UNIT 4

What are digital marketing tactics?

The digital marketing mix includes the following tactics:

• SEO and SEM:Search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) determine where your website
and web properties rank in a search engine. SEO brings in traffic organically whereas SEM brings in traffic via ads
and online marketing. If you’re looking for a toolkit to help with SEO research and reporting, check out SEMrush.
• Content marketing:Content marketing encompasses all the online content you produce. This includes everything
from the videos you host online to the blog posts and e-books you write and design. Companies of all sizes and types
are constantly delivering new content across digital channels.
• Social media marketing: More than 1 million new people are joining social media platforms every single day. Social
media includes any type of social network (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Snapchat to name a few)
that acts as an online community to share information.
• Influencer marketing: Influencer marketing is one of the newest digital marketing tactics that uses endorsements and
product mentions from influencers—individuals with a dedicated social media following who are viewed as experts in
their field—to boost brand awareness and conversions.
• Email marketing:Email marketing is the modern alternative to the traditional snail mail approach. Marketing by email
is a quick and low-cost method to reach your prospects and customers.
• Online advertising:Online ads can get expensive, but they’re effective for driving traffic to your website and web
properties. With online ads, you can choose what to display and on which channels.
• Website marketing: Your company website is your home base on the internet. It deserves to get as much attention as
possible and needs to have a unique web design to stand out from the crowd. Your landing pages are one of the first
places potential customers visit when they want to learn more about your company and product.
• Analytics:Analytics can be gathered from various digital channels to provide valuable data and insight. These learnings
can help you improve both your current and future digital marketing strategies.
• Mobile experience: We can’t forget about the mobile experience, especially when up to 70% of internet traffic comes
from mobile devices. Any time you’re thinking about doing anything related to digital marketing, consider how it will
look and feel on mobile. You want your mobile experience to be as flawless as your desktop experience.
With the digital marketing mix in your back pocket, let’s get started on building your digital marketing strategy.

How to create an effective digital marketing strategy

1. Perform research and analysis
Research as much as possible before taking any action. By performing research and analysis, you can better prepare
and formulate your digital marketing strategy. Research includes looking at your company, industry, and even
competitors.
One of the most effective tools marketers use during this phase is a strength, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats
(SWOT) analysis. Conducting a SWOT analysis before diving into your marketing strategy will help you gain full
awareness of where your business is at competitively. From there, you can find ways to improve or eliminate your
weaknesses and capitalize on your strengths in your marketing strategy. Use SWOT to determine your:
• Strengths: Internal initiatives that are performing well
• Weaknesses: Internal initiatives that are underperforming
• Opportunities:External initiatives that could put you in a stronger competitive position
• Threats: External initiatives that can weaken your current position
2. Define your goals, audience, and positioning
The most important step to building any digital marketing strategy is identifying your goals, audience, and positioning
(GAP). What are your goals for building this digital marketing strategy? And how do your marketing goals tie back to
the larger company objectives? You need to have a clear understanding of how your digital marketing strategy
contributes to the bigger picture.
 Once you write out your goals, you want to determine who your audience is and what your positioning — how you’re
going to persuade your audience to complete an action — is going to be. Below is an example of how to draft a high-
level GAP:
• Goal: Increase marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) by 20%
• Audience: Sales managers and above in the tech industry located in North America
• Positioning: Use a competitive positioning strategy to highlight our key differentiators and reposition the
competition in the minds of our target audience
3. Create buyer personas
Buyer personas—also called customer personas—are fictional customers that represent your target audience. A
personal profiles who the customer is, what they like and dislike, and their general motivations or frustrations. This
can include:
• Demographics: Factors such as age, education, and gender
• Firmographics: Organizational characteristics such as revenue, industry, location, and the number of employees
(typically only used in B2B marketing)
• Psychographics: Factors such as personality, lifestyle, opinions, and goals.
• Behavioral: Metrics that help identify how a customer interacts with your brand, such as customer loyalty, seasonal
buying patterns, or how they use your product or service
• Geographics: Where your customers are located, including international, national, or regional customers
By looking at buyer personas, you’ll have the information you need to create messaging that resonates with your
customers.
4. Outline your customer journey
Have you ever put yourself in your customers’ shoes? Document their full experience by creating a customer journey
map. A customer journey map outlines every step a new customer goes through when they interact with your company
or brand.
By creating a customer journey map, you’ll be able to visualize the steps it takes to go from point A to point B. You’ll
want to make sure the customer experience is seamless and easy to walk through. When mapping everything out, you
may find opportunities to improve the experience.
To get started, ask yourself, “Which channels and content are along the path?” This question helps you determine
which channels you want to invest in and which ones take priority.
Below is an example of a customer journey. Let’s say you’re a customer of Apollo Enterprises:
1. You see an Apollo Enterprises online ad
2. You follow Apollo Enterprises on LinkedIn
3. You visit the Apollo Enterprises website
4. You submit your email address to download an Apollo Enterprises e-book
5. You read the Apollo Enterprises e-book and find the content engaging
6. You get an Apollo Enterprises promotional email with an opportunity to sign up for an Apollo Enterprises product
demo
7. You sign up for the Apollo Enterprises product demo
8. You walk through the Apollo Enterprises product demo and love the offering
9. You purchase the Apollo Enterprises product
10. You’re so excited about your new purchase and leave a positive review online
5. Customize your digital marketing mix
We walked through the digital marketing mix together, and now it’s time to pick and choose what pieces make sense
to include in your plan. It’s important to establish which digital marketing channels will be involved in your strategy
beforehand. After determining which channels of the digital mix will help you accomplish your goals, you’ll want to
ask yourself two questions: What will each piece encompass and what will the frequency of each piece be?

For example, do you want to focus primarily on email marketing and online ads, or do you want to include every piece
of the digital marketing mix? If you want to include every piece, then you need to map out where each piece fits in
your timeline and how everything integrates with one another.
6. Identify budget constraints
How much money will you need to execute your digital marketing strategy? Will you need any outsourcing, such as
agencies or vendors? Detail your investment early on so you can quickly determine which vendors you’ll need to work
 with and get the gears moving on paperwork and creative briefs. It’s important to understand what will be made in
house and what will be outsourced so you can allocate resources appropriately.
Make sure you solidify your budget by getting price quotes. These major details can ensure you’re on target and that
you can accomplish your goals with the current budget in hand. Once you’re confident you and your team can
accomplish every activity within the current budget, you can move toward building an implementation plan.
7. Set your ROI and KPI targets
Starts crunching numbers and determine what your total spend and return on investment (ROI) will be. You want to
take a close look at how your investment matches up against your reward to ensure your digital strategy is worth
pursuing.
After breaking down the numbers, begin setting your KPI targets. Ask yourself, “What KPI targets am I trying to hit
for each activity? What are we going to test and when in the year?” Popular digital marketing metrics and KPIs to
follow include:
• Web traffic sources
• Leads
• Page views
• Cost per lead
• Returning visitors
• Conversion rate
• Click-through rate
These KPI targets will guide how you measure and track the success of your digital marketing strategy.
8. Implement and monitor your strategy
You can never be too prepared when it comes to executing your digital marketing strategy. Make sure every activity
stays on track and each team member takes accountability for their work. Always monitor your marketing initiatives
before, during, and after their life cycles to ensure everything is moving as planned.
You might be taking advantage of digital tools such as email and cloud sharing already, but what about work
management tools? The right work management software can give your digital marketing strategy a competitive edge.
Mapping everything out with existing tools, like spreadsheets or docs, can be a pain; they don’t stay up to date and can
be easily forgotten. With a work management tool, you can plan and view your entire digital marketing strategy in
various ways, whether as a timeline, calendar, or Kanban board. Housing your entire digital marketing strategy and
plan on one platform will make work and collaboration much easier for you and your team.
Remember to update your project status as you go and adjust due dates if needed. Always refine your strategies and
shift priorities based on changing needs. By monitoring and tracking work on a regular basis, you can address any
bottlenecks immediately to move faster.
9. Measure results
One of the best perks of digital marketing is having access to all the data that comes with it. You can get real-time
insights on how your initiatives are performing and adjust as you go. You don’t have to walk in the dark every time
you push out a new campaign, launch, or project. With analytical data at your fingertips, you can optimize as you go
to improve results.
Remember when we set KPI targets in step 7? Now is the time to report on those KPIs and compare your results side
by side with your initial targets. This can help you see if your results are hitting the mark.
If you missed the targets, ask yourself, “What didn’t work?” If you shot above and beyond the mark, determine what
contributed to the spike in performance. Take your key learnings and apply them in the future. Sarah Charlton, Head
of Performance Marketing at Asana, offers a pro tip:
“Package your insights for stakeholders to help demystify what can otherwise seem like a complex 'black box' process.
Share what worked, what didn’t, and what you need to further test to learn more. Knowing what didn’t work is just as
useful as what did to help you improve your next digital marketing strategy, and it helps create trust and transparency
with your stakeholders.”

How to choose a digital marketing strategy for your business

A successful digital marketing strategy isn’t about trying the newest digital marketing
trends or guessing what your customers want. Instead, it’s about data-backed insights.
“The most successful marketers understand truly scalable digital marketing has transformed
into people-based advertising, or knowing the exact message to give at the right time, on the
right platform, to the right person,” said Jess Reilly, chief marketing officer at Rebel
Interactive Group.

Choosing a digital marketing strategy includes building buyer personas, identifying your
goals, choosing the right digital marketing tools, and assessing your strategy to ensure it’s
working.

1. Build buyer personas to understand your target audience.

Buyer personas are fictional characters representing archetypal consumers who might be
attracted to your brand. These personas help you market your products and services to this
demographic.

“Creating buyer personas will help you determine your marketing strategy by illuminating
who your buyers are, the situations they are faced with and, most important, what goals the
audience [is] attempting to accomplish to inform your messaging strategy,” Reilly said.

To build customer personas, consider the following information about your target customer:

• Job type

• Interests

• Age

• Gender

• General demographics

• Most-used social platforms

• Beliefs and values

Then, customize your strategy based on these details.

One way to get a handle on your target customer is by looking closely at your competitors and
how they’re attempting to reach these buyers. Brett Prentiss, co-founder of Instinct Marketing,
said his team looks at competitors’ landing pages, ad title tags, website structure and more.

“Once we understand [these elements], we reverse-engineer their strategy, along with the
business owners’ vision and our expertise, [and] something truly magical is created,” Prentiss
said. “That magic simply works because it delivers results.”
2. Identify your goals, and align them to your strategy.

What are your marketing strategy goals? For example, you may want to build brand
awareness, increase product sales or attract a larger social following. Be specific about your
goals to direct your efforts effectively. We’ll explore some specific examples.

If your goal is to heighten brand awareness:

Does your target customer buy only from reputable brands? Are they aware of your brand? Do
they trust or have enough familiarity with it to make a purchase?

If cultivating brand awareness and strengthening your company’s reputation are top priorities,
concentrate on the following:

• Content creation. Create a significant amount of high-quality content, both written

(blog posts, Instagram posts, website articles) and video. Excellent content will

establish your brand’s personality and mark you as an expert. Consider using humor,

comments and striking images to catch people’s attention and make your content more

shareable.

• Traffic generation. Focus on generating traffic to your content. Use digital advertising

and social tools, such as Facebook marketing strategies, to expose the maximum

number of potential customers to your brand.

• Co-marketing. You can also collaborate with more established businesses with

complementary products by co-marketing, creating an affiliate program or running an

online giveaway publicized via digital advertising.

Aside from using and monitoring hashtags and social media promotion engagement, a brand
awareness campaign’s return on investment (ROI) is challenging to measure. Although you
won’t be able to pinpoint every person who learned about your brand due to your efforts,
building awareness is the first step in laying the foundation for a more extensive customer
base.
If your goal is to raise consumer awareness:

Sometimes, consumers don’t seek out your company because they don’t understand how your
product or service can improve their lives. If this is the case, you may see low search volumes
for your target keywords.

If you don’t have a problem with your sales process or website traffic, you may be
experiencing a general lack of consumer awareness. If so, your digital marketing strategy goal
would be to educate potential customers about a specific problem they encounter and then
offer your solution. Here are some ways to do this:

• Create videos. Videos are an excellent way to educate prospects. You can create

explainer videos, product demonstration videos, and livestream videos, like Facebook

Live Q&As showcasing your solution.

• Reach out to influencers. Consider reaching out to bloggers, professional reviewers,

and social media influencers in your space. Show them how your product solves a

specific problem their audience experiences, and get them to recommend it.

Sometimes faith in the brand isn’t enough. You must educate customers about what you do,
how your offerings will benefit them and why your solution is better than their current one.

If your goal is to increase traffic:

Traffic is a highly sought-after key performance indicator (KPI). With higher-quality traffic,
you’ll usually generate more sales leads and actual sales, so it makes sense that most business
owners see traffic as a priority.

If your primary goal is traffic, the best areas of focus include pay-per-click (PPC) advertising,
a successful search engine optimization (SEO) strategy, and email marketing.

• PPC advertising. PPC advertising allows you to control the amount of traffic flowing

to your website, depending on your budget. To get a good ROI on your PPC campaign,

use longtail keywords (longer and more specific keywords), pinpoint your target

audience, and continually use A/B testing to find the most effective combination of
 audience, headline, image and body copy. Monitor your results, and tweak them as

needed.

• SEO. Unlike PPC advertising, SEO is a long-term investment. You must wait at least

six to nine months to see a positive return on your investment. Companies can do SEO

in-house or hire an agency. SEO’s upsides include perceived lower costs, recurring

“free” organic traffic and all the other benefits of being at the top of Google’s search

rankings.

• Email marketing. You can use email marketing as a tool for many digital marketing

goals. When it comes to increasing traffic, use email marketing to a large, established

customer base to drive traffic to your website for content and contests.

If your goal is to increase leads:

If you have an expensive or complex product, it’s unreasonable to expect customers to buy it
for the first time online. Instead, focus your efforts on generating leads that your sales team
can pursue.

Here are some tips for increasing leads:

• Polish your website copy. Ensure your website copy adequately explains the product

and establishes your company’s expertise and experience.

• Offer incentives. Offer a reward to prospects who fill out a form with their contact

information. For example, provide a discount for consumer products or a whitepaper

for business-to-business products.

• Include social proof. Include plenty of social proof, including positive customer

reviews (the more, the better), testimonials, celebrity endorsements, and awards or

certifications.
If your goal is to increase sales:

If you want to increase sales, you likely need to utilize email marketing strategically and boost
traffic to your website landing page.

• Use email marketing to increase sales. Email marketing has one of the highest

potential ROIs. Several types of email marketing can be effective in boosting sales. For

example, you can run a campaign directed at warm leads and people who have signed

up to receive information from your company. You can also run personalized email

campaigns targeted to existing customers using data in your customer relationship

management system or point-of-sale system’s customer account module.

• Optimize your website landing page. You can generate more sales with a

combination of additional traffic and a landing page that’s optimized for conversions.

PPC or SEO can generate traffic to your website. Then, you can test your landing-page

copy, layout, design and headlines to help find successful lead conversions, consider

offering a free trial, guarantee or warranty.

3. Choose digital marketing tools based on your primary goals.

There are various marketing tools, including content marketing calendar templates, social
networks and email marketing software. Each has specific advantages and purposes, so the
right tools for you will depend on your goals.

“Every business has a different need or something they are lacking in,” Prentiss said. “That
could be a lack of reviews, they’re ranking poorly on Google, or their website just really needs
a redesign. Whatever the business needs are, they always require a different tool.”

Prioritize your goals and comb through your budget to determine your best investments. If
you’re far away from a sale, use less-expensive tools (such as email and social media posts)
because there will be a good amount of leakage in your sales funnel. You can always revisit
and experiment with other tools on the market.

4. Audit your current digital marketing strategy.

Auditing your digital marketing strategy involves determining what worked in the past, testing
current strategies and figuring out what needs shifting.

• Discover the true ROI of past efforts. You’ll need to measure ROI for digital

marketing campaigns you ran in the past. Reilly advised business owners to ask how

much “lift” each marketing channel provided in previous seasons. “Using a

combination of customer purchase data, digital tracking data and any traditional media

buys you have, you can dive into the data to discover what your true ROI was in the

past and opportunities to grow in the future,” Reilly said.

• Test new strategies. Before going live with your new strategy, test it to see what might

work and what won’t. Spend time figuring out if there are aspects of your strategy that

can be fixed or improved.

• Determine what needs tweaking. Prentiss recommended monitoring your progress to

determine what might need shifting. “We set daily, weekly and sometimes even

monthly reminders to check on the progress we made,” Prentiss said. “The daily and

weekly check-ins on what we created are very important in the beginning so we can

adjust what we are doing. This truly ensures the success of the campaign.”

• Social media marketing. Social media marketing involves leveraging social

media platforms to boost traffic and awareness of your website or brand. This

strategy includes employing advertising tactics within the social media

platforms and utilizing social media metrics to gain valuable insights.

• Email marketing. Email marketing is the process of collecting email

addresses from potential leads and existing customers. You can then market to

them via a series of customized emails.

 • Content marketing. Content marketing involves creating and posting

informative online content such as videos and blog posts. Content marketing

informs viewers and helps with organic SEO.

• Conversion rate optimization (CRO). The goal of CRO is to increase the

percentage of conversions from visitors to your website. You can implement

CRO for specific goals, such as sign-ups, leads or sales.

Digital marketing budget and resources

In addition to your business goals, factors such as your budget, resources and time will dictate
your digital marketing strategy.

• Consider your marketing budget. PPC, display advertising and social media

advertising help to generate traffic and brand awareness immediately. Still, these

options can be costly, and if the cost outweighs the ROI, they may not be the best

choices.

• Look to your available talent. If you’re a small business with limited

resources, your strategy also depends on your staff’s skills. For example, if you

employ creatives and copywriters, email and content marketing campaigns might

be the most effective. If employees don’t have these specific talents or you’re

pressed for time, you may want to consider outsourcing these business

processes or shifting to other strategies, such as PPC.

• Take a holistic approach. When you’re crafting a digital marketing strategy,

understand that these aren’t stand-alone tactics; you must often adopt a holistic

approach. The best SEO campaigns may require good public relations, social

media marketing and content marketing. Spending money on PPC while having a
 poor conversion rate is a waste. Most tactics provide a superior ROI when used in

conjunction with complementary approaches.

What is an Online Storefront?

An online storefront, also known as an electronic storefront or e-storefront, is a website that
serves as the online representation of a business. It can be considered the digital version of a
retail store or business address on the internet.
This storefront can either be the home page of an Internet store or the entire website. Similar to
physical stores, online storefronts are essential to a brand's identity. It is important to focus on the
storefront's presence, location, product arrangement, and payment options when setting up an
online business.
A digital storefront encompasses all the necessary elements for selling products and services over
the internet, such as hosting, homepage, digital catalog, online support, and payment gateways.
There are numerous online solutions available to help set up an online storefront, with Shopify
being one of the most popular and user-friendly options.
How does an Online Storefront work?

Online storefronts operate in a similar manner to traditional brick and mortar stores, but with the
added convenience of being accessible from anywhere.

1. To make a purchase, a customer can search for the store using a search engine on a
computer or mobile device.
2. This search connects them to the store's website managed by a web server.
3. They can then browse through webpages and products, adding items to their cart.
 4. The order manager at the backend of the website queries a database to confirm the
availability of the items in stock.
5. The central servers receive and approve orders, generating a bill with delivery time and
related information displayed on the screen, and prompt customers to continue with the
payment process.
6. The order manager then directs the customer to choose a payment method and redirects
them to the payment gateway for approval.
7. The transaction is approved by the merchant system, but it may take several days for
funds to transfer completely.
8. The order manager notifies the web server that the transaction is complete, and the
customer receives a confirmation page.
9. The order manager then sends the order requirements to the warehouse for dispatch and
provides the customer with updates on their order and delivery time.
10. Once the customer receives their order, it will reflect on their account on the store's
website.
11. Finally, customers can provide feedback about the product, service, and the overall
process to help the service provider improve.

What are the essential components to build an Online Storefront?

Due to the increased popularity of online commerce, online stores face intense competition.
Companies invest in developing and expanding their online storefronts to attract more customers,
improve the customer experience, and increase revenue. When building an online storefront, it is
important to consider the following elements:
Brand name, logo, and domain name
When transitioning to an online business, the brand name, logo, and domain name are crucial
factors. A unique logo that is consistent with the brand name can help customers recognize your
brand. The domain name is the address of your store and should be simple and easy to search. It
is advisable to use your brand name as the domain name.
Catalog and product placement
The arrangement of products should be strategic and objective-driven. Popular products, new
arrivals, or best-rated products can be placed at the top of the page, with the rest in the second
fold.
Online support/chatbots
Using a chatbot to interact and engage with customers can significantly improve customer
support and boost conversions. Engati automation is a good tool to integrate with your website
and social media to convert visitors into customers.
CTA, login, sign-up, and cart
An online store should have a signup and cart option. Signup, shopping cart features, and call-to-
action buttons should be placed side by side for easy access. Regular customers can be given a
login and password so they can save their previous orders and leave feedback.
Payment options
Online payments are convenient and secure for customers. You should make it clear what types
of payments you accept and display a list of accepted cards in the website's footer or payment
page.
Social media links
Adding social media links to your website enables customers to quickly connect with your social
media sites. You can also ask customers to leave reviews on your social media sites, which can
be used for self-promotion.
Social proofing and trust marks
Accreditation certificates from reputable companies can provide customers with a sense of
security when making payments. Other certifications related to your products, reviews, and
testimonials can also help to build trust with customers.

Top 5 online store builder

1. Wix
2. Shopify
3. Squarespace
4. Square Online
5. BigCommerce

10 Marketing Strategies To Attract and Retain Customers

Marketing is the process of bringing an idea, product or service in front of a buying audience.
Marketing focuses on a customer's wants and needs so companies can identify who might purchase
their product to attract those customers to the business.

A marketing strategy is a series of steps or actions taken by a business to increase sales, grow a
brand or to feature the value of the product, known as a value proposition.

The AIDAR model shows how a marketing strategy works:

Awareness: The act of creating attention for the brand or service through various mediums

Interest: The step of generating interest to encourage buyers to want to know more

Desire: Creating an emotional connection to the buyer so they want the product or like the brand

Action: The step when the buyer picks up a brochure, calls to learn more or makes a purchase
Retention: Once someone becomes a customer, the business turns its focus to satisfy the customer
so they return and perhaps refer the company to friends and family.

Building a marketing strategy

Here is how it sets a SMART goal to grow sales:

Specific: The company wants to gain 1,000 new customers.

Measurable: The company wants to accomplish this by the end of the year.

Actionable: The company determines where its advertising will be most effective.

Relevant: The product is holiday-themed, and the launch is scheduled for November.

Time-bound: A specific timeline lets the company aim for a particular outcome and adjust the
goal as needed.

Marketing strategies to attract and retain customers

Here are 10 common marketing strategies companies use to reach more customers, encourage
repeat business and build brand loyalty:

• Leverage social media.

• Start a blog.
• Maximize search engine optimization (SEO).
• Create a call to action (CTA).
• Engage influencers.
• Build a mailing list.
• Create an affiliate program.
• Engage customers with chat.
• Host webinars.
• Develop customer personas.
1. Leverage social media
Social media offers many attractive ways to connect with customers. A business can post
photos or videos about its products or communicate through comments or messages. Social
media provides an environment where customers can learn about the business or its
industry. Engaging with customers builds brand loyalty and elevates customer service.
2. Start a blog
Blogs provide content on a website or product page that helps a customer make a buying
decision or to learn more about a service.
Blogs may be updated daily or weekly, depending on the goals of the strategy, and posts
ideally create value and build authority. Some companies may feature guest blog writers
who confirm value or educate customers.
Sharing blog posts across social media or similar outlets expands the audience and potential
customer base.
3. Maximize search engine optimization (SEO)
Keywords or phrases are typed into a search engine to locate a particular subject or answer
a query. Web browsers are designed to search those keywords or phrases on websites or
articles and present results to the user.
Effective SEO can not only place the company at the top of search engine results, but it is
also a powerful way to segment and target customers. While keywords and phrases are
valuable, companies must also create engaging content that offers value.
Example keywords or phrases for the bike sale:
Bike
Cycle
Bike shop
Bike sale
Bike discount
Cycle gear
4. Create a call to action (CTA)
A call to action is a prompt for the customer to ask questions, follow up, learn more or make
a decision. A call to action may be in the form of a question, an offer, a suggestion or to
create a sense of urgency.
Examples:
Sale ends Tuesday, get yours now!
Get this free report when you join our mailing list.
5. Partner with influencers
Influencers are primarily social media people who have gained a following or audience they
appeal to. Companies may partner with influencers who match business goals or strategies.
Influencers may promote a product by using it, wearing it or by telling their followers about
it.
If the company's products and sales systems are in place, influencers can help create value
through direct experience to influence buying. Influencers that fit the company's niche can
help the business reach more customers.
6. Build a mailing list with email marketing
Building a mailing list can help a business offer incentives to its customers or encourage
them to return. Email marketing keeps the company in front of the customer while the
company can segment lists to target specific customers. If a sporting goods company is
launching the latest in-line skates, it may partition its lead list to target a certain
demographic, such as 18 to 24-year-olds.
Example: Customers can be persuaded to sign up for a newsletter by offering a value
proposition:

Receive my free report

Sign-up and get our eBook
Subscribe for a 20% discount coupon

7. Create an affiliate program

Similar to partnering with influencers, affiliate programs mean your customers do the
selling for you. An affiliate is someone who receives an incentive for every sale or referral
to the business that comes through their website, social media platform or similar avenues.
Affiliates get people talking about the business and may greatly expand how many people
learn about the products and services.

8. Engage customers with chat

Having a chat feature is a great way to answer customer questions or solve problems right
away. Customers may use chat to learn more about a service, troubleshoot a product or ask
a question about delivery times. Some modern chat features can transfer the chat right to
the customer's device, so they can leave the company's website but not the conversation.

9. Host webinars
Webinars are typically web-based learning or information sessions. Webinars may be used
as an on boarding tool for new employees or to introduce a customer to the business. They
are ideal for focusing on a single idea to present it across several platforms. Webinars may
include a question and answer session or end with a call to action.

10. Develop customer personas

Personas define who the customer is, what they like and lend insight into their buying
patterns to serve them better. Companies that sell a product or service ultimately need a
customer to make a purchase. Through the research of their ideal customers, companies can
develop existing personas to personalize their service even further.
Example:
• Over 6 feet tall
• 18 to 25 years old (updates to 18-35 year-olds when the company discovers many
customers are over 25)
• In college (or recent graduate)
• Loves the beach
 Web Advertising
Online advertising, also known as online marketing, Internet advertising, digital advertising or web
advertising, is a form of marketing and advertising that uses the Internet to promote products and
services to audiences and platform users.

Methods of web advertising

Online advertising has many features that make it a viable and effective advertising option. SEM
and SEO both increase the ranking of websites on search engines. The difference is SEM is paid,
and SEO is unpaid and content based. SEO, SEM, web layout, and emails are the methods used for
online advertising.

Basic form of web advertising

The most basic form of internet advertising is display advertising. Display ads are graphical or
visual advertisements that appear on websites, typically in the form of banners or images
How do web ads work
Advertisers use ad networks to target ads to users based on characteristics such as their online
behavior, physical location, or demographics. Behavioral targeting shows ads to users based on
their online activity, such as past searches or browsing history.

Types of advertising
• Online search advertising.
• Social media advertising.
• Print.
• Direct mail.
• Broadcast, video and TV advertising.
• Out-of-home (OOH) outdoor advertising.
• Cell phone mobile advertising.
• Product placement.

Benefits of advertising
An effective advertising campaign can help you to:
• increase customer reach.
• build customer awareness of your business and brand.
• promote the benefits of your products or services.
 • communicate information about your business.
• increase sales and demand.
• gain an advantage over your competitors.

Email marketing
Email marketing is a form of marketing that can make the customers on your email list aware of
new products, discounts, and other services.

Types of email marketing

[Link] Newsletters
One of the most common and popular email marketing campaigns is Email Newsletters. As a small
business, you can use an email newsletter to provide subscribers with helpful knowledge and tools.
It is important to add value to your subscribers’ inboxes; to do so create engaging content, including
thought leadership, how-tos, and announcements about new services/ products.

2. Transactional email
Probably one of the least glamorous but most effective forms of email marketing; transactional
emails are sent to facilitate an expected transaction between a sender and a recipient.

3. Promotional Emails
Promotional Emails are a great way to drive sales, signups, and new product offerings for your
small business. The main goal is to convince customers to make a purchase. Promotional emails
include offers that entice and encourage your target to buy a new product or service.

4. Retention Emails

A retention email is a targeted and triggered message sent to an existing customer to increase
engagement, loyalty, and satisfaction. It helps bring customers back again and again.
5 steps of email marketing

1. Awareness

The first stage in the email marketing funnel is designed to cultivate awareness of your brand.
Unless your company has the benefit of major name recognition, potential customers at the top of
the email marketing funnel are just learning about your company, and therefore, detailed,
product-specific content will just overwhelm the reader.

2. Consideration

A successful email campaign grabs attention with awareness and seals the deal with consideration
material.

additional resources for consideration, make sure to:

• Lay out tangible benefits of your product or service—make them feel like they can’t go on
without it.
• Target specific groups of customers and focus on the pain points your product solves.
• Create a need for your product or service.

3. Conversion

This step is the crux of the email marketing funnel, and if you’ve done your job correctly, the
content of your email will persuade the customer to make a purchase. This stage is all about
striking a balance between convincing the customer to invest in your product and creating a sense
of urgency. Sweeten the deal with a discount, free shipping, or another buying incentive.

Increase conversion by making the purchasing path easy. You can:

• Remove any barriers to purchasing.

• Consider including “Buy Now” buttons in the email.
• Make sure the website experience matches the email content.

4. Loyalty

It might seem like the hard part is over, but that doesn’t mean your job is done. Continue to nurture
the relationship you’ve established with your new customer, and keep them engaged with
supportive content.

For example, if you just sold the customer a trip to Hawaii, you could send them a packing list or
a list of popular attractions in the area.

5. Advocacy

Getting the customer to promote a product is the mark of a successful email campaign. If you’ve
managed to inspire your customer to make a purchase, the next step is to turn them into a brand
advocate.

To promote advocacy from your customers, you can:

• Keep track of customers who engage in repeat purchases.

• Send out-of-the-blue messages or perks.
• Offer additional purchasing incentives.
• Reward customer reviews.
• Publish a free newsletter.

7 email marketing strategies

 • By employing these seven strategies - personalisation, crafting compelling subject lines,
mobile optimisation, automation, A/B testing, content marketing, and data analysis

4 C's of email
• Complete: State your purpose up front and provide the right amount of information. ...
• Clear: Use precise language. ...
• Correct: Check your email for grammar and vocabulary. ...
• Concise: It is important to use short sentences with no more than one or two ideas in each
sentence.

3 examples of e mail

• Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, and Outlook

Two main types of email

• Types of Email Accounts

There are two main types of email service providers to choose from: Email clients and
webmail

Email marketing CRM

• What is CRM Email Marketing? CRM email marketing refers to the integration of CRM
tools within your email marketing campaigns. This helps you create personalized and
engaging emails for prospective customers and existing customers with ease.
Benefits of Email Marketing
o Creating personalized content.
o Collecting feedback and surveys.
o Improving sales.
o Communicating with your audience.
o Generating traffic to your site.
o Sending timely campaigns.
o Increasing leads.
o Reaching the right people at the right time.
o Producing cost-effective campaigns.
o Providing more value to your audience.

Instant Market Research

Instant Market Research is a fully featured Survey Software designed to serve Startups, Agencies.
Instant Market Research provides end-to-end solutions designed for Web App. This online
Survey system offers Data Analysis Tools, Email Marketing, Mobile Survey, Custom Survey
URLs, Supports Audio / Images / Video at one place.
 Key Features of Instant Market Research
Here are the powerful features that make Instant Market Research stand out from the competition.
Packed with innovative tools and advanced functionalities, this software offers a range of
benefits.

• Data Analysis Tools

• Email Marketing
• Mobile Survey
• Custom Survey URLs
• Supports Audio / Images / Video

Instant Market Research Specifications

Get a closer look at the technical specifications and system requirements for Instant Market
Research. Find out if it's compatible with your operating system and other software.
Deployment :

Cloud Based

Subscription Plan :

Monthly, Yearly

Accessibility :

API

Customization

Mobile Support

Desktop Platforms :

Web app

Windows

Language Support :

English

Business :

StartUps

SMEs

Agencies
Enterprises

Available Support :

Email

Company Details :

Company Name :PickFu

Website :visit website

SPADE means defining the following.

Setting: What needs to be decided?

People: Who needs to be involved in the decision?

Alternatives: What are the possible alternatives?

Decision: What’s the decision?

Execution: What are the next steps and action items related to the decision?

Market research (also called marketing research) is the action or activity of gathering information
about market needs and preferences. This helps companies understand their target market — how
the audience feels and behaves.
There are 8 types of market research, each with their own methods and tools:

1. Primary research
2. Secondary research
3. Qualitative research
4. Quantitative research
5. Branding research
6. Customer research
7. Competitor research
8. Product research

1. Primary research
Primary research is research that you collect yourself but going directly to the target market
through a range of methods. Because it is data you create, you own the data set.
2. Secondary research
Secondary research is the use of data that has previously been collected, analysed and published
(and therefore you do not own this data).

3. Qualitative research
Qualitative market research is the collection of primary or secondary data that is non-numerical
in nature, and therefore hard to measure.
Researchers collect this market research type because it can add more depth to the data.

4. Quantitative research
Quantitative research is the collection of primary or secondary data that is numerical in nature,
and so can be collected more easily.

5. Branding research
Branding market research assists a company to create, manage and maintain the company brand.
This can relate to the tone, branding, images, values or identity of the company.

6. Customer research
Customer market research looks at the key influences on your target customers and how your
company can make changes to encourage sales.
The aim of this research is to know your customer inside out, and continuously learn about how
they interact with the company. Some themes covered by this include:

• Customer satisfaction – Exploring what keeps customers happy, as higher customer

satisfaction is more likely to lead to increased customer retention.
• Customer loyalty – This looks at what experiences have happened to lead to greater
customer loyalty across the customer lifecycle.
• Customer segmentation research – Discovering who the customers are, what their
behaviour and preferences are and their shared characteristics.

7. Competitor research
Competitor market research is about knowing who your competition is and understanding their
strengths and weaknesses, in comparison to your organisation. It can also be about your
competitive offering in the market, or how to approach a new market.
The aim of this research is to find ways to make your organisation stand out and future planning
through horizon scanning and listening to customer preferences.
8. Product research
Product market research is a key way to make sure your products and services are fit for
launching in the market, and are performing as well as they can.
The aim of this research is to see how your product is perceived by customers, if they are
providing value and working correctly. Ideas can also be formed about upgrades and future
product development.
There are a number of avenues within product research:

• Product branding – Does the product brand and design attract customers in the intended
way?
• Product feature testing – this can happen at various stages of development with target
markets (in early development, between versions, before product launch, etc.) to check if
there are positive reaction to new or improved features
• Product design thinking – what solutions would solve your customers’ current or future
problems?
• Product marketing – Do the marketing messages help your product’s memorability and
saleability, or can they be improved?

Economical experience data (O data)

This type of experience data is quantitative in nature (including operations, featuring sales data,
finance data and HR data). As it can be quantified into numerical values, it can be measured over
and over, providing datasets.

Emotional experience data (X data)

This type of experience data seeks to find reasons to explain emotional decisions and how brands
‘sit’ in people’s minds. In this way, this data is qualitative in nature.

Security Issue
A security issue is any unmitigated risk or vulnerability in your system that hackers can use to do
damage to systems or data. This includes vulnerabilities in the servers and software connecting
your business to customers, as well as your business processes and people.
 What Is IT Security?

IT security is a set of cyber security strategies that prevents unauthorized access to organizational
assets such as computers, networks, and data. It maintains the integrity and confidentiality of
sensitive information, blocking the access of sophisticated hackers.

What is the need for IT security?

As hackers get smarter, the need to protect your digital assets and network devices is even
greater. While providing IT security can be expensive, a significant breach costs an organization
far more. Large breaches can jeopardize the health of a small business. During or after an
incident, IT security teams can follow an incident response plan as a risk management tool to
gain control of the situation.

What is the difference between IT security and information security (InfoSec)?

Although IT security and information security sound similar, they do refer to different types of
security. Information security refers to the processes and tools designed to protect sensitive
business information from invasion, whereas IT security refers to securing digital data, through
computer network security.

What are the threats to IT security?

Threats to IT security can come in different forms. A common threat is malware, or malicious
software, which may come in different variations to infect network devices, including:
• Ransom ware
• Spyware
• Viruses
 Types of IT security
Network security
Network security is used to prevent unauthorized or malicious users from getting inside your
network. This ensures that usability, reliability, and integrity are uncompromised. This type of
security is necessary to prevent a hacker from accessing data inside the network. It also prevents
them from negatively affecting your users’ ability to access or use the network.
Network security has become increasingly challenging as businesses increase the number of
endpoints and migrate services to public cloud.
Internet security
Internet security involves the protection of information that is sent and received in browsers, as
well as network security involving web-based applications. These protections are designed to
monitor incoming internet traffic for malware as well as unwanted traffic. This protection may
come in the form of firewalls, antimalware, and antispyware.
Endpoint security
Endpoint security provides protection at the device level. Devices that may be secured by
endpoint security include cell phones, tablets, laptops, and desktop computers. Endpoint security
will prevent your devices from accessing malicious networks that may be a threat to your
organization. Advance malware protection and device management software are examples of
endpoint security.

Cloud security
Applications, data, and identities are moving to the cloud, meaning users are connecting directly
to the Internet and are not protected by the traditional security stack. Cloud security can help
secure the usage of software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications and the public cloud. A cloud-
access security broker (CASB), secure Internet gateway (SIG), and cloud-based unified threat
management (UTM) can be used for cloud security.
Application security
With application security, applications are specifically coded at the time of their creation to be as
secure as possible, to help ensure they are not vulnerable to attacks. This added layer of security
involves evaluating the code of an app and identifying the vulnerabilities that may exist within
the software.
What is a security problem?

A security threat is a malicious act that aims to corrupt or steal data or disrupt an organization's
systems or the entire organization. A security event refers to an occurrence during which company
data or its network may have been exposed.
 Security issue management

In the context of security, issue management refers to the process of addressing security-related
problems in an organized way. It involves a systematic approach to mitigating immediate security
issues and minimizing their impact.

What is Issue Management?

Issue management refers to the handling of issues that develop within a company such as employee
difficulties, supplier logistic issues, technical difficulties, security alerts, and strapped resources.
Good issue management helps remediate and avoid issues and boost operational resilience.
Risk Management vs. Issue Management

Issue management and risk management are similar terms, but they have two distinct roles. Risk
management is a broader concept that encompasses issue management. Issue management is a
narrower subject and is an integral part of effective risk management. Let’s discuss each of them
separately.
Risk Management

• Risk management focuses on identifying, assessing, and mitigating potential future events or
situations that could impact business objectives.
• Risk management involves anticipating and preparing for uncertain events that may have positive
or negative consequences.
• Risk management is inherently proactive. It involves assessing and managing potential risks
before they occur to reduce their likelihood or mitigate their impact in the future.
• Risk management encompasses a broader scope, considering a wide range of potential events and
their potential impact on the organization’s objectives, including financial, operational, legal,
reputational, and strategic risks.
• Risk management typically follows a framework and takes on a very structured form.
• Risk management focuses on implementing preventive measures and developing contingency
plans ahead of the occurrence of events.

Issue Management

• Issue management deals with current or emerging problems or events that have already occurred
and require immediate attention and resolution.
• Issue management is reactive and focuses on addressing current or imminent problems that have
already manifested. It aims to resolve issues promptly to minimize their immediate impact on
operations or objectives.
• Issue management frameworks deal with specific, identifiable issues or incidents that have
already occurred, often within a narrower scope. It involves addressing immediate challenges,
bottlenecks, conflicts, or obstacles that require resolution to maintain ongoing operations.
• Issue management often requires a tactical approach. It involves analyzing the root causes,
developing corrective actions, and implementing short-term solutions to address the specific issue
at hand.