Digital Marketing

DIGITAL MARKETING: Collated Articles to Help Your Digital and Marketing Agencies 1 Table of Contents ____________________________________________________________________________ Top 5 Ideal Ways to Generate Passive Income in 2020 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Adapting to Digital Marketing: 10 Dos and Don'ts for . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Better Brand Promotion & Customer Retention How to Win Prospect Clients in Digital Marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 4 Challenges Faced by Digital Marketing Agencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Reasons Why Outsourcing Digital Agency Is the . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Best For Your Business in 2020 5 Critical Mistakes That Digital Marketing Agencies Should Avoid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Why Transitioning From Traditional to Digital Marketing Is a Must . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 9 of the Most Powerful and Latest Digital Marketing Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 That Are Proven to Drive Results 5 Key Reasons Why Digital Marketing Is Important For Startups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 4 Awesome Benefits of Hiring a Digital Marketing Agency (2019) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Digital Marketing In 2020: An Era of Fictions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 10 Must-Have Traits to Be a Successful Digital Agency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 5 Reasons Why You Should Hire a Virtual Assistant Now . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Your Digital Agency Talent Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Assembling Your a-Team to Outsource Your Digital Marketing Agency . . . . . . . . . . 92 Starting a Digital Marketing Agency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 Top 6 Crucial Roles of a Customer’s Voice in Startups’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Content Marketing Strategy

DIGITAL MARKETING: Collated Articles to Help Your Digital and Marketing Agencies 2 Online Gaming Email Marketing Tips to Convert Leads Into Customers . . . . . . . . . . 111 5 Ways to Increase Your Video Game Users Through Social Media Marketing . . . . . 119 Top 4 Benefits of Utilizing Social Media in Ecommerce Gateways . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 Social Media Monitoring: Why Do Startups Need It? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 Immediately Gain Positive Media Exposure for Your Startup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 5 Reasons Why Content Marketing Is a Must for Startups in 2020 . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 How Content Moderation of Ugc Driving Ecommerce Brands to Grow . . . . . . . . . 148 7 Essential Ecommerce Business Challenges That Owners Often . . . . . . . . . . . 154 Ignore + Easy Solutions

DIGITAL MARKETING: Collated Articles to Help Your Digital and Marketing Agencies 3 Top 5 Ideal Ways to Generate Passive Income in 2020 In a generation where every penny counts, gaining extra cash for the piggy bank can come in handy. Hearing the term ‘Passive Income’ can be mind-boggling at first. For starters, passive income is an individual’s money that keeps growing even without actively participating in growing the money. Passive income includes Dividend Stocks, Rental Properties, Annuities and more. Knowing that people can earn even without even exchanging their time can be promising, but it will still require a significant amount of time and effort to obtain a consistent and high-earning passive income.

DIGITAL MARKETING: Collated Articles to Help Your Digital and Marketing Agencies 4 There are 5 ideal ways on how one can earn passive income and these are: 1. WRITE AN EBOOK Writing an ebook can be an ideal way to earn a significant amount of passive income. Some might say writing a book is doable, but in reality, it is not as easy as it seems. This is especially true since not all people have the needed writing skills in order to produce an informative and cohesively written book. It is true that writing is not an easy job, but it really pays off once every single detail is carefully tied together. The advantage of writing an ebook is there are thousands of topics to choose from. One of the most popular and common types of ebooks are self-help books. It is important to find credible editors and websites that can aid in the creation and publishing of the book online. Once the finalized book is made available on most online ebook stores, it opens the opportunity of earning a monthly cheque even after the main task, which is writing the book, has already been completed. Another advantage of making an ebook is that writers can earn royalties to publishers to whom the ebook was sold. Every time the ebook is purchased from the publisher, they will earn a significant percentage of each sale made. Take note that as the book rises in popularity, royalties can be substantial and could cash could continuously be flowing on a long term basis. 2. BE AN ONLINE RESELLER

DIGITAL MARKETING: Collated Articles to Help Your Digital and Marketing Agencies 5 With the rise of eCommerce in the industry, online shops with drop shipping are slowly becoming the norm. Having in-depth knowledge about a certain product can be a great way to get started with selling the item to an established and well-known eCommerce website. When selling items online, entrepreneurs can either create their own, unique product or simply become resellers of a particular service or product. Here’s how it usually works for people who wish to put up a business online: (1) Set up an online shop or website that offers products from a particular manufacturer. (2) Entice customers to visit the site and order an item. (3) The website’s system will then send out purchase information to the specific manufacturer. (4) The manufacturer then settles everything and ships the item directly to the customer. Another awesome perk of online selling from this type of business is that, as a reseller, the responsibility of handling the inventory is not in the online seller’s hands. This helps online sellers focus more on enhancing and marketing their products on various social media platforms and eCommerce websites. 3. CREATE AN ONLINE COURSE This type of passive income is ideal for people who are adept, knowledgeable or well-experienced in a particular field. For instance, a person is greatly

DIGITAL MARKETING: Collated Articles to Help Your Digital and Marketing Agencies 6 experienced in providing viable advice on how to grow a business, then they can create an online course that delves around the topic of opening and maintaining a business. Online courses save people from the hassle of making physical appointments or symposiums. It also eliminates problems involving distance and location. Interested attendees can simply attend and finish the course even at the comforts of their home. Creating an online course can be done in numerous ways and the person’s knowledge and experiences will be the only limitation when it comes to the contents of the course. A variation of online learning materials, such as video lessons, ebooks, podcasts and timely informative interviews from experts can be included in order to make the course enticing and helpful for its intended audience. In addition to this, setting up a price point has never been so flexible. Packages with varying price ranges can be offered, depending on the content of each course. Another good tactic when charging for online courses is to offer packages with the highest price point followed by packages with lower price points. Doing so helps vary the options for students or audiences. It is likewise effective in ensuring that online course providers are able to earn the highest possible volume of purchase and income. 4. UPLOAD VIDEOS ON YOUTUBE Youtube is one of the leading sources of passive income in the digital age. Each day, regular YouTubers are making money simply by uploading videos on this platform. How can one make money on Youtube?

DIGITAL MARKETING: Collated Articles to Help Your Digital and Marketing Agencies 7 Before starting a YouTube channel, it is important to choose a niche that the channel will focus on. There are currently millions of YouTubers being followed by people worldwide, and that’s why it is necessary to choose a topic that one is passionate about. Product reviews, how-to’s, reaction videos and even vlogs (video blogs) are among the types of video content that effectively gauge audience attention. The next key to becoming a successful Youtuber is to establish a base. The base consists of a mass volume of subscribers and viewers. Here’s how it works: (1) YouTuber uploads a video on youtube. Preferably, the content should be relevant to the most recent trends on social media, current events, or on the particular niche or topic that the channel will be focusing on. (2) A user watches the uploaded videos. Once a YouTuber gains more traction through the aid of sponsors, it is also possible to gain higher profit by incorporating ads or personally promoting certain products and services in the video’s overall content. (3) After gaining the minimum amount of views required by YouTube, then that’s when passive income starts to come in. A word of caution, though. The number of subscribers and views must be consistently high, otherwise, fluctuations in audience engagement can also affect the earnings gained from posting YouTube videos. 5. OUTSOURCE Running one’s own business can be too time-consuming. One might assume working hard is enough. However, the truth is working smart exceeds hard work.

DIGITAL MARKETING: Collated Articles to Help Your Digital and Marketing Agencies 8 This is where outsourcing enters the picture. Outsourcing one’s business may require giving up the full grasp of one’s business but it likewise provides tons of free time to focus on other activities. The best thing about outsourcing is that it helps boost the company’s branding all while unlocking an enormous amount of income. Hiring employees is not an issue. Consider hiring freelancers to work as contractual laborers. This way, maintenance costs are lessened and covering for employee benefits will no longer be the outsourcing company’s responsibility. When hiring freelancers, choose those with strong work ethics along with those who are able to provide the quality services that the business needs. For those interested in pursuing outsourcing as a full-time source of passive income, here is a list of services that pair well with outsourcing: ● Bookkeeping ● Video Editing ● Social Media Marketing ● Writing ● Web Designing Who would have thought that passive income can be made more attainable in this day and age? Business owners can transform their current businesses into a viable provider of passive income. Mix the aforementioned options with resourcefulness and a keen eye for creativity and efficiency, and even startup owners can reshape their business into a passive moneymaker.

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DIGITAL MARKETING: Collated Articles to Help Your Digital and Marketing Agencies 10 Adapting to Digital Marketing: 10 Dos and Don'ts For Better Brand Promotion & Customer Retention The launch and use of computers caused several changes that significantly affected both businesses and consumers. With the continuous development of technology that soon gave rise to the internet, buying habits and preferences took a different trajectory while competition among businesses became more cutthroat. If you feel as though your business will have a hard time keeping up with today’s competition in the market, fret not! It is not yet too late to discover how you can boost your brand and use the internet to your advantage. All you need to do push continuous growth for your business is follow the following digital marketing tips: 1. Do Invest in Creative Content Before you post an ad or a promotional content for your products, ask yourself and your team the following questions first and see if it fits the kind of outcome that you aim to achieve: “Is it fun?” “Is it engaging?” “Does it focus on my consumers?”

DIGITAL MARKETING: Collated Articles to Help Your Digital and Marketing Agencies 11 “Does it represent my brand?” Highly engaging and educational content takes a lot of effort to make, whether it is in a text, image or video format. People tend to favor variety and visual content more than they do monotonous and text-heavy promotional content. Currently, ads and promos in “Story” or “My Day” format are all the rage. Stories, My Day or Snaps are short, seconds-long videos with only a 24-hour shelf life. This particular short-lived format of videos works well for business promotions because, despite the time restriction, it pushes business owners and advertisers to create content that is intriguing and eye-catching enough that people will remember it even after the Story has reached its 24-hour limit. Another strategy that you can use is getting social media influencers and customers to vlog about your product. YouTube can now be considered as modern-day TV. Several individuals create their own channels on YouTube get massive following based on the content they post. Polls likewise help gauge audience interest. You can be creative and add a touch of fun in your polls, yet still keep the questions relevant to the product or service you are promoting. 2. Don’t Resist Change According to We Are Social, statistical data of internet users in January 2019 has shown that over 4.388 billion people now have access to the internet. With a large number of potential leads you can reach, you can expand your target audience and even possibly introduce your business to a large group of affiliates and business partners. There are startups that get intimidated by social media or get discouraged once they set off and don’t get enough followers or likes. The key to that is

DIGITAL MARKETING: Collated Articles to Help Your Digital and Marketing Agencies 12 patience along with the acceptance that building your online presence takes time. Always take things positively—even with less than 100 followers, you can make do with what you have. What matters is how you value your existing followers. More importantly, organic followers are more instrumental in your business’ growth than paid ones. 3. Do Keep Up with Relevant and Popular Trends Trends constantly change and are very hard to keep up. Keeping up with the latest trends and bandwagons that affect your target audience and your brand enables you to come up with content that is able to gather a good number of interested audience and focus the spotlight on your brand. Just always make sure that the trend is relevant to the goods and services you are offering. Promotions and advertisements can be centered on such trends. The food industry is one of the easiest industries to adapt to such trends and is very marketable when done well. 4. Don’t Forget to Update Your Social Media Startup businesses with little familiarity with social media and digital marketing tend to forget to update their social media on a regular basis, thinking that one post is enough. Consistently posting updates is important for your consumers to be aware of what is new with your business, whether it is a promotion, a lineup of new goods and services, an upcoming event or a brand new location or branch for your physical store.

DIGITAL MARKETING: Collated Articles to Help Your Digital and Marketing Agencies 13 Even without an actual, physical store (a truth for most online sellers), every bit of progress matters. Including your audience in your brand’s journey shows that you value them enough to show them your progress and that their input is an indispensable tool for your continued development. It’s important to be consistent in updating your social media pages. Ideally, you should post within a 2 or 3-day interval to allow time for your followers to absorb the information that you share. Another helpful tip when posting on your social media pages is to take note of the times in a day when your followers exhibit the highest online activity and are more actively engaged in your posts. 5. Do Get Help From Professionals Don’t know how to set up a website? Need help keeping your social media up to date? or Having trouble delivering dependable customer service? When a business is lacking in delivering a particular component involved in keeping their operations running, that is where professionals come in and provide the necessary support. A lot of businesses outsource their digital marketing from companies that offer customer service solutions or digital advertising In some situations, even outsourcing marketing mechanism can prove to be the best possible option. Outsourcing companies offer their services to fit your business needs, thereby enabling you to maximize your manpower while you focus on boosting your online presence and increasing sales. 6. Don’t Forget to Have a Solid Plan and Have Alternative Solutions for Predictable Changes

DIGITAL MARKETING: Collated Articles to Help Your Digital and Marketing Agencies 14 Having a business plan before establishing the business itself can help decrease your chances of mishaps and losses because a business plan has backup and counteractions included. If you don’t have a plan, it is not too late to establish one for your business’ security. Creating a business plan takes a lot of research and would require professional help. Think of it as a college feasibility study: It is backed by industry professionals such as architects, accountants, and researchers, making the plan and the study filled with information relevant to the business’ progress and its core goals. It is important to note that changes and other unforeseen events might deter you from accomplishing your main goals. Changes such as moving store locations, inflation of prices and even monetary exchange can at times be unpredictable but you can still calculate and have a feel of how it may turn out in the near future. Updating your plan to fit the current scenario helps re-establish your direction without having to redo most of the already collected data. 7. Do Research About Your Customers Knowing who your customers are and what products and events affect them the most is an advantage in modern-day marketing. Familiarity with one’s target audience is one of the factors that contributes to the success of every company’s campaign. It doesn’t take a ton of money to research your demographic. Coming up with a questionnaire that addresses both your business’ and customers’ needs is a good start to implementing your audience research. Questions such as “How do I make my customers return frequently?” and “What are the best sellers and the items I need to sell more?” help prompt the

DIGITAL MARKETING: Collated Articles to Help Your Digital and Marketing Agencies 15 most suitable instrumentation plan and approach to gather the necessary data from your customers. 8. Don’t Overlook Comments, Emails, Messages and Mentions Overseeing your social media presence is a task in itself and part of it is to go through every pending email, message, comment, and social media mention notification on all your social media pages. When going through notifications from your audience, segregate relevant from irrelevant posts and messages. You can also hire virtual assistants and social media moderators to help you filter and manage your notifications so you can focus more on important posts and messages. Remember, not all comments need to be answered or addressed. At the same time, it is vital to appreciate subscribers that give both positive feedback and constructive criticism about your products and services. You can do this by retweeting, commenting or messaging back. 9. Do Identify Your Competitors and Take Notes From Them (Stealthily!) Your competitors may be far longer in the business than you are, but don’t be intimidated by their accomplishments. Instead, take notes from their successes. There are certain defining elements that have pushed today’s established and big-time businesses into becoming a household name whether locally or internationally. That being said, it doesn’t hurt to take note of the areas where they succeeded and failed. Their failures can be an edge to your business and help you stand

DIGITAL MARKETING: Collated Articles to Help Your Digital and Marketing Agencies 16 out among your competitors. What your competition lacks, you may be able to compensate and use to achieve greater heights for your business. Identify our weaknesses as well and improve on it or make a countermeasure. Knowing your competitors will mean doing some research that can come in handy if planning an ad campaign. One tip to avoid competition is to join in a business organization. These organizations help by promoting each other and creating standardized market prices. This method eliminates any form of competition and business organizations are very willing to mentor for business improvement. 10. Don’t Invest in One Marketing Strategy/Platform Alone There are plenty of social media platforms to choose from. The question is, how do you choose the best one for your business? First, identify your business’ niche. Does the nature of your business make you rely more on visual elements or publication? Or do you also bank on word of mouth and customer recommendations? Is affiliate marketing a must-have to spread the word about your services? Facebook generally works for any type of business. It has developed into a melting pot for marketing a wide variety of services and goods. As such, it is great for expanding audience reach and boosting sales. Instagram works for enhancing audience engagement and enticing more people to follow your brand. It is also an excellent platform for digital advertising. Twitter offers the same advantages: It allows businesses to communicate directly with their customers, effectively maintaining interest and engagement of both supporters and naysayers of the brand.

DIGITAL MARKETING: Collated Articles to Help Your Digital and Marketing Agencies 17 Not all businesses can win in every type of social media. It is necessary to try and test how your brand fares in each of these social media platforms. You cannot use the same strategy for two different platforms as they work on different algorithms. For instance, the ideal time difference for adding new posts might require hourly or daily intervals, depending on the platform. Alternating the type of post shared on your social media pages shows creativity and a genuine effort to share information about your brand. It also helps you address different customer preferences. As much as possible, avoid manipulating engagement on your social media pages. People are more keen on determining whether a business’ social media presence is inorganic and rehearsed or not. Technology may be changing constantly and the digital marketing scene may likewise demand a new set of strategies different from the ones mentioned in this blog. Before any of this happens, make it a habit to be on the lookout for current trends and changes in social media so that you can always be ahead of the game.

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DIGITAL MARKETING: Collated Articles to Help Your Digital and Marketing Agencies 19 How to Win Prospect Clients in Digital Marketing Searching for a small object, like a lost needle in a big messy room, is like diving into an ocean of ‘sharkville’ and hoping not to see one. In the end, you realize that the point of finding it is not about focusing on where you last saw the object. Rather, it is more about the effort you put into finding it. In the same manner, finding and capturing the attention of target clients in digital marketing entails putting your best foot forward right from the start. If you want to find the clients, you might want to check all the boxes that could possibly get you a signature for a contract. You can compare it to dressing up for a first date. The way you present yourself and your business influences whether a client decides to do business with you or not.

DIGITAL MARKETING: Collated Articles to Help Your Digital and Marketing Agencies 20 Gaining new clients in digital marketing can also be likened to courtship. You need to charm your prospects by making a good first impression. Choose a color to wear People want something that has a taste of difference—an aroma of uniqueness. A great example of this would be a motif or a concept that states your focus. You already have a vision, why not highlight it and allow your clients to discern how much they can benefit from collaborating with you. Give them the chance to explore the specific ways you can help deliver higher productivity for them using the concept or proposal that you present. Create a concept based on your company’s goals so your targets can understand better the purpose of your business. Some companies are not recognized by their name alone. Recognition also comes with the meaning and objective of the brand. One of the most effective ways to represent your company is by creating a unique logo. You can showcase your brand logo on a sign, an ad, or even on a bumper sticker—easy to read, easy to understand, and easy to remember. By having a concrete concept of who you are or what digital marketing agency company you are, you can define more clearly what you can do for your customers. A literal understanding of this approach can also be based on refutable research, titled Impact of Color on Marketing by Satyendra Singh. According to Singh’s research, “Research relating to choice of colors should be conducted and concluded before launching a product, as the wrong color choice can have a negative impact on the image of the product and the company.” Overdressing it

DIGITAL MARKETING: Collated Articles to Help Your Digital and Marketing Agencies 21 If you want to wear a bracelet, then make that your driver. Wearing both a necklace and a bracelet is too much on a party date. One thing that is usually underestimated and forgotten when managing a digital marketing agency is harmony and balance. When trying to impress your date, you normally wouldn’t wear all clothing items of the same brand all at the same time, would you? The same truth holds for keeping clients engaged with your business. Sometimes, a little restraint works wonders. When making a business deal or closing a sale, make sure you don’t “suffocate” your clients or leads with excessive marketing talk and promotions. The last thing you want to do is appear too aggressive and drive away potential customers. If you have multiple plans and offers, make it look like a package of dominos and make each one work well for the other features offered. People fear to sign into a complicated contract. Make sure it’s a ‘go and dance’ outfit Now that businesses are immersed in an advanced level of digital and technological marketing arena, it is important to take ‘flexibility’ more seriously. People change their minds every time. Their unpredictable buying decision should no longer be news to you if you are in tune with what your audience demands. Even if you seem to have memorized your customers’ buying behavior, you must accept the fact that they could change their decision anytime. It is, therefore, necessary for you to prepare backup plans and provide alternative offers to ensure you can roll with the punches and deliver no matter how dynamically your customers’ demands may shift.

DIGITAL MARKETING: Collated Articles to Help Your Digital and Marketing Agencies 22 Make sure your offer is easily adaptable to your client’s needs without compromising the company’s objectives. Do not just ‘dress to win’ it all, shake something up Relying solely on your business portfolio is not enough. Gone are those days when you create a logo to differentiate a company or an organization. Modern-day marketing is not just about uniqueness. It is also about establishing the right brand for your services. This includes allowing your prospect to know the message you want to convey behind the design of your logo or the presentation of your website and social media pages. What do the colors in your logo, banner, and website symbolize? According to Harvard Business Review, descriptive logos are often associated with a higher willingness to buy. Similar research conducted by Jonathan Luffarelli and Mudra Mukesh supports the said claim. Their work stressed the importance of logo design, citing that underestimating the impact and the power of descriptive design elements can sometimes lead to a costly mistake. Portfolios and design samples should have a description and a reason behind the picture to take branding up a notch and give justice to your company’s effort to connect. Know who you’re looking for Usually, when dressing up for a date, you tend to wonder what thoughts your partner would have about your outfit. Would it impress them or would it turn them off? When looking for a client, you do not simply create a cookie-cutter template. It would be best to customize different packages for each service to meet the

DIGITAL MARKETING: Collated Articles to Help Your Digital and Marketing Agencies 23 specific demands of each client. One of the best things about creating a distinct offer unlike any other is it makes clients feel valued. It gives them the impression that you are willing to go at lengths to ensure their expectations and needs are aptly addressed. Before you can achieve this, first you need to know who your targets are and what they are looking for. Market Analysts usually concentrate so much on how to win the crown to earn bragging rights over their competitors. In other words, they are more focused on serving a tastelessly cold pancake on their rival’s table than they are in gauging the concerns of their clients. Sometimes, it is hard to argue about what to prioritize, especially when businesses left and right are stuck seeking for a winning strategy. Digital marketing agencies are often shaken by ‘we might win this time’ mindset that it drives them to forget some of the most crucial aspects of gaining loyal customers and attaining success and stability. At the end of the day, what matters is how well-equipped you are when you show up on the battlefield. It is how you absorb new information and process your past mistakes to get better and become more competent in your area of expertise.

DIGITAL MARKETING: Collated Articles to Help Your Digital and Marketing Agencies 24 4 Challenges Faced by Digital Marketing Agencies With all the features and advantages that the internet has to offer to the current business industry, it is undeniable that different digital companies are emerging almost every day to make the best out of it. However, it is undeniable that there are also challenges coupled with going digital. Starting a digital agency without a proper briefing on what it entails will eventually slow down operations and hamper any possibility of the business or agency achieving promising results and long-term development.

DIGITAL MARKETING: Collated Articles to Help Your Digital and Marketing Agencies 25 The digital marketing ecosystem can be a daunting field for the faint-hearted and for those who lack the necessary background on how things work online. As such, knowing and understanding the challenges that aspiring digital agency starters might encounter will give them the motivation to push through and eventually devise strategies on how to avoid them. For those who are interested in starting or running a digital agency of their own, here are four of the most common and biggest challenges faced by digital marketing agencies: 1. ACQUISITION AND RETENTION In the business industry, acquiring clients and enticing them to support the business is the key to attaining long-term survivability. The problem is, devising strategies to win clients is where it all gets tricky. Using traditional campaigns is no longer enough. This is especially true in places where digital marketing agency services are prevalent; thereby making it harder for businesses to acquire new clients. Also, customer retention works hand-in-hand with customer acquisition. In truth, retaining customers is way harder than acquiring them. It entails the agency or business to consistently provide the best services possible in order for their customers to remain loyal and supportive through time. When the conjoined challenges of acquiring and retaining customers get out-of-hand, it can cause a serious impact on the business’s operations. One of the best ways to avoid this potential pitfall is to devise strategies that will set a lasting impression on clients, provide services that can consistently penetrate clients’ pain points, keep up with the latest trends, and offer services that will embody the very structure and worth of the agency.

DIGITAL MARKETING: Collated Articles to Help Your Digital and Marketing Agencies 26 2. PAYMENTS Another challenge that a digital marketing agency faces is the payment procedure for each project. At times, agencies tend to overlook the arrangement of a contract signing with the customers or the parties involved prior to the commencement of the operations or services entailed by the client. Failure to prepare the necessary documents and contracts for each project can complicate payments in the future. Since money is at stake here, it is ideal for digital agencies to conduct a contract signing on all the services that the client wants to avail. The contract should highlight and enumerate completely all the corresponding rates for the services availed. At the same time, the contract should indicate that all charges included in the transaction will take effect on the commencement date agreed upon for the project. Do not hesitate to demand payment (advanced payments included) if necessary and refrain from continuously offering services without a well-settled payment transaction in place. Always remember that the demeanor clients display when it comes to sending payments holds a significant amount of control over the course of your agency’s stability and growth. Without a proper payment system in effect, and with customers exhibiting uncooperative behavior when settling transactions, it will be harder for your agency to earn and thrive. 3. INSUFFICIENT NUMBER OF DIGITAL MARKETING EXPERTS Another hindrance is the lack of individuals who possess the right expertise to navigate the digital marketing landscape. A person can never be an expert digital marketer after handling a single project. They need a significant

DIGITAL MARKETING: Collated Articles to Help Your Digital and Marketing Agencies 27 amount of time to grow and get familiarized with the dynamic ecosystem of marketing brands online. While there may be some locally available experts, they usually choose to be freelancers. This makes it a stretch for businesses to find the most suitable candidates to complete their digital marketing team. One of the practical ways to obtain the right individuals to handle all the digital marketing efforts of an agency is through outsourcing part of the workforce. Outsourcing companies are among the go-to places where agencies and businesses can find a person with the right talent and skills at a very considerable price. Check this article out to know more: REASONS WHY OUTSOURCING DIGITAL AGENCY IS THE BEST FOR YOUR BUSINESS IN 2020 4. EMPLOYEE CULTURE Unfortunately, digital marketing challenges do not just emerge externally but internally as well. In order for a digital marketing agency to operate smoothly, proper coordination within the workforce is paramount. Unified manpower will not be easy to achieve without the right alignment of in-house employees’ attitudes and work ethics. Chances are, the productivity becomes completely compromised because of the lack of a cohesive connection and inclusive atmosphere between employees with contrasting viewpoints and clashing personalities. At the same time, there is also the tendency of conflicts arising between the staff and their supervisors. This usually happens when misunderstandings involving task delegations and deliverables are not addressed and resolved in a professional manner.

DIGITAL MARKETING: Collated Articles to Help Your Digital and Marketing Agencies 28 In order to lessen the heat within the four corners of the office, it is best to conduct timely incentive programs for employees, set a healthy working environment, and even organize periodical team-building activities. Activities that encourage team cooperation and communication boosts rapport, understanding, and unity among the staff. In the long run, improved cooperation and connection will not only help promote positive internal connections between colleagues but also motivate them to work and exert more effort to produce optimal results. The digital marketing ecosystem is shifting at a rapid pace. Generally, establishing a digital marketing agency can be truly rewarding. This is especially true once the needed workflow is successfully executed according to plan and the target profit for the business is attained. By knowing what possible pitfalls to expect when running a digital marketing agency, risks and successes can be scaled with the right amount of preparedness.

DIGITAL MARKETING: Collated Articles to Help Your Digital and Marketing Agencies 29 Reasons Why Outsourcing Digital Agency Is the Best For Your Business in 2020 When running a big or small business, every second count. But it can also be difficult for business owners to maximize their daily hours of operation and cover all the integral areas of sustaining and expanding their business. One of the most challenging facets of keeping a business afloat is marketing the brand. Digital marketing is a whole world on its own and it requires a significant amount of time and commitment to generate desired results. When done right, it can open numerous and boundless opportunities that can help businesses be more competitive in a cutthroat industry.

DIGITAL MARKETING: Collated Articles to Help Your Digital and Marketing Agencies 30 While in-house staff aids in making marketing efforts more manageable, it can also prove to be insufficient for some companies. That said, outsourcing the services of a digital agency is an option that can work for both emerging and established brands. Enumerated below are five primary reasons why outsourcing and employing a digital agency for marketing is a practical and timely move for businesses: 1. DIGITAL MARKETING AGENCIES MAKES IT EASIER TO OBTAIN A TEAM OF EXPERTS The majority of small and mid-sized businesses do not have the capacity to hire in-house employees with high-tiered talent and work experience. Reasonably, experienced and highly skilled individuals would demand higher pay that matches their level of expertise. As a result, small businesses and startups resort to hiring entry-level personnel instead. One of the main reasons why hiring a digital agency works is because it provides new companies to hire people with the right expertise. It enables businesses to have a balanced mix of professionals who can handle different marketing tasks in the most efficient manner possible. 2. DIGITAL MARKETING AGENCIES OFFER THE LATEST TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGIES One of the greatest perks that a digital marketing agency can offer is that a good number of these agencies use the latest marketing tools and technologies that improve the speed and quality of work. It allows business owners to maximize the use of special tools and software that can help amplify the effectiveness of every marketing strategy devised by the business.

DIGITAL MARKETING: Collated Articles to Help Your Digital and Marketing Agencies 31 Since digital agencies are usually equipped with their own resources and tools, they are capable and meeting exceeding client expectations. If the hiring company requires a specific kind of tool, they can request it from the outsourced agency with negotiable rates and payments. 3. DIGITAL MARKETING AGENCIES HELP SAVE MONEY A digital marketing agency ensures that all the funds used by the company in outsourcing its marketing efforts are invested accordingly. With the professional experience and knowledge they possess about promoting businesses in the online world, businesses can expect higher familiarity, fewer mistakes, and minimized risks. The flexibility of outsourcing digital marketing agencies is also apparent in the payment system. More often than not, businesses are not required to cover the benefits of outsourced agents. The payment can also be on a per-project basis; thus, providing more leeway for a company’s payroll officers to prepare salaries and payments for both in-house and outsourced staff. 4. DIGITAL MARKETING AGENCIES HELP SAVE TIME For businesses, time is a precious commodity among others. Fortunately, hiring a digital marketing agency to handle the business’s marketing efforts can help more save time. By taking a considerable amount of work off of a starting company’s plate, digital agencies make it possible for small and mid-sized businesses to allot more attention and time in growing the business internally. Existing ad strategies can be reassessed, employee productivity can be measured and monitored more closely, and the need for

DIGITAL MARKETING: Collated Articles to Help Your Digital and Marketing Agencies 32 additional training can be weighed in, thanks to the dramatic decrease in distractions. 5. DIGITAL MARKETING AGENCIES MAKE OPERATIONS AND WORK MORE MANAGEABLE Last and definitely not the least, hiring a digital marketing agency enables businesses to manage both in-house and outsourcing teams easier and more efficiently. An efficient team of experts who can work with minimum supervision makes businesses more capable of distributing the workload in a more balanced manner. In this manner, employees do not get overworked and the expected quality of performance for strategies and projects is not compromised. As a bonus, here’s a friendly tip for all businesses new to the world of outsourcing: Establish and maintain an open line of communication with outsourced teams. Always see to it that in-house and outsourced staff are able to meet halfway and cooperate well with each other. Organize weekly or monthly meetings even through video calls as these conferences are essential to make sure everyone is on track, and that objectives are met accordingly. WHY OUTSOURCE YOUR DIGITAL MARKETING EFFORTS? Outsourcing provides tons of advantages especially for businesses that want to survive and thrive in a competitive market. Outsourcing does not only provide businesses with different levels of skills and expertise, but it also helps businesses maximize the time they allot for their daily operations. In the long run, the combined efforts of business owners and outsourced digital

DIGITAL MARKETING: Collated Articles to Help Your Digital and Marketing Agencies 33 marketing agencies produce smarter decisions and feasible investments that promote better and more continuous business growth.

DIGITAL MARKETING: Collated Articles to Help Your Digital and Marketing Agencies 34 5 Critical Mistakes That Digital Marketing Agencies Should Avoid Albert Einstein once said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.” Indeed—being strategic in solving workplace problems is a must in order to achieve maximum efficiency for the business. Every business faces various challenges in their operations. Amid all the various challenges that each business faces individually, stands a universal truth that all businesses aim to be successful. There are unavoidable setbacks when running a business. Some of these setbacks appear to be like a dead end at first, but the truth is most problems faced by businesses have viable solutions for it. In fact, these problems are usually rooted in mistakes and poor practices that businesses need to get rid of, asap! Listed below are the 5 most critical mistakes that most digital marketers are practicing today, along with the corresponding solutions for each:

DIGITAL MARKETING: Collated Articles to Help Your Digital and Marketing Agencies 35 1. INEFFECTIVE & SCARCE COMMUNICATION CHANNELS One of the assets of a digital marketing agency is efficient communication. A well-established communication network allows the agency to interact clearly with customers. Communication serves as the bridge that connects digital marketing agencies to their respective customers. Reinforcing a business’s connection with its customers can help gain the loyalty and trust of the latter. However, there are some agencies that are lacking in this particular aspect. Always keep in mind that communication is a two-way street. Businesses or agencies need to communicate with their customers and they must also keep their doors open to allow customers to reach out to them in return. Otherwise, the lack of direct communication usually results in a scarcity of interest from the customers. How can this be solved? Building a strong connection with clients through digital marketing can be challenging. The good news is digital marketing makes it easier for agencies to acquire what the business needs at their disposal. Agencies can use the power of social media to stay in sync with their clients, and take its fast connectivity as an advantage to convince them to follow or subscribe to the business’ social media pages. With this, agencies can consider encouraging clients to write their feedback and post reviews about the services offered by the agency. Even better, customers can be enticed to mention or tag the business in their social media posts. Remember: It is better for the agency to make the first move and reach out to customers, and not the other way around. 2. POOR TIME MANAGEMENT

DIGITAL MARKETING: Collated Articles to Help Your Digital and Marketing Agencies 36 Several marketers find it difficult to meet customer demands due to lack of time and/or resources. Looking more closely at the root cause of this problem, the lack of time and resources is not because time itself is scarce, but rather, there is poor and ineffective management of time among the staff and supervisors. How can this be solved? Consider planning works and activities in advance to spare more time in focusing on other equally important aspects of running and maintaining the digital marketing agency. Creating a schedule that fits the roles and duties of each staff, as well as the goals for each marketing strategy helps keep things aligned and easier to manage. Mapping out priority tasks and segregating it from low priority tasks promotes better focus equally on the different aspects of the business. Once proper time management is achieved, business owners will realize just how many hours in a day can be maximized in working towards accomplishing their goals. 3. CHOOSING THE WRONG SOFTWARE OR PLATFORM There are instances where businesses or agencies fail to conduct sufficient background checks on the software or platforms that they opt to use for their business. It is crucial to determine whether the software is suitable for the business’ structure and demands or not. Employing the assistance of a particular platform or software is also an investment. Therefore, every penny spent on these platforms should count. A very good example of a poorly chosen partner software or platform is the slow loading of content on a website or page. Websites and social media pages that take too long to load drive away potential leads and diminish customer engagement.

DIGITAL MARKETING: Collated Articles to Help Your Digital and Marketing Agencies 37 Another important thing to remember is switching to another platform costs just as much money. It can also be a painstaking process; requiring the agency to reinstall all plugins and update the company’s overall system for the new software to work. How can this be solved? Execute deep research on all the possible options and functionalities. Be meticulous in picking one for it might cost tons of money. Expensive rates do not always mean it has the capability to meet the business’ requirements with much efficiency. WordPress is a highly suggested platform for digital marketing agencies. It can cater to a wide variety of client demands. It offers variability in creating different kinds of websites. 4. NEGLECTED SEO CAMPAIGNS AND PRACTICES Statistically speaking, there are around 4 billion searches conducted on Google every day. Clearly, the sheer volume of these numbers shows a potential advantage that businesses can use to boost its visibility and relevance. Nonetheless, internet users tend not to look past the second page when they search for something on Google. This is where Search Engine Optimization (SEO) enters the picture. Unfortunately, though there are marketers who have knowledge about SEO, they fail to maximize its full advantage and use. The lack of attention and commitment to SEO eventually results in low traffic. How can this be solved? Google is evolving constantly. This means that keywords must be adapted according to how customers phrase their queries on search engines. Businesses should stop limiting the reach of their SEO campaigns by using primary keywords alone from the posts they create. It is better to use

DIGITAL MARKETING: Collated Articles to Help Your Digital and Marketing Agencies 38 keywords strategically. This means proper keyword placements and the inclusion of long-tail keywords. Apply SEO principles on both the business’ website and social media pages. Additionally, backlinks to the site also influence SEO. If a website possesses links from popular and highly authoritative websites, it notifies Google that the site is well reputable. This can effectively boost the site’s ranking in the long run. 5. INSUFFICIENT AND WRONG ALLOCATION OF BUDGET Insufficient budget and the mismanagement of the company’s funds are usually common in startups. Quite frankly, the topic of managing finances, especially for an agency or business is more complex than it seems. When it comes to digital marketing, the first thing that usually comes to mind is the money that will be invested to get started with promoting a brand, product or entity. From zero-cost to more costly advertising methods (such as paid ads), newbies in the world of digital marketing tend to be indecisive in choosing what suits their business and clients best. Trying a no-cost tactic in running the digital market is not bad at all. But, investing more in paid tactics balances out the breadth of influence and reach that each marketing effort delivers. How can this be solved? The competition among digital marketing agencies is already tough. For starters, it is best to identify first who the target market is. Defining the target audience for each campaign makes it easier to segregate each group of customers. This can be done by taking note of the lifestyle and purchasing behavior of target audiences. Segment audiences based on their age, gender,

DIGITAL MARKETING: Collated Articles to Help Your Digital and Marketing Agencies 39 location, and product preferences. Doing so will help advertise certain products to them more effectively. Additionally, using social media serves as a great medium for product promotion at a minimal cost. Search for the most cost-effective techniques that can deliver great ROI. Developing a connection with influencers is a good strategy as well for it can contribute greatly to the agency’s growth. The world of digital marketing is indeed rife with challenges and tough competition among different agencies and businesses. Not to mention, change is an inevitable influence on the course of how successful each campaign will be. Strike the perfect balance between brainstorming for new marketing strategies, maintaining the agency, strengthening connections with customers, and standing out among a sea of competitors. Problems and setbacks do not last forever, after all. All that needs to be done to resolve prevailing issues within the business is to think outside the box, look for possible solutions and find the silver lining within it.

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DIGITAL MARKETING: Collated Articles to Help Your Digital and Marketing Agencies 41 Why Transitioning From Traditional To Digital Marketing Is A Must There is no harm in sticking with tried-and-tested marketing methods; but in order for a business to survive, embracing the territory of digital marketing can come in handy. The ever-evolving landscape of modern technology pushes small businesses to exhaust every big and small resource to survive the cutthroat market. Physical shops are either switching to an online storefront or beefing up existing marketing strategies by incorporating digital strategies just to expand their reach. However, operating with a minimal budget can be quite restricting that small and mid-sized businesses feel more pressured to adapt contemporary and digitally powered tactics for promoting their services.

DIGITAL MARKETING: Collated Articles to Help Your Digital and Marketing Agencies 42 It is true that conventional marketing strategies each have their own pros. But with society growing more and more dependent on the internet, old advertising approaches may no longer be as effective. There is much to be considered when shifting to a new method of promoting one’s business. After all, coming up with a brand new campaign also means changing certain practices and ideas already embedded into the mindset of the business owner and their staff. As scary as it may seem, incorporating digital marketing trends is also highly advantageous. This does not only involve creating varying campaigns but likewise focusing on the big and small details and risks coupled with employing a new marketing strategy. There are so many reasons why digital marketing is an important component in expanding businesses. This article has singled out the top 4 reasons: 1. Wider Geographical Reach Expanding a business’ reach to a whole new geographical landscape using traditional marketing can be stressful and time-consuming. Shifting to digital marketing, however, can easily help the business to expand its reach to new areas without any major drawbacks. Digital marketing provides a seamless way to enable businesses to readjust the span of their reach in a particular city or state. Digital marketing gives businesses a flexible way to reach their target market. In social media alone, businesses can promote products to customers across the globe and prompt them to click on the link that will redirect them to the brand’s website.

DIGITAL MARKETING: Collated Articles to Help Your Digital and Marketing Agencies 43 2. Cost-effective As was mentioned, small businesses usually don’t have enough resources and budget to spend on digital marketing. Still, the goal is to reach the maximum number of heads with the lowest price possible. As of writing, a 30-second television ad averages around a striking $115,000 (that is if the TV ad is broadcasted at non-peak hours during the day). This figure alone is too expensive for a small business to be able to afford it. However, using digital ads, small businesses can reach a super-targeted audience at a lower cost As opposed to television or radio ads, digital advertising helps save up to 40% in marketing expenses. Digital marketing enables businesses to stay within their allotted budget yet still have full control of the quality of their campaigns. In addition, promoting products and services has been observed to gain a higher cost-per-lead (CPL) rates, compared to other marketing channels. 3. Seamless Ad Performance Measurement & Analytics One of the best advantages that digital marketing can provide is the easy access to data regarding the performance and effectiveness of different campaigns on different channels. There are online tools, such as Google Analytics, Yoast, Hootsuite, ActiveCampaign and ClickFunnels, that help specify areas where the business’ marketing campaigns may be faring well or not.

DIGITAL MARKETING: Collated Articles to Help Your Digital and Marketing Agencies 44 User behavior and purchasing patterns can be measured while target audiences can be filtered based on demographics to make insights more detailed and accurate. 4. Generates Higher Income Digital marketing also helps generate higher revenue. Small businesses using digital marketing strategies are found to have three times the chance of expanding at a positive and steady trajectory. It costs less and requires minimal manpower to supervise different campaigns. Digital Marketing can be a viable strategy for businesses to thrive in this cutthroat landscape. Not only does it provide techniques to attract higher traffic, but it likewise aids in improving the engagement and conversion rate of the business. While there are still traditional marketing methods that can still rival contemporary advertising channels, it should not entirely be forgotten or replaced. In fact, the right mix of traditional and digital marketing can be a great way to boost a business’s overall structure.

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DIGITAL MARKETING: Collated Articles to Help Your Digital and Marketing Agencies 46 9 of the Most Powerful and Latest Digital Marketing Tools That Are Proven to Drive Results Since the development of digital marketing in the 1990s, several tools and channels have been introduced in the market. Digital Marketing started with Archie, the first search engine. It was then followed by the first clickable web-ad banner in 1993, then the first e-commerce transaction over Netmarket, the launching of Yahoo, and the introduction of search engine optimization or SEO. From this point on, new platforms have been constantly introduced, including HotBot, SixDegrees.com, Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, MS Live Search, YouTube, Google Adwords, Adsense, marketing automation among several others.

DIGITAL MARKETING: Collated Articles to Help Your Digital and Marketing Agencies 47 This 21st century, there are countless digital marketing tools armed with the latest developments and strategies to keep abreast with present and future changes and possibly reach over 170 million people who use social media regularly. As one would expect, each of the said tools have different uses, including analytics, SEO, content curation, social media, visual design, email marketing, project management in which several of them are far superior in terms of the latest version currently available. In view of this, it is quite daunting to test every tool to determine which would yield remarkable results. Thus, a list of 9 the best and latest digital marketing tools for businesses are provided. Read ahead to find out more. 1. Google Analytics This is a free web analytics tool that enables one to have a tracking code that can be incorporated in a business’ websites and social media pages, which helps track audience demographics, particularly with regard to: ● User information: The number of visitors who visited a website along with the active users who are currently navigating the website ● Session information: The frequency of visits, clicks, video views, and purchases ● Bounce Rate: The total of web visits that did not lead to interaction with the business or conversion

DIGITAL MARKETING: Collated Articles to Help Your Digital and Marketing Agencies 48 The above list of data collected by Google Analytics is beneficial in identifying what is necessary to be improved on one’s website that will lead to conversion. Under Audience Report, details about gender, age and location of frequent visitors are provided. It simplifies the processes needed to distinguish one’s target audience while Acquisition Report shows the traffic from search engines, YouTube videos, and other social media platforms. 2. Sumo or SumoMe Sumo, which has more than 5 million global users, is a plugin that tracks reader’s interest by using their Heat Maps to identify what links or stories people click and what they skip. It also uses Content Analytics to monitor the extent to which visitors scroll a website or business’ page. This is useful for business owners to decide the right location for placing a call-to-action. For instance, if most visitors leave a website or page before reaching the bottom of an article, one can decide to position their CTA at the top of the article or page to reach more engagement. Apart from what has been mentioned, Sumo also helps increase email subscribers by creating a pop-up box that compels target audiences to provide their email address by offering valuable content such as: ● Competitions with attractive prizes ● Discount Coupons ● Free course ● Free one month trial ● Free webinar ● Quiz ● Useful articles converted into a PDF ● Videos

DIGITAL MARKETING: Collated Articles to Help Your Digital and Marketing Agencies 49 ● Weekly tips Furthermore, the tool allows highlighting certain phrases found in a website’s content, which gives the opportunity for visitors to tweet the said phrase. On top of that, it has a social sharing widget, thereby enabling a website’s articles to be shared on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. 3. UberSuggest It is a free yet effective search engine optimization (SEO) tool for searching new long tail keywords as well as article titles or topics. It accumulates powerful keywords from all platforms and presents it in an organized manner. These are real powerful keywords used by multinational companies to get higher Google rankings which can also be used by inexperienced and new businesses because of its easy-to-use interface. The tool provides information regarding the following: ● Search Volume – This indicates the number of people who are searching for the same keywords and each specific and related keywords are ranked based on the quantity of searches each keywords have. ● SEO Difficulty – This estimates the difficulty of the keywords’ ranking on search engines such as Google. The higher the number means the more challenging it is for a content to rank on top of search engines. ● Paid Difficulty – This assesses the level of difficulty of a page or content to rank higher on Google through pay-per-click advertising.