4 Tips for Selecting the Right Digital Marketing Agency

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When it comes to making marketing decisions for an organization, it is usually a company’s best interest to hire an agency in the ever changing world of digital marketing. When outsourcing these marketing efforts, selecting the right digital marketing agency for your business is critical. According to research from Capgemini Consulting “companies with a strong digital presence in their industry tend to outperform their peers.” Listed below are four tips that every business should use when deciding which agency is right for them.

Evaluate Work and Track Record:
Doing your research on multiple agencies is one of the best first steps to choosing the right one. If they are not listed on their sites, request case studies from agencies to see what benefits can be provided for your organization. Click Here to view our case studies at Onimod Global. Ultimately, doing your research and ensuring the agency you outsource to is legitimate will most likely lead to positive returns on your investments.

Know Your Most Important Needs:
Before the search for a digital marketing agency starts it is essential to pinpoint the specific digital needs your organization is seeking. Is there a higher priority on search engine optimization, social media marketing, or search engine marketing? All three of these areas could be equally important, but it’s important to address questions like this at the beginning of the process. Some agencies specialize in certain areas of digital marketing, while other agencies like ours provide full scale services. In the end, one of the starting points for every business seeking a marketing agency should be building an extensive list of digital needs.

Transparency of Results:
The last thing you want from an agency is a lack of transparency. There are many marketing agencies out there that like to provide reports for clients that only showcase successes. Agencies that want to stay ahead of the game like ours are frequently looking to improve and highlight areas where changes can be made. The ultimate goal for any business seeking the right agency is to make sure they are doing their best with intentions to always deliver a positive ROI and grow your business.

Be Blunt Upfront:
Many organizations can be afraid of being blunt to an agency, yet it’s a major investment being discussed. Be upfront about what the expectations are and don’t be afraid to walk away if the negotiations don’t go as planned. Although the standards for performance need to be realistic, make sure you and the marketing agency are on the right page about what the end goals are. At the end of the day, finding an agency that fits with your business model and is willing to adapt to what your organization wants will most likely be your best bet.

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

Why Digital Marketing Expertise is Critical for Startups

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With the rise in the number of startup businesses, how can you ensure your startup will succeed and stand out from the competition? Many startups claim to implement digital marketing practices, yet most don’t invest enough time and money, and have little or no knowledge of effective digital marketing strategies. According to a startup study from Profoundry, “71% of the startups researched did not have a documented digital strategy in place.” This post will explore the importance of digital marketing for startups and ultimately why outsourcing may be the best option.

Because of the increase in startups across the globe, it’s no surprise that online presence can “make or break” the success of a startup. Brand awareness and customer acquisition are two of the main benefits that effective digital marketing strategies can provide. Listed below are a few introductory steps to internet marketing that every startup organization should implement to start on the right track.

Beginning Steps

1. Website Development:
Depending on what the product or service is, it should typically start with the creation of a professional website. Without this, everything else that follows becomes difficult or unfeasible. Although a decent investment is required when outsourcing to a developer, it is worth it in the long run. Unprofessional websites or not having one at all is setting your business up for failure. Check out Our Work and see what website development solutions Onimod Global has to offer.

2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO):
Having a website is one of the first steps for startups, but if it is not optimized for search engines how will it drive traffic? Ensuring that your startup’s website is highly optimized will require a lot of SEO knowledge and time. There are many components of SEO that involve “on page” optimization like paying attention to title tags, content, meta descriptions, keywords, and internal link building. There are also “off page” optimization tactics like blogging and utilizing local directory sites. Click Here to run a free scan and see how well your website currently ranks online. Ultimately, outsourcing SEO efforts to an experienced agency is your best bet to increase online visibility for your startup and rank well for relevant searches.

3. Social Media Marketing:
Once your website is fully developed and optimized for search engine visibility, social media marketing is the next step to follow. Creating accounts on as many social media platforms as possible (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus) will only benefit your organization by creating more visibility. According to Statista’s Report in 2016, “89% of startup owners indicated that social media initiatives have greatly increased exposure for their businesses.” A presence on social media not only increases exposure, but it also has the potential to increase SEO, develop a loyal following, and can even establish thought leadership within your industry.

Why Outsource to an Experienced Agency?
This is a typical question that most startups have, and why should an investment to an advertising agency be made? The answer is pretty simple – knowledge and experience. One of the worst moves a startup can make is investing money into their marketing budget without having any knowledge of where their customer base lies and how to effectively generate leads/conversions. A lack of internet marketing knowledge is one of many reasons why today’s startups fail in a digital world. Outsourcing to an experienced agency like ours ultimately ensures success and a positive ROI for your startup in the long run.

View our digital marketing expertise at Onimod Global  and see how our experienced agency could help fuel your next startup endeavor!

Contact Us: At Onimod Global we are a full scale digital marketing agency that serve our clients’ needs in website development, SEO, SEM, Social Media, E-Mail Marketing, and much more. Feel free to reach out to us on our Contact Us Page and see what digital marketing solutions we can provide for you.

5 Ways To Improve Your Ecommerce Business

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It’s not much of a surprise, but the ecommerce market is continually on the rise. According to Statista, “from 2010 to 2013, total U.S. retail ecommerce sales increased from $167.3 billion to $263.3 billion. In 2014 that number jumped up to $304.1 billion.” Although this article was published two years ago, the trends tell us that the ecommerce market will continue to boom as many organizations are integrating ecommerce platforms to account for the demand. Listed below are a few ideas that will help improve any organization’s ecommerce business.

Prioritizing SEO:
As the ecommerce market continues to grow, the direct result is more organizations “fighting” for first page search engine results. Therefore, ensuring that your ecommerce site is highly optimized is very important. SEO and ecommerce essentially go hand in hand with one another. Some aspects of SEO to pay attention to are using rich keyword phrases, placing your site on directory listings, having a secure site (SSL installed), and frequently checking up on site speed.

Monitor Competition:
If you’re seeking to gain a competitive advantage in terms of ecommerce, paying close attention to competition is key. This involves researching prices, marketing tactics, and anything else competitors are doing that works. Being competitive with pricing is especially important due to the amount of options that are out there in the ecommerce world for related products. Although high profit margins are extremely important, having insufficient pricing can make or break ecommerce success.

Social Media Engagement:
With millions of users, the potential for finding consumers through social media in today’s market is huge. Many consumers enjoy the engagement that social media has to offer. Spending a lot of time on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, and Google Plus can be rewarding in the long run. Creating engaging content, interacting with customers, and even sponsoring some posts are all good starting points to reach possible customers.

Mobile Optimization:
Due to a massive presence of mobile traffic, optimizing your ecommerce site for mobile devices is essential. According to Digital Commerce 360, trends are showing that “mobile devices will play an increasingly important role as worldwide consumer spending via mobile will jump from $204 billion in 2014 to $626 billion in 2018.” This shows the importance of mobile optimization and how if it’s not a priority for your ecommerce business, the chance of becoming irrelevant in the future is likely.

Blogging:
Related to SEO, having a blog and consistently producing content can exponentially increase ecommerce site traffic. Using relevant keywords in posts and frequently sharing on social media platforms are two aspects of effective blogging. Also be sure to add multiple call to action links that will direct readers to landing pages on your site. It’s clear that blogging takes time, yet time is the only drawback of blogging. Search engine algorithms like Google and Bing reward engaging and relevant content, therefore there’s no reason any ecommerce organization should avoid blogging.

Contact Us: For more information regarding digital marketing expertise, visit the Onimod Global Website. Check out our Case Studies and see how our clients like Vipply and Rent Letters are excelling in ecommerce.

Twitter Launches New 280 Character Limit: Good or Bad Move?

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Twitter has recently announced that a character limit change is official – tweets can now contain up to 280 characters, but not for every user yet. It’s an interesting and risky move, as the 140 character limit is what Twitter has always been known for and is a major way they differentiate themselves from their social media competitors. According to an article from Market Land, this would mark the “biggest change to Twitter since its founding in 2006 and the biggest risk yet by the company to increase its user base.” This post will explore the potential benefits and disadvantages that could come along with an increased character limit.

Potential Benefits:
Introducing a doubled character limit (280 compared to 140) has the potential be a beneficial move for Twitter moving forward. One possible benefit of a larger character limit is that it would allow users to “better express themselves,” according to the Marketing Land article. This is a legitimate reason as a restricted character limit has forced users to limit what they’re trying to say. A 280 limit would also decrease the “loopholes” of tweeting such as screenshots of longer text and the annoying threads that appear on timelines. Another important point to mention is the increased opportunity this presents for Twitter’s advertising platform. An expanded character limit gives advertisers an opportunity to create more appealing ads, and as a result this could lead to more ad revenue for Twitter in the long run.

The Marketing Land article also quotes Aliza Rosen (Twitter’s Product Manager) stating that “Twitter is hoping fewer tweets run into the character limit, which should make it easier for everyone to tweet.” Ultimately, Twitter’s overall goal of increasing the character limit appears to be focused on making it easier for everyone to tweet and reducing the frustrations that come along with character limits.

Potential Drawbacks:
Based on all of the potential benefits above, the expanded 280 character limit seems like a brilliant idea. However, there could be some possible drawbacks of having larger character limits. A clear negative of moving away from the 140 characters is that Twitter would now be steering away from their core idea that has differentiated themselves from other social media competition. The article states that Twitter’s original thought behind the 140 character limit was “replicating the length of a text message would make the social network more inviting to people to post thoughts on the fly from their phones.”

Another disadvantage that could come along with expanding the character limit is an increase in spam. There would be nothing worse then scrolling through a timeline of spam accounts or reading 280 character tweets from irrelevant sources. In the end, it will be very interesting to see what happens with Twitter’s new 280 character limit moving forward. Based on outside research and analysis, it appears to us that the potential benefits of an increased character limit would outweigh the possible disadvantages.

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

Facebook Shows Increase in Social Responsibility Efforts

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With more than 2 billion users, Facebook certainly has its finger on the pulse of the world. In light of many recent natural disasters, the platform is looking for ways in which it can help those in need.

Puerto Rico

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook co-founder and CEO, made a post announcing that a team of representatives were on their way to Puerto Rico to help victims affected by hurricanes Maria and Irma.

The team will be working to make sure that emergency telecommunications are up and running. Zuckerberg stated that, “Communication is critical during a disaster.”

Such communication will be vital for victims in need of emergency services, as well as those looking for current information on loved ones that may have been affected by the hurricanes.

An article from Adweek also reports that the social networking giant will be donating $1.5 million to NetHope and the World Food Programme. These volunteer and monetary relief efforts from Facebook are sure to have a great impact on those in Puerto Rico and others around the globe.

India

Even without major propellants like hurricanes, Facebook is spreading positivity around the world. On October 1, India will be celebrating National Voluntary Blood Donation Day.

According to Adweek, a special message promoting the event will appear to each user in the country of India. Additional tools and capabilities are being developed inside of the platform to help bring attention to events like this one.

Hema Budaraju, product manager, and Ritesh Mehta, head of programs, explained the tools in greater detail by writing, “When a request is created, Facebook will automatically notify blood donors who may be nearby to help spread the word. Donors can then review the request and, if they wish to respond, contact the requestor directly through WhatsApp, Messenger or a phone call. The person who needs blood won’t be able to see any information about the donor unless the donor explicitly provides it when he/she reaches out to the person in need of blood.”

Industries Benefiting The Most From Digital Marketing Campaigns

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Although running successful digital marketing campaigns can be beneficial for many industries, there are some in particular where ROI is much more substantial. It’s almost an “adapt or die” scenario for companies within certain industries in an advertising market dominated by digital media. Listed below are a few industries that have substantial returns on investments when it comes to digital marketing efforts.

Health:
The health industry in today’s market is comprised of millions if not billions of dollars. Physicians, dentists, and any other entities involved in the health industry produce significant returns from clientele. The importance of effective search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) strategies to appear on the first page of search results is huge. The ROI is so substantial that there are some health clinics and larger hospitals that allocate millions of dollars to their annual advertising budgets. That alone shows the importance of leads and conversions and why digital efforts need to be emphasized in the health industry.

Food and Restaurant:
The scope of the food and restaurant industry has changed drastically. Businesses are always trying to find new ways to attract consumers to their venues and get customers to feel connected to their brands. Many restaurants have started to prioritize social media advertising as a way to reach target markets and new audiences. According to Toast Inc, “there has been a 20% overall increase in restaurants advertising on social media so far in 2017 compared to historical data.” Therefore, restaurants have started to pick up on the digital advertising trend and those who fail to adapt will suffer in the long run.

Law:
It’s no surprise as to how much money is involved when it comes to the legal industry. The ROI for defense attorneys and law firms is in most cases substantial. However, it was reported by Greentarget in a survey that in 2014 only one in four law firms prioritized their digital marketing plan over other marketing efforts. Although it was three years ago, this statistic is mind boggling due to the high amount of search traffic for law related key words. Essentially, in order to stay on top of competitors in the legal industry, a major online presence is needed and prioritizing digital marketing efforts is a must.

Auto:
Marketing has always played a huge role in the auto industry, but the traditional days of billboards, magazines, and radio ads are diminishing. With the majority of today’s consumers searching online for automobiles, the importance of digital marketing has increased tremendously. eMarketer  stated that “spending on advertising in traditional media by all major auto companies is following a downward trend, while spending on digital advertising is increasing every year. In fact, from 2014 to 2015, it rose almost 22 percent.” In the end, it’s clear that companies within the auto industry will continue to battle it out through digital marketing and continue to find new ways to reach consumers.

In Need Of Digital Solutions?: At Onimod Global some of the clients we serve are in these industries and we know what it takes to deliver positive ROI. If you’re associated with a business seeking improvements with SEO, SEM, Website Development, or any other digital marketing service feel free to reach out to us on our Contact Us page. We look forward to hearing from you!

How Pinterest Expects to Increase Revenue by $200 Million This Year

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Pinterest is quite new to the world of advertising. 2017 marks the third full year that Pinterest has offered their Promoted Pins to advertisers. Such pins allow advertisers to promote their products and services alongside of a user’s normal featured pins.

Revenues On The Rise

These sponsored pins began in 2015, and generated $100 million in revenue by the end of the year. Last year, Pinterest was able to capture a total of $300 million in revenue, according to recode.

The trend isn’t stopping there. In its current fiscal year, it has been reported by recode that Pinterest is on track to bring in at least 200 million additional dollars by the end of this year.

So how is Pinterest driving all of this incredible advertising success you may ask? The answer lies in the company’s recent ventures into digital innovation.

Pinterest Sections

A recent article by Techcrunch released information on a brand new Pinterest feature called Sections.

This new tool will give users the ability to divide and categorize their board into several sub-groups that all coincide with the main board topic. For example, if the main board were titled “Entrees”, then sub-groups could include titles like “Vegetarian”, “Casseroles”, or “Seafood”.

According to Pinterest CEO and co-founder Ben Silbermann, “It’s been a really popular feature request for years.”

Sections is still making its way through the beta testing process. The new feature has not been released to all users yet, but will hopefully be appearing to the masses soon!

Ad Targeting

As Pinterest’s consumer base continues to grow, now up to an estimated 200+ million users, the company is searching for ways in which it can utilize this incredible resource.

Last year, Pinterest purchased a startup mobile ad-tech company called URX. Jack Chou, Pinterest’s head of product, explained the buyout by saying, “We can now accelerate our efforts with the URX team, who are leaders in mobile content understanding, recommendations, monetization and discovery.”

These efforts have materialized into 5,000 interest categories that advertisers can now use to help properly position their products in front of the perfect Pinterest users. For instance, many consumers are interested in the outdoors, but what about those specifically interested in hiking across the Appalachians?

Much like the new Sections feature, these interest categories will enable Pinterest users to refine their account into exactly what they want. This provides an enormous benefit to digital marketers and advertisers as they are able to easily reach out to the most specific area of their target audience.

Pin Collective

Pinterest has also been continually promoting their service called Pin Collective to advertisers. Pin Collective is described by Pinterest as, “an external network of world-class content creators including photographers, designers, illustrators, art directors and more who are experts in creating content for Pinterest.”

Pinterest has come together with Popular Pays to build this platform. Pin Collective provides advertisers with the best of the best to ensure the creation of flawless ads.

Adidas and essie are two companies that have experienced this service first-hand. Essie utilized Pin Collective to get an edge on the nude nails trend. The results were very impressive. The top pin of the Pin Collective campaign was saved 4 times more than any previous Pinterest campaign launched by essie.

Ending Thoughts

There is no slowing down for Pinterest. The platform continues to outdo itself every year with better ideas and innovations, both for their users and their advertisers. Here at Onimod Global, we can’t wait to see what they come up with next!

Is Your LinkedIn Account Reaching Its Full Digital Marketing Potential?

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Whether we’re talking about a personal account or a company page, there are several different ways to utilize LinkedIn as a powerful digital marketing platform. LinkedIn is reported as the most effective social platform in 2017 by MarketingProfs. So, you definitely need to be asking yourself, how does your LinkedIn account compare to the competition?

Recent LinkedIn Update

Just a few weeks ago, LinkedIn introduced the “LinkedIn Audience Network”. With uncanny similarity to the Facebook Audience Network, this new product is meant to assist marketers by allowing them to reach users on apps and websites that are not currently managed by LinkedIn itself.

In short, marketers can get their LinkedIn ads in front of more people. The goal of this wider audience capability is to increase impressions, engagements, and ultimately increase conversions. AdAge released an article that includes testing results of this new LinkedIn product, which boasted an impressive 3-13% increase in unique impressions.

Helpful Hints

LinkedIn is not foolproof. There are many ways that you may be unknowingly sabotaging your digital marketing efforts through this popular platform. Christopher Heine of Adweek compiled a list of 20 LinkedIn Do’s and Don’ts, which includes first hand recommendations from highly successful digital marketers.

We here at Onimod Global decided to create a shortlist from this Adweek article of the tips that we found to be the most useful.

Do:

  • Make it Personalized: No one likes getting spammed with random messages through their LinkedIn inbox. In order to make yourself stand out and get attention, you have to give the recipient a reason to keep reading. Brittany Simpson from Site Strategics suggests, “Don’t immediately approach with an ‘ask,’ but approach with a ‘give’ of some sort.”
  • Analyze Your Target Audience: Now that LinkedIn has added more people to its audience, use it! If you already know who your target market is, great. If not, do some preliminary testing to try and narrow it down. As you move forward, Kirsten Chiala of Cisco recommends, “From that research, take it a step further and develop personas so you can customize your content to that target audience.”

Don’t:

  • Stalk Your Connections: Everyone has been in a situation where they continually ignore or delete requests from other users on social media. Take the hint, and move on. Do not waste your time chasing after connections who clearly do not want to hear what you have to say. Try to focus on generating new leads instead. If you continue down this path you will only spin your wheels, and as Rick Smith of Exos put it, “Plus … it’s kinda creepy.”
  • Treat LinkedIn Like Facebook: These platforms may be similar, but they are incredibly different from a digital marketing perspective. While you want to continually try to engage with your connections by posting content on your page, you also don’t want to take it too far and annoy them. Appearing as a pest may cause others to ignore you, or even delete you from their network. If you must post, make sure it is relevant and actually useful.

3 Ways to Become a Major Influence in the Digital Marketing Industry

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Many individuals and organizations out there today are battling to become major influences in the digital marketing community. Building a major brand is no simple task and getting your name out there can take months if not years. Hosting Facts found that “over two millions blog posts are published on the internet every day.” Therefore, standing out from the crowd is a huge challenge. Listed below are some ways that could direct your organization to becoming a digital marketing influence.

1. Consistent Production of Strong and Relevant Content:
The saying is overused, but “content is king” is a reality. The focus should be on producing your own content, but sharing relevant content from big influencers time to time can be beneficial. Generating content doesn’t always mean lengthy blog posts with loads of text. Content can be produced in the form of memes, videos, podcasts, and other means. The overall goals of producing content are making sure it’s keyword rich for SEO purposes and that it resonates with your target audiences.

2. Showcase Your Personal or Organization’s Credibility:
Showing off your own personal credentials or what you’ve accomplished for an organization is another way to get your name out there. Readers will take you seriously if the content you produce is legitimate and provides real world insight. Case studies, testimonials from clients, and certifications are all great ways to display credibility. Check out some of our client Case Studies at Onimod Global.

3. Engagement is Key:
Producing content is one thing, but receiving engagement from audiences will take your influence to the next level. It’s important to point out that engagement happens on both sides – if you don’t interact with the people reaching out to you then engagement levels will decrease as a result. Another reason why engagement is essential has to do with social media posting. The algorithms on Facebook and Twitter for instance pay attention to activity level on posts. In other words, the more engagement your posts receive, the more impressions and clicks that will follow.

Contact Us: For more information regarding digital marketing expertise, visit the Onimod Global Website. We provide weekly knowledge and news on the latest in the digital marketing industry!

Google Partners Launches Digital Sales Certification Exam

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Google has announced that the Google Partners program has launched a new certification exam – Digital Sales. Google Partners is a program that provides agencies access to free training and exclusive tools, as well as the guidance and support to help businesses successfully advertise on Google. Advertising agencies that are members of the Google Partners program like us at Onimod Global contain certified employees and are companies trusted by Google.

According to Google, the “Digital Sales Certification Exam has been created to assess and increase partner sales representatives’ effectiveness in selling Google digital solutions to businesses.” There are a total of five parts to the exam which include planning, the open, identifying, recommendations, and the close.

The planning section involves networking, prospecting potential clients, and preparing for the pitch. The open is about delivering an effective pitch, positioning, and setting up meetings. The identification part is just about asking questions and discovering what potential clients need. Recommendations consist of delivering solutions and how to solve client problems. Lastly, the close section is about handling objections, closing the sale, and how to generate referrals.

Contact Us: Here at Onimod Global, we are a member of the Google Partners Program and all of our employees are Google certified in many areas. If you’re a business seeking an upgrade in brand awareness, website development, 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!