The website is the primary source of information about the company, an effective tool for creating image and brand perception. Its main function is also the sale and generation of leads. Constantly evolving internet technologies require the website manager to keep following trends. Supervision of the correct process of creating a website is usually carried out by a specialist in internet marketing. Its presence in the company is necessary if the purpose of the website is refined technical, image and promotional issues.

An effective website

Creating a website should be a process of implementing an idea and a specific plan. Your Page should look different depending on the specifics of the industry and the audience you want to reach, but it will always be our business card, ad, and contact. Our website must appeal to customers because it is prepared for them, not for the business owner. The role of an internet marketing specialist in this case is to understand the preferences and needs of the audience, as well as to track website traffic, thanks to appropriate analytical tools (eg. Google Analytics).

Although the aesthetics and attractiveness of a website remain a key aspect at all times, increasingly the word “trend” is displaced by the word “effectiveness”, which amounts to bounce rate, conversion level and page position in the search engine. When building a website, it is useful to use tools to track the user’s movement and check the so-called “heat map”, which is the place where the user most often leaves the movement of the mouse. In this way, we will be able to apply the most important content or even the purchase button to the right place. Thanks to this action, we will increase sales.

Source: http://designyoutrust.com/2013/04/26-things-to-note-before-develop-a-website-infographic/

Technical aspects of the website

A properly designed site can bring invaluable image benefits, but also sales. It is also important to remember about Growth Hacking, which is to speed up the operation of the website. In addition, you need to adjust the readability of the content on the site by structured data – Schema. Only in this way can Google bots read, for example, whether they are on the company’s website or author’s blog. The prevailing trends in web design are primarily aimed at improving the effectiveness of the website. Without a specialist in the company, we will not be able to meet all marketing tasks, and the site will not bring the intended results. Therefore, it is worth investing in an experienced marketer who will achieve the desired goals and contribute to the development of the company.

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Adapting the site to the current requirements is the task of a marketing specialist, who must regularly track the position in the search engine through SEO positioning and content activities, increase the level of conversion by eg. Google Adwords or marketing automation, and monitor bounce rates by taking actions that will stop a user on the page.

Source: http://visual.ly/web-design-trends-expect-2016-infographic

Trends in web development

If we are talking about trends or the effectiveness of a website, one should not forget about the basic issue of administering the site. Currently, practically no longer builds services without CMS, that is, the built-in administration panel. After implementing the new page, the contractor conducts training on the operation of the panel. It’s a good idea to have someone in your company who’s deployed to respond quickly to any issues, and to update your Page.

The marketing specialist acts as a supervisor and contractor in the company. It needs to keep up to date with trends and styles related to page design. One of them is material design (or colloquially called “flat design”), which assumes simplicity, concentration of content in the center, limitation of the color palette, as well as the use of modest typography. The trend that has become very fashionable lately is to use the full width and height of the screen. In this way, it is intended to encourage you to continue exploring the site without much distraction. Also, the growing mobile trend is forcing designers and Digital Marketing Specialist to adapt the site to smartphones and tablets, using responsive layout (RWD) and the company’s mobile website. The result will be a simple and functional page for the user.

Digital marketing manager should have skills not only closely related to marketing, but also have full knowledge, which is still deepening, about the tools successfully used on the Internet. The main sentences of the Digital Marketing Manager boil down to assessing the market opportunities associated with selling products or services, developing and implementing a marketing strategy, as well as supporting the sales department.

Advertising in Digital

The digital marketing manager should know modern forms of advertising: e-mail marketing, marketing automation, social media, SEM campaigns, SEO positioning, content marketing, performance marketing and advertising within e-commerce. The Internet is an inexhaustible source of knowledge about customers and their needs. Moreover – especially reliable, because customers themselves communicate what they expect. We can now target ads to closely selected audiences. The effectiveness of such an ad is very high if we run an advertising campaign accordingly.

Source: http://www.mdcdot.com/2015/05/how-effective-is-inbound-marketing/

Direct marketing – what is it?

Online marketing is also a form of direct marketing that is based on sending specific messages to carefully selected audiences. It allows customers to buy products through the use of various advertising media, including: e-shops, telemarketing, mail order sales and sales at the customer’s home. As you can see, direct marketing is not just a door-to-door activity. Today, companies have transferred this form of advertising and sales – which is natural – to the internet.

Source: http://www.findandconvert.com/b2b-digital-marketing-services/marketing/technology/hubspot-inbound-marketing

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Inbound marketing

Digital Marketing Manager should follow trends and new ways of advertising. An example is inbound marketing, which is based on two-way communication between the brand and the customer. We can include social media, corporate blogs, SEO and content marketing. Consumer engagement is critical because they become brand promoters and help establish the right marketing strategy to suit their needs. More than 78% of consumers are already looking for information about a particular brand themselves, especially through a search engine (HubSpot).

How to increase the effectiveness of activities, improve the customer’s relationship and experience with the brand, and at the same time – importantly – not tarnish the budget and do not spend a lot of time on activities? Marketing automation is a process that helps you meet all these requirements. The first step is to create a Customer Journey Map. The right marketing systems and announcements are enough to create once, and their optimization and development will allow you to enjoy the increase in results.

What’s the point of marketing automation?

Marketing automation or marketing automation is based on creating processes that automatically collect, process data, and send marketing messages to customers, thereby increasing the efficiency of operations.

Feel like a customer of your own company

To be able to create a client path and a map of the client. Customer Journey Map), it is worth considering all possible situations in which the customer is in contact with our brand (touch points). This will allow you to know the path that the consumer is going to take in order to become our customer and prepare appropriate marketing messages. Acting according to the principle: show me where you are going, and I will tell you what you need gives you a chance to know exactly the mechanisms and needs. Behavior scenarios and messages vary by industry – other actions are taken for typical e-commerce, others for stationary sales.

Example 1. Customer Journey Map – mobile phone purchase flow

One example where a customer is dealing with a brand in the form of omnichanneling is the purchase of a mobile phone. The map shows step by step when the customer decides to buy in the store and online. If not everything goes our way, the scenario in which the customer abandons the purchase is taken into account. The answer to the lack of finalization is prepared marketing messages tailored to this situation.

Source: http://www.miscmagazine.com/customer-journey-mapping/

Example 2. Customer Journey Map – purchase flow

The second example of the customer’s path is a description of the experiences of a couple who are planning to buy a holiday tour. This diagram clearly shows the data and shows the level of engagement of travelers and satisfaction with the place. The more processes to pass (laborious typing of personalities, credit card details, waiting for confirmation of purchase and flight ticket), the higher the level of frustration and discouragement. It may therefore turn out that the next steps will distance the vast person from buying the product, giving them time to doubt and reflect.

Source: http://www.bhavacom.com/2012/08/

Example 3. Customer Courney Map – shopping at IKEA

A third example is the IKEA map, which shows the customer’s experience from arriving at the parking lot to the end of a visit to the store. You can see for yourself the extent to which it reflects your feelings when shopping. What is puzzling and important “self-service” belonging to the ikea business model receives a bad rating. Perhaps this is influenced by the fact that customers (with printed item numbers) have to look for them themselves in the thicket of a large warehouse. In addition, heavy items (desk or bed) customers have to put on a trolley and take them to the tills. Compensation for heavy purchases turns out to be a gastronomic offer. Hot-dog or ice cream are supposed to soothe the slashed nerves of distraught consumers and wipe out bad memories. After all, the crossing is a success – in addition to buying a dream piece of furniture, we still have a hot dog or ice cream. Is there anything in the maps that needs to be improved and changed?

Source: https://marketingexperiencial.wordpress.com/2015/03/07/customer-journey-map-o-mapa-del-viaje-del-cliente-para-gestionar-la-experiencia-de-cliente/

Now some of my ideas on how to convert leads to customers and prepare relevant marketing messages in the context of marketing automation.

Convert leads to clients

As we know, this process is crucial for us and we try to convert the customer in many ways. Although many of them buy the product immediately after registration, there remains a large segment of people who abandon the final purchase. This is referred to as an “abandoned basket”. Currently, there are many ways to find out at what point the customer abandoned the shopping cart and what really decided about it. In this situation, the best solution is to create a marketing message that will remind the customer about an unfinished purchase or registration on the site. In my actions I am guided by the principle of 1-3-7. The sequence of these numbers is not random because it specifies the frequency of days with which the customer will receive notifications about their unfinished purchase. In this way, we influence the purchasing decisions of the customer. It is important that the first message resembling the recipient receives up to 24 hours – then his desire to buy is the greatest. To increase the level of engagement, it is also worth proposing the same purchase e.g. with a 5% discount. These methods work invariably.
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Welcome newsletter and onboarding mailings

When a customer completes a purchase, they often receive an email thanking them for the trust they have placed in the brand. In addition, it is informed about how to contact the company, where to reach it on social media, and sometimes even a proposal for another purchase. It’s hard to decide on another item when the package you ordered haven’t reached the customer yet, right?

It turns out to be a mistake to forget about a customer who does not receive any more messages until the next sale / cross-sell. There is another way to greet the customer – onboarding, or “guiding around the brand”. In this direction, you can create a series of mailings that maintain a sense of contact with the brand. With marketing automation, you can submit purchase documents, invoices and terms and conditions, present where the customer is to contact the company, give him phone numbers and current e-mail addresses, present the nearest establishments, where he can go if necessary, new product categories. In addition, e.g. after a month, it is worth preparing instructions on how the customer should use the product, provide a discount coupon encouraging subsequent purchases or ask the customer if any of his friends would not be interested in the same product / service. A series of emails (not spam!) will increase the likelihood of customer action.

Example infographic:

Source: http://www.sparkpage.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/2.jpg

Trigger mailing

Another good action is trigger mailings, that is, triggered by the user’s behavior – whether on the site or as a reaction to the e-mail sent, eg, opening a link in it. Used in marketing automation, trigger mailings can also be correlated with the user’s behavior on the site, e.g. when he clicks on the appropriate category of products in a particular store. Monitoring such behavior allows you to send a discounted mailing at the right time for the purchase of products in this category, which the user of the network had just viewed.

Reminders

A good way is to send reminders m.in customers, including those who have overdue payment for a product, service, or unpaid product installment. Mailings sent in accordance with the aforementioned rule 1-3-7 bring good results. For better results I propose after 7. days to no longer send an email, but only an SMS reminder for payments. As a rule, SMS messages are more personal and therefore have a better impact on customers.

Surveys and NPS

Throughout the customer lifecycle, customer journey map must also not miss submitting relevant surveys and NPS surveys. The latter may be sent to the customer every 3 months (in case he is obliged to have a one-year contract with the company). This allows you to regularly track your brand engagement and changes. When we are informed that a customer is less involved at the end of the contract, we can offer them a better offer for the next month and make them happy to sign another contract.

It often happens that companies starting marketing activities do not have the idea and resources for extensive marketing communication. With the help come social media – Facebook. Proven ideas from an internet marketing specialist and numerous case studies help to significantly increase reach and effectively inform users about their existence. Here are 10 tips to help you successfully promote your brand with a small budget or even at no cost.

1. Get on Facebook!

At the beginning of our activities, we expect a large number of likes and comments, which seem to determine the popularity and effectiveness of actions on social. We add new posts, photos, quotes, but at some point the number of followers stops increasing. Why and how to remedy this? Like and comment on related pages, respond to user comments, solve their class issues, and always substantively. Speak as an expert and share your knowledge with your users. You will not create competition with this, but you will strengthen your position.

2. Collaborate with bloggers from a similar industry

We all know that bloggers have their own opinion, often avoiding controversy, but they can also become the best promoters of the brand. You do not have to immediately establish cooperation with the “stars” of the blogosphere, it is better to look for less popular bloggers who are happy to engage in the action, if you have a common goal, for example, in the form of promoting a particular idea, lifestyle or passion.

3. Don’t limit your own offer – write Instant Articles

It’s nice to write about your own offer, achievements, ongoing projects, but not only such content is expected by the community on Facebook. It is worth writing about articles and news from the industry, events, new tools or publications. Users will appreciate it and come back for another dose of knowledge. You can also use Instant Articles, a new way to present articles that load on Facebook instantly.
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4. Frequency of entries

The frequency of posted information will certainly affect the popularity of the fanpage. Of course, they must be properly selected and interesting for the audience. Anyone who likes a Facebook Page will be looking forward to more and more useful information. Surely 3 to 6 posts a day to begin with is enough.  

5. Encourage discussion

People often like to make their say – especially on the internet. So it’s a good idea to ask users on Facebook for advice and to express their opinion on the topic. However, this is not the end. If you don’t get involved in the discussion properly, readers will certainly notice it and won’t be willing to re-express their opinions. Whether the comment is positive or negative, you need to respond!

Source: http://seopressor.com/blog/science-behind-best-worst-time-to-post-social-media/

6. Analyze audience activities

We can easily increase the number of users if we see how they behave. This is especially true for paying attention to popular posts with more likes, share’ów or comments. Adjust the time of publication and keep the right form – Facebook users want to quickly view posts rather than read essays, so form and content must be accessible.

7. Record and stream videos

Do not be afraid to show and express your own opinion. Short interesting videos from the life of the company are happy to be viewed by users. If they have an entertainment form, then they can have viral potential. Follow the industry and boost your creativity! Not so long ago, Facebook gave the opportunity to stream live video for Fanpages called Live.

8. Follow your industry

You need to keep up to date and react quickly to news and interesting content from the industry. They must first and foremost be dynamic. The Internet is developing very quickly and just as quickly “promotes” new content. 

Source: http://www.slideshare.net/propointgraphics/ppg26624-ppt-d-33848102

9. Tag everything you can!

This is not an exaggeration – people interested in a particular topic will be happy to look for additional information. Create your own hashtag for each topic on Facebook (e.g. tips, trivia), and you’re sure to get people used to the topics of your posts and create your own search engine.

10. Meritocrasy is the basis

Everything you post on your fanpage must contain substantive information and be useful to users. Form never outweighs content, so try to find out what your users like and provide interesting information about it.