SigmaWay Blog

Marketers are concerned about the social media programs that they undertake. It often gives the impression that they are plunging into social media but however they don't really get the desired results. The five steps which ensure that B2B social media program come apart in place are as follows:

•  To be familiar with the buyer's behavior by investing in a social listening platform will help to keep updated with the existing media activities.
• Creation of people's content would enable to build trust with prospects.
• Creating and sharing the brand content actively on various social media channels to grab buyer's attention.
• Capture prospects, customers and influencers to focus on establishment of relationships and not sales.
• Tracking and calculating social media progress in order to know that the company is in which stage with the social media.

Read more at: http://www.cmswire.com/digital-marketing/b2b-social-media-5-practices-for-doing-it-right/

Media companies are taking advantage of advanced analytics and technology in order to increase their sales. Hence it allows advertisers to foresee what ROI they might anticipate from an investment in different channels and how this basically generates revenue. Advertisers are also interested about the exact efforts that they need to pursue to improve the results.

Daniel Kehrar (VP Marketing, MarketShare) in his article on Forbes indicated the five rationales which led media companies to move towards performance-based selling and they are as follows-                       

* Advertisers are under greater security.

* Brands are growing accustomed to analytics.

* The technology to accurately and cost-effectively predict advertiser outcomes is here.

* Advertisers want more.

* Better data and analysis brings greater credibility.

 For further details on this study, please follow the link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesinsights/2015/06/25/4-ways-analytics-are-helping-media-companies-sell-outcomes-over-eyeballs/

Text data is the best answer in understanding customer feedback. It is best for answering the why and what questions. Text Analytics is becoming mainstream as interest is pouring in. Sources include call center notes, email messages, social media etc. Following Fern Halper's TDWI article, 5 fundamentals include: 1. Text analytics involves analyzing unstructured data to extract relevant information.
2. Extracting various information in the form of keywords, entities, concepts and sentiments
3. Considering taxonomy, while dealing with specific vocabularies.
4. Integrating text data with traditional data, depends on the kind of data
5. Text data is not as accurate as statistical techniques
To know more http://tdwi.org/Articles/2015/06/23/5-Text-Analytics-Fundamentals.aspx?Page=2

Social media has changed the retail environment by becoming the new consumer watchdog and has bring forth new challenges. It has changed the way people see news and learn about new products. If used wisely, mobile, digital and social media can be a powerful business weapon. Another great weapon is Customer service!
For instance a good customer service where you resolve a problem quickly can have a great influence on repeat purchases.
By being ferociously committed to customer service you can contribute to the success of your company. We need to remember a few basics-

1- Understanding customer needs- its very important to listen and show interest in customer needs.

2-Stepping into your customer’s shoes- Human beings like to be treated nicely so it’s important to show the customers you care about them and they matter.


3-Providing extra benefits- Going beyond customer’s expectation insures speedy success.


Read more here- 


http://www.callcentertimes.com/Articles/tabid/59/ctl/NewsArticle/mid/407/CategoryID/1/NewsID/988/Default.aspx

As the number of smart wearable technology is growing, companies who have the potential to rapidly optimize their value chain are growing into a digital business through competitive advantage. Customer’s loyalty is also increasing with the changing rules of their digital lives. Their experience can be transformed by improving their understanding with analytics, enhancing top-line growth and through social media. To transform operational processes, process digitalization is must along with enabling proper staff and their performance management. Thus to transform business, every business is now digitally modified to make digital globalization. In this way, companies worldwide are adapting digital transformation with social media, mobility, big data analytics and cloud to make a better business plan than others. Read more about this article at:  https://channels.theinnovationenterprise.com/articles/digital-transformation-a-need-of-now

Social media and networking sites are helping businesses and companies to grow. The social media not only helps as a platform to communicate with the customers and build up a brand reputation, but it also helps the way business is run. It also helps business enterprises to collaborate across departments, offices, countries, and with other business houses as well.  According to recent studies, social media analytics along with predictive analytics is going to be the most effective technology for business development. Its impact will be greater than internet of things and mobile payments. So embracing this aspect will be necessary for a business to survive.To know more read: http://www.cio.com/article/2937401/social-collaboration/how-collaboration-tools-can-turn-your-business-into-a-social-enterprise.html

In business, one not only has to keep a track on competitors and a close watch on the market but also keep a tab on what the customers are feeling, and how they are responding about their products in social media. Luckily with the advancement of data analytics many such tools are available and are becoming popular. One such marketing tool is social mention, which is a search engine which searches any social mention of the topic in social media there are other tools such as quora, tweetreach, etc. These platforms enable a business leader to evaluate customer sentiments and use it for business development. Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jayson-demers/7-marketing-tools-to-find_b_7605262.html?ir=India&adsSiteOverride=in

A recent survey has revealed that brands active on social media gather bad reputation for their qualitatively poor customer service. Brands should improvise techniques to improve customer service keeping in mind the statistics revealed by the survey. Brands should allow people to post on their pages in social media only if they intend to review and respond to those. Responding to queries could simply involve thanking the customer for their valuable feedback and also complaints should be never left unattended. Customer service team should be made a part of the social media so as to provide a better social media customer service. Read more at: http://www.business2community.com/social-media/state-social-media-customer-service-experience-01251083

Marketing is an important way to reach out to customers. But start-ups may find it difficult to splurge a huge amount of money for marketing. So here goes a list of 5 pocket-friendly marketing techniques: i) Social media as it is an entirely free and easy-to- learn resource. ii) Conferences are also a good platform to share knowledge about one's organization with other business people. iii) Companies can offer free trial of their services or a free sample of their product. iv) Word of mouth from influential people. v) Providing customers with the proper description of their product or service and its usefulness. Read more at: https://channels.theinnovationenterprise.com/articles/5-tips-for-marketing-on-a-budget

Cut throat competition- a phrase that is enough to describe the fierce competition in today`s business scenario. Regardless of which industry one belongs to, their competitors are always there, and keeping track of their activities and decisions, most importantly searching for their customers. So it is important for business leaders to monitor the activities of their rivals as well, and keep a tab on their competitors, in order to retain customers. There are many tools for monitoring, one such tool is spyfu, which can be used to track down what the opponents are searching online. Another way is to use the social media, such as observing what the competitors are doing in public forums and how people are responding to that. To know more, read: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brett-relander/know-your-competition-wit_b_7555660.html?ir=India&adsSiteOverride=in

“Social media is a pivotal element in the healthcare marketing, and an essential tool for patient education and relationship development.”- Anne-Marie Montague (Senior Writer/Strategist PCI)
Consumer digital expectations and patient privacy protections are inversely related. This makes important for health care organizations to invest in the strategy, governance and vigilance deliver a good social media presence to its customers. Tips to manage customer’s privacy and customer’s digital expectations:
• Realistic and Proficient Social Team Staffing – and Authority
• Clear Internal and External Social Media Policy
• Staff training
• Contingency Planning
• Internal Partnership for Timely Response
• Continuous Review and Assessment
Read more at: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/252221/social-media-considerations-for-healthcare-markete.html

Marketing has undergone transformation over years. Marketers can now measure every aspect of what customers do with a variety of metrics. Engaging with my audience to convert to sales is the key to marketing. While promoting products and services, marketers should be aware of how their brand is perceived by the audience which indicates how to communicate with them. Knowing how demographics react to different promotional strategies will help marketers formulate targeted marketing campaigns. Marketers should use social media to check what people are saying about a particular campaign and thus capture the customer sentiment. Thus the best marketing campaigns are those that are edgy and experimental. Read more about this article by Gabrielle Morse (Global Events Director) at: https://channels.theinnovationenterprise.com/articles/the-4-golden-rules-for-collecting-marketing-data

The key to successful digital marketing lies in its content. Original, interesting and varied content will catch customer’s attention. Digital marketing campaigns should be both written and visual, rich in information, images, videos etc. One should keep an eye on metrics to make a note of most attracted posts so as to improve one’s content. As almost every individual now possesses a smartphone, marketers should make sure their advertisements are mobile friendly. Social media, with its rising popularity, can be used as a platform for marketing to specific demographics. Customer’s trust might show up the brand loyalty, increasing the chance of sharing and promoting their marketing on social platform. Read more about this interesting article by Maria Maguire (International Events Director) at: https://channels.theinnovationenterprise.com/articles/5-ways-to-improve-your-digital-marketing

According to KC Claveria (Marketer from Vancouver, B.C.), if social media used rightly, can help you in maintaining better relationships with customers. According to the Mckinsey & Company report, “email conversion rates are 40times higher as compared to Facebook and Twitter combined.” This shows that for generating leads, email marketing is very important. Email marketing is better than other marketing channels because:
• With email, you’re reaching an audience that already knows you.
• There’s too much noise on social.
• People are more likely to see (and click on) your email.
• You get to say more on email.
Read more at http://www.business2community.com/email-marketing/why-email-marketing-beats-social-media-in-lead-generation-and-what-you-can-do-about-it-01246702#5FUji2OQheQ8LXzA.99

Focused market research is imperative for building of brands and foundation for market research is laid down by market intelligence. In broad terms, market intelligence collates three types of information- business, market and competitive. For distribution of information, social media is playing a huge role. Thus integration of marketing intelligence with social media monitoring and digital space opens up many channels of opportunities to address specific business issues and enhance performance significantly. However, this requires intense understanding and customization of data. Also, digitization of field resources poses certain challenges. On a concluding note, the authors, Stephen Dale and Melissa Chue are of opinion that market intelligence should ultimately serve as be the backbone of any organization and more investment should be made to expand digital resources and data. Read more:- http://www.marketing-interactive.com/events/intelligence-bedrock-good-market-research/

Social media is no more just the place to catch up on old school friends and college buddies; it is now being used for diverse activities. People, nowadays, are using social media to look for products and services, research and review companies and ask for recommendation from friends. Social media has now become the place for branding, opening channels of communication with customers, building loyalty, being transparent and establishing goodwill. Reaching out to customers is far less expensive on social media enabling marketers to achieve higher marketing ROI. Digital marketing has replaced traditional marketing techniques as consumers these days are more tech savvy and active on social media. Read more at: http://www.business2community.com/social-media/social-media-advertising-roi-01247591

Social media, due to its immense popularity, is being used for branding. It is paving a way for small businesses to compete with their bigger counterparts. Social media has led to consumer empowerment thus allowing them to interact with one another, ignoring the established channels of marketing. Adopting a mobile strategy is critical for marketers, and almost every individual in today's world possesses a mobile phone. Social media can both strengthen a brand or lead to its demise. Companies should be able to quickly adopt new strategies in response to consumer preferences to be successful. Read more at: http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/7953-social-media-branding.html

According to the recent survey by ING, 81% of PR professional feel that they can't do their jobs without social media and 58% of them admit that they feel safe in using social media. This shows how much social media impact public relations. Ronn Torossian (Public Relations Executive and CEO of 5W Public Relations), discussed about how social media is changing the working of PR. They are:

• More direct contact with people
• Creating unique and engaging content
• Integrating services
Read more at: http://www.business2community.com/public-relations/impact-social-media-pr-01245327

Businesses cannot ignore the impact of daily mobile use and mobile purchasing, especially given the fact that 85% of Americans surveyed said that mobile devices are important in their everyday lives. Mobile app is the perfect platform for reaching to a larger audience. The mobile-oriented services like Whats App, We Chat and Facebook Messenger are now achieving the top social media ranking spots. To know more, please read this article by OREN LEVY (CEO of Zooz) at: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/246430 

The increasing importance of digital marketing is forcing every organization to use digital marketing. Here are some tips for organizations which are planning to use digital marketing:

·         Hire someone who has knowledge about digital marketing or learn how to use digital marketing.

·         There are various ways to analyze digital marketing, but some of them may suit you or some not. It is important to keep on trying new ways.

·         The best type of digital advertising reaches its audience by consent. Maintain a link between consistent efforts and spamming.

·         Try to make your advertising, mobile-friendly because mobile revolution is the next revolution.

·         There are various tools that allow for a do-it-yourself approach and leverage content across platforms.

Read more at: http://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/051215/dos-donts-digital-marketing.asp