How to Build a Career in Digital Marketing

Digital marketing involves making marketing efforts via various electronic devices like computers, tablets, smartphones and gaming consoles. It makes use of new technologies and digital platforms like e-mail, websites, social networks and apps (both web-based and mobile). The dynamic and ever-growing realm of digital marketing is expanding to create new opportunities for beginners as well as traditional marketers who wish to venture into this domain. But what does one need to become a digital marketer? This question will be answered through the following article which aims to enlighten aspirants about what it takes to build a career in digital marketing.

Do your Research

It is highly important to know what you are getting into. Begin by finding out the roles and responsibilities of a digital marketer.  Like any other industry, the skills you possess must be aligned to the requirements of the position. There are many aspirants who do not fully understand how far the professionals need to go to in order to create compelling marketing strategies using creative ideas, unique copy and development.

The following are some essential traits that an aspiring digital marketer must possess to be successful in this field –

• Analytical – You should be able to analyze the numbers, understand their relevance and take corrective actions.
• Technical Proficiency – you must have the keenness and capability to learn latest software and adapt to new technology.
• Spreadsheet Expertise – You certainly need to know how to make spreadsheets like Excel. These help you in report making.
• Know-how of Social Media – Even if you are not an innovator when it comes to emerging media, you still need to be a quick learner and adopter.
• Curious Mind – All professionals in this sphere need to have a thirst to learn more to grow. You should be curious to know the processes, how things happen, why certain demographics convert better, etc. Asking questions will only help you learn more.

Seek the Right Education

Even though degree courses are useful, a true marketer only gains the paramount knowledge through a combination of sources beyond the classroom. You can imbibe the right knowledge through –

• Industry Blogs – This industry is highly dynamic and introduces new updates at lightning speed, so books may become obsolete but blogs will remain a nimble source for literature, expertise, insider insights and trends. Make it a routine to read some of the top blogs related to digital marketing.
• Google Analytics – Web analytics are the lifeline of digital marketing and Google Analytics is a widely used platform. Your aim should be to successfully pass the Google Analytics IQ exam. You can even take lessons before taking the exam.

Create Networks and Stay Connected

The best way to stay updated and keep an edge in the rapidly evolving sector of digital marketing is to stay connected with industry allies. Here‘s how to go about it –

• Internship-Bound – If you are in college and wish to aim for a digital marketing job in the future, you can start early by forming associations while still in college. Find yourself a mentor and get yourself a relevant internship where again you can build contacts and gain experience.
• Use LinkedIn – You can join digital marketing groups on the social networking website and then shoot questions that you wish to find answers to. The vast pool of knowledge and expertise available on LinkedIn makes it a great resource.

Get Started with the Real Thing

Once you have understood this field, gained education and experience and formed a network, it is finally time to get serious and find your dream job.

• Get Professional Certification – The Google Analytics IQ test is highly recommended. Another certification by the search giant is the Google AdWords Certification. Even if you do not hold relevant work experience but have one of these to your credit, you will be given a preference when you appear for an interview. The certificates are a representation of your dedication and interest towards internet marketing.
• Set up your Web Presence – This will help you look more credible and will simultaneously allow you to gain hands-on experience by practicing Google Analytics tracking on your own site and driving traffic through different channels. You can start your blog on a subject related to your hobby or passionate.

The above steps will help you get acquainted with the innovative space of digital marketing and help you shine out from the crowd of aspirants.

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5 Reasons Why You Should Invest in Mobile Content Marketing

A lot of people that invest in SEO know all about the benefits of online content marketing. The problem is, even the SEO pros miss out on the big opportunity to get better and faster results by not taking advantage of mobile content marketing.

What is mobile content marketing?

Mobile content marketing is almost like content marketing online, expect that you are targeting your content to a mobile audience. With mobile content marketing you are creating articles, images, video, and more just for your mobile website and mobile app users.

So why would you want to invest in mobile content marketing and what are the benefits?

A great way to repurpose website content

SEO marketers and small businesses are always looking for ways to recycle the content they already have. Why not do it by sending this content to your mobile app or mobile website users. It’s a great way to save time and reduce content creation costs. Just remember to resize your content appropriately. Mobile app users will have a hard time seeing your large images on their tiny smartphone screens.

Greater customer loyalty

When you consistently send helpful and interesting content to your mobile users, they take notice. You are giving your customers a reason to be loyal to you since you’ve helped and entertained them so much in the past. This is really helpful when it’s time to actually send your marketing message to them. You will find that your customers are more receptive to your marketing messages than if you were to just send them cold.

Easy way to increase revenue

Each time a customer opens your email or enjoys an image by you, you have the potential to increase your revenue. Mobile content marketing is just another way to get in touch with your customers when they are on the go. Take this as another opportunity to introduce your products and services to customers that may need you right now.

Higher engagement from customers and prospects

Your customers get bombarded all day with messages from other businesses. To compete in today’s market, you have to find any way you can to always interact with your customers and prospects. There is no better way to do this than by sharing useful and helpful knowledge all the time.

You are always where your customers are

The truth is, mobile app and mobile website users are on the go. This is the perfect time to talk to your customers when they aren’t right in front of their computers. Never before have marketers had the opportunity to be with their customers at all times. It’s just too easy and too cheap to stay in touch with customers with the help of mobile content marketing to ignore it.

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Social Media for Professionals

There’s no hiding from it anymore: social media has become one of the most important weapons in the marketing arsenal. It doesn’t matter if your blog is the most authoritative on a given subject, if no one is reading it. You need to spread the word!

Spending time on social media needn’t mean wasting time. There are many advantages to using these technologies, including, but not restricted to, the following:

• Put yourself / your blog forward
• Show off your skills
• Keep up to date on your area of interest/expertise
• Take part in conversations with fellow bloggers

Of course, as with all things, you get out what you put in with social media. It is very easy to be sucked into the worlds of Facebook or Twitter and emerge bleary eyed hours later, realising that you haven’t done much of value for your site. So, how to avoid falling into the black hole of time wasting? Have a plan!

Your social media attack plan should work towards the aims you have for your blog. Keeping in mind your aims will help you focus as you dive into forums or the blogoverse, as well as help you in developing different tactics to hit those aims. To this end, social media can be used for three purposes:

• Marketing
• Socialising
• Learning

Your plan should mix and match the three on the various platforms to maximise your time and effort.  For example, Twitter could be used to promote your newest article, LinkedIn can be used to find and connect with similar companies or experts, whilst forums can be a veritable storehouse of how-tos, help and advice. Bearing in mind the variety of social media sites out there and the multitude of different ways to use them, your action plan should definitely not only be focused on one site. You also need to make sure not to spread yourself thin trying to be active on ALL the sites. This is nigh on impossible and will only lead to burnout.

For your plan to work you need to have an allotted amount of time each day for your social media management strategy (and it does need to be every day, the online world evolves very quickly).  Setting aside this time, keeping in mind your aims for each of your social media sites, lets you work through your strategy quickly and efficiently, and makes for a very productive hour or two.

When used correctly and responsibly, social media has so many opportunities and advantages specially for language professionals; I met a large number of professionals offering translation services in UK that took advantage of Social Media to promote themselves

.

Most importantly, it connects you to a wider audience with opinions, knowledge and stories waiting to be shared, all of which can be useful to you and your website. Whether you use the available information to learn more about your craft or to inspire a whole series of articles, it’s all up to you.

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Main Problems in Digital Marketing

Electronic commerce

Due to low prices and great assortment of goods and of course to convenience of online shopping consumer expenditures have risen to high levels. According to data for the last 12 months in the USA people spent on online buys more than 304 billion dollars. Among them 100 billion was spent on travelling and other 110 billion on retail purchases.

Companies which work only with online retail (as eBay, Amazon) were able to make real business empires due to electronic commerce. For example, Amazon has 110 millions unique visitors per month. But such triumphal march of electronic commerce means that a regular offline shop is under the threat. In other words, retailers which can’t hold their market part now will have more and more difficulties in future.

Different products categories move to online with different speed, and that makes new difficulties for retailers who work with different categories, for example, big supermarkets. Nowadays about 30% of electronics are sold thought the Internet and only 1% of everyday goods.

Moving of whole channels to the online world can have some influence upon prices and it can promote lowing of them. Internet allows finding the necessary goods on the lowest price.

Social media

ComScore data show us that part of social media according to the time which user spend in the web is higher than part of web-portals. Last year in November in the USA Facebook attracted 150 million unique users. It had 10% part from the whole number of minutes, which users spent in the Internet. But social networks are not only Facebook. The same month LinkedIn had 41 million users, Twitter – 40 million, Google+ had 29 million and Instagram and Pinterest – more than 25 million. 

Users’ activity rise in social networks puts market members before new challenge: how to use new channels in order to communicate with consumer. People often expect from social networks a word of mouth effect. But there are a lot of questions. For example, how much does “a fan” of goods or brand cost? What is better: paid popularity in social networks or the earned popularity? How is it possible to calculate the profit which was received from investments to social media? Today they do a lot of studies in order to have answers to such questions.

ComScore offers a special service which is called “Social Essentials”, it helps to measure quantitatively productivity of marketing efforts in social networks, based on the demographic and behavioral composition of the audience of one or another brand in social media. Such tool also shows coverage and frequency of advertising views in social media. These options give a chance to companies to link their actions in social media with the desired consumer behavior, including brand involvement and buying activity. They also allow measuring the productivity of the current campaign.

But social media can be not only a promotional platform, market researchers think about how to make them a data source about the consumers’ minds. Some of them even believe that in the next five years social networks will completely replace the buyers’ surveys.

Increased cost of digital advertising

Spending on advertising is rapidly flowing to the Internet. According to the IAB data, in the third quarter of 2012 online advertising increased by 18% compared with the previous year. In the first three quarters of 2012 the growth was 15% it is more than 3.8% of the general increase of advertising costs during the same period in all media, in which the research was conducted. The IAB report points to significant growth in different formats, especially in the mobile Internet (+92%), video (+18%), search (+17%) and banners (+12%). The only exception is the multimedia advertising (here we see the recession in 34%)

There is a hypothesis that the high cost of such advertising leads to the rejection from this format in favor of others, especially video, which allows you to transform 30-second video into 15-second easily and inexpensively. At the same time, advertisers and agencies are more and more concerned with the limitation of available advertising space and time. Many say that price for thousand shows of the video often exceeds the price for ads on TV.

It is clear, however, that the more exact the targeting will be the more consumers will be involved and the faster the video rate in the Internet will live behind the price for ads on TV.

Audience targeting or specific publications

The availability of strange platforms and exchanging them in real time helped to the spreading of such phenomena as buying audience through the computer via cookies. According to some rates, about 20% of all display ads views are buying with the help of auctions in real time. This figure will continue growing. The advantages of methods of buying the audience are well documented.

But there is a negative side too: publishers are anxious about the trend towards lowering the prices for ads. This, in turn, led to the creation of private SSP which make possible the acquisition of specific audiences on web sites with the help of program. There is a hope that it will help publishers to protect their premium prices, but giving the opportunity to advertisers to enjoy some advantages of buying audience at the same time.

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Step By Step Action Plan For When You Inherit A WordPress Site

A person can acquire a WordPress website from another guy and what follows thereafter is very important. You don't just inherit the site and then you claim that you are good to go with its management. The all idea of inheriting a WordPress has its own distinct consideration that you must attend to before you start its smooth running. Since you don't have a clue as a developer about the credentials, content, links, password and many more, the following ideas are the most important things you should do after you immediately inherit an existing WordPress site.

1. Change Existing Administrator Password and Email

The first step that you engage yourself after taking his/her WordPress site is to change the admin password and emails. It is essential to make sure that the previous owner of that site does have an authority any more after you take full responsibility of the site.

2. Backup Creation

The site you should then have its own backup created when you are done with password and email change. It is not an option but mandatory to have a site's backup. Failure to do this can end you up in stressful situation just because you don't have any other relevant data from that site. A copy of the original should be available all the time.

3. Roles of the Users Should Be Updated

The other day you acquired a WordPress site; you become the focal point of everything that is taking place both at its server and client point. You must change the admin permission and of course roles. The only person who can be granted permission is one who you trust or share the same inherited WordPress site.

4. SEO and Tracking Matters

It is wise to understand that the SEO strategies of WordPress administrators or bloggers do vary significantly. The best step to attend to this difference is to understand the tracking and SEO technique that is used for that site. For example, you can change the tracking by simply modifying the Google Analytic code. You then have to insert your own tracking so as to maintain the privacy.

5. Perform Security Scans

No one wants to have a site that is not secured. The best thing to do is to use a WordPress verified security scan tool to analyze its status. The performance of the site should also be determined if it needs major scan. A simple way to verify if it needs thorough scan is just to view how fast the pages load. The plugins that came with the inherited site should also be affirmed to be able to determine if they are optimal.

6. Familiarization

You need then to understand what does what. If you are not very conversant with WordPress sites, that should not deter you from exploring it. You can always get tutorials that will help in this. If you are sure of what you are doing, you should analyze and then have a thorough understanding of what each plugin does. You should write this done so as not to omit any information.

7. Clean Up

It is now evident that you have done what must be done when you have inherited a WordPress site. The last but not the least step to take is to remove unnecessary file. For example, the previous user of the site might have had several themes that you may not use again. It is best to delete it instead of just having it by your side. Accounts of users that are no longer in use should also be inactivated. What about unused plugins. For this, just make sure you may not need it in any future before completely deleting them.

Conclusion

Inheriting WordPress sites should not be something to shun. It just needs a person who understands what needs to be done before you proceed with it. The above are also some of the many things you can do to such a site but these are the main ones that need to be attended to. If you don't have a thorough understanding of WordPress sites, you can always use a tutorial either in soft copy or video option. 

Next time you buy a used WordPress site, don't ever forget to do the above and you will be good to go.

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4 Incredible Tools to Host a Contest On Your Facebook

Social media in general and Facebook in particular have come a long way in terms of reach, importance and its effect on brand and business popularity. Today, Facebook not only offers profile and fan pages but allows embedding of third party applications which enhances its functionality. These applications are entrenched within the Facebook fan page via code, widget or tab making the task of engaging, managing, measuring and converting the four social media metrics a breeze.  

One of the popular applications which can be synched with Facebook fan page is "Contest". The contest app creates instant buzz and coerces users to participate, and thereby increase brand value and customer loyalty.

Mentioned below are some of the trendy contests.

1. Photo contest by far is the most popular. As an administrator, you can ask users to submit a photo, vote for others and "like" company page; a prerequisite to participate. The idea is to engage users through voting. It is easy to set up and the images offer a visually soothing experience.
2. The second most popular way of engaging users via contest is "Scratch & Win". Instead of using a physical tool such as a coin to scratch, users simply scratch online, with the help of mouse to view result.  Timer can be set up so that a participant can enter only once in 24 hours.
3. Creating an interesting timeline contest is the next on this list. However, it does have limitations and may not be the right way to analyse page metrics. This type of contest will not generate leads because of its inherent workings.
4. Caption contest is a great way to engage users and generate user content. Businesses can set up this type of contest by uploading the image which could be a product or advertisement, and ask users to express their views.

Listed below are four incredible tools to host a contest on Facebook.

1. Agorapulse

This versatile, intuitive and easy to use marketing and CRM suite is one of the favourite tools of many administrators and marketers. The reasons for its popularity are many.

So what makes it the choice of community managers? Here are the reasons.

• It helps gain more fans through a gamut of apps such as quiz, instant prizes, contests, coupons and sweepstakes.
• Using these apps translates into efficient people engagement which in turn means more fans.
• On the other hand a contest application generates amazing number of opt-in leads.

Although, Agorapulse is an enterprise class tool, it can also be used by mid and small-sized businesses, non-profit entities and even NGO's. A free trial is available for a limited period. However, the basic price structure starts at $29. Agorapulse apps, especially contest, help marketers turn fans into customers. With this tool managing information whether email submissions or polls is a breeze. It can be synched with CRM and email software very easily.

2. Woobox

Woobox is another amazing Facebook tool which allows administrators and marketers to built instant buzz with contest application. Create innumerable intelligent and intriguing contests. Let your creativity go wild. Mentioned below are some of the "contests" which can be created with Woobox.

• Photo contests, where users can participate and vote for the best media.
• Audio/video contests - If you are a marketer or a community manager for a company this type of engagement can instantly catapult a brand to dizzying heights.
• Article, poem, short story contests are some of the other options which every administrator should exploit.

Some of the important features of Woobox are:

• Sweepstakes - An interesting app which allows community managers to collect entries and pick winners in the most transparent way. 
• Coupons - They are simply compelling. It forces users to interact. Coupons have a randomly generated code, offered during seasonal sales, festivals and entry to exclusive shows.
• HTML Fangate
• Poll - This application promises unbiased fan/user inputs whether it is about a brand or service
• Instagram and Pinterest tabs offer a quick way to post images of new products and get instant feedback in the form of followers.

3. Votigo

Votigo is an all in one marketing tool for Facebook page. It offers comprehensive features with maximum customization in terms of look, feel and back end storage of information collected from the fans. It can be used as an application or tab. In either case the user information is stored in a separate database. Some of the engagement tools that it offers are: user or self generated contests such as photo, video and essay. It also offers other routine apps like sweepstakes, polls, input forms and a host of other interesting ways to generate fan page likes.

Salient features of Votigo -

• Better conversion and more Facebook likes.
• It offers compelling apps for Facebook.
• Apps typically translate into high profile viral branding.
• High conversion factor leads to significant increase in customers.

4. Social Prize 

Social Prize is yet another tool which is simply brilliant in terms of engaging with fans, building trust, creating brand hype. A must have tool for every marketer. One of its interesting features is the "cash giveaways", a kind of contest which can be setup in minutes and offers instant brand recognition.

Social Prize offers a two prong strategy.

SHARE TO WIN -

The contest app can be easily embedded as a widget. Administrators need to simply copy paste the code. However, its simplicity doesn't make it less effective. On the contrary it offers an array of tools to monitor the success of contest through online statistics. It also offers several interesting features such as downloading and building leads, creating user generated content and customization of contests, prominent among them the feature which recognizes a single winner each day.

GROW YOUR BASE -

Email lists, content created by fans/users through social engagement like contest app makes sure the company never runs short of customers. In other words, a fan base which grows consistently. 

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10 Powerful Online Tools For Testing Your Website Under Various Resolutions

The era of fixed resolution screens has long gone by. In this digital world of notebooks, tablets and smartphones, every screen has a different resolution. Your creative juices spent on your website may bear little or no fruits if the website is not tested for various screen resolutions. 

Here are 10 powerful online tools for testing your website under various resolutions: 

1. Resizemybrowser.com

This tool enables you to fit your website's browser in the resolution provided by your device, be it a tablet, a smartphone or a notebook. You also have the liberty of defining your own resolution settings which can later be removed.

2. Screenfly (Quirktools) 

This is another famous screen testing tool for websites. This has a number of screen resolution sizes to show you your webpage on various devices viz. TV screens, tablets etc. Once you type in your URL and click on 'Go', Screenfly will present you your website in various screen resolutions. 

3. Testsize.com

This is another online tool for testing your web pages on different screen sizes. You need to just type in the URL and select the screen size from the drop down menu or even manually enter the screen size. Click the open button and view your website in the screen resolution you want to see it in.

4. Firesizer

This works in Firefox and enables you to check your site's pages in various screen sizes. At the right bottom of the screen you can see the present resolution of the screen in the status bar. You can click here to see other screen sizes that are available for preview. You also have the liberty to feed in your own dimensions for testing.

5. Yet Another Window Resizer

This is another easy to use Firefox add on. All you have to do to test your website for a different resolution is click anywhere on the website and choose the resolution from the list that appears. 

6. Resolution Test

This is a Google Chrome extension that enables resolution testing of your website. After you install this tool, you need to just press on the test button which you can find at the right corner of the browser. This extension keeps a record of most frequently used screen sizes and displays them in a list for you to choose from. You can also feed in your own settings of resolution.

7. Window Resizer

It is very similar to Resolution Test. It also features a list of preset resolution sizes which may be utilized for your website testing. Like Resolution Test, it also enables you to define your own presets. 

8. InfoByIP's Screen Resolution Simulator

This tool features a list of various screen sizes for laptops, desktops, mobile phones and tablets. You can also manually enter the screen size of your choice. You have two options available with this tool. You can either check the "in browser" or leave it unchecked. If "in browser" is chosen, the resolution that you get to view the site in is of the selected monitor along with some space for the task bar and other controls and borders. If "in browser" is left unchecked, you get to see the resolution of the webpage. This is very useful in testing your site's visual compatibility with mobile devices' screens since they always render websites in full screen. 

9. Dimentions

This is a Responsive Web Design testing tool which works well on all versions of Chrome and Firefox. It consists of a screen sized progress bar that shows you how does your website look on various resolutions and devices.

10. Screen-Resolution.com

This is yet another excellent resolution testing tool. Apart from being an efficient resolution testing solution, this is quick and simple too. With this tool you can manually select the resolution that you wish to view your website in. It is most compatible with Internet Explorer where it displays the result in the same window. A new window pops up in case of other browsers like Chrome or Firefox. All you need to do is open the website, enter your URL and click on "check page". 

Armed with these tools to test your website for various screen resolutions, you are certain to design a versatile website in terms of screen resolutions that it is compatible with. You also diminish the chances of your website having poor display on different screens due to resolution mismatches.

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How to include media in social posts to attract more attention

Online Buyers have become habituated to being ready with common posts from businesses on social media. Businesses wanting show up from the community require including visual content such as images and videos (media) into their content marketing tactic. Including media is a superior way to boost your social media approach. Posts that include media on the globally most well-liked social networking sites are being paid more interest and engagement.

Use this reality to your leads by centering your content on related photos and even video. Your followers will be more eager to share these types of posts with their contacts or friends as well. They are good conversant that their followers will like it rather than just only a plain text post. But acquire creative with your photos! Keep them multi-colored, rich, attractive and efficiently so users will really desire to share it and engage. Add an intellectual sentence to go with it, a link for more information, and you are sound on your manner.

Once you have created your own videos, you will wish for to put them where it will get the most views and bring you back the more visits. The emperor of all the video sharing sites is YouTube. That is where you will wish for all your videos to be put in. Confirm that you are creating a good looking channel with your information so visitors can locate more of your videos when they visit again. Also, be ensuring to have your website address listed on your YouTube channel page. When your video is uploaded in YouTube, create a description post including your landing page link or update on your other social media pages telling users about the video and provide the link to it.

It's no doubt media posts gain more attention from social media users! This means that you should be creating an aware attempt to use high-quality, engaging photos/videos in the content you end up sharing on all social networking sites, together with good content, landing pages, etc.

Here are few causes to publish media for your business marketing strategy.

• Post with suitable media acquires 90% more entire traffic.
• Including media in a press release or blog post boost views by over 50%.
• 50% of clients are more expected to think or contact a business when a media shows up in local search results.
• In an online store sites, 70% of customers speak the quality of a goods picture is “very important” in picking and baying a manufactured goods.

At the end of the day, marketers heed more about how their social media usage is reaching particular business goals, such as drive more website traffic. So, can visuals be used to amplify website traffic as well, even if the link appurtenant a media only lives in the media description. This shows that social media experts who are using attractive photos/videos to their lead can raise traffic to their websites, just as long as they keep in mind to put links in content! You have improved the quantity of visual content you post on all social networks. You are observed that you’re nearly all visual content performs superior than other kinds of social updates.

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How Pay Per Click Ads Can Help You Become An Intelligent Marketer

Marketing is all about understanding the target consumers. What do they like? What do they dislike? And what are the elements that can help you touch them emotionally? If you work in a PPC company, you must work with a lot of Google search page ads. PPC helps you learn a lot of things and as a result, you become a smart marketer.

In this article, I will highlight the ways in which pay per click makes you a smart marketer.

# PPC helps you make crucial strategic decisions: When you invest in PPC, you basically pay Google to acquire customers for your business. Therefore, it is important to know that you are investing money in the right place. Let's assume that you sell products to both B2C and B2B customers. Now, if you see that your online B2B sales is much better than that of B2C, you can go through the offline sales reports to find out whether this is true for offline sales as well. If both online and offline conversion rate show that you have more B2B customers than B2C customers, you can pay attention to B2C marketing campaign and discover the flaws hindering your business growth.

Without PPC, it is not possible to measure the success of a marketing campaign. Some tactics like SEO, banner ads, word-of-mouth advertisement bring traffic as well, but you can never be sure how many customers are actually visiting your online and offline store. PPC gives you a solid figure. For example, 100 people clicked on the ad and visited the site. Google Analytics will tell you how many of them clicked the “buy now” button. In fact, you can also track how many people are buying offline as well by placing a simple survey form on the website. A simple question like “do you love our online shop or prefer our store at your locality” can help you get the statistics easily.

You can also optimize business process by paying attention to users' behavior once they reach your site. For example, some businesses let customers buy their products from the site and some additionally offer “call to order” facility. PPC tracking can help you find out what customers are really doing. Are they clicking the “buy” button or do they prefer to call? If the result shows that customers like to call because it saves their time, you may hire a few more telecaller executives to handle the incoming calls.

# You can form a better marketing strategy: PPC helps you understand your customers and gives you an opportunity to find the best sales pitch. The idea may seem surprising, but search engine result page ads make you fail first and then bring you to the path of success. There is no “guessing” in PPC marketing. Suppose, a client asks your professional PPC company in India to publish 5 ads with 5 different catch-lines. Some of them will fail miserably and some will bring you a certain number of customers. So, you fail and learn what does not appeal to your target audience. You don't have to guess, as the conversion tracking tools give you data regarding your success ratio. Once you know what works and what does not, you can use this knowledge for offline marketing, e-mail campaign and SEO articles.

# Make data-driven decisions: PPC marketing is a learning process. Some of your ads will fail, but you have to scan them and try to understand why they failed. It can be content, time of ad, placement or something else.  If one ad did not work a couple of months ago, it does not mean that it will not work ever. You have to test and think what you can do with the ad to make it perform. For example, you may have posted a discount offer ad when other leading merchants were offering discounts as well. Why don't you offer a flash discount for 24 hours? Modify the content and make sure that the ad stays live for 24 hours only. The discount remains the same, but since you tell customers it is for “24 hours only”, they will flock to your site.

# Boost your analytical skills: Pay per click ads make you a great analyzer. You don't only pay attention to the performing and non-performing keywords, but also analyze factors like CTR, conversion rate, cost per acquisition etc. The more data you gather about your marketing campaign, the more easily you can manage budget and compose better ads in future.

PPC makes you a knowledgeable marketer. You know exactly how much you are spending, from which locations customers are coming to your site, what age group prefers your products/services and how many customers are actually buying from either your online or offline shop. Thus, you not only become smarter but gradually start improving the investment-profit ratio of your clients. As a result, more people start hiring your PPC company for their online campaign management.

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SEO Helps To Gain Site Visibility And Enhance Your Business

SEO helps to make content of websites more attractive, relevant and to be easily read by different search engines. It is a process of constructing and analyzing web pages whereby they can be discovered, analyzed and indexed by various search engines. It is very essential service which is very useful for grabbing attention of your potential customers and helping you to maximize your profits very quickly. It helps you to receive high traffic to your website and enable you to get good return on your investments. SEO will help your site to get the intensity to fight other sites which will enable it to reach a top position thereby helping your business to flourish.

SEO helps people to find your website very easily. It helps to make your brand stronger, better and well recognized by your visitors. SEO process is very useful because it has a direct impact on your business. It is seen that website which incorporates SEO process in their marketing strategy has attracted highly targeted prospects which convert thereby helping you to increase your sales. SEO is very essential because it will help your site to receive more free advertising from search engines which, in turn, enables you to expand your client base very quickly. A site which is based on SEO process will lay the foundation on which a successful online business can be built very easily.

SEO helps you to save both time and money so you should definitely engage it in your marketing plan. It enables you to build your brand image in most affordable and optimal way. It analyzes your site for identifying weak points in its structure and content and makes useful recommendations that is bound to make your site both user and search-engine friendly. It also makes specific changes which will improve your site’s functionality and appearance. SEO plays an important role in the buying cycle and attracts potential buyers to your website through relevant keywords and phrases which are ranking high in search engines where searchers are looking for information about them. It facilitates you to further all your business goals than most other forms of marketing because it offers customers more sales at little incremental cost.

SEO can be aptly called your digital calling card. It ensures that your website appears to the right audience and gets viewed by a wide segment so that it is able to perform the task of providing you with qualified leads and converting them to become your loyal customers. It lets you dictate how your business should be featured on search results. It lets you a helping hand which enables you to steer your business along the right path. SEO leverages social sharing and an SEO strategist helps to manage this process by coordinating with your marketing department. With the help of this process you are able to control what people are able to read, think and do on social sites and even spread your message through networks at lightning speed. It is a measureable marketing strategy whereby every element of your SEO can be measured, evaluated and corrected at the same time. So, immediately incorporate it in your marketing plan and see quickly how you are able to generate high revenue.

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Four-Step Formula to Generate Leads from Your Blog

These days, whenever Google talks about SEO, they concentrate on one thing only, quality of content. Their logic is very simple. If you post high-quality, informative articles, readers will read them, share them on social media sites and consequently generate authentic back-links. So, in other words, “content is king”. The reaction of SEO services India companies to Google's new optimization logic in the past couple of months have been impractical though. In order to impress the search engine giant, some sites played with long-tail keywords, some started posting articles very cautiously and some blogs stopped accepting guest posts in the fear of “poor content”. All hail Google!

Everyone is creating his or her own content writing plan, but forgetting a simple thing. When you post a blog, your goal is only not to get a better position on SERPs or impressing the mighty Google. Don't you generate leads from your blog posts? What is more important – getting top ranks or getting clients? You can always find a formula to safeguard your site from Penguin and Panda SEO updates, but it does not matter whether your site ranks high or low, it needs to bring readers and then convert them into clients. Some people may visit your blog first and if they find something really useful in the blog, they will go to your site; irrespective of your site's position on SERPs.

In this post, I will discuss how you can generate leads with the help of your blog.

Write helpful content: Most of the blogs post generic content just to fill the pages. You need to write something that will empower readers and help them achieve something. An article can teach them something, solve a problem or improve their situation in some way. The best way to write a good blog post is to ask yourself a few questions.

• If I am the reader, will I read this post?
• What does the reader learn from my post?
• Can it help them make money?
• What problem does this post solve?

Now, suppose you are writing a post on “dynamic logo design tips”. Your mind should answer the above questions like this:

• Yes, this post is for designers and they will read it as there are not many posts on dynamic logo design.
• How to design animated logo.
• It will.
• They may have faced some problems in the animation process and my post offers the solution.

Write lots of posts: You need to write several articles and that too everyday. Ask any SEO services India company and they will tell you that posting one article a week won't bring any good results. Start posting 3-4 articles every day and do this for at least a month, you will definitely notice traffic improvements. One well-written blog once a week won't bring readers. If you don't have someone who can produce quality articles regularly, hire a content writing company for the job. You can check the outsourced content to make sure there are no spelling or grammar mistakes, but don't expect Pulitzer prize winning article every time. As long as the content is helpful and authentic, you can post it without hesitation.

Include a Call-to-Action in every blog post: Ask readers to take an action in the ending paragraph of every article. The CTA can be anything. You can ask readers to subscribe for newsletters or tell them to visit your site for getting something you have discussed in the article. A simple CTA message/button can generate hundreds of leads within a couple of months. For example, if you have shared the principles of responsive web design in a post, you can end the article by asking readers to “get the paid responsive website design tutorial.” Since readers have already understood your knowledge and experience, most of them won't hesitate to download the premium tutorial.

Include Authorship and offer sharing options: Matt Cutts has discussed the importance of Google Authorship in search engine optimization several times. So, I don't need to tell you why you should publish your name as the “author” in every blog post. Make sure there are Facebook share and Google +1 buttons for social sharing.

No SEO services India will claim that blogging can generate leads overnight. You have to follow the aforementioned four-step formula for several months to see a change in the number of leads you are getting every month. Eventually, you will be able to get clients from your blog.

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8 Ways of Managing Your Blog and Social Media While on Vacation

Vacation agendas differ from one individual to another. While some look at it as a getaway where you get to build sandcastles on beautiful beaches with kids, some consider it to be a time for relaxation and reading a novel on kindle. Irrespective of what is actually done by you on vacations, the truth is that you expect some quality time to unwind and relax. However, if you are a content writer India or any other professional related to the online world, it may not be a good idea to cut yourself away totally from the professional space. In today's competitive time, keeping up with your engagements in social media while on vacation is no longer a choice but a necessity.

Here are 8 ways of managing your blog and social media while being away from work:

Take the help of guest bloggers: You can keep your blog active and working even in your absence with the help of guest bloggers. Guest blogging not only gives the impression of your blog being alive but also assists the guest blogger in achieving his own goals. However, make sure to remind the blogger about responding to comments on a timely basis so that fans and customers can be kept engaged and conversations can continue peacefully.

Schedule Facebook posts, blog posts and tweets: It is a smart idea to plan future social media updates and posts so that your followers and fans assume that you are quite active and maintain the frequency of your posts or updates. In order to make this plan successful, a bank of posts has to be created in advance before you leave for your vacation. There are various tools that allow scheduling of Facebook posts and tweets, such asTweetdeck, Hootsuite and CoTweet.

Load your smartphone prior to leaving: Thanks to smartphones, you can now access your social media accounts from practically anywhere. You should make it a point to check whether your smartphone possesses all social media applications that will enable you to access blogs and social media while roaming around in a foreign land or biding your time at the airport. “Page Manager” app has been launched by Facebook for Android and iPhone. You can monitor Twitter with the help of mobile apps from Tweetdeck and Hootsuite. WordPress, LinkedIn and Google+ too are not very far behind, what with each having a decent collection of impressively-designed mobile applications.

Give training to someone: Solo workers, like a freelance content writer India, or small business owners may not benefit from this one but those working in big or even small teams can give training to another professional in advance so that he can manage the social media activity in their absence.

This point is a little tricky one. This is because you should make sure to not give away all your duties and responsibilities to your co-worker. It is highly essential for you to stay as updated as ever.

Inform readers that you will be unavailable: There is nothing wrong in being personal with your followers and readers by informing them that you will be off from work for a couple of days. If they are truly your loyal readers and are aware of your hard work for producing quality work, they wouldn't really mind your plan of taking a break for some time. Such a step can also draw a lot of appreciation from readers.

Streamline social media activity: Make use of services like NutshellMail for organizing your social media activities. The primary aim of these services is to deliver your Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Yelp and other updates as a single message to your inbox.

Outsource all social media commitments: Professional companies which do such work have no vacation time. Thus, if you outsource your social media obligations, those can be handled impeccably by them, enabling you to enjoy your vacation completely.

Tie up conversations which have not yet been resolved: Avoid leaving any unresolved conversation in social media as it is. You should complete all comments and discussions before leaving for vacation so that nobody is left waiting for your reply. It is important for your reputation as a professional blogger.

These 8 tips can make the vacation of any content writer India a social media-friendly one.

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