels that consumers engage with is also creating similar problems for understanding audience behavior, with marketing teams struggling to achieve a clear view amid a relentless influx of disparate data.

Tellingly, for respondents who cited a lack of resilience and difficulty adjusting during black swan events, reports of data overload soar to 92%, and jump to 100% for those decreasing their data ops budget this year. For marketing teams that have not invested in strengthening data handling capacity and implementing streamlined processes, keeping pace with digitalization is a tougher task.

Key Takeaway

Marketing is going to get more complicated as digital development presses on. CMOs that ensure teams can handle the rising data tide will have the best chance of staying afloat and steering their way to optimal outcomes.

What’s stopping CMO's from investing in tech?

Optimism about company prospects is crucial, especially when it comes to thriving through a recession. But it’s also important for businesses not to view data capabilities with rose-tinted glasses.

In our recent Marketing Analytics: State of Play 2022 report, 68% of respondents self-identified as data mature, despite lingering dependence on outdated practices and spreadsheets.

Download the full report to continue reading HERE.

Courtesy of an e-book dated September 2022 titled, "What's Shaping The CMO's Roadmap: Recession, Resilience and Marketing Data" published by Adverity  

DIGITAL BRANDING STRATEGIES REQUIRE MESSAGES AND MARKETING THAT IS RELEVANT AND RESONATES WITH YOUR AUDIENCE

The necessity of branding in the digital age is as important as branding itself.  We have already seen what branding is in “Brand Guidelines and Why Your Business Needs Them?”   In short, a brand comprises of all the elements such as the logo, color palette, typography, taglines, symbols, etc. that help you differentiate your brand from the others.  It could be a product, service or even just a concept that can be communicated to the public to make you stand out from the competitors in the 
marketplace. 

The methodology of creating a unique and distinctive personality of any product with the help of various elements is known as Branding.  Similarly, branding in the digital age, which is also called as Digital Branding, is a brand communication strategy that is implemented with the use of the internet and digital marketing to enhance a brand’s attributes, establish their presence and promote the brand.  It gets its roots from direct marketing and is done via certain digital platforms such as the internet itself, mobile applications, social media and most importantly, digital media content.  It also comprises of all the elements such as the logo, color palette, typography, taglines, symbols, etc.  The content is in reference to blogs, organic videos, e-mailers, website content, etc. with its overall appearance as well, that appeals to your target group.

Developing your brand strategy involves two phases:  brand development and brand management. (Click Image To Enlarge) 

Whether it is traditional branding, or digital, successful branding can only be reflected on the target consumer’s perception about your brand. This successful branding will help you enhance your brand positioning in the minds of the consumers.  Hence, on the digital platforms, it is important to strategize your communication in a manner that resonates with the positioning that you wish to have. Due to digital marketing and social media, it has become easier to connect and interact with the consumer online, but it has also become easier for the consumer to change his perception about you as well. To avoid this, it is important to stick to the brand guidelines, that defines the tone, color, typography and the overall appearance of your brand, even it if is to be done digitally. There cannot be any kind of inconsistency with reference to the branding tools that are used even traditionally. Your brand should have utmost consistency on all of the digital platforms, which increases your credibility and appeal, and also increases consumer loyalty.

Importance of Digital Branding:

• Autonomous Consumers: With oceans of information flowing everyday on the digital platform, the consumer is often left in dilemmatic situations, especially in case of products and services. The consumers are often “spoilt for choice”, which essentially means that you have to make your brand stand out in terms of your product and service offerings as compared to your competition. The average consumer is smarter now, due to the information about all products and services available at his/her fingertips.
• Change in Consumer Behaviors: The digital age has eradicated all kinds of geographical barriers in the world today. Due to this, social trends change almost every day, which directly affect the consumer’s behavior as well. The average consumer will still desire new products and services, but their social circles, perception, psychology and research will change their decisions very quickly, which means that your brand’s communication approach has to change with the trends as well, to stay ahead of the competition.
• Lesser Importance to the Funnel Model: The funnel model is a consumer’s purchase journey that follows the sequence of awareness, opinion, consideration, preference and finally the purchase. Traditionally, a consumer follows this journey and brands integrate their communication in such a manner that this funnel model is smooth. But in the digital era, the interactivity with a brand is extremely high and directly affects the purchase decision.
• Engagement: Digital branding’s greatest factors are the levels of engagement and interactivity that it allows between the brand and the consumers. A consumer will definitely prefer a brand that “connects”. This requires the brand to socially engage and provide interactive content through blogs, infographics, videos, etc. regularly, as it appeals to the consumer very well.

Digital Branding, just like offline branding, has a process that is followed. This process is in such a way that the brand establishes its distinct presence and personality on the digital platforms, and makes itself stand out from the rest.

Following is the process:

• Target Group: In the digital era, identifying your target group has a somewhat different approach to it. As the consumer is present on roughly 250 digital platforms today, it is important to understand and map the consumer’s journey, to understand their behavior and segment them accordingly to match the category your offering fall into. This includes specific and detailed research that help you indentify certain factors such as the consumer’s demographics, income, behavior, age, gender, etc.
• Brand Values: Your brand values are the factors that drive you to excellence in product and service offerings. Clearly defining your core values and mission for your brand help you remain consistent in your communication processes and implement those values in it. Having a definitive mission and core values help consumers feel connected to your brand and it appeals to them, especially if the values resonate with their own. It has also become easier to reflect the same values in your digital communication through blogs, videos, social media, etc.
• Brand Positioning: Brand positioning is the influence and impact of your brand in the minds of the consumers. It helps them make a perception of your brand, and gives you a competitive edge in an already established market. If your brand has been successfully positioned, especially on the digital platforms, it gains certain popularity through word of mouth and the most important factor of digital media — virality. Due to this, it becomes much easier to add new products to your offerings if the consumer already trusts your brand.
• Brand Identity: Your identity entails your message, personality, name, logo, etc. and anything that will help the consumer recognize your product first in the digital market. Consumers today tend to buy products that enhance and uplift their own personality. Integrating a strong brand identity gives your brand very high recognition in a market that already has products that are similar to yours. For a consumer that sees thousands of brands on his screen, your brand identity is what will make him consider you first. Brand names and logos are also equally important as they increase the brand’s recall level. Your brand name should resonate with your personality and identity, and also the kind of products and services that you are offering. Your logo is your greatest persona. With successful branding, consumers can identify your product on any digital platform by just looking at the logo, and it also gives certain credibility to it.
• Brand Objectives: Now that you are on digital platforms, what is it that you want to do? What are your goals and what are you promising to your target group? Your brand must have a tagline that is extremely crisp, memorable and that resonates with your personality. This same slogan can deliver or showcase your brand’s promise, and this is where you as a brand position yourself in the market. If the consumers are clear with your objectives, you will most likely be the go-to brand for them.
• Color Palette: Your color palette distinctly represents your brand’s visual identity. There are certain combinations of colors that help you position yourself and abstractly talk about your brand values, and also attract a certain niche group of people. This color palette helps you remain consistent on any digital platform and provides authenticity. Colors themselves hold meaning and carry a message.

All these factors help you successfully build a brand in the digital age today. Consumers are always looking for engaging content to interact with, and the digital era has changed the way the consumers think and behave, and also the way the brand approaches them. It has become extremely vital to have a digital presence, regardless of the brand’s offerings.  

Courtesy of an article dated September 30, 2019 appearing in Interics Designs

HOW TO USE AI TO CREATE A DATA-DRIVEN DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY FOR YOUR STARTUP

When you’re growing your startup, there are countless things to consider – from product design to hiring your team. One of the most crucial aspects, though, is digital marketing.

No matter how amazing your product, you’ve got to get the word out to create an audience for it. This is where digital marketing comes in. And AI is rapidly gaining ground here. 

It’s an open secret that AI is transforming almost every aspect of our lives. This includes marketing strategies. In today’s business world, harnessing AI is essential to keep up with competitors or even get a step ahead. 

This article is for you if you’re working on setting up a digital marketing strategy for your startup. It outlines what data-driven digital marketing is, where AI comes into play, and how you can make the best use of this technology’s potential. With what you’ll learn here, your startup’s digital marketing strategy can excel from the beginning. 

What is a Data-Driven Digital Marketing Strategy? 

The biggest mistake you can make in digital marketing is to base your strategy solely on assumptions. Assumptions about your product, your performance, or your target audience can end in disaster. 

With a data-driven strategy, you gather and analyze as much information as possible. Then, you base your decisions on these quantitative insights. 

Building a digital marketing strategy from scratch involves four steps, with or without AI involvement.

1. Market Research 

First off, thoroughly investigate your audience and your competitors. 

Find out who your customers are and where their interests lie.           

Then, learn what you can from your competitors. Which audiences do they target? What                        are their marketing strategies? Which messages of theirs resonate with customers?

2. Drawing Up a Buyer Journey 

When a potential customer first sees your product, they won’t instantly buy it. Not even if you have the world’s best marketing strategy. 

Broadly, customers go through three phases in their buyer journey. First, they become aware of your product and its advantages. How does it benefit them? What problems could it solve? Then, in the consideration stage, they compare alternative solutions. Finally, they decide to go with your solution – or not. 

When you draft a digital marketing strategy, figure out how to optimize this journey.

3 – Choose the Right Digital Marketing Channels 

Next, you have to decide which marketing channels to use. Typically, this includes content, email, and social media marketing. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) also factor into it. 

4 – Launch, Analyze, and Refine 

Finally, you can launch your digital marketing strategy. Consider having a try-out phase. When you do put your finished digital marketing plan into action, keep a close eye on performance and make adjustments as you go along. 

How Does AI Factor Into It? 

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have massive potential for data-driven digital marketing. They excel at rapidly gathering and processing vast amounts of data. This means they can offer almost instant insights into complex realities. 

Another bonus: You can use AI and ML to automate processes. Tedious tasks like content research no longer need to bog down your marketing team. Algorithms can take care of these tasks faster and with more in-depth results. 

Here’s a detailed guide on how to leverage AI and ML during every step of creating a data-driven digital marketing strategy.  

Get to Know Your Customers With AI 

First, figure out who your customers are and what they want. AI can help you by finding patterns at macro-scales and providing actionable insights. 

You can use AI pattern recognition to analyze the data you’ve bought from market research providers. 

Alternatively, you can deploy algorithms to pull enormous amounts of data from social media or discussion forums. Using natural language processing, algorithms can sift through countless posts, reviews, and articles.

The goal is to run a sentiment analysis. With this AI tool, you’ll be able to identify the major questions, trends, and gaps related to products like yours. It will also make it easier to pinpoint your audience’s demographic details. 

Suppose you’re running surveys or focus groups to get a more in-depth understanding of your potential customers. In that case, AI and ML will help you make sense of feedback. Using voice recognition, it can even transcribe and analyze the results of oral discussions. 

Use AI Tools for Competitor Research 

In parallel, you can use AI-driven tools to give you an edge in competitor market research.  Checkout:  SproutSocial's "13 Competitor Analysis Tools To Spy On Your Competition."

Use these tools to track competitors on social media and find out what their strategies are. Get statistics on posting frequencies, types of posts, and identify high-performing content. Gather insights into their followers’ demographics. Figure out how these followers interact with the brand through comments, shares, and likes. 

AI-based platforms can also help you reverse-engineer your competitors’ website analytics. Once you launch your own website, keeping a close eye on page traffic and bounce rates will be crucial. Before you get there, though, check out what your rivals are up to. Think of it like peeking over your friends’ shoulders during a math test. Analyze what they’re doing, then do it better. 

Also, AI and ML can mine your competitors’ link profiles. Having links to your website on other pages is a crucial factor for high rankings. That’s because search engines see such links as proof of trustworthiness and authority. By understanding which pages link your chief rivals, you can draft a strategy to stay competitive.

Set Up an AI-Optimized Buyer Journey 

When you envision your customers’ buyer journey, know that you can use AI at every turn to improve their experience. 

In fact, an outstanding user experience (UX) largely depends on AI. Machine learning algorithms can provide every customer with a personalized experience. From the first time someone comes in touch with your brand, your AI will keep tabs on them. It will identify which stage of the buyer journey they are at. Which aspects of your product interest them? What problems are they aiming to solve? 

These insights will then curate website content, adjust paid ads, or send personalized recommendations. If you use AI for nothing else, use it for personalization. Statistics show that 91% of customers are more likely to shop with brands that tailor content and communication to their interests. 

AI can also improve customer service, another critical element of the buyer journey. Especially during the comparison and decision phase, swift customer support can be the clinch. AI can help in the form of chatbots that answer routine questions and auto-generated email responses. This will free up your team to respond to complex or urgent queries. 

Harness AI for Content Marketing

Creating the right content has become crucial to digital marketing. Search engines reward comprehensiveness and high information value and penalize superficial, spammy posts and articles. 

AI can help you to produce high-quality content that will drive organic traffic to your website. 

Based on your target audience’s interests and your competitor’s performance, AI tools can generate content ideas. They will tell exactly which topics resonate with potential customers. 

To go further, deploy AI-driven tools to create content profiles. When writing any piece of content, research is the most tedious part. It can take hours to go through similar blog posts and analyze how they performed. 

AI will take this load off your back. The right tools can scan through all existing articles and posts on any subject. They will then tell you how to approach the topic, structure your content, and which gaps other articles left for you to improve on. 

More directly, AI can improve the quality of your writing. Deep-learning algorithms will polish your grammar and improve your vocabulary. 

Leverage AI Tools for Social Media 

Tools based on AI and ML can boost your social media performance. 

They will help you analyze past performance to pinpoint the right content to post. On a larger scale, they can help you draft a messaging strategy. One size does not fit all: You have to tailor your brand voice to different platforms. Overall, this will help you develop a social media strategy for maximum effect and reach on each channel.

Also, you can automate processes like analytics. Gain cross-platform insights by having your AI assistant regularly deliver comprehensive reports. 

Take Email Marketing to the Next Level With AI  

When you’re starting out with email marketing, you might be tempted to default to Mailchimp and then focus exclusively on building an email list. Instead, carefully check out the various AI and ML tools that Mailchimp alternatives (appsumodotcom) offer. These tools can reduce the time and money you have to invest and increase your ROI. Building an email list is important, but no longer everything. 

The right email marketing platform will offer AI and ML tools to increase email personalization for every single sub-group in your target audience. They will also offer analytical insights for data-driven email marketing. You’ll be able to check the effectiveness of different subject lines, and A/B test different newsletter layouts. Solid AI tools also help you increase your campaigns’ deliverability by optimizing send times and making sure your email list is clean.

Boost Your SEO Using AI 

When you think of digital marketing, chances are that Search Engine Optimization – SEO – tops your list of priorities. SEO has been key for years, and it should be an integral part of drawing up your digital strategy. 

Luckily, AI can give you a serious leg up. 

It’s important to know that search engines themselves use AI and ML algorithms. RankBrain, for example, is Google’s AI search algorithm. To get these algorithms to rank your site highly, using AI yourself is a must. 

To begin with, use AI to optimize your keyword research process. Deciding on the right keywords to target is fundamental for your SEO strategy. In 2020, trends like Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) have gained momentum. AI-driven keyword research tools are an asset in harnessing these trends. 

You can also use AI to optimize your content for voice search. It’s estimated that 50% of searches this year will be voice-based. These voice searches use a natural language processing AI. Making sure that your content is compatible with them will improve your rankings.

Further AI applications in SEO are having an algorithm check how you appear in local searches, using it for A/B testing, and to optimize your site’s technical SEO. 

Optimize Paid Marketing with AI 

Finally, using the right AI tools can give a major boost to your SEM performance. As in other areas of marketing, AI helps you target the right audience and personalize content. In terms of analytics, it can show you the bigger picture. 

To be more specific, AI will also keep track of all your SEM metrics for you – from CTR (Click-Through-Rate) and CPA (Cost Per Action) to CPC (Cost Per Click). You can have periodic summary reports delivered and keep an overview of the success of different marketing campaigns. 

Conclusion 

Integrating artificial intelligence and machine learning into your digital marketing strategy from the get-go will give you a valuable advantage. It will help you base your marketing approach on data insights, rather than assumptions. 

AI now permeates every aspect of digital marketing. Setting up data-driven strategies and feedback loops is something to do sooner rather than later. 

Use AI-driven tools to gather and analyze data for market research. Make them part of your buyer journey. Harness them for content, social media, and email marketing, as well as SEO and SEM. 

Altogether, this integration of AI and ML will give your startup an edge from the start – and set you up on the path to success. 

Courtesy of an article dated October 26, 2020 appearing in ReadWrite

9 STEPS TO BUILD A GREAT DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY

I bet this is not the first time someone suggested you integrate an effective digital marketing strategy to your business. Stepping into the digital marketing is pretty much fine, but why does one need a strategy for that?

Because a strategy helps you in “setting the direction to the destination you want to reach.”

Whether you just started your startup or in business for years, it is never late to create a plan that creates a real impact on your bottom line. Any Digital Marketing Services provider basically follows this pipeline for the best possible chance of success.

1. Goals and Objective

Okay! Do not raise your eyebrows. This suggestion or advice might seem certain that does not need any special mention. However, we have seen many marketers who are eager to get into the nuts and bolts of postings and campaigns without any prior plan which is necessary for a productive outcome. As a business holder, you should be clear of what your goal is. Whether you want to mark your presence in the neighboring state or rank higher in the Search Engine Results Page? The end objective can be determined by your current business standards and how you want it to be in the long run.

2. Identify “your” customers

One of the vital things to be contemplated during any digital marketing strategy is that you need to identify your customers. See, if you do not know who you are marketing to, what is the point of discussing a “great strategy?” Isn’t it? With the available digital channels, you sure can REACH people, but the question is WHICH people? Identifying the target audience is not rocket science if you could create the fleshed-out persona. And a persona is something that gives a detailed description of your audience. Get started with their gender, age, and location. Then dig deeper to identify their hobbies, interests, occupation, emotional desires, goals, etcetera. Google Analytics can help you determine such factors and whom you should actually target.

You can also identify your customers by :

• Analyzing the competition in the market.
• Using social media.
• Creating customer surveys to understand their needs exactly.

Try to modify digital marketing campaigns for recognizing your ideal customer by creating content and images so that it captivates the customer. Then, ask yourself whether the correct results are generated with these things. If not, try a different approach to appeal the consumer.

3. Competitor Research

It is essential to get the current online landscape in terms of competitiveness. Analyze what the competitors are doing. It could help you in discovering the areas you need to hone up. Create a spreadsheet and note their every single activity on every single channel. With the help of SEO services companies and tools, you can discover the keywords which are driving the high volume of traffic to their site.                                               

• Note: You are studying your competitor’s way of marketing not duplicating their strategy. 

4. Search Engine Marketing

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a way of internet marketing which is basically the promotion of your website. It improves the site visibility in search engines by bidding on search terms. SEM enables businesses to get precise success tracking and in-depth campaign analysis too. You can get to know how much value you are generating which further helps in making educated decisions. 

On the other hand, Search Engine Optimization(SEO) is a component of Search Engine Marketing. SEO’s ultimate aim is to increase the number of visitors to your website. It includes on-page and off-page optimization that helps in maximizing the visitor count.

5. Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing(SMM) is a form of internet marketing that includes composing and sharing content on social media channels or networks. The primary activities involve in SMM are posting any kind of media such as text, image, videos, memes, and updates that drive user engagement. Social Media Marketing is mostly executed on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

It needs an evolving strategy with more significant objectives, and it includes :

• Posting videos, stories, live videos, and pictures to showcase your brand to attract a specific audience.
• Responding to the shares, likes, comments, and then monitor your business popularity.
• Engaging with the customers, influencers, and followers to build a community across your brand to create brand awareness.

6. Email Marketing

You might be wondering why we set down Email Marketing as a separate tile amidst the resounding cry that email marketing is dead. But, it is not. It is still one of the effective ways of sending a commercial message for a group of people that actually matters. As a matter of fact, 72% of people still prefer email communication instead of chat. Besides email marketing, you can also integrate the best Instant Messaging software into your website to convert visitors into business clients. 

7. Content Marketing

Content Marketing is a form of marketing that primarily focused on creating, publishing, and distributing content for the target audience through online medium. It is implemented to increase brand awareness and credibility through constant blogging, press releases, guest blogging, webinars, ebooks, articles etcetera. 

8. Mobile Marketing

Mobile marketing is a route in which technology is used to promote products and services to the end-user who is constantly connected to the network. It involves promotions sent through downloaded applications through push notifications, SMS text messaging, and MMS Multimedia messaging.

It utilizes modern mobile technology features that incorporate location services for tailoring marketing-based campaigns on an individual location. Mobile marketing is better and more affordable than marketing your products or services on radio and television.

A business owner can measure the mobile marketing campaign's success through mobile marketing. Furthermore, it is cost-effective as there are various choices to pick from any budget, and the influence it can produce when compared with the cost is essential.

9. Measure Results

It is essential to measure the results or outcomes of using a digital marketing strategy in your business. First, you need to observe the total website traffic to know if there's a rise. Also, try your best to monitor returning traffic, mobile traffic and analyze the traffic resources to understand in what ways your customers are visiting your website.

Another critical aspect is to learn the average time a particular user is spending on your website. These things will offer depth insights to show how digital marketing in your company is successfully operating.

Great that you have made up till here. Now let us explore how you can implement this digital marketing strategy below:

Courtesy of a blog post by GeeksChip

14 DIGITAL MARKETING PREDICTIONS FOR 2022 AND BEYOND

Digital marketing transformation refers to the shift from digital complacency and reliance on traditional marketing to the active pursuit of digital excellence through the proper usage and optimization of your digital channels.

The main difference between digital and traditional marketing is the medium through which an audience encounters a marketing message. While traditional marketing uses traditional media like magazines and newspapers, digital marketing uses digital media, such as social media, search and websites.

Digital transformation is essential in achieving business sustainability, competing better in an economic environment that is constantly changing in response to technology evolutions and economic disasters brought on by pandemics like COVID19.

One of the biggest reasons digital marketing has become so important is the engagement it brings – you can converse with your prospective and current customers, answer questions and resolve issues. You can also interact with a wider audience, meaning you can do more than just sell.

The following infographic presents 14 digital marketing predictions to help brands implement a digital marketing transformation and prepare their digital marketing strategies for the year 2022 and beyond.

Courtesy of an infographic by Liana Technology based on several sources between 2017 and 2020

HOW DIRECT-TO-CONSUMER BRANDS ARE CHALLENGING MARKET LEADERS AND DRIVING CONSUMER ACTION

During a Brands United webinar in September 2021, Brent Niemuth, President & Partner of direct marketing agency J. SCHMID, said that direct-to-consumer brands are outsmarting established market leaders with data-driven marketing and compelling and memorable creativity designed to delight consumers and disrupt markets.  

Niemuth explained how direct-to-consumer brands like Warby Parker, Casper, and Hello Fresh are shaking established marketing paradigms and being successful while doing it.  Niemuth said.

“When you look at direct-to-consumer brands now, they’re the cool kids, everyone wants to sit at the table with them because they’re the ones leading the way, they’re the ones who have figured out how to connect with consumers in a more impactful, more powerful, and more memorable way.” 

Niemuth broke it down into three categories: Disrupt, Delight, and Drive action.

Being Disruptive with Direct Mail 

Niemuth said it’s getting harder to stand out in this “jam-packed marketing world.” So, how do you cut through the clutter and shake things up to the point where your brand gets noticed? It’s simple — you’ve got to be different.   

Niemuth said.

“When people hear this idea of having to disrupt to stand out, they assume they must yell louder and be crazier than the other guy, but no. You’ve got to be different from the other guy; if they’re comparing you to other brands they’re familiar with, being louder doesn’t matter, being different does.” 

Niemuth explained that direct mail is disruptive by nature and used two digitally native brands as examples of brands that have learned to embrace both marketing mediums.

Casper

Niemuth joked and said, if you said 10 years ago, we’d be buying mattresses through the mail, he would’ve looked at you sideways, but now thanks to Casper, that’s all changed. He utilized Casper to ask viewers: What is your unboxing experience like for your brand, and have you missed an opportunity for marketing? He pointed out that Casper’s signature blue striped packaging is like a mobile billboard for the brand, and now when people see that packaging, they’ll associate it with a great product. He also touched on the interactive “sleep kit” it sends to its customers and how the company has built a brand not just based on mattresses but on sleep.

Warby Parker 

Niemuth said.

“This is one of the first brands that started out digital and realized that if they open up retail stores, they might grow a little bit faster, but if we also reach out to our customers through direct mail and digital, we can make the experience better.”

He also touched on Warby Parker’s packaging and how it’s a critical part of their consumer experience. He touched on how their packaging has a simple and clean design with instructions that allow customers to interact with the brand.

Elevating to the Emotional through Delight

Niemuth said that 95% of buying decisions are based on emotion, not logic, so brands need to consider how they make people feel. In addition, Niemuth said that brands should make it simple and easy for their customers so that they feel at ease.

He used another two brands as examples of companies that ensure their customers will remember how their buying experience made them feel.

Allbirds

Niemuth admitted that he was even wearing a pair of Allbirds as he talked about them and how he has four pairs of the company’s sneakers. Keeping along with the theme, Niemuth touched on the brand’s simple yet elegant design for their packaging and labels that are effective and serve a purpose. He also pointed out the illustrative designs that they incorporate into their direct marketing campaigns that keep everything light and fresh— bringing joy and delight to their consumers.

Hello Fresh 

Niemuth said. 

“This brand doesn’t just slap a logo on the side of their box; they utilize their logo to communicate in a delightful and joyful way.”

Niemuth emphasized that Hello Fresh uses their packaging to communicate in a way that’s fun and playful for their customers by using phrases like “can I get a kale, yeah?”

Drive with a Call to Action 

Niemuth said this might be the most critical component for direct marketers. “Research shows that if people take some sort of action, even if they go online and watch a 30-second video, chances increase that they’ll make a purchase,” Niemuth said.

He used two more brands to showcase calls to action.

Allen Edmonds 

As a client of J. SCHMID, Allen Edmonds got their catalog redesigned from just showing off shoes to instead telling a story with real people. Niemuth said they featured five people throughout the catalog, told their stories, and then pushed people online to go find out more.

Relax the Back 

Because this is a retail-driven brand where the product can be upwards of $9,000, Niemuth pointed out that it’s critical to get people into the store and not just buy online. So, just like Allen Edmonds, they pushed a narrative throughout their catalog about “living wellness” and urged people to come into the store. Then to top it all off, the spread at the end of the catalog gives not just one but six different calls to action.

To wrap up his talk, Niemuth Emphasized the three Ds.

1. Disrupt: Do something different to get noticed.
2. Delight: Once you have their attention, make it worth their time.
3. Drive: Give the consumer a reason to act.

COMMENTARY  The direct-to-consumer (D2C) business model — allows data-driven brands to provide consumers with exactly what they want, when they want it, in an extremely personalized way. It allows consumers to access products directly from a brand, rather than a third party such as a retail store.

Knowing about the D2C business model, you might be wondering what is direct to consumer advertising exactly?

What is D2C advertising and why are brands using it?

Just as the term and business model suggest, D2C advertising cuts out any middlemen and lets brands to manage the end-to-end process themselves.  So rather than pushing products to larger retailers and wholesalers, sellers choose to focus their marketing strategies on consumers to build a closer relationship with them.

D2C marketing is quickly growing in popularity, brought on largely by other current advertising trends, like influencer marketing and social media ecommerce capabilities like various shopping ads.

What sets direct to consumer advertising apart?

While there are some similarities, there are some major differences between D2C marketing and other marketing strategies including B2B.

The main distinction is that D2C marketing requires an unrelenting focus on data, technology, and a personalized ecommerce experience — more so than any other type of marketing.

Other qualities that set D2C marketing apart include:

• A seamless buying experience with speedy delivery
• Heavy reliance on engagement and sharing (social conversations turn into user-generated content, which can then be leveraged to spread positive publicity)
• One-to-one interaction with users based on customer feedback and reviews
• The quantity and quality of first-party customer data created that the brand can use to make important decisions, such as tweaking product design
• A deep and invaluable understanding of the purchase path, which can inform subsequent communication and advertising choices
• An intrinsic modernness, providing millennials with the sense that these products were developed specifically for and by their generation

How can brands implement a D2C advertising strategy?

There are countless ways to begin DTC advertising, but here are a few of the most basic to get you started.

Paid search

This is the best place to start as a D2C brand because when someone searches for your main keywords, you want to make sure they know that your business can help them. This allows you to start building that strong one-on-one connection with them immediately as they’re searching for a solution, and then convince them to take action.

For example, when someone searches “where to buy razors,” Harry’s ensures their website is at the top of the results page:

When users click the D2C ad, they’re directed to this pre-cart landing page to learn more about the razor subscription:

After learning about the offer, prospects can click the “Redeem Trial” CTA button to easily checkout on the next page:

The order of this process is critical because although nearly 1 in 4 online shoppers begin their customer journey on a product page, about 96% of visitors aren’t yet ready to buy when arriving there. Sending them to an actual pre-cart landing page instead makes them less likely to bounce right away.

Social media

Paying for social media ads where your consumers spend most of their time is another great D2C marketing tactic. Social media advertising provides brands with a way to amplify their voice, increase shares and engagement, and leverage personalized, one-to-one messaging.

This DailyLook Facebook D2C ad is highly personalized to the user. The ad copy and video captions even make it clear that DailyLook is a D2C brand:

Visual platforms like Instagram and Pinterest have been rolling out in-feed shopping tools, enabling customers to move more quickly from product discovery to purchase. Users can click ads like this Nike Pinterest ad and be directed to a brand’s ecommerce site to complete transactions:

Or they can complete an in-app purchase in some cases, such as this Instagram Checkout for UNIQLO:

With this new feature, consumers don’t even have to leave Instagram to complete their transaction.

Email

With your existing list of contacts, you can start by setting up one-to-one transactional emails — welcome, thank you, order confirmation, shipping notification, customer support, etc. like this one from Fabletics:

You can also create promotional D2C campaigns like Nectar does with their direct-shipping mattress service:

Display ads

Display and retargeting ads tend to have two different goals: not only click-throughs, but also impressions and reach. So this particular D2C marketing tactic is more like brand advertising — to make a favorable impression, build strong connections, and increase long term demand.

Consider this Johnson & Johnson ad for instance:

It’s not intended to sell a specific product; just to raise brand awareness, build connections, and create long term demand.

Courtesy of an article dated June 13, 2019 appearing in Instapage

Why Is Digital Marketing So Important? Competitive Advantage and Data Analytics Drives All Your Marketing Initiatives

Why is a Digital Marketing Strategy so important, particularly in the New Age of COVID19?  There are several real good reasons: 

• The majority of commerce and interaction with businesses is now conducted electronically by consumers using mobile digital devices.
• The adoption of internet usage, proliferation of mobile devices, increase in ecommerce and use of social media have dramatically increased digital traffic.
• For businesses to compete in today's digital economy in the aftermath of COVID19, they must be able to communicate to consumers online wherever they are, know when to reach them, how to reach them and use the most effective media channels while offering a great consumer experience.
• Digital marketing is five times more effective than traditional marketing media.
• Digital marketing creates measurable competitive advantage.
• Digital marketing allows businesses to more accurately target, identify the best customers and develop valuable customer insights to increase sales and operational efficiency throughout the digital ecosystem.

We consider digital marketing to be an ecosystem - a system of interconnecting and interacting parts – formed by three distinct areas of content creation: SEO, Social Media and Target Marketing.

Click To Enlarge Image

We believe that success in digital marketing is achieved by using strategies that leverage the interrelationship of the three key ecosystem elements into an Integrated Digital Marketing Strategy.

Courtesy of ImaginativePRO