How to Create the Perfect Digital Marketing Strategy

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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.

5 Ways to Increase your Organization’s Impact on Twitter

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Consistently posting on a business Twitter account may start to feel like a meaningless and repetitive task, yet it’s important to build a brand and keep audiences engaged. According to Marketing Land, there are “currently over 300 million monthly active users on Twitter, with 50% of these users being more likely to be consumers of the brands they follow.” Therefore, your company’s Twitter activity must be a priority and listed below are a few ways to maximize your impact on the social media giant.

1. Interact with your Audience:
It’s very easy to ignore or forget about replies and direct messages from followers. Keeping track and replying in a timely manner will make your audience feel important and connected to your brand. It’s also a facet that will set you apart from other company Twitter accounts. Look at Jimmy John’s for instance, they take pride in interacting with their customers and have gained a large following on Twitter as a result (476K followers). Ultimately, if you go the “extra mile” when it comes to interacting with followers you will get noticed.

2. Follow Trends and Hashtags:
This concept may seem like a simple task, yet many business accounts either ignore or forget to utilize hashtags and trends that Twitter has to offer. The major benefit of paying attention to trends is more visibility. We’re not suggesting to overuse hashtags, but implementing at least 2-3 per tweet will have a positive effect on your impressions, interactions, and overall visibility. #MondayMotivation or #FridayFeeling for example are two frequently trending hashtags that can easily be inserted in tweets to catch more eyeballs.

3. “Follow and Retweet for a Chance to Win”:
This is one of the most common Twitter strategies in the game, but don’t underestimate it’s effectiveness. If you’re a frequent Twitter user you probably encounter these tweets all the time. It’s simple, fun, and an effective way to build relationships with current and future consumers while growing followers at the same time. Although many users may unfollow your account if they don’t win anything, your tweet will still produce a ton of impressions and enhance brand awareness.

4. Allocate Time into Profile:
As simple as this idea sounds, many companies don’t put in enough time and effort to their Twitter profiles. Depending on the industry, tweeting at least 3-5 times per week will show consistency. Inactivity for long periods of time can be a turnoff for potential consumers. Even paying attention to simple aspects like your profile images, bio, and likes can have a major impact on your brand’s image. Setting up a schedule each week for when, what, and how much to tweet is one easy way to maintain a consistent Twitter presence.

5. Don’t Solely Focus on Products/Services:
It’s obvious that Twitter and social media in general is a large marketplace for product/service promotion, but followers don’t like being bombarded with product information. This could potentially make your account look like a scammer and you will lose followers as a result. One idea for producing content is to pay close attention to how competitors use their Twitter and make note of which types of posts draw the most engagement. Another idea is to interact about what’s happening within your community. Essentially, the overall concept with tweeting content is to be as relevant as possible to your audience’s interests.

Follow Us: If you enjoy reading our content be sure to give us a follow at @OnimodGlobal or visit our website at www.onimodglobal.com. We provide weekly news updates on the latest in the digital marketing world!

Timing Is Everything, Especially in Digital Marketing

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Believe it or not there are many times when digital marketing is more effective than others. Find out how to best reach your intended audience in time with this short article from Onimod Global!

Yearly:

Many businesses typically break down their yearly events by quarters, and this schedule is no different. This tactic helps to keep things from getting too overwhelming and muddled. By separating the year into 4 identifiable groups, you can better concentrate your marketing efforts with a clear marketing strategy.

In every quarter you need to make sure that you are paying attention to major holidays. New Years, Easter, The 4th of July, and Christmas are only a few of the major holidays to consider when constructing your game plan.

Center your special offers and promotions around these times. These dates will make up the most important peaks in interest when consumers are shopping around for good deals and specials.

Monthly:

Start off strong. It is always better to put in the hard work and effort at the beginning, rather than try and catch up towards the end. Do not procrastinate. Even if you plan to run certain campaigns toward the end of the month, you can still prepare.

All of the major digital advertising platforms allow you to schedule your ads for future dates. Get a head start and queue these up  at the beginning of the month so you’re not in a panic come week 4.

Weekly:

Put yourself into this type of situation. How would you react to an ad when you’ve got a case of the Mondays? It is generally best to steer clear of advertising during the beginning of the week, since many busy adults are still trying to get back into the swing of things after a nice relaxing weekend.

As the week rolls on, we begin to see an uptick in consumer engagement with ads. Thursdays and Fridays are particularly successful days, according to various infographics on Hubspot.

Weekends are a bit hit-or-miss. Some platforms report steady traffic on Saturdays and Sundays, while others suggest to hold off until the following Tuesday or Wednesday. This exact timing will depend on your specific business, and what you can conclude after experimenting with a few ads over the weekend.

Daily:

The same infographics from Hubspot list the best times of the day to post on the top 5 social media platforms. For Facebook, advertisers should post between 1-4 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays for their largest window of opportunity. All weekdays from 12-3 p.m. are prime times to engage with users on Twitter. LinkedIn is very concentrated throughout the average workday Tuesday-Thursday. Pinterest users are most active during the evening and very late/early hours of 2-4 a.m. Finally, Instagram is most effective anytime of the day from Monday-Thursday, except between 3 and 4 p.m.

For more information regarding digital marketing expertise, please visit our website at www.onimodglobal.com. We provide weekly news updates on the latest and greatest in digital marketing. Enjoy!

Snapchat’s New “Snap Map” Update: How this Impacts Marketers

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A couple of weeks ago Snapchat introduced a new feature called the “Snap Map.” This feature is almost a replication of the “Find My Friends” app, which means users can now share their location with one another. This may be an invasion of privacy to some degree, yet it’ll be interesting to see how marketers will be able to take advantage of this feature. This post will explore some details about the “Snap Map” and more importantly the marketing implications it may have.

Snap Map Info:
Snapchat’s overall purpose of implementing this new feature is because they want users to have “a new way to explore the world.” What really stands out is that users not only have the capability of finding their friends, but they can now access public snaps from around the globe. As mentioned previously, the privacy of Snapchat users seems to be invaded but there is a “ghost mode” option for those who don’t want to appear on the map. Ultimately, this new “Snap Map” feature is a massive update and it’s still very early to predict where Snapchat plans to go with this moving forward. It’s definitely something to keep an eye on as there seems to be unlimited potential for this going forward.

Potential Marketing Benefits:
From a business and marketing standpoint, the “Snap Map” has a lot of potential for advertising opportunities and location marketing tools. Although Snapchat announced they don’t plan to run ads in the Snap Map stories, it doesn’t mean this isn’t a possibility in the future. Live updates across the Snap Map is one way for marketers to get involved. This allows brands to take advantage of live events as they are able to on other social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.

Another big marketing opportunity for businesses is the emphasis on location marketing. Since the majority of Snapchat’s audience is mobile based, users become much easier to reach due to their locations being accessible. Any store or restaurant for instance would have the capability of placing paid advertisements to potential consumers near their location. It’s hard to say how this would fully operate because as a user I wouldn’t want my Snap Map to be filled with ads everywhere on a daily basis. In the end however, there seem to be endless possibilities in terms of marketing opportunities within the new Snap Map feature. In an ever-changing and competitive social media world, the Snap Map feature appears to have Snapchat heading in the right direction.

Contact Us:
With our cross channel expertise in social media management and advertising, our team at Onimod Global can help solve all of your digital marketing needs. Feel free to reach out to us on our Contact Us page to get a free evaluation today. We look forward to hearing from you!

3 Deadly Digital Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

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Digital marketing is often much more difficult than many people think. You can’t just hand over a marketing department to any millennial with a laptop and a Facebook account. You need a trained professional. Onimod Global is here to help with a quick list of marketing mishaps to steer clear of.

1.) No Clear Marketing Strategy

This is without a doubt the most effective way to sink your company. Moving ahead with digital marketing initiatives without any type of real game plan is detrimental. Not only will it waste time and money, but some of the damage may be irreversible. It can be very hard to change a consumer’s perception of a business once they’ve already interacted with it. After all, no one gets a second first impression.

Make sure to develop a real strategy before making any major moves. Consult with real professionals outside of your business. You may also want to seriously consider hiring someone full time to run your marketing campaigns. Digital marketing is not something that can be learned overnight. It requires real experience and education to be implemented successfully.

 

2.) Limited Social Media Exposure

First of all, you need to make sure that your brand exists on social media. Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and Instagram are just a few to get started. If you aren’t on these 4 basic platforms, then you are most certainly missing out on an enormous customer base.

Being present on these various platforms is invaluable to your brand’s identity. They are also completely free, aside from the time it will take to get them up and running.

If potential customers cannot find you anywhere on the internet besides your website, they may think that your company is a scam. Social media is a perfect way to build up a solid foundation and spread the word about your business. It is also a great way to push your content.

 

3.) Not Enough Content

The more original content you generate, the better. Whether in the form of a tweet, blog, or newsletter, these all have the potential to gain more traction for your business. This is a great way to get people interested in what you have to say.

Every extra minute you spend inside of a particular platform helps you gain more knowledge and credibility. Engaging with others is a great way to prompt them into engaging with you. The more time that you spend tweeting, retweeting, hashtagging, and following major influencers, the more recognition your brand will receive.

Which Social Media Platform is best for Paid Advertising?

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If you’re an organization that utilizes social media channels for sponsored advertising, it’s important to determine which platform to allocate the majority of the budget to. Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn all have unique advertising options and contain different types of audiences. This post will evaluate each of the three platforms and give direction on which advertising medium is right for your organization.

Facebook:
The largest empire in the social media world has about 1.3 billion registered accounts and around 175 million daily users according to the Business Insider. Therefore, with these astounding numbers the biggest upside to sponsoring content on Facebook is visibility. The advanced targeting options and cost effectiveness of Facebook are also massive bonuses. Targeting options consist of location, interests, education, work, gender, and relationship status. These advanced settings allow businesses to hit their target audiences to ensure ad dollar is spent as efficiently as possible. Ultimately, from my experiences with paid advertising on social media, I would argue that Facebook is the superior platform when it comes to targeting capabilities and cost effectiveness.

Twitter:
Relative to Facebook advertising Twitter is another viable option for promoting sponsored content. Although the number of accounts and users don’t match up to Facebook’s rank, Twitter still has a substantial following that can’t be ignored. Twitter’s targeting capabilities are probably it’s best feature, as you have ability to target by interests, keywords, hashtags, and even followers. Based of previous experience, I would argue that advertising on Twitter is your best option in terms of generating impressions. Running awareness campaigns is most likely your best bet with advertising on Twitter, however it can be difficult to measure cost effectiveness. Essentially, if you’re focusing on brand awareness – Twitter advertising is your “go to” option.

LinkedIn:
In theory, sponsoring content on LinkedIn seems like a great idea if your target audiences are more “professional based.” This can be true if your targeting options are set right and have appealing ads. Reliable leads can be generated through led-gen campaigns, but the cost per lead can be very high. Some of our experiences with LinkedIn advertising have seen high CPCs, low CTRs, not a lot of clicks, and a higher cost per conversion. A major positive however is the quality of these clicks – which are typically very high compared to clicks on Facebook, Twitter, etc. In the end, LinkedIn is by far the least cost effective advertising platform, but if utilized correctly it can generate some high quality leads, viewers, and overall visibility.

Contact Us: With our cross channel expertise in social media management and advertising, our team at Onimod Global can help solve all of your digital marketing needs. Feel free to reach out to us on our Contact Us page to get a free evaluation today. We look forward to hearing from you!

Why Mobile Matters

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It’s no secret that mobile advertising is taking over in a big way. This transition is quite possibly the single most important trend in digital marketing at this time. So what are you doing to enhance your advertising strategy for mobile users?

A recent Nielsen report shows PC usage down in every demographic, while mobile usage through tablets and smartphones only trend upward. It is clear that users are shifting away from desktops in favor of more convenient mobile devices.

An article by Forbes gives 15 examples of how to lead the way in mobile digital advertising. One of their strategies is to optimize the first 3 seconds of your ad in order to quickly gain the attention of the viewer.

Many consumers are giving less and less consideration to ads, so it is imperative that your message is delivered quickly and clearly. In general, all interactions should be faster. Increasing speed relates directly to increasing convenience, which in turn increases the likelihood of a response from the user.

Another suggestion is to treat mobile as an entirely new practice. It will not benefit you to copy over all of your old tactics and beliefs to the mobile realm. Instead, try to picture it with a fresh mindset.

Do some research, find out what works best. Look over other industry trends, like the ones mentioned in this article of ours: 4 Digital Marketing Trends to Follow, and figure out how you can implement them into your mobile campaign structure. Do not assume that mobile will work in the same way as all other advertising methods.

Also pay attention to changes in digital marketing platforms. Many large advertising platforms such as Google, Facebook, and Bing Ads are constantly trying to innovate and improve their services. Google recently redesigned their AdWords platform for the first time in 8 years. Another Onimod article discusses the 5 Things You Need to Know About the New Google AdWords.

Continue to stay up to date with other platforms by subscribing to their newsletters and webinars. The best way to stay ahead of the competition is to stay informed.

Here at Onimod Global we are regularly reporting on digital marketing related news. Visit our blog to view recent articles, or contact us to subscribe to our email newsletter.

How to Reach Senior Citizens Using Digital Marketing

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Today’s aged consumers were not raised in a technologically advanced world. However, this does not mean that they should be counted out entirely when it comes to digital marketing.

By The Numbers:

Older consumers possess huge amounts of people that are primed for purchases. These older generations are in control of of large majority of the disposable income used each year in the United States.

The volume of potential customers is staggering, and could definitely be utilized by businesses wishing to reach out through digital advertising. Do not let them go unnoticed.

Primary Devices:

Aged consumers are also not as resistant to digital devices and platforms as many may assume. In fact, a Nielson report shows a 16% increase in use of tablets by those 50 years and older. The same report also claims a 12% growth in smartphone use for this same demographic.

As older citizens are adapting to newfound technology, it is important to appeal to them just as you would to any other consumer.

This generation is following many of the same trends and patterns of behavior as millennials. Both groups are starting to shift toward mobile in a very large way. This shift creates the perfect opportunity to reach baby boomers.

Utilizing mobile targeting options through various platforms like Google AdWords, Facebook Ads, Twitter Ads, etc. is essential to meeting the needs of this consumer base. Refining your options to target those who are retired, within a certain age range, or are located in popular retirement destinations such the state of Florida are all excellent ways to get started.

Strategy:

Begin by casting your net as far as you possibly can. Include everything, don’t hold back. Once you’ve accomplished this, you can start to dial it back in and optimize your targeted areas. Trial and error is the best way to figure out what will work best for your business.

Over time these small alterations will begin to show great growth. This whole process is called achieving “micro-wins”. You can learn more about this process by reading this article of ours: “Micro-Wins: The Key to AdWords Success”.

4 Digital Marketing Trends to Follow

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The world of digital marketing is ever-changing. Constant updates, innovations, emerging technology, it all makes it a bit difficult to keep up. Here is a quick highlight of current trends to pay attention to within the coming months.

Best Advertising Platforms

It comes as no surprise that Google is the premier digital advertising channel. A report by Craig Smith states that Google earns 77% of total search revenue generated in the United States. This is not to mention the other ad variations that can be created on Google’s AdWords platform.

The second largest advertiser in command is Facebook. The social media platform recently boasted its audience of 2 billion users. This immense amount of people creates the perfect kind of market for nearly any and every business. The Facebook Ads Manager also allows for very precise targeting, which only appeals to advertisers even more. Low conversion costs and high ROIs combine with these aforementioned factors to create the ultimate advertising experience.

Benefits of Native Advertising

These two strategies are limitless in their potential. Consumers have become a bit blind when it comes to obvious banner ads. However, when an ad appears to be part of the site itself, users are much more likely to engage with it. In fact, HubSpot records that these native ads are viewed 53% more than traditional banner ads.

A lot of this has to do with the fact that users don’t trust banner ads because they typically view them as possible spam tactics. Simply put, the more natural your ad looks, the better.

The Age of Mobile

Your ads are in serious trouble if they are not optimized for mobile devices. More searches are being conducted on mobile than on desktop, which includes both browsing and actual purchases. A seamless user experience is key. Without it, 53% of these users will abandon their search, according to DoubleClick by Google.

Various platforms are changing to integrate their processes into one easy action. Facebook now allows you to generate a form within your ad that will never even take the consumer off site to complete. This is exactly the kind of interaction that individuals are looking for as they make the shift toward mobile.

Influence of Social Media

If you can get a consumer to stop and take a look at your product, they are much more likely to convert. This means pulling out all the stops. In general, it is better to create content that contains an image or gif if possible. It also helps to use hashtags or mention other noteworthy people or brands in your posts to seem more legitimate and trustworthy.

The other major component to social media marketing is reviews. Consumers trust what others have to say about a product or services. These opinions weigh in heavily on the buyer’s decision making process. A trustworthy review translates to affect 84% of consumers, according to a survey by BrightLocal. This makes it imperative to include reviews in your social media.

Client Spotlight: USA Voice & Data

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Based out of Chicago, USA Voice & Data is a leading national broker of innovative and reliable business quality voice and data services. They wanted to interact with new and existing customers and share their numerous services to clients and partners; getting their messages across without the “hard sell.” With our digital expertise at Onimod Global, we have enhanced USA Voice & Data’s social media presence and their overall brand awareness.

Initial Challenge:
The variety of service offerings provided by USA Voice & Data made it difficult to concentrate on their expanding client portfolio. Internal staff was forced to do time consuming tasks like social media management instead of concentrating on more strategic work. Our client felt that they needed an additional team that could handle and oversee unique social media projects in a seamless way and in alignment to each service, product, and brand they handle.

Onimod Global Strategy:
We offered a flexible, personalized solution for USA Voice & Data’s social media solutions. We familiarized ourselves with the client and their strategies across the different social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn; and quickly went to work managing their campaigns. In addition to the pure management of social media campaigns, we were also tasked to research, collect, and suggest content that our client used for their outbound communications.

As a business to business provider, LinkedIn was the clients main area of focus for social communication.  With that as a spearhead we went all in on the social overhaul.

The Results:
LinkedIn Q1 2014 vs Q1 2016:

  • Followers +194%
  • Referral Traffic +346%
  • Organic Post Impressions +78%

Facebook Q1 2014 vs Q1 2016:

  • Total Organic Reach +195%
  • Engagement  +628%

An explosion of organic social interactions across Facebook and LinkedIn. Our social media specialists gained insight into USA Voice & Data’s business operations and industry, working to engage clients and social media followers with an insightful mix of interesting topics and blogs.

Contact Us:
If you’re an organization like USA Voice & Data seeking an upgrade in brand awareness, social media management, or any other digital marketing service feel free to reach out to us at Onimod Global on our Contact Us page. We look forward to hearing from you!