Google search is more of a verb than a noun now. Did you Google that, did you Google this? Well, it's something so ubiquitous that it has become part of our everyday language, but do you know that the basic principle behind its workings is very simple? Here is this short talk, I describe in a dead simple manner the principles of how Google search works 

Almost anything you do on Google is free  and we know that they have swanky office and highly paid employees, besides massive multiple billion dollar profits. But then how do they end up making so much money? Let's dive into the wonderful business model that Google has built 

Can you very specifically define who are you customers are ?  what are their interests, typically what age they are , what kind of youtube videos they like, what kind of books they read and what kind of online communities they may be part of ? What are the typical pain areas that they have when it comes to managing or growing their business ? What kind of tools they typically use to manage their businesses ? Are there specific types of events or conferences they regularly attend ?  

When you are able to answer many of these and similar questions and get more specific, the better you will understand your customer and what will come out will be a Buyer persona

Getting our buyer personas right is the first step towards a successful digital marketing campaign. In this episode of Digital Marketing in Plain English, we try to understand what are buyer personas and how to create one for your marketing.

Facebook can get your message in front of billions of users. However, when you are about to start a campaign, it presents you with a myriad of options for the different ad types.  For a newbie, how do you decide which one to use to get the max bang for the buck.  Listen in to Kabir, as he talks to Raghav and explains how to map your ad campaign objectives to the right ads, so you use your ad money in the best possible way. 

SEO & SEM - Both are used to increase visibility on search engines like Google and serve the same objective. Then, 

What is the difference, 

Which one should your business use and 

What the cost implications of each ?

Lets answer these questions in this episode of Digital Marketing in Plain English with me (Kabir), founder of a digital marketing agency 'A Billion People' with over 20 years of experience and Raghav Gupta, a student and budding influencer running his channel 'Garage Reviews' on YouTube for over 3 years.

Turn the table around with the breakup email 

Hi, this is kabir and welcome to my short, crisp, byte size actionable growth hacks to help you do better digital marketing. 

The breakup email, the last follow up email can be one of the most effective follow up email you can use when a prospect isn’t responding to your emails.

You’re basically “breaking up” with them with one last email making it clear that they won't hear from you again. Don't get me wrong, your unilateral relationship was that great to begin with, but by being the one who’s walking away, rather than the one who’s pursuing, you turn the dynamic of the interaction around.

It works both for outbound emails to a cold audience, when you’re sending emails to people who have never expressed an interest in your offer or interacted with you and inbound emails to a relatively warmer audience, when you’re sending out emails to people who have at some point expressed interest in your offer, for example by signing up for a trial.

Once you send the final breakup email, they may be tempted to look at your offer one last time, knowing that you will not be following up and at the same time also appreciate that you are not a constant spammer. Something this can work to your advantage, go ahead and try it.  

There’s nothing more frustrating than paying for leads that have gone cold. So why do we run ads that drive leads at 3 AM when there’s no one there to call them back?

Hi, this is kabir and welcome to my short, crisp, byte size actionable growth hacks to help you do better digital marketing. 

In some businesses, when a lead is generated, your customer may wait for that call from you . When a lead is hot, it’s hot, and after a few hours have passed, a burning need becomes a passive query at best. There is no point in running an ad to generate leads and not be able to call back soon after. 

So, to maximize return on ad spend, it is wise to use ad scheduling religiously. Almost all digital ad platforms like Facebook, Google search , YouTube ,etc  let you schedule to run ads at specific time of the day and specific days of the week. When your office is off and no one is there retrun calls to leads , you can switch off the ads. 

So, go head and figure how you are going to schedule the ads on your platform and optimize your ad spend, and I will see you soon next time. 

Linkedin can be thought of as a huge structured database of resumes, so you can reach anyone there based their experience level, job title, company they are working in, industry they are working in, interest groups they are part of, their location, educational qualifications and more. But, whosoever has advertised on Linkedin, knows that it is one of the most expensive mediums to advertise on ? But why ?

LinkedIn on average is anywhere between five to 10 times more expensive than running advertising on Facebook. Now, the way we measure that is typically on a CPM or cost per Milly cost per measure, which is basically what it costs to show my ads to 1000 people. Now personally, when I've run campaigns for my clients on Facebook, I could see anywhere as low as a $0.5 CPM, all the way to a $30 CPM, depending on the audience and the countries I choose to advertise in. 

A Website is not just a your place on the internet where users can read more information about you. When setup properly, it can give you valuable insights into user behavior on your so you can tweak your marketing decisions and  sell more. 

So, back to the website business.  When properly setup, your website can tell you the following

-What products your visitors are interested in, even if they did not buy them

-How do people find you ? What are they looking for on the internet to get to you

-What is the buyer profile of the user, what might be their other interests, for example, are they interested in technology, like to watch movies,  Like travelling, etc

-What kind of technology devices they own, for example, what models of phones do they use to visit your website

-How often do they come back and how long do they stay

-How did they come to know of your website, through Google, or Linkedin, Facebook/Instagram , etc

-Most importantly, people who bought something or signed up for your newsletter, what cities they came from, which social media channel got them here and is there a co-relation between, say the more expensive the phone they used to visit the website, the more they purchased ? 

Many of these questions and many more can be answered when the website is setup properly. 

Besides, just the information, you can also use the setup information to create laser targeted ads. For example, people who may have put something in their shopping cart, but did not buy, can be shown a time limited ad with some discount coupon, Loyal customers who bought stuff of more than $500 per month, can be automatically sent discount coupons for the next purchase, People spending more than one minute on specific product pages can be retargeted though display ads when they leave your website and browse information on other website, this kind of gives the feeling of the specific ad following you and hence prevents out of sight , out of mind syndrome.

The possibilities are endless. But in order to achieve this, the website when launched needs to be setup properly. Here is a checklist of items to take are of 

Step 1: Check Google Analytics setup

Step 2: Check Google Analytics traffic trends

Step 3: Check mobile compatibility

Step 4: Assess on-page SEO

Step 5: Check for indexing issues

Step 6: Run page speed tests

Step 7: Perform a content review

Step 8: Assess user experience

Step 9: Do a competitor analysis

Step 10: Identify any broken links

Step 11: Check keyword rankings

Step 12: Check for social pixels and tags

Step 13: Audit all 3rd party technologies

Step 14: Audit URLs and site structure

Shortcut: Use an SEO Audit Tool

Download the website audit template

CTR or click-through rate is an important metric for any of your digital ads. In this episode, I explain what it is, how it is calculated and what does it mean to have a low CTR, which is not a good sign.