The first step to embracing Digital Marketing as a means for promoting your products and services for achieving higher sales and profits is in understanding what Digital Marketing is and how you can fit it into your plans.

Defining Digital Marketing

One of the most popular definitions of Digital Marketing is:

“The promotion of products or brands via one or more forms of electronic media. For example, advertising mediums that might be used as part of the digital marketing strategy of a business could include promotional efforts made via the Internet, social media, mobile phones and electronic billboards, as well as via digital and television and radio channels.”

Some sources define Digital Marketing as an umbrella term wherein the promoter uses all or any of the electronic media – television, internet, mobiles phones and electronic billboards for the purpose of achieving sales or building a brand image that benefits businesses.

Why Do Digital Marketing

It is not uncommon for businesses these days to incorporate Digital Marketing in their marketing plan. The reasons for embracing it in the marketing mix are varied from a user’s perspective.

Chiefly the reasons are:

1. It is effective in getting ideas across to the customers in the digital world that is expanding exponentially. It is effective because customers are more than just willing to embrace technology to keep themselves engaged in a competitive world.

2. The competition is already there and you cannot afford to ignore it. Digital Marketing for the present is future-proof though not in its entirety until a different technology comes into use. Further it is a trending feature where you will necessarily to be present.

3. There is little limitation on geographies a business can access with Digital Marketing as compared to the print media. It is thus cost effective even as it is able to reach across a bigger section of consumers. With bigger sales come larger profits and more profits means more investments in research and development and hence more market share.

4. The unit cost of spreading a message is far lesser compared to other media and there is more variety to it – email, social media and one-on-one engagement are some of what businesses can think in favour of Digital based marketing.

5. Protect brand reputation more ferociously. Brand image is what drives businesses worldwide. With a concerted Digital Marketing effort, businesses can counter criticism and prevent bad publicity. The advantage for businesses they are able to engage the consumer directly in social media and put forth their defense in an organized manner.

6. There is vast information on how businesses have been able to use Digital Marketing to grow. With this, launch times get shorter and it is even possible to sell online even without the customers touching or feeling your products.

Digital Marketing on the Move

Of all reasons, the best can be attributed to the multi-media capable mobile phones and internet growth. Putting the power to order goods and services virtually on the hands has had its own dramatic efforts.

It is worth noting that no less than 50% of all online sales takes place in the digital space with trends indicating that this figure is likely to go up in just a few short years. If that happens as it seems likely, then the future of business will have digital too signalling the demise of physical stores. Businesses know this and that is the reason why there is a beeline towards adopting Digital Marketing as the primary force multiplier.

Brands are tools for businesses to connect with consumers instantly. A brand (usually represented by a log) can help people to relate it to certain products or services. This is certainly a big advantage for brand owners who are able to build loyalty for their products. If for example you manufacture cement with a brand name “XYZ,” does it not make sense for you to create such a strong brand image, so much so that people forget they are buying cement and start calling it “XYZ”? Social media is one of the many venues available to businesses in Dubai for promoting their brand image. CubeReach is a social media agency, Dubai based that connects Dubai businesses to consumers locally and internationally.

Brand building is a slow process and behind the success of most big brands is their ability to meet consumers’ needs fully. Brand building is not a one-time job that you can do and go back to sleep. For a successful brand to remain in limelight it needs to constantly get discussed by people in places where the business operates. Big brands with tons of money, keep themselves in forefront by using a plethora of media to safeguard their position. But not all can afford it. However, social media is a godsend for big, medium and small businesses to compete on an even footing.

Social Media Advantages

The advent of social media is a big advantage for all stake holders and the biggest of all is that it works 24/7 across the world. It is cost effective and at the same time it has the widest footprint. CubeReach as a social media agency, Dubai has helped businesses to reach out to thousands of businesses globally to realize their full potential thereby multiplying sales and bringing in new customers. It also helps businesses to discover markets that were once considered beyond reach.

Here are some advantages of using social media over traditional venues for brand building purpose.

• Works Around the Clock – If there is something in the world that never goes to sleep it is the social media. People discuss your products and exchange views which if well handled, your brand stands to gain.

• Has a Global Footprint – If you are producing goods are services that you can deliver across the world, then social media will work wonderfully well for you. There is no barrier; absolutely. Your brand also gets discussed internationally. This is good for expanding and capturing unexplored markets.

• Get better mileage for Your Money – Social media is not the cheapest we will agree, but when it comes to getting the most for every dollar, you stand to gain. In fact the reach is so vast that you will not even know that you have an international presence for so little.

• Access to all Demography – Social media cuts across wide ranges of age groups, languages, cultures and orientations which you can exploit to sell products and services, and significantly they all meet in social media.

• Place to Feel Consumers’ Pulse – Social media is not just about conglomeration of different people with varying social background; more it is a place that consumers use to discuss your brand. This is an advantage because you can participate in the discussion and present your brand in good light.

• Brand Building is Easier in Social Media – The advantage of social media is you have full control over how you present your brand to the consuming public. You can project the positive qualities for which your brand stands high and why they should patronize your products.

• Protect Your Brand Reputation – Once of the most difficult part in brand building is those negative images that have crept into your products and services and your helplessness in managing it for your product. In the social media space it is easier to speak one-to-one, meaning that you can counter every negative projection and even hope to convert such discussion into a valuable asset.

Brand Building in Practice

Brand building in practice is a complex process that is best left to professional companies like CubeReach who have years of experience in this domain. Its social media agency Dubai office handles accounts for major businesses in multiple sectors like retail, wholesale, manufacture, transportation, restaurants, insurance, healthcare, shipping and multiple other sectors for their brand building efforts.

You benefit from social media when it is properly handled and you have a committed team to respond to consumer needs. This we say because each business has its own speciality and need to tackle consumers very differently. A general rule for all demography or common approach to all issue is impractical. We recommend a social media agency, Dubai based, because they are able to understand your needs at close quarters.

If you are a website owner, you will probably have heard many people in the internet speak about optimizing websites (webpages really). For some people an optimized webpage is all about getting the page up in the search engine result, though this not all to it. The means they adopt for optimizing a webpage is through content. From it evolved concepts surrounding content marketing. Big businesses use content marketing as a strategic tool for staying ahead in the race. With this came content marketing Dubai based companies to provide content for major businesses here.

It is however important to note that optimized webpage is more than a mere formality used to please the search engine to get your webpages up in the search result. Optimized webpage in its real sense means a webpage that not only satisfies the search engine but also goes far beyond to encompass user experience and technical requirement of a webpage. We recommend that you contract a content marketing in Dubai service provider if your business is located there.

5 Five Features of an Optimized Webpage

Here is a clear anatomical dissection of a webpage to tell the difference between an optimized webpage and one that isn’t.

1. Optimized webpages are free of coding errors. It follows standards as is normally acceptable to most commonly used browsers. It has a structure that is easy for crawlers to decipher content and to look for relevant information. Webpages not optimized are poorly written and don’t follow the industry standards for browsers.

2. Navigation is near perfect an optimized webpage that makes it easier for users to move from page to page in a seamless manner. It has fewer links to pages outside the current page. Navigation, on the other hand in a page not optimized is haphazard. It is neither intuitive nor scientific. Too many links in them confuse web crawlers and the result is you get a poor ranking though in terms of content quality your website may score high.

3. Optimized pages have a reasonably good number of graphic content or photos for illustration. It keeps the readers glued to the page for a long time which is a favourable indicator for the web crawlers. It is just the opposite for a page that is not optimized. There are either too many photos or too little of it, and that again with little description to it. Include images that are clear and meet industry standards for the internet.

4. Optimized pages have the right number of keywords repeated at right intervals. They give the impression that the content was created for human readers rather than for crawlers. Keyword stuffing is not a desirable element in any page. Always write with the minimum number of keywords and that again only in its right context. Web crawlers are getting brighter day by day and some are smart enough to learn that you don’t have the readers in mind. Search engines depend on patronage to stay in the lead and they will not tolerate even a couple trick if you try to break past through their system.

5. Optimized pages have a clean layout and lots of white space so that readers are able to read content in a clear manner with little or no effort. Further, an optimized page will have a responsive design to it making it easier for rendering in more than one browser or device. A webpage that is not responsive will show poorly in smaller devices giving the users a bad experience that will make them not to come any more. Though this not a major issue, we will recommend you to code your pages in such a way as to make it compatible with all popular browsers. Did you know that coders can instruct the browsers specifically to use a particular retinue for optimal display?

Optimizing for the readers is never to be viewed in isolation from SEO consideration. Take a collective look and that is what we call optimization.

Need for Professionalism

If you though optimizing is for an entire website, you are badly mistaken. To make your webpages look great, handcraft each page with care and test it for compliance with industry standards. CubeReach is an expert content marketing in Dubai Company with coders specially trained to follow coding procedures meticulously. Businesses trust the company for ensuring that they get the most optimized pages for their websites.

The company also undertakes content marketing in Dubai for promoting your websites using ethical practices approved by major search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing.

It is not the intention of this article to elaborate on the definition of PPC (pay per click). It is more about making a PPC campaign successful. If you are here, you probably also know what it is all about and have a clear idea about what you plan to achieve. The objective is to provide you a few tips that will help you to score success.

Here are the tips.

Define your Objectives Clearly

Unless you define your objectives, you may not be able to measure your successes in PPC. It is not always the objective to increase sales from your website – your objective can be to increase brand awareness. Non sales objectives may include: lead generation, market survey or providing access to a download. Once you have decided an objective, the next step will be deciding the keywords. Everything about PPC will be on the keywords.

Researching a keyword is itself a speciality and will mostly depend on the objectives you set. Keywords for PPC will fall in one these categories – brand terms, competitor terms, product or service terms or generic terms. Generic terms are among the most expensive and sometimes ambiguous while brand terms are among the least expensive. Generic terms run the risk of bring traffic in tons but brand terms are reputed for producing higher conversion ratio.

Know Your Customers

Since so much of PPC depends on your visitors, you need to know them deeply. Some information you will need to collect include: demography, social status and income group information. Do not aspire to reach all segments with in a single campaign program – chances are you will not reach your message to any of them. Try to focus and be specific. Indiscriminate clicks only lead to extra expenses without a corresponding benefit to you.

Put yourself in the place of your customers and see what they will want. The more you are able to guess their purpose, the more you will be able to sharpen your campaign. The objective of PPC is not to bring unwanted traffic, it is intended to bring customers who will take actions you want them to.

Plan Your Keywords

Guessing keywords is an unenviable task we agree. There is room for going astray but that you should strive not to make. You are not without help. Google’s Keyword Planner tool is available that you can use to target the right words for your purpose. We will personally recommend you to choose the paid version because it has richer features and makes your job easier.

Google’s Keyword Planner’s utility far exceeds its purpose other than for PPC. It is also an ideal for SEO (search engine optimization) purposes. Using the tool by itself will not produce expected results, there is more to it, and more importantly, you must strive to setup your account properly. You are better off by seeking professional help to setup the account.

Have a Realistic Budget

In PPC you can really waste a lot of money if you don’t keep a tight control over the budget. There are pits falls in both the ways you can travel – spending too little and spending too high. By spending too little don’t expect to benefit proportionately. But setting your budget too high will mean lower rate of return (ROI). There is a median; the point at which you are able to match ROI to money expended. You will need a professional and some experimenting to locate this point.

Do not shy away from asking for professional assistance. Professional assistance does not come free, we agree, but you should not mind the money you spend on them considering that they can deliver results consistent with your objectives.

Keep Out Negative Keywords

One of the best ways to get a higher ROI in PPC is by keeping out negative keywords. In brief we describe negative keywords as those words that don’t trigger your ads. Identifying keywords that don’t work or guzzles money is an art. But once you are able to identify, they should be moved instantly. It is possible that some keywords are going bad and you are not able to identify them on time.

What works today or what worked yesterday may not work for tomorrow. Keywords are not eternal – they are known to go through a lifecycle. It should be your constant effort to identify them both for repealing and for introducing at the most appropriate time.

Cube Reach in Dubai is one of the top class PPC campaign managers based in Dubai and having a state-of-the-art production facility in India, Coimbatore. To their credit, hundreds of businesses around the world seek their PPC services to optimize their spending on advertising. They are among the top companies that deliver what they promise.

More people around the world nowadays prefer to shop online rather than at a physical store. It is advantageous for the buyer as well as the seller. In sellers’ perspective, it cuts down on owing real estate, paying salaries and keeping the store open for long hours. For the buyer, he or she need not have to travel and the goods get delivered at the doorsteps. It is a win-win situation for both – seller and buyer. It is the tendency these days to open an ecommerce business in addition to a physical store, or only an ecommerce store.

Retail businesses all over the world are able to realize the benefits of going digital. One of the most common questions that entrepreneurs keep asking is: “Is it feasible to start an ecommerce retail business without a physical store?” The simple answer to this is its practical and you can do it with a small investment.

CMS or Made to Order Ecommerce Software?

The objective of this article is to focus on the technology aspect of delivering goods and services over the internet. What we don’t discuss are merchandize and the suitability of any particular product or service that is practical to deliver over the online sales medium.

The basic requirement for an ecommerce business is a website or a portal. You can create the website from scratch and code it directly or choose to use a CMS (content management system) software. Starting from scratch and coding the entire website has immense benefits, but it is a big-budget affair.

Not many entrepreneurs can afford this and more importantly it takes longer than usual to make it fully functional. Nevertheless it can be done if the investment is available. Typically entrepreneurs with an eye on listing tens of thousands will prefer this route because they gave greater control over the software that runs their website.

Time-tested Content Management Systems

A quicker and easier option for entrepreneurs to start an ecommerce website with limited budget and products to sell is a CMS software especially made for ecommerce. Many CMS have a free version but we will recommend a paid version for high-end features. Here are some CMSs that focus on ecommerce.

Adobe Business Catalyst:

Business Catalyst is an inclusive ecommerce website building tool from Adobe. It is easy to develop a website using this CMS because it doesn’t require anything more a basic knowledge of HTML and CSS. You also get access to pre-built themes that you can modify to suit your requirements.

The most likely part of Business Catalyst is that it is SEO friendly which is an important aspect in ecommerce. It has 302 redirects, customizable meta-tags and can be integrated with Google’s webmaster tools. Other important features include easy integration with payment gateways, shipping providers, social media and Adobe’s own tools and services. Other top features that make Business Catalyst so likeable are: real time-editing, adaptability to mobile devices and mobile management with WYSIWYG editing.

Magento:

Magento is a time-tested CMS for small as well as big business who want an online platform for selling products and services. There is a special edition for small businesses. Magento should be preferred by small businesses because it take only a small time to get the website up and running. Cost is one of the favourable points to choose Magento.

Magento’s selling points are: higher sales, quick implementation, reduced upfront costs, global footprint and attractions.

Of all, perhaps, the most attractive point in favour of Magento is the excellent support system it has. Magento is amenable to customization and the huge community of developers make it easy to develop an attractive and utility oriented ecommerce website. It is also reputed to support more than 50 payment gateways from around the world.

Magento is believed to power more ecommerce websites than any other comparable ecommerce website software around the world.

PrestaShop

PrestaShop is an open source CMS software for ecommerce and is believed to power more 2, 50,000 websites around the world. The chief selling point of PrestaShop is that it is easy to customize and adapt to your environment. It supports a large number of themes that can be easily adapted to a website’s personality. Included with PrestaShop is Live Configurator that gives full control over the administration of the website.

PrestaShop has more than once won the highly coveted “Critics Choice CMS Award” which itself proves it utility oriented features. It also has a good support system and frequently there are training programs as well.

Though CMSs are generally projected to be do-it-yourself software for aspiring ecommerce entrepreneurs without any coding experience, in practice you may face difficulties, especially if your website is going to be complex. We will recommend that you contact a professional ecommerce website developer to prevent hiccups in smoothly integrating the various add-ons and payment gateways.

WhatsApp has definitely changed the way smartphones are meant for. It had already become the most inexpensive means of global communication. In addition to the free text messages, WhatsApp comes with free voice calling. Both being encrypted and highly secure, it had become the de-facto communication system over mobile smartphones, at least when texting comes in the scene. Almost every smartphone comes pre-bundled with WhatsApp. No wonder it has become an unrivaled messaging system.

It would be hard for you to accept the fact that a whopping 64 billion messages are sent (and received) through WhatsApp every day. Hard to imagine what these numbers are?

Just consider the total world population? Including that of China & India in the front line, it is just 7.4 billion people! Think of a count close to 9 times the total world population is texted every single day in WhatsApp!

Or think about the number of stars in the Milky Way galaxy. It is estimated that at least a 100 billion stars are present in our galaxy. (The Sun we know is the only star of our solar system, and we have 100 billion other stars!) So roughly, a count equal to 64% of the total number of stars in our galaxy is texted every 24 hours in WhatsApp. That’s unbelievable.

Or to give you a more vibrant picture, consider this. The budget to construct the tallest building of the world Burj Khalifa is 1.5 billion USD. The luxury sports car Lamborghini Veneno Roadster, which only multi-millionaires could afford costs $4.5 million USD.  And that’s one of the most expensive cars in the world today.

With 64 billion in dollars, you could build 42 Burj Khalifas! And can buy a mind-boggling 1422 Lamborghini Veneno Roadsters!!!

Hope you can now visualize how big is 64 billion. So if such a tremendous crowd – beyond anyone’s imagination – are hanging around WhatsApp, why not make it useful for promoting your business. Probably you might have heard this: “Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.” If ‘small’ opportunities can open big doors, what about a ‘big’ opportunity? And that too, as big as a platform where 64 billion texts are sent on a day?

If you know the art of selling, WhatsApp paves you a way to meet-in unlimited potential leads. Since WhatsApp messages have become so personal and so close to one’s heart, connecting with people over WhatsApp is next only to meeting them in person. Often at times, it’s better than that.

Here’s how you can tap the potential of WhatsApp for your business.

• First get your business contact number in WhatsApp, create a company profile with your logo and a status reflecting your goals. Maybe you can mark your slogan here if you have one.
• Keeping this WhatsApp business number all across your business like the website, business cards, posters etc. would bring in hot leads already enquiring. Organize those people in groups and promote your offers.
• Groups are excellent means to communicate and market your business. Write short Ad Copies (in a way suitable for WhatsApp) and keep them updated with your current offers and the best deals running on.
• The vital thing when it comes to marketing is never doing hard selling. Nobody likes to ‘get sold’. Just give them pure value, not compel them to click on your buy buttons all the time. (although occasionally you can do that)
• Always do the soft selling, which is focussing only on the relationship building aspect of sales. If you have made people looking for your messages/offers eagerly, you have already won the game. Sales will come in inevitably.
• In case you don’t want to hang your clients as a group, you can broadcast messages in a 1-1 fashion which is more personal. This is a kind of Newsletter service for the mobile platform. The only glitch is that the other person should have stored your WhatsApp number in his phone book. Else this is not going to work.
• Scheduling Live answering sessions will bring in much participation. People always love getting attention. If you announce a live session where your group can ask any questions for an hour, most will hang in and give some serious involvement. That way you can clarify all questions people have about your business. You might get abundant chances to soft sell your product/services here. LOL!
• Get more interaction by conducting polls or pulling your client base for an interesting survey. That would bring them more close to your business. You might get a lot of ideas to drive your business engine in the right direction.
• Never add everybody for the sake of showing up a massive group. Add only those red-hot leads, who are after your products or services. Only that makes your WhatsApp campaigns immensely successful ones.

Okay, hope you would gear up and implement at least few of the strategies listed here. We would love to hear from you too. Please feel free to join the discussion via our comments section below. Share your WhatsApp marketing experience.