PROJECT WE LIKE

Manasvi Dawda
HPGD/ JA18 / 2183
PROJECT TIMELINE
WeTube 1. Role of service in B2B – Prof. Sagar Narsian
2. New roles in HR and support functions - Prof. Prof. Chinmay Kamat
3. 5 Vs of Big Data -Prof. Nitesh Verma
4. Branding - Prof. Dilip Motani
5. Social media in Marketing. - Prof. Mukund Moghe

WeLounge 1. Himanshu Saxena (VP- Brand Management & Integrated Communications- Reliance Jio Infocom Ltd.)
2. Gautam Bohra (Vice President- customer service operation at Vodafone,India)
3. Adil Maila (President–Essar)

1. How to Increase website traffic

Newswire
2. How bloackchain can help marketers build better relations with their customers
3. Brand reputation and control over the purchase dictate shopper behaviour
4. Influencer marketing: How to get YouTube to work for your business
5. How to add 51% more sales to your sales funnel
6. 3 steps to getting the most from your content marketing strategy
7. Brands see better sense in running own etail platforms
8. Why ads are necessary in the age of ad blockers
9. Integrated marketing helps connect with consumers effectively
10. Ad firms suffer as Google and Facebook dominate digital dollars.
WETUBE
5 Topics
Role of service in B2B
– Prof. Sagar Narsian
Learnings -
• Nowadays customers are looking for services in products and products in services. Marketing for both is
converging.

• Reasons of why its happening in sellers market to buyers market?-because the customers have more and
more options and choices that’s making more demand on manufacturer.

• Products are becoming commodities and services are meant to differentiate , therefore customers are
becoming demanding , market is wanting the solution and not vanilla products increasing complexity and
technology improvement is making services a mandatory part of product offerings.

• These are the reasons why the services are becoming integral part of the business.
What is service?

• A service is an act of performance offered by one party to another. Performance are intangible but may
involve use of physical products for delivering that service.

• It is an activity that does not result in ownership.

• It is a process that creates benefits by facilitating the change in desire of customers themselves, physical
assets, intangible assets etc. example-going for haircut.
• PRESALE SERVICES :

The Services which are given to the

customers before the sale of a
product. It is useful to understand
customers needs and problem areas.
example; ECOMMERCE.

• AFTERSALE SERVICE:
B2B
These are services that you will SERVICES PRESALES AFTER
typically deliver to the customers INTERNAL SERVICES SALES
SERVICES
after he has purchase the products in SERVICES
fact it is a mandatory part of
industrial product and selling
process.

• INTERNAL SERVICE:
which are within the organization.
Major characteristics of services :
Intangible.
Inseparability.
Variability.
Perishability.
Non ownership.

Intangibility of services levels :

1.Core service product .
2.Tangibility of product-packaging, features, styling,
branding.
3.Augmented products- after sale services, commissioning,
financing options, delivery, warranty etc.
New roles in HR and support functions
Prof. Chinmay Kamat
Learnings -
Evolving Hr.
• HR started out as personnel department which was responsible for payroll benefits. Since 1990’s HR became
more strategic.
• Recruitment, learning and development, organizational design, payroll compensation and communications
were the new topics covered under HRfunctions.
• HR now has moved from business partners to business integration.
• They are responsible for Talent management, competency management, performance management,
succession planning.

• Need for Change :

o Attrition
o Competition
o Workplace Diversity
o Changes In Global Thinking.
Creative activities conducted by Biz. HR.

• Innovative inductions are provided that provides value adds.

• Cutting out the formalities.
• Reducing Monotony.
• Fun Sessions.
• Team building sessions.
• Rewards and recognitions

Innovation recruitment.
• Out of box styles
• Networking styles (Facebook, LinkedIn)
• HR sites (CiteHR)
• Discotheques or malls
• Radio Adds
Value adds by training and development.

• Providing training solutions in different industry domains.

• Creating custom training content.
• Integrating online & instructor led training.
• Mapping of organizational training objectives.
• Providing support services to end users, trainers, administrators etc.
• Creation of E-Learning modules
• Creation of learning management portals

Future roles of HR.

• Internal consultant - helps to spread HR competencies through the organization.
• Talent manager - Responsible for finding and retaining of brightest workers.
• Vendor manager - Responsible for monitoring quality and costs.
5 V’s of Big Data
Prof. Nitesh Verma
Learnings -
Data is collection of figures, facts, numbers, scores in marks, etc.
• Companies capture trillions of bytes of information about their customers, suppliers and operations and
millions of networked sensors are being embedded in the physical world in devices such as mobile phones and
automobiles, sensing, creating and communicating data.

• 30% of entire population is online and generating the data through various means ex: email, search query, likes
in Facebook pages, creation of Twitter account, sensors.

• BIG DATA is a collection of data sets so LARGE and COMPLEX that it becomes difficult to process using on-
hand database management tools.

• The challenges include capture, storage, search, sharing , analysis and visualization.
More About Data.

• In 2003 --> Connected devices per person is 0.08

• In 2020 --> Connected devices per person will be 6.58

• More devices than the people -- Each person will be using multiple devices and generate the data.

• Top 2 most visited websites - Google, Facebook

• Google - Time spent per person per month: 1 HH 47Min 42 Sec

• Facebook - Time spent per person per month: 7 HH 45Min 49 Sec

• Google is storing the data which person is searching on daily basis and sell keywords to the organization to
have new customers.
The 5 V’s of BIG DATA:

• Volume
• Velocity
• Variety
• Veracity (Accuracy)
• Value

Why Big Data?

• Business outcomes tied to the business strategy resulting from business decisions.
• Higher productivity, faster time to complete tasks
• Lower total cost of ownership and greater efficiencies in IT.
How are we using BIG Data to generate VALUE?

1) Understanding & Targeting Customers.

2) Understanding & Optimizing Business Processes
3) Improving Sports Performance
4) Improving Science and Research
5) Optimizing Machine and Device Performance
6) Improving Security and Law Enforcement
7) Improving and Optimizing Cities and Countries
8) Financial Trading
9) Personal Quantification and Performance Optimization
10) Improving Healthcare and Public Health

Big Data market reached $18.6 Billion in 2013, heading for $50 Billion in 2019
Branding
Prof. DilipMotani
Learnings -
• Evolution of branding-branding evolved during stone age which was initially restricted to protect owns
property.

• Pottery marks ,bricks marks and stone cutters sign were one of the earlier signs of branding . example
earlier i.e. 3000 years ago potteries marks were put on so that one can identify, hence branding for
merchandising and product branding was traced.

• In these manner branding was evolved. Concept of brand piracy and logo were also evolved during late
90’s.

How branding can be beneficial for a company?

• Brands are the identity of a product ,brands create image of a company that can boost goodwill, brands
personality can make companies status high in competitive world .

• In these way branding is beneficial for an organisation.

• Brands such as KFC, Amul Butter, Maggi , BMW are the best example of Brand Image , Brand Personality
and brand identity.
WHAT IS THE NEED OF BRAND? WHY BRANDING IS REQUIRED?

In day-to-day life we have so many brands, without brand nothing is possible, nowadays every
consumer search for a specific brand products, so it has become very crucial thing for a
company to give a good name(brand name)of a product.
A brand name is needed because it can give an identity of a product and can easily fit into
customers mind easily hence, branding can help to maximize the profit of an organization .
It is said that whether it is tangible or intangible (services) that is brand and branding is
required.
Classification of brands:

1.Brand as a legal instrument.

2.Brand as logo.
3.Brand as company.
4.Brand as a risk reducer.
5.Brand as a identity system.
6.Brand as an image of a company.
7.Brand as a personality.
8.Brand as a value of money.
9.Brand as relationship.
10.Brand as adding value.

According To Phillip Kotler a brand can be defined as a name, term,

sign, symbol, design or a combination of them intended to identify
goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate
them from those competitors.
Characteristics of good brand-

Simple and Distinct logo , Produce mental image,

Packaging, Shape , Colors , Sounds , Mascot , meaningful.
Few examples are MCDONALDS ,NIKE,BMW,AMUL BUTTER,DOMINOS etc.

Four patterns of brand loyalty-

1.Hard core loyal-they are ones who buy the brand all the time.
2.Soft core loyal-they are loyal to two three brands.
3.Shifting loyal-they keep moving from one brand to another.
4.switchers-they are not at all loyal they will switch for deals discounts and to bargain.
Social media in Marketing.
Prof. Mukund Moghe
Learnings -
• Social media is online social interaction integrated with technology. Mix of words, pictures, and audio which
is social media. It is a way to describe the zillions of conversation people are having online 24/7.
• More then 75% of customers using Social media as a part of their buying process.
• Social media is really very important in marketing field.2,307 billion people are active on social media.1,968
billion people are using their mobiles to interact online. Time spent on social network is growing at 3* the
overall internet rate.
 How is SOCIAL MEDIA impacting business?

93% of social media users believe a company should have a presence in social media.

85% of social media users believe that a company should also interact with customers online.

Social media in marketing:

• Involves sharing of content, videos and images for marketing purpose.
• Process of gaining website traffic or attention through social media sites.
• Creating content that attracts attention, encouraging sharing across social networks.
• Enables business to reach to more customers.
• Enables customer to interact with brands through social media.

Thus having a strong social media marketing plan is a key to tap into customer interest.
Social media strategies:

Identify your target market.

Who are your customers? What characteristics do they have? What age group do they come from?
What are their spending or shopping habits? Do they shop online? What social media apps are they
using?
Create a profile or Brand.
As you create your online profile, Think about your screen name after identifying your target
market.
Decide an appropriate social media app.
Which one are your customers using, start with one understand it, utilize it effectively and then
expand your online presence. Write good and appropriate content. Build relationships, listen and
engage with your followers.
Include Search Engine Optimisation(SEO)
Focus on good phrase, Avoid ‘Vanity’ keywords, Use Google tools, Remember the value of
repetition, Guide your content strategy.
Measure the progress towards goals.
Did we learn something about customer that we didn’t knew before? Did our customers learn
something about us ? Were we able to engage our customers into new conversations?
WELOUNGE
3 Topics
 Discussion Mr.HimanshuSaxena-Vice-President - Brand Management &
Integrated Communications-Reliance JioInfocomm Ltd.

About Mr.Himanshu:

• Himanshu Saxena having an extensive experience of over 25 years with a

successful track record of achieving extraordinary results in the entire spectrum
of Marketing Communications, Advertising, Branding, Market Research and
Brand Management.

• He is the Head-Brand & Integrated Communications, Reliance Jio Infocomm

Ltd.

• Prior to Reliance Jio, he has worked with top notch brands like Unilever, GSK,
HSBC, PepsiCo, ESPN, Nike,Diageo, Barclays, Marico, Madura Garments, Asian
Paints.

• Graduated from Bhavan's Institute of Communication & Management,

Ahmadabad.
• Started as a Sales Executive in Sterling Holiday Resorts as a Senior Product Manager with Direct Marketing responsibilities for
Gujarat & Rajasthan.

• Involved in Marico -Saffola, Parachute -Coconut Oil brands development.

• Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO) -Created specialization in industry players -Good at backend of telecom
infrastructure; some are good at front end support (Consumer experience).

• At lighter side in personal, tries to cut his sleep and wakes up 30-40 minutes early to have some time for him. Will read news
paper, watch TV, have coffee.

• While travelling to office, which normally takes 30-45 minutes in Mumbai traffic, lists the to-do list and will ready with action
items once reaches the office.

• After reaching office, first 15 minutes tries to interact with people casually and sometimes welcome the people at reception.

• He has also Played at National level in Table Tennis in school days. If not in Marketing industry, probably doing something in
Sports side, music side.
Key Learning :

• Telecom industry has come a long way since its inception.

• About a few years ago, two fundamental things happened:

1. Aadhar card
2. High Quality 4G Internet

• A large country is connected uniformly across the social spread and the country.

• Over the years, ability to read big data has improved.

• Making a voice call is not what consumer should pay for but they should be paying for the value added services.

• Before people used to use less than 1 gb a month… with jio coming in an the telecom service providers cutting down
the rates, on an average people consume 12-14 gb a month….

• The entire telecom industry is growing in a humongous manner.

• India still has a long way to go in the next 3-5 years.

 Discussion With MR. GAUTAM BORAH–Vice President-customer service
operation at Vodafone, India

About Mr.Gautam Borah :

• Mr. Gautam Borah has an experience of over 20 years in service assurance, business transformation and
customer service operations and has a master’s degree from University of Oxford.

• He is an author of the book ‘Monetising Innovation’.

• When asked about the book and writing he answered that he had a passion and desire to write a book
since he was a child and he has an interest in the innovative progression in the organisational world and
the need of innovation for survival in the market.

• He is currently heading customer service operations for Vodafone India .

• He has also written many articles one of them was published in the journal of the Indian Management
Association which was ‘ Innovation has many perspective’.

• He gives an example of the invincible army of Genghis Khan and says there is a need for any organisation
to be systematic, disciplined and innovative to grow well and be successful.
Key Learnings :

• When asked about customer satisfaction in India, he mentioned a saying in India “Atithi devo bhava”
which says guests are god, and the feature of helping is in Indian blood comparing it to the organisational
world we could say that satisfaction of customers in Indian market has high standards.

• Moving on to the point of having a happy customer Mr. Borah says that if the organisation focuses on the
customer satisfaction and making them happy they transfer their heart to the organisation and also helps
in increasing the market.

• From 2005-2010 organisation national head of service assurance for Vodafone he said that the two part
of business is hard part & soft part.

• The hard part is details of planning, execution,& the soft part was more difficult in country like India
where you need to identify what people want to achieve and aligning them to a bigger cause.
Key Learnings :

When talking about Indian market and customer operating he says that it is a pre sales procedure where
we can gain the customer by giving him the right information. And when it comes to the workers, they
must always be motivated and this can happen by giving them a cause which they will believe.

Mr. Gautam Borah is a person who is passionate and likes discipline and innovation. He guides us by
telling how we can manage time with having a disciplined schedule and that we should keep on dreaming
and working for it without thinking about the results or returns.
 Discussion With Mr.AdilMaila–President HR–Essar.

About Mr. Adil Maila:

• Mr. Maila has 27 years of global work experience spanning India, South West Asia, The Middle East and The
U.s. MR. Maila joined essar from coca-cola India where he was heading the HR function for India and South
West Asia.
• He strated his career at Godrej Group where he spent close to 9 years handling roles ranging from sales,HR,
to training and development. He also worked with GE appliances in India and U.S. as General manager .
• He joined essar in August 2006.he was responsible for hr functions programs and policies for the entire
group and played a crucial role in providing vision and leadership to the HR function to deliver groups
strategic and operating goals.
Key Learnings :

• When asked about Coca-Cola re-entry strategy and challenges faced by Coca-Cola he said that he had
came to India for his assignment and at that point of time Coca-Cola hired him.

• At that time Coca-Cola was finding a secondary entry into the country and one of the re-entry strategies
was to buy over around 40 independent bottlers of the chauhan parle group where they were the
members of his business and Coca-Cola was the brand from chauhan and then the bottling was done by
the independent franchisee bottlers.

• In India, at that point of time no one out there wanted to make investments or to focus on the quality of
product because the quality which chauhan was producing for thumps up and all other products were
not matching the international standards of coca-cola.
Key Learnings :

• When asked him about his work experience with GE appliances and what he understood through his experience? He replied
as working under GE and working with Bob the OD head of GE under whom he was trained and understood that how
effective leaders emotionally connect with people to establish creditability.

• He learned what were human values all about and why it is important even if we are successful actor, dancer etc. the most
important for you is to be a good human being.

• He learnt from bob is that human being cannot be compartmentalise and unless and until you are able to emotionally
connect with people your ability to touch them at a surface level will never give you the results.
NEWSWIRE
10 Topics
1. HOW TO INCREASE WEBSITE TRAFFIC.
If you have a website, then you must always wonder how to increase and grow your online presence – how to route
more traffic to your website and become famous and make your opinion on different matters heard to a wider
audience. Websites are the new influencers and many companies leverage their websites to promote their products.
However, all this is going to be true for you only if you can increase the awareness of your website among the internet
public.
• Use Social Media - Social is what Email used to be in the old days. People don’t subscribe to newsletters
anymore, they would much prefer it if the news showed up by itself on their Facebook Newsfeed. You have to take
advantage of this trend.
• Invest Time - If you are serious about your website posts, if your website represents your passion and – most
importantly – if your website is the tool by which you want to earn a living for yourself, then you cannot bypass this
step. Remember, that a half-hearted effort is worse than no effort at all as it involves lots of time and energy but
does not produce expected results.
• Advertise your Expertise- It is always better to establish yourself as an expert in your field from the start. People
love experts as nowadays almost everyone with the Internet connection and a laptop starts a blog and the quality of
content present online is going down… so if the audience gets to see your expertise on a particular topic then that
results in trust and more traffic.
• Specialise- We know that writing may be your passion and maybe you want to write about everything that catches
your eye, but if you want to increase awareness about your website, then you need to earn people’s respect for your
opinions – something that will never happen unless they view you as an expert in one particular field. All the most
popular owners of websites and other social media influencers specialize in a particular field and generate content
only about that one field.
• Specialise- We know that writing may be your passion and maybe you want to write about everything that catches
your eye, but if you want to increase awareness about your website, then you need to earn people’s respect for your
opinions – something that will never happen unless they view you as an expert in one particular field. All the most
popular owners of websites and other social media influencers specialize in a particular field and generate content
only about that one field.
• Focus on SEO - Make use of Search Engine Optimisation or SEO techniques to increase awareness about your
website. What this basically means is using keywords in your articles that will make your posts appear near or at the
top in Google and other web search results.
• Add Good and Original Images - Before you start shouting about how adding images has nothing to do with writing,
we would like you to ask yourself whether you would want to read a long website post that has no images of any kind
and only information? We think your answer will be no.
• Great Content - Ever heard the phrase “mediocrity is common, but there’s always room at the top”? Well, it’s true!
You can do everything we have said above, but if your content isn’t good and you are just repackaging old wine in new
bottles, then no one will even bother with your website. Understand this, people have very limited time on their
hands and unlimited ways in which to spend it.
• Attractive Design - A website is a visual medium that is used to appeal to the aesthetic sense of the target audience.
In this respect, there is something to be said about making the website as attractive in design as possible. However,
care must be taken to ensure that the attractiveness must not come at the cost of intuitiveness of use and friendliness
of interaction with the interface. In this regard, the website in question must make use of the latest design templates,
attractive fonts, and a user-friendly interface to woo traffic.
2. HOW BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY HELPS DIGITAL ADVERTISERS DISCOVER NEW CUSTOMERS

• The new advertising tool for small businesses, outlined by Google, is to take the help of machine-learning
technology of Google Ads to yield results.

• Google’s cloud computing business is also working on a block chain-related technology, while Amazon Web
Services, the cloud arm of the e-commerce giant, has also stepped up development of block chain.

• The emergence of block chain technology for advertisements has immense potential, say experts, since the ability
to capture and analyse massive amounts of structured and unstructured data is helping digital advertisers
discover new customers.

• Every piece of data has value – both to the end-user, who supplies it – and to the advertiser, who uses it for
targeted advertising, points out Ashik Ashokan, Digital Planner at VML, a marketing and ad agency.

• By making advertisements more targeted and appropriate, marketers are now looking to ensure that their
campaign will result in an elevated return on investment.

• Enter Kind Ads, a block chain visionary. A decentralised ad network platform that seeks to make the online ad
experience more pleasant, “Kind Ads come with a vision to bridge the gap between publishers, advertisers, users
and app providers”, Ashokan told Business Line. “The end goal is to create an ecosystem with a balance of power
and value for everyone.”
• Consumers, too, stand to benefit, since users who opt to share their data with advertisers get to see targeted
ads. A recent study by Experian on Digital Consumer Insights showed 51 per cent Indians saying they are willing
to share their personal data to avail various offerings.

Commenting on the duopoly of Facebook and Google in the adtech ecosystem, Ashokan says “these giants are
effectively siphoning users’ attention to an area where it can be sold to advertisers”.

• However, with about 615 million devices worldwide using ad-blocking software, consumers still tend to
perceive online advertisements as intrusive and irrelevant and take great pains to block them. The rise of ad-
blocking behaviour, and the social outrage over data breaches like the recent Cambridge Analytica scandal, are
powerful indicators that consumers want a greater say in the data economy, adds Ashokan.

• In the current system, though, “it is not possible for users to manage complex data themselves. So they rely on
the duopoly to do it for them, relinquishing not just any opportunity for incentive but also transparency over
their data”, he adds.

• Since blockchain has entered the equation “together with tools that simplify data, we are able to create a
better system, one with greater transparency that gives users control over transacting their data and also a
choice if they want to view ad content”, says Ashokan.
3 . BRAND REPUTATION AND CONTROL OVER THE PURCHASE DICTATE SHOPPERS’ BEHAVIOR.

• 2Checkout (formerly Avangate), a leader in eCommerce, payments and subscription billing solutions, today
released its 2018 Software & SaaS Buying Behavior Survey. The survey of almost 1,000 software and SaaS
buyers reveals global buyer preferences and industry trends that software merchants can leverage to increase
their online sales worldwide.

• Online shoppers are paying increased attention to security and merchant reputation and value reliable
support across several channels. Vendor reputation is the ‘most important factor’ when buying online,
cited by 86% of shoppers globally, reflecting buyers’ preference for honest business, high quality
products and a customer-oriented culture.

• Buyers are used to being in the driver’s seat and want full control over their online purchases. 80% of
shoppers prefer manual renewal of their subscriptions, while87% of respondents mention the ‘ability to
change or cancel a subscription at any time’ as very important for the purchase decision.
• To satisfy this requirement, merchants need to provide their clients with tools and access to self-service
and assisted support in order to manage their subscriptions seamlessly, 24×7.

• This makes voluntary and involuntary churn prevention tools, coupled with advanced subscription
management, the recipe for success in connecting to today’ssavvy buyers.
• “Understanding buyers’ habits and preferences is key to reaching them effectively with the right
products and offers and providing the expected support, via their preferred channels,” said Erich Litch,
Chief Revenue Officer, 2Checkout. “Our Software & SaaS Buying Behavior Survey delivers insights about
when and how buyers prefer to get software, and what are their preferences or concerns when buying
online, empowering merchants to make better sales and marketing decisions.”

• Product reviews are the next most influential factor in buying decisions, more so than discounts and free
trials, as recognized by 74% of respondents globally. Money-back guarantees are also a very important
factor, rated ‘high’ by 67% of respondents.

• Difficulty of reaching live support is the biggest concern of 55% of shoppers, followed by lack of trust in
unknown vendors. The credibility of product reviews is a blocker for 49% of respondents.

• Online search leads the way as the preferred method for finding products, with 78% of shoppers
worldwide rating it as their first choice. Searching directly on a vendor’s website comes in second, while
word-of-mouth follows closely in third place. Reflecting changing habits, online ads take the last seat in
popularity, mentioned by only 11% of respondents as avenues for product discovery.

• The global picture shows credit cards being used by 86% of respondents, with PayPal at 54% and 12.5%
selecting mobile payment options such as Apple Pay.
4 . INFLUENCER MARKETING: HOW TO GET YOUTUBE TO WORK FOR YOUR BUSINESS

•. While businesses are eager to experiment with influencer marketing, the choice of platform is crucial to
get the maximum ROI.

• YouTube celebrities with their long list of subscribers are not the only influencers on the platform, there are
several hobbyists on the Google-owned video platform who generate millions of views on their video posts. A
small business can use local influencers on YouTube to propagate their marketing ideas to a niche audience
readily available.

• While businesses are eager to experiment with influencer marketing, the choice of platform is crucial to get
the maximum return on investment (ROI). YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and the new sensation
Musical.ly, have witnessed a proliferation of users who have quickly amassed a following, in other words, a
targeted audience readily available for your business.

• There are millions of social users who prefer YouTube because it gives them a bigger format to experiment
and create content. However, bigger does not always mean better. The choice of the platform to use hinges on
many subjective factors but each social platform has its own specific characteristics.
"It would cost you more to reach a million people on YouTube than reaching the same number on Instagram," informs
One Impression, founder and CEO, Apaksh Gupta.
•
• The cost of creating content on YouTube is higher than other platforms simply because it is a large-format content
platform. Proportionally, the cost of employing an influencer on YouTube goes higher for businesses.

• It may be costlier but YouTube also gives you direct access to the bottom of the funnel which can be easily
translated into better conversion rates through a relevant and intelligent marketing campaign.

• If you are operating in the B2B space, then it may be more beneficial to look at YouTube for your influencer
marketing campaign.

• YouTube has not created a culture of encouraging viewers to subscribe to content of their liking. While it allows
viewers to subscribe, unlike Instagram, users do not have to 'follow' an influencer to lose access to their content.

• The general behaviour of viewers on YouTube is to search and watch. On Instagram if you do not instantly follow
people whose content you like, you may end up losing their feed. However, YouTube understands the viewers very
well and keep suggesting similar content created by others or of the same person, even if you do not subscribe.

• A business can always use different platforms for different kind of campaigns.
5 HOW TO ADD 51% MORE SALES TO YOUR SALES FUNNEL

• When it comes to business marketing, using a single marketing strategy is not enough. Technology
and also the business world is constantly evolving so sticking with an old strategy may not be effective
for customers nowadays. Therefore, there is a need to make changes and consistent improvements
that will guarantee your desired results in the long run.

• So are you wondering how you can improve each stage of your sales funnel with cost-effective
strategies? First off, you should know this: the necessary marketing improvements you need to make
are those that will boost both your business brand awareness and your profitability.

• You can do this by optimizing each stage of your sales funnel, from the awareness stage to the point of
sales. Also, you can incorporate some click funnel strategy such as Actionetics and inclusion of
membership option in your sales funnel.

• Here’s how you can optimize each stage of your sales funnel.

• Use Efficient lead acquisition strategy - One major mistake most businesses make at the early
stage of their lead generation is having issues with lead quality. No matter what lead generation tools
you’re using if your lead quality is low you will have a tough time with the conversion.
• Reach out to collect data on what your prospects questions, problems and doubts are. This will help
you to forge irresistible marketing content that provides solutions to all questions they have in a way
that will give your product an advantage over others. This is where you need the contact details you
collected during the first stage of your marketing campaign.

• You’ll need to start sending emails to your prospects email list and an effective tool that can help you
with automated email marketing is the click funnels actionetics. Actionetics helps you to customize
your marketing content using a template that is well formatted for email marketing.

• Your email marketing content should contain things like price comparison, detailed benefits of your
product and other genuine and convincing information that will make the lead convert into sales.
You can also offer trial account or membership opportunities to show your prospects that you’re
genuinely interested in them.

• Follow Up After the Sale - After the sale, it’s not yet time to relax. I’m sure you won’t want to lose
your hard-earned client’s to your competitors. Now is the time to do close follow up and improvise on
ways to make them have a memorable experience. One smart way to do an effective follow up is
creating a membership site.

On a final note, let each stage of your sales funnel be about what value you can add to your customers.
6 . 3 STEPS TO GETTING THE MOST FROM YOUR CONTENT MARKETING STRATEGY

• Consumers have always struggled placing trust in financial institutions. That’s why financial marketers
need to provide valuable information if they hope to stay competitive and build healthy, positive
relationships with people. Banks and credit unions must actively work to improve their reputation, build
their brand and bolster consumer engagement.

• According to a 2018 J.D. Power study, 78% of those in the U.S. are interested in receiving financial advice
or guidance from their bank, but only 28% say they’ve received it. There’s a big disconnect here —
between consumers’ appetite for informative content and those institutions providing it.

It All Starts With Content Marketing - Content marketing is a highly effective approach to engaging
any target audience. When executed properly, a content marketing strategy leads to more informed,
financially capable citizens. At the same time, it yields strong business development benefits for your
organization.

Creating compelling content within a marketing context means striking a delicate balance between relevant
and interesting material that informs and provides value to consumers while simultaneously promoting your
brand without crossing the line.
Here are three important steps you can follow to maximize the impact
and ROI of your content marketing strategy:
Step 1: Persona Alignment

The foundation of your go-to-market content strategy begins with creating buyer personas. Personas are conceptual
representations of your ideal target audience, based on market research and data from your current consumers.

Once you determine who your key personas are and what they care about — and how they correlate to your institution’s
goals and strategic priorities — you can begin developing messaging that’s relevant to them. Conduct an audit of your
pre-existing content. What do you already have, and what do you need to create?

Once you have a library of original and curated content, you’re ready to start distributing it in ways that will reach your
target personas.

Step 2: Channel Integration

Take an omni-channel approach to deliver your content, and align with your various audiences. Use multiple mediums,
including your website, mobile apps, social media, paid media and email marketing. Don’t forget offline channels either;
in-branch tools can be useful to visiting consumers, and educational tools for branch employees can lead to more
dedicated and informed staff members who can better serve accountholders.
Use research and data to determine the best channel(s) to reach each persona. For example, Millennials will
be more receptive to interactive tools, calculators and mobile learning apps than will older consumers.

Building a content marketing calendar is an important part of the process. But before you create anything
from scratch — again! — be sure to conduct a thorough audit of what you already have. Take a look at your
institution’s established marketing plans and find intuitive places to incorporate educational content.

If you can align content with the calendar and cycle of your consumers’ needs, engagement increases,
conversion rates increase, and the overall effectiveness and perceived value of your program trends upward.

Step 3: Champion Your Results - In some ways, the most important marketing is internal marketing. It
is essential that you have data tracking and metrics in place now, so you can ultimately show internal
stakeholders how your content marketing efforts are making an impact and producing results.

Depending on your organization’s top priorities and content marketing goals, you might emphasize data. It’s
critical that you not only communicate the results, but also show how they derived specifically from your
content marketing strategy or financial education program.

Data is the key to ongoing internal support. But by providing concrete evidence of success, a strategic content
marketing plan will see budget increases and program growth, which, in turn, helps you better serve your
consumers, impact your community and achieve your business objectives long-term.
7 . BRANDS SEE BETTER SENSE IN RUNNING OWN ETAIL PLATFORMS
• Three years ago, when food retailer Haldiram’s decided to sell its products online, it decided to set up its own platform
instead of taking the marketplace route. The 81-year-old company known for its savoury snacks and sweets had clear
reasons to do so.

• “We want to be in control of our brand and product. Even for our offline stores, we do not follow the franchisee model
but set up our own stores, so why would we do that online? We don’t want to be in the rat race and be compared with
other brands in the marketplace,” said Vijay Berera, GM of operations at Haldiram’s.

• Haldiram’s is among the few companies that prefer to go their own way online rather than sell through
marketplaces such as Amazon or Flipkart. For home electrical company Luminous Power Technologies,
the reasons are also practical.

• “Some of our inverter batteries weigh 80-90 kg and it becomes difficult to ship these from a central
location as it would be with a marketplace. We’ve tied up with our offline partners to handle these
deliveries for orders that happen through our website,” said Sachin Bhalla, senior VP for marketing at
Luminous.
• The Luminous website was already getting a lot of consumer traffic with people researching products
and while the company does sell some popular products through marketplaces, its entire range is
available only through its e-shop.

• For food companies, the ability to showcase the entire product line up on their own websites is
something that isn’t possible with a marketplace, which would typically stock a dozen of the
bestselling products. Often, people end up on the company’s website to look for products and having
an online sale option there just helps complete the loop.

• On marketplaces, products often compete with similar brands and discounting often ends up being
an easy differentiator.
8. WHY ADS ARE NECESSARY IN THE AGE OF AD BLOCKERS

• On 15th February 2018, Google Chrome rolled out a revolutionary update which has an inbuilt ad
blocker which blocks out all the intrusive ads. This resurrected a great buzz around ad blocking in the
programmatic industry.

• Ad blockers are special software or plugins designed to block out most types of digital ads. Ad blockers
are creating a frenzy among advertisers and publishers alike. So here’s a brief analysis on ad blocking,
its impact on the programmatic industry and ways to deal with this mammoth challenge facing the
industry.

• Users have always tried to escape ads. Hence, ad blocking has been around for quite some time. The
seeds were sown during the early years of the twenty-first century when Mozilla introduced the Do Not
Track feature, which blocked advertisers from tracking a user’s identity and browser history.

• Over time, as the consumption of digital content increased, ads were digitized and ad blocking took
more sophisticated forms like ad blocker plugins and in-built ad blocking within browsers. In order to
handle ad blocking, it is important to get to the root of the problem.
• The rise of ad blockers can be attributed to users’ desire for uninterrupted viewing of the content. The main
problem arises when the ads get excessive and drown the content by consuming a major part of the web page,
driving the users up the wall.

• However, amidst all this resentment against advertisements, the importance of ads is often
downplayed. Ads are a must in the digital ecosystem.

• Creating a balance between the content and the ads is the key. There won’t be any ad blockers if there
are no intrusive ads in the first place! This seems like a good place to begin with. Next, the publishers
can start being open and honest about their revenue models.

• Users demand free online content, and often ads are the only means of supporting it. Publishers can let
users know this. If the users still do not want ads, publishers can provide an ad-free version of the
content for a certain subscription fee.

• This can act as an alternative revenue model for the publishers. If the content is engaging enough, users
won’t mind paying in exchange for an ad-free content.

• Hence, it is required that the industry adapts to this trend and finds a way to strike a balance between
the advertisers’ need to reach out to the users, publishers’ needs for revenue and the users’ desire for an
uninterrupted experience.
9 . INTEGRATED MARKETING HELPS CONNECT WITH CONSUMERS EFFECTIVELY

• For years, marketers have focused on adding new customers with methods like social media, content and outbound
interruption. Recently, we’ve seen a decisive shift in focus to providing existing customers with personalized support
experiences. Gartner’s 2017-2018 CMO Spend Survey indicates that, after several years of increases, marketing
budgets for capturing new customers are recoiling. CMOs surveyed by Gartner are choosing to focus budgets on
existing customers.

• For instance, many big brand marketing plans are less focused on disruptive outbound marketing and more focused
on how to leverage and engage inbound communications. This is especially relevant in categories where traditional
advertising is ineffective or industries where advertising is highly regulated. For brands operating in these kinds of
spaces, interaction with existing customers is one of the few real touch points they have to drive growth.

• Messaging apps offer ways of engaging the customer at key moments of truth and can have an
amplified effect on building the brand.

• Deftly managing inbound customer requests creates opportunities for business growth for companies
that have barriers to traditional advertising techniques.
• Not all companies are able to touch consumers through traditional advertising.
Marketers in highly-regulated industries who face this challenge can turn to
integrated, multi-channel communication approaches to connect with customers
who were once unreachable.One of the most successful ways to bridge gaps in
marketing planning is to create more opportunity for direct consumer engagement.
Opening the door to creating positive customer interaction successfully expands a
company’s network, spreads the company message via word-of-mouth and leads to
new business opportunity.

• Customers with successfully resolved issues are more likely to interact or transact
with that brand again.
10 . AD FIRMS SUFFER AS GOOGLE, FACEBOOK DOMINATE DIGITAL DOLLARS: REPORT

• The dominance of Google and Facebook of digital advertising has led to the number of independent and
smaller ad tech companies falling 21 per cent since 2013 to 185 in the second quarter of 2018, the media
reported.

• "Online advertising companies have struggled for several years as Google and Facebook solidified their grip
on digital dollars, slowing revenue for the others," added the report, citing global marketing research firms
including LUMA Partners.
•
• While spending for online ads was more than $88 billion last year, over 90 per cent of that went to Google or
Facebook.
•
• "Amazon is also making inroads into advertising, with a new advertising arm, raising the possibility that it will
become a top competitor," said the report.
•
• The company generated $2.2 billion in revenue from its advertising business in the second quarter this year.
• While Facebook had been predicting its ad revenue to decelerate in 2017, it actually saw a strong growth of 48.8
per cent.

• According to a recent Forrester report, brands will invest 55 per cent more in digital marketing by 2023.

• "Search engines such as Google will lose some of their appeal for shopping as Amazon and other retail websites
gain favour and advertiser dollars over the next few years," said Forrester.

• The move signifies a shift in the way consumer shopping habits continue to change as they are headed toward
Amazon and retail websites for shopping and toward Google and Bing for answers to questions.

• "The shift gives Amazon a reason to strengthen its search features -- text and voice -- for organic traffic, as well
as its search advertising platform," said the report.