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72% of marketers in the EMEA region prioritize inbound as their primary approach to marketing. And interestingly, 71%* of businesses in the region state that growing traffic to their websites and converting leads to customers are their top marketing priorities for the next twelve months. Which means, if you aren't currently employing inbound for your business, three of your competitors more likely are.
Do we have your attention? Inbound marketing campaigns achieve higher ROI than outbound techniques regardless of your company size, geography or budget. Inbound marketing is focused on attracting customers through relevant content and adding value at every stage of your buyer's journey. As opposed to outbound marketing, inbound marketing does not fight for your potential customers' attention. With inbound marketing, potential customers find you through channels like search engines, blogs, and social media. By creating content designed to address the problems and needs of your ideal customers, you attract qualified prospects and build trust and credibility for your business. Below are some key stats that support the premise of implementing an inbound marketing strategy for your business. Leverage them to get your CEO’s attention! Impact of changing buyer behaviour: 1. 80% of business decision makers prefer getting brand information through an article series versus advertising 2. 77% of the B2B purchasers prefer to do their own research online before even speaking to a salesperson 3. Videos will account for 80% of all internet traffic by 2019 Lead generation impact: 4. Inbound Marketing yields 3 times more leads per dollar than traditional methods 5. Blogging at least 1 to 2 times per month generates 70% more leads for B2B companies and 88% more leads for B2C companies than the companies who don’t blog; and 434% more indexed pages 6. Companies that utilize inbound content platforms and offer buyer persona driven content see a 45% increase in the volume of Sales Accepted Leads ROI impact: 7. Companies who have prioritized business blogging are 13 times more likely to enjoy positive Inbound Marketing ROI. 8. Businesses who focus primarily on inbound marketing save more than $14 per each new customer 9. The cost of 3 out of 4 inbound marketing channels is less than the cost of any outbound marketing channel *Statistics source: Hubspot State of Inbound 2017, Content Marketing Institute Study, Hubspot social selling stats, Content Marketing Association
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The 'Brand-Agency' relationships are no longer as simple as they used to be. Brands working with agencies that deliver creative work see the agency as a natural extension of their marketing teams. Brands need their agencies to work collaboratively, and provide not just creative, but also concepts that add value to their brand, business goals and investment. A survey conducted by Marketing Week shows that 52% of marketers are fairly happy with the service they receive from agency partners but only 8%, which is fewer than one in 10, state that they are ‘very satisfied’*. So, how can an agency become a partner of choice that offers value to brands?
It is not just about tactics, strategy is key. Let’s draw some parallels from the ‘Output vs. Outcome’ debate, where tactics are your output and strategy is your outcome. Tactics, like output, are activities you execute to reach out to your customers. For example, content marketing tactics like blogging, social media updates, videos: The ‘What’. These tactics are extremely valuable and form the basic blocks of your overall strategy. But the trouble arises when you measure the effectiveness of your marketing efforts strictly based only on these outputs or tactics. Strategy on the other hand, like outcome, is a focused goal that relates to business objectives. So basically, ‘outcomes’ are the results of hard work expended through your outputs: The ‘Why’. Being able to track the effect of your tactics on your strategy plays a very important role in earning a brand’s trust. Speed and collaboration have never been more important. Pace of delivery and the capability to be agile has become a basic necessity to respond quickly to both the market and consumers. Brands look for leaner agencies that are able to turnaround projects that have seemingly difficult deadlines, including some that come around in the last minute, very quickly. And let’s not forget that great collaborations create great work. To deliver successful projects, involving brands at every stage of the project from start to finish becomes very crucial. Move measurement upfront. Brands today need agencies to present result-driven ideas along with the creatives. They want to be able to measure the impact of any creative proposed and look for agencies to mention the intent to capture this marketing performance data upfront. Also, a surprising number of marketing leaders still struggle to justify the marketing investments made, and want the agencies to pitch in more. Agencies can thrive in this rapidly changing market only if they clearly understand and articulate the value they can offer to brands. And with that, here's to a highly measurable, highly creative and highly committed ‘Brand-Agency’ relationship! *Statistics source: Marketing Week Study November 7th 2017 marks our 10-year anniversary as a company.
We began our journey as an events and exhibition stand provider, specializing in high-end design and construction solutions. Whilst events and exhibitions have been our forte since inception, over the ensuing decade the company has flourished through its ability to forge lasting partnerships with its diverse, and prestigious client base. Today, IMI serves over 130 major brands globally with its end-to-end creative marketing expertise. To toast a decade of dedication to providing premium marketing solutions worldwide, we are reasserting ourselves as a one-stop, full-service creative marketing agency offering end-to-end solutions spanning all online and offline marketing requirements. Bringing fresh identity to the brand, along with new services and a renewed energy, IMI now offers integrated marketing and communication solutions that include design, marketing strategy, digital marketing, content and social media marketing, web and mobile application development, photography and video services, as well as event, digital signage and promotional products. To celebrate the milestone, we launched a new website which showcases the new services and reflects our ten years of innovation and continuous evolution. It's Q4! As businesses proceed to run the last leg of relay 2017, and consider planning their marketing priorities for 2018, it is important to take a close look at what’s really happening in the marketplace. In this post we highlight key trends that we believe will help you invest in the right digital marketing tactics that are going to position your firm to win the race.
Customer centric content: While we are all geared up to embrace the perfect outdoor weather season here in Dubai, consider you are looking to buy a pair of sneakers for running an upcoming race. You are going about your routine and a display ad shows up with a message that reads “The best sneakers in town with flexible copolymer and cross linked foam. Buy now”. And a competitor’s message that reads “When the shoes get lighter, the moves get faster. Shop now”. Which ad would you click on? You get the point. Creating customer centric content has been on the front burner this year and we believe it is going to be as important as we head into 2018. Marketers need to take a hard look at the content they are putting out and ask if it is customer-centric? To be able to create content that talks your customer's language, marketers need to create buyer personas, that highlight buyer's roles, demographics, goals and challenges and even quirky bits of their personalities. This detailed representation of the buyer will allow to create targeted, vertical specific content that entices your buyer to click on your content piece. Video marketing: Given that YouTube is now the second largest search engine on the web, it is no surprise that video marketing is growing at an alarming rate. A recent study from Cisco states that video marketing will account for 80% of all internet traffic by 2019. Thanks to its viral nature and the ability to connect emotionally with the target audience, videos done right create stronger customer attention and promote brand awareness, which ultimately translates to more leads and sales. Video marketing can also boost your search rankings. Studies show that adding video to your websites and landing pages, improves click-through rates. In fact, according to Forrester, including video in emails lead to a whopping 200-300% increase in click-throughs; and including videos on a landing page increases conversion by 80%, thereby increasing your SEO score. If we were to decide on who should get the last-leg runner position in the 2018 digital marketing relay, we would definitely put videos on top of the list! Given all these benefits, video marketing should stand out as the top priority tactic to include in your digital marketing priorities in 2018 and beyond. Social media for live streaming: We already know how effective video marketing is. Live videos are only an extension of this most popular digital marketing tactic. In 2017, we witnessed in front-row seats, every social media platform introducing live streaming as part of their growth strategy. Live videos provide a platform to share your message in a more immediate and real-time fashion. Plus, audience today look for human connection with the brands they follow and live streaming provides an opportunity to establish close customer relationships. One does not win a relay if you don’t carefully choose your sprint runners. Selecting and investing in the most return worthy digital marketing tactics in 2018 will be key to staying competitive and finishing strong. And the race of course isn’t really over as soon as you cross the finish line, you need to continuously evaluate your tactics' performance to achieve your growth milestones. Get in touch with us to see how we can help you beat and get ahead of competition. |
About IMIIMI was founded with a spirit and the vision of creating happy clients by enabling them to grow their business through best-of-breed creative marketing solutions. Archives
January 2018
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