Online Advertising has taken a new trend in the last few years. Businesses want to showcase their products/service where people are, at an affordable cost and generate tangible revenues from it. This has caused a run for the mill in online advertising and branding. However businesses are lost out in the online buzz word speculations like CPC, CTR, CPL, CPM etc. This is doing their campaign or brand promotion initiative more harm than good. We agree that online advertising offers multiple advantage of text, display, real video ads (RVA) simultaneously, However Online advertising firmly placates on the promotional and brand building aspect first and later on it’s more about innovative forms of online sales promotion.

Unfortunately Online campaigns are losing out in the brand race adds experts. Brands are concerned more about revenue generation and do not place due emphasis on future strategies like product positioning, service delivery execution, campaign tracking and analytic conversions. This has made them lose out precious ad- inventory space, ROI generation and tactical consumer engagement. The main intention behind this writeup was to focus on how exactly to win in the online brand race.

1. Getting educated strategically: - By meaning of getting educated strategically we mean that a clients business plan, products, target market, pricing policy, spend etc has to be researched a lot. This then has to be spoken with the client over his vision and mission of the company and how he wants to position his product in the next few years.
2. Be Honest:-Make deliverable promises, never promise the sky for him in online advertising. If you feel that the spend is too low for the channels and the creative options is restricted and is just for sake of short term revenue generation, let him know honestly, It’s not feasible in online brand promotion thereby helping your agency the trauma of not having a problematic profit oriented client and also bearing the brunt of the campaign team.
3. Intellectually educate them: - We know that online marketing is not feasible for all verticals. It requires pre- planning and strategic implementations frequently for the ROI to pour in for the campaign consistently. However a strategic campaign manager can really work wonders on campaigns. He can effectively build lasting relationships through consumer lifecycles by building integrated campaigns, build strategies and initiate them up with proper product planning, positioning and design, target traffic and conversion execution. He knows this step is crucial to make the project a successful one from the long term perspective.
4. Failure and ROI go hand in hand: - Campaigns can work sometimes or they can be a big drain, Consider all the factors which went wrong in a campaign analysis factor like audience demography, keyword selections etc   and then rework on them with a bold experimentation and acceptance, Viola you have the next campaign which is generating the required ROI for you. This is the power of online campaign management.
5. Experiment more: - Just because the previous changes you have done are getting the campaign good ROI doesn’t mean you stop your experimentation process. Dynamize and experiment the campaign/brand more and see which one performs better. This can act as a future case study for performance based findings, key performance indicators and analyze the trend behaviors which you helped in getting for the client.
6. SWOT yourselves :- Make a strength, weakness, opportunity, threat(SWOT) study of yourselves which presents your strengths/opportunities more, and thereby educate and leverage online advertising for what it’s worth and no more and never push something for an added extra revenue. This causes a lot of resentment later.

Online advertising is potentially challenging but is often wrongly perceptionalized. It is underfunded with a low positive word of mouth to be an effective marketing channel among the common person. Companies taking initiative in leveraging this channel will definitely help in generating tremendous return on investment for their clients as they know Online brand leverages are risky, rewarding and is more about experimentations.

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It has become a much accepted fact that Social net working sites are today’s most powerful marketing tools, and most of the SMO (Social Media Optimization) credibility lies on most of the most browsed social networking sites like Face Book, Twitter, Linkedin etc. They are not only surfed by common people but also by creative and growth seeking internet-marketing professionals in present day scenario. Social networking sites like Face Book, Twitter, Linkedin also allow a professional to interact easily, which plays a crucial role in giving an edge to Social Media Optimization strategies applied by online Internet Marketing professionals.

The blogging tools of these sites enable decoders to send messages which are a well known fact that they put very strong impact on followers and convert the SMO followers in a solid deal very quickly. One of the most impactful benefits of SMO is its ability to bring the product close to the target audience. People who are into the business of ecommerce website development use a well-thought-out strategy to use Social Networking Sites as a powerful marketing tool.

Standard SMO basic know-how:-

• An attention to Customer’s queries and advices and an understanding of their likes and dislikes helps them easily figure out their target audience well beforehand.

• Many times, Customers genuinely show an interest in product while sometimes, they respond to online blogs/comments just to know the accurate sale season but Innovative marketers have to make it a point to answer every query to grasp a hold on potential Customers.

• Twitter, Face Book, Linkedin etc offers some great enhanced tools like widgets wherein online marketing professionals use this tool to send online updates, queries, Suggestions, recommendations etc.

• A good Internet marketing strategist also keeps a keen eye on people’s feedback on product as it assists them in improving or maintaining the marketing strategy of the product (Online Brand Reputation and Promotion).

Social Media Optimization (SMO) professionals also keep a continuous eye on public responses by using SNS tools which are really important in posting updates, queries by making conversation and building trust with clients, as people tend to do business with those whom they know well.

But Socio-Media approach is much vast then what we have anticipated or being following till now. Social Networking sites may not work in every case and different platforms needs to be added in the Socio-Media Plan. Agencies are coming up with media plans based on target audience, user behavior, and business objectives, requirements etc. Redwing Solutions is one of the comprehensive Digital Solutions Company who is providing the required 360 degree socio media approach. They believe that Social Media Promotion is the best and cost effective advertising tool if rightly channeled. This is one of the most powerful medium to engage your potential customers. Mr. Akash Srivastava, Founder Redwing Solutions explains it as the most critical part of the Online Marketing Strategy. He explains, “If the correct Interaction strategy will not be followed on Socio-Media platforms, you will end up spamming your customers and creating negative Brand positioning, dislike or discomfort” which nobody wants to happen.

If you are a brand, entrepreneur, or investor looking to promote your product or service online, do include SMO in your promotional strategy. You may get connected with Redwing Solutions to work on your Complete Digital Branding and Promotion Strategy. Trust me!! Their Service model is 200% VFM based (Value for Money).

At present Socio-Media activities are one of the top selling preposition for most of the Digital Companies in India. Creating Buzz over Social Media platform, communities, Tweets and number of activities to reach out the desired target audience. Even the advertisers who still believes more on print and television are also getting open to try out new media.

Are digital promotion companies delivering what it has to be??

It is really critical to understand the context… product… customer and then prepare a strategy and a PLAN. Taking advantage of client’s less knowledge over new media, few agencies are just doing a copy paste job. Instead of engaging customers, they are only spamming their accounts. The unethical approach is not only adding frustrations among customers, taking brands at the wrath but is also killing the new born Socio-Media Approach.

What you should do??

Socio-Media is the most effective way to engage your customers by creating a connection with them. Before you start engaging them you need to understand who they are, their preferences, their motivation and context. There is a media plan required before you take off with your Socio-Media Advertising. Every thing may not work on Facebook, Orkut or Twitter. You need to study the user behavior pattern, and accordingly choose your social media platform and engage them.

Interaction is critical on your Fan Pages, Blogs, Q&A, Forums, Email Groups etc. If some one is posting comments, Scraps, Emails, wall postings or open ended remarks, you need to answer. Make interactions 2 ways, very clearly articulated and not a one sided communication.

Last but not the least…

If you are looking forward to use Socio-Media to promote your services or products, Hire an Expert!!!
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Posted by:~  AKASH SRIVATAVA / Founder / Redwing Solutions

Strategic Desing is a process of future oriented princliples in order to increase the product’s acceptance, satisfying user needs, identifying problems and suggesting solutions for the same. Strategic Design basically works on human practices and are not intuitive and can be aquired only by detailed user behaviour research.

In Strategic Design takes care of user behaviors, cultural differences, defininng organisation goals better, understanding user requirements, intuitive navigations etc which are key to success.

Creative Design is  a part of the entire strategic design process. In creative designing we try to resolve the issues around colors, graphics, look and feel etc. Strategic design process starts from the initial thought in mind to final conceptualisation of the product and takes care of all the issues which help increasing revenues for the company.