Indian Academy of Digital Marketing

How to Make a Career Choice When You Are Undecided

iadm — Mon, 14 May 2018 07:13:41 +0000

Assess Yourself

Before you can choose the right career, you must learn about yourself. Your values, interests, soft skills, and aptitudes, in combination with your personality type, make some occupations a good fit for you and others completely inappropriate.

Use self-assessment tools, often called career tests, to gather information about your traits and, subsequently generate a list of occupations that are a good fit based on them. Some people choose to work with a career counselor or other career development professionals who can help them navigate this process.

Make a List of Occupations to Explore

You probably have multiple lists of occupations in front of you at this point—one generated by each of the self-assessment tools you used. To keep yourself organized, you should combine them into one master list.

First, look for careers that appear on multiple lists and copy them onto a blank page. Title it “Occupations to Explore.” Your self-assessment indicated they are a good fit for you based on several of your traits, so definitely consider them.

Next, find any occupations on your lists that appeal to you. They may be careers you know a bit about and want to explore further. Also, include professions about which you don’t know much. You might learn something unexpected. Add those to your master list.

Explore the Occupations on Your List

Now get some basic information about each of the occupations on your list. You will be thrilled you managed to narrow your list down to only 10 to 20 options!

Find job descriptions and educational, training and licensing requirements in published sources. Learn about advancement opportunities. Use government-produced labor market information to get data about earnings and job outlook.

Create a “Short List”

At this point, start to narrow down your list even more. Based on what you learned from your research so far, begin eliminating the careers you don’t want to pursue any further. You should end up with fewer than two to five occupations on your “short list.”

If your reasons for finding a career unacceptable are non-negotiable, cross it off your list. Remove everything with duties that don’t appeal to you. Eliminate careers that have weak job outlooks. Get rid of any occupation if you are unable to or unwilling to fulfill the educational or other requirements, or if you lack some of the soft skills necessary to succeed in it.

Conduct Informational Interviews

When you have only a few occupations left on your list, start doing more in-depth research. Arrange to meet with people who work in the occupations in which you are interested. They can provide firsthand knowledge about the careers on your short list. Access your network, including LinkedIn, to find people with whom to have these informational interviews.

Make Your Career Choice

Finally, after doing all your research, you are probably ready to make your choice. Pick the occupation that you think will bring you the most satisfaction based on all the information you have gathered. Realize that you are allowed do-overs if you change your mind about your choice at any point in your life. Many people change their careers at least a few times.

Identify Your Goals

Once you make a decision, identify your long- and short-term goals. Doing this will allow you to eventually work in your chosen field. Long-term goals typically take about three to five years to reach, while you can usually fulfill a short-term goal in six months to three years.

Let the research you did about required education and training be your guide. If you don’t have all the details, do some more research. Once you have all the information you need, set your goals. An example of a long-term goal would be completing your education and training. Short-term goals include applying to college, apprenticeships, or other training programs, and doing internships.

Write a Career Action Plan

Put together a career action plan, a written document that lays out all the steps you will have to take to reach your goals. Think of it as a roadmap that will take you from point A to B, and then to C and D. Write down all your short- and long-term goals and the steps you will have to take to reach each one. Include any anticipated barriers that could get in the way of achieving your goals and the ways you can overcome them.

Top reasons to choose digital marketing as a career

iadm — Mon, 07 May 2018 06:12:21 +0000

As I’m writing this article, the number of internet users across the globe is 3,567,365, 887 and counting. Even in India, fueled by internet penetration in rural areas, the number of internet users is set to see a two-fold rise standing at 730 million by 2020 against the 350 million at the end of 2015. These are just a few numbers that indicate the influence that internet and allied forces bear on our lives today.

With increased internet usage over the last few years, the digital and social media landscape in India has witnessed a paradigm shift. About 87 per cent brands leverage digital and 38 per cent of them allocate a whopping 1/3rd of their budget to digital marketing. This only mirrors the fact that more and more businesses are embracing digital to attract, engage and transact with their customers and this is being aided by increasing investments in better internet connectivity and growth in internet and social media usage.

The reason for this enthusiasm for digital marketing is simple: digital marketing is perhaps the only cost-effective and most viable method to get your message out and build a solid consumer base. It is not only great value for your money, but also, the barrier to enter and scale up are miniscule compared to traditional media. In other words, you can have great impact on a limited budget which has leveled the playing field between big and small companies, thereby giving a great fighting chance to new talent to compete with the biggies, without fear of being trampled.

Here are six reasons to drive my thoughts further.

1. You’ll be in high demand

No matter what field of business you are in, marketing is going to be the true winner. Yes, product development is important but if you don’t understand your customers’ needs and communicate them the benefits of your product, how will you sell it? Marketing and sales are the only functions within a business that provide instantaneous measurable ROI.

I was reported that 85 per cent marketers are tracking revenues generated through digital marketing with 50 per cent of them reporting that e-Marketing activities are contributing more than 10 per cent of their revenues. This just goes to show the growing influence of digital marketing. Things were different a few years back, when businesses were busy building breakthrough products. Today, product development has become easier and faster with outsourcing and better technologies. The only way a company stands out in the crowd is through concrete marketing activities.

Not just companies, even political leaders are greatly relying on digital marketing to grow their influence. The unseen hand of digital marketing is what is behind Narendra Modi or Donald Trump’s sensational campaigns.

Good digital marketers who can conduct high-quality campaigns help build brands from scratch. Eighty per cent of Indian marketers believe that integrated campaigns on email, social and mobile can result in significant increase in conversion rates. The sudden diffusion of smartphones, hand held devices and access to high speed internet has changed how media is consumed, thus altering people’s buying behavior. But there are not enough highly proficient digital marketeers out in the market. Remember, it’s this scarcity that has created great demand.

2. Lucrative job opportunities
What follows is anybody’s guess : when supply is less while demand is more, it goes without saying that a good digital marketer will get big bucks. Plus, the higher you go up the ladder, so does your pay scale.

3. Laying the groundwork to help you become an entrepreneur
A lot of product heavy startups bootstrap, raise capital from their savings, inheritance or through investors and are able to build a product in a couple of months. However, if you don’t know how to market that product, the business just won’t take off. When marketing is done right, scaling the business is easier.
Your experience in digital marketing, will not only get you better job opportunities, but will be immensely helpful if you plan to become entrepreneur in the near future. You will understand of customers’ needs better, evaluate market fitness of products and assess demand in the market. You will also be sensitive to the changing needs of your customers and their perceptions.

4. It’s a challenging job but equally exhilarating
Digital marketing is not for everyone. If you’re weak hearted, you’ll not be able to handle the uneven territory that comes with marketing. With new online campaigns, you could succeed or you could falter. Over a period of time, as and when you figure out what works, you scale up.
Nevertheless, the other interesting aspect is because you will be working around the internet, where you work from is not crucial as long as your work is accomplished. Who wouldn’t want to be the master of their time?

5. Choose what sector interests you.

Digital marketing is a huge industry and there is a lot going on under the umbrella. You can hold a multitude of roles in digital marketing for a wide variety of dispositions and skills. You can become content or email marketer, social media or mobile marketer, e-commerce executive, inbound marketer, a SEO or PPC executive or you can be an online PR expert. Isn’t it always great to have more to choose from?

6. No specific educational background

This, in my opinion, is the biggest testament to the democratisation that digital media has brought into our jobs market: that you don’t need a specific set of qualifications to be able to pursue digital marketing. Your passion, not qualification, matter. The best part is you don’t have to begin your career from scratch if you want to make it big in the business. All you need is passion.

Here I would like to add a quote by Swami Vivekananda. He’d said,”Stand up, be bold, be strong. Take the whole responsibility on your own shoulders and know that you’re the creator of your own destiny.” If you’re really serious about it, digital marketing can do wonders to your career and take you places. Its dynamic, progressive, well-paid and a critical part of the industry now.

Where Can Email Marketing Take Your Career?

iadm — Thu, 03 May 2018 04:43:55 +0000

Recent conversations with network contacts brought up the topic of career progression for email marketers. This got me thinking about all the possible paths an email marketer can take over the course of his or her career.

It’s quite all right to be a lifelong email marketer, since demand is certainly high. Many, however, want to leverage their skills to advance down a different path.

If you’re an all-knowing specialist/generalist in email marketing, here are ideas on where you can take your career next:

If you’re strong in analytics:
Because data is the core of any good email program, many email marketers are inherently strong in using, interpreting and reporting on data. Analytics work is in high demand, especially with the uptick in the amount of data brands have to manage and make sense of. Machine learning will only make jobs in this area more in demand.

Jobs to search for: Marketing analyst (or even analysts in other functional areas like finance), data scientist, data modeler and various management levels relating to those roles.

If you’re highly technical:
Email marketers often have to code, manage/move data, and build out complex solutions that require a lot of technical expertise. It’s fairly easy to translate those skills into technology jobs that are in email or entirely different functional areas of business.

Jobs to search for: Database administrator (DBA), email developer, web developer, software engineer, solution consultant/architect, business analyst, content architect and various management levels relating to those roles.

If you’re highly creative:
Every email requires some level of creative thought process and production. Content in both images and words is a large factor in driving an email’s success. Take the portfolio of emails you’ve created and use that to springboard into a creative-focused role.

Jobs to search for: Email designer, Web designer, creative director, Web copywriter and various management levels relating to those roles.

If you love operational processes:
To get an email campaign out the door requires rigorous management of process and people. It also requires an understanding and implementation of privacy regulations and deliverability best practices.

Jobs to search for: Deliverability consultant, privacy officer, marketing operations manager, marketing project manager and various management levels relating to those roles.

If big-picture thinking is your strength:
Strategic thinking plays a big role in how effective an email program can be. It takes an understanding of the marketplace, consumers and a company’s abilities to deliver a good experience.

It’s easy to translate this into a more strategic business role within email and other areas of business.

Jobs to search for: Email strategy consultant, digital strategist, marketing strategist, business consultant, retention marketing manager, relationship marketing manager, brand manager and various management levels relating to those roles — all the way up to chief marketing officer or chief strategy officer.

If you can’t bear to lose “email” in your title, but want to progress:
If you’re an email specialist and you simply love thinking with both sides of your brain and managing all aspects of email marketing from start to finish, you should consider building people management skills and running a team. You can also make a case to take on other channels as part of your area of responsibility, such as SMS and push notifications, since they align well with email.

Jobs to search for: Email marketing manager and email marketing director.

Some of the aforementioned categories may overlap a bit. The point is, there are a lot of career options for email marketers.

10 Tips on How To Kick-Start Your Digital Marketing Career

iadm — Mon, 30 Apr 2018 05:25:49 +0000

If you’re looking to break into the digital marketing industry, there’s no better time than now. According to the government, the digital economy is growing 10 times faster than the traditional economy which will result in a skills gap of 900,000 vacancies by 2015.

We’ve compiled our top tips for aspiring digital marketers who wish to kick-start their digital marketing career today.

1) Eagerness to learn

The digital marketing industry is both fast growing and incredibly competitive. It’s easy for businesses to differentiate between candidates who have the willingness to learn, and who are along for the ride. This industry requires passion and a desire to succeed.

2) Stay Updated

You need to keep on top of industry news by following major digital marketing sites and influential people on social media. As the major players such as Google, Facebook and Twitter regularly tweak their paid advertising platforms and algorithms, you’re in for a wild ride if you don’t keep on top of the latest changes.

Here’s some recommendations on websites to get started –

SEO – Moz, Distilled, SEOGadget, Search Engine Land

PPC – PPC Hero, Search Engine Land

Social Media – Social Media Examiner, Social Media Today

Content – Hubspot

3) Networking

Surround yourself with people more talented than yourself. The people you meet will be your ongoing support network when you run into problems, as well as help to open doors to opportunities you might not have otherwise found.

Attend industry meetups and conferences in your area to nurture relationships with other digital marketers and enhance your skill set through in-depth workshops and presentations.

4) Personal Projects

Try out your own ideas and don’t just treat industry leaders’ opinions as gospel. Everything isn’t always black and white in the digital marketing industry with many grey areas between best practice and what can actually get results for a business.

Every digital marketer should have personal projects to test out theories, try their hand at multiple disciplines (SEO, PPC, Social Media, Content Marketing etc.) and be able to take accountability for the success or failure of a project.

5) Learn the terminology

Digital marketers needs to be comfortable with acronyms such as PPC, SEM and SEO. They are all very different terms with a misunderstanding of them being a clear sign that you have a beginner’s skill set and need further training. The ability to analyse digital marketing campaigns and understand what elements worked or not is dependent on your ability to understand industry jargon.

6) Build your personal brand

Fancy yourself as a digital marketing hotshot but you have no visible online presence? If you want to show to an employer that you can build their company’s visibility then you need to show that you can firstly build your own personal brand.

A strong online presence could potentially be the deciding factor between two candidates who have applied for the same position.

7) T-Shaped Marketer

As a term commonly used by Rand Fishkin of Moz, it refers to having a basic understanding of multiple marketing disciplines but specializing in one or two particular skills.

It’s not uncommon for companies to find candidates with a broad digital marketing skill set to be a valuable asset as there’s considerable cross over between the different channels. It will also make you better equipped for choosing a more specific path of focus that you can specialize in.

8) Get Nerdy

Digital marketing can often be perceived to be quite glamorous, but truth be told it’s often more technical and data driven than we would care to admit. You won’t be developing websites from scratch but you will be communicating your marketing strategy to a team of developers or designers who have a responsibility for incorporating your recommendations.

A basic knowledge of HTML and graphic design would help to make you stand out among the less technically minded candidates.

9) Metrics are King

Do you know your CPC from your CPA? If you want to set yourself apart in an interview, talk about the return on ad spend for a campaign you’ve run yourself. It’s easy to talk about an exciting creative concept you’ve helped to develop but the fact remains…money talks.

You really need to understand how each marketing channel has performed and what the key learnings have been.

10) Certification

If you really want to stand out from your peers in the industry, completing a certified digital marketing course will help. One of the issues facing the digital marketing industry is that there are no barriers to entry, meaning that anyone with a loose grasp of industry terminology can potentially get a position in a company.

As this industry matures, recruiters are becoming more savvy about what differentiates a candidate that can talk the talk, but maybe will be a costly mistake for the company.

Social Media Marketing as Career

iadm — Thu, 26 Apr 2018 06:34:44 +0000

What is Social Media Marketing?

Social media marketing utilizes social media programs like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to promote products, businesses and brands. Social media has become one the most important platforms for marketers as businesses become increasingly aware of their importance. With over a billion users worldwide, these social networks provide unparalleled power in raising consumer awareness.

Businesses are positioning themselves on social media in order to optimize its many advantages

Brand building–Companies can increase brand recognition through conventional and emerging marketing strategies, like mobile social networking and viral marketing.
Interactivity–Social media allows consumers to respond almost immediately to business actions and behavior. This can hurt sales or reputation if employees say or do something the online community objects to, but it can help foster strong support for a company if handled successfully. Consumer input allows marketing and production teams to develop and refine their plans.
Consumer anticipation–A successful marketing campaign on Facebook can precede the rollout of a new product. This can heighten consumer awareness and positive buzz about this new product and be instrumental in its success.
Marketing effectiveness–Careful analysis of consumer response to marketing initiatives are an invaluable part of social media marketing. The enhanced capacity for consumers to dialogue with marketers makes social media a truly powerful platform.
Broad reach–The number of consumers who spend at least a portion of their free time on these sites is intended to increase as more companies and individuals become aware of its social and business importance.
Creativity–Many companies are harnessing the power of social media to utilize consumer generated marketing ideas in their own ad campaigns. The free lines of communication permit marketers to augment the effectiveness of their marketing ideas by integrating creative approaches that the millions of people online produce.
Low cost–Social media influence is based on ideas and content. A successful marketing campaign can successfully reach millions of new customers with an innovative idea that would be cost prohibitive on most other platforms.

Social media is characterized by the democratization of the millions of users that visit such sites. People from all walks of life can propagate important ideas through these online forums. From producing buzz about a new iPhone to overthrowing an Arab dictatorship, social media allows individuals and businesses to achieve great power and influence with an idea or product that captures the imagination of the masses.

In order to maximize the use of these powerful platforms, social media marketers must be able to possess some key qualities

Proficiency with social media–There is a great deal of complexity lying beneath the surface of these user friendly programs, and successful marketers must be able to analyze and anticipate changes in their technical structures. Extensive experience in the most popular social media sites and tools like Google, Radian6, and TweetDeck are essential.
Technological expertise–Marketing professionals must possess knowledge of HTML, CSS, and other programming languages. They should also be able to acquire knowledge of emerging technologies like mobile devices.
Creativity–Marketing in this channel requires innovation in addition to technical expertise. As more companies turn to social media campaigns, user desensitization will begin to cull the stale ideas and thinkers from the successful pioneers.
Problem solving talents–Evaluating and utilizing complicated market research requires the ability digest large quantities of data and produce effective marketing strategies.
Superior communication skills–Marketers must be able to distribute information in easily digestible messages to consumers, clients, and business partners.

Social Media Marketing Professionals

Due to recent emergence of social media as a viable marketing platform, the educational requirements for social media marketers remain unclear. The majority of professionals in this career track possess a Bachelor’s degree in marketing, graphic design, web development, information technology or communications. There are a number of Master’s in Business Administration programs that offer coursework in social media marketing that may be essential for professionals seeking a management or executive position. The majority of successful professionals in this field must exercise their own initiative in finding online resources to advance their knowledge of social media programs and tools.

Industries of Employment

Social media marketing initiatives can be found in virtually any industry as companies routinely establish a presence on the major social programs of Facebook, Twitter and others. The industries that have shown the most success through sales generation from social media activity are retail (18%), information (17%), arts and entertainment (15%) and finance and insurance (11%), according to the 2012 The State of Social Media Marketing Report. The number of people who are on social network rose from 400 million in 2007 to 1.2 billion in 2011, and this number is expected to increase in the future, as mobile devices keep social media users connected almost continuously. eMarketer reports that 58.5 million Americans used social media through a mobile device in 2012 and this number is expected to balloon to 79.1 million by 2015.

The enormous expansion and influence of social media will mirror a growing investment from businesses. According a 2011 study by IBM, 82% of Chief Marketing Officers polled planned to increase investment in social marketing campaigns in the next three years. This indicates widespread and growing enthusiasm for businesses to engage in social media marketing.

The number of positions in social media marketing should multiply rapidly as more companies enter this marketing channel and energize growth in the industry. According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of jobs in social media marketing is expected to increase by 21% for 2013, which translates into tens of thousands of jobs in this career field.

Salary

The annual income of a social media marketing professional can differ significantly due to geographical location, industry of employment, educational background and years of experience. Due to the relative recent development of social media as a marketing channel, the most highly paid marketing professionals exhibit breadth of knowledge about social media programs and tools.

According to Indeed.com a social media strategist in New York City could expect a salary from $55,000 to $103,000 in 2011, while a similar position in Phoenix, Arizona could earn from $36,000 to $68,000. A social media marketing manager in New York City could receive from $73,000 to $116,000, while a marketing professional in a similar position in Phoenix, AZ could expect $48,000 to $77,000.

The majority of entry level positions in social media marketing pay from $24,566 to $36,625. Social media marketing positions are expected to increase, but a disproportionate number of these will be in entry level jobs, while competition for the few management positions should increase dramatically.

Professional Associations

There are a number of internet marketing professional associations that include social media marketers and provide support to the industry.

Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization
American Marketing Association
Business Marketing Association
eMarketing Association
Digital Marketing Association

These organizations can be critical in establishing relationships with prospective clients, employers and industry experts. Networking is a vital activity for a successful social media marketing career and professional organizations can be instrumental in their development.

Social media marketers are also encouraged to seek out professional associations in their region or metropolitan area, as they may have information about local marketing conditions.

Effective Facebook marketing Tips

iadm — Mon, 23 Apr 2018 06:29:09 +0000

1. Optimize Your Profile Picture and Cover Photo

The first step for any marketing team using Facebook is creating an optimized profile picture and cover photo.

Your profile picture should be:

A high-resolution photo of your company’s logo.
Sized down to a 180px x 180px square.
Still be recognizable viewing it on a mobile or tablet device. Remember your profile picture is the first thing that your audience sees in their newsfeed. Your logo should still be distinguishable in a small size.

Your cover photo should be:

Within the same theme as your profile picture.
Should tell a more comprehensive story about who your organization is. This could be through taglines, product photos & more.
Sized correctly to allow your audience to see the full photo. Right now the optimum size for a cover photo (or video) on Facebook is 815px x 215px.

2. Fill Out Your Facebook Bio

There are no shortcuts when it comes to your social media marketing. That means you need to fill out your Facebook bio.

A business’s Facebook bio is broken into multiple parts including:

About Section

The first part of your Facebook profile is easy to fill out. It should include your company name, when your organization was founded, a phone number and email for people to contact you and a link to your website.

3. Set a Consistent Posting Schedule

Consistently posting to your Facebook page helps get your audience into a rhythm. If they see that you share new content on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at noon, it will help remind them to check in.

According to 14 different studies, you should be posting to Facebook at least once per day:

4. Schedule Your Posts at the Optimum Time

Facebook’s algorithm makes it difficult for companies to reach their full audience because newsfeeds are continually reshuffling content and limiting the organic reach of your company’s post.

To maximize the life of your content, you should schedule your posts to publish at the best time.

According to our research, we found that scheduling your posts at 9 am, 1 pm and 3 pm will give your content the best chance at attracting more eyeballs:

5. Use Video To Attract Your Audience

Tons of advice try and tell you what the best content type is for posting on Facebook. It ranges between images, videos, and links. Here’s the truth.

As of 2017 videos are the most reliable type of content that your team can publish. Why? Because the current Facebook algorithm pushes them to the top of your audience’s newsfeed.

Let’s not forget Facebook just launched “Facebook Watch” a host platform that allows users to upload video series instead of only stand-alone videos:

6. Use Facebook Advertising To Boost The Reach of Your Posts

If you want to guarantee you’ll have eyeballs on your content you need to use Facebook advertising and boosted posts.

Those eyeballs don’t come cheap, and it’s up to your social team to determine how much money you’re willing to spend to get your posts in front of people.

Check out this video from Hubspot to see how Facebook advertising works:

What Is Social Media Marketing?

iadm — Thu, 19 Apr 2018 09:34:21 +0000

Social media itself is a catch-all term for sites that may provide radically different social actions. For instance, Twitter is a social site designed to let people share short messages or “updates” with others. Facebook, in contrast is a full-blown social networking site that allows for sharing updates, photos, joining events and a variety of other activities.

How Are Search & Social Media Marketing Related?

Why would a search marketer — or a site about search engines — care about social media? The two are very closely related.

Social media often feeds into the discovery of new content such as news stories, and “discovery” is a search activity. Social media can also help build links that in turn support into SEO efforts. Many people also perform searches at social media sites to find social media content. Social connections may also impact the relevancy of some search results, either within a social media network or at a ‘mainstream’ search engine.

Social Media Marketing At Marketing Land

Marketing Land is the sister site to Search Engine Land that covers all facets of internet marketing, including these popular topics within social media marketing:

Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
Pinterest
Linkedin
YouTube
Social Media Marketing How To Guides & more!

To keep up with social media marketing, subscribe to our weekly Social Media Marketing digest and Marketing Day daily recap newsletters, with the latest articles from Marketing Land and Search Engine Land, as well as the day’s news sources all over the web.

Digital Marketing Facts

iadm — Mon, 16 Apr 2018 06:00:30 +0000

In this age of rapid technological advancement the world of marketing is seeing many changes. Digital marketing is now essential in order to keep up with the changing times, and the biggest trend in digital marketing is going mobile. With that being said, we’ve put together a list of fun digital marketing facts essential for marketers and entrepreneurs. Enjoy!

Email Marketing

In the last 6 months email opened by mobile devices increased 80% worldwide.
Emails with no subject line were 8% more likely to be opened than those with.
Average yield for email marketing is $44.25 on the dollar.
85% would prefer leaving their email address for an e-book than a tweet.
42% of consumers say familiarity with the senders name influences whether or not they will open a promotional email.

Blogs and Content Marketing

Blogs have 63% more influence over purchasing decisions than the newspaper.
Companies that blog more than 15 times per month get 5 times the traffic.
The average length of a top ten page has 2000 words.
If a post is longer than 1,500 words it will likely have 68.1% more tweets and 22.6% more Facebook likes.
Posts with 10-18 word titles receive more likes.
Articles with photographs receive 94% more views.
Infographics allow companies to grow by 12% on average.
After increasing the number of pages on their site from 10-15, companies saw an average increase in sales leads of 55%.
47% of Americans say that Facebook is the number one influence over their purchases (social media today).
78% of CMO’s believe that custom content is the future of marketing.

Video

Using video on landing pages increases conversions by 86%.
Videos receive 267% more links than other posts.
58% of people will stop watching a video within the first 90 seconds.
20% of visitors read text on your page, 80% will watch a video.
A prospective customer is 144% more likely to buy when there’s a product video featured.

Mobile

50% of all searches begin on a mobile device.
88% of mobile searches are for local businesses.
46% of adults prefer to use their mobile devices to search for items before purchasing them over their desktops or laptops.
Mobile traffic has a growth rate of 125%, desktop traffic is growing at a rate of 12%.
By 2018 6.2 million people will have mobile devices.
173 million US consumers have a smartphone.
81% of smartphone users research products or services on their devices.
74% of mobile users make internet searches before making a purchase.

Now that you know that stats, would you like some assistance developing your online presence? If so, give us a call and our talented team of professionals will be happy to assist your business in achieving its goals.

The 4 Big Benefits of Having a Digital Marketing Career

iadm — Fri, 13 Apr 2018 05:39:41 +0000

By now you’ve probably heard the hype – digital marketing skills are in serious demand and the digital skills gap is set to widen, the job market is booming (and quite frankly bursting at the seams) and brands are putting more of a focus on digital marketing than ever before. Bigger budgets, increased pay and more career choice are just some of the benefits digital marketing professionals can look forward to this year and beyond.

Debating over whether to change career direction or what to study next? You might want to discover the four big digital marketing benefits first. They’re good, we promise.

1. Become an In-Demand Professional

You’ve heard of the digital skills gap, right? There’s 150,000 digital jobs predicted by 2020 and not enough digital professionals to fill them. This provides those studying digital marketing with a unique competitive advantage – you’re gearing yourself up for a career where demand exceeds supply. Always a good move.

During the recession recent graduates were plunged into a world of uncertainty, job scarcity and all around terribleness. Wouldn’t it be nice to gain a fresh set of skills that could future-proof your career, increase your job security and even enhance your career progression?

The most important thing for you is that you need to take back control of your career and reestablish the confidence you lost during the recession. Remember this: companies still want your valuable skills – you might just need to turn them digital. According to Mondo demand for digital marketing professionals will rise by 38% this year. It’s time you took advantage.

2. Benefit from More Career Choice

The headquarters of many of the world’s leading digital giants like Google, LinkedIn and Twitter are located in Dublin, providing a wealth of job opportunities for digital professionals to choose from. Rarely a week goes by without a new onslaught of digital jobs announced for multinationals, national brands and even SMEs.

For example, this year Ryanair created 200 digital jobs, many of which were digital marketing positions. At the Web Summit Taoiseach Enda Kenny also announced 400 new digital jobsacross a range of digital marketing roles, including social media. What’s more, LinkedIn is soon set to double its workforce to 1200 staff and Microsoft plan to hire 100 more digital graduates.

With such a wide array of new opportunities available digital marketers can afford to get picky about the type of company they’d like to work for. We’d encourage you to take advantage of this choice and think of what kind of business best suits your career needs.

3. Get Paid More Than Your Peers

We’ve already talked about how demand for digital marketing professionals is exceeding supply. In traditional economics we all know what happens next – the value of the product increases along with the price. When you’re working in a fruitful industry with a large skills shortage you can think of yourself like a commodity – and negotiate your salary accordingly.

A recent survey by Prosperity found that digital salaries are rising faster in 2014 than in the previous five years. What’s more, the pace of growth is set to fasten. For example, the average salary for a digital marketing manager in Dublin is €68,00. And it’s not just managerial level digital marketing positions experiencing a salary surge – entry level PPC positions have jumped from €25,000 last year to €28,000 this year.

The 2014 Marketing Salary survey by The Marketing Institute and Alternatives confirmed the positive findings. The survey revealed quite a few exciting advancements for digital marketing professionals. Here are our favorites: 50% of respondents received a salary increase this year, two-thirds received bonuses and 61% said their businesses are hiring again.

4. You Can KickStart Your Own Career

In more traditional careers like advertising you’d have to wait for a coveted internship or graduate placement to open up so you can gain experience and create your own portfolio. The digital marketing world, however, provides a host of opportunities for you to kickstart your own career before you even set foot in a workplace.

Want to to stand out to potential employers? Invest in building a powerful social media presence, gain your own Twitter followers, start your own blog and contribute to relevant online conversations.There are a whole host of online exams like the Google Analytics examand HubSpot’s Inbound Certification exam you can take to boost your CV and showcase your digital marketing knowledge.

There have been plenty of examples of people who have been hired after showcasing their talent and abilities through social media. For example, Dublin based fashion illustrator, Holly Shortall got noticed when she tweeted her illustrations to celebrities online. A number of of glossy magazines and top fashion brands then approached her and commissioned her work.

20 SEO Benefits

iadm — Mon, 09 Apr 2018 06:25:47 +0000

This list of SEO benefits will blow your mind. You will be thankful you read this.

Every business needs to invest in search engine optimization. Search engine optimization is the process of optimizing your website to maximize organic traffic from search engines. The leading search engines are Google, YouTube, Bing, and Yahoo.

This blog is a warning to everyone that does not have an effective SEO strategy. You are making a huge mistake by not leveraging all of the below SEO benefits.

You are losing money every day your website is not optimized in the search engines.

Here’s why.

1. There are people searching for your products or services on search engines

There are over 2 billion people online. 93% of online activities start on a search engine. There are 40,000 searches every second, and 3.5 billion searches per day. There are millions of opportunities for your business to become found on search engines. One of the most important benefits of SEO is that your customers are using search engines daily.

2. SEO pulls-in quality traffic
Traffic on search engines is the best traffic. Why? Because people are actually searching for the problem you solve. You can “pull” traffic to your business. You do not have to “push” out advertisements to persuade people to buy. Search traffic is already interested in your products and services. This is why the SEO industry is worth $65 billion.

3. SEO traffic is more likely to convert

SEO traffic is more likely to convert than other sources of traffic. In fact, search traffic has the best conversion rates for most websites. By positioning yourself on search engines, you are positioning your business to win more conversions.

4. SEO increases sales and leads

SEO is not a myth. You will increase your leads and sales if you offer a viable product or service. One small business generated over $103,510.98 worth of SEO results in just 5 months.

However, you must invest in the best SEO strategy. With a winning SEO campaign, your business will be on it’s way to higher conversions.

5. SEO can decrease your cost per acquisition

Another benefit of SEO is that it is “free”. It is far less expensive than advertising to acquire customers. The only costs in SEO are the costs to hire the best SEO company. Unless you have experience in website coding and Google algorithms, you will need an SEO firm or agency to grow your rankings.

6. SEO does not involve any paid advertising

You do not have to advertise if you have strong SEO standings. You can increase your website traffic without having to pay per click. An effective SEO strategy can help you scale back your advertising dollars, and invest it in more efficient areas.

7. Top SEO rankings provides 24/7 promotion

SEO is 24/7. It does not sleep. Your rankings do not disappear overnight. You can increase your website traffic all day, every day. Once you rank high in search engines, they will promote your business while you are sleeping.

8. SEO builds trust and credibility

People trust Google. They use it every day to find what they are looking for. By ranking high on search engines, your business will build trust and credibility with your audience. In fact, 37% of search engine clicks are on the first organic listing. Major SEO Benefit is that if your websites ranks first people will trust and in a way your business will get a boost.

9. SEO is a long-term strategy

SEO is a long-term strategy. It can take 6-12 months to see optimal rankings. However, just as it takes time to move up the rankings, it takes time to move down the rankings. Once you are placed in top positions, you rarely move down. The only reason this would change is due to rising SEO competition or changes in Google algorithm.

10. SEO makes your customers more informed

Your customers are using search engines to research. They use their findings to help them make informed decisions on available options. High SEO rankings allows you to educate potential customers. This indirectly builds trust, but most importantly helps them make an informed decision.

11. SEO influences purchasing decisions

SEO significantly influences purchasing decisions. This is because of the developed trust and credibility mentioned in our prior points. Use SEO to improve your conversions by significantly influencing the purchasing decisions of those on the web.

12. SEO increases your brand awareness and equity

Conversions aside, SEO will also build your brand equity. In other words, SEO will help people become aware of your brand. Awareness is important because your website visitors may not always be ready to purchase. However, by being aware of your offerings, they may purchase in the near future.Increasing your brand awareness and equity is one of the major SEO benefit.

13. SEO increases customer attribution or “touches”

While your awareness is increasing, SEO will simultaneously increase your customer attribution points. Attribution is the amount of times your audience sees your brand. The more times they see your business, the more likely they are to purchase from your business. Strong SEO rankings will help you dramatically increase your touch points with potential buyers.

14. SEO receives 90% more clicks than PPC

SEO trumps paid advertising. This is because organic SEO listings receive 90% of clicks. Many users of search engines tend to skip paid advertisements. This is most likely due to their trust in Google’s algorithm. By investing in SEO, you will likely gain more traffic than the advertisers on the same keywords.

15. SEO can increase your website referrals

SEO will increase your website referrals. You will gain more website referrals from search engines. In addition, your website visitors are likely to refer your website to their friends. A strong SEO presence will you grow referrals, literally and figuratively!

16. SEO is measurable

One of the most effective SEO benefit is that SEO is measurable. You can measure your conversions and the source of conversions. You can also measure the progression of your website rankings and organic traffic. With the right tools (or SEO company), you will be able to measure which search keywords are the most valuable to your business.

17. SEO drives offline sales

Do your customers do research online before visiting your store? Of course they do! Because most people do their research online, SEO also drives offline sales. This is because they are using search engines to do their research, but may visit your store or make a phone call to actually buy your products. Therefore, SEO is a major contributor to driving offline sales.

18. SEO is more cost-effective than paid advertising

This is a no-brainer. SEO is more cost-effective than paid advertising. Once you rank high on search engines, you do not have to pay for clicks from search engines. Pause your PPC advertising campaigns and let #1 SEO rankings drive more results.

19.Your competitors are using SEO to grow

Kill or be killed. Your customers start their internet journey with a search. Your competitors are using search to grow their business. Sooner or later, if you are not using search to grow your business, you will not have a business!

20. SEO can give smaller businesses an edge on larger companies

If you operate a small business, you may find that it is tough to outspend larger competitors in AdWords. However, an effective SEO strategy may be your way to gain higher rankings. While larger companies rely on advertising, you can rely on a savvy SEO strategy to go in the back door to acquire customers. SEO benefits can be seen by the small business as well as large business.