Digital Media & Marketing Integration

How do companies overcome negative press? How do they manage their brands? How do they increase positive online content? These are all good questions to have when your brand is doing its best to maintain its reputation. 

First thing first, we need to understand what Online Reputation Management is “Online reputation management (ORM) is not a method for avoiding responsibility for bad business practices. A company should be using all online feedback to improves its products and services and its employee training” (Larson, 2018).

Below I have looked at a company that is doing a fabulous job of brand management! I looked in more depth at Adidas and specific keywords:

I first choose to set a Google Alert which is a tool that helps monitor what is being said online. Some keywords that I felt were important for the brand management of Adidas can include, athletes, scams, fraud, scandal, product release. Being aware of all these keywords can help monitor what is being said around the company and can address any negative opinions and false claims to help protect the company’s reputation. 

As these keywords can and may bring negative associations for customers and their perceptions on the company it’s important to always portray the company in a positive light as best as they can.

Some findings I found from searching the SERP with these keywords are below: 

• Top Kiwi athlete Zion Armstrong has moved up within Adidas corporate ranks to be the present of its multibillion-dollar North American operations.
• Don’t Be Fooled by this Adidas Phishing Scam – “A new Adidas phishing scam has been detected that offers free shoes and money. The messages claim that Adidas is celebrating its 69^th anniversary and is giving 2,500 lucky customers a free pair of Adidas sneakers and a free $50 a month subscription”
• Three sentenced in Adidas recruiting scandal – “A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced the three men convicted of pay-for-play schemes to steer high-profile recruits to Adidas-sponsored college basketball programs to multiple months in prison”.
• Top Adidas Marketer Found Guilty of Fraud in College Basketball Corruption Scandal – “James Gatto was accused of paying players to attend brand-sponsored schools”
• Adidas Release Calendar – “Upcoming SneakerReleases Discover the new adidas sneakers that you can shop now and see what’s coming soon in 2019”.

Is it Right or Wrong for a Business to try to Hide Negative Information Online?

I don’t think that it is wrong for a business to try and hide negative information because they just want what’s best for their company and to be able to manage their reputation as best as they can. However, hiding negative important is extremely hard to hide everything but, they can try. I think the best option when negative information is posted and discussed towards a company they need to address the negative press head-on and be transparent about it. This will allow for consumers to understand what has happened and how the company will move forward and address the issues at hand without being too shady about what they are hiding. 

How Adidas is Successfully Mastering their Online Brand Management?

I feel that Adidas has successfully mastered their online brand management as they are constantly releasing press statements and addressing issues that may be controversial within their company. They are a company that focuses on being transparent and open about any negative and or controversial subjects for their customers and they acknowledge any wrongdoing and work towards being a better company at all times. 

As well, Adidas is a company that focuses on managing costly brand associations. A tip that Adidas does will is “be cautious of associating your product or brand with social issues because you likely will get too far off-message” (Brand, 2019). 

Additionally, another strategy that Adidas has done successfully is they have developed their brand internally as “All employees are brand ambassadors. Get buy-in from the entire organization to communicate your brand. This internal adoption is essential for maintaining brand consistency. Be sure every department represents the brand in all communication with customers, partners, and suppliers” (Schmidt, 2019). 

As you have read, Adidas is one of the many brands that do a great job managing their brand presence. Now it’s your turn to implement some of the strategies that they have adopted into your business!

Sources:

 “Brand Management Tips from 50 Expert Resources.” MerlinOne, 7 Aug. 2019, https://merlinone.com/brand-management-tips/.

“Chapter 11: Online Reputation Management (ORM) ” Digital Marketing Essentials, by Jeff Larson and Stuart Draper, Publishing by Edify, 2018.

Schmidt, Cory, et al. “Brand Management – 5 Simple and Effective Principles.” Canto, 19 Sept. 2019, https://www.canto.com/blog/brand-management/.

Let’s Talk Personas in Email Marketing

• What is a persona?
• How can personas bring value for your audience? 
• Why personas and email marketing? 
• Can personas be beneficial to your organization’s market research? 

These are all great questions to have. Below I will help you get a better understanding of these concepts which can help you as a professional marketer! 

First, we must understand what a persona is, a well-written definition of a marketing persona from Ardath Albee states “a marketing persona is a composite sketch of a key segment of your audience. For content marketing purposes, you need personas to help you deliver content that will be most relevant and useful to your audience” (Lee, 2018). 

 This is important to know as creating a marketing persona can aid you in finding solutions to better target and solve the needs of your customers. 

Personas are “fundamental to marketing because without knowing them, you will never be able to offer anything other than a generic message that is designed to ‘catch all’ and hope that it resonates with the majority of your audience” (Lee, 2018). 

Another important step in creating personas is interviewing people! Interviewing people through quantitative or qualitative research can give you a better understanding of WHO your potential customers are.

It’s important to note the following are elements that are generally included in a “persona” that you should take notes of as you have a clear understanding of who your audience is .

• Name
• Values/fears
• Demographics
• Job title 
• Need for product
• Interest in products
• Shopping habits

 Okay so, now what? What do I do with this information!?

As stated from HubSpot marketing “the strongest buyer personas are based on market research as well as insights you gather from your actual customer base (through surveys, interviews, etc.). Depending on your business, you could have as few as one or two personas, or as many as 10 or 20. But if you’re new to personas, start small! You can always develop more personas later if needed” (Vaughan, 2015). 

Now that we have collected data based on what potential customers we can gauge who they are. We now can have a clear understanding of who we are targeting, how to write content, and how to appeal to our specific audience. As well, how we can express our message, values, products, services, etc. to our different audiences. 

The more that you target and cater your emails to the prospective customer persona the better the relationship you can create and your emails will be more opened and read. 

Below are several tips to help you communicate more effectively with your desired audience through email marketing. These are all helpful suggestions that will allow you to better understand, serve, and target your customers. 

• Use Words your buyer persona will identify with – choose words that your audience knows, understands, and can relate to, as this will draw them in more
  
• Be Unique – stand out and get the attention of your reader. Be different from your competitors
  
• Use Quality Images – use quality eye-catching images to lure readers that are relevant to your customer’s persona and related to your content. Images are just as important as content make sure they both have a purpose.
  
• Write Good Copy which leads to more clicks and opens – write a compelling copy as it is one of the best ways to generate more engagement. Focus on stressing and showing the value and benefits of the product and service you are promoting.
  
• Nail Your Email Marketing Strategy – ensure that every email campaign has a goal and purpose, for example, it can include building trust, increasing conversions, building awareness, adding value for customers, growing of referral business. Having established and clear goals help you determine what type of content you want to send in your emails.
  
• Understand you’re Personas and Use a Call to Action –  use a Call to Action to draw the attention of your consumers and provide them with an offer they can’t resist! An offer could be something like save 50%, free trial, first month free, and provide them with an incentive to learn more and lead to a conversion.

Okay, wow that was a lot of information to take in. Now it’s your turn to try! As you have learned all about the tips and tricks to creating successful personas and implementing them into email marketing. Give it a shot as it can be beneficial to your company! 

Best of luck!

Leave a comment and let me know your thoughts, opinions, and experiences with personas and email marketing!

Sources:

“4 Simple but Powerful Tactics for Writing Compelling Ad Copy.” WordStream, 3 Sept. 2019, https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2017/01/12/how-to-write-great-advertising-copy.

“How To Create Personas For Marketing In 2019.” Digital Agency Network, 20 Mar. 2019, https://digitalagencynetwork.com/how-to-create-personas-for-marketing-in-2019/.

Lee, Kevan. “The Beginner’s Guide to Creating Marketing Personas: Buffer.” Buffer Marketing Library, Buffer Social Blog, 30 Nov. 2018, https://buffer.com/library/marketing-personas-beginners-guide.

Thomsen, Rikke Berg. “How to Align Email Marketing to Your Buyer Personas (w/ Examples).” Sleeknote, 27 Sept. 2017, https://sleeknote.com/blog/buyer-personas.

Vaughan, Pamela. “How to Create Detailed Buyer Personas for Your Business [Free Persona Template].” HubSpot Blog, HubSpot, 2015, https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/buyer-persona-research.

From the moment we wake up in the morning to the moments before we go to bed we have been exposed to thousands and thousands of advertainments through our browsers and social media platforms. Whether we are killing time waiting for our school classes, on a break at work, standing in line at the store, online shopping and or simply using it to pass time. More than ever social media has become a daily use and need for many and it is only on the rise.

“In 2017, less than 2.5 billion people were on social media worldwide. This year 2019, that number is expected to top 2.77 billion. By 2021, more than 3 billion people are expected to be on social media nearly 40 percent of the entire world’s projected population in that year”(Average, 2019).

With this understanding of how many people use social media platforms and browsers on a daily basis. At times these sponsored target ads can be useful as they to show us new products and services and the benefits they may bring. The goal of all advertising displays ad included, is to influence the ad recipient to make a purchase, either immediately or in the future. (Larson, 2018).

However, there can be a negative side of all these sponsored advertisements Have you ever thought about how you were scrolling through your feed clicking and liking posts and then all of sudden you notice a sponsored/recommended ad appeared. How did the browser know what I was interested in? How did they know to recommend a product and or service? You think about how it’s weird and scary that they have monitored my searches and sponsored and target ads towards you.

The large question that comes into play is it ethical to be tracking user’s information and obtaining information about them? Does this invade personal privacy too much? What do we do with this information? This situation also can be referred to all a “crisis of trust,” namely, a loss of faith in institutions ranging from business to government to nongovernmental organizations. A major contributor, they believe, is the lack of objective facts and rational discourse in social media” (AMA, 2018).

Nowadays, the issue of privacy is something that we must be aware of as Marketers. As online advertisers are faced with are they crossing the fine line between getting to better understand consumers or are we being too invasive of consumers’ privacy. I would rank the current model of online advertising is dangerous for society a 3 on a 1 -5 scale being not dangerous at all. I do think that digital privacy and security is something to be concerned about in general but, it’s not a serious threat yet. In general, it’s about being aware of the government, hackers, online marketing taking your information and or watching your movements. It’s extremely important to understand and know how to protect yourself.

Code of Ethics for Digital Marketers

1. Act Ethically: Act ethically and avoid illegal active and unethical activities with consumer’s data and privacy invasion. Adhering to privacy rules and regulations can help you establish trust within consumers and help establish a good brand reputation. Acting unethically can damage brand reputation significantly and most importantly dis own trust with the consumer.
   
   
2. Be Transparent: Let the consumer know what products and services you are promoting. Provide them with accurate information and never exaggerate the product/services features and benefits as it can lead to false expectations of the product and service and lead to a negative attitude towards the company.
   
   
3. Avoid Biases: It’s best to stay away from any controversial topics that can be considered controversial and stir up a debate such as politic, religion, cultural biases. Stay away from anything that can negatively harm your brand’s reputation. As consumers will always remember when you make a mistake and it’s very difficult to change customer perceptions after it happens.
   
   
4. Know Your Audience: Before promoting and advertising anything always have a clear understanding of who your audience is. Look at their psychographics and demographic features and know their likes and interests, and choices.
   
   
5. Be Consistent: Be consistent with posting quality advertisements, using quality images, and most importantly posting quality content. Use a consistent theme, fonts, colors, etc. that way consumers will be able to recognize your brand’s identity.
   
   
6. Think Before You Post: This step is crucial as many consumers can interpret information differently. Always proofread, edit refine content before posting for prospects to ensure that content if factual and does not lead to controversy and negative perceptions of the brand.
   
   
7. Be Clear: Let the target customer known that you are going to be using their data with a disclaimer and or written in the fine print. Be clear that you are collecting data for research, why you are collecting it, and indicate how you can be reached if they concerns or questions.
   
   
8. Respond to Consumer Concerns: Always clear up safety concerns that prospects and or current customers have with the product and service. Take the time to investigate and respond efficiently as it can clear up any misunderstandings and help protect the consumers.

Sources:

Akbar, Tahir AkbarTahir, and Israyelle. “7 Fundamental Ethics of Social Media Marketing.” Business 2 Community, https://www.business2community.com/social-media/7-fundamental-ethics-social-media-marketing-01571504.

Boote, Tim. “What Have Ethics Got to Do with Digital Marketing?” Digital Marketing Magazine, 17 Jan. 2017, digitalmarketingmagazine.co.uk/digital-marketing-features/what-have-ethics-got-to-do-with-digital-marketing/4031.
“Chapter 7: Display Advertising.” Digital Marketing Essentials, by Jeff Larson and Stuart Draper, Publishing by Edify, 2018.

AMA. “Can Marketers Repair Social Media’s Crisis of Trust?” Medium, AMA Marketing News, 4 May 2018, medium.com/ama-marketing-news/can-marketers-repair-social-medias-crisis-of-trust-6d7f3fb1f797.

“Average Time Spent Daily on Social Media (with 2019 Data).” BroadbandSearch.net, https://www.broadbandsearch.net/blog/average-daily-time-on-social-media.

Are you currently looking for a way to improve your websites SERP? Are you questioning why your webpage is not ranking well? Are there ways to improve it? 

These are all common questions that many people have when it comes to search engine results pages. Don’t worry your questions will be answered! 

“The goal of search engines is to provide good results to search queries, the goal of search engine optimization (SEO) is to be a result of many different search queries – and even better, to be the top result on many different searches” (Larson, 2018). 

First, we must understand what SERP (Search Engine Results Page)is. SERP is the first page that pops up when you search a phrase and or keyword on a search engine. This is extremely important as you want your webpage to be within the top 10 results as it will help you get more traffic! You won’t instantly get results which can be frustrating, however, be patient it takes time!

Below are five tips that can help you improve your website’s rank

Focus on the URL
The use of target keyword phrases should be in the URL. As words in the URL play a large role in helping your website rank and generate relevance! An example of this could be if the company is selling a product and the keyword phrase that is being used is Black Silk Slippers. The current website URL is www.C&Nsilkslippers.com.

The website URL should be www.C&Nsilkslipper.com/Black-Slippers/Fur Black-Slippers.html. This URL is more specific and uses target keywords that will help the search engine find results and help rank higher. The website URL has a heavy rating in calculating relevance to the search.

Link Strategically It’s important to remember that there are thousands and thousands of pages on Google that all are publishing content that users can see. Therefore, it’s extremely important to have high-quality content on your website which then Google will better recognize your website which can improve your website rank.

Furthermore, it’s important to link pages with relevant anchor text. With the help of internal links, they can lead to other linked pages help boost your rank as Google analyzes your website. Having multiple links helps the search engine understand your page and content better and it’s relationships.

As well, the text used in your link also known as anchor text is important as it identifies what the link content is about. Having more specific, descriptive, and keyword phrases within the title of the page help with a better rank as generic phrases such as “click here” has very little influence. The key is to avoid using the same keyword phrases because Google will suspect that you are trying to cheat the search engine (Dragilev, 2019).

Focus on Main Content
Search engines go through every word on a webpage to get an understanding of what the webpage is about. It’s important to use target keyword phrases within the main content of the page however, without overdoing it. If a website uses a keyword phrase too much it can hurt the ranking and user experience. This can be known as “keyword stuffing” which is a black – hat SEO tactic and is ineffective because search engines recognize this action. It is important to keep in mind to always use keywords within the page but, keep it about 3 – 5% of the word count on the page (Larson, 2019). 

Focus on Image Alt Text and File Name
This is important as a search engine is unable to “see” images unless they are labeled. Alternative text is the label and or take which specifies what the image is about. Without a label, the search engine has no idea what the image on the page looks like making it more difficult to identify and rank. The alternative text is the label or tag that lets the search engine know what the image is. Labeling the file name and labeling the image Alt text is imperative as it helps search engines understand the content of the specific page and helps the images rank high within image searches. 

Update Content Regularly
This one is pretty straight forward. Having quality content that is updated frequently will help your website rank higher. Updating content that has been posted and or will be posted will help keep your site relevancy. It is best to always edit and refine content frequently and or input a set schedule to make updates doing so, will help your webpage rank higher (Five, 2019).

Best of luck and I hope these five suggestions help you boost your website rank!

Sources

“Chapter 4: On-Site SEO” Digital Marketing Essentials, by Jeff Larson and Stuart Draper, Publishing by Edify, 2018.

Five Ways to Improve your Site’s Ranking (SEO). (2019.). Retrieved from https://www.mtu.edu/umc/services/digital/seo/.

Dragilev, D. (2019, September 25). 5 Ways to Optimize Your Content for Better Google Rankings. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/339281.

Let’s get started with defining what is even a landing page is and what is a landing page conversion. Generally, the landing page is the first webpage that the user sees when they click on a website link. In comparison, a landing page conversion rate helps you understand how your audience is responding to your landing page. The overall objective for a marketers’ campaign is to gain the customer’s attention, boost conversions in which the user completes a specific goal and or takes action.

How do you do that? Is it challenging? Is it effective? Are all questions that you may have when it comes to boosting conversion rates.

Well, you’re in luck today’s this blog post will focus on 5 Ways to Increase Landing Page Conversions in the following paragraphs below.

1.Mobile Compatibility – In today society is the use of mobile phones are prominent in our daily lives. We have entered a time in society where we use them for almost everything whether it’s for texting, calling, entertainment purposes, shopping etc. Thus, it’s an extremely important component to have a well-designed landing page that is mobile friendly. More and more customers are choosing to use their mobile devices as a mean to browse the internet. Therefore, having a functional, well designed, and user friendly page helps keep viewers interested and helps drive conversions. This means making sure the layout, size, dimensions of content are all appropriately scaled for mobile device use to ensure a quick and easy read for users.

2. Seven Principles of Conversion – Centered Design

As stated from our textbook Digital Marketing Essentials May 2019 written by Larsen & Dapper suggests to follow the Seven Principles of Conversion – Centered Design which all can help boost conversions.

• Attention: Grab the attention of the viewer! Make the viewer intrigued and want to stay on your site. Get the users attention by having a CTA (Call to Action). An example of this could be “BUY NOW”, “SIGN UP NOW” anything that captures the viewers’ attention.
  
• Content: Make sure the content on the page is clear and identifiable for viewers to understand. Ensure that the content from the homepage matches the customer’s expectations. You never know where site visitors are coming from and their knowledge about a product or services being promoted.
  
• Clarity: Simple. The viewer should be able to clearly and easily identify what the webpage is about.
  
• Congruence: Do not overwhelm the potential customer with distracting words and text rather use encourage words to encourage the conversion.
  
• Credibility: Establish creditability and show viewers that you are trustworthy. This helps customers trust page your product and or services. You can do this this through positive reviews and or testimonials from customers.
  
• Closing: Always use positive words to encourage and finish the conversion.
  
• Continuance: After the conversion is complete encourage customers to start a new conversion!!

3. Check Loading Speed

There is nothing worse than a page that never loads! Test and keep in mind loading time matters for viewers. Frequently check to see if any components of the landing page is slowing the load speed and adjust accordingly. Loading speed can make it or break it for viewers engagement within a few seconds. 

4. Focus on Page Elements

• Navigation – Make the website user-friendly that the visitor can use and not get lost! 
  
• Trust symbols – Logos, icon, images, small statements and symbols that can help make the user feel more confident in the site.
  
• Color Scheme – stay consistent with the logo color scheme. Never use overwhelming and distracting colors as it can steer viewers away.
  
• Buttons – Get users involved by a click! Use different colors, shapes, and sizes of buttons to help improve conversions which helps create a more engaging site.
  
• Images and or videos – Use images and video which helps you remain professional, establish credibility, and can make the page more visually appealing. 

5. Understand your Campaign Goals
This is huge. Having a clear understanding of your campaign goals help ensure your landing page is focused on a certain product and service and or call to action for viewers. Do not overwhelm and or confused the viewer with content, promotions, call to actions, etc. Having a clear campaign goal essential so, viewers do not misinterpret and or get confused by your landing page.

Wow, that was a lot of information to take in! Now you’re ready to implement these 5 tips into your own landing pages to boost conversions.

Stay tuned for next week’s blog post!

Sources

“Chapter 1: Digital Marketing Foundations, Chapter 2: Web Design .” Digital Marketing Essentials, by Jeff Larson and Stuart Draper, Publishing by Edify, 2018.

Saleh, K. (2018, July 5). A 9-step guide to increase your landing page conversion rate. Retrieved from https://marketingland.com/9-step-guide-increase-landing-page-conversion-rate-202814.

What Is Digital Marketing? (2019, April 8). Retrieved from https://fangdigital.com/what-is-digital-marketing/.

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