Being an essential part of modern businesses, digital marketing can involve a variety of tasks. A digital marketer’s function may include preparing content for multiple channels and engaging with a company’s audience on different platforms, apart from coming up with campaign strategies.
It’s easy to get caught up in a frenzy and miss critical points for improvement with a tight schedule. Ultimately, the key to improving productivity lies in getting organised — but where can busy digital marketers start? We’ve gathered 5 ways your digital marketing team can spend less time on execution, and more on building for growth.
A project plan helps you spend less time on a project by keeping you on track. Considering the possibility of revisions and day-to-day activities, having an effective plan helps set reasonable deadlines and keep your workload under control.
For every project, write down a plan on a piece of paper, a document, or a worksheet – wherever it’s easier for you to keep track of things. Keep it simple. A good marketing plan consists of the following:
In his book, Peak Performance, author and speaker Tony Robbins compares running a business to playing a piano. In both instances, the result is dependent on consistent, deliberate practice. If you’re a beginner at your craft, performing minor tasks repeatedly yields positive results. Once you’ve mastered the basics, however, it’s time to stop doing things manually and start automating systems to produce consistently positive results.
This wisdom can be applied to marketers already looking to grow a business. Marketing professionals can benefit from automating minor tasks to be able to focus on other aspects of their responsibilities in a business. It saves time, money, and even creative juice; and it’s beneficial to consumers.
Many digital marketers choose to automate social media activities by using tools like Hootsuite or Buffer. Automatically collecting email information from leads can also be set up in Google Ads and Facebook advertising campaigns, allowing you to populate your database for email marketing without doing the manual work.
There’s plenty of automation tools in the market designed for different needs. To make the most of your time in a day, explore which activities you’re spending the most time on and see if you can automate the smaller tasks involved in each one.
Consequently, automating your tasks may involve subscription costs for tools you wish to use. Investing in tools may not be limited to automation—there are paid technologies that benefit customers more than marketers, such as chatbots and customer relationship management systems (CRMs).
When considering investing in tools, remember that the cost of marketing should be weighed by the quality of the results users receive from it. Businesses that understand that providing an excellent customer experience at all points of the buyer's journey tend to generate higher profits and build customer loyalty.
Having said this, it is worth investigating which aspects of the business could benefit from the integration of new technologies. For example, an eCommerce business could boost digital marketing efforts with an automated help desk like Zoho. This works in two ways. One, it allows customers to get the information they need even after working hours. Secondly, a tool like Zoho allows users to categorize inquiries, generating a summary of issues that the business can study to improve its products and services.
One of the best ways to understand what consumers want is to analyse existing customer data. Amazon collects data from its customers through its app and website. This allows managers to understand how different promotions affect sales and customer loyalty. Furthermore, Amazon also collects data from suppliers and competitors to make effective decisions in business growth. We see efficiency in Amazon’s operations because it collects data from customers and makes sound decisions based on that data.
Doing the same for your business or your marketing campaigns can also help reduce the time spent planning and executing, because data provides you with a clear starting point. If you’re just starting out on a project, make sure you have systems for collecting data in place. You can do this manually or you can integrate tools into your processes to generate actionable reports in seconds.
Outsourcing talent has enabled marketers to scale their projects quickly since they don’t need to hire and train additional staff every time they need something done. While outsourcing can be a difficult decision when considering quality of work against costs, the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks when done correctly.
Whether it’s graphic design or content writing that you need for a project, the key is to partner with a freelancer or agency with a good track record of working with clients in the same industry as yours. You’ll need a team that understands the common pain points experienced by similar businesses and has developed an effective approach to these issues.
Another factor to consider when outsourcing skills is cross-functionality. On a limited budget, you might want to work with a freelancer with multiple skills to save you time and money. For bigger projects, pairing up with an agency could be the more practical option, as agencies can not only help you manage a project, but also employ teams of skilled workers in development, design, or writing who can pick up on any task with their experience.
Digital marketing is a broad field that requires a lot of time and skills. To stay on top of all your marketing activities, it’s essential to get organised and seek help if you need it. Once you’ve mapped out your goals, consider outsourcing or investing in tools to pave the way for the next phases of your project.
We hope this has been a helpful list of tips in digital marketing productivity! If you need more advice on enhancing your digital marketing efforts, drop us a message to speak to a specialist who can guide your first steps.
Social media is the buzzword of our decade. There is a good reason for this. It has the potential to fundamentally alter our communication and business models if we allow it to. It is one of the methods of conducting business communication in a more general sense. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the significance of social media in business communication in greater detail. By providing a brief introduction to social media, defining it from a business perspective, testing the importance of social media from various perspectives, and finally providing an outline on how to apply it on a daily basis, the author successfully completes his or her mission.
Hollywood actress Julia Roberts gave an interview to CBS in which she admitted that family life means a lot more to her than her career. The "Pretty Woman" star shared Julia Roberts daughter some details about her relationship with her husband, 53-year-old Danny Moder, and their children: 17-year-old twins Hazel and Finneas and 15-year-old Henry.
In business processes, communication is critical to the success of the operation. It contributes to the closer bonding of people. As a result of the introduction of social networking sites, businesses and their customers or target audiences can communicate more quickly, easily, and efficiently. It also assists businesses in gaining valuable insights into their respective markets. When it comes to communication between businesses and their customers or audiences, social media is a great tool. Businesses in this day and age rely heavily on social media for their marketing and promotion strategies because it provides them with a platform through which they can reach their targeted audience at a low cost.
An important goal of this article is to provide information about why businesses should consider using social networking sites and how businesses can benefit from utilising social media to communicate with customers and employees. The following are some illustrations of its advantages and the significance it has for today's businesses.
Every day, the average person has exposed to thousands of advertisements and marketing messages. When faced with that kind of competition, it is impossible to stand out, but social media offers a way to cut through the noise and stand out. Brand exposure and recognition can be increased through the use of effective content on your social media channels.
People who have seen your products or services on social media are more likely to spend more money on them. The presence of your brand on social media makes it easier for customers to recall you over competitors who do not have a significant online presence.
And when they remember you and associate positive experiences with your business, they are more likely to return in the future because they have placed their trust in you — rather than someone else — with their hard-earned money.
Social media is a fantastic tool for increasing the number of people who visit your website and promoting your brand. In terms of social media, the best part is that you can share your own content and increase your website's traffic, or you can share content from other websites that are relevant to your business and develop relationships with the people who run those websites.
If you have an email list, social media makes it simple to encourage your subscribers to follow you on social media, where they will be exposed to even more of your content. If you do not have an email list, social media makes it easy to start one.
Your business website's search engine ranking can be improved with the help of social media. Your ability to reach a greater number of customers will increase if you have a higher ranking.
Websites that are not linked to other websites are generally ignored by search engines, which is a good thing. When you use social media platforms, on the other hand, you have the option of linking your website to various profiles and pages on those platforms. As a result, it provides search engines with more reasons to consider your website when ranking websites.
One of the most significant advantages of social media communication is the increase in conversion rates. If you are not familiar with the term, "conversion rate" is a way of describing the number of people who have been exposed to your brand and have taken the action you want them to take. If you have an e-commerce website, this could be something as simple as browsing through a page or making an online purchase (these are called micro-conversions). Alternatively, it could be as simple as visiting your website after clicking on a sponsored post or advertisement (called macro-conversions).
The importance of increasing leads and conversion rates is self-evident: the greater the number of people who become aware of your brand, the greater the likelihood that those individuals will convert into customers. Conversion rates will vary depending on the industry, the size and type of business, as well as the methods and costs of advertising employed. Although the average conversion rate for search ads across all industries was 3.75 percent, according to WordStream's AdWords performance grader report for the first quarter of 2017, the figure had steadily increased over the previous three years (the average in 2013 was 2.70 percent). In a similar vein, Google shopping ads saw an average conversion rate of 1.91 percent in 2016, a significant improvement from 1.16 percent in 2013. In comparison, display ads saw a conversion rate of 0.89 percent, video ads saw 0.84 percent, and shopping campaigns saw 0.77 percent in 2016, making micro-conversions all the more important when it comes to social media marketing strategies!
Building credibility and trust with your audience through a strong social media presence is a great way to get their attention. Each time someone clicks on a link in one of your tweets or likes one of your Facebook posts, they are expressing their approval of the work you are doing.
The greater the amount of content you publish, the greater the level of trust your audience will have in you. Why? Because if you are consistently putting out valuable information, it indicates that you know what you are doing and that you are someone who should be listened to and respected.
People are also more likely to have confidence in your brand if they hear positive feedback about it from others about the same brand. The inclusion of hashtags, which allow readers to see all of the posts associated with a particular topic or theme, is a simple way to accomplish this goal.
For communicating with customers, social media is an excellent tool. You can answer questions from them, offer solutions to their problems, and provide them with additional information about your company. It also provides you with the opportunity to solicit their feedback—social media provides a forum for you and your customer base to communicate and discuss a variety of topics pertaining to the company as a whole. You will be able to develop better products and services that will meet their requirements as a result of this.
Social media is an excellent tool for connecting with your customers, allowing you to share information, solicit feedback, and strengthen your relationships with them over time.
The more you communicate with your customers through social media, the more they will feel a sense of belonging to your company. The stronger the relationship you have with your customers, the more likely it is that they will return to you in the future and recommend your company to their friends and colleagues.
In addition to allowing you to share information about your company, social media provides you with an opportunity to learn what your customers think about what you are doing. Customers may post questions on social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter, which you can respond to quickly and easily. Customers can also provide feedback – whether positive or negative – through social media, which can be useful in helping to improve products or services.
Social media is here to stay for the foreseeable future. It has become a standard part of business communication, and it is here to ensure that your company receives the widest possible exposure across a variety of social media platforms, including Facebook and Twitter. Because the majority of people are on at least one of these platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.), the success of your product marketing campaign will depend on how effectively you use the various mediums available.
The emergence of social networking sites has ushered in a new era of communication that is nothing short of revolutionary.
While initially restricted to their own virtual boundaries, social networks have now spread throughout the world and have become an integral part of our everyday lives. It is becoming increasingly important for businesses to have a presence on social media because it allows them to engage with their customers while also providing them with an opportunity to promote their brands by establishing connections with their target audience.
The truth is, while many people believe that digital marketing and sales are two completely different things, the reality is that they share a great deal of similarities. They both require careful targeting to relevant audiences as well as the identification of opportunities with prospects and customers, among other things. They both require an in-depth understanding of what works and what does not when it comes to conversions, as well as the ability to deliver results on a consistent basis.
Digital marketing and sales are like two halves of the same coin in terms of their importance. Actually, they are like two different coins, but they share a lot of characteristics in common as well. Either way, whether it is through email or social media posts, they are both about connecting with people and developing relationships. When it comes to understanding what products customers want and need, they both rely on the same information, which is information about their habits, behaviours, and preferences collected from various sources.
This means that in order to provide customers with the best possible experience, a strong digital sales team must collaborate closely with their digital marketing colleagues.
In a company's overall strategy, digital marketing and digital sales are two important components. If you think of marketing and sales as two sides of the same coin, it may be easier to understand them. Marketing is the "heads," and sales is the "tails."
People are drawn to your product or service because of the marketing efforts you have put in place. Customers are made aware that they have a need or desire, and then you demonstrate to them how your product or service can meet that need or desire This is accomplished through various channels such as advertising, online promotions, social media, content marketing, and others. The goal of marketing is to introduce people who would be interested in purchasing your product or service to that product or service—this is referred to as a "warm" lead in the marketing industry.
A sale is closed when you have convinced a potential customer to purchase what you are offering. This is known as closing a sale in the business world. Sales can take place in person, over the phone, via email (referred to as e-mail outreach), and in other ways as well. The ultimate goal of sales is to convert those warm leads into paying customers by closing the deal.
Customer retention efforts (also known as customer support) are closely related to both digital marketing and digital sales because they are the ways in which you continue to provide value after a sale has been completed.
One might think that, in the age of digital marketing and sales, it is more important than ever to keep the two distinct from one another (or, at least, minimally entwined). However, this is not the case.
Here are some example as to why both are alike.
Digital marketing and sales are both activities that are focused on the process.
The process should be followed by marketers and salespeople in order to identify their ideal customers, understand their needs, create content to demonstrate how they can solve the customer's problems, and finally close the sale.
Sales process is a multi-step approach to turning leads into customers that is defined by the sales process model as a whole. It begins at the top of the funnel with awareness and interest, progresses through consideration and intent, and finally culminates in conversion at the bottom.
In a similar vein, digital marketing is a process that is focused on reaching potential customers through digital channels such as search engines and social media. The steps are as follows: develop a strategic plan, create content, publish content, and measure results; analyse data from results; and optimise processes and procedures.
Both digital marketing and sales are concerned with attracting customers to a product or service as well as keeping them loyal to the brand. Digital marketing is concerned with making a product or service relevant to potential and existing customers by generating interest in the product or service through a variety of content, such as blogs, social media posts, landing pages, and other forms of online communication. Sales interacts more directly with customers, assisting them in identifying the most appropriate product for their needs and then completing the purchase.
In addition, digital marketing and sales are both based on the same goal: completing a transaction. Marketing aims to attract new customers and drive traffic to a company's products or services, whereas sales is responsible for managing that traffic and converting it into revenue. Both departments rely on the same data, but they approach it in a different manner.
When it comes to marketing, data is collected at the top of the funnel, which is the point at which potential customers begin their journey to becoming actual customers. Information from the bottom of the funnel is used to make sales decisions because these leads have progressed into customers and require more sophisticated management.
Marketing makes use of data to create campaigns that draw in traffic and influence buyers' decisions. When leads are generated, sales uses data to nurture them through their purchase journey, with the goal of converting them into actual customers and then managing those customers in a way that increases brand loyalty and encourages repeat business.
When it comes to business, digital marketing and sales are two of the most information- and data-driven tasks you can undertake. Those who are successful in digital marketing and sales understand that data is king: it allows you to get to know your audience, make informed decisions about your campaigns, and track the effectiveness of those campaigns.
If you want to be successful in your digital marketing and sales efforts, you must have a strong understanding of information management and data management. Each must employ both effective processes and the appropriate tools in order to achieve success.
In order to be effective, marketing must collect data from a variety of sources, manage and organise it, analyse it, and use it effectively. Sales is also responsible for data management, but it is more concerned with applying insights gained from that data to help close deals more quickly and effectively.
Even though both marketing and sales are information-intensive professions, the two are fundamentally different in their approaches. Marketing is primarily concerned with the generation of leads through various channels such as social media, content creation, SEO/SEM, email campaigns, online advertisements (both PPC and CPM), events, and so on. Sales is not involved in the creation or management of any of these channels; rather, their responsibility is to close deals with the leads generated by marketing and other departments.
Both digital marketing and sales are inextricably intertwined when creating a digital marketing and sales strategy.
It is the efficient management of data, as well as the ability to interpret valuable insights, that is critical to the success of a digital marketing and sales strategy.
Both digital marketing and sales require meticulous planning before they can be successfully implemented.
In the digital marketing space, this means taking the time to understand your audience, the goals of your company, and the metrics that will be used to determine your level of success. Following a clear understanding of where you are starting from, where you are going, and what success looks like, you can devise a strategy to help you achieve your goals. Then it is just a matter of putting the plan into action!
Sales is similar in that you must first understand what distinguishes your product from the competition before taking any action. What is it about your product that makes it a worthwhile purchase for customers? What difference does it make in people's lives? What are the advantages of using it? The answers to these questions will help you begin developing a strategy for how to present your product in an engaging and interesting manner for prospective customers.
Digital marketing and sales are two of the most important aspects of any business—at least once it is up and running. It is these two functions that are responsible for driving traffic to your website or landing page and convincing them to either purchase something from you or fill out a form (which will enable your sales team to follow up with them).
Both of these areas necessitate extensive planning before they can be implemented. For example, you must determine which platforms are the most effective for disseminating your message, what the most effective messaging is, and how you will keep track of all the data generated by those activities.
Metrics are used in both digital marketing and sales to drive decisions.
When you are in the business of digital marketing, you need to be able to evaluate the effectiveness of your campaign. Reach, unique visitors, and conversion rate are examples of key performance indicators (KPIs). If these are not the right ones for your company, you will need to identify other metrics that indicate effectiveness.
Sales is also metric-driven, but in a different way than other departments. There are sales goals, revenue targets, and benchmarks that can be used to determine whether or not your department is performing well. And, as with digital marketing, it is up to you (or your team) to determine which metrics are most important and to evaluate progress in light of those metrics.
The effectiveness of digital marketing is measured through the use of metrics to ensure that the intended target audience is reached. In order to determine how effective their campaigns are at closing deals with customers, sales can use the same metrics, or additional metrics, as in marketing. Both digital marketing and sales use metrics that are similar to one another, such as website traffic and click-through rates, but they also differ in some important ways. Digital marketing measures the impact of its efforts through the use of unique visitor data, whereas sales measures the lifetime value of a customer to track the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.
Metrics are required for both digital marketing and sales in order to evaluate their effectiveness.
Learn as much as you can about digital marketing and sales, because as technology advances, so do the strategies that marketers and salespeople use to reach their target audiences.
New platforms are being developed, new features are being added, new strategies are being implemented, and new trends are forming.
Continual learning is required for both digital marketing and sales success. Sales representatives must keep abreast of market trends and best practises in their industry, as well as the impact of new products or services on their organization's bottom line, in order to be effective. Similar to this, marketers need to understand how to optimise their campaigns based on the performance metrics that are returned by their analytics tools to be successful.
It is possible that some of these changes will be minor—for example, Twitter now offers the option to save draughts. And some of them may be more significant than others, such as Facebook's new algorithm for displaying posts in your news feed.
However, regardless of the size of the change, remaining at the forefront of it all can mean the difference between reaching your target audience and completely missing out on opportunities altogether.
Our guess is that you are thinking, "Wow, that sounds like a lot of effort." However, this does not have to be the case! Providing you know where to look, you will be able to find a plethora of resources that will keep you up to date on the most recent trends and strategies for marketing and selling in the digital age.
One of the primary reasons why digital marketing and sales have become more similar is that they are both based on data. Both of these disciplines are critical components of the business process, both of which can be measured relatively easily, and both of which deal with customers. It is only logical that they would adopt some of the same procedures as they have done previously.
When you stop to think about it, the parallels between digital marketing and sales are fairly obvious. Both roles rely on web traffic and communication, which means that they have a lot in common in terms of characteristics. They are both forward-thinking, relationship-based professions with a wide range of opportunities for advancement and specialisation. Another thing that digital marketing and sales have in common is that they each have their own set of advantages and disadvantages. However, there is one more thing that these two have in common: the majority of people are terrible at them. The majority of people are hopeless when it comes to digital marketing and sales in one way or another. Unfortunately, this is just the nature of these two fields, which are still in their infancy and are still relatively new to the public. The industry will always have something new to learn and plenty of room to grow in terms of both knowledge and experience. If you get started right away, you have a good chance of becoming a successful marketer or salesperson (or both).
The bottom line is that there are numerous parallels between digital marketing and sales, including the fact that both are cost-effective, both rely on creativity, and both have the potential to be extremely profitable. Apart from having sound strategy in place, you will need excellent analytical skills as well as solid Internet marketing knowledge if you want to be successful in either field.
