# Digital Marketing

Trends in the Digital Marketing space

Listening to and engaging with your customers on social media can dramatically increase loyalty and salesand, sometimes helps you turn customer disappointment into delight. But get it wrong and the opposite might happen. Customers frequently use digital word of mouth to make decisions or help others decide, so sites like Yelp can make or break your online reputation and business. As the world continues to embrace social media and we look back in 2013, the ways we use social networks is becoming clearer and each network is now associated to its core benefit. We witness the rise of & high levels of engagement in visual web are making Pinterest, Tumblr, Flickr, Instagram and Vine the fastest growing social networks. Facebook is the leader in social web where we share with friends and family. Google+ is getting serious about its value proposition and is embedded in Googles digital products including Gmail, local checkins and the mobile Android ecosystems. Twitter is very dependent on mobile usage & devices due to its short and snappy messaging. The worlds of content, search and social are being woven together and delivering a unique web experience that looks afresh & growing every day. The social networks are becoming an extension of our lives as we express, share, interact and connect through these channels. Way forward, everything is going to get smarter and your Social apps will be powered with artificial intelligence that will help you in your day-to-days tasks, will react to your emotions and be with you just like a virtual friend. And, consumers frequently use digital word of mouth to make decisions, so sites like Yelp can make or break your online reputation and business.

#1 The Fastest Growing Visual Web is Here!

On web, Visuals speaks louder than text! The visual driven social networks Pinterest and Tumblr has recorded fastest growth rate of 88% and 74% respectively over last one year. Twitter and Linkedin are still rapidly growing at 40%, while the largest social network Facebook is growing nearly 20%.

#2 The Rise of Mobile Messaging!

Its now getting clearer that competition from other social media platforms is increasing, and as we can see users are adopting supplementary services that serve specific needs rather than switching to other platforms entirely. Mobile is a key driver of this change where built-in OS functions and applications make it very easy to use many different services, all of which focus on doing very specific tasks e.g Snapchat or Whatsapp. Facebook shows large rise in their mobile app (up 69%), which indicates an ongoing shift to mobile devices. Specifically, following graph shows theres a clear very big story with winners being mobile messengers, video and photo apps.

1021 1000 800 % Growth 639 600 400 254 200 0 105 89 85 85 81 81 77

#3 Short Term Messaging Works!

Snapchat features the content that disappears in user specific time witnessing exponential (2x) growth in 2 months!

Source: Snapchat

#4 Usage of social networks by older users is increasing

There is a growth in usage of social networking sites by the 55 to 64 year olds is greater than 100% for Facebook, Twitter and Google+. The grey hairs are too now having fun.

Source: globalwebindex.ne t

#5 Shopping Goes Social!

There has been an astounding 357% increase in sales from social traffic compared to last year. Over the period of Jan.- June 2013, social traffic to e-commerce sites has created a revenue increase of 17.8 percent. Thirty percent of Twitter users begin thinking and tweeting about holiday shopping before October. Sixty-five percent of consumers use social media to find the perfect gift for people. Every 4 in 10 social media users have purchased an item (online or in-store) after sharing or favoriting it on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. 91% of e-commerce retailers saw a lift in their SEO rank thanks to social referrals. 50% of social media-driven purchasing happens within one week of sharing, tweeting, liking or favoriting the product. (htt7) 74% of consumers rely on their social networks to make purchase decisions. When it comes to sharing news about their online purchases, 55% of consumers choose Facebook, 22% share on Twitter, 14% on Pinterest and 5% share on Instagram. Facebook is the leader when it comes to driving social traffic to retail sites (it is responsible for about 60%) with Polyvore (20%) and Pinterest (15%) following behind.

#6 The year of Social Acceptance

According to eMarketer survey, 2014 will be a year of social acceptance. More US marketers are committing budget to social media advertising.

Source: eMarketer.com

#7 Very high use of social media by US companies

In 2013 very high percentage (close to 87%) of US companies used social media for marketing and is still rising (expected 89%) by 2015.

US Companies using social media for marketing purposes during 2012 - 2015

% of total

total

#8 Facebook, Twitter use is gaining in US among marketers

Nearly all US social media marketers are using Facebook and Twitter and expected to grow further.

US Companies using Facebook for marketing purposes

% of total % of total

US Companies using Twitter for marketing purposes

total

total

Data period 2012 2015 Source: eMarketer.com

#9 Social = Mobile
Fragmented multiscreen media consumption has left marketers struggling to keep up or get a word in edgewise. Social networking appears to be the bridge that closes the gap the experience of multiple device usage.

Share of average time spent per day on select digital activities by US adults, 2010-2013

#10 Easy access to users location

The data indicates that theres increase willingness to share location via mobile. As users are getting instant deals, coupons, information, updates based on their location, this is triggering the active sharing location and lowering entry barriers for marketeres.

Hrs:mins and and % of total

Source: pew internet and american life project

Types of marketing messages with which mobile app users worldwide are likely to engage

% of respondents

respondents

Source: mBlox, Sept 2013

Key pain points of customers

Not so good economic conditions
Adapting to the sluggish economic environment prevalent over the last few years, consumer behavior has shifted to being more conservative, budget conscious, seeking greater value. In the process, buyers are swiftly switching to the less expensive brands and consolidating shopping trips.

Dynamic Technology
Ever changing technology & consumption platforms are pain areas for the SMBs as they do not have enough IT resources, capital and uncertainty to invest in new technology and stay updated. Rise in free social media tools available and high end tools are launched every month this creates a pressure on marketers and puts in always learning mode. Dells survey indicates that 41% of Boston small businesses see
technology needs as becoming increasingly complex, yet only 1 in 10 have full-time dedicated IT people.

Content Generation
Its very easy for consumers to hook to other brand which is flooding the social networks with attractive photos, videos, info graphics, games, etc.. Hence, generation of the attractive, relevant and appealing content is the most critical element of consumer acquisition and SMBs are struggling with always hungry for content social media and social networks.

Change in consumer behavior

What is working & new today, is old tomorrow. The consumer likes, attitude and behavior is very dynamic and ever changing. The modern retail growth story is linked to consumer needs, attitudes and behavior. Consumer behavior has shifted to being more conservative to adapt to the sluggish economic conditions prevalent over the last few years. This has now become the regular behavioral pattern of consumers as they remain budget conscious, seeking greater value. In the process, buyers are swiftly switching to the less expensive brands, well thought & prolonged decision making and consolidating shopping trips or driving towards online shopping.

Change in consumption platforms

We witness the rise of & high levels of engagement in visual web are making Pinterest, Tumblr, Flickr, and Instagram and Vine the fastest growing social networks. Facebook is losing the engagement & active usage among teens (16-19 year old) from its peak and driving them to mobile short messaging platforms. Hence its very critical for marketers to understand the dynamic consumer behavior and adapt the changes to its digital & social marketing strategy.

New Rules, Old Game

The retail industry is rapidly evolving with a dramatic change in consumer buying habits. Satisfying customers and enriching buying experience require new strategies from retailers today. Modern retailing, interestingly enough, is a new game with new rules.

Retailers have largely concentrated on buyers needs and lured them with innovative products, attractive discounts, free shipping and the ease of shopping through Smartphones and tablets. However, these strategies only helped in generating modest revenues.

The ROI challenge

In 2012-13, SMBs have put in all their efforts in exploring new Social networks and spent resources in figuring out what is working for them and what is not but they have not yet figured out how to make money out of social media and measure ROI on the investments.

Growing concern over security and infrastructure

During 2012-13, 91% of the companies had at least one external IT security incident and 85% reported internal incidents. A serious incident can cost a large enterprise an average of $649,000; for small and medium-sized business the cost is at about $50,000. For a medium-sized or small company, a targeted attack can mean about $92,000 in damages almost twice as much as an average attack. Hence SMBs needs to make a significant amount of investment in security, professional data protection & management and implementation of policies & training.

Drivers for outsourcing

Manage the business reputation & environment
Consumers frequently use digital word of mouth to make decisions, so sites like Yelp can make or break your online reputation and business, so listening to online conversations, responding them and making sense of the big data for your business is a game changer for your Business Reputation.

Create the technology portfolio

Way forward, digital marketing is going to get tougher & dynamic as consumers web, mobile & social apps will be powered with artificial intelligence that will help them in their day-to-days tasks, will react to their emotions and be with them just like a virtual friend. This will force marketers to update their traditional marketing strategy & technology to survive in the ever-changing global environment, hence outsourcing such business enabling services is the best options if you decide to focus on your core products & services.

Select solutions and services

Digital media will continue to evolve as a channel in 2014, and enterprises will increasingly want to use it in more mature ways such as using analytics to drive business value.

Develop internal capabilities

To achieve digital marketing success, enterprises requires help to develop strategies around data privacy, integration with existing marketing channels, build technical capabilities and move beyond social media silos.

TBSS Service Offerings

Organizations want their partners to solve three key problems in the area of Digital Marketing Integrated Digital Marketing (IDM), Online Reputation Management & Analytics (ORM) and Online Findability Design and Optimization. Following will be our services

1. Digital Marketing Onboarding services (Strategy, Site setup, Response Mgmt) 2. Online Optimization Services (SEO, SEM, PR, Analytics) 3. Content Services (Contests, Campaigns, Blogs, Videos, Mobile Apps, SM Apps)
We help enterprises in crafting a Social Media strategy, setting up a message protocols and standards that work effectively in the social world, setting up the best social agents that will always monitor and protect your Brand, analyzing the Brand sentiments, Brand mentions and generates positive results and reporting the performance of the Social media activities, customer-channels and competitor social performance. We provide performance based services in Search Engine Marketing that will help you reach out to your right audience, at right time and right device through our paid advertising, search marketing, organic search engine optimization and content marketing. We have helped brands grow their businesses through lead generation campaigns, implementing email marketing & affiliate marketing strategies. We have consultants who will help you build your online assets and convert your existing brick & mortar business into an eCommerce portal through our web and mobile development services. Also help you create extremely engaging content for all your digital assets.

Value Props/Differentiators
1. Expertise: Our unique Digital Marketing model will help enterprises figure out answers to the following questions which are critical to success (5Ws):
Where do you stand right now? What is working or isnt? Who is the potential customer amongst the crowd? Which is the engaging content & right content mix? When is right time to disseminate your message?

2. Trusted Partner: We are a 142 years old global brand whose values of leadership with trust and building communities have withstood the test of time. 3. Partnership with innovative startup firms to tap into cutting edge technology 4. Lean delivery model that focuses minimum viable propositions, quick prototyping and rapid test cycles 5. Access to lower cost resources for high-end creative activities like design, creative etc

5 fun facts about SMMA

1. 55% of middle age group (45 54 Yrs) now have a profile on at least one social network 2. On Facebook Female users surpasses the male users by 53% and 47% users respectively. 3. In a recent filing, Facebook estimated that as many as 83 million of its profiles are fake, though some are duplicate pages set up by real people. 4. 82% of buyers trust a company more when its CEO & senior leadership team are active on social media. 5. If your Facebook posts are set to be Public, burglars can see your status updates and figure out when youre not in town. Insurance companies may also use posted information to raise a premium or deny a claim.