1. What is the core theme of ICICI Bank’s social media program?

At ICICI Bank, we believe social media is strategically important. It gives us direct online access to customers, helping us get their feedback on a real-time basis in a cost-effective manner. Also, social media is becoming part of life of several segments of the population, who are either existing or prospective customers.

We believe that the 21st century Indian consumer is digitally adept, socially connected and wants the best value and service from any service provider. We, at ICICI Bank, strive to be his/her financial brand of choice through everything we do.

One of the important reasons why we decided to be on social media was to create conversations and be high on engagement with our customers and fans in their day-to-day life. We have been the most-engaged Indian banking brand on Facebook.

We follow a well-defined process to ensure our customers get the quality of service they seek online. The process begins with listening to our customers posting online comments on hundreds of websites including Facebook, Google, Twitter and forums 24X7. Our next step is respond to those comments. We, at the same time, analyse the comment stream to look for trends to understand the customer sentiment better.

Our social media presence is spread over various platforms:

Twitter: We established our presence on Twitter by creating a very robust infrastructure to “listen” to our customers. This helped us to effectively and efficiently address queries/concerns of our customers.

Facebook: ICICI Bank launched its Facebook page in January 2012. We wanted the launch to be not just another medium to connect with audience but also provide value-added services on the platform. We launched the one-of-its-kind application that allows a registered user to check the bank account details while on the social media platform and also avail of a host of services. We have always encouraged users to follow safe banking practices. Indeed, we have received a good response on our safe banking tips. In a short span of over a year, we have built a 2 million strong community on Facebook. On Facebook, we engage with our fans not only by providing them information on convenience of banking but also by educating and increasing financial literacy among our young fan base. We always encourage feedback from our fans to make the conversation a two-way traffic. We have also gone beyond just disseminating information and limiting our conversation to banking. We have created games, fun applications and contests for our fans to keep interacting with them.

YouTube: Our YouTube channel is a library to view our advertisements, watch interviews of our senior management, view product videos and share them among each other. Our channel has garnered over 1 million views since it was launched in January 2012. It helped us to disseminate video information on other platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. We increasingly look towards adding video inventory to further engage with our online-savvy customers.

2. On what basis do you choose the social media platforms to be present on?

At ICICI Bank, we use the social media platform to engage with fans, prospective customers and help build affinity towards the brand. We try to reach out to customers depending on their presence across digital medium. Our objective is to provide various touchpoints to customers to engage with the brand at their convenience.  We provide our customers with a rich offering of apps, product information, and utilize the social media platform to increase financial literacy. We look at platforms depending on the type of audience and content consumption pattern.

3. Can you share more details of some of the initiatives or applications you introduced on social media?

We believe that engagement and interaction with fans is vital for our growth on the social media platform. In an effort to create that engagement, keeping in mind the industry we operate in, we have created a one-of-its- kind app through which a customer can conveniently check his account details while on Facebook. After authenticating his/her ID, a registered user can do the following transactions: account details, mini statement, open FD/ RD, cheque book request, stop cheque request, cheque status inquiry, apply for email statement and upgrade debit card.

Over last one year, we have created a bouquet of rich offerings on Facebook – a bank account app, a money personality app, a deal-of-the-day offers sections, offers on banking products/services and a mechanism for customers to write to us.

We have also gone beyond just disseminating information and limiting our conversation to banking. We have created games, fun applications and contests for our fans to enhance interaction. For example, we organized a photo contest on the lines of our philosophy of “consumer first” – Khayaal Aapka – on Facebook. The contest encouraged fans to upload an original photograph clicked by them that conveyed the message or depicted a Khayaal Aapka moment. The contest received more than 2,000 entries and all entries were judged by a special jury. The winner was given a Nikon coolpix camera.

The latest addition to our bouquet of apps on Facebook is iWish, a flexible recurring deposit account which helps you plan and fulfills your wish. The app shares the wishes of the users and also let them know about the people likely to help them fulfill their wish. The experience on the app helps them understand the product and encourages them to sign up for it.

ICICI Bank has been keen on engaging with its fan base and thus has launched a number of social media campaigns in 2012 such as ‘Personality quiz’ and ‘Fan of the month’.

4. How do you measure your campaign performance on social media?

We make 360-degree use of the social media space for both displaying our products and services and helping the businesses in getting leads and customer applications for various products. We measure the campaign performance of our posts through two metrics: engagement and reach.

5. How do you see the growth of social media in the near future?

Big companies now need to create content that connects with the fans. Fans will dissociate themselves from overall “product” content and engage with content that is “relevant” to them. Brands will have to, therefore, be creative in conversations with their fans. They will need to understand fan clusters and analyze what is relevant to these fans. Another big development for brands on social will be to meet expectations of fans in terms of delivering experience on mobile. E-commerce is one of the biggest successful stories recently. It is still evolving in multiple dimensions. Social commerce is the next horizon.

There’s no doubt about it: the internet as we know it today is incredibly different than it was 10 years ago. Not only does the web serve as the livelihood for many individuals and businesses, but the internet itself has changed immensely when it comes to search engine optimization.

These days, SEO has gained significant traction as consumers rely more on the web. With businesses banking on the internet for leads and conversions, the online landscape has become a fiercely competitive space. And just as one SEO strategy takes hold, it is eclipsed by another method of getting your site to the top of the list, with the process repeating every time a new major Google update is released.

When it comes to SEO strategy, it’s no wonder many businesses are left scratching their heads. Now more than ever, businesses are turning to the experts to understand what to do – and perhaps more importantly, what not to do.

In today’s world of SEO, it’s never been more important to understand that search engine algorithms change as frequently as the weather. So while your company may follow a set standard of SEO principles, it’s essential to know your strategy is a living list of rules that can change at any given time. As for the myths out there, here’s the scoop on what’s effective, what not to worry about, and how to make the most of your website’s optimization.

MYTH #1: KEYWORDS MUST MATCH EXACTLY

Creating valuable content doesn’t mean following a prescribed set of rules like exact keyword matches or unnaturally specific page titles. Great content is all about effortless, engaging content that provides value in some way to the reader. If you’re writing your own blog, here’s what to keep in mind:

Don’t get stuck in an anchor text rut

Abusing anchor text for the purpose of “keyword stuffing” is not only unnatural but can lead to problems down the road. Make sure your content flows naturally, and if there’s a logical place to link a certain phrase or idea, go for it. But avoid writing for the sake of anchor text alone. Also, know that keyword density in today’s online landscape is close to irrelevant. Don’t worry about perfecting a blog post to 2.5% keyword density. All you need to worry about is writing good, solid content that serves a purpose and you’ll be in good shape.

Do name your pages and posts appropriately

Name your blog posts using keywords if it makes sense. You don’t have to repeat the keyword nor do you have to awkwardly title your post. If it reads clunky, you probably ought to change it. The idea here is to use keywords naturally and relevantly – if you can do so in the titles of pages and posts, then by all means do it. Otherwise, save your important keywords for a page or post that merits it.

MYTH #2: MY SITE WILL BE PENALIZED IF SOMEONE COPIES MY CONTENT

There was a time when duplicate content would knock a website off Google faster than you could say “Panda.” And while duplicate content is still a relevant issue, and should be avoided, you should not worry about your site being penalized if someone else “steals” your content and republishes it elsewhere. Many websites face this issue, especially in the face of RSS feeds that can easily scrape your content and republish it elsewhere.

Don’t stop writing original content

Writing good content and publishing it on your website not only helps your SEO but can help to counteract duplicate content issues as well. Continue publishing your latest and greatest, original blog posts and don’t let scraping get you down.

Do contact questionable websites

If you stumble upon a website that is maliciously copying your content and republishing it as their own, it may be worth contacting the owner or webmaster to request the removal of your content. Don’t worry about sites that appear spammy – you probably won’t get a response and it isn’t worth the effort. You can always attempt to report those sites to Google as well.

MYTH #3: I ONLY NEED BACKLINKS FOR MY SITE TO RANK WELL

Google is pretty smart these days so trying to manipulate the scene with thousands of bulk backlinks will only backfire down the road (or around the next turn!). Factors like quality content and social media are also significant when it comes to ranking, so links won’t paint the entire picture, needless to say.

Don’t buy questionable backlinks

Avoid the temptation to buy thousands of bulk backlinks for your website. Not only do you stand the chance of being penalized by Google, but you will face a difficult time in removing the links at a later time in the event of a penalization.

Do opt for guest posting and community outreach

A guest article hosted on another website is a win-win for both you and the other webmaster. They get quality content, and you get a backlink legitimately. Start your outreach by contacting industry-related websites and ask if you may write a blog post for their site.

MYTH #4: META TAGS ARE EPIC WHEN IT COMES TO RANKING MY SITE

Meta tags – namely, the meta keyword tag — had its heyday about ten years ago when search engines depended on backend information to sort through and rank websites based on a simple query. Nowadays, meta has lost its golden touch and search engines no longer use meta keywords tag to understand a website.

Don’t worry about meta keyword tags

All major search engines have disposed of meta keyword information so while it’s harmless to fill it in, it won’t really make a difference when it comes to increasing your organic ranking. If anything, it’ll show your competition what keyword phrases you are trying to rank well for.

Do use title tag and meta description tags

The title tag (which isn’t specifically a meta element, per se) is essential to SEO as is the meta description tag. While the title tag actually helps the search engines better understand each page of your site, and carry a certain weight as far as ranking factors go, the meta description tag is there for the sole purpose of differentiating your listing from the others in the search engine results page. Don’t stress about having the right keywords in your meta description tag — instead, focus on making it irresistible for the end-user conducting a search to click on it. The title tag should be a combination of what that specific page is about, and a call to action as well. Use these SEO elements regularly and on every eligible page of your site.

MYTH #5: PAID SEARCH WILL BOOST MY ORGANIC RANKINGS

One of the most popularly circulated SEO myths out there include the theory on paid search listings (PPC) influencing organic listings for people who pay to advertise on Google. That simply isn’t the case and all three of the biggest search engines (Google, Yahoo!, and Bing) have confirmed that websites with paid ads do not receive any special incentive when it comes to ranking organically.

Don’t drink the Cool-Aid

This myth is one for the ages, but it certainly doesn’t merit your attention in today’s SEO landscape. Don’t buy into a PPC campaign thinking it will influence your organic listings – it simply won’t work.

Do buy PPC if it makes sense

Some keywords prove to be particularly difficult to rank for, especially in the face of national competitors that outshine smaller websites organically. If it makes financial sense to pursue a keyword group using a PPC strategy, by all means go for it.

So a little something called the Galaxy S4 launched. You can watch the launch event below.

In the cut throat Smartphone business, these are the only two players making any money. Apple taking a staggering 55% of the global profits and Samsung taking in an impressive 34%. Rest of the crowd is just feeding on leftovers. So its just Samsung and Apple battling it out for the no.1 position. Apple leads in profits and revenues , whereas Samsung leads in global market share. Samsung clearly has enough reasons to believe that it can usurp Apple as the numero uno. It is clearly evident  in the way it drives its marketing, taking pot shots at Apple and its core users time and time again. But Apple always concentrated on its own efforts, dismissing Samsung’s taunts.

Until now.

On the eve of the Samsung’s new flagship phone, the galaxy S4. Apple’s global marketing SVP Phil Schiller took pot shots at the Android ecosystem, claiming that its just a nice upgrade to a feature phone. But the kicker came just on the eve of the Galaxy S4 launch, Apple launched a webpage, titled “why iphone” and lists down the reason why iPhone is the greatest thing since sliced bread and obviously not so subtly puts down the Android ecosystem. You can check out the page here.

With this one move, Apple has showed its cards. It is a defensive response to the growing threat of Samsung. For the first time Apple has acknowledged that a competitor exists. Make no mistake about it though, Apple is still the king of the jungle, for all the noise that Samsung generates, Apple still holds the crown of numero uno on the metrics that matter. But now it has a worthy adversary to contend with. Samsung is the only Android maker that makes tons of cash and has left all its competitors behind to stand tall against Apple. The battle lines are drawn, as these two heavyweights slug it out, trading blows in all areas, be it profits, revenues, market share and now we can add Marketing to that mix too.

Let’s get ready to rumble.

Successful promotion is important for all products both new and old.  It can increase sales and enhance your brand image.  In fact, without proper promotion, many products do not sell.  To ensure that your products are selling, take advantage of these 8 product promotion secrets.

1 – Send The Right Message

First, the message behind all products should match the message that your brand is sending.  For example, if your brand is about high quality and long-lasting goods, it is important to release goods that correlate with this idea.  A product that breaks after a few uses will not fit with your brand message.  Therefore, make an effort to promote the same ideas with each product that you are trying to convey with your brand.

2 – Use Good Images

Next, product images are a major part of any promotion.  However, they can also be costly to produce and maintain.  Although expensive, good images make a difference.  Keep in mind that this is the first thing many people see when they are considering a purchase.  If the image is blurry or small, you could lose a potential buyer.  However, images that are clear, detailed, and well placed can catch someone’s eye and entice him or her to buy.

3 – Create Accurate Descriptions

In addition to images, many times a description of the product will be necessary for selling and promotion.  It can be difficult to write these descriptions.  Too much content is overwhelming and often overlooked.  However, too little information can create customer service problems.  For the best descriptions, use these suggestions:

• Avoid redundancy.  Once something has been said, it does not need to be said again.
• Keep the information clear and simple.
• Include product features including color, size, patterns, weight, etc.
• Remove any wordiness from the description.

Once you have a draft of the description, ask a few people to read it.  Any questions they have can be used to help you fine-tune the information for future customers.

4 – Choose The Right Price

Another important aspect of promotion is to choose the right price.  This can be difficult.  Many assume that the lower the price, the better.  However, if your brand sells luxury products, then a lower price should not be your objective.  Therefore, make the time to assess your brand message and the value of the product.  Also, compare the product to alternatives on the market.  Then determine what price is the best.

5 – Market In The Right Locations

Furthermore, a main part of promotion involves the actual avenue or location that will be used for marketing efforts.  There are a number of different ways to deliver product information to customers, including the following:

• Catalogs, brochures, and flyers
• Print ads
• Websites
• Social media
• Trade shows

Most companies do not have the budget or capabilities to market in all of these areas.  Instead, they focus on a few locations that they feel will be the most effective.

6 – Stand Out From The Competition

It is important to also understand that the best way to be successful with your efforts is to stand out from the competition.  In order to stand out, you need to understand what the competition is doing.  Then, make an effort to be more unique and creative with your approach.  For example, if your competitor uses boring flyers to reach their customers, try standing out with colored brochures instead.

7 – Be Consistent

Consistency is also extremely important when you are promoting a product or brand.  A consistent message appears more professional and it helps customers to better understand who you are as a company.  Therefore, make sure to be consistent in all areas.  Use the same colors.  Create images that look uniform.  Rely on a few fonts.  Changing it up too much can cause confusion.

8 – Tell A Story

Finally, consider telling a story about your product that will be memorable to customers.  This allows you to sell an idea rather than a product.  For example, if someone is looking for laundry detergent, tell a story about a happy family that looks good and uses laundry detergent.  This story is more compelling than the boring description of the product.  It will help people to envision buying the product because they too will want to experience the same story.

Successful marketing and promotional efforts take time and planning.  However, with these 8 product promotion secrets, your efforts will be rewarded with increased sales and improved brand awareness.  Try them today to boost the sales of your products.

Image credit – www.imdb.com

Does your website cater to the needs of mobile customers, or does it simply distill your website experience to a smaller size? Mobile traffic makes up 20 percent of website traffic in the United States; no doubt the number will continue to rise as more people convert to smartphones and tablets. When websites are not optimized for mobile use, more than 80 percent of mobile users will leave a website and never return.

Here’s what you need to know about mobile website optimization:

1. Understand the mobile consumer: As always, it’s critical that you think about where your customer is coming from when planning mobile marketing. A mobile user will have different needs than a PC user. For example, think about how and why people would view a restaurant’s website. People using a PC may be looking for a current menu or how to make a reservation online. While mobile users may want to do these things as well, it’s more likely that they have a specific reason for viewing your site. Maybe they’re looking up directions on the go or trying to find out restaurant hours. Make it easy for mobile users to quickly find the information they need.

2. Use data to analyze your mobile consumer: Use data from Google analytics or other analytic tools at your disposal to learn more about your customers. See what mobile users looked at on your website and how long they stayed on your site. You may find you need to make some adjustments based on how people interact with your website.

3. Optimize for the small screen: Choose whether you will build a mobile website from scratch yourself or opt for a mobile platform partner that has the web design tools you need to roll out a mobile site. Building it yourself may keep costs down, but unless you have someone in-house with the skills to optimize your site for mobile users, it’s worth the cost to hire someone with design experience.

4. Apply what you’ve learned: Continue to monitor analytics and use the data to drive mobile marketing decisions. Perhaps you correctly anticipated customers would need location information. How can you go the next step and incentivize consumers to choose your business over competitors? Maybe you’ve found something unexpected, such as people spending a lot of time reading the “about” section that describes your company. Think about how you can add content that consumers can relate to, so they develop trust in your brand.

5. Learn from the best: Some businesses have mobile marketing down. View their web and mobile sites to learn from their successes:

• eBay – Reports one mobile transaction per second
• Amazon – Integrates mobile shopping with web shopping experience
• McDonald’s – Uses localized voucher codes to drive sales

If you don’t optimize your site for mobile users, you may fall behind your competitors. Think about how you can appeal to mobile consumers, and how to streamline your website content for this format. Then analyze your web traffic, and you will see the positive results that come from mobile optimization.

The growth of social media websites have allowed individuals to easily and readily express their opinions and concerns on all sorts of matters.  This has been positive in many respects, but it has posed new challenges for organisations that are keen to maintain their reputation – which can often result in a social media crisis.  Here are some tips for managing a crisis.

What is a social media crisis?

A social media crisis is basically the use of words or images on social media networks such as Facebook or Twitter, which can damage your reputation as a company.  It’s not always easy to define what exactly constitutes as a crisis.  Generally, it is an issue that arises or is made worse by social media, resulting in negative media coverage, a change in business process or financial loss.  However, if one customer writes on Facebook that they don’t like you, this doesn’t make a crisis.   Yet if that person not only writes that they don’t like you but your products put them in danger and they’re going to sell their story to the press – this is a crisis.

How to prepare for a social media crisis

In order to effectively manage a social media crisis, you need to have a plan in place of what you’d do in case one happened in the first instance.  Having a plan means that you will be organised and react quickly to the situation.  As part of the plan, you would need to ascertain who would deal with the crisis, how you would go about defusing it, what you would say and where you would say it.

Be on your guard

In order to handle a social media crisis, you need to be aware that it’s happening in the first place.  This means, that you need to regularly keep abreast of what is being said about you on social media websites.  One negative comment quickly resolved and nipped in the bud is easier to manage than if it is allowed to multiply across websites – in which case you’ll have an even bigger crisis on your hands.  Staying on the ball and keeping watch seven days a week on who is saying what about you is key to managing any potential crisis scenarios.

React quickly

If a social media crisis does break out, the first thing you’ll need to do is react instantly on the original source where it started.  Acknowledge what has happened.  Even if you don’t know what is happening and have no immediate solution, always say you are looking into it and apologise.  Do not get on the defensive and never get into an argument, as this will only worsen matters.  Even if you don’t agree with the comments made, remain understanding and sympathetic.  This worked well for Kraft who was embroiled in a social media crisis with regards to its Oreo ‘rainbow’ cookie, to mark gay pride month, when it was met with some backlash.  The brand responded calmly and with grace, which limited damage caused.

A quick reaction time can limit damage caused and help turn the situation around.  For example, when Burger King found themselves in the midst of a crisis involving an image of an employee standing on some lettuce, they swiftly used internet tools to track down the employee, instantly firing them.  The crisis was resolved within 24 hours.

Keep everyone informed

If a crisis occurs, don’t keep it locked behind management doors.  Inevitably, the phones will start ringing so your sales and customer service staff will need to be primed as to what to say when questions are being fired at them.  Let the whole team know what is going on and how it is being solved.  Post an FAQ section on your website, with links on the social media websites, so that people can read what’s happening and how you are solving it.

Learn lessons

Following a social media crisis, it is important to sit down as a company and take stock of what happened.  It’s vital that you learn lessons from the situation, such as what you could have done differently and how you could improve for the future, should it happen again.

Direct mail marketing is still one of the most effective ways to reach your customers.  Direct mail messages have a much stronger impact than emails, and a well-run direct mail campaign will leave a lasting positive impression of your brand in the minds of the recipients.  Here are a few examples of some recent high-impact direct marketing campaigns.

1.    GGRP Sound – The Cardboard Record Player

GGRP Sound showed off their amazing engineering by sending prospective customers a fully functional record player made almost entirely out of cardboard.  Designing this device must have taken a lot of time and effort, but it most definitely achieved its goal – getting people to pay attention to the message, and understand what the company does.

2.    WWF Earth Hour’s Candle Box

Lumpy mail attracts far more attention than flat envelopes, and the WWF Earth Hour candle box is an example of lumpy mail done right.  During Earth Hour, companies and individuals are encouraged to turn out their lights to save energy. What better way to encourage people to do this than to send them a useful gift – a box of candles – designed to look like a skyscraper.  When the recipient pulls out their candles, it looks like the lights go out in the skyscraper.  This gift was simple to make, but incredibly effective.

3.    ADT Security System – Pop Up Box

Pop-up items aren’t exactly new – but they are still a novelty.  ADT Security ran a cunning marketing campaign where they delivered pop-up boxes to apartment owners in their area.  They pushed the boxes under the apartment’s front doors, and the box would pop-up to reveal the message “Breaking in to your apartment is easier than you think”, along with information about the company’s security systems.

Making pop-up boxes is inexpensive, and if you come up with a creative use for them, they can be a powerful marketing tool.

4.    Unicef’s Toy Soldiers

Unicef sent out packets that, at first glance, looked like they were plastic green toy soldiers.  On closer inspection, the soldiers were actually children playing football, doing gymnastics, reading books, and doing other common playground activities.  These packets were sent out as part of their campaign against child soldiers in Africa, and included a message imploring people to “Turn soldiers back into children”.  Most adults have fond memories of playing with toy soldiers when they were young, so this campaign was emotive and powerful.

5.    Touch Branding – Blood Bags

Touch Branding is a marketing agency based in Prague.  The company created a strong brand image based around the message “We’d give our blood for good branding”.  They designed a red website, and even dressed up workers in surgical outfits to reinforce the “give blood” message.

As part of a direct mail campaign they sent out real blood bags (filled with fake blood, of course!), and labelled the blood bags “Rh Creative”.  The gifts were hand labelled, just like in a real hospital, and described what Touch could do for the recipient’s brand.

Sending out blood bags may offend some people, but it worked well for Touch.  This is most likely a case of the marketers knowing their target audience well.  If you’re thinking of running a similar creative, think carefully about the culture of the people you’ll be sending it to – and remember, if you have to ask if something is likely to be deemed offensive, then it probably shouldn’t see the light of day.

Feature-packed websites may dazzle customers, but not if they’re slow to upload. Make sure you’re not driving away customers with cumbersome web pages. There are some tricks you can use to keep your site looking slick without compromising speed.

How Fast is Your Site Today?

Start by assessing your website’s current loading time. Tools like Page Speed or Pingdom give a quick evaluation of your site’s speed and performance on different browsers. Now that you have a starting point, let’s see how much faster you can make your website.

Hosting

A business Web host should be fast and reliable, guaranteeing an uptime of 99.5 percent or higher. Your Web hosting provider should also use a broad content delivery network which is necessary to achieve fast response times.

Declutter Your Site

Make your navigation simple and uniform throughout your website. Eliminate unnecessary drop-down menus and make your auxiliary pages accessible with a single click from your home page. Flash or animation should have an opt-out feature for users.

Reduce HTTP Requests

Combine all scripts and CSS. Consistent scripts and stylesheets significantly improve response times; they also make it easier to fix bugs and overhaul your site later, because everything’s in one place. You can use this to eliminate code duplication, reducing load times further.

Combine Images

Implement CSS sprites to combine multiple images in order to reduce the frequency of your DNS lookups. Combine background images into a single image and use the CSS background-image and background-position properties to display the desired image segment. Tools such as SpriteMe make this easier. You’ve now further minimized the number of requests your website makes.

Optimize Images

Modify images to take up less space. Optimize and remove comments and other useless information — such as EXIF details — from your images. Run a jpegtran on all your JPEGs. Check the GIFs and see if they are using a palette size corresponding to the number of colors in the image. Try ImageMagick when converting GIFs to PNGs and see if there is a space savings unless you’re working with animation. Run Pngcrush, or any other PNG optimizer tool, on all your PNGs.

Stylesheets

Stylesheets should be at the top of your page. This way, the browser displays available content as soon as possible. Browsers can also block rendering to avoid redrawing page elements, abiding by W3 standards. Likewise, your JavaScript should be placed at the bottom of the page. If the scripts are toward the top, they block anything else below on the initial loading page, slowing the process.

External Files

JavaScript and CSS should be placed in external files instead of directly in your HTML. By placing them in external files, you’re taking advantage of caching and saving upload time. You’re also making your HTML cleaner and making it easier to isolate potential problems.

No Redirects

Avoid using 301 redirects. Many website owners buy extra domains in order to stop cybersquatters from taking over similarly spelled domains. Although directing several domain names to your site may make sense, the practice forces the browser to a new URL which slows your page.

You now have new ways to speed up your site. It’s possible to keep rich Web features, just make sure you’re not slowing down customers. If you want them coming back, you have to employ great design and efficient coding.

Social media has become mammoth tool for business to gather information about:

• Competitive sales
• Brand performance
• Gain attention
• and Generate Sales

Given the amount of time customers spends, engaging with one another, companies are now becoming very serious about investing in Social Media marketing. According to “The CMO Survey”, currently companies are speding 8.4% of their marketing budget on Social Media Marketing and over the next 5 years it will reach to 21.6%. Also, Companies are searching for novel ways to interact with customers that will drive growth of the business.

Given this great investment in Social media, two things becomes very important for companies. One, integrate their social media efforts with marketing efforts and Second, measure ROI from social media. While, to some extent, companies have been successful in integrating their social media efforts with marketing efforts but social media analysis and ROI still remains a big question mark.

There are many metrics and performance indicators which helps to calculate ROI but they don’t have holistic approach. Social media is a platform to reach and connect with customers when they are not in the shop. So, when we are investing in Social Media, we must remember that ROI is not in just monitory terms.

To start with, Focus of Social Media ROI should be,

1. How many people you have reached?

• No. of likes on faceook, facebook page reach
• Followers on twitter
• Pinterest fans
• Blog followers
• Youtube followers
• Facebook reach
• No. of Impressions

2. How many people you have engaged through online activities?

• Facebook Page views and people talking about it
• Retweets
• Blog views
• How many times blogpost has been shared
• Video/slide view
• Comments
• No. of mentions in user generated content
• Engagement duration

3. Becoming a conversation enabler and perception driver

Now, you have decent social media presence, likes/views and retweets. But basic rule of marketing says that word of mouth is more credible than advertising, Thus next step of focus should be giving platform to users to share their experience, tell their stories and make them your brand advocates.

• Encourage users to post their experiences with brand. – No. of customer experience shared
• Encourage users to share their content – No. of user generated content shared
• Ask for suggestion – No. of people replied to your suggestion posts, tweets, blogpost etc
• Twitter Trend
• Activity ratio: Ratio of active to inactive network members

4. How social media efforts helped to resolve customer query/problems and led to more customer satisfaction?

They say, “Axis Bank’s twitter response is faster than their customer care”. As I said earlier, Social media is a platform to reach the customer outside the shop. Thus it can be very handy and useful to resolve customer queries and clear doubts.

• Resolve customer queries – No. of queries resolved /No. of queries posted
• Clear customer doubts: No. of doubts cleared/ No. of  doubts asked
• Response time to resolve query/doubt
• Customer satisfaction with the time and response

5. How many leads you generated through social media

• Click Through Rate
• No. of Referrals
• No. of people who subscribed to free news letter
• No. of people who showed intention to purchase product
• visitor to lead conversion rate

6.  How much increased revenue is due to social media efforts

• No. of people who bought from your website through social media referral
• Increase in repeat purchase
• No. of paying customers (for premium services)
• Average sales volume through social media referral/ Overall average sales volume (per customer)
• Average sales social media referral/ Overall average sales ( per customer)

Marketers over the years have been very traditional. Full page ads, Television ads, Branding, Jargon, and charts. Well those are key to a successful marketing campaign, but here is a different take on marketing from one of the world’s most successful, and “fun” brands’ top boss, yes, Sir Richard Branson from Virgin.

Farting has always been used in movies to create crass humor. But can you imagine farting being used to make a very serious point? That’s exactly what a Canadian ad agency has done for Ontario Ministry of Health. In it’s latest anti-smoking campaign, the agency has equated “social farting” with “social smoking”, concluding that both the ideas are equally ridiculous. It is directed at those who are in denial stage and try to convince themselves and others that they are not smokers, just social smokers.

A woman in the ad says that she is not a farter, but a social farter and farts “now and then” along with friends or when she is trying to hit on a guy. Funny, you think? Think about it when the next time you go for a smoke with your friends.

Sharing digital content is quickly proving to be a sensible, cost effective and targeted way of marketing brands. We all consume content from various online sources.

This infographic from Zmags brings out interesting research data on how content is consumed. Key takeaways:

Social media tops the list of content sharing sources.

Participating in online sweepstakes or contests is most effective way of inspiring action online

On an average, we don’t interact with any brand for more than 3 mins.

88% users in US use tablet to browse the web.

If you know anyone who has a smartphone then you have most likely already been unwillingly drug into the cell phone fan battle that has been raging since Android phones starting showing up in the marketplace. People take their cell phone brand very seriously and the companies who produce those phones take it very seriously as well.

In the past year or so the competition between Apple’s iPhone and Samsung’s many Android phones has become fairly intense. Most of the action between these two has been in the courtroom, where the two corporate giants have been rapidly exchanging patent lawsuits.And starting in 2011, Samsung upped the ante with a new ad campaigns that directly mocked Apple and their fans.

Aggressive Television Campaign

Samsung’s first commercial in their “Next Big Thing” ad campaign portrayed Apple fans as bearded and scarvedhipsters waiting in line for their much valued iPhone. In line they discussed their hours-long wait and the many Android-standard features that were not included in the iPhone.

Samsung shows their teeth throughout the ad.At one point a courier bag clad man worries aloud to his friends: “If it looks the same, how will my friends know I upgraded?” Another group laments the lack of 4G and hopes that Apple will eventually allow them to have that feature.

The Apple fans glare in amazement when a woman walking down the street with her Samsung phone simply asks them “Why don’t you just buy a 4G phone?” The ad naturally pushes the Samsung phone, the Galaxy SII at that point, as superior. It’s cute and its snarky and it set the tone for Samsung’s ad campaign for the next year.

According to Samsung, these fans were so enwrapped in Apple’s culture that they willing to wait in line endlessly and miss out on many important features – simply because they wanted the iPhone brand more than they wanted a better phone. The advertisements tapped into the growing sentiment of people who were put off by the cult of personality that seemed to surround Apple phones and the rest of Steve Jobs’ empire of products.

Fierce Marketing

Samsung continued this type of assault on Apple and their fans. In 2012 they released a print ad directly comparing Apple’s iPhone 5 to their Galaxy SIII titled “It Doesn’t Take a Genius.”  They also went back to commercials mocking Apple fans waiting in line, this timearguing the screen size on the iPhone was bigger in size, though not as big as the screen in the Galaxy SIII. They also implied that Apple was for old people (i.e. people out of touch) now.

Samsung was aggressive. They were the first company to really stand up and challenge Apple face to face. While the Android brand had been around for some time and was gaining steam, Samsung was saying what many tech oriented websites had been saying for years – the iPhone is a nice package but there are much better phones out there.

The ad campaigns were not the end of the aggressive marketing push from Samsung; they also wanted to edge in on Apples’ seemingly effortless grasp on product placement.

Guerilla Advertising

Anyone watching TV and Movies over the past year has noticed the slow creep of Apple products into anything that airs on a screen. It starts with a local newscaster randomly using a MacBook on the air and next thing you know iPads and iPhones are seemingly ubiquitous in movies and television shows that air around the globe. That kind of product placement is a boon to Apple’s business, regardless of whether it happened organically or if they paid for it.

Samsung’s approach to product placement, like their string of ads, is quite direct.

Perhaps the best example of this is the first live episode of 2012 of Fox’s television show,The X-Factor. Throughout the show contestants are shown using Samsung phones and tablets.  As this product placement strategy began to gain traction, Samsung products have since become featured in several TV shows and movies. A 2013 Priceline.com commercial featuresThe Big Bang Theory’s KaleyCuoco using the Priceline App on her Galaxy SIII smartphone. People now see Samsung phones and tablets on TV and in movies almost as often as Apple’s iPad and iPhone.The battlefield is everywhere.

All of Samsung’s effort might have seemed worthless just two years ago when Steve Jobs and Apple were seemingly woven into the fabric of American tech culture and the iphone was apparently the only smartphone. Things are a little different now and the past few years have seen substantial gains in sales and market penetration of Android based platforms, which now make up the majority of the smart phone market around the world.

Market Forces

A February 6, 2013 report by comScore shows Samsung’s share of the US smartphone OEM market increased by2.3% to a total of 21% in the latter half of 2012. Apple’s share also grew 2%,giving them 36.3%percent of the total smartphone market. Samsung shipped 106 million handsets in the fourth quarter of 2012, 60 million of which were smartphones.

It’s hard to say precisely if Samsung’s recent gains in sales and market share are a direct result of their new ad campaigns. During this same time frame Apple also saw gains in market share, but their growth was smaller than Samsung’s.What these ads and product placements have done is raised Samsung’s profile within the cultural realm – a place where, in the West, consumers are constantly invited. Samsung’s profile has been raised so much that many wonder if Apple’s recent legal aggression is a sign that they see Samsung as a major threat.

While it’s hard to spin numerous patent lawsuits as a positive effect, Samsung’s increased market share and significantly higher public profile mean that they are certainly doing something right.

Will Aviva India see any shift, in your existing marketing strategy under your leadership?

By virtue of its superior products, customer propositions and strong distribution channels, Aviva has always managed to differentiate itself in a crowded life insurance marketplace. Keeping in mind, India’s demographics and the concerns of young parents in the nation, we have been focusing on the child insurance space for the past few years and quickly became a dominant player in the child space and we will continue with this strategy.

As part of the insights study that we conducted last year, we realized that while education remains one of the key concerns of parents, protecting the child from all perspectives is becoming more significant. “Protection” and the “Father and Child” relationship are therefore emerging as themes that we are focusing on.  We started our journey last year with an ATL campaign and we have aggressive plans to establish our leadership in this space. We are developing relevant content and will be using the digital as well as offline media to launch our strategy and differentiate ourselves from peers.

How attractive is the Indian Life Insurance sector for private players? Isn’t the market getting cluttered with too many private players competing for a relatively small share of the market vis-à-vis PSUs like LIC? 

Consider this: out of the approximately 1.22 billion people living in India, almost 70% live in rural pockets. More than half of this population has no access to saving and investing options other than a handful of banks that have the scale and network, or unorganized private lenders. When you juxtapose it with the fact that the current life insurance penetration of India stands at 3.4%, you can see that we have just scratched the surface.

At the same time, according to a research conducted by IMRB and Aviva across 10 cities in India, it was found that more than 50% people were concerned about financial protection of their family and considered it a priority. Hence, life insurance industry in India has a huge potential to grow in lieu of lack of social security and presents a huge opportunity for the private players.

In terms of the number of private players in the market, one should first look at change in insurance penetration numbers since the time the private players entered the market around 10 years ago. The insurance penetration since 2002 has increased from 1.17% to 3.4% inspite of periods of adverse economic environment. If you measure the growth in terms of new business premiums, life insurance market in India has grown more than 40% annually in the last six years. That’s a very positive number to state, given the current dynamic environment. Having said that, in terms of the ratio of insurance premium to GDP, it is merely around 3.4%. It ranges typically from 6% to 9% in developed markets. What is heartening to see is in addition to new customers, existing policy holders are also increasingly renewing their policies and enhancing their coverage. This is again an encouraging sign and area of opportunity.

How is your partnership with brand Sachin coming along? How do you estimate Sachin’s value as a brand ambassador considering the plethora of brands he endorses?

Our association with Sachin Tendulkar as a brand has come along very well. Sachin has all the values that Aviva would like to be associated with – trust, credibility, and world class performance. Over the last many years, we have seen that the brand’s association with Sachin has led to an increase in brand awareness from 79% to 91%. As per our brand track scores, the brand consideration for Aviva has also grown by 25% over the last 4 years.  What has also worked in our favour is the distinctive way we have used Sachin in our advertising and communication. We are one of the only brands that uses Sachin as a father and not just Sachin the cricketer as is normally done. ‘Sachin being associated with Aviva’ is one of the key takeouts of our advertising and brand recall.

How important is digital marketing for the insurance industry?

The recent Google search data reveals that there are 12.86 M searches on keywords such insurance, retirement and pension every month. These online search volumes clearly indicate that the consumer is researching Life Insurance products and making an informed choice. However, consumer awareness of types of products and ‘online purchase’ is relatively low, reflected in the fact that over 80% of non brand online search volumes are on the generic term ‘Life Insurance’. Given this scenario, digital marketing has a very important role to play in this ‘pull’ versus the traditional ‘push’ environment, in insurance industry.

Insurance companies have to move beyond ‘broadcast’ i.e. creating awareness for the products using traditional display in the digital space, and look at engaging their target audiences. This is primarily because the web is not just about ‘viewing’ but increasingly so about ‘engagement’.

In a ‘low engagement’ category like Life Insurance, on a medium that’s all about ‘engagement’, brand communication needs to move to ‘brand conversations’ and ‘story telling’ for a more meaningful and embedded connect. Our approach to online branding has been, and will increasingly need to be that of providing the audience with relevant content and utilities that enhance brand engagement and using a mix of classical display and social media.

The other significant peculiarity of the online medium that impacts the brand is the power of UGC and sharing, which creates a large need for ORM, given that consumers share ‘dissatisfaction’ far more than their ‘wow’ moments.

How important is digital marketing (especially social media marketing) in Aviva India’s overall marketing mix? What percentage of the overall marketing budget is dedicated to digital marketing?

As a marketer, it is important for us to be present in a relevant way wherever our customers are. While traditional forms continue to be relevant, digital and social media is attracting people from all walks of life, including our target Audience. About 70% of Indian life insurance buyers research their purchase online, even if buying it offline. With increasing success in the online business for life insurance, the need to build a stronger bond with the audience set online has increased. Moreover, unlike traditional media, social media allows for brand interaction and if leveraged well can embed a brand far more powerfully than traditional forms of communication.

On the social media, we want to engage with our target audience in a fun and emotional manner. Insurance is seen as a very cold and complex industry. Hence, we want to come across as a brand which is fun and understands parents’ concerns.

We are increasining our allocation to digital marketing each year.

Why have you limited yourself to the use of only Facebook and Twitter as social media channels? Do you have any plans of exploring other emerging social media platforms? Has the social marketing experience been any good, or you do it just to go with the flow?

Insurance is seen as a very complex industry. On the social media, we want to engage with our target audience in a fun and emotional manner. We want to come across as a brand which is sensitive and understands parents’ concerns.

Through Facebook, brand Aviva aims at being the enabler to a richer parent-child relationship with content around education, fun activities to do with your child, tips on smart parenting, and needless to stay preparing for their future financially.

Meanwhile, on Twitter, our strategy is to educate people about various aspects of insurance, counsel them about the need to plan for insurance, its benefits, inform them about the latest trends, keep them updated about our products and services and engage them consistently in a conversation in various ways.

Our social marketing experience has been great. We have more than 200,000 fans on our ‘Education is insurance’ page and more than 50,000 fans on our recently launched Aviva India page on FB, a large part of which are organic. We are also doing well on our recently launched twitter handle with more than 1000 followers.

We have a presence on Youtube and are looking at developing a more comprehensive strategy to tap both Linkedin and Youtube in near future.

Apart from social media what other digital marketing initiatives have you undertaken or plan to do so in the coming months?

We have a robust 360 degree digital strategy and social media is simply part of the same. Other aspects of our strategy include product and category and SEO based advertising and marketing. We are also exploring an innovative content based campaign for digital audience in near future. We are also cross linking our social media assets and further connecting the same our website – for example we are among the few brands whose Facebook and Twitter accounts are interlinked.

Another area we are working on is search optimization of all our social media assets with the objective of being visible across parameters when someone is searching for insurance.

Automation has been a major part of modern marketing. But how has marketing evolved from the industrial era to the current times automated marketing tools and techniques? This latest infographic released by marketo, answers this and shows us the evolution of marketing to it’s current form.

What better way to market the Academy Awards 2013 than to create a poster that showcases all the previous best picture winners in the most creative way possible? Created by designer Olly Moss, this poster commemorates the 85th anniversary of the Academy Awards.

Click on the image below to see the big version of this awesome poster (here is the original source).

All the film buffs can test their knowledge by guessing the movies shown in this poster. But if you can’t don’t lose heart. Given below is a gallery (via Huffington Post) of all the movies in this poster with their respective years and movie names. Click on any image to start the slideshow.

Positioning Your Product Through Creative Packaging

The worldwide consumer packaged goods industry is worth more than $2 trillion dollars, according to some estimates.  This means that it is a highly competitive market. Making your product stand out in that market can be difficult.

Most consumers have a lot of brand loyalty when it comes to luxurious goods.  They see shopping at Starbucks as a lifestyle experience, and identify as iPhone users as if their choice of phone is an important part of who they are.  When it comes to more mundane goods, however, their brand loyalty is not so strong. There is a general belief that all toilet paper and washing up liquid brands “will do the job”, so manufacturers need to make people believe that theirs is more aspirational, luxurious, or special, in order to encourage people to make the purchase.

The Psychology of Colour

One way that you can set your product apart from the offerings of your competitors is by choosing the right colour.  There are some general rules of thumb that apply when it comes to choosing colours:

• Red – bright reds, especially on a white background, are a common trademark of “value” brands.  Dark reds, however, make people think of luxurious and aspirational products.
• Black – when electronic goods are packaged in black boxes, they tend to have a higher perceived value
• Silver – much like black, silver makes a product appear more valuable. Silver combined with pink is an appealing choice for the female market, while silver and black is attractive to men.
• Blue – blue brings out thoughts of trust, reliability, and strength.  Blue is a popular choice for medicines, cleaning products, and business related software.  Dark blue is appealing to more mature markets, while lighter or electric shades of blue are appealing to younger consumers
• Yellow –choose shades of yellow carefully.  Bright shades are cheerful and optimistic, and are good choices if you want to convey an impression of youth and creativity.  Choose the wrong shade, however, and your product can look cheap and ugly.
• Green – shades of green convey feelings of harmony and balance.  Green is a good choice for beauty products, health foods, and environmentally friendly goods.  Mix dark green and silver to create an impression of luxury and quality, or opt for lighter shades for a more earthy, “home grown” product.

It pays to experiment with different designs and colour schemes.  In many cases, consumers will pay more for an extravagantly presented product, even if the extra cost comes purely for the packaging.  This is especially true when it comes to products which can be given as gifts or are likely to sit out on display.  Take pride in the presentation of your products, and your consumers will too.

Image Source

Aviva Life Insurance, on 4th Feb, announced the appointment of Rishi Piparaiya as Director – Marketing & Bancassurance. Rishi, who joined Aviva Life Insurance in 2009 as Director Bancassurance and Business Partnerships will now take on additional responsibilities for the Marketing function.

In his new role, Rishi will be responsible for Aviva’s marketing strategy including Brand Marketing, Communications, Channel marketing, Aviva’s Digital and Online strategy, Analytics and Product propositions of the company.

Speaking on the new appointment, Mr. T.R Ramachandran, MD & CEO, Aviva Life Insurance said, “Rishi has played a pivotal role in developing Bancassurance business and forging new alliances for Aviva. Being associated with Aviva India for more than 4 years now, he understands the DNA of our business. I am certain that Rishi’s leadership will further strengthen our brand and customer propositions, and enable us to take the next steps in our Digital and customer strategies.”

Prior to Aviva, Rishi worked at Citibank, where he headed the $30 million revenue insurance business and the product & marketing groups for all Citi India liabilities products. Under his stewardship, Citi India was recognized as the Best performing Insurance franchise and the most innovative insurance franchise across Citi (Asia-Pacific) for 2007. He was also responsible for establishing Citi India as one of the top 5 bancassurers in the country.

Rishi holds an MBA degree from Cornell University, New York and undergraduate specialization in Economics and Electrical Engineering from the University of Rochester, New York.

 Some Interesting Facts About Aviva

• Aviva provides 43 million customers with insurance, savings and investment products.
• It is one of UK’s largest insurers and one of Europe’s leading providers of life and general insurance.
• Aviva India is a joint venture between Dabur Group and Aviva Group. Current paid up capital amounts to Rs 2,004 crore. Dabur Group is the 74% shareholder while Aviva Group holds 26%. Aviva Group is a UK based insurance company and one of the world’s oldest insurance Groups, with a history dating back to 1696.
• Aviva Group is the global Bancassurance leader and in majority of the countries, Bancassurance is the only distribution channel. In India too, they pioneered the concept of Bancassurance.
• In the 2011 FTSE4Good index, Aviva Group is recognized as the top insurance company for corporate responsibility in the world, out of more than 100 other organizations in the insurance sector. The Reputation Institute’s 2011 rankings, also place Aviva as the UK’s “most reputable” financial services company.

Source: Press Release

PC Jeweller Limited – one of India’s leading jewellery houses – yesterday announced robust discounts between 9 and 14 February to celebrate Valentine’s Day this year, coupled with the launch of their new jewellery collection.

As love-struck couples seek to surprise each other with sparkling Valentine’s gifts, PC Jeweller has introduced exclusive discounts for diamond jewellery and gold jewellery. Customers buying diamond jewellery will receive a 14% discount on the jewellery, whereas those opting for gold jewellery will profit from a 14% discount on the making charges. The discount schemes will be available for six days in all 30 showrooms of PC Jeweller across India.

On the release of the new collection, Mr Balram Garg, Managing Director, PC Jeweller said, “To make certain our customers unabashedly enjoy this festival of love, PC Jeweller has launched these event-specific initiatives. The new Valentine’s collection truly exemplifies PC Jeweller’s status as the jeweller for generations – indeed, we cater to people of all ages, building bonds that connect with customers via our impeccable credentials and services.”

PC Jeweller Limited is one of the leading jewellery companies in India. The company offers a wide range of products including gold jewellery, diamond jewellery and other jewellery products including silver articles, with a focus on diamond jewellery and jewellery for weddings. Their operations include manufacturing, retailing and export of jewellery with a major thrust on retail. The company has 30 showrooms at present across 18 cities in north and central India. The group has five jewellery manufacturing facilities in Selaqui (Dehradun), Noida Sector 63 and Noida SEZ.

Source: Press Release

What is PPC Marketing?

PPC Marketing, or pay per click marketing, is an effective method of Internet advertising. This method of advertising is based on the number of times your ad gets clicked on other websites. Advertisers pay a fixed rate for each click. The whole point of this advertising method is to increase traffic to your website.

Basically, you are paying for advertising to get your company to rank at the top of search engines. Ads are shown on websites and search engine searches related to the content of the ad or based on the target market.

Given below are some important dos and don’ts for effective PPC marketing.

Dos

Do Monitor and Edit Regularly

This type of marketing can work 24 hours a day 7 days a week. However, you need to do continued maintenance on your ads. Watch the success of different ads. Monitor which keywords are working and which aren’t. If needed, change the keywords assigned to your ad. You don’t need to spend countless hours on all your working ads, but don’t forget to check analytics often and give them regular maintenance.

Do Rotate Ads

You have the choice of rotating ads or optimizing for clicks. Rotating ads is the best choice. This way you can compare which ads are more successful and adjust accordingly. You may think that optimizing for clicks sounds like the better option, but it is not. Google does not always choose the ad that is best for each search.

Do use Different Match Types

If you are only using exact match for keywords, you may be missing a large majority of your target market. Utilize all match types – phrase, exact match and broad.

Don’ts

Don’t Choose Automatic Keyword Bids

When you set up your keywords you have two options – automatic bidding or manual bidding. If you choose automatic bidding, Google will set the bid for each keyword. Usually, their bids are too high. By choosing manual bidding you are in complete control of your bidding and can make sure you aren’t paying too much.

Don’t Bid for 1st Position                         

If you are familiar with SEO you are set on getting the 1st position. This isn’t necessary for PPC. Being anywhere between the 2nd and 6th position is just fine. Even Google has said that this will make no difference in PPC success. Bids for 1st position are higher than just a few down the line. While both yield the same results, lower positions will save you money.

Don’t be too general with Keywords

The keywords you choose are very important. Make sure they are specific to what you are selling. If words are too general, the conversion rate of getting a sale will be low. Research what is working for your competitors. Don’t bid for a keyword just because it is cheaper. Bid for the specific keywords that will bring relevant traffic to your website.