Definition

Display Advertising refers to advertising of products or services through visuals like videos or images on publishers’ websites like Facebook.

Definition

Catching people’s attention is a must for a brand when it is about increasing brand awareness. Display advertising strengthens the brand consistency and supports the Paid Per Click advertising.

In advertising, it is about the cost of investment. Display advertising delivers higher ROI for most investors because the number of clicks that count for the ad is always higher than the amount you invest in the ad.

Display ads are placed on the third party websites in the form of the banner, text ads, and image.

The form of advertising is categorically classified as a push approach. It makes people aware of the brand. Display ads make people aware of the brand further leading to higher ROI.

Display advertising also comes with the ability to track and analyse the advertising performance. Google Displays Network offers detailed reports to analyse the performance of individual display ads.

Example

Catching people’s attention is a must for a brand when it is about increasing brand awareness. Display advertising strengthens the brand consistency and supports the Paid Per Click advertising.

In advertising, it is about the cost of investment. Display advertising delivers higher ROI for most investors because the number of clicks that count for the ad is always higher than the amount you invest in the ad.

Display ads are placed on the third party websites in the form of the banner, text ads, and image. The form of advertising is categorically classified as a push approach.

It makes people aware of the brand. Display ads make people aware of the brand further leading to higher ROI.

Display advertising also comes with the ability to track and analyse the advertising performance. Google Displays Network offers detailed reports to analyse the performance of individual display ads.

Example

This is an example of display advertising where Lenskart has used the banner on their website. The ad looks attractive and appealing to the target audience due to the promo offer “Buy 1 Get 1 Free”.

It also offers the customers an option to stay connected by receiving push notifications. The ad also shows different types of glasses that the brand sells.

Importance of display advertising

This is why display advertising is important:

• It improves brand awareness with the help of eye-catching visual format. You can use colourful formats and make sure that the ad stands out. The colourful format allows you to create ads that are easily recognisable for a particular brand.
• Strengthen brand visibility, track performance, and support the success of PPC ads.
• Display advertising supports other forms of marketing and Pay per click advertising. Overall, it benefits the business with online advertisements.
• Display advertising is important to engage new audiences and nurture leads. A display ad will help the customer connect with the brand giving the audience a gentle reminder to make a purchase.

How to measure display ad performance?

These are the metrics that will help you measure the performance of display advertisement:

• Impressions: It gives the number of times the ad was displayed on a website. The impression must increase over the life of the advertisement campaign as it helps you to reach a wider target audience.
• Cost: Consider the cost you invest in display advertising and determine how you can improve other metrics. You can measure cost per click, cost per thousand impressions, and cost of campaign.
• Clickthrough Rate: CTR is derived by dividing the number of clicks your ad generates by the number of impressions. It is the percentage of the audience that clicked on your display advertisement.
• Conversion Rate: It is the percentage of individuals that converted from the ad.

Things to avoid when thinking of display advertising

These are the things you must avoid when thinking of display advertising:

• Avoid autoplay video ads and too many pop-ups. Also make sure that the display ad does not cover more than one-third of the screen.
• Use simple design for display advertising. Keep the design simple and let there be less words as too many words can confuse the audience.
• Make sure the ad looks good with high-quality images.
• Include a strong and appealing Call-To-Action. The CTA should be benefit oriented, it should create urgency, and the language be persuasive.

Future of display Advertising

The future of display advertising is bright but only if the ads are relevant and speaks of functionality. Otherwise, we know that a large number of ads are blocked by using Ad Blockers.

Individuals may not wait to see your ad if they find that there are too many pop ups or if the ad is not clear.

Thinking of the target audience, the future of display advertising is bright as ads can be personalised to create an impact on the audience.

FAQs

What are the major attributes of a display advertisement?

These are the major attributes of a display advertisement:

• It is an image or image based.
• The advertising is used to promote a brand, product, offering, or service.
• A display ad is not a search ad.
• Ad placement is negotiated through Google Display Network

How to create display ads?

This is how you can create display ads. Make note of these while you create advertisements:

Creative: Make the ad creative by writing the value proposition, tag line, logo, Call-to-Action, and business name.
Sizing: The ad should be effective for both the laptop and mobile screen. The size of the display advertisement should be:

• Google Display Network:
  • 300X250
  • 728X90
  • 120X60
• Social Networks
  • 1080X1080
  • 1200X768

What are the types of the display ads?

These are the types of display ads:

• Traditional display ads: The traditional display ads are placed on websites and are largely image and some text based.
• Responsive display ads: These display ads have multiple text headlines, images and descriptions in multiple formats like at different places, sizes, and content.
• Retargeting display ads: Retargeting ads are those which are shown to people who have visited your webpage or a set of pages. Retargeting display ads can help with personalised content.
• Native ads: Native ads are placed in the same format as the content on the website. They do not look like ads but these can be seen as promoted content.

Definition

Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI) is a feature in search engine advertising that allows advertisers to automatically insert specific keywords from their advertising campaign into their ad copy.

Description

When a user enters a search query that matches one of the keywords in the ad group, the ad will dynamically change to include that keyword, making the ad more relevant and personalised to the user’s search.

This can help increase the ad’s click-through rate (CTR) and improve the advertising campaign’s overall performance. DKI is often used in pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, such as Google Ads and Bing Ads, and is a popular tool for creating more effective and targeted ad copy.

Importance of Dynamic Keyword Insertion

Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI) is an essential tool in search engine marketing (SEM) that can significantly improve the performance of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns. Here are some key reasons why DKI is important:

1. Increased relevance: DKI enables advertisers to make their ads more relevant to the user’s search query by dynamically inserting the keyword searched by the user into the ad copy. This can help improve the ad’s click-through rate (CTR) and ultimately result in more conversions.
2. Time-saving: DKI can save a lot of time for advertisers as it eliminates the need to create multiple ads for each keyword in their ad group. With DKI, advertisers can create a single ad template that can be used for a wide range of keywords.
3. Better quality score: By increasing the ad’s relevance, DKI can also improve the ad’s quality score. A higher quality score can result in a better ad position and lower cost-per-click (CPC), leading to a more efficient and cost-effective advertising campaign.
4. Personalised experience: DKI allows advertisers to create a customised experience for the user, improving user engagement and leading to higher conversion rates.

How to create dynamic keyword insertion?

Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI) is a technique used in online advertising to dynamically replace specific keywords or phrases in an ad with the keywords a user has searched for.

This can make an ad more relevant to a user’s search and increase the likelihood that they will click on the ad.

To create dynamic keyword insertion, you need to follow these steps:

1. Define the target keywords: Identify the keywords or phrases you want to dynamically insert in your ad. You want to replace these words with the user’s search query.
2. Create a template: Create an ad template with a placeholder for the target keyword. The placeholder should be enclosed in brackets, for example: {Keyword}.
3. Set up your ad group: Set up your ad group with dynamic keyword insertion ads. Make sure that the ad group is targeted to the relevant keywords.
4. Add the dynamic keyword insertion code: In the ad text, add the dynamic keyword insertion code. The code should be the same as the placeholder you created in the ad template: {Keyword}.
5. Test your ads: Test your ads to ensure they are working correctly. You can do this by searching for your target keywords and checking that the ad displays the correct dynamic Keyword.
6. Monitor and optimise: Monitor your ads and optimise them based on performance data. Adjust your bids and ad copy to improve the effectiveness of your dynamic keyword insertion ads.

Benefits of Dynamic Keyword Insertion

These are the benefits of dynamic keyword insertion.

Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI) is a technique used in online advertising that can provide several benefits, including:

• Improved click-through rates: Ads more relevant to the user’s search query tend to have higher click-through rates (CTR). By using DKI, you can improve the CTR of your ads and get more clicks for your ad spend.
• Increased relevance: Dynamic Keyword Insertion allows you to insert the keyword the user has searched for into your ad. This can make your ad more relevant to the user’s search query, increasing the likelihood that they will click on your ad.
• Higher quality scores: Quality Score is a metric used by Google to measure the quality and relevance of your ads. Ads that are more relevant to the user’s search query tend to have higher Quality Scores. By using DKI, you can improve the Quality Score of your ads and lower your cost-per-click.
• Time-saving: Creating ads for every keyword or phrase you want to target can be time-consuming. With DKI, you can create a single ad that can be dynamically customised to match the user’s search query. This can save you time and effort in creating and managing ad campaigns.
• A/B testing: DKI can also be used in A/B testing to test different ad variations for various keywords. This can help you to identify the best ad copy and keywords for your target audience.

Future of Dynamic Keyword Insertion

Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI) is a proven technique in online advertising that has been used for many years to improve the performance of ad campaigns. While the exact future of DKI is challenging to predict, here are some potential trends that could impact how DKI is used:

1. Automation: As machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies advance, DKI will become more automated. Ad platforms may use algorithms to automatically insert the most relevant keywords into ad copy, making the process more efficient and effective.
2. Voice search: With the growing popularity of voice assistants, such as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, more searches are being conducted using natural language queries. This may require advertisers to rethink their use of DKI and focus more on long-tail keywords and conversational ad copy.
3. Audience targeting: As advertisers increasingly focus on targeting specific audiences rather than just keywords, DKI may become less relevant. Advertisers may instead use more dynamic ad creatives that can be customised to different audience segments, regardless of the keywords they use.
4. Data privacy: As concerns around data privacy and tracking continue to grow, ad platforms may place more restrictions on the use of user data, which could impact how DKI is used. Advertisers may need to find new ways to create relevant ad copy without relying on user data.

Example

Ad campaign for a running shoe brand called “ABC Running Shoes.” You want to create an ad that will be more relevant to users searching for “running shoes.” For example, you could make an ad template with the following text:

Looking for {Running Shoes}? Try ABC Running Shoes for the best selection of {Running Shoes} on the market.

In this template, the text in brackets {Running Shoes} is the placeholder for the keyword that will be dynamically inserted based on the user’s search query. When a user searches for “running shoes,” the ad platform will replace the placeholder with the search term, resulting in an ad that looks like this:

Looking for running shoes? Try ABC Running Shoes for the best selection of running shoes on the market.

By using DKI, you can make your ad more relevant to the user’s search query, increasing the likelihood that they will click on your ad. Additionally, you can apply DKI to different ad elements, such as headlines or descriptions, to create even more personalised and engaging ad copy that promotes your brand.

FAQs

What is Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI), and how does it work?

DKI is a technique used in online advertising that allows advertisers to dynamically insert keywords into ad copy. For example, when a user performs a search, the ad platform automatically replaces a placeholder in the ad with the keyword the user searched for, making the ad more relevant to their search query.

What are the benefits of using Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI) in ad copy?

The benefits of using DKI in ad copy include improved relevance and click-through rates and time savings for advertisers. In addition, by using DKI, advertisers can make their ad copy more relevant to the user’s search query, increasing the likelihood that the user will click on the ad.

What are some best practices for using Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI)?

Some best practices for DKI include using it sparingly to avoid awkward or unnatural-sounding ad copy and testing different ad copy variations to see which ones perform best.

What are some common mistakes to avoid when using Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI)?

Some common mistakes to avoid when using DKI include failing to set a default keyword in case the user’s search term is not a good fit for the ad and using DKI in ad elements that are not relevant to the user’s search query.

Can Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI) be used with any ad platform?

Most ad platforms support DKI in some form, but the syntax and implementation may vary from platform to platform. Therefore, advertisers should consult the documentation for their specific ad platform to learn more about using DKI effectively.

Are there any downsides to using Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI)?

While DKI can be a powerful tool for improving the relevance of ad copy, it can also be overused or misused, resulting in awkward or irrelevant ad copy that may need to perform better.

Additionally, DKI may only be appropriate for some ad campaigns, and advertisers should carefully consider whether it fits their specific needs.

Definition

Digital Marketing Trends are the changes in the strategy development that marketers follow to increase their engagement with the target audience.

Description

Businesses get affected due to some external as well as internal factors. But to continue to grow and survive, business leaders have to put some strategy in place. Following trends bring revolutionary changes.

Like chatbots in digital marketing helped to market and advertise the products and services. It assisted brands to interact with the customers and provide them superior experience. AI-driven chat bots also deliver personalised experiences to the clients and customers.

New trends impact the digital marketing world and it pushes the marketers to include the changes. Some digital marketing trends are influencer marketing, omnichannel marketing, video marketing, and others.

Examples

When the influencer marketing trend grew, Dior won the Influencer Marketing Award. The brand teamed with influencer marketing agency Buttermilk to capitalise the maximum on the trend.

The brand launched the campaign to introduce Dior’s Forever Foundation which was available in 67 unique shades.

The brand wanted to celebrate the product’s diversity with an ambassador representing each shade. Buttermilk evaluated the influencers on the grounds of higher engagement levels, proven past performance, follower audience that was interested in beauty, etc.

They selected 67 influencers for the campaign, especially those whose skin matches Dior’s shades. The total audience reach from 67 influencers is 2.66M. The post drove an output that resulted in 592K engagement.

Importance of Digital Marketing Trends

Digital marketing trends are important:

• It allows businesses to break the boundaries of the market.
• It provides new ideas and opportunities.
• Brands can communicate their values with their audience.
• Following trends keep you in the spotlight.

Digital marketing trends for 2023

These are the digital marketing trend for 2023:

• Metaverse: Metaverse is marketing products and services using virtual and augmented realities. It offers better user experience by creating a digital experience where the users can do anything they want. Digital marketers use videos to supplement the trend and make it more appealing to the audience.
• Cryptocurrency: Another popular trend which every marketer should follow is cryptocurrency. There are about 10-12 million active who trust the trend and are keen to adapt to techniques like this. Brands like Google Pay allow the users to use cryptocurrencies to buy groceries and other everyday necessities.
• Social Commerce: Brands are using social media platforms to promote their items and sell them online. It has reduced the time taken by the visitors to shop who otherwise would have seen an ad and then made a purchase.
• Voice Search: The number of users that have trusted Google for voice search has increased. About 55% of teenagers use voice search daily. The figure shows that people adapt to new changes fast and this is going to stay for long.
• Programmatic Advertising: It refers to automated buying of ads so that the advertisers can target their audience. Advertisers can get higher customer conversion at a cheaper rate because the bidding is real-time based which helps with precise and fast targeting.
• AI in Marketing: AI is quite a stir in marketing as it replicates human behaviour and keeps the users engaged for a longer period of time.
• Personalised Email Marketing: Personalised emails are an excellent way to offer a touch of care for the customers. Emails have emerged to be the most trustworthy and profitable way to connect with the audience and encourage them to make the purchase.

FAQs

Which marketing trends do you think will dominate in future?

These digital trends will dominate the future:

• Customer Experience to monitor how customers feel with the brand’s product or service.
• Employee engagement to increase customer’s participation with the brand.
• Storytelling for content visualisation. Because posts with images produce 180% more engagement.
• Personalisation: 80% consumers confirmed for more participation when they would receive personalised experience.

Is repurposing content a digital marketing trend?

It can be, but moreover it is a practice that can help you connect easily with the target audience.

A content piece that ranked higher in the past can be repurposed and posted on different platforms. Like a written piece of content can be repurposed to make a video of it.

The practice can assist you to possibly spread the word faster on different platforms and reach the target audience.

How do you find out the trends in the digital marketing industry?

To find and follow the digital marketing trends, the marketer will have to:

• Keep a track of industry publications and news.
• Find the readings of the latest report and research.
• Use analytical tools to observe which marketing trend fits your needs.
• Observe how your customers are behaving and what their feedback is.
• Compare your efforts with your competitors.

Definition

Demand generation is the process of creating awareness of your products and services amongst target audiences.

Description

Your target audience will be interested to buy your products or services only if they know that a product from your brand exists.

People buy things when they have a need. And they buy your product and service when they are aware that it exists. Hence, you can understand that demand generation includes lead capture, nurturing the lead, and pipeline acceleration.

Demand generation begins with creating initial campaigns so that the target audience interacts with your brand. It is about growing the audience by informing them about the solution you offer.

With demand generation, you motivate the audience to engage with your content and take actions. The ultimate goal with demand generation is to encourage the buyer until they become a qualified lead.

Example

Backlinko, founded by Brian Dean, is an excellent example of demand generation. Brian is an SEO expert and his knowledge about SEO is profound.

He started with courses and made videos to make the audience aware of his services and knowledge. Brian Dean launched Backlinko where marketers turned to get more traffic and higher rankings.

His videos and courses helped people find value for the knowledge he shared. It then drove ultimate traffic for him.

Importance of Demand Generation

Demand generation is more like attracting an audience and creating a market for your products and services. It is important as it helps in:

• Increasing brand awareness:

Demand generation helps to bring an audience to your website. Inbound marketing campaigns drive people to think about your product even though they may not need it.

The process involves you creating engaging content and posting about it on social media, conferences, and places where you expect your audience to be present.

The content assists your brand to earn credibility and trust of the audience. Demand generation strategy will create website engagement and interested traffic.

• Generate more leads

A well executed demand generation strategy will assist in lead generation. Several percent of the potential customers will immediately translate into high quality leads. Most of them will give to your brand’s loyal customers.

• Increase ROI

The simple rule towards higher revenue is:

Increased Awareness = More Lead Generation =Increased ROI

The Internet is the biggest saviour when you talk about expansive demand generation. The largest part of the target audience can now be found online who is most likely willing to make the final purchase also online.

So when you use an online medium to increase awareness, you can soon expect better ROI also.

Key Strategies of Demand Generation

These are the key strategies of demand generation:

• Blogging: Blogs are the best mode of communicating your thoughts and information about the products and services. It offers convenience to connect with your target audience and leave them with information on how they can connect with your brand. Blogs engage the audience with the content and encourage them to make the purchase.
• Lead Magnets: If your aim is to get an audience to your website, you better mix the content marketing with SEO. Create high value engaging content that keeps the audience captivated and brings in more traffic to your website. Some of the lead magnets for you would be presentation, infographics,templates, and checklists.
• Account-based Marketing: Account based marketing is keeping your narrowly segmented audience informed and engaged. The ABM campaigns might include outbound marketing like LinkedIn ads, InMail, email marketing, and direct mail.
• Webinars: Let the world know that you are an expert of your field. Connect with your audience through Webinars and keep your target audience informed about the product developments. This makes the audience aware about the latest updates for the products.
• Podcasts: Podcasts are another way to capture the audience’s attention towards your brand. It is yet far away from hitting its point of saturation and not many have tried their hands on it. The trick for higher involvement with podcasts is that you have to create exciting content which could be your last popular posts.
• Videos: Videos offer an immersive experience to the audience and help them remember your brand because visual content can be remembered for a longer time.
• Direct mail: Direct mail is another effective way for demand generation. It allows you to pitch your target audience with your brand name. Direct mail is a successful strategy when you run a B2B business model.
• Social campaigns: Nothing can be more cost effective than connecting with your target audience through social media campaigns. The campaigns can be around keywords that touch your customers. It drives their engagement more with your brand.
• Influencer marketing: Influencer marketing is another convenient way to connect and influence your audience. You can partner with the influencers who have a large fan base. They can help you market your products. Choose influencers who create impressive content and receive good response from their followers.

How to work for demand generation?

This is how you can think exclusively for demand generation:

• Create a consistent brand identity: Keep your brand identity same for your target audience through all the touch points.It prevents any confusion for the audience to interact with your brand. Your content should reflect your brand values which helps your audience to connect.
• Integrate sales and marketing teams: Integrate sales and marketing team teams for aligned outputs. Include CTA in your content that defines your actionable goals and pushes the audience towards providing their information as a lead.
• Develop buyer personas: The demand generation activities are centred around the audience only. Create buyer’s personas and map them to the customer’s journey. Because you can serve your customers better only when you understand their expectations and pain points.
• Use demand generation softwares: Amplify your business by using demand generation software. Some of the most popular softwares are HubSpot, Optimizely, and ActiveCampaign.
• Analyse campaigns and optimise: Start with making a content planner and create content around it. Assess the outcome of each content topic by monitoring the output of all the posts in terms of:
  • Conversion Rates
  • Organic Traffic
  • Overall Traffic
  • Marketing leads
  • Sales leads
  • Visibility

FAQs on Demand Generation

What is demand generation Vs lead generation?

Demand generation is attracting new customers to your website by informing them about the solutions you offer. On the other hand, lead generation is converting the audience to qualified leads.

Quick steps to follow for demand generation

These are the quick steps to follow for demand generation:

Step 1: Lead nurturing and lead scoring
Step 2: Create interactive content
Step 3: Attract the right audience
Step 4: More awareness with Webinars and Events
Step 5: Conduct contests to attract users
Step 6: Engage in specific ways

Best demand generation softwares

These are the demand generation softwares:

• HubSpot Marketing
• Pipedrive
• Mayple
• Ortto
• Marketing Creatio
• Unbounce
• Wishpond
• Optimizely
• BrightInfo

Definition

Data-driven marketing is when a marketing team builds their strategies after analysing the data collected through customer interaction.

Description

Data helps to gain a better understanding of the target customers. Getting clarity about the customers enables the brands to serve them better. A data-driven marketing facilitates personalised content in which the users will have an increased engagement.

Only 57% of leading organisations state that they tap their rich data to drive innovation, but 27% believe that with data they have been able to create data-driven organisations.

This data is collected through customer’s interactions with third party sites to make marketing effective and efficient. The data is based on evaluations like what excites the customers, their buying behaviour, their preferences, etc.

Organisations can enhance and personalise the customer experience after studying and evaluating the data about their target audience. Data can help organisations make informed decisions to sell better to their customers.

Such insights help brands develop personalised marketing strategies for the maximum possible return on investment. Companies can monitor their performance on regular basis and make changes if they find the need.

Example

Myntra runs one of the largest online fashion platforms. It observes behaviour of all its customers. The brand observed that Anisha visited the page which displayed a long overcoat with hooded furs.

Anisha visited the page almost every second day since it was up for selling, but she did not make the purchase. Now because the brand is largely based on data-driven marketing, it alerted Anisha when the item was offered on sale.

Importance of Data-Driven Marketing Strategy

Data driven marketing strategy helps you to:

• Reach the right people at the right time as you know their interests and behaviour.
• Make necessary changes in the marketing strategies considering the need of the time.
• Hit the target based on the segments you create.
• Utilise multi-channels ads to spread the message right.
• Innovate new products to offer to the customers.

Ways to develop Data-Driven Marketing Strategy

This is how you can develop a data-driven marketing strategy:

Step 1: Gather the data about the customers:

Your existing clients give you the highest opportunity to explore how to offer the customers. It gives you an idea on how you can serve the future customers also. Get maximum data about customer’s demographics, age, location, behaviour, and buying habits.

Use some business intelligence softwares to centralise the data and tap it to maximise the sales.

Step 2: Analyse the data for different trends:

After the data is collected, the next you can do is analyse the data for different patterns and trends. There could be cases like one product is more popular than the other in one region and vice versa.

You can improve your marketing campaigns and serve your customers better. The software is AI enabled that analyses the large part of the data for you effortlessly.

Step 3: Categorise target audience into groups:

Once the data is evaluated completely, you can categorise your audience into different groups. Groups can be based on behaviours, gender, location, etc.

You can use Web Analytics Tools for predictive analytics. Based on this study, you can take actions which will help you motivate customers to complete the actions you want them to take.

Step 4: Create marketing campaigns for different target groups:

Remember the brand Colgate-it has the highest penetration in the market. It was a brand that a common man needed, but the same rule does not apply to all.

Targeting audiences can align your marketing goals with business goals. It further enhances the return on investment you want.

Step 5: Stay connected with the audiences

Connectivity is the biggest issue that one must keep in mind when it comes to generating loyal customers. Email marketing has been observed as the most effective marketing strategy.

Best Practices of Data-Driven Marketing Strategy

These are the best practices of data-driven marketing strategy:

• Provide value to the customers: Data-driven marketing strategy is about providing a clear idea of what is in it for the customers. It makes the marketing campaign a hit.
• Create personalised product recommendations: Data can help to make personalised recommendations after building a user’s profile. The recommendations must highlight what the customers will gain from the products.
• Be transparent: Marketers need to be transparent when they are collecting the data. It is important to mention how the information will be used, stored and secured for future purposes.

FAQs

What trends drive data-driven marketing?

Data-driven marketing is gaining momentum because of the increase in the complexity of the consumer journey. It happens due to the rise in the number of touchpoints. Companies have wider availability of data about these journeys. Also, with dedicated tools brands can easily manage the data.

How are companies using data to drive higher revenue and results?

Data can be used to:

• Identify high-value customers.
• Acquire and retain these customers.
• Attribute value to marketing for quick promotion.
• Build customer segmentation for convenient marketing.

What are the Challenges of data-driven marketing strategies?

These are the challenges of data-driven marketing strategy:

Challenge 1:

• Problem: Gathering the data
• Solution: Collect data from social media and other channels.

Challenge 2:

• Problem: Pulling the data together.
• Solution: Use marketing analytics and other tools to connect all data at one place.

Challenge 3:

• Problem: Data analysis
• Solution: Understand the audience and set up the common data standards.

Definition

Data visualisation refers to graphical representation of information and data to evaluate data and further take decisions to drive business.

Description

In the world where the demand for data is rising exponentially, data visualisation is just an art to analyse information. Companies need data at all levels as a go to guide for their marketing and financial decisions.

Using elements like graphs, maps, and charts data can be compiled to visualise data and understand trends and patterns about market and consumers. Data visualisation using graphs, colours, and charts makes decoding data easy.

Data visualisation helps in:

• Easily sharing information
• Explore more business opportunities
• Identify relationship between different patterns

With so many pluses, data visualisation can at times bring disadvantages like inaccurate information because decision making can be biased.

Example

In a report of Transparency Market Research, it was found that global sanitary napkins were valued at US$24.5 Bn in 2021. The market is expected to grow at 5% till 2031.

Sanitary napkins are disposable napkins that retain the menstrual fluids preventing leakage. With the growing awareness at the global level, females are more conscious to maintain hygiene and good health.

This calls for a huge increase in the demand for napkins. Hence the research showed the expected rise in demand for sanitary napkins.

Importance of Data Visualisation

Data Visualisation helps companies communicate information universally using visuals. The intent is to back the decision making with authentic data.

Data visualisation assists in reading consumer behaviour and stress on the points that need quick improvement.

Some factors that make data visualisation important include:

• Prevent confusion within the company at all levels. Data visualisation explains the strategy to all team members and employees at all levels. It leaves no room for confusion.
• Faster decision making with the ability to improve insights.
• Improved ability to serve the audience with deep insights into their interests.
• Reduces the need for data scientists as data is easily accessible and understandable.
• Better ability to fix shortcomings and achieve success faster.

General Types of Data Visualisation

These are the type of data visualisation:

• Infographics: A display of information that has combined effects of visuals and words to represent data. Infographics may use charts and diagrams.
• Chart: Information that is presented in graphical or tabular form with data displayed along two axes are defined as a chart.
• Table: Set of information displayed in rows and columns is a table.
• Graph: Representing information in the form of lines, segments, or curves usually along two axes.
• Geospatial: Displaying information on maps using different shapes or colours to show relationships between data and location.
• Dashboards: Showing information in one place to help analyse and present data can be done through dashboards.

Popular ways for data representation for visualisation

Some of the popular ways to visualise data are:

• Line: Lines are used to depict trends for different categories over the same period of time to compare the data.
• Bar: Bars use different heights to depict value as representation of information. Bar graphs can be horizontal, vertical, stacked, or grouped bars.
• Pie: Pie chart shows the contribution value by different categories to make up the whole.
• Pivot: Pivot tables are useful when you want to derive exact information rather than just taking a sense of information.
• Scatter: Scatter charts depict the data by colour and volume by size of the circle. They help in visualising the relationship between two variables.
• Bubble: Bubble charts similar to scatter charts represent the weight of the value by circumference of the circle. Such charts can be used when there are several elements to study.
• Treemap: Treemaps are useful for displaying hierarchy between categories and subcategories.
• Polar: Polar chart is the same as pie chart. All the sizes of the angle depict the same value. The share of each is measured by how far the value goes from the centre.

FAQs on Data Visualisation

What makes data visualisation good?

It depends on how people perceive data. For data visualisation it is important that you highlight important aspects of data after looking at important variables.

Mention key points and include clean information. Remember these points for data visualisation to look good:

• Data positioning
• Data marking
• Colour theory
• Bars representation over circle and squares
• Information with 3D charts

What is the best way to visualise data in more than 3 dimensions in a single chart?

In a three dimensional chart, information is expressed in height, width, and depth. You can make use of colour, sizes, and shapes for depicting changes through time.

How to use colour in your visualisation?

You can do this to use colour in your visualisation:

• Highlight important information.
• Keep one colour to represent continuous data.
• Avoid using weird colour palettes.
• Give accessibility to colour blind viewers.

What are some popular tools that assist in data visualisation?

These are some tools that assist in data visualisation:

• Microsoft Excel
• Microsoft Power BI
• IBM Cognos Analytics
• SAP Lumira
• SAS Visual Analytics
• Jupyter
• Google Charts
• Micro Strategy
• D3.js
• Zoho Analytics

What Is Direct Response Marketing?

Marketing strategy in which the aim is to encourage an immediate response from the customers to generate quick leads is referred as direct response marketing.

Description

It is important that the marketers know how to influence their target audience, further encouraging them to take desired actions.

Though it involves market analysis and behavioural study of the target audience, a marketer also has to take care of brand identity while taking care of their targets and revenue.

It is a strategy that drives specific actions rather than building long-term goals. The actions are driven to motivate consumers to take an instant action because the motive here is to generate leads.

It is one way to engage the audience for a long time and drive quick benefits like higher ROI and lead generation. It helps them find the interested prospects and allows them to measure how many prospects come from the direct campaigns.

For an effective direct marketing campaign, it is essential that you neatly draft value proposition, pitch and call-to-action (CTA) in one place. The strategy helps the prospect to move quickly from buyer’s stage to final decision making stage.

Marketers can use direct mails, radio and billboards, digital marketing to get that quick response.

Apart from direct emails, marketers can also use landing pages, paid ads, and social media ads.

Example

One effective example of direct response marketing is a referral program. Brands that motivate you to bring referrals motivating the family and friends to make the purchase is an example of direct response marketing.

Myntra-India’s biggest online shopping program provides referral feature to the existing customers. It is known with the name MynCash. Under the referral program, the customers earn some MynCash by referring friends.

This is direct response marketing where you are asking your customers to take immediate actions on the offer.

Relevance of Direct Response Marketing

Direct Response Marketing allows the marketers to:

• Generate quick leads: Marketers can generate quick leads through the existing consumers. Marketers can lay tempting offers to capture the attention of the prospects and encourage them to make a purchase.
• High ROI: Other than generating leads, it yields higher return on investment. It happens when the prospects purchase products and existing consumers shop to leverage the cash or discount earned. Overall, the return on investment is higher.
• Easily track and measure: For a marketer, evaluating the performance of a marketing strategy is important. They need to find which ads and campaigns perform effectively. The report can then assist to decide proper resource allocation to drive higher ROI.
• Helps in identifying prospects: Consumers who respond to direct messages or emails sent to receive direct responses can be counted in as prospects. The sales team can then concentrate on following these prospects instead of cold leads that hardly respond.
• Establish stronger relationships: With this marketing, the marketers can establish stronger communication and hence relationship with the prospects and the existing consumers.

Future of Direct Response Marketing

Keeping the customers engaged for a longer time influences how an online business can grow fast.

• The figure shows some stats about online business and eCommerce:

It depicts that nearly 55% of people will search online for reviews and recommendations before they could make a purchase. 23% of people talk with family and friends, 26% check out the physical store and 47% visit the company’s website.

Studies also show that 92% of online feedback is considered positive, 2% is taken negative and 6% is considered neutral (Source: wpforms.com). This is why executing marketing strategy for direct response marketing makes sense and it will continue to affect the outputs in the future also.

Research has been made to show that 55% qualified leads rely on word of mouth and 46% keep in mind customer references.

Acquiring new customers can be 5 X the cost to retain an existing customer. Marketers can change their ways and try successful high yielding plans like email marketing and search engine optimization to build trust in the customers. It will help to gain more loyal customers.

With the rising competition, increasing the customer base will be important. And direct response marketing is a cost-effective way that can bring in more prospects.

Best Practices for Direct Response Marketing

Starting with a direct response marketing, these are the best practices for a marketer to include:

• Make Call-to-Action Specific: Including a specific and easy-to-understand call-to-action is a part of the strategy. Making the CTA simple, pushes consumers to know what is the next thing they should do and how they should do it. For example if your motive is to encourage people to shop for the products, you will write “Shop Now”, “Shop Now for 10% discount”, etc. You cannot write “Learn More” in this place.
• Use Compelling Copy: It is important for a marketer to stand out with a compelling copy. Ad copy should be personalised making it simple enough for the consumers to understand the offer.
• Keep the Response Easy: Filling long forms can be boring for the consumers. Hence, make it simple for the consumers to respond.
• Follow-Up: Do not give a slack when it comes to following up with the prospects. The marketing team should be aware of how they can move the prospects to keep them engaged.

Best examples of Direct Response Marketing

These are some of the best example of direct response marketing:

Upselling: It is a powerful act of selling a superior product to the existing customer. How can you do it? When a customer is completing a purchase, you can send them a message asking that they can shell out a little bit more money and get higher or more products.

Social Media Ads: You can promote your product or service on social media to motivate your customers or prospects to act quickly before the offer is gone. To get higher engagements, the ad copy needs to have high-quality content and visuals, should have a punchy copy, and must contain a clear CTA.

Contests and Giveaway alerts: Contests and Giveaway alerts are a major attention catcher trick. The biggest advantage is that it gets a good and immediate response from the target audience.

Text Messaging: It is a great way to alert your customers about exclusive deals and offers. Direct messaging is a simple and effective way to get customers direct to your website.

Chatbots: Chatbots were the new rage ever since they were used. It is fast and yields instant response from the users. This could be a great window to market your offers.

Direct Mails: Direct response marketing works when you try direct mails. When you send emails, you can easily attach coupons, newsletters, and brochures. You can align direct mails with modern techniques like using QR codes to direct your client to your website.

Google Ads: Another effective way to market your product and service is Google Ads. If you want to reach a wider audience Google Ads serves the best.

FAQs

What are the 3 key components of direct response marketing?

These are the 3 key components of direct response marketing:

• Offer: It will motivate the customers to engage with your brand.
• Information: The next important thing is information. When you make an ad, it is important you give clear information to the customers.
• CTA: Call-to-Action is the third crucial element for direct response marketing. It tells the customers what to do next when they have visited your website or landing page.

Tips to design a direct response marketing campaign

These are the tips to design a marketing campaign:

• Focus the campaign around the customer’s needs. Stress on target audience and not on promoting the brand.
• Personalise the campaign as it is more appealing and easier to connect with your brand.
• Use simple call-to-action.
• Make it sound urgent. FOMO helps brands to connect with their audience as the fear of missing something motivates the people to engage more with the brand.

How do you calculate the direct response of the target audience?

You can calculate the direct response of the target audience by:

Response rate= Responses/Sends

It is the percentage of people who respond to the direct marketing campaign you have designed.

Is direct response marketing effective?

Yes, direct response marketing is effective. Because it helps marketers in both branding and generating consumer response at the same time. It saves time and efforts of the marketers to follow prospects instead of cold leads that may not ultimately convert.

What is the difference between direct response and brand marketing?

Direct response marketing refers to closing a sale or transaction. On the other hand, brand marketing is building awareness. It is establishing a brand value proposition in the mind of the target audience.

Definition

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is the art of serving your customers in the best way to improve customer retention and drive growth.

Description

Success of brands rely on customer retention.

A customer lifecycle involves:

Targeting>Marketing>Acquisition>Conversion>Retention>Loyalty

Customers stay with a brand when they are happy with what is served and they are served what they are looking for.

Customer Relationship Management is the right combination of strategies, technologies, and practices that the companies use to manage and analyse customer interaction throughout the customer lifecycle.

CRM can be done by using result-oriented CRM software that keeps a track of data, interactions, and knowledge about the potential customers. The data can help to streamline sales, marketing, accounting, customer service, and overall management to grow the business.

The compilation of customer data through different channels and points of interaction help companies focus their actions to grow business.

Example

Online apparel brand, Myntra has set up a strong customer relationship management system. When a customer sends them a query for having received a wrong product, the customer receives a quick response reading “We Are On It.” This way the brand keeps themselves connected with the customers and responds to their query giving customers a feeling of satisfaction.

Importance of Customer Relationship Management

Customer relationship management is an efficient way to maintain and create relationships with the customers. Maintaining relationships with the customers is the simple way to connect deeper with the people and the brand.

A great bond with the customers can take the business to another level.

These are the reasons why CRM is important for the growth of the organisation:

• A CRM helps to evaluate the status of the acquired or to be acquired customers. This helps to serve the customers continuously and maintain relationships effectively.
• CRM can help to track which customers are profitable and which ones are not.
• The CRM system helps businesses to identify potential customers which is also called “Opportunity of Businesses”.
• CRM is cost effective to give wings to your business. It does not require any staff or any dedicated system to manage CRM.
• A proper CRM system increases the customer satisfaction which is about getting more business that drives profit. And if the customer is satisfied with you, it increases the customer loyalty.

Future of Customer Relationship Management (CRM)- What to expect?

These are the trends that will be seen in customer relationship management in next 5 years:

• CRM will develop automation in the system.
• Customer first and not the company. The CRM tool will help in customer retention and offer highly personalised customer experience.
• The CRM softwares will be Easy-to-Use and mobile friendly enabling everyone in the company to use it.
• The CRM will be AI enabled that reduces the chances of manual data entries and captures the complete customer lifecycle. An AI enabled system captures the data irregularities, duplicates, anomalies, and errors.
• CRM will conveniently align sales, marketing and operations that help reach common goals.

FAQs

Which are some of the efficient tools you can use for CRM?

• Salesforce CRM
• SAP CRM
• Zoho CRM
• Oracle CRM
• HubSpot CRM
• CRM Creatio
• Nimble CRM

What are the types of CRM?

These are the types of CRM:

On-premise CRM:

With on-premise CRM, a business must first buy the licences. On-premise CRM is an excellent option for businesses with strong security policies because the software is housed on the company’s servers. However, in these situations, the setup procedure requires more time and IT resources.

Cloud-based CRM:

Software as a service (SaaS), cloud, or on-demand CRM, on the other hand, keeps data on the vendor’s servers.

The vendor assumes full responsibility for the system’s smooth operation and provides all necessary system updates and support, so users have complete access to the database at all times and from any location. This is important for the system.

Definition

A fictional assumption of an ideal buyer based on actual data about present customers and market research is called building a customer persona.

Description

Building customer persona helps the brand identify key traits of the customers in different segments. Customers can be segmented based on demographics, motivation, interests, and objectives.

Customer persona helps you to serve your customers with the things that are of their interest. A persona-based marketing approach enables brands to improve customer experience. It allows the brands to remarket campaigns more effectively.

Companies can use the insights for remarketing campaigns to:

• Increase retention
• Reduce customer acquisition costs
• Reduce cost per lead
• Stimulate your conversion growth

The three types of customer personas in marketing are:

• User persona: A user persona will be dependent on the people who will buy your products or services irrespective of whether they can influence the buying decision.
• Buyer persona: Buyer persona relates to people who are directly involved in buying your products or services. These people directly affect your marketing strategies and communication.
• Website persona: Website persona defines the characteristics, motivations, needs, and environment of the key types of website users.

Example

Online shopping brand Myntra created a user persona. They keep an eye on the ideal target audience that keeps trying new and trendy outfits and also ensure the quality of clothes they buy.

Myntra also focuses on removing frustrations and pain points of the brands. Their idea is to improve their sales by making the customer experience better.

The brand considers the user persona- the search and query to finally make recommendations for products. It makes the user experience better and pushes the revenue upwards.

In the image above Apoorva Tyagi is looking for reasons why Saina Nehwal’s racquet is better to use. Myntra considered her queries to evaluate how they can launch the racquet for sales on a huge platform that sells multiple products.

Importance of Customer Persona

Customer persona helps brands in marketing, sales, customer service, and taking business decisions. For marketing, creating customer persona can help with marketing strategies like:

• Identifying customer pain points to offer them products or services that interests them.
• Develop a deep understanding of customer’s requirements and find ways to solve them.
• Distributing content through the right channels after knowing where the customer spends their time.
• Prioritise which campaigns should you invest their resources and time in.
• Documenting a customer’s persona helps to align all marketing efforts to meet customer’s needs.

Ways to create Customer Persona

These are the ways in which you create customer persona:

• Step 1: Segment and analyse the existing customers.
• Step 2: Run qualitative and quantitative research to dive deep into what your customers feel, see, think, and perceive about your products and services.
• Step 3: Evaluate the responses like customer feedback and customer support requests.
• Step 4: Set your team to communicate with the customers.
• Step 5: Use tools like Google Analytics to back your decisions for customers. Use customer insights to understand the expectations of the customers.
• Step 6: Share the information with the entire organisation so that everyone is on the same page to offer services to the users.
• Step 7: Never stop updating and observing the personas when needed.

Key Insights of Customer Persona

• Alan Cooper, a pioneer software developer, started with the concept of Customer Persona.
• In 1983, he thought of creating a persona using data from interviews.
• In 1995, he recreated the thought to know how in general someone will use the software.
• Cooper mentioned the persona technique in his book The Inmates are Running the Asylum.
• Further the concept of understanding the customer segments was developed by Angus Jenkinson. It was internationally adopted by Ogilvy One. Companies then started by creating imaginary characters.

FAQs

How can you leverage personas to create better customer experiences?

A customer persona can help you understand in depth:

• Customer’s needs.
• Ways to address their needs.
• Design campaigns, features, and ways to initiate them.

How do you engage customers when you create customer personas?

These are the strategies you use to create customer personas:

• Focus where the customers spend their time, that is, on which platform.
• Create customer personas oriented content to engage them more with your brand.
• Speak the language that customers resonate with. If the customers are more into using slang, brands should speak in the same tone to mirror how customers speak.
• Establish partnerships with influencers or brands that help you connect with your audience.

What is the difference between qualitative and quantitative research to make a customer’s persona?

Understanding customers to create customer personas:

Quantitative research

• It allows you to test and prove a hypothesis.
• It uses large sample sizes through surveys and site traffic analysis.
• Helps to observe statistically significant trends and then serve the customers accordingly.

Qualitative research

• It allows us to discover insights using small samples.
• It involves using interviewers data and usability testing.
• The results might not always be beneficial because it involves a small number of people.