Digital & Technology

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 26 nov 2014

Digital marketing leverage can be accomplished by startups at low cost by clearly defining, creating and delivering the online message, utilizing the gamut of available technologies. These technologies have to be used effectively to target the audience, engage the customer and measure results. In their new book 'Taking Down Goliath', authors Kevin M. Ryan and Rob "Spider" Graham, provide the best strategy and tactics to accomplish this digital marketing leverage. The first step in the process is to create the perfect message and define it as selling solutions (not technology) to real customers with real needs and problems they want solved. Business-to-business (B2B) entrepreneurs should ask the following questions: (1) How does this solution solve an existing problem? (2) How does this solution provide a competitive advantage? (3) How does this solution make the customer a visionary/market leader? (4) How does this solution enable a significant value exchange? (5) How does this solution represent an exclusive opportunity? How does this solution increase performance and productivity? Effective marketing messages for business-to-consumer (B2C) audience, should stroke emotional triggers like sense of well-being, convenience, security, significance, exclusivity, positive social standing etc, that facilitate their buying process. Read on...

Forbes: Digital Marketing Is A Great Equalizer For Startups
Author: Martin Zwilling

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 23 nov 2014

Shopping malls and retailers are utilizing interactive and virtual technologies to enhance and facilitate customer buying experience. Mobile apps, touchscreens, tablets, 'Elf-Ray Vision', image search, texting services etc are some of the customer focused technologies that are being applied. One of the retailer have even partnered with a 3D printing company to provide customizable products. Deloitte holiday survey of more than 5000 people found that 2/3rd of Americans now own a smartphone, and 72% plan to use it in holiday shopping; for 27%, that means spending more. According to Jesse Tron of International Council of Shopping Centers, 'Using phones as a shopping tool also means many consumers have a pretty good idea of what they want before they ever walk through the door.' 'Consumers want to be entertained. But going beyond the entertainment factor and making technology helpful is crucial to successfully integrating digital experiences in stores.' says Kathleen Jordan, a leader in the retail practice group of design and architecture firm Gensler. Read on...

USA TODAY: Retailers use virtual technology to vie for sales
Author: Hadley Malcolm

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 17 oct 2014

It's been 20 years since the blogging pioneer, Dave Winer, began scripting his blog stories via DaveNet and Scripting News. In the continuous evolving field of individual publishing, innovative technologies bring shifts that keep on transforming the way people share their content. Microblogging platforms and mobile-based content sharing being the most recent ones. Text-based blogging is now been changing to sharing of visually enhanced content like pictures, inforgraphics etc. Year 2012 saw the rise of visual content sharing sites like Tumblr, Pinterest and Instagram and a study same year concluded that 44% of users engage more with a brand with visual posts. Author, Christian Adams, explains the visual information processing as quicker and better in his ebook, 'InstaBRAND'. There are number of platforms and websites that are pursuing the collaborative storytelling and blogging with visual content. The next wave of blogging thus might be concise, aggregated, dynamic, visual content shared effectively on myriad of mobile devices. Read on...

Huffington Post: Is Collaborative Storytelling the Next Generation of Blogging?
Author: Andre Bourque

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 30 sep 2014

Whether you are a big global brand, a B2B enterprise, or a small business, in today's technology powered business world, an effective digital strategy is required to stay ahead and succeed. Aaron Kahlow, CEO of Online Marketing Institute, provides a list with in-depth analysis of essential digital planning ideas that should be kept in mind for the coming year 2015 - (1) Go Big on One Content Idea (2) Use Big Data in Little Ways (3) Make Time for Technology (4) Get Real: Re-Learn Best Practices (5) Target or Die an Irrelevant Death (6) Advertise More, Hope Less (7) Invest in Yourself, Invest in Your People. Read on...

Business 2 Community: The 7 Essential Digital Planning Ideas for Breakthrough Results in 2015
Author: Aaron Kahlow

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 29 sep 2014

The next-generation of social media analytics is moving beyond static engagements like followers & likes. Both digital marketing and customer care are converging on the social media platforms and the marketing strategy need to be based on accuracy and speed by using advanced real-time analytics tools. Futuristic social analytics should be able to highlight who, what and why of the brand's consumer engagement dynamics. This will provide real value to marketers as they are able to measure the campaign effectiveness based on data and ROI. Pernille Bruun-Jensen, Chief Marketing Officer at Netbase, provide examples of what next-generation of social analytics can do for brands - (1) Boost campaign performance in real-time (2) Discover what influences your customers purchases (3) Get an edge on the competition (4) Fix problems before they escalate (5) Learn about customers' interests outside your brand. Read on...

ADWEEK: Next-Gen Social Analytics Are Transforming Digital Marketing
Author: Pernille Bruun-Jensen

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 27 sep 2014

Market research, empowered by technology, is now within the reach of even small companies and startups as cost has come down considerably. There are numerous tools and services that are considerably within the budget to do essential marketing research to test ideas, collect data & perform analytics. Customer-centric approach helps companies provide better products & services. Use of right information assists to structure business model, shape marketing campaigns, design products and markets, in a way that efficiently serves customers and grows the business. Here are some of the ways in which market research helps businesses - How market research intersects with content & SEO: In the online world, analytics & traditional market research are converging to provide data-driven business decision making; Launching a market research initiative to support your digital marketing campaign: Two main focus (Decoding your audience's most urgent concern. Focusing your content). Important information gathering techniques (Keyword Research. Website analytics. PPC-based research. Auditing existing buyer data. A/B testing); What's the role of competitor research: Understand competition's positioning and unique selling proposition. In SEO, it is about understanding competitor's online presence, content strategy, target keywords, link porfolio, social media presence etc; Market research impacts your product or service mix: Concept testing the product ideas with public before investing in it. Determine purchase intent and market potential; Optimal use of data collection and analysis: Take a lean approach to data collection advocated by Eric Ries in 'The Lean Startup' to perform the right amount of data analytics based on the requirement. Read on...

Forbes: Why Knowing Your Audience Is The Key To Success
Author: Jayson DeMers

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 31 aug 2014

Presently about 97% of marketers use social media to connect with buyers. But most of them are still trying and experimenting with it to build and develop a personalized, relevant and enjoyable experience for their users. A bad execution of the social media strategy not only affects relationship with the audience but in some cases can cause it to go viral and become a catastrophe. Avoid the following at all cost for effective social media engagement - (1) Being all talk (2) Putting on a one-man show (3) Forgetting to think before you post, share & tweet (4) Thinking all social platforms are created equal (5) Putting your customers on mute (6) Forgetting to be a human (7) Assuming your social strategy works. Read on...

Mashable: 7 Sins of Social Media Marketing
Author: Mike Volpe

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 31 aug 2014

'Internet of Things' (IoT) is revolutionizing the way technology pervades human activities. It is the wireless connectivity of myriad devices that people use in daily life and allows for direct transmission and sharing of information over a network. IoT is enhancing connected living and it will transform the way business is done. The following are the five ways it will improve the marketing ROI - (1) Easy exchange of sales data (2) Smarter CRM: Instantaneous customer analysis (3) Devices that know that they are dying (4) Predictive social media (5) Imagine a 100% click through rate (CTR). Read on...

Forbes: 5 Ways The Internet Of Things Will Make Marketing Smarter
Author: Stuart Leung

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 08 aug 2014

With access to 21st century communication and sharing technologies, both brands and customers are connected the way they have never been before. Social media and mobile are transforming the way brands interact with customers. But there are certain basics that remain the same. Companies and brands should emphasise on creating and facilitating communities of interest around them and consistently share and propagate their values through both words and action. Moreover to create lasting relationships the need is also to create a platform that facilitates connections among the consumers with each other. Brands can play a leadership role within the community and must share relevant content and experience that the members can relate to. Marketers have to align themselves with the consumers and help strengthen their bonds with each other. This provides members to talk to each other and discuss and share what is valuable to them. Thus resulting in the most powerful form of marketing. Read on...

Fast Company: WHY BUILDING YOUR BRAND IS ALL ABOUT SHARING YOUR VALUES
Author: Dave Hawley

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 30 jun 2014

Social media platforms are an effective tool for communication and marketing for companies. But caution has to be taken while pursuing social media strategy considering its ubiquitous and viral nature. Most often the platforms are not moderated and there is a probability of their been hacked and misused. Moreover companies sometimes also outsource their social media strategies to inexperienced professionals that may result in erroneous and socially insensitive communication. In some instances companies have themselves often been found guilty of poorly judged promotions causing strong adverse consumer reactions. There are numerous examples from the Indian business community where social media management has been found lacking and became a cause for embarassment. According to Sunil Abraham, executive director of the Centre for Internet and Society, 'Automation of social media interactions can be useful but without careful human oversight, it can very easily be gamed by rogue elements online.' Read on...

The Economic Times: Social media promotions can backfire, too
Authors: Ratna Bhushan, Varuni Khosla

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