MODULE 1

Introduction to Digital Marketing

History
Digital marketing effectively began in 1990 when the Archie search engine was created as an
index for FTP sites. In the 1980s, the storage capacity of computers was already large enough
to store huge volumes of customer information. Companies started choosing online
techniques, such as database marketing, rather than limited list brokers. Databases allowed
companies to track customers' information more effectively, transforming the relationship
between buyer and seller.
In the 1990s, the term digital marketing was coined. With the development of server/client
architecture and the popularity of personal computers, Customer Relationship
Management (CRM) applications became a significant factor in marketing technology. Fierce
competition forced vendors to include more services in their software, such as marketing,
sales, and service applications. Marketers were also able to own online customer data
through eCRM software after the Internet was born. This led to the first clickable banner
ad going live in 1994, which was the "You Will" campaign by AT&T, and over the first four
months of it going live, 44% of all people who saw it clicked on the ad. Early digital
marketing efforts focused on simple HTML websites and the burgeoning practice of email
marketing, which allowed for direct communication with consumers.
In the 2000s, with increasing numbers of Internet users and the birth of the iPhone, customers
began searching for products and making decisions about their needs online first, instead of
consulting a salesperson, which created a new problem for the marketing department of a
company. In addition, a survey in 2000 in the United Kingdom found that most retailers still
needed to register their own domain address. These problems encouraged marketers to find
new ways to integrate digital technology into market development. At the same time, PPC
advertising, introduced by Google AdWords in 2000, allowed businesses to target specific
keywords, making digital marketing more measurable and cost-effective.
The mid-2000s saw the emergence of social media platforms
like Facebook (2004), YouTube (2005), and Twitter (2006). These platforms revolutionized
digital marketing by facilitating direct and interactive engagement with consumers. In
2007, marketing automation was developed as a response to the ever-evolving marketing
climate. Marketing automation is the process by which software is used to automate
conventional marketing processes. Marketing automation helps companies segment
customers, launch multichannel marketing campaigns, and provide personalized information
for customers., based on their specific activities. In this way, users' activity (or lack thereof)
triggers a personal message that is customized to the user in their preferred platform.
However, despite the benefits of marketing automation many companies are struggling to
adapt it to their everyday uses correctly.
Digital marketing became more sophisticated in the 2000s and the 2010s, when the
proliferation of devices capable of accessing digital media led to sudden growth. Statistics
produced in 2012 and 2013 showed that digital marketing was still growing. With the
development of social media in the 2000s, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube,
and Twitter, consumers became highly dependent on digital electronics in their daily lives.
Therefore, they expected a seamless user experience across different channels for searching
product information. The change in customer behavior improved the diversification of
marketing technology.
The term "Digital Marketing" was coined in the 1990s. Digital marketing was formally
known as and referred to as 'online marketing', 'internet marketing', or 'web marketing'.
Worldwide digital marketing has become the most common term and has taken off in the
business industry, especially after the year 2013. However, in other countries like Italy, digital
marketing is still known as web marketing.
Digital media growth was estimated at 4.5 trillion online ads served annually with digital
media spending at 48% growth in 2010. An increasing portion of advertising stems from
businesses employing Online Behavioural Advertising (OBA) to tailor advertising for internet
users, but OBA raises concerns about consumer privacy and data protection.

Meaning of Digital Marketing

Digital marketing, also called online marketing, is the promotion of brands to connect with
potential customers using the internet and other forms of digital communication. This
includes not only email, social media, and web-based advertising, but also text and
multimedia messages as a marketing channel.
Digital marketing typically refers to online marketing campaigns that appear on a computer,
phone, tablet, or other device. It can take many forms, including online video, display ads,
search engine marketing, paid social ads and social media posts.
Digital marketing is often compared to “traditional marketing” such as magazine ads,
billboards, and direct mail. Oddly, television is usually lumped in with traditional marketing.
Did you know nine-in-ten U.S. adults go online on a daily basis? Not only that, 41% are
online “almost constantly.” As a marketer, it’s important to take advantage of the digital
world with an online advertising presence, by building a brand, providing a great customer
experience that also brings more potential customers and more, with a digital strategy.
A digital marketing strategy allows you to leverage different digital channels–such as social
media, pay-per-click, search engine optimization, and email marketing–to connect with
existing customers and individuals interested in your products or services. As a result, you
can build a brand, provide a great customer experience, bring in potential customers, and
more.
According to a study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Mailchimp, "88% of
marketers believe their marketing organization must increase its use of automation and AI to
meet customer expectations and stay competitive." Digital marketing provides an excellent
opportunity for marketing automation.

Digital marketing VS Real Marketing

Comparison
Traditional marketing Digital marketing
basis

It is one type of marketing that

It is one type of marketing that
utilizes media, TV, or magazine to
Definition uses the internet and social
advertise any business's services
media for advertising businesses.
and products.

Engagement Low Relatively high

Conversion Slow Extremely fast

Nature Static Dynamic

Investment
Not easy to measure Simple to measure
returns

More expensive Less expensive

Effectiveness
Less effective More effective

Targeting Standardized Customized

Tracking Not possible Possible

Reach Local Global

Not possible once the advertisement

Tweaking One can change or edit anytime
is placed

Results Slow results Quick and live results

 It is mostly one-way
Communication It is a two-way communication
communication

It is not easy to skip the One can easily skip between

Interruptions advertisements, as they are bound to advertisements if it does not
the users. interest them.

Digital Marketing Channels

10 Key Digital Marketing Channels
Here are 10 of the most popular digital marketing channels and how they work:
1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of making your website easier to find on
search engines like Google and Bing. Typically, SEO marketers create an SEO strategy that
involves finding the right keywords to emphasize on their website. The goal is for visitors to
search specific keywords and find their website in the top results.
Advanced SEO techniques involve tactics like link building, where a marketer encourages
others to link back to their site for a higher priority in search engine results. For example,
Ahrefs achieved a lot of backlinks by creating a page of statistics that others would want to
cite in their content.
Ahrefs backlinking study
2. Social Media Marketing
In social media marketing, marketers post content on social media and interact with other
accounts to become more visible on platforms like Facebook and Instagram. With so many
people spending their free time on social media, social media marketing lets you expose your
brand to thousands of people.
If you invest in social media marketing, you’ll need to narrow your strategy to the right
platforms for your audience. For instance, if you run a fashion ecommerce brand, Instagram’s
emphasis on visuals could serve you well. Little Women Atelier takes advantage of
Instagram’s content by highlighting the cottagecore aesthetic associated with its dresses.
Little Women Atelier on Instagram
3. Email Marketing
Email marketing involves connecting with your customers over email. Customers sign up for
your list, and you send them emails that build their trust and promote your product. Since it’s
an opt-in process, you’ll have an audience who wants to read what you send them, making it
easier to get a positive response.
Emails are a popular channel for brands to share promotions on. For example, sewing
supplier WAWAK sends regular emails to share daily specials.
WAWAK
But, of course, emails offer plenty more possibilities than just promotions. Read our list of
email marketing ideas to understand how wide the scope can go.
4. Content Marketing
You’re currently reading an asset for content marketing. Content marketing refers to raising
awareness about your brand and product through content like blog posts, interactive tools,
and videos. This practice aims to deliver interesting and engaging content that inspires
visitors to learn more about your brand.
While blog posts often come to mind as a format for content marketing, podcasts are also a
growing medium to try. Dock runs a podcast on business growth called Grow & Tell that
drives its content strategy as much as its blog. It even recently hired a content strategy
coordinator to manage podcast-related tasks specifically.

Grow & Tell Show | Growth Stories

5. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is digital advertising where you pay third-party publishers to promote
your products or services. It gives you more places where your brand is mentioned and
provides publishers with content and earnings. This ad model still has plenty of potential in
2023, but watch for affiliate marketing scams that lead to wrongfully earned commissions.
One major brand with an affiliate marketing program is GoDaddy. Site owners can place a
GoDaddy link or banner on their website and receive a commission when someone clicks on
it. In exchange, GoDaddy raises more awareness about its products.
GoDaddy Affiliate Programs
6. Mobile Marketing
Since it involves any marketing practice related to mobile phones, numerous tactics fall under
the mobile marketing umbrella. It can include approaches like:
 Mobile ads
 Promotional apps
 Text message marketing
Mobile marketing works especially well for audiences who use their phone often, including
tech-savvy people of any age and younger demographics. Identify what technology they use
most on their phone and market your brand there.
Food delivery service Mercato uses texts to remind customers that their service is available
for them to get their necessities. Thanks to the fast nature of texting, it could count on its
customers to receive its message during the weekend while it’s timely.
Mercato Grocery Store Delivery
7. Paid Search (SEM)
In addition to SEO, search marketing has another popular channel: paid search, also known
as search engine marketing (SEM). SEM can include SEO, but when referred to separately
from SEO, it covers paid tactics for raising your availability on search engines. Search
engines provide ad space to buy that places your brand or product at the top of results pages.
SEM ads come in various forms, including Google Shopping ads. Look how when I search
“marshmallows,” all sorts of listings for marshmallow products come up at the top of the
search engine results.
8. Native Advertising
Also known as sponsored content, native advertising encompasses ads designed to work with
the surrounding content. The three main types of native ads are:
 In-feed ads that blend in with surrounding content on a publisher’s site
 Content recommendations that appear beside a publisher’s content
 Branded content in the form of unique content on a publisher’s website
PC Gamer runs in-feed ads on its home page in the form of coupon codes. They match the
rest of the home page formatting but take you outside the site.

9. Video Marketing
Video marketing refers to marketing on digital video platforms. It includes both short-form
and long-form videos. The various video marketing ideas we have to share demonstrate how
diverse this channel can be.
You’ll often see video marketing cross over with other marketing channels since video is
such a versatile content format. For example, Aldi’s TikTok page has elements of video
marketing and social media marketing since TikTok is a video-centric social media platform.
The marketers behind its TikTok page keep best practices for both social media marketing
and video marketing in mind to succeed.
Aldis on TikTok
10. Pay-Per-Click Advertising
Popular ad platforms usually follow the pay-per-click advertising (PPC) system, where you
pay a certain amount every time someone clicks your ad. The keywords you target and the
goals you set determine how much you owe when you get a click. You can invest in PPC for
search engine ads, social media ads, and ads that appear on other websites.
Here’s an example of the last category — websites. Mashable runs ads on its website that it
pays for whenever someone clicks on them.

Mashable
How To Choose The Right Digital Marketing Channels For Your Business
Developing an effective digital marketing channel strategy involves choosing channels that
align with your marketing and business goals. Use these tactics (in no particular order) to
scope out potential marketing channels:
 Evaluate your budget: Investing in some channels, such as paid search, costs more
than starting others, like organic social media marketing. Look over your marketing
budget and think about how much you can afford to spare to experiment with new
channels.
 Know your audience: Perform in-depth customer research to understand where your
audience gets exposed to marketing and what resonates with them most. For example,
if your audience likes to use recipes, maybe you could check out native ads on recipe
sites.
 Think of your strengths: Reflect on what marketing skills you excel at and look for
channels where you can make the most out of them. For example, if you have a
successful personal TikTok account, you could check out video or social media
marketing.

How to create a digital marketing plan

Now, let’s talk about the various digital marketing plan components as well as the specific
steps to follow as you develop your strategy.
1. Define your digital marketing goals and business objectives
Clear, measurable, and attainable digital marketing plan objectives help you define exactly
what you want to achieve and measure. Be clear and concise when you set these goals. You
should also include specific numbers and timeframes to benchmark your progress.
For example, avoid goals that state you will update your lead generation system, boost
conversion rates, or improve digital customer experience. Those are a bit too vague. You
can’t measure your results and it’s not apparent what steps you should take to reach that goal.
Instead, a much better goal is to double organic search traffic in the next 12 months. This
provides you with a deadline, a framework for setting milestone goals, and specific actions to
take (optimize your site, create amazing content, and conduct strategic outreach for SEO,
etc.).
“

SMART goals are: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

2. Define audience segmentation and buyer personas

A key reason why digital marketing is important is because it allows you to target your
audience with great precision.
For any digital marketing campaign to be successful, you need to know who you’re targeting.
Segmenting your audience and then building buyer personas for each of those segments can
provide you with insights about what types of marketing will be most effective.
For example, say you sell IT services. Part of your audience might be small businesses with
less than $500,000 in revenue. You might also sell to large corporations with significant IT
needs. Your buyer personas and marketing strategies for each of these segments will look
very different. Messaging that resonates with a small business owner probably won’t resonate
with the head of a large IT department, and vice versa.
Start by defining the different segments in your target audience. From there, begin building
out the personas of your ideal customer within each segment. Here are 9 great examples of
personas to get started.
Your buyer persona information will vary depending on whether you’re B2B or B2C and the
price of your product/service. Some demographic and additional information you may want
to include is:
 Age range
 Income
 Job title
 Location
 Priorities
 Goals
 Challenges
 Interests
 Social media platforms
 Industry
 Pain points
 Products/features desired
Your goal in creating personas is to get inside the minds of your target customers and to see
things from their perspectives. When you understand what matters most to them, you can
make a digital marketing plan that speaks to their deep desires and big challenges.

3. Conduct a competitive analysis and determine market share

If you want your marketing efforts to be effective, you need to know who you’re up against.
A competitive analysis allows you to identify your competitors, calculate your market
share, and determine the marketing strategies they employ.
When doing your competitive analysis, consider the following types of things:
 Which audience segments are they targeting?
 What digital marketing channels are your competitors using?
 Where are they strongest?
 Where are they weakest?
 What portion of their traffic is earned/owned/paid?
 What’s their positioning in the market?
 What’s their claimed differentiation?
 What type of messaging and specific language do they use?
 What is their tonality and brand personality?
A thorough competitive landscape analysis will give you insights into how you can use online
marketing to surpass your competitors. For example, you may realize that your competitors’
positioning and differentiation are well known, so you’ll benefit from crystalizing your own
in contrast. Or, you may discover they’re strong in social media marketing but weak when it
comes to search engine optimization (SEO) performance.
4. Conduct a SWOT analysis
SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) is the counterpart to a
competitive landscape analysis. It offers a framework to analyze your business against other
forces in your market. Use this process to identify what’s working, spot potential organic
growth opportunities, and prepare for external threats.
Start by analyzing the strengths of your company. What are your primary advantages over
your competition? Which things do you do particularly well? What unique resources do you
have at your disposal?
Next, look at your weaknesses. What elements of your business aren’t working particularly
well? What things keep you from making sales? Where do you fall short of your competitors?
The third step is to look closely at the opportunities available to your company. Are there any
market trends you can take advantage of? Can you utilize new technology that your
competitors can’t? Is there an under-served segment in your audience?
Finally, identify any potential threats to your business. Could a competitor steal market
share? Are there any obstacles blocking business growth? Are there potential financial issues
on the horizon?
The data from your SWOT analysis will help you develop your digital marketing plan. Your
plan should cater to your strengths, mitigate your weaknesses, move toward opportunities,
and proactively avoid potential threats. All in the name of helping you to increase sales.
5. Calculate your digital marketing plan budget
The next step in creating the best digital marketing plan for your brand is to calculate your
budget. The budget will define how much you have available to spend on digital marketing
activities, as well as guide you toward specific channels, strategies, and tactics.
The amount you budget for digital marketing will vary based on a number of factors,
including:
 Revenue
 Position within the industry
 Previous results
 Goals
 Location
 Profitability of a strategy, tactic, or campaign
How much will you allocate to brand awareness campaigns? What about to specific
campaigns and offers? Are you going to allocate a certain amount of digital marketing budget
for customer retention? Do you know how much to spend on SEO?
It’s important to establish your budget upfront. However, remain flexible so you can
capitalize on opportunities for greater SEO ROI. If you notice that a certain campaign just
isn’t generating positive ROI, then you may be better off eliminating that spend. Similarly, if
you see that a certain campaign (or channel) is producing outsized results, consider shifting
the budget and allocate additional dollars towards what’s working well. If you have a specific
return-on-spend in mind that’s highly profitable, then keep increasing the budget as long as
you’re keeping your acquisition costs under the target.
In this way, your budget can be a dynamic, evolving support mechanism of your digital
marketing initiatives.
6. Define your digital marketing channels
Before you develop a content strategy, you’ll need to define the primary digital marketing
channels you’ll be using. Your choice of channels needs to take into account your audience,
goals, and budget.
For example, say your goal is to drive 30% more targeted traffic to your website. One way
to do that is through PPC ads, which can give you an immediate boost. However, Google
Adwords can also be expensive.
To improve ROI, turn to more cost-effective channels, like SEO and content marketing.
These channels take longer to produce results but also deliver a far lower acquisition cost,
giving you more bang for your buck. Plus, SEO and content marketing results compound
over time, setting you up for longer-term sustainable success.
When defining your digital channels, consider where your audience spends most of their
time. If you’re in a B2B industry, you may want to focus on channels like LinkedIn or
webinars. If your audience is younger, you may want to consider influencer marketing on
Instagram. Focus on how you can deliver value to your audience within the channels they
favor most.
And don’t assume your audience doesn’t care about great content. Some of the best content
marketing examples come from a broad range of companies with completely different
customers.

7. Develop your digital marketing strategies and tactics

After defining your channels, you need to develop the digital marketing tactics and strategies
you’ll use within those channels.
For example, if you’re going to focus on search engine optimization, you need to determine
the keywords you’re going to target and how you’re going to target them. You may decide to
create a comprehensive content hub, online courses, SEO topic clusters, or a series of
online tools. Or you may decide to provide more detailed, superior how-to information, or to
deliver insights on upcoming trends, or to deliver content featuring celebrities.
If you’re focused on b2b lead generation, you may want to create case studies that
showcase your results. As you think through your digital marketing plan look for ways to
differentiate yourself from the competition. For instance:
 Dollar Shave Club caught people’s attention by being funny and irreverent in a
traditionally boring industry.
 Tableau offered a free online tool and garnered backlinks from more than 56,000
websites.
 LEGO created an online, interactive community with more than 300,000 in
monthly organic traffic.
The more crowded the market space, the harder you’ll need to work to capture attention and
achieve true optimization across your digital marketing portfolio. No matter what, when
you build your digital marketing strategy, be true to your brand.
8. Create a marketing calendar
A marketing calendar allows you to map out exactly when you’ll implement your digital
marketing campaigns and initiatives. It also creates accountability, ensuring that you hit
deadlines and effectively execute the plan throughout the year. A calendar also helps ensure
that you are consistently reaching each of your various audience segments throughout the
year.
Try to map out 12 months in advance, and break down your calendar into each month of the
year. Thiis will provide you with an overall framework, along with sufficient time to prepare
and execute on each delivery. For example:
 In January you’ll release a training webinar. Before you can release it, you need
to create a slide deck, build a landing page, design social media graphics, etc.
 Throughout January and February, you’ll promote the training webinar across
multiple channels, including social media, email, video, and PR.
 In March, you’re going to start a blog that will be updated weekly. To make this
happen, you need to decide on topics, assign them to writers, coordinate with a
designer, create a blog calendar, organize videos to be embedded, etc.
Be realistic when creating your editorial calendar. Give yourself sufficient time to get
everything done in a quality manner, and make sure that each deliverable is clearly assigned
to a specific individual.
Popular marketing scheduling tools include CoSchedule, Contently, and Trello.
9. Measure the results and KPIs of your digital marketing plan
The final step in creating a digital marketing plan and strategy is to measure your results
through the definition of metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs). You need to
compare the outcomes of your marketing efforts to the baseline as well as original goals. If
the results are underwhelming, adjust and optimize, and then measure again.
Be sure to measure each channel so that you, as a marketer, can identify what’s working most
successfully for your brand, and what may need to be cut.

Keep your entire marketing team informed through dashboards. Popular marketing
dashboard tools include includes Klipfolio, TapClicks, Grow, and Domo.

Content Management
Content management (CM) is the process for collection, delivery, retrieval, governance and
overall management of information in any format. The term is typically used in reference to
administration of the digital content lifecycle, from creation to permanent storage or deletion.
The content involved may be images, video, audio and multimedia as well as text.
Content management process
Content management practices and processes can vary by purpose and organization. This can
lead to differences in steps or terminology.
The stages of the content management lifecycle are the following:
1. Organization. The first stage where categories are created, taxonomies designed and
classification schemes developed.
2. Creation. Content is classified into architectural categories.
3. Storage. Content format and storage decisions are made based on ease of access,
delivery, security and other factors dependent on the organization's needs.
4. Workflow. Rules are designed to keep content moving through various roles while
maintaining consistency with the organization's policies.
5. Editing/versioning. This step involves managing multiple content versions and
presentation changes.
6. Publishing. The stage where content is delivered to users, which can be defined as
website visitors or internal publishing via the Intranet for employees.
7. Removal/archives. The final stage where content is deleted or moved to
an archive when it is infrequently accessed or obsolete.

Content governance
Content governance provides content creators with structure and guidelines. Digital content
management governance can help determine priorities, provide detailed standards, assign
ownership for content and provide access control. This helps to create a consistent user
experience, minimize content bloat and create internal controls.
Common governance tools that organizations use include content workflows, taxonomies and
style guides, along with records management tools which include audit trails for compliance.
Types of digital content management
For just about every category of digital content, there is a corresponding tool or process for
managing it.
 Social media content management. Social media content management tools help to
create an organized social media marketing strategy with defined goals and to analyze
engagement. Some social media content management systems include Sprout
Social, Google Analytics and BuzzSumo.
 Web content management. Web content management is used to create, manage and
display webpages. A web content management system (WCMS) is a program that
provides organizations with a way to manage digital information on a website without
prior knowledge of web programming and can include components for a specific
industry, such as a content management application (CMA) that automates the
production of HTML.
 Mobile content management. Mobile content management (MCM) provides secure
access to corporate data on smartphones, tablets and other devices. The main
components of MCM are file storage and file sharing.
 Enterprise content management. An enterprise content management (ECM) system
has components that help enterprises manage data effectively. ECM components are
geared to goals such as streamlining access, eliminating bottlenecks and minimizing
overhead, along with version control, routing, archiving, content governance and
security.
Popular CMS

The battle of CMS is as old as Internet itself. The first CMS was created in 1992, however the
first acting CMS was released in 1997. Enough with history, the three most famous CMS, that
occupies more than 70% of entire CMS market are: Drupal, Joomla and WordPress. All these
CMS are free of cost, Drupal and Joomla being as open source projects. Thousands of coders
are working on these three CMSs every day to provide best user experience worldwide.

What Is SWOT Analysis?

SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis is a framework used to
evaluate a company's competitive position and to develop strategic planning. SWOT analysis
assesses internal and external factors, as well as current and future potential. A SWOT
analysis is designed to facilitate a realistic, fact-based, data-driven look at the strengths and
weaknesses of an organization, initiatives, or within its industry.
Key Takeaways
 SWOT analysis is a strategic planning technique that provides assessment tools.
  Identifying core strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats leads to fact-based
analysis, fresh perspectives, and new ideas.
 A SWOT analysis pulls information from internal sources (strengths or weaknesses of
the specific company) and external forces that may have uncontrollable impacts on
decisions (opportunities and threats).
 SWOT analysis works best when diverse groups or voices within an organization can
provide realistic data points rather than prescribed messaging.
 The findings of a SWOT analysis are often synthesized to support a single objective
or decision that a company is facing.

Strengths
Strengths describe what an organization excels at and what separates it from the competition:
a strong brand, loyal customer base, a strong balance sheet, unique technology, and so on. For
example, a hedge fund may have developed a proprietary trading strategy that returns market-
beating results. It must then decide how to use those results to attract new investors.
Weaknesses
Weaknesses stop an organization from performing at its optimum level. They are areas where
the business needs to improve to remain competitive: a weak brand, higher-than-average
turnover, high levels of debt, an inadequate supply chain, or lack of capital.
Opportunities
Opportunities refer to favorable external factors that could give an organization a competitive
advantage. For example, if a country cuts tariffs, a car manufacturer can export its cars into a
new market, increasing sales and market share.
Threats
Threats refer to factors that have the potential to harm an organization. For example, a
drought is a threat to a wheat-producing company, as it may destroy or reduce the crop yield.
Other common threats include things like rising costs for materials, increasing competition,
tight labor supply, and so on.
SWOT Table
Analysts present a SWOT analysis as a square segmented into four quadrants, each dedicated
to an element of SWOT. This visual arrangement provides a quick overview of the company’s
position. Although all the points under a particular heading may not be of equal importance,
they all should represent key insights into the balance of opportunities and threats, advantages
and disadvantages, and so forth.
The SWOT table is often laid out with the internal factors on the top row and the external
factors on the bottom row. In addition, the items on the left side of the table are more
positive/favorable aspects, while the items on the right are more concerning/negative
elements.
How to Do a SWOT Analysis
A SWOT analysis can be broken into several steps with actionable items before and after
analyzing the four components. In general, a SWOT analysis will involve the following steps.
Step 1: Determine Your Objective
A SWOT analysis can be broad, though more value will likely be generated if the analysis is
pointed directly at an objective. For example, the objective of a SWOT analysis may focused
only on whether or not to perform a new product rollout. With an objective in mind, a
company will have guidance on what they hope to achieve at the end of the process. In this
example, the SWOT analysis should help determine whether or not the product should be
introduced.
Step 2: Gather Resources
Every SWOT analysis will vary, and a company may need different data sets to support
pulling together different SWOT analysis tables. A company should begin by understanding
what information it has access to, what data limitations it faces, and how reliable its external
data sources are.
In addition to data, a company should understand the right combination of personnel to have
involved in the analysis. Some staff may be more connected with external forces, while
various staff within the manufacturing or sales departments may have a better grasp of what
is going on internally. Having a broad set of perspectives is also more likely to yield diverse,
value-adding contributions.
Step 3: Compile Ideas
For each of the four components of the SWOT analysis, the group of people assigned to
performing the analysis should begin listing ideas within each category. Examples of
questions to ask or consider for each group are in the table below.
Internal Factors
What occurs within the company serves as a great source of information for the strengths and
weaknesses categories of the SWOT analysis. Examples of internal factors include financial
and human resources, tangible and intangible (brand name) assets, and operational
efficiencies.
Potential questions to list internal factors are:
 (Strength) What are we doing well?
 (Strength) What is our strongest asset?
 (Weakness) What are our detractors?
 (Weakness) What are our lowest-performing product lines?
External Factors
What happens outside of the company is equally as important to the success of a company as
internal factors. External influences, such as monetary policies, market changes, and access to
suppliers, are categories to pull from to create a list of opportunities and weaknesses.1
Potential questions to list external factors are:
 (Opportunity) What trends are evident in the marketplace?
 (Opportunity) What demographics are we not targeting?
 (Threat) How many competitors exist, and what is their market share?
 (Threat) Are there new regulations that potentially could harm our operations or
products?
Strengths Weaknesses
1. What is our competitive advantage? 1. Where can we improve?
2. What resources do we have? 2. What products are underperforming?
3. What products are performing well? 3. Where are we lacking resources?

Opportunities Threats
1. What new technology can we use? 1. What regulations are changing?
2. Can we expand our operations? 2. What are competitors doing?
3. What new segments can we test? 3. How are consumer trends changing?

Companies may consider performing this step as a "white-boarding" or "sticky note" session.
The idea is there is no right or wrong answer; all participants should be encouraged to share
whatever thoughts they have. These ideas can later be discarded; in the meantime, the goal
should be to come up with as many items as possible to invoke creativity and inspiration in
others.
Step 4: Refine Findings
With the list of ideas within each category, it is now time to clean-up the ideas. By refining
the thoughts that everyone had, a company can focus on only the best ideas or largest risks to
the company. This stage may require substantial debate among analysis participants,
including bringing in upper management to help rank priorities.
Step 5: Develop the Strategy
Armed with the ranked list of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, it is time to
convert the SWOT analysis into a strategic plan. Members of the analysis team take the
bulleted list of items within each category and create a synthesized plan that provides
guidance on the original objective.
For example, the company debating whether to release a new product may have identified
that it is the market leader for its existing product and there is the opportunity to expand to
new markets. However, increased material costs, strained distribution lines, the need for
additional staff, and unpredictable product demand may outweigh the strengths and
opportunities. The analysis team develops the strategy to revisit the decision in six months in
hopes of costs declining and market demand becoming more transparent.
Target Group Analysis: A Roadmap for Efficient Product Development
Understanding your audience is pivotal in today’s competitive business landscape, and that’s
where target group analysis becomes an essential part of market research. From launching a
new product to entering a new market, effective decision-making relies heavily on knowing
who your target group is, what they need, how they behave, and how best to reach them.
Significance of Target Group Analysis
In marketing, one size does not fit all. A strategy that works for one group of consumers
might not resonate with another. That’s why businesses segment their audience into target
groups—specific clusters of people who share similar characteristics and needs. Target group
analysis allows businesses to dive deep into each segment, understanding its distinct
characteristics and behaviors. With this valuable knowledge, businesses can tailor their
products, services, and marketing strategies to meet the specific needs of each group,
increasing their chances of success.
Diving into Target Group Analysis
Having established the importance of market research as the precursor to target group
analysis, let us now dive deeper into understanding what this analysis is, its significance, and
how it is conducted.
What is Target Group Analysis?
Target group analysis is a process in market research where the market is segmented into
distinct groups based on various factors such as demographics, buying behavior,
psychographics, and geographic location. Each group or ‘segment’ comprises individuals
who share similar characteristics, needs, or behaviors.
The primary purpose of this analysis is to allow a company to focus its marketing efforts on
the segment that is most likely to buy its product or service. By understanding the specific
characteristics and behaviors of these groups, businesses can tailor their marketing strategies,
messaging, and products or services to meet the unique needs and preferences of each target
group.
The Importance of Target Group Analysis
Understanding your target group is vital for several reasons:
 Efficient Resource Allocation: By identifying your target group, you ensure that
marketing efforts and resources are invested in reaching the consumers most likely to
convert.
 Tailored Marketing Strategies: Understanding the preferences and behaviors of your
target group allows you to tailor your marketing strategies to resonate with them
better.
  Improved Product Development: This analysis can provide insights that aid in
product development, ensuring the product meets the specific needs and preferences
of the target group.
 Competitive Advantage: Detailed knowledge about your target group allows you to
serve them better than your competitors, thereby gaining a competitive edge.
Conducting Target Group Analysis
Conducting a target group analysis involves several steps:
 Segmentation: Start by dividing your market based on common characteristics. These
can be demographic (e.g., age, gender, income), geographic (e.g., location),
psychographic (e.g., lifestyle, values), and behavioral (e.g., user status, usage rate).
 Targeting: After segmentation, evaluate the attractiveness of each segment. Consider
factors such as segment size, growth potential, competition, and alignment with your
company’s objectives and resources.
 Positioning: Once the target segments have been identified, create a market position
that differentiates your product or service from competitors. This involves tailoring
the 4 Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion) to match the characteristics and needs of
the target group.
 Monitoring: After implementation, it’s crucial to monitor performance and make
adjustments as necessary. Market trends and consumer behaviors are not static, and
your analysis should evolve in response to these changes.
 Module 2

Web Design
What is Web Designing?
Web designing is the process of planning, conceptualizing, and implementing the plan for
designing a website in a way that is functional and offers a good user experience. User
experience is central to the web designing process. Websites have an array of elements
presented in ways that make them easy to navigate. Web designing essentially involves
working on every attribute of the website that people interact with, so that the website is
simple and efficient, allows users to quickly find the information they need, and looks
visually pleasing. All these factors, when combined, decide how well the website is designed.
What Do Web Designers Do?
Web designers create the design and layout of a website with their technical expertise and
knowledge while keeping in mind the client’s requirements. They have a deep understanding
of UI (user interface) and UX (user experience) and are adept at using design programs for
creating visual elements. With their skills and expertise, web designers capture the brand’s
identity in the design elements of the website.
Visitors rate their experience with a specific website based on its aesthetics and how intuitive
it is in terms of navigation. Therefore, web designers use Adobe, CorelDraw, Inkscape, and
other design programs to create animations, graphics, icons, logos, and other elements of a
website to make it as interactive as possible. Web designers also focus on the creative and
visual side of the website and follow various design practices, such as symmetry, color
systems, proportions, etc. to engage visitors. Additionally, they work on fonts, placement of
images and videos, and creating layouts using coding languages.
Key Benefits of Having a Good Web Design
A good web design can transform how your brand speaks to your audience. Organizations
focus on their web design more than ever and look for professional web designers for the
apparent benefits it can offer. Some of these benefits include:
An Impactful First Impression
With a well-designed website, it becomes easier to make a grand first impression. For brands,
it is all about how potential customers or clients view their business, and this is greatly
influenced by how they view their website. Your website represents your brand, and when
you focus on web designing, it can help you create a compelling and powerful first
impression.
Better Google Rankings
Web designing has a variety of elements that are capable of bestowing your website with
better Google rankings. Some of these elements include readability, mobile-friendliness,
website speed, sitemaps, URL structure, and website navigation. A good web design has these
elements incorporated into the website, which gives you greater visibility both for your
audience and the search engine.
Brand Consistency
Several key assets of your brand, such as the logo, color scheme, and fonts can ensure your
audience remembers your brand and easily differentiates it from thousands of others. A
professional web designer takes into account all the unique aspects of your business and
blends them into your website to add to your brand credibility and portray consistency.
Minimized Bounce Rates
When your website is immersive and interesting, it encourages visitors to go deeper and
explore different sections of the website. Likewise, a website that is seemingly complicated
and difficult to navigate can prompt visitors to exit it within seconds. Bounce rates also
impact the credibility and rankings of your website. When your website is designed to retain
visitors for longer, you can escape premature exits and minimize bounce rates.
Key Elements of Web Design
A good website is one that displays a careful balance between appearance and functionality.
When your website is aesthetically pleasing but fails to offer the information or help your
audience with what it looks for, the aesthetics cannot make up for the lack of functionality
and vice versa. Therefore, web design comprises two broad key elements—aesthetic or visual
elements and functional elements—that are of equal importance to make your website stand
out.
Visual Elements
Visual elements come together and set a theme for your website, which leaves a great impact
on visitors when you get it right. It is crucial that every element compliments one another and
looks harmonious rather than chaotic. Visual elements include:
 Fonts
 Colors
 Shapes
 Layout
 Icons
 Logos
 Images
  Video
Functional Elements
Functional elements hold great importance in terms of how the search engine views your
website. However, they go beyond that and can influence user experience as well. Some of
the salient functional elements include the following:
 Navigation: The ease of access your website offers to your visitors to reach different
sections of the website
 User interaction: Offering users control by avoiding needless pop-ups, auto-play
videos, or overload of information
 Speed: Ensuring the page loads within a couple of seconds
 Site structure: A systematic structure that is easy to navigate both for visitors and the
Google web crawler
 Cross-device compatibility

What Are the Different Web Design Tools?

Web designers need access to certain tools to be able to create elements and layouts that can
be successfully placed on a website. Here are some of the most popular web design tools that
you can use as a professional web designer:
WordPress
WordPress is the most popular CMS to create websites with attractive themes. It also consists
of various free plugins that allow you to improve your website’s functionality.
Wix
A well-known website-building tool, Wix is the best choice for web designers who are not
well-versed in coding. You can use a simple drag-and-drop feature to create a layout of your
choice.
Squarespace
Squarespace has over a hundred website templates that you can use to create your own
layouts while manipulating the visual elements.
Shopify
Shopify is among the most sought-after storefront platforms that allow you to create digital
stores with certified SSL for businesses.

What is website optimization?

Website optimization is the process of using tools, advanced strategies, and experiments to
improve the performance of your website, further drive more traffic, increase conversions,
and grow revenue using a/b testing and other methods.
One of the most critical aspects of website optimization is search engine optimization (SEO).
The technique not only focuses on getting various pages of your website to rank high in the
SERPs for specific keywords but enables prospects to find your brand in the easiest possible
manner. The other critical aspect here is on-page optimization. This technique ensures that
prospects that land on your website have the best user experience compelling them to take the
desired action and convert into a lead.
So, by optimizing your website, you can not only tap into an untapped market in the most
effective and efficient manner (without paying for advertising) but open doors to more
conversions and revenue gains.
But, while SEO is an essential part of website optimization, it’s not the end-all-be-all of
optimization.

Optimizing your website for real people helps you gain your visitors’ trust, starts building a
relationship, and lets you sell products without having to jump on a sales call.
A holistic website optimization approach combines a variety of disciplines to make sure your
website performs ideally in all areas:
 SEO
 Copywriting
 Analytics
 UX Design (Frontend)
  Web Development (Backend)
 CRO/Landing Page Optimization.
If you specifically want to maximize sales and leads from existing traffic, you should read
our comprehensive guide on Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) instead.

Why is website optimization important?

Over the past decade, the Internet has emerged as a primary platform for consumer purchases,
with global online retail sales reaching $5.2 trillion in 2021 and projected to hit $8.1 trillion
by 2026.
The Internet has also become the go-to destination to find information on local businesses
(46% of total Google searches have local intent, and 78% of local mobile searches result in
offline purchases) as well as software companies, B2B enterprises, and more.
The internet is taking over the role of “asking a friend” in all industries. So by positioning
your business correctly, you can consistently turn people who had previously never heard of
your company into customers.
If you don’t optimize your website and your content, it doesn’t matter how many people
search for terms relevant to your business. Your site won’t show up in the results. Your
website and your business won’t get noticed by anyone.
But when you do optimize for search, you put yourself on the map. Consumers will search for
relevant terms, and your website and business will always show up.
By mastering Search Engine Optimization (SEO), you will generate targeted traffic
from interested buyers.
But it’s not enough to just optimize for search alone. If you only grow your traffic, and your
site’s content doesn’t appeal to potential customers, nobody will convert. Visitors will bounce
from your website without making a single purchase.
To make use of the traffic, you also need to optimize the user experience and efficiency of
your conversion funnels.
By mastering Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), you maximize the number of leads
and sales you generate from paid and organic traffic.
Another often overlooked benefit is that website optimization can lead to helping the
environment. So when you do optimization, you can help reduce the carbon footprint of your
website.
Read this article to discover the multitude of benefits and actionable strategies that can propel
your online presence to new heights.
Benefits of website optimization
No matter what industry you belong to, optimizing your website offers many benefits that can
positively impact your key business metrics and drive business growth.
Let’s look at some of the top benefits of website optimization.
1. Better user experience
The primary focus of website optimization is to help users achieve their desired goals on your
website.
Whether they want to learn more about your product, navigate through the various offerings,
or get in touch with a representative, website optimization makes it easier for users to
complete the desired actions.
Thus, one of the most important benefits of optimizing your website is that it improves the
user experience and ensures that your visitors have a seamless journey navigating through
your pages.
A positive user experience not only builds trust but also encourages visitors to explore the
website further, ultimately leading to higher engagement and conversion rates.
2. Improved visibility on SERPs
Ranking higher on search engines is tough, especially when your competitors are targeting
similar audiences and keywords.
However, the key to grabbing that top spot on Google includes a combination of factors such
as delivering valuable content, including relevant keywords, improving the page speed,
ensuring mobile responsiveness, and so on.

Image source: HubSpot

While these tasks may seem unrelated, they all fall under the umbrella of website
optimization.
By continuously working on these factors, you can drive user engagement, boost the
performance of your content, and also improve your website’s visibility among the SERPs.
3. Higher conversion rates
The primary focus of any website is to convert visitors into customers.
Website optimization helps you achieve this goal as it involves analyzing user behavior, using
A/B testing to find the best version of a page or element, and optimizing key funnels that
drive conversions.
Based on these key factors, you can fine-tune your website, guide visitors toward their
desired goals, and help them take relevant actions. All of these factors can together boost the
conversion rate of your website.
4. Discover friction points
While website optimization boosts user engagement and improves the overall experience, it
also helps you identify the problem areas on your website.
Also known as friction points, these problem areas prevent your visitors from having a
seamless experience on your website.
Whether it is a glitch on the page, slow loading time, unresponsive elements, or a confusing
navigational structure, these friction points can cause frustration among users and can even
lead to them abandoning your website altogether.
A key part of the website optimization process is identifying friction points through in-depth
analysis of user behavior and fixing them to ensure that visitors have a seamless, enjoyable
experience.
This not only improves user engagement but also sends positive signals to search engines,
further boosting your website’s visibility and credibility.
5. Gather insights into visitor behavior
Website optimization involves analyzing user data and metrics to identify areas for
improvement and track performance over time.
By leveraging both quantitative and qualitative analysis, you gain valuable insights into user
behavior, preferences, and trends. With quantitative analytics tools like Google Analytics, you
can get crucial data about website performance like bounce rate, conversion rate, etc.
However, by using behavioral analytics tools like VWO Insights – Web, you can gain deeper
insights into specific actions that visitors take on your website.
This data-driven approach enables you to make informed decisions and tailor your
optimization efforts better to meet the needs and expectations of your target audience.
6. Reduced customer acquisition costs
As you continue to optimize your website, you build an experience that caters to the unique
needs, challenges, and requirements of your visitors.
This also gives you a deeper understanding of their behavior, allowing you to create a cycle
of ongoing improvement and helping you to convert more visitors into customers.
Not only does this reduce the cost of acquiring new customers, but it also helps you to focus
your efforts on building a website that is optimized for every visitor.
7. Effective, long-term growth
Website optimization is not a one-time fix.
Instead, it is an ongoing process where you continuously analyze visitor behavior, identify the
key problem areas, improve crucial conversion paths, and boost the overall user experience.
Each of these steps is key to the growth and success of your business in the long term as it
helps you to stay on top of evolving audience behaviors and also allows you to adapt to
changing industry trends.
A solid website optimization strategy gives you a huge competitive advantage and helps you
boost conversions and drive long-term growth.
How does website optimization work?
The goal of website optimization is to make your site as appealing to search engines and real
people as possible. But how do you do that?
The first step to making anything better is to identify issues. You need to find out what’s
wrong with your current site before you can improve it.
That’s the foundation of any great optimization process.
It’s not enough to just brainstorm potential issues with your team. You don’t have the
bandwidth or experience to cover all areas. Instead, you should use available software tools to
search for potential issues with SEO, page speed, mobile usability, and more.
Below we’ve created a table overview of all major optimization areas, relevant tools, and
benchmarks you should meet or exceed to get results.

Area Optimization Tool Benchmarks

Page Loading Page Speed Insights 90+ score and subsecond first meaningful paint.
Speed

Mobile Usability Mobile-Friendly Test No issues and a “page is mobile-friendly”

message.

SEO (Backlinks Ahrefs, SEMRush, Moz Higher domain rating and more backlinks than
& DR) top competitors.

SEO (Technical Ahrefs, SEMRush, Moz Ahrefs: Health Score of 80%+SEMRush: SEO
On-Page SEO) Audit Score of 80%+Moz: Page Optimization
Score of 80+

SEO (Content) SEMRush (SEO Writing Benchmarks depend on each keyword’s

Assistant), MarketMuse competitiveness.

CRO (A/B VWO Testing Conversion rate benchmarks depend on the

Testing) industry, but 5.5% is the average for all
industries.

Finally, you should test the usability of your site with unaffiliated test users. The results will
give you a roadmap where you can coordinate optimization efforts with different teams.
Content writers can improve the content, website managers can improve site structure and
other on-page SEO issues, and designers can improve user experience as well as the look and
feel of your site.

5 website speed optimization techniques

Page load speed is one of the most crucial factors that can impact the ranking, performance,
and overall experience of your website.
While the average page load time for websites is 2.5 seconds, a study by Backlinko found
that the average page load speed of sites ranking on the first page of Google is just 1.65
seconds.
This is why it is important to continuously improve the speed and achieve faster load times
for your website. Here are 5 key website speed optimization techniques that you can
implement.
1. Focus on above-the-fold content
The above-the-fold section refers to the part of the website that appears when a page loads
before the visitor scrolls down.
By placing the most important content like impactful headlines, primary CTAs, and relevant
hero images in this section, you can ensure that visitors see crucial information as soon as
they land on your page.
This is helpful as your visitors can still interact with important content while the page is still
loading, thus preventing immediate drop-offs.
2. Optimize every image on your page
One of the best ways to boost website performance is to optimize the images that appear on
each page.
The most effective method to do this is to compress the images with tools like Photoshop, or
ImageOptim that not only reduce the file size of images but also maintain the visual quality.

Image source: Semrush

Another useful website performance optimization technique is to use formats like WebP for
your images as it offers better compression as compared to common image formats like JPEG
or PNG.
3. Use tools that have minimal impact on page load speed
Website optimization usually involves the use of various tools and analytics software that
give you insights and help you improve the user experience.
However, the integration of these tools with your website can sometimes impact your website
performance as they often increase the load time of your pages.
This is why it is important to rely on tools that not only help with website optimization but
also have minimum impact on the speed of your website.
For example, VWO requires you to install a code snippet, known as VWO SmartCode that
allows your website to interact with VWO’s servers.
However, this code snippet has minimal impact on the load time of your website as it loads in
parallel with your webpage. This means that the website speed is not affected by the addition
of the code snippet and also ensures a seamless experience for your visitors.
4. Implement lazy loading for better website performance
Lazy loading refers to the concept of delaying the rendering of images, videos, or other
content on a page until the visitor or browser needs it.
This is an effective website performance optimization technique, especially for pages that
have a lot of images or videos. Not only does it delay the loading of such non-essential
content, but it also ensures that the important content is loaded first.
By combining lazy loading with a responsive website design, you can significantly improve
the performance of your website and focus on optimizing the important content that appears
first.
5. Use a CDN to greatly improve page speed
Another way you can offset the load of images is by hosting all your media files and scripts
via a Content Delivery Network (CDN).
A CDN is a network of data centers around the globe. It will deliver your file to the visitor
from the server closest to their physical location. Using one can significantly speed up
loading times, as the physical distance the data has to travel will be a lot shorter.
Cloudflare and Amazon CloudFront are two of the most popular options on the market.

Microsoft Expression Web

Microsoft Expression Web is a discontinued HTML editor and general web design software
product by Microsoft. It was discontinued on December 20, 2012, and subsequently made
available free of charge from Microsoft. It was a component of the also
discontinued Expression Studio.
Expression Web can design and develop web pages using HTML5, CSS
3, ASP.NET, PHP, JavaScript, XML+XSLT and XHTML. Expression Web 4 requires .NET
Framework 4.0 and Silverlight 4.0 to install and run. Expression Web uses its own standards-
based rendering engine which is different from Internet Explorer's Trident engine.
 Develope Release Release
Major version Minor updates Notes
r date date

Included
in
1.0 (12.0.4518.101 Decembe Decembe
SP1 (12.0.6211.1000) Microsoft
4) r 2006 r 2007
Expressio
n Studio

Included
in
2.0 (12.0.4518.108 May Update (12.0.6329.500 Decembe Microsoft
4) 2008 0) r 2008 Expressio
n Studio
2

Novembe
SP1 (3.0.3813.0) Included
r 2009
Microsoft in
July April Microsoft
3.0 (3.0.1762.0) SP2 (3.0.3816.0)
2009 2010 Expressio
n Studio
October 3
SP3
2011

March Included
SP1 (4.0.1241.0)
2011 in
Microsoft
Expressio
July
4.0 (4.0.1165.0) SP2 (4.0.1303.0) July 2011 n Studio
2010
4

Decembe
SP2a (4.0.1460.0)
r 2012

Create a site

When you create a new site, it's added to Drive, just like other Drive files. Sites automatically
saves every change you make, but your site isn’t public until you publish it.
Create and name your site
The name you create here is the document name that appears in Google Drive. The document
name is only visible to you.
1. Choose an option:
 From the Sites homepage, at the top, click Blank, or to choose a template,
click Template gallery and select a template.

 From Google Drive, click New More Google Sites.

2. At the top left, enter a document name for your site and press Enter.

Add a site title

The site title appears in the header and in the web or mobile window title bar after you
publish the site. You need to have 2 or more pages in your website for your site title to appear.
1. On a computer, open a site in new Google Sites.
2. In the top left, click Enter site name.
3. Enter the name of your site.
4. Press Enter or Return.

Site document
name

Site title

Page title
Learn more at the Google Sites Help Center
Add and organize
Add a page
1. On a computer, open a site in new Google Sites.
2. At the right, click Pages.

3. At the bottom right, hover over Add .

4. Click New page .

5. Enter the page name.
6. Click Done.
7. To publish your changes, at the top right, click Publish.
Move a page
You can move a page under another page to create a subpage.
1. On a computer, open a site in new Google Sites.
2. At the right, click Pages.
3. Drag the page where you want to move it.
4. To publish your changes, at the top right, click Publish.
Create a new subpage

To create a new subpage, click Pages.Then, choose a page and click More
Add subpage.
Tip: You can create up to 5 levels of sub pages.

Copy or delete a page

1. On a computer, open a site in new Google Sites.
2. At the right, click Pages.

3. On the page you want to duplicate or delete, click More .

 To copy a page, choose Duplicate page.
 To delete a page, choose Delete.
 Tip: You can recover deleted pages by restoring to a previous version.
4. To publish your changes, at the top right, click Publish.

Add text and images to pages

Add text or headings

1. On a computer, open a site in new Google Sites.

2. On the right, click Insert Text box.

3. In the menu, click the Down arrow choose the text, heading, or title style you
want.
4. Add your text to the box.
 5. To publish your changes, at the top right, click Publish.

You can also add a banner to your site.

Add an image
You can add images in .png, .jpg, or .gif format. Follow the image usage guidelines.
1. On a computer, open a site in new Google Sites.

2. On the right, click Insert Images.

3. Choose where to get your image.
4. Choose an image and click Open or Select.
5. To publish your changes, at the top right, click Publish.

Add a section layout

1. On your computer, go to a site in new Google Sites.
2. On the right, click Insert.
3. Under "Content Blocks," drag the layout you want to your page.
4. Add text, images, docs, or videos.
5. At the top right, click Publish.

Continue designing your page

You can add many more elements to a page In Google Sites, such as:
 Collapsible text
 Buttons
 Search bar
 Image carousel
 Social media links
 And much more!
Change how your site looks

Add a pre-made theme

 1. On a computer, open a site in new Google Sites.
2. At the right, click Themes.
3. Under "Created by Google," select a pre-made theme.

Add a custom theme

1. On a computer, open a site in Google Sites .

2. On the right panel, click Themes.

3. Under "Custom," select Create theme .

4. Enter a name for your theme.
5. Select Next.
 You can also add a logo and banner image.

6. Select a color palette Next.

 To choose specific colors for different parts of your site, select Customize
colors.
7. Choose your fonts.
8. Select Create theme.
 In the right panel, you can continue to customize your theme.

Import a theme from another site

1. On a computer, open a site in new Google Sites.
2. At the right, click Themes.

3. Under "Custom," select Import theme .

4. Select any site Select a theme.

5. Click Import theme.

Preview your site

1. On a computer, open a site in new Google Sites.

2. At the top, click Preview .

 3. At the bottom right, choose a layout option.

4. To exit, at the bottom right, click Exit .

Let people review your site

Before publishing your site, you can let people review and edit your site.
Important: If you use a Google Account through work or school, your admin may limit your
ability to add an editor.
1. On a computer, open a site in new Google Sites.

2. At the top, click Share .

3. Under Share with people and groups, enter an email address.
4. Click Editor.
 Editors with a non-Google account can view a draft of your site, but cannot
edit it.
 To view a draft, an Editor with a non-Google account must enter a verification
code. You receive an email with this code when you’re invited to be an editor.
 Editors with a Google account can view and edit your site without a
verification code.
5. Click Done.

What is SEO?
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is defined as the process of improving (optimising)
the visibility of a website/webpage on Search Engines, such as Google, Bing, etc.
The higher your pages appear in search results, the greater the chance they are discovered and
clicked on. The objective of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is to attract website visitors
who can turn into customers, clients, or a loyal audience that consistently returns.
Why do we need SEO?
We need Search Engine Optimization for the following aspects:
 To improve the quality of our website
 To increase web traffic
 To increase visibility
 To enhance user experience
 To gain a competitive advantage
 For analysis and monitoring of the website
Suppose you have a website, that deals with either of the following:
 Products you sell.
 Services you provide.
 Information on topics in which you have deep expertise and experience.
Now if you don’t do Search Engine Optimization (SEO), let’s say your website ranks at rank
45 in the Google Search results, resulting in 100 unit conversions. Now, on the other hand,
the website ranking in the 1st position on Google Search for the same product has a
conversion rate of 10,000. So if you think about it, you are losing around 9,900 potential
customers just because you are not on the 1st position. This is the main reason why we need
SEO.
Basics of SEO
Some of the basic components of the SEO are as follows:
1. Keyword Research: Identify the most relevant keywords for your target audience.
Use tools like Google Keyword Planner, SE Ranking, SEMrush, or Ahrefs to find
keywords with a good balance of search volume and competition.
2. On-Page SEO: Optimize your content and HTML source code for search engines.
Include target keywords in the title tag, meta description, headers, and throughout the
content. Ensure your website has a clear and organized structure with easy
navigation. Website SEO Checker like SE Ranking can help you detect areas for
improvement and optimize your website accordingly for better rankings.
3. Quality Content: Create high quality, and relevant content for your audience.
Regularly update your content to keep it fresh and relevant. Use a variety of content
types, such as text, images, videos, and infographics.
4. Off-Page SEO: Build high quality backlinks from reputable websites to increase your
site’s authority. Engage in social media to increase your online presence and promote
your content. Encourage social sharing and participation.
5. Technical SEO: Ensure your website is technically perfect and easily crawlable by
search engines. Optimize page speed for better user experience and search engine
ranking. Implement a mobile-friendly design as it is a crucial ranking factor.
6. User Experience (UX): Provide a smooth user experience on your website. Improve
site navigation and structure to make it easy for users to find information. Reduce
bounce rates by offering engaging and relevant content.
7. Analytics: Use tools like Google Analytics to monitor your website’s performance.
Keeping track on important indicators such as organic traffic, conversion rates, and
keyword rankings. Analyze data to make the most appropriate decisions.
How Does SEO Work?
The most important topic that you need to learn in this SEO Tutorial is how does this SEO
search optimisation works. SEO works by optimizing various elements of a website to make
it more accessible to search engines, ultimately improving its visibility and ranking in search
engine results pages (SERPs). The goal is to increase organic traffic to the website.
1. Search Engine Crawling: Search engines, like Google, use automated bots (spiders
or crawlers) to navigate the web. These bots follow links from one page to another,
discovering and indexing content on websites.
2. Indexing: Once a page is crawled, its content is analyzed and stored in the search
engine’s index. The index is like a massive library catalog that the search engine
refers to when users enter a search query.
3. Ranking Algorithms: Search engines use complex algorithms to determine the
relevance and authority of indexed pages for specific search queries. Algorithms
consider numerous factors, including keyword relevance, content quality, user
experience, backlink profile, and more.
4. Keyword Relevance: Search engines assess how well a page’s content aligns with
user search queries. Keyword optimization involves strategically using relevant terms
in titles, headers, meta tags, and throughout the content.
5. Content Quality: The quality of content is crucial. Search engines aim to deliver
valuable, informative, and engaging content to users. Content that satisfies user intent
and provides a comprehensive answer to a query is more likely to rank higher.
6. Backlinks: Backlinks, or inbound links, are links from other websites to your site.
They are a signal of trust and authority. High-quality, relevant backlinks can
positively impact a site’s ranking.
How Does Google Makes Money?
Google makes money through various channels, and while search engine optimization (SEO)
itself doesn’t directly contribute to Google’s revenue, it plays a significant role in Google’s
overall business model. Here’s how Google generates revenue and how SEO indirectly
contributes to it:
1. Advertising (Google Ads):
 The primary source of Google’s revenue is advertising, particularly through its
advertising platform known as Google Ads.
 Businesses pay to display their ads on Google’s search engine results pages
(SERPs) and across its network, including websites and apps that are part of
the Google Display Network.
2. Search Engine Advertising:
 Through Google Ads, businesses can bid on keywords relevant to their
products or services. When users search for those keywords, the ads appear at
the top of the search results.
 The ads are typically labeled as “Ad” and are separate from the organic search
results.
 3. Pay-Per-Click:
 Google Ads operates on a pay-per-click (PPC) model, where advertisers pay
only when users click on their ads.
4. Keyword Data And Analytics:
 Google provides various tools, such as Google Analytics and Google Search
Console, that help website owners and marketers analyze data related to
website performance, user behavior, and search queries.
 While these tools are free to use, they indirectly contribute to Google’s
ecosystem by providing valuable data and insights to website owners,
potentially influencing advertising decisions.
5. Adsense and Admob
 Google AdSense allows website owners to display Google Ads on their sites
and earn revenue when visitors click on the ads.
 AdMob is a similar platform for mobile apps, enabling app developers to
monetize their apps through in-app ads.
6. YouTube Advertisements:
 Google owns YouTube, one of the largest video-sharing platforms.
 Businesses can run ads on YouTube through Google Ads, generating revenue
for Google when users interact with those ads.

What is SEO content?

SEO content is content created to help your website rank higher in search results, typically
optimized for a specific keyword that users will search for online. Creating content for SEO
involves keyword research, content writing, and more with the intention to drive more
organic traffic to your website.
Types of SEO content
Now that you know the answer to the question, “what is SEO content,” let’s dive into its
different types you might come across and create.
There are types of SEO content types, including:
 Blog posts: A blog can host tons of content topics and formats, including the ones on
this list, making it one of the easiest ways to product content for SEO. You can create
a blog post to answer common questions your audience searches for online, a how-to
guide to explain a process, and much more.
 Product pages: Product pages include detailed information about your products so
consumers can easily learn more about them. This content type is a great way to get
 your products in front of your target audience right when they start their search
online.
 Articles: Articles are usually longer and more detailed than blog posts. They can
include things like news articles, interviews, or feature pieces.
 Guides: Guides are in-depth pieces of content that explain how to something, what
something is, or how something works. Some guides may contain chapters that span
across multiple pages or they can be one large page.
 Videos: Videos are one of the most engaging tpyes of content for SEO. You can create
videos to showcase your products or services in action or create information and how
to videos to explain a process or topic.
 Infographics: Like the name suggests, an infographic is essentially a visual type of
content that contains a lot of info about a specific topic, usually in the format of
graphs, charts, or images. Infographics are a great way to engage your audience with
visuals and present info in an easily-digestable way.
 Glossaries: Many people use search engines to find the definition of words and
phrases. Creating a glossary of definitions related to your business, industry, and
products or services is a great way to give these users the answers they need, and
bring them to your website.

How to write SEO content for your website

Start writing SEO content for your website by following these nine tips:
1. Focus on creating shareable content for SEO to earn links
2. Choose a content format
3. Target long-tail keywords
4. Place keywords in the title tag
5. Include keywords in header tags
6. Feature related keywords throughout the body text
7. Optimize image ALT text for SEO
8. Make SEO content easy to skim
9. Add in-page links that use the targeted keyword
1. Focus on creating shareable content for SEO to earn links
Links are vital for SEO. If other sites think your content is worth linking to (inbound links),
search engines see it as a vote of quality. At the same time, linking to other sites (outbound
links), helps readers find additional resources on your topic.
As far as inbound links are concerned, your concern should be creating content that is worth
linking to and getting the word out via social media and promotion. Don’t try to spam forums
or comment sections with links to your site, and never buy links from other site owners.
In the case of outbound links, always be sure that the sites and pages you link to are relevant
and useful. If search engines notice that you are linking to spammy, low-quality sites, they’ll
start to recognize your site as falling into the same category.
2. Choose a content format
While text is the easiest to optimize for search engines, it’s a good idea to branch out and try
other formats if you have the resources. Images, videos, and infographics are all extremely
popular with visitors and can be a great source of inbound links.

3. Target long-tail keywords

Long-tail keywords are specific and should attract traffic likely to convert.

For example, the keyword “restaurants in Pennsylvania” might get a lot of searches per
month, but comes with a lot of competition.
Your business will have trouble ranking for this keyword, even if you create SEO-friendly
content. Optimizing for a keyword like “sushi restaurants in Harrisburg” would attract
searchers who are looking for restaurants like yours (instead of, say, a Mexican restaurant in
Philadelphia), and are likely to become customers.
4. Place keywords in the title tag
Your title tag sends a big signal to Google, as well as other search engines. That’s why SEO
content writing will involve writing an optimized title tag. Remember, title tags appear in
search results — they don’t appear on your page, like your header tags.

When you write title tags for your SEO content, you want to follow these tips:
 Include your core keyword
 Keep your title tag to 55 characters
 Use your core keyword at the beginning, versus the end, of your title tag
 Add your related keyword, if possible
In coordination with these tips, you also want to keep in mind the following factors:
  Readability: A readable title tag matters more than an optimized title tag. Generally,
you’ll have readability issues when you try to over-optimize your title tag, like by
including a related keyword that makes your title tag wordy.
 Accuracy: A title tag motivates people to click. If they arrive on your site, though,
and find your SEO content doesn’t match your title tag, they’ll bounce back to the
search results, which will hurt your rankings. Avoid click-bait titles and aim for
accuracy instead.
If you want to see how well your title tag performs for existing SEO content, try our SEO
checker.
Check My Title Tags
It’ll analyze your title tag and check its optimization. Based on its findings, it’ll provide tips
for improving not only your title tag’s optimization but also your content’s optimization
overall. Even better, it’ll include some related resources to help you write better title tags.
5. Include keywords in header tags
If you’re unfamiliar with HTML, header tags help readers see what your page is about and
skim it. Header tags are like chapter names for a book. If someone wants to skip to a
particular topic, they can use your header tags to find it. Header tags range from H1 to H6.
Besides users, header tags also help search engines understand your content. That’s why it’s
best practice during the SEO content writing process to optimize header tags with your core
or related keywords.

For
example, a post explaining the pros and cons of sushi may have the following header tags:
 H1: The Pros and Cons of Sushi
 H2: The Advantages of Sushi
 H2: The Disadvantages of Sushi
These header tags can target a few keywords related to this topic, including:
 Sushi benefits
 Sushi disadvantages
 Sushi benefits and risks
By including a keyword or two in your page headers, search engines will have an easier time
identifying your page’s topic, which means more accurate rankings. As a bonus, it makes it a
lot easier for site visitors to skim your content and find what they want.
6. Feature related keywords throughout the body text
Every piece of SEO content should target more than one keyword. That’s because people use
different words or phrases to ask the same question.
Someone wondering how to make sushi, for instance, may search “how to make sushi at
home,” while someone else will search “how to make sushi for beginners.”

A keyword research tool like KeywordsFX — it’s free — can help you discover related
keywords to target in your SEO content writing.
You can even use it to discover new content ideas, which can help you expand your SEO
content strategy.
Once you know which keywords you’ll target, use them throughout your content. Besides
including keywords in your title tags and headings, for example, you want to use your
keywords in your body text too.
If you’re writing a how-to guide on making sushi at home, your introductory paragraph may
include the following text — and keyword:
“Are you ready to learn how to make sushi at home? Then gather the following
ingredients!”
Like your title tags and headings, you should always aim for readability. If you stuff content
with keywords, you will push users away from not only your SEO content but also your
business.
Web crawlers have also become quite advanced over the years. They’ll have zero trouble
spotting keyword stuffing, which translates to a low ranking for your content.
SEO checker is a neat tool you can use to see if crawlers understand your content and its
keyword targeting. Does Google, for instance, realize that you’re explaining how to make
sushi at home, or does it think you’re talking about something else? Enter your page URL
into our SEO checker and find out!
Score My Content’s Optimization
It’ll analyze your page and then compile a list of words or phrases that seem to represent your
content. This information can help your business assess its keyword targeting, as well as
determine where you need to improve.
7. Optimize image alt text for SEO
Although most site visitors won’t see your image alt tags, they’re essential for SEO. Search
engines can’t process visual content like human eyes, and they rely on these descriptions to
determine what appears on your page.
Visually impaired users also rely on image alt text to understand your content and its visuals.

When you assign alt text to your image, follow these tips:
 Describe the image exactly as it appears, like “sushi tray”
 Use the core keyword if applicable, like “woman learning how to make sushi”
 Keep the image alt text to 125 characters
If you haven’t used image alt text consistently, you can quickly determine which pieces of
SEO content need it. Just enter the content’s URL into our SEO checker. It’ll analyze your
content, check your alt text, and report which images need image alt text.
Is Your Image Alt Text SEO-Friendly?
If you haven’t already included alt text for your images, now’s the time to start. In addition to
being useful for SEO, image alt text also ensures that your site is Section 508 compliant,
which you want as non-compliance can result in hefty fines.
8. Make SEO content easy to skim
Usability is an SEO ranking factor that often gets overlooked. You can produce an excellent
guide on how to make sushi at home, but if you fail to format your content in a way that
makes it easy to read, you will struggle to earn that page-one ranking — and all the traffic
that comes with it.
That’s why every SEO content writing strategy should think about content formatting and

org.
The most common tips for making your SEO-friendly content even friendlier for usability
include:
 Using header tags to organize content
 Limiting paragraphs to around three lines or sentences
 Including visuals, like images or videos to break up content
 Having a sans serif font versus a serif font
You can upgrade the user-friendliness of your content and site even more with software that
allows users to customize your website’s font size, spacing, and more. Most Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance software will allow you to offer these features instantly.
9. Add in-page links that use the targeted keyword
A good practice for SEO content creation involves sending internal links, or links from other
pages on your site, to your newest piece of SEO content. This move helps Google, as well as
users, index your new content and explore your website. As a quick refresher, there are two
parts to internal links:
1. The link itself: The link is the URL, like “https://www.example.com/blog/new-blog-
post/.”
 2. The anchor text: The anchor text is the text that represents the URL and gets
displayed to users.
You can think of the link as your street address, “100 Blueberry Drive,” and the anchor text
as your home’s physical description, like “The house with the blue mailbox on Blueberry
Drive.”
That description gives people an accurate description of where they’re headed. Your anchor
text should do the same. It should accurately and confidently direct users to a new page. An
internal or in-page link to your newest blog post, “How to Make Sushi at Home,” for
example, should feature anchor text like “making sushi at home” or “how to make sushi as a
beginner.”
If you use inaccurate anchor text, like “sushi is delicious,” it sends a mixed message to search
engines and users. Both parties think they’ll arrive on a page about sushi’s benefits but
instead come to a page that explains how to make it, which leaves Google with questions
about how to rank your page.
For the best results with this step in how to write SEO content, aim to:
 Send three in-page, internal links to every piece of new content you produce
 Use accurate anchor text for each link
If you aren’t sure about the current status of existing content, you can download and use a
tool like Screaming Frog. Or, you can input your URL into the SEO checker and get an
instant analysis that looks at a page’s internal and external links.
Google Adwords
Google Ads notes are a way to add context to important events in your Google Ads
account. You can use notes to document things like a spike in traffic or a budget change for a
campaign. Anyone with access to your account can view notes, but only those with edit
access can create, edit, or delete them.
Here's how to create a note in Google Ads:
1. Click the Campaigns icon
2. Click the Campaigns drop-down menu
3. Click Ad groups
4. Select the ad groups you want to add the note to
5. Click Add note
6. Select a date
7. Type your note
You can also use the Open notes panel to view all notes, search for specific notes, or filter
notes by date range.
Types of Google Adwords
Given all campaigns, there are different types of Google ads:
 Search ads
 Responsive
 Call-only
 Dynamic
 Display ads
 Single image
 Responsive
 Video ads
 Skippable in-stream
 Non-skippable in-stream
 In-feed
 Bumper
 Outstream
 Masthead
 Shopping ads
 Product Shopping
 Local inventory
 Performance Max ads
 App ads
 For downloads
 For engagement
 Discovery ads
 Local ads (soon to be PMax)
 Smart ads
 Search
 Display
 Local Services Ads
 Google Guarantee
 Google screened
 Module 3

What is CRM (customer relationship management)?

CRM (customer relationship management) is the combination of practices, strategies and
technologies that companies use to manage and analyze customer interactions and data
throughout the customer lifecycle. The goal is to improve customer service relationships and
assist with customer retention and drive sales growth.
CRM systems compile customer data across different channels and points of contact between
the customer and the company. These can include the company's website, telephone, live
chat, direct mail, marketing materials and social networks. CRM systems can also give
customer-facing staff detailed data on customers' personal information, purchase history,
buying preferences and concerns.

What is a CRM Platform?

In simple words, if we are talking about CRM, then it stands for customer relationship
management.
CRM is software that helps businesses manage the company’s relationships and interactions
with customers and prospective customers. In all, it simply improves your business
relationships to expand and grow your business.

Moreover, CRM has become more essential in the digital age with digitalization. Businesses
—big or small—in various industries are working hard to collect data from their customers
and potential customers, and a CRM application helps them achieve it.
It helps businesses stay connected with customers, enhance their teams’ productivity,
streamline processes, and boost profitability.
Previously, CRM used to be all about sales. But not anymore! CRM can be widely used for
every department. It is not just sales but also marketing, commerce, service, and IT.
A great CRM, well-equipped with many features and functionalities, lets you do a lot. For
example, it allows you to handle all your customers’ information and centralize it along with
company data in one place. So, your team is supercharged and powered with the right
information to deliver an excellent customer experience.
The right CRM empowers your business and delights your customers. It unites everyone in
your team with one shared goal to enhance customer experience and expand your business.
Further moving to explore what benefits CRM carries for your business, let’s first understand
what CRM platforms are used for.
What Are CRM Platforms Used For?
CRM platforms allow handling various processes, including contact management, agent
productivity, sales management, and more. Effective CRM systems are used to deal with
customer relationship management that spans the customers’ entire buying journey from
marketing, sales, digital commerce, and customer service interactions.

Benefits of CRM Platforms

CRM loaded with advanced technologies provides a range of benefits to businesses to grow
and empowers their teams to level up and increase their efficiency. So, let’s find out.
1. Improves customer services 2. Helps increase sales 3. Retains more customers 4.
Provides better analytics 5. Improves customer service team productivity 6. Increases
marketing effectiveness 7. Better knowledge and information sharing 8. Accurate
reports 9. More transparency 10. Reduced costs 11. Work from anywhere 12. Increased
collaboration 13. Faster deployment 14. Automatic software updates

CRM Models
Top CRM models
There are several different strategies or models for customer relationship management. We’ll
cover some of the most common CRM models briefly below.
IDIC model (click on image to modify online)
IDIC model
The IDIC model was developed by the Peppers and Rogers Group as a generic blueprint for
implementing CRM in a variety of situations. IDIC stands for the four stages of CRM
implementation: identify, differentiate, interact, and customize.
Identify
The first step of the IDIC model of CRM is to identify your customers. Businesses can
accomplish this by collecting information like the customer’s name, address, and purchase
history at each point of contact across the company.
The goal is to collect as much information or data as you can on each customer in order to
better understand their needs, wants, and purchase behaviors.
Differentiate
The next step of the IDIC model is to differentiate or segment your customers based on their
current and projected lifetime value. Remember: Not all customers will have the same value
to the business.
By differentiating your customers based on their value to the company, you can prioritize
your customer relationship efforts on the most valuable clients and tailor your interactions to
best fit each segment for optimal profitability.
Interact
The third stage is where you get to apply your CRM plans for interacting with your
customers. Once your customers are analyzed and categorized, you can develop customized
interactions—for example, for valued customers, you might offer loyalty benefits or rewards
to encourage retention and continued spending.
Keep in mind, you should be learning from each interaction to continually improve future
interactions.
Customize
After you have documented your customer interactions, you can then analyze them to
develop more customized one-to-one service. The goal is to ensure that your customers’
needs and expectations are met and that you have pinpointed them individually (or very
narrowly).

QCI model (click on image to modify online)

QCI model
Described as a customer management model rather than a customer relationship model, the
Quality Competitive Index model focuses on three main activities: acquisition, retention, and
penetration.
The QCI model starts with the customer’s external environment at the top—their pain points,
business goals, and other factors will affect whether they are ready to buy or interact with
your sales team, which in turn impacts the customer experience. The customer experience
then affects customer proposition (what you offer the customer) and customer management
activities. As you can see from the magnified version of the inner circle, many activities are
involved to acquire and retain customers.
The QCI model also considers the people and technology involved with keeping this whole
system going. Although QCI has replaced the word “relationship” in fraCRM, this framework
of CRM still starts and ends with people.
Payne’s Five Process model
The Five Process CRM model was developed by Adrian Payne and Pennie Frow. This model
of CRM emphasizes a cross-functional approach for effective CRM processes.
There are two main components to the model: cross-functional CRM processes and key
elements of CRM implementation.
Payne’s model outlines five processes:
1. Strategy development
2. Value creation
3. Multichannel integration
4. Information management
5. Performance assessment
There are four key elements necessary for a successful CRM implementation:
 CRM readiness
 CRM change management
 CRM project management
 Employee management
When implementing a CRM strategy, companies should conduct a CRM readiness
assessment to determine how prepared they are to implement a new CRM process.
Additionally, because CRM involves a fundamental cultural and operational shift, companies
should invest in CRM change management and project management as the new strategies are
introduced and the complexities of the CRM initiatives grow.
Finally, employee buy-in is crucial for successful CRM. Make sure your employees
understand the strategies and processes and engage with the new customer-centric culture.
Without these underlying conditions and elements, the CRM processes cannot succeed.
CRM value chain
A value chain is a high-level model developed by Michael Porter that identifies the processes
a business uses to develop an end product or service for the customer. The goal of the value
chain model is to identify and prioritize the most valuable activities to the company and
improve processes to gain a competitive advantage.
The CRM value chain model applies this principle to customer relationships. This CRM
model observes all the stages and activities required to build a relationship with a customer.
These activities are divided into two stages: primary and support.
Primary stage
The primary stage of CRM value chain has five main processes that enable the strategy.
 Customer portfolio analysis: Similar to the IDIC model, the first step of the value
chain model is to analyze your customers to identify your SSCs (a.k.a. the customers
who create the most value for the company). This analysis stage helps companies
 understand their customers so they can better address their needs and expectations and
develop strategies to maximize their lifetime value.
 Customer intimacy: The next step is to engage with the customer and build on the
original database of information. At each touchpoint, companies should be collecting
data on the interaction in order to better understand and serve their customer. The
better you know your customer (and adjust your service accordingly), the more likely
you are to retain their business over the long term.
 Network development: A business’s network includes all people and entities involved
in the value chain, including partners, suppliers, customer service, investors, etc. The
goal is to use your customer data to inform the processes at each level of your
network so that the entire system works together to optimize your customer’s
experience.
 Value proposition development: Armed with your customer information and
interaction data, you can create value for your target customers. The idea is to shift the
focus from the product to your service and to reduce process costs to create more
value for theustomer.
 Relationship management: The last stage of the value chain model is to manage your
customer lifecycle. This process involves evaluating your business processes and
organizational structure to manage acquisition, retention, and customer development.
Support stage
There are five supporting conditions necessary in order to effectively implement the strategic
processes of the primary stage:
 Leadership and culture
 Procurement processes
 HR management processes
 IT/data management processes
 Organization design
Creating and developing these underlying conditions will support a successful CRM value
chain implsementation.
Using Lucidchart to model your CRM strategy
Building a loyal customer base is key to growing a sustainable business. In fact, just a 5%
increase in customer retention can result in 25% higher profits. But CRM is a big
undertaking. Keeping track of all your processes and data can be overwhelming. Luckily,
Lucidchart can help.
Lucidchart is a cloud-based diagramming solution that makes it easy to create streamlined
flowcharts and diagrams.
Use Lucidchart to visualize your CRM model, document your processes, and even map out
your sales org design. Lucidchart also integrates with Salesforce so you can import your
schema directly into your document to visualize your data—complete with the official
Salesforce shape library—and make connections more easily.

What is web analytics?

Web analytics is the process of analyzing the behavior of visitors to a website by tracking,
reviewing and reporting the data generated by their use of the site and its components, such
as its webpages, images and videos. The goal is to provide actionable insights that can help
the site owner optimize the website for users and meet business objectives such as increased
traffic, conversions or sales.
Collecting user behavioral data on a website or web application and analyzing that data for a
specific purpose facilitates making decisions to achieve that purpose. Analytics tools
communicate with web browsers to track and analyze online behavior, then generate results
in human-readable formats like tables, charts or graphs.
Data tool collects may include traffic sources, referring sites, page visits or views, paths taken
and conversion rates, plus other metrics such as the following:
 Overall traffic to the site or app.
 Bounce rate.
 New visitors.
 Returning visitors, or repeat visit rate.
 Time spent on the site.
 Monthly unique visitors.
Besides those metrics, web analytics may track customer clickthrough and drilldown
behavior and determine the sites from which customers most often arrive.
The compiled data may be part of customer relationship management analytics (CRM
analytics) that is often used to facilitate customer-oriented decision-making.
Who uses web analytics?
Web analytics can benefit any business or individual that owns a website or web application
and needs a way to understand and optimize its performance. The collection and analysis of
web analytics can reveal ways to attract more visitors, retain more customers and even
increase revenues from each customer.
Web analytics are also useful for the following:
 User interface or user experience designers.
 Product managers.
 Data scientists.
 Digital analysts.
  Digital marketers.
 E-commerce specialists.
 Content managers.
Importance of web analytics
Web analytics is important because it provides tangible data that can facilitate decisions and
actions regarding a web asset. It can serve as a business metric for promoting specific
products to the customers most likely to buy them and to determine which products a specific
customer is most likely to purchase. This can help improve the ratio of revenue to marketing
costs and boost the company's revenues, profits, profitability and return on investment (ROI).
Web analytics that are available in the right form and in a timely manner can help a business
or individual in all these ways:
 Personalize the site to repeat users or customers to enhance their site and brand
experiences and capture their loyalty.
 Determine the likelihood that a given customer will repurchase a product after
purchasing it in the past.
 Monitor the money customers (or specific groups of customers) spend to guide future
strategies for sales (e.g., upsells or cross-sells) or promotions.
 Observe the geographic regions from where the most and least number of customers
visit and purchase specific products and use this information to guide location-
specific sales or promotional strategies.
 Predict which products customers are most and least likely to buy in the future and
present them with recommendations most likely to yield a sale.
 Track search queries that generate the maximum traffic to the site and use the data to
create and optimize site content using search engine optimization (SEO) strategies.
 Analyze the top referral sources to invest in advertising on the appropriate social
media sites and optimize ad spend and ROI.

Web analytics process

The web analytics process transcends simply installing a tool to capture user data. It involves
all these important steps:
1. Set goals. The first step is for businesses to determine goals and results sought with
web analytics such as increased sales or higher customer satisfaction and brand
awareness. Some goals can be quantitative, such as increasing sales by a certain
percentage, while others can be qualitative, such as enhancing customer experiences.
2. Collect data. The second step is to collect data with an analytics tool like Google
Analytics. This data mainly comes from HTTP requests, including data at the network
and application levels. It can be combined with external data like Internet Protocol
 addresses to interpret users' web usage and capture other relevant information about
the user, such as their location and clickthrough rates.
3. Process data. The next stage is to process and transform the collected data into
insights that facilitate decision-making.
4. Identify key performance indicators (KPIs). KPIs are a quantifiable measure to
monitor and analyze user behavior on a website, such as page visits, traffic sources,
bounce rates, unique users, user sessions and on-site search queries. They help track
progress toward a specific goal.
5. Develop an analytics-driven strategy. This stage involves implementing insights
from web analytics to formulate strategies aligned to the organization's goals. For
example, analytics about search queries can clarify what users are searching for on
Google and guide content strategy development.
6. Experiment to validate and implement the strategy. Experimenting with different
strategies can help identify one that yields the best results. With A/B testing, for
example, a business creates two versions of a piece of content (e.g., an email
message) to gauge the response of different audience subsets, then uses the "winning"
version to send to the larger audience to optimize a sales or marketing campaign.

Main categories of web analytics

There are two main types of web analytics.
Off-site web analytics
Off-site web analytics involves monitoring visitor activity outside the site to measure their
behaviors. The data is collected from resources across the web, such as social media, search
engines and forums. It provides insights into how a business is performing against its
competitors.
On-site web analytics
On-site web analytics tracks visitor activity to a specific site to gauge its performance. This
data, which is usually more relevant to the site owner, can include details that demonstrate
visitors' site engagement, such as popular content or pages. Two technological approaches to
on-site web analytics are log file analysis and page tagging.
Log file analysis, also known as log management, is the process of analyzing data from log
files to monitor, troubleshoot and report on a website's performance.
Page tagging requires adding code snippets called tags into a website's page code using a tag
management system. The goal is to track site visitors and their interactions via metrics like
the number of pages viewed and number of unique visitors.
Web analytics tools
Web analytics tools report important statistics that can help businesses understand what's
happening on their website or web app and use the insight to make decisions. These tools are
also used for product analytics, social media analytics and marketing analytics.

Web analytics tools, like Google Analytics, report

important website statistics to analyze the behavior of visitors as part of CRM analytics to
facilitate and streamline business decisions.
Examples of web analytics tools include the following:
 Google Analytics (GA). GA is a web analytics service to monitor website traffic,
behaviors and conversions. Available free to any user with a Google account, it
includes numerous tools to capture customer insights from across devices and
platforms.
 HubSpot. HubSpot's marketing analytics and dashboard software helps measure the
performance of websites, landing pages, emails, social media accounts and other
marketing assets from a single dashboard. Like GA, HubSpot offers some services for
free; more capabilities are available in a paid version.
 Semrush. Semrush provides useful information about a site's health, keyword
rankings, traffic trends, and the impact of these aspects on overall performance from a
single dashboard. Its tool suite integrates with other analytics platforms to generate
more useful and actionable insights.
 Crazy Egg. Crazy Egg enables site owners to better understand site visitors and their
behaviors and use this information to optimize the site. It includes numerous features
to understand customer journeys, get user feedback and analyze website content, such
as heatmaps, traffic analysis, A/B testing, error tracking and user session recordings.
 Microsoft Clarity. Microsoft Clarity collects user experience data as those users
interact with a website. It is installed on the site using a JavaScript tracking code and
is free to use.
 Kissmetrics. Kissmetrics is a customer analytics platform that gathers website data
and presents it in an easy-to-read format. The platform also serves as a customer
 intelligence tool, as it enables businesses to dive deeper into customer behavior and
use this information to enhance their website and marketing campaigns.

Levels of Web Analytics

The levels of web analytics are often categorized as descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, and
prescriptive; where descriptive analyzes basic website traffic data, diagnostic explores the
"why" behind patterns, predictive forecasts future trends based on data, and prescriptive
recommends actionable steps to optimize based on the analysis.
Breakdown of the levels:
 Descriptive Analytics:
This is the most basic level, focusing on summarizing website data like page views, unique
visitors, bounce rates, and traffic sources to understand current website performance.
 Diagnostic Analytics:
This level digs deeper into the data to identify the reasons behind trends observed in the
descriptive level, such as analyzing user behavior on specific pages, identifying drop-off
points in the conversion funnel, and examining user demographics to understand why certain
patterns occur.
 Predictive Analytics:
Using historical data and machine learning algorithms, this level predicts future website
behavior and trends, like potential customer churn, future traffic patterns, and potential
conversion rates.
 Prescriptive Analytics:
This advanced level not only predicts future trends but also recommends specific actions to
optimize website performance based on the insights gathered, such as suggesting content
improvements, A/B testing variations, or targeted marketing campaigns.
Introduction to Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing (SMM) is a type of internet marketing that involves promoting a
business on social media platforms. The goal of SMM is to reach a large audience, increase
sales, and build brand awareness.
How it works
 Create content: Create and share relevant content like videos, articles, and podcasts
 Connect with your audience: Engage with your audience by encouraging them to
read, share, and comment on your content
 Analyze performance: Use analytics to track your results and adjust your strategy
Steps for creating a social media marketing strategy
1. Define your goals
 2. Identify your target audience
3. Choose your social media platforms
4. Create and publish content
5. Analyze your performance and adjust your strategy
Examples of social media platforms
Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, TikTok, Pinterest, and YouTube.
Social Media Marketing Plan
A social media marketing plan is a strategy that outlines how a business will use social media
to achieve its goals. It includes goals, tactics, and metrics to measure success.
Steps for creating a social media marketing plan
1. Set goals: Define what you want to achieve, such as increasing brand awareness or
building a larger following.
2. Research your audience: Understand who your customers are and what they
want. You can use surveys and interviews to learn about their demographics, interests,
and pain points.
3. Choose your channels: Select the social media platforms that best fit your brand and
goals.
4. Create a content calendar: Plan out what you'll post and when.
5. Develop a content strategy: Create engaging, unique content that delivers a cohesive
message across all platforms.
6. Track performance: Use metrics and KPIs to measure how well your strategy is
working.
7. Adjust your strategy: Based on your performance metrics, make changes to your
strategy as needed.
Other considerations
 Consider your competitors' strengths and weaknesses.
 Segment your audience based on demographics like age, location, or job role.
 Develop a brand voice and tone that resonates with your audience.
 Use a mix of content types, including educational, entertaining, and promotional
posts.
What is Facebook Ads?
Facebook Ads is the native advertising (paid media) platform offered and developed on
Facebook. Advertising across Facebook’s properties is done on a self-serve basis. The ads
platform is designed to give everyone the ability to advertise to anyone on Facebook,
Instagram, and the Audience Network. It enables businesses of all sizes to advertise with ease
and accuracy. They can reach people with exceptional scale, as there is the ability to reach
over 1.8 billion people.
When leveraging the ads platform, you are reaching real people, as people are the truest
representations of themselves on the internet on Facebook. Being able to advertise to real
people with accuracy is a substantial benefit to marketers. Those real people can be reached
across desktop and mobile, and they can also be reached at each stage of the purchase
journey. Marketers can reach people at any point with a brand awareness message, with a
message to consider purchasing, or a direct conversion message.
Any business of any size can grow its business on the ad platform. An advertiser can launch
an ad in less than two minutes with just a credit card. For instance, a local shopkeeper can
launch an ad to reach people in their area with a special offer. Conversely a multi-market
FMCG brand can reach millions of people interested in their hair care product – across all of
Europe – in just a few clicks.
Formats
Marketers can use an array of ad formats to meet their marketing objectives. These ad
formats are designed to work at certain stages of the marketing funnel and fulfill the
marketer’s objectives.
 Video Ads. These ads put video front and center in feeds.
 Image Ads. These ads allow you to use static images to highlight the offering.
 Link Ads. These ads allow an advertiser to input a URL that people will visit once
they click the ad.
 Carousel Ads. Carousel Ads allow advertisers to upload multiple images and users can
scroll across them.
 Dynamic Ads. These adshelp you to promote relevant products to shoppers browsing
your product catalog on your website or mobile app.
 Lead Ads. These adsallow people on mobile to complete forms with just a couple of
taps, making it incredibly easy for people to send you their
 App Ads. These allow advertisers to drive new installs to your app or engage existing
users.
 Event Ads. Advertisers can get people to ‘attend’ or respond to their Facebook Event.
 Lead Ads. These ads allow people on mobile to complete forms with just a couple of
taps, making it incredibly easy for people to send you their information.
 App Ads. These allow advertisers to drive new installs to your app or engage existing
users.
 Event Ads. Advertisers can get people to ‘attend’ or respond to their Facebook Event.
Creating Facebook Ads
When creating Facebook ads, you can consider things like:
  Campaign objective: What you want your ad to achieve, such as sales or
engagement
 Ad format: Whether you want a single-image ad (Links) or a multi-image ad
(Carousel)
 Ad content: Using appealing images, videos, and interactive features
 Targeting: Using detailed interest targeting to target users based on their profile
information
 Audience: Using custom audiences to define audiences based on interactions with
your business
 Goals: Setting goals for your Facebook marketing, such as connecting with customers
or improving sales
 Lead form: Using a lead form to collect lead data without a landing page
 Lookalike audience: Using Facebook Lookalike Audiences to target an audience
with similar interests and demographics to your current customers
 Ad name: Using an internal name for your ad to help you keep track
Here are some steps you can take to create Facebook ads:
1. Choose a campaign objective
2. Create a lead form
3. Choose an ad format
4. Create compelling ad content
5. Use Facebook targeting
6. Choose ad set goals
7. Choose your specified audience
8. Name your ad
9. Create a lookalike audience

Ads Visibility
Ad visibility in digital marketing is how visible an ad is to users on a website or mobile
app. It's also known as ad viewability.
What's important about ad visibility?
 Brand awareness: Ad visibility helps increase brand awareness and recall, which can
lead to more customer engagement and purchases.
 Market share: Increased visibility can help a business increase its market share and
revenue.
  Customer retention: Brand visibility can help a business retain customers.
How to improve ad visibility?

Search engine optimization (SEO)

Optimize your website for keywords, create high-quality content, and build backlinks from
reputable sites.

Social media marketing

Create a social media presence for your brand, share content that resonates with your
audience, and use social media advertising.

Content marketing
Create engaging content that's relevant to your audience.
 Digital advertising
Use digital advertising to increase your brand's presence.
 Influencer partnerships
Build partnerships with influencers to increase your brand's visibility.
How to measure ad visibility?
 Ad viewability: Measure the percentage of ad impressions that users actually view.
 Active View reporting: Measure the percentage of time your ad was viewable on
sites or apps with Active View enabled.

Business Opportunities and Instagram Options

Instagram presents a wide range of business opportunities, including selling products directly
through "Instagram Shopping," promoting services through visually appealing content,
collaborating with influencers, utilizing Instagram Stories for quick updates, hosting live
Q&A sessions, and leveraging analytics to track performance and target your audience
effectively; making it ideal for businesses like photography, art, fashion, food, fitness
coaching, beauty services, and more, where visual presentation is key.
Key Instagram features for business opportunities:
 Instagram Shopping:
Set up an online store directly on Instagram, allowing customers to browse and purchase
products without leaving the app.
 Instagram Stories:
Create short, ephemeral content to engage with your audience through polls, questions, and
behind-the-scenes glimpses.
 Instagram Live:
Host real-time sessions for Q&A, product launches, or live demonstrations, fostering direct
interaction with followers.
 Influencer Marketing:
Partner with relevant influencers to promote your products or services to their audience.
 Instagram Reels:
Create short, engaging video content to reach a wider audience and boost visibility.
 Business Profile Analytics:
Access insights on your audience demographics, post performance, and engagement metrics
to refine your strategy.
Business ideas that thrive on Instagram:
 E-commerce businesses:
Sell clothing, accessories, art, handmade goods, home decor, and more directly through
Instagram Shopping.
 Creative professionals:
Showcase photography, graphic design, videography, illustration portfolios to attract clients.
 Food businesses:
Share mouthwatering food photos, recipes, and behind-the-scenes glimpses to build a
following for restaurants or catering services.
 Fitness and wellness coaches:
Post workout routines, healthy lifestyle tips, and offer online coaching programs.
 Beauty and makeup artists:
Share makeup tutorials, product reviews, and showcase client transformations.
  Local businesses:
Promote local services, events, and special offers to engage with the community.
 Travel bloggers:
Share stunning travel photos, destination guides, and travel tips to inspire potential clients.
Key strategies for success on Instagram:
 High-quality visuals: Invest in professional photography and videography to create
visually appealing content.
 Consistent posting: Maintain a regular posting schedule to stay visible to your
audience.
 Engaging captions: Write compelling captions that encourage interaction and
conversation.
 Relevant hashtags: Use targeted hashtags to reach a wider audience interested in
your niche
 Community building: Respond to comments, run contests, and engage with your
followers to foster a strong community.
Optimization of Instagram Profiles
Optimizing your Instagram profile can help you reach more people, build a loyal following,
and improve your social media campaigns. Here are some tips for optimizing your profile:
 Use relevant hashtags: Use a mix of broad and niche hashtags that are popular with
your target audience.
 Optimize your bio: Write a catchy bio that reflects your brand's personality. Include
keywords in your bio, location, and link to your business.
 Optimize your captions: Use keywords in your captions to increase your visibility on
the Explore page.
 Use a call-to-action (CTA): Include a CTA in your bio to encourage people to click
on the link below your bio.
 Choose an appropriate handle: Use a handle that is on-brand.
 Use a high-quality profile picture: Use a high-quality profile picture to make a good
first impression.
 Create engaging posts: Create engaging posts that share your brand's personality.
 Optimize your post timing: Optimize when you post to reach your target audience.
 Interact with your audience: Interact with your audience to build a loyal following.

Integrating Instagram with a website and other social networks

You can integrate Instagram with a website using a widget or plugin. This can help you
enhance your website's engagement and reach.
How to integrate Instagram with a website
1. Create a free Instagram Feed Widget account.
2. Select Social Widget and then Instagram.
3. Choose a feed type, such as Handle, Reels, Hashtag, or Stories.
4. Click Create Feed.
5. Click Embed Widget and select your website's CMS.
6. Copy and paste the embed code into your website.
Benefits of integrating Instagram with a website
 Social proof: Show content that visitors relate to, which can encourage them to stay
longer on the page
 User engagement: Allow visitors to like, comment, and share your Instagram posts
directly from your website
 Authenticity: Display updated Instagram content to add authenticity to your website
 Reach: Increase the reach of your website and your social media
Tools for integrating social media with a website
 Feed Them Social Plugin: Adds your social media feeds to your website
 Taggbox Widget: Allows you to integrate real-time content without coding

Keeping up with posts

"Keeping up with posts" means actively monitoring and engaging with new content shared on
social media platforms, typically by following relevant accounts, using hashtags, and
checking for trending topics to stay informed about current conversations and updates within
your area of interest.
Key ways to "keep up with posts":
 Follow relevant accounts:
Follow individuals, brands, and groups on social media that align with your interests to see
their latest posts.
 Utilize hashtags:
Search for and use relevant hashtags to discover related content and conversations on a
platform.
 Check trending topics:
Most social media platforms highlight trending topics or hashtags, allowing you to see what's
currently popular and engaging with a wider audience.
 Set up notifications:
Enable notifications on your preferred platforms to receive alerts when new content is posted
by accounts you follow.
 Use social listening tools:
Consider using dedicated tools that monitor mentions of your brand, keywords, or industry
topics across different platforms.
 Engage with content:
Like, comment, and share posts to actively participate in conversations and show support for
creators.
 Join relevant groups or communities:
Participate in online groups or forums where discussions related to your interests occur.
 Monitor competitor activity:
Keep an eye on what your competitors are posting to stay ahead of trends and identify
potential opportunities.

Module 4
Creating business accounts with youtube

Create a personal channel

Follow these instructions to create a channel that only you can manage using your Google
Account.
1. Sign in to YouTube on a computer.

2. Click your profile picture Settings .

3. Click Add or manage your channel(s).

4. Click Create a channel .

5. You’ll be asked to create a channel.
6. Check the details (with your Google Account name and photo) and confirm to create
your channel.
Note: In certain instances, like when you create a channel through methods like posting a
comment on mobile, YouTube may auto assign you a handle based on your chosen channel
name. There may be cases where your handle is randomly assigned if the chosen channel
name cannot be converted to the handle. You can always view and edit the handle
in Studio or by going to youtube.com/handle.
Create a channel with a business or other name
Follow these instructions to create a channel that can have more than one manager or owner.
You can connect your channel to a Brand Account if you want to use a different name on
YouTube than your Google Account. Learn more about Brand Accounts.
1. Sign in to YouTube on a computer or the mobile site.
2. Go to your channel list.
3. Choose to create a new channel or use an existing Brand Account:
 Create a channel by clicking Create a new channel.
 Create a YouTube channel for a Brand Account that you already manage by
choosing the Brand Account from the list. If this Brand Account already has a
channel, you can't create a new one. When you select the Brand Account from
the list, you’ll be switched over to that channel.
4. Fill out the details to name your new channel. Then, click Create. This will create a
new Brand Account.
5. To add a channel manager, follow the instructions to change channel owners and
managers.
Youtube Advertising
YouTube advertising can help you reach a large audience, increase brand awareness, and
drive more traffic to your website. Here are some things to consider when using YouTube for
advertising:
 Ad formats
YouTube offers several ad formats, including skippable and non-skippable in-stream ads,
bumper ads, in-feed video ads, masthead ads, and YouTube Shorts ads.
 Bumper ads
These are short, non-skippable ads that can appear before, during, or after a video. They are a
good option for quick promotions.
 Skippable in-stream ads
These ads can appear before, during, or after a video, and viewers can skip them after five
seconds.
 Non-skippable in-stream ads
These ads are similar to skippable ads, but viewers must watch them for their entire duration.
 Overlay ads
These semi-transparent ads appear over the bottom portion of a video and can include text
and visuals.
 Video discovery ads
These ads appear in search results, in suggested videos, and on the YouTube mobile
homepage.
YouTube ads can be tailored to your interests based on your Google Ad Settings, the content
you've watched, and whether you're signed in.

Youtube Analytics
YouTube Analytics can help you understand your audience, improve your videos, and grow
your channel.
Metrics
 Traffic sources: Shows where your viewers are coming from and what search terms
they use
 Watch time: The total time viewers spend watching your videos
 Demographics: Provides insights into your audience's characteristics, such as age,
gender, and location
 Subscriber growth: Shows how many subscribers you've gained and lost over a
period of time
 Audience metrics: Shows who is watching your content, including watch time from
subscribers
 Engagement reports: Shows engagement indicators such as likes, comments, and
shares
How to use analytics
 Use the audience tab to see who is watching your content
 Use the demographics data to tailor your content to meet your audience's needs and
preferences
 Use the engagement reports to see how engaged your audience is
 Use the subscriber growth data to see how many subscribers you've gained and lost
Benefits
 Use analytics to understand your channel and video performance
 Use analytics to guide your SEO and promotional efforts
 Use analytics to build a community with your audience

Email Marketing

Email marketing involves sending commercial emails to promote business offerings to

existing and potential customers. It is a digital marketing strategy used to engage existing
customers and attract new ones. Effective emails have compelling subject lines, personalized
content, visuals, clear calls-to-action, and mobile optimization. Campaigns promote updates,
offers, events, and content to communicate the brand story. In this article, let’s understand
what email marketing is, along with its benefits and drawbacks.
Key Takeaways:
 Process: It involves sending commercial emails to customers or prospects to promote
business offerings and generate sales.
 Purpose: It facilitates direct communication with targeted subscriber lists to nurture
leads and retain existing customers.
 Key Metrics: Open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates are tracked to
optimize performance.
What is Email Marketing?
Email marketing refers to a digital marketing strategy that uses email to promote business
offerings and build relationships with potential or existing customers. The core goal is driving
sales revenue through email communications. In email marketing, businesses create
customized email campaigns targeted at certain subscriber lists. For example, they may
send promotional newsletters or product updates to customers who have purchased before or
signed up to receive such emails. The business may also acquire new email list contacts
interested in their offerings to expand their subscriber base.
Each email campaign involves carefully crafting compelling subject lines and content that
speaks to the unique interests and needs of the recipients. Calls-to-action are integrated at key
points, guiding the next click. The business works to build trust and nurture ongoing
dialogues with its email subscribers over time. The success of email campaigns can be
measured by metrics like open rates, click-through rates on links, and conversion rates on
desired outcomes like purchases. Email marketing analytics provide insight into optimizing
messages and segments for improved results. When used correctly and following best
practices, email allows meaningful customer connections that may ultimately lead to sales.

Types of Email Marketing

Marketers have lots of choices for how to contact customers by email. But some kinds of
emails work better than others to help your company, which are as follows:
1. Promotional Emails: These are emails focused on promoting special offers, sales, new
products, or other commercial announcements to drive purchases and transactions. For
example, coupon emails, sale announcement emails, or new product launch emails. They
advertise the business's latest deals.
2. Newsletters: Newsletters are regular, recurring emails that provide new and updated
content like articles, company news, blog summaries, tips, or other useful information to
subscribers. Rather than directly promoting products, they aim to build engagement.
3. Welcome Emails: Welcome emails are some of the most important emails sent. They are
the first email contact when a person signs up and sets the tone of the subscriber relationship.
Well-crafted welcome emails introduce the business, highlight subscription benefits, and start
subscriber engagement.
4. Cart Abandonment Emails: When customers add items to an online shopping cart but
don't complete the purchase, cart abandonment emails remind them to return and check out.
These transactional emails recover lost sales from shoppers needing an extra prompt to buy.
5. Customer Re-engagement Emails: These emails target subscribers who have been
inactive for some time by re-engaging with them in an attempt to bring them back for repeat
business. Tactics may include sending promo codes, linking to the newest content, or
showcasing recently added inventory.
6. Onboarding Drip Campaigns: These nurture new subscribers by sending helpful
orientation content over their first thirty, sixty, or ninety days. The onboarding series covers
topics, like frequently asked questions, product tutorials, sizing guides, user community
details, or member benefits to aid in getting started.
7. Holiday or Event Emails: These capitalize on major holidays, events, or cultural
moments to send relevant communications. For example, Independence Day sales emails,
Mother's Day gift ideas emails, or event promotion emails around occasions like music
festivals or industry tradeshows. They tie into seasonal moments.
8. Ratings and Reviews Emails: These requests satisfy customer reviews or star ratings
post-purchase. The feedback allows businesses to monitor satisfaction and improve products.
Review emails tend to see high open rates as customers want to share evaluative input.
Process of Email Marketing
1. Define your Audience: Clearly define your target audience by developing customer
personas. Analyze your current customer base to determine key demographics like location,
age, income level, gender, occupation, etc. Group them by common interests and behaviors.
Get very specific in terms of their unique preferences and needs to shape content that
resonates with them.
2. Establish your Goals: Decide on the purpose and goals of your email campaigns. Are you
aiming to drive traffic, generate leads, increase sales, boost customer engagement, and
promote brand awareness? Set specific KPIs related to your objectives, such as email open
rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, revenue metrics, or subscribers gained.
3. Create your Email List: Build your list through methods like offering opt-in forms on
your website, blog, or social channels, capturing leads at in-person events and promotions,
and through strategic list acquisition and partnerships. Focus on acquiring email contacts
within your target personas. Incentivize subscribers.
4. Pick an Email Campaign Type: Select campaign categories that align with audience
preferences and business goals. Campaign types include promo emails, content newsletters,
win-back offers, post-purchase follow-ups, holiday themes, and more. Map a campaign
calendar to your KPIs with campaigns scheduled.
5. Make a schedule: Build an email cadence and systematic schedule for how often to send
emails to each segment—weekly, monthly, etc. Welcome new subscribers with an onboarding
drip series. Leverage automation tools to schedule recurring campaigns like win-back offers.
Maintain a sense of exclusivity and anticipation without fatigue.
6. Measure your Results: Link the email platform to Google Analytics and add campaign
UTM tracking to monitor performance. See what emails drove the most website traffic,
subscriber growth, and sales to double down on those while reworking laggards.
Benefits of Email Marketing
1. Boosted Brand Awareness: Regularly connecting with subscribers through value-driven
email campaigns is a proven way to grow meaningful awareness of your brand, offerings, and
what sets you apart. Emails that resonate with audiences in a cluttered inbox successfully
gain mindshare.
2. Cost-Effective Reach: Email is considered an extremely cost-effective marketing channel,
often with higher ROI than traditional print or direct mail campaigns. When using email
service provider tools, there is very little incremental spending associated with adding more
contacts and limited variable costs involved in scaling campaigns.
3. Driving Website Traffic: Calls-to-action within email campaigns can effectively direct
engaged subscribers to targeted pages on your website or online store. Things like
promotional offers, gated content previews, and newsletter highlights convert existing
awareness into tangible website visits.
4. Lead Generation: Email often sits at the top of the purchase funnel, moving subscribers
from awareness into consideration. Asking for a lead-generating action within emails, such as
downloading an educational whitepaper or eBook, subscribing to a service trial, registering
for a demo, etc., can capture key contact information on hot prospects.
5. Enhanced Customer Retention: Ongoing email nurturing beyond the initial sale or sign-
up helps retain customers longer. Transactional and promotional emails focused squarely on
existing purchasers or loyal members build satisfaction and brand affinity, improving
customer lifetime value.
6. Sales Growth: Calls-to-action that directly elicit desired conversion events—be it a
purchase, account sign-up, or service enrollment—directly generate incremental revenue and
pipeline velocity. Of all marketing channels, properly executed email marketing fuels some of
the highest customer conversion rates over time.
Drawbacks of Email Marketing
1. Reaching Inboxes is Hard: With so many emails sent, it can be difficult to have your
emails make it into subscriber inboxes instead of getting marked as spam or promotions.
Standing out will be a challenge.
2. Audience Burnout: If you send too many emails or emails that are not relevant or
valuable, subscribers will disengage, open fewer emails, and may even unsubscribe from
your list altogether. Preventing this requires continual optimization.
3. Time-Consuming to Create: Designing great-looking email templates with compelling
content takes extensive time and creative effort. For best results, dedicated staff may be
needed, which is an added expense.
4. Advanced Analytics requires Work: While email providers offer basic reporting,
integrating deeper web and customer analytics requires manually implementing additional
tracking tools that may be outside of their core capabilities.
5. Reliance on Tech Platforms: Executing email campaigns relies on third-party email
service providers. If their deliverability or functionality faces technical issues, your email
reliability may suffer through no direct fault of your own.

Email Marketing Plan

An email marketing plan should include: defining your goals and target audience, building a
quality email list, segmenting subscribers, crafting personalized content, creating an email
calendar, optimizing for mobile, testing and analyzing results, and choosing the right email
marketing platform to effectively reach your desired audience and achieve your campaign
objectives.
Key components of an email marketing plan:
 Goal Setting:
 Clearly define your objectives (e.g., increase sales, generate leads, boost brand
awareness).
 Set measurable KPIs to track success (e.g., click-through rate, conversion rate,
open rate).
 Audience Segmentation:
  Identify your ideal customer demographics and behaviors.
 Divide your list into smaller segments based on factors like demographics,
purchase history, interests, and engagement level.
 List Building Strategies:
 Collect email addresses through website forms, opt-in pop-ups, social media
promotions, and contests.
 Implement double opt-in to ensure quality leads.
 Email Content Creation:
 Compelling Subject Lines: Use strong, relevant subject lines to increase open
rates.
 Personalized Content: Tailor emails to individual subscribers using their
name and relevant information.
 Visual Appeal: Incorporate high-quality images and design elements that
align with your brand.
 Call to Action (CTA): Clearly state what you want the recipient to do next
(e.g., "Shop Now", "Learn More").
 Email Campaign Types:
 Welcome Emails: Introduce new subscribers to your brand and offer
incentives.
 Promotional Emails: Highlight special offers, discounts, or new products.
 Newsletter Emails: Share informative content, company updates, and blog
posts.
 Transactional Emails: Send automated emails triggered by specific actions
(e.g., order confirmations, abandoned cart reminders).
 Email Marketing Calendar:
 Plan email send dates and frequency based on your campaign goals and
audience engagement.
 Consider seasonal trends and holidays when scheduling emails.
 Mobile Optimization:
 Ensure your emails are responsive and look great on all devices, especially
mobile phones.
 Testing and Analysis:
 A/B test different subject lines, email designs, and CTAs to optimize
performance.
  Track key metrics like open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and
unsubscribes.
 Make adjustments to your campaigns based on data insights.
Email Marketing Platforms:
Mailchimp, Constant Contact, ActiveCampaign, Sendinblue, and HubSpot.

Email Marketing Campaign Analysis

How to create and execute an email marketing campaign?

When it comes to email subscribers, 60% of consumers prefer to subscribe to a company’s
email list for promotional messages. Compared to this, only 20% of them follow brands on
social media.
This reflects how important email marketing is for businesses that want to scale their revenue
and increase their brand presence. Implementing a marketing agency CRM can greatly
enhance the effectiveness of email marketing campaigns.
Moreover, perfectly executing your email marketing campaign is important because it can
have a substantial impact on your overall results. Below are the steps to create and execute an
email marketing campaign and ensure that your email campaign is a success.
1. Create a relevant email list
The first step is to create and compile an email list consisting of a relevant audience.
You can build an email list that includes subscribers who have provided consent to receive
marketing emails from you. This includes promotions, updates, announcements, and
informative emails that help you stay connected with them in the long term.
Your goal with an email list is to nurture leads, convert them into customers, and maintain
relationships with existing customers to have successful email campaigns.
In fact, 78% of websites make it extremely easy for visitors to sign up on their email list. Use
opt-in forms, pop-ups, or a prompt located at the bottom of your webpage to get subscribers
for your email marketing campaigns.
Other methods involve using lead magnets, such as giveaways and contests, offering discount
coupons, and prompting visitors to sign up before they can access your content.
2. Define your goals
Before you start blasting your email list with promotional emails, it is important to know why
you are doing it.
Set clear marketing goals that you want to achieve with your email marketing strategy. This
lets you create a focused strategy for your email campaign.
For example, the aim of your email marketing strategy could be to clean up your list and
maintain email list hygiene, promote an upcoming sale, announce a new product, or simply
get more conversions.
With defined goals, you can then decide on the email marketing ideas to implement. You can
also set metrics and benchmarks to measure your progress during the campaign and improve
your marketing efforts.
3. Determine the timeline of your campaign
Being in the right place at the right time can make a lot of difference.
Planning the timeline of your email marketing campaign allows you to specify which types of
emails to send and when.
Create a content calendar and schedule your emails to be sent at fixed durations. Pick a
frequency that you think works best.
While planning the timeline for your email marketing campaign, make sure to include all the
stages, including ideation, planning, execution, and measuring performance. This practice
will help you create effective email marketing campaigns.
4. Get acquainted with different email types
What type of emails do you want to send to your subscribers? How can you turn them into
customers?
The goals that you want to achieve with your email marketing campaign determine the types
of emails you should include in your strategy.
Receiving similar emails that talk about the same set of products can get boring, and your
subscribers may lose interest, leading to an increase in the number of subscribers.
Keep them engaged by including different types of emails in your marketing campaign. An
ideal combination is a mix of emails that deliver value and those that focus directly on
selling.
Types of emails that you can use in your campaign include welcome email, promotional
campaigns, curated blog post content, newsletters, review requests, special offers, etc. Also,
an email lookup tool can help analyze your audience's demographics, preferences, and
interests to understand what kind of email content they will be interested in.
5. Define your target audience
For an email marketing campaign to be successful, it is important to know who your target
audience is. This helps you engage them with content that is relevant to them and creates
better chances for conversion.
Define your target audience at the beginning, so that you can build your email marketing
campaign around them.
This also helps in selecting the tone and style to be used in your communication, in order to
appeal to them better. If your subscribers resonate with your content and offers, they are more
likely to turn into customers.
6. Leverage the power of technology
Your email marketing campaign can become a lot more convenient and efficient with the use
of technology.
Use AI and automation to figure out the best times to land in your readers’ inbox (with the
best subject lines), and schedule your emails for delivery for your email marketing success.
Integrating SMTP servers can seamlessly streamline email delivery, enhancing the success
rate of your email marketing efforts. This reliable infrastructure plays a pivotal role by
ensuring high deliverability rates and preventing emails from landing in spam folders.
If you're looking to fortify your email campaigns with such efficiency, consider options
to buy SMTP, which align perfectly with modern marketing needs.
This saves both time and energy and allows you to sit back and focus on your next email
marketing campaign.
You can also use triggered emails that are sent based on your audience’s actions. For
example, actions like abandoning the cart, searching for specific items, or looking at the same
service repeatedly can trigger specific email sequences.
7. Schedule follow-ups
The average email subscriber receives up to 416 commercial emails every month.
Your thoughtfully sent emails can get lost in this number and may not even have a chance to
be opened.
Showing up in their inboxes regularly helps you stay at the top. To make sure that your
messages reach your subscribers, send timely follow-ups.
You can also plan your entire email campaign to be delivered as a shorter bite-sized
marketing email sent at fixed times using email sequences, rather than all at once.
For example, your welcome campaign can be a series of 4 or 5 emails where you can
introduce your reader to your service, walk them through the different aspects and gradually
encourage them to start using it. You can schedule your emails using any email automation
software, and keep a certain delay between each email to have an effective email marketing
campaign.
8. Offer opt-outs
Source
Opt-outs allow your audience to unsubscribe from your email list as they might not be
interested in receiving emails from you. They might want to unsubscribe due to several
reasons:
 They may be receiving emails too frequently
 They might no longer be interested in your content, products, or services
 They may have gone for a competitor’s brand
It is important to include a clearly visible unsubscribe button at the bottom of your email page
so that they can easily opt out.
This lets you have an email list with an audience that is engaged and happy to receive emails
from you. You now have better chances of conversion and better performance metrics from
your email marketing campaign.
9. Analyze your metrics
Source
Email marketing KPIs help you assess how your email marketing campaign performs after it
has been executed.
Measuring these indicators is important as this helps you set goals for your email marketing
strategy, see how your emails perform against the benchmarks, and optimize your email
marketing campaign based on the results.
Important metrics to track for your email campaign include open rate, click-through rate,
deliverability rate, conversion rate, unsubscribe rate, and bounce rate.

7 Types of successful email marketing campaign examples

You’ve decided to create a campaign, now what? You need to create emails that catch the
attention of your readers. And that includes having an attractive email subject line, relevant
CTAs, and crisp content.
Based on these factors, you can start creating email marketing copies for your business.
Below are some examples of email marketing campaigns.
1. Email preferences
Source
Every once in a while, one of your readers may decide to click on ‘unsubscribe’.
The most common reasons are because they are receiving emails too frequently or just getting
too many of them.
This is where an email preference center comes in handy. It guides the reader to a page where
they get to select the frequency and nature of emails they receive from your business.
Letting your audience select their preferences leads to a better experience, and they might end
up staying on your list.
2. Promotional email campaigns
Source
Promotional emails are a part of email marketing that are used to directly pitch products,
services, offers, and discounts to your audience.
The frequency depends on the goals of your email marketing campaign. Events such as Black
Friday, Cyber Monday, and end-of-season sales call for more frequent emails to be sent
several times during the marketing campaign.
Promotional emails have a clear CTA. They directly encourage your readers to visit your
website, make a purchase or share on other platforms.
3. Seasonal email campaigns

Source
Seasonal email campaigns revolve around the holidays and events that your target audience
celebrates.
Themed content, discounts, and offers are a great way to engage your subscribers and gain
their trust. This also increases your conversions as this is the time when they save up for
festive sales and offers.
4. Customer-centric email campaigns
Customer-centric campaigns use the emotional connection to engage your readers.
One way to do this is by using compassion and empathy to build a sense of community with
your subscribers. Talking about a common problem or a sensitive topic, and set up activism
or fundraising campaigns that your audience would love to participate in, such as a 50/50
raffle beneficial to both the cause and the members present.
Another approach is to entertain your audience with clever content and witty hooks. Talk to
them like a person and they will be more likely to remember you. Use humor to make your
readers smile and look forward to your emails.
You can also use witty copy to highlight your CTAs.
5. Engagement email campaigns
Source
Engagement emails help you keep your audience hooked with valuable content and special
events happening right in their inbox.
This includes webinars, recorded videos, masterclasses, showreels and blogs. A good way to
do this is by inviting guest speakers, experts and celebrities to create content for your
subscribers.
The aim of engagement campaigns is to grab your audience’s attention by serving them with
value-driven content.
6. Survey/questionnaire

Source
Use surveys and questionnaires to get to know your audience better.
This can include feedback, reviews, what they think is working and what needs to be
improved.
By asking them for their input, you make your email marketing campaign into a two-way
communication, and your subscribers feel valued.
You also use the inputs to tailor your products and services according to their needs.
7. Marketing newsletter
The newsletter that you send to your audience every once in a while may just be your most
relevant form of content.
Newsletters help you deliver value to your audience by engaging them with topics that matter
to them.
Non-promotional content is generally received more positively and leads to better
engagement. Use this to connect with your readers by sharing tips, thoughts, case studies, and
testimonials about your product.

Digital marketing budgeting - resource planning, cost estimating, cost budgeting and
cost control notes
Follow the below link for notes
https://theintactone.com/2024/11/08/digital-marketing-budgeting-resource-planning-cost-
estimating-cost-budgeting-cost-control/#goog_rewarded

Digital Marketing Budgeting: Overview

Digital marketing budgeting involves strategic planning, allocation, and management of
financial resources to achieve marketing objectives. It ensures efficient use of resources to
maximize ROI while keeping costs under control.
1. Resource Planning
Resource planning involves identifying and allocating the necessary resources (human,
financial, and technological) required for digital marketing activities.
Key Steps:
 Identify Marketing Channels: SEO, SEM, Social Media, Email Marketing, Content
Marketing, Influencer Marketing, etc.
 Define Objectives: Brand awareness, lead generation, sales, customer retention, etc.
 Determine Required Resources:
o Human Resources: In-house team, freelancers, or agencies (e.g., content
creators, designers, SEO experts, social media managers).
o Tools and Technologies: Marketing automation platforms, analytics tools,
CRM systems.
o Other Resources: Creative assets (graphics, videos), ad space, sponsorships.
 Allocate Resources: Based on priorities, campaign timelines, and objectives.
Best Practices:
 Conduct a resource audit to assess existing capabilities.
 Use project management tools for efficient resource allocation.
  Prioritize high-ROI activities.
2. Cost Estimating
Cost estimating involves forecasting the financial requirements for digital marketing
activities.
Key Methods:
 Analogous Estimating: Using historical data from similar campaigns.
 Parametric Estimating: Using cost-per-unit metrics (e.g., cost per click, cost per
lead).
 Bottom-Up Estimating: Calculating costs from the smallest work package to the
total budget.
 Three-Point Estimating: Considering optimistic, pessimistic, and most likely cost
scenarios.
Cost Components to Consider:
 Advertising Costs: Pay-per-click (PPC), social media ads, display ads.
 Content Creation: Video production, graphic design, copywriting.
 Tools and Software: CRM, analytics, automation tools.
 Human Resources: Salaries, freelancer fees, agency retainers.
 Miscellaneous Costs: Influencer collaborations, sponsorships, giveaways.
Tips:
 Benchmark against industry standards.
 Include contingency for unforeseen expenses.
3. Cost Budgeting
Cost budgeting is the process of aggregating estimated costs to create a financial plan.
Key Steps:
 Set Budget Objectives: Align with overall marketing goals (e.g., brand awareness,
lead generation).
 Allocate Budgets by Channel: Based on past performance and strategic importance.
 Distribute Costs by Campaigns: Plan budgets for specific campaigns, events, or
product launches.
 Time-Phased Budgeting: Allocate budgets by month or quarter to align with
campaign timelines.
 Include Contingency Reserves: Typically 10-15% for unforeseen expenses.
Common Approaches:
  Percentage of Revenue Method: Allocating a fixed percentage of total revenue (e.g.,
5-10%).
 Objective and Task Method: Budgeting based on specific objectives and tasks
needed to achieve them.
 Competitor Benchmarking: Comparing budgets with industry peers.
4. Cost Control
Cost control involves monitoring and managing expenditures to ensure they stay within the
approved budget.
Key Techniques:
 Budget Tracking: Use tools like Google Sheets, Excel, or specialized software (e.g.,
HubSpot, Monday.com).
 Variance Analysis: Compare actual spending against the budget to identify
deviations.
 Performance Analysis: Assess the ROI of each campaign or channel.
 Optimization: Reallocate budgets to high-performing channels.
 Approval Processes: Implement approval workflows for expense authorizations.
Cost Control Tools:
 Analytics Platforms: Google Analytics, Facebook Ads Manager, HubSpot.
 Financial Management Tools: QuickBooks, Xero.
 Project Management Tools: Asana, Monday.com, Trello.
Best Practices:
 Regularly review and adjust budgets based on performance metrics.
 Negotiate contracts and vendor agreements to optimize costs.
 Foster communication between finance and marketing teams.
Conclusion
Effective digital marketing budgeting requires thorough resource planning, accurate cost
estimation, strategic cost budgeting, and stringent cost control. By continuously monitoring
and optimizing expenses, businesses can maximize their digital marketing ROI while staying
within budget.