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Category: Paid Search

B2B Marketing Requires the Right Agency Expertise
For B2B marketers, digital has evolved to become a major driver of success. One-third of businesses are planning to introduce a digital transformation program, while thirty per cent of businesses have already taken that route.

There are huge opportunities in organic search, and a growing need to focus on paid ads. According to Webbiquity, 71 percent of companies plan to increase their digital marketing spend this year. This is good news, given the number of platforms putting the spotlight on sponsored content. There’s also a more pressing need to invest in high-quality content, particularly in increasingly competitive B2B markets.

Digital marketing services are essential

There are two key reasons why businesses must have digital marketing support.

First, digital marketing gives you the insight you need to customize your content and deliver a meaningful message. We’ve always known that understanding your customers is the most important aspect of marketing to them, and tailoring content is one of the best ways to speak to a customer in a timely and relevant way. You need support to track customers’ journeys and step in at the appropriate time.

The second reason is equally important. When it comes to any form of marketing, businesses need to see ROI. And with digital marketing, we can provide proof. We can set goals, measure results, and drill down to figure out where more work is needed. We can look at each channel in turn and figure out how it’s contributing to the success of the overall strategy.

Key components you need to consider

When you’re looking ahead to digital transformation, or consulting a digital marketing provider, an integrated approach is very important. Selecting the right elements is critical, but so is meshing them together effectively.
- For time-pressed businesses, automation is an obvious route to consider. Marketing automation has moved away from being heavy-handed and potentially spammy, and is now very good at targeting customers based on trigger actions, supporting near-instant delivery of focused content.
- Keeping the brand top of mind is still very important, and this is where content supports lead generation and drives increased sales. Digital marketing is ideal for increasing brand awareness and developing tests that can be used for continual content optimization.
- Finally, don’t forget social media. It’s evolving, but it’s still essential. Likes and shares may be less important, but it’s still critical in developing a dialog with customers and nurturing a relationship over time. According to Social Media Today, just 20 percent of social media content should be geared towards brand awareness. The other 80 percent should generate the conversations and shares you need to connect personally with an audience.
Choosing the right digital marketing partner

Now, you understand the need for digital marketing. You can see the components you’ll have to implement. The last piece in the puzzle is choosing the right partner to deliver results.

We have three specific recommendations.
- A good marketing agency should understand your goals for growth and provide a unique strategy. You may want to increase sales; equally, you may want to raise brand image. Each set of priorities requires a different approach to achieve that upwards trend, and your agency needs to be fully on board with it.
- You’re also going to need an agency that can show you the ROI we mentioned earlier. It’s great to get verbal feedback, but hard figures are the only way to measure success. That means getting data about the cost of digital marketing across your chosen channels, data about how activities are converting, and data that clearly shows where your money is best spent. Can your agency produce these reports, and provide evidence to back up its claims?
- Finally, your agency needs to be honest with you. They need to be a true partner, provide feedback and make suggestions. A really good agency will stop you in your tracks if they have a better suggestion. Remember: this might mean you have to flex your ideas about what digital marketing entails, or be prepared to tweak your budget allocations to support the ways of working the agency suggests.
Position² Can Deliver

Position² is a trustworthy digital marketing agency with a proven track record of results across its entire service catalog. If it’s time to implement your digital transformation project, or re-launch your digital marketing strategy, Position² is ideally placed to provide the results your business expects.
March 18, 2016
Which Social Media Sites are B2B Buyers Using?
Social media has had a huge influence on the way we live and work. For marketers, social media has allowed brands to start conversations practically in real time. It allows any business to engage with its audience in ways that were simply not possible 10 years ago. The ripple effect is felt across both B2C and B2B marketing.

The social landscape is continuously evolving, and different platforms offer different—and changing—opportunities. But regardless of which platforms brands choose to use in their campaigns, social media will be one of the most affordable and effective methods at their disposal.

Whatever the size of your business, you can tap into its potential and achieve impressive results—and social media’s influence on B2B purchases should not be underestimated.

Who’s on social media in 2016?

Social networks attract users of all ages, from all demographics across the globe.

The number of young adults on social media has increased massively over the last decade. In 2005, around 12 per cent of this age group used social channels. Today, the figure is 90 per cent. When we talk about ‘young adults’, we’re essentially talking about tomorrow’s IT leaders. While some of these individuals are graduates, many are already making important brand decisions.

The figures are significant for older internet users too. In the US, around two-thirds of the adult population uses one or more social networking sites, compared to 5 per cent 10 years ago.

This cross-generational change has sent shock-waves through practically every sector. We all get our breaking news from Twitter, share memories on Instagram, and keep in touch with family through Facebook. In order to communicate with customers and service users, businesses have had to modernize their approach and get involved in this socially connected world.

Why businesses must take note of social media

Facebook is arguably the world’s best-known social network, with more than 1.4 billion active monthly users. 70 per cent of marketers use Facebook to generate more customers, and success is particularly pronounced in B2C marketing campaigns.

Let’s not forget LinkedIn, which is responsible for more than 80 per cent of social media leads in business. Twitter is used by just over one-third of marketers, while Pinterest and Instagram have 20 million and 150 million active monthly users respectively, and offer great potential in the creative sectors, from home wares to fashion and beyond.

So, what do businesses actually stand to gain?

Increased brand awareness

Social media is important in keeping a brand top-of-mind for a consumer. 37 per cent of internet users follow their favorite brands on social media, while 30 per cent use social networks when researching a purchase.

Better consumer targeting

Social media opens up two-way conversations, and gives you insight into the things your customers care about.

Enhanced customer service

Your customers are increasingly savvy, and they expect a great experience when they shop with you. Social media lets them get in touch directly, and that provides opportunities to offer rapid responses to support enquiries.

Timely feedback

Need to judge the reaction to a new campaign idea? Want to roll out a trial product and gauge the response? With social media, you have a direct connection to your audience.

More leads

Social media is a cornerstone of any inbound marketing campaign. Having a presence on key social channels lets you publish content, get your brand noticed, and create more leads.

Increased sales

There’s no magic formula for increasing sales through social media, but if you improve awareness, targeting and customer service, increased sales will follow.

Social media is a fantastic tool for B2B marketing; 54 per cent of B2B marketers are already using it to generate new leads. As we head towards 2017, it’s estimated that US marketers will spend more than $100 billion on social media advertising.

Ignore the trends at your peril

We’ve reached a stage where the impact of social media can’t be denied. Since the mid-2000s, it has been a growing influence in the way we all live, work and shop. For businesses, it’s critical to have an active presence on social media, and to take interactions with customers seriously in order to drive profits and sales.

Looking specifically at buyers in the IT sector, we know that 86 per cent use social media when making a purchase decision. These buyers tend to be the young adults that are also using social media for fun.

We also know where these influential decision-makers tend to hang out:
- 83 per cent research on LinkedIn
- 80 per cent check out Twitter
- 80 per cent look at Facebook business Pages
- 61 per cent review YouTube videos
- 39 per cent use Google+
Social media is critical, not just because of the research angle, but because so many of these buyers will not contact a supplier until they’re more than half way to a decision.

Social media can’t do your marketing for you, but it’s one of the key ways to reach the end of the marketing funnel. As such, marketers ignore it at their peril, and the consequences of neglecting social media could have a tangible impact on a business’ bottom line.
March 3, 2016
Google To Stop Showing Ads On Right Side Of Desktop Search Results

Position² Point of View

This new Google policy will result in many advertisers seeing a big drop in traffic, as their ads will appear at the 14^th position on search result pages instead of at the fourth position.

This will also have an impact on Cost Per Click, as more advertisers will compete for the top three slots—similar to Google display ads that appear above organic results on mobile devices. In our experience, the top three positions produce the best results on mobile, and it looks like this will now apply to desktop searches as well. Advertisements in fourth position will now have reduced impact, as they will appear at the bottom of the page, which may result in low CTR and low traffic.

QS is King

Quality Score is going to play a key role with this change, as only high quality ads can appear on top of the page, irrespective of bid price. So keywords with low quality scores will see a huge drop in traffic. This means that we will be seeing fewer high quality ads on Google.

Long Tail Keywords

Traditionally, most advertisers largely ignored long tail keywords, or didn’t focus as strongly on improving their QS. These keywords will play a key role now—if we can establish good quality scores for them with relevant ads and landing pages.

Product Listing Ads

PLAs will get more visibility now, as the number of text ads will be reduced, and PLA advertisers will see an increase in CTR. Advertisers who run PLAs must review their results as a consequence of Google’s new policy.

How Will This Impact Your Advertising?

If you’re a marketer, you need to run a simple Adwords report comparing “Top vs. Other” segments and see what kind of traffic you’re getting. If your maximum traffic is for “Top” you will see an increase in CPC, so you will want to increase your budget outlay. If you’re getting most of your traffic from “Others” you must work on improving positions and QS for your keywords to avoid large drops in your traffic.

Positives

Companies that can afford to advertise in top positions will see an increase in competition, so we can expect higher quality results. In general, the quality of ads goes down in the lower positions, as they are dominated by affiliates and often feature lower production values.

Fewer premium advertisers will result in less complexity, and this will probably reduce the importance of bid management platforms. If we find out that low ranking keywords are not performing, we can eliminate them as they will not get much traffic in the future. This will result in a smaller number of keywords to use in campaigns, and further simplify account management.

Negatives

So far, Google advertising has been the most affordable and easy to test channel for small advertisers with limited budgets. Such advertisers will now need to increase their spending to get good results from the Adwords platform.

Watch this space for more updates!

By Sudheer Dayanand@Team Position²

February 22, 2016
Why Data Driven Marketing is Critical to Personalization
Data driven marketing is leading us towards more integrated marketing strategies, where data from different sources are combined to see the bigger picture. The key to success is to tap into relevant data from a range of campaigns. It’s possible to achieve highly optimized campaigns, and deliver content that is more targeted and personal.

In order to reach the right audience, you need accurate consumer insights, and you need to embed these into the planning stages. By using the right data at the right time, you can respond faster to consumer behavior and reach your audience.

What is data driven marketing?

Data driven marketing is a new tactic for marketers, where data actually underpins decisions. In order to leverage data for marketing, you need four key pieces of information:
- You need to know what data you already have. Increasingly, marketers are required to analyse and manage the data they rely upon.
- The team needs to trust that its data is accurate. If not, it needs to embark on immediate data quality initiatives to produce reliable data to drive the right decisions.
- The data needs to be organized into a usable format. It’s no good working from data silos that are messy and difficult to process.
- The data needs to be leveraged at precisely the right time, and the team needs the necessary tools to do that.
Big Data promises incredible insights into consumer trends, and new ways to look at consumers’ journeys as they interact with a brand in different ways. But businesses need to prepare—and crucially, they need to filter. 91 per cent of marketers have segmentation strategies already, and this is where personalized content can come into its own.

Why is data driven marketing necessary?

If you want to win market share in 2016, you’re going to need to blend creativity with technology, and data is the secret ingredient that binds them. But before we look at that, we need to look at what data actually is.

Not all data is equal; it’s possible to have too much data to work from. If you try to incorporate every scrap of data, you’re going to lack clear direction in your strategy. Additionally, you need to focus on data quality, because incorrect or incomplete records will hurt your ROI.

Changing habits is never easy, but there are two areas where you’re going to renew your focus:
- Unique customer identifiers are critical in profiling the customer journey. But be sure not to target customers with messaging that makes them feel pressured or suffocated. Lead scoring can help you pick out certain customers that offer strong potential to convert, which can lead to more effective conversations.
- Demographic and behavioral data will assist in better segmentation, so you can automate the process of making decisions and delivering customized messages.
Where does all this data come from?

You know you need accurate data, and an effective strategy to use it. But what are your data sources— are there any you can leverage, that you aren’t currently using?

Typically, marketers need to tap into business software, and form integrations that offer a single customer view. This means pulling in clean data from CRM, ERP and customer service systems, as well as social media, web analytics and automation software.

You can also leverage consumer feedback and face-to-face interaction, such as marketing initiatives at trade shows and meetings. Wearable devices and the Internet of Things are also bringing in new opportunities to see how consumers behave, while generating constant, real-time streams of data.

Take care not to use data irresponsibly. According to the Aimia Institute, people are sensitive about the data they provide, and may actually avoid giving businesses their personal data. A poorly targeted campaign can be to blame. Consider these statistics:
- 57 per cent of retail consumers take steps to actively avoid companies that are clumsy in their use of data
- 69 per cent choose to unfollow them on social media
- 69 per cent have ended subscriptions and closed accounts because of communications
- 58 per cent have opted out of emails
It’s critical to be smart with campaigns so that you aren’t cut out of the conversation.

The right data at the right time

According to Gartner, the right data is the magic ingredient that helps you to identify customer preferences and
uncover unmet needs. In order to do this, you need to measure the things that matter, and discard the bad data that will weigh you down.

The Direct Marketing Association found that revenues generated by data-driven marketing grew for 46 per cent of US marketers from Q1 to Q2 in 2015. 53 per cent of respondents said that they expected revenue to increase in the third quarter.

Conclusion

Marketers are learning new ways of leveraging the data they hold. If they don’t have clean data driving automation and strategy, they could fail to deliver the personalized content their audiences demand. Marketing analytics suites help businesses deploy a range of data driven strategies for effective personalized approaches. Position² provides your business with a fully integrated suite of digital marketing solutions—including marketing analytics—that help convert leads into customers.
February 11, 2016
Another Ace Up Our Sleeve: p2webadmin At The SCM Marathon
The 13^th annual Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon was held on 17th January 2016. Procam International—India’s leading marathon organizer—handled the logistics behind this global Top 10 marathon that’s getting bigger every year. It was a privilege for Team Position² to be associated with SCMM 2016—developing its official website, as well as handling overall social media management for this global event.

For us, preparations started nearly seven months prior to Race Day. From designing and developing a cutting-edge website to managing social media platforms, we put in an extraordinary effort into promoting the event and encouraging runners to register. Come Race Day, several team members travelled to Mumbai and covered the race, with continuous support from our Bengaluru office.

SCMM 2016 broke several records in terms of race results and social media interactions:
- Over 40K runners participated, with significantly higher international participation compared to previous years
- Three course records were set in the Men’s categories—two in the International Elite, and one in the Indian Elite
- Over 210 Million Rupees was raised for various charities
- The overall reach of the Marathon’s hashtag #SCMM stood at 1.22M people on Race Day
- There were over 103K engagements and 7.59K mentions of #SCMM on social media on Race Day alone
- The hashtag #SCMM2016 was trending at the #1 position in India and Mumbai, with #SCMM trending in Mumbai and Bengaluru as well
This was Team Position²’s third engagement with SCMM, and working together with Procam, this 13th edition of the marathon turned out to be a massive success! Having earlier worked with Procam on other big events such as the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon, the TCS World 10K Bengaluru, and the Tata Steel Kolkata 25K, we expected SCMM 2016 to eclipse them all, and it certainly did!

If that wasn’t enough, Team Position² runner Vidya successfully completed the Women’s Half Marathon to cap what turned out to be an exhilarating day for us, and every participant.

SCMM 2016 rewrote the record books for an event of its kind. As our focus shifts to the next big race, p2webadmin looks forward to once again playing a key role behind the scenes, unforgettably inspired by the runner’s mantra of desire, determination and dedication.
February 3, 2016
Hyper-Personalization—The Inevitable Evolution Of Marketing
Hyper-personalization or ‘personalized marketing at scale’, is where Big Data and online marketing intersect. This new marketing buzzword denotes more than a passing phase—it’s part of an irreversible evolution in marketing that targets individuals with content that is tailored to them. This is marketing done smarter, and it’s a technique you need to know about.

This new world of personalized marketing presents both opportunities and risks for marketers. We must seek to engage with our audience without being creepy or overstepping privacy boundaries.

We all know that blanket TV ads are becoming increasingly less effective. It’s time to look at hyper-personalization to boost engagement and generate demand. Nearly 6 in 10 marketers say that personalizing content is a crucial part of their strategy, and we think that number will only increase in the foreseeable future.

With so many experts in agreement, it’s time to face the facts. This isn’t a fad; it’s a technique that’s here to stay, and it will permanently and irreversibly change how marketing is done.

Three ways to deliver personalized marketing at scale

There are three key techniques we need to focus on. Let’s look at them briefly:

1. Social listening

Being represented on social media isn’t enough any more. The number of likes, shares and follows is irrelevant. What matters is the one-to-one connection that is created with a personalized approach. On social media, hyper-personalization means actively listening to individuals and then engaging in a conversation with them.

2. Data analysis

Hyper-personalization is married to Big Data. It cannot exist without it. So we need to update our data management strategies and look at ways to enrich what we know. Using a CRM is no longer enough. We need to capture profile information, scan social networks, look for relevant hashtags, and enhance our data with third-party sources. We all need to put more effort into maintaining a high level of data quality.

3. Content and context

Content is still king in this new age of marketing, but hyper-personalization implies that content needs to be personal and targeted. This is essentially the Holy Grail of content marketing. We need to track people, tailor our message, and create content for the individual.

Personalization and ROI

Hyper-personalization is intrinsically linked with providing exceptional customer service and triggering loyalty that results in increased frequency of purchases.

Customers increasingly expect a business to know who they are, and what they want, and hyper-personalization allows businesses to make that personal connection. In a report by Infosys, 59 per cent of shoppers who have experienced personalization believe it had a “noticeable influence” on their purchasing decisions. Marketers have many opportunities to leverage this competitive advantage.

It’s not just about creating loyalty; it’s about increasing spend, and that means giving customers more reasons to purchase, so that they come back and spend more frequently. These could include loyalty rewards, incentives, and coupons that tap into customers’ purchase triggers.

Customers expect personalization

At the beginning of this article, we briefly mentioned that personalization has to strike a fine balance. It has to deliver the experience customers expect, without stalking them or invading their privacy.

Technology is providing the experience that customers are expecting, but it can also be responsible for making them feel like they’re being tracked or monitored by ads. There must be a guaranteed return in exchange for personal information, but marketers need to be cognizant of the issues around privacy and data gathering.

Consider these figures from an eMarketer survey:
- 21 per cent of marketers said that the experience needs to be completely unique to be effective
- 32 per cent were neutral
- 46 per cent of client site marketers disagreed
Image Source

Perhaps the most compelling reason to use hyper-personalized content is the uplift in response and engagement rates. In a study by the CMO Council, 56 per cent of surveyed marketers reported this as an outcome of personalized content and digital interactions.

Takeaways

2016 is the year that segmentation will wither and die. With all the data potentially available to them, marketers now have opportunities to develop relationships with customers through engaging personal interactions and thus obtain valuable insights.

The only way marketing teams can achieve this is to carefully analyze data, drill down to the granular details to figure out what their customers want, and build a picture from data gleaned through multiple channels. This highly focused approach can produce astonishing results.
January 28, 2016

Best of the Week | Smart Money is in Digital Ads, and much more…

This week’s hot news, events and videos from the online marketing and social media world.

Digital Ad Spend is Increasing, and it’s Time to Get your Strategies Right

From the Position² Blog This Week:

Smart Money is in Digital Ads, Where is Yours?
Digital ad spend is increasing rapidly, with big brands allocating one third of budgets. It’s time for you to use digital ads to boost ROI across the entire customer journey.

Top Stories of the week

What's Driving the Growth in Digital Advertising?

Best of the Week Video
According to three ad firms, Digital Advertising is growing faster than print ads and set to surpass TV ad sales. In this video Bloomberg Intelligence’s Jitendra Wahal talks about the future of digital advertising.

White Paper: Increase Visibility for Your Content by 4x

Today’s traditional SEO is inadequate: Ignite your search results by accelerating visibility in more places than ever before.

Download this White Paper and learn:

SEO, why the way we know it is not enough
Introducing and implementing Enterprise Visibility Accelerator (EVA)
Using multi-channel tracking tools for effective monitoring
How EVA benefits businesses.

Download the complimentary EVA White Paper now

Enterprise Visibility Accelerator-EVA

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January 22, 2016

Best of the Week | 2016 is the Tipping Point for Mobile!

This week’s hot news, events and videos from the online marketing and social media world.

2016 is the Tipping Point for Mobile!

From the Position² Blog This Week:

2016 is the Tipping Point for Mobile
2016 is the year that mobile over takes desktop. Marketers must react and change course. Here are the facts to equip to be ready to shift to mobile marketing.

Top Stories of the week

The Internet Of Things

Best of the Week Video
Internet of Things this year will have 4.9 billion connected devices. Watch this video to see how smart devices will transform our future. IoT is here to stay!

White Paper: Increase Visibility for Your Content by 4x

Today’s traditional SEO is inadequate: Ignite your search results by accelerating visibility in more places than ever before.

Download this White Paper and learn:

SEO, why the way we know it is not enough
Introducing and implementing Enterprise Visibility Accelerator (EVA)
Using multi-channel tracking tools for effective monitoring
How EVA benefits businesses.

Download the complimentary EVA White Paper now

Know more about Enterprise Visibilty Accelerator(EVA)

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January 14, 2016

Best of the Week | Video for Marketing is the Way to GO in 2016, and much more…

This week’s hot news, events and videos from the online marketing and social media world.

Personalized Search

From the Position² Blog This Week:

Video for Marketing is the Way to GO in 2016
Now that we have said goodbye to 2015, let’s look at one of the top trends that’s here to stay – Video Marketing!

A Universal SEO Strategy Audit in 5 Steps - Whiteboard Friday

Best of the Week Video
Bloomberg sales chief, Keith Grossman explains how Google and Facebook are uniquely positioned as a mega media platforms having the most access to consumers making it powerful to control how marketing will evolve in the coming year.

White Paper: Increase Visibility for Your Content by 4x

Today’s traditional SEO is inadequate: Ignite your search results by accelerating visibility in more places than ever before.

Download this White Paper and learn:

SEO, why the way we know it is not enough
Introducing and implementing Enterprise Visibility Accelerator (EVA)
Using multi-channel tracking tools for effective monitoring
How EVA benefits businesses.

Download the complimentary EVA White Paper now

Enterprise Visibility Accelerator-EVA

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January 9, 2016

Best of the Week | Digital Marketing: Key Takeaways From 2015, and much more…

This week’s hot news, events and videos from the online marketing and social media world.

Content Marketing – The Personalization Game

From the Position² Blog This Week:

Digital Marketing: Key Takeaways From 2015
CWe take a quick look at where savvy marketers are increasingly focusing on their spends, along with key digital marketing trends that shook things up this year (and will get even bigger in 2016).

PROGRAMMATIC I/O 2015 NYC - B2B Programmatic Advertising - Panel

Best of the Week Video
As the year draws to a close, we’ve put together a highlight reel that showcases some of our talented Creative Team’s capabilities. Whatever the media and type of content, we do it in a way that gets results. Take a look for yourself!

White Paper: Increase Visibility for Your Content by 4x

Today’s traditional SEO is inadequate: Ignite your search results by accelerating visibility in more places than ever before.

Download this White Paper and learn:

SEO, why the way we know it is not enough
Introducing and implementing Enterprise Visibility Accelerator (EVA)
Using multi-channel tracking tools for effective monitoring
How EVA benefits businesses.

Download the complimentary EVA White Paper now

Know more about Enterprise Visibilty Accelerator(EVA)

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December 24, 2015