by Aravinda S Shetty | Jul 13, 2021 | Blog, Digital marketing
Most industries took a major hit during the COVID-19 pandemic. Likewise, the digital marketing industry too could not escape its effects. When big businesses took a hit due to massive fluctuations in the market, they looked to cut their expenses and run the show keeping expenses minimal. In most industries, marketing and advertising are considered as a luxury and not a necessity. Thus, the major budget allocations for marketing expenses were cut down and survival expenses were concentrated on.
Project Inflow During the Pandemic
As we are a digital marketing agency in Mangalore, we have been seeing the ups and downs when it comes to clients’ approaches and the effectiveness of the Ads we run. When the pandemic just began in India, it was announced that there will be a lockdown for a week. Later, it was extended for several weeks.
For the first 15 days, all clients were in what we could call the “waiting mode”. Just trying to understand how long it would take to go back to normal — and then they slowly started adopting what we could call a “survival mode” of business operation. When the situation continued for more than 15 days, most small scale industries, small businesses and mid-range players were instructed to stop all marketing activities till further notice. This greatly impacted revenue figures for us. After another three months, with hopes of a vaccine and the decrease in the number of cases — most businesses and the economy started slowly picking up. Around September, the business graph began going up and come December, it was almost back to normal.
Changes in Digital Marketing Results
For a small number of clients who had high hopes and expectations, the journey began with cutting down more than 50% of service fees for them. The strategy changed to fit minimal costs and maximum gains, along with highly optimised campaigns. The cost of advertising has been reduced to almost 50% from the pre-pandemic days. In the auction insights, we do see fewer clients running ads. At the same time, there are issues with conversion and reasonable closing to show sustainable value. The main revenue source of advertisement for Tier-2 cities like Mangalore is via education, hospital and tourism industries which have been going through a lot of uncertainty. Even the end consumers are not sure about making buying decisions at that moment. Still, we continued on our journey and brought about note-worthy results. Metrics have hit the record level of optimisation.
What did businesses gain by marketing during the pandemic?
Even though many businesses had incurred losses and were functioning with a lot of uncertainty, some mid-range businesses with slightly deeper pockets took advantage of the situation.
- As we mentioned earlier, advertising costs were almost 50% lower than pre-pandemic days. So, businesses could gain extra mileage by spending less. They could also gain a better bargain in terms of service fees.
- As competition had fallen, marketing platforms were not stuffed with too many materials and ads.
- Many businesses used the little extra money they had to create brand awareness and leave a lasting impression on customers’ minds — which will yield results in the long run.
What changed in the advertising industry?
We strongly believe that the end users/consumers have changed their mode of engagement from hoardings and newspapers to digital platforms. The traditional media like Television, Newspapers and Hoardings require heavy one-time investments. Businesses are looking for cost effective, easy to start, and ROI-centric solutions to spend their marketing budgets. At the same time, users have also turned their interests towards digital marketing.
The industry is moving towards an exponential growth in demand for digital marketing. Especially with the Tier 2 cities, the marketing expenses have been moved to the digital space. As a large population of consumers are active on digital platforms, the effectiveness of digital marketing via various platforms has been increasing in this pandemic duration.
Now that you know what has been the journey, the effects and the current situation, you will have to make the choice of finding the right media for your business’ marketing. We at Alter Marketing Solutions, a digital marketing company in Mangalore, can consult you for digital marketing and take the responsibility as an extension of your marketing team. We handle end-to-end digital marketing solutions without any hassles. Contact [email protected] or call us at +91 99864 60086.
by Aravinda S Shetty | Jul 12, 2021 | Blog, Digital marketing
The world is facing a crisis that is unlike anything most of us have seen in our lifetimes. Most businesses are struggling to stay operational and many are facing a lot of uncertainties in terms of jobs, consumption, demand and supply. And the worst part is that we do not know how long this might go for. People who have been running businesses smoothly for ages are struggling now.
But does it have to be this difficult? Not really. We have to play our cards smarter and keep the game going. Before the pandemic, you might have been using one or more of the following methods to gain market share:
- TV ads
- Newspaper ads
- Paper insertion
- Pamphlets and flyers
- Hoardings
- Direct sales
- Referrals
It’s time for us to analyse how well these techniques are going to work in the current situation. Most of these techniques are either expensive, ineffective, not measurable, do not compel people to take action, or do not fulfill the needs of the customer.
Due to the lockdown and pandemic situation, we can see that people are slowly changing their lifestyle in terms of content consumption and buying behaviour. Don’t you think as a business, you also need to change the way you reach your customers and get them to consider your brand as part of their buying decision?
How To Market During A Pandemic
Focus on brand awareness
Most people are not ready to spend money until the uncertainty is over, except for items and products that are essential. But when things do get better, people will come back again to buy. Many brands make the mistake of completely stopping all the marketing thinking it won’t help at all at this time. But this is the best time to build brand awareness with your consumer. Moreover, advertising is cheaper now than ever before!
Go online – It’s now or never!
We all know people are spending a lot of time online for entertainment, learning, and many other activities. No matter how small or big you are, it is time for you to take your business online. This is the only option that you have to boost your business. Create your online store by building a website, an online catalogue site or just using WhatsApp business or Facebook marketplace with zero investment. But act now and go online!
Use digital marketing to make a mark
Traditional marketing approaches like hoardings, flyers, newspaper ads, have lost a lot of their reach and scope. At the same time, there has been a significant rise in engagement on social media platforms — an increase of 30% to 40%! This means that people are spending a lot of time on social media. As the rule of marketing, we need to put more effort and money where people are more active. Social media, digital content creation is cheap and the best way to market your product right now. If you have a good budget, consider running paid ads and create original content showcasing your product.
Take it one step at a time
If you are a small business trying to go online, it’s better not to burn your hand by putting a lot of money on advertising. Instead, start generating simple content about your business and start using the power of WhatsApp and other popular social media. This will be a good first step to taking your business online.
We definitely can’t generalize marketing approaches and strategies. But no matter what business you run, this will be a good starting point for you. Strategy can be finetuned and improved by taking into consideration the nature of the business, budget, resources availability and other factors. At any point of time if you think you need our help in improving your strategy reach us out at 099864 60086 or mail us at [email protected].
by Aravinda S Shetty | Jul 9, 2021 | Blog, Digital marketing
The real estate industry in India has evolved over time. Like in every other industry today, this industry’s organizations and properties also need an online presence. Thus, one thing that has surely revolutionised the sector, is digital marketing – and it can very well lead to the buying and selling of real estate properties!
An integrated digital marketing strategy can work wonders, with great return on investment.
The Catch
Often, real estate sellers directly jump into selling their property online. The cost for each lead in the industry is comparatively higher compared to other industries in the market. If you are the owner of a real estate business or trying to sell your property online, the clear setup of your property and online storefront is very important. Your digital marketing performance will also depend on the capabilities and competence of your online salesperson. He/she should refer to your website, media materials like photos, videos, online brochures and data points. Keeping them updated, attractive and presentable will definitely get better results in all your digital marketing efforts.
The Strategy
Let’s throw some light on the different platforms we can use to reach people over digital marketing. As an example, we will focus on Tier 2 cities and how people react to digital marketing efforts.
- Social Media Marketing (SMM)
This platform considerably delivers greater performance compared to all other media. I am talking about Facebook and Instagram, which are mainly targeted and precise in terms of delivery. Here are some areas to consider when it comes to SMM.
Be Specific, Be terrific. Social media Ads are highly targeted and communication can be directed towards the target audience. For example, if you are trying to sell a commercial property to the target market of Chartered Accountants, you should create an Ad addressing the focal points for Chartered Accountants. Don’t make the mistake of creating one single generic Ad about the property and showing it to Chartered Accountants, Doctors, Financial Advisers, etc. It could be confusing and not be as effective as it was intended to be. Talk about what kind of benefits a Chartered Accountant can get by investing in your commercial property.
Build a proper sales funnel. No one would buy any property or high end asset without having complete knowledge on what they are buying. It is a very conscious decision anyone would make. So instead of Direct Selling, you should have sales pitches with more information. And not bombard them with Ads
.
Try to communicate in local languages with the local audience. One of my strategies that has worked to reduce the cost per lead by about 60%, is using local languages. This local flavour could feel personalized and help you resonate with your target audience. Quality of the prospective leads might also be ensured by asking the right and specific questions in enquiry form, so we get filtered leads.
Keep updating and trying new methods of communication for the new set of target audience. Try out plenty of experimental ways to make sure that you are on the right track. Analyse each decision taken, before acting upon it.
Google sure is an essential and worthwhile platform giving fruitful results for the real estate industry. There are few important aspects to understand while entering into real estate selling digitally –
Use PPC ads for real estate. This is a technique through which you can reach people when they are researching properties similar to yours. This is the high potential audience, meaning the conversion rate of these audiences is very high compared to social media.
Go for long-tail keywords specific to the search query. Leverage these keywords for efficient use of Ads.
Try to compete for the first preposition. This helps you increase your click through rate by more than 35%. The conversion rate for click to lead can be anywhere between 20 to 30%, which is huge. It may not help you in collecting intended leads, but it helps you to directly reach people who are researching – creating more touch points.
Use Remarketing on Google. So you can reach back to the people who already know your property but have not bought from you yet. This is very cost effective and creates a good touch point for second level funnel audiences.
Explore Display Ads. You can have Ads run in the local newspapers and YouTube channels, and engage with the local audience better. It also helps in increasing brand awareness. These will definitely give you more credibility over the market, and create more digital touch points.
- SEO and directory listings.
Create specific online content. Generating enough relevant and trustworthy content helps to build visibility and trust in the digital space.
Submit your property listing in all possible free property listing sites, properties, hotels and local directories. Posting in the Facebook Marketplace also helps boost visibility. This not only helps you in building trust from the SEO perspective, but also creates multiple touch points with people who are researching properties online
Optimise your website and landing pages. And do so in such a way that Google recognises your website for organic ranking. This long-term strategy will bring you wonderful results, even after a certain amount of time. Focus more on long-tail keywords which will make it easier to rank the site higher locally.
Though it could seem like a high level strategy breakdown, the major technique is to leverage possible digital media for boosting your real estate sales. The strategy definitely needs systematic execution and trained professionals, to generate fruitful results. At Alter Marketing Solutions Private Limited, we have expert professionals who specialise in specific areas. For guaranteed real estate sales and lead generation, contact mangalore.alter@com.
by Aravinda S Shetty | Jul 8, 2021 | Blog
We all have bad days when we have a lot of work but don’t feel very productive. Sometimes it still feels like there is a lot of work, but you don’t know what to start with. And other times, you become an octopus and feel like you are doing a lot of work but there is not much output.
So let me share with you some ways in which I organise my day and increase my productivity so that you can also deliver your best every day.
First, let me tell you some of the reasons why you aren’t as productive as you want to be. Ask yourself these questions. Let’s see if you can get an answer and find out whether you are really busy:
- Are you overworking?
- How organized are you?
- Do you know what you are trying to do?
- Who do you have to work with?
- Is there dependency to finish your tasks?
- How efficient are you?
When you try to answer the above, you will definitely feel guilty about how your day is going and you will feel that you are not actually that busy and have more time and potential than you thought. So let’s go through 9 techniques that will help you improve your organizing skills and become more productive.
- Plan your day ahead
It’s important that you plan your whole day and know what you are doing that day. At Least 60% of your day has to be preplanned to make it more productive. Have a specific SMART goal for the day and avoid last-minute work which will disrupt your day. It’s important to know your task dependencies as this could lead to delays in execution. So plan accordingly. Last but not the least, learn how to say No, when someone approaches you for non-priority tasks.
- Use Your Calendar
I just want to say thanks to Google Calendar because… well, it just made my day. Literally! Schedule a day in advance or before the day begins. It’s a good practice to follow and also add people in advance to the task where they have been informed and dependency has been created. Let them know before adding them. Yes, it’s important that they too plan as per the schedule so that the whole team is productive.
- Let’s Not Squeeze In
We all hate it when people come to us at the last minute and ask to reschedule a task that was planned. That is why it is important to know your priorities and act accordingly. People can wait — the world is not ending today. So don’t try to squeeze in every request that is made to you. Don’t try to be helpful all the time. Make sure you don’t let anyone and everyone disrupt the work that you have planned.
- Stick To The Planned Time
This is important. Finish your meetings on schedule and avoid going off-topic. Come into the meeting with a clear agenda and don’t talk too much about things that are not relevant. Respect the other person’s time as well. Close the meeting with actionable steps that people can take so that the meeting itself is effective.
- Keep Enough Gaps And Break On Schedules
You need to take breaks because when you get tired, your brain doesn’t work as well. Chit chat with the people, get up and go for a walk. Go for a cup of chai, help someone else if possible. This will make your day more productive, happy, efficient and energetic.
- Prioritize Your Work
Everyone feels like their work should be on top of your list. Everything is important and everyone needs it right now. But how to get rid of this ‘RIGHT NOW’ problem? Here are some questions to help you prioritize your day-to-day tasks.
- How important is it?
- What is the effect of delivering it now and later?
- What are its implications and effects?
- Where to place the task in your to-do list?
- How long does it take to finish the task?
After analysing each task you need to give it a priority number. Everything is important, and so is your task. Have open communication with the person about where you are placing the task in your priority list and when you are delivering it.
- Use Good Old Pen & Paper
Sometimes it is very confusing where to start and what to start with. There are a lot of tasks on the sheet and you don’t know where to begin. It happens to all of us. Give your brain space to do something more productive than just remembering the list of tasks. Don’t think too much about the task, rather, put it down on paper. Trust me, it helps. You strike it off when it is done. It gives an enormous amount of satisfaction. This helps you get clarity on what to do and whether you are doing it right.
- Simplify/Automate Repetitive Tasks
I will tell you the truth about most of the work we do. More than 40% of it is repetitive, depending on your job role. We do the same thing, repeat the same pattern and we deliver the same output. We should find a smarter way to do it in a shorter period of time, where you don’t need to use your brain or give less importance to finish your tasks. Do it once, and make it simple the next time — look for tools that help you automate and create checklists to avoid repetitive mistakes. This will definitely reduce the time taken to do mundane tasks and you will be much more productive.
- Document Everything
This is the time for us to create documentation or a repository of the work or the process that we already found. Research to find answers, not to search for things that you already know. Create checklists and keep it very accessible whenever you need it. Make it a process and follow it the next time. Find opportunities to delegate the work to your teammates.
I hope these 9 points are going to make your life easier in terms of managing your tasks efficiently. Stop complaining that you’re busy and start putting these golden rules in practice. If you have any further confusion or you need some help managing your time or planning your work, or you need to train your team to become much more efficient, we can definitely help you out. Contact us on +91 99864 60086 or mail us at [email protected] and schedule a FREE audit and consultation of your/ your time management skills.
by Aravinda S Shetty | Jun 15, 2021 | Blog, Digital marketing
Yes, we are in a time where the entire country and the world is going through a very difficult time with the covid-19 pandemic. People are unable to reach the retail stores and business outlets to pick up their favorite products for their daily needs. Do you agree that everyone is going through an online mode of purchase sitting at home looking for alternative solutions for their day-to-day shopping? I believe it is a great mistake as a brand if you don’t present yourself in the place where your audience is.
Surveys and reports say that there was a 40% growth in the E-commerce segment in 2020, crossing 38 million dollars. This is indicating that users are still purchasing and consuming the product but just the shift in the mode of purchase has been changed. Honest question to you — how much are you ready to change your mode of sales? Are you doing anything about it or are you just saying the market is bad?Here are a few techniques that will help you to take your FMCG brand online and establish your business much stronger!
Build Social Media Presence
Due to the lockdown, a lot of people are at home and spending a lot of time on social media.Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest are great social media platforms for engaging with your targeted audience. You need to show the goodness of your product and build a persona behind the product so that people start connecting with your brand. Have regular engaging content on these social media pages as well as run small campaigns like a contest, giveaway, etc. which will give a great boost to the brand-building exercise.
E-commerce Platforms
As mentioned earlier, people have not stopped purchasing or consuming FMCG goods and that has changed the way of buying. Even if you have a great distribution network, it is very important that you have your products listed on E-commerce platforms like Amazon, Flipkart, etc. You can also explore bulk buying platforms like IndiaMART, Amazon business, etc. It is not just about how much money you make by selling your products on E-commerce platforms, it is about increasing the Brand Visibility that you get for free of cost on these platforms as they have millions of visitors browsing on their website. This also becomes a marketing cost. So don’t think twice before listing your products on E-Commerce platforms, just go for it !. If you are a niche-based seller you can also choose local online aggregators and specific product E-commerce platforms. ( For example, if you are selling soap you can also so check on medicine-related E-commerce platform to sell your product online )
Content Outreach
It’s not just enough if you talk about your product, your main aim should be for people to talk about it. Nowadays reviews given by people are helping customers to consider purchasing online. As everyone spends a lot of time online, maybe reading blogs and articles or watching videos that are generated by people is going to add a lot of credibility to your brand. Just to give you an example, if you are a masala brand,then you can reach out to homemakers, YouTube influencers etc. — and they will post a cooking video with the masala powder and will endorse the same. This will create a community and there will be trust built on the market which will help you establish the brand.
Go for online Paid Marketing
As the lockdown is on and businesses are down, the online media has become a more viable and much cheaper option for brands to showcase their product to a targeted audience. Due to the lockdown, it is observed that there has been a decrease in the cost per paid media and this is because larger brands spend on digital media.And accountability is much higher when it comes to digital media paid advertising. You can micro-target your audience and communicate based on the buying stage that they are in. We believe Advertisements on Facebook, Instagram, Google display and Youtube work really well to establish your brand as well as pushes people to buy your product online wherever it is available. You can start as small as Rupees Hundred per day and target as small as one Kilometre of radius. Don’t you think it is a great option to put your product in front of people who are ready to buy your product? I believe in that too.
Go for Product Innovation by people
Recently we have been experimenting with the FMCG brands that we handle digital marketing for. We approached our followers and consumers to come up with the innovative product that they can make using the ready made product that we delivered to them. Just to make it clear, there is a lady who made wonderful donuts out of gulab jamun mix which is one of our products. We never even imagined you could make delicious donuts out of gulab jamun mix. This gave a different perspective about what we can do with our own product and people loved that too. Since people have a little better time than before they find happiness in doing things differently with very accessible products that they have. This kind of user-generated content will make the brand stand out in the market.
We are sure there are many more avenues to market your FMCG products digitally and it definitely requires experience and investment in time and money. This is the best time to experiment and find out how it works for your own brand and products. If you think you are facing a crunch of time definitely you will have to seek help from people who are experts in the domain. We at Alter Marketing Solutions Pvt. Ltd. work with a lot of FMCG brands which are accepted worldwide and make great use of digital marketing for market expansion. Our approach of hyperlocal communication and domain expertise helps different types of FMCG brands.We’ll help you make your product a digital rockstar! You need any help to take your FMCG product digitally, please reach out to us at [email protected] or give us a call at +91 99864 60086.
by Alter | May 17, 2021 | Blog, Digital marketing
Are you trying to run paid media ads, targeted to capture more leads online? Are you putting in a lot of effort, time, and money but are getting no significant results? Then you are at the right place. We will guide you through some of the most simple practices which will help you improve your landing page, and in return will increase your conversion rate and fetch you the results you are looking for.
Before we jump into the magic tips to improve conversion rate, let’s first try to understand the basics of different types of landing pages. Per the industry standards, there are four different types of landing pages:
- The Opt-in Bribe Landing Page
This kind of landing page is pretty straightforward. It contains a form that offers some kind of bribe to people so that they fill in their leads.
Example: Offer A Free 30-Minute Consultation
2. The Video Landing Page
Includes a video on top of a landing page that explains service and product in a pretty straightforward way which commences into a lead magnet or a strong call to action.
3. The Product Landing Page
This is mainly meant for showcasing the product and its specialties directly so that people can make an informed decision about the product.
4. The Long Sales Page
These landing pages are content-heavy and usually highlight some catchy offers and USPs so that people can take a call and lead to better conversion.
How To Optimise Landing Pages For Better Lead Conversion
Lead magnet
A lead magnet is an offer that you can promote to prospective customers in exchange for their information. It is a push you give your readers to take the next action. FREE CONSULTATION, DOWNLOAD FREE E-BOOK, BOOK A FREE DEMO are some really good examples for lead magnets. If you are looking to optimise your page better, then you need to have a lead magnet that appeals to your readers.
Copy
Copy is what sells on your landing page. Each word in it should act like a salesman and should be able to deliver some value and message to your readers. The copy needs to have a clear and very direct way of communicating what you want. Also, the copy needs to contain value-driven content without which achieving better conversion is almost an impossible task.
Speed
The first impression that your website makes can be a deal-maker or a deal-breaker. Remember you readers are impatient. They need a faster resolution for what they want. No one wants to wait for your website to load. No one has the time or patience for it. If your website loads slowly, your readers will automatically be uninterested, irrespective of how great your products and services are. Make sure to optimise your website for excellent speed so that the loading time doesn’t take more than 3 seconds.
Better headlines
How do you decide to read an article in a newspaper, website, etc? You make your decision to read it or not based on its headline, don’t you? The same logic applies to your landing pages. If the headlines are great, so will be your conversions. So choose your headline carefully.
Present better social proof
When you shop for something online, you want to be sure it is something worth spending, don’t you? You check for the reviews of that product so that you can make an informed decision. Similarly, your users will also like to see the reviews of the products and services which you have to offer. So make use of testimonial videos, Google reviews, different kinds of ratings to increase the credibility of your product. Better credibility leads to better conversions.
Two step forms and progress bars
Your forms need to be designed in such a way that it doesn’t look too long or overwhelming. Make sure there is a progress bar that indicates the progress on the lead filling process which. This will keep your users informed and will lead to better conversion. If you’re having a direct form embedded, keep it short and collect only the information which is of high importance to you.
Write content for skimmers
People usually don’t go through every word and line that is mentioned on the landing page. So use proper highlighting, bolding, etc to provide value to the skimmers who don’t read all.
Maintain Secrecy
Don’t give out too much information about your products and services. Give only those bits to your users which will create curiosity in them and make them want to know more. Let people share information about them to get to know about your products & services in detail.
Exit popups
In some landing pages, you may have seen that when you move your cursor towards the closing tab or back button, you’ll immediately see a pop-up, enticing you with a lead magnet and asking you to share lead. Include this simple pop-up tactic on your page and increases your lead count by a large margin.
Marketing integrations
For a successful deal to close it takes a minimum of three face-to-face sittings. How can we expect people to buy in just the first meeting? It’s highly impossible, right? Hence, it is important to make sure that you engage repeatedly with your potential customers till they become your current customers. To do so, you need to have the right marketing integrations in place. Most commonly used integrations are Google analytics, Google tag manager, Facebook pixel, Google ads tags, hot jar etc. This will enable remarketing, analyzing, and revision of learning pages.
Make sure to have these 9 basic magic tips in place for your landing pages and see your conversation rate sky-rocket. These tips will also help to test your landing pages for better performance. Apart from these tips, to create the best of landing pages and to implement them in the right way, a certain amount of technical skills and marketing expertise is needed. If you think you can benefit from expert marketing solutions, please reach out to us at [email protected] or give us a call at +91 99864 60086
