Tuesday, November 22, 2011

The Power of Digital Marketing

Digital Marketing is promoting brands through social media, Internet, Television, Radio, search marketing optimization and more 

Following the phenomenal success of social, internet and mobile marketing in the last few years, the Digital industry has grown by leaps and bounds in India. Globally, it has witnessed a surge of around $40 billion and is spiraling here too. Big and small brands have not only understood the power of social media but in fact have reached nirvana in effectively putting their message across to consumers. If you happen to be reading this and only faintly know about this form of advertising, then welcome to the Digital party as we explain the power of this practical medium.

What is Digital Marketing?
Simply put, to use all forms of digital advertising channels to promote a brand is what digital marketingis all about. These channels include television, radio and internet among others. Advertising through mobile phones, SMS / MMS / digital outdoor and banners also comes under digital advertising. Promotion is done in the same method as that used in direct marketing but in a digital fashion.

However, digital marketing is viewed as ‘real-time’ marketing and therefore centers on the internet as its heart. The augment of the Internet has made it a communication vehicle & an extremely influential medium for advertisers. Digital marketing also involves a combination of push (messages being sent using email, IM, RSS, or voice broadcast) and pull (banner ads, Pay Per Click, etc) Internet technologies.
Digital Marketing has attracted a lot of attention owing largely to the fact that brands can track their campaign performance instantaneously. They can check what is being viewed, for how long, response rates and purchase numbers. Digital marketing is forever improving as new amendments and technologies are created all the time.

Digital Marketing in India
According to recent research, at least $100 million are being spent at present on digital marketing in India. Since digital marketing is on a growth curve, job prospects in this industry look very bright for skilled professionals. Job search portal ‘indeed.com’ in 2010 had stated that at least 5 out of top 10 job trends will focus on digital media. In the coming year too, there will be an incredible demand for Business Development Managers, Online Marketing Managers, Social & Digital Marketing Managers, Social Media Directors, Interactive Media Strategists, Web Marketing & PR Managers, Marketing Program Specialists and similar profiles.

Digital Marketing – Its Reach
The reach of digital marketing is unparalleled. It not only helps the brand to connect with its target audience but also empowers the user to have unregulated communications with his contacts (friends, family, colleagues and acquaintances) about a particular brand. The promoters too can interact with their users, customers or potential customers – inform them about new products, sales and launches or rectify their stand in case of bad service, etc. Interactive widgets and gadget ads are also a potent tool that holds immense promise for promoters.

Multi-Channel Communications
Digital Marketing works best when it is combined with multiple channels. For example, a new product release can be announced using both e-mail and SMS texts campaigns. Clubbing, if well executed, can lead to excellent results. Additionally, if the same message is stated in multiple ways, the reach and outcome could get even better (e.g. message + special offer)
 
Trends to watch out in 2012
Cloud Computing: will focus on improving the online experience of users. Whether it’s chatting live, streaming or online environments – they will only get better in 2012 and this is something promoters must bear in mind to device better virtual strategies.

Video marketing: people will never get bored with video-watching. This is and will continue to be a powerful digital marketing tool. In fact, research points out that many marketers will take the video route to promote themselves in 2012.

Gaming: will continue to explode like it is already. Thus, advertisers need to think out-of-the-box and offer digital users something unique in this space.

Mobile Marketing: will not lose its fizz, contrary to popular belief. Advertisers are still exploring this medium and QR codes marketing is likely to be reinforced in the coming year.

http://www.businessreviewindia.in/marketing/web/the-power-of-digital-marketing

Build micro-social network for social lead, branding, message broadcasting, customer relationship management and product promotion

Today, it seems that if your company is not using social media, you’re at risk of falling woefully behind the competition and missing out on significant opportunities to engage thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of consumers who are just waiting to hear what you have to say. Social-network tools are appealing, and certainly addictive to some of your consumers. Keeping in mind, the growing popularity of these sites and the effect it has and the benefits that it brings along, it can be easily predicted that its popularity is sure to grow much more.


However the problems that are commonly faced by companies or marketers, who are trying to leverage the social networking platform to market their products/services, are:
1. The targeting is low because people in those sites are diverse. Because of that, the ROI is also low.
2. Most people don’t bother about the advertisements on social networking sites because they are often after the people they could meet on those sites.
3. Because of the spam advertisements on the social networking sites, the advertisements are given few notices by real customers.
The best solution for the above mentioned problem is your own Micro Social Networking platform. Create a small yet targeted community; engage them with an informative, useful and innovative social networking application. As a thumb rule a marketer should always remember, that, 20% of your customers buys 80% of your products/services. Use a Micro Social Networking site to draw a circle around the 20%, connect to them with personalized communication, and give them a platform to interact and share their experiences, talk about their needs and expectations. It’s a very narrow niche, but it will surely help you to minimize expenditure and maximize ROI.

There is so much benefit of a micro social networking application and a Micro Networking platform on Mobile is evidently, a cherry on the cake. The world is moving on a fast pace. We cannot even afford to blink your eyes. The first one to score on the list of speed is, none other than, technology. From a prediction of just five computers to desktops, notebooks and the latest being smart phones such as iPhone and iPad.
The applications introduced through these latest inventions have revolutionized the way we work. Most important feature of these smart-phones is their presence. Businesses can connect to their allies, be it customers, stakeholders, agencies, just with a click anytime and anywhere. One can display the products, services, their USPs, new arrivals, easily on a Personal Micro Social Networking site, in a matter of few seconds. A new venture can easily create a small application for itself with the right offer along with the right use of this technology.

According to Mr. Satyen Jain, Founder & CEO of Leo Technosoft, an emerging Mobile Application development company, the mobile application industry has climbed the bandwagon along with the rising fan following of iPhone and iPads. He further adds that the year 2010 saw a major upheaval in the industry and expects that the popularity will only go northwards in the coming years.

It was not a surprise when research giant IDC predicted that smart-phones and tablets are expected to outsell computers in the next eighteen months. It is still believed that mobile is an under – exploited market. Just imagine the power of a Micro Social Networking site compatible with mobile, when mobile market is exploited to its maximum!

Why Marketing Companies Should Extend Their Services to Mobile Platform

One word that can describe every person at present time is “Speed.” Be it a multi-million dollar business or a small-scale provision store, every businessperson is in a hurry to make his mark by beating the competition. With me-too products/services on the rise, it is only a smart idea that can break the clutter. Technology has been playing a major role to enhance and improve the working methods. Businesspersons have joined the recent upheaval of tech-knowledge by keeping themselves updated with the new introductions and improvements. While retailers have the latest Customer Relationship Management software in the office notebooks, the video game developers continually update theirs. However, it becomes difficult to excel when every second person is using the same strategy, there is where businesses needs a marketing company who understand that today any business be it small or large must utilize a multitude of marketing mediums in order to be successful. Companies must reach beyond the traditional mediums, like television, newspaper, radio or, even online marketing and implement some of the newer mediums, like Mobile marketing. • By now we have more than 50 million mobile users with internet-capable “smart phones” – like iPhone’s, androids or blackberry’s. • More than half of devices connected to corporate networks will be mobile by 2015 • Mobile is already the preferred method to accomplish many tasks, especially social media engagement • Mobile search is now an $8 billion industry, accounting for 11 percent of total search The question that matters is how to beat the present competition? Yes, by thinking out of the box. When everyone is updating their desktops and laptops, and are not able to generate inquiries, a good marketing company should suggest a smart iPhone application for the client to ensure garneted result. It is evident that most of the time; it becomes difficult to operate a laptop while travelling due to inconvenience. Moreover, the most preferred gadget during this time is none other than a phone. If a businessperson utilises this medium to his advantage, he can certainly grab the eyeballs anytime and anywhere, literally. The recent upsurge of using social networking sites on mobile handsets, have proved that mobile internet will have the largest share of the pie in near future. There is so much to explore on the net, which is a unanimously accepted fact. And internet on mobile is obviously, a cherry on the cake. Wireless technologies are always a better option. Mobile offers greater reach as compared to desktops and ultimately boosts the business growth. Increasingly, businesses are customising the mobile applications based on their requirements; and soon this would replace the tedious desktop ones. The reason being that the former ones are always easy to use and turns out to be inexpensive in the long run. Businesspersons can certainly garner higher ROI and can easily customise them with the changing needs. It certainly is an opportunity in disguise. With a good mobile website and promotion strategy you know, that you have actually reached to your customer’s personal communication device and they are using your products and services, then your popularity is on the rise, without any doubt. Customers should be able to access your brand on their fingertips. Businesses can easily plan, promote, manage and deliver their product and services through mobile applications. For instance, practically all businesses with a geographic location need a store locator and hours of business that are accessible from mobile devices. The key benefit of migrating to mobile are increased productivity, minimised loopholes, improved ROI and most important one – Increase brand and product awareness. A brand can garner higher eyeballs on mobile internet rather than desktop version, because a person uses a mobile even while travelling. For instance, you own a food chain. You have advertised on a social networking site. People surfing internet on the go, can easily land on your outlet the moment they find that it is in proximity. Ultimately, you are attracting new customers by making the most of mobile applications. In present market scenario when everything depends on maximising the opportunity. The early-adopters who climb the bandwagon, are on the winning side, while those who do not think out of the box, ultimately lose the race. Companies like Leo TechnoSoft have made business-growth easier with customised mobile application development solutions. Leo TechnoSoft is working with quite a few worlds’ largest Design and Marketing companies, as an extended arm to add value to their existing services. The company builds distinctive iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, Android or mobile application. Such applications result in market penetration, higher productivity and helps significantly in the full process of Brand Funnelling i.e. Generating Awareness, Shaping user’s Attitude towards the brand, Increase Favourability, boost Intent to buy or avail the product/service offered and finally enforce brand Loyalty.

Monday, August 1, 2011

iPad Apps Development – iPad Application Development by Newly designated developers

Apps development companies are active again after the inception of iPad from Apple Inc. The wave of developing something different is refreshing the technology world.



Professional iPhone developers are enthusiastic with their new designation of iPad developers in their respective companies or apps development centers. Actually, iPad apps can be developed by utilizing . Well, iPad is the latest device introduced from Apple Inc. after capturing the market with iPhone & iPod, iPad is more powerful & vast and it can run more effective applications. Since, iPad is invented by the manufacturer of iPhone, so most of the gadgets & functions are the same, but little bit elaborated with more power allowing the users work more efficiently.



According to industry professionals, “newly designated iPad developers know that innovation & design is most vital in robust . People are expecting more from their technological and imaginative skills. Expectations are now turned from iPhone apps to iPad apps and the search for professional iPad Apps Developer Company for high quality is mushrooming.”

Thousands of iPad applications are easily available on the Apple stores, but the craving of custom iPad apps will never end. Demand of iPad applications is rising continuously and simultaneously, iPad application development prices are also increasing. Industry intellectuals and examiners are expecting more rise in price. For developing affordable iPad applications, master have come forward with a solution of converting the iPhone apps into iPad apps. It is easy due to same SDK can be used for developing iPad Apps, which iPhone developers were using for the long to develop iPhone applications. It seems great for short-term as well as long-term for technology users. Common users will be happy like developers, isn’t it? Everyone likes to use, which is suitable to their needs. are the best solution to these modern users of technology. Anyone can find on the World Wide Web easily to meet desires and convert the imaginations into robust apps. A wide range of iPad application development services are available and dissimilar offers from professional iPad development companies.

The few common services, which are offered by the professional are iPad games development, iPad eBooks Publication Application Development, iPad web application development, iPad social networking application development, Application migration and porting for development, iPad business application development, , iPad travel application development and many more. All these applications can be easily enjoyed on the amazing 9.7 inch multi-touch wide screen.

iPad Application Development Company India, offers iPad Application/Software Development, iPad Application Programming, iPad Apps Development. Visit site for more detail www.ipadapplicationdevelopmentindia.com

Friday, April 15, 2011

LeoTechnosoft Launches a Unique Platform for Photojournalists

LeoTechnosoft, one of the leading IT service providers in India, has developed a unique first-of-its-kind platform for photojournalists to share their work and raise funds for upcoming projects. The portal has been developed using Liferay platform where photojournalists can submit projects for crowdfunding by the public. For its dependability, cost effectiveness and potential to support the development of innovative internet-based applications, Liferay portal is increasingly being used in industries across the globe to meet their most challenging information technology needs.

“Crowdfunding basically is kind of online fundraising and it has already proven successful in a number of fields, like music, film and grassroots development aid. However, the platform will provide crowdfunding facility to photojournalists for the first time ever. Now, individuals can complete projects they care about by pooling resources. And the best part is that photojournalists, with the help of this social communication portal, can directly communicate with the funders,” says Satyen Jain, CEO of Leo Technosoft.

Professional photojournalists need to send in a story proposal together with a detailed budget estimate, which will be reviewed and judged by board of advisors consisting of photography and journalism experts. Photographers whose projects are selected for funding through the portal keep the full rights and control over their images and the finished projects will be displayed on the homepage. Individuals can also make a contribution towards a project via Paypal.

Leo Technosoft created this unique social communication platform to meet the needs of the rapidly expanding sector of photojournalism. With the launch of the portal, photo journalists across the globe can share their work and generate funds for their upcoming projects.

About Leo Technosoft- Leo TechnoSoft is a hybrid Software Product Development Company based in India, US and UK. It empowers different organizations to attain cost effective product development in SaaS environment.
Leo Technosoft’s prime focus is on reducing ISV in-house product development expenses while delivering quality services. With a global presence with offices in India, USA and UK, Leo TechnoSoft is armed to meet client’s needs regardless of their location. This has made the organization a preferred partner-of-choice for small and medium sized companies looking for on-time delivery and high quality product development solutions.

To know more about Liferay Portal Development visit - http://www.leotechnosoft.net/liferay-portal-development.aspx

For Further Enquiry:
Contact - 407-965-5509
Email – enquiry@leosys.net

Address:
8000 S. Orange Avenue,
Suite101 Orlando,
Florida 32824

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Understanding Business Cycles and How They Relate to SEO – A SPN Exclusive Article

As the song by The Byrds goes “To everything – turn, turn, turn/There is a season – turn, turn, turn/And a time for every purpose under heaven.” The same principle applies to Internet marketing – different aspects of Internet marketing campaigns run on different cycles. These business cycles have to be understood and accounted for when developing any SEO strategy, because they can directly affect the success of the campaign. While one company’s business cycles may greatly differ from another, especially when comparing B2B companies with B2C businesses, the bottom line is that you have to be aware of your own company’s business cycles to more effectively measure SEO success.

There are three main types of business cycles a company should keep track of: the sales cycle, the conversion cycle, and the SEO cycle.
The sales cycle begins the moment a company gets a lead. It could be a phone call from a prospective customer or client, someone submitting an online form and so forth. Each business has to decide when they are dealing with a real lead that is worth pursuing. The sales cycle doesn’t stop until that lead has either gone cold or been successfully closed. Some leads may remain active for months as potential clients hem and haw over making the final purchasing decision. Depending on the complexity of the products and services your company sells (medical testing equipment versus office supplies, for example), your business sales cycle could take a few days or even up to a year to complete. E-commerce sites typically have a much shorter sales cycle since visitors arrived at that site with the driven intent to make a purchase. Typically, the more expensive and complex the product/service being sold, the longer the sales process takes.

So how does the sales cycle relate to a company’s SEO? Let’s say your company sells scientific equipment used in chemistry labs. Your average sales cycle from getting the lead to closing the sale takes about nine months. If it takes you six months to really ramp up your SEO activities (from on-site optimization to really working through a strong link building plan), you can’t judge if the SEO efforts are having any effect on your business until nine months after they are in full swing. You have to allow for your average sales cycle to occur, since that’s how long it takes to see ROI anyway. Deciding a few months in that your SEO campaign isn’t delivering any new leads is preemptive, and you can cut the legs out from under what could have been a very successful plan.

The conversion cycle is all about prompting website visitors to action. This is a common point of failure for a lot of websites, but B2B sites in particular seem to have the hardest time. What is the goal of your site? What actions do you want visitors to take once they find your site? A site has to lead visitors down a predetermined path and encourage them with the appropriate call-to-action. If the goal of a site is to get visitors to pick up the phone, there better be a phone number listed everywhere. Don’t make it hard for visitors to act or find the information they need to turn into a lead for your business. Offering demos is a great way for B2B websites to start a relationship with visitors and engage them to start the sales cycle.

Many argue that SEO shouldn’t worry about the conversion cycle, that SEO is just about delivering the traffic. They argue that it’s the website owner’s job to see that traffic gets converted into leads. But SEO professionals and marketers in general have to be accountable for every dollar of the marketing budget. They have to prove that SEO is worth the investment of time, money, and manpower. A good conversion rate is essential to proving ROI. Sites need to be built so as to not sacrifice the brand in favor of SEO, or SEO in favor of the brand. SEO and user-experience go hand-in-hand when it comes to conversion.

The SEO cycle is how long it takes for a site to start seeing their SEO efforts be rewarded with better ranking for targeted keywords in the search engines. A company’s SEO cycle ties into several factors: the level of competition, the past and current SEO efforts of competitors, and the room for growth available. Websites often find themselves facing two common scenarios when they are trying to determine their SEO cycle.

Scenario one: the competition is dominating the search engines. Even if you work in a small, niche industry, one competitor who incorporated SEO into their Internet marketing a few years ago has carved out a pretty sturdy place for themselves in the rankings. They have the trust of the search engines and own top ranking spots for industry keywords. If you find yourself facing this kind of scenario, be prepared to buckle down for the long haul. Your site is the new kid on the block trying to usurp the king of the playground.

Scenario two: what every site should hope for when they begin their SEO – no one is doing a good job! Regardless of industry size or level of competition, if no other company is dominating the online space, this is the perfect opportunity for your company to seize ownership. If your site has been online for a long time (5+ years or so), it already has a good level of trust with the search engines. Even basic SEO tactics can help propel the site to the top spots of the SERP. This scenario also gives you more room to go after competitive industry keywords and win.

Business cycles vary from industry to industry, company to company. They depend on the type of product being sold, whether a site is B2B or B2C and the amount of competition in the field. But sales cycles, conversion cycles and SEO cycles are all critical components of any Internet marketing plan. They can directly affect the success of your SEO efforts and should always be considered when evaluating the overall outcome of your online marketing campaigns. Failing to take them into consideration could mean you end up stopping a campaign just as it was starting to gain momentum.


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Nick Stamoulis is the President and Founder of Brick Marketing, a Internet marketing and SEO consulting firm in Boston, MA. With over 12 years of industry experience, Nick Stamoulis shares his knowledge by posting daily updates to his blog, the Search Engine Optimization Journal (or SEO Journal) and publishing the Brick Marketing SEO Newsletter. Contact Nick at 781-350 or nick@brickmarketing.com