Remember the days when you could only get your hands on a product through brick and mortar stores? Then, with the breakthrough of the internet came websites. Gone were the days when you had to stand in long lines, through crowded shopping centres to buy a particular product. Access to a variety of products and services from all over the world were granted with the click of a button. And now, with the rise of social media, another platform has been made available to marketers and consumers alike to market and purchase products through.

Whether it’s Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat – the ability to purchase an advertised product is made available to virtually anyone who uses one of these platforms and has a bank account.

Data collected in 2018 by Social Media Statistics Australia revealed that there are 15 million active users using Facebook daily compared to the 9 million using Instagram and the 4 million using Snapchat.

With staggeringly high figures like this, it’s almost a no brainer that companies should use any one of these platforms or a combination of all three to interact with their consumers.

The graph below, sourced from Roy Morgan shows the average minutes per week spent on social media by Australians, according to their gender and age group:

What are the implications of making products available through social media platforms?

Once a customer using social media has stumbled upon a product/service of interest, they can complete their entire purchase journey, from discovery to check out, without having to leave the app. This is particularly relevant for consumers using Instagram and Snapchat.

Not only does this increase ease and convenience, it allows consumers to undertake seamless purchases without being redirected out of the app or having to manually search for that particular business’ website in a separate browser tab.

This too compliments influencer marketing as influencers on both Instagram and Snapchat can publish posts promoting a particular product and service and can accompany their posts with a direct link to that product/service’s website. Again, saving consumers from the hassle of having to search up product related information in another tab.

Furthermore, due to features such as ‘share’, an organisation’s customer base can be easily and quickly built through users sharing advertised products between one and another. The greatest advantage of this is that consumers are more likely to react positively to recommendations they receive from trusted friends and family members rather than the business itself.

Finally, depriving consumers with the ability to make purchases through social media platforms can lead to potential target markets remaining untapped. This is particularly relevant for new products and new competitors entering the market. The greatest way to battle low or no brand awareness and educate your target market about the existence of your product is to promote the product through platforms that consumers spend most of their time on.

Are you one to shop using social media? What have you purchased? I’d love to hear about your experiences!

It’s no surprise that we live in an era where our favourite brands can access and store various types of data relating to their customers which they can analyse to grasp a better understanding of customer psychographics, demographics and usage patterns. But, how safe are their data-storing softwares and what happens in the event that our personal information is ever leaked?

It’s called data breach.

Trend Micro defines data breach as an ‘incident where information is stolen or taken from a system without the knowledge or authorization of the system’s owner.’ It can be either intentional or unintentional but the leak of confidential information into an unknown or potentially harmful environment can impose many negative implications on the business suffering from the data breach.

Below is a pie graph, sourced from Trend Micro which identifies the most common sources of data breach:

So, let’s take a closer look at how breached business are affected:

First and foremost are the financial repercussions of the breach. Companies will be held liable to pay back any money that has been stolen through the breach, whether it be through compensating affected customers and/or workers. Furthermore, companies are also likely to invest in more expensive and updated technology to ensure a safer and more secure data-storing system. In countries where data breach is punishable by law, companies may be required to pay a penalty. In Australia, companies failing to comply with the Notifiable Data Breaches Scheme may be accountable to pay penalties of up to $2.1 million.

But the most prevailing cost of data breach to me and I’m sure many of you will agree, is the negative impact it can have on the company’s customer base. If the breach involves particularly sensitive data, Customers are likely to lose faith in the brand and are less likely to feel confident enough to continue to share personal data. Furthermore, if the breach is publicised and covered by the media, a breach has the ability to discourage potential customers from interacting with the business also.  

Here is a list of the major cyber breaches that have occurred among Australian business in 2019 alone and the list is scarily long considering we are only half way into the year!

If you’re a marketer you’re probably wondering, who actually opens emails from businesses anyway? And if you’re a consumer, you’re probably wondering, why is she encouraging businesses to bombard my inbox more than they already do!? Hear me out!

I know that the strong influence of social media, search engine optimisation and other mobile marketing platforms may make it seem that using email marketing as a medium to communicate with consumers may be a waste of time and effort, but if executed correctly, email marketing can be very advantageous than initially thought.

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Firstly, email marketing assists with targeted marketing. Segmenting the market according to demographics, location and purchase history, for example becomes easier as businesses collect and retain data on subscribed customers. This information can then be used to send out content which is tailored and specific to each segment. This imposes positive implications on both customers and businesses, as customers receive emails which are catered to their needs thus encouraging customers to purchase the businesses’ product/service and generate sales.

Secondly, email marketing can contribute to brand awareness. Every email sent out, exposes the brand to the customers. Personalisation, eye-catching subject lines and clear and concise emails consisting of useful content are likely to create value for customers. The more emails a business sends out, the higher the chances are of that businesses staying top of mind. But businesses should be mindful that the amount of emails they are sending out do not annoy customers or evoke a sense of resentment towards their brand! Being a top-of-mind business encourages subscribers to actively seek out for that business’ products or services during the consideration stage thus increasing their customer base.

Thirdly, email marketing can be used to analyse exact and valuable metrics such as delivery rates, open rates, click-to-deliver rates and subscriber retention rates. These metrics assist marketers to obtain a more thorough understanding of customer behaviours and interests. Marketers can track which emails, containing what sorts of content generate the greatest response from customers. This information can then be used to identify topics of interest among consumers and assist marketers in creating and delivering more successful campaigns in the future. 

Finally, email marketing is cost effective. Email marketing does not require any printing costs, postage fees or advertising rates. Statistics from the Direct Marketing Assocation reveal that, email marketing brings in a $40 return on investment for every $1 spent, making it more cost effective than search, display and social marketing.

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So marketers, are you convinced yet? And consumers, what are some tips you have for marketers to help them design and execute emails that you would want to open?

Are you paying thousands of dollars a year and studying hard to get those HD’s for a degree in an industry which will predominantly be dominated by artificial intelligence???

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As a Marketing major myself, I can’t help but wonder if I am threatened by the existence of state of the art robots who can do my job more productively and efficiently than I, or any other human being can.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is defined as ‘the ability of a digital computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings‘. Simply put, AI enables machines to undertake various tasks that could traditionally only be completed by humans. Scarily enough, it is predicted that 40% of job across a range of industries will become redundant over the next 15 years due to the growing usage of AI.

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Evidently, AI is anticipated to eradicate task-orientated jobs in marketing such as call centres, identifying potential customer segments, target marketing and curating product recommendations based on a customer’s previous purchase history.

So what does this pose for future marketing students like you and I? Well, I hope you’re not scrambling to switch degrees already because every cloud has a silver lining and the emergence of AI in the marketing industry will create more opportunities for future graduates and job-seekers than you’d expect. Here are a list of job titles that we may see in the future for those operating in the marketing industry, including Augmented Reality Producer and Bot Developer.

Sure, AI is great. AI’s ability to continuously gather extensive data on consumers is enhancing the marketer’s ability to better understand consumer behaviours, patterns and attitudes and as a result, deliver stronger, more relevant marketing communication. However, AI needs to be managed by skilled workers. Marketers will be required to develop the necessary skills needed to interpret the data collected and use it to design effective marketing campaigns. Because that is where AI lacks. As efficient as AI may be, it lacks the empathy, communication and multifaceted problem-solving skills required to deliver convincing stimuli which will evoke an emotional reaction within consumers.

In my opinion, it is essential for marketers to be innovative and adapt to the changing industry environment. Change is indifferent and I believe we must embrace it rather than resist it or run from it. Exciting opportunities are headed our way!

It’s no surprise that in an era characterised by ad saturation, the natural reaction of consumers is to resent most forms of traditional, marketing stimuli.

Inescapable pop-up ads every time you click open a new website. Marketers having access to extensive and oftentimes, personal information to match the right ad with the right target market. Auto-playing videos catching you off-guard and embarrassing you in public. I can’t even peacefully read through a news article without accidentally clicking on an ad and immediately being diverted to another webpage!! So as consumers, can we really be blamed for despising ads when we are continuously being bombarded by them?

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Research conducted in 2015 concludes that 200 million people worldwide had installed some form of ad-blocking software. So, how are marketers combatting and overcoming the consumer’s hatred towards traditional forms of marketing communication?

Content marketing.

Neil Patel defines content marketing  ‘a long-term strategy that focuses on building a strong relationship with your target audience by giving them high-quality content that is very relevant to them on a consistent basis.’

Consumers tend to react positively to content marketing because the promotional element of a product or service is very subtly incorporated. Marketing efforts are focused primarily on creating and publishing content which consumers deem to be useful and beneficial rather than directly communicating to consumers why they should purchase your product or service over that of your competitor’s. As a result, consumers tend to develop a likeability towards the brand. Furthermore, successful forms of content marketing also strengthen brand recall and increases engagement between brand and consumer.  

An effective and widely-known case of content marketing was exhibited by Coca Cola through their ‘Share A Coke’ campaign. The campaign involved identifying 150 of the most popular in Australia and adding it to the packaging of the Coca Cola bottle. The element of personalisation drove the campaign’s success. Providing consumers with the opportunity to customise their Coke bottles encouraged them to form an emotional connection to the bottle which was then transferred to the brand of Coke. After the campaign’s initial release in Australia, total sales experienced a 3% increase. Once the campaign went global, a total of 150 million personalised bottles had been sold.

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What are some of your favourite examples of content marketing?

Have you ever looked at a product or service and wondered how it will look in real life? A different hairstyle, a shade of foundation, a new pair of glasses or even… a new couch for the TV room?!

Even thinking back to 5 years ago, such a thought would be bizarre and unheard of but being able to enjoy a product or service in real time, through your Smartphone screen is becoming more common now than once thought and is referred to as AUGMENTED REALITY (AR).

Techopedia refers to AR as ‘a type of interactive, reality-based display environment that takes the capabilities of computer generated display, sound, text and effects to enhance the user’s real-world experience.’

This allows consumers to experience certain features and benefits of a product from the comfort of their own homes, which they otherwise would have been unable to experience and hence assists them to make more informed decisions regarding purchase.

Marketers too can utilise AR to deliver stronger, more convincing marketing stimuli that reduce feelings of doubt and hesitance when deciding whether to purchase a product or not. I know I would feel a lot more confident, cutting and styling my hair a certain way if I was able to see it on myself first!!

Incorporating AR into an organisation’s digital marketing strategy also has positive impacts on user engagement. Such a fun and interactive experience is likely to be more effective in encouraging potential and existing customers to interact with the brand, compared to traditional forms of marketing communication. Marketing strategies involving AR are also likely to be more memorable due to their unique nature and may be top of mind for consumers when recalling the different types of advertisements, they have been exposed to. Furthermore, the use of such a different strategy can also help brands gain a competitive edge and differentiate them from their competitors due to the excitement and curiosity generated around a product offering which incorporates augmented reality.

Brands already employing AR to enhance their marketing efforts include:

• Michael Kors

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• Sephora

• IKEA 

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Personally, the concept of AR is very exciting to me! Enabling customers to experience a product/service without having to physically purchase it or access it is such a great way to create value and further help reassure customers that the purchase decision they are making is the best one for them. It seems that we have only scratched the surface of AR and I can’t wait to see how different organisations utilise AR in the future.

What is search engine optimisation?

Search engine optimisation (or SEO, for short) consists of all the methods that can be utilised by an organisation to increase the visibility of their website on search engine results pages (SERPs). Let’s make more sense of this by taking a look at what information google retrieves when you search for ‘flowers’.

The first three results that you can see are ads that have been paid for by particular companies to ensure that their website appears at the top of the SERP when people search for the term ‘flowers’. These are ‘non-organic’ results. However, the average web surfer prefers organic search engine results (i.e. results that appear naturally, rather than in the paid-for section) and is more likely to react positively to organic links, compared to sponsored ads. This presents very important implications for marketers when they are deciding on the best approach to increase the visibility of their sites.

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Organic results for ‘flowers’ can be seen below and this is ideally the position that all businesses want their website to be placed at – the first, organic search engine result.

Why is search engine optimisation important?

Research from 2014, undertaken by Conducter, concludes that 64% of all web traffic comes from organic search whereas only 6% comes from paid search. Google is also unsurprisingly the most influential search engine platform as it is responsible for more than 90% of organic web traffic, across the globe. A study from Advanced Web Ranking in 2014 found that 67.60% of all clicks comes from the top five results on the first SERP and most surfers will not even bother to scroll past the first page due to time constraints or because they have already found what they are looking for.

So, how can you get to #1?

1.Producing quality content

Publishing useful content regularly encourages visitors to spend longer on your website and consume the information that you are providing. This increases dwell time and can affect SEO ranking positively. Content consisting of between 2,000 to 2,500 words seems to rank the highest in search engine results. Be sure to also incorporate more keywords within your writing. The more times a search engine is mentioned in your website, the higher it is likely to rank. Additionally, if your website has also been bookmarked by a user on Chrome, it too will improve your SEO.  

2. Page load speed

53% of searches are dismissed if the page being viewed doesn’t load within 3 seconds. This can negatively impact dwell time, increase bounce rates and reduce the number of pages viewed on a given website – all of which have important implications for your SEO ranking.

3. Mobile-friendly websites

Since April 2015, Google has been reducing the search engine ranking of certain sites who are not mobile optimized. Consumers are surfing the web through their smartphones more frequently therefore organisations must be wary of how readable and user-friendly their sites appear on mobiles.

4. Backlinks

The more times your website is mentioned on high-authority domains, the more likely you are to rank higher for a particular search term. An authority website is trusted by both users and the industry within which it operates therefore a link from an authority site is deemed to be very valuable.

5. Ensuring a user-friendly site

Proper formatting and layout is crucial for improving both readability and user experience. One way of ensuring a user-friendly site is to design a well-thought-out site architecture and navigation system so users can find what they want promptly and easily. Readability can be improved by using appropriate font size, using bold type and colours strategically, using short paragraphs, using bulleted lists so users can scan information quickly and breaking up the content into sections. Incorporating images, videos, slideshows and audio allows the information to be delivered creatively and oftentimes may be easier to understand through visual aid. The more user-friendly your site is, the more time consumers will be encouraged to spend on your site searching for whatever it is they’re after. Finally, linking out to well-known authority sites provides users with access to greater in-depth information, which increases the relevance of the content being published and the time users spend on your site thus improving SEO ranking.

The 5 tips I have discussed above are the ones I personally consider to be most important and easy to achieve but there are plenty of other methods outlined here and here which you can also use to increase your SEO ranking!

Happy search engine optimising!!

Ladies, how many of you have checked your Instagram notifications to find a DM that says ‘Hey beautiful! Just came across your feed and would love to collab!’? I know I can’t be the only one! Ever wonder what that’s all about?

Instagram Brand Ambassadors.

The average U.S. Instagram user spends approximately 53 minutes on the photo sharing site commenting, liking and sharing their follower’s posts and are found to be more engaged than Facebook and Twitter users combined. Instagram users also enjoy scrolling through posts that promote a certain type of product and service. Of all the top-performing posts on Instagram in 2018, 65% featured some sort of product. This beat lifestyle content and images/videos posted by influencers and celebrities which made up 43% and 29% of top-performing posts respectively (Sproutsocial).

So, what are these companies hoping to achieve when they send you that DM?

• Reaching a larger audience – Chances are, if you’ve been approached by an organisation with a request to serve as a brand ambassador – you already have a high follower count on Instagram. You and your followers are also more likely to share similar interests and thereby be interested in similar products and services. It is important for marketers to choose ambassadors whose followers are likely to react positively to their product offerings. Choosing Instagram users who have a high and active follower count can be used to reach audiences who have not heard of the product yet but are likely to be interested in the offering upon seeing a post about it.
• Humanising their brand – Consumers are likely to react positively to product offerings on Instagram if they are able to associate a face with the brand. Faceless brands are not only harder to recall but from a consumer’s point of view are also harder to trust. Consumers are more likely to try out products they have never purchased before if it is being recommended to them through a trusted follower or someone who they hold in high regard as it is more personalised, rather than being bombarded by ads from an Insta page that they do not know or recognise.
• Increased exposure – Companies are not able to market their products 24/7. Employing ambassadors all over the globe, who operate in different time zones and therefore reach greater audiences can significantly work to increase an organisation’s online presence. This means that promotional content is being released even when the organisation is not uploading on Instagram themselves. More posts, more often = more exposure!!

But behind all the glitz and glamour, it is important for organisations and brand ambassadors to maintain a professional and trusting relationship, where both parties act with integrity and do not exploit each other.  

Now that we know what these organisations are after, whose keen on being an Instagram brand ambassador?!

Have you ever felt that your smartphone might be eavesdropping on you? Oftentimes I find that I receive advertisements for a specific product or service which I haven’t actively searched for but may have mentioned out loud. As bizarre of an accusation as that may sound, experts in the field of digital marketing and cybersecurity conclude that there is a high possibility of organisations using the microphones built within our cell phones to listen to our conversations and facilitate the types of advertisements we are exposed to.

When asked about the issue, former operations manager at Facebook; Sandy Parakalis said that it was ‘very unlikely’. He argued that continuously streaming audio from all activated phones would not only be very expensive to gather but also a lengthy process to analyse. According to Parakalis, organisations already have access to extensive amounts of customer-related data that they can use to match current marketing communication with the right target market. This data also stores information based on the things we post, like, share and search for.

Facebook and Google both monitor our web activity, and through the usage of hidden tracking technologies are able to display relevant advertisements to the appropriate customers. Google has trackers on 76% of websites and Facebook has trackers on 23% and can use such trackers to gather information regarding when, why and for what a certain web user surfs a certain website.

But to answer the question that’s on everyone’s lips: are we being listened to through our phones? According to Dr. Peter Hannay, who is the senior security consultant for a cybersecurity firm by the name of Asterisk: the answer is YES. However, for smartphones to actually record us, there needs to be triggers such as ‘Hey Siri’ or ‘Okay Google’. Without such triggers, there is no recording going on in the background.

He also states that every now and then, audio recordings are sent back to the companies who use and employ such triggers and can then use the recordings to guide marketing decisions. When and where these recordings are collected and then sent back vary on the timing, location and certain functions on our smartphones. It is also extremely difficult to identify the exact triggers because they are collected in encrypted form and there are thousands of them used by companies like Facebook and Instagram.

Google and Facebook have both publicly dismissed the idea of using cell phone microphones to collect information for marketing purposes but we cannot blindly deny the fact that we ARE being listened to.

Did you know that one in every 6 minutes, a person will spend their time online? The average Australian over the age of 14 spends almost six hours a week on social media. An era characterised by such rapid digitalisation has provided avenues for organisations to conduct their marketing activities through the use of the Internet and social media, branching away from conventional forms of communication. For example, taking a look at print media statistics – media agencies increased their spending on social media sites by 25.3% during the month of March 2018. Newspaper and magazine bookings however experienced a decline of 22% and 23.7% respectively in the same period.

But before we delve into the current issues surrounding digital marketing, let’s revisit the key technological advances that played a fundamental role in birthing the digital marketing era.

A widely recognised starting point for the history of digital marketing is 1990 as that’s when Archie, the first search engine born. Soon after in 1993, the first clickable banner was made available and a company by the name of HotWired purchased these as part of their advertising strategy. 1994 saw the birth of Yahoo!, allowing people to surf the web for information.

Around this time, marketing professionals began harping on the concept of ‘search engine optimisation’ which refers to increasing the online visibility of a website, so it appears before competing pages when individuals search for specific terms through a given search engine. Fast forward to four years and the world’s most popular search engine was born in 1998. You guessed it – Google! Google would go onto revolutionise the avenues through which people sought to access and release information from conventional forms of research.

Soon Web 2.0 came along, which we now know as social media, introducing user-generated content, with the earliest adopter being MySpace. 

Ten years later, Internet advertising and marketing was valued at almost 3 billion dollars. It was at this time that Facebook was released too, however it was most popular among college students.

2007 saw iPhones entering the market, marking the birth of mobile technology and enabling companies to employ yet another digital channel to connect with their consumers. 7 years later, it was concluded that people were spending more time on their mobiles rather than their desktops.

Fast forward to today and Artificial Intelligence has the ability to gather data from social media platforms used by consumers to analyze behaviour and identify patterns thus proving to have important implications on digital marketers. For example, more and more businesses are employing virtual assistants aka Chatbots to communicate with customers. Chatbox technology enables customers to find answers promptly as they are immediately responsive, keep track of their buying history as the chatbox recalls such data and enjoy unlimited patience. To keep up with such changing consumer preferences and the fact that 1.4 billion people interact with chatbots, marketers must be wary of incorporating such technological advances within their own digital marketing strategies to survive against competing businesses.

Below is a visual representation, taken from Simplilearn of the history and evolution of Digital Marketing, taking a closer look at all the contributions that has shaped the digital marketing environment into what it is today.

What do you think the future holds for digital marketers?