Category: Brand Strategy

Before directly diving into the vast ocean of omnichannel marketing, let’s take a minute to understand what ‘omnichannel‘ means when associated with marketing.

Omnichannel is a cross-channel content strategy (Planning, development, and management of content across all channels like display ads, search engines, social media, website, e-mail and mobile and more) that organisations use to improve their user experience. (A person’s emotions and attitudes about using a particular product, system or service)

Omnichannel implies integration and orchestration of channels such that the experience of engagement across all the channels someone chooses to use is as, or even more, efficient or pleasant than using single channels in isolation.

Example of Omnichannel Marketing

The Starbucks rewards app is one of the prime examples of omnichannel marketing.

Like any other modern retail store, you will get a free rewards card which you can use whenever you make a purchase. Where Starbucks excelled is at the structure of its customer loyalty program.

Starbucks has made it possible to check and reload your card via phone, website, in-store, or on the app. Any change to the card or your profile gets updated across all channels, in real-time!

While standing in a line to get a coffee and realising, you don’t have enough on your balance? You can reload it, and the cashier will know it’s been updated by the time you swipe your card. Cool right?

Apart from Starbucks, Disney, Virgin Atlantic, Bank of America, Timberland, Sephora are a few names among many who have done wonders with their Omnichannel strategies.

Each of these companies is focussed on only one goal – create a seamless experience for the customer, whether they are shopping online from a desktop or mobile device, via phone, or in a brick-and-mortar store.

Understanding Omnichannel Marketing

‘Omnichannel marketing’ is no longer just a buzzword. It has surpassed the “trend” phase and stationed itself as a key strategy necessary to implement in this new era of technology. If it is that common, why so many companies are still lacking in the implementation of seamless user experience?

To identify the gap, the basics should be crystal clear. Noticing how a customer experiences the same channel more than once on their journey is vital. Omnichannel marketing supports a customer journey that is connected, fluid, and non-linear. While the customer’s journey may not look direct, your marketing approach still requires a strategic approach with segmentation and personalisation.

By now, you have noticed that omnichannel marketing and customer journey are intertwined. But it’s important to have a deeper level of comprehension to understand the customer journey and how it relates to omnichannel marketing.

Omnichannel marketing and the customer journey

Imagine, you’re going to another city, do you want roadblocks, construction work or diversions on your way to the airport? You want your trip to be as simple as possible; to get from point A to point B without any roadblocks, construction work or diversions.

The same truth applies to the buyer’s journey – customers want your process to be simple and easy.

Another example of how omnichannel marketing works

Rahul is scrolling through his Instagram feed and comes across a promoted post of his local electronics store. The ad tells him that there is a 40% discount on select items. From the ad, he goes to a website page that lists all of the items which have a 40% discount.

Of the items which have a 40% off, Rahul decides to buy a backpack. In the online checkout process, instead of delivery, he opts to pick up the backpack from the store that evening. When he arrives at the store, he directly goes to the clearly labelled in-store pickup kiosk. At the kiosk, he enters the details, and an associate promptly brings his backpack.

Of the channels used here (social media, the store’s website, and the brick-and-mortar store) the entire customer journey was uninterrupted. This shows the execution of an omnichannel approach in its most basic form.

Sounds easy right? But what about service industries or B2B markets or only web-based retail shops?

At Seagull Advertising, we work towards implementing an omnichannel marketing approach in its most efficient way.

Here is a sneak peek into our next blog post:

Excerpt: Customer information, birthdays, reward points, geographic data and more should be transparent at all the levels. Don’t worry; you don’t have to do it manually; there are more than 7000 marketing tech tools available to choose from like:

• Content Management System (CMS)
• Marketing Automation Platform (MAP)
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software
• Social Media Management tools
• Content Marketing tools
• SEO tools
• Customer Data Platform (CDP)
• Other quantitative and qualitative analytical tools

Read our next blog (How to create an omnichannel marketing strategy?) to have a better idea of these tools and more.

 

For more articles please visit our advertising and marketing blog.

After the advent of the internet, online marketing has become the people’s choice; which is evident by the fact that 75% of companies increased their content marketing budget in recent years. Here are some of the reasons which justify the application of content marketing in your business plan.

The reasons

According to the recent market trends, the use of content marketing is on the rise and is slated to increase in the years to come. Apart from the reachability and easy access, there are several benefits of content marketing that can provide the necessary push to your business.

The 9 reasons content marketing should be on your marketing agenda are:

 

1. Increased visibility

The reason is quite clear, the more you try to attract your potential customers, the more chances for a sale. Therefore, using content marketing increases product visibility, both in long-tail searches and in niche requirements.

 

2. Proof of credibility

No visitor will easily provide you their contact or personal information. Excellent content marketing can secure the position of your company as a trusted entity, a prime cause of why content marketing is important in today’s business.

 

3. Inclusion in search engines

Unless notified by someone, clients usually search for their requirement on Google. A good content marketing strategy will ensure a significant rank in the search engines, and therefore the generation of more inbound traffic. Credibility and authoritative content are considered as a plus in more search engine algorithms.

 

4. Sale at different buying stages

Good content can approach the visiting clients at various stages of buying; from the first alertness to someone who has their requirements identified. Conversion of a prospective client to a paying customer is one of the ways why content marketing is the go-to method for the businesses nowadays.

 

5. Providing info to customers

Opposite of the old days, there is now information available to the customers about any product before they decide to buy. A properly written content can educate the audience about your product, or some unique services that you can provide.

 

6. Ubiquitous nature

Each type of product has a specific or a best-fitted platform from where it can be marketed. But content marketing can be done across any platform, as it is all-inclusive, and has more accessibility than other platforms.

 

7. Engaging other avenues

Good content can be used by multiple platforms to generate incoming traffic for your brand. However, the content should be refreshed periodically with fresh and informative ones, so that your brand is spread across the general population by shares and re-tweets.

 

8. Targeting segmented groups

Although the sales and product info page are needed to be general, good content will also touch upon the problems and requirements of the niche audience. This is one of the best ways to be noticeable from the other brands.

 

9. Ongoing relevance

Good content, especially the “how to…” guides are not needed to be changed every now and then. Keeping the original inclusions intact, the content can be refurbished, updated, and used again for your business promotion; using far lesser money and time.

In conclusion

Content marketing has the added advantage of reaching across multiple platforms. The use of this avenue can become a great way to increase your business.
And when you have a great content marketing strategy coupled with a social media plan, it will definitely work wonders for your brand!

 

For more articles please visit our advertising and marketing blog.

 

---

 

Related Read – What are the Goals of Content Marketing for Your Business?

 

Those days are long gone where social media was a platform for “just posting” your thoughts.

Those days are history when you used to update the content on the website every 6 months.

Every online business should consider taking the help of a content strategy before proceeding further with the thoughts and services. Nowadays, success is about a proper plan, well-settled after going through some serious research. So, a comprehensive and requisite content strategy is what your company deserves.

More on content strategy

Content strategy is basically planning, developing, creating, managing and delivery of content in a relevant way through the relevant channels. The main purpose is to create a cohesive, meaningful, engaging and sustainable forms of content, which helps in attracting the target customers.

At present, procuring the right message to the right audience at the right time is important. That’s what you can expect from strategic content marketing.

 

Importance you can not deny

Now that you know what is content strategy, it is time to learn about its importance. It will help you understand its value and use strategy as your powerpoint.

• It helps in driving everything

A proper and well-strategised content can help in driving everything forward. Digital marketing these days has search engines and customers. It is your power of content, which helps you to serve both. Your prospective client will go through your content first to determine your reliability and check forward for your product. So, establishing a thought-through strategy is a must.

 

---

Related Read – What are the Goals of Content marketing for your business

 

---

 

• Generate content ideas

A proper and well-balanced content strategy helps in generating the content, based on the mission & values of the firm. It is a mandatory point to consider especially when you are trying to serve the functions of your company well among the crowd. It is through your content that the prospect can get a glimpse of your service/product. So, even if your business’s name is a bit deceptive, the content can make it clear for them!

 

• Creating a social relationship

Customers never fall for silent advertisements. They are social and would like to gather as much information as possible about a product/service before investing money in it. A social media-based content strategy can offer help during such instances. Through your content, you will be able to discuss everything about your products/services in detail and lure prospects to become customers.

These points are enough to prove the importance of content strategy for converting more customers. If your content is strong, you need not have to worry about other points at all.

 

Finally, good content is something that educates/helps/enlightens your target audience on their topic of interest with the best possible solution. It is the aim of every content piece to justify the reader’s time and effort spent in reading it.

 

For more articles please visit our advertising and marketing blog.

The world has become a marketplace, thanks to the internet and online marketing. As of now, 21.8% of the earth’s population buys online, and the number is projected to be over 2.14 billion by 2021 (Source: Sleeknote). Quite naturally, the number of online shoppers will increase; so will the businesses, giving rise to fierce competition.

Therefore, it is a given that more the prospective buyers can understand and relate to your product/service, the more will they be inclined towards using it. So, to develop a functioning relationship with your patrons and also to do good business, the content about your product must be remarkable. Here are some of the goals you can consider pursuing:

Targets to achieve

We all know that among multiple companies providing the same product or service, one or two become particularly favorable to the customers. Now, the shop is in the cyberspace, where every seller has an equal opportunity of getting found. So, the difference must lie in the way it is presented to the customer, that means, the content quality of its online presence.

Here are some content marketing goals you must reach for becoming a known business in your vertical:

 

Build trust and connection

This is the most useful goal of content marketing. When your content is informative, interesting, and has good quality, then prospects learn to place their trust in your product/service. With an abundance of trust comes the factor of considering your product, and that’s when your business takes off. Gradually, when you keep supplying helpful content, especially on a third-party platform, brand loyalty and trust grows even more.

Understand the customer’s problems

Good content dives straight into the problems the prospective customers face and provide a solution for them.

• What do they want?
• What could be their problems?
• What are the solutions?
• How does the product/service fit in that scenario?

The content written on these lines is bound to be interest-raising for the potential clients and in extension, the increase of inbound traffic and the sale of your product/service. So choosing the potential clients issues as one of your content marketing objectives would be a clever approach for your efforts.

Building up new leads

This is the obvious goal for any business. Your product/service may have many customers, and they are delightful and loyal too. Still, a few extra would not hurt, right? This is because, as the number of clients increases, so does your business; and often, a large number of clients ensure that your company is mentioned in bigger circles.

 

With content marketing, you establish your brand as a thought-leader in your domain and people start trusting you and what you say. This builds your brand to a whole new level and ultimately ‘prosumers’ (people who may or may not be your customers, but they vouch for your brand in their network) are built.

This leads to word-of-mouth and it is the highest level of marketing a brand can achieve!

 

---

Related Read – How to Generate Leads for Your Business via Inbound Marketing?

---

 

In summary

Content marketing targets are also dependent on other facets. Along with lead generation, a client-centric approach, and trust-building, the customers have to be pacified against their objections.
For example, a customer may raise an issue that the product/service is far too expensive. A good approach of justifying that can be the explanation of the features & USPs and also the cost-effectiveness in the long run.

The bottom-line to producing any content is to keep it relevant, solution providing and of high quality by supporting it with relevant facts & figures thus making it trustworthy.

 

I have a habit of reading the late-night news on my cell phone just before hitting the bed. While social scientists may opine that using a mobile phone late at night causes sleep disorders, I’ve come to believe that it’s just the opposite in my case.

For starters, it assures me that I’m mostly updated about large global events until the moment I sleep; and secondly, it enforces a good habit of reading useful stuff – something that any leader worth their salt will tell you.

But last Wednesday night was different.

I recall checking Campaign India on my phone, and the first news I saw was ‘Accenture to buy Droga5’. The rush of questions and emotions ensured I was wide awake upon reading that!

 

After all, David Droga and his iconic advertising company, Droga5, was the poster child of creative, purpose-driven and result-oriented communication agencies. If advertising were a religion, Droga would be a modern-day demi-god.

(left: Brian Whipple, right: David Droga)

So, what does the Droga5 takeover by Accenture exactly mean for the advertising world?

The Data and Analytics Juggernaut

 

At the outset, it is important to understand why Accenture – a global consultancy giant, would acquire one of the world’s most awarded advertising agencies – Droga5.

As it goes, this is hardly a surprise – almost every large tech and consulting company has bitten the creative marketing technology bullet – think Accenture Interactive, PwC Digital Services, IBM iX, Deloitte Digital and Cognizant Digital Advertising.

 

As data and analytics becomes increasingly crucial, clients demand for measurability of every dollar they spend. And we at Seagull always say, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.”

With programmatic advertising, real-time analytics-based AB testing, and an increasingly aware consumer base it’s little wonder that tech companies and creative ideation hot-shops are joining forces to steer clear of choppy waters.

 

How will the tech guys and the creative guys work together?

 

As Droga5 becomes part of Accenture Interactive, the first question that pops up is ‘How will creative and tech people work together?’

The answer, it turns out, is brutal but true – traditional advertising is dead

The future is Creative Marketing Technology.

 

Brian Whipple, Global CEO of Accenture Interactive says, “The future of brand building is not just about creating great ideas; it’s about creating great experiences.”

We at Seagull feel Brian couldn’t have said it any better.

 

As modern day brand custodians, the thin line between the creative guys and the tech guys has been dissolved – we all have to be jack of all and master of all. The need of the hour is to create disruptive ideas and tell compelling stories across multiple touch-points in a consumer’s journey – in the ‘phygital’ (physical+digital) world.

 

What is the impact in a developing country like India?

 

For many traditional advertising gurus, the unprecedented infusion of technology in creative ideation is a hard pill to swallow. The ones who saw the tide changing adapted quickly by acquiring new-age skills in an increasing landscape of digitally-empowered consumers.

 

From OgilvyRED being launched in India to Dentsu Aegis Networking buying digital agencies like Namics, Sokrati and Happy Marketer, the entire ecosystem of ‘digitech collaborations’ is seeing a huge paradigm shift.

The writing is on the wall, and the future that India thought would come to its shores has already arrived.

 

---

Creative Marketing Technology is here to stay, and as India continues making giant strides globally as the next big superpower, only a tightly-knit, cohesive solutions-driven approach is the way forward.

---

 

At Seagull Advertising, we saw the changing tide well ahead of time.

Our strategic partnership with the US-based HubSpot, Inc., the world’s foremost player in Inbound Marketing, empowers us to bring the best of creative ideas and data-driven marketing automation to the table.

After all, the only way to succeed in today’s times is to share, collaborate and grow together.

---

 

So, while I may have stayed awake for a part of Wednesday night, the next morning was brilliant. While some parts of the world and many companies in India are still wondering what to expect from the future of advertising, Seagull has already raced ahead of that curve.

 

We are already on the right track of creative marketing technology and are now poised to take on the arduous terrain of an ever-changing customer landscape, with ease, and help our clients grow better.

Written By – A Copywriter at Seagull Advertising

 

For more news on this topic check out the following links –

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/03/business/media/accenture-droga5-advertising.html

https://newsroom.accenture.com/news/accenture-interactive-accelerates-its-mission-to-reinvent-agency-model-by-agreeing-to-acquire-creative-agency-droga5.htm

 

The following article will help you understand:

1. What is consumer co-creation?

2. How consumer co-creation is done using Seagull’s – Wings for Profit Process?

3. The benefits of consumer co-creation in mitigating brand launch risks?

4. When should consumer co-creation be undertaken?

1. What is Consumer Co-creation?

Simply put, It is keeping the consumer at the centre.

A few years ago we were approached by a coconut water company to develop the packaging design for their soon to be launched brand.

They had already decided on 2 types of packaging

1. Tetra Pack
2. Aluminium can

The promoter Rohit Rathi said, “we have a unique coconut water product. Unlike other coconut waters that have some preservatives/additives, ours is 100% tender coconut water. We would like you to design the label for our can and tetra-pack.”

 

With this brief from Rohit, we had 2 choices ahead of us

1. Going straight to designing the label
2. Exploring what the consumers really wanted

We chose the latter, and took the following approach:

• Observed how consumers really enjoyed their coconut water.
• Spoke to coconut water vendors.
• Spoke to different sales channels where coconut water was sold. This included pharmacies and hospitals.
• Spoke to important influencers (following the Wings for Profit process). These are called “prosumers”. This included medical professionals & fitness managers.
• Conducted group discussions and explored the receptiveness to tetra pack & aluminium cans.

Before designing or launching the brand, we concluded that the label was not as important as the type of packaging. Indian consumers rejected tetra-pack, cans and plastic bottles. They preferred coconut water in its natural form, or as close to natural as possible.

The result: A 100% natural packaging – A glass bottle – The name God’s Water

2. How is Consumer Co-Creation Done?

• Keeping the consumer at the core
• Observing and understanding the consumer needs
• Discussing with influencers – in person, on phone, email, social media and group discussions.
• In our “Wings for Profit” process, consumer co-creation is done at all 3 stages of Brand Challenge, Brand Wings & Brand Flight Map.
• 100+ consumers contribute to the creation of the brand and its launch plan.

3. Benefits of Consumer Co-Creation in Mitigating Launch Risks

• Consumer co-creation is about understanding the consumer first and then launching the product or service.
• The consumer co-creation process goes beyond the product and understands the problem that the product or service is really trying to solve. And as a result defines the business that the product/service really is into.
• This in-depth understanding of the consumer gives an understanding of the role the product / service plays in the life of the consumer. And help answer the question “are we solving a real problem?”
• In the consumer co-creation process one is able to assess the product – market fit and position vis-a-vis competitive offerings.
• It helps in knowing the consumer ‘choose & use’ process, which enables designing the customer acquisition plan.

 4. When is the right time to undertake consumer co-creation?

Consumer co-creation can be undertaken either at the ideation stage or at the prototype stage.

The earlier the involvement of the consumers the better it is to move ahead with the plan.

 

If you too are planning to launch a new product and need a partner to help you successfully drive the brand launch, don’t hesitate to give us a call or contact us.

We would love to have a word with you and get to know what you have in mind.

At Seagull we help businesses ‘Grow Better’ by helping them grow their customer base. By creating brands and communication ideas steeped in customer-centricity, we empower businesses to soar to greater heights. We do this with a marketing methodology called Inbound Marketing..

3 ways Seagull’s ‘Grow Better’ philosophy will work wonders for your Brand.

‘Inbound Marketing’ is a new-age global marketing communications concept based on the core principle of ‘helping people’. At Seagull we implement the inbound marketing’s flywheel concept which is a multi-stage process of Attract-Engage-Delight. This helps businesses provide value to its customers and build trust.

And while we at Seagull do drive value in terms of better leads, higher ROI and deeper customer engagements, it’s not only about that. Read more to find out.

 

IDEAS of Seagull + POWER of Inbound Marketing

 

1) BRAND = Sustainable Growth

Your brand represents your professionalism, credibility, and reputation. Everything you produce can enhance your brand identity or damage it just as easily. You should be constantly concerned with your image, your presentation, your reputation in the marketplace and how best to improve it in order to win more business.

 

How can Seagull’s ‘Grow Better’ philosophy help?

One of the most beneficial and long-lasting outputs of inbound marketing is the effect on your brand identity. Content creation and thought leadership around your product and service positions you as an expert in your field.

We help you guide your business to share educational information about you products and services in such a way that they resonate with your potential customers. This helps you increase customer touch-point frequency, improve reach, and grow brand recognition.

Your brand grows to become a credible source of relevant information that people keep coming back to. When your customers are considering a purchase, you’ll be on top of their mind. This is what we call “sustainable growth”

 

2) Low CPL (cost-per-lead) = More Efficiency

The universal truth is “Business growth depends on more Sales”. You just cannot deny this!

You might have generated a lead database organically over the years or purchased one off the market. Either ways, your sales team makes calls, pushes emails, and tries to connect with prospects. If you really analyse every lead source and the time it takes, you can calculate how much each channel is costing you.

 

Channels That Are Used The Most For Customer Acquisition

Channel	% Age
Websites	89%
E-mails	81%
Social media sites	72%
Direct mail	66%
SEO/PPC	65%
Web banners	60%
Mobile devices	34%
Aggregator websites	32%
Price comparison websites	18%

(source – InvespCRO)

Keeping in mind the above acquisition channels, we also have to consider that there are significant costs to building a consistent sales engine to drive new clients. Cold calls may generate a new set of leads but the cost to acquire a single customer is pretty steep. So, how does one generate better quality leads? Let us answer that for you!

Fact – Did you know that it costs five times as much to attract a new customer, than to keep an existing one?

How can Seagull’s ‘Grow Better’ philosophy help?

Executing a well-strategised inbound marketing methodology to your digital marketing efforts will breathe life into your sales efforts. A salesperson’s best friend is a lead acquired through the inbound marketing funnel. The lead that has already been qualified by the marketing team and passed down to him for further nurturing and closing.

An ideal lead is well-informed, educated through the buyer’s journey and nurtured the inbound way.

With Seagull’s inbound marketing tactics, your salespeople will likely spend half their time prospecting and hunting. This way you can cut your CPL significantly and increase your lead conversion rate multi-folds. Now that’s a BIG WIN!

That’s exactly what Seagull’s ‘Grow Better’ philosophy can do for your business.

 

3) SCALABILITY = Future Proofing

For your business to be truly scalable you have to delegate responsibility, and trust your team. If you devote your time managing daily operations, you’re creating a severe roadblock for the growth of your company.

One of the most arduous obstacles in your organisation’s growth index is sales turnover. Quality salespersons build relationships and a robust lead funnel to continuously harvest new revenue from. But when they leave you, the funnel dries up and you are back to square one.

 

How can Seagull’s ‘Grow Better’ philosophy help?

Seagull’s inbound marketing tactics ensure less volatility in the sales pipeline. Your inbound marketing efforts will continually produce high quality leads, independent of your sales department’s efforts.

While the departmental head trains a sales team successor to learn your business and bring greater value to your sales efforts, your inbound marketing efforts are consistently creating a steady flow of new, good quality, marketing qualified leads for the sales team to engage with.

A salesperson understands the true value of a bank of ready-to-engage leads.

 

Explore the boundless potential of the ‘Grow Better’ philosophy.

Seagull’s ‘Grow Better’ philosophy can help your business in a variety of ways. Even if you’re considering to plan and execute your own inbound marketing strategy, these three steps will help you take an informed decision.

Once your organisational puzzle is in place and your team aligned through the inbound approach, your marketing plan will build trust with your prospects and deliver results.

After all, we know, the end objective of every business is to ‘Grow Better’.