Digital Marketing

Why Digital Marketing is Important for Your Business

May 29, 2019 by K-Kom

You want your business to reach more people. But it becomes harder with people having exposure to so much information out there. How would your message reach people going through the clutter and chaos of information? How do you ensure you’re not lagging in the marketing game? You must come up with better ways to deliver your message and advertise your services/products.

The digital age we live in calls for digital marketing. Whether you run a big business or have a small startup, digital marketing is a necessity rather than an option. Here is why you need digital marketing to get your business going:

Reaching Your Target Audience

The main reason digital marketing is a ‘must-have’ for your business is it targets a specific audience. Advertising through television, newspaper/magazines or other channels is not as effective in targeting the audience as digital marketing. Digital marketing tools help you deliver your message to your main audience. Search advertising (Google Ads, Bing Ads, etc.) is a digital marketing method for targeting specific demographics. You can target people based on interests, profession, education level, or buying behavior, i.e. identify people who are most likely to buy your products.

Cheaper and Affordable Marketing

Digital marketing is cheaper than traditional marketing methods. The cost per lead (CPL) is much lower with digital marketing. In many cases, a social media campaign or a website ad can advertise your business to a larger populace, at a fraction of the cost of a TV advertisement. Digital marketing is hugely beneficial in terms of affordability for small businesses and startups.

Creative Marketing

Digital marketing allows you to be more creative with your marketing campaign. Your website and advertisement brochures should have the following characteristics to attract customers:

Unique and eye-catching logos
Innovative forms of texts and buttons
Catchy phrases and tag-lines to target a specific audience
Creative visuals and graphics

Advanced Analytics

You have to analyze how well your business marketing is going. You can’t have an exact idea of the reach of a TV ad, but digital marketing allows you to know how the audience interacted/engaged with your ad by answering these questions.

Whether they found it appealing enough?
Did they share it with someone?
Did the ad lead to a sale or not (convert)?

You can even analyze your audience based on how they interacted with the ad. You’ll know who’s more interested in your ads and learn how to better tailor your creative techniques towards your target audience. You’ll also learn which type of websites they’ve visited, and how that lead them to your website.

Increased Revenues

With effective digital marketing tools, your sales increase, (along with your profit). According to Google surveys, companies with digital marketing have better revenue growth expectancy by 2.8% annually.

Get Your Business Going

Digital marketing is more convenient, affordable and profitable than ever. You can target potential customers and directly affect the bottom-line. Your business needs digital marketing to reach out and sell better than your competitors. We can help get your business booming, stand out among your competitors with our fresh new marketing ideas that are sure to convert your leads.

K-Kom Marketing Values & Factors for Success

February 20, 2018 by K-Kom

Every business that wants to thrive for many years to come will do so more successfully if values and goals are clearly written and understood by everyone within the company. If everyone knows the real meaningful reasons behind why the business exists, it will provide added motivation and purpose to the work being done. When the people care, it shows through to customers and the community.

The people of K-Kom Marketing live and work by certain values and we keep a few important success factors in mind while we do what we do.

5 Factors for Success

1. Integrity

Always be honest. Period.

2. Discipline

Utilize and hone self-control.

3. Hard Work

Work, not necessarily harder, but better and more efficiently, and constantly gain new skills and improve existing abilities to be better this year than ever before.

4. Social Skills

Work easily (and pleasantly) with others while also effectively communicating. Take time to learn how to improve communication skills.

5. A Supportive Team

This is important at work, and especially at home. A supportive environment is crucial for anyone to do and be their best everyday.

9 Important Values for Marketing & Branding

Be Unique

Be somehow different from your competitors and make sure it’s in a way that is relevant and important to your clients.

Be Consistent

Do what you do, but be consistent about it. From service or product quality control to posting on social media, to customer service. Be that company that people can rely on in an unreliable world.

Be Focused

Determine the focus of your business, while not boxing yourself into a tiny niche without the ability to logically expand products or services later.

Have a Personality

There’s nothing worse than a business that is just that – a business – untouchable by customers and voiceless. If customers feel you’re above them or unreachable, all personal touch is gone and so is any reason to be loyal to your brand.

Be True to Yourself

Ie. what your company stands for. If you say one thing and do something contradictory to that, people will lose respect for your brand, see you as inconsistent and will more likely move on.

Respect Branding Boundaries

Don’t cross categories. Expand your products or services in a way that makes sense to the categories you’re most skilled in and which are most profitable.

Word of Mouth

No matter how much marketing you do, word of mouth will always bring in the best customers. People trust people more than businesses, especially if they’re people in their inner circle.

Be Committed

This applies to you as a business owner most, but also to your employees. You all need to be committed to the business, motivated, and excited to see your goals come to fruition.

Branding is Discipline Not a Science

Stick to your guns, especially if you know what you’re doing will work in the long run. If you’re tempted to take the business in a completely different direction, step back and think about it. Sometimes pivots are 100% necessary for a business’ survival, but changing an already successful business model can potentially destroy it.

4 Reasons to Hire a Digital Marketing Agency

December 7, 2017 by K-Kom

As a business owner, you’ve likely gone between the ideas of expanding your internal marketing team and hiring a marketing agency to handle it all for you. Here are a few benefits to hiring an agency that your internal team may not be able to match.

Time for Changing Trends and Maintaining Skills

The world of digital marketing changes almost daily, so it takes dedicated time on a regular basis to stay on the cutting edge of techniques and the most important SEO factors. Does your internal team have time for this? Usually this is not the case, whereas it is a digital marketing firm’s job to do this, otherwise, we would become obsolete!

Capacity for Busy Times

When your company runs into a hectic time of the year, whether that’s during a trade show or a new product launch, other marketing efforts tend to be put on the backburner (likely in times you need it most). Utilizing a digital marketing agency in times like these is useful since there are more people to take care of the things that need to be done to ensure maximum business success on your end.

Creative Thinking and New Perspective

Marketers are trained to think creatively about new ways to increase sales and customer loyalty. Using the same techniques for 20 years can be detrimental to growth, but seeing new opportunity from the inside can be very difficult.

Marketing companies not only bring a new perspective, they have knowledge on changing trends in marketing and your industry, as well as examples of what has and has not worked for their other clients.

If your company has a lot of layers that make it difficult for anything to change, an agency can bring the right changes to the table and the reasons for why those changes need to happen.

Efficiency = Time and Money Saver

When you hire a digital agency, your internal team can focus on what needs to be done for the business, to get things done in the best possible way, without worrying about taking two hours of the day to write a blog and post to Facebook.

Probably the best strategy would be to find a happy medium, keeping your internal team minimal yet functional for the small things and as a liaison between the business and a marketing agency. Invest in your business’s future and watch the improved results come in!

B2B Internet Marketing Strategies Part 3: Be Heard

September 19, 2017 by K-Kom

The last step in this series of B2B internet marketing strategies is all about being heard. Even if you’re reaching a good audience, are they reaching you and then leaving right away?

Create Commitment

Make it very easy for people to get in touch and stay in touch through the website, social media, or any way your audience prefers.

If you are frequently sharing great content on your site, make sure social links are easy to see so people can like, follow, and share it.
Create an email subscription form so you can reach out to people on a regular basis with a newsletter or coupons.
Make more robust content like white papers or eBooks “gated” – that is, require a trade of an email address, survey answer, or other info for the download. This gives you a quality list of leads (just don’t do too much of this).

Engage with People Online

It’s important to talk to your customers, listen to them – both compliments and complaints. Resolve their issues, talk to them about fun things related to your business. The purpose of digital marketing is not only to create more sales for yourself, but to revive customer retention rates, give each person a unique, personal experience, and cause an increase in referral customers.

If you really have a quality business, make this known to other people in a way that they’ll want to share it with all their friends. That model will give you long term growth and success.

Competing in the digital economy in some industries has become an overwhelming and sometimes difficult task. Focusing on these three essential B2B internet marketing strategies consistently will give you a great competitive edge and a strong, committed customer base.

If you’re like most business owners and know you don’t have time to keep track of these extra things, utilize the B2B marketing services offered by K-Kom, and we’ll work together with you to grow your business to the next level and beyond!

B2B Internet Marketing Strategies Part 2: Be Seen

September 12, 2017 by K-Kom

The first step in a successful B2B internet marketing strategy we talked about was to be found using techniques like having a good website, using the most up-to-date SEO practices, listening to competitors and customers on social media, etc.

The second step for great digital B2B marketing is to be seen. With brand loyalty being more rare today, having your brand name seen on a regular basis by the right people is increasingly important. While this loyalty is going away using old strategies, consumers still want to be able to trust their product/service, and in the end, a brand. It’s a different game than in the past.

Using Social Media

We’ve all heard about how important social media can be for businesses especially in the eyes of Google. This can also be a very powerful tool in offering customers added value, for free, proving that your business cares about what it does more than the profit it makes.

Occasional CTA On Social

Your social channels should be a strategic blend of great value for customers, discussions, problem-solving/customer support, and customer-created content. It’s good to throw in a few call-to-actions here and there to remind people to buy or be a repeat customer. BUT do NOT spam, and do not do this every day. Everyone is already bombarded by so many ads, and they will probably unfollow your page if that’s what you become.

Using Paid Media

Paid ads are the traditional marketing method known to every business out there. These are still very important, but with Google Adwords and social media paid ads, especially Facebook, tracking effectiveness and how much your budget is working and how much isn’t, is not a secret. Putting together a strategic landing page and creating a few ads based around a particular phrase you know your ideal customer uses to search for your product or service, can be very cost-effective and worthwhile.

For social media ads, this is where knowing your audience comes in handy. With the detailed targeting options Facebook and other social platforms have developed, these can be some of your best investments in online advertising.

“Upcycling” Content

Content is important, so many people have taken to creating lots and lots of it every day, and often some great pieces are quickly forgotten or missed altogether. If you have a content source from a business that is not a competitor but is still relevant to your audience, share or reshare the most valuable items, or take some of your best older posts and reshare them to boost visibility. Reformat it, expand it into a whitepaper, make a video out of it, create an infographic out of it, a slideshow, or even interview an industry expert about it.

If you’re a busy business owner and simply don’t have time for all of these things, contact K-Kom, and we’ll partner with you to build on your B2B internet marketing strategies and set your brand up for long-term success.

B2B Internet Marketing Strategies Part 1: Be Found

September 5, 2017 by K-Kom

The first step in achieving business success online is by first being found, and not only that, but being found by the right people (the ones that will do business with you of course).

A Great Website

The first place people will look online, or the first thing people will likely find especially while searching on Google, is your website. The first impression someone gets should be as positive, clear, and simple as you can make it. You want your best side to show through, what sets you apart from your competition, and why they should choose to do business with you, rather than the search result below or above you.

Is the information all up to date? Is the purpose of the site clear (the user knows right away to call, send a request for quote, buy from your physical or online store, or whatever you want them to do first)?

Great Content

This ties right into the website. Again is all the info accurate and clear? Is there too much to look at? How many things are you asking the person to do at once (ideally only one or two simple things to begin with).

Make sure to have good quality, updated photos and videos as well. People are highly visual and photos can easily explain something more effectively and quicker than a paragraph of text. It doesn’t hurt to also include that paragraph of text near the photo or as a caption for Google’s purposes.

A good brand video is also very helpful on the homepage, showing you the owner talking about the goal of your business, why it’s important to you, and why your potential customers should trust you over your competitors.

SEO Search Engine Optimization

Google and other search engines have a method for sorting websites based on what a person searches for, and which website seems to be the best and most relevant choice to display at a particular time.

Social Listening – Who’s Your Audience

Assuming you know your audience, really dig into what these individuals are saying on social media, especially when it comes to daily struggles, problems they have regarding your industry service or product. It’s also very important to listen to your competitors to stay on top of industry trends, and social influencers that have an impact on your customers.

With this first step in your B2B internet marketing strategy, you’ll be starting down the path towards a strong brand and an increased bottom line!

If you’re like most businesses owners and have a thousand other things to think about and do with your time, contact K-Kom and ask about our specialized B2B marketing services. We’re ready to grow your business with you!

Time For a Marketing Checkup

August 29, 2017 by K-Kom

Have you had a chance to check your marketing progress for the year? We’re already flying through third quarter, so it’s a good idea to see if you’re on track with your goals, and determine what needs to change to ensure you meet your financial goals for last quarter to finish the year strong.

Compare Benchmarks to Your Real Numbers

Bring together all the benchmarks you set for yourself and all the results from any campaigns or experiments you ran that have finished. Are you on track? Did some exceed your expectations? Did some fail miserably?

Maybe you made your goals too vague like “increase brand awareness”. If this is the case, here are some guidelines to make specific goals that can be measured more effectively, SMART goals:

Specific

Define as much is possible, eg. who is involved, what needs to be accomplished, where it will be done, why it needs to be done (reason, purpose), and any constraints or requirements that exist.

Mesasurable

Can progress be tracked and the outcome measured? How much, how many, how will it be known that the goal is accomplished?

Attainable

Is the goal reasonable enough to be accomplished? How so? It should not be out of reach or below standard performance.

Realistic/ Relevant

Is the goal worthwhile? Will it meet the needs of the company? Is it consistent with other goals established and does it fit with immediate or long term plans?

Timely

Include a time limit. “I will complete this step by 1 April 2018”. This helps to establish a sense of urgency and prompts better time management.

Adjust goals and strategies accordingly, figure out what problems need solving and solve them before you spend any more marketing budget! Then continue on your way to growing your business.

Collect Some Qualitative Data

It’s important to know if your customers are happy, if salespeople are hearing specific complaints, and/or compliments on anything in particular. Same with customer service. What types of reviews are people leaving on your Google My Business or social media channels?

Are people saying nothing at all? If that’s the case, reach out and ask for reviews, send out surveys, put a short easy survey on your website to answer questions you’re curious about that could help the business move forward.

What to Do Now

Once you have some diagnosis for what you’ve done well and what you need to change, start doing it! But if you begin changing things, make sure to only change one major thing at a time if you’re experimenting, so you know what’s really working and what isn’t.

Grow Any Business Online in 4 Easy Steps

July 25, 2017 by K-Kom

Lots of businesses are enjoying huge profitable success with an investment into their digital presence. With the ability to measure with a fine-tooth comb what is and isn’t working allows for some major advantages over traditional marketing paths, including saving precious time and money. Here are four major steps your business can take to vastly improve your digital footprint no matter where you are in that journey (side note: if you don’t have a website, do this first, then continue with the list).

Layout your digital business goals and stick to them

Too many businesses out there do not have a real plan, and this is what causes them to fizzle out in the long run. Having a blueprint allows you to try something, and compare your goals to your results, making it far easier to analyze and determine where the problems are, and what needs to change immediately.

Target your audience online

First you must really get to know your audience at a deep level. Where are they online? What other things do they like? Are there any new niches you can tap into that would be even more relevant for one of your products or services? If they’re on any social media channels, establish a page for your business in every place you can that will be relevant and potentially valuable. All of these platforms will serve as a “salesperson” that doesn’t need a commission ;).

Create helpful, quality content

Reciprocity is a powerful principle that is respected by most people. Give someone some value, without asking for anything in return, and if you’re giving to the right people, they’ll be far more interested in what they can buy from you.

Be mobile-friendly

Something that Google search engine now punishes websites for is not being optimized for mobile, and not being lightning fast. Does your mobile site make sense? What are your customers supposed to do on the site, and is it easy for them to accomplish these goals? Is it easy for you? Some businesses have experienced an increase in revenue simply by increasing the speed and usability of their websites.

There are far more details and things you can do to grow your personal business online, especially depending on the progress you’ve already made in this journey. But, these are some major points that if you conquer, your revenue should no doubt increase.

Contact K-Kom today to learn more about these steps and the various other ways to grow your business in the digital world, including social media strategy.