The 7 Pillars of Digital Marketing Blog

Social CRM: The Future of Customer Relationship Management September 28, 2010 – 10:10 am				admin

There are a number of companies engaging their customers in conversation on social media networks. It is obvious that social media is changing the rules of customer engagement. Hence, Social CRM will change the way of doing businesses in the coming years. So each and every company needs to understand how to make use of social CRM to meet their needs and ultimately, their business objectives. In the recent past, budgets allotted to traditional CRM are shifting towards social CRM.

What are the subjects that are being discussed on social networks? They are various, ranging from information on products or services, customer queries, product improvement ideas, customer assistance requests, and helping each other with their own views on product related issues and market conditions. This kind of interaction helps business owners respond quickly to customer queries and solve any open issues with ease. At this stage, companies will have to analyze what their customers are talking about, what they expect and their social behavior. This helps the business owners to make useful decision during their future sales campaigns.

I think both Twitter and Facebook have a unique opportunity to tap into the beneficial CRM market. With people sharing more about their personal likes and dislikes, professional information, location, and others, social media helps marketers to define highly targeted and personalized marketing campaigns based on the user data. Marketers can use social CRM as an application to study the social profile of their customers to know more about their connections and to build better relationships.

The future of customer relationship management is in social networks, as there is a huge increase in the level of interaction with the customers by way of online communities and social networks. Facebook, Twitter and other social networks are the best in class platforms for word of mouth marketing. About two thirds of companies gained increased customer satisfaction utilizing social media as a tool. Business people have to realize that it is not possible to market without social networks in the next few years.

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Posted in 7 Pillars of Digital Marketing, blog, Content Marketing, Interactive Marketing, Social Media Marketing, web 2.0, World | 1 Comment »
Tags: Content Marketing, customer relationship management, facebook, Mohamed Mohideen, Social CRM, Social Media Marketing, twitter

Twitters’ Advantages As A Social Media Tool September 23, 2010 – 11:03 am				admin

Social media has increasingly become very popular in a very short frame of time. Social media is the latest tool used by most of the marketers to build relationships and to acquire customers with ease at an affordable means. Every day it is becoming more popular with a range of social media websites.  The heavyweights include Facebook and Twitter, which are largely used by small business owners to get the maximum benefit for their businesses. Twitter is a social media tool, where one knows what fellow users are doing at the very moment.

Twitter not only lets you know about what others are doing and offers a tool to spread product deals, launches, and job openings. Everything is for free, where you can allow your followers to view your profile and share ideas, trends, and solicit feedback about your business with them.

Twitter offers flexibility that allows marketers to target a diverse market. The content posted via Twitter multiplies exponentially and good content serves as a tiny press release. As a result, content distribution improves, increasing traffic. The viral marketing feature of twitter is one good reason for B2B companies to choose Twitter as a social media tool. With the help of the in-built features and other third party resources, marketers can easily monitor, track and analyze the flow of information, trends and business opportunities.

The main goal of a marketer in using social media tool is to increase the sales volume by engaging the consumers and target audience to develop brand equity. So all companies must try to understand how to make use of Twitter as a social media marketing tool to create awareness about their brands, engage customers, and maximize profit.

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Posted in 7 Pillars of Digital Marketing, Content Marketing, Marketing Agencies, Social Media Marketing, web 2.0, World | No Comments »
Tags: google, Mohamed Mohideen, new york interactive marketing agency, new york social media agency, social media, Social Media Marketing, twitter

Recent Trends in Web Design and Development September 22, 2010 – 10:56 am				admin

Web designers are now using the help of new HTML5 and CSS3 for creating wonderful designs with impressive features. With the increased use of mobile devices for accessing websites, design of mobile web pages is on the rise these days. The recent web design and development trends include a variety of added features with the help of advanced technologies. If anyone planning to start an online business or taking a brick-and-mortar shop online, then designing a website is the first step. So how to get started with the design of web pages, also keeping abreast of recent trends? Everyone continues to move forward to the next level when they master the skill of designing pages. It is important to focus on the idea of each and every trend before you decide on how to incorporate the latest trends in designing web pages.

Here is a small list of latest trends that are widely used:

Hope all these latest trends will have a lasting impression on the visitor.

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Posted in 7 Pillars of Digital Marketing, Content Marketing, Interactive Marketing, web 2.0, web development, Website Design | 1 Comment »
Tags: Blueliner Marketing, Content Marketing, Mohamed Mohideen, new york interactive marketing agency, web design, web development

The Influence of Mobile Marketing on Consumers’ Buying Decisions September 21, 2010 – 12:56 pm				admin

The way people communicate in today’s world is entirely changed by mobile phones, which are able to reach anybody anywhere at anytime. The penetration of mobile devices as a communication tool has made a significant space for marketing activities that are tailor made to user interests with personal one-on-one messages. With the advancements in technology, various companies are now adopting mobile marketing as part of their complete advertising and marketing strategy. There is a huge potential for higher response rates using mobile marketing when compared to other traditional marketing activities and this is because now marketers are using more interactive ways to engage the target audience.

Compared to the traditional email marketing, the mobile marketing formats like SMS, MMS and WAP push messages are sent personally to the user and are expected to receive higher response. Studies indicate short message advertisements are viewed about 70% higher than email messages and this feature may build brand identity and increasing the buying decisions of the consumers. The consumers’ attitudes towards the direct marketing messages highly influence the buying decision in addition to interpretation of the targeted promotional messages. Consumers’ perception in receiving SMS advertising messages is related to the permission granted to marketers. Hence, most consumers will pay maximum attention and read messages from those companies to which they subscribed to receive messages based on their interests.

Permission-based marketing is considered an essential part of relationship development with customers, developing loyalty for a long time. The permission marketing and buying intention are positively related to each other. On the other hand, privacy concern is something related negatively to the customers’ intention to take part in such mobile advertising campaigns. Consumers who consider mobile devices only for personal use are less likely to buy the products advertised through messages and other forms of mobile advertising formats. Studies also indicate extensive mobile advertising leads in a negative direction among the consumers resulting in lack of trust with the firms that are using mobile advertising as a channel of communication.

In order to overcome these, the mobile advertising agencies are highly advised to take all measures to correct the negative attitudes among consumers towards direct mobile advertising.  Marketers should fully customize messages with the help of the available consumer data, and then the relationship can be enhanced.

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Posted in 7 Pillars of Digital Marketing, blog, Interactive Marketing, Mobile Marketing, web 2.0 | No Comments »
Tags: interactive marketing agency, mobile advertising, Mobile Marketing, Mohamed Mohideen

Unique Features of a Successful eCommerce Website September 2, 2010 – 2:19 pm				admin

E-commerce websites are mainly designed to sell products and their success is very essential for better business results. When designing and developing an e-commerce website, a designer has to face so many challenges in order to deliver the best of all. Hence, it is very essential to analyze all the areas of the process to ensure delivery of a good product. E-commerce is a unique topic in online business with various beneficial features, including global audience reach, high standards, user interaction, valuable information, and customization.

There are a range of essential factors that influence the look and feel of e-commerce websites. The top features include quick & easy navigation, product related simple design for increased visibility of product, effective branding, specific product images, displaying related or recommended products, listing popular products, offers & discounts, simple checkout process, and complete website search option.  

The navigation of product pages should be carefully designed with more options for the users to locate the product easily.  This feature of the site requires thorough user experience testing to ensure all navigational issues are addressed properly. With the help of some simple design approaches, the site will give better visibility to the product, as selling is the key point of any e-commerce website. For better performance of the website, the design should be related to the style of products available and thus making a direct connection with the brand.

Your firm should include product specific photos, especially in different angles.  This will help the user get a feel of the product and to make an easy purchasing decision. They should also make use of the homepage and help the users to find something really interesting by adding offers, popular products, new arrivals and other discounts. Displaying a list of related products on the product details page to the user may result in increased sales of those products as well and serves as a promotional tool for similar products. Users may find it difficult to land with the particular product of their interest even with good navigation, so in order to avoid this and help them gain easy access to the product, it is advised to include search box with range of options.

In total, e-commerce websites with all the above good features provides advantages for small and medium businesses in developing countries reducing operational costs and increasing efficiency.

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Posted in 7 Pillars of Digital Marketing, eCommerce, Interactive Marketing, Marketing Agencies, Offshore Outsourcing, Photography, Small Business, web 2.0, web development, Website Design | No Comments »
Tags: eCommerce, Internet Marketing, Mohamed Mohideen, new york web development agency, small businesses, web analytics, web design, web development

Pay Per Call Advertising from Skype July 29, 2010 – 3:14 pm				admin

Skype users are able to call, send text messages, or video chat with other Skype users for free.  They are charged with a small rate if a user makes a call to land lines or mobile phone numbers from their computers.  Skype is growing every day and has over half a billion registered users.  Now, Skype introduces a new technique to add revenue with the new pay per call ad unit.  This new type of advertising will turn phone numbers into small advertisements to about 560 million users of Skype service.

Click and call advertising service of Skype allows the users to make free calls to participating businesses found on any web page. This allows the advertisers to get easy access to the consumers or prospects.  Consumers can also call businesses free of cost using Skype. The advertisements will appear in blue, saying “Free call,” in addition to Skype numbers that appear in gray color. Skype offers this service in association with Marchex, which provides analytics for the services. Advertisers can plan a monthly budget based on the number of calls they would like to pay or they can pay based on the number of calls they receive via Skype.

A phone call is a much more valuable lead than a click on a hyperlink and can result in actual sales since the conversion rate is higher on a call. Users can see the free call button or the advertisements only if the Skype browser plug-in installed. This type of advertising is good for local businesses that don’t sell their products or services via online shopping but can generate good leads.

Donal Albert, General Manager of Skype Americas said, “It is an opportunity to tap into a large community of consumers that are initiating calls from their computers.”  Skype generated $550 million revenue in 2008, and its parent company eBay projects $1 billion in revenue by 2011. Skype estimates it currently accounts for 12% of all international call minutes. To find more information on Click & Call Advertising, check out the Skype website by clicking the logo.

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Posted in 7 Pillars of Digital Marketing, blog, Content Marketing, Digital Media, Interactive Marketing, Marketing, Marketing Agencies, Pay Per Click (PPC), Small Business, web 2.0 | No Comments »
Tags: Blueliner Marketing, digital marketing, Digital Media, Interactive Marketing, Internet Marketing, Mobile Marketing, Mohamed Mohideen, pay per click advertising

Permission-based Email Marketing for Businesses July 29, 2010 – 11:54 am				admin

Email Marketing is one of the most popular tools used as part of direct response marketing campaigns in the United States. Email is being used primarily as a marketing tool by 35% of companies compared to 25% that use direct mail. The total spending for online advertising will grow twice as fast in 2011 with an increase in ad purchases over email marketing. Email marketing industry census by EConsultancy shows that 42% of organizations did not know the Return on Investment of their campaigns.

Email Marketing campaigns should be designed in such a way to influence the consumer’s behavior and it should address all the stages in a consumer’s buying process. An effective email campaign should identify the problem, provide information, evaluate alternatives, include options to make purchasing decisions, and address post purchase behavior with additional information. The concept of permission email marketing is one of the most important aspects of email marketing in today’s direct marketing world.

Permission-based email marketing ensures optimized deliverability, return on investment, and recipient’s trust. If you market to people who expressed their interest to receive emails about offers and promotions, you can see better results in terms of good response rate, better deliverability, increased brand awareness, and trust among the consumers. The CAN SPAM Act 2003 suggests opt-out email marketing with two major conditions. One of them states that emails sent to recipients without their consent must mention that the message is a promotional email and provide an unsubscribe option. After all, email marketing is about building relationships with your consumers or prospects, leading to good results.

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Posted in 7 Pillars of Digital Marketing, blog, Content Marketing, CRM, Email Marketing, Interactive Marketing, Marketing Agencies, web 2.0 | 1 Comment »
Tags: Blueliner Marketing, digital marketing, Email Marketing, Mohamed Mohideen, new york interactive marketing agency

Threadless Weaves Marketing Dreams July 2, 2010 – 3:23 pm				Abdul Fattah Ismail

Threadless has gained praise nationwide for their masterful use of online communities to drive sales.  The Chicago-based company does not have professional designers nor online advertising agencies and other distributors to pirate income.  It took them some time for the open source movement to generate results, but they have commemorated it this year with a 10th anniversary campaign.  The Tour Kick-Off Sale ends July 2nd and includes various price points for men, women, and children that fit anyone’s budget.  They will be in a caravan that covers the nation while stopping at the Pitchfork Music Festival and other points in between to Washington D.C. in October.  Here are the dates.

The company’s tight relationship with its community allows for an amalgam of creative designs and products that allow for test marketing before the product is pushed to the website.  The website is also optimized for clean click navigation, search indexing, and a full board of social widgets.  I believe that the crispness of their website is key to their success.  One receives feedback immediately on their designs from the network while making income for their gifts.  It’s a relationship that benefits the consumer and merchant without a lot of database research or bureaucracy.

Threadless has begun to develop partnerships with Griffin Technologies and Havaianas Footwear to stretch their product portfolio into smartphone cases and flip-flops, amongst other things.  With a rich community of designers and a 10-year anniversary book to cement brand equity, Threadless is an emerging force. Heavyweight marketing executives have wondered for some time about the open source model, and now see it come to fruition.  They should be very afraid.  For more details on Threadless, read this interview from VP of Marketing, Cam Balzer.

Posted by Abdul Fattah Ismail
Posted in blog, Business News, green marketing, Interactive Marketing, Marketing, web 2.0, web development, Website Design | No Comments »
Tags: Blueliner Marketing, cam balzer, griffin technologies, haivaianas, Interactive Marketing, new york interactive marketing agency, pitchfork music festival, social media, threadless

HTML5 Is Here May 28, 2010 – 11:37 am				Abdul Fattah Ismail

The battle between Adobe and Apple over Flash has been intense. Its implications for the future of web development loom larger. For over a decade, HTML 4.01 was the standard base for building websites. Nowadays, with improved media sources such as video, audio, and animation, an upgrade is coming. HTML 5.0 is the next wave.  Some of the elements have been changed, eliminated, or stayed the course. New APIs are being created as well. Google has pushed the movement forward through its web browser Chrome. This video presentation, courtesy of Derek Bender, provides more insight.

Posted by Abdul Fattah Ismail
Posted in web 2.0, web development | No Comments »
Tags: API news, Blueliner Marketing, derek bender, google chrome, html5, new york web development agency, the future of the web

Facebook F8 Event Recap From San Francisco April 21, 2010 – 3:10 pm				Abdul Fattah Ismail

Facebook management rolled out a livestream conference this morning from San Francisco called the F8. The event showcased new programs for developers. I’ll list a few that will be relevant for clients of interactive media.

Open Graph

This was the premiere announcement. The Open Graph is Facebook’s vision of connecting all of the disparate social networks such as Yelp, LinkedIn, and Pandora to Facebook where personal tastes and preferences will be filtered for the individual, then connected in the news feed.

Social Plugins

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg described a new social plugin called the “Like” Button. Many of you are familiar with it on the website, but this edition will only use one line of HTML and allow people to share content all over the web with one click. Currently, one must visit the website, click the preferred method of sharing, and choose the network. The “Like” algorithm seeks to eliminate this step entirely. This should increase the volume of sharing and could drive up ROI metrics for sites that implement it.

Social Plugins can show a given user’s Facebook friends’ activity while reading and commenting on partner sites. The button can be installed on any site and instantly be used to voice a Facebook member’s approval of a given item.

The iFrame is an HTML code that allows you to place the “Like” button on your website or blog. The  ”activity stream” plugin will show all activities from the Facebook user’s friend list on that third-party site, while a “recommendations” plugin will provide suggested content to users.

Open Graph Protocol

Another big announcement was the Open Graph protocol itself, which Director of Platform Product Bret Taylor calls “a specification for a set of metatags which you can use to mark up your pages to tell us what type of real-world object your page represents.” The Internet Movie Database is using the Open Graph Protocol to mark up pages for each individual movie. Hitting the “Like” button on an IMDB movie page will automatically add that movie to the “Favorite Movies” section of a Facebook user’s profile.  This prospect will be a measured tactic for the film industry in gathering information on demographics.

These announcements are still in the beginning phases, but Facebook is taking steps in being the personal connector for the Internet.  Investors and marketers alike should be pleased with today’s announcements.

Posted by Abdul Fattah Ismail
Posted in Business News, Digital Media, Interactive Marketing, Marketing, Mobile Applications, Mobile Marketing, Social Media Marketing, web 2.0, web development | No Comments »
Tags: Blueliner Marketing, bret taylor, facebook, facebook applications, Facebook marketing, mark zuckerberg, new york media agency, social media agency