4 Reasons Why Digital Marketing Has Taken Over Traditional

It’s no surprise that in the past decade digital marketing has become the focal point of most organizational marketing efforts. I’m not inferring that all traditional marketing efforts have completely died out as print, radio, and TV advertising are all still in existence. However, traditional efforts are dying a slow death as more consumers continue to spend more time on the internet. According to Internet Live Stats, “approximately 40,000 searches happen on Google PER SECOND, which sums to about 3.5 billion searches per day.” Listed below are four major reasons why digital marketing will continue to take over traditional methods.

1. Data and Results are Measurable:
Many forms of traditional marketing (tv, print, radio, billboards, etc.) are very hard or sometimes impossible to figure out impressions or especially conversions. With SEO and ppc campaigns, analytics are available from any date range. Impressions, clicks, engagement rates, cost per click, and conversions are now easily traceable with Google Analytics and insight tools on all the platforms. Ultimately, we now have the ability to analyze data and this is highly valuable regarding future campaign adjustments.

2. Defined and Targeted Audiences:
Ensuring that the right people come across your advertisements should be a top priority. Platforms like Google AdWords, Bing Ads, Facebook Ads, and others contain impressive targeting options that allow advertisers to hit designated audiences. Although some traditional efforts can target certain people by location for instance, the targeting features of digital marketing are light years ahead. On Facebook for example you can target by location, age, gender, occupation, user’s interests, and other relevant factors.

3. Cost Efficiency:
Depending on budgets and how much time and effort is put into digital marketing campaigns, it can still be an expensive venture. However, for the amount of traffic online ads receive compared to traditional ads, it’s not a comparison. Cpc campaigns in particular you are only charged per click, so the amount of impressions your ads receive is invaluable. Advertising through billboards, radio, and television especially can get costly. Plus as mentioned earlier, it’s very difficult to track results so figuring out ROI can be a headache.

4. Future Implications:
Digital marketing from a general standpoint is always evolving. Search engine algorithms change, interfaces update, and the expansion of mobile users is something to keep an eye on. Therefore, focusing the majority if not all marketing efforts to digital is a step in the right direction. As more people continue to spend more time online, use social media, and Google multiple phrases per day, the digital marketing world will continually reach new heights.

Contact Us: If you’re associated with a business seeking improvements in SEO, SEM, Website Development, or any other digital service feel free to reach out to us on our Contact Us page. We look forward to hearing from you!

The 5 Most Important Things About Your Brand

First Impressions

No one gets a second first impression. This is true in all kinds of different relationships, but especially in business. With only a few seconds to connect with users, companies need to deliver a clear and concise message to consumers.

Start by asking what a potential customer might think the very first time that they interact with your brand. In every aspect of your company from a Facebook post to the website home page, you need to ensure that you are communicating your brand effectively.

SEO

Search Engine Optimization is a very serious topic when it comes to how customers are reaching you. Not only does enhanced SEO help drive traffic and awareness, but it can also heavily impact the user’s overall experience with your brand.

For instance, if a potential client goes to your website but can’t figure out how to navigate through the pages, then you have a problem. This kind of issue can prevent them from learning more about your company or even reaching out through phone or email.

Social Media

10 years ago it is unlikely that anyone could have predicted that there would be a need for such a thing as a “social media manager”. Times have certainly changed. In today’s digitally driven environment, social media plays a very important role in brand recognition.

According to Statista, 70% of the population in the U.S. has at least one active social media account. That means that if your brand is not utilizing Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other major platforms, then it is severely limiting itself.

Content

Content is the incredible piece of the puzzle that brings everything else together. It shows what you have to offer and how you can help your customers across all kinds of digital mediums.

The best way to utilize your brand’s content is to link it all together. Drive every click, tweet, and post back to your website. This allows users browsing Facebook to easily pop over to your website and take a look at your amazing products and services.

Data Measurement and Analysis

No matter how well your business is doing, it is near impossible to realize just how well things are going without some type of measurement. Simple tools like Google Analytics can go a long way in helping your brand succeed.

By taking a look behind the scenes, you can start to get some real answers. Have a sudden uptick in conversions? Try taking a look at how much content you generated, or how well your company ranks on the first few pages of Google search results. Once you can solve the mystery as to why good or bad things are happening, you can take action to make better choices for your brand.

Run a Free Scan of Your Business Today

Get started on improving your company with a brand audit from Onimod Global. See just how well your business ranks on search engines, important local directories, and the top review sites. To see your brand’s overall visibility on the internet CLICK HERE.

New Client Website Launch: North Shore Garage Doors (NSGD) in the Chicagoland

North Shore Garage Doors (northshoregaragedoors.com) is a garage door services company serving the North Shore areas of Chicago including Glenview, Evanston, Skokie, and other cities. In need of a new website and better SEO presence, our website development expertise at Onimod Global has taken North Shore Garage Doors to the next level.

Main Objective:
To construct a highly functional website from scratch with engaging content and an enhanced SEO presence for North Shore Garage Doors (NSGD). At the same time we wanted to ensure device accessibility through Responsive Web Design. NSGD didn’t just need an appealing website, they needed to showcase their garage door expertise and generate as many new business leads as possible.

Onimod Global’s Strategy:
We implemented an acute Website Development SEO strategy and API Integration to build a customer registration portal that is used to manage and communicate with their clientele regularly. We built a robustly designed and developed website that empowers North Shore Garage Doors to attract clients and enable them to become consistent conversions.

Old Website:

Current Website:

 

Massive Upgrades:

  • An Overall More Appealing User Experience and Interface
  • Enhanced SEO Presence
  • Advanced Firewall
  • Enhanced on-page Call to Action Tools
  • Parralex Effect backgrounds
  • Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)
  • Full-width Image Headers
  • Custom Back-end for easy client-side updates. 
  • Custom Design
  • Mobile Responsive Upgrade
  • Clear Navigation
  • Increased Security
  • Job Application Portal
  • Enhanced on-page Menus
  • Redesigned News section
  • 2 Color Transparent Header

 

Contact Us: If you’re a ROI driven business like North Shore Garage Doors seeking an upgrade in website development or any other digital marketing services, feel free to reach out to us at Onimod Global on our Contact Us page. We look forward to hearing from you!

The Future of Marketing Leadership

While some individuals seem to be born with the gift of great leadership, for many others it is a skill that is learned over time. There is no perfect formula to follow when mastering such a skill. In reality, there are many different paths that people can take in becoming an excellent leader.

Most often, this path starts with a journey of self-discovery. Building off of one’s biggest strengths has proven to be very effective in personal growth. Rather than focusing on areas of weakness, it is much more valuable to focus on an individual’s strengths.

As great leaders develop their skill sets and emerge into the modern age of marketing, huge challenges await them. With this type of constantly evolving environment, leaders must learn to evolve as well.

Future leaders that are willing to adapt and experiment with new technologies, methods, and strategies are much more likely to succeed. As humans, we often resist change, but that does not stop it from happening. This ideal will be key to upcoming leaders in the marketing world.

In particular, columnist Colin Lewis believes that the hiring process will be greatly affected by advancements in the advertising industry. He makes a clear argument over the fact that, “new skills are going to be required that we cannot even imagine today, just like we could not imagine a ‘social media manager’ role 10 years ago.”

Of course, we cannot expect every aspect of the job to change. Cornerstone characteristics of today’s marketing industry such as creativity and exceptional communication abilities are not going anywhere. However, Lewis says that for the future marketing leader, these skills will not be enough.

Instead, future leaders will take on all tasks. This includes ones that definitely fall beneath them to lower ranking employees. These leaders will do it all anyway, because they know that all levels of the marketing process are important and hard work always pays off.

3 Digital Strategies for Local Businesses to Drive more Foot Traffic

As foot traffic for local businesses continues to decline due to online shopping preferences, it’s essential for companies to pursue an effective digital marketing strategy. Through the use of digital marketing there are numerous strategies that businesses can implement that will help increase foot traffic. Three simple and cost effective strategies include using local business directories, advertising locally through Google AdWords, and prioritizing social media efforts.

1. Utilize Local Business Directories:
Failing to use local business directories will already put your organization at a disadvantage. Sites like Yelp, Manta, Yellow Pages, Better Business Bureau, Angie’s List, and others simply can’t be ignored. Not only are listings free to create for your business, they will help increase search visibility (SEO) and overall brand awareness. It’s worth pointing out that from our current SEO work we have been noticing that local business directories are dominating the organic results. Interested to see how well your business ranks online? Run a free scan on the Onimod Global website by CLICKING HERE.

2. Local advertising with Google AdWords:
In addition to local business directories, advertising locally through Google AdWords can be another effective digital strategy for driving foot traffic. According to the Search Engine Journal, “1 out of every 3 online searches now has local intent.” Some benefits of running local search ads include: increasing local visibility, generating phone calls from customers, and an overall enhancement in local awareness. Ultimately, advertising locally with Google AdWords will ensure your business with a competitive advantage if used efficiently.

3. Prioritize Social Media:
Using social media as a local business seems like an obvious and easy way to increase foot traffic, yet there’s more to social media than just posting once or twice per week. According to DMN “over half of consumers say they’re influenced to think highly of a business after seeing positive praise online.” Now in order for a local business to get plenty of recognition through social media, it starts with connecting with customers and making them feel important. All local businesses should focus on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus as social media starting points. When local presence increases other platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, and Snapchat can come into play. Essentially, being consistent and visible on multiple social media channels will only help increase local foot traffic.

Contact Us: For more information regarding digital marketing, visit the Onimod Global Website. We provide weekly news updates on the latest in the world of digital marketing. Enjoy!

How to Create the Perfect Digital Marketing Strategy

The key to a great digital marketing campaign is the well thought out plan behind it. If you try to launch any campaign without specific directives, it’s likely that you will waste a lot of time and money without producing any real results. This is why many businesses turn to a digital marketing professional. The experts at Onimod Global are here to assist you, and provide insight into what it takes to put together a high quality digital marketing strategy.

Persona Development

Every marketing strategy should be focused around the consumer. The first step in your strategy is to identify who this consumer is. Many professionals outline a buyer persona because it has been proven to be a substantially more effective marketing method.

The persona allows you as the marketer to develop a much more detailed description of your ideal target audience. These details include goals, challenges, interests, and personal priorities of the consumer.

Campaign Goals

In can also be beneficial to ask these detailed questions of your own company and product. Clearly defining the final objective is essential. Much of the strategy will be built around what you eventually hope to achieve with the digital marketing campaign.

While most plans are structured around conversions and sales, there are a wide variety of other goals to be considered. Increasing brand awareness through simple traffic and reach campaigns can be very effective. It is also common to launch campaigns with the intent to gather positive reviews about a product or company. Make sure that you are considering all of your options before moving on to the next step.

Measurement

Your measurements will depend upon the chosen objective for the marketing strategy. Determining the overall success of your digital marketing initiatives will be shown through key performance indicators.

Common key indicators are conversion rates, click-through rates, and overall impressions. If your campaign spans across multiple platforms, it would be wise to link them all together in Google Analytics.

Analyze

Google Analytics is a wonderful tool for digital marketers. This program allows you to combine all of your data into one easily manageable source. After letting all of your ads run over the course of a few weeks, you should have plenty of solid information regarding your marketing efforts. Once the data is compiled, it is easy to glean insights about the campaign.

Analytics provides an opportunity to compare all marketing mediums in use side by side. This way you can clearly see if the Facebook ads are outperforming the Bing ads. Looking at the overall performance of these many platforms can help you see which is most successful, and which is not.

Revisit and Readjust

Now that you possess tons of information and insight into your digital marketing activities. Using analytical tools you should be able to pick out details about the different ads and how they are running across different platforms.

With this information, you should be able to determine how to best spend your ad dollar. Trim the fat of the campaign and eliminate poorly performing advertising options. Or, you can try to rewrite your ads completely and start fresh.

Whatever you decide to do, now you know how. A new plan must be created every step of the way. They do not all have to be incredibly complicated or intricate, but they do need to be intelligent business decisions. The key to any advertising strategy is to have one. Plain and simple.

Why Digital Marketing is a Major Career Opportunity

With Digital Marketing being the heaviest advertising route used by most organizations today, the career opportunities are flourishing. Whether through digital marketing agencies or companies hiring “in house,” there are plenty of jobs to be filled. Many individuals from the older generations are unfamiliar with concepts like SEO, SEM, Social Media Marketing, Website Development, and other parts of the digital world. Listed below are some reasons as to why digital marketing continues to be a “hot” field for many years to come.

1. Heavy Demand:
It’s no surprise that the demand for digital marketing experts is increasing at a rapid rate. According to the Digital Marketing Institute, “It is anticipated that there would be around 150,000 digital marketing jobs at the end of 2020 and not enough professionals to fulfill them. there will also be a rise in demand for digital marketing professionals by about 38% this year.” Therefore, learning the appropriate digital marketing skills will provide you with a huge competitive advantage in the job hunt.

2. Always Changing:
Digital marketing is an ever changing industry. Web, mobile, and other digital technologies are changing at an extremely fast pace. So why is this a reason to pursue a digital marketing career? Most people aren’t comfortable with or afraid of a field that always adapts, so they decide to stay away from it. It’s essential to understand and stay on top of the current trends in digital marketing to outsmart competitors. See how a client of ours (Theory) utilizes digital marketing to maintain a competitive advantage in the bar industry in Chicago. CLICK HERE to view the case study.

3. Field for Everyone:
The entire landscape of digital marketing consists of numerous skill sets, making it applicable for all sorts of jobs. Many digital marketing organizations not only consist of SEO/SEM strategists, they include graphic designers, business development executives, content writers, social media specialists, and other opportunities. Ultimately, digital marketing is a versatile industry, meaning it requires a mixture of these numerous skills. Passionate about social media, being creative, or writing? Then the digital marketing industry may be for you.

4. Great Opportunity for Advancement:
In addition to the great job outlook for digital marketing careers, the opportunity for advancement in the field is also promising. Entry level positions out of college typically consist of digital marketing strategists, social media specialists, SEO/SEM strategists, etc. If you’re able to catch on quick and continually learn more about the digital marketing world then advancement to an upper level position is highly feasible. Digital marketing managers, director of digital, or a VP of marketing for example are all respectable and reachable advancement opportunities.

Contact Us: For more information regarding digital marketing, visit the Onimod Global Website. We provide weekly news updates on the latest in the world of digital marketing. Enjoy!

4 Best Apps for the Every Day Marketer

Employee burn-out is all too common in today’s work space. As digital marketing grows within many different companies, additional effort is needed from the staff. More focus, more commitment, more creativity, and mainly more hours.

The use of these apps are a simple way to stay on track and maintain a healthy work environment. They all service a different type of need from relaxation to productivity and organization. Find out how these apps can best serve you in your day-to-day work life.

 

Stress Relief:

Buddhify

Stress is entirely too familiar for many working adults. As of February 2017, Statista reported that 39% of U.S. adults experience stress at work or in their professional lives. To ease this stress, we recommend the use of Buddhify.

Buddhify is an app to help alleviate tension and worry through its many guided meditations. The Buddhify app has been gaining a lot of attention, from BuzzFeed in particular, for being a good stress reliever. The app offers a range of meditations for any kind of situation or mood, including one called “Work Break”.

Not only does the “Work Break” track assist many in escaping their stressful realities, but there are also several other useful options. “Ready”, “Being Online”, and “Feeling Stressed” are additional great choices that leave one feeling refreshed and balanced.

Onward

As a digital marketer, you are likely to spend a majority of your time sitting and looking at a screen. Onward helps you understand just how much screen time you are actually adding up each day.

The app also breaks down the time you spend on screen into different categories. Social media, news, and communication are all major culprits of excessive screen time. Once the app determines your amount of screen time, it can then suggest things you can do to lessen that time.

 

Productivity:

Fonta

Many digital marketers often dabble in graphic design from time to time. Unfortunately, it can be hard to be a Photoshop or Adobe InDesign pro with very limited experience. This is where Fonta can help.

Fonta is a unique little design studio app with the ability to change an image using many simple special effects. You can create stylish captions across your image, change up the background, add a funky border, or try out some new lighting effects in this user friendly app.

The best part is that this app is free! Normally priced at $0.99, Fonta has recently removed its charge, making it even easier for beginners to produce high quality illustrations.

Source

Organization:

CamCard

Have you ever made an amazing spur-of-the-moment professional connection but didn’t have a business card to give them? Most people outside of the sales occupation do not carry business cards. They are often forgotten about until a moment, like the one just mentioned, where you begin kicking yourself for not having them in the first place.

With CamCard, you are able to store and share business cards anytime and anywhere, so long as you have your smartphone. This app scans and automatically stores new business cards. It can also exchange e-cards with other users, eliminating the need for a physical paper card altogether.