Cultural Differences in Digital Marketing

Whether a business is B2C or B2B, cultural differences play a significant role in peoples' response to the web design.


Managing Global web design assets 
Managing global web design assets  is not an easy task. No matter how hard a company try and nail down corporate brand guidelines, someone will suggest a few locally produced off-message landing pages.

At one level, global templates offer efficient solution. A company can uphold control over the core design, plus a consistent approach country by country. However a company need to think about template design may not culturally appropriate for each market. Some elements pf the template may be offensive whereas other may find it acceptable, or in some cases favourable.

One solution for nervous Brand Managers is to have a partially localised template as this may offer some security.

This is the homepage of HP in four different countries. In Germany has football match in the laptop's screen as Germans are fans of football and in few days Muntial is going to start. However in United Kingdom  has an exotic picture seems like holidays. In addition in China's has different lights and buildings and in Russia's has a printer. As we can see the same company has different homepages for each country in order to attract its customers.

Example of two retailers one based in UK and the other in France selling the same electrical kitchen product. 

John Lewis based in UK has a clean, impersonal design focusing on beautiful product photography. On the other Pixmania the French retailer puts more emphasis on the use of the product including a family photo with the strapline 'what's your passion?'

The French retail tends to feature much more prominent prIcing in compare with the British Retailer who is more coy about the cost. 

Reference

Smart Insights (2013) 'Web design for cultural differences' 6th August 2013 [Online] < http://www.smartinsights.com/online-brand-strategy/international-marketing/web-design-for-cultural-differences/> [accessed 3 June 2014]

Push Versus Pull Digital Marketing

Digital Marketing is marketing through electronic devices such as computers, tablets, smartphones cell phones to engage with consumers and other business partners.

There are two types of Digital Marketing;

The Pull  digital marketing  which include websites, blogs and media like audio and video are good examples of pull digital marketing techniques. Users need to have a specific URL  to view the content.
The Push  digital marketing involves both the marketer as well as the recipients. RSS, Mails, Text Messages are example of push digital marketing.

                                                                                               (taken from http://stratablue.com/push-and-pull-marketing-growth-hacking/) 

  As already stated above the Pull Digital Marketing consumers visit the source of information or website that are searching on the other hand,through  Push Digital Marketing  consumers receive the information that they are interesting by viewing advertisements. There are advantages and disadvantages of the two strategies

  The Pull Strategy request low technological requirements and there are no limits on the size of the file. Nevertheless, more marketing is required include little or no tracking of website visitors. Also there is no personalisation of messages to encourage consumers to visit again the website.

  The Push Strategy include tracking of consumer preference, high sales of conversion rates and personalised messages. However, sometimes adv being blocked, delivery technology is required and compliance with the Can Spam Act of  2003.

(taken from http://www.marketing-made-simple.com/articles/push-pull-strategy.htm#.U4YaNsQW0fU)






References: 

Small Business SEO Services (2014) 'Internet Digital Marketing Push V Pull' 31 December 2010 [Online]
<  http://stratablue.com/push-and-pull-marketing-growth-hacking/ > [accessed 28 May 2014]

 Strata Blue (2014) 'Push and Pull Marketing for Growth Hacking' 18 March 2014 [Online] <http://stratablue.com/push-and-pull-marketing-growth-hacking/> [accessed 28 May 2014]

Digital Marketing Consultant (2014) 'Pros and Cons of Digital Marketing' 23 January 2011 [Online] <http://digitalmediaconsult.wordpress.com/2011/01/23/pros-and-cons-of-digital-marketing/> [accessed 28 May 2014]

4 Digital Marketing benefits for Small Business.

                 4 Digital Marketing Benefits for Small Business 

  58% of people are using social networking not only for chatting and reading latest news but also for purchasing products. This means that an online website is crucial for a small business as it give the opportunity to gain more customers and increase profits. Digital Marketing gives the advance to increase business's product and service awareness. So what are the Digital Marketing benefits for small business.

1. Increase Sales and Customers. 

  Through Digital Marketing a business can easily gain new customers and increase profits and sales as are essential for the business to survive. Digital Marketing gives the opportunity to choose the most suitable social network for the company such as website, social media, mobile application, video marketing and more. 

  One important tip is to choose company's segment group but if it has more than one segment group it is fine but it is crucial to create the right offer and adv for the right customer group. An example of small business that is using Digital Marketing is Candy Cupcakes in Leicester. This small business through social networks such as Facebbok and Twitter accounts increase its customers and sales. 

2. Control Competition

Most of the companies that are using Digital Marketing become more and more competitive. A small business through Digital Marketing and Social Networking can easily identify its competitive position within the industry. For example through Google Alerts can find competitors' latest news, products and strategies. 

3. Improve Business Capabilities

Through a website for example a business can communicate with oversea customers and sell its products.   Also can improve business first impression and profile. However a strong profile is needed in order to be advantage and not a disadvantage. For example a supplier might view business profile through a website if it is not attractive and faith might lose the supplier. So STRONG PROFILE AND ATTRACTIVE WEBSITE. 

4. Build business Prestige 

By creating a website customers can find information for the company but also can find information from reading feedback from customers. By joining a third party website such as Tripadvisor can help the company to view more feedback and comments and develop its performance. 

Reference

• Statistic Brain (2014) 'Social Networking Statistics' [Online] <http://www.statisticbrain.com/social-networking-statistics/> [accessed 6 May 2014]
• Richardson, M (2013) ' 4 Benefits of Digital Marketing for Small Business' JDR Group Digital Prosperity, 21 September 2013 [Online] <http://blog.jdrgroup.co.uk/digital-prosperity-blog/bid/337025/4-Benefits-Of-Digital-Marketing-For-Small-Businesses> [accessed 6 May 2014]  

Four New Digital Marketing Models

Booz & Company has identified four new Digital Marketing Models which are equally and successful.

1. Digital Branders.The primary goal of this model is to engage new customers to the brand and driving loyalty through manifold experiences with the brand. Digital Branders frequently are consumer products companies or other companies that focus on developing and renovating brand equity and deeper consumer engagement. These companies are changing their investment to more extraordinary digital multimedia experiences  rather than the traditional linear advertising. The new investment can engage customers to the brand in new approaches.
   
2. Customer Experience Designers.
   Use customer data and insights to produce a greater end - to- end brand experience for their customers. Frequently these companies such as financial -services companies, airlines, hotels and retailers develop their  business models according to customer service. The aim of these companies is to create a close relationship with their customers and build a loyal customer base. 
   
3. Demand Generators. Demand Generators purpose is to driving online traffic and  converting sales towards channels in order to maximize marketing efficiency and increase their profits. Using all digital marketing strategy elements such as; website design, search engine optimization, mobile applications and engagement in social communities in the purpose of modified sales and increase loyalty. In addition are focusing on driving volume and efficiency, emotional branded experiences that Digital Branders pursue.
   
   
4. Product Innovators.The product Innovators use digital marketing to help the organisation to classify, built and roll out new digital products and services. As a result will increase the value of the company.

References

• E,M. P,M. S,S. (2014) 'How to choose the right Digital Marketing Model' Strategy - Business , 27th January 2014 [Online] <http://www.strategy-business.com/article/00241?pg=all> [accessed 25 April,2014] 

Website - Important tool for an organisation.

 
A quality website is an important tool for the success of an organisation.
 
The information below can help you to identify why a website is important and what are the benefits if having it.

• Why?

A quality website can help the company to attract visitors and increase sales. Is a way to capture traffic on the internet. 30% of the world's population is using internet and 21% of people's spending time is on searches, so through a website customers can find information for the organisation without using phone and email and not during business hours. A website is a way to communicate more easily with customers and also customers can easily learn more about the organisation. 

•   Benefits

The first and most important benefit for the organisation is sales. Also since "search engine" is one of the most popular activities on the internet (92%) by operating a website allowed to become accessible around the world.
  Furthermore,through the website the organisation can easily make cheap market research because through the website can create online surveys and visitor pools in order to identify which customers' attracts as a company. Also can identify other useful information such as; geographical position, age and gender. Customers can give feedback to the company in order to satisfy their needs and expectations. 









Refferences 

• Startup Accelerator (2014) ''Why is a quality business website so important" [Online] <http://startupaccelerator.org/blog/why-is-a-quality-business-website-so-important> [accessed 8 April 2014]
• Internet Worlds Stats (2014) Worls Stats [Online] <http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm> [accessed 8 April 2014]
• John Simms (2005) '12 Benefits of having a website' Web World 2005 [Online] <http://www.webworldindex.com/articles/12-Benefits-Of-Having-A-Website.html> [accessed 8 April 2014] 

5 Digital Marketing Mistakes

   Most of the companies around the world are using digital marketing, however, is not just to create a digital marketing the success is to catching up the latest online marketing trends. 
The following  digital marketing mistakes could be avoid in  order to succeed in the long term. 

1.   Letting your website attractive: 

      It is not just to develop a website and spend a big amount of money on it. Websites are created in order to help existing customers and attract new ones. Rule 1: Create and keep attractive website. The success is to be unforgettable, memorable website and not blend in. 

  It is useful to develop a website through a content management system in order to make changes easily without an expert's help. 

2.   Rushing into things. 

  Creating a social media account is easy, however Rule 2: the point is to know your market-how it gonna work, segmentation, what do you want to achieve and how. Each different social media attract different type of people. Company needs to think what social media will choose. 

  if it wishes to create multiple accounts this is good but in the short term if one account is better and has more fans such as Tweeter is more active than Facebook then it needs to keep this active by create attractive tweets. According to that the company needs to make a little research in order to see the most busy time in the network. 

3. Enough and correct resources. 

  Companies have to develop a great social networking accounts with lot's fans. In order to keep this success some tasks are needed. For example a company have to tweet five times a day,share 5 different photos a week on Facebook and upload two videos a week on Youtube. Rule 3: companies have to make soure that have the correct digital marketing team that it will be responsible for the concept of these tasks and to be on time. 

4. SEO Spamming.

   Rule 4:Keywords are important!!!. By using keywords or key phrases in the content company will be at the top of the search engine results. Secondly high quality content is important. Google keeps on giving emphasis that is what they are looking for. 

5. Testing .

 Each people has a different preference, each customer needs something different and prototype in order to be attracted. Rule 5: Try and test different methods and identify which one is more attractive. One small word can make the difference. A good call to action (CTA) is designed to attract customers. The traditional keywords "Buy Now"and "Click Here" are not so effective. 

References:

• Marcy.W(2013) '5 Direct Marketing Mistakes and how to avoid them' Direct Marketing News, 22 October 2013 [Online] <http://www.dmnews.com/5-direct-marketing-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them/article/317389/> [accessed 5 March 2014]
• Jamie Wallis "Marketing"(2014) '5 Digital Marketing Mistakes and how to avoid them' [Online] <http://www.jamiewallis.net/5-digital-marketing-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them/> [accessed 5 March 2014]
• Grimms. K (2013) 'The 5 Most Common Digital Marketing Mistakes' Dash Burist 1 November 2013 [Online] <http://dashburst.com/common-digital-marketing-mistakes/> [accessed 5 March 2014] 

5 Digital Marketing basics

5 Digital Marketing basics

Companies have to take into consideration these five basics in order to built a strong digital marketing.

                     

1.  Brand identification and consistency:

According to Mathew Childs “Understanding what your brand stands for is the north star that should guide all your online activities”. In other words customers has to know the basics information for the company and the company itself has to identifying its brand across all channels such as website, mobile apps, social network and email.

2.  Search marketing:

According to Fleishman-Hillard around 89% of customers use a search engine to find information on products or services before buying and 70% of purchase decisions begin with a search, so the company has to built a well known digital marketing in order to become in the first options in the search engine. 

3.  Content optimization:

According to Martin Smalley “if a website doesn’t have valuable, original content, it won’t perform well. The company has to create an attractive content in order to tend the curiosity to customers. Also Smalley says “Search engines punish websites that don’t have frequently updates content”

4.   Social Media outreach

Social media gives the opportunity to the company to have a conversation with its customers. It acts as an interactive way to communicate with them. Also gives the opportunity to become a well known quicker by invite members to join the company through the social network, to inform them for the latest news and any other information for the company. According to Simona Stefanescu suggests that companies have to pick two or three social media platforms (facebook, Twitter, mobile apps) and concentrate on mastering those. Also suggests that Facebook is the best is like a king because is the largest social media platform in the world and available in most countries.  In addition, Twitter is a good choice for those based on information. 

5.  Sale leads and conversion

The CEO of SocialWise Media Group notes that it takes at least seven separate touches for a customer to respond. In order a company to achieve its goal in digital marketing has to make its customers to become fan of it either on Facebook or twitter, to download a white paper and sign up for its newsletter. This activities build a customer base over a long term.

Another way is Google Analytics which is a way to identify its customer by geographical location also who are its competitors. Google Analytics is free and easy to learn and indispensible according to Smalley.

Refferences:

Seale.S (2014) ‘Digital Marketing –mastering the basics’. The Guardian,14 February 2014  [Online] <http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2013/mar/06/digital-marketing-basics> [accessed 2 March 2014]

Shama.P ( 2013) ‘Introduction to Digital Marketing Game-Changing Techniques.’ Slideshare 20 September 2013 [Online] <http://www.slideshare.net/susioneill/introduction-to-digital-marketing-5642748> [accessed 2 March 2014]