Get in the social swing !

The traditional way of dealing – Business to Business or Business to Customer has shifted in the background while the current big thing – internet, is ruling the business world today. It doesn’t matter if you are a blogger, a small business, or a huge corporation – you have a brand. And social media platforms can help you boost up your brand visibility.

Let us know about the other benefits of social media in details:

It’s free: Unlike traditional business where initial investment is high, starting an online store is absolutely free. If you have good knowledge of different social sites, you do not require an expert to handle your page.

Create brand visibility: Online shopping has become popular and customers are always looking for more options. By connecting with your customers on various media platforms, you’re more likely to increase your sales, customer retention (existing and new) and brand loyalty.

Share your content faster and easier: Content is an important part of your website or online page which helps you communicate well with the customers. Online communication is easy and inexpensive; all you need to do is share your content on your brand’s social media accounts.

Provide rich customer experiences: Having an online presence can help you provide your customers a 24X7 feedback response and other support services. A study shows that companies engaging in social customer service see much bigger annual financial gains than others.

Generate higher converting leads: Now that you have established your brand’s presence online, it’s time to convert potential viewers into buyers. With every blog post, image, video, or comment you share; you can engage customer reaction, more site visit, and eventually a conversion.

Gain valuable customer insights: Getting feedback from customers – positive or negative – is necessary for any business. Through daily active engagement and social listening, you can gather relevant customer data and use that information to make smarter business decisions.

Increase website traffic and search ranking: To expand your business and grab the maximum attention, it is essential to do effective marketing. The more social media shares you receive, the higher your search ranking will be and will increase inbound traffic to your page.

Find out what your competitors are doing: Competitive analysis is an integral part of your business, whether offline or online. Keeping an eye on your competitors will inspire you to make strategic business decisions to stay ahead of them.

Targeted ads: Social ads are an inexpensive way to promote your business and distribute content. They also offer powerful targeting options so that you can reach the right audience. You can track and measure the performance of your social ads in real time.

Build relationships: Social platforms are the best two-way channels that help you enrich your relationships with customers and stay in constant touch.

Missed Call Marketing

Whether you have calling balance in your phone or no balance at all, most people are into the habit of giving missed calls. It is a widespread behavior in India where users dial a family member’s or a friend’s number and then quickly disconnect on purpose in order to signal something such as “call me back” or “I’ve reached home safely”, etc.

On observing this behavior, few companies like ZipDial, VivaConnect and others have spotted an opportunity to utilize it as a strategy for consumer engagement.

What exactly is Missed Call Marketing (MCM)?

When consumers opt into ads by dialling a number and hanging up before the call connects, a service is provided where they receive text messages and calls with ads, deals, coupons or offers in them. More importantly, the customer preferences and loyalties are recorded as to what they’re interested in and what they ask for information about. This is known as MCM.

Now you must be wondering if people really give miss calls to get some advertisement or promotional offers. Well, yes! Bangalore-based company ‘ZipDial’ started in 2010 asked the cricket fans to send a missed call and get the score of the day. The day India played Pakistan; the company got 4 million calls.  Just imagine!  With initial success in India, it expanded globally and was recently bought by Twitter.

Soon, big brands like Hindustan Unilever, RedBus, State Bank of India (SBI), TaxiForSure, etc; started to opt for the same marketing strategy to grab the attention of the customers and provide easy services.

Will it be a success in India?

In a country like India, where everybody cannot afford a smart phone or internet services, giving missed calls (free of cost) is the simplest thing anyone can do to get some service and so this type of marketing service has got a good scope.

“The wide use of missed calls in developing countries can be attributed to a multitude of factors, including: there is no cost associated with making a missed call; it’s easy and fast; it’s the simplest call to action; it’s universally understood and accepted; there is no app to install, no account to create; and, above all, it is a human-powered ecosystem that’s already in place,” says Salman Jamali, founder and CTO of the Karachi-based Flashcall Inc., Pakistan’s first MCM platform.

Here are five things you can do in India by ringing a number and hanging up.

Banking: Some banks like SBI, Federal Bank and others, let customers check their bank balance or get a mini statement on their cell phones by giving a missed call on the bank’s number. The information comes via a text message.

Voting: People can now vote for their favourite contestants in Indian reality dance shows by giving a missed call on the number associated with the contestant flashed on their screens.

Job hunting: Do not have internet access? Just give a missed call to Quikr.com on +91 1800 1033 331, and hang up. They will call back and prepare an on-the-spot resume for you. Details of jobs available, including a number to call to apply for the position is also provided.

Entertainment: Give missed calls to listen to songs, advertisements, chit-chat between anchors, etc.

Connect with the PM: Give a missed call on +91 8190 881 908, and get a call back on which you can hear a recording of PM Narendra Modi’s monthly radio talk - “Mann ki Baat”.

Why choose digital marketing for your business?

Whether you run a small or an already established business, everybody needs the best marketing and branding strategies to reach out to the customers faster and better. The all new favorite and the most effective tool in today’s time to achieve this goal, is what we call as ‘digital marketing’.

But what exactly is digital marketing?  

The term first used in the 1990s, in simple words mean, promotion of a company’s products or brands through one or more forms of electronic media. It is all about effort – the more you put in, the better the results will be. Hence, ensuring the survival for your business!  

Now, let us know why you should choose digital marketing for your business or how is it helpful for the growth of your brand? To get a clear idea, let us first read an example of how Mc Donald’s, the largest food chain of Hamburger restaurants, effectively used the digital platform and what the outcome was.

A third of McDonald’s outlets (abroad) had their hours extended and so it needed to raise awareness and drive footfall.

With a majority of its late night customers being shift workers and travellers, it targeted them with ads at cash points and petrol stations encouraging them to download a new Restaurant Finder app.

McDonald’s also bought mobile banner ads to promote the app on websites it knew customers frequented at night. 

The result? Over 500,000 visits and a return on investment (ROI) of over 100%.

Impressive! Right? Any business can benefit with the services offered by a digital media company by many ways, 5 major benefits are:

• SEO content: Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is arguably one of the most cost-effective digital marketing techniques, which helps the company achieve high positions in the search lists, thus attracting more visitors and making the company popular.

• Increased brand exposure and recognition: Your business can be seen anywhere in the world from one marketing campaign, hence making your product or service easily accessible to your customers, both existing and potential ones.

• Interaction: Email, blogs, applications, social media platforms, and video campaigns, etc; are some aspects of digital marketing which helps you communicate with the customers, efficiently.

• Economical: Unlike traditional marketing strategies, digital marketing is simpler, less expensive and easy on the skills. You can begin with just a basic web design or a page on any social media website and you are good to go.

• Levels the online playing field: Small companies, without a call centre and physical stores or branches, can also perform sales and marketing processes and engage with multiple customers.

So, Its important for your business. lets know more!