Digital marketing: turning online content into business value

Hi everyone,

As I'm sure you've all noticed, digital marketing is turning itself inside out coming to terms with AI and how it impacts our work. Lately, I've seen a flood of AI "tools" being promoted that advertise AI solutions for this and that, from text to imagery, and more.

First of all, this subreddit was created to exist as a watercooler safe space for digital marketers who don't have anyone in their company or circle of friends to discuss their professional challenges. And our 1st and most important rule is no solicitation. There are no sales pitches at the watercooler, and even actual advice is suspect the moment it's attached to "and this thing you can buy will solve your problems".

I'm happy to reconsider the above and tweak (minimally) this rule if the community has a different point of view (comment below), but for now, that's the state of things.

I'd like to urge everyone to learn to use AI, as it's going to be an unavoidable tool in our arsenal going forward but to be weary about the deluge of tools that claim to perform miracles.

There are a handful of AIs good enough to use today (ChatGPT and Midjourney being well-known examples), as well as an absolute dumpster fire of front-end interfaces that query the aforementioned AIs via API. I've tried a dozen, and they rarely add significant value beyond what the core tools themselves do. If anything, they add a layer of obscurity on top of the query-response process, which isn't doing the user any favors.

The vast majority of these hastily cobbled tools won't exist in a year. Please consider the implications of giving your money, personal data, and work data to a platform that's only forwarding your content to a different API. Consider the implications of not having access to any of your history when the garage projects inevitably drown in the sea of indistinguishable competitors.

​

In light of this, we'll take a stronger moderation approach to removing the promotion of derivative AI tools and promotion. We'll also begin to enforce a zero-tolerance approach to promotion that seeks to circumvent the automod tools, such as posts that appeal to PM for more info or mention links in bios.

This is a community for PEOPLE who share a passion and profession to talk to each other, and not a community where you're sold to. If you'd like that, I'm sure you can find any number of digital marketing communities out there where you can read sales pitches and promos.

As always, if you have ANY comments about the above moderation direction, let me know. Please keep them on the community moderation topic, if you'd like to write a lengthy post about the direction of AI and have that discussion, do post it and PM me, we probably could use a sticky for that debate for a while.

This is an incredible success story of how we helped a client achieve incredible results in just four months, generating an $80,000 return on investment (ROI) with a combination of SEO and Facebook Ads. We have completed many successful projects and there's a certain satisfaction in seeing our strategies translate to such tangible growth. I have tried to keep this post extremely detailed so that it can be beneficial for experienced marketers and newcomers alike. 

The Client: Hair Extension E-commerce Brand

Revenue Split Between SEO and Fb ads: 3:2

Average Order Value: $350

Facebook Ads Spend(For 6 Months): $10,000

Total Revenue(6 months): $140,000

Other Expenses(6 months): Product Cost + Delivery cost + Team + Agency Fees + Website Optimization + Packaging: $50000

Basic Company Background:

The brand was being run by a Mother-Daughter duo for the past 3 months. They had a shopify website with average structure and were struggling with facebook ads themselves. Although they made few physical sales due to friends and relatives but were unable to utilize the digital potential of their business as such. After trying facebook ads for some time they wanted a reliable digital marketing team to work with and they were recommended to us by one of our other customers who has a service based business. Initially we connected majorly for facebook ads  but after the initial discussion when were doing research from our side, we found that there is huge potential in SEO for this niche so we suggested that we should prepare a proper website on wordpress and focus on both SEO and Ads parallelly as, although Ads will give an initial boost to the business but SEO will bring some stability and help in building a sustainable business. 

Facebook Ads Campaign Structure:

• Our campaign housed multiple ad sets targeting users who are interested in fashion products and we also targeted audiences of some big and costly fashion companies. We were mostly targeting females aged 25-45 with good income source to have optimal conversions in the beginning, with our Seo efforts we planned to target a slightly younger audience as well which is going steadily as of now.
• We ran occasional promotions like "Buy x get x free" to boost AOV.
• Due to the high AOV and especially the product niche sometimes it is necessary to build trust so we used retargeting to build trust and showcase benefits, not just push for immediate conversions. Ads focused on comparison(Before & Afters), Customer Reviews, Hassle free product application and natural look, stylish look.

Ads Creatives and Brand Positioning:

It's important to note that after deep research we could find that a major share our hair extensions customers are females aged between 21-45  so we did not actively position our brand as solving problems of low hair volume, but instead we focused on how the products ads style, gives a much better look and you can try new hairstyles and hair colors daily. Also since almost all the demographics in this age group are working, we tested a professional look angle as well which gave us decent results. In ad creatives as well as on the website we made the daughter as the face of the product as we want to slowly grow her instagram as well which can add another organic and sustainable stream of revenue. She shoots before and after transition videos, general product application videos and other videos for ads according to the target audience and brand positioning strategy we discussed  earlier. Instead of making long videos focused on product details a lot, we made short but captivating videos which can appeal to the young audience’s fashion sense.

Key Takeaways from FB Ads:

Mostly Meta Ads or Any other marketing tactic is just a traffic source but conversion will basically happen by how well you are able to communicate your product to the audience through your website. Its is necessary to have a smooth user journey, attractive offers, crisp information and right brand positioning on the website.

It is extremely important to make data driven decisions and track customer journeys meticulously. Always rely on your own tracking or google analytics to avoid the potential unreliability of Facebook Ads Manager.

Seo Strategy

If you don’t already know this, SEO is all about how effectively you can strategize your content and technical efforts keeping a bigger picture in mind. After our initial keyword research we could find that the average Kd of the important keywords was low when it comes to commercial keywords which were directly related to the business.

It's important to note that since the website was being built after our onboarding only so it was easy for us to structure the website according to the SEO strategy that we prepared. 

At every stage we had meetings with the developer to ensure that there are no technical issues that will hinder the SEO growth and future and also we structured the website to be SEO friendly. We built separate pages for all the product categories and after through keyword research we added content to those pages so that the pages itself can rank for commercial keywords. 

After the website was ready we audited it for technical issues(Like mobile friendliness, H1 tags, canonical tags, etc) we started focusing on the content. We wanted to establish  our website as a trusted authority in the hair extensions and hair care industry in general. 

Since the website was completely new, initially we created blogs(2-3 times per week) around informational keywords with low KD purely for increasing our website authority and bringing the initial traffic on the website. We have seen that usually people start stressing about approaching big websites for guest postings since the first day itself but if your keyword research and content is solid, that is not required in the beginning. Initially we focused on profile creations, image submissions, pdf submissions, internal linking in the content, web 2.0 backlinks etc and this was more than enough for us to rank for low difficulty keywords and increase our DA to a decent level so that our category pages can rank for low difficulty keywords. 

Here I would like to include a tip, many times people are worried that what if the backlink that they have created doesn't get indexed. In the initial phase we work really hard when it comes to what we call as maturing our backlinks as this is the major factor for ranking on low difficulty keywords. So basically what we do is, we make backlinks of our web 2.0 backlinks itself which helps the primary backlink in getting indexed which ultimately helps with our website DA.

Also many people have been asking us in our previous posts how we structure our blog since I talk a lot about content quality, see it's not as hard and it doesn't involve a lot of research at least in the initial phase when you just have to rank on low difficulty keywords. In this phase usually what we do is study the top 5 ranking blogs on the particular keyword and make sure that we include more content and more subheadings then them. Also we try to find opportunities to include tables or charts wherever possible, we include good quality images(original if possible) and at this stage internal linking is very very important so we focus on that as well. In later stages although the basic strategy for framing the blogs remains same, overall content strategy varies a lot from business to business and requires a lot of strategizing depending on the brand positioning goals.

So after we  were able to rank for low difficulty informational keywords and our Website DA reached a decent level due to our backlinking efforts, we started writing content around the fashion advice and common problems which people face related to hair in general. But as discussed earlier, we wanted to keep  our brand positioning fashion centric, so even while writing about common problems we applied a positive and solution centric approach. We strategically placed internal links to our product pages in the content and tested popups with offers as well. Apart from this, we started guest posting as well at this stage. For finding websites for guest posting we used SEMrush’s backlink gap analysis tool and created a segregated list of blogs that we can reach out to based on their content quality and DA. By this time the store  started generating decent revenue from ads and SEO so the client was completely onboard with reaching out to blogs for guest posting. Guest posting and overall strategic SEO application started generating a good amount of traffic for us and in 3-4 months the revenue generated  due to SEO surpassed our Ads revenue as well. 

Advantages of Combining SEO and Paid Ads

While Facebook Ads played a crucial role in launching the brand and driving initial traffic, SEO has emerged as the primary driver of sustainable growth. This approach allowed us to:

• Reduce Reliance on Paid Advertising: As our SEO efforts matured, we were able to gradually decrease our Facebook ad spend, resulting in cost savings and improved return on investment.
• Build Brand Authority: Our SEO strategy has positioned our website as a trusted authority in the hair extensions industry. This fosters brand recognition and trust, leading to organic customer acquisition.
• Scale Traffic and Revenue: Organic traffic growth has been exponential, leading to a significant and sustainable increase in website revenue generated through SEO.

SEO efforts are always ongoing but we are really satisfied with the base that we have built and we are really looking forward to working with keywords with higher KD and generating more revenue with SEO In the upcoming months. Although we will keep running ads in future as well mostly for awareness purposes but the major revenue will be generated from our SEO efforts. Apart from this, as we mentioned earlier, we are looking to actively start the Social Media efforts as well from the next month itself. We will be looking to target Instagram and Tiktok in the initial phase and we believe in 2-3 months social media will contribute towards 25% of our revenue which will grow rapidly. 

Thankyou For Reading!

I'm 17yo and starting in digital marketing and video editing. Are there any podcasts that you have found helpful and/or informative about marketing?

Hiya, I just graduated and started working in marketing. Does anyone know a good software or app that can send notifications to teammates to remind them of customer's birthday in advance? Is there an option not including a CRM? Thanks!

Hello all, I'm a programmer by profession. But I also do design as I enjoy it. I had created some designs and uploaded to Redbubble for fun and in last couple of months, I've sold 3 products. The designs are Christianity themed designs. This is something that I do on the side so I don't have time to manage social media or market the shop so I was wondering if anyone here would like to team up and handle the marketing part. I think there is a good market as the I've just uploaded the designs and done no marketing whatsoever, and still sold 3 products. I don't know if posting link to the shop is allowed so I'm not posting it here.
However if you think you can spare some time everyday and market/manage social media for the shop easily, do let me know, I'll send you the link and maybe we can work together.

To scratch my own itch, about two years ago, I built a website, which aggregates movie showtimes in English in Barcelona, where the norm is dubbing movies in Spanish.

I have about 4k uniques per month, 16k page views.

My users are probably mostly expatriates (people from other countries), with a sprinkling of locals who prefer the movies in their original language.

I currently run adsense - and it is delivering 0.5-1USD per day on average, and making the user experience significantly worse.

I tried my hand at affiliate marketing a product called Airhelp, which helps you get compensated if your flight is delayed, cancelled etc. I thought it would be a good fit for my users, but I made exactly 0 sales, but did have like 20 clicks - but over 4-6months.

Do you have any advice on how I could better monetize the site?

Another ad network? Other affiliate marketing? Something else?

Thanks in advance!

I've been working in marketing for about six years, but it's only recently that I've started to approach it with a more serious, and dedicated mindset. Additionally, I'm also wrapping up my bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, where I'm focused on several key concentrations one being Marketing.

One of my ongoing concerns has been the risk of doxxing, which, though it might sound irrational, is a significant anxiety for me. I was recently offered a contract job where the employer was impressed by my site/ portfolio but puzzled by the name discrepancy with my application, and they were uncertain how to address me. This has led me to consider a rebrand—perhaps to something that aligns with my first name than my middle. Like would that be more professional? I have always felt like my middle name was my online persona and it's kept me feeling "safe" online.

I’m wondering if this change would help resolve those issues. I'd appreciate your thoughts on this potential shift.

I would also appreciate any other feedback you may have.

Solopreneur here on a limited budget, built my own app, paying for any costs out of pocket, and they aren't deep. I decided to give a shot to tiktok/instagram/shorts/reels, but it was kind of expensive I stopped after about 15 videos, feeling like I wasn't getting a return. The top videos, about 2, were getting 5k views, but most were in the hundreds.

How long do I persist here, sinking money into what's a long-term strategy ultimately, hoping for either growth, or maybe a video to go viral and make it all worth it?

I do have tracking and analytics but it's hard to measure if these are brining in conversions since people might google my site after seeing the video without directly clicking on a link. I assume that beyond pure conversions there's some hard-to-define value about growing a following that can be leveraged down the line.

Any thoughts on this? I thought about trying to create some videos on my own, but honestly I can't do everything and I need to outsource some of it...

I’m 17 trying to start a digital marketing side hustle/agency and I truly believe I can succeed. However my father who has ran a few successful businesses is telling me in his words “I’m flogging a dead horse” and that I’m too late to the party and People with more experience will run me out of the business before I get in. Am I being naive in thinking that because I’m driven and willing to put the work in aswell as having some helpful skills that this work?

Hi I’m 17M and am looking in the next coming weeks to start my “agency” it’s not gonna be a register company or anything just doing it and selling marketing services. My question is if it’s worth me using go high level? It’s like 98 dollars per month and obviously this Is a cost that’s worth it if I can make profit. My question is those experienced with go high level do you think it’s a must have?

As the question suggests, how do externships or apprenticeships on these websites work?

Do I need previous experience in digital marketing to apply? Do they teach you from scratch?

What should I do in order to apply and get selected? Has anyone tried them? What are your suggestions and do you know of any other apps or websites offering similar things?

How can I get more people to view my reels? I am starting to post stories telling content.

I'm building a tool in the AI SMS space and just wanted to share some advantages I've seen so far with AI SMS vs SMS automation (drip texting, flow charts).

AI can:

-respond 24/7 and have a conversation with the lead

-provide personalized follow-ups per lead (you can also share context from your CRM with the AI assistant so it knows how to personalize the general conversation per lead)

-automatically categorize leads and create notifications/alerts for your team based on the conversation

-handle more complicated flowcharts by identifying more complex conditions AND generating its own responses based on those conditions - SMS automation on the other hand would be more like keyword matching or 'Press 1 for x, 2 for y, 3 for z', etc)

Happy to chat if anyone's interested in this topic :)

Have you seen the reels that are compilations of jets, cars, mansions, yachts, nature, lfiestyle, etc.... with a simple text caption or motivational speech audio?

They always have an ENDLESS stream/stock of clips that are high quality and mobile optimized...

Wondering if anyone here knows where/how to find those types of clisp, as they aren't the kind of content that is found on iStock, artlist, etc...

Aprreciate any help or tips in advance!

I run a small marketing agency in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Even though I come from a marketing background, I specialize in advergames and branded mini-games (Been doing this for the last 12 years).

I strongly believe that mini-games in events, or even online, are a great way to showcase products and services, engage audiences and help with brand recognition. They have been working very well for attracting new customers, and maximize returns in promotional events such as black fridays, seasonal sales, etc.

My games have been used by clients at expositions, trade shows, and online platforms with great success, first only here in Argentina, but after the pandemic, I started joining platforms like Fiverr and Upwork with good acceptance (aprox 25-30 games sold during 2023/24)

The thing is, I've encountered challenges in acquiring new clients and believe that partnering with skilled sales professionals could significantly boost our business.

So, this is what I'm Looking For:

I'm seeking a sales partner with experience and connections in the marketing or advertising industry, particularly with other marketing agencies and large businesses. The ideal partner would be enthusiastic about my product and capable of effectively communicating its value proposition to potential clients.

Since I´ve done this for the last 12 years, we have a good amount of 2D games ready to be customized and tailor made to the client needs. With each client, we do not only deliver the game per se, but we study their case, their audience, and push every button we can to maximize their ROI, In my experience, most of the clients are amazed by the results. (However, given the nature of the business is not something the client will buy x times a year)

I'm open to offering a percentage of sales as compensation for the sales partner as a starting point and see how everything develops. Of course, clear terms regarding commissions, responsibilities, and decision-making will be established to ensure a mutually beneficial partnership. I have seen other competitors price lists and I can guarantee we have a very good price.

We used to have a selling person on board with a commission system, and it worked really well, unfortunatelly (yet happily for him), he made some "bad moves" and started a competition agency.

I'm not sure what else to say here other than inviting you guys to send me a message if you are interested in something like this send me a message/questions and we can arrange a call! I think I have a great product, with a great team here and I can assure transparency in every step.

Wish you a great day! Best regards, JP

I have a directory church finder app that I'm preparing to launch where users can find a church by city, denomination, church Size, watch sermons and many other filters. There's also a feature where user can find a sharable scripture a answer that applies/matches most life issues/experiences. I really need help with downloads.

Hey,

For few projects I have build an A/B testing solution for video, mostly for landing page. Almost all SaaS websites have a video showcase on landing, but there like seconds that can catch customer or not. That's why it was interesting for me to test different videos, mostly different on start (just different words and feature positions). For one in project it give no big difference.

But for second project, where was 2 videos for A/B testing - one had 46% more engagement and result a lot more conversion rate. As a result, we leave more engagement video and overall conversion increased too.

I'm still putting the finishing touches on this project, as it's more build for me and no good UI.

So, question - Would be interested to use "Landing video A/B testing"?

• Video CDN hosted with fast start
• Basic Video analytics
• A/B testing
• Price starts around 10$ month

Want to jump on waitlist? Let me know.

Monetizing my App - please give me suggestions to Make it Profitable!

Hey everyone,

First I think let me tell you slightly about my app which is:

📱A personalized shopping expert, providing tailored product recommendations and advice through natural conversation.

I'm currently working on my business plan for my app, and I'm facing a bit of a challenge when it comes to monetization strategies. Here's a breakdown of what I've considered so far:

1. Freemium Subscription: Offering premium features at a subscription price of $5.00 per month, based on the market average retention rate of 20%.

2. In-App Advertising: Integrating advertisements with an average market CPM of $10 to generate revenue.

3. In-App Purchases: Providing additional features or content for users to purchase within the app, with an average user monthly spending rate of $0.43.

4. Affiliate Shopping Marketing: Partnering with e-commerce platforms, leveraging the Singapore market's average monthly spending of $126 for shopping, with a 5% affiliate commission rate.

Despite these monetization strategies, I'm still running into a challenge where the average market cost for a user to download the app is valued at $4.99, leaving me at a loss.

I'm seeking advice and suggestions on how to make my app profitable. Are there any additional monetization avenues I should explore? What marketing strategies could help increase user acquisition and retention?

Any insights or recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for your help!

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

Hello, I am currently in the midst of a digital marketing and e-commerce specialization offered by Google. I will be completing it within a few days as I currently have approximately 2-3 months of free time before I start university (I'm taking a gap year). In addition to this, I have completed several courses related to AI, marketing, and leadership from esteemed institutions like Wharton-UPenn, Yale, Stanford, and Cambridge. I pursued these courses to gain experience and secure internships with companies, particularly in virtual settings, across various fields such as digital marketing, project management, data analysis, SEO specialization, or any marketing-oriented role, regardless of whether it's paid or unpaid. Could someone please suggest my next steps to increase my chances of landing an internship? As a high school graduate, I believe I have substantial knowledge compared to others. I'm unsure if my volunteering experiences (three with the United Nations) and my previous passion projects (including a fundraising organization and a learning community) will strengthen my profile. I have also completed internships through Forage, which aren't really good thefor looking other options. It's important to note that I come from a less developed area in Pakistan. Ultimately, I am working on building my profile via these courses , speclizations and internships to fulfill my dream of attending Wharton Business School with highest possible merit scholarship and financial aid for graduation.

Is it OK to upload to my LinkedIn profile the screen shots of my campaign results during my time with my previous employer and just blur out the brand name?

Hi there! Just stepping into digital marketing, eager to learn.

Any advice on how AI fits into this world? Do you know any AI community that can help?

Grateful for any insights you can offer is a big help :)

Hi.

I work 9-5 as a software developer. In my free time I have been building an app, it has taken almost 12 months but I am about ready to release to the public. The app intends to help users save money. I have a free version that demonstrates the app, and gives some examples. and then a multi-leveled paid subscription service.

At the moment the only plan I have is to try to get leads, offer the free version to the leads, then try to upsell and get the free users to subscribe to the paid version.

I worked for a startup several years ago. They were really pushing social media marketing, FB, Twitter, Youtube etc. Are these still recommended now? Or is TikTok, Snapchat better? What other platforms are there?

Are reviews important, like Google Reviews or Trust Pilot?

How do I take my 1 sentence plan and make it a fully detailed marketing plan?
How do I know which platforms to use?

Thanks for any help.

It's getting harder to get your business SEEN nowadays!

We reveal powerful smart marketing tricks used by a largest SAAS company in the USA, HubSpot, to have their brand SEEN by millions of people worldwide. You can also use the exact same approach to increase lead generation and sales in your company.

1. Inbound Marketing Methodology: Attracting potential customers from engaging content throughout the sales process.
2. Innovative Marketing Software: CRM tool monitors and tracks every phase of the marketing process and offer data-driven choices for the next strategies.
3. Strategic Partnerships: Acquired Motion AI for AI integration and partnered with Salesforce and LinkedIn for enhanced integrations.
4. Customer - Centric Approach: Client feedback-driven improvement and shows company transparency for a vibrant consumer base.

Best topics of digital marketing.

I've recently spoken to no less than 6 founders who are considering using something like Byword to churn out hundreds for SEO posts.

Their argument is it will massively increase their "luck surface area" and attract buyers.

Here's the thing I've noticed when looking at AI written content.

It doesn't convert.

I've been in growth marketing for SaaS for ~10 years and have build content systems and teams that have driven millions in revenue.

I would not publish 90% of the content I see written by AI.

A lot of the case studies you see will be people talking about vanity metrics like...

• Traffic
• Impressions
• Time taken to create

Few talk about the actual impact on sales. Because it's not driving sales.

The end user knows it was written by Ai and there's nothing unique or compelling about the content.

You might get views, but it'll have a minor impact on your sales.

However, I'm not saying that you shouldn't be using AI for your content.

You've just got to use it the right way.

AI isn't good at long-form creation - not yet anyway.

What it is amazing for is...

• Analysing trends and patterns
• Offering ideas on what to do with the data insights
• Segmenting long form content into shorter form sharable posts

If you want to get the best results from AI, focus on these kind of actions.

The stuff where the AI is taking a large amount of information and either finding patterns or chopping it into smaller, shareable pieces.

I've had some really good results (as in sales) by using Ai to speed the really time consuming stuff like analysis.

You can't use the base level of Chat GPT for this as it has no direction.

What is better is use to Forewrite .com and processes you've built and know to work.

This is what I did to streamline my own content strategy processes.

I taught one Custom GPT to look for the most common questions users have around topics I feed it.

Much as I would to create a BoFu content campaign.

I answer 4-5 questions on my audience, the Custom GPT goes and finds common Qs and turns them into content topics based on templates and examples I taught it.

The result is ~12 content ideas that are focused at the bottom of the funnel and that attract ready to buy users.

I did the same with drafting the content brief and what should be covered.

I did the same with the process I use to turn one long form piece of content into 7-8 social posts.

All of this stuff is either...

• Short form creation
• Heavily templated
• Pulling from one source to create another asset that's templatised

That is, in my experience, what AI is good for right now.

Use it in this way and you can cut 80% of the time spent on planning etc, so you have that time to create things with your own unique spin and add real value that's new and original.

This has been a game changer for me in terms of getting stuff done.

Any Qs, feel free to drop them below.

I have a method that gives me 82£ thresholds per interest accounts. But I am not sure how do I use it to the full potential. So I'd appreciate it if you got any ideas for me!