Digital Marketing Strategies and Trends

: 1. Branding Basics
: 2. Internet Marketing
: 3. Digital / Direct Marketing
: 4. Social Media Business Strategy
: 5. Idiot Proof Social Media Strategy
: 6. Deciding Your Marketing Budget (DYMB)
: 7. Green Marketing
: 1. Mr. Ameya Kolambekar, Head Marketing & Growth at BillBachao.com
: 2. Mr. Himanshu Saxena, Vice President Brand Management & Integrated
at Reliance JIO Infocomm
: 3. Mr. Gautam Borah, Vice President at Customer Service Operations
Vodafone India
Page1

: 1. Global spending on Digital Marketing Near $100 Billion
: 2. Why ads are necessary in the age of ad blockers
: 3. How to add 51% more sales to your sales funnel
: 4. Why is marketing automation important in E-commerce
: 5. Social media platforms account for 79% of E-commerce in India – PayPal
: 6. How to use Social media to make your CRM more intelligent
: 7. How to take control of your customer experience with social
: 8. 5 New trends in Email Marketing that everyone should know
: 9. 7 Ways brands are evolving their message for Digital video
: 10. What marketeers are doing wrong in Data Analytics
Page2

Branding Basics
Prof. Ashish Hathi
Page4
Topic 1

Learnings :
A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or unifying combinations of these, that
distinguishes an organization or product from its rivals in the eyes of the customer.
• Salient Aspects of Any Brand ,
Branding serves both
- the sellers (it includes both manufacture as well as seller for ex. Colgate, branding
helps Colgate to market it’s products)
- the buyers (the one who buys and use the products, we the consumers)
• A Brand name is the verbal part of the brand.
When it is a product we get a tangibalisation of the brand
Tangible Product Intangible Service
Maggi Sauce DHL Courier
Godrej Chicken ICICI Bank
Page5
Branding Basics

What is a Brand ?
• A brand is a name, term, sign, symbol or design or a combination of them, intended
to identify the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them
from those of competitors.
For Ex. Parle G is a glucose biscuit from Parle Products and competitors are
Britannia, Sunfeast from ITC.
• Examples -
- Name :
- Term :
- Sign :
- Symbol :
- Design :
Branding Basics
Page6

• Brands are central to creating (First purchase and sustaning (Repeat purchases)
the customer value (when customer uses the brands particular product he should get a
product satisfaction) and not images – that picturize or visualize, in brief ultimately
customer must get the value for money that he pays to acquire the product or services.
• Brands do so by consistently and repeatedly providing an ideal combination of
Attributes ,
- tangible and intangible attributes
- practical and symbolic attributes
- visible and invisible attributes
• Brands are cultures that circulate in society as conventional stories!
- Tata - Nescafe
Page7
Branding Basics

Value
Benefits
Personality
Attributes
Culture
User
• Why Brand Components Matter ?
- It helps to determine the depth of a
particular brand.
- It helps to gauge ‘Brand Awareness’,
which is one of the constituents of Brand
Depth.
• Constituents Of Brand,
1. Brand Awareness
2. Brand Acceptance
3. Brand Preference
4. Brand Loyalty
5. Brand Equity
Page8
Branding Basics

• Brand Terms
Brand
Brand
Identity
Brand
Insight
Brand
Image
Brand
Loyalty
Brand
eQuity
Brand
Value
It is the product recall factor. The Brand Identity will
connect product recognition.
Brand Insights are the results of deep under-
-standing of the customers.
Brand Image is the view of a customers about a brand.
Brand Loyalty is a consumer behavior pattern where
consumers are committed to a particular brand and
make repeat purchase.
Brand eQuity is the commercial vale that derives from
consumer perception of the brand name of a particular
product.
Brand Value, brand goodwill when gets translated in a
monetary value, it gives the brand its brand value.
Page9
Branding Basics

• Journey of a branding ,
1. Conscious efforts to get recognized in consumer’s mind,
2. Requires substantial investments,
3. Rapid evolution / shorter life
• Advantages of Branding ,
1. Recognition
2. Recall
3. Trials
4. Consumer Acceptance
5. Differentiation facilitation
6. Develops loyalty
7. Builds equity
8. Strengthens Channel partnership
9. Market Segmentation
Page10
Branding Basics

• Branding Decisions ,
1. Brand management function is generally under Marketing domain
2. Brand Managers are responsible to manage a particular brand or group of products /
brands.
3. Brand Manager is a custodian of the brand.
4. Brand Manager needs to take number of challenging decision related to his
brand/brands.
• Differentiation Approach Decisions ,
1. Differentiation is one of the core purpose of Branding
2. Identifying differentiation aspect is a continuous process
3. Use rational benefit / service exclusivity
4. Exploit scientific / technological advantage
5. Cost Effectiveness
6. Efficiency
Page11
Branding Basics

Feedback to action plan
Implement action plan with a monitoring program
Identify focus areas for action
Define the desired image
Determine the current image with consumers
• Brand-Building Steps
Branding Basics

Internet Marketing
Prof. Sagar Narsian
Page13
Topic 2

Internet Marketing
The Internet is the Magic Stone of the Millennium being the fastest and cheapest
global communication tool.
• The rate of adoption and change of technology is increasing very rapidly in the world.
• What is Internet?
- a worldwide Network of Computers
- the fastest and the cheapest communication medium in the world with Global reach
- More than 1 Billion users around the globe and growing every minute !
- More than 350 million hosts & 3000 million pages of information and growing
• The internet is a great leveler and closes the gap between big and small organisations.
It is a Marketing, distribution & Business Implementation tool.
Learnings :

• The internet is the only medium to offer real time interactivity with clients/
consumers in the real sense, resulting in highly focused Audience Coverage and
Involvement, i.e. One-to-One interaction.
• The Internet is a “Pull” medium and a medium of Mass Customization.
Hence, the content in internet medium has to be compelling and has to be updated
regularly.
A web presence in today’s world is as important as a postal address (reach prospective).
• There are three types of web presence ,
1. Information
2. Interactive
3. Commerce enabled
Internet Marketing

Internet
Marketing
Internet Marketing enables to ,
- Integrate with global marketplaces and practices (i.e. it integrates with global
marketplace, helps database management or customer record keeping, it has a reach from
anywhere, anytime, it enables market efficiency & cost effectiveness..
Integrate with
World Marketplace
Market Efficiency &
Cost Effectiveness Integrate with global marketplaces
Reach from
Anywhere, Anytime
Customer Record
Keeping
Customer
Recordkeeping
Internet Marketing

Internet marketing has 2 approaches
- Marketing
- Business Development
Internet Marketing requires an integrated approach – It needs to use Search engines,
online directories.
• Goals of Internet Marketing
Internet Marketing

• The five principles of Internet Marketing are ,
1. Make it easy to find what’s being sold (simplify and personalize shopping experience
2. Deliver solid service i.e. What You See Is What You Buy (WYSIWYB)
3. Individual Customization
4. Make navigation simple i.e. simple, intuitive navigation
5. Business-to-Business i.e. B2B focus initially
• Benefits of Internet Marketing ,
- New business opportunity
- Global reach and market penetration
- Improved Customer Services
- Faster response to market changes
- Improved Profitability
- Better Forecasting & Decision making
If You Don’t Use Internet Marketing, The Competitors Will….
Internet Marketing

Digital Direct Marketing
Prof. Ashish Hathi
Page19
Topic 3

• The Brands practicing this are:
Digital Direct Marketing (DDM) is an interactive system of marketing which uses
one or more advertising media to effect a measurable response and transaction at any
location.
- US Direct Marketing Association
Learnings :

• Direct digital marketing (DDM) is the electronic delivery of relevant communications
to specific recipients.
• Digital Direct Marketing uses email, Web sites and mobile services in the same way
that direct marketing in the physical world uses the postal service.
It is an…
- unsolicited communication
- from seller to prospects
- built in response (lead generation)
- monitoring mechanism planned
- tap the maximum of customer’s life time value.
• The 3 levels of Digital Direct Marketing :
1. Direct marketing drives the business
2. Direct Marketing drives all or part of the marketing strategy
3. Direct Marketing is used within the communication mix.

• Forms of Digital Direct Marketing ,
They are also known as Direct marketing Methods.

Digital Direct Marketing Mediums ,
• Publications – Magazines, Newspapers, Inserts
• Broadcast – TV / Radio
• Telecommunications
• Digital – e-Communications / e-Commerce
• Exhibitions
• Mechanical – POP, Vending Machines, Kiosk
• Co-op – Affinity Marketing
Main Task in Digital Direct Marketing ,
• lead generation
• Customer acquisition
• Customer retention
• Database management
• Response monitoring

• Reasons for growth of Digital Direct Marketing ,
Social / Technical reasons for growth
- the internet growth
- proliferation of mass media & rising cost of other marketing medium
Business reasons for growth
- criticism of traditional marketing methods
- interest in customer retention and loyalty
• Benefits of Digital Direct Marketing ,
1. Specific targeting possible
2. Minimal cost per reach
3. Prospects empowered to take informed decision
4. Development of an effective and responsive feedback system
5. Medium’s effectiveness can be measured
6. Results can be determined – conversion rate
7. Refining and improving success rate
8. Increases speed and efficiency

• Essentials of Digital Direct Marketing ,
Following 4 essentials elements can be leveraged in the digital direct marketing campaign :
1. Think
- responsible for research, insight and strategy
2. Create
- responsible for building meaningful and functional assets
3. Engage
- responsible to drive and build customer relationships
4. Optimise
- responsible to focuses on analytics, conversion optimisation and user
experience testing

Social Media Business Strategy
Prof. A.S Pillai, PCC (ICF)
Page26
Topic 4

Page27
A Social media strategy defines programs specific to networks and the
corresponding activity within and around each.
• A Social Business Strategy is one that aligns the Social media strategy with the
strategic business goals of an organisation, and has alignment and support throughout
the organization.
• Social Business Strategy requires having a healthy ecosystems to support adoption and
execution.
• Social Media Vs Social Business Strategy ,
Social Media possibilities are immense, however a credible Social Business Strategy is still
evolving
Social media innovation has been the key to Social business strategy
There’s a difference between a Social media and Social business strategy
Social media are the channels where information and people are connected via two-way
platforms.
Learnings :

Strategic Business Goals – Social Business Architecture ,
• Financial Performance Strategy
• Customer Experience Strategy
• Operational Excellence Strategy
• People and Culture Strategy
The Priorities of SEO in today’s scenario in terms of Business Strategy ,
• Increase enterprise profitable growth
• Delivering business results
• Business Strategy formulation
• Digital business strategy
• Social Media, Cloud, Mobility, Big Data
• Digital Channels formulation
• Business Innovation
• Customer Experience Management
• Operational Cost Optimisation
• Business Strategy execution

The 4 big innovations in the ICT industry that have
changed the world,
• Social Media Network
- Getting the product or services to the
market
- to connect with customers
• Cloud Services
- On demand services for changing business
scenario
• Mobility & Devices
- Mobile Apps and Social Media Apps
• Big Data and Analytics
- Big data Analytics helps with array of data
profiling and mining functions

The Different Aspects of Social Media – Business Models in Practice ,
• Free content / membership model (Linkedin, Facebook, twitter etc.)
• Membership free based model (Linkedin premium, Drop box premium)
• On demand business model (Typically cloud based applications)
• Outcome based business model (Google Adwords-Ads – only pay for results)
Social Media Business Attributes ,
• Globalisation
• Innovation
• Entrepreneurship
• Leadership
• Employment Opportunities
• Bridging the digital divide
• Making the world more open, small and a continnum

The 7 Success Factors of Social Business Strategy – by Brain Solis (a renowned
Linkedin Influencer ,
1. Define the overall business goals
2. Establish the long-term vision
3. Ensure executive support
4. Define the strategy and roadmap, identify initiatives
5. Establish governance and guidelines
6. Secure staff, resources and funding
7. Invest in technology platforms that support greater vision and objectives
5 tactics to manage Social Media Challenges and to increase ROI ,
1. Engage
2. Be Authentic
3. Keep Content Premium
4. Integrated Real-time Applications
5. Experiment

Social Business Strategy is About Creating Value for all Stakeholders…

How to Build an idiot proof Social
Media Strategy
Prof. Sudish Balan
Topic 5

Idiot Proof Social Media Strategy
Social Media Strategy ,
• Establish a plan
- Create a publishing schedule that helps to maintain a consistent
presence
- Visualize a marketing strategy in a way that everyone can understand
- Assign writing and other editorial tasks to key members of the team
- create an editorial calendar which acts as a daily roadmap, providing
strategic guidance on what and when to post
• Know Your Customer,
- The brand should identify it’s customers as it helps to reach a target
market
- identify what are customers need and how does the product, service
fulfill it
- create a persona (gender/work/location) based on target market
Learnings :

• Be a Resource,
- become a valuable resource
- share content on a daily basis
- Build rapport and establish trust
- create an impact with an unique content and give valuable insight,
share expertise through types of media
• Choose a Right Channel,
- understand which social media type suites to the business
- identify the proper customers are on social media with the
business type so as to engage with them
- identify the type of content to be published on different social media
channels
- do a survey to ask out the potential customers, on which social network
they hang out on

• Create Brand Consistency,
- representation of what the business is all about
- usage of colour, font and images should be in sync with the brand
- identify the brand look and feel and translate that across social media
to create consistency
For ex. – KFC
• Make it Personal,
- create more meaningful relationship by going deeper with your
social media community
- ask questions and pay attention to the answers
- use that information and turn it into valuable posts and tweets
- share tips, advice and interesting industry happenings to get to
know the customers point of view

• Be Visually Appealing,
- use images to improve engagement and boost the conversion happening
around the posts
- adding an image to the tweet can improve shares by 200%
- to prove the point we have an example of social Media Platform
Pinterest & Instagram
 Ensure that to find a balance between professional and personal
 Share your thoughts and ideas in a way to capture the audience attention
 Add flavour to your social media posts, but don’t throw any random content without
having any thought behind it…

Deciding Your marketing budget
Prof. Ashish Hathi
Page39
Topic 6

Deciding Your Marketing Budget
A Marketing Budget is Marketing Plan in terms of costs. Marketing Budget is an
estimated amount of cost that will be required to promote products or services.
• Marketing Budget ,
A Marketing Budget is a Marketing Plan in terms
of costs.
Marketing Budget is an estimated
amount of cost that will be required
to promote products or services.
Marketing Budget is generally part of
a marketing plan and crucial part of the
marketing process.
Advertisement
Target
Groups
Communication
Channel
Budget
• The Communication Mix
Learnings :

• The communication mix refers to specific methods used to promote the company or its
products to targeted customers.
• Advertisement ,
Advertisement is often the most prominent element of the communication mix.
Advertisement includes all messages a business pays to deliver through a medium to reach
a targeted audience.
• Target Groups ,
In marketing, it is a particular group of consumers within the predetermined target market,
identified as the targets or recipients for a particular advertisement or message.
A target audience is formed from the same factors as a target market, but it is more
specific.

• Communication Channel,
The Communication Marketing mix taxonomy classifies marketing communications
according to how they are controlled by the marketer.
It is customer-focused in contrast to the prevailing marketer-focused interpretations in the
literature.
• Budget,
The Budget is the available money to reach the targeted audience so that your message i.e.
the advertisement is conveyed to the audience through a targeted medium.
A Marketing Budget is an estimate of projected costs to market your products or services.
It is a financial plan for the marketing of a
product range for a specified period of time.
It’s money always that determines the budget.

Marketing Budget thus covers;
- Direct costs,
Marketing research cost
Creative, design development
Staff Cost
- Indirect costs
Furniture / fixtures
Travel
Marketing Communications Components ,
• Personal selling
• Advertising
• Public relations
• Direct marketing
• Exhibitions
• Digital marketing
• Sales promotions

 Budgeting Process :
• The characteristics of a Good Budget Process ,
- Incorporates a long term perspective
- Establishes linkages to broad goals
- Focuses budget decisions on results and outcomes
- Involves and promotes effective communication with stakeholders
- Provide incentives to employees and management
• Principles of a good budget process ,
- Develop approaches to achieve goals
- Develop programs and services that are consistent with policies and plans
- Develop management strategies
- Develop a budget consistent with approaches to achieve goals
- Evaluate performance and make adjustments

 Factors that determine the budget :
• Different layers and factors under each layer affects determination of
marketing budget ,
- Macro Level Factors
- Management Level Factors
- Marketing Situation Factors
• Emerging Challenges in new era for developing a Marketing Budget ,
- Managing Brand Extensions and Line Extensions
- Rapid succession of new product introduction
- Globalisation of brand and new market dynamics
- Constant fear of technology obsolescence
- Threat of substitute
- Government activism

Green Marketing
Prof. Ratheesh Nair
Page46
Topic 7

Green Marketing
Page47
Green Marketing, The holistic management for identifying, anticipating and
satisfying the requirements of customers and society in a profitable and sustainable way.
- Peattie, 1955
Green Marketing is an emerging marketing strategy that incorporates broad range of
activities like:
• Product modification
• Fair trade practices
• Adopting eco-friendly production process
• Modified advertising
The requirements of Green Marketing ,
• Production process compatible with the environment
• Compatible with company’s goals
• Satisfy the customer’s need
The Key is Striking a Balance Between these Requirements…
Learnings :

 According to American Marketing Association (AMA) the definition of Green
Marketing is divided into three sections,
1. Retailing definition
2. Social marketing definition
3. Environment definition
Retailing definition,
• The marketing of products that are presumed to be environmentally safe.
Social marketing definition,
• The development and marketing of products designed to minimize negative effects on
the physical environment or to improve its quality.
Environment definition,
• The efforts by organization to produce, promote, package, and reclaim products in a
manner that is sensitive or responsible to ecological concerns.
Green Marketing

Why Green Marketing should be practiced ,
• Growing concern worldwide about the environment protection
• Consumers are becoming more conscious that their consumption impact the
environment
• Manufacturers have recognized environmental concerns as a source of competitive
advantage
• Marketing is also a part of the problem
Marketing’s Impact on the Environment,
• Stimulating (over-) consumption contributes to environmental degradation
• Marketing replaces more environmental goods to increase profit margins
• Unnecessary packaging contributes to environmental degradation
• Long supply chains increases carbon-dioxide footprint of products
Characteristics of Green Products,
• Products are originally grown, and have natural ingredients
• Products those are recyclable, reusable and biodegradable
• Products which contains recycled contents, non-toxic chemical
Green Marketing

• Products which contain approved chemicals
• Products that do not harm or pollute the environment
• Products that have eco-friendly packaging i.e. reusable, refillable container etc.
Benefits of Green Marketing,
• It ensures sustained and long term growth along with profitability
• It saves money in the long run, though initially the cost is more
• It helps the companies market their products and services keeping the environment
aspects in mind
Golden Rules Of Green Marketing,
• Knowing the customers
• Educating the customers
• Being genuine & transparent
• Keeping up with consumers expectations
• Reassure the buyer
• Considering the product pricing
Green Marketing

Case Studies
State Bank of India,
• By using eco & power friendly equipment in its 10,000 new ATMs, SBI has not only
saved power costs and earned carbon credits, but also set the right example for others
to follow.
• Also, SBI became the first Indian bank to harness wind energy through a 15 megawatt
wind farm developed by Suzlon Energy.
Tata Son’s
• Tata Motors is setting up an eco-friendly showroom using natural building material
for its flooring and energy efficient lights
• The Indian Hotels Company, which runs the Taj chain, is in the process of creating
Eco rooms which will have energy efficient mini bars, organic bed linen made from
recycled paper.
Green Marketing

1. Discussion with Mr. Ameya Kolambekar, Head Marketing & Growth at
BillBachao.com
About BillBachao.com ,
• BillBachao.com is a trusted online mobile recharge website that is designed to save
customers time, money, and effort.
payment websites.
• The app smartly tracks customers daily usage, with an aim of providing customers
with the best mobile plans that suites their actual usage.
• The Bill Bachao app has been designed to enhance customers experience.
About Mr. Ameya Kolambekar ,
• He is an Alumni of We School from 2005 - 2007 batch of Marketing.
• Right after the course he joined Jumbo Electronics - Dubai, and has a 9+ years
experience in Product & Digital Marketing.
• Over the years he has worked in Start-ups, Electronics and Rewards & Loyalty
segments.
• Today he is the Head - Marketing at Growth at BillBachao.com

Key Learnings ,
• Mr. Kolambekar started his professional career right after having his stint as a
student at Welingkar, in Dubai where he spent 3 years and came back to India with a little
bit of International experience.
• In India he worked in retail, further in electronics in an innovative and loyalty
segment, where concepts were important and having his professional stint in digital space,
which he things is booming in today’s time.
• As per his point of view marketing has all become a numbers game, while adding to it
he says that flexibility is the most important as marketeers should have skills to have the
sell the product.
• The drive to convince somebody to buy something is the skill eventually marketeers
should have and should thrive to achieve.
• According to him Marketing is about knowing “BUSINESS with numbers”.
Eventually if one has to prove his ability in the industry, one should focus on this, as

if business is not gonna work out at the end of the day it doesn’t make sense and further he
adds that targets is very integral part in digital domain, with creativity as one has to live
with numbers to achieve target in today’s age.
• The pros of working in sales is that the exposure which comes along the way and
going on talking to people, meeting the people from different backgrounds is far more
learning thing, as compared to be just sitting around at a desk.
• The academics is first measure when a recruiter is hiring a fresher, as for an
experience a person is as good or bad as with his pervious job.
• He adds that it is really important to know how to implement things, knowing how to
use information at work. The person should be aware with his surroundings with reading
newspapers, books and interacting with peoples.
• As a industry point of view he sees Digital marketing as the next big thing, which will
revolutionize the marketing industry and is blooming in today’s scenario.

2. Discussion with Mr. Himanshu Saxena, Vice President Brand Management &
Integrated at Reliance JIO Infocomm
About Reliance JIO Infocomm ,
• Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited. Jio, is an Indian mobile network operator. Owned
by Reliance Industries and headquartered in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, it operates
a national LTE network with coverage across all 22 telecom circles.
About Mr. Himanshu Saxena ,
• Mr. Himanshu Saxena has an extensive experience of over 25 years with a successful
track record of achieving extraordinary results in the entire spectrum of Marketing
Communications, Advertising, Branding, Market research and Brand Management.
• He is the Head – Brand & Integrated communications, Reliance JIO Infocomm ltd.
Prior to Reliance Jio, he has worked with top notch brands like Unilever, GSK,
HSBC, PepsiCo, ESPN, Nike, Asian Paints etc

Key Learnings ,
• Mr. Himanshu Saxena started his career with Holiday Resorts as a Senior Product
Manager.
• He says that direct interaction with the consumers teaches the person more than any
management book. He further adds that marketing is an exciting profession and has
affected his personality in a positive way. He learned to access consumers, how to have
interaction with them to start with.
• The journey of him is of other than the fundamentals of marketing & communications
is been the one of the strengths one needs to develop is creative judgment which comes by
practicing day in and day out.
• And he being with Reliance Jio, the company which is in full swing and breaking all
kinds of records across the country is remarkable.
• According to him, most of the marketing professionals like he himself are built,
conditioned or trained on two premises -

1. Incontrast to category dimensions having certain realistic ambitions
2. And other been finite resources.
• And that is where the value of brand marketing sharpness of strategic thinking, very
very precise target sort of thinking sort of thinking is of extreme value.
• To gain some degree of product superiority, use the strength of brand and
communication, to magnify the differences to consumers.
• According to him, in today’s market the incremental differences do not matter
anymore, and overall proposition of brand & communication and the product has to be
very tangible to consumers to appeal.
• Further, he adds that Reliance is a unique company that goes to a length to ensure that
product differential is significant & tangible to the people in general.

2. Discussion with Mr. Gautam Borah, Vice President at Customer Service Operations
Vodafone India
About Vodafone India,
• Vodafone India (Now Vodafone Idea Limited, a merge entity of Vodafone and
Idea) was the Indian subsidiary of UK-based Vodafone Group plc and was a provider of
telecommunications services in India with its operational head office in Mumbai.
• As of March 2018, Vodafone India had a market share of 21% with approximately
223 million subscribers and was the second largest mobile telecommunications network
nationally.
About Mr. Gautam Borah ,
• Mr. Gautam Borah has a 20 years of experience in service assurance, business
transformation and Customer Service Operations.
• He holds a Master’s degree from University of Oxford. He is an author of the book
Monetising Innovation (2016). He is a result oriented professional and having strong
influencing, pursuance and collaborative skills.

Key Learnings ,
• While talking about his books, Monetising Innovation (2016) he says his passion for
writing inspires for him to write a book. Further he adds that transformation of ideas
into something out leaves a person that’s for inspiration and his exploit in the field of
innovation inspired him.
• He realised that organizations normally lack the expertise to remain innovative.
According to him innovation is about survival, its about staying relevant.
• He feels that discipline and relentless execution, dedication towards the cause is the
key to stay innovative.
• To remain innovative one needs a system which runs below the visible system of
process and that makes it to remain innovative.
• His view’s on customer satisfaction comes from a age old saying “Athiti Devo
Bhava”, which means guest is like a god which holds true for the customer satisfaction

from companies point of view as attitude to serve.
• For customer satisfaction he states a quote form Mahatma Gandhi that states that “we
are dependent on him and he is not an interuption to our work, he is the purpose of our life
existence”.
• The customer service in an organisation is like a periscope which is focused on to find
out. The periscope of the customer service is always aimed at a customer, always focused
on a customer.

1. Global Spending on Digital Marketing Nears $100 Billion –
Learnings :
A very informative article on the very next big marketing technique – Digital
Marketing, as more and more companies are pushing their business out on digital domains.
Spending on digital marketing grew by 44 percent last year in the United States and
Britain to $52 billion, a study has found, estimating that global outlays on such tactics
are approaching $100 billion.
Now-a-days digital marketing is making its
own space in the companies. Whether it is Big
companies or even a small companies, it
equally contribute an important portion to grow,
products or service also starting market their
products.

People look at their mobile phones at Piccadilly Circus in
London, Britain October 6, 2016. REUTERS/File Photo
• Whether it is big companies or even a small companies, it equally contribute an
important portion to grow products or service on digital platforms.
The objective may differ by size of companies, but most of them use this digital marketing
technique to communicate with their potential customers and to be able to stay on top of
their game, fulfilling their mission.
• In contrast to placing online ads through intermediaries, digital marketing, or
"marketing technology", has the appeal of enabling brands to target consumers directly
via social media, search
-engine optimisation or voice-activated
assistants, such as Amazon's Alexa.
"Clearly marketers are seeking to build in house
strength and are set to spend more on martech to
remain competitive," said study author Damian
Ryan, a partner at UK accountancy firm Moore
Stephens.

• It is found that brands in Britain and North America spent 23 percent of their budgets
on ‘martech’, up from 16 percent a year ago. And 63 percent of U.S. technology budgets
were spent in-house, compared with 44 percent last year.
• Digital marketing seems to be making quite an impression on those comparing it to the
older mediums of getting the message out through advertising. Online marketing budgets
are growing partly because companies are seeing money saved and greater R.O.I. through
E-mail, SEO, Content Marketing and Paid Search.
"Fundamentally, brands don't like to trust agencies with data. The clear trend shows that
brands are seeking to take control over marketing technology," says Ryan.
"Against that, we can see that, at the upper end where brands are spending more, they are
still working with agencies."

2. Why ads are necessary in the age of ad blockers
Learnings :
Ad blockers are special software or plugins designed to block out most types of
digital ads. Ad blockers are creating a frenzy among advertisers and publishers alike.
• Since the mid ’90s, the internet has been filled with examples of something
tiny becoming something big — and changing everything. Ad blocking is another of those
stories that will be told, in years to come, around smoldering tweet-fires by grumpy old
digital marketers.
Users have always tried to escape ads. Hence, ad blocking has been around for quite some
time.
• On 15th February 2018, Google Chrome rolled out a revolutionary update which has
an inbuilt ad blocker which blocks out all the intrusive ads. This resurrected a great buzz
around ad blocking in the programmatic industry.

So here’s a brief analysis on ad blocking, its impact on the programmatic industry
and ways to deal with this mammoth challenge facing the industry…
It started a long time ago… the seeds were sown during the early years of the twenty-first
century when Mozilla introduced the Do Not Track feature, which blocked advertisers
from tracking a user’s identity and browser history.
• Over time, as the consumption of digital content increased, ads were digitized and ad
blocking took more sophisticated forms like ad blocker plugins and in-built ad blocking
within browsers. In order to handle ad blocking, it is important to get to the root of the
problem.
• The rise of ad blockers can be attributed to users’ desire for uninterrupted viewing of
the content. The main problem arises when the ads get excessive and drown the content by
consuming a major part of the web page, such incidences irk the users and they decide to
block out all ads using ad blockers. In addition, excessive ads also increase the loading
time, slowing down the browsing experience.

• In the absence of ads, the digital ecosystem will be lopsided and shall perish. Hence, it
is in the interest of all the stakeholders in the digital ecosystem, to make relevant and
engaging ads.
• It is a known fact that ad blocking is costing millions of dollars to the programmatic
industry, hampering the entire ecosystem. Advertisers’ budgets are not utilized properly as
they are unable to reach out to their customers.
This is what publishers should do, creating a balance between the content and the ads is
the key. There won’t be any ad blockers if there are no intrusive ads in the first place! This
seems like a good place to begin with. Next, the publishers can start being open and honest
about their revenue models.
• On the advertisers’ part, they should focus on creating non-intrusive ads. Ads that blend
seamlessly with the format, look and feel of the web page are preferred and hence, not
ignored. They also don’t disturb the users while viewing the content.
• Such ads are entertaining and add value to the advertisements. They are most likely to
immerse the consumers rather than intrude.

• Ads are an essential part of the programmatic ecosystem and hence, should not be
blocked out. Along with advertisers and publishers, relevant ads are beneficial even to the
users. Ad blockers, on the other hand, show no sign of fading off.
Hence, it is required that the industry adapts to this trend and finds a way to strike a
balance between the advertisers’ need to reach out to the users, publishers’ needs for
revenue and the users’ desire for an uninterrupted experience.

3. How to add 51% more sales to your sales funnel
Learnings :
When it comes to business marketing, using a single marketing strategy is not enough.
Technology and also the business world is constantly evolving so sticking with an old
strategy may not be effective for customers nowadays. Therefore, there is a need to make
changes and consistent improvements that will guarantee your desired results in the long
run.
Thus, sales funnel can improve each stage of your marketing with cost-effective strategies.
We can do this by optimizing each stage of sales funnel, from the awareness stage to the
point of sales. Also, by incorporating some click funnel strategy such as inclusion of
membership option in sales funnel.
We can optimize each stage of your sales funnel as,
• By Using Efficient Lead Acquisition Strategy, most businesses aim their marketing
campaigns at trying to convert a first contact meeting to a sale, it’s not the right thing to do
by asking them to buy your product at their first contact.

Instead, make them comfortable to give their contact. This is a better way to make them
willingly enter into the next stage of the sales funnel.
• From Prospects to Clients; the road less traveled, the next stage after giving a value to
the prospect and getting their information willingly is where the sales stage begins. This is
where the prospect makes a decision either to buy the product or to not buy the product or
to make a purchase later.
At this point, reach out to collect data on what the prospects doubts are. This will help the
brand to forge irresistible marketing content that provides solutions to all the customer
questions.
Offer trial account or membership opportunities to show the prospects that the brand is
genuinely interested in acquiring them.
• Follow Up After the Sale, now is the time to do close follow up and improvise on ways
to make the customers have a memorable experience. One smart way to do this is an
effective follow up.
On a final note, let each stage of the sales funnel be about what value the brand can
add to it’s customers.

4. Why is marketing automation important in E-commerce
Learnings :
E-Commerce marketing is an integrated part of Digital Marketing. Electronic
commerce, also known as e-commerce can be defined as the act of buying and selling of
products and services with the help of online services over the internet.
• E-commerce business includes the direct sale to consumers with the use of
websites, mobile apps, live chat, email marketing etc. It also includes business to
business buying and selling of product and services.
• E-commerce business is broadly classified into two categories. The primary
category involves the buying and selling of goods and the
second category defines the nature of the participant.
• The marketing automation can be defined as, the
Java software platforms and the technologies that are
specifically designed to use the marketing channels more
effectively and to automate the repetitive tasks.

• As marketing automation has emerged into digital marketing, it has reduced the
efforts of the marketers and by the time marketing automation will take the digital
marketing to another level.
• As the marketing automation is growing day-by-day, so using marketing automation
in e-commerce business can prove to be a very beneficial step for the growth of e-
commerce business.
 Some of the benefits of marketing automation in e-commerce business are ,
• Easy to approach a large number of audiences –
As with the rapid growth of marketing channels such as email, social media, SMS, Search
Engine Optimization, it makes easy for the marketer to approach a large number of
audience base in a very less time.
• One of the main advantages of the multichannel strategy is that it can be used to reach
out right people, at the right time and place.
• Improved lead generation and conversion –
For an e-commerce business it is very important to generate leads and convert those
leads into prospective customers.

• Improved analytics –
With the help analytics, marketing campaign can easily be measured and can
be determined where the marketing campaign is performing well and where it needs to be
optimized.
The tracking becomes extremely easy whenever a digital marketing campaign has been
run.
• Time-saving –
The introduction of marketing automation has proved to be a very time
saving technique.
With the help of marketing automation tools, it can easily be identified, where the time
can be spent in searching out new products and services and to identify the e-commerce
strategy can be used to grow the e-commerce business.
So ,marketing automation can prove to be a very useful tool in e-commerce business
as it helps in optimizing the record of the marketing campaign and will also help in saving
the manual efforts of digital marketer.

5. Social media platforms account for 79% of
e-commerce in india - PayPal
Learnings :
The survey found that about 52% of the total consumer demand on social media
commerce comprises cosmetics and beauty products.
• Sales through social media platforms account for over 79 per cent of the total online
selling of goods and services in India, a report by PayPal.
• Across the Asian markets surveyed, India leads with 84 per cent of merchants using
mobile-enabled payment methods, according to the survey.
• The survey found that about 52 per cent of the total consumer demand on social media
commerce comprises cosmetics and beauty products.
• Growing digitization and increasing internet penetration in India have reportedly
encouraged commerce to move online – PayPal.

"Facebook, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger are used most by merchants in India,
than anywhere across Asia (excluding China)," said the report named "Beyond
Networking : Social Commerce as a Driver of Digital Payments".
• Across the Asian markets surveyed, India leads with 84 per cent of merchants using
mobile-enabled payment methods, according to the survey.

6. How to use social media to make your crm more
intelligent
Learnings :
Social media offers a goldmine of information about customers and prospects. So,
social media CRM tools give a business the edge over its competition by empowering it
to delight its customers and prospects.
• Effective Customer Relations Management (CRM) is the very foundation on which
the success of a business rests. Customers are the most critical factor for functioning of a
business.
• According to research by Google and CEB, customers emotionally connected with a
brand are twice more likely to buy its products or services.
Almost all the customers (and prospects) are present on social media today. The
businesses that leverage social media and make it part of their client relation strategy,
enjoy much larger benefits.
• Social media offers a goldmine of information about customers and prospects.

So, social media CRM tools give a business the edge over its competition by empowering it
to delight its customers and prospects.
Here are 4 ways in which social media makes a company's CRM more intelligent and
effective :
• Tracking customer journey ,
It is important to track the customer's journey on each stage, and respond to him
accordingly.
Integrating social media as part of CRM helps the business to track this aspect and
identify how you the business can eventually convert one-time buyers into advocates and
fostering current relationships, constantly adding value to your customers and creating
top-of-mind awareness.
• An integrated engagement platform ,
Various customers and prospects connect with brands through different platforms. An
intelligent CRM tool with social media integrated in it allows the team to have access to
all the customer and prospect insights and information

in a single location.
This presents a huge opportunity for the business to build brand advocacy using affordable
marketing techniques.
• Discovering new customers :
One of the most effective ways to find potential customers is to discover conversations and
mentions. This can be done by using keywords and hashtags related to the business
vertical.
These findings can be fed into CRM to analyze, increase its intelligence and predict
patterns that appeal might appeal to the prospects.
• Keyword-based automation
Integrating Chatbots into CRM will make service delivery quicker and more predictable.
Conclusion effective Customer Relations Management (CRM) is the very foundation on
which the success of a business rests.

7. How to take control of your customer experience
with social
Learnings :
Customer expectations are shaped by the totality of their experiences, and the best
customer experiences are the ones that stand out.
Social is how the customer’s consume media. It’s how we connect with others. It is
how we seek recommendations and referrals. And, increasingly, it’s how we buy.
But, according to the latest survey from NewVoiceMedia, in the past year American
businesses lost $75 billion due to poor customer service, up $13 billion since 2016.
• According to a new report produced by London Research in partnership with
Hootsuite, 82% of companies agreed that social media is a vital channel for delivering
those superior customer encounters.

The Hootsuite study found that although large companies have become competent at
using social channels for top-of-funnel marketing activities, they are less capable when it
comes to harnessing social during the consideration phase and actual conversion of
prospects into lasting customers.
Here are the five things, the company should do to boost the customer experience on social :
1. Map The Entire Social Customer Journey ,
The entire social journey of a customer acquired should be maped, rather than just from
prospect to lead to closed. The companies focus too much on the top of the funnel, while
forgetting about the rest of the customer journey.
2. Secure Early Wins With Social Data ,
Interacting with customers on social and responding to their comments and complaints
generates an immense amount of data
The company should respond to comments, complaints, and questions along the way to
strengthen the relationship between your brand and your customers. This will help to create
a complete view of the customer.

3. Expand Strategies Beyond Brand Awareness ,
Building brand awareness on social is important, but the company should focus on other
aspects used organization-wide, including in sales, customer service, HR, legal, and more.
4. Look Beyond Surface Metrics ,
It is important to measure social in the context of broader business objectives and in
relation to the customer experience, also reduce customer complaint response time on
social.
5. Focus On Training, Culture, And Collaboration ,
The company should empower it’s employees to use social media across all departments
by implementing a social media policy and guidelines to provide direction and support on
its use.
It should offer education and training on how best to leverage social media within each
section of the customer journey.
In this age of high consumer expectations, social has emerged as the key differentiator.
So, it’s time to integrate social across the organization.

8. 5 new trends in Email Marketing that everyone
should know
Learnings :
Savvy marketers have always known that ‘the money is in the list.’ Effective
email marketing techniques change rapidly and it is important to keep up with the latest
trends.
The five of the most important new trends in Email Marketing :
1. Advanced trigger sequences ,
Email systems are increasingly integrated
Into CRM software (customer relationship
management), and this will allow a much more
powerful and fine-tuned use of triggers.
These actions can be individualized to each
User.

For example by tracking historical spending habits and how long it has been since
they visited the site, so that tailored offers can be sent to their inbox to encourage long-term
engagement with the customers.
2. Big Data and Artificial Intelligence ,
The email list is a very valuable source of marketing intelligence through Big Data large-
scale analysis and extracting insights concerning information are performed such as
demographics, wealth, location and ages of your users.
In addition to this, some email platforms are now integrating Artificial Intelligence
methods into their software. This could be used to predict the likely response of a user to
email content or marketing offers.
3. Mobile-optimized marketing ,
When choosing graphics, fonts and text sizes, it is important to remember that the majority
of people will now read your emails on a smartphone or tablet.
By optimizing the content to shine on both desktop and mobile email clients, it will
reach the widest possible audience.

4. Privacy concerns ,
2018 is the year where consumer privacy became a serious concern for many people. If the
company has it’s customers in the EU, the company will be obliged to comply with the new
guidelines or face monetary fines.
Many customers will now view the way company handle their data as a reason to do
business.
By being pro-active the company can turn this into a competitive advantage.
5. Interactive email content ,
Modern email clients have a rich suite of functionality built in which it allows the use of
what has been termed ‘microsites’.
This means that interactive content can be fully embedded into the email itself,
avoiding the need to visit a separate site.

9. 7 ways brands are evolving their message for digital
video
Learnings :
Consumers sure are hungry for their daily digital video. Today, they spend
almost 83 minutes per day consuming this type of content, heading toward 92 minutes
by 2020, according to eMarketer’s most recent estimates.
“Digital video is defined as any audiovisual content that is delivered via an Internet
connection or a mobile network,” said Paul Verna, a senior analyst at eMarketer.
“That encompasses everything from YouTube, to video on Facebook, to Netflix, to
HBO. It’s really anything that’s audiovisual but not delivered by cable, satellite, or over-
the-air.”
The marketers have become “brilliant strategists” in terms of using video to drive
engagement and conversations.

Here are the seven of the biggest trends that we’re seeing in video today and it’s future
aspects :
1. Vertical Video ,
“Vertical video is just a whole, new creative idea.”
This changes the game in how videos are shot to
begin with, emphasizing the importance of planning
for mobile/vertical video way before the shoot starts.
“As digital screens continue to populate in new areas and formats, expect the video multi
formatting issue to continue to grow as a need”.
Vertical video is the outcome of a mobile-first generation who interacts with their devices in
portrait mode.
2. Shoppable Video ,
“Shoppable video is an example of product placement at its finest.”
With shoppable video, consumers can view a product in a video, then click or tap to be
linked directly to purchase it online.

3. Ephemeral Video ,
“The fleeting nature of this type of content adds to its novelty and appeal among
audiences.”
Ephemeral video is audiovisual content that is available for a capped period of time as
ephemeral content is short-lived and spontaneous, it is thought of as being more authentic
than sponsored posts and raises the potential of FOMO [fear of missing out]. As a result,
viewers tend to act fast and purchase now.”
4. Interactive Video ,
“The opportunity for brands is to align digital creative with on-air activity. And when real-
time TV data is combined with advanced video creative, it generates optimal video
performance, which makes digital video advertising incredibly more valuable.”
Interactive video allows consumers to engage beyond mere viewing. This trend is even
making its way onto connected TVs.
“Due to the emerging technologies, advertisers are now able to have a one-to-one direct
conversation with their customers within the modern living room,”

5. Personalized Video ,
Personalization tactics are effective because people like when their experiences are tailored
to their needs and preferences.
Recent developments, such as open platforms and chatbots, promise to signi-ficantly expand
the use of personalized video going forward.
6. 360-Degree Video ,
360-degree video offers a compelling way to take people behind the scenes to get to know a
brand.
Today, consumers are demanding experiences and not just mere product buying
options. However, virtual reality and 360-degree video is probably the next best thing.
7. Live Video ,
Live video is also gaining in popularity among consumers. Indeed, the opportunity is vast
with live video programming.
Brands are following the eyeballs, as 78% of online audiences are already watching video
on Facebook Live, and that number will continue to grow.

10. What marketeers are doing wrong in data analytics
Learnings :
Companies gather and analyze data to fine-tune their operations, whether it’s to help
them figure out which webpage design works best for customers or what features to
include in their product or service to boost sales.
• Marketers, in particular, use data analytics to have the answer. Getting the answers
right could, mean the difference between higher sales or losing to the competition.
But new research by Wharton shows that 57% of marketers are incorrectly crunching the
data and potentially getting the wrong answer - and perhaps costing companies a lot of
money.
• The “p-Hacking and False Discovery in A/B Testing,” which was popularly
downloaded and widely cited in social media, looked at the A/B testing practices of
marketers who used the online platform Optimizely before the platform added safeguards
against potential mistakes.

• In A/B testing, two or more versions of a webpage are tested to see which one
resonates more with the users.
For example, half of a company’s customers would see webpage version A and the other
half version B.
Such that “one version says something about the brand of the product and the other
version says something about the technical abilities of the product,”
“Hence, to determine which one makes consumers respond better, to buy more of the
products.”
• It is the practice of checking the experiment before it is over and stopping it when
one sees the desired results. The problem is that if marketers don’t run the experiment all
the way through, they won’t know if the initial results will change.
“The great majority of commercial A/B tests … involve tweaks and changes that have
no effect whatsoever,” that’s because it is hard to come up with good ideas that will
actually make a significant impact.

• But, there is a definite downside when marketers engage in p-hacking, it leads to more
wrong results. “P-hacking boosts the probability that an effect declared significant is
actually a null effect and doing so greatly harms the diagnosticity of commercial A/B
tests.”
• A more drastic option is to shift from “null hypothesis” testing — where the baseline
is to assume there is no statistically significant difference among the choices or groups
being observed — toward decision-theretic tools, where marketers don’t merely look at it,
but find out which choice optimizes the firm’s goals, like increasing revenue.
The purpose of commercial A/B testing is not to know whether the outcomes in A are
different from B, but to decide whether to roll out A or B.
• Finally, it is recommended that marketers do a follow-up after the experiment. If the
A/B testing shows that version A is better, it would be useful to have a small group still
getting version B “to make sure this difference is actually maintained over time … and
was not just a fluke of the test.”
Therefore, it is good to see which version is consistently better than the other.

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