7 Digital Marketing Agency Services to Consider Outsourcing

There’s no overstating the potential impact of a successful digital marketing campaign. In fact, a sound digital marketing strategy can help your brand grow in the face of fierce competition and other challenges. Unfortunately, handling your own digital marketing in-house can also be extremely time-consuming, costly, and cumbersome.

Enter a digital marketing agency; with an integrated suite of digital marketing capabilities, a results-driven digital marketing agency can handle any and all aspects of your digital marketing strategy so you don’t have to. As a result, you can free up valuable time and resources to continue doing what you do best: running your business.

So, which digital marketing agency services should you consider outsourcing (if you’re not already)? We’ve got some suggestions.

7 Digital Marketing Agency Services to Consider Outsourcing

1. Paid Search Advertising

While paying for online ad space may seem like an antiquated concept, the reality is that paid search advertising can still be extremely effective when carried out correctly. The problem is that many business owners simply don’t have the time to fully understand the intricacies of paid search ads and how best to use them to their advantage.

The good news is you can outsource a team of search advertising experts that live and breathe SEM. From analyzing search signals and keyword intent to choosing the right advertising channel to reach your audience, they can do it all. And by taking this digital marketing task off your plate, you can spend more time on other aspects of your business.

2. Social Media Marketing

Many growing businesses these days ultimately reach a point where they need to hire a dedicated, full-time social media specialist (or team of specialists) to stay on top of their Facebook, Twitter, and other platform presence. If you’re still trying to handle your company’s social media accounts on your own, your business may be probably missing out.

From posting new content and replying to followers to getting involved in paid social media advertising, your social media marketing is not something you should be trying to handle alone. By working with a social media marketing specialist (such as our team at Digilant), you can save yourself a lot of time and hassle while enjoying the peace of mind in knowing that our professionals know today’s hottest social media platforms inside and out.

In addition to organic social media marketing, your social media team should also be well versed in up-and-coming paid advertising opportunities that are now being offered by popular social media platforms such as Facebook. No matter how big or small your advertising budget, a strategic digital advertising company will make the most of each dollar.

3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Your brand’s search engine result page (SERP) rankings can have a very direct impact on growth and success. In fact, if your site isn’t currently ranking on the first page of search engine results, there’s a good chance you’re missing out on substantial web traffic from potential customers and clients.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a great way to boost your search engine rankings and get your site listed towards the top of the results. It’s also a very cost-effective marketing service, with many SEO strategies requiring no more than your time and research.

Unfortunately, implementing a successful SEO strategy can be extremely time-consuming and confusing without the proper experience. Meanwhile, some SEO tools can be difficult to learn and use. Furthermore, using the wrong SEO techniques (such as “black-hat” strategies) can have the opposite impact harming your SERPs and possibly even getting your website de-indexed by Google or another search engine.

By outsourcing your brand’s SEO, you can let our team of professionals take this digital marketing agency service out of your hands and make sure it’s done right. Find a team that is well-versed in the most effective white-hat SEO strategies and is always staying on top of changes in search engine algorithms to help your brand rank as high as possible.

4. Paid Influencer Advertising

These days, more businesses are using paid influencers to spread awareness of their products and services. In fact, global brands are expected to spend more than $7 billion on social influencer marketing by the end of 2020 alone. However, navigating the ins and outs of paid influencer advertising can be complex—especially to those with limited experience in this arena.

When you work with a digital marketing team, they can help you leverage all types of influences in any category imaginable to take your brand recognition to new heights. Some examples of influencer types we work with regularly include:

  • mega influencers
  • macro influencers
  • micro influences
  • referrers
  • loyalists
  • advocates

5. Web Design and Development

Unless you already have a dedicated web design and development team in-house, this is one of many digital marketing agency services that you should absolutely be outsourcing. After all, your website is typically one of the first (if not the first) opportunity to leave an impression on your audience; you want to be sure that you’re doing it right. And if you’re not a web design professional, you’re may not be.

A well-designed website is not only professional-looking, but it is easy for your users to navigate. Likewise, the coding of your website should be handled with security, SEO, and other factors in mind. This is where working with an experienced web design and development team can make all the difference.

6. Email Marketing

From a return-on-investment (ROI) perspective, email marketing really can’t be beaten. In fact, it is estimated that email generates an ROI of up to $38 for every single dollar spent.

At the same time, carrying out an effective email marketing strategy can be easier said than done. From audience segmentation to crafting the right subject line, there’s a lot that goes into implementing a successful email marketing campaign. And if you’re like a lot of business owners, you simply don’t have the time or resources to tackle this yourself.

By outsourcing your email marketing to a team of professionals, you can maximize the returns on each campaign with strategies like audience segmentation, A/B testing, and more.

7. Content Creation

Regularly publishing creative and unique content on your social media channels, blog, and website is key to your brand’s growth as an authority within your industry. But who has the time to constantly be coming up with new content ideas and carrying them out?

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by your content creation and content planning needs, it’s probably time to look into outsourcing this task to an experienced professional. A content creation team will have the tools to carefully research your target audience and figure out what they’re searching for. From there, this team can create one-of-a-kind content that can not only help boost your SEO, but that is share-worthy on social media and other platforms as well.

Digilant is Here to Help

These are just some examples of the many digital marketing agency services your brand may want to consider outsourcing if you’re not already. By doing so, you can free up more of your own valuable time as well as that of your employees. Meanwhile, you’ll know that your digital marketing agency services are in skilled and capable hands—and that we have the tools and resources to help you get the best possible return on your marketing budget.

The Digilant team has already helped more than 500 clients take their digital marketing to new heights. From SEM to social media to programmatic and email marketing, we have a diverse group of talented digital marketers that hone in on their craft to master it and implement the most timely and effective strategies for clients’ campaigns. We offer varying service levels because we understand that no digital advertising strategy is alike – from full service to manage service and self-service, we are eager to work with you to find out which areas of your digital advertising strategies you are looking to take to new heights. Interested in seeing our digital advertising expertise in action? You can learn more about how our team of social media experts worked with PopCorners to promote their product launch via Facebook here

Ecommerce Omnichannel Applications: Improving Conversion with Touchpoints

For the past few years, conversations regarding the increase in eCommerce sales have dominated industry news sites and headlines. With the steady incline of sales attributed to this online buying method, it should come as no surprise that there has been so much attention around the eCommerce boom. In 2019, eCommerce sales increased by nearly 15% year-over-year, reaching $601.75 billion in the United States. 

When we entered 2020, experts predicted this number would continue to increase even more. However, when making this prediction, they didn’t account for the coronavirus pandemic and how much that would propel eCommerce sales. When comparing Q3 of 2019 and 2020, eCommerce sales increased by more than 37%. Ecommerce companies have yet to report sales for the final quarter of this year, but as the holiday shopping falls in these last months of 2020, the dominance of eCommerce sales has yet to reach its maximum impact. 

In conjunction with the conversations about increasing eCommerce sales has been the importance of touchpoints. Touchpoints are ways a consumer interacts with your brand, whether in-person, online, via social media, yelp reviews, etc. The boom of eCommerce sales has flooded the marketplace with vendors and options, so the competition for consumers’ attention, or touchpoints, is stiff. 

Experts have varying options on how many touchpoints it takes to make a sale. Some estimate anywhere from 28-62 touchpoints is required, while others state this number may be upwards of 500 touchpoints. Many factors go into how many interactions with your brand a consumer will have before making the purchase: sales cycle, price, brand perception, brand loyalty, consumer demographics. For example, one cannot exclusively compare the number of touchpoints required before a consumer purchases new shampoo versus a new car. A shampoo company might only need 5 or 7 quality touchpoints with a consumer to persuade them to try their product, whereas a car brand might need 50 or 200 touchpoints throughout a year-long buying process. That does not mean one brand s working better than the other. The number of touchpoints required for your brand to make a sale is essential; however, no matter the product or price, the importance of quality touchpoints greatly outweighs the focus on quantity. And this is where omnichannel applications come into place. 

What omnichannel applications should I use to improve touchpoints?  

Do you solely shop online? In-store? The answer is most likely no, as Harvard Business Review research found that only 7% of participants shopped exclusively online, while only 20% shopped solely in a retail store. Gone are the days of solely browsing in-store for products. People will see an ad for your product while watching a Youtube video, go to the store, see it in-person, price compare on their phone while still in-store shopping, decide not to purchase it in person, go home and buy the product online. Knowing the consumers will interact with your brand in various ways means that you must have a presence on these channels and ensure that you don’t get overlooked during the buying journey. 

So you may be thinking, between programmatic display, video, audio, CTV, OTT, social, search, email, and all the other aspects of omnichannel marketing, where can I get the most out of different touchpoints to improve my conversions? Below we’ve outlined five critical omnichannel applications that you can use to improve your customer journey experience and, in turn, your conversions. 

1.Social Media 

Social media is no longer just a place to connect with friends and family; consumers now browse for products, follow brands, read peer reviews, follow social influencers, and buy products on some networks. In April of 2020, over one-third of consumers ages 18-24 purchased a product directly off social media. 

For brands, it is one of the most beneficial platforms for brand awareness and customer acquisition. You can promote your products, sales, offers, and brand values while also directly interacting with customers, answering their questions, and responding to feedback. The touchpoints available to brands via social media are not only multitudinous but also tactical.

2. Paid Search

This omnichannel application is beneficial at the higher stages of the sales funnel (awareness stage) as consumers browse for products to purchase. Consumers may not know which brand they are going to buy, but seeing a specific ad at the top of a google search or the top of the Google shopping lists may be the persuading touchpoint in having a consumer choose one brand rather than the competitor. 

Knowing which search results are most likely to convert a consumer to click on an ad and purchase the product is another example of using touchpoints that work smarter, as opposed to harder. An omnichannel digital advertising company can work with you to ensure the content you promote in these paid search ads is strategic, on-brand, and appeals to your consumer base. 

3. Amazon Advertising

It would be difficult to discuss the world of e-commerce without mentioning Amazon. In 2018, Amazon accounted for 49% of all e-commerce sales (5% of all retail) in the United States. Beyond being a powerhouse for purchasing goods, many consumers also take to Amazon to browse and price check products. CNBC reported that 9 out of 10 consumers price check an item on Amazon before making a purchase. 

Whether you list your products on Amazon will have to be decided by your internal team. However, one of the vital onimicahnnel applications that should be implemented into your digital advertising playbook to increase quality touchpoints is Amazon Advertising. Utilizing their first-party proprietary data, advertisers can target consumers through audience segments based on categories such as lifestyle, contextual, in-market, and lookalike. And, you can target these audiences with ads across Amazon and third-party websites. 

Amazon is an eCommerce powerhouse; digital advertisers that can tap into their consumer data have a huge benefit to better understand, target, and reach your consumers as they move through the buying process. 

4. Upsell and Cross-Sell Emails

With omnichannel applications incorporated into your business, you will track consumers’ journeys, including which products they have looked at, clicked on, and purchased. This customer journey information will allow for strategic, timely cross-selling and upselling emails. If you know someone has clicked on a dining room table a few times, offer suggestions for an area rug or a sitting chair to complete the room. Emails like this keep your brand top of mind, showcases more of your product offerings, and meets your consumer where they are already at in the buying journey. 

Consumers prioritize brands that put them at the forefront of the customer journey. Knowing which products they are interested in will help make your ads more timely and personal to the consumers. Again, as mentioned above, it’s not about how many touch points you have with consumers, but how valuable these touchpoints are to the relationship you form with these potential customers. 

5. Chatbots & Artificial Intelligence

In March of this year, 88.05% of online shoppers abandoned their carts, and on average, this number sits around 70%.  Consumers report a variety of reasons why they abandon their carts, some of which are not finding a coupon code, creating a new user account, unexpected shipping cost, or a long and confusing checkout process. 

No matter the reason as to why they abandon their cart, eCommerce companies need to work to figure out a solution to combat this problem. Offering an artificial intelligence solution or chatbox on your checkout page will give consumers the ability to ask any questions that may be preventing them from taking that final step. Like a sales representative that a customer would work with in-store, adding this feature will combat any purchase woes. Even though consumers are leaning towards online shopping, they are still looking for that personal, human touch when shopping.  Although they know it is a machine working with them, it still adds another level of voice and personalization to the consumer’s shopping experience – a “human” touchpoint. 

Next Steps: Applying these Omnichannel Applications to your e-commerce playbook

You may already be using some of these omnichannel applications in your digital advertising plan. However, if you are wondering how best to get started with incorporating these tactics into your company, consider partnering with an omnichannel digital advertising partner. Omnichannel digital advertising companies understand the in-and-outs, the constant changes, and the different regulations required to create a robust and successful digital advertising strategy. 

At Digilant, we always start with a deep dive into your consumer base. Our team of planning and insight specialists analyzes your audience’s different aspects – their likes, dislikes, demographics, channel preferences, and more. This information will be the backbone in creating a strategic omnichannel marketing strategy to reach these consumers on the right channels with the most optimal touchpoints to ensure we achieve your desired KPIs

Our team of campaign analysts works alongside our machine learning technology to monitor and optimize your campaigns in real-time. Our omnichannel marketing solutions span across programmatic, video, audio, social, search, TV, and more, ensuring that there are no gaps in reaching your audience and taking advantage of varying touchpoints. Having a digital advertising partner working across all channels also ensures that you are not just fostering touchpoints with consumers on these channels, but, campaigns are optimized toward the best quality touchpoints possible to reach your ultimate goal: improving conversions. 

Interested in learning more about how Digilant implements omnichannel applications to improve your conversions with quality touchpoings? Let’s talk.

How to get more from mobile

How to get more from mobile

by Kristina Knight (via BizReport)

According to new data out from App Annie the time people spend in mobile – using apps, etc – is skyrocketing in 2020, and that likely has many wondering just what businesses can do to engage these users. We asked a digital expert for advice.

Our CEO, Raquel Rosenthal advised being smarter about how voice and privacy:

“With voice search adoption on the rise, 2021 will be the year for marketers to audit existing campaigns and web content and start generating new content that is optimized with voice search in mind. Don’t forget privacy regulations and user consent. As privacy regulations bleed past the CCPA to more states, it’s important for marketers to re-examine their privacy policy, the data they collect and the data that is ultimately necessary to use for marketing and advertising purposes.”

-Raquel Rosenthal, Digilant CEO

Read more.

Creating a Seamless Omnichannel User Experience for Future Clients

As consumer multi-channel and multi-device usage continue to rise, so too does the importance of a streamlined omnichannel user experience. Brands can no longer rely on segmented experiences as consumers navigate through different channels (even if they are individually positive experiences). These experiences need to blend and work together to create a seamless, integrated, user-centric experience. 

An omnichannel user experience is no longer just preferred; the absence of them now directly impacts sales. A survey carried out by the Harvard Business Review found that on average omnichannel customers spend 4% more in-store and 10% more online when compared to single-channel users. As more consumers continue to browse online and shop on emerging channels, such as Instagram and Youtube, the positive impact an omnichannel user experience has on sales and company growth is projected to rise even more.

So, you may be asking yourself, “I understand the importance of an omnichannel user experience, but how do I get started?” We’re here to help. Below we’ve outlined five steps to get you started to ensure that your future clients have a seamless, enjoyable experience with your brand, no matter which device or channel they are on. 

What is omnichannel marketing? 

In the simplest of terms, omnichannel marketing is an approach to marketing that addresses each channel’s customer experience – desktop browser, mobile, retail, social media, podcast, and any others you might use – and how customers transition through channels they make purchases.

5 Steps to Creating a Seamless Omnichannel User Experience

1.Understand your Audience

This phrase sometimes feels like the solution to many of our digital advertising questions. That’s because as you grow your understanding of your consumers, you gain valuable insights that transform and direct your advertising strategy. Before you take any steps towards an omnichannel user experience, you need to attain ample information about your consumers and how they interact with your company. To help you get started, here is a list of questions to ask yourself about your consumers:

  • Who is my consumer? Age? Gender? Place of origin? Etc. (knowing this information might give you insight into the answers to the following questions if you don’t have concrete data)
  • Where do my consumers browse? 
  • Where do my consumers buy? 
  • Do they prefer online or offline shopping? 
  • What do my consumers buy the most?
  • Where do consumers want to interact with my brand? 
  • Are my consumers loyal (or repeat) customers?

Knowing the answers to these questions will determine where you prioritize your resources throughout the next steps. 

2. Map the Path to Purchase

Put yourself in the shoes of the consumers. Look at how your consumers are entering your website and what their experiences entail. As you begin to look through these different customer journeys, you will (most likely) start to notice different patterns – which stages consumers leave your site, which channels lead to cart abandonment most often, and which channels yield the most purchase fulfillments. 

Both the positive and negative trends will direct where you should invest your resources and areas of opportunity to attract even more customers. For example, if you find that the highest sales percentage comes from Instagram ads, you will know to invest more budget into and prioritize this channel. 

On the other hand, if you find that many people are shopping in the morning and then abandoning their cart before they complete their purchase, you’ll want to brainstorm and consult with your digital advertising company about solutions to combat this problem. Maybe you want to introduce retargeting ads into your campaign or add a virtual assistant on the checkout page to answer any questions consumers may have that prevent them from making the final purchase. No matter what the solution is, it’s essential to identify the problem and know that that is a priority for your company to rectify. 

3. Optimize your creative & brand assets 

Now that you understand your consumers and how they interact with your brand, you should have a pretty good idea of the next steps you need to take to optimize what is working and fix what is not. Some of the changes may entail any combination of the following: website improvements, advertisement creative iterations (different sizes to fulfill different ad placements), investments in new features (virtual assistant, email marketing), creating new ad formats (maybe programmatic video is an area of opportunity). 

The research you gained from steps one and two will guide and inform the next steps you take to improve your omnichannel user experience

However, (excluding any extenuating circumstances in which your audience is not heavy mobile users) one area that we always recommend is the prioritization of mobile. Omnichannel marketing blends the offline and online experience, and mobile is integral to that online portion. In 2019, smartphone users in the US adult spend over 3 hours on their phone every day – and as the age of consumers skews younger, the time spent on a mobile device skews higher. Consumers aren’t just browsing on their phones, last year, 79% of smartphone users made a purchase online using their mobile device. Make sure your site is optimized for mobile, and your ad formats are sized and optimized for mobile placements.

4. Prioritize Data Organization and Implementation

As you continue to improve your omnichannel user experience, your team will begin to gather varying data sets from different sources. (You can find some tips for creating a data-driven mindset within your company, including data organization and optimization strategies here.) This will include both customer journey data (similar to the data you analyzed in steps one and two) and consumers’ personal data, such as names, email addresses, mailing addresses, etc. Ensure that the data is being stored in an effort to integrate it and optimize it in your content.

In an era where consumer privacy and data-sharing is at the forefront of people’s mind, it is essential that you use this data effectively. 80% of consumers expect, want, and prioritize brands that put them at the forefront of their shopping experience.  If consumers are sharing their data with you, they want you to use it to enhance their user experience. 

To successfully meet consumer expectations, will require a throughout data onboarding and integration that bridges the gaps between the offline and online experience. Knowing where consumers are in their purchase journey, what products they have browsed in the past, if they looked at something online but bought it in person are all data points that create a better user experience. And, should all be captured, analyzed, and utilized throughout your advertising campaigns if your data processes are set up effectively. 

With thousands, if not millions, of data points, this step can seem daunting. However, it cannot be overlooked. Learn more about effective data onboarding, integration, and marketing analytics here

5. Continue to Evolve and Adapt

The steps outlined above is not a one and done process. Consumer shopping and browsing preferences are constantly changing and so too will your omnichannel user experience. You may need to test new email campaigns, re-align your focus to programmatic audio advertisements, or test new buy online pick-up in-store features, the way. 

It’s essential that you constantly research your consumer base and what their buying journey looks like so that you can align your solutions and services to best meet their needs. Start from step one when necessary and move through the entire process as you see areas of opportunities or potential areas of improvement emerge within your business.

It’s time to get started, where do I begin?

Now that you understand the steps required to create a seamless omnichannel user experience, you may be wondering how best to get started. For many companies, finding an omnichannel marketing company is the best solution. Partnering with a team of experts that understands the ins-and-outs of the industry, changes on the horizon, and best practices for a successful omnichannel user experience brings great value to your brand. 

At Digilant, our full-service omnichannel marketing services span across programmatic, social, influencer, affiliate, TV, radio, podcast, and more.  Our team of data analysts, biddable-media platform experts, and ad tech specialists, planners, and strategists understand what a digital media strategy requires – radical transparency and a team of experts who are agile and flexible. 

We understand that no omnichannel strategy is alike, which is why we start from the beginning with all of our clients, with consumer research to define the target audience. This leads to the development of an integrated media strategy and sets the stage for campaign analysis and measurable performance. 

Interested in learning more about the audience insights the Digilant team can uncover for your brand in an effort to establish a seamless and successful omnichannel user experience? Let’s talk.

Programmatic Digital Advertising: Pros & Cons for a Growing Business

Have you considered incorporating programmatic digital advertising into your marketing efforts? If so, you might have done a little research, and you may have already answered some of the questions you had when you were just starting out. If you’re new to this idea, however, there’s a whole world of information that’s just waiting to be uncovered. With this in mind, let’s take a little closer look at the world of programmatic digital advertising so you can better understand the pros and cons associated with this method of marketing.

What is Programmatic Digital Advertising?

Programmatic digital advertising is a method of marketing that utilizes technology to buy and sell online advertising space. It’s helpful in that it can target segmented audiences using real-time data in ways that humans simply can’t accomplish. In the end, programmatic ad buys to ensure that advertisements are delivered to the right people at the right times.

Elements of Programmatic Digital Advertising: Pros and Cons

When you hire a digital advertising agency, you should be comfortable knowing the agency’s team will take your brand under its wing and guide you from there. If you’re seeking programmatic digital advertising assistance, you might feel a little lost at first. Fear not! We’ve got everything you need to know about the use of this type of technology in the marketing realm.

1. Humans Still Need to Oversee the Process

Programmatic advertising, by definition, is run by computers (or, some might say, robots). However, people still need to be at the helm, monitoring analytics, and ensuring buys make sense. If a digital marketing agency has bad practices or inexperienced staff, you could find yourself wasting viewability or worse, not being seen at all.

Cons: It’s easy to lose money on programmatic digital advertising if you don’t hire the right team.

Pros: The right digital advertising agency will have a team in place that can launch, manage, and execute successful programmatic advertising campaigns.

2. Programmatic Digital Advertising is Highly Efficient

There was a time when online spots were purchased by humans. Those employees would sit at their desks for hours on end, calling up other people and trading money for ad spaces. This was a slow and unreliable process. Today, algorithms do the work.

Cons: Your employees may have less interaction with peers they may have spoken to in days-gone-by.

Pros: Programmatic digital advertising is incredibly efficient, doesn’t have vacation days, and never calls in sick.

3. It’s Important to Know that Bots are Real

Almost any digital advertising agency you talk to will tell you that bots and ad fraud, unfortunately, are a real thing that you might have to deal with in the digital arena.

Cons: Some companies have been known to create bots that click on advertisements over and over again, running the advertiser’s budget into the ground. Online traffic fraud is a real thing, but it doesn’t have to stop you from putting your brand out there. You just need to employ a digital advertising agency that knows how to look for thieves and miscreants so they can be squashed before your budget bears the brunt of unfortunate actions.

Pros: When you employ a digital advertising agency that knows how to work programmatic buys, they’ll pay attention to unsavory clicks and ad fraud that could cost you a lot of money and put a stop to those behaviors as they’re happening.

4. ROI Can Be Substantial

When you’re not paying humans to do all the little things that algorithms can bring, you might be surprised about how much less you’re spending on your marketing budget in comparison to the amount of money you’re bringing in.

Cons: Bots and unsavory competitors can eat away at your marketing budget pretty quickly. (Thankfully, that’s not a very common occurrence, especially for small business owners.)

Pros: When everything’s been programmed and set up to go, machines will keep chugging along until you meet your goals or hit your budget. This ensures you maximize your ad spend and get a higher return on investment overall.

5. You Have Unlimited Access to Audiences

When you use programmatic technology, you have access to real-time data that can help you match your brand to targeted ads when and where people are most likely to pay attention to them.

Cons: If you don’t have an experienced digital advertising agency on your team, the data can be a little overwhelming when it starts to trickle in.

Pros: Real-time data helps reduce the likelihood that you’ll buy wasteful ads or target incorrect traffic, which can save you time and money in the long run.

Why You Should Explore the Possibilities that Programmatic Digital Advertising Can Bring to Your Business

When it comes down to it, you’re operating a business, and you need to put your brand in front of as many people as possible. While marketing teams may be amazing for a thousand different reasons, the humans that man those roles can’t really stand up to the robots and algorithms that facilitate efficiency, effectiveness, and overall great returns on investment. If you truly want to bolster your brand into the next category of being seen, you need to employ technology to purchase your ad spaces in today’s cyberspace.

At Digilant, we understand programmatic digital advertising because that’s what we do. If you want to work with a team of professionals whose day-to-day livelihood revolves around this type of technology, we’d love to talk to you. Let’s touch base so we can tell you more about our team!

The Effect of Privacy and Compliance Changes on Programmatic Strategy

The Effect of Privacy and Compliance Changes on Programmatic Strategy

via PM360

What is the effect of privacy and compliance changes on programmatic strategy for pharma marketers?

“Healthcare and life sciences are some of the highest regulated industries. Consumer health and medical record information are heavily protected, which can create major challenges for marketers who want to invest in programmatic. But challenges often give the best rewards and this certainly rings true in this case.”

– Raquel Rosenthal, Digilant CEO

Learn more about what healthcare and life sciences marketers should consider to take on programmatic with confidence here.

What Does a Full Service Marketing Agency Do?

When it comes to a full service marketing agency, you might be surprised about all of the tasks the team on the other side of the screen can handle. A stellar digital advertising agency takes care of everything from digital marketing to content creation and website development. Bear in mind, however, that none of this happens overnight. A great full-service marketing agency takes time to plan strategies well in advance of campaign executions, hones in on your branding and messaging, and monitors the results as the analytics begin to roll in.

With this in mind, let’s dive a little deeper into the role of a full service marketing agency so you can see how this type of setup might help your business.

Solutions-Focused Services

When you’re searching for a digital advertising agency, you want to find a team that’s able to deliver a wide range of services. Digilant is proud to say we’re here for you in this area, as we focus on improving our clients’ businesses by all means possible. This means we can help you concoct awesome email campaigns, design unbelievable landing pages, and promote yourself on social media sites.

No matter what you’re trying to accomplish, our full-service marketing agency can take care of your needs (and then some).

Teams with Varied Backgrounds and Experiences

At Digilant, we find that it’s important to tout our employees’ talents to our clients so they can see the wide breadth of knowledge that each person brings to the table. Our digital advertising agency is filled with professionals from various backgrounds and years of experience in what they specialize in, be it inbound marketing, programmatic ad-buying, direct response marketing, or paid affiliate marketing.

Digilant’s team members come from a varied array of experiences, bringing with them a combination of creativity and analytical skills that bolster each project we take on.

Open Collaboration and Communication Within the Team

At Digilant, we believe in being the type of full service marketing agency that thrives on being transparent and communicative with our clients. We want you to understand that the person who’s helping with your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts can easily reach out to the social media manager if they need to connect about ideas or exchanges. The same goes for the folks who will be working on your paid advertising, paid influencer, or paid affiliate marketing campaigns. To us, the machine is really well-oiled when everybody can get together and share ideas. That’s what makes our clients’ campaigns successful.

Creation of Branding and Design

Your digital advertising agency should be able to offer you the ability to bring your ideas to life by way of creative touches and innovative processes. At Digilant, we’re a full service marketing agency that offers a complete range of creative services that are built to both engage and inspire your audiences. We’re experts in media planning and strategy, creative development, and analytics oversight.

Media Planning & Strategy

We’ll talk to you, listen to what your ideas are, and bring our team of experts in to make everything cohesive. Our in-house team of media planning gurus understands strategy, and will happily bring their insight into your project. These people can help you understand your existing data, plan for future success, and make informed decisions that can drive greater brand awareness going forward.

Creative Strategy

When you work with this team at Digilant, you’ll be exposed to professionals who understand audiences and create campaigns around their needs and expectations in ways that are engaging and far-reaching.

Paid Search Marketing

If you really want to be successful with your marketing endeavors, you have to make friends with the search engines. This is where our paid search team can help you. We help companies gain audiences within searchers’ SERPs (search engine results pages) so they can boost their rankings and enjoy highly-targeted search engine optimization and paid search programs. We make sure you have the keywords and proper phrases woven into your content and online advertising so you get the most attention possible for your efforts.

Lead Generation

Everything a great digital advertising agency does ultimately revolves around generating well-qualified leads for its clients. It takes a mix of a lot of ingredients, including:

  • Content marketing
  • SEO
  • Email marketing
  • Marketing automation
  • Paid advertising
  • Website and landing page creation
  • Data integration and onboarding

Choosing a Full Service Marketing Agency

In the end, it’s our team’s goal to make sure you get as much attention to your brand as possible. When you work with us, you’ll realize a number of benefits, including a scalable solution that can change on a dime, depending on your business’s needs. This isn’t always possible with an in-house marketing team, and the costs associated with training, development, and software can easily find small business owners in over their heads when the bills come due. For us, as a full service marketing agency, you only have to worry about one thing: sharing your thoughts with us. We’ll take care of the rest, including data integration and monitoring of analytics.

Digilant is a premier digital advertising agency that knows how to take advertisers from “now” to “next”. Our team of experts is filled to the brim with creative ideas that can take your brand to the next level. If you’re ready to elevate your digital marketing strategies, we’re ready to step in and help. Connect to our team today!

Marketing Campaign Attribution Strategies for Medium-Sized Businesses

When it comes to finding the right marketing campaign attribution for your medium-sized business, it is important to trust in a digital marketing agency that understands what strategy will provide the best results. There are no two businesses that are exactly alike, which means no two marketing strategies should be the same either. The right marketing campaign attribution can make or break your success each year. Depending on whether you need short or long sales cycles to successfully operate your business, you will find success from following any of these five strategies.

Making Campaign Attribution Models for Business With Short Sales Cycles

Short sales cycles are important to understand because your business does not have a long period of time to nurture a lead into a customer. These individuals are looking to quickly purchase a product or schedule a service. Often, these leads already understand what your business offers. Therefore, they do not need to go through extensive touchpoints of engagement to decide if they will do business with your company.

1. First-Touch Attribution

As the name of this attribution implies, this strategy looks at your customer’s engagement history from the very first time they engaged with your brand in the sales cycle. Whether this first point of engagement was in-person, via email, on a social media post, or through your website, it is important to identify how each of your leads have found your company. This is an incredibly easy strategy to build and maintain because it follows the exact timeline of interaction. You can see the history of your customer’s engagement with your company and understand what actions lead to them finally making a purchase.

When you trust a digital marketing agency to build this strategy for you, you can ensure any and all automated events will be properly logged. Furthermore, you can trust that those who need to be notified about engaging with a lead are properly notified at the exact right time. You will not need to worry about losing out on a sale simply because your sales team was not notified of a customer inquiry.

2. Last-Touch Attribution

Similar to the last attribution strategy, last-touch attribution identifies the final engagement with leads before they become customers. While it is important to understand your customer’s history, it is even more important to identify trends in actions or conversations that lead to conversions. These conversions are what drive your business forward and provide you with the revenue needed to excel each year.

Fortunately, this strategy is just as easy for a digital marketing agency to build for your business. All pertinent information that needs to be logged can be done so with ease. As more leads convert into customers, your agency can provide you with detailed reports that show what made the conversion possible.

Making Campaign Attribution Models for Businesses With Long Sales Cycles

Long sales cycles require multiple touchpoints of engagement to fully nurture a lead into a paying customer. In order to reach a decision that leads to conversion, your business must understand how to nurture the lead. This process is lengthy and required detailed notes on each point of engagement.

3. U-Shaped Attribution

With U-shaped attribution, it combines some of the ideas of the first touch and last touch attribution strategies. Especially, this strategy provides 40 percent of credit to the first point of contact along with the last engagement that leads to conversion. The remaining 60 percent is evenly divided to the mid touchpoints that occurred through the sales cycle. This type of strategy paints a complete picture of how media, messaging, and marketing tactics hooked, nurtured, and converted leads into customers.

By trusting a digital marketing agency to create this attribution strategy for your business, you can begin to fully understand your customer journey and fine-tune your sales cycle. There will not be a guessing game on what happened between the first point of engagement and the last touch. Rather, you will see the mid touchpoints and be able to determine if they need to be expanded or decreased in order to create the most efficient sales cycle.

4. W-Shaped Attribution

A W-Shaped attribution strategy evenly distributes credit to the first, last, and mid touchpoints. This type of strategy does still focus on the first and last points of engagement before conversion, but this strategy is important when all engagement is important for obtaining conversion. With a W-shaped strategy, you understand the points of engagement that both nurture and convert leads.

A digital marketing agency can help you identify all the various touchpoints that are apparent in your sales cycle. Once these are identified your agency can help you analyze data to determine if these touchpoints are more likely to educate or persuade your leads on your offering.

5. Time-Decay Attribution

A time-decay attribution strategy recognizes that events leading up to conversion carry more weight than events that occur earlier in the sales cycle. While gaining interest is important, the touchpoints that convert leads into customers are ultimately what increase your revenue. Therefore, more value is credited to the final events in the sales cycle.

Your digital marketing agency can help you determine which events are crucial to converting your leads in the final hour. These events are identified based on past sales, speaking with the individuals who interact with your leads, and understanding what actions your leads can complete without speaking to your company. This information is compiled and used to assign the best values to each touchpoint.

Trust In Marketing Campaign Attribution To Improve Your Sales

Whether your business follows a short or long sales cycle, you can improve your results by understanding what events are crucial for converting customers. For others, only the first or last touchpoints are important. For other businesses, understanding the mid touchpoints or the final stages of the sales cycle is what makes a difference in their sales. 

Whatever model your business follows, Digilant can assist you. Please do not hesitate to contact us today to learn how we can help you understand your sales cycle and increase your conversion

 

Comparing Desktop vs. Mobile Attribution for ROI and Conversion

The customer journey is just as important as offering the highest quality product or service. The days of offering just the best product or service are in the past. Now, your business must also give customers the best experience possible in order to win their business and retain their loyalty. With the number of brands operating across the globe, the customer is in a position to go with whoever offers them the highest value and most pleasurable journey. This means your company must use the right marketing attribution models to provide the most seamless customer journey. Once you understand the difference between mobile attribution and desktop attribution, you and your digital advertising agency team can determine what type of journey you need to provide your customers.

Mobile Attribution vs. Desktop Attribution

Mobile attribution is used to understand the types of marketing campaigns and media channels that will deliver specific goals. These goals can focus on app installations, click-through rates, submissions, or other actions that are vital to the customer journey and sales cycle. The actions completed by your customer during this journey will occur on a mobile-friendly device, such as a smartphone or tablet. The information that is obtained drives optimization for customer acquisition campaigns and overall marketing performance.

Desktop attribution is used to understand the web pages and digital marketing efforts that drive traffic to a company’s website. This attribution will also review the customer touchpoints throughout the customer journey that are specific to the website and any PPC campaigns being run on search engines. The data can come from any web page, whether it through the mobile version of your website or the desktop version.

Value Of Marketing Attribution

When it comes to marketing attribution, it is important to understand the values that both mobile and desktop attributions can provide your business. Each type provides unique insights that allow your digital advertising agency team and yourself to fully understand your customer journey. In order to successfully analyze your current marketing efforts, you must evaluate the data obtained through both attributions.

In regards to the value of mobile insights, you can fully understand how individuals complete specific actions while on their smartphones or tablets. Understanding where they click, how they get to your app or website, and what touchpoints they are utilizing to learn more about your business are incredibly valuable to improving the customer journey.

On the other hand, desktop attribution values are also important. Learning how traffic arrives to your website and what content marketing pages are responsible for educating your customers helps you determine which marketing strategies are performing the best. Furthermore, it allows you to evaluate the ROI your digital advertising agency is able to provide to your business.

Challenges With Each Attribution Type

As with all things in digital marketing, each type of attribution comes with its own unique challenges. It is important to understand what these challenges are in order to properly analyze the data and understand where some interpretation of the numbers may be required.

Mobile attribution can be difficult to trace with 100 percent certainly. This is largely due to the limitations of tracking touchpoints. It is impossible to determine if you have outlined every single engagement point for your customers. While you can certainly get close, you cannot know if your customer followed the journey you have predicted. Additionally, not every individual who purchases a product or service from your company will have access to a smartphone or tablet. This means that the data compiled from this attribution will eliminate a portion of your total audience.

In regards to desktop attribution, some of the challenges include assessing if the customer utilized multiple devices to discover information about your company. It is possible for one customer to use two, three, five, or more devices. If they opt-out of cookie tracking, it will be difficult for you to identify each desktop attributed interaction and link it to a single customer. This can cause your data tracking to be skewed and create multiple customers when, in fact, all of these engagements were completed by a single individual.

Trust Your Digital Advertising Agency To Provide The Right Customer Journey

Each attribute type is incredibly important for your business to understand. Otherwise, you cannot provide the best type of customer journey for those who are interested in your business. As our world continues to aggressively move into mobile prioritization, mobile attribution is incredibly important to focus your resources on. If your customers cannot easily learn, browse, and shop for your offering from their favorite devices, they will find another company that makes the process simpler. Additionally, this attribution type will ensure you fully understand what actions lead to your specified goals.

On the other hand, desktop attribution is still vitally important. This type of attribution ensures you understand how the deliverables produced by your digital advertising agency impact your customer journey. Between content marketing and social media efforts, desktop attribution helps you understand what drove traffic to your website.

Depending on your business, it may be in your best interest to use one or both attribution models. The best way to determine this information is to trust in a digital advertising agency like Digilant. We can help you understand your customer journey and identify what actions need to be taken to help your business grow. Please do not hesitate to contact us today!

Top 7 Digital Advertising Trends to Look Out for in 2021

As technology continues to develop, so do the ways brands advertise to their customers. Each year, it is important for a digital advertising agency and business owners to understand the upcoming digital advertising trends. By understanding these new trends, brands and agencies can stay ahead of the competition and provide better ROI. Otherwise, companies will fall behind those who invested the time and resources to learn the latest marketing trends. Those who develop the latest trends into their current marketing strategy will reach their audience easier and build relationships that nurture leads through the sales process more efficiently. Without further delay, let’s jump into the digital marketing trends of 2021.

1. Increase Social Media Engagement

As social interactions remain limited due to the novel coronavirus, engagement on social media will retain its importance. A digital advertising agency must have a plan in place to quickly respond to followers on various social media accounts. No one wants to wait days to get a response to simple questions, so it is important to have a detailed plan in place that addresses how and when messages must be addressed.

Furthermore, engagement on social media comments is also vital. Individuals are extremely limited in who they can see in person. If they are taking time out of their day to comment on a brand’s social media post, it is the brand’s responsibility to respond in a timely manner. The increase of time spent online and at home means followers have more freedom to engage with who they deem worthy. In 2021, brands will increase time spent responding to comments to ensure their followers know their messages are appreciated.

2. Additional Focus On Google Listings and Local SEO

Google My Business profiles will continue to be important in 2021. However, simply having a Google My Business profile will not be enough. The profile must be fully filled out and optimized for SEO. There is no longer an acceptable excuse as to why hours, specials, and contact information are not completely accurate. More individuals will turn to Google and search engines to find pertinent information before leaving their homes. In order to ensure these individuals call the right number, go to the right address, or purchase the right product/service, the Google My Business listing must be updated often and maintained correctly.

Local SEO will continue to reign king in digital advertising trends. The best digital advertising agency will continue to grow their efforts and deliver the most traffic possible to your website and your physical location. A large focus on new city location pages and blogging efforts will drive SEO efforts in 2021.

3. Communicate Availability

The novel coronavirus will still be making headlines in 2021. To ensure individuals have the most up to date information, companies will improve the way they communicate their availability. If their offices are open, it will be known. Should teams now work remotely and a physical location is no longer operating, brands will need to share this information. These details will become a regular addition to social media and email marketing efforts.

4. Google Ads Continue To Rise

PPC advertising has always been a powerful tool, but it will be even more important in 2021. With more individuals at home, digital advertising trends regarding PPC will continue to rise. As consumers search for news, products, and services, brands will want to appear on the top of results. Rather than waiting to organically gain a ranking on the first page, brands will pay to play in order to reach the top.

5. Increased Voice Search

Since more individuals are home, they are using their voice assistants more often. From Bixby and Siri to Alexa and Google, individuals are searching more by voice. This trend has always been growing, but it will be vital for a digital advertising agency to understand in 2021. Voice searches require a different SEO strategy than local SEO and mobile-friendly blogs. However, the results will speak for themselves once a proper voice search strategy is employed.

6. Deeper Customer Segmentation

A deeper understanding of the customer will be required in order to fully market to them in 2021. The more time someone spends online, more information about them can be learned and logged into a CRM. From the pages they visit on your website to which emails they actually opened and clicked on, a complete understanding of your customer can be achieved. This information can be used to segment them into proper marketing campaigns, which will garner the highest ROI.

7. More Interactive Content

Static, one-way conversations are an idea of the past. In 2021, interactive content and meaningful conversations will be the new normal. Social media stories, polls, forms, quizzes, and more will take over the social media realm. Individuals who spend time interacting with brands in 2021 will want to feel like they are part of the conversation rather than part of the crowd.

2021 Will Bring New Digital Advertising Trends 

It is no secret that the world we live in is changing rapidly. From the way we interact with one another to how often we leave our home, 2021 will bring about many changes. It is important for brands of all sizes to understand the digital advertising trends that are quickly arriving.

Digilant is the digital advertising agency you can trust to monitor, learn, and adapt to these trends as they arrive. Your marketing campaigns will incorporate the latest trends of 2021 and every year’s trends moving forward. Please do not hesitate to contact us today and inquire about our digital advertising services.

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