Digital Marketing is not a one time strategy

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Digital Marketing is not a one time strategy, it is a daily effort with a sincere idea to add value to end users. 

It has to be consistent, valuable and sincere. The focus should be to have a connect and conversation and that too in real time.

Many marketers and brands confuse digital marketing and social media and presume it to be the same thing. There is a distinct difference between digital marketing and social media marketing.

On similar lines, brands and marketers often approach "Digital marketing" as a one time strategy or a quick get rich scheme. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Digital marketing needs to be a well planned, designed and constantly monitored approach wherein the following aspects play a crucial role in it's campaign SUCCESS:

- Content Marketing: Content is not just about interesting and resourceful anymore. It also needs to be relevant, engaging and insightful. Generating valuable content not only assures your expertise and confidence in your industry, brand, products and services, but also sends a vivid message to your customers and prospects that you care enough to create information that they could find to be useful for their day to day lives in connect with your industry. Also, today, brands need to generate content that tells a story while keeping it fresh and original at all times.

- Instant Gratification for brand ambassadors online: Brands are no longer in control of their online brand mentions. Users and consumers take up the role of being the voice of the brand with or without their permission. So it is required that brands take their time out to showcase and acknowledge their brand ambassadors and reward or award them in some way to show appreciation in the form of INSTANT GRATIFICATION. This goes a long way as these brand ambassadors become powerful brand influencers and loyal referrals over a period of time!

- Analytics: BigData and social media metrics with consumer research and online behavior insights: 

Data is the heart of a Digital Marketing campaign and Content is the soul of a brand. 

Data is no longer about hits, likes, followers, reach, traffic, etc. It's about what the customers and prospects are saying or expressing out there. It's about understanding them better. By understanding their online behavior, today, brands across industries, especially in the case of Retail and Lifestyle can use this metrics to provide more customized services to their prospects and customers. Thus, brands can leverage and empower customers online shopping with multimodality Omni-Channel Approach for Omniscient Consumers . On similar lines, in the field of education, tourism, hospitality, real-estate, finance, health and wellness, etc data plays a crucial role as the core is not just about the data, but rather, data that is relevant to your industry and digital marketing goals.

- Clearly defined specific Goals: Have clear goals. ROI using social media and digital marketing is not just a dream. It's a reality. You can have a look at various case studies across industries and countries that showcases how to use digital to deliver ROI for corporate brands. So, specific goals mean, "Increase in 25% footfalls at the restaurant in the next quarter" and not just "increase in sales" which is very vague. Also, having clear and specific goals helps to design strategies that are more focused and well executed. 

- Right balance between automation of social media and real-time engagement using digital marketing tools: Sometimes, it's alright to automate industry tweets, news, posts, messages etc.but to the extent possible, always focus towards conversations in real-time. 

- Balance between Organic search through SEO and Paid search through Pay Per Click campaigns: SEO is not just online, as a digital marketer, you need to focus towards organic results online and offsite too. At the same time, pay per click (PPC) campaigns can no longer be ignored. It's competitive to the core and bidding across the right set of keywords can empower great ROI focused results for your digital marketing campaigns as it helps you to deliver messages at the right time, at the right platform to the right set of target audiences. 

Digital marketing encompasses power packed strategies, process, features, functionalities and most important of all, well monitored campaign ideas planned over a specific period of time. 

So ensure to use the power of digital medium, achieve success across your digital campaigns,connect with your customers & prospects and grow as a brand.

Ananth V

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