Digital Marketing: Your Guide to Online Success

Are social media good conversion channels? Social media has become one of the best ways for companies to connect with their potential customers. However, many brands aren't satisfied with this and are seeking to generate sales through them. Is this possible? Social media strategies have gone through several phases recently, always with the ultimate goal of achieving conversion to sales in mind . Undoubtedly, the most important of these is the pursuit of engagement, but accumulating followers doesn't automatically equate to generating sales, as has already been proven. Have you considered using your brand's presence on social media to increase sales? If you want to achieve this, it's time to become aware of some of the misconceptions most companies make when trying to do so. To begin with, you must be clear that social media is a recommendation channel, not a sales channel . This implies the need to change the approach of the traditional social media strategy and focus almost exclusively on seeking engagement. It's important to keep in mind that being on social media can "push" your potential customers toward a purchase decision, but it will never be their primary focus. For this purpose, there are other sales channels specifically designed for this purpose. The second aspect to keep in mind is that you must maintain a proactive communication strategy with your potential customers to engage with them before they make a concrete purchase decision. Your role should always be to facilitate the purchase, not make the sale. Therefore, it's essential that you don't base your strategy on past events. Consequently, if you want to improve your sales rate through social media, you must base your strategy on three fundamental pillars: measurement, proactive listening, and predictive analytics. Correctly measuring each of the actions carried out on social media will give you enough data to avoid making decisions based on intuition. This is essential so you know how to orient the listening and monitoring tools at your disposal toward direct sales and proactive customer service. Of course, it's essential that you maintain this attitude throughout the entire purchase funnel. This way, you'll be able to define your sales strategy at all times. Finally, to ensure your sales strategy is successful both on and off social media, you should consider using predictive analytics. Studying your customers' behavior and trying to anticipate it will help you offer them the product they need before they've already decided to purchase on another channel. Ultimately, only by changing the traditional sales strategy framework will we be able to transform social media into a true purchasing channel.

Why choose programmatic buying? The constant search for tools that allow us to achieve the greatest positive impact on users has led online marketing experts to turn their attention to programmatic buying as one of the most efficient resources for connecting with their potential audience. But why has this trend, until recently considered merely a future option, managed to consolidate itself? Users of any brand should not be seen solely as those responsible for final conversions . They are also a very important and constant source of information about the brand itself. Therefore, making the most of the data generated by the interaction between consumers and companies must become one of our main objectives. And programmatic buying platforms are the best example of this. In fact, large companies are already working on their own programmatic buying platforms and technological systems that allow for the profitable management of all the data about themselves generated by their own users. What is the result of this entire process? Basically, companies that opt for programmatic buying are able to impact specific users , in a specific place and time. This is the essence of what is known as Real-Time Bidding, the key to which is a dynamic attribution model, integrated into a global digital strategy. The need to achieve the maximum possible efficiency in our online marketing strategy should lead us to look toward programmatic buying and its ability to impact users, achieving the greatest possible affinity . In this sense, the role of agencies is fundamental, as they allow us to pool resources from their perspective as experts in the global strategic management of any campaign. However, programmatic buying is not yet fully operational . In fact, it faces significant challenges such as ensuring security and transparency, improving visibility, and collaborating with other entities on brand safety. Likewise, we cannot forget some of the most common obstacles that programmatic buying must face, such as the lack of trading and data analyst profiles and the need for almost continuous pricing adjustments. In any case, we cannot deny the success of many programmatic buying cases carried out by many companies that have known how to plan by audience and thus achieve the widest possible coverage.

When we create an online marketing strategy, we consider numerous factors that can lead us to success . Curiously, one of the most overlooked factors on our list of actions is developing a content plan, also known as an editorial plan. You've surely heard many times about the importance of content marketing in a global digital strategy . The truth is, if you want to effectively connect with your potential customers both on social media and on your website, it's essential that you curate the content you offer. In fact, content should become the backbone of your social media plan , as it is the basic tool for bringing your brand closer to your potential consumers. Publishing content as part of a well-executed digital marketing strategy involves providing an extra layer of interest, allowing users to find within your business what they haven't found elsewhere. This way, you'll stand out from the competition. To properly articulate this relationship between company and users through social media, you'll need to create a content plan. And to start creating it, it's essential that you know how to identify the most interesting content for your audience and that can provide them with added value. This information will be the essential basis for designing the content plan you'll include in your online marketing strategy. When developing this plan, it's essential that you prioritize the relationship between the content you're interested in communicating and the phase of the online campaign you're working on, which defines your objectives at each specific moment. In other words, it's time to put together your own puzzle with the channel, content, time, and teams that are part of your strategy. Once all this organization is done, you can generate the content you need. Of course, you must take into account its objective, the distribution channel, and that it complies with basic SEO standards . But that's not all. Of course, for your content to be effective, it must be distributed in the appropriate format and approach, constantly measuring the results of this action with web analytics. This is the only truly viable way to validate your content plan and make any necessary adjustments to achieve the best possible optimization. Don't forget that you can expand this reach by using specific strategies, such as using influencers!

Are you already thinking about your content plan?

Although the hoax circulates from time to time that email is finished on the internet and, therefore, email marketing is a technique in danger, nothing could be further from the truth. The truth is that statistics indicate that most companies today use it as one of the most effective strategies when it comes to promoting their products and/or services. If you've opted to implement an email marketing strategy as part of your latest campaign, you've surely realized that it requires a significant effort on your part to acquire subscribers. But you shouldn't just keep this in mind, as all the work you've done to attract them will be of little use if you fail to retain them . Therefore, you must consider the need to establish a series of actions that allow you to ensure their permanence on your mailing lists in the long term. How do you prevent subscribers from unsubscribing from your email lists? Essentially, by offering them added value elements that distinguish you from the competition, and for this, nothing better than taking care of the details. To begin with, a good first impression is essential. Therefore, take care of your welcome email. It's proven that the first message your subscribers receive will increase open rates up to four times and click rates up to five times compared to regular emails. How about an initial offer? Once the email relationship is established, it's important to ensure you offer consistent content to your users as the basis of your strategy. To achieve this, the most common resource is sending a weekly newsletter, which you can easily adjust based on their interests. From this point on, the key to getting your subscribers to stay with you lies in the sporadic incentives you offer them. Exclusive offers and promotions from time to time will make them feel that you have special regard for them and that it's worthwhile to continue providing feedback to your company. You can also take advantage of key dates to offer your subscribers a special gift and thus reward their loyalty, for example, after six months of being on your lists. In addition to certain practical privileges in the form of discounts or promotions, your subscribers also like to feel valued. In other words, listen to them. Asking for their feedback, for example, with a short survey, will help you build loyalty and provide reliable data on what you can improve in your campaigns and your business . Of course, never forget something very basic when building a relationship: thank your customers and subscribers for being there during key moments of the season, and you'll make them feel much closer to you.

Bernat Tirado has already started with Google Academies. This Tuesday and Wednesday, February 3rd and 4th, he was a speaker at Barcelona Activa, offering the latest and greatest in AdWords. From the very beginning, there was a very positive atmosphere, eager to learn how the entire program works and, above all, to learn how Bernat uses it in his daily work. As an expert co-founder of the ClickOnline360 agency, which has grown steadily since its inception, he offered his best so that all interested parties could achieve their goals. These were days of training and sharing experiences. Bernat explained how to optimally manage all the tools and how he uses them to achieve his clients' goals. As a manager of large accounts, he has extensive experience with the entire program and is at the forefront of each of the new features. Therefore, he tried to convey all his know-how in the best possible way, so that all attendees could consolidate the training received. All listeners received all the necessary information and guidance to pass the official Google AdWords certification exam. We hope everyone enjoyed the sessions to the fullest!

The most common online marketing channel since the dawn of the Internet has been the banner. Initially, the display was born as a way to generate traffic to a specific site , and the possibility of a conversion to a purchase was relegated to the background. Impressions and CTR were the protagonists . Over time, the role of the banner evolved and came to be considered a conversion tool, but what about now? Is it still valid within a current online marketing strategy? If you're preparing your next digital campaign, chances are you haven't even considered introducing banners because many experts believe this type of online advertising is dead . This isn't exactly true; the truth is that current marketing and web analytics techniques require, more than anything, a rethinking of their use. Today, we can't consider creating a banner with a single defined objective; rather, it's necessary to assess its specific role within each phase of an online campaign . In other words, it must fit appropriately into the conversion process. In fact, to assess whether a banner campaign is effective today, we must consider more than just what happens after the user clicks. Thus, to properly measure a banner campaign , we must consider what can happen once the user sees it . The options are essentially clicking with or without conversion, viewing the banner and not converting, or converting through another channel. The next question to ask is whether the post-view effect is truly effective, as many campaigns are active in both online and offline channels. In these cases, it's best to consider data from the first two or three days after the banner is displayed. Furthermore, it's also important to determine the effect of the banner on people who haven't converted . In fact, to properly assess this, it's necessary to calculate the influence of a display campaign at all stages of the purchase funnel. To begin with, a banner has a positive effect on awareness, as it helps with something as fundamental as reinforcing branding. Meanwhile, in the consideration stage, the banner can directly impact the increase in returning visits from both organic and direct traffic. Both stages are essential for reaching the action stage, where we can measure direct conversions in which the banner was the user's last click. However, the only stage in which a banner campaign will not be profitable is the advocacy stage, where tools like newsletters will always be much more effective and cost-effective.

Good content marketing involves establishing an effective interactive relationship between the client and the company they want to promote . Although we all tend to improve our campaigns based on the results provided by web analytics, we cannot forget that the key to our success lies in knowing how to offer our potential audience what they really want. Many marketing experts forget that working on technical improvements in content marketing loses all meaning if the potential recipients of a campaign won't appreciate the message, simply because it isn't of interest to them. How can we avoid this? There are some basic concepts we can apply to ensure that our content marketing work doesn't fall on deaf ears because it doesn't interest our users. First and foremost, prior research is essential. A thorough understanding of the industry and the target audience is essential . This involves understanding the most important related sites, identifying the most important influencers, and any factors that can generate engagement. Of course, this requires hours of work, but we must keep in mind that it represents a fundamental investment in the campaign. With this information in hand, we can now work on how to generate the need to learn more and consume the product or service we're promoting. A good content marketing expert knows how to generate the necessary empathy to achieve this . Furthermore, it's essential to establish contact with potential users (through forums or social media, for example) to ensure we're offering something they're interested in. The next factor to keep in mind is that visual or interactive content will always connect much better with the audience than plain text. Therefore, creating a format appropriate to the message we want to convey will become a fundamental factor for the success of our content marketing campaign. Giving people what they expect is the foundation that all marketing professionals must remember when connecting with their potential audience. Finally, we cannot forget that the foundation of a successful interactive relationship between customers and the company lies in successfully connecting the objectives of the company to be promoted with those of the audience. Therefore, it's essential to take the precaution of researching which actions will be most profitable in the short and long term , always keeping in mind the need to simultaneously assess the objectives to be achieved and the benefits that content marketing can bring. This is the true key to our success.

The number of users searching for information about products they're interested in online has grown exponentially in recent years . This has led most e-commerce businesses to focus on expanding their reach and reaching as many potential customers as possible. If this is your case, a good option is to include your campaigns in Google's search partners . This way, all users browsing your shopping websites will be able to more easily find your products. Therefore, you'll earn more revenue from the traffic generated to your site by the Google search network. Google Shopping and Google.es can attract more potential users to your business , but you should keep in mind that to do so, you need to expand your campaigns. Using product listing ads for this is essential, as they will be displayed with results that match the user's search, either by category or product name. The advantages of including your product listing ads in partners are essentially twofold. On the one hand, you won't incur any penalties on the quality score with which Google rates your site. On the other hand, you must keep in mind that when a user searches for one of the products you sell on a partner retailer's website, your ads will also appear on the search network. This way, your chances of business success multiply . In other words, the performance of your campaigns will be much greater. The possibilities of AdSense for Google Shopping are still an unexplored avenue. For now, Google has limited this resource to a few websites dedicated to wholesale or retail trade. As the number of partners grows, the increase in traffic will be exponential for the sites that decide to place their product listing ads on them. Of course, these partners will also earn income that will help them monetize their website. Therefore, online marketing experts predict an increasingly positive future for AdSense for Google Shopping as the campaigns continue.

One of the most popular tools among advanced AdWords users is its Editor. Recently, the newest version of this application, version 11.0, was released, which is undoubtedly the most important update to the application . With the improvements it features in virtually all of its features, managing accounts and campaigns will be much more efficient for all users. The main objective of this redesign of the AdWords Editor was to provide campaign managers with much greater efficiency when making changes and queries. To achieve this, a faster interface has been created, improving some existing features and adding completely new ones. One of the advantages of this new AdWords Editor is that it allows you to manage multiple accounts and elements in parallel, as it offers the option to open several windows at once. This makes it even easier to drag elements between them. It is also much more practical for downloading data and monitoring status. Likewise, the quest for efficiency in account and campaign management has led to Editor 11.0 featuring a new panel for selecting type lists, designed to make searching faster even for users with larger accounts. This way, users can access campaigns, advanced features, and settings without having to navigate through cumbersome tabs that used to slow down the process. The new version of this Editor speeds up searches with improvements to the advanced bar, which allows you to apply filters and save the ones you think you'll need again. Furthermore, once you have the results, it allows for almost instant changes thanks to simple keyboard shortcuts. Likewise, any modification is much easier thanks to the fact that this version 11.0 of the AdWords Editor allows quick access to favorite mass editing tools from any view. In fact, large-scale changes have been greatly improved thanks to the advanced multi-selection feature , designed to make it easier to view and update any part of an account. Along these lines, the "Make Multiple Changes" tool has been introduced, which automatically reorganizes text as changes are made to its elements. These modifications, in turn reflected in the new detailed history, can be reverted individually or in bulk whenever desired. Version 11.0 of the AdWords Editor is now available and must be updated before April 2, 2015 , for continuous use. If you have any questions, the Help Center offers more information on its features.

Just a couple of years ago, talking about mobile marketing was almost a utopia for many. Today, mobile devices are one of the most common ways users access the Internet , to the point that they've acquired their own unique personality and needs. Today, mobile marketing is an established reality that generates significant revenue. In fact, it's estimated that this year it will generate no less than $200 billion in the United States. 2015 is expected to be the year of mobile marketing. Its consolidation will become a reality, and forecasts indicate that it will evolve in various ways. We analyze some of the most important ones below. To begin with, the duality of Android and iOS users will continue to be resolved in favor of the latter. Although Android wins in number of users, the truth is that in conversion statistics, iOS triumphs by a landslide . Without a doubt, this is a factor to take into account for all those responsible for mobile marketing campaigns, as is the growing trend toward localization. More and more consumers are seeking to satisfy their needs in their immediate surroundings, and mobile marketing must be aware of this, especially given the need for personalization it entails. There is also a very important phenomenon to consider: the consolidation of the User-First concept . That is, the user must be the focus of online marketing campaigns, above their access channel. Mobile devices are already so established that it makes no sense to prioritize them. It's simply a matter of satisfying potential customers across all channels, whether online or offline, mobile or desktop. In any case, one of the key areas to work on in online marketing this year is creativity . In 2014, campaigns on this channel were actually quite poor in terms of creativity, so the most immediate challenge is to consider how to attract consumers with outstanding campaigns. Likewise, when creating campaigns, it is also important to keep in mind that programmatic buying will be increasingly important in mobile marketing. This trend has a major advantage: the ability to deliver advertising to consumers at the best time, at the best price, and on the most appropriate device. Finally, we can't forget an element that will be essential in mobile marketing campaigns in 2015: deep linking . Attracting a user to an app through a web link will be one of the established trends over the coming months. How are you planning your next mobile marketing campaign?