Tag Archive for: Digital Marketing

Restaurant Digital Marketing Strategies That Will Increase Traffic

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Managing a restaurant in today’s fast paced, digital environment can be very difficult to keep up with. It’s well known how competitive the restaurant industry is, so how can your venue stand out from the crowd? Implementing effective digital marketing strategies is critical when it comes to increasing restaurant traffic and overall revenue. If your restaurant is unfamiliar with SEO, social media marketing, or any other aspect of digital marketing, this post will provide strategies to help your business stand out.

Invest in a Highly Functional Website
Investing in a responsive, professional website may seem like a major expense to restaurant owners, but it’s essential in today’s digital world. According to a survey from OpenTable “86 percent of consumers go online to view a restaurant’s menu prior to visiting the venue.” This demonstrates how today’s consumers are visiting venues online before physically entering restaurants. Because of this it’s also important to ensure your restaurant’s website is optimized for mobile, as the industry is known to experience a massive amount of mobile traffic. Be certain to never hide important information from potential consumers on your site such as menus, hours, contact information, photos, and any call to actions (reservations).

Prioritize Social Media Advertising
Having an effective social media strategy is essential to restaurant success. This seems obvious, but many restaurants don’t know how to reach the right audiences or execute their overall plan. According to an article from Forbes, some common mistakes seen in the industry are “not connecting Facebook and Instagram accounts, marketing to a national audience instead of local, using hashtags on Facebook, and many others.” This mistakes are not too difficult to correct, yet it requires an investment of both time and money to be properly executed. Ultimately, because social media marketing is such an integral part to restaurant success and takes time, outsourcing to an experienced digital marketing agency like ours is probably your best bet.

Pay Attention to Google My Business
Google My Business (GMB) is an important tool that provides local businesses with an opportunity to appear in Google search and map results to essentially increase local SEO rankings. Having a GMB listing and being active is critical in today’s digital world for local restaurants in order to stand out from the crowd. Including restaurant information, uploading appealing images, optimizing your GMB listing, and frequently posting updates will greatly improve a restaurant’s digital visibility. Utilizing Google My Business allows your organization to take charge of what people see when conducting a local search for your business, and it should never be overlooked.

Analyze Website Traffic and SEO Rankings
Having a professional website is great, but does it rank well on Google? The survey from OpenTable also found that “87 percent of potential consumers go online to find a restaurant in their area prior to visiting any venue.” Therefore, an enhanced SEO presence is critical, especially for local businesses. Not ranking on the first page of search engines for relevant search queries in the restaurant industry can potentially set your business up for failure. Monitoring website traffic is also crucial so be sure to install Google Analytics on your website to help with traffic analysis.

Bar & Restaurant Case Study
Wondering what kind of bar & restaurant digital marketing experience Onimod Global has? Take a look at our Case Study and read about how one of our clients in downtown Chicago is outranking their competition and seeing sales soar as a result. We developed a highly functional website, increased organic SEO rankings, and spread the word about their incredible services across all major social media platforms. As displayed in the chart below, in the first 3 months alone of 2018 our client has been found 146,000 times in Google Maps and a total of 321,000 times on Google.

Contact Us
Is your restaurant in need of superior digital marketing services? Reach out to us at Onimod Global and see what digital solutions we can provide for you!

Vero: The Social Media Platform Free of Data Mining, Bots, and Ads

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Could this be the next big thing in social media? Or is it all too good to be true? The jury is still out, but the future does look considerably promising for Vero.

Comparison

Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg was under fire again this week for the platform’s privacy policies. Zuckerberg simply stated that users all agree to meet each of Facebook’s terms and conditions when they sign up for a Facebook account.

Facebook is very clear about how the platform stores information about users, and this information is then used to better target consumers through the Facebook Ads platform. Since this is the primary source of income for Facebook, it is obvious that this is of primary concern to them as well. As a digital marketer, this kind of information is absolutely amazing, but as a consumer, this is concerning to say the least.

Many consumers are becoming more and more drawn to the idea of keeping their lives truly private. It is often found to be “creepy” and “invasive” when consumers are served ads for items they recently viewed or even those that they merely spoke of. All of these irritants provide a prime opportunity for a social media platform like Vero to strike.

What is Vero?

As stated on their website, Vero claims itself to be, “a social network for anyone who loves anything enough to share it – and wants control over who they share it with. Just like we do in real life.”

The whole purpose behind Vero is to allow people a space to share their interests, free from the worry of being bombarded by ads once they do. For example, if you were to make a post on Facebook about a designer dress, you would likely receive lots of advertisements afterward trying to sell you similar dresses or similar pieces from that designer.

Vero does not do this. Instead, anything posted on this platform is serving no other purpose than to please you by expressing and exploring things you personally connect with.

Vero is also very specific in the types of connections you would wish to make. The platform offers four separate groupings every time you post. These groupings consist of close friends, friends, acquaintances, and followers. Ever wanted to post something for your friends to see but not for your boss to see? Yeah, Vero thought so too.

Each and every feature of Vero is designed with the consumer’s typical social media frustrations in mind. This new platform is clearly trying to break away from the pack by offering everything that others aren’t, and so far it has been working to Vero’s advantage.

Concerns For Vero

In light of all of the positive features to Vero, there are also a few problems to consider. The company recently experienced troubles with their terms of service. This conflict was resolved by an updated version of the agreement that made it clear to users that Vero does not own their own content like they had previously suggested.

The company’s CEO, Ayman Hariri, has also brought a fair amount of controversy to the company. According to Gulf Business, Hariri’s family was sued by 30,000 workers at their construction firm for unpaid wages. Hariri claims to have cut all professional ties with his family and also claims to have divested from Vero to keep the brand image more reputable.

Going forward, it will be interesting to see if Vero can actually manage to capitalize on the public’s discontent with platforms like Facebook, or if they too will fizzle out in the near future like so many other “next big thing” platforms have in the past.

For more articles on social media and digital advertising please visit the Onimod Global news section. There you will find relevant and recent information about the incredible industry of digital marketing. Enjoy!

5 Tips for Your Instagram Advertising Strategy

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More than a year ago, Instagram made a huge change to their algorithm. This change resulted in switches from chronological posts to more relevant posts that users were more likely to engage with.

Many users expressed their discontent with the change, and many advertisers did as well. It was believed that the switch made it more difficult for brands to interact with their audience, and with frequent tweaks still being made to the algorithm it can be hard to know what type of strategy will help or hurt your brand on Instagram.

Insta Basics

First, it is crucial to know the key influencing factors that the platform’s algorithm takes into account:

  1. The relationship between you and the person (or company that) posted the photo: The more that users regularly engage with your content, the more the algorithm will highlight your new content to those interested users.
  2. Timing: Even though the new algorithm is not in chronological order, Instagram will still take timing into account to make sure that it is showing content that has been posted fairly recently.
  3. Likes and comments: Although the platform said that the new algorithm will not result in a “popularity contest” it is still making efforts to push content that possesses many different engagement factors such as likes and comments. The more interaction your post receives, the better!
  4. Direct shares: Instagram will also be taking note of posts that you share with others since this is another type of interaction that clearly shows a user is interested in the content from a particular brand.
  5. Profile searches: Recent searches will also prompt the platform to suggest new users to follow, or if you currently are following them then even more of their content will be pushed to the top of your feed.

Primary Focus

The entire point of each and every one of these factors is engagement. The more that users engage with your content, the more that the algorithm will make sure to update users when new content is available.

Much of the idea behind the algorithm can be related to the same operations of search engines like Google. The most important aspect that Google’s algorithm considers is relevancy. In this same respect, Instagram’s algorithm is trying to ascertain whether or not users will find your content interesting and relevant, which can be judged by how often they show interest in your brand through likes, comments, searches, etc.

Additional Suggestions

When optimizing your content for Instagram, it is absolutely necessary to make it as interactive as possible. Utilizing unique forms of motion based content can help to increase interactions by posting a video, story, or Boomerang.

Adding hashtags to your post can significantly boost its impressions. In fact, Adweek states that adding even one hashtag can increase engagement by an average of 12.6%.

It is also worth including some advertising dollar in your Instagram strategy in order to make certain that your content is being pushed to target users. In light of Facebook’s recent organic content changes, it would not be out of line to suspect that Instagram may also adopt a similar strategy when it comes to sponsored content versus unpaid posts.

The Ultimate Marketing Strategy for Your E-Commerce Company

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Many e-commerce companies cower in fear of its industry leader, Amazon. In just a few short years this online retailer has grown to gather nearly $178 billion in 2017.

Through several key strategic moves such as its recent acquisition of Whole Foods, Amazon has been able to successfully eliminate or minimize the impact of its competition. This wild success leaves many within the e-commerce industry to wonder where exactly they fit.

Fortunately, changing consumer purchasing patterns are helping to provide and even bigger market for all online retailers. But how exactly does a small e-commerce company successfully compete in this type of fierce environment?

Niche Market Strategy

Many e-commerce companies have found a solution with a niche marketing strategy. This type of strategy focuses on an unmet or underserved need of consumers. Since the need is not being met appropriately, these niche brands are providing services that do just that!

Many would assume that a company as large as Amazon would have it all, right? Wrong. Brands like Boxed, Brandless, and Dote are all filling in this needs gap, and as a result that have each seen pretty remarkable results.

Boxed

Boxed works to deliver bulk consumer goods without any sort of a membership fee. This company recognized that urban consumers struggle to purchase in bulk because of a lack of transportation.

Many people living in large cities do not own or regularly use a vehicle, instead opting for public transportation. This makes it impossible for such travelers to lug home bags upon bags of products.

Boxed perfectly caters to this need by providing large amounts of bulk goods delivered right to your door in a conveniently short amount of time. By carving out this specialized section of the market, Boxed has been able to enjoy substantial profits after finding ways in which they can reduce damage rates to packages, according to Adweek.

Brandless

The company Brandless has been able to achieve many of the same positive results by implementing its own unique niche marketing strategy. Brandless primarily operates as a company that provides complete honesty and transparency to their customers.

Brandless carries thousands of products that do not have any association with a particular brand. This generic packaging and advertising cuts significant costs and allows consumers to bypass the usual marketing jargon and head straight to the actual product and its contents.

This strategy is effective for two reasons: it saves money and it makes the consumer feel more informed and aware of the products they are purchasing. Such abilities have been incredibly popular with the Millennial generation.

Dote

This company specifically targets young women by creating a “mobile mall” that they can shop through using their phone. This single platform combines apparel from more than 130 retailers, which allows consumers the ability to shop through thousands of different items all at once without having to travel to each individual website.

Dote has succeeded in creating a personal and comprehensive experience for their users, and it is all easily accessible to boot. Consumers have become so enthralled with Dote that according to Adweek, they visit the app an average of 3.9 times a day.

Conclusion

All of these brands have achieved greatness, even in the wake of powerful e-commerce giants like Amazon. The key is to differentiate in any meaningful way that you can. While this may not necessarily be the one and only strategy, it does seem to be quite effective.

For more information on marketing strategy, please visit the Onimod Global news page! Our content creation specialists regularly publish new content relating to current industry events and trends.

How to Digitally Optimize Your Campaign for the Hotel Industry

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One of the most inspiring aspects of digital marketing is that it can be useful across an incredible number of different industries. Each industry comes with its own unique strengths and caveats, and the industry of hospitality is no different.

Step One: Strategize

Of course, digital marketing success cannot be achieved by simply setting up a campaign through Bing or Google. This action does not make you a search engine marketing expert. In order for any marketing campaign to be successful, there needs to be a certain amount of effort put into formulating a strategy.

This basic and primary phase is so often understated or ignored, and unfortunately this ignorance can cause serious problems down the road. It is not enough to just generate leads. Instead, you should be focused on gaining quality conversions. What is the use in having thousands of respondents who will never actually book a stay in your hotel?

Step Two: Make Use of Your Resources

When it comes to advertising for your hotel, there are many different digital tools that you can utilize. A major advantage to digital marketing is that it gives you the ability to generate quality leads for a relatively low price.

In the world of digital advertising, two major brands dominate; Google and Facebook. These will be your go-to ad platforms as you begin to construct a digital marketing campaign for your hotel.

These two platforms possess several strengths such as:

  • Low cost per conversion.
  • Localized ads to target consumers currently located near you.
  • Mobile ads that appeal to the preferences of consumers today who are looking for ease and convenience in their purchases.
  • Native advertising throughout the regularly used social media and search engines that consumers use in their every day routine.

The list goes on, but these four reasons alone are enough to peak the interest of any hotel brand. There are also many other platforms that your brand can utilize, but these two advertising platforms should serve as a good baseline for your first steps in digital marketing.

Step 3: Review and Revise

It is always important to review a campaign before it is launched. This final step helps to rid the campaign of any minute errors that may not have been noticed the first time around. Taking a second look also provides the marketer with the chance to make sure that all ads align directly with the campaign’s mission. It can be fairly easy for a digital campaign to split off into a slightly different direction as it is making its way through the construction process.

This stage also provides a period in which you can review your other marketing sources and make sure that they are up to date. For example, many brands neglect their website and the incredible impact it has upon their brand. Brilliant and engaging ads will do little to convince a consumer of quality when all ads lead back to a broken and outdated website.

More From Onimod Global

As always, the digital marketing experts from Onimod Global are here to make sure that you receive the best information possible regarding the digital marketing industry. Our content specialists frequently publish new content pertaining directly to industry news and trends.

To access our full compilation of news articles, please click here. Thank you, and we look forward to providing you with more digital marketing insights soon!

How to Effectively Market Your Brand to Spring Break Travelers

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Each year, thousands of college students pour into the city of Chicago for spring break. Although the city is not as warm as other popular destinations, it does provide plenty of activities for spring breakers to participate in.

All of these extra people mean extra business for you. Make sure to capitalize on this huge event by optimizing your marketing efforts toward spring breakers.

Merchandising

A perfect way to attract students on spring break is to offer them free merchandise. As college students, they are very willing to accept anything that does not cost money.

This allows you an opportunity to get students interested in your brand, and to vicariously promote your brand to other spring breakers in the area. As a rule of thumb, always put your logo on every single piece of promotional material in order to maximize brand awareness. Enlarging this logo is also a good idea so you can be sure to make it stand out.

This method may seem a bit simplistic and perhaps even outdated, but we can assure you that you will see a response from travelers if you incentivise them with a cheap t-shirt or pair of sunglasses.

Facebook

During spring break, visibility is key. This does not necessarily mean to be visible physically such as with billboards and promotional merchandise. You can also generate an incredible amount of traffic to your business by utilizing online advertising strategies and platforms.

Facebook is an incredible resource for all companies that are looking to directly target a detailed group of people. The Facebook ads manager tools allow you to refine your target audience based on current and previous locations. You can also use a multitude of other keywords or phrases to put your ads in front of ideal consumers. This makes it so simple for you to precisely target college students from out of town that are now within a close proximity to your business.

The other major benefit is that Facebook ads are also highly cost effective. If you create a week-long campaign to drive people to your website, you are likely to generate conversions for mere pennies on the dollar!

Twitter

The strategy behind Twitter ads is very similar to that of Facebook ads, but Twitter is not quite as successful at generating leads. However, Twitter is absolutely ideal for achieving better brand awareness. If you do not possess a prime location that receives a lot of walk-by traffic, then you could be missing out on substantial potential profits.

With Twitter, you can make sure that students on spring break are seeing your business, even if they are not clicking on the ad. Even on a subconscious level, consumers are more likely to interact with a brand that they recognize than with one that they do not. Now go ahead and get your brand out there!

More From Onimod Global

To learn more about the digital marketing industry, please visit the Onimod blog today! Our content creation specialists regularly produce up-to-date content so that you remain current on digital marketing methods and strategies.

A few of our most recent articles include: The Importance of Google My Business for Local SEO Rankings, How to Build Customer Loyalty That Drives Search Traffic, 4 Statistics That Should Impact Your 2018 Online Marketing Strategy, and much more!

The Importance of Google My Business for Local SEO Rankings

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Google My Business (GMB) is a unique tool that provides local businesses with an opportunity to appear in Google search and map results to essentially increase local SEO rankings. Having a GMB listing and being active is critical in today’s digital world for local businesses in order to stand out from the crowd. Including important business information and images, optimizing your GMB listing, and frequently posting updates will greatly improve a business’s local search visibility. This post will explore the overall importance of Google My Business when it comes to local SEO and outranking industry competitors.

Google My Business Overview
Utilizing Google My Business allows your organization to take charge of what people see when conducting a local search for your business. Google states that “Google My Business gives you the tools to update your listing and engage with customers from your phone, tablet, or computer. All for free.” GMB enables you to update business hours, images, menus (restaurants), locations, have reviews, and now lets you add posts to highlight what’s happening. Moreover, it’s a crucial tool for businesses to increase online visibility so potential consumers can find you.

Setting up and Optimizing Your Google My Business Listing
Just simply setting up a GMB listing is a good starting point, but in a competitive environment you will need to go above and beyond to stand out. The first step to driving in new business is to claim your listing. This will enable your business to update all of the relevant information like location, hours, images, and contact information. A second step is to seek assistance from your customer base regarding reviews and making sure they are positive. A large number of positive reviews can increase the likelihood of ranking higher in search results. Once these initial steps are completed, the next plan should be to develop consistent posts to keep potential consumers engaged about what’s happening with your business. The GMB posting feature allows your business to display deals, events, or important company news. Ultimately, it should be noted that the more time you spend in the Google My Business interface, the better local SEO presence your business will experience.

Advanced Google My Business Optimization Strategies
In addition to the basic GMB optimization tactics previously listed, there are more advanced GMB optimization strategies that will improve local visibility even more. First, the importance of displaying intriguing images often times gets overlooked. Select photos that will stand out and grab the attention of online users to attract more website clicks on your listing. Another important tactic according to digital marketing expert Kevin Gibbons is to “check up on popular times of the day and create SEM or paid social campaigns to drive more visitors during times your business is open but not as busy.” In the end, Google My Business offers an excellent opportunity for businesses to enhance their local online visibility and create a better overall chance to increase both online and in-store traffic.

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!

4 Statistics That Should Impact Your 2018 Online Marketing Strategy

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2018 will be a critical year in terms of marketing with all of the constant changes happening within the industry. Therefore, having the right marketing strategy in place will ensure that your organization doesn’t fall behind in 2018. The importance of online visibility in today’s digital world should never be overlooked, and it’s an aspect that many businesses lack. Listed below are four marketing statistics from various sources that will help shape your marketing strategy for the year ahead.

1. Repeat E-commerce spenders spend twice as much as new customers
Customer loyalty is huge, and it’s no surprise that repeat customers are far more likely to purchase more from your business. According to an article from Neil Patel, the “average E-commerce spending of repeat customers is $52.50 compared to $24.50 for new customers.” Moreover, effective E-commerce strategies will be crucial in 2018 and being able to generate solid customer relationships will most likely result in revenue increases.

2. The number of advertisers using Facebook is now over 3 Million
Facebook is an extremely effective digital marketing channel, and if utilized correctly it can greatly increase the ROI for your business. Investing plenty of time and money to the social media giant should definitely be a component of your organization’s marketing strategy, as it will pay off in the long run. According to a report from Statista, “the number of active users on Facebook worldwide has now reached 2.13 billion.” Another interesting Facebook fact found by WordStream is that “the average cpc on Facebook across all industries is $1.72.” Ultimately, there’s a reason that Facebook now has over 3 million advertisers, as the platform can be very rewarding for you business if used correctly.

3. Over 90% of shoppers’ purchase decisions are influenced by social media
It’s no surprise that social media is important when it comes to potential consumers and what influences their purchase decisions. A study from Iron Paper found that “approximately 93% of purchase decisions are influenced by social media, and that 90% of users trust peer recommendations.” Businesses that have caught on to this trend have seen increases in sales and overall ROI. It should also be noted that image focused platforms like Instagram and Pinterest offer a huge opportunity for businesses to showcase products/services to help influence purchase decisions.

4. 87% of internet users own a smartphone
The overwhelming usage of smart phones has revolutionized the entire advertising industry. Mobile marketing is not the future, it’s happening right now. The Global Web Index found that “87% of all internet users own a smartphone” and that “there are 9 new mobile users added every second.” Therefore, there must be a major focus on mobile responsiveness in any marketing strategy. It’s essential regarding your organization’s website in terms of user friendliness and ranking higher in search engine results.

Contact Us
If you’re business is in need of digital marketing expertise this year in 2018, Contact Us at Onimod Global. Check out Our Work and see what digital solutions we have to offer! We look forward to hearing from you!

Unilever CMO Collaborates with Platforms for Better Digital Advertising Standards

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Keith Weed, Unilever CMO, believes that many platforms have not yet caught up to the innovative technologies of today. As a result, many of these platforms are serving poor quality advertisements to consumers, with little recourse.

Ongoing Topic of Conversation

Procter & Gamble CMO Marc Pritchard has voiced many of these same concerns. Generally speaking, Pritchard is focused on 4 ways in which brands should rethink their current digital marketing tactics:

  1. Transparency
  2. Ad Quality
  3. Mass One-to-One Marketing
  4. Messages For Good

To learn more about Pritchard’s digital marketing strategies, please read through our article, “Digital Marketing Advice From Procter & Gamble’s Chief Brand Officer”.

While Weed and Pritchard share similar concerns, they are each handling these concerns in very different ways. Pritchard has been much more forward about failures within the digital advertising industry, and has presented an ultimatum to platforms that facilitate such services.

This ultimatum basically consists of the platforms correcting their mistakes and producing a better performing platform, or risk immediately losing business from major companies like Procter & Gamble.

A New Approach

Rather than publicly address platforms with harsh ultimatums, Weed believes it is in the best interest of all (the company, the platform, and the consumer) for large corporations to work alongside these platforms to create a better experience for the end user.

In his own words, Weed expressed to Adweek that, “This has gone beyond us talking internally within the industry about the efficiencies of the media supply chain. This is now impacting trust as a societal level, which I think brings great urgency.”

Even with Weed’s compassionate understanding toward platforms, Unilever has begun shifting their ad dollars around. Weed freely admits that the company is indeed moving money around to spaces that meet their higher standards in the viewability and third-party verification of digital ads.

In the end, what matters most is the user and their experience. Both Weed and Pritchard are trying their very best to better this experience, despite their different approaches. However, their efforts are likely to produce results that all digital advertisers can enjoy going forward.

3 Important Traits That Successful Digital Marketers Must Have

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Although there are numerous traits that digital marketing professionals must have to be successful, there are some in particular that appear to be more critical than others. Perseverance, detail oriented, and being a team player are all important traits. However, from our experience here at Onimod Global, here are three traits that we have found to be essential drivers of digital marketing success.

1. Flexibility
The digital marketing industry is constantly innovating with updates and changes happening on a weekly or sometimes daily basis. Just look at how quickly platforms change or what factors are most important for quality SEO rankings. Therefore, in order to become a successful digital marketer having that ability to be flexible and thriving on change is a must. Successful digital marketing agencies have employees who are willing to adapt and can keep up with the speed of the industry.

2. Focus on Fundamentals
Fundamentals and basics such as writing, communication, and listening are all crucial skills when it comes to digital marketing. Although having advanced skills like SEO knowledge and website development expertise is important, the basic fundamentals of successful digital marketers can sometimes be overlooked. An article from Marketing Land portrays an example of “having a great idea to boost website traffic, but being unable to communicate it well to a client can be a huge setback.” Ultimately, there should always be a focus on fundamentals because without them it’s very difficult to execute successful digital marketing strategies.

3. Dedication
One of the most important traits any successful digital marketer has is dedication, and the hunger to always want to learn more and become the best. The best digital marketing agencies consist of marketers who are self motivated and will do whatever it takes to rise to the top of their field. What does being a dedicated digital marketer really mean though? An article from the Digital Marketing Institute talks about how driven digital marketers “attend conferences, build strong networks, take refresher courses, stay on top of industry news, and always learn new skills.” In the end, being dedicated and passionate when it comes to digital marketing will set successful marketers apart from the mediocre ones.

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!