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Aswathy Jayadev (G15073)

Rahul
Bighane
(G15101)
Rajdeep
Basu
(G15102)

Social Media/
Online Marketing
Aswathy Jayadev (G15073)
Rahul Bighane (G15101)
Rajdeep Basu (G15102)

Product and Brand


Management

Table of Contents
1. EFFECTIVENESS OF SOCIAL MEDIA AS A MARKETING TOOL: AN EMPIRICAL
STUDY.................................................................................................................. 2
2.

A SOCIAL MEDIA MINDSET............................................................................. 3

3. Becoming a Social Business Keys to creating a comprehensive social


business plan....................................................................................................... 4
4.

Content Marketing in the UK: 2013 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends..........6

5.

The Past-Present and Future of SEO Digital....................................................7

6.

7 Key Online Marketing Trends for 2014........................................................8

7. Social Network in marketing (Social Media Marketing) Opportunities and


Risks..................................................................................................................... 9
8.

Social media: The new hybrid element of the promotion mix......................11

9.

Measuring the effectiveness of Online Marketing........................................12

10. Succeeding with Social Media and Delivering an Enhanced Customer


Experience......................................................................................................... 12
11.

Can You Measure the ROI of Your Social Media Marketing?.......................13

12.

The small business Online Marketing Guide.............................................15

13. Integrated online marketing communication: implementation and


management...................................................................................................... 17
14. Becoming a Social Business (Keys to creating a comprehensive social
business plan).................................................................................................... 18
15.

The Power of Persona-Based Marketing....................................................19

16.

THE VALUE OF SOCIAL DATA.....................................................................20

SUB THEMES.......................................................................................................... 21
INDIAN CONTEXT................................................................................................... 23
METRICS FOR MEASUREMENT:............................................................................... 25
REFERENCES......................................................................................................... 27

1. EFFECTIVENESS OF SOCIAL MEDIA AS A MARKETING TOOL:


AN EMPIRICAL STUDY
-

International Journal of Marketing, Financial Services &


Management Research

The paper carries out empirical research to understand the effectiveness of


social media as a marketing tool and an effort has been made to analyze the
extent social media helps consumers in buying decision making. The paper
also suggests strategies for maximizing the effectiveness which are
supported by various statistical tests.
It clears the misconception and confusion around Social Media and Social
Networking Sites and says that social networking sites are a form of social
media. Sites like Face book, Twitter, LinkedIn are influencing the way users
establish, maintain and cultivate a range of social relationships from close
friendships to casual acquaintances. Consumers today want to be more
informed about products before they make the purchase.
The study in this paper focuses on the extent that social media that helps
consumers in buying decision making, to study the gap between consumer
expectation from Social media and its performance and how to bridge this
gap. One of the outcomes was that Facebook followed by Twitter influenced
& had the most users that impacted the consumer behavior in purchase of a
product.
The main reason fans come to join a brand page or brand following is
through brand invitation/ advertising followed by friend invitation, search
factor (personal Research) and finally Brand loyalty also plays a role in
motivation towards brand following on the social networking platforms.
Reasons/Purpose for using social media was mainly to connect with long lost
friends (58%), exchanging views about products and brands (24%), playing
games (16%) and finally other reasons (2%)
Consideration of Social Media in the buying decision was nearly 36% always,
42% most often and nearly 22% rarely which shows the impact that social
media has in the eyes of the customer. More than two third of users are
always considering social media networks at the time of getting into
purchase decision. Based on the survey and regression analysis on buying
decision showed a 0.62 variation of the Independent variable (To get
information about product/Service) on the dependent variable (Buying
Decision). Hence it indicates the more the companies instigate individuals to
talk about their brands/ products the more the chances that consumer will
get persuaded towards the products/brands and will make purchase decision
accordingly. Another important finding was that Social Media Networks are

not a very good grievance re-dressal platform. Demographically there is no


variability among the social media network users on the basis of gender.
The effectiveness of social media as a marketing tool will only be possible
when an organization has its presence on social media provide the concrete
and timely information needed by the consumers. The main way fans come
to join/ follow a brand page/ brand on social networking sites is through
advertising followed by a friend invitation.
Consumer do research with search engines to locate their product/service
and brand of interest.
With more networks are more likely to gather opinions through their online
network, read blogs and query the Twitter channel as early steps in the
decision making process. Businesses today are being transformed from a
transactional relationship to a social relationship. Companies need to plan for
successfully engaging their prospects and customers before, during and after
their purchase cycle, and that the basis for this engagement is high-quality
and relevant information.
Recommendations to improve business using Social Media is to implement
Social Media integration on your website, send email advertisements via a
consistent communication style. To influence customers, sales effort must
follow a process that captivates and transforms your prospects by
implementing these steps, which must be integral part of Social Media
Marketing strategy.

2. A SOCIAL MEDIA MINDSET


-Steven M. Edwards (Temerlin Advertising Institute at Southern Methodist
University)

With the rise of social media the notion of departments of advertising is


getting outdated. Social media requires the integration of all marketing
communications to provide a seamless product/service experience. While
paid advertising that shouts into the traditional purchase funnel is inefficient
compared with social media marketing, advertising that builds brands and
provides social media content is often necessary for amplifying social media
conversations.
Social Media Marketing = Marketing (Brand Promise Expectation) +
Operations (Brand Promise delivery)
Awareness Consideration Buy Use Form Opinion Talk Consideration

The role of advertising in the traditional purchase funnel is to create


awareness, consideration, and purchase where the brand promise is made

and expectations are set for consumers. But with social media companies
are able to enhance the delivery of the product or service which elicits
greater word of mouth and ultimately impacts the consideration phase of
other consumers. So given that social media offers expanded opportunities
for communicating with consumers
The 5Ts for taking part in and tracking conversations that have become
increasingly common in social media are:
1. Talkers - Find people who will talk about you. Happy customers who can
share their depth of experience. Eager fans who want to be in-theknow and new customers. These customers need to be kept happy and
motivated to get them to keep talking.
2. Topics - Build a simple interesting message. They should be simple,
organic, and portable. Campaigns must be designed to elicit word-ofmouth and most importantly to share with friends.
3. Tools - Help the message spread. Put everything in an email. Put a tell
a friend' link on every web page. Encourage sharing by offering takeaway, handouts, samples, and swag.
4. Taking Part - Answer questions, and provide "new" information.
Listening, responding and/or monitoring conversations.
5. Tracking - monitor online conversations. Tracking is needed to
understand what is being said in social media using tools and search
engines.

3. Becoming a Social Business Keys to creating a


comprehensive social business plan
-

Corey Padveen (Director, Global Social Business


Strategy, t2 Marketing Int.)

Successful companies are built against the backdrop of a clearly defined and
well documented business plan. All components are taken into consideration
from purchase, manufacturing to sales, marketing and customer service.
Similarly in social media there needs to be a business plan that incorporates
the business strategy and operations.

The first phase is to Define and understand overall business goals and
objectives with Social Media. Social Media is a heavily integrated tool into the
business culture and in the socio-economy.
Establish your identity on social platforms: Determine the look and feel of
your brand on social media, the channels for communication and the brand
identity.
Optimizing Channels: Ensure consistency of your channels, messages,
images. There are also significant benefits to search that are now
inextricably linked to social, and it all starts with a well-optimized login
account.
Determine KPIs: Do you want more sales, more traffic, more sign ups?
Measurement criteria are going to be among the most important elements
when it comes to determining the success of your program.
Components of the Plan: (9 components)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

Social Media & Strategy Audit


Integrating Social Media
Data Mining
Channel Building - The Social Sandbox
Social Competitive Analysis
Content Strategy
Social Care
Measurement & ROI
Tools and Technologies

Social Media & Strategy Audit: Determine strengths and weaknesses of your
channels. Figure out the reasons and compare with benchmark.
Integrating Social Media: Determine Integration Strategy. Figure out how
social media is going to change your internal and external communications,
revenue streams, customer service initiatives, employee outreach and a host
of other areas.
Data Mining: Find out and analyze the vast reservoir of data that can be used
to construct marketing initiatives geared towards penetrating untapped or
emerging markets. E.g.: Facebook Insights might hold the key to reaching
demographics you had never before considered as potential clients
Channel Building The Social Sandbox: Consistency with the messages on
your web site and the seamless transition between web site and social
channels are all important parts of the overall marketing strategy. On
multiple platforms let your brands voice be heard.

Social Competitive Analysis: Verify the strategy of your competitors and


compare what is working for them and not for you.
Content Strategy: The content strategy will be the driving force behind
increasing brand awareness and growing your presence in a digital
landscape. Content today is dynamic and a vital part of being found by a
global audience of potential customers.
Social Care: Today online adults prefers to engage with a brand on social
channels as opposed to conventional forms of customer service. Companies
need to address customer service issues with a 'cookie cutter' response.
Measurement & ROI: Determine KPIs at the outset and monitor them over
the course of your program. This help in benchmarking for success and is
invaluable when it comes to determining the progress of a program. For e.g.:
Cost-per-lead/acquisition Engagement Referral traffic Network growth
Tools & Technologies: Once you have determined your measurement criteria,
figure out which tools you will use to help with the process. Implement tools
to the available data and try to improve productivity and output.

4. Content Marketing in the UK: 2013 Benchmarks, Budgets


and Trends
Content Marketing
Institute
The Content Marketing Institute (CMI) and the Direct Marketing Association
UK (DMA) have found that 94% of marketers in the UK have adopted content
marketing with 64% planning to increase spending over the next one year.
B2C marketers use a greater number of tactics particularly mobile and
outsource content creation more frequently. On the other hand, B2B
marketers allocate more budget to content marketing and tailor their content
more frequently. UK marketers use a greater number of tactics than their
North American and Australian peers who use an average of 12 tactics. UK
B2C marketers use more tactics (14) than their B2B peers (12) do.
Top tactics used by Content Marketers are Articles on website, Blogs, Social
Media, eNewsLetters, Case Studies, In person Events, Videos, Research

Report, White papers, Microsites, Info graphics, Print Magazines, Mobile Apps,
Digital Marketing , Podcasts, Gamification.
Effectiveness Ratings of Tactics in UK B2B marketers rank case studies as
most effective (72%), whilst their B2C peers cite eNewsletters (71%), North
American (67%) and Australian marketers (76%) cite in-person events.
In terms of Social Media Platforms to distribute content, content authors
mainly relied on Twitter (82%), LinkedIn (78%), Facebook (76%), YouTube
(57%), Google+ (33%) and Pinterest (24%).
Top Goals of Content Marketing are
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

Brand Awareness
Customer Acquisition
Engagement
Customer Retention/Loyalty
Lead Generation
Website Traffic
Thought Leadership
Sales
Lead Management/Nurturing

KPIs: Website Traffic, Social Media Sharing, Sales Lead Quality, SEO
Ranking, Direct Sales, Cross-selling and Affiliate Sales.
On average 27% of marketing budgets in the UK are allocated to content
marketing. In Australia it is 25% and 31% in North America.
Content is mainly based on (1) Profile of Individual Decision Makers (2)
Industry Trends (3) Company Characteristics (4) Stage in the Buying Cycle
(5) Personalized Content Preferences
The biggest challenge faced by content authors are Producing enough
content, variety, budgeting, lack of training, lack in buy-in vision.
The top strategy of content marketing are:
1. Allocate a greater share of their marketing budgets to content
marketing
2. Use more content marketing tactics
3. Use more social media platforms to distribute content
4. Tailor content more often to specific personas/decision makers
5. Are slightly more challenged with producing enough content, but far
less challenged with producing engaging content

5. The Past-Present and Future of SEO Digital


Search Laboratory
Natural search remains the largest driver of traffic and revenue for most
sites. The SEO landscape has evolved that has helped improve natural
search rankings today and attract more customers online sustainably,
ethically and in line with the search engines recommendations. Googles
algorithms can now spot unethical practices easily and increasingly brands of
all shapes and sizes are being penalized for their use of them.
Before 2000, the ranking algorithm was based on context, between 2000-10
it was based on Context and Authority. Beyond 2010, there was an increase
in the emphasis on Personalization (Social Media and Personal Info). The
publishing on multiple channels Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Photos,
Presentations and eBooks along with publishing on various online media sites
such as Flickr, Vidder, and Slide share, Twitter, Yelp, Podcast, and YouTube
etc. is helping companies increase their SEO rankings. Blogging increases the
most number of links with 97% more inbound links for companies that blog.
With the current trends search results depends on both who you are and
when do you search.
The major influencers for Search results are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Browser history
Location of searcher
Social graph of searcher
Social authority
Up to second news/ trends

The Major trends in Search/ personalization are:


1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Search fractionalization
Content Volume
Social Graph Data
Social discovery
Real time content

Following Googles more recent updates cleaning up the Old SEO requires
mainly:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Focusing on Quality content:


Removing over-optimization
Removing Duplicate content and canonical tagging
Removing Links from bad neighborhoods
Remove Over-optimization of backlink anchor text and internal links:
Optimizing Hidden text

7. Correct Redirects and removal of invalid redirects.


8. Avoid too many footer links
9. Optimizing and increasing Site Speed
Best Practice Recommendations are implementing Sitemap,
Optimization, Optimizing PDFs, implementing correct usage of
authorship. Digital or online marketing techniques are increasingly
into line with traditional marketing practices and as such SEO as a
beginning to be phased out of many marketers vocabulary.

Image
Google
coming
term is

Great Content + Exposure = Natural Links


Search is becoming increasingly personalized and the more information
Google has about you, the better the results it will be able to present to you.
It is already using your search history, yours and your friend preferences and
interests, your location and your demographic to determine personalized
results. In the future, Google will serve results predictively, based upon what
it thinks you are likely to be wanting at that time. Search, its predicted, will
therefore become less about targeting certain keywords and more about
building a brand that people like and endorse.

6. 7 Key Online Marketing Trends for 2014


-

Silver Pop (An IBM Company)

ABANDONMENT REMARKETING MOVES UP THE FUNNEL:


Concentrate on a few key Web pages or categories rather than having
dozens of pages on your site trigger a browse-related email, begin with a few
key categories or fulcrum pages that are suggestive of an engaged
prospect thats looking to go to the next level & Deliver educational content:
Since these contacts are typically in the research phase, leverage existing
content such as calculators and wizards, buying guides, how-to videos and
tips from other customers.
DIGITAL ACQUISITION MEETS THE PHYSICAL WORLD: Have employees ask
for the opt-in (roving employee with a tablet invite customers to opt in). Use
SMS and QR codes & going beyond the Email as well as SMS alerts and
promotions, as well as physical addresses for direct mail offers, coupons and
catalogs.
ACTIONABLE DATA BECOMES A KEY DIFFERENCE MAKER: Try some new
techniques for gathering explicit data surveys, progressive forms,
popovers or modal windows. Consider reaching out to a third-party data

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service provider, Set up Web tracking and system integrations that enable
you to capture the behaviors of your customers across the various channels
they use to interact with you mobile, social and offline.
PERSONALIZED WEBSITES MOVE BEYOND AMAZON AND NETFLIX: Different
integration and plug-and-play options should be available that enable you to
tap the marketing richness of your platforms database and use it to
customize your website. Offering product recommendations based on past
purchases or pages viewed can be a powerful starter tactic. On the B2B side,
persona-based content recommendations and offers that match the
prospects position in the buying cycle can make an immediate impact.
LOCATION MARKETING 2.0 ARRIVES: Plan which segments of customers you
want to send location-related content. Develop a plan for what content will
enhance their in-store experience. Work with in-store personnel to put the
correct technology in place and train retail salespeople.
BUYER INTELLIGENCE IS NO LONGER LIMITED TO THE ELITE:
Look at
aggregate data for new insights about your customers and prospects needs
throughout their lifecycles. Mine your purchase history data to identify
customers most likely to generate long-term value. Look at the
marketing/sales relationship in new ways that help improve sales.
MARKETERS BECOME THE ARCHITECTS OF THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE:
Pick a channel youve never individualized before and add an element of
personalization. Or, add more customized content to an existing channel to
make it more helpful, fun and/or engaging. Look for creative ways to use
customer behaviors to drive cross-channel interactions.

7. Social Network in marketing (Social Media Marketing)


Opportunities and Risks
Social Media marketing is the process of gaining website traffic or attention
through social media sites. Social media includes networks such as
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Myspace, multimedia sharing sites such as
YouTube and Flickr, bookmarking sites such as Digg and Del.icio.us that allow
people to interact with each other and share information about products and
brands.
In recent years, the expansion of Web 2.0 and social networking has
impacted the way companies conduct marketing. The consumers have
received more and more control over how information is being propagated
throughout the World Wide Web. The companies can gain a lot of benefit
using social network while expanding their marketing campaigns.

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Web 2.0 and Social Software:


Web 2.0 and Social Software are closely linked. Properties of Web 2.0 are

A service platform instead of a software package The services


are located in the foreground and not in the user interface.
Data transformations The primary task of the applications is to
collect data which must be easily available.
Architecture of Participation Web 2.0 involves the active use of
parties. The results of such parties should be stored and documented
for a long term use.
Network and not communities Web 2.0 applications involve the
natural need satisfaction such as communication, self-presentation,
documentation and created categorization.

Social Media marketing is the process of utilizing the online medium of


social networking to determine what products and services can be of interest
to the consumers. Social networking sites provide a marketer with an almost
inexhaustible view of clients and situations. It is up to the company to control
the information and utilize it in an appropriate manner and in a meaningful
way. Social Media provides the opportunity to talk to customers on a
personal level. This is something which is almost impossible to achieve
through traditional channels. Marketing on social media though is not a
substitute for traditional marketing.
Social interaction of the people changed significantly with the advent of
computers and networks. Social media marketing should be treated as an
additional channel to reach out to consumers and can complement other
marketing activities. Using this can increase the effectiveness of each
channel.
Social Media Marketing Opportunities & Risks:
Social network marketing can be very advantageous for businesses. The
potential strategy of business is to build brand loyalty, establish exit barriers
and facilitate viral marketing through customer testimonial. All of this
possible by establishing communities around the products and services using
social media networks. It is an inexpensive way to promote a company rather
than putting together a huge marketing team or a very small budget. The
downside being that bad news can travel just as fast. Customers are bound
to vent their anger on a product and managers need to react quickly to the
outburst or else would have to deal with negative publicity.

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8. Social media: The new hybrid element of the promotion mix

Social Media, the promotion mix, and integrated marketing


communications

Integrated Marketing communications is the guiding principle organizations


follow to communicate with their target segments. Integrated
communications attempts to coordinate and control the various elements of
the promotional mix advertising, personal selling, public relations, publicity,
direct marketing and sales promotion to produce a unified customer centric
message.
The tools and strategies of communication have changed significantly with
the emergence of social networks. Social media encompasses a wide range
of online word-of-mouth forums including blogs, company-sponsored
discussion boards and chat rooms.
The 21st century is witnessing an explosion of internet based messages being
transmitted through these media. They have become a major factor in
influencing various aspects of consumer behavior including awareness,
information acquisition, opinions, attitudes, purchase behavior and post
purchase communication and evaluation.

Social medias hybrid role in the promotion mix

It has long been acknowledged that successful IMC strategies are clearly
reflect the organizations mission and vision and contribute in fulfilling the
performance goals. For example, the promotional efforts conducted by
Procter and Gamble (P&G) or GE illustrated the underlying values of these
organizations as articulated in their respective mission and strategic
principles.
GE and P&Gs use of social media demonstrates that this media has two
interrelated promotional roles in the marketplace. First, social media enables
companies to talk to their customers and second it enable customers to talk
to one another and share information within themselves.

Paradigms: Traditional vs New Communications

In the traditional communications paradigm, the elements of promotional


mix are coordinated to develop an IMC strategy, and the content, frequency,
timing, and medium of communications are dictated by the organization in
conjunction with its paid agents. The flow of information outside the
boundaries of the paradigm has generally been confined to face-to-face,

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word-of-mouth communications among individual consumers, which had very


little impact on the dynamics of the marketplace due to limited
dissemination. However, in the current era of social media, marketing
managers control over the content, timing, and frequency of information is
being severely eroded.

9. Measuring the effectiveness of Online Marketing


Traditional TV and print media can only hope to create awareness and push
new products towards consumers. From then on other elements of the
promotional mix takeover such as direct marketing and POS promotions.
Unlike traditional media, social and online media encompasses the entire
sales process. The internet is so much more than an advertising medium.
Marketing campaigns can create awareness and then drive consumers all the
way through the process to actually making a purchase online.
Some online marketing metrics

Click-through rates (CTR)


Cost per click (CPC)
Cost per impression (CPI)
Return on Investment (ROI)

These metrics are all numerical in nature. The internet is similar to direct
marketing in that the consumers actions are all measurable and recordable.
Examples of such actions are banner click through, navigation through
websites and online purchases.
The drawback of these statistics is that they are too numerical and do not
analyze all aspects of consumer behavior.

10.
Succeeding with Social Media and Delivering an
Enhanced Customer Experience
The emergence of social media as a mainstream phenomenon is placing a
great deal of stress on existing marketing channels. Customers tolerate the
traditional media channels but continuously look for ways to engage the
brands through digital means. Presented with these digital options,
consumers no longer depend on the companys communication choices and
procedures. Customers in the current scenario have very little attention span
in the digital world.

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Social media is not a fad anymore. Customers have grown to rely on multiple
sources of digital information and expect a seamless, easy and proactive
communication experience with the firms every day. It is therefore not
enough to engage the consumers on a one off basis. The customers want to
review products and company information through third party venues such
as social media sites and online forums and blogs rather through brand
controlled channels.
Brands and businesses now want to engage and communicated with the
customers through social channels. Some businesses make the mistake of
jumping on the social media bandwagon without first establishing a business
objective. Due to the lack of a strategic plan, the businesses dont allocate
resources to adapt to the tools and engagement methodologies that their
customers are utilizing.
The importance of channel strategy:
Marketing Companies can reach their targets more consistently, develop
better products and create better customer experiences. Companies can
increase their return on investment and reduce their marketing costs and
improve effectiveness.
Customer Service/Sales A companys rapid response to social media events
can lead to an effective crisis management and generate higher customer
satisfaction
Research and Development Companies can learn from the user feedback
and with collaboration can devise better products.
Customer Loyalty Customers value a company for effective engagement.
Companies can foster long term relations with their customer and this
increases customer loyalty.

11.
Can You Measure the ROI of Your Social Media
Marketing?
Most marketers measure the cost of launching a social media campaign, and
then calculate the return on sales from that investment. But a company
should majorly concentrate on the marketing objectives, why their customers
would visit their page, and their expected reaction. The article says that the
return cannot be measured in dollars. Measuring customer investments in a
social media relationship reveals the likelihood of a long-term payoff, not just
short-term results.
Metrics for Social Media Applications

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1) Brand awareness - In the social media environment, the company


gains increased exposure to its brand. For example, Will it Blend?
was a set of videos that went viral. In the videos many things thought
to be un-blend-able was blended. IPhones, glow sticks, golf balls, none
escaped from being put into the blender and out came sales with a
fivefold increase. The BlendTec videos have now been viewed more
than 100 million times on YouTube.
2) Brand Engagement - Brand engagement can be enhanced through
social media in various ways. The bottom-line rewards for this kind of
engagement is delayed though. Traditionally, marketers measure
engagement through customer surveys. Online, marketers can use
one-time versus repeated interactions or active participation compared
to passive consumption of social media as proxy measures.
3) Word of Mouth If the consumers are aware and engaged, they
communicate their opinions to other consumers, whether positive or
negative. For example, the article takes the case of technology
journalist Jeff Jarvis who blogged in 2005 about the shoddy customer
service he received from Dell which resulted in Dell losing its customer
satisfaction score by five points.
Paths to effective social media strategy is said to be being clear about the
objectives to be achieved. They also say that as long as the company gets
the right reasons to motivate people to use online media to talk of the
company, the social media application in itself seem to matter less.
The managers ability to measure the social media effectiveness has been
put into a 2*2 matrix in the article. The 4 areas are:
1)
2)
3)
4)

Dead end
Measure & Adjust
Nave optimist
Iterate for success

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12.

The small business Online Marketing Guide

This article starts by enumerating why a Business Needs to Market Online?


Research says that, 94% of consumers research products online before
buying. This article asks a small business owner to do the following steps:
1) Set goal what is to be achieved? Increasing footfall of the site or
getting more email subscriptions etc.
2) Identify your target Select your target buyers and learn the maximum
about them. What do they care about most? What are their problems?
Their gender, hobbies, location etc. These information can help us
determine the best ways to connect with them.

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3) Learn about current customers


4) Check out competitors
5) Set a strategy - Choose one or two tactics that work within the planned
budget.
6) Track your results
The article then mentions 10 Ways to Use the Internet to Grow Business:
1. Local listings and classifieds.
2. Search advertising.
3. Contextual ads.
4. Display ads.
5. Geotargeting.
6. Group buying.
7. Mobile marketing
8. Social networking sites.
9. Affiliate marketing.
10. Online videos.
The article also gives guidance on how much we should we should plan to
spend on marketing. They say that the amount varies by industry, business
size and how much you want to grow your business.
The Small Business Administration and SCORE (Counselors to Americas
Small Business) put it at between 2% and 10% of sales. Depending on your
business model, we could spend half of our marketing budget on offline
(print ads, brochures, telemarketing) and half on online (search marketing,
display ads, mobile).
If the business is online oriented, the online spending should be increased.
The article says that measuring the results of online marketing is important
and can generate data to let us refine our marketing programs based on the
assessment. Major
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)

Website analytics For example, Google Analytics


Clickthroughs
Conversions
Phone Number
Landing pages

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13.
Integrated online marketing communication:
implementation and management
IMC or Integrated Marketing Communication is defined by Duncan (2002, P.
8) as, A cross-functional process for creating and nourishing profitable
relationships with customers and other stakeholders by strategically
controlling or influencing all messages sent to these groups and encouraging
data-driven, purposeful dialogue with them.
The article says that, IMC does not fit easily into the organizational structure
adopted by most firms because of significant structural barriers to its
implementation.
Organization barriers for the implementation of the IMC concept are:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)

lack of horizontal communication


functional specialization
decentralization
lack of IMC planning and expertise
lack of budget
lack of database technology
corporate culture
Fear of change.

The article speaks in detail about the characteristics of the new audience of
the company through internet.
The impact of the internet technology on marketing communication is
explored and the article says the internet has changed the classical
communication procedures.
The differentiating characteristics are:
1) Interactivity : direct talk between individuals and software applications
2) Transparency: The information published online, unless specifically
protected can be accessed by any internet user.
3) Memory: what goes into the web remains in the memory of the
network until it is erased.
Taking into account the feed-back received from internet audiences,
companies can modify the online strategy of the firm.

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14.
Becoming a Social Business (Keys to creating a
comprehensive social business plan)
Establish the identity: This article urges us to establish the company
identity on social platforms. This includes determining the look and feel of
the brand on social platforms. The channels where the brand should have a
presence also has to be decided. The brand should be given a personality
since the voice, look and other brand identifiers have to be thought out
strategically so that the individual members of the audience should feel a
connection with the brand and the message. The whole exercise should
create a feeling in the consumer as if the pitch is being made one on one to
them.
Optimization of the channels: Optimizing channels helps to ensure
consistency of messages and image across the social sphere. When the
website and other social channels have been linked well, the brand
discoverability online increases. The competition and the industry should
also be analyzed. This will help us to figure out what kind of differentiation is
required and how the product should fit in the lives of the consumer.
Determine your measurement criteria: The key performance indicators
(KPIs), benchmarks and the time of achieving them with each step.
9 components of the social marketing plan
Social Media & Strategy Audit - objectively measure how your channels
compare to those of industry leaders relative to certain benchmarks
1) Integrating Social Media - Define how the brand is going to become
social and not the plan of steps to be done on social networks. For this
we have to define how social media is going to change the internal and
external communications, revenue streams, customer service
initiatives, employee outreach etc.
2) Data Mining we need to figure out where the most relevant data
exists and how we can mine it. Based on the data mined, new
campaigns are formed.
3) Channel Building - The family of channels of a company is known as
the SocialSandbox. Consistency with the messages on the company
web site, seamless transition between website and social media
applications are all important parts of the overall marketing strategy.
We need not have a presence everywhere but the brands voice should
be heard where it matters most.
4) Social Competitive Analysis keep track of what the competitors are
saying, review their strategies and what you might do differently.

20

5) Content Strategy - We need to determine how the brands story should


be told, how to position our brand, what our voice will be on social
media and where and when it will resonate loudest.
6) Social Care - The public catches complaints very fast so special care
needs to be taken to ensure all messages are responded to in a polite
& timely manner.
7) Measurement & ROI Determine KPIs before the program starts
8) Tools and Technologies Only those tools that make work more
productive should be selected.
Important KPIs to consider are:
Cost-per-lead/acquisition - measures the cost of acquiring a new lead or
customer
Engagement - As the audience engages with the brand, we know that the
content is being well received and that the brand awareness is increasing.
Referral traffic - Keeping an eye on the types of content that generate the
most clickthrough rates, and the networks from which most referral traffic is
received will help you when it comes to modifying the strategy.
Network growth

15.

The Power of Persona-Based Marketing

This article talks about what are personas and what is persona based marketing.
Personas are fictional consumers that are created to identify different user types
within demographic or psychographic sets. These qualitative personas are
representative of specific segments. While multiple personas are typically created
and targeted, only one, the core consumer, should be the primary focus for the
campaign.
The specific goals, needs and desires that each persona is looking to fulfill from the
product or service is often different. By placing a face and a name on the person we
are targeting, creative directors, designers and writers get a powerful tool in
creating effective messaging. Likewise, media planners can better hone in on the
best options to reach each persona. The use of personas also helps us to avoid the
all-too-common practice of mirroring putting our own personal feelings into the
mix.
Defining Your Core Consumer and Target Audiences are very important. Below are
the characteristics:
1) The core consumer should be considered transcending age, sex and race. We
develop a person who embodies the spirit of the brand.
2) Target Audiences are the consumers, trade and internal groups who are
relevant to your brand.

21
3) Personas are the core user and target audiences with names, faces, lifestyle
and stories applied.
SIX STEPS TO BUILDING PERSONAS
1. Gather information Both on our customers and the competition. Begin
identifying the various audiences you wish to target.
2. Get out in the field - The best insights come from getting out to your stores,
observing, talking to sales people, buyers, distributors, etc. Take notes, photos and
observe what others in the category are doing.
3. Look for patterns - At this point there should be a number of trends, behaviors
and patterns that are rising to the forefront. Continuously give thought to what your
market really is and if there are any opportunities.
4. Build scenarios - Persona-based marketing is about telling stories and providing
relevant information to your audience. What is the need your product fulfills for the
buyer? Why do they choose your product over the other options? Do they desire and
crave your brand, or is it just cheap and easy?
5. Measure - Build key performance indicators (KPIs) into your plan and verify the
assumptions that youve made. Which of your target personas is buying your
product? Which are avoiding you? How is the category performing as a whole?
6. Evolve - Adapt and adjust to continually improve how you connect with your
targets. The messaging, the imaging, the media vehicles and even the product or
packaging may need to be updated.

16.

THE VALUE OF SOCIAL DATA

The social relationship management process is:


1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)

Listen To what people ae raying about your brand


Engage With the customers in social media
Create - content and applications
Publish to multiple social channels
Manage workflows
Analyze Results

Socially-enabled big data analytics and customer experience management is


the central idea here. The article says that once social technology has been
integrated within CRM systems, the social CRM is in place. This lets us use
social data in analytics, business intelligence, and customer experience (CX)
management systems.
Expanding social listening capabilities captures the key profile information
and the results of social engagement with the customers. This opens up a

22

comprehensive approach to socially-enabled big data analytics and CX


management.
DATA AS A SERVICE (DaaS): Many organizations are starting to use cloud
services that provide high-quality data and insights uniformly to all
necessary applications.
These services offer a number of key advantages like:
Agile and easy to use - Business applications can obtain data on demand
quickly and simply.
Cost-effective - Pre-integration with applications reduces time and effort.
High-data quality - There is single-point access to reference data and links
to transactional, curated, and social data.
Simpler data governance support - Data privacy and compliance are
centralized. Just as the cloud helps to manage IT from an infrastructure,
platform, and software perspective (IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS), the next step is
Data as a Service (DaaS).
Integrating social and enterprise data happens in phases.
Step 1: identify the data
Step 2: plug that data into a data exchange
Step 3: enrich the data
Step 4: analytics and data pull
THE SOCIAL CRM PROCESS
1) Pre-campaign learn what your consumer really wants
2) Launch
3) During campaign combine real-time quantitative & qualitative
analytics to identify ways to improve the campaign outcome
4) Post-campaign use insights for next campaign

SUB THEMES
SEO:
In 2015, Video Content Will Overtake Written Content in ROI for B2C
Industries. In 2016, a handful of new technologies and the continuation of
years-long trends will shift, and video will outpace written content in terms of
reach, engagement, effectiveness, and overall ROI. Vine, Periscope,
Snapchat, and other video apps are partially responsible for this, setting
users expectations toward more visual content, but the real herald may

23

come from Google, which is now experimenting with video ads in search
results.
Mobile-Optimization
Will
Become
More
Important
than
Desktop
Optimization. For the past few years, desktop has been a standard form of
search, with mobile users growing in numbers. Earlier this year, mobile
searches surpassed desktop searches for the first time. Starting now, and
continuing into 2016, this shift will continue, eventually making mobile traffic
by far the more important, with desktop fading into obscurity over the next 5
years.
Social Content Will be More Readily Indexed. Google has deals in place with
Facebook and Twitter alreadysearch for a news item, and youll probably
see a tweet or two appear in your mobile search results.
Social Media:
With 44% of Americans now listening to streaming audio (Pandora, Spotify,
etc.), similarly structured, on-demand podcast episodes are also gaining
ground. The popularity of weekly NPR true-crime podcast Serial has won
marketers attention. Podcasting blurs the line between content marketing
and social. Its content because of the useful information or entertainment it
provides; its social because it provides personal interaction with one of the
voices of a brand.
As Facebook continues to limit the number of posts page fans actually see,
the demand for promoted posts and ads will continue to increase. And with
this increased demand will come increased pricing.
With Twitters move to offering businesses more choice and flexibility in how
and what they pay for in terms of advertising, more small and medium sized
businesses will jump on the Twitter ad bandwagon. These objective-based
campaigns, which are still currently in beta, will offer more flexibility
including tweet engagements (retweets, replies, etc.), website clicks or
conversions, app installs, new followers and leads.
The 9 core components emphasized for online marketing success are: Social
Media & Strategy Audit, Integrating Social Media, Data Mining, Channel
Building, Social Competitive Analysis, Content Strategy, Social Care,
Measurement & ROI, Tools and Technologies.
Content Management:

24

In 2015, Facebook launched Instant Articles. This technology allows


publishers to instantly and constantly publish streaming content to Facebook.
Essentially, the companys content management system interfaces directly
with Facebook and can seamlessly publish new content as it is ready for
release. Instant articles are now limited only to 9 major publishers but with
rising competition, 2016 might see Instant content be a game changer.
Smart content creators will factor in users preference for video and image
over text, their preference for informative and useful content over blatant
sales efforts, and their preference for custom content over shared content.
Ecommerce:
With the advent of responsive web design spread like wildfire, going
forward we are bound to see an improvement in mobile shopping
experiences. Mobile advertising is getting more popular day by day, and
branded ecommerce store owners are going to be among the first big
spenders on mobile ads. We will also see rise in video mobile ads that have
the potential go viral on social networks. Smart watches and other wearable
devices are yet to take off in a big way, many more such products are set to
enter the market in the future. The easy availability of analytics and data will
lead to creation of more data-based content. As users become more
comfortable with sharing some personal information with brands and trusted
online stores, we will see store owners make more efforts to offer a more
meaningful personalization to users.
Email Marketing:
The move to responsive email design has encouraged simpler email designs
with a focus on context, image and to a lesser extent, text in 2015 and we
can expect this to continue into 2016. Advanced Email Marketers working in
predominantly in retail, are finding that animated gifs is an effective
technique as more recipients are downloading images. It's easier to embed
video now in emails with HTML5 rather than clicking through from your email
to play it, though this hasn't been enabled across all email clients. Predictive
intelligence involves applying propensity models to identify the combination
of content and offers to most likely to generate a response. It's become more
popular, as it's readily available as a core feature in many email and MA
tools.
Affiliate Marketing:
From a technological perspective, the broader field of digital marketing, of
which affiliate marketing is a part, has increasingly needed to find ways to

25

adapt to changes in everything from website tracking technologies to the


latest advances in cell phones. Merchants now establishing relationships with
non-traditional affiliates, including storefront programs that allowed them to
partner with schools, nonprofits, and other organizations looking to raise
money. Merchants who are expanding their product and service offerings to
other countries are looking to evolve their affiliate programs along with
them. Differences in regulations, the agency/network landscape, and
attribution from country to country create challenges, but they arent
insurmountable.

INDIAN CONTEXT
The massive Indian market is changing fast. Internet access is
mainstreaming among professionals and the use of mobile is intensifying.
The pace of change continues to be rapid with digital channels constantly
growing in volume and strength. More people spend more time online in
India every year, and the digital tools and sites they use play an evergrowing role in their lives. Smart marketers keep on top of the scale of
change and ensure their marketing strategies and touch points mirror where
the consumer is spending their time. Email has become a mass market
media channel for office workers and professional classes, but the use is
more fractured than in Europe.
The internet advertising industry remains young in India and behaves in a
similar way to the Western European internet advertising industry 5-8 years
earlier. It is enjoying fast growth, albeit from a low base. The sector is
dominated by financial services, IT/mobile and recruitment, with consumer
package goods and motoring accounting for only small shares of the national
online advertising market. However Indian consumers have experienced web
advertising from the start of their use of the web so there is greater
acceptance than in some of the Western European markets at a similar stage
in their growth. The market is nationally driven with extra campaigns coming
from global brands, but most of the budget confined to national businesses.
Consumer internet behavior in India: Once people start using the internet
their behavior changes permanently and already in India over two thirds of
people with access use it several times a week or more. Work audiences
account for significant amounts of the online total population. Access from
internet cafes remains extremely high, averaging 30% on working days
Mobile phone use in India: Value added services - SMS, Hello Tunes, Music on
Demand and Airtel Live - contributed to about 9.5% of the total revenues of
the segment and SMS alone accounted for 4.1% of the total revenue in the

26

market according to Go Broadband (2009). Mobile adoption has always been


higher, so for SMS marketing, that is the true mass market media channel
across many demographics. While mobile use is very high, mobile devices
and the web will not properly converge until late 2010 so this remains an
SMS text platform rather than mobile internet.
Search engine marketing in India: The role of search is similar to most
developed internet markets, although there is a lack of accurate data due to
challenges in researching the market size effectively. Search is the largest
segment of the online advertising industry in most countries and search
engine advertising is rapidly growing in India.
Internet use in India is low, but high concentrations among professional
classes. Use data is skewed massively towards specific demographics. Email
has become an important business tool. The web is proving itself as both an
entertainment and business media platform.
Online activity trends are: Email and information remain the strongest
reasons people go online. The role of video has grown rapidly in the past few
years and will continue to. The role of social media is growing rapidly with
over 60m people having profiles on social networking sites; this will
accelerate. Blogging and RSS use also prove to be significantly high and this
will continue.
In terms of Sectors, Online marketing advertisements seen by users mainly
in Finance: Banks and Loans, Recruitment, Education and Training, Mobile
Telephony, Entertainment, IT, Matrimonial, Insurance.
The users who bought products after seeing online marketing adverts or
social media sharing is mainly noticed in Tourism: Hotel, tour and holiday, IT:
Computer, Laptops and Mobiles, Entertainment, Matrimonial, Travel: Flights,
Recruitment , Automotive and Personal Products.
The internet advertising industry remains young in India. It behaves in a
similar way to the Western European internet advertising industry 5-8 years
earlier. However Indian consumers have experienced web advertising from
the start of their use of the web. The market is nationally driven. Negative
perceptions about advertising remain. National media have been sluggish to
provide online services comparable in quality to those in the UK and USA.
Search engine advertising and optimization are fundamental to online
marketing in India. The role of search is similar to most developed internet
markets. Search engine advertising is rapidly growing in India, roughly

27

doubling in size each year. Product development among search engines will
now increase, given Indias accelerating status as an internet economy.
To conclude, the web is a mass market media channel for the wealthy. Email
is a mass market media channel for office workers. Mobile for SMS is a mass
market media channel across many demographics. Mobile use is very high,
but mobile and the web will not converge until late 2016. The main changes
in internet access have happened in the last five years. The internet has
become an essential part of office life, and plays a key role in many homes.
The number of people online continues to rise, but so too does the time they
spend online. Broadband access is growing fast, but the number of home
connections lags behind comparable markets; however although the number
of connections is low, a large number of people in high-end demographics
have access. Significant infrastructure problems remain, creating a high cost
of access and a barrier to the rollout of broadband.

METRICS FOR MEASUREMENT:


Social media can be an extraordinarily effective marketing medium, but it can also
be a tremendous time sink for brands that focus on the wrong priorities. There are
several reasons social shares provide very little information about the overall
effectiveness of your campaign. Some of these include:
1. Many social shares come from bots.
2. Social shares may not come from your target customers.
3. Social shares can be from people that are speaking negatively about your

brand.
The primary goals of your social media campaign should be boosting customer
engagement and brand awareness. Social shares and follower counts can tell part of
the story, but youll want to monitor the following metrics as well for more valuable
insights.
Brand search volume: There are a variety of tools to measure brand search
volume, but Google Insights and Google Trends are probably the most effective. Use
these tools to compare changes in search volume for your brand against changes to
your competitors volume. Doing so can provide insight into your ability to engage
customers on social media, relative to your competition.
Lead growth: tools measure how many social interactions, web page visits or
email opens it takes before one of your prospects becomes a customer. Depending
on the program, they may even assign a relative weight to each action so that you
can see what kind of role every interaction played in the eventual conversion. Not
only will this data tell you if your social campaigns are performing effectively, itll
show you how to better allocate your activities and marketing resources in the
future.

28

Brand sentiment: Tools are available to help measure the sentiment of the
conversations surrounding your brand online, but whats just as important is having
a plan for how youll respond if you find that your brands image isnt as pristine as
you like.
To prepare for this frustrating possibility, create internal documents dictating who is
responsible for responding to negative brand mentions, what your official company
response will be and what types of recompense youre willing to offer unhappy
customers.
Inbound links: rather than merely measuring any changes to your search engine
result page rankings, its also a good idea to actively track changes in your link
velocity in relation to your social media campaigns. If you can identify these surges
and tie them to your social activities, youll gain insight into which of your
campaigns have made the biggest difference in terms of link building and brand
exposure.
Klout score: Klout has become a popular tool for measuring social media
engagement, and its one youll want to start using right away to determine whether
your marketing efforts are resulting in better brand recognition or higher perceived
authority.

Other Important Questions:


1. How many people are clicking on your social shares?
2. How many actual conversions are you getting from social media?
3. How many people are talking about my brand vs. my competitors?
4. Is my content really relevant and of good quality?
To answer these questions use Google Analytics to measure the following three key
factors for each piece of content you produce:

Unique page views

Time on page

Total pages viewed


REACH HOW MANY PEOPLE DID YOU IMPACT WITH YOUR MESSAGE?

Connections on LinkedIn

Followers on Twitter

29

Likes on your Facebook page

Views and Subscribers on your YouTube channel

Visitors to your blog

ENGAGEMENT HOW MANY PEOPLE INTERACTED WITH YOUR MESSAGE?

Clicks on links in your social media posts

Retweets, Mentions and Direct Messages on Twitter

Shares on Facebook and LinkedIn

Comments on your Facebook and LinkedIn posts

Ratings on your YouTube videos

Comments on your blog posts

CONVERSION HOW MANY PEOPLE TOOK ACTION BECAUSE OF YOUR MESSAGE?

Registrations for content downloads

Webinar registrations

Online lead generation form completions

Phone-in leads

Online sales

BRAND ENGAGEMENT MEASUREMENT:


1. Number of unique site visitors. .
2. Opt-in registrations.
3. Return visits to website
4. Time spent on website
5. Popular pages and navigation paths
INFLUENCE RESPONSE MEASUREMENT:
1. Downloading content
2. Buying your product

30
3. Joining or establishing an account
4. Sharing with recommendations
5. Posting positive comments
SALES AND MARKETING METRICS
1. Conversion rate
2. Market share
3. Corporate reputation
4. Brand persuasion score
5. Search engine ranking
6. Social networking presence
7. Projected sales level
8. Revenue per customer
9. Cost to serve
10.Cost per sales lead
11.Sales per vertical
12.Klout score

REFERENCES
1. https://www.academia.edu/2948659/EFFECTIVENESS_OF_SOCIAL_MEDI
A_AS_A_MARKETING_TOOL_AN_EMPIRICAL_STUDY
2. http://jiad.org/article148.html
3. http://t2marketinginternational.com/wpcontent/uploads/2014/05/Becoming-a-Social-Business-t2SocialeBook.pdf
4. http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/wpcontent/uploads/2013/03/UK_Research_CMI_2013_Final-3.pdf
5. https://www.searchlaboratory.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/ThePast-Present-and-Future-of-SEO-Digital.pdf
6. http://www.silverpop.com/Documents/Whitepapers/2013/2014Marketing-Trends-White-Paper-Silverpop.pdf
7. http://www.seokursu.com.tr/social-network-in-marketing.pdf

31
8. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0007681309000329
9. http://search.proquest.com/docview/214804340?pq-origsite=gscholar
10.http://www.cognizant.com/InsightsWhitepapers/Five-Steps-forSucceeding-with-Social-Media-in-a-Multichannel-World.pdf
11.https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Donna_Hoffman2/publication/228
237594_Can_You_Measure_the_ROI_of_Your_Social_Media_Marketing/lin
ks/552c11f50cf29b22c9c41cc1.pdf
12.https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.com/en//ads/p
dfs/small_business_online_marketing_guide.pdf
13.http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/13632540810881974
14.http://www.forthsectordevelopment.org.uk/documents/New_BusPlanGui
de.pdf
15.http://info.boelterlincoln.com/persona-based-marketing
16.https://go.oracle.com/LP=1320

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