The other side to Digital Communication

Well, it has been long since my last blog and the last time I published something was before I joined MICA. It has been just over a month that I have now been a part of an organization which is into Digital Communications. Just a thought which occurred to me quite recently is that whenever we read or hear digital marketing, the only thing which comes to our mind is digital advertisements or social media. Just so you guys know, it is much more than that. Keeping developing countries in perspective where not everyone owns a smartphone but has a feature phone or a basic mobile phone, any kind of communication directed to them turns digital. How is this possible? Let’s discuss it further.

For users having basic mobile phones, communication towards them using technologies like outbound calls where one can capture their mobile numbers and then use it for re-targeting is a very minuscule part of this digital act but what matters is the impact. For basic mobile phones, this is as digital as it can get. Of course, it isn’t Google’s right advertisement at the right place at the right time but still some form of infotainment through integrated voice response by giving a simple missed call can be magic.

Or else to keep you thinking, how about playing an advertisement when you call someone rather than a lame ringtone, how is this for innovation? Or even wondered what if Messi calls you, a football fanatic, how would you feel? Stay tuned to know more!

Email Id – The Virtual YOU.

A few weeks back, I had a chat with my best friend who works in a California based company. Though his job profile is that of a social media analyst but the outcome of his code is directly related to marketing. I was baffled because I knew he works on Ruby on Rails – an open source full-stack web application framework for Ruby programming language. I assumed that his job is coding and it didn’t interest me at all.

Yesterday, all of a sudden he tells me he earned money by selling 15000+ email ids to a person from Italy. I asked him, how can he sell something indefinable? How is the buyer benefitted out of it? Who sells email ids? And before I bombarded him with further questions, he interrupted me and asked, if I knew the value of my email id? I thought to myself and visibly had a big NO on my face.

Then he explained the basics of B2B lead generation, web scrapping, web crawling and the term Inbound Marketing was redefined.

Conventional marketing tools and tactics are obscure now. It is due to two key shifts, the rise of the caller id and rise of Internet.The habits of B2B buyers’ have changed. No one wants to waste time engaging in telephonic conversations to increase sales and market their brand. Rather approach companies who generate sales lead i: e search and provide information of potential customers for particular kind of products or services. This is done by using different techniques but all aimed at scrapping the information of the customer. It is generally in the form of email ids or contact numbers.

But the only challenge is to derive logic on how to obtain pure information of a customer for a desired product or service. Once the information is collected using software like Python Scrapy, Ruby Mechanize etc and sold, the respective client will use it to increase useful traffic to his/her website and convert leads to sales.

More we sign up on social networking websites like Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Pinterest etc using a particular email id and store information about ourselves, better and easier it gets for SMAs to hack and sell them. Social media is their daily bread and butter. So, don’t be shocked if this unreal sphere has given you a brand new identity which helps many businessmen.

These companies don’t only sell email ids but sell the virtual you. So, every email id you make has a definite value but also proves to be priceless for many.

INDUSTRIAL DIGITAL MARKETING.

The above topic is a combination of digital marketing and industrial marketing. A proper blend of the two will prove to be very fruitful for the manufacturing industry.

With decreasing selling prices due to intense competition, the cost price of the product has to be condensed to increase the profit margins. The ever-increasing cost of the raw materials is choking the growth of manufacturing industries. Not much can be done about the world economy dynamics on which the cost of the raw materials depends. There is a latent need for a change in the marketing methods.

Since I’m working on a project which involves cost reduction in the compressed natural gas packages, I have realized only effective marketing can help in achieving sky-high targets. The traditional marketing tools like looking for the right person in any organization to push sales by unethical ways, giving presentations to only a small group of people, travelling different places in search of new markets etc have to be discarded. Conventional marketing tools are leading to an unaccountable rise in the cost of the product.

We have to agree that this is the age of the computers which has a profound impact on us.

By effective marketing I mean, we need to understand the power of social media and internet. Manufacturers, engineering and industrial companies should generate more high-quality sales leads at a lower cost from using online marketing hubs – Websites, blogs and blog sites. We have to boost communication using Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook etc i: e e-commerce and not just by plain telephonic and email conversations.

Below are few ways to accelerate industrial sales using push and pull digital marketing:

1. Website redesign and development of blog sites
2. Keywords research and search engine optimization (SEO)
3. Creation of landing pages and calls to action buttons
4. Email marketing for lead nurturing
5. Social media marketing
6. Banner advertising in niche industry e-newsletters’
7. Directory Listings
8. Pay per click advertising (PPC)
9. Content creation
10. Measurement, tracking and training
11. Direct Mail
12. Printed Collateral

E-Commerce is not about replacing existing channels of distribution, but rather augmenting them for the global, networked economy. Industrial OEMs need to understand that today business needs to be conducted on both fronts, physical and digital.

Content marketing is very important. Now anyone can question saying who would be interested in knowing that pipes of new diameters have been launched or new threads have been developed?

New engineers coming in this field will be benefitted a lot if information was stored somewhere rather than asking the seniors all the time. And this information can also be marketed to increase sales as new customers will be aware of it. Any kind of data is useful if used judiciously.

If we think from the customer’s point of view, it will be easy for them to find the right solution to their problem using internet and social media rather emailing, calling and meeting the sales executives. This saves a lot of time and money. This will also lead to more opportunities and unexplored markets will be conquered.

These links will help you to get more knowledge on above topic:

• http://www.russellreynolds.com/content/cmo-executive-talent-trends-digital-marketing-2012
• http://industrialmarketingtoday.com/content-the-biggest-hurdle-in-digital-marketing-for-manufacturers/
• http://www.marketectsinc.com/news/8-industry-news/78-face-to-face-meet-facebook-digital-marketing-for-industrial-businesses

Thus, mechanical fraternity has to accept digitization with open arms which creates a win-win situation.

Still using your ear to hear?

As always the image and the theme never go hand in hand, isn’t it?

Today, I was just hearing songs on my way to work and I thought to myself, most of us have forgotten to listen. Puzzled?!

We have abundance of knowledge to share in today’s times. A whole lot of networking websites are available where we can just keep speaking about ourselves. And now we are over-doing and trying to speak a lot. In fact, we are speaking so much that half of what we say makes no sense to us even. I’ll give you some examples-

1. Each and everything we come across irrespective of we like or not, it has to post on Facebook as our status. Once in a while you post people will read and if it keeps happening, it’s just a spam.

2. Every image we click for ourselves or for our loved ones will instantly be uploaded and shared with the whole world. The word “special” is losing its meaning.

3. The like button is become a waste. People like almost everything – random posts, random pictures etc, and it doesn’t look genuine anymore.

4. And comments. We comment on everything. We speak so much.

5. And tweets, oh god, we tweet like every hour.

I totally understand human psychology of self-actualization/self-realization but now it’s going beyond control. And all of this has an adverse effect on us. Things we do in this virtual globe of networking have become our personality/trait in real world.

When we meet people what everyone wants to do is talk and no one bothers to listen and hence, we talk more till one is forced to hear. I don’t appreciate people who talk less for the heck of it and stay quiet because they are just lost in their own thoughts. The value of a human talking about something has lost. Some people only hear and some don’t care. People just understand words, the emotions behind as usual stay latent.

— I have a friend, who always says “I talk very less”. She probably thinks that it isn’t good. Whenever I meet her, I can see people love talking to her. You know why? Because she doesn’t only hear but listens with her mind, her eyes, her heart, her soul and her body. She doesn’t realize that she is gifted with the power of listening and this makes her so charismatic and unique. She makes people feel so comfortable and special just by listening to what they have to say. And when she says, believe me, all die to LISTEN. —

In fact, after meeting her I understood and it inspired me to blog. I won’t name her or else you all will fall for her and I am very possessive. Lol.

I’m not saying discontinue networking but know its limits and never let it influence your individuality.

So initiate listening with all your heart and the happiness on the other person’s face will give you immense satisfaction. Let’s make world a better place.

Are we ready to embrace technology?

It’s been long since; I’ve been thinking that if the world understands the limitations of technology and knows its fruitful use.

Today, technology is improving lightning fast, with faster laptops, swifter vehicles, mobiles which practically do everything and nevertheless, the ever increasing social media. Each one is enjoying and pleased with the available technology. Reflect deeper, you will realize technology is evil and it’s taking a toll over us. Its viral effect is leading to stress and restlessness. Our minds and soul is never at peace keeping us unbalanced.

Efficient gadgets lead to increase in demands and we are not equipped to handle it. Targets keep going higher resulting in dissatisfaction and discontent. We are moving at such a pace losing the actual essence of life. I don’t know, where we’re going, what we’re running for and after doing so much, we still have something missing. This something absent is not satisfaction but emotional satisfaction.

Social media – Facebook, Twitter, Orkut, BBM, Whatsapp and the never ending list has made everything virtual. And we are living this fake existence and being in high spirits. Yes, it has helped us connect with people around the world but emotions are disregarded. Humans are social animals gifted with an ability to express emotions and feelings. This simulated globe is silently killing them. For instance, we want to know whereabouts of our friends/colleagues, we check his/her profile or if we really care, send a message/ping but never will we bother to call or meet up when we can. Going through his/her profile and seeing recent posts, images, conversations etc we get to know what they’re doing and believe we are in touch. Frankly, we aren’t, not even close. We have no idea what they’re going through; their passion, their outlook, if they are glad, gloomy, in grief or in pain. As long as their profile looks excellent, we think them doing just all right. Till we don’t converse or meet our beloved ones, everyone remains in a state of misery. People crave to love and love to be loved. And social networking websites will never fulfill this void. I’m not saying that these sites are a waste but we all are just over socializing now. We should realize the significance of people. There is absolutely no point of escalating followers on Twitter or having a huge database of friends on Facebook. The person next to you only will help you get through hardships so, double your happiness with that person and stop self-actualizing in this unreal sphere. We should value social networking by knowing its place in our lives. We should not mix its professional use with personal needs.

We haven’t even spared nature. The comfort luxury vehicles provide us, matter so much, that we’ve forgotten the beauty of nature and the gifts it has to offer us. Instead, our needs are beyond control that we are developing more and more luxury vehicles which still don’t give us the ease we desire. One of my friends has rightly said, “Cars are a crime”. The amount of plastic and metal gets into making a car is destroying earth and despite we all know it, we want more luxurious vehicles and remain as always displeased.

Technology is a tangible asset using which we are trying to satisfy intangible sensations like love, beauty, faith, happiness, comfort etc.

We all should honestly ask ourselves this question that is the power of technology within our grasp?