DIGITAL MARKETING

Dr. Padmalini Singh

MODULE 1
Introduction to Digital Marketing
The term digital marketing refers to the use of digital channels to market products and services
in order to reach consumers. This type of marketing involves the use of websites, mobile
devices, social media, search engines, and other similar channels. Digital marketing became
popular with the advent of the internet in the 1990s.

Types of Digital Marketing Channels

As noted above, marketing was traditionally done through print (newspapers and magazines)
and broadcast ads (TV and radio). These are channels that still exist today. Digital marketing
channels have evolved and continue to do so. The following are eight of the most common
avenues that companies can take to boost their marketing efforts. Keep in mind that some
companies may use multiple channels in their efforts.

Website Marketing
A website is the centerpiece of all digital marketing activities. It is a very powerful channel
on its own, but it’s also the medium needed to execute a variety of online marketing
campaigns. A website should represent a brand, product, and service in a clear and memorable
way. It should be fast, mobile-friendly, and easy to use.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising enables marketers to reach Internet users on a number of
digital platforms through paid ads. Marketers can set up PPC campaigns on Google, Bing,
LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, or Facebook and show their ads to people searching for terms
related to the products or services.

PPC campaigns can segment users based on their demographic characteristics (such as by age
or gender), or even target their particular interests or location. The most popular PPC
platforms are Google Ads and Facebook Ads.

Content Marketing
The goal of content marketing is to reach potential customers through the use of content.
Content is usually published on a website and then promoted through social media, email
marketing, search engine optimization, or even PPC campaigns. The tools of content
marketing include blogs, ebooks, online courses, infographics, podcasts, and webinars.

Email Marketing
Email marketing is still one of the most effective digital marketing channels. Many people
confuse email marketing with spam email messages, but that’s not what email marketing is
all about. This type of marketing allows companies to get in touch with potential customers
and anyone interested in their brands.

Many digital marketers use all other digital marketing channels to add leads to their email lists
and then, through email marketing, they create customer acquisition funnels to turn those leads
into customers.
Social Media Marketing
The primary goal of a social media marketing campaign is brand awareness and establishing
social trust. As you go deeper into social media marketing, you can use it to get leads or even
as a direct sales channel. Promoted posts and tweets are two examples of social media
marketing.

Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is one of the oldest forms of marketing, and the internet has brought new
life to this old standby. With affiliate marketing, influencers promote other people’s products
and get a commission every time a sale is made or a lead is introduced. Many well-known
companies like Amazon have affiliate programs that pay out millions of dollars per month to
websites that sell their products.

Video Marketing
YouTube is one of the most popular search engines in the world. A lot of users are turning to
YouTube before making a buying decision, to learn something, read a review, or just to relax.

There are several video marketing platforms, including Facebook Videos, Instagram, and even
TikTok to use to run a video marketing campaign. Companies find the most success with
video by integrating it with SEO, content marketing, and broader social media marketing
campaigns.

SMS Messaging
Companies and non-profit organizations also use SMS or text messages to send information
about their latest promotions or give opportunities to willing customers. Political candidates
running for office also use SMS message campaigns to spread positive information about their
own platforms. As technology has advanced, many text-to-give campaigns also allow
customers to directly pay or give via a simple text message.
Traditional Vs Digital Marketing

Comparison basis Traditional marketing Digital marketing

It is one type of marketing that

It is one type of marketing that
utilizes media, TV, or
uses the internet and social
Definition magazine to advertise any
media for advertising
business's services and
businesses.
products.

Engagement Low Relatively high

Conversion Slow Extremely fast

Nature Static Dynamic

Investment returns Not easy to measure Simple to measure

More expensive Less expensive

Effectiveness
Less effective More effective

Targeting Standardized Customized

Tracking Not possible Possible

Reach Local Global

Not possible once the

Tweaking One can change or edit anytime
advertisement is placed

Results Slow results Quick and live results

It is mostly one-way
Communication It is a two-way communication
communication

It is not easy to skip the One can easily skip between

Interruptions advertisements, as they are advertisements if it does not
bound to the users. interest them.
What is the POEM framework?
The POEM is a marketing methodology used by digital marketing experts to formulate the
social media marketing strategy, and it stands for Paid, Owned, and Earned Media. It is an
approach used to promote a product or service and looks at how the right mix of media channels
can attract more customers, deepen and strengthen relationships with existing customers, and
push the business towards ultimate goals of growth and success.
Digital marketers use the POEM model to develop the basic framework and implement digital
marketing strategies. The frameworks help companies improve their marketing strategies and
achieve goals and targets. It involves listing and selecting channels to roll out the marketing
communication and what it needs to make the plan successful.

What does the POEM framework stand for?

Paid Media
The first element of the POEM framework is "Paid Media", which is the most common type of
marketing channel. Any medium that requires payment, falls under the category of paid media.
Paid media is typically one of the quickest, most efficient, and easiest forms to track direct
return on investment. But control of paid media is generally in the hands of the service provider.
At the same time, it is often the least credible resource for communicating to your target
customer.
Advertising products or services on paid media channels, such as Google Ads and Facebook
Ads can help you grow your audience and build a sizable customer base. Paid media covers a
lot of media vehicles and platforms including, Magazines, television commercials, radio
announcements, PPC (pay-per-click) advertising, search engine marketing, and paid ads on
Instagram and Facebook.
1. Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is the simplest and most effective way to reach your target audience.
Running paid campaigns on social media doesn't go steep on marketing budgets, and measuring
and analyzing results becomes easier, too. Once you post or push your ads on social media
platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, you will be able to reach your
target audience as soon as possible and start seeing the results quite quickly.
2. Display Ads
Display ads are used to create brand awareness through eye-catching and interactive visuals.
Creating powerful display ads requires focusing on elements like structural layout, color, and
typography. With advanced marketing tools, these display ads can be targeted to the right
audience at the right time.
3. Pay-Per-Click Marketing (PPC)/ Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
PPC/SEM is a must-have digital marketing strategy in your marketing plan and it's a tried and
tested formula. Through search engine marketing companies aim to rank higher on the search
engine results page of search engines like Google, Bing or Yahoo. It's an excellent way to drive
traffic to your website and increase brand awareness.

Owned Media
"Owned media" is the second element in the POEM framework. It refers to any media channel
that a brand controls and owns. One of the most common examples is websites, blogs,
newsletters, social media pages (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc), and podcasts owned by
companies or brands. You can completely control the content and what goes on the website
and manage it according to your customer base.
SEO optimization also falls under the bracket of owned media digital marketing tools. Owned
media allows you to connect with your current audience and nurture your long-term
relationship. Owned Media is a great way to connect with your current audience and nurture
long-term relationships with potential clients. The goal of owned media is to carry the brand
voice and communicate the offerings to the market. Owned media is relatively more cost-
effective than paid media. Another benefit of owned media is its versatility and longevity, and
it allows you to maximize the effectiveness of your owned media marketing strategies as long
as needed.

1. The website is the strongest brand representation and asset a company can
own. Websites can build credibility and trust and be the catalyst for a customer journey.
2. Blog Posts work like the brand voice. It's the communication that the brand is trying to
establish out there in the market/public. Brands have complete ownership over these
blogs and their distribution and what goes inside the content.
3. Social media pages are the owned media property made over platforms like Instagram,
Facebook, LinkedIn, and Telegram for the sake of customer engagement and brand
awareness.

Earned Media
As the name suggests earned media refers to the exposure and recognition the brand receives
as a result of other people talking about, mentioning the brand, or due to organic publicity and
awareness. And it is the only media vehicle in the POEM framework that doesn't require
investments from the company. Earned media allows you to interact, connect, and
communicate with your audience through third-party channels, such as social media, public
relations (PR), and referrals.
Most marketers classify earned media as inbound marketing as the efforts put in to get
engagement and recognition are all organic. Earned media is technically the result of efforts
put into owned media and paid media. as earned media supports both nurture/retention tactics
as well as acquisition activities of the customers. Word-of-mouth marketing, press releases,
publicity, brand awareness, and viral marketing are examples of earned media.

1. Word-of-mouth marketing
2. Viral marketing
3. Press releases
4. Publicity
5. Brand awareness

When you divide the POEM framework into three separate categories, you will have different
sets of effective marketing strategies for your business. Earn, owned, and paid media—all of
these specialise in diverse aspects of your marketing campaign.

List of Marketing Strategies That Affect Poem

1. Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing covers all three categories of the POEM framework for many reasons.
First, you can boost your paid ads on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and
LinkedIn to reach more people. As such, social media marketing falls under the paid media
category.

Second, social media marketing is also a part of owned media since you can share and create
content while using your very own social media page. The goal is to engage with potential
customers and drive more traffic to your website. To do so, create quality and relevant content
on your website that will capture the attention of your target audience and share it on social
media to gain more brand exposure.

Lastly, sharing valuable content and engaging with customers on social media will help you
raise brand awareness and gain exposure. As a result, you can earn publicity on social media
to attract more potential customers. Examples of earned media on social media platforms
include likes, shares, and comments.

Know that social media is the most versatile platform for digital marketing, as it affects paid,
owned, and earned media. You can manage a social media page, deliver paid ads, and build a
name for your business. All of these are attainable with the help of an effective social media
marketing strategy.

2. Influencer Marketing

Earned media is all about interacting with an audience through third-party channels.
Fortunately, influencer marketing is the perfect strategy for doing just that. The goal of
influencer marketing is to let a social media influencer endorse your products or services. Since
they already have many followers and fans supporting them, more people would see your
digital marketing campaign if you partner with one.

That is why influencer marketing is effective when it comes to engaging with an audience.
The influencer can promote your business by showcasing your products on social media, both
on your social media page and the influencer’s social media account.
 When choosing an influencer for your marketing campaign, you have to consider the following
factors:

 Who is their target audience

 How many followers and fans do they have
 If your brand and the type of content the influencer endorses is a good match

These days, the highly recommended social media platforms for influencer marketing are
Instagram and TikTok since both have more than 1 billion users worldwide. That is why you
can start from there if you want to engage with an active audience on social media. Also, make
sure to choose the right influencer to establish your credibility and connect with more potential
customers.

3. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

SEO-friendly website is a must. SEO services are essential for driving organic traffic to your
website. Optimise your website for SEO to increase your search engine rankings and attract
more potential customers.

To obtain high-quality traffic for your website, optimise your content based on effective
marketing strategies, such as link building and keyword research. Link building focuses on
increasing the number of inbound links to your website, while keyword research is the method
of finding relevant terms and phrases for your content.

With SEO, you have countless marketing opportunities to expand your online presence. For
instance, you can create high-quality, SEO-friendly content for your website by using relevant
keywords. Doing so should make your website more visible and searchable on search engines
like Google and Bing.

SEO can also serve as your primary source of leads. Combine it with effective content
marketing, and your online presence will grow in the long run. Other benefits of SEO
marketing include:

 Achieve a higher conversion rate

 Establish credibility
 Raise brand awareness
 Rank higher on search engines
 Cater your website to mobile users
 Effectively measure search engine rankings

Search engine optimisation is ideal for achieving higher web visibility. You can attract more
visitors as your search engine rankings increase over time. Remember to optimise your content
from time to time to get more customers.

The only downside of SEO is that it can take a long time before you notice any results.
Increasing your SEO rankings requires long-term planning and execution. You have to be
patient and wait until your marketing efforts can make noticeable progress.
 For more effective SEO strategies, get in touch with an SEO company in Singapore. Discover
the perfect marketing strategy for your business with the help of a search engine optimisation
specialist.

4. Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Search engine marketing, also known as SEM, is an umbrella term that covers a wide range of
promotional activities involving search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, and Bing. Unlike
SEO, SEM is a paid marketing strategy. With search engines as your digital
marketing platforms, you can upload your display ads to improve your web visibility and
generate leads.

One part of SEM is PPC advertising, a digital marketing practice that marketers use to drive
paid traffic to their websites. With PPC advertising, you will conduct keyword research and
choose highly relevant keywords for your website. Afterwards, the next step is to bid on high-
value keywords on Google Ads to get your ads on top of a search engine results page (SERP).

Most marketers use online advertising platforms such as Google Ads and Amazon Advertising
to launch their PPC advertising campaigns. Each time someone clicks on your ads, you will
have to pay for your chosen advertising platform.

As a paid media channel, Google Ads is one of your best choices available. It is a highly
effective platform for gaining leads and targeting prospects. By earning enough clicks, you can
direct as many people as possible to your website, allowing you to convert leads to sales.

Not to mention, SEM is highly scalable, meaning you have total control over your budget. That
is why you should use this to your advantage to obtain a high quality of paid traffic for your
website.

5. Content Marketing

To apply the first and second categories of the POEM framework, use content
marketing practices to promote your business, engage with your target audience, and boost
your search engine rankings. Your content marketing efforts shall nurture traffic and leads as
time progresses, as long as you maintain a stable relationship with potential customers.

Know that content marketing is an effective digital marketing strategy that involves paid,
owned, and earned media channels and assets. You can share quality content with your
customers to earn their trust. To extend your reach, try using paid content promotional tactics
that can generate your ROI.

Examples of content marketing assets include:

 Whitepapers
 Case studies
 Blog posts
 Infographics
 eBooks (e.g., epub, PDF)
 Videos
 Websites
With content marketing, you have a wide range of assets at your disposal. Besides creating
written content for blog posts or whitepapers, you can produce videos to showcase valuable
information about your business or relevant topics.

Content marketing is essential for building trust and increasing search engine rankings. Unlike
traditional advertising, the purpose of content marketing is to forge relationships
and connect with potential customers. Once you earn their trust, you can subtly persuade them
to engage with your business even further, like making a purchase or sharing your content with
others.

6. Viral Marketing

For your digital marketing efforts to succeed in earned media, you have to generate publicity
and attract attention. The best way to do so is by conducting a viral marketing campaign.

Viral marketing is a business strategy that aims to spread information in the fastest way
possible, either through word-of-mouth or the Internet. A successful viral marketing campaign
starts by staying up to date with the latest trends. Utilise some of the latest trends for your ads
to connect with your audience.

Most successful viral campaigns happen by accident. Any digital marketing campaign is
viewed as viral as long as it has reached thousands or millions of people in a short time. The
trick here is to create viral content is to share information with a high probability of being
spread by your audience.

For example, Google Android released a viral commercial in 2015 that showcases a
compilation of short clips presenting various animals huddled together. Despite the brand logo
of Android appearing for only two seconds, the commercial garnered millions of views almost
instantly. Google Android’s digital marketing campaign is still popular up to this day.

The low-budget commercial succeeded in appealing to a broad audience that consists of animal
lovers. Even today, the commercial is still receiving a ton of attention, with many viewers
appreciating the heart-warming concept and theme.

Creating a successful viral marketing campaign is probably one of the hardest things to do.
There is no secret recipe for success, but you can incorporate themes such as humour and drama
with your digital marketing campaign to make it more appealing and attract the attention of
your target audience.

For more examples of viral marketing campaigns, read this article. By looking at these
examples, you might gain ideas on what you should do to produce a viral marketing campaign
for your brand.

7. Email Marketing

Until today, email marketing remains to be an effective strategy for building trust and
connecting with customers. You can send quality content via emails to welcome customers to
your business, share updates about your products and services, and even give out exclusive
promotions.
 The best part is that you can incorporate email marketing with PPC advertising by using paid
search to grow your list of email subscribers. Doing so would help increase your customer base
and reach.

For instance, consider putting a call to action (CTA) in your paid ads that encourage users to
send you an email. Make your CTA engaging to encourage more users to contact your business
via email.

Email marketing is also cost-effective. If your email marketing strategy succeeds, it can deliver
the highest ROI compared to other forms of marketing. According to a study from Litmus,
email marketing generates $36 of every $1 spent. That means that ROI you gain is 3,600%
times more—making it one of the most effective digital marketing strategies.

Here are the other benefits of email marketing include:

 Connect with potential customers

 It is highly measurable
 Ideal for small businesses
 Provide customers with personalised content

The Pros and Cons of Poem Framework

The POEM framework should serve as a guide for your digital marketing strategies. By sticking
to only one marketing channel, you will be less likely to reach your target audience. That is
why you should try combining all three parts of the POEM framework so you can get the best
results out of your digital marketing campaign.

Also, the POEM framework is becoming more relevant as digital marketing continues to
evolve. Over time, transformations happen in the marketing industry that will change the
landscape forever. Know that the way people handle business today may not be the same in the
next few years, so understanding the current POEM framework is vital for your marketing
success.

Each category of the POEM framework offers unique advantages and

disadvantages. Therefore, better gain an understanding of what the POEM framework is so you
would know where your brand should stand.
The Future of Poem

It is only a matter of time until the POEM framework in digital marketing will transform into
something bigger and better. The Internet age has already passed, providing people with social
media, mobile devices, and many more blessings to help marketers promote products and
services. As a result, the POEM framework has changed for the better.

Keep the POEM framework in mind whenever you create an effective digital marketing
strategy in Singapore for your business. Try to cover all marketing channels, especially the
three categories of the POEM framework: paid, owned, and earned media channels, as much
as possible.

Digital landscape

Refer for description of digital landscape: Digital Marketing 2e; Dr. Seema Gupta; Mc Graw
Hill publication for Digital Landscape
Digital Advertising Market in India

The Indian advertising market will remain the fastest-growing in the world over the next two
years, a new report by Dentsu International.
With a growth rate of 16 per cent in 2022 and ad spending that will increase by 15.2 per cent
in 2023 and 15.7 per cent in 2024, India will surpass markets such as China in terms of rate of
growth, the Dentsu “Global Ad Spends Forecasts”
In terms of size, the Indian ad market will touch $11 billion in 2022 from $9.6 billion in 2021
Despite the second wave of the Covid-19 in 2021, the Indian market had grown at nearly 22
per cent over the previous year, it said. Ad spend growth rate for China, on the other hand, is
forecast at 4 per cent for 2023 and at 5.4 per cent the following year. The agency did not specify
China’s ad rate of growth for 2022.
Globally, ad spends will grow at about 8.7 per cent in 2022. However, it is likely to grow by
5.4 per cent in 2023 and 5.1 per cent in 2024
Digital, in India, at a 33.4 per cent share of spend, will be the key medium for digital-first
brands and consumer tech companies in 2022. TV continues to garner a high 41.8 per cent
share in 2022 and has recovered fully, boosted by the airing of new content and sports events
such as the Indian Premier League.
The highest proportion of spends on digital media has been claimed by social media (29%, Rs
6,218 crore), closely followed by Online Video (28%, Rs 5,907 crore). While paid search
accounts for 23% (Rs 5,039 crore), display banners claim 16% of the spends (Rs 3,420 crore).
Digital media, the report states, is expected to have a growth rate of 30% to reach a market size
of Rs 27,759 crore by the end of 2022.
The report also notes that advertising spends on e-commerce platforms stood at Rs 6,300 crore
in 2021, and is expected to grow at a rate of 36% in 2022. With e-commerce emerging as the
digital backbone of the retail sector, many small and big players, especially from small metros
and towns, have realized the immense potential that advertising on e-commerce platforms
As per the report, social media and online video remain the strongest platforms on digital
media, seeing consistent growth over the years. With the newer offerings of social and video
commerce, consumers are spending more time on these platforms, resulting in the high growth
of advertising spends on digital media.
Digital Ad Market Size in 2023
The report has projected that the Indian digital industry is expected to grow at 29% to reach a
market size of Rs 35,809 crore by the end of 2023. Digital is expected to contribute 38% to the
overall advertising industry in India, on par with television. Ad spends on online video are
projected to grow with a CAGR of 34.86% to reach a spends’ share of 30 per cent (Rs 10,474
crore) of the digital advertising market by the end of 2023. Social media is expected to grow
with a CAGR of 29.79% to have a spend share of 29%. Paid search will have a spend share of
22% while display banners will have a 16% share by the end of 2023.
According to the report, the Indian short-form video ecosystem, which is occupied by a mix of
short-form video apps like Reels, Josh, MX TakaTak, Roposo, Moj, Zili, and YouTube Shorts,
presents greater opportunities for brands to leverage upon greater engagement. In the near
future, Indian short-form video has the potential to be a frontrunner with the availability of
cheap internet data, easy-to-use platforms, and vernacular language. The short-video content
market is set to get a boost in India.

MODULE 2
Social media marketing

Social media marketing is the use of social media platforms to connect with your audience
to build your brand, increase sales, and drive website traffic. This involves publishing great
content on your social media profiles, listening to and engaging your followers, analyzing
your results, and running social media advertisements.

The major social media platforms (at the moment) are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter,
LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, and Snapchat.

Social media marketing first started with publishing. Businesses were sharing their content
on social media to generate traffic to their websites and, hopefully, sales. But social media
has matured far beyond being just a place to broadcast content.

Nowadays, businesses use social media in a myriad of different ways. For example, a
business that is concerned about what people are saying about its brand would monitor social
media conversations and response to relevant mentions (social media listening and
engagement). A business that wants to understand how it’s performing on social media would
analyze its reach, engagement, and sales on social media with an analytics tool (social media
analytics). A business that wants to reach a specific set of audience at scale would run highly-
targeted social media ads (social media advertising).

As a whole, these are often also known as social media management.

Why Is Social Media Marketing So Powerful?

The power of social media marketing (SMM) is driven by the unparalleled capacity of social
media in three core marketing areas: connection, interaction, and customer data.

Connection: Not only does social media enable businesses to connect with customers in ways
that were previously impossible, but there is also an extraordinary range of avenues to connect
with target audiences—from content platforms (like YouTube) and social sites (like
Facebook) to microblogging services (like Twitter).

Interaction: The dynamic nature of the interaction on social media—whether direct

communication or passive “liking”—enables businesses to leverage free advertising
opportunities from eWOM (electronic word-of-mouth) recommendations between existing
and potential customers. Not only is the positive contagion effect from eWOM a valuable
driver of consumer decisions, but the fact that these interactions happen on the social network
makes them measurable. For example, businesses can measure their “social equity”—a term
for the return on investment (ROI) from their social media marketing (SMM) campaigns.

Customer Data: A well-designed social media marketing (SMM) plan delivers another
invaluable resource to boost marketing outcomes: customer data. Rather than being
overwhelmed by the 3Vs of big data (volume, variety, and velocity), SMM tools have the
capacity not only to extract customer data but also to turn this gold into actionable market
analysis—or even to use the data to crowdsource new strategies.

Advantages of social media marketing

 Reach a wider audience. There are more than 3.6 billion users across all social media
channels. A single post share can exponentially increase brand exposure.
 Improved customer satisfaction. Organizations don't just market to customers on social
media, they also interact with them. This can improve customer service and create one-to-
one relationships.
 Cost-effective tool. When executed correctly, the cost of managing a social media program
can be low. Once the knowledge, team and program strategy are in place, marketing teams
find it easy to use with very little overhead.
 Increase website traffic. Social posts are a great way to drive traffic back to a brand
website. Promoting blog content, landing page offers and more can entice users to click
through and engage further with a brand.
 Gain better insights. Using the analytics and reporting features from each social media
platform gives insight into who page followers are, what content they are interested in and
how they like to engage with a brand.

Disadvantages of social media marketing

 Time-consuming process. A lot of time can be spent on social media campaigns to ensure
they are effective. Marketing teams also need to constantly fill the calendar with new
content and respond to inquiries. This can make it difficult for small marketing teams to
tap into the full capabilities of SMM.
 Need qualified resources. It takes the right person or team to run a social media marketing
program. Social media marketing programs don't benefit from entry-level employees.
Instead, skilled and seasoned social media marketers are key.
 Have to wait to see ROI. SMM is a long-term investment. Social media platforms yield a
high ROI, but not in the form of immediate results. The success of an SMM program isn't
determined by one piece of content, but rather several over long periods of time.
 Competitor's market research. Posting to social media is a public forum and everyone
can see the content, including the competition. There is no workaround for this.
 Brand reputation is vulnerable. SMM can open a brand for public embarrassment and
bad press. Negative reviews can be plentiful as customers take to social media to vent
frustrations. And because of the public nature of the platforms, anything a company says
or does will be seen and reacted to. Brands should expedite response times to mitigate this
risk.
How to create a social media marketing strategy
Here are the steps a company needs to take to build an effective social media marketing
strategy:
1. Identify social media goals that align to the business goals

Start by setting goals that will act as not only a guide for how to use social media, but also a
benchmark of data to measure against. Use a SMART goal format to find out what is realistic
to accomplish. Examples of goals include the following:

 increase traffic to website

 drive more leads
 increase revenue
 grow audience

2. Research and define the target audience

It's important to know who the target market is, what they care about and why they need a
company's products or services. Social media platforms are rich with data about users, so this
exercise can be done without a substantial market research project. Knowing demographic
information and who follows the social channel are great starting points.

It's also important to know that different platforms attract different users. Knowing what social
channels a company's target audience is on enables them to choose which channels to invest
time and resources into.

3. Perform a competitive assessment

Knowing what the competition is doing enables marketing teams to identify what is working
well and what is not for the competition. This provides industry insights as well as opportunities
to bring a product or message to market.

Social listening tools can also help brands set up different monitoring streams for competitive
content and industry keywords.

4. Create and curate relevant content for the channel

Knowing the goals, audience and competitive landscape will help determine the type(s) of
content that brands need to create. Engaging content comes in different forms and media. It can
be company generated, curated from elsewhere to share industry news or other thought
leadership pieces.

Businesses should publish content frequently and consistently to develop an engaged follower
base. Brands can post promotions to increase engagement. They can also create posts that show
a more relatable and human side to the organization.
5. Be timely with posts and responses

Posting when convenient for a business isn't always convenient for customers. Taking
advantage of the best times to post for engagement is information that can be collected from
analytics. Then organizations can schedule posts ahead of time using available publishing tools.
Timeliness of the content is also important as the news cycle moves fast.

Another element of being timely on social media is response time. If customers engage with a
brand on social media, they also expect a quick reply. A brand can build authority and respect
with its clientele through these one-to-one relationships.

6. Measure and optimize

The last element of building a successful social media marketing program is to measure what
works and what doesn't. Organizations should monitor the following:

 posts that get top engagement;

 followers that continue to buy; and
 ads that yield the highest ROI.
Overview of social media marketing tools
Facebook
Facebook is still one of the most populated social media platforms, with 2.7 billion users having
a profile on the site. Due to its early emergence in the social media world, Facebook remains a
powerhouse. Users can personalize their profiles and share photos, thoughts, posts, and more.
Businesses have similar power, being able to create business-themed pages where they can
promote events, share menus, foster an events calendar, and interact with customers.
Marketing through the platform comes in numerous forms, where businesses can utilize

Facebook for affiliate marketing strategies or by placing ads that are purchased directly
through Facebook. All businesses have to do, in either case, is create curated content developed
for their targeted audience and place an ad related to said pinpointing. However, it should be
said that the user base is getting older when compared to other apps — the biggest growth is
seen among the 55+ age group. So, you’ll need to consider what you’re selling and how it
relates to those you’re marketing to.
 Pros of Facebook:

 Massive audience and reach

 Good for both B2B and B2C content
 Some of the best targeting options available to marketers
 Pairs well with Google Ads

Cons of Facebook:

 The site is lessening the number of ads on its Newsfeed

 Particularly popular among Baby Boomers
 Requires a lot of content creation

Instagram
Considering visual aesthetics, Instagram is one of the most popular apps, where brands,
influencers, and people can congregate to create curated photo and video albums that make
their entire profile. Further, they can follow content creators they like to keep up with on
content relevant to their interests, whether that is visual art, cooking, music, dancing, etc.
Brands can hit it big when it comes to Instagram. The prevalence of established brands and
influencers makes Instagram affiliate marketing a great option for any company looking to
either a) start an affiliate marketing program or b) expand their marketing efforts from where
they currently are.
Authenticity matters quite a lot when it comes to Instagram, too, and authentic brands and
influencers can spell good business for any companies looking to expand their affiliate
marketing efforts. The personalities present from profile to profile can help a brand establish
itself with another audience, allowing for niche audiences to be utilized to spread awareness
for your brand’s products and services.
Authenticity comes down to the user base, 65% of which is under the age of 34. These users
are, by and large, interested in supporting brands that have a concise brand image and statement
and are willing to stand behind it, full stop. It’s important, for this reason, that your business
sticks to its guns when jumping onto Instagram, creating content that fits your brand’s character
while also only seeking out affiliates and influencers whose audiences are aligned with your
own.

Pros of Instagram:

 Superb targeting
 User base that continues to grow
 Popular among Millennials and Gen Z
 Great for affiliate marketing
 Perfect for visual branding purposes

Cons of Instagram:

 Need to create regular visual content for relevancy

 Difficult to create organic traffic on your own
 YouTube
People around the globe watch over one billion hours of content every day through
YouTube, making it one of the most popular websites — and the internet’s premier video-
hosting site. The site is rife with content, users, and content creators, making it the perfect place
for brands to advertise. Whether you produce traditional ads to play before a video or work
with a content creator to have them promote your products and services, YouTube is an avenue
that should not be looked past.

Due to a change in advertising models, many creators have begun relying on affiliate marketing
to promote themselves, featuring personalized ads for apps like Honey before their videos. That
direct line of promotion can be incredibly important for a brand, as having a trusted voice as a
spokesperson can go a long way.

Pros of YouTube:

 Premier video website

 Great targeting options
 Second-largest search engine after Google
 Integrates with Google Ads
 Awesome opportunities for affiliate marketers

Cons of YouTube:

 Producing your own videos costs time and money

 Many users rely on Ad Block to avoid pre-video ads

Twitter
Twitter remains another notable platform, considered the most well-known and influential
alongside Facebook and Instagram. With brands flocking to the website in droves to establish
themselves as personalities, users are finding it easier than ever to interact with the companies
they’re interested in and to make purchases with them.

Remaining fresh on Twitter can be its own problem, along with starting from nothing. Similar
to Instagram and Facebook, it’s difficult to generate organic traffic when you have no followers
to begin with. In most cases, it requires the assistance of another brand or personality that can
promote you to their niche audience. This promotion effort can go a long way, providing you
with followers, engagement, and lead generation.

Pros of Twitter:

 Great lead generation

 Quick reaction time from users
 Users are highly engaged with the content they see
 Good traffic with the right audience
 Great for both B2B and B2C companies
 Cons of Twitter:

 Lack of evergreen content

 Traffic slow when starting out
 Limited analytics
 Advertising can be expensive

Linkedin

LinkedIn is a popular social network with a specific purpose. While other social networks like
Facebook and Twitter focus more on your personal life, LinkedIn is all about professional
networking—that is, building a group of contacts to help advance your career.

More and more businesses use LinkedIn to screen and recruit potential employees. This is
why creating a LinkedIn account can make a difference when searching for your next job. Once
you've signed up, you can add information to your profile page, which is a brief summary of
your skills and employment history that effectively serves as an online resume.

LinkedIn is all about building networks and connections. It’s not just who you know, but about
who your connections know. That’s the real power of LinkedIn for businesses and thought
leaders: the ability to tap into existing connections and grow your brand through word-of-
mouth. It’s also the best social network for business lead generation.

LinkedIn is a social media platform and the world's largest professional network with over 675
million members worldwide. These users are business people, influencers, decision makers and
thought leaders, and their span of influence through their networks can help you make
connections, find help and mentoring and also recruit the right people for your business. Few
benefits are as follows:

1. Stay Connected and Get Employed

LinkedIn started with the primary aim of linking employers with potential employees. So this
is a platform for students, graduates to post their resume.

LinkedIn has a decent search tool or feature that can help you find people in your industry, and
keep you up to date with things happening around you. With LinkedIn, you can’t miss a thing.

2. Give prominence to your brands

LinkedIn as a social networking platform has tons of relevant groups. You can join any of these
groups and discuss relevant topics. Also, you even get to share your interest. By doing this
people tend to notice you, pick interest in your skill or your brand then get to know what you
can offer, know your strength, and in no time services will come on their own.

3. Promote your skill set

Another advantage of LinkedIn is that it promotes your skillset. This feature helps greatly in
building a good online presence for students and under-graduates if harnessed correctly. If you
are creating great content about your industry make sure to put it on LinkedIn. Because there
are millions of people who are interested in that your particular skill set as this could become
a means for you to become a trusted source of insight into your industry.

4. Gain exposure to prospective employers /recruiters

It’s no longer news that LinkedIn is the largest professional networking website in the world.
According to statistics provided by linked on; 93% of recruiters use LinkedIn to research and
recruit candidates. This means that job seekers stand a great chance of landing their dream job.

5. Demonstrate your knowledge

This is similar to promoting your skillset. As a student, undergraduate, or graduate, with

LinkedIn, you can demonstrate or show off what you know or what you can offer, your basic
strength and ideas. Recruiters see your recommendations, connections, and evidence of where
you have added value before.

So it’s important to ask for reviews, do a good job for people you have worked with, and ensure
to get nice recommendations as all these will go a long way in showing your prospective
employers what you’re bringing to the table.

6. Follow companies or industries and as a search tool

Having a LinkedIn account gives you the outright privilege to follow up with companies and
industries that are of interest to you LinkedIn can be used as a search tool to research company’s
interviewer’s recruiters, and hiring managers as this can give you important hint about things
you should know before.

Keep up with a certain industry; having a LinkedIn account gives you the premium benefit of
staying up to date with the industry of your specialization you set to receive first-hand news
about the industry of interest.

Other advantages

7. Vast and large job listings

8. Publicity

9. Ease of resume update

Disadvantages of using LinkedIn for students

1. Risk of identity theft

There are loads of personal information that you have to display on your profile for prospective
employers to see. Hence, in a case whereby LinkedIn servers develop an issue, you stand a risk
of losing important information to the public, resulting in identity theft.
2. Incomplete profile challenge

LinkedIn like other social network websites required you to put up an attractive profile. That
is a profile that is appealing to employers and prospective recruiters. People however find it
hard to fill out profile details completely due to one reason or the other.

3. Tons of spam messages

There’s a saying that among 12 disciples there will always be a Judas. Think of how many
Judas will be available on a website with over 1200 million people. LinkedIn is filled with
spam messages from recruiters, employers, and even job seekers. All just to seek attention,
mislead, and extort money, etc.

4. Time Consuming

One of the biggest downfalls and turnoff of LinkedIn is time consumption. The required
amount of time you have to invest before you can learn to use it efficiently. Unlike other sites,
for you to get the most out of LinkedIn you have to be willing to set aside some of your precious
time every day.

5. Premium package can be expensive

Good thing they say doesn’t come cheap. Although, LinkedIn allows you to join the platform
without paying. But the LinkedIn premium packages are charged for. For example, the
“medium-sized career” price is just about $29.99/month. There are so many added benefits that
this offer brings but can still be very costly for a starter or medium-sized business.

Snapchat

Snapchat is a popular messaging app that lets users exchange pictures and videos (called snaps)
that are meant to disappear after they're viewed. It's advertised as a "new type of camera"
because the essential function is to take a picture or video, add filters, lenses or other effects
and share them with friends.

Apart from disappearing messages in 10 seconds, Snapchat has another nifty feature that
contributes to its popularity; a simple drawing tool. Users can easily draw pictures, draw on
top of photos, and add text to photos before sending them. This feature is a hit with young
people who are using social networks as an outlet for creative expression and having a
laugh. Snapchat is now being used for its multiple communication features. Not only can you
voice or video call, you can send edited pictures while on a call, and leave audio or video
‘notes’ while using the messenger feature. The ‘notes’ are 10-second video clips that you can
send. These are generally sent as ‘reactions’ and are played with audio when clicked.

Advantages of Snapchat

 Very Easy to Signup: Like any other social media or messaging applications, it is
extremely easy to signup for a Snapchat account. The way it should be, users will never
face difficulties in creating Snapchat accounts because that’s what they want to help the
app to dominate the industry. All you have to do is downloading the Snapchat app from
 the respective app stores based on the type of operating system your device runs and
signing up for an account by providing necessary information.
 Seamless Secure Messaging: The messages that you send through Snapchat is protected
with the extreme layer of security measures to ensure that there is no possibility for
anyone else to get access to your private messaging sessions. In addition to that, the
messages will be automatically deleted after 24 hours of both the parties viewing the
messages. According to Snapchat, the servers will clear the message history every 30
days. That means, your messages will no longer exist anywhere related to Snapchat after
30 days.
 Video Calls with a lot of Features: Snapchat is primarily being used for its video calling
features and the sweetening functions such as Snapchat filters. If you ever come across
those YouTube videos with puppy faces and stars around, that is probably going to be
from Snapchat. Snapchat makes it a lot more fun to have video call sessions than any
other video calling applications out there. And the aforementioned filters and effects are
the ones helping it mostly.
 Media will be auto-deleted: Any media files you share on Snapchat will be
automatically removed from the platform within a specified time limit. So, you do not
have to worry about those old media files that you have shared and no longer want to.
This makes Snapchat unique from other applications such as WhatsApp or Facebook
where the shared information stays forever or as long as you decide to block the other
person.
 A Great UI: Just like any other popular communication platforms there is, Snapchat also
has a greatly designed user-interface to let you navigate throughout the application with
ease. No matter how less-experienced you are with such video calling applications on
your device, the app will help you with anything you want to accomplish that is possible
on Snapchat. Apart from that, there is a ton of instructions and guides available on their
official website which you can browse through to find solutions for your problems.

Disadvantages of Snapchat

 You cannot share content outside the platform: If you ever used any other social
media apps or communication applications in the past, you might have noticed that most
of them contain any type of options to share content outside the platform with your
friends or family. But one of the major drawbacks of Snapchat is that it doesn’t allow
sharing information outside of the platform. So, if you are planning to forward some
messages or media files on your Snapchat account, you probably can’t do that.
 Like any other social media apps, Addictive: I am not quite sure if this is a
disadvantage of the application as it is common among any engaging or entertaining
applications that ever created. However, Snapchat is also an addictive app because of the
features it has, the quality of the communication and things you can do with it. Some
people may find this as an advantage, but when it reaches a level that affects your daily
activities and seduces you to stay away from your ‘Real Life’, it is kinda bad.
 A limit on the video length: Earlier, the Snapchat had a 10-second limit for the length
of videos that can be shared on the platform. Recently, they made it 60-seconds, which
is still not enough for certain requirements. So, if you want to share a long video with
someone, you will have to split it into 1-minute sessions over and over again until you
finally share everything you want.
 Automatic deletion of the Snapchat stories and videos: From one point of view, this
is an advantage to many people who do not want to keep a history of their conversation.
However, for most of them, it isn’t. If you ever want to take a look back at your
 conversation with your loved ones whom you chatted with on the Snapchat, it will not
be possible. So, if you want such a feature that keeps the conversation history, Snapchat
may not be the best app out there.
 No Advanced Analytics tools: We all know that certain applications such as Facebook
provide analytics of the engagement on the account. However, when it comes to
Snapchat, there are no analytics tools available on the platform except the report of the
views and screenshots. So, if you are planning to do some promotions on the platform
for your brand or a profile of yourself, do not expect an advanced report from the
application.

What is Mobile Marketing?

Mobile marketing is a multi-channel, digital marketing strategy aimed at reaching a target

audience through smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices, via websites, email, SMS and
MMS, social media and apps.

The Necessity for Mobile Marketing

One might argue the variety of reasons that exist for requiring mobile marketing. It will be a
waste if marketers do not target the mobile-browsing crowd and the millennials in present-
generation marketing.

Following are some of the reasons why mobile marketing is a necessity in today’s world driven
by technology.

 Consumers have started consuming digital media voraciously. This means that the
consumption patterns of their media have changed and evolved over the last decade.
Now, people use the internet more for their requirements, rather than television or radio.
Thus, it makes sense for marketers and advertising agencies to shift some of their
strategies to a more digital platform.
 The purchase of mobile phones has increased over the last decade. Starting from the
button phones now is the age of smooth-running touch screen phones, where people
spend about 80% of the time they spend on leisure and entertainment. Thus, campaigns
made solely for mobile phones can give better recognition.
 It was also found through research that 20% of the people prefer using the Tablet to
mobile phones because of the comfort they get from using the larger screen. Thus,
providing marketing communications in a readable format on a tablet can help reach a
slightly greater audience.
 The kind of internet that people get nowadays has changed as well. Previously, the
internet charges used to be high, and even at that high price, getting good download
speed was not possible. But nowadays, countless network service providers and WIFI
companies provide large GBs of internet per day at a fairly reasonable rate. In such a
situation, providing advertisements, through the internet, that reaches the people can
help increase sales.
 Social media has come about in the last decade or so. Be it Facebook, Twitter, or
Instagram, people use them religiously. Some people wake up, and the first thing they
do is scroll down their social media feeds. When so much of peoples’ media usage and
attention has been grabbed by social media, it is necessary to have social media
campaigns aided by mobile marketing strategies. It helps in reaching both the older and
the budding younger generation.
Why is mobile marketing important?

 Users spend 89% of their time on mobile apps, making mobile devices dominate
communication.
 The overall view and amount of content on mobile devices are simplified due to their
smaller size. As mobile devices are smaller and lighter than computers, users can easily
carry them everywhere and make purchases at any time they want.
 Mobile hastens the time to purchase by 20 percent.
 Compared to a year ago, 50 percent of smartphone users expect to buy something
immediately while using their devices.
 Ninety-one percent of smartphone users plan purchases or buy individual items after
seeing relevant ads.
 2/3 of customers who use smartphones are likely to purchase from businesses that have
apps or mobile websites with content customized to their location.
 Forty percent of online transactions occur on mobile devices.
 50% of smartphone users buy right away.
 91% of smartphone users buy after viewing ads.

Benefits of Mobile Marketing

1. Results in a flash: –

Because phones are so portable, many individuals have one on or near them at all times. We
can’t leave the house without them on occasion. That means our phones will ring to notify us
of the findings as soon as they are available. From the comfort of your own home, you can
monitor and keep up with everything that is going on in your company.

2. Convenient to Use: –

Phones have evolved into one of the most useful instruments in modern commerce. Everything
may now be put on it, even credit cards left in the car and coupons left on the counter. Have
you forgotten where a product was sold? You may find out via the Internet on your phone.
With so much information available, it’s getting easier for a potential buyer to locate and
purchase your goods.

3. Tracking User Response: –

User replies may also be readily tracked with mobile marketing. For example, you can quickly
check product reviews or see how many people have seen your new ad to determine its success.
You can even see how many visitors visited a certain website page and how long they were
there.
4. Mass Communication Made Easy: –

In the United States, 115.9 Million people use mobile-only social networks in 2022. Mobile
marketing benefits the seller by reaching a larger audience through social media, messaging,
alerts, and other means. This allows a wider range of people to learn about the goods you’re
selling or advertising.

5. Mobile Marketing boosts search Engine Rankings: –

Some of the most popular search engines on the Internet, such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo,
will enhance a website’s search ranks if referenced on other social media platforms, such as
Twitter or Facebook. For example, when your website is linked to your Twitter, both your
Twitter and your website will appear when someone searches for it. As a result, it is more likely
to get recognized when your company is referenced through mobile marketing.

6. Advertising on a mobile device is portable: –

Mobile phones have been described as very addictive. Few individuals dare to leave their
houses without it since it is convenient and simple to use. This implies that you may send an
ad to everyone on the globe from anywhere in the world. You don’t need to spend time in the
office – or even have one – to place an ad. You may do it while sitting on the couch at home
thinking about it.

Disadvantages of Mobile Marketing

1. Privacy Concerns: –
One of the most common worries among clients is privacy. They don’t want to give
themselves away or agree to anything that appears dubious or uncertain. So instead,
provide them explicit information on how to opt-out of marketing messages if they so
wish. Customers feel safer having that option, even if it is a number against you if they
do not sign up.

2. Navigation on A Mobile Phone: –

On a mobile phone, navigating might be difficult at times. Mobile users are left with only
a little screen to utilize instead of a huge screen and a mouse. This is a disadvantage of
mobile marketing since if the website or social media page is difficult to browse, the ad
may go unnoticed.

TYPES OF MOBILE MARKETING STRATEGIES

1. Mobile applications: Mobile applications allow you to include advertisements in mobile

apps design. Mobile applications can include widgets, virtual machines or native applications.
I think Facebook is a great example of advertisements in an application.
2. In-game: This form of advertisement will have ads within a mobile game.
When you play a game it is not uncommon to see ads. The ads can appear as a pop-up or full
page. You might even see a video ad every once in awhile. The ad below is from the game
Sonic Dash. It appeared after I had lost a round.
3. SMS (short message service): You probably know SMS better as texting. Using SMS,
marketers can send text messages to customers with offers and other information. Personally,
whenever I hear mobile marketing, I think of SMS. I would say this is the most commonly used
form of mobile marketing. This type of marketing should always give customers the option to
sign up or opt out at any time.
4. MMS (multimedia message service): MMS marketing sends text messages that contain
media items such as images, video, or audio. I think MMS is better than a simple SMS because
consumers will respond better with a visual. They are more likely to remember your message
and perhaps share your offer if it contains media. A year ago I was signed up to receive
messages from Starbucks. Majority of their messages included entertaining GIFs. I would often
send those messages to my friends.
5. QR Codes (quick-response barcode): QR codes can be scanned with the camera on a
mobile device. Once scanned, it will take consumers to the linked website where they can view
more information about a business. QR codes are user-friendly and can be used for just about
anything. You can set up a QR code for you business at a low cost or you can find free services.
A QR code can enhance your customer engagement and also help you grow in the social realm.
Your code can link to any page, whether it is your website or your Facebook page. Whatever
you decide to link, QR codes can help you attract new customers.
6. Location-based: Location-based marketing uses the user’s mobile location to market a
business in that area by means of GPS. For example, you might be visiting Chicago. You might
see ads for restaurants near you. However, advertisers can decide the radius for their ads.
7. Mobile Banner Advertisements: These are banners that are the same ads you will see on a
desktop, but will be smaller in order to fit the mobile device’s screen.
8. Near Field Communication (NFC): NFC is a type of technology that has the ability to send
data to a consumer’s cell phone using a short-range wireless connection. NFC can share web
pages or social media. It is best suited for areas that are crowded.
9. Bluetooth or Proximity Marketing: Consumers obtain location specific advertisements,
which is enabled from their Bluetooth.
10. Voice Marketing: Voice marketing uses an automated and computer produced phone call
to consumers. The consumer has the option to listen to the message or they may hang up. I
often think of voice marketing with politics or charities.
11. Pay Per Call: This type of advertisement allows the user to tap the phone number that is
directly listed in the ad.
12. Mobile Search Advertisements: Mobile search ads are similar to Google’s but are
optimized for mobile.
13. Mobile Wallet: An example of a mobile wallet is Apple’s Passbook. Passbook is an iOS
application that stores personal information such as credit cards, boarding passes, coupons, gift
cards, or tickets digitally on a mobile device. Passbook is customized by the user’s location.
For example, if you are at the airport, your boarding pass will appear on your Passbook.
Users can also share these promotions easily with their friends. Passbook allows marketers the
opportunity to offer coupons to consumers and consumers don’t need to print these offers.
Passbook is ecofriendly too! Mobile wallet apps, such as Passbook make it easy to use and
store all information in one location.
Mobile marketing is a great way to generate tailored messages to promote a business’s products
or services. Because cell phones have become the main hub for how consumers view the web,
businesses should include mobile marketing as a strategy.
How to Do Mobile Marketing

1. Research your target customers

2. Leverage opportunities on social media
3. Set goals
4. Create mobile-friendly campaigns
5. Perform location-based marketing
6. Consider the unique features of mobile devices
7. Offer incentives

1. Research your target customers. A marketer should conduct thorough research on

their consumer demographic to gather useful information such as what they like, the
sites they visit, the apps they use, and so forth. This information enables the marketer
to create effective ads.
2. Leverage opportunities on social media. To effectively push a brand, marketers
should create great ads that appeal to large numbers of social media users.
3. Set goals. Measuring the results and progress of a particular mobile marketing strategy
is only possible if the purposes of the campaign are set beforehand.
4. Create mobile-friendly campaigns. Since the aim is to push a brand via mobile
devices, it makes sense to create content, apps, or websites that are fit for mobile usage.
5. Perform location-based marketing. One of the most effective ways of minimizing the
bounce rate is by providing ads that are relevant to the target audience. Use tools such
as Google Trends, GPS, and apps like Google Local inventory to send out campaigns
that resonate with the target demographic.
6. Consider the unique features of mobile devices. Create ads that can be manipulated
by different mobile device features to make the user’s experience quite memorable. For
instance, rather than creating video ads that cannot be paused, one can put up an
advertisement that can be paused, rewound, forwarded, and so forth to enable customers
to get a clearer picture regarding a product.
7. Offer incentives. Providing some rewards or offers will encourage prospective
customers to take action.
MODULE 3

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. SEO is all about optimizing a website for search
engines. SEO is a technique for:
 designing and developing a website to rank well in search engine results.
 improving the volume and quality of traffic to a website from search engines.
 marketing by understanding how search algorithms work, and what human visitors
might search.
SEO is a subset of search engine marketing. SEO is also referred as SEO copyrighting, because
most of the techniques that are used to promote sites in search engines, deal with text.
If you plan to do some basic SEO, it is essential that you understand how search engines work.

How Search Engine Works?

Search engines perform several activities in order to deliver search results.

 Crawling - Process of fetching all the web pages linked to a website. This task is
performed by a software, called a crawler or a spider (or Google bot, in case of
Google).
 Indexing - Process of creating index for all the fetched web pages and keeping them
into a giant database from where it can later be retrieved. Essentially, the process of
indexing is identifying the words and expressions that best describe the page and
assigning the page to particular keywords.
 Processing - When a search request comes, the search engine processes it, i.e. it
compares the search string in the search request with the indexed pages in the database.
 Calculating Relevancy - It is likely that more than one page contains the search string,
so the search engine starts calculating the relevancy of each of the pages in its index to
the search string.
 Retrieving Results - The last step in search engine activities is retrieving the best
matched results. Basically, it is nothing more than simply displaying them in the
browser.
Search engines such as Google and Yahoo! often update their relevancy algorithm dozens of
times per month. When you see changes in your rankings it is due to an algorithmic shift or
something else outside of your control.
Although the basic principle of operation of all search engines is the same, the minor
differences between their relevancy algorithms lead to major changes in results relevancy.

What is SEO Copywriting?

SEO Copywriting is the technique of writing viewable text on a web page in such a way that it
reads well for the surfer, and also targets specific search terms. Its purpose is to rank highly in
the search engines for the targeted search terms.
Along with viewable text, SEO copywriting usually optimizes other on-page elements for the
targeted search terms. These include the Title, Description, Keywords tags, headings, and
alternative text.
The idea behind SEO copywriting is that search engines want genuine content pages and not
additional pages often called "doorway pages" that are created for the sole purpose of achieving
high rankings.

What is Search Engine Rank?

When you search any keyword using a search engine, it displays thousands of results found in
its database. A page ranking is measured by the position of web pages displayed in the search
engine results. If a search engine is putting your web page on the first position, then your web
page rank will be number 1 and it will be assumed as the page with the highest rank.
SEO is the process of designing and developing a website to attain a high rank in search engine
results.

What is On-Page and Off-page SEO?

Conceptually, there are two ways of optimization:

 On-Page SEO - It includes providing good content, good keywords selection, putting
keywords on correct places, giving appropriate title to every page, etc.
 Off-Page SEO - It includes link building, increasing link popularity by submitting open
directories, search engines, link exchange, etc.

Why is SEO important for marketing?

SEO is a fundamental part of digital marketing because people conduct trillions of

searches every year, often with commercial intent to find information about products and
services. Search is often the primary source of digital traffic for brands and complements other
marketing channels. Greater visibility and ranking higher in search results than your
competition can have a material impact on your bottom line.

However, the search results have been evolving over the past few years to give users more
direct answers and information that is more likely to keep users on the results page instead of
driving them to other websites.

Also note, features like rich results and Knowledge Panels in the search results can increase
visibility and provide users more information about your company directly in the results.

In sum, SEO is the foundation of a holistic marketing ecosystem. When you understand what
your website users want, you can then implement that knowledge across your campaigns (paid
and organic), across your website, across your social media properties, and more.
Phases/Process of Search Engine Optimization
Refer for description: Digital Marketing 2e; Dr. Seema Gupta; Mc Graw Hill publication
for Digital Landscape
SEO - Tactics & Methods

What is Black Hat SEO?

In the context of SEO, a black hat practice is one that is disapproved of or goes against the
terms of service of the search engine. As a result, sites can be banned from search engine
result pages and any of their affiliate sites. Google lists the practices that the search engine
deems as black hat. The example below is an all too common black hat SEO tactic.
The technique above is known as keyword stuffing, where content creators overload
keywords into the text to make it more valuable for search engine crawlers. However,
although the tactic was incredibly effective a decade ago, in 2020, search engine algorithms
will punish such behavior, favoring quality, and useful content.

Another popular black hat technique is hidden text. Text content is created on a website, so
it is not visible to the visitor but still readable for search engine crawlers. For example, text
on the website is written in a white font, meaning it is there for SEO but of zero use to a
visitor.

Doorway pages
A doorway site or page is one that is created to rank highly for a particular search term.
Multiple pages with duplicate content will exist, making it confusing for users as they are
taken to the same destination, no matter what link they click on. For example, search results
will show something like below, all taking you to the same place despite looking like
different businesses or brands.
Google focuses on creating great user experiences, and doorway pages don’t typically
resonate with high-quality content. In 2015, Google announced a strategy to remove
doorway pages from search results, meaning if you do create them, you may be wasting your
own time.

Other black hat SEO tactics you must avoid.

Keyword stuffing, hidden text, and doorway pages are three of the most used black hat SEO
tactics. However, plenty of others can unnaturally influence rankings against the terms of
the search engines.

 Cloaking
 Spinning articles
 Link networks
 Domains, subdomains, and pages with duplicate content
 Pages with viruses, trojans, or phishing
 Redirects
 Manipulating links
 Markup spam

Consequences of black hat SEO

So, you are using “dirty tactics” to drive more traffic to your website. Although frowned
upon, if you are not breaking the law, why should you stop the activity? First, as Google
becomes aware you are using black hat strategies, you will find that your search engine
results ranking begins to drop. They could be a temporary solution for you to work out what
does work for your website, but do not use black hat SEO as a full-time strategy.

The biggest threat to black hat SEO is manual penalties. If someone on the Google search
team finds unnatural SEO tactics on websites, a manual penalty may apply to the domain.
As a worst-case scenario, the site may be removed from Google permanently.
What is White Hat SEO?
Google and other search engines love people that use white hat SEO. In short, it is everything
that black hat SEO isn’t. The content you create is of such high-quality that other sites want
to link through to it, the text doesn’t get hidden, keywords are not overused in a small space,
and you do not create doorway pages. The key features of a white hat SEO rich website are:

 High-quality user content with a mix of media such as text, images, and video
 Mobile friendly
 Fast page loading times and responsiveness
 Descriptive keywords and meta tags
 Structured and easy to navigate for users

Quality Content
The term “high-quality” may be subject to opinion, but in the context of search engines, it
is content that meets the need of visitors and can solve their problems. Website creators
should use proper keyword research tools to find what is most relevant to users and
understand how they can optimize marketing activity. For example, Wordstream offers a
free SEO keyword research tool to help you find the best, most relevant keywords.
 Source: https://www.wordstream.com/seo-keyword

Website Structure
Information architecture is fundamental to SEO. A logical information architecture for your
website will look something like below.

Source: https://www.searchenginejournal.com

A great architecture improves how users and search engine crawlers find their way around
your website. Visitors should be able to get around in a few clicks as possible, reduce the
bounce rate, and keep them on the site longer. Both bounce and engagement rates are factors
for SEO.
Mobile Friendliness
White hat SEO tactics will take a mobile-first approach. Mobile internet usage has now
surpassed that of desktop, so making sites user friendly on devices is critical to customer
experience. Around 94% of people judge websites based on how responsive they are. Black
hat tactics will tend to take a “one size fits all” approach, whereas white hat techniques will
offer different designs depending on the device and truly optimize the user experience.

Do you always need to use white hat SEO?

The answer to this question is largely yes. However, some industries in themselves are black
hat, meaning you need to use a minimal amount of slightly underhand SEO tactics to remain
competitive in searches.

The mix of white hat and black hat tactics in this way is known as grey hat SEO. Although
there is a risk of being penalized, some professionals can build efficient strategies that
minimize that risk.

What is Grey Hat SEO?

As you may well guess from the name, grey hat SEO falls somewhere between white and
black hat. They are known as grey hat is that the techniques are somewhat ambiguous and
do not abide by or go against the terms of services that search engines publish. The tactics
tend to be somewhat dubious and will probably become black hat, meaning marketers must
keep a keen eye on SEO trends.

1. Using Expired Domains

This is a common grey hat SEO strategy that borderlines between black and white SEO. It
refers to buying a domain that the owner has let expire but still has a lot of authority because
of the number and quality of backlinks still pointing to the site.

A gray hat SEO method with expired domains can be applied in two ways:
 Using a 301 redirect to redirect all of the link power to your current domain to improve
its authority.
 Going to a site like Wayback Machine, finding archives of the old content, and
republishing it on the site to resurrect it back to how it was before the domain expired.
This can give you an instantly successful website with targeted traffic.

2. Buying or Trading Links

Buying links and trading links are the second most popular grey hat SEO techniques
webmasters use to increase authority and rankings for their websites. However, link schemes
like this are technically black hat SEO tactics because they violate Google’s Webmaster
guidelines. This gray hat SEO method comes in four primary forms:

 Buying a link placement on an existing article that’s indexed in Google.

 Buying a guest post opportunity that inludes a link back to your website.
 Trading links with another site owner (i.e. I link to you and you link to me).
 Trading a product or service in exchange for a link on someone’s site.
3. Using Private Blog Networks (PBN)

A private blog network (PBN) is a group of websites that you control which are used to build
backlinks to a single website to help it rank higher in Google.
The purpose of a PBN for gray hat SEO purposes is to link to one central domain to pass the
most link equity to it to improve the authority.

PBN backlinks are actually a black hat SEO strategy, but if you keep it truly private without
anyone knowing about it, and you cover your tracks so that Google cannot detect that you own
all of the websites, then this technique does fall into gray hat SEO territory.

4. Building Micro-Sites and Blogs

Building a micro-site or blog is a gray hat SEO technique that can improve your search engine
rankings without getting penalized.

It’s kind of like a PBN but is much safer because you don’t own the domains that you’re using
to link back to your site. They’re also a public network, not private.

Common examples of building micro-sites for SEO purposes include setting up a blog on
multiple web 2.0 and content curations sites with high domain authorities, such as Medium,
Weebly, Blogger, Tumblr, Live Journal, etc.

5. Spinning Content

Spinning content is another common grey hat SEO method that can work for getting ranked in
Google. However, it’s unethical and not a good practice to follow long-term.

Spinning content is when you take content from another website and then reword it on a
sentence-by-sentence basis so that it can’t be recognized by plagiarism software. Once the
content is spun, you post it on your own site so that it can get ranked for the keywords you
want to target. Spinning content like this allows you to get around a potential duplicate content
penalty.

6. Creating Duplicate Content

Duplicate content is another gray SEO tactic that’s being used in the world of search engine
optimization these days. This technique includes copying and pasting large blocks of content
across the same website or various domains.

There are three ways duplicate content is used for SEO:

 To target similar types of search queries without having to write new content. The most
common example is with local SEO keywords where multiple pages are create for each
local city. Every page has duplicate content except the city name is swapped out for the
 city being targeted. This strategy will allow the appropriate page to rank for the target
phrase while the other pages get suppressed.
 Copying content from another website and posting in on a strong domain can somtimes
outrank the original source of the content so the target site can steal the traffic.
 Duplicate content can be used to flood the search engine with multiple copies of the
same text in hopes that one of them will stick and rank high for the target keywords.

7. Automating Content

Automating content is when you use software to automate the manual processes required in
content creation. The purpose is to feed your blog with a constant stream of content so you
have more opportunities to rank higher in Google and to get traffic.

Content automation is done in two ways:

 By scraping content from other websites and combining it into one page on your site.
Aritlce spinning can also be used here to make the content unique and undetectable for
plaigairism.
 By using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to automatically write content
for your site. AI content creation tools uses natural language generation (NLG) to write
the content without any human involvement.

8. Increasing Keyword Density with Hidden Text

Using hidden text is a black hat SEO method that violates Google’s Webmaster guidelines.
However, gray hat SEO tries to bend these rules by tricks for hiding keywords from the user
but still allows them to be crawled by the search engine.

The most common gray hat SEO techniques for hiding text include:

 Locating text behind an image.

 Using CSS to position the text off-screen.
 Setting the font size to 0.

9. Cloaking

Cloaking is an SEO strategy that presents one set of content or URLs to human users and
another set to search engines. Cloaking is a deceptive grey hat SEO tactic that tricks search
engines like Google to get the desired rankings for target keywords while giving users different
results than they expect.

10. Submitting Your Site to Web Directories

One of the most overused grey hat SEO techniques is web directory submissions. Adding your
website directories can get you a free backlink to your site, and when done in small numbers,
it’s considered a white SEO tactic.
But once you start overusing this strategy to generate tens or hundreds of links to your site, it
tips into gray hat SEO territory. Especially if you manipulate the keyword anchor text for the
backlink.

11. Creating Multiple Social Media Accounts

Having one social media account for your business on each social network is a white hat SEO
method for sharing links and gaining more exposure for your content. However, if you create
multiple social media accounts to artificially inflate the sharing and linking to your website,
then that’s a gray hat SEO method.

12. Paying for Positive Reviews

Google is known for rewarding websites with higher rankings that have positive reviews. This
is especially true for local SEO. One way to trick the algorithm in your favor is to pay people
to leave a positive review for your listing. You can find an online service provider for positive
reviews or entice current customers to review your site for a discount or bonus.

Is Grey Hat SEO Illegal?

Grey hat SEO is not illegal. There is no law being violated by grey hat SEO techniques.
However, grey hat SEO does go against search engine prohibited practices which can get your
site banned from the search engine results pages.

White hat vs. grey hat vs. black hat SEO

The graphic below summarizes each of the three SEO techniques and some of the popular
digital marketing strategies that form their strategy.
For Short Notes:
SEO techniques are classified into two broad categories:
 White Hat SEO - Techniques that search engines recommend as part of a good design.
 Black Hat SEO - Techniques that search engines do not approve and attempt to
minimize the effect of. These techniques are also known as spamdexing.
 Grey Hat SEO - the practice of using techniques that are not strictly against Google’s
guidelines but perhaps a little outside what would be considered best practice

White Hat SEO

An SEO tactic is considered as White Hat if it has the following features:

 It conforms to the search engine's guidelines.
 It does not involve in any deception.
 It ensures that the content a search engine indexes, and subsequently ranks, is the same
content a user will see.
 It ensures that a web page content should have been created for the users and not just
for the search engines.
 It ensures good quality of the web pages.
 It ensures availability of useful content on the web pages.
Always follow a White Hat SEO tactic and do not try to fool your site visitors. Be honest and
you will definitely get something more.

Black Hat or Spamdexing

An SEO tactic, is considered as Black Hat or Spamdexing if it has the following features:
 Attempting ranking improvements that are disapproved by the search engines and/or
involve deception.
 Redirecting users from a page that is built for search engines to one that is more human
friendly.
 Redirecting users to a page that was different from the page the search engine ranked.
 Serving one version of a page to search engine spiders/bots and another version to
human visitors. This is called Cloaking SEO tactic.
 Using hidden or invisible text or with the page background color, using a tiny font size
or hiding them within the HTML code such as "no frame" sections.
 Repeating keywords in the metatags, and using keywords that are unrelated to the
website content. This is called metatag stuffing.
 Calculated placement of keywords within a page to raise the keyword count, variety,
and density of the page. This is called keyword stuffing.
 Creating low-quality web pages that contain very little content but are instead stuffed
with very similar keywords and phrases. These pages are called Doorway or Gateway
Pages.
 Mirror websites by hosting multiple websites - all with conceptually similar content but
using different URLs.
 Creating a rogue copy of a popular website which shows contents similar to the original
to a web crawler, but redirects web surfers to unrelated or malicious websites. This is
called page hijacking.
 Always stay away from any of the above Black Hat tactics to improve the rank of your site.
Search engines are smart enough to identify all the above properties of your site and ultimately
you are not going to get anything.

There are many examples of grey hat SEO today. Some of these include:

1. Commenting on blogs in a way that will get you a backlink. The most common way is not
directly to ask for the link in the comment but instead to mention the article in your comment
and read what other people have said about it. You can also leverage specific phrases within
your comment that will be related to the article if someone decides to pull it up again.
2. Reaching out to potential links via a cold email. This is one of the most common grey hat
practices. You can even use a tool such as Rapportive to help you collect information about
who you’re sending your email to. Although this is still considered grey hat it is more “safe”
than openly buying links because no money is exchanging hands.
3. Building links through low-quality websites to boost your domain authority. This is a grey
hat practice, but it is important because it can help you gain more PageRank in Google that will
push you ahead of your competitors.

References:

 Digital Marketing 2e; Dr. Seema Gupta; Mc Graw Hill publication

 https://seochatter.com/what-is-grey-hat-seo-techniques/
 https://dandelionmarketing.com/website-design/local-seo-packages/seo-process/
 https://digitalready.tas.gov.au/resources/all-about-linkedin/ https://www.business-
standard.com/article/companies/indian-advertising-market-to-grow-16-in-2022-touch-
11-billion-report-122071401365_1.html