As the year 2015 progresses, the message is loud and clear. Digital marketing is here to stay and is consistently becoming an important consideration of marketing budget for most companies. Companies now are spending equal amounts for TV and on digital. So what now? Well if your website is not fulfilling the latest developments or you are not doing Content Marketing or Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or else developing some strategy for Search Engine Marketing, you might well start doing so. However, buying into the hype of different digital jargons seen online or on social media without a true understanding of the results of digital marketing efforts may turn your marketing effort into a damp squib without the expected results. Here are the 3 biggest mistakes in digital marketing often made by most companies.Mistake 1: Poor PlanningOne biggest mistake that is made in digital marketing is the absence of an organized cohesive strategy, resulting in a waste of valuable time and money, not to mention the loss of opportunity. Before investing, you should plan the following for effective digital marketing:· Understand your market: A sound understanding of a brand’s competitors, customer demographics, geographical boundaries, existing distribution channel, and knowledge of market trends (both about the product and demographic).· Perform a SWOT analysis: Find your opportunities, threats, strengths and weaknesses.· Clear definition of your marketing objectives: What results you are looking for with your marketing efforts and what KPI’s and goals will you use for measuring success?· Have a budget: What is your budget for this marketing effort and what are the individual marketing channels?Mistake 2: Unrealistic ExpectationsIt should be noted at the very outset that digital should not be taken to mean instant results, especially with companies who are new to this digital marketing practice. In fact, it takes some time for digital campaigns to develop, optimize and improve to get the results you expect for. It is imperative that clients are given realistic expectations. Here are the average timelines per service offered:Pay Per Click Campaign: 90 days.Search Engine Optimization: 90 – 180 days.Social Media: 30 days.Mistake 3: Not Being InformedThe presence of new analytics software makes it easy to track and analyze every view, every click and every dollar. However, what is important is to be informed about how the marketing budget is being spent by the company. So if a marketing agency is working for a brand, important data points should be known to key stakeholders. Hence, if it is a PPC campaign, you should have the knowledge of how to log into AdWords and also be able to check the account history as well as follow any account modifications. This should be true with the different digital aspects. You should have a fair knowledge of the KPI’s, the terms and best practices.If you don’t have the time to go through learning materials, hire a consultant who could run audits and help in removing unqualified work. This will keep the primary marketing agency and staff on their toes and save you money.
How To Have Success In An Online Business
Developing an online business mindset is critical to the success of an online business. Your online business mindset truly sets the course of your business from day one.People join an online business expecting HUGE results in 2 point 3 seconds and that is NOT how a business of ANY kind is started and grown. A true business takes time to grow and build. There are no shortcuts of ANY kind. So in order to develop the right online business mindset, you have to take a step back and see the grand picture, especially online. Not developing their business mindset causes a lot of errorsWhat you see a lot are people who join an online business, they begin marketing it, and find no success. So then a couple weeks later, they quit that business and join another business, to find the same result. Those I call jumpers. The go from one business to another, only finding pretty much the same result. Maybe the have limited success with one business. But that was not the goal they wanted to achieve.But is that really what the problem is?Not only could it be that your online mindset is out of skew, but it also could be that one does not have the proper skills, know enough marketing methods or the strategies to use them. But rest assured that all comes from your core philosophies about online business.There is a psychological flow of how a mindset is developed, and it goes a little like this. Your core values or philosophies dictate your attitudes, how you feel or react to certain situations. Your attitudes then control what you do, or your actions. Then the actions you take control the results you find out of those action. Then your results dictate your lifestyle or your goals.Philosophy > Attitudes > Actions > Results > LifestyleMost times people jump in mid stream at the actions step and short circuit the entire mindset flow. Why, because they are too eager to get what they want…a different lifestyle. So they get in at the actions step and expect certain results. But as any business person knows there are bumps in the road that will derail you from growing your business. And because of that, eventually, because of bad results, they fall out of the online business entirely.What really has to happen is that they have to take a couple steps back and change their philosophies, their core values, to follow the flow properly. If you do not have your philosophies in the proper format, everything else that follows will fail.When you come into the flow at the actions stage, and you hit a bump in the road, and trust me there will be difficulties in an online business; the step before that, attitude, will dictate how you handle that situation.For instance, if you get in a business and you don’t get the results you want, based on your attitude, how likely are you to stay in the business, let alone be active at all?And that is the reason you see the “jumpers” out on the internet.So one has to get back to their philosophies or core values in order to have online success. Core values could be….Treat this like a business. This is not the lottery. Building an online business takes time, just like any other “real” business.Or since this is a online business, maybe I need to learn more about how to market online properly. Because online business is very much different than a “tangible” business. There are different ways to grow it for success.So if you do not see results in 2 seconds online, that does not mean that the entire online business industry is a scam. That attitude is a result of your core values or philosophies. If one had their philosophies in order, they would know that it takes time to build a business.So if things are not working right in your online business, don’t be to quick to jump to conclusions. Step back, analyze and re-tune your philosophies to get back on the success track.
What Are The Greatest Changes In Shopping In Your Lifetime
What are the greatest changes in shopping in your lifetime? So asked my 9 year old grandson.
As I thought of the question the local Green Grocer came to mind. Because that is what the greatest change in shopping in my lifetime is.
That was the first place to start with the question of what are the greatest changes in shopping in your lifetime.
Our local green grocer was the most important change in shopping in my lifetime. Beside him was our butcher, a hairdresser and a chemist.
Looking back, we were well catered for as we had quite a few in our suburb. And yes, the greatest changes in shopping in my lifetime were with the small family owned businesses.
Entertainment While Shopping Has Changed
Buying butter was an entertainment in itself.
My sister and I often had to go to a favourite family grocer close by. We were always polite as we asked for a pound or two of butter and other small items.
Out came a big block of wet butter wrapped in grease-proof paper. Brought from the back of the shop, placed on a huge counter top and included two grooved pates.
That was a big change in our shopping in my lifetime… you don’t come across butter bashing nowadays.
Our old friendly Mr. Mahon with the moustache, would cut a square of butter. Lift it to another piece of greaseproof paper with his pates. On it went to the weighing scales, a bit sliced off or added here and there.
Our old grocer would then bash it with gusto, turning it over and over. Upside down and sideways it went, so that it had grooves from the pates, splashes going everywhere, including our faces.
My sister and I thought this was great fun and it always cracked us up. We loved it, as we loved Mahon’s, on the corner, our very favourite grocery shop.
Grocery Shopping
Further afield, we often had to go to another of my mother’s favourite, not so local, green grocer’s. Mr. McKessie, ( spelt phonetically) would take our list, gather the groceries and put them all in a big cardboard box.
And because we were good customers he always delivered them to our house free of charge. But he wasn’t nearly as much fun as old Mr. Mahon. Even so, he was a nice man.
All Things Fresh
So there were very many common services such as home deliveries like:
• Farm eggs
• Fresh vegetables
• Cow’s milk
• Freshly baked bread
• Coal for our open fires
Delivery Services
A man used to come to our house a couple of times a week with farm fresh eggs.
Another used to come every day with fresh vegetables, although my father loved growing his own.
Our milk, topped with beautiful cream, was delivered to our doorstep every single morning.
Unbelievably, come think of it now, our bread came to us in a huge van driven by our “bread-man” named Jerry who became a family friend.
My parents always invited Jerry and his wife to their parties, and there were many during the summer months. Kids and adults all thoroughly enjoyed these times. Alcohol was never included, my parents were teetotallers. Lemonade was a treat, with home made sandwiches and cakes.
The coal-man was another who delivered bags of coal for our open fires. I can still see his sooty face under his tweed cap but I can’t remember his name. We knew them all by name but most of them escape me now.
Mr. Higgins, a service man from the Hoover Company always came to our house to replace our old vacuum cleaner with an updated model.
Our insurance company even sent a man to collect the weekly premium.
People then only paid for their shopping with cash. This in itself has been a huge change in shopping in my lifetime.
In some department stores there was a system whereby the money from the cash registers was transported in a small cylinder on a moving wire track to the central office.
Some Of The Bigger Changes
Some of the bigger changes in shopping were the opening of supermarkets.
• Supermarkets replaced many individual smaller grocery shops. Cash and bank cheques have given way to credit and key cards.
• Internet shopping… the latest trend, but in many minds, doing more harm, to book shops.
• Not many written shopping lists, because mobile phones have taken over.
On a more optimistic note, I hear that book shops are popular again after a decline.
Personal Service Has Most Definitely Changed
So, no one really has to leave home, to purchase almost anything, technology makes it so easy to do online.
And we have a much bigger range of products now, to choose from, and credit cards have given us the greatest ease of payment.
We have longer shopping hours, and weekend shopping. But we have lost the personal service that we oldies had taken for granted and also appreciated.
Because of their frenetic lifestyles, I have heard people say they find shopping very stressful, that is grocery shopping. I’m sure it is when you have to dash home and cook dinner after a days work. I often think there has to be a better, less stressful way.
My mother had the best of both worlds, in the services she had at her disposal. With a full time job looking after 9 people, 7 children plus her and my dad, she was very lucky. Lucky too that she did not have 2 jobs.