Marketing

Custom email templates are fast becoming a necessary part of business promotion and communication strategies lately. Among all digital marketing channels, they generate the most lucrative ROI, high engagement, and cost-effectiveness. However, despite being the most streamlined sales funnel as an inbound marketing tool, email marketing is a tough job even for pro coders. Emails serve as a personalized communication form, so creating reliable, concise emailers for each piece of communication is a must. Ensuring sound output every time is not possible, and hence using email templates is serving as a breakthrough for brands seeking scalable, engagement-driven, bulk email campaigns. They help fulfill the following goals:

Throughout my career as a marketer, I have often discussed how they can boost your email campaigns and transcend your customer relationship efforts. Here, I will explain how custom email templates aid your efforts by providing practical, proven, and consistent solutions along with creative flexibility. Dive in deeper to know more.

What Are Email Templates

An email template is a ready to use HTML code file containing CSS styling, design features, block layout, and formatting structure, developed by email developers. They are also compliant to QA testing, and hence, you can start using them for your email marketing campaigns with minor editing. You only need to paste your content, embed your images, logos, along with brand elements like the header and footer. Since they are pre-coded by experts, they extend excellent deliverability and user experience compared to their short turnaround time. However, like stock images, using email templates directly can result in typical, generic-looking emails. They make it difficult to stand out among the messages flooding the inboxes. Using custom email templates can turn the tables for you.

In the following section, we are listing down the top six ways in which custom email templates up your outreach campaigns:

#1 Custom Email Templates Are Easy To Use

Sending out messages on a constant basis becomes simple and easy with custom templates. They make launching a comprehensive campaign with special provisions for different regions, time zones, and customer demographic approachable for all. Customization helps in both sending new messages and forwarding them with appropriate scripting. Since professional email template developers build them, they are optimized to meet your campaign goals while adding relevant features. Customization also includes adding/ removing content blocks and embedding interactive elements without compromising code fidelity. Thus, they relieve your company of the complexities associated with coordinating multiple designers, developers, QA testers, and creatives for publishing each emailer. Almost every ESP supports using custom templates and also provides drag and drop editors. However, it would help if you were careful while executing customization since ESPs also require using their coding conventions f00om its template language in case of importing your templates.

#2 Customization Of Email Templates Helps Improve Branding Consistency

Strengthening brand consistency is a business necessity, mainly because a lot depends on brand value when it comes to sales. Building a successful brand image requires years of targeted efforts and generous investments. Ensuring consistency allows your readers to instantly identify and associate with you while also reducing the risk of spamming. Hence you should ensure that your messages follow all branding consistency best practices. It includes everything from the RGB values of your logos to fonts, your website, and other marketing activities. Custom templates allow you to integrate your emails with your branding strategy and maintain omnichannel standardization. You can also build a user experience similar to your website, which is required, especially when sending out newsletters, curated content, and comment notifications. Custom email templates allow you to maintain unparalleled consistency across every pixel of your message.

#3 They Enable Curating A Personalized Emailing Experience

As per a study, up to 88% people state that they are more likely to respond to a message that is personalized for their interests. Sending out personalized messages is already a norm across industries, and templates help do it most efficiently. You only need to assign relevant tags and set up automation rules for sending personalized emails. The use of contact properties, message options, attachment options along with HTML formatting control streamlines personalization across messages. This helps you send unique messages without distorting the personal touch you have with your email list. However, another significant reason for using custom templates is that it allows you to differentiate your messages from other businesses using the same ESP as you. You can assign custom fields based on the last transaction, source of lead, position in the lead funnel, average ticketing size, and recent activity. Hence, you can give a more humane touch and make your messages feel like conversations which otherwise would have reduced to robotic interactions.

#4 Customization Saves Time When Compared To Building Templates From Scratch

Usually, it takes an entire team to develop a proper HTML email template from scratch. Thus, both the turnaround time and human resources requirements make emails less attractive to other online marketing channels despite high ROI. Using customized email templates slashes off turnaround time and required manpower to a great extent. They allow you to reply with a single click while choosing among multiple templates to check which looks better. Any email goes through numerous iterations for coding, rendering, quality assurance before final approval. Also, if the email developers don’t use the content block approach, the editing requires passing through all concerned team members. These aspects help especially when you have a long product lineup and running marketing campaigns over various platforms.

#5 You Can Communicate In An Organic Tone Despite High Engagement

When it comes to running a full-fledged email marketing campaign, various types of emails are sent in bulk. Each of them serves different purposes, and thus, they all require different layouts, features, designs, and responsive elements. Since HTML email developers specially build templates for various purposes, you can hitchhike your marketing efforts by customizing those prebuilt resources. As a result, you can reach out to every client in an organic tone and cater to exclusive reader journeys. Most organizations with dedicated email marketing teams too, follow this approach since it helps drive engagement without sending cliched messages. Combining customized templates with automation serves as a powerful strategic tool.

#6 Custom Templates Are Pre-Optimized For Best Practices

Another advantage of using them is that they conform to the industry best practices, and you can scale up your efforts confidently. These HTML templates are readily compliant with email regulations like GDPR and CAN SPAM. This is essential for businesses since failing to comply with legislations entail penalties and legal prosecution. Also, they are optimized for mobile responsiveness and other deliverability variables. Details like the text to image ratio and even optimizing for wearable gadgets are taken care of. Doing the same thing otherwise would require rigorous QA checks. Your scope is limited to pasting the textual content, embedding images, writing alt text, and ensuring that brand elements are in place.

How To Integrate Custom Email Template In Mailchimp

In this section, we will share a quick overview of integrating custom mailchimp templates in the leading ESP, Mailchimp. Follow these steps for quick import and integration:

• Go on the left-hand sidebar and click on the Template button beside Campaigns from the brand drop drown.
• A new window will open. It will display three options – Basic, Themes, And Code your own. Select Code your own.
• It will allow you to either paste the code or import the ‘. ZIP’ file.
• Select Browse and import the file, save and upload it after it loads successfully.
• Edit the HTML file as per requirement.
• Go back and select Campaign>Select List>Campaign Name>Subject Line>Saved Templates.

Wrap Up

Throughout the article, I have pointed out various benefits of using customized templates, but I would like to bring one observation to your notice. All of the advantages discussed here are based on reducing repetitive portions, and you still need to curate them as per your strategy and subscribers. When used properly, they can increase the ROI of your email campaigns and stand out among the 306.4 billion emails received each day. They also help you to improve your operational productivity while saving time. I hope that you find this article useful for your future inbound activities.

Author Bio

Kevin George is Head of Marketing at Email Uplers, one of the fastest growing custom email design and coding companies that specializes in professional email template creation and PSD to HTML email conversion; they are a Marketo certified experts. Kevin loves gadgets, bikes, jazz and eats and breathes email marketing. He enjoys sharing his insights and thoughts on email marketing best practices on his blog.

Marketing is quite a broad field, yet it gets ignored for mastering all the skills. The business world is evolving at a significant pace, which is also updating the marketing systems and standards. Marketing involves a lot of considerations and dedication to stand out the performance of the business. Marketing is all about identifying and assessing the market for an organization and keeping its services relevant. Moreover, marketing experts also have to look out the boiling competition among the business. Now, with the world under the economic crisis, it is quite challenging to deploy successful marketing strategies without accepting a risk.

The first phase of marketing starts with experts who are proficient in carrying out campaigns and strategies for attracting customers. Marketing experts aid businesses with activities to promote the products or services of the product, thus increasing sales. Most marketing experts think of marketing for just helping the sales of the companies. However, marketing requires a lot of skills and abilities to carry out the perfect job. Nowadays, every company has hundreds or even thousands of competitors. In this case, marketing is the only choice to reach maximum customers and stay in the line of competition. With that said, let’s discuss eight ways to become a useful marketing guru.

• GAINING ESSENTIAL SKILLS

As said earlier, marketing involves a wide range of skills and abilities to market a product better than the company’s competitor. Marketing experts have to come up with new ideas and resources to promote products and increase sales. For this, they have to gain all these essential skills to make their marketing campaigns successful.

There are tons of different resources like gurus, books, papers, and courses. These all resources assist the marketers to train themselves on how to become a marketing manager and deploy creative marketing strategies. You can also earn a professional degree in marketing and specialize in marketing service. The marketing specializations include marketing research, digital marketing, database marketing, and brand promotion.

• DO ONE ON ONE DISCUSSION

One on one discussion is extremely important in marketing. The fact is quite simple that the one on one conversation is the best way to know the customer’s requirements. It helps the marketers to introduce the products and services to the customers and ask them about their thoughts. But the truth is, most of the marketers always ignore this practice because of the shyness of reaching customers.

No one indeed wants to hear bad about the specific product or services. But this is the only approach to identify the customer’s expectations and then drive the campaign to achieve their needs. Marketers can make use of surveys and polls to interact with the customers and study their responses with the service.

• TARGET AUDIENCE

Targeting the relevant audience is another critical step in getting good in marketing. Since you will be producing marketing content, it is vital to make sure it reaches the right audience. It can get started by using the customer’s data and their interests in driving new marketing campaigns. The process is quite similar to one on one interaction with the customers and bringing the customers to the sales funnel.

Moreover, asking them about their preferences on them and the competitors, and how they can improve the products or services. Now with digital advancement, marketers can quickly start email marketing campaigns with the call to actions to grab the attention of customers.

• GETTING HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE

After specializing in any marketing field, the next step is to implement what you have learned. For that, you can seek different internships for getting hands-on experience for learned skills. You can also help startup businesses for free. The prime purpose of the activity to get used to the practices to make sure that you perform better on professional grounds.

Helping out the startup business for free will give you the broader perspective of challenges faced by businesses. You can simply reach out to these companies or send emails to ask if there are any marketing opportunities.

• WRITE IN DIFFERENT STYLES

Professional marketers are proficient in writing techniques that quickly catch the attention of the customers. That’s the reason why many marketers focus on different styles of the copy instead of the same spams. The prime ingredient is your attention and customer interest. Once you master these techniques, you can drive successful email and advertisement campaigns for the company.

While delivering a message to the customers, you will be required to make a relevant message that addresses customer needs. Moreover, the text must contain a call to action to prompt an immediate response from the customers. Doing so will assist you to broaden your expertise and build stronger customer relations with the company.

• CREATE SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGNS

Not just email marketing, but social media campaigns are also important for becoming a marketing expert. Social media is the ideal platform for marketers to promote the products and services based on customer’s needs. Seek out to the major social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to increase brand awareness among the market.

• ASK QUESTIONS

Marketers have to consider many things, especially the questions. Professionals recommend asking as many questions as possible to improve the sales structures of the company. They can ask; which company you prefer to purchase the specific product, what they would like to see in their company. Doing so will help marketers to find the pattern and improve the company’s services.

• FINDING MENTOR

Mentors are the easy to find resources for expanding your expertise in marketing. Attend different seminars and online sessions to learn from their experience. You can also ask them different questions and get insights into successful marketing strategies.

FINAL WORDS

In the end, staying updated to the latest practices for marketing is the best way to reach diversity in your field. Even if you are working on a well-established role, professional specialization is the stairway to get off the grounds. All it takes is the positivity for change, as well as reading for dodging failures.

Today’s corporate world has become more consumer-centered than ever. All of the strategies tend to attract more customers and retain existing ones. The ultimate goal of all businesses is to satisfy the customers at all costs. For the same reason, marketing has emerged as a powerful tool, and businesses cannot survive without a competent marketing team.

Marketing is the process of interacting with your targeted audience. It allows you to know your customers better, and satisfying their needs gets less troublesome. Since technology has made some massive advancements over time, customer-organization bonds have become more reliable.

Nowadays, everybody is fond of the internet, and customers prefer using search engines for their queries. Considering the growing trend of browsing, marketers came up with SEO or Search Engine Optimization. SEO is a strategy that allows merchandises to communicate their business with the targeted audience and generate more traffic to their website’s content.

For example, you own a bakery, and you are targeting people for cakes on mother’s day. As soon as customers search for mother’s day cakes in their locality, your website will appear on the search engine results page (SERP), and you are most likely to make a sale. How did that happen? It is the use of the right keywords and relevant content on your website that allows you to appear in the organic or unpaid searches of a SERP. In simpler words, you are using SEO as a marketing tool.

Search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo are potent tools that can help you communicate effectively with the targeted audience. If you haven’t thought about SEO marketing, think about it now. It is never too late to follow the trends when it comes to diversifying your business. It has several opportunities for businesses in any industry.

Let’s take a look at some dynamic link building guides and tips to utilize SEO for marketing.

• IDENTIFY YOUR AUDIENCE

It is all about the audience for any business around the globe. Being a customer-centered business, make sure you have identified your audience before beginning the SEO marketing campaign. Your targeted audience decides the theme of the website, the content, the keywords, and, most importantly, the sales graph of the firm.

• RESEARCH ON THE KEYWORDS

From the customer’s perspective, you would not search for long phrases every time. You will choose short sentences and sometimes words to search for your desired information, news, or images. These small phrases or words are the keywords that you have to articulate in your content proficiently. Therefore, research the keywords before you move to the next step. You can use tools like Google Analytics and Keyword planner for better keyword search and optimization.

• UTILIZING METADATA

You must be wondering about the term ‘metadata’ since its quite echoing in the industry. Metadata, also called meta description, is a small description under the main title of your content that appears on the SERP. If your metadata is relevant to the customer’s search, the search engine will most likely rank your website among the top and most relevant ones. Ideally, 50 words are perfect for Meta description.

• CREATE AN APPEALING CONTENT

Here comes the fun part. Whenever you decide to post content on your website, make sure it is appealing for the customers. The more persuasive your content is, the better. Many people might view your content, and you never know when a click on the link may turn into a sale for your business.

• RELEVANCE AND QUALITY GO HAND IN HAND

Have you started planning the SEO for your business? Do not forget the two most essential attributes of the content; that is relevance and high quality. As long as your content is rich with information and relevant to the customer’s search, you are good to go. Nobody likes to get irrelevant answers to their questions. If your web is unable to deliver what the consumer is searching for, you might not be able to drive more traffic to the website.

• TIME IS THE KEY

There is always an appropriate time to begin a marketing campaign. SEO marketing strategy has the same demand. Whenever you plan to post something new to your website, make sure it gets posted on time. Why would somebody read your Christmas content when Easter is around the corner?

• SET REALISTIC SERP GOALS

If you are a startup or just stepped into SEO, remember to set realistic goals. There are several search engine results pages (SERPs), and ranking on top in the first go may not be a practical approach. Target the top 30 searches for your business and gradually move ahead.

• UPDATE YOUR STRATEGIES OFTEN

Trends are changing now and then, and you cannot afford to lose customers. You need to attract more customers so that you can expand and diversify. Never use one strategy for a long time, because search engines work like quality-police. They only show the top-rated pages to the customers, and outdated policies may not be in your favor. Hence, update your digital marketing strategies often to be in the game.

• LEARN FROM YOUR COMPETITORS

Your competitors are also your mentors. You may be rivals when it comes to sales and market share, but you can learn from each other too. Keep a check on the competitors’ websites and identify how they are communicating with the audience. This trick will help you come up with better strategies, and you might beat them in the SERPs.

• SEARCHES VARY WITH DEVICES

Searches on smartphones are different from the ones on a laptop. Your SEO marketing strategy must consider this for better results. When customers search on mobiles, they expect more user-friendly websites with explicit and relevant content. On the other hand, laptop searches can be a bit longer and more graphically enriched for better customer understanding.

• PAID ADS MAY HELP TOO

You can also pay the search engines for showing your website on top of the results page. Marketers misperceive the idea and compromise the quality and relevance of the content. You have to bid to be on top, and the bids with the most relevant content win. It works like an auction system; therefore, if you choose paid SEO marketing, maintain quality and relevance.

• CTAs WORK BEST

Did you know that a compelling call-to-action (CTA) can boost your sales? Use a friendly and subtle tone for call-to-action so that customers are intrigued to know you more, and buy your offering. Never ask abruptly to make sales. You might offend the customers and lose the audience.

CONCLUSION

Search Engine Optimization is a powerful tool in today’s business world. It has several benefits to offer if you utilize it in the right manner. Make sure your content is relevant, top-notch, and published on time so that you are in the top searches for every customer. Research, plan, organize, and implement the right SEO strategies. Amidst all the marketing strategies you have, digital marketing is the strongest one these days. Get a competitive edge in the market and capture more significant market shares through SEO marketing.

Irrespective of how big or small business, a strong social media presence is imperative for the success of your organization. Social media platforms are an important part of digital marketing because it connects you with customers, stimulates brand awareness, increases your leads and sales. In this blog, we are discussing some of the effective digital marketing tactics backed by credible digital marketing services to amplify your brand on social media –

• Using the Right Tools

If your aim is to boost your social media presence, you need to post on social media consistently at prime times. According to the research, organizations should use 15% of their working time to tweet.

Business owners do not have adequate time to keep logging into your social media account frequently throughout the day, and this is where social media tool comes in. By using these tools, you can schedule your posts on different platforms and stay active on social media while saving time.

• Focus on the Current Trends

One of the best ways to create a higher social media presence is to jump in the social media trends bandwagon. It will ensure that you stay visible to your users. The more you are visible to your customers, higher are your chances of being remembered by them.

When you avail digital marketing services, the team constantly researches on things that are trending. Whether it is Twitter or Instagram, look out for the trending hashtags based on your niche. Creating trending content is an excellent way to stay on top of the game and generate higher visibility.

• Promote Rightly

Creating and posting quality, relevant content is not sufficient; digital marketing services encompass ways to tell your target audience that you exist. The idea here is to make it easier for them to like or follow your social media profiles.

Promote your social media handles to your customers in a way that stimulates engagement. Moreover, you should also add social media icons to your website, requesting people to follow you at the end of each page. You also promote your social media account via email marketing.

• Be Visually Appealing

Along with quality content, visual appeal is an imperative aspect of social media. In order to get the attention of social media users, you need to stand out using visually-appealing images, graphics, videos, etc.

Do not merely stick to the conventional stock photos, instead be a little realistic in order to make a connection with your users. Share authentic pictures of people using your products and some behind-the-scene images. Share some videos where you are interacting with customers so that people can relate to your brand.

• Active Engagement

Users do not follow businesses on social media if they are not getting anything in return. That is why it is important for you to actively engage with your followers on social media. You need to build a community in order to ensure that you have a loyal social media follower.

So when a user comments on your post, the least you can do is like the comment. If someone asked a question, make sure you answer them. Constant engagement with the followers will not only help in boosting your social media presence, but it will also help you to establish a strong relationship with your target audience.

Social media is an important part of digital marketing services. And above are some of the prominent marketing tactics that help you to boost your social media presence.

Douglas James has made a name for himself as a world-class entrepreneur and leading digital marketer. He’s combined this unique marketing expertise to further his own brand while teaching others how to expand their brand and reach new heights in their business endeavors.

Whether you’re an entrepreneur, investor, or digital marketer, Douglas James has the skills to help your brand. We were able to get a one-on-one with the marketing expert, Douglas James, to ask him how he’s achieved all that he has and how he’s gone about creating his reputation. Here are 6 things you need to know about marketing expert, Douglas James.

How did you start your career?

I began a career in digital marketing because I enjoyed the power of using technology to convey a mission. I realized the opportunities in this and decided to expand it into a business focused on doing this for other entrepreneurs looking to spread the word. My ability to control and expand my business via online persona and communication was the game changer for my endeavor. I know that this can work for anyone and plan to see it done.

Why is your brand important?

Something that I’ve learned is that knowledge doesn’t just come your way, but you have to seek it out and do something with it. Whether it’s networking with sharp minds, taking courses to expand your knowledge, or ensuring that you’re always on top of your game, having the resources is the first step to success. I wanted to create a platform where people can access trusted information with ease.

What is the best personal trait that’s helped you succeed?

Perseverance. Being an entrepreneur is tough. It’s not a nine-to-five where with a consistent schedule and consistent results. That’s part of the fun, but also part of the difficulty. By persevering and getting through difficult, long days by being passionate and confident in my mission, I’ve become a leading digital marketing expert.

What should entrepreneurs know about digital marketing?

It’s more difficult than it looks. With today’s technology, many people think that marketing your brand is an easy task. Just because marketing tools are more accessible with the likes of LinkedIn and Instagram, it also means that the advertising arena is oversaturated and standing out is more difficult than ever. It takes knowledge on the marketing tech and time to iron out a campaign to see it succeed.

When should people begin your course?

Now! It doesn’t matter what stage of the game you’re in. Whether you’re simply thinking about a new business journey or are simply looking to expand an established one, you should visit TheDouglasJames.com today!

What does the future look like for Douglas James?

Busy! I’m looking to expand my platforms and what is available on these platforms as my network continues to grow. There are big things on the horizon, so keep an eye out…

That was my interview with Douglas James, high-ticket marketing expert. For anyone with a dream and wants to know how to quit your 9-5 and earn 6 figures per year or more working from anywhere on earth, – run, don’t walk, to the Douglas James Training Course.

Amazon is the world’s biggest retailer and transformed the shopping industry. Anybody can start a business on Amazon, even from the comfort of their own home. However, selling on Amazon and being successful on the site are not one and the same.

Yes, Amazon’s marketplace can be very lucrative, but it is also crowded. Standing out amongst two million merchants is no easy task, even if you think your niche is small. Do you sell guides for online casino platforms? You may think there’s not a huge market for that, but on Amazon, you will have thousands of rival merchants to contend with.

But don’t worry, finding success on Amazon is possible if you follow the right steps. Like any other business venture, marketing is hugely important and the key to consumers finding your listings is visibility. Your sole purpose on Amazon should be to make it easy for buyers to find your listings and buy your products.

Here are marketing strategies to help you achieve that goal.

Listing Visibility

The core purpose of your Amazon promotion is relatively easy. You are going to be increasing awareness around your products and listings in and outside of Amazon. With your marketing campaign, you will use advertising techniques to direct traffic to your product pages or Amazon store.

You can also market within Amazon, but this is admittedly trickier. Either way, it is advised that merchants embrace both external and internal promotion to maximize their sales potential.

External Promotion

As the term suggests, external promotion of your Amazon products means using methods outside of the platform to attract consumers to your listings. You want to hook consumers who aren’t on Amazon into checking out your inventory and maybe making a purchase.

There are several techniques that can help you achieve this goal:

• SEO: In your product listing page, use keywords related to your product that consumers may be entering into Google Search.
• Social media: Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are excellent marketing tools. Create ads on these services and spread awareness of your Amazon listings. Include links to your products on social media posts.
• Backlink support: Reach out to third parties to place links to your Amazon listings on their websites. Blog posts are a good way to gain backlinks.

Internal Promotion

As mentioned, whatever you choose to sell on Amazon, you can be secure in the knowledge you won’t be the only merchant selling that same product. In fact, there will likely be thousands of other merchants selling what you sell, and some may be undercutting you on price.

This presents a large and obvious problem; how do you stay above the competition? You must find ways to make your listings more visible and internal promotion is one way to do it. Unfortunately, this situation is based more on random events than external promotion.

On Amazon, the Buy Box is the place in a product listing that is the first highlighted price option. In other words, the Buy Box provides prime visibility for products that win it. However, the only way to be placed on the Buy Box is if Amazon selects you. Getting chosen involves having a stellar reputation, products in stock, and other factors. Even then, you may still not be selected.

Another internal promotion method is to achieve a high ranking on Amazon’s in-house search results. Evidence has shown most consumers won’t move past the first page of products when searching, making a high ranking essential. While you can optimize your listings to appeal to Amazon search, thousands of other merchants will do the same.

As we move into a new decade, digital marketing is as hot as ever. It seems like any company that does not put in a lot of money into digital marketing is going to fall behind.

Of course, spending a lot of money is not always the recipe for success right away. It takes more than that to find a niche and start to excel. Using some of the top trends to keep an eye out for in 2020 is a better way to go, at least according to Erkan Kemiksizgil.

As a digital marketer himself, he knows how digital marketing will change the shape of the business industry and he has seen trends come and go throughout the years. He firmly believes that if a person sticks with these upcoming trends, they have a chance of really excelling.

Focus on all-in-one platforms

People don’t seem to care for the middleman any longer going into the new decade. It’s all about an all in one platform that a person can use to speed up the process. Expect it to become even more prevalent as time goes on, saving time, money and headaches.

They are still too many cases where digital platforms rely on each other to have success. Clicking one link after another to piece everything together is very time-consuming. Nobody wants to waste time doing all of that.

Emerging areas will dive into e-commerce

It might seem like e-commerce is everywhere these days, but there are still a lot of limitations. India is one major example of a country that is still getting its first taste of e-commerce and the digital world in general.

With these emerging markets, digital marketing will change a bit. Companies will go hard after these countries, even if they don’t have a ton of money to spend. There will also be companies that are selling products online from different parts of the world, trying to gain an international audience.

Artificial intelligence is here to stay

To make everything as automated as possible, a lot of people will start relying on artificial intelligence quite a bit. It makes sense in a lot of ways, because it speeds up the shopping process while saving money long term.

Digital marketers should look into investing in artificial intelligence as much as possible. The major companies are going to do it, but there are some inexpensive ways to count on AI as well.

Think green

Marketers will be as knowledgeable as ever about the latest trends when it comes to buying. A lot of people are very conscientious about the environment, so think green when providing new products.

It’s very easy to make headlines for all the wrong reasons in today’s world. All it takes is one misstep with marketing, and it can spread like wildfire. Think before posting, and don’t push the envelope too much. If it is a controversial topic, or terrible for the environment, it will make negative headlines.

The younger generation has more power than ever

It used to be that a lot of digital marketers did not pay much attention to the younger crowd. After all, they don’t have the same type of money to work with, and it just seems like a waste of valuable dollars.

Things are changing, and advertisers love influencing the younger generation earlier than ever. That will continue, as children become more tech-savvy and knowledgeable about new trends.

When we first heard of the terms “Search Engine Optimization”, “Pay Per Click Advertising”, and “Content Marketing” they were alien to us. It’s not that long ago actually! Now every CEO, and Marketing Director is aware of not only what these are and how they work, but are monitoring the results of these Digital Marketing campaigns every month in meetings, and looking to see improvements all the time. Those improvements are now in single digit percentages and when you zoom out and consider it, basically the campaigns are as optimized as they will ever be, and it’s just the ebb and flow of the market, and search volumes which are shifting.

So How do you Take Your Digital Marketing to the Next Level?

SEO and PPC are being employed by everyone, all of your competitors, you and everyone else. There might be small wins through changing to another Digital Marketing company who has a fresh approach, or software which analyses your keywords to the tenth degree, propelling you to the top of the results page for another few search terms, but essentially there’s not much more ground to win there.

Therefore, it’s time to look outside the box, at adding in new elements to your Digital Marketing Strategy. The best Digital Marketing companies out there are delivering transformative results for their Clients by adding Online Public Relations and Reputation Management campaigns to their overall strategy.

What are Online Reputation Management and Public Relations?

Like their traditional counterparts both are often seen as remedial, something goes wrong, a hot to your reputation, some negative press, quick employ an agency to repair it. But actually, if done proactively Online Reputation Management and Digital Public Relations campaigns can greatly affect not only your Search Engine ranks, but your Conversion Rates.

Think about it this way, Kim searches for “Whattsit Product” and is served a page of results so she browses through a few websites before making her decision based on price and features. However, imagine on the Results Page is a Media site which she trusts which is raving about a company that produce the product she wants, or a Review site which rates a company who provides that product with five stars. Kim is no longer going to base her decision on price and features, and better still she probably won’t even browse through several websites to look at alternatives. She’s going to pick the product that comes so highly recommended.

Online Reputation Management uses keyword analysis to identify where your brand is mentioned online and then building a portfolio of highly positive brand mentions which will dominate the first pages of a search. Review sites, industry bloggers, forums, all saying how great you are.

Digital PR again analyzes keywords for your brand, and sends relevant campaigns to journalists interested in those topics, at the time that there are breaking stories on that topic, citing you or your company as a leading source for advice.