Digital Marketing & Media Planning - Brand Promotion

Digital Marketing Strategy:

Digital Marketing is the promoting of brands using all forms of digital advertising channels to reach consumers. This now includes Television, Radio, Internet, mobile, social media marketing and any other form of digital media.

Whilst digital marketing does include many of the techniques and practices contained within the category of Internet Marketing, it extends beyond this by including other channels with which to reach people that do not require the use of The Internet. As a result of this non-reliance on the Internet, the field of digital marketing includes a whole host of elements such as mobile phones, sms/mms, display / banner ads and digital outdoor.

Previously seen as a stand-alone service in its own right, it is frequently being seen as a domain that can and does cover most, if not all, of the more traditional marketing areas such as Direct Marketing by providing the same method of communicating with an audience but in a digital fashion. Digital is now being broadened to support the "servicing" and "engagement" of customers.

Digital Marketing – Pull vs. Push

There are 2 different forms of digital marketing, each of which has its pros and cons.

Pull

Pull digital marketing technologies involve the user having to seek out and directly select (or pull) the content, often via web search. Web site/blogs and streaming media (audio and video) are good examples of this. In each of these examples, users have a specific link (URL) to view the content.

Pros:

Digital Marketing and Power Users of the internet are an integral aspect to the united states economy. Interactive Media is a form of art and creative inspiration.

* Since requests are inherently opt-in, the size of content is generally unlimited.
* No advanced technology required to send static content, only to store/display it.

Cons:

* Considerable marketing effort required for users to find the message/content.
* Some types of marketing content may be blocked in mixed content scenarios (i.e.: Flash blockers)

Push

Push digital marketing technologies involve both the marketer (creator of the message) as well as the recipients (the user). Email, SMS, RSS are examples of push digital marketing. In each of these examples, the marketer has to send (push) the messages to the users (subscribers) in order for the message to be received. In the case of RSS, content is actually pulled on a periodic basis (polling), thus simulating a push.

Pros:

* Faster delivery - push technologies can deliver content immediately as it becomes available.
* Consistent delivery - some push platforms have single content types, making it difficult for the user to block content by type.
* Better targeting - since push technology usually justifies subscription, more specific marketing data may be collected during registration, which allows for better targeting and more personalization.
* Better data - marketing data can be correlated to each request for content, allowing marketers to see information such as user name as well as demographic and psychographic data.

Cons:

* Smaller audience - push technology not implemented on common platforms generally need client and/or server software before content can be created, distributed, and/or viewed.
* Higher cost - less popular platforms may have higher implementation costs.
* Lesser discoverability - smaller audiences mean fewer views mean less visibility in search engines.

Digital Marketing and Multi-Channel Communications

While digital marketing is effective using one message type, it is much more successful when a marketer combines multiple channels in the message campaigns. For example, if a company is trying to promote a new product release, they could send out an email message or text campaign individually. This, if properly executed, could yield positive results. However, this same campaign could be exponentially improved if multiple message types are implemented[citation needed].

An email could be sent to a list of potential customers with a special offer for those that also include their cell phone number. A couple of days later, a follow up campaign would be sent via text message (SMS) with the special offer.

Push and pull message technologies can also be used in conjunction with each other. For example, an email campaign can include a banner ad or link to a content download. This enables a marketer to have the best of both worlds in terms of their marketing method.

Digital Marketing Terms

Banner Ad
An advertisement that appears on a Web page, most commonly at the top (header) or bottom (footer) of the page. Designed to have the user click on it for more information (see Microsite)

Blacklisted
A blacklisted notice means that the message may not have been delivered due to be flagged on one of the major lists that keep tabs of known spammers. Different ISPs use different blacklists to block mailings from being delivered to their clients. It can be a temporary ban or a permanent one, depending upon the list.

Blocked
A blocked notice means that the message did not get through due to being considered spam by the subscriber’s ISP. This may be due to being on a blacklist or because the message contains a domain that is already being blocked.

Blog
Shortened from “web log” a blog is a user-generated Web site where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order.

Campaign
A campaign is a specific message being sent to a specific group of recipients.

CAN-SPAM Act of 2003
The CAN SPAM ACT is a series of federal laws that must be followed by all email marketers. Those found in violation of the laws can be subjected to major penalties.[1]

Click Through
The number of times people clicked on the links in your message. This is often referred to as CTR (Click Through Rate). Note: you must have enabled click through tracking in the campaign in order for this to be recorded.

SEM
Search engine marketing Is a form of Internet marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs) through the use of search engine optimization, paid placement, contextual advertising, and paid inclusion.[2]

Cost Per Click
Refers to the amount of money an advertiser pays search engines and other Internet publishers for a single click on its advertisement that brings one visitor to its website.

Digital Brand Engagement
Brand and consumer interaction through the Internet. This includes all aspects of dialogue through the social web and on the brand's own website.

DMA Market
DMA stands for Designated Market Area, which is often associated with the entertainment industry. DMAs are usually counties (or sometimes split counties) that contain a large population that can be targeted, such as New York City, Los Angeles or Chicago.

Email Service Provider (ESP)
Outside companies that send bulk emails on behalf of their clients to prevent their messages as being labeled as spam or blocked entirely.

False Positives
Legitimate messages being labeled as “spam”. Can cost companies potentially millions in potential lost revenue if not dealt with correctly.

GPRL
The Global Permanent Removal List consists of records that are automatically removed from a particular database. Almost all email service providers (ESP) or multi-channel messaging companies maintain these lists for their clients.

Instant Messaging
Instant messaging (often shortened to IM) is a type of communications service that enables you to create a kind of private chat room with another individual in order to communicate in real time over the Internet.

Keywords
Used in conjunction with SMS messages. A user types a short code and matching keyword in order to be added to a mobile club or database.

Microsite
A mini Web site design to promote a specific portion or brand from a larger corporate site. Used often with contests or as a landing page for a specific promotion.

Open Rate
This is a ratio determined by the number of people who opened your email against the total number of people to whom you sent the message. Typically, this number will be low for large campaigns and higher for more targeted campaigns.

Opt-In List
Email marketers have databases of subscribers to their newsletters, featuring these subscribers' email addresses and names. Such a list is known as an opt-in list (and is thus CAN-SPAM compliant; see above for info on the CAN-SPAM act) because users choose to receive the emails. This is in contrast to spam email, which is unsolicited.

Personalization
Personalization gives you the ability to create a customized message for each person in your database. Can be addressed by first/last name, city, state, zip, etc.

RSS
RSS or Real Simple Syndication is technology designed to allow users to subscribe to a specific content feed and be automatically alerted when new updates are available.

RSS Reader
Application used to subscribe and monitor selected RSS content feeds.

Short Code
A short code is a 5 or 6 digit number that is used to send and respond to text messages. They can either be a random set of numbers or a “vanity” number tied to a specific brand or number pattern.

SMS
SMS (Short Message Service) is a one-way text message sent via a cell phone. It is usually received via the subscribers' text message inbox on their cell phone and can be a maximum of 160 characters per message.

Social Bookmarking
Social Bookmarking is a popular way to store, classify, share and search links that are combined into a single site for easy access.

Social media optimization

The methodization of social media activity with the intent of attracting unique visitors to website content.

Spam
An email message that is unwanted by the recipient. Legitimate emails can sometimes be incorrectly identified as spam and is a growing problem.

Streaming Technologies
Communication channel such as video and audio that is accessed online. Can be a pre-stored clip to access as well as a live feed that is streamed like an online broadcast.

Subscriber
A person who signs up to receive messages from a particular company or entity.

Targeting
Targeting allows you to send a message to people based on specific criteria from your subscriber database.

Voice Broadcast
Sending a pre-recorded voice messages to a large set of phone numbers at the time same. Can either be a voice call (meaning the recipient must answer the call for the message to play) or voice mail (meaning the message will play only if the recipient doesn’t answer )

Widget
A small graphical device that does a highly focused, often single, specific task. Web widgets can be embedded in web pages or run on the desktop of a PC (Windows or Mac) using software such as Apple's Dashboard software or Yahoo! Widgets Engine.

Web Video
Short promotional video clip, designed to be displayed on a website or many websites such as youtube.

For more information visit www.seowebplanet.com

Key SEO Strategy for Facebook Business Page

Facebook boasts 500 million active users with 50% of those active users logging on everyday. Facebook users spend an average of 700 billion minutes per month on this very active and social platform. Hence, it is important to not only incorporate a Facebook fan page for your business, but also to optimize it for search engines.

Many savvy businesses are leveraging these statistics to reach more potential clients by getting in front of more eyeballs, many are just joining the game. If this is you, don't fret, this blog post is for you.

How about the deal with the "Page" URLs? Some have numbers, some don't. A lot of people have this issue, and are confused about it." In June 2009 Facebook launched the ability to choose a vanity URL for your facebook fan pages, making this feature one of the most important SEO opportunities on this social media platform. So how do you proceed in optimizing your facebook business page?

First thing is to ensure that you are an admin on this business fan page. If you created the fan page you are automatically an admin. To add admins to a page you must:

* Login with the Page Login
* Click on Edit Page
* On the left sidebar, about halfway down, is an option to "Manage Admins" - In the dialogue box, choose the option to "Add another Admin" and enter their email address.

As an admin, everything you post on that page will show as the business page profile, not your personal profile. Once an admin, you can optimize you Facebook business fan page. To customize a FB page URL:

* Go to username
* From the dropdown menu, select your business page. (You can also customize the URL for your personal page here.)
* Type the name you want.
* Remember, you cannot undo this URL assignment once complete.

Remeber, facebook fan pages are intended to be an authentic representation of your business or brand. Pick a name that you will be confident and content with.

P.S. Facebook requires that your fan page have at least 25 fans before it becomes eligible to select a username. If you have less than 25 fans you will need to recruit more fans in order to take advantage of this incredible SEO feature.