BlogTechnology

Top Reasons Why People are not Able to Get the Best out of their Marketing Automation

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How long has it been since you logged into your Facebook or Twitter using a laptop? We are assuming that you cannot even recall the last time you did it. Well, owing to the digital transformation affecting the businesses as well as consumers at a rate faster than ever, everything…

How long has it been since you logged into your Facebook or Twitter using a laptop? We are assuming that you cannot even recall the last time you did it. Well, owing to the digital transformation affecting the businesses as well as consumers at a rate faster than ever, everything is in your hand; just a click away! Not only this, with growing digitalisation, searches are happening through the voice medium more than the traditionally written word searches, which makes it imperative for marketers to get the best out of their marketing automation efforts. For instance, companies are increasingly using ‘Chatbots’ to deliver unmatched personalised customer care services to their target audience. Though the use of chatbots has increased and their scope has widened with brands using them to cater to all their customers’ needs and queries, the question that still remains is - are we personalising them and making them more humanistic? Automating marketing processes is essential, what is more important is personalising them. It is vital to understand which marketing processes to automate to maximise the efficacy of marketing automation.

What is Automation?

It is nothing but using software and technologies for marketing efficiently on multiple online channels and automating repetitive marketing tasks. Automation is changing the digital landscape in a big way with technologies like mobile computing, embedded systems, among others, which is why marketers should be abreast with the evolving digital world to be able to use it to their advantage. Certainly, with technology advancing daily and becoming readily available to the consumers worldwide, it is essential for marketers to use the latest tools and techniques to reach out to their target audience where they are accessible. While there are marketers who have been using automation to their advantage, there are others who might not have even heard about it! However, the fact is that every marketer and every business out there has been using automation without realising it. The question though is, are you using your automation capabilities to its maximum potential? Automation does not come alone. Several technologies like big data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence are evolving the digital landscape in such a way that we are seeing more and more digitalisation each day. Further, marketers have been using these technologies to a great extent in various marketing processes like sending out bulk emails, posting on social media, data segmentation, creating buyer personas and many other marketing tasks that are routine and repetitive. The marketers of tomorrow know that to stay in the competition by retaining existing customers and attracting new ones, they need to not only automate their marketing processes and remain prompt and regular in interacting with their target audience, but also stay personalised. So, let’s ask you, are you using personalisation with automation? If you are, are you using it to its maximum potential? If you are finding it difficult to answer this question, then it is time to work on your processes at the earliest because technology is evolving daily, and consumers are using it more than ever. This makes it imperative for marketers to exploit the digital world to its fullest and reach their target audience where they are. For example, in countries like Singapore, more than 50% of their population regularly spends time on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat actively. According to a yearly survey, 7 out of 10 Singaporeans access social media through mobile devices, which is double the global average. Also, the speed of the internet connection is around 18.2 Mbps, three times as compared to the global average that is 6.3 Mbps. The crème state of internet connectivity, its usage, and the number of social media users in the country are a testament to the rising need of using marketing automation to its full potential. It can be done by putting the best tools in practice to achieve marketing automation goals like sending out emails, publishing social media posts and other such recurring or routine tasks to attract and nurture prospects and customers. However, given some inherent challenges basis the nature of businesses, marketing complex, the multiplicity of customer touchpoints, and the way marketers approach their marketing and broader organisation goals – is wide and vast. As a result, marketers across the country have not been able to extract much out of them and use them to their advantage. Marketing automators face various challenges, like budget, quality of customer data, knowledge of different types of automation, producing engaging content, integrating with other systems, measuring effectiveness, and analysing results. However, for every problem, there is a solution. To start with, you can create ROI-focused goals, understand your customers and buyer personas, align and integrate your business functions and systems, practise reporting and measure and analyse results, among others. Studies show that nearly 85% of the marketers feel that they could benefit more from their marketing automation efforts. Therefore, we have listed the top reasons why marketers are not able to get the best out of their marketing automation tools.

1. Lack of Personalisation

While you must have started automating your email flows and other marketing content, personalising them is equally important. Certainly, you can reach out to a mass audience with a different message for each one out there, which is why practising effective segmentation of buyer persona is essential. It not only helps you follow the divide and rule philosophy, but also enables you to win their hearts by creating messages that cater to their specific needs, interests, preferences, and of course, demographics. Moreover, not only is personalisation important, but you also need to maintain a personal tonality in your message to let the reader feel that you are interacting with them one-on-one and that they are cared for. Automation and personalisation work in tandem and increasing automation is just a better way of personalisation.

2. Attract New Prospects - Right and Fast

Your email contact list is not here to stay forever; it needs to be refreshed and refilled from time to time. Estimates say that 25% of your email list wanes every year. It is not just the bottom-of-the-funnel leads that need to be attended; conversion is also essential at the top-of-the-funnel. Therefore, marketers must spend time in filling their top-of-the-funnel leads because it is crucial to continuously grow your email list by attracting new prospects to make your marketing automation productive and increase your potential leads.

 3. Incorrect Message Timing

When automating your marketing processes, it becomes significant that you judge the needs and the stage of the buyer’s journey to help them with information about your products. As an inbound marketer, you must be aware of the different stages in the buyer journey – attract, convert, close, delight. Therefore, the content that you send across to your prospective leads, potential customers, and existing customers, should be able to cater to the stage in their buying journey.

4. Marketing and Sales Alignment

One the best benefits that marketing automation offers is the alignment of the sales and marketing functions in an organisation. If these core business functions are not aligned properly and are still operating in silos and individual work orbits rather than a cohesive business unit; it means your marketing automation has not been appropriately implemented. Therefore, to cover the lack of sales enablement, marketing, and customer services alignment with respect to business and respective function goals, strategic and tactical implementation of automation tools is essential.

5. Limited Use of Automation

Marketing automation is not just about automating your email flows and sending out timely email drips to your target audience. It also allows you to practise multi-channel marketing, send text messages, and automatically add people to your Facebook ad campaigns. What is essential here is that you do all this, but in accordance with the consumer data that you have received based on site visits, previous purchases, email responses or other such factors. It is critical that it should be used methodically and strategically to deliver the best results, to put marketing automation to its maximum potential.

6. Content Marketing

Content is the fuel that drives every communication, be it text, images, videos, or voice messages. If your content is not captivating enough, sending personalised emails, social media posts, text messages, etc. will not deliver the desired results. Therefore, to power your marketing automation efforts, you need to fuel them with appropriate content marketing techniques to drive sales, business and growth. Many businesses within Singapore, and across the globe, have been losing on to a lot of investment on marketing automation software only to watch their efforts go in vain. However, if you are able to avoid the glitches mentioned above and convert them into opportunities for your business marketing processes, you will be able to notice measurable and quantifiable ROI generating results. Therefore, by making the best use of marketing automation software, brands can experience results and revenue like never before. Automation is a technology that is empowering machines to do tasks that were once done by humans. If nothing else, it is making us lazier by enabling computers and devices to do the routine and standardised functions for us, sparing us on time, energy and resources. The idea, on the contrary, is to leave us time for strategising and planning our automation processes keeping the bigger picture in mind and making the most of automation. So, are you shaking the grounds to increase the efficiency of automation to practise effective personalisation to drive business as well as economic growth?

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    BlogDigital Marketing / Inbound Marketing

    How Financial Marketers can use Digital Marketing to Create Brand Awareness

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    Technology is changing the digital scape in a big way. Marketing has taken a shift from the traditional methods involving print and electronic media to the digital modes which cater to the desktop and mobile users. However, with the technological developments, the digital marketing practices have also transformed with time,…

    Technology is changing the digital scape in a big way. Marketing has taken a shift from the traditional methods involving print and electronic media to the digital modes which cater to the desktop and mobile users. However, with the technological developments, the digital marketing practices have also transformed with time, and it is not just limited to selling products anymore. Digital marketing today extends its scope beyond improving web page SEO, attaining higher SEO rankings, increasing page clicks to creating and enhancing brand awareness and reaching out to your target audience. Therefore, it becomes imperative for marketers to use digital marketing to its maximum potential to reach out to their target audience and create brand awareness among them. Many financial marketers must feel that they are not generating revenue instantly. However, they should understand that more the brand awareness, higher will be the consumer base that knows about them and sooner or later, they may convert into customers. So, are your digital campaigns efficiently raising awareness about your brand products and services? If your answer is a NO, then you certainly need to look out for these strategies to create brand awareness amongst your target audience with the use of digital marketing.

    1. Use Social Platforms

    While using social media is essential, what is necessary is that it is used in the right manner. Various social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest etc. all cater to a different set of consumer category. Therefore, financial marketers should categorise their social media content based on the target audience and the social media platform. It is vital for brands to post the right content, at the right platform and the right time to stimulate quality lead generation from the social networks.

    2. Leverage Influencer Marketing

    Influencers are active participants on various social media platforms. The fact that they are known personalities and have the power to influence people with their thoughts and opinions makes them influencers. Additionally, they have a comparatively higher number of followers and a more extensive reach. Therefore, it is imperative to use these influencers at your disposal to promote your brand. Finance is an industry which requires a lot of trust on the part of the prospects and existing customers. When these influencers tell your brand story, your target audience is sure to believe in you.

    3. Paid Advertising

    Paid advertising is another way to boost your posts and create awareness about your brand on social media platforms. Facebook’s paid platform lets you boost your posts to reach a broader target audience and facilitate your efforts to generate more leads and in turn, drive sales. The more significant advantage it offers is that you can target only the consumers whom you think might be interested in your product or service. For instance, you can choose the gender, age group, interests, demographic location and a lot of other filters to limit your post reach only to your target audience.

    4. Interact through Emails

    Emails, since the advent of the digital age, have been the best and the most personalised way of communicating with your target audience. Therefore, financial marketers must use this marketing tactic wisely to communicate with their target audience on a one-to-one basis. Sending personalised emails that include information relevant to the various buyer personas will surely make your prospects, and customers feel that they are cared for. Further, emails are the best way to nurture your visitors into prospects and prospects into customers.

    5. Appreciate your Loyal Followers

    Call them your brand lovers, loyal followers or ambassadors, this category of consumers who love your brand and your offerings should be brought into the picture because there is nothing better than customer testimonials telling your story through their experiences. Make these brand lovers feel that they are cared for by communicating with them and including them in your stories. When your followers feel that they are being noticed, they will inevitably revert with more fondness towards your brand and will turn out to be brand promoters.

    6. Optimisation is Important

    SEO has the power to take you ahead of the competition or keep you lagging. Therefore, utilise this marketing technique to the full and support all your web page content, URLs, titles, meta descriptions and every other content piece you post online. It will increase your visibility and create awareness as more and more people will be able to view your content. The digital landscape is changing the way financial marketers market their products and services to their target audience. Harness the power of every digital marketing tool and technique to not only promote sales but create brand awareness to help you paint the bigger picture and reap its benefits in the future.

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      BlogGeneric

      Five Movies to Inspire Millennial Marketers

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      The Millennial generation, born between the year 1980 and 2000, includes people who are considered to be open-minded, self-expressive, liberal and confident. Often called the Generation Y, millennials are passionate about their work and are forming the most substantial portion of the workforce. They are great multi-taskers and are easily…

      The Millennial generation, born between the year 1980 and 2000, includes people who are considered to be open-minded, self-expressive, liberal and confident. Often called the Generation Y, millennials are passionate about their work and are forming the most substantial portion of the workforce. They are great multi-taskers and are easily inspired too. But, what keeps them going? Millennials are excelling in every field and sector and are not just motivated by money, but work environment, transparent operations, innovation & ideation, challenges, and growth. Like every other field, millennials in the marketing field should also be motivated and continuously inspired. Entertainment is just the best way to vent out stress and work pressure, which is why we have listed down five movies to inspire our millennial marketers while also entertain them and give them the much-needed break time.

      1. The Social Network

      The Social Network is the story of the social media giant, Facebook; its creation, evolution, and journey to becoming the platform it is today. The movie tells you about the success story of Facebook, the thought process of its founders, their steps to building and developing it and the thick and thin it went through, while on its road to success. It teaches the lesson that one cannot achieve success without overcoming the obstacles that come along your way.

      2. Steve Jobs

      The movie, as the name says, is the biography of Steve Jobs, the visionary, the biggest product designer and marketer of our generation. We all know that he is the man behind the technology giant, Apple, but do we know about him as a person? Well, this movie tells you about his hardhearted treatment of his employees, his indifference towards his loved ones and his employee micromanagement. Despite all this, the film leaves you with sympathy for him.

      3. The Founder

      The Founder is the story of the maker of the largest food chain in the world, McDonald’s. Ray Kroc, a 52-year old milkshake machine salesman, builds the world’s most efficient food empire. The story also tells you about his broken morals and conspiracy methods, leaving you with the thought of learning to differentiate between doing whatever you can to achieve your goals and doing what is morally correct.

      4. The Pursuit of Happyness

      The movie revolves around the story of Chris Gardner, an unpaid intern struggling to raise his 5-year old son on his own. Throughout the film, you will experience emotional highs and lows, owing to the ups and downs of his homeless life, despite which his ambition, determination and his undying love for his son, drives him to success. This movie teaches all the millennials not to forget their loved ones in their pursuit of achieving their dreams, because their love and support is essential, no matter what.

      5. The Joneses

      The story of The Joneses revolves around a family – a perfect family of charming and good-looking people, who have just the perfect life. The best part is that all of this is fake. They are a bunch of salespersons by profession who influence the community and promote their products to them. This movie is just the best inspiration for millennial marketers willing to pursue influencer marketing. These movies are a must watch for every millennial marketer as they serve as the best guides and are a collection of inspirational stories to motivate the millennials through every aspect of life.

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        BlogTechnology

        Improve Customer Experience with Growth-Driven Design for Finance Marketing

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        The digital landscape is changing daily and to meet the standards of the current times and provide an enhanced experience to their users, financial marketers need to keep abreast with the latest technological trends. Are you still marketing your products through those age-old marketing techniques? Is your website still the…

        The digital landscape is changing daily and to meet the standards of the current times and provide an enhanced experience to their users, financial marketers need to keep abreast with the latest technological trends. Are you still marketing your products through those age-old marketing techniques? Is your website still the same dull, boring collection of textual information showcased on screens with a white background? Well, if your answer is Yes, then what you need is a website re-design. While you might be wondering that website redesign means staying offline for months and not being able to cater to your digital customers owing to an inactive website. The solution to your problem is in the form this a new website redesign process known as the Growth-Driven Design (GDD).

        1. What is Growth-Driven Design (GDD)?

        Growth-Driven Design is nothing but a website redesign process that helps you revamp your website in stages. This is different compared to the traditional website redesign process, which involves renovating the entire website altogether. Amongst the many demerits of following the conventional method of a website redesign, the biggest and the foremost is that you tend to lose a lot of customers during the redesign period. However, with the growth-driven design, this turns out to be an advantage as you tend to improve customer experience if your follow the growth-driven design approach.

        2. How does it work?

        The Growth-Driven Design methodology states that you should revamp the most-responsive and high traffic pages of your website first and the rest in the later stages. Therefore, it starts with identifying your traffic generating web pages and reinventing those so that you do not lose on to the valuable customers from those pages. In the later stages of the redesign process, you can move on to pages with lower traffic reach and steadily build your new website. It is a very strategic and organised approach to redesigning your site and has worked well for all the businesses worldwide.

        3. How can it improve customer experience?

        The ideology behind following the GDD approach is to enhance the end users experience. With the GDD approach, your website is updated at least once a week to continuously improve website performance for making it appealing for the visitors. Additionally, it focuses on creating better experiences for the target audience by analysing their usage, page views, etc., to ensure enhanced experiences for the users. The Growth-Driven Design methodology is a structured process and works on revamping the website by keeping in mind the user data. It is true that every brand or business is working to keep their customers happy and the GDD method is just helping you accomplish your customer satisfaction goals. The GDD process starts with reviewing and analysing customer data to evaluate their tastes, preferences, website usage journey, their problems and many other factors, which are considered and kept in mind before formulating the redesign strategy. This means that the GDD process is entirely customer-oriented and aims to improve user experience by analysing consumer behaviour.

        4. Other Benefits

        The Growth-Driven Design methodology not only improves customer experience but, it offers many other benefits which are: It helps you launch your website within 4-8 weeks as compared to the traditional method that can take months. Additionally, you can keep updating your website as and when required and keep improving your users’ experiences. The GDD method also helps to increase conversion rates owing to the scope that it offers to continuously change and update your website to attract higher quality leads and convert them into customers by creating improved user experiences. The GDD method builds for your business, a highly responsive and dynamic website, which gives you opportunities to modify your landing pages and CTAs according to your marketing campaigns. It helps you experiment with different ways to create a faster, smarter and efficient website to boost user engagement and in turn, increase website traffic. The GDD approach also helps increase ROI. When your website is customer-centric, provides for improved user experiences, diverts your efforts towards a targeted audience, you can generate quality leads. It thereby leads to more sales conversion rates leading to overall business growth and increased ROI. A Growth-Driven Design website can benefit your business tremendously owing to the quick and easy launch in comparison to the traditional design method. It also helps in better website optimisation by focusing on continuous website improvement according to user feedback to provide higher value and enriched website experiences. Key Features of HubSpot COS Design & Development

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          BlogDigital Marketing / Inbound Marketing

          Email Marketing Trends This Year

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          Because of technological advancements and the influence of Covid-19, the future of email marketing has brought both opportunities and challenges. It's impossible to discuss upcoming developments without considering the impact of Covid-19. Throughout the global pandemic, brands have changed how they interact and communicate with their customers on the internet.…

          Because of technological advancements and the influence of Covid-19, the future of email marketing has brought both opportunities and challenges. It's impossible to discuss upcoming developments without considering the impact of Covid-19. Throughout the global pandemic, brands have changed how they interact and communicate with their customers on the internet. As a result, email marketing saw a surge in popularity, and new email trends emerged. You must stay on top of current trends to keep up with the competition and execute your email marketing strategy. Email marketing has been the age-old strategy of marketers to reach their target audience on a one-to-one basis. As part of their digital marketing efforts, marketers use multiple strategies like SEO, social media, inbound marketing, and content marketing. While emails have been the go-to strategy for every marketer to reach customers more personally, the way they’re created and designed is experiencing a change. We all know that technology is advancing at a breakneck pace, and the digital space is evolving with it, so the way marketers send emails to consumers is also changing. These days, emails are getting more personalised to meet the consumers’ needs and preferences, and marketers are creating more interactive and visually attractive emails.

          What are some of the latest trends in email marketing?

          To remain on top of your email marketing game and see a boost in engagement and conversions, consider these email marketing trends:
          • Include user-generated content
          • Make use of artificial intelligence to improve results.
          • Optimisation for all platforms
          • Hyper-personalization for email campaigns
          • Making sure of privacy
          Everything in the digital landscape is changing, and marketers are using it to attract more customers and stay ahead of the competition. Email marketing will continue to evolve in the coming years, and the following trends will dominate.

          1. Mobile Responsive Design

          The fact that consumers have been shifting from desktops to mobile phones for the smallest of their browsing needs. Consumers today are using mobile phones to check and work on their emails, which calls for marketers’ attention to create mobile-responsive emails and provide the users with a smooth and uninterrupted experience. Therefore, marketers should create mobile-friendly emails and ensure that the load time is zero and the users undergo an enhanced experience.

          2. Segmentation and Personalization

          Consumers are the foundation of B2C businesses. In today's technologically advanced world, where consumers are of importance, it is essential for businesses to develop marketing suited to their target audience's specifications. Marketers must segment their customer data based on various criteria's -
          • Demographics, age, interests, needs, and more
          • Paying close attention to the clients' buying patterns
          • Functioning of market 
          • Working on designing personalised emails 

          3. Omnichannel Marketing

          Omnichannel marketing allows brands to amalgamate all consumer experiences into one. From physical stores to brand websites, in-app experiences to social media interactions, email is the key ingredient, if companies wish to combine all these experiences to enhance and personalise the buying journey of the customer.

          4. Interactive Emails

          Many marketers believe that email marketing is impacting marketing in a big way. Therefore, it is of the essence for marketers to divert their energies into creating emails that are interactive and engage the viewer. It will help in increasing the engagement rate while also reducing the bounce rate. For instance, emails that can help viewers purchase within the email itself are sure to attract users.

          5. Attractive Visuals

          Emails are no more just plain text messages sent to consumers. Marketers are working more than ever before to create emails that are visually appealing and contain content that catches the eye of the viewer. Emails, nowadays, contain images, infographics, GIFs, videos, video shots, etc., thus, are more vibrant and attractive.

          6. Artificial Intelligence

          In 2022, big brands will invest heavily in using Artificial Intelligence for their email marketing practices. AI will be used for all processes like data segmentation, data analysis, integrate product recommendations, and many others. AI can also be used to send personalised emails to their target audience. There are now technologies that can automatically produce or rewrite marketing content automatically, guided by performance data. Marketers will start using AI tools to write email content, subject lines, and calls-to-action on a more regular basis, and might discover that these technologies can now improve performance in many circumstances.

          7. Gamification

          Gamification of emails includes including puzzles, games, and riddles in emails to make them more interactive and keep the viewer engaged for long. Therefore, marketers should consider including recreations like think quick puzzles, rapid fires, spinning a wheel for winning prizes, answer to win, and the like. With emerging technologies having a greater impact on the digital realm than ever before, marketers must prepare to update their email marketing services and strategies. Emails that are interactive, visually appealing, and keep the user engaged for a long time will be critical in converting prospects to customers and customers to brand promoters, and without these two, marketers would struggle to compete.

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            BlogTechnology

            Importance of Marketing Automation for Marketers

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            Technology is evolving at a rapid pace and so is its usage by people across the world. With everything happening at the click of a button, it has become relatively more comfortable for the consumers to satisfy their needs and requirements anytime, anywhere. When brands across the globe are offering…

            Technology is evolving at a rapid pace and so is its usage by people across the world. With everything happening at the click of a button, it has become relatively more comfortable for the consumers to satisfy their needs and requirements anytime, anywhere. When brands across the globe are offering such ease of access to their consumers, why not they ease out their processes and functions too? Here, we are talking about automation. Automating your business processes will not only save time, resources and money, it will also perform your business functions accurately, promptly and with zero error. Automating business processes also reduces human intervention in the clerical tasks that can be achieved by machines and do not require much efforts and skills. This not only increases the efficiency, but also leaves them time for performing tasks that involve strategy planning, decision making and managing implementation. While you must be looking to automate your business processes, the most important amongst these is marketing automation.

            1. What is Marketing Automation?

            Marketing automation refers to the integration of technology and software to automate several marketing tasks and activities, which do not require much human involvement. These tasks are routine and clerical and can be easily done by machines as they do not require thinking skills or logical reasoning. Marketing automation is the best way to save time, energy and resources of the marketers to allow them time for strategic tasks. Marketing automation software can help you perform data segmentation, manage your email workflows, publish social media content and carry out other such marketing activities that are time-consuming and routine. It is a highly efficient way for businesses to personalise their marketing communications with potential customers to nurture them throughout their buyer journey. Another important aspect of marketing automation is that it aligns your marketing and sales functions to bring in more efficiency, by making both these departments work in tandem to attract unknown visitors and convert them into prospects and later, customers. Marketing automation is the best way to align both these functions to generate leads, convert them into sales and in turn, drive business and revenue with combined efforts.

            2. How does it work?

            Marketing automation software starts with making the process of data segmentation easier, thereby allowing personalisation of marketing campaigns basis the different buyer persona. The buyer persona is classified based on gender, age, demographics, interests, preferences among many other factors. Marketing automation tools help marketers create targeted campaigns and content to lure the different buyer personas, by communicating with them through the respective channels they use and providing them information based on their stage in the buying journey. This makes marketing customer-centric and results in generating more qualified leads and a higher conversion rate of them converting into customers. Marketing automation also helps marketers to nurture their visitors into prospects, prospects into customers and customers into brands promoters. The fact that email marketing is the best way to nurture your existing or potential clients through one-to-one communication or interaction makes automation of emails all the more critical as it is imperative to be regular and prompt with responding to your client queries and needs.

            3. Why is it important?

            Saves Time and Resources Automating your marketing processes save a lot of time, efforts and resources that go into performing the clerical or routine tasks that can be done by machines and do not require thinking or analytical skills. Data-Driven With a marketing automation tool backing your marketing efforts, you will be able to measure your tasks and analyse the results. It also enables you to measure the ROI on each of your marketing campaigns and analyse what is working for you and what’s not, to help improve your future endeavours. Consistent Brand Availability Using a marketing automation software to perform your marketing operations ensure one of the most important things, that is being available 24x7 for your customers. A marketing automation tool ensures prompt and regular interaction with your customers on your part, which is essential for absolute customer satisfaction. Mass Personalisation Marketing automation offers highly tailored and customised marketing communications on a large scale, which is one of the most prominent reasons why marketers should employ marketing automation tools. Mass personalisation helps marketers in creating campaigns as per their buyer personas and cater to a broad target audience’s specific tastes and preferences. Increased ROI Marketing automation tools help you keep track of and analyse your performance to measure the results of your marketing efforts. The performance here is measured in terms of the returns generated from your marketing campaigns and the relative costs involved. The result is increased ROI, as you can evaluate what worked and what did not and perform marketing efficiently. With one of the best marketing automation software like HubSpot, you can not only automate your clerical or repetitive marketing tasks but also align your sales and marketing functions to deliver the best and the most effective results. It can also help you increase your ROI by diverting your marketing efforts in the right direction towards customer satisfaction and happiness.

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              BlogSearch Engine Optimization (SEO)

              Tips to Outsource Your SEO Services

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              Business processes have been evolving daily with all the technological advancements happening in the digital world. With this, businesses and their functions are being conducted in a never thought before manner with the internet playing a huge role in their functioning. Gone are the days when marketing was carried out…

              Business processes have been evolving daily with all the technological advancements happening in the digital world. With this, businesses and their functions are being conducted in a never thought before manner with the internet playing a huge role in their functioning. Gone are the days when marketing was carried out the traditional way. Everything today is happening in the virtual or the digital space we call the internet. While we know that the internet as a market space is immeasurable and the competition marketers face is enormous, the need to gain an edge over the competitor is very important to grab customers. However, what is essential in this perfectly competitive digital market is customer retention. This is where marketers need to deploy SEO in digital marketing. Search engine optimization, as a marketing strategy, is used by marketers worldwide to increase their visibility on digital platforms. Marketers should use SEO optimally and wisely to rank their site or pages high on the SERPs. This will enable them to generate more traffic and in turn, acquire customers. Given the benefits SEO has to offer when it comes to digital marketing, businesses hire SEO experts from SEO outsourcing companies to optimize their site and target their audience strategically to boost their online presence. However, there are certain factors to keep in mind before outsourcing your SEO services. These have been given below:

              1. Say no to SEO firms that guarantee ranking results

              Since SEO is entirely based on the keywords or phrases that people search online, there is no guarantee that even after deploying the best SEO techniques, your site/ page will rank on the top of the SERPs. Therefore, stay away from firms that guarantee you the top ranks on the SERPs for any given keyword because this is a promise far from reality owing to the continuously advancing technology and developments in the field of SEO.

              2. Find a reliable SEO firm

              Your SEO campaign's success is determined by the outsourcer. If you make the right decision, you'll almost certainly get a positive outcome. When looking for a company to outsource SEO to, don't just go with the lowest option. Hence, evaluate the firm's organic and paid search results independently. Also, keep in mind that organic searches should be taken into account because they were obtained only through SEO techniques.

              3. Check the SEO’s portfolio or case studies

              The best way to judge a search engine optimization company and its work is to know about its past endeavors. This involves asking the company about what SEO services they have given, who their clients were, and what were the results of their SEO efforts. The result of the SEO projects taken by the firm can be measured in terms of the organic traffic they attracted. Therefore, one should ask the SEO firms for their case studies and references from past projects.

              4. Determine your goals

              You must first determine your major objectives before partnering with an SEO firm. Consider whether you require link removal, increased sales, reputation management, increased website traffic, continuous SEO, PPC management, lead generation, content marketing, or any other SEO service. Setting goals before beginning SEO activities is critical since they will serve as the benchmark for measuring the success of your efforts.

              5. Monitor Progress on a Monthly basis

              Monitoring is crucial in SEO campaigns, just as it is in any other project. Request detailed monthly data from your SEO outsourcer. This is the best and easiest approach to keep track of your SEO outsourcer. It's critical to keep track of your SEO firm's activities. This entails requesting monthly updates on the results of your SEO operations, such as web traffic counts, keyword ranks, and so on. The report also specifies the actual steps done during the month, as well as the improvement in traffic, social media, and user interaction, among other things.

              6. Determine your Timeframe

              It is critical to keep in mind that SEO is a long-term strategy. Investing in anything else, such as PPC, will help you get results quickly. If you're going to outsource your SEO, be prepared to wait for results. Your period should be at least 12 months, but you should expect more meaningful results after that.

              7. Determine the SEO services you need

              Your SEO objectives will assist you in determining the services you require. If your requirements are specific, you can work with a company that specializes in those things. If they're extensive, you might be able to work with a full-service SEO firm. If you want a long-term SEO collaboration, you should hire an SEO outsourcing company in India to take care of your SEO needs. However, if you are merely searching for advice, many experienced SEO professionals provide such services and can be contacted for assistance. Large corporations build in-house SEO teams that can manage all SEO activities, whilst small and medium businesses typically employ SEO services to conduct their SEO chores. Now that you have received all the tips you should keep in mind before hiring SEO outsourcing services, we are confident that you will be able to make a wise choice and outsource your SEO tasks to a firm that can best align with your goals and objectives.

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                BlogDigital Marketing / Inbound Marketing

                The Challenges and Solutions of Financial Marketing

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                A term that is of late creating a buzz in the market is FinTech. Well, if you are a financial services provider using technology to make your services more efficient, then you are a FinTech company. If not, it is time for you to start using digital marketing at your…

                A term that is of late creating a buzz in the market is FinTech. Well, if you are a financial services provider using technology to make your services more efficient, then you are a FinTech company. If not, it is time for you to start using digital marketing at your disposal to market your financial services to your target audience most efficiently and effectively. While digital marketing is changing the way different industries market their products and services, it is yet to transform the finance industry. However, with the advancing internet technology and the evolving digital world, digital marketing has been taking over traditional marketing in a big way. Financial marketers must realise that it is time to exploit this marketing technique and optimally utilise it to market their products and services to their target audience. With financial marketers worldwide talking about the various techniques they can use to market their products and services digitally, they also need to know about the multiple challenges faced and how to overcome them.

                1. Gaining and retaining customer trust

                Our customers are whom we are working for. Therefore, it is vital to keep customers at the centre of all your digital marketing practices and strategies. Customer satisfaction is of primary importance when it comes to digital marketing because if you are not able to, your competitors will take over your customers in no time. The finance industry has been facing a lot of competition due to the evolution of the digital landscape and internet has made it easy to access information anytime and anywhere. Therefore, financial services providers must focus on reaching out to the consumers where they are readily available.

                2. Rise of digital wallets

                The rising use of online wallets like Paytm, MobiKwik, FreeCharge and alike, consumers are shifting from using the offline and online services provided by banks to using these mobile wallet applications for making payments or any financial transactions. It is because of the easy usability and data security that is provided by these apps that the consumers prefer using them over the net banking facilities offered by banking institutions. Therefore, banking institutions must work towards improving their consumers' digital experiences by providing more user-friendly and enhanced versions of net banking and mobile application services in order to compete with these online wallet services.

                3. Build the ‘best-fit' strategy

                Going digital is not an easy task for any financial marketer. It requires a lot of planning, strategising and proper implementation of the digital marketing plans. Marketers need to experiment with the different strategies to derive the best one to meet their business requirements and attract their target audience to generate qualified leads and increase the customer conversion rate. Investing time in devising the best marketing strategy for your business will surely be time-consuming, but the results produced will leave you soaring profits higher than ever.

                4. Online competition

                The digital world, as we all know, is the virtual world that works on the power of the internet and is infinite, making it a perfectly competitive marketplace. Brands worldwide are facing online competition and striving to attract the consumers' attention to buy their products and services. The online market provides the users with a number of options implying that your website must be responsive and attractive enough to engage the customer and not let them bounce over to the competitor website. The challenges faced by marketers in the digital world can be converted into opportunities if the devised strategies and marketing plans are implemented correctly. If executed efficiently and effectively, digital marketing is not only cost-effective but also yields higher returns thereby increasing ROI and driving revenue and growth. The question is how to overcome these challenges and convert them into opportunities. Let us see how.

                5. Responsive design

                Your website design should not only be responsive to desktops or personal computers but should also be mobile responsive. This is owing to the technology becoming readily available to the consumer and easy access to everything that is available online. Therefore, your website should be mobile responsive as well given the fact that more than 50% of the consumers access information online and a bad or time-consuming experience will leave them with no other option than to jump to the competitor website.

                6. Customer segmentation

                With marketing automation software like HubSpot, it has become relatively easier for marketers to segment customer data based on their age, gender, demographics, interests, needs and other such information. The large amounts of data that brands collect regarding their prospects and customers must be utilised to provide them with customised information. Data segmentation and personalised communications with consumers will not only benefit the marketers by generating quality leads and increasing customer conversion but, will also keep your customers retained and build trust in them.

                7. Intuitive navigation

                It is true that if your website is not easily navigable and your customer is not able to easily search through your website, they are bound to move to your competitors. Therefore, when you consider revamping your website, you should add a ‘Search Box' to enable easy search options for your customers. Moreover, you should make your website navigation intuitive to provide enhanced user experiences. 8. Create awareness and educate customers It is imperative for financial services providers to create awareness by providing detailed product information amongst the consumers since finance is a field that requires knowledge and guidance every time a consumer wants to avail financial products or services. Additionally, marketers must include more content on educating the consumers with information on general topics and trends in the finance industry that can help them in managing their funds and earning returns on their savings and investments.

                9. Engaging content

                Your website must not contain content only in the form of blogs or textual product information, but it should be a mix of multimedia content like images, graphics, infographics, videos and others, to keep the users engaged. When information displayed is visually appealing, consumers tend to surf more on the same platform than shift to the others. Additionally, all your content should be backed by SEO techniques and should be filled with potential keywords that can help you rank on the Google SERPs.

                10. Measure and analyse

                Your efforts will be in vain if you are not able to measure the results of your performance and analyse them to improve and perform better. Therefore, it is essential to measure your performance regularly and analyse it to advance and grow constantly. Financial marketers are faced with many challenges, but by using the right tools and techniques to convert these challenges into opportunities, they can take advantage of the constant technological advancements. Also, with the rise in consumers using technology and smart devices to search and access information, it is imperative for financial institutions to go digital and use the platform to its maximum potential.

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                  BlogTechnology

                  Steps to Building Compelling B2B Website – Your Online Lead Generation Machine

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                  A website that is a mere collection of information will not attract your target audience to do business with you. It should be informative and educational, which is why marketers must start restructuring their website and convert it into a lead generation machine. The primary objective of a lead generation…

                  A website that is a mere collection of information will not attract your target audience to do business with you. It should be informative and educational, which is why marketers must start restructuring their website and convert it into a lead generation machine. The primary objective of a lead generation website is to convert visitors into potential customers, which is possible only if you target visitors who are genuinely interested in your offering. Turning your website into a lead generation machine using the inbound methodology is indeed a worthwhile investment for every business to reach out to their target audience in the most cost-effective manner. Building a compelling B2B website is not a day’s task. It requires proper planning and strategising to create a website that can efficiently convert your visitors into qualified prospects and in turn, customers. Therefore, while it is important to revamp your website, it is also essential to do it strategically and in an organised manner.

                  1. Use content wisely

                  Content is the king! The age-old phrase still prevails and is essential for every business to use it effectively when building their B2B website. Content is the root of everything that is visible online, be it text, images or videos, everything is content. Therefore, it is imperative for every website to have a lot of informative and educational content to attract visitors to your website and educate them. It is said that an 80:20 ratio is perfect, 80% content should be for your target audience while 20% should be for promotional purposes. It is not hidden that Google searches you through your content, which means more the content, higher will be your chances of ranking on the Google SERPs.

                  2. Exploit your SEO strength

                  Every content piece should be backed by SEO-friendly keywords to increase your search possibilities and rankings on the Google SERPs. Therefore, it is essential to perform keyword analysis and identify the potential keywords on which your web pages can rank. Once your keyword list is prepared, the next step is keyword placement and keyword quantity to improve your SEO performance and rank your web pages. Title Tags: The title tag for every web page should be unique and should contain the targeted keywords. Meta Description Tags: It is the information that appears on the Google SERPs just below your page link. A user will click on your link or not entirely depends on the information you provide in this section. Therefore, make it SEO-friendly and compelling enough to lure the visitor to click on your link. Header Content: The headlines in your page content should also contain the relevant keywords. Body Content: The body of your content can contain long-tail keywords, which is why you should insert appropriate keywords to provide information about your brand.

                  3. Blogging

                  Blogging is the best way to publish a vast amount of content on your website and increase your ability to cover potential search phrases and target keywords to attract traffic. It additionally allows you to produce informative and valuable content for your target audience to entice them with engaging and persuasive content. Blogging helps businesses convert their website into a lead generating machine because of the enormous amount of content that is posted online to increase search volume. Every blog can be interlinked to other blogs to improve page authority and ensure higher search possibilities. Additionally, marketers should attach a CTA to every page to create a chain that the user can follow instead of getting lost in the way.

                  4. Calls-to-Action

                  Every page of your website should be accompanied by a Call-to-Action or CTA. It is a clickable link that prompts the visitor to take the required action on the particular page. Following a CTA should be a landing page, which should contain an easy-to-fill application form to allow the potential prospect to fill in their information if they wish to deal with you. It is essential to add the right CTAs at the right place so that the user can follow a path and turn into becoming your customer if they so desire.

                  5. Use Relevant Tools and Technology

                  Your website should not just be a bundle of information put together. It should also contain appropriate tools like a search navigation box, a live chat window, and detailed contact information. Additionally, every business willing to transform their website into a lead generation machine must make efficient use of a content management system, account-based marketing software, marketing automation tools like HubSpot, and other such tools that can be used to build your website.

                  6. Focus on high-quality traffic

                  When you are building a lead generation website, it is essential to focus on the quality of leads that you generate. It is because the focus on website traffic and conversion is essential and not all traffic will qualify the set standards. Therefore, identify and define the most valuable sources of traffic and improvise those pages to generate more qualified traffic and hence, qualified leads. Therefore, following these steps will undoubtedly facilitate your website transformation into an online lead generation machine. All you need to do is strategise and plan your website redesign process and use the relevant tools and technologies to build your new website. Follow the growth-driven design and see the creation of a user-friendly and technologically advanced website that is ready to face the competition and attract the right leads in the right way at the right time.

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                    #ARM’s Journey to Becoming a Silver-Tier Partner

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                    Like every success story that you might have heard, this one also started with a man and an idea about something new that he wanted to explore. Ritesh Singh, the Managing Director and co-founder of #ARM Worldwide, a digital marketing enthusiast, and a keen reader, had been reading a lot…

                    Like every success story that you might have heard, this one also started with a man and an idea about something new that he wanted to explore. Ritesh Singh, the Managing Director and co-founder of #ARM Worldwide, a digital marketing enthusiast, and a keen reader, had been reading a lot about HubSpot and inbound marketing during those days. It so happened in one of those discussions that took place regularly with his business coach that he decided to partner with HubSpot and start inbound marketing. With all the plans in mind, he started to set up his inbound team and hired the necessary resources needed for the smooth on-boarding of the HubSpot marketing software. However, as they say, good things take time. It took around two months to build a team that was ready to use HubSpot and implement inbound marketing. In no time, the entire team was ARMed with HubSpot certification and Inbound certification because they also say that great things happen in the blink of an eye. #ARM was now a team of 50+ HubSpot certified professionals. This journey of #ARM from a HubSpot user to becoming a Silver-tier partner has not been easy. It has been full of hurdles and obstacles. However, with the combined efforts of the team and Ritesh as the guiding force behind bringing all efforts to life, #ARM has become the first agency in India to become a HubSpot Silver-tier partner in a short span of nine months. Let us take you through this beautiful and fruitful journey! It all started nine months back, in May 2017, with an all-new team ready to explore the world of inbound marketing and use HubSpot to automate its marketing efforts and reach its target audience most efficiently and cost-effectively. The first step was to give the website a complete overhaul. It was done using the HubSpot Growth-Driven Design methodology, which follows a strategic approach towards redesigning a website by launching the highest value web pages first and gradually building the site later so that it is minimal or no loss of valuable customers. After that, #ARM worked on creating a new content strategy for its website and social media platforms that included a content makeover for:
                    • Website pages
                    • Blogs
                    • Social media platforms
                    The idea was to create content around the different buyer personas and to help them during all the stages of their buying journey. How? By identifying and addressing their pain points and solving their problems through insightful and informative content. It was done using the inbound approach to attract the target audience, convert them from site visitors to leads and close them by compelling them to become customers by providing solutions to their problems. These customers, when appropriately nurtured using the inbound strategy, can become brand promoters at a later stage. #ARM also worked on social media profile optimisation to reach its target audience where they are most active. The fact that any content creation and publishing activity is incomplete without the intervention of SEO is well-known to #ARM. Therefore, the team at #ARM diligently worked on SEO content optimisation, and all the SEO techniques were religiously followed to optimise the site and social media content from SEO perspective. In the first three months of becoming a HubSpot user, i.e. from May to July 2017, #ARM worked on prospecting its target audience through informative and personalised content pieces like newsletters, emails, etc., to educate them about inbound marketing and the HubSpot Marketing Automation tool. #ARM also realised the need for Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) for its website. CRO is the process of increasing the percentage of visitors to a website that can convert into customers or take the required action on a particular web page (Calls-To-Action or CTAs).

                    It was done:

                    • By creating persuasive Calls-To-Action (CTAs)
                    • By creating compelling landing pages
                    • Be generating efficient lead flows, commonly called as pop-ups
                    • By using HubSpot to amplify lead conversion

                    Achievements:

                    There was an enormous increase in the website traffic, which when quantified, showed a growth rate of 400%. The leads captured from these inbound efforts increased by 15 times.

                    Conclusion:

                    The result of these efforts taken by #ARM Worldwide could now be seen in the entire team that was well-versed with the HubSpot software and had learned the inbound methodology. They had worked together to create a website that was ready to reach out to its target audience with relevant and informative content to spread awareness about inbound marketing and HubSpot – the marketing tool and in turn, generate leads.

                    August – October 2017

                    Now, the firm foundation of a HubSpot certified inbound marketing team had been laid successfully, and the next target was to generate leads, achieve growth and capture the domestic, as well as the global market. One of the significant events that took place in this phase was ‘Inbound’17’, which is an annual event hosted by HubSpot in the US. Ritesh sought this as an opportunity to learn more about inbound and HubSpot software and how they can be integrated to drive growth. This also gave him an opportunity to strengthen his network by connecting with inbound marketers and HubSpot users from all around the world. It was a fantastic experience for him, and he came back with a bag full of new insights, new strategies and increased knowledge of HubSpot and the inbound methodology to drive growth and revenue and consequently, increase ROI. During this period, the results of the previous period were analysed using the HubSpot Comprehensive Analytics tool, basis which the strategies were redesigned with a revised approach to generate more leads, increase website traffic and convert both these to drive higher sales. Another major observation during this period was that our activities were targeting a mass audience. Therefore, we strengthened our inbound marketing strategy and diverted our activities towards targeting individual buyer personas and providing value to their individual needs by solving their pain points and helping them achieve personal goals. Accordingly, our blog activities and social media strategies were modified, and more targeted content offers like ebooks, blogs, whitepapers, etc., were created to nurture the leads generated. Also, our existing and new customers were nurtured by providing them with content offers customised to meet their interests and preferences and assist them in their buying journey. Personalised content offers were sent to them in the form of emails, newsletters, etc., to enlighten them and strengthen relationships, and in turn, drive them down the sales funnel. This was efficiently done using the HubSpot Workflow tool that helped in creating automated email drips and campaigns. Further, the efforts of the sales and marketing teams were integrated through the HubSpot tool, and these functions were aligned closely. The entire sales funnel, and the deals were set up using the HubSpot Sales tool and were monitored on a regular basis to measure results and improvements.

                    Achievements:

                    Effective lead nurturing led to customer acquisition and noticeable results were seen. During this period, #ARM also saw an increase in the sales and several customers were closed. To put it in numbers, the rise in website traffic was around 67 percent and leads generated mounted by about 35 times.

                    November 2017 – January 2018

                    Time had passed, and #ARM had now been efficiently using the combined power of HubSpot and Inbound marketing to generate leads and increase website traffic. While the website was already generating sufficient traffic, the focus of #ARM was moving towards improving the percentage of visitors to lead conversion. Moreover, the primary focus was to generate qualified leads and thus, increase overall ROI. This was done by analysing the activities of the previous period and the overall results generated. The results were mapped using the HubSpot data, and customised reports were made using the HubSpot Reporting tool by business metrics. During this period, #ARM decided to change the approach of targeting its audience using industry-wise data segmentation. The different target industries were identified, and content was created accordingly. The quantity of the content being produced and its frequency was reduced while focusing on creating content that was industry specific and catered to the needs and preferences of the target audience. For this, the Account-Based Marketing strategy was initiated, and content was created considering the different buyer persona, their interests, demographics and other factors. #ARM also leveraged the social media profiles of the top leaders by using their profiles to reach out to the target audience and harness the power of thought leadership to build relationships and in turn, communities with people sharing similar interests. Social selling, which includes salespersons using social media to directly interact with the prospective customers by providing valuable and informative content to solve consumer queries until they are ready to buy. #ARM started social selling using the HubSpot Social Publishing tool for targeting both the domestic and the international market. Additionally, the HubSpot Social Monitoring tool was used efficiently to create personalised and one-to-one engagement with the target audience. These social media marketing efforts taken by #ARM delivered tremendous results and aided in lead generation and sales growth. Moreover, the principal industries were identified that included the finance, education, Information Technology, healthcare and SaaS industries.

                    Achievements:

                    Noticeable results were seen from the international market as well, and the overall website traffic and leads from the same were generated leading to sales. To quantify, the website traffic increased by 26 percent and the leads generated were 80 times. As we can see, the percentage increase in the website traffic reduced but, the quality of leads had improved leading to a higher lead conversion rate. This can be said to be the result of an active inbound marketing strategy implementation.

                    Conclusion:

                    The most prominent achievement came in the form of #ARM Worldwide being awarded the title of HubSpot Silver-Tier Partner and in a time span of just nine months, which is the shortest time taken by any HubSpot partner firm. Additionally, #ARM Worldwide has now established an overseas presence by instituting a branch in Singapore to cater to its Singapore clients and drive sales. Domestically, #ARM is now present in 4 cities across India, with its headquarters in the National Capital Region. Moreover, #ARM is now a team of more than 90 HubSpot certified professionals. Their traffic is now growing more than ever, they are generating higher quality leads, and their marketing and sales functions are aligned. All these combined are driving efficiency, getting more customers and sales resulting in an overall increase in ROI. Adopting a marketing automation tool like HubSpot helped #ARM save time, efforts and resources to align and drive sales and marketing efforts efficiently. Also, the inbound marketing strategy was used efficiently to reach the target audience and produce valuable content to solve consumer problems and provide solutions through their services. #ARM Worldwide is growing, will grow and has set its target to become a HubSpot certified Gold Partner.
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