Deploying a successful digital marketing strategy for Indian manufacturers

The number of internet users in India is going to reach a whopping 450 million in the next two months. According to the Internet and Mobile Association of India, this number is constantly increasing. Thus, investing in proper digital marketing strategies will pave the way for colossal growth for Indian entrepreneurs.

The Indian population is already engaged in using the infinite web opportunities through PCs and smartphones. The telecom industry in India is expecting the number to increase by 730 million in 2020. With a smartphone becoming the basic need for everyone, the scope of digital marketing is going to get better in the near future.

Social media marketing and online marketing industries in India have observed steady growth, especially in the last 5 years. The industry has helped a lot of businesses and firms to bloom.

Every aspect of online marketing, starting from search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing (SMM), search engine marketing (SEM), and pay per click (PPC), has served and is still contributing for the betterment of online businesses.

How to deploy a successful digital marketing campaign – for Indian manufacturers

A successful digital marketing campaign comprises multiple elements. The one factor that remains constant in all marketing campaigns is, it should strike the right chord with the target audience. The end goal is to create a lasting impression and that’s how you do it.

In the following section of this blog, we are going to share the definitive elements that will help Indian manufacturers deploy a successful digital marketing campaign.

  1. Defining the target audience: The primary reason to define the target audience is, you need to know who could be your potential visitors/viewers/customers. The initial tendency of a lot of Indian digital marketers is to target as many people as possible.

This is not how online marketing campaigns work. To create a successful marketing campaign, it needs to be focused. Do thorough research on the demographic specifications like age, interest, location, education, gender, best hours, and more. Detailed research will help in narrowing down the target buyers/customers/audience.

Do not try and create a generic campaign. An online marketing campaign that is focused on a specific section of the population is much more impactful than a generic campaign.

  1. Involve the target audience: Once the target audience is identified, it is important to involve them as well. Bombarding them with promotional posts related to your products and services daily will not do any good. In fact, it will push your audience to shift towards other brands.

Instead, it is important to interact with your audience, involve them during the product manufacturing and processing step. Let them share their thoughts on what do they want from your services or products. That’s how you create the most demanding product or offer the best service for your audience.

  1. Create a clear brand proposition: A meek ad with a powerful brand image will be the last thing anyone wants to see. For instance, consider the tagline of TVS Zest. It showcased a tagline of “Feel the Power” in the Himalayan High series.

The ad had a suitable tagline because the scooter could reach up to the highest motorable pass in India. It was undoubtedly an astounding feature. The feeling of thrill along with the tenacity of the bike added to the fun element. This is why the tagline was suitable for the product.

That’s what we are talking about. It is important to create the right ad for the right product with the right tagline. All three elements need to be in sync.

  1. Choosing the right medium: With a plethora of online marketing platforms available, at present, it is difficult to choose the right platform for the right products. There is an existing dilemma among Indian manufacturers about which platform will be best suitable for their products.

The success of digital marketing depends a lot on choosing the right platform. Not every product is meant for Facebook or Instagram. Depending on the right product, the message, and the content, it is important to utilize the right medium for marketing and promotional purposes.

For instance, you can use Facebook for static visual and single videos. On the other hand, if the video content is a bit lengthy, then it is better to opt for YouTube for promotion.

  1. Creating unique content: When you create content, whether it is video content, text content, an image or GIF, or any other form of content, it is important to emotionally connect with the target audience. To strike a chord with Indians, the content has to be a blend of excitement and emotion.

Digital campaigns have content with stories that should involve consumers. Today, marketing campaigns are about “telling” a story and not just “selling” it. When you make a consumer a part of the story, he/she feels an instant connection with the product.

  1. Integrating online and offline services: Integrating online and offline services is extremely important for digital marketing campaigns. The digital media talks about different features about the products, but when the viewer’s visit the website, there is not much information.

Along with ensuring brand consistency by maintaining a similar look and feel across online and offline platforms, the brands need to direct people from one medium to another. For instance, invite your target audience to your e-commerce store or your website through TV or radio.

Also, you need to use the same keywords in printed ads and online paid ads to reach your goals through integration.

  1. Scope of Constant improvisation: If you are not ready to improvise according to the ongoing trends, then you will miss out a lot. Rigidity will wreak havoc on your campaign and it will result in a complete loss. The best part of online marketing campaigns is, they are dynamic.

The audience and their interests keep changing from time to time. The campaign needs to be optimized and improvised according to the audience’s response and evolving trends. Small improvisations result in a larger step towards widening the consumer base and branding.

With all these above-mentioned factors, it will be easy to create the right digital marketing strategy for the Indian market. If you are seeking the help of professionals to create the right digital marketing strategy for your business, get in touch with Skyram Technologies here.

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Creating the Indian version of Google and Facebook – Is it possible?

Before we start discussing whether it is possible or not for India to have its own Google or Facebook, let us share some facts. India has the cheapest and the best telecom service Reliance that entered into a merger deal with Facebook (the Reliance-Facebook merger).

There is a revolution happening right in front of us. India consumes more data in the world than any other country. 86% of India’s social media marketing individuals and users prefer Facebook over other social media apps like Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit, and Pinterest.

Coming to Search, Google is dominating the Indian market since it is used by 92% Indians for all sorts of search queries. Thus, the other search engines like Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, Baidu, and Yandex are hardly a competition. Also, WhatsApp, which is also owned by Facebook, is used by more than 400 million users.

Now, all these above-mentioned social media platforms used by Indians are not actually an Indian platform. This is why 95% of the digital ad revenues are generated outside India. The ad revenue is roundabout $2600 million where Search generates around $966 million.

Google and Facebook are nabbing more than 80% of the Indian digital pie. Apart from that other issues like privacy and data security remain constant.

What Can India do to generate digital ad revenues?

Is the concept of “Atmanirbhar Bharat” applicable for the digital marketing platforms too? Today, China is eye-balling the USA because it can afford to. They have opted for the self-reliance mode a long time ago. China had the foresight to figure out that they didn’t need the Western world to dominate their own market.

With almost a billion mobile users, China has actively created their own versions of Google, Facebook, Twitter, and similar other apps. Let us consider the scenario of WeChat. It has 1.132 billion users per month and 620 million users daily.

WeChat is an all-in-one application. It is like Facebook, Google News, WhatsApp, Twitter, and Pinterest combined. Also, it comprises ten million third-party applications known as WeChat mini-programs.

The Chinese make use of WeChat for multiple purposes. Starting from restaurant bookings, investments, flights, shopping, paying bills, transferring money, hailing taxis, almost everything can be done with the app. At present, WeChat is one of the most valuable companies in the world with its worth more than $500 billion.

China has created a strong digital ecosystem in the last decade where it monetizes billions of dollars in ad revenues. Apart from WeChat, let us share some more self-created digital platforms of China.

  • China has an alternative to Twitter which is known as Weibo. It has more than 500 million daily active users.
  • QQ aka Tencent is an instant messaging platform developed by China. It is ideally a replacement for WhatsApp. At present, it has more than 800 million users.
  • Baidu and Baidu Tieba is the replacement of Google and Reddit in China.
  • Zhihu is the Chinese version of Quora.
  • Meituan is the Chinese replacement of Yelp and Zomato combined.
  • Douban is a social networking platform (like Facebook but it also includes movies, books, and music events). It is Facebook and BookMyShow combined.

China has already created its own version of almost all the major digital marketing and social media marketing platforms. Where does India remain? Among the top 50 websites in the world, there are only 7 Indian websites.

These are indiatimes.com, moneycontrol.com, icicibank.com, ndtv.com, rediff.com, manoramaonline.com, and Hotstar. Since Hotstar is Disney owned, it should not be on the list. Creating and promoting a local social and digital marketing ecosystem comes with its benefits.

So why is India not in the game? We are not too late. China was capable of creating such a self-reliant digital ecosystem in less than 10 years. India needs to have a serious culture of research to capitalize on our massive demographic dividend.

For instance, last year, Qualcomm India filed 1840 patents, while the Indian institutes like DRDO, ISRO, IIT’s filed 781 patents. Is it possible for India to create its own version of Google and Facebook? The answer is yes, definitely.

The Unified Payments Interface was initiated in 2016. In 2017, only 142 banks were live on UPI and a monthly volume of 799.54 million transactions took place. The total value of those transactions resulted in Rs 1.334 trillion ($19 billion).

By the mid-2019, UPI transactions witnessed 1030 crore transactions. The mobile-only payment system helped in generating a total of 17.29 lakh crores ($240 billion) in the first three years of its operation. If the payment systems can do it, then why not social media marketing and digital marketing platforms?

All we need is the mentality to achieve something big. We have already had some major digital successes like Flipkart, Nykaa, MakeMyTrip, Swiggy, PayTm, Byju’s, Ola, Oyo, Snapdeal, Zomato, PolicyBazaar, and Snapdeal. In the early days, rediff.com was considered a rival of Yahoo.

Our major digital platforms have not been able to be equal to the American and Chinese companies. However, the dominance of the above digital and e-commerce platforms, both in the local and global market clearly state that India can do it.

To do that, India needs active government support, substantial funding, and dedication to R&D. If China can do it, India can do it too. We have got the required demographic dividend and a huge domestic market to use it for national advantage. Local CAN win!

This doesn’t mean we have to eradicate Facebook or Google from India. The UPI’s didn’t drive out VISA or MasterCard. It created a culture of self-reliance on India. This is the time for India to be self-reliant. Don’t you agree with it?

Share your thoughts and opinions with Skyram Technologies here.

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COVID19 Lockdown: Make the most of SEO during this pandemic period

The on-going COVID19 outbreak has impacted everyone’s life. Whether we are stuck in our homes or away from it, the way we spend time and our priorities have changed. The economy seems to have slowed down. Newspaper circulations have reduced and organizations are not investing in outdoor marketing.

Digital marketing has seen a major boom in the last few years. With this global pandemic, the use of digital marketing strategies has increased drastically. Online shopping and browsing the internet is now at its peak.

There is no doubt that online marketing will be the future. More people have got used to working from home. This has reduced the infrastructure and maintenance costs for a lot of companies.

Thus, they can now shift a major portion of their investment in assisting employees with technical support, branding, and online marketing promotions. Initially, people have been reluctant about e-commerce and online payment. Now, we have no choice but to adapt to the digital mode of transactions.

Ecommerce, curbside delivery, and pickup, online shopping have become the new norm of life. Since March 2020, 95% of the consumers avoid public places, media consumption has exploded. Video consumption increases by 60% and viewing streaming content increased to 39%. At present, 75% of consumers use social media regularly.

Under these circumstances, the insights that SEO offers related to consumer behavior is important Considering the demand fluctuations and volatility. The fact is, SEO in digital marketing will guide the companies through this economic storm if the following efforts remain constant.

1) Keep the website updated and optimized: Optimizing a website is extremely important for availing traffic and maintaining the search engine rankings. The primary objective is to obtain traffic from multiple sources and keep them constant. It takes 4-6 months for SEO to show results.

SEO results increase with time. During lockdown, there has been a drastic increase in the use of the internet. People are browsing the internet every minute. With consistent SEO, they will surely land on your website at one point in time.

If you can create an impact on your target audience, you will have constant and repetition visitors. When the visitors notice that your website is still optimized and user-friendly even during the COVID19 pandemic, it will leave a positive impact on them.

2) Keep a constant SEO effort: Considering the business perspective, maintaining the SEO efforts will help you keep your organic search ranking. Even if it is ranking down, you can improve them if your SEO efforts are constant.

This is the right time to think about full-blown SEO strategies in digital marketing to attain a competitive edge. Capitalize on this opportunity to rank better than your competitors. A lot of business organizations have gone into panic mode and reduced SEO efforts. Do not fall into that trap!

3) Don’t ignore the benefits of local SEO: If you have not already stepped into the domain of local SEO, then this is the right time to grow your business. Google My Business offers a myriad of options when it comes to brand awareness.

Starting from changing business operation hours, to adding business names and more, you will have a lot of features. You can use these features to your advantage by sharing all your updates with your customers. Also, you can increase web traffic by offering backlinks to the website content for Google My Business page.

Take this time of lockdown to post your business on the local listing websites. Thus, it becomes easy for people looking for your services or products to get you after the lockdown ends. This will increase the number of relevant audiences.

4) Content matters: Content plays a vital role in gaining relevant audiences for the website. In this lockdown, the number of readers on the internet has increased. Thus, your target audience will look for some interesting content to read.

There is nothing better than offering something interesting related to your field of expertise. Take this as an opportunity to reach out to your set of target audience. Once you create and post expertise-specific content, it shows that you have experience in that field. This strengthens the brand name.

5) SEO is an undeniable part of marketing: Unless you have completely stopped the business operations, you will be investing in other channels that create demand. These channels inspire people to search for certain services and products, learn more about a brand, read reviews, and more.

Channel synergy is extremely important to keep a balance. Carry out the SEO strategies even during the tough times. Search engine optimization is the front and center of digital marketing across different channels like paid media, local, mobile, video, email, and ecommerce.

Considering the uncertainty, SEO is the best option for continuing business operations during the ongoing COVID19. Search is critical not only for the discovery but it is also an important portal to gain insights into the evolving consumer behavior.

Are you working effectively on your SEO strategies amidst this COVID19 lockdown period? Get in touch with Skyram Technologies here for tailored and business-specific SEO strategies.

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The top 5 most significant aspects of cybersecurity on digital marketing

There is no denying that every online business needs to deal with the chances of a security breach at one point in time. This includes businesses specializing in digital marketing. Organizations and individuals working in different marketing positions are privy to sensitive information that most of the companies don’t want to share.

This is why it is imperative to uphold safety precautions as a part of everyday work. No matter the size of your company or your brand, if you are online, there is a chance of a security breach. Since digital marketing reaches a broader spectrum of audience, the chances of a security breach are higher.

In 2018, data breaches around the world cost multiple global companies an amount of about $3.86 million. In the USA alone, the average incident of data breach cost a company $7.9 million. This is exactly why cybersecurity is important.

What is Cybersecurity?

Cybersecurity is the process of securing the computers, networks, servers, and data from any sort of cyber-attack. Cybersecurity in digital marketing is also known as information security or information technology security.

Cybersecurity is applicable in multiple contexts. It includes network security, application security, information security, operational security, disaster recovery, and business continuity and end-user education.

Network Security: It is the process of securing the network from intruder attacks (targeted attack or opportunistic malware).

Application Security: This is the process to make sure that the application and software in your system are free of any threats. If an application gets compromised it could offer access to essential data.

Information Security: It is focused to protect the privacy and security of data during transit or storage.

Operational Security: Operational security is the process of protecting and handling data assets. It includes the permissions that the users have for accessing data and the other different procedures for storing or sharing data.

Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity: The disaster recovery policies are the techniques that a company uses for responding to any cybersecurity attacks. This procedure helps in restoring information and operations.

Business continuity is the backup plan that the company utilizes while operating without certain resources after a cybersecurity attack.

End-User Education: End-user education is to teach people not to install applications or software from unknown sources. Also, it teaches important practices like deleting suspicious emails and attachments.

Why is cybersecurity important in digital marketing?

Website protection: One of the primary reasons to opt for cybersecurity in digital marketing is to protect the website. When you are into social media marketing and online marketing, you need to protect the website. If the website is hacked, it will lead to financial loss, damage your brand reputation, and also result in regulatory fines.

IT Systems Protection: Every IT system of a business organization is a major target for the attackers. If they can get access to the local network or servers, the cyber-criminals can wreak havoc and impact your business severely.

Email Protection: Email systems are one of the most favorite tools for cyber-criminals. Most of the malware is distributed through emails. Did you know that 1 out of 130 emails contain malware? 67% of all the malware is distributed globally through emails.

Social Media protection: Cybersecurity is important for social media marketing. A lot of social media accounts get hacked despite the security improvements in multiple platforms. It can create serious damage to the online reputation of your brand.

The top 5 beneficial aspects of cybersecurity in digital marketing

Better Business Reputation: A single breach in data can cause major damage to your company. It can affect your clients and your business. The worst scenario is, it hampers your brand reputation.

Every client/customer wants you to have their best interest in mind. With strong cybersecurity, you can demonstrate that you are prioritizing your customers by offering information and data security. Thus, it assures your customers with peace of mind and increases business stability.

Increases revenue: Another important aspect of cybersecurity is it helps in increasing revenue. In the case of data breaches, a lot of times, lawsuits are filed against a company that leads to the payment of hefty fines. The bad publicity causes customers to shun your company.

Certain cyber-attacks can also shut down your website and prevent potential customers from making online purchases. It is true that the cybersecurity management strategy needs you to spend a good amount of money on the cybersecurity team. Rest assured that this investment is with every penny.

Competitive Edge: With a proficient cybersecurity team in place, you can reduce the potential risks of unexpected losses. Along with protecting your customer and employee data, cybersecurity measures also secure the proprietary information. This can offer you a competitive edge.

Proper cybersecurity management includes creating strong passwords and sharing them with the right employees. It also ensures that private business data is not leaked to other competitors.

Better staff engagement: While investing in cybersecurity, you don’t do it for the clients, but it is also for the employees. The employees are the most important assets of any organization. When employees feel that they are secure, it boosts their morale and confidence.

An organization needs to have a well-defined cybersecurity strategy to secure their employees’ sensitive information. This helps the company to earn their trust. The information can include address, DOB, important documents, social security numbers, and more.

Enhanced IT Support: With a better cybersecurity management plan, you will have a better disaster recovery strategy. Thus, instead of working on a spontaneous plan after a crisis, your organization will be prepared with a disaster recovery plan ensuring smooth operations.

A better cybersecurity plan also creates better work relationships and less stress in teams. This is important for the success of a social media marketing and digital marketing team.

The impact of a proper cybersecurity plan on digital marketing is unquestionable. Not only does it prevent attacks, but also it makes the employees feel secure. Do you have a proper cybersecurity management plan for your organization?

At Skyram Technologies, we have got a team of certified cybersecurity professionals that ensure optimal safety from all sorts of cyber threats. Get in touch with us here.

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WhatsApp Payments – Easy to Send and Receive Money from Your Contacts

WhatsApp is one of the most popular social networking applications at present. With the ongoing COVID19 pandemic, the use of WhatsApp has increased drastically. To ensure better user experience, this Facebook-owned chatting application launched a lot of features.

These features include an increased number of individuals on group calls, JioMart through WhatsApp for small businesses, limiting the forwarded message to contain rumors related to COVID19, Facebook ads through WhatsApp, and more. Another interesting feature is the WhatsApp Payments.

The messaging platform collaborated with three private banks, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, and ICICI Bank. Also, a public sector bank named State bank of India is also in collaboration with it. In this blog today, we are going to help you set up WhatsApp Payments on your phone to help you send and receive money smoothly.

What makes WhatsApp Payments different?

Due to the on-going COVID19 pandemic, the global lockdown has enabled almost everyone to indulge in digital transactions. There has been an increase in digital transaction applications like PayTm, PhonePe, and Google Pay.

With cashless and contactless payments becoming the norm, a lot of people might not want to install additional applications for payment transfers. Here is where WhatsApp Payments is different from the above-mentioned digital money transfer apps.

You can use Google Pay, Phone Pe, and PayTm for paying bills, recharges, shopping, booking movie tickets, and other multiple purposes. WhatsApp Payment is solely used for peer to peer payments.

Unlike PayTm, Phone Pe or Amazon Pay, it doesn’t use a wallet for people to store money. WhatsApp Payments allow payments between close contacts that are using the service. The payment service is based on the National Payments Corporation of India’s Unified Payments Interface.

How to install and set up WhatsApp Payments?

  • The first step is to open the WhatsApp account. Tap on the three dots present on the top right corner.
  • Now, tap on “Payments” and then “add payment method”.
  • It will show you a list of supported devices. Choose a bank with an existing account on your name. Make sure the account is linked with your mobile number.
  • Now, a popup message will show that you have to send a verification message from your phone. You need to tap on “verify via SMS”.
  • Once the verification is done, it will show all the accounts in the bank linked with your phone number. Select the one that you want to set up for the app to use.
  • Click on “done” and the process of setting up your account will be complete.

How to send money using WhatsApp Payments?

Process 1:

  • Go to the individual chat of the person whom you want to send money.
  • Click on the attachments option and then click on “payments”.
  • If the contact has already set up WhatsApp Payments, you will be able to see a screen to send and request for money.
  • Enter the amount, add a text if you want to and click on “next”.
  • You will be redirected to a screen where you need to enter a UPI pin. If you don’t have a UPI pin, it will guide you to create one.
  • Enter the UPI pin and that’s it, you are done.
  • If you are asking for money, tap on the “request” and wait for the contact to accept the request.

Process 2:

  • Click on the three dots on the right-hand corner and then open the payment option.
  • Now, click on the QR code that shows next to your name to show the QR code with which your contacts can send money.
  • Click on the new payment option preset on the bottom right side of the display.
  • Choose a contact or you can “send to a UPI ID” or scan a QR code option.
  • The rest of the method is the same as Process 1.

That is all there is on how to send and receive money using WhatsApp Payments. The messaging platform will add more features once it rolls out WhatsApp Pay. Till then you can use WhatsApp Payments to send and receive money from your contacts.

WhatsApp Payments have started rolling out to a number of users in India in the beta version a few months ago. It has been under observation ever since. The feature is yet to come up to the majority of users on WhatsApp. Gradually the number of people using WhatsApp Payments is increasing.

Have you used WhatsApp Payments? Share your thoughts with Skyram Technologies here.

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Decoding the Top 6 Myths About Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search engine optimization practices are the best way to enhance website rankings. There is no doubt about it. In digital marketing, especially with search engine optimization, there is a myriad of information flow. A lot of information among them, lose context, and become SEO myths.

When you work on an SEO strategy, you start with creating in-depth content, backed up by stats and data, include keywords, work on SEO optimization strategies, and promote the content. That is what is you do to win at SEO.

It is true that search engine traffic converts 9% more traffic than social media traffic. In order to achieve that, it is imperative to stop believing in some myths. A lot of people even consider SEO to be dead. SEO is not at all dead, it is evolving with times.

In this blog, we are going to bust the top 5 SEO myths that prevent hardworking content creators from improving website rankings and search traffic.

Myth 1: Content marketing is Everything

Yes, it is true that creating relevant and useful content for the end-users is extremely important. However, content marketing is not the only element for SEO. There are other important elements that help us in attaining higher rankings in the search engine results page (SERP).

Here is where the factors like the number of external links, quality of links, keyword research, image optimization, usability, loading speed, meta descriptions, alt-taggings come in. All these concepts should be in sync with content marketing. That is when you reap the long term benefits of SEO.

Myth 2: Linkbuilding is absolutely irrelevant

Well, this concept became popular when John Muller, a Google Webmaster trends analyst mentioned that “linkbuilding needs to be avoided”. The statement was misinterpreted. Links are an important aspect of website ranking.

What John Muller wanted to convey is that link building needs to be natural and built over time. This is what creates a natural relationship between Google and quality links. The focus should not be on link building only but do not ignore it.

The concept of link-building and content marketing go hand in hand. So that the links can refer to the relevant context of the content. This ensures a balanced approach.

Myth 3: Keyword research is unimportant

This myth arose with the launch of Google Hummingbird. It was a new version of the Google algorithm launched in 2013. The myth was, there is no need to research keywords for search engine optimization.

However, this is not true at all because Google never stated anything like this. Keyword research remains one of the most important elements of search engine optimization tactics. The primary focus of the Google Hummingbird algorithm was to increase the understanding of semantics in searches.

The negative impact of SEO myths is, they are perceived to be true by a lot of marketers. Thus, the important elements of SEO are left out. This leads to leading business opportunities being wasted.

There could be a decrease in online traffic, conversions, and interactions. These are some of the few things that a company might feel if it fails to invest in relevant SEO factors.

Myth 4: Loading speed doesn’t influence SEO

With fast-paced internet services, we all want the webpages to load quickly. The chance of visitors leaving a webpage with loading speed 1-3 seconds is 32%. On the other hand, if the loading speed is more than 4 seconds, the probability of leaving the webpage increased to 90%.

Not only users like fast websites, but Google also values them. As we are all aware that Google has already announced for the “mobile-first index”. The loading speed of a website matters when it comes to search engine optimization.

It is important for companies to focus on the optimization of search engines based on user-experience. It applies both for mobile and desktop versions. The best way to do this is with an SEO audit.

Myth 5: Sitemap is irrelevant

Sitemaps are the files that offer information regarding the pages and other parts of the website. Google reads these files to track the website in a better way. Thus, when Google is not able to crawl a part of the website, the sitemap guides Google to find the pages easily.

This is why it is important to add sitemaps on a website. Although the pages on the website can be linked easily and web crawlers detect most of the website. The sitemap helps in contributing to a more effective crawl.

This is specifically true with the websites with a higher number of pages and few external links. Also, sitemaps are important if the pages are not linked to each other.

Myth 6: SEO is a one-time thing

This is not true at all. You would probably hear from a lot of marketers that it is important to “get it right” to “get it ranked”. This is true to some extent, but not completely. The reason is, such a mindset works when you are planning to launch a website.

While launching, you consider certain elements of SEO and launch it. Once that is done, you have to keep working on the search engine optimization practices. With time, SEO strategies are getting updates. There are hundreds of things that you can do as a part of the SEO strategy.

There is no limit to SEO tactics. You can consider it as an investment to your website. With time and time again, you don’t kee;p investing your time and money on the same things, right? You update the website with time and the SEO practices as well.

Always consider SEO to be ab ongoing effort. There are certain factors like snippet representation that impacts the user experience. The signals need to be continuously monitored and improved. This is also applicable to page performance.

Other factors like managing backlinks also require spot checks and updates as apart of the on-page and off-page SEO audits.

What has been your misconception about SEO? Share your experience with Skyram Technologies here.

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7 deadly digital marketing mistakes to avoid during campaigns in 2020

Most of the businesses at present run digital marketing campaigns. Without a well-planned digital marketing strategy, it is tough for any business to survive these days. It is one of the best ways to generate substantial profit and boost the reputation of your organization.

Now, the digital space is constantly evolving and expanding. This is what makes it different than the offline world. Thus, marketing techniques have to be creative and unique. Is your digital marketing strategy generating the desired revenue?

Let us explore some of the deadliest digital marketing mistakes that you have to avoid to make sure your business succeeds.

1) Running online marketing campaigns without any specific goal

This is a very common mistake that most marketers make. It is important to research while creating a digital marketing strategy. The business goal needs to be specific. The aim of marketing within different digital platforms, need to be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely bound).

Online marketing goals
Online marketing goals

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Without specific goals, there won’t be any results. The worst is, you will end up with multiple complicated situations. Thus, it is important to identify the following factors while creating social media marketing campaigns.

  • Why is it important for your business to run the campaign?
  • Who is the target audience?
  • What kind of content does the target audience prefer?
  • Where do you want to publish the materials and when?
  • How are you going to track the activities?

2) Missing out on the mobile audience

This is another important factor that a lot of digital marketers don’t think of. With more than 3 billion people using smartphones worldwide, it is important to focus on mobile audiences. People are using smartphones these days more than the desktop or laptop. Thus, the content needs to be optimized for mobile marketing.

Mobile marketing
Mobile marketing

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Your website needs to be mobile responsive. A good option is to create a mobile application for your business. You need to make sure that your website is mobile optimized, the content is written in a user-friendly way and the website (and mobile app) needs to have fluid navigation.

3) Not spending effective time on social media

A lot of people consider spending time on social media to be a waste of time. That is true if you are randomly scrolling through the different social media platforms. It is important to spend time objectively on social media.

Social media marketing channels are easy to operate and cost-efficient. There are multiple aspects to promote in social media. The numerous platforms offer a myriad of opportunities to promote your business, your website, display ads, guest posting, video advertising, and more.

Social media marketing
Social media marketing

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Do not stay focused on a single platform. Take advantage of multiple digital and social media platforms for promoting your business. While working on social media marketing plans, make sure to include the following factors:

  • Well-planned objectives
  • Creating content to offer an engaging experience with the audience
  • Post the right content at the right time
  • Make use of the post scheduling tools

4) Not updating a website

A lot of businesses keep the same website for years. Do not make this blunder. This is the reason why the bounce rate increases. With the evolving times and years, the website needs to be upgraded and redesigned.

Your website is the hub of all the online marketing efforts. Thus, it needs to be updated periodically. Also, if you have an obsolete website design, it will not serve the target market. Thus, you will be losing potential leads.

  • While updating, it is important to keep certain factors in mind.
  • Branding, user-friendly content, and navigation should not change under any circumstances.
  • Ensure a simple yet intuitive user-interface
  • The site needs to be optimized and responsive
  • Make use of CTA’s efficiently.

5) Not engaging with your target audience

Digital marketing, social media marketing or any other forms of online marketing requires engaging with your target audience. It works better if you can do it in real-time. Do not ignore the importance of engagement.

Audience engagement
Audience engagement

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Create an online marketing strategy that emphasizes interactive experience for customers. Post infographic content that engages your audience, involve them and ask for their feedback. It is a good idea to like, comment, and share posts/contents from other people and businesses.

It will diversify your profile.

  • Some factors to consider while engaging with your target audience.
  • Create and post unique content and make sure it is consistent.
  • Add pictures and videos to the content
  • Create guest posts on multiple other platforms that are relevant
  • Make use of appropriate hashtags so that you can expand the customer reach

6) Do not only target customers

In a lot of cases, marketers only stick to targeting new customers and only customers. Instead, make sure to offer better quality services. Do not shift your focus from loyal customers while trying to garner new customers.

Remember that brand loyal customers are an asset to the company. This is why it is imperative to target existing customers as well so that they stay loyal to the brand. Create a social media marketing strategy to garner new customers as well as make sure to retain loyal customers.

7) Ignoring the SEO opportunities

This is a significant blunder that a huge number of marketers do. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) makes a website or a particular content appealing to the major search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo.

SEO plays a vital role in multiple businesses to acquire higher rankings on the search index. Thus, it is imperative to consider SEO to promote business along with digital marketing efforts.

Consider the following factors to improve SEO:

  • Meta titles, meta descriptions for every page
  • Create easy-to-read content
  • Add visuals in your pages and increase time spent
  • Include alt-text on every image featuring the focus keyword
  • Increase the number of quality backlinks for a website

Taking advantage of digital marketing is simple but there are certain mistakes that need to be avoided. In this blog, we have compiled a list of significant mistakes that every marketer should avoid.

Review the above factors to make sure you are not doing any one of them. Share your thoughts if you have gone through any such scenarios in your digital marketing campaign experience.

At Skyram Technologies, we have got certified and proficient online marketers that create and execute fail-proof and results-driven digital marketing campaigns that ensure optimal ROI. For the best online marketing results, get in touch with us here.

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The 6 Must-Have Elements to Create Highly – Effective Landing Pages

Landing pages are one of the most important aspects of any online and digital marketing campaigns. A lot of amateur websites might ignore the landing pages, but they are the ones that can make or break an online marketing campaign.

In this blog today, we are going to share the 5 elements to create an effective landing page. Before we get into that, let us define a landing page. A lot of people confuse a landing page to be a web page but that is not true.

What defines a landing page?

A landing page can incorporate different page types and objectives. The landing page is NOT the home page. It is the first page (mostly) that a visitor will see when he/she visits your website. It is the destination for most of the advertisements, links present within emails and social media.

A landing page is highly ranked for your brand within the search engine results page. This is why it is the most important aspect of your website. A lot of companies consider the landing page to be more important than the home pages. The reason is, landing pages drive more traffic.

A landing page can inspire a visitor for the following activities:

  • Buying products
  • Signing up for email lists
  • Creating social media conversations and connections
  • Download exclusive content like eBooks, videos and more
  • Getting access to live events and webinars
  • Setting up a free account
  • Contacting a sales individual or technical representative
  • Obtain product demos and samples
  • Get an online estimate

Remember that a landing page ALWAYS pitches something. Even if there is no money involved, the user is asked for “buy-in” with their valuable sources like personal information, time, and contact info. That being said, here are the 6 most important elements for an impeccable landing page.

6 primary elements that complete the landing page

  1. The main headline & the supporting headline

The headline of the landing page is the first thing that any visitor will see. Thus, it needs to be very clear and the message should be strong enough to draw the visitors’ attention. The headlines have the power to make a visitor stay on a webpage.

A headline of any landing page should always inform the visitor about your products/services in a concise way. To explain things a bit more than the headlines, you shall need the supporting headline. The supporting headline is placed right under the main headline to ensure consistency in reading.

  1. Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

This will be the point of differentiation! What is it that your company/business offers that others don’t? Try to break things down into the most basic level for describing the benefits that your customers will have by choosing your product/service.

A good USP allows the customers/visitors to understand why they should opt for your business. It will ensure transparency and clear expectations. Keep in mind that the landing page should come as a solution to a problem.

A little bit of self-promotion is acceptable but not too much. Visitors want to know what is in it for them. Most of it should be about how it is going to help them.

  1. Images or videos defining the context of the use

Images work as a visual representation of what you are offering. It helps the visitors to understand what the offer looks like. Showing the context instead of telling them, has a better effect.

The end goal is to make the users imagine themselves using it. In order to achieve this, you need to use high-quality photos and videos.

When you are selling a product, make sure to use an image of the product on the landing page. If you are offering a service, the image should demonstrate the usability of the service.

  1. Social Proof

Including social proof within a landing page illustrates that other people have bought what you are offering. Chances are visitors that will be converted into customers if they see that others have chosen your services before.

You can use the social proof on the landing page by offering a count on the number of signups, by using the social signals from the public networks to date, showing achievements and awards, or using customer testimonials/reviews.

  1. Call to action (CTA)

A call to action can be a part of the lead gen form or a standalone button present on the click-through page. The CTA is an important element for conversions. Thus, where you place it, how you design it is essential. The Call To Action needs to be compelling, persuasive, and exciting.

It is a good idea to create a call to action buttons with different colors. Thus, it will stand out among the design of the overall landing page. Make sure to add specific words to CTA buttons. For instance, avoid using, “Submit” or “click here”. Instead, use specific words like “watch our video”.

  1. Graphical Design

A strong graphic design carries immense importance, especially when it is important to draw attention. Choose the colors wisely to match up with your company colors. A landing page design should be in sync with the overall website design of your company.

There is no need to fill every inch of your landing page with texts, numbers, or graphics. Leave a breathing room to make it look more attractive. Mix and match with text, images, and videos. Don’t emphasize too much on a single element

A landing page is a place that delivers immense revenue in digital marketing if it is effectively created. Make sure to include the above elements while designing a landing page. Once it is done, do some tests to evaluate and access the ineffective areas.

Are you using all these elements in your landing page design? Share your thoughts with Skyram Technologies here.

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Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera or Safari: Evaluating the best browser for you

With multiple web browsers available at present, sometimes it becomes tough to decide on which browser to use. You have the option to choose any browser as your default browser. Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox have been the preferred browsers for the majority of the people at present.

It all started with Internet Explorer vs. Netscape Navigator. 20 years later, there are multiple web browser options that offer good surfing experience, starting with Chrome. Now, Google Chrome might be a preferred web browser, but it is not ahead of all the existing web browsers in all aspects.

In this blog today, we are going to evaluate the major existing browsers used. The two primary factors that all the web browsers try to ensure is speed and compatibility. Let us start an in-depth comparison of different web browsers available at present.

Google Chrome – Starting with the most preferred one

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Undoubtedly Google Chrome is the most used web browser at present. Along with complete Google Account integration, a reliable suite of mobile applications, Chrome extension ecosystem, and Drive options, it is easy to see why it is so much preferred.

The best part is Chrome also blocs some unnecessary ads that don’t match up with the industry standards. Some of the best mobile integration features are available in Google Chrome. A mobile app is available on every platform, which makes it easy to keep your data in sync. Speaking of speed and compatibility, Google Chrome makes surfing smooth as a breeze.

Once you sign in to your Google Account in one device, all the bookmarks, saved data, and preferences come along. Even the active extensions are in sync. This is a standard feature in all other platforms, but Chrome offers the best integration of them all.

Google launched Chrome 69 in 2018 to mark its 10th birthday. It offered a visual redesign and added some nice new features. The user-interface became smoother, tabs are easy to find. With Chrome 71 available, you cannot go back to the old interface.

Chrome’s password manager automatically offers recommendations through strong passwords, the favorites as easily manageable. You get a dark mode for windows and MacOS. The bottom line is, Chrome is fast, lightweight, free, and better looking than ever.

Mozilla Firefox – A very very close competitor of Chrome

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Well, apart from being a close competitor, it is also considered as the best alternative to Chrome. With Firefox Quantum and Firefox Reality, Mozilla recreated the familiar old design and experience of the browser interface. It offers a cleaner and more modern look compared to its previous versions.

Mozilla introduced a password-free browsing experience. Firefox Quantum is designed in such a way that it can leverage the emerging multi-core processors. This may not make a huge difference in your day to day life but it will offer an edge in the future. The reason is, Firefox Quantum can take advantage of the quicker processors as they emerge.

The recent updates in Firefox include privacy protections along with anti-tracker support. Enhanced password syncing is available across multiple devices, better readability, and integrated breach alerts. The new Firefox is quicker and is much more streamlined than before. With the mobile Firefox app, you can share bookmarks.

Unfortunately, managing the setting through multiple platforms is not as seamless as Chrome. Firefox is comfortable and a familiar standby and it has been around longer than Chrome. Thus, it never hurts to keep it around. Also, with the release of Firefox 76, you can stay safe from the websites that want to track your activities.

Opera – an innovative web browser

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Opera shares a lot of common features with Chrome since both of them are built on Google’s open-source Chromium engine. Thus, they have a similar user experience. The difference arises in the built-in feature of Opera. It comes with a few more features enabled within the browser itself.

Opera also introduced a predictive website preload ability along with an Instant Search feature. This feature isolates the search in a separate window and the current page fades in the background. Thus, you can focus more on the task at hand.

From Opera 55, you will be able to install add-ons from the Opera Addons store. Similar to Chrome, you shall also find useful tools like Giphy, Avast Online Security, Amazon Assistant, Facebook Messenger, and more. With Opera 68 available, it could give major competition to the above-mentioned web browsers in seamless navigation and speed.

Another important feature of Opera is the “stash” that helps you to save pages to read later. The latest changes come with a borderless design, a Crypto wallet for blockchain-based sites, and a Web 3 support. If you are in search of a feature-packed browser with privacy and security, this is a great choice.

Microsoft Edge – the web browser with a lot of potential

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This one is an integrated browser with Windows 10. It uses an in-house browsing engine and updates along with the operating system. The project was not successful because Edge was not able to gain substantial market share despite being a Windows 10 default web browser.

Thus, Microsoft recreated Edge with open-source Chromium this time and launched it on 5th February 2020. It replaces the previous version of pre-installed Windows 10. Apparently, Microsoft Edge will look like Google Chrome. You can import all the bookmarks and toolbars. It also supports Chrome extensions and leads you to Microsoft Store for add-ons.

The best improvement is the performance here. Microsoft optimized Edge for Windows 10 which loads extremely fast and consumes a lot less memory. Also, it offers simpler privacy settings and offers a much more graphically-friendly interface. It comes with three security levels, basic, balanced, and strict.

Apple Safari – for dedicated Apple users

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If you are a dedicated Apple user, chances are Apple Safari is already a default user. This one may not be the fastest browser available, but it is fast enough to not make your surfing experience feel lagging. It remains integrated within MacOS.

It doesn’t consume too much battery. Safari ensures privacy and security. You can experience a seamless transition between different platforms. This browser was the first one to offer a reading mode. It eradicated all the clusters and unnecessary ads from web articles to read.

At present, macOS Catalina and iOS 13 offers fingerprint protection. The new version comes with Apple pay support and a Sign in with Apple feature for replacing Facebook and Google as web account authorization. With Apple’s Handoff feature, you can continue the browsing session between devices.

Final thoughts

In the end it can be said that Google Chrome surpasses the other web-browsers in multiple aspects including speed, navigation, add-ons, and ease of integration features. If you are looking for a web browser that doesn’t consume too much memory, then Microsoft Edge can be a good option. Mozilla still remains as a strong alternative to Chrome. If you love Chrome but you want a little more novelty, then Opera is for you.

Have you used all the above-mentioned web browsers? Share your thoughts with Skyram Technologies here.

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How to create the best social media calendar that works?

The best social media marketers make sure that things are organized. They use editorial calendars created strategically with organizational tools for planning every content that will be created and published. When you work according to a schedule, you will be able to avoid any last-minute scrambling.

Thus, the social media pipeline will be full, resulting in lesser stress ensuring the right quality content at the right time. A social media calendar ensures a constant flow of new content and ideas while managing multiple social media accounts.

A social media calendar will save you a lot of time and allow you in tracking and testing in multiple strategies. Thus you can mix and match to check what resonates with your target audience. It will also ensure better consistency in terms of your brand voice.

If you are planning to create a social media calendar, the following steps will help you.

Steps to create a social media calendar in an organized way

Review the social media strategy and platforms: The first step is to review the overall social media strategy and then choose the relevant social media channels. Do thorough research on what platforms are you going to use, for what content, what age group, and on what days.

Focus your efforts on the platforms where your target audience is most active. Is any platform showing signs of growth recently? Have a look at the analytics to find out why. If a platform is not working for your content, find out why and what can you do differently.

Establish your audience and set up goals: You might know about your followers, but it is important to know and understand the broader demographics of a platform you are posting. Create specific social media goals depending on your audience and the spectrum of the platform.

Your social media goals could be anything starting from increasing followers, engagement to generating leads, or increasing sales or subscribers. Figure out who are the people using the platforms and why do they use it. For instance, people use LinkedIn for ore professional purposes, while the audience on Facebook or Snapchat is young in age.

In social media marketing, it is important to post the right content to the right audience. Thus understand the demographics before setting up a social media content calendar.

Plan different types of content: When you understand your audience on each social media platform, you can plan the content for every channel. Decide the types of content that will be useful in individual social media channels. You can divide different contents into videos, blog posts, stories, tutorials, and more.

You can categorize them in your social media calendar according to the nature of the content. It might take some time, but it will be worth it. The primary benefit of categorizing your content is, you will be able to remember what content is liked by your audience.

Choose the posting frequency and select time: This s also called scheduling the content. It is the part that helps you plan ahead by saving a lot of time and unnecessary efforts. The social media calendar will guide you to schedule your content ahead of time.

Thus, you will not have to be on your heels every hour. Find out a specific template that works for you. If you can’t find one, then you can create one of your own customized social media calendars.

What are the best social media calendar applications available?

With the internet at your disposal, nothing is out of reach nowadays. There are multiple social media calendar applications available now. These include:

Google Drive: Use Google Spreadsheets for creating social media content and calendar that suits your requirements. It is simple and easy to use among different team members. Once you share the Google Sheet and offer “edit” access, anyone can edit and update the sheet on the social media contents posted every day.

Evernote: With social media marketing becoming extremely important for all businesses, this is another highly popular scheduling application. You can plan and organize your notes and memos. It also comes with planning and calendar templates that will suit your needs. The templates can be daily, monthly, or yearly. It will display the details according to your preference.

Hootsuite planner: Hootsuite is the ultimate social media planner that will let you manage all the scheduling of social media accounts. It comes with a calendar on its dashboard where you will be able to create new posts. You can use it along with Google Sheets, or it can also be used individually.

Trello: Trello is also a content management process that makes use of “cards”, “lists” and customizable “boards” for managing the content production process. It comes in handy to plan the social media calendar.

Along with including information in the cards, you can also add attachments, labels, and comments, making it a great platform to work in teams.

Who can use a social media marketing calendar?

Anyone and everyone creating social media content can use a social media marketing calendar. Whether you are a business organization, a media company, or a blogger, you can use a social calendar. Digital marketing campaigns have a lot of factors to cover. It includes social components and ensures that the teams are organized and equally involved in the project.

Small businesses can opt for social calendars which will help in staying organized, maintain transparency and consistency. Where resources are limited, especially for small businesses, it is extremely important to have a social calendar.

If you are a blogger, you cannot waste time on unnecessary/repeated social media posts that don’t work. A social calendar can help you figure out what exactly can be effectively promoted and what needs to be changed.

For those looking to avail optimum solutions in digital marketing and social media marketing, get in touch with Skyram technologies here.

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