Suresh Babu

Monthly Workshops

September -2011 OME meet

 

 

Tweet or Share on Face book to Download

 

45 Tools Online Marketers Use & How you can Use it too..

OME Community September Meet up brought to you by Web Marketing Academy
Come join our monthly meet ups in Christ University, where we share tips, tricks and how to’s of Online Marketing. Over 450 active online marketing enthusiasts discuss and share tips
OME Face book page
Pictures of September Meetup : http://on.fb.me/rr0Hgx
1.       Welcome note: Swati
2.       Introduction: Suresh Babu, Founder WMA, OME Community
3.       35 Tools Online Marketers Use & how you can use these tools: Suresh Babu
4.       11 more tools: Shartaj
5.       Questions – Answers
6.       Visibility magazine goes to top participants
7.       Group picture & Adios!

Questions-Answers

Q: How are Google Insight & Google Trends different from an average Google search?
A: Google only gives results in form of websites with those keywords. The others help analyze, research & gain additional knowledge.
Q: Does Google Insight give demographic data?
A: Yes it does. If the domain name is given under the website option, then demographics are shown.
Q: How reliable are the Google tools?
A: They are close to accurate; It takes data used by users who have entered their details
Q: Can I customize my Ads, as per my requirements?
A: Yes. Exactly as per requirement depending on product, timing, geographical location, revenue, discounts & target market.
Q: What is the customer psyche on seeing same ads in separate websites? Can I use this technique for my Ads?
A: Trying & testing on different websites needs to be done to see how the Ad performs in separate sites. Tools like website optimizer or A/B testing could be used.
Q: During retargeting, or offering something on a discount can I enable/customize it based on time or give it a time limit
A: yes. It can be done
Q: Can we us Google Insights with filters of the type of Muck Rack?
A: Yes
Q: Isn’t Spy Fu an infringement?
A: No. It takes data that websites offer openly
Q: From where does Archive.org get the data? What is its source of income?
A: They have internal archives & libraries
Q: Google Trends Vs Google Insights?
A: Google trends: day to day activity; exact data; has data for 3 countries-US, UK & India
Google insights: overall analysis

How to Run a Successful Social Media Contest

Posted by on May 14, 2012 in Blog | 0 comments

User engagement is one of the important factors for social media marketing. You can build a huge community on your social network, but it is important to engage them to help generate leads for your enterprise. A social media contest on your social network would be an amazing way to engage your users.

So if you’re thinking of running a contest or sweepstakes, here are some key considerations.

Start With the End in Mind

Brainstorm on the following questions before you go ahead with a social media contest.

  • What are your marketing objectives? Get a clear and realistic objective to your contest campaign. Are you looking to generate leads or Likes, engage or activate your existing user base or reach a new audience?
  • What is your budget? Yes, social media promotions can be executed at a relatively low cost. But budget considerations should guide your decision on the type of promotion you choose to run and will impact your ability to achieve certain outcomes.
  • Where are you on the consumer engagement pyramid? Assess what type of promotion is right for you based on the level of engagement you expect from your users.
strutta-pyramid

Consumer Engagement Model for Promotions

A great tried and trusted model to start your promotion is the enter-to-win format. Running such a sweepstakes contest can be a quick way to increase number of likes on your Facebook page. This expands your audience and creates an elevator for future promotions.

As mentioned in the various levels of engagement, the higher you reach a pyramid  you will find less number of participants but higher level of engagement.

According to  Forrester’s Social Technographics report, your target audience can be distinguished based on the following levels of engagements for promotion : Spectators, Joiners and Creators

  • Spectators may see a shared link from a friend and click through to your site but their interaction will likely stop there. For these people, you want to ensure you have a well-designed user interface and clear messaging, whether they ultimately choose to engage at the next level or simply leave with your brand top of mind.
  • Joiners are likely to participate in a low-barrier format such as a sweepstakes and may engage further up the pyramid through voting, commenting and sharing.
  • Creators are the people who are the target for any user-generated content contest. The percentage of online users who are content creators is significantly higher now than it was just a few years ago. Still, you must make it as easy as possible for people to participate.
Decide on the type of campaign based on how your audience interacts with you.

Whats In It For Me ?

The above  is the question every individual asks when doing an activity. Your target audience needs to be clearly communicated about the privileges or advantages of participating in the contest. Besides it needs to be brainstormed about how to make this contest attractive. So that your target audience can actually participate and spread the word.

 

Plan, Prepare and Prepare for the Unplanned

Though you might reap the benefits of a successful social media promotion or viral message, there should always have in place a proper marketing plan.

Make maximum utilization of resources available,  be that social media, paid media or promotional partners. Don’t overlook any opportunities to get the word out.Participation at the outset will generate the ROI that comes from social sharing. And remember that your existing customers are most likely to engage. By targeting them first, you can build momentum that will spread through their social networks.

Lets all hope that the promotion “goes viral,” it’s not something you can bank on. Nevertheless, it’s important to plan for the scenario in which it does. If you’re running a photo contest and plan to moderate all of the submissions, are you prepared to handle the potential volume? If you’re running a contest on Facebook, are you prepared to manage the community dialogue?

johnsons

The Johnson & Johnson viral contest required “round-the-clock” support

Execution Over Concept

Too much glitter might ruin the art. It is important to keep things simple to focus on the objectives of the promotion.When running a social media promotion, the first rule is ensure that it’s easy to enter and easy to share. It should be creative , yet simple,fun and cool for your audience to share. Avoid complicating the activity when audience comes to visit your promotion.

Listen, Engage and Learn

Running promotions must be part of your overall social media strategy and not approached as a one-off event. Because promotions today are inherently social, take advantage of that to engage and gather target audience insights. Adding a survey question to the entry form, encouraging conversations help you  gather feedback and apply learning’s to future campaigns.

What are your experiences with online contests and social media promotions? If you have questions that you would like to see addressed in a future blog post, feel free to ask them here.

 

Contact Details – Web Marketing Academy Bangalore

Posted by on May 13, 2012 in Blog | 0 comments

Contact Details, Web Marketing Academy Bangalore

Contact Details, Web marketing Academy Bangalore

 

Suresh Babu, Founder, CEO of Web Marketing Academy Bangalore, India

 

 

Advanced Google Search Tips

Posted by on May 6, 2012 in Blog | 0 comments

Advanced Google Search Tips

Did you know you can use some advanced searches while using Google ? Apart from getting great results from Google, you can also use some of the advanced features such as:

  • Track your UPS, FedEx, or USPS packages by typing the tracking number directly into the search box
  • Convert measurements
  • Convert Currencies
  • Get definitions

For more advanced search tips, click here

B2B Digital Marketing Tips,Tools & Takeaways-OME Bangalore

Posted by on Apr 28, 2012 in Blog | 0 comments

B2B Digital Marketing Best Practices- OME Bangalore – Takeaways, Tools & Links

The cream of digital marketing and entrepreneurs gathered at Christ University on 21st of April as Online Marketing Enthusiasts meet up. The event started with an introduction of attendees and members followed by a small introduction about OME Community by Suresh Babu. Mr. Manjunath G then took the podium to preside this event on the topic “B2B Digital Marketing Best Practices”.

B2B Digital Marketing Workshops Bangalore, Web Marketing Academy Bangalore

B2B Digital Marketing Workshops Bangalore

Click Here for Pictures of the event

Manjunath G is currently the Global Marketing Manager at a global corporation and prior to this; he has contributed in organizations like SAP Labs, Wipro and Redington in various marketing functions from product manager to Global Marketing roles across various geographies. He has more than 10 years of experience in various marketing functions like strategic & product marketing, digital marketing, B2B lead generation, social media, search engine marketing & sales enablement in Information Technology & Services Industry. The engineer from Bangalore University and manager from IIT Madras, Manjunath is today a Certified Digital Marketing Professional from Web Marketing Academy.

Certified Digital Marketing Professional Web Marketing Academy

Power Tips Session:

  1. Sagar Mandal : Quantcast – (www.quantcast.com)
  2. Name Not Known : BulkPing – (www.bulkping.com)
  3. Suresh Babu :
    1.  LuckyOrange- (www.luckyorange.com)
    2. Google Internet Stats –( http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en/landing/internetstats/)
    3. Live Fyre  (www.livefyre.com)
    4. Conver Social (www.conversocial.com)
    5. SGPlus (http://sgplu.me)
  4. Name Not Known: Using Images in terms of graphs and star ratings to appear on SERP for more clicks.

 Minutes of Meeting:

The presentation started with a brief interaction between the presenter and the attendees on the question – “Is B2B Digital Marketing Different or Difficult?” The various inputs gathered veto the fact that B2B Digital Marketing is different because:

  • Sales Cycle is very long compared to B2C
  • Too many touch points within a department and /or  enterprise
  • Involvement of many individuals  in the Sales Cycle
  • Limited Budgets
  • Lack of alignment between sales and marketing

 

The next slide was even more interactive as Manjunath asked the attendees to write down “3 Goals & Objectives from Marketing Perspective”. After the discussion Manjunath, defined the B2B buying persona as consisting of: Users, Decision Makers, Influences and Stakeholders.

Manjunath then expertly narrowed down to the various methodologies that can be followed to reach the goals and objectives:

  • B2B- Search Engine Optimization: It is important to know what are the keywords used by your target market and what type of transaction takes place for those particular keywords. According to the consumer behavior, the website should be optimized for those particular keywords.
  • B2B – Social Media: Organizations should use social media as a way to increase brand awareness and communication for the benefit of the organization by revenues, sales or understanding demand for new products. The importance should be given to engagements with the online community to meet the goals and objectives.
  • B2B – Email Marketing :  For B2B email marketing it is important to look into the three factors – deliverability i.e. the email should reach the inbox instead of spam ; relevant content with a Call To Action to meet campaign objectives and understand the perfect day and time to send the email to your target market.
  • B2B – Blogging: Corporate blogs can be a face of your business as a thought leader in your sector of industry. An amazing way to interact with your employees, stakeholders, suppliers and consumers.
  • B2B- Google Ads & Videos: There was a lot of discussion on the effectiveness of the Google Ad words and Videos for the purpose of meeting the marketing objectives of the organization.
  • B2B- Webinars: According Manjunath, this is a very much sort after methodology to generate leads to sell products and create a buzz about the new products/services.
  • B2B- Media Pitching: Numerous organizations publish news articles and cover stories based on new products/services on various websites visited/read/followed by the target market.
  • B2B- Marketplaces & Testimonials: Listing products/services on various online marketplaces helps in brand awareness and the online user’s comments/reviews contributes to decision making of the consumers. Provided the reviews are positive for the product/service.
  • B2B – Press Releases, Newsletter, Case Studies & Whitepapers: Sharing is caring and when enterprises spread information through the various mediums, they become a part of community interested in the products or services of the enterprises.

After the interactive presentation which involved both the presenter and audience come together to share their views, Manjunath came up with the case study. It is based on a real life success story on the ability to make a webinar go viral using 360 degree Digital marketing.  Manjunath faced many questions both technical and strategic to which he gave his best shot. He concluded the presentation by presenting the Tip of the Day – “In Digital Marketing Never Stop Testing”.

 

Ensuing Questions & Answers :

Q:What is email marketing ?

A: Information to your target market in terms of deals, information about your products.

Q: What type of contents in the email?

A: It depends on the type of campaign and relevant content for your target audience.

Q : What are the open rate best practices?

A: It should not land into the spam folder, should have relevant title and content for the target audience.

Q : How to prevent spam?

A: Headline should be clear, should   not contain spammed keywords, content should be proper format and it should have option for subscribers to un subscribe from the mailing list.

Q: Is it possible to extract email address from facebook Likes

A: No

Q: How much content should be put in the email marketing campaign?

A: Content is important part in every email marketing campaign and should be relevant to the profile of the target receivers.

Q: What are the uses of blog marketing for a brand?

A: It is a window for the brand to showcase its thoughts & success stories directly with the target audience. The brand can later utilize them for understanding trends and creating new products.

Q: What kind of people can be involved in blogging for B2b?

A: Blogging can involve the brand mangers, executives , employees and part of the B2B buying persona who can share their experience and success stories associated with the brand.

Q:  Any free tool for webinar?

A: AnyMeeting (http://www.anymeeting.com/) provides free webinar services for a maximum of 200 attendees.

Q: What are the idle times for conducting webinars?

A: India – weekends US – Morning

Q: What is tool to measure traffic on marketplaces?

A: Marketplaces provide info about number of views reviews and downloads. Google Analytics can be used to track the number of incoming traffic from the marketplace.

Q: What is the use for Whitepaper and Case Studies?

A: It can be used to showcase the brand as a thought leader or expert in the industry. Enterprises also use it as a tool to generate leads about interested prospects.

 

Stay Tuned for May OME Meetup. Our May Event is going to be a day long event with Workshops and more:  We post all our updates, pictures and videos here in Face book. Join the conversion and get exclusive content

IndiaMart 2012- Opportunities for Digital Marketers in India

Posted by on Apr 23, 2012 in Blog | 0 comments

“Sun Rises in the East” is a universal truth once again in India as the country continues to be a land of opportunities. The world market sentiments seem unable to beat the surprise of  large, new pockets of consumer activity. It is based on statistics that 72 % of India’s population is below the age of 40 and  47% of Indians are under the age of 20. This indicates that  population will create the consumption pattern for India in the future. The higher the consumption, the more opportunities of investment and gathering a higher amount of market share. Global conglomerates setting manufacturing plants and point of sale in India  makes the vision for growth clear.

With large opportunities come a large number of choices for the consumer, which brings up an uphill task for the marketer to “sell”. The large growth canvases provided by the metros have already been highlighted, which indicates it is time for marketers to set sights beyond for traction. Here are four exciting arenas marketers should look for in 2012.

Middle India

Cities have always been regarded as “engines of growth” with access to Man, Material, and Money, whereas villages are regarded as the “Bottom of the Pyramid” providing opportunities to provide low cost products and services. But as times have changed “Middle India” has been the hero of the all – India growth story over the past few years. Middle India is composed of towns comprising of population between 1 lakh and 1 million people. It is not something fictional as Nielsen Company published in December 2011 after continuous research, supports the under-rated opportunity.

Typical Middle India towns are Haldia, Serampore, Bijapore, Hajipore, and 400 other such towns . Over 100 Million Indians live in Middle India, and according to the research estimates by the year 2026, the FMCG market alone will be worth Rs 4 trillion. The per capita consumption of  FMCG products in these 400 towns stood at Rs 2,800 versus Rs 1200 – the all – India number.

Marketers need to understand the behavior of the consumers in this market segment to be a part of the ” Middle India Gold Rush”. It is time the global market launch should include these towns beside the usual gamut of Indian metros.

Digital India

The new face of India is the rapid increase in use of digital technology and digital media. Today, more than 120 million Indians are subscribers of an Internet Service Provider, more than twice three summers ago. ”Take the world in your hands” is a fact today with more than 40 million Indians availing internet access on their mobile phones. Further research published by JuxtConsult ( India Online Landscape 2011) enlightens that over 4 out of 5 internet users either search or buy online- translating into a half a billion online consumer base.

Further insights have revealed that an average Indian spends 45 minutes on Facebook  in a day. The huge number of smart phone users with apps adds up further to the consumer base for brands to interact and take opportunities. The recent hit of the “Kolaveri Di” song, reaching more than 50 million users globally is a measure of the impact and spread of internet.

The digital media playing field in quite huge providing accommodation to a list of brands, but yet to be utilized to its fullest potential. This year the marketers need to take the online test for their brands and get rewarded with the vast target market to be acquired.

Green India

In the year 2007  the Supreme Court had  decided to include “Environmental Education” a mandatory part of the curriculum of every educational board. The publishers may have made some new business, the students may have struggled but 5 years later, today, there is an increase in preference for  ”Green” products and services. The 2011 Green Brands Global Survey, conducted with 9,000 consumers across 8 nations shows that more than 64% of Indians have an affinity for green products. Significantly, nearly 48% of consumers are willing to spend an extra 10% for environment-friendly products.

Marketers need to take efforts to create green products and services and market them accordingly to the target audience. Every product should be associated with “greenness” as a measure of being environment friendly. Communication should be based on how the brand and/or the products contribute to the environment or  are environment friendly. Interactions with the target consumers should be revolving around conserving the environment with the featured products.The first – mover in this segment shall be the significant gainer, else the brands would miss the flight to profits altogether.

So take the first move to capitalize on the digital spread in India. Watch the best practices to B2B using Social Media Marketing tested, and followed by Manjunatha, and more details on the latest Online Marketing Enthusiasts community meet up here : https://www.facebook.com/events/123418927781987/

Digital Marketing Tips. OME Community Minutes of Meeting Bangalore

Posted by on Apr 18, 2012 in Blog | 0 comments

 

Web Marketing Academy Workshop Series in IIM Bangalore

We bring together SEO, Social Media Communities in India

OME COMMUNITY MEET-UP Minutes of Meeting & Power Tip
Programme Outline:
  • Introduction – attendees  and members
  • Introduction – OME Community (by Suresh Babu)
  • Introduction – NSRCEL and the  NextBigIdea concept (by Suresh Babu)
  • Presentation – “Building Better Communities“ by Bharath Moro , Ex-Googler
  • Presentation – “Affiliate Marketing“ by Harish, Montera
  • Power Tips session
  • Awards and recognitions
  • Call for Indian case Studies, volunteers and sponsors
  • Suggestions by attendees
  • Photo session & party
Sunday, the 21st of November 2010 saw numerous new and most of the regular Online Marketing Enthusiasts get together for the eighth time, since the inception of OME in April 2010. From established brands to startups, from veterans to amateurs – the OME now boasts of members from several industrial sectors, who unite under the Central Pergola roof of IIMB to imbibe and share knowledge on topics of online marketing and most of all enjoy themselves immensely during the process. The start was as enthusiastic as the members on the floor; introductions revealed abundant inquisitiveness among all attendees to know what the evening had to offer them.
Introductions were followed by brief introductions on OME and the NextBigIdea challenge launched by the entrepreneurial sector of IIMB, NSRCEL.
“BUILDING BETTER COMMUNITIES” – PRESENTATION BY BHARATH MORO:
The first speaker of the evening Bharath Moro, spoke to the group about his interesting background. Having worked as a Search Quality Associate for Google, he had several interesting anecdotes to share. He is in love with not just community building but also traveling & photography. In fact, as one of the founder members of the Railway Enthusiasts Community of India he firmly believes that people are the ultimate networking tool.
SPEAKING OF COMMUNITIES
Bharath started with a little history from the 1990s with the highly priced BBS and its more synchronized successor, Usenet. He added that, it was this passion for technologies and meeting people from all around the globe to discuss myriad mundane topics, which triggered his love for communities.


CHARACTERISTICS OF COMMUNITIES:
-          It is not about software
(This was emphasized doubly to stress upon the fact that software is only a means to get people to connect and form communities; the real communities are the live ones where people are gathered to exchange thoughts, information etc.)
-          It is about the Content & Context
(Bharath highlighted upon the existence of a context, for people to relate to a website or for any community for that matter.)
-          All communities need to have broad goals
(Communities without a common goal tend to disintegrate so also a company with too many narrow goals
-          Not every business needs a community
(Ramlal, the panwalla does not need a community, to promote his business. This example brought out the fact that although business owners can afford it, they should not spend unnecessarily in building communities that are not needed for the core business functions).
-          An open culture is very essential for a community
(This was illustrated with examples from Google, which believes in the concept of “sharing with a responsibility”; it also set off some arguments about the open culture within organizations with attendees giving different views. Bharath smartly quipped in that emulation of Google is not obligatory for all)
-          No one owns the Community
(This triggered a lot of discussions and questions with respect to who takes responsibility of the community activities or controls the community, when no one owns or owes anything; Bharath had come prepared with some deft examples of his favorite historical characters- Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel & the Indira Gandhi family to drive the point home)
-          Difference between  CORE TEAM and USERS of the Community
(This point again raised a hornet’s nest with respect to community owners controlling or influencing the group’s thoughts over a period; Bharath clarified that this depends on the Core team and the kind of community it is -such that controlling them is not always necessary; feedback & user behavior can never really be owned by anyone. Users need to be gradually promoted within the group to keep them satisfied.)
-          A community is its own enemy
(When the size of a community exceeds a particular number, the community tends to become its own enemy as too many people say too many things. In such cases, Bharath gave several examples that illustrated that subdividing a group into different/smaller sub-interest groups, keeps the integrity of the community intact. Generalizing the formula of community-unity does not work either; all communities have to be dealt with in a separate manner)
-          Respect the Community members
(Tolerance, patience & respect for other’s opinions goes a long way in successful community building and this is one of the most important aspects of it)
-          It is about Tangibility
(It is all about people and interactions with them that make communities what they are. Communities should meet as often as feasible. In Bharath’s words, “if nothing works- throw a party!”)
Ensuing Question and Answer session:
1.       Q: If Google has such an open culture, how does it maintain trade secrecy? Don’t employees with confidential business information just walk out and handover facts to the competition?
A: Google follows the Policy of “Sharing with responsibility”. Even if someone does leak information, it is simply not possible to replicate the vast amount of data possessed by Google. It is not possible for 1-5 people to cause much harm to Google’s information infrastructure.
2.       Q: What about the large number of Google’s staff who left for FaceBook recently?
A:  The “large number” is media-induced hype. Only very few key people left Google for FaceBook.
3.       Q: If I build a community whose business model is revenue generation, how can I measure its success rate in the form of ROI?
A: Quantitative measurement of the success of a community is not possible. It is very difficult to attach metrics to number of people. The relevance of the community is lost in such a case. Some ratios like average response rates can be calculated or number of a discussions in a thread can be quantified.
The value of a group can be judged by:
-     Constant engagement seen within the group
-     Feedback received from the members
-    Evangelism of present members to others who want to join this group.
“AFFILIATE MARKETING” – PRESENTATION BY HARISH
The second speaker of the evening Harish, had a plethora of rich experiences in affiliate marketing having worked for more than 8 years in Montera - the famous international brand of Diamond jewelry.  He introduced Affiliate marketing and spoke of the basics, defining affiliate as the interface between the merchant & the vendor.…
Harish was pelted with questions-both on basic as well as on advanced topics throughout his talk. Some such examples of the questions are given:

Ensuing Question and Answer session:
1.       Q: How can repeat visits to the merchant site be tracked?
A: There is a reference code being added in the Link Ad or Banner Ad. When user clicks on the Ad, the analytics tool describing whether it is a first time visitor or repeating visitors tracks it. Also cookies installed in the browser helps to find out about repeating visitors.
2.       Q: Is there a threshold period upto which, the cookies can track visitor information? Can the cookies expire or be deleted?
A: Yes, there is a threshold period of 30, 45, 60 and 90 days cookie period being considered by different affiliate network tools that is defined in the backend coding of the site browser.
3.       Q: What happens if the visitor does not go from his website to the vendor site and types the URL of the merchant directly? Can the cookies still track them?
A: Then there is no commission incurred by the affiliates, since the reference passed by the affiliate link URL is not there when a user manually enters the URL. No, the cookie can’t track it because there is no reference passed. Only if the user has saved it as a Bookmark site and subsequently goes and clicks the link, then only the cookie can understand the initiation of that URL or else not, and it will accept it as a new URL where affiliate won’t get any return out of it.
4.       Q: How big is the affiliate marketing industry?
A: It is vast in the US, UK and other foreign countries, but in India, It is still in the initial stage.
5.       Q: How do you know if buyer browses the whole range of products available with the merchant?
A: There is a tracking reference code passed, whenever a user initiates an action in affiliate or merchant site. So with different Affiliate Networks, tracking reports and analytics we can determine the activity.
6.       Q: Can affiliate marketing work for services just as they work for products?
A: It will surely work, but we need to get connected with the right affiliates, who have a strong hold on the market that your needs or objective are into.
7.       Q: Do Joint Ventures make sense with respect to Affiliate marketing?
A:  Not much.
8.       Q: Does transparency work as a Policy for affiliates?
A: Yes very much, since money transactions are initiated in a big way, where transparency and building relationship are primary focus to continue with.
9.       Q: What is the best way to track a competitor’s products & affiliate strategy?
A: Browsing different competitor sites and their activity. Using tools like Spyfu.com, Keywordspy.com, Alexa, Comscore, Hitwise, Nielsen and other affiliate tips related sites.
10.   Q: As an affiliate manager, how can you track unwanted advertisements from other vendors on your sites?
A: An affiliate manager can have full control on the ads or links he/she is going to promote in his affiliate site. Also he/she should verify by clicking on each link to make sure that it fulfills his criteria/objective of a clean site, and is not spam.
11.   Q: How can a merchant’s activity betracked?
A: It is tracked with different tracking resources provided by different Affiliate Network sites like Linkshare, CJ, ShareaSale, Clickbank
12.   Q: Between ppc & affiliate, which makes better sense in India? How can this kind of comparison be tracked?
A: Each has its own strength in promoting, networking and building brand. If you want to promote your products and services to the appropriate target in just a day with a minimum budget then go for PPC. If you can wait to have sales and not be bothered about visits, then go for Affiliate, since you will only pay when you receive a sale or leads, but not for the clicks.
13.   Q: What happens if a third or fourth linked affiliate website appears? How can such visits be tracked?
A: There is a login called 1-tier, 2-tier, 3-tier affiliate chain network where commission is also divided among the same in a logical way.
14.   Q: How can purchases from the third or fourth linked affiliate website be tracked?
A: Sub affiliates are employed for the purpose..
15.   Q: What are two-tier and three-tier affiliates? What are affiliate tie-ups?
A: Amway is the right example for this.
16.   Q: What are leads, sales & impressions with respect to affiliates?
A: Filling up online form, registration form comes into Leads. Sales is mostly related to E-Commerce related sites, and impression is nothing but user coming to a affiliate site, but not clicking on the link or ads.
17.   Q: How can a vendor know if an online purchase of his products is done? What if an offline purchase is made-can that be tracked?
A: The same conversion is tracked in the affiliate or merchant account Affiliate marketing interface. No, the offline purchase can’t be tracked, but if the offline store request the user to fill up the form about his actions to purchase the product, then atleast we can come to know from it.
18.   Q: Why should affiliate marketing be preferred over pay-per-click or pay-per-lead type of online marketing?
A: The advertiser will only have to pay to the affiliate, if any sales or leads are completed but not for clicks, but in PPC, the advertisers have to pay for the Clicks too.
19.   Q: What are the factors that affect the selection of an affiliate?
A:  We should not consider every affiliate site for our advertising needs. We need to understand our advertiser /merchant’s objectives and based on that, we first need to select the right industry/product/service category affiliate.
Further to that, we need to go through each affiliate in the respective categories, do a thorough check of their respective websites, and then, if we find the content relevant enough to make a profitable relationship to both affiliate and merchant, then he should be selected.
20.   Q:  Based on business concept, what is the relationship between a publisher and an affiliate?
A:  Publishers are called Affiliates in Affiliate Marketing Industry, and Merchant’s are called Advertisers.
21.   Q: Can I become an affiliate of my own FaceBook page?
A:  Yes, you can, but need to find out your objective behind going for affiliate marketing for your FaceBook page.
22.   Q: Why is a W9 form needed for a non-US based publisher? Who can help me with these formalities?
A:  It is for people without a US Social security number & hence non-US people need to fill it and sign it. No payment needs to be done in such a case.  The affiliate network staff take care of all these issues.
23.   Q: How can platforms like Linkshare & CJ help? Is a mediator needed to be involved at this stage?
A:  Linkshare and CJ are different affiliate networking sites that have hundreds of affiliates & publishers under their network. So they act as an intermediaries between Advertiser/Merchant and Publisher/Affiliate to connect the right publisher with right number of affiliates for fulfilling each other objectives. Also they have the best tracking tools or software to help run a transparent business between Merchant and affiliate in term of commission exchange and sales generated.
24.   Q: Who are the best mediators? How can they help me in the affiliate marketing? What is Clickbank?
A:  Linkshare, ShareaSale, Commission Junction, Buy.at and ClickBank. Clickbank is also an affiliate network.
25.   Q: Which is the best way to select a merchant?
A:  First an affiliate needs to understand, which industry is highly profitable. Then come up with affiliate site relevant to the same industry with the best navigation and SEO friendly website. Then the best merchant needs to be identified based on their prior performance in the market.
26.   Q: If only 10 affiliates out of 100 get business to a merchant, how can the other 90 be utilized and persuaded to make them work as well ?
A:  In any Online Marketing channel, there are always a number of Best. It can be top 10, top 20 or top 50, which will always perform well and get you clicks/sales/leads for your business. But when it comes to remaining one in affiliate industry, we need to build up relationship and push those non-performing affiliates by having phone calls on a weekly or 10 days, once. Asking them the reason for non-performance and based on their needs/request, getting the required changes in the website
27.   Q: How often should one talk to their affiliates?
A:  For top performing affiliates, once in a week or once in 10days. Rest all affiliates should be sent a mail or whenever you get a time, call 1-1 affiliate to build up the relationship and also pushing them to get your objective fulfilled.
28.   Q: How important is affiliate marketing to software merchants?
A:  
29.   Q: Can two merchants barter among themselves with respect to affiliates?
A:  This phenomenon does not take place in the affiliate marketing industry.
30.   Q: Can I play the role of merchant & affiliate as well??
A:  Yes, if you two website, where one website act as a merchant site and other site act as a affiliate site, then you can.


POWER TIPS SESSION:
The power tips for the month of November were even more exciting and had more participation than before:
1.       Amit Sati:
-          Buyer & Consumer persona study is extremely essential for marketing- [http://www.amitsati.net/]
2.       Suresh Babu:
-          Attention Wizard- [http://attentionwizard.com/aw]
-          Google Instant preview [http://www.google.com/landing/instantpreviews/]
3.       Shankar:
-          GT metrix [http://gtmetrix.com/]
-          Yahoo Clues [http://clues.yahoo.com]
4.       Nanda Kishor K N:
-          Google Wonder wheel [http://www.googlewonderwheel.com/]
5.       Shiva Purohit:
-          X-marks  [http://www.xmarks.com/]
-          MeasureFit  [http://www.measurefit.com/]
-          Form Filler [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1882/]
-          Copy tab URL [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2069/]
-          WASP [http://webanalyticssolutionprofiler.com/]
-          SEOPEN [http://seopen.com/firefox-extension/index.php]
-          Status search [http://www.quirk.biz/searchstatus/]
-          Rank Quest [http://sourceforge.net/projects/rq-seotools/]
-          Keyword ranking Checker [http://sourceforge.net/projects/rq-seotools/]
-          X-Ray [http://www.xrayyoursite.com/]
6.       Amit Misra:
-          Rockmelt [http://www.rockmelt.com/]
7.       Sameer Gupta:
-          Key Board shortcut: Typing letters from the right to the left on a keyboard, twice in succession followed by control and enter opens a new web (Firefox) page [http://atoall.com]
The “November 2010 “Power Tips” was unanimously won by Mr. Amit Misra. The Managing Director at SSABLE Advisory Private Limited, Mr. Sameer Gupta sponsored this award.

 

CALL FOR CASE STUDIES, QUESTIONS, VOLUNTEERS, STUDENTS, SPONSORS…
OME invites members for one or all of the following:
Indian Case studies: Submission of Case Studies from any Indian industry, which has used Online and Social media marketing successfully or with some effect are invited. All interested people are requested to submit or share their story during the subsequent OME meets and give suggestions to all the budding entrepreneurs who have plans to launch their own industry.  The best practices being followed by these industries will also be discussed and further suggestions from members welcomed.
Testimonials: OME invites testimonials from all attendees regarding their experience in one / several OME meets. These testimonials will be put up on the soon-to-coming OME website.
Power Challenge: OME invites questions/queries from anyone who is facing a challenge when it comes to Online, Social media or any other form of marketing. The experts at OME will put their heads together to solve them right on the spot! And if it takes time- OME members take it up as an action item and help solve the problem within 15 days time and post their solutions on the OME LinkedIn group or mail it to the concerned person.
Volunteers: The OME Community has called for volunteers to assist the core team with the monthly meets as well as other activities and taking some individual responsibilities of this burgeoning association.
Students: Student attendees of the OME meets are always welcome and have special offers lined up for them, on the behalf of OME. They can voice their thoughts, join the group as volunteers and take help from the OME community as well.
Sponsors: A special mention was made for Sponsors who can support the monthly OME Community events and help with the costs of venue, ambience, prizes or any other aspect of the OMEBang activities.
SUGGESTIONS:
Various ideas for subsequent OME Community sessions were given by attendees. To sum them up:
  1. Complete event to be recorded
  2. More Online marketing/ Social media specific case studies
  3. Presentation of numerous live Case studies during the meet & discussing their challenges
  4. Discussing the results in subsequent OME meets
  5. Engagement of IIM students in OME
  6. Informal meetings to be arranged for regular or interested members
  7. Customized Wordpress OME Community blog to be started
  8. Pay per guest option could be introduced
Follow OME Community:

Follow OME Community on LinkedIn | Follow OME Community on Facebook | Follow OME Community on Twitter 

Blogs Every Digital Marketer Should Follow

Posted by on Apr 13, 2012 in Blog | 0 comments

Blogs & Websites Every Digital Marketer Should Follow

Web Marketing Academy Ditial Marketing Blogs and Websites to Follow

Which websites/blogs should I read to get information about Digital Marketing, SEO?

http://www.seomoz.org/blog – Another great resource for search. Watch their White Board Friday  Videos

http://blog.hubspot.com/ - One of the best B2B Search and social media updates. While you are there check out one of the awesome tool, which can grade your website for free: http://marketing.grader.com/

http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/ – For those who don’t know about Avinash, he is the Analytics Guru. Watch his Videos, you will be amazed. And don’t forget his 2 books: Web Analytics 2.0 and Web Analytics an hour a day

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/ – Matt Cutts, one of our all time favorite, a Google engineer, He also has his videos in Google webmaster central You Tube Channel

http://www.distilled.net/blog/ – SEO Blog

See what others say about WMA India

Want to learn and get certified in Digital Marketing , SEO, Adwords and Analytics ? Talk to us and schedule a consultation with us. We love to talk about our passion (Digital marketing) Give us a call : 9731388721

Learn B2B Digital, Social Media Marketing Best Practices.OME Community Meetup- Christ University

Posted by on Apr 8, 2012 in Blog | 0 comments

Learn B2B Digital, Social Media Marketing Best Practices.OME Community April Meetup- Christ University, April 21, 2012: 2 pm onwards

Manjuntha Certified Digital Marketing Professional from Web Marketing AcademyCertified Digital Marketing Professional Badge by Web Marketing Academy

 

 


B2B Digital/Social Media Marketing Best Practices

brought to you by Web Marketing Academy

B2B digital marketing isn’t same as B2C, as customers are different, sales cycle is long and apart from customers others play a vital role in final decision making.

About the Speaker:
Manjunath G is a Certified Digital Marketing Professional from Web Marketing Academy, He has a Bachelor’s degree Engineering from Bangalore University and an MBA in Marketing from IIT Chennai.

10 years of  experience in various marketing functions like strategic & product marketing, digital marketing, B2B lead generation, social media, search engine marketing & sales enablement  in Information Technology & Services Industry.

He is currently working with an MNC as a Global Marketing Manager and prior to this, he has worked in organizations like SAP Labs, Wipro and Redington in various marketing functions from product manager to Global Marketing roles across various geographies

Thanks to Prof Kshetranga , Christ University for their support.

About the Meetup:

When: April 21, 2012
Where: Christ University, Koramanagala
Room no: 301
How much: Rs 200 Register or pay at the venue

Attend the OME Community April Meetup event to know digital marketing best practices followed by B2B organizations and the art of digital marketing by B2B organizations. At the end of the event you would be learning:

- How to rationalize your digital marketing for B2B organizations?

- What are the digital marketing channels to focus for maximum ROI?

- What aspects of digital marketing works in a B2B scenario?

- What social media networks to focus, should you focus on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others or all of them?

- Should you focus on SEO, Google Ad words, Email Marketing & Social Media or few of them?

- What other new digital marketing activities to be focused like Webinars, Blogs, Media Pitching, market place and other?

- Who is your target audience in a B2B scenario, should you target prospects, your customers or others?

 

About OME Community Bangalore

OME Community is one of the largest and most active community of Online Marketers in India.

OME Face book groups: http://www.facebook.com/groups/omecommunity/

The OME monthly Meet-ups

OME Community conducts monthly meet ups, a platform for YOU to network, interact, exchange information, and find potential employers, employees or new business?

Website: http://omecommunity.org/ Call: Suresh Babu, 9731388721

 

Get Certified in Inbound Marketing Now for Free

Posted by on Apr 6, 2012 in Blog | 0 comments

Inbound Marketing University Certification Program

The Inbound Marketing Certification acknowledges the recipient’s proficiency in Inbound Marketing principles and best practices. These principles include: blogging, social media, lead conversion, lead nurturing, and closed-loop analysis.

Those who pass the exam will be Inbound Marketing Certified Professionals. Certified Professionals receive a badge on their InboundMarketing.com personal profile (see example), authenticated certification badge HTML code that can be posted to a website or blog, a certificate, and monthly “marketing perks.” 

In order to receive the Inbound Marketing Certification, the recipient must pass a comprehensive online certification exam with a score of 75% or higher.

Take the Exam

Format

The  exam contains 50 multiple choice and true & false questions, and the test taker has 50 minutes to complete the exam. You can begin the exam whenever you feel ready.

Content

The exam covers all the material from the 16 webinar classes.

Passing the Exam

You must receive a 75% score or higher to pass the exam. Those who do not pass the exam will have the opportunity to retake the exam in 30 days. At that time, we will email you an invitation for the retake.

If you have any other exam questions, please visit IMU FAQ.

Inbound Marketing Certification

The Inbound Marketing Certification acknowledges the recipients proficiency in Inbound Marketing principals and best practices. These principles include: blogging, social media, search engine optimization (SEO) lead conversion, lead nurturing, and closed-loop analysis. In order to receive the Inbound Marketing Certification, the recipient must pass a comprehensive certification exam with a score of 75% or higher.

The Honors Distinction is awarded to graduates with an exceptional understanding of inbound marketing. The top 15% of exam takers with a 90% score or higher receive this honor.

This certification is administered by HubSpot.

Register for Inbound Marketing University.

Looking forward for more learning and help you get your Inbound Marketing Certification. I will also be actively participating in Face book, Twitter, LinkedIn


Regards

Suresh

Inbound Marketing Certified Professional

Certification Achievements

Download Chapter 1: The All-Business, No-Hype Guide to Social Media Marketing by Jason Falls, Erik Deckers

Posted by on Apr 3, 2012 in Blog | 0 comments

The All-Business, No-Hype Guide to Social Media Marketing by Jason Falls, Erik Deckers

Highly recommend this Book: Download Chapter 1: Ignore The Hype. Believe The Facts which sets the stage for the meat of the No Bullshit experience http://nobullshitsocialmedia.com/wp-content/themes/nobssm/pdf/NoBullshitSocialMedia-Chapter1.pdf
Or buy the book : http://nobullshitsocialmedia.com/buythisbook

Suresh Babu