Best Digital Marketing Dubai

It's not difficult to get better following for brands on social – with good insight based strategy, quality content, and regularity. 1. Be frequent. Be there to be top of mind. Brands often try and open up their presence on many social channels but fail to be there when it comes to regularity. Don't be absent for long periods. Share often with relevant messages. 2. Quality content matters. Provide information and education. Today, more than ever, content that is informative and relevant is key. By providing useful content, your brand is seen as an authority, and that's what increases shares, comments, retweets. 3. Create a solid network. Social is really about networking. Surround yourself with people who have common interests and are aligned with your purpose. When you provide value for them, you create a reliable network around your brand and become a point of influence. 4. Engage and entertain. Be human. Be entertaining. You can use humor, you can post stuff that you lik...

Several media agencies that I know of, are now doing their own creative – yes, in-house. This is because, typically, it is the media agency that is sitting on a lot of useful data, and they are already using it for their programmatic approach to advertising,  and they are the first ones to have realised that 'programmatic buying' coupled with data-driven creative can deliver more effective digital advertising campaigns. Two out of three of our own media agencies at MCN have their own creative departments. This, when we have the region's top creative or brand agencies, right here in our building. It started with close collaboration throughout the process between the media and creative agencies – and that still happens, but some media agencies have gone a step further to bring creative in-house. And, for social media, not just media agencies, but PR agencies are doing the same. For online display creative, in particular, data drives and provides the insight that makes for ef...

I've heard so often that B2B marketers feel they really don't need social media, or that social media for B2B is a different game from social that's built for the B2C sector. First of all, just because you are in B2B doesn't mean that a human being is not involved. Logos don't talk to logos, products don't sell themselves to products, people do. And that's where social comes in. Secondly, B2B is really more about reputation, about building relationships, trust and understanding, and that makes it a genuine case for focused social media as part of the marketing mix. Social media strategy for a B2B brand or company isn't hugely different fro a B2C brand's. Sure, the execution layers may be different, the channels different and focused on a much tighter audience, but overall, from a base strategy perspective, it is very similar. The channels are obviously different. LinkedIn pops up as a great starting point. YouTube with relevant business focused, solu...

Every one seems to have something to say about twitter these days, some even predicting a downturn for the social media platform. Twitter is still alive and kicking, and there are still a good 350 million+ active users every month on Twitter. From a brand perspective, around 50% of Twitter users follow a brand or a company – compared to just around 15% of other social networks. Twitter has been a very successful social platform for brands, for personalities and for those who want to create on-going relationship with followers. With changes happening across Twitter, successful practices have evolved as well but there are some fundamentals that still drive performance... 1. Images on twitter always help tweets do better. Multiple images often fare better. Twitter has announced officially that tweets with images perform better on average – with around a 35% boost in retweets. A tweet with a photo always gets better attention and possible retweets – particularly if the visual used is relev...

One of the most awkward moments I have experienced at some of our agencies is when I pass by a social media strategist or community manager staring disdainfully at a near blank calendar screen desperately praying that somehow, someone will inspire them to fill in those blanks. A social media editorial or content calendar is often a way to demotivate and deter from inspired content because it is a bunch of blanks on a spreadsheet or a calendar rather than a bunch of great ideas. Yesterday, I wrote a post on  6 ways to get content marketing right . Yes, I did say you need to plan ahead, you need to have done your homework, your research, but I did not say that you really need to have cool content planned for National Dairy Farmers Day. Unless of course, you are the dairy that supplies Ben and Jerry's. I am not saying you should dump your content calendar. It is useful as a tool to plan ahead for what you are going to publish that would meet your overall brand goals, gathering inputs...

Content marketing is still, in some quarters of marketing, a darling of the industry. Some say it is a fading star, but there are ways still to use content to better market your products and services, to better connect to your target audiences, and engage consumers. Here are six ways to get your content marketing strategy to work harder for you. 1. Start with focus. Focus on the User. Your clear focus should be the user. Your content should really be out there to benefit the user, and thereby endearing the user to your brand. Whether you get all other boxes ticked, and you have great content from a brand perspective, and it's created well, published in proper context, if you have lost your focus on the user, you've lost the plot from moment one. So make sure your content addresses where your target audiences are, what they are looking or searching online for, what will resolve problems or needs they have, how they behave online – and that your content is after all a rewarding e...

If you're still talking about 'digital' marketing today, may I suggest you're just slightly behind our times. I get 'social', I get 'online' or 'mobile', I get 'wearables and IOT', and I do get 'content marketing' but today, I'm a little ahead of 'digital'. Yes, I am saying digital is so yesterday, so generic in its usage today, that it has lost its meaning, its value to set apart. Every marketer's goal today is engagement and interactivity. They're using channels that we call 'digital' but those are the channels that every one's using, so why the label? If a brand comes to an agency to develop and distribute a campaign that spends its entire dollar on digital mediums, how is that not its overall media budget, and not just a 'digital media' budget? Today, marketing strategies are focused on increasing the reach and visibility of that brands business. These strategies are across channels that...

With so many distractions online fighting for your target audience's eyeballs, how do you create video ads and content that really cuts through the clutter? With multi-screening becoming so common these days, with people jumping from watching tv to their mobile devices during ad breaks, and with so much fighting for online eyeballs, how do you get attention? Brands today realize the importance of solid, entertaining, meaningful video content online. Today's platforms recognize the fact that people don't watch ads, or any content for that matter, unless it draws them out with compelling, creatively superior, and value-adding content. Google knows this, which is why their 'True View' is is 'built on the promise than you’ll only pay when someone chooses to watch your video ad'. Brands on YouTube have to really creative to grab and hold attention. True, that they don't have to pay when someone skips their ad, but then what's the point? Brands today have ...

All social media platforms have evolved – and now Instagram have confirmed that it is changing the way you'll see photos and videos of your friends in the stream. Chronological sorting is going to make way in favor of a new algorithm driven stream where images will be sorted based on "the likelihood that you'll be interested in the content, your relationship with the person posting and the timeliness of the post." Basically, Instagram has grown so fast, and users have really long lists – resulting in folks missing out on an average of 70% of their feed! So Instagram wants to fix this, narrow it down a bit to the individual's 'tastes'. Posts will still be date stamped, but content will be streamed to you based on your preferences. Some are seeing this as a way to create perfect opportunities for targeted advertising – and there's nothing wrong with that (other than with those who have serious privacy issues). How this will work with brands, influencer p...

Well, the subject line in an email that you send out is the most important part of the communication. It's the first thing that someone sees, and often it is the last thing, unless, of course you get subject line marketing done right. First impressions count, and you better find ways to make that impression be attractive and effective enough for your email to be actually opened, to be read, and then clicked through to the desired action you want. 1. Keep your subject line short and make it effective. Every word counts, so use them wisely, spend time on this. Rule of thumb: around 50-60 characters, tops. Minimize to maximise the chances of the mail being opened.  2. Get to the point. Being honest, being precise is key. Remember to be clear on what the email is really about. State the offer. Define your goal for the mail out, and stick to achieving that goal. Don't create mystery unnecessarily. 3. Make the benefit absolutely clear in your subject line. How will the recipient actu...

What’s this buzz about “influencer marketing”? While we’re still all talking about content being the hottest buzzword in marketing these days, influencer marketing is right up there, quietly, confidently, and steadily becoming a key weapon in the marketer’s arsenal. Influencer marketing isn’t new. Testimonials have always been around. When someone well known says something about a product, it becomes celebrity marketing. When that celebrity gets paid, it takes the form of endorsement marketing. Influencer marketing, however, is marketing specifically to those who do the testimonials, those who have a sway on the target audience, those who have voice that’s heard and followed. It’s preaching to the preachers. One understands how influencer marketing comes together — a powerful combination of content and social coming together in today’s world of dialogue rather than advertising, engagement rather than just the old-fashioned one way. Certain verticals in marketing have taken to influence...

There's so much out there on how to measure virality of content, that it gets confusing. So far the best definition, or formula, I have seen comes out this year's SXSW #viralcode sessions, and it has been kind of ratified by Simply Measured as well. The way we should measure 'virality' of content is by: Number of Clicks/Impression x Number of Shares / Click x Number of Impressions/Share = V If you get a Viral coefficient above 1.0 your content is viral... (essentially, each person spreads content to more than one other person) So, mathematically put, it is: # of Clicks                   # of Shares                 # of impressions ––––––––––   x    ––––––––––   x       ––––––––––––    =   V Impression                      Click                     ...

New job openings announced, so where's the bad news? Most everyone in our industry is talking about a downturn for 2016. Yes, there are bland numbers coming out of agencies in advertising and media, but really, it's not that dire. There's a slowdown in growth, but I don't see a downturn – unless of course another 2009-like global economic meltdown happens. Oil seems to have hit the lowest possible, and recovery seems to be on the horizon because production may be slowing down on that front. Which means, there is hope yet. Or thereabouts. MCN – the group that employs my services – the Middle East Communications Network , one of the largest advertising, marketing, media and PR agency groups in the Middle East region, yesterday announced a whole bunch of new job openings on their website. The jobs are across the region, the positions are in advertising, media, PR and digital spacializations, and they're a bit more than a handful. So, that is a good sign then. Here they...