3 Digital Marketing Trends to Prepare for in the Near Future

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In a recent article from Forbes, there are some important trends in the digital marketing industry that marketers should be aware of. The digital world is always evolving: consumer patterns change, new platforms emerge, etc. Therefore, organizations must be prepared to adapt. The three key trends that Forbes focuses on in the article are social marketing, the talent gap, and video marketing.

Social Marketing:
If utilized correctly, social marketing campaigns can be very successful. Advertising on Facebook for example can turn a low cost investment into a high return on investment (ROI). According to the Forbes article, research has shown that “social users appeal more to offers and discounts, so even a simple 10% off to promote a product or service will greatly increase visibility.” Forbes also points out that the strategy is to “always find new mediums gaining popularity, as conventional outlets like news sites should be avoided.”

The Talent Gap:
According to the article, “the talent gap in digital marketing is the root cause of unsuccessful campaigns.” Not understanding the data, wasting money on ad spend, and not properly managing accounts are frequent problems in today’s industry. Many “traditional advertisers” don’t possess the same skill set and thinking process as the younger generation of digital marketers. Ultimately, it’s essential for organizations to find individuals who consistently deliver high ROI in a digitally dominated world.

Video Marketing:
Viral videos have a ton of power in today’s digital world, yet it’s very challenging to gain popularity online. Millions of users are streaming YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites daily. Forbes point of advice from video marketing is that “it’s not the big budgets that win, it’s the great ideas that create buzz.” If marketers can capitalize on this hot trend in video traffic, there will be high rewards.

Contact Us: For more information regarding digital marketing expertise, visit the Onimod Global Website. We provide weekly news updates on the latest in the world of digital marketing. Enjoy!

Recipe For Success: How to Utilize Digital Marketing in the Food Industry

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Every industry is different. While some digital marketing objectives may be applicable over a wide variety of products and services, there are some areas in which a specialty is needed.

One of our successful clients, Theory, is an upscale sports lounge in downtown Chicago. Theory goes above and beyond in order to stay ahead in the highly competitive food industry. Offering excellent food, style, service, and all around comfort, this is definitely not your average sports bar.

You may be wondering, how does this company stay ahead of the curve? The answer my be hiding in their digital marketing tactics.

SEO

Keyword Lists: Experimenting and tweaking different groups of keywords and search terms is essential to figuring out what will work best for your business. But first, you have to start with a wide range of options.

Be sure to include several different types of keywords throughout your website and advertisements. Broad match, niche-specific, and individual brand terms can all help drive traffic to your restaurant.

Keep it Local: Try to keep many of your marketing strategies centered around local consumers. After all, these are the people who are going to be the lifeblood of your business.

Gain as much ground as possible on local directories. Google My Business is an incredible resource. Listing your company through Google will immediately boost its awareness. You definitely want your business to pop up when someone does a local search for “food near me.”

Social Media

Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are all hugely influential to customers in the food industry. Impactbnd.com compiled 49 statistics on social media. The following stats highlight the incredible affect social media can have on your brand:

  • In 2015 Facebook influenced 52 percent of consumers’ online and offline purchases, up from 36 percent in 2014.
  • 68 percent of Instagram users engage with brands regularly, and Instagram has 58 times more engagement per follower than Facebook.
  • 67% of Twitter users are far more likely to buy from the brands they follow on Twitter.

Website Optimization

Every real business needs an equally real website. A “real” a site can direct users and help to answer their most common questions.

More basic questions consist of “what is your address, phone number, and business hours?” Slightly more complicated questions may include, “are you available to cater special events or reserve a room for a private event?” All of these questions should have an answer that is clearly stated on your website.

The user experience should also be clear and efficient. A customer should be able to navigate your website with ease, both on a desktop or mobile device.

The overall visual appeal of a site is also incredibly important. If a potential customer is not pleased with photographs of your business and the food it offers, then they are very unlikely to order anything off of your menu.

No one gets a second first impression. Make sure that your restaurant gathers all the right kinds of attention with a spectacular website.

Case Study

Onimod Global was able to work with Theory of Chicago on each of these aspects. We used our expertise to build a new website, pack it full of SEO content, and spread the word about their incredible services across all major social media platforms. Take a deeper look into this project by viewing the Theory case study HERE.

How Important is Blogging for a Company?

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Having a company blog and posting consistently may seem like a “no brainer,” yet it’s surprising how many organizations either don’t have a blog or don’t post enough. Many times blogs just become an afterthought and businesses don’t understand the importance of posting. Listed below are a few reasons as to why having a company blog is so important in today’s world of marketing.

Enhanced SEO:
Maintaining a blog in general will only increase online visibility and fuel your SEO. Google and Bing’s algorithms reward valuable and fresh content for specific search queries. Regardless of the industry, maintaining a well written blog is one way to appear ahead of competitors in the search engine results. The use of relevant keywords and phrases in your blog content  is what makes this happen. A client of ours for example (Theory) is a sports bar in Chicago wanting to rank well for the Mayweather McGregor fight soon. As you can see in the image below, a blog post we created is ranking first and second organically for relevant searches.

Company Blogging

Driving Traffic to Website:
Related to increasing SEO presence, the ultimate goal of blogging is to drive traffic to your company’s website. It’s a common sense marketing strategy – the more traffic driven to your website, the better chance of someone becoming a consumer of your product/service. The best way to increase blog traffic is through promotion on multiple social media channels. Most notably Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus, and other relevant platforms. Promoting a blog is essentially free, and if your content is interesting you will gain a following and see increased website traffic over time.

Contact Us: For more information regarding digital marketing expertise, visit the Onimod Global Website. We provide weekly news updates on the latest in the world of digital marketing. Enjoy!

How to Run a Successful Cause Marketing Campaign

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Cause marketing is a relatively new term. What it boils down to is a campaign led by a large organization in order to help fund a charitable project. This idea began with American Express back in 1980.

Historically

The credit card company decided to launch a campaign that would donate a portion of each American Express transaction to fund the restoration of the Statue of Liberty. The results were wildly successful as the company generated over $1.7 million for the restoration project, and the card’s use rose 27%.

Since this marketing milestone, many other large businesses have followed suit, and have achieved the same success. But how do they do it? Sure, everyone loves a good cause, but that is not all there is to it. Follow along for deeper insight into cause marketing and how your business can reap its benefits too.

Find Your Cause

The first step behind a cause marketing campaign is to take a look at how your brand is associated with a certain cause.

For instance, Dawn dish soap has been partnering with wildlife foundations for years. Most notably, their soap was instrumental in the rescue of thousands of animals after the giant BP oil spill in 2010. This kind of direct link between grease-covered ducklings and dish soap is exactly what your business should be looking for.

Positive or Negative?

The outcomes from positive vs negative advertising have been debated many times over. While a review of 100+ scientific studies from Wiley found no definitive difference between the two approaches, there is still more to the story.

Certain types of industries tend to have different reactions to these two methods of advertising. Negativity tends to work very well in political situations. On the other hand, positivity relates well to humanitarian efforts.

Ultimately, the direction of your cause campaign lies in the stance that your business wishes to take. Get a comprehensive view on the situation. Do a little research. It may even be worthwhile to run short campaigns in select areas to see which message produces better results.

Social Media

The use of social media in marketing should never be overlooked. For cause marketing specifically, this rings especially true. Once it is time to start running your campaign across a variety of digital mediums, social media will prove to be very advantageous.

As in many marketing strategies, your goal in this instance is to tell a compelling story. The use of photos and videos is a great way to get this message across.

When consumers can actually see what their support it going toward and how they are changing the world, they feel much more drawn to the cause. Many social media platforms are constantly evolving to create more ways in which to share a story.

As mobile usage continues to skyrocket, we see users spending less time looking at each individual post on their social media feed. So in order to get your message across, you need to do it quickly and effectively. Continue reading more about the benefits of mobile advertising with our article “Why Mobile Matters.”

Conclusion

A cause marketing campaign should always start with your business. How can it help? What can it do? Once you find a connection, find your viewpoint. Determine how to tell your story, positive or negative. Finally, start sharing that message across every digital space you can think of to get people involved. This is how your company can achieve success through cause marketing.

The Importance of Transparency in Digital Marketing

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As marketers, we naturally feel the need to put a fresh and positive spin on every situation. Unfortunately, this tendency can easily become filled with dishonesty and secrecy. In digital marketing this usually manifests itself in the skewing or complete obscurity of data. So how can companies better hold themselves accountable?

Customers

One of the best steps that your business can take towards being more honest with customers is letting them in. Giving clients access to all of their company platforms is a great way to remain transparent. Making sure that the client is the administrator of their own Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and other social media accounts is crucial. This way, the customer can maintain control over their accounts no matter which digital marketing agency they decide to work with.

Paid advertising campaigns are a bit of a different story. Typically, digital marketers have top level control over all client campaigns. This gives them the ability to organize all customer accounts side by side, with as little fragmentation as possible. However, marketers can still easily grant permissions to the client through these paid platforms.

It is also very common for digital marketers to withhold access to paid platforms, so that the client does not accidentally alter any campaigns. The real problem lies in marketers who do not provide genuine reports. Any reputable digital marketing agency should provide ample proof of their advertising efforts. These reports should highlight both the successes and failures of those efforts.

Employees

Many people assume that transparency involves only the customer, but true transparency concerns every aspect of the business. All employees, from the top to the bottom of the corporate hierarchy, are a part of the company’s transparency.

An article from Forbes suggests that there are four major components to improving transparency within a business: honest communication, open doors, collaboration technology, and sharing news.

One main takeaway from these four points is for leaders to be open and receptive of all employees. This can be done in many ways. Even something as simple as literally leaving an office door open can have a large impact. Allowing employees to feel heard and respected is vital in keeping their work efforts honest.

The same article also shows a focus on collaboration. Making an effort to keep each staff member up to speed with emails and instant messages can go a long way. These techniques make employees feel connected to one another, which in turn makes them more likely to maintain open and honest work behaviors.

4 Reasons Why Digital Marketing Has Taken Over Traditional

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It’s no surprise that in the past decade digital marketing has become the focal point of most organizational marketing efforts. I’m not inferring that all traditional marketing efforts have completely died out as print, radio, and TV advertising are all still in existence. However, traditional efforts are dying a slow death as more consumers continue to spend more time on the internet. According to Internet Live Stats, “approximately 40,000 searches happen on Google PER SECOND, which sums to about 3.5 billion searches per day.” Listed below are four major reasons why digital marketing will continue to take over traditional methods.

1. Data and Results are Measurable:
Many forms of traditional marketing (tv, print, radio, billboards, etc.) are very hard or sometimes impossible to figure out impressions or especially conversions. With SEO and ppc campaigns, analytics are available from any date range. Impressions, clicks, engagement rates, cost per click, and conversions are now easily traceable with Google Analytics and insight tools on all the platforms. Ultimately, we now have the ability to analyze data and this is highly valuable regarding future campaign adjustments.

2. Defined and Targeted Audiences:
Ensuring that the right people come across your advertisements should be a top priority. Platforms like Google AdWords, Bing Ads, Facebook Ads, and others contain impressive targeting options that allow advertisers to hit designated audiences. Although some traditional efforts can target certain people by location for instance, the targeting features of digital marketing are light years ahead. On Facebook for example you can target by location, age, gender, occupation, user’s interests, and other relevant factors.

3. Cost Efficiency:
Depending on budgets and how much time and effort is put into digital marketing campaigns, it can still be an expensive venture. However, for the amount of traffic online ads receive compared to traditional ads, it’s not a comparison. Cpc campaigns in particular you are only charged per click, so the amount of impressions your ads receive is invaluable. Advertising through billboards, radio, and television especially can get costly. Plus as mentioned earlier, it’s very difficult to track results so figuring out ROI can be a headache.

4. Future Implications:
Digital marketing from a general standpoint is always evolving. Search engine algorithms change, interfaces update, and the expansion of mobile users is something to keep an eye on. Therefore, focusing the majority if not all marketing efforts to digital is a step in the right direction. As more people continue to spend more time online, use social media, and Google multiple phrases per day, the digital marketing world will continually reach new heights.

Contact Us: If you’re associated with a business seeking improvements in SEO, SEM, Website Development, or any other digital service feel free to reach out to us on our Contact Us page. We look forward to hearing from you!

The 5 Most Important Things About Your Brand

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First Impressions

No one gets a second first impression. This is true in all kinds of different relationships, but especially in business. With only a few seconds to connect with users, companies need to deliver a clear and concise message to consumers.

Start by asking what a potential customer might think the very first time that they interact with your brand. In every aspect of your company from a Facebook post to the website home page, you need to ensure that you are communicating your brand effectively.

SEO

Search Engine Optimization is a very serious topic when it comes to how customers are reaching you. Not only does enhanced SEO help drive traffic and awareness, but it can also heavily impact the user’s overall experience with your brand.

For instance, if a potential client goes to your website but can’t figure out how to navigate through the pages, then you have a problem. This kind of issue can prevent them from learning more about your company or even reaching out through phone or email.

Social Media

10 years ago it is unlikely that anyone could have predicted that there would be a need for such a thing as a “social media manager”. Times have certainly changed. In today’s digitally driven environment, social media plays a very important role in brand recognition.

According to Statista, 70% of the population in the U.S. has at least one active social media account. That means that if your brand is not utilizing Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other major platforms, then it is severely limiting itself.

Content

Content is the incredible piece of the puzzle that brings everything else together. It shows what you have to offer and how you can help your customers across all kinds of digital mediums.

The best way to utilize your brand’s content is to link it all together. Drive every click, tweet, and post back to your website. This allows users browsing Facebook to easily pop over to your website and take a look at your amazing products and services.

Data Measurement and Analysis

No matter how well your business is doing, it is near impossible to realize just how well things are going without some type of measurement. Simple tools like Google Analytics can go a long way in helping your brand succeed.

By taking a look behind the scenes, you can start to get some real answers. Have a sudden uptick in conversions? Try taking a look at how much content you generated, or how well your company ranks on the first few pages of Google search results. Once you can solve the mystery as to why good or bad things are happening, you can take action to make better choices for your brand.

Run a Free Scan of Your Business Today

Get started on improving your company with a brand audit from Onimod Global. See just how well your business ranks on search engines, important local directories, and the top review sites. To see your brand’s overall visibility on the internet CLICK HERE.

3 Digital Strategies for Local Businesses to Drive more Foot Traffic

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As foot traffic for local businesses continues to decline due to online shopping preferences, it’s essential for companies to pursue an effective digital marketing strategy. Through the use of digital marketing there are numerous strategies that businesses can implement that will help increase foot traffic. Three simple and cost effective strategies include using local business directories, advertising locally through Google AdWords, and prioritizing social media efforts.

1. Utilize Local Business Directories:
Failing to use local business directories will already put your organization at a disadvantage. Sites like Yelp, Manta, Yellow Pages, Better Business Bureau, Angie’s List, and others simply can’t be ignored. Not only are listings free to create for your business, they will help increase search visibility (SEO) and overall brand awareness. It’s worth pointing out that from our current SEO work we have been noticing that local business directories are dominating the organic results. Interested to see how well your business ranks online? Run a free scan on the Onimod Global website by CLICKING HERE.

2. Local advertising with Google AdWords:
In addition to local business directories, advertising locally through Google AdWords can be another effective digital strategy for driving foot traffic. According to the Search Engine Journal, “1 out of every 3 online searches now has local intent.” Some benefits of running local search ads include: increasing local visibility, generating phone calls from customers, and an overall enhancement in local awareness. Ultimately, advertising locally with Google AdWords will ensure your business with a competitive advantage if used efficiently.

3. Prioritize Social Media:
Using social media as a local business seems like an obvious and easy way to increase foot traffic, yet there’s more to social media than just posting once or twice per week. According to DMN “over half of consumers say they’re influenced to think highly of a business after seeing positive praise online.” Now in order for a local business to get plenty of recognition through social media, it starts with connecting with customers and making them feel important. All local businesses should focus on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus as social media starting points. When local presence increases other platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, and Snapchat can come into play. Essentially, being consistent and visible on multiple social media channels will only help increase local foot traffic.

Contact Us: For more information regarding digital marketing, visit the Onimod Global Website. We provide weekly news updates on the latest in the world of digital marketing. Enjoy!

How to Create the Perfect Digital Marketing Strategy

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The key to a great digital marketing campaign is the well thought out plan behind it. If you try to launch any campaign without specific directives, it’s likely that you will waste a lot of time and money without producing any real results. This is why many businesses turn to a digital marketing professional. The experts at Onimod Global are here to assist you, and provide insight into what it takes to put together a high quality digital marketing strategy.

Persona Development

Every marketing strategy should be focused around the consumer. The first step in your strategy is to identify who this consumer is. Many professionals outline a buyer persona because it has been proven to be a substantially more effective marketing method.

The persona allows you as the marketer to develop a much more detailed description of your ideal target audience. These details include goals, challenges, interests, and personal priorities of the consumer.

Campaign Goals

In can also be beneficial to ask these detailed questions of your own company and product. Clearly defining the final objective is essential. Much of the strategy will be built around what you eventually hope to achieve with the digital marketing campaign.

While most plans are structured around conversions and sales, there are a wide variety of other goals to be considered. Increasing brand awareness through simple traffic and reach campaigns can be very effective. It is also common to launch campaigns with the intent to gather positive reviews about a product or company. Make sure that you are considering all of your options before moving on to the next step.

Measurement

Your measurements will depend upon the chosen objective for the marketing strategy. Determining the overall success of your digital marketing initiatives will be shown through key performance indicators.

Common key indicators are conversion rates, click-through rates, and overall impressions. If your campaign spans across multiple platforms, it would be wise to link them all together in Google Analytics.

Analyze

Google Analytics is a wonderful tool for digital marketers. This program allows you to combine all of your data into one easily manageable source. After letting all of your ads run over the course of a few weeks, you should have plenty of solid information regarding your marketing efforts. Once the data is compiled, it is easy to glean insights about the campaign.

Analytics provides an opportunity to compare all marketing mediums in use side by side. This way you can clearly see if the Facebook ads are outperforming the Bing ads. Looking at the overall performance of these many platforms can help you see which is most successful, and which is not.

Revisit and Readjust

Now that you possess tons of information and insight into your digital marketing activities. Using analytical tools you should be able to pick out details about the different ads and how they are running across different platforms.

With this information, you should be able to determine how to best spend your ad dollar. Trim the fat of the campaign and eliminate poorly performing advertising options. Or, you can try to rewrite your ads completely and start fresh.

Whatever you decide to do, now you know how. A new plan must be created every step of the way. They do not all have to be incredibly complicated or intricate, but they do need to be intelligent business decisions. The key to any advertising strategy is to have one. Plain and simple.