21 IDEAS21 IDEASTHAT CHANGEDTHAT CHANGED

AN AN IIM ALUMNI IIM ALUMNI VENTUREVENTURE

Social Squared is a digitalmedia & marketing agencyhelping marketers manageowned, bought & earnedmedia.

THE 21 IDEAS THAT CHANGEDMARKETING is a humble attempt tocapture the numerous transformationsthat the discipline of marketing hasundergone over the many years,particularly the last decade.

While radio & TV were game changers intheir own right, the appearance of the newmedia tools like email, search enginemarketing, mobile & social media havealtered the landscape beyond recognition.

While some of these ideas are beingexplored by many brands, there areothers that promise a great deal buthaven’t been fully exploited.If you have any suggestions, please feel free to write to us at: contact@socialsquared.in. Cheers!

1

ANALYTICSANALYTICS Digital marketing has exposed

marketers to the most advanced

marketing analytics.

It makes the analytics that you

get on newspaper reach, TV

audience & radio listeners seem

like intelligent guesswork.

Not only do you know who but

also when, what, how much &

how often – when it comes to

website visitors & online sales.

What you can measure, you can manage.

2

BLOGGINGBLOGGING A blog is a long term marketing

asset that will generate traffic &

create trust in your business.

Blogs improve searchability by

associating your website with

the keywords that define your

business.

Smart marketers use blogs to

position thought leadership &

consequently earn trust.

If a website is your small office, a blog is like infinite real

estate that allows to place signposts & sales counters (CTA).

3

CALL TO ACTIONCALL TO ACTIONOne click is all it takes to move

from reading a news article to

checking out a video to following

the artist on Twitter.

People jump from one topic to

the another because some

marketer somewhere has created

an effective call-to-action.

One click is all it takes.

The rapid growth of information causes scarcity of attention.

Marketers who thrive & get attention do so by having

effective CTA.

4

CUSTOMER CUSTOMER

REVIEWSREVIEWSWhen was the last time you

bought something without

reading a great customer

review?

Whether you believe it or not,

your product is getting

bouquets, brickbats, kisses &

curses as you read this.

It’s no longer about how you

market your product, it is more

about meeting expectations.

Customer was always the king. Now, he is also your biggest

brand ambassador.

5

EMAILEMAIL Email is the default mode for

official communication.

However, email marketing is a

proven tool to reach specific

customers, distribute

information & further your

marketing message.

Transactional, Promotional &

Newsletter emails are the 3

tools in your email marketing

arsenal.

Email marketing is perhaps the cheapest mode of mass

communication available today.

6

FLASHMOBSFLASHMOBSSometimes it makes sense to

take the online marketing effort

offline – on the streets, in malls

or even in airplanes.

Flash mobs are those flash &

awe techniques that generate

buzz, get you free publicity &

energize your employees &

customers alike.

The phenomenon, not even a decade old, has already been

employed successfully by major brands like Pepsi & IBM.

7

GAMIFICATIONGAMIFICATION

What Foursquare has shown us is that people are happier

when they earn something rather than rather than when it

is given to them free.

8

INFOGRAPHICSINFOGRAPHICS

What better way to illustrate an infographic than an infographic?

SOURCE: http://www.customermagnetism.com/seoblog/wp-

content/uploads/2012/05/infographicstatistics.png

9

LEAD CAPTURELEAD CAPTUREWebsites today need to be ready

to capture leads through landing

pages.

A landing page makes visitors

comfortable, provides relevant

information & in return gets to

know the visitors better.

If your PPC ad takes visitors to

your homepage, you may need

to rethink your plans.

Website strategy needs to be changed to collect leads. That’s

the most important reason for your online presence.

10

LINK BUILDINGLINK BUILDINGIf your website doesn’t generate

inbound links, you don’t get

traffic routed to you from other

websites.

Building links creates navigation

paths to guide visitors to your

website. So build links from the

social media, from blogs or from

local directories.

Nothing helps search engine optimization more

than inbound links.

11

LIVE CHATLIVE CHATAnalytics can provide you the

data on your website’s visitors.

But Live Chat? It helps you

replicate real life sales process

by engaging customers at the

place & time of the sale. Can you

think of a better sales tool?

Live chats reduce shopping cart

abandonment rate for

ecommerce websites.

When your marketing team runs live chat, you are able to

collect data, understand behaviour & modify accordingly.

12

MICROBLOGGINGMICROBLOGGINGWith increasingly shorter

attention spans, microblogging

finds itself very popular.

Twitter & Tumblr have evolved

as first-point-of-contact,

customer service tools.

They help you listen to the voice

of the customer & respond at

lightning speed.

Twitter is a great way to connect with your audience & tell

compelling stories.

13

PERSONALIZATIONPERSONALIZATIONPersonalization makes your

marketing campaign relevant.

Today, websites are introducing

dynamic content in the form of

text & images that are based on

our previous interactions with

them.

This brings visitors one step

closer to conversion.

Most websites are designed to be relevant for a majority

audience but they are largely irrelevant to the individual visitor.

14

PAY PER CLICKPAY PER CLICKYou pay only if people click. You

don’t pay even if they see but

don’t click.

Pay-per-click makes internet

advertising the most transparent

form of advertising.

Keywords, ads & landing pages

are the 3 elements of PPC.

With close to 75% of the Google search screen dominated by

advertising, PPC ads help you complement your organic

presence.

15

REAL TIMEREAL TIMEInternet has converted sales &

marketing into a real time activity.

Now you can react to changes in

the environment (competitor ad)

or news reports, instantaneously.

24X7 response is not only

desirable it also increasingly the

expectation of your customers &

vendors.

Marketing has moved from being reactive to being proactive

at best or reactive but faster at the least.

16

RETARGETINGRETARGETINGRemember the Hutch ad where

the puppy follows the owner?

Retargeting does precisely that.

When a visitor visits your

website, a cookie is created that

follows the user. When, he lands

on another website that allows

banner ads, your message is

displayed to the user.

Retargeting helps you reach back to users who have shown

an interest in your offering previously.

17

SMARTPHONESSMARTPHONESWith high-speed internet

moving to the mobiles, your

customer is no longer searching

for you just on the desktop &

laptop.

Social networking & search are

the top activities that users

engage in on smartphones.

Today, your marketing plan is

incomplete without mobile.

How your content displays on the small screen & how you

engage users on the mobile will determine if you succeed in

the future.

18

SOCIAL SOCIAL

NETWORKSNETWORKSSocial networks allow two-way

communication.

Today, no marketing plan can be

complete if it doesn’t integrate

Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest & the

like.

Social networks are ideal

platforms for providing customer

service, getting feedback & doing

market research

More than changing communication & conversation, social

networks have changed our culture.

19

VIDEOVIDEO The TV of yesteryears has more

or less been replaced by

YouTube.

Marketers are now running

video ads that are never ever

meant for TV; they’re meant for

exclusive consumption online.

e.g. Shopper’s Stop

500 years of YouTube are being

watched on Facebook everyday!

In 2011, YouTube had over 1 trillion views or 140 videos for

every living person on Earth.READ ALL YOUTUBE STATS HERE: HTTP://WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/t/press_statistics

20

VIRALITYVIRALITY Viral marketing has existed for

centuries as word-of-mouth.

The tools of the digital era

(email, YouTube, links, social

networks & smartphones) have

only made things easier.

The difficult part is to come up

with something that can go viral

– it needs consistent effort,

understanding of the market & a

strong community to help your

cause.

Viral marketing is an idea that spreads--and an idea that

while it is spreading actually helps market your business or

cause. - Seth Godin

21

VISUAL VISUAL

CONTENTCONTENTImages, presentations &

infographics are getting shared

by the millions.

Tools like Instagram (the billion

dollar app), Pinterest &

Slideshare are sending huge

traffic to websites & generating

sales.

Facebook is a social network

where a majority of the

conversations happen around

shared images.

Use it to your advantage.

A picture speaks more than a thousand words.

AN AN IIM ALUMNI IIM ALUMNI VENTUREVENTURE

WEB | SEO | SEM | PPC WEB | SEO | SEM | PPC SOCIAL | EMAILSOCIAL | EMAIL

© Social Squared, 2012© Social Squared, 2012

(Original Article on Hubspot.com)(Original Article on Hubspot.com)

THANK YOUPlease incorporate the ideas from this list into

your marketing mix.

To understand how to do it, you can get in

touch with us

SOCIALSQUAREDFutuready Services Pvt. Ltd.

274, V Mall

Next to Sai Dham

Off WEH,

Kandivali East

Mumbai 400101

INDIA

0091 22 4264 5743

www.facebook.com/socialsquared2

Twitter - @socialsquaredIN