• It’s very crucial that all the business development executives or sales professions to know if they are specifically selling the digital marketing services.
• I strongly believe that a sales professional shouldn’t approach the business owners or companies if he/she is planning to pitch the digital marketing services without some of these insights that I am taking you through.

In this article, I am going to take you through the complete details a sales person who is selling digital marketing services has to know!

Note: The details mentioned are all as per my understanding when I was training few sales professionals for pitching digital marketing services.

Topics Covered In Discussion With Sales Executives

The Company and its services

1. About Digital Marketing Agency, that they are going to speak for
2. Services offered by Digital Marketing Agency
3. Web Design
4. Web Development
5. Application Development
6. Digital Marketing
7. Basics for Sales Engineer
8. Digital Marketing Training (basics required for sales)

Analyzing, Finding, Pitching and Addressing

1. Finding Customers & Pitching Services
2. Who are our customers
3. Finding customers
4. Approaching them
5. Analyzing Customers
6. Pitch our services to client
7. Pre-sales report
8. Addressing client queries
9. Pricing/Packages

About The Digital Marketing Company

Knowing everything about the company that they are going speak for is very crucial, the sales executive has to know the past of that company, the missions and vision of it, the services, employee count and anything related to it. But, anyway it all depends on the salesperson interest in acquiring the knowledge, availability of the details and more.

Regardless of these, I had still suggested them to know the very few basics details which would definitely help them to sound confident and positive.

Here is a sample,

• “ABC Digital” is a subsidiary of “ABC Groups”, which is one of the biggest networks in Karnataka, India. Which provides services in the following sectors,
  • IT Infrastructure
  • Security and Access Control Systems
  • IP Telephony, Voice Mail & IVRS systems
  • Smart Building Solutions
  • Audio and Visual Systems (AV Systems)
  • Building Management Systems (BMS)
  • Guest and Facilities Management Systems (FMS)
• ABC groups have started its new wing of services in Web and digital marketing from highly experienced and industry experts in the domain.

ABC groups is an emerging industry leader in low voltage systems deployment and IT services that help maximize the value of technology investments. Founded in the mid-2005, we have achieved exponential growth in terms of our service recognition and have established a significant local market presence as low-voltage systems contractors in India.

As a company, we pride ourselves on delivering high-quality products and services. Our partners are global technology leaders known for their excellence in quality of products and service that they provide. The range and quality of our services in IT services and consultancy has been and will always be the best.

Services Offered By Digital Marketing Company

As a sales executive or business development professional you must be dealing with a specific category of services and you must be pitching only those, and how far this is correct? You are not going to be a great sales professionals until and unless you get acquainted with all the products or services offered.

Here, in this case, our sales professionals went through the complete services details, and also they underwent 30 days of training provided by the subject matter experts.

The services from the ABC company were as follows, mainly focused on Digital marketing services,

• Web Design
• Web Development
• Application Development
• Digital Marketing
  • Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
  • Google Adwords/Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
  • Display Ads
  • Social Media Optimization
  • Social Media Marketing
  • E-mail Marketing
  • Affiliate Marketing
  • Content Marketing
  • App Store Optimization

Basics You cannot skip if you are into Digital marketing sales

If you are with an engineering background with specialization into IT or Computer science you would already know some of these or you wouldn’t face many difficulties in understanding them,

• Internet/Web
• Websites and domain name
• Servers and Hosting
• HTTP/HTTPS
• Front-end/Web design
  • HTML, CSS, & JS
  • Static & Dynamic websites
• Back-end/ Web Development
  • Content Management System (CMS)- Wordpress, Drupal and Zoomla Websites
  • Web Configuration
  • Programming languages- PHP, .net, Java, Ruby and more

Note: You just have to understand what are all they or basic understanding of it. You don’t have to go for a training or spend months of time in understanding it, as it is all easy to understand.

To make it further easy I have also brought to you the knowledge that should be enough to start with,

Internet:

• The Internet is the global system of interconnected computer networks that use the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to link devices worldwide. It is a network of networks that consists of private, public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope, linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless, and optical networking technologies.
• The Internet carries an extensive range of information resources and services, such as the inter-linked hypertext documents and applications of the World Wide Web (WWW), electronic mail, telephony, and peer-to-peer networks for file sharing.
• A global computer network providing a variety of information and communication facilities, consisting of interconnected networks using standardized communication protocols.

Website and Domain name

Websites

A website is a collection of related web pages, including multimedia content, typically identified with a common domain name, and published on at least one web server. A website may be accessible via a public Internet Protocol (IP) network, such as the Internet, or a private local area network (LAN), by referencing a uniform resource locator (URL) that identifies the site. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Website

Domain Name

A domain name is an identification string that defines a realm of administrative autonomy, authority or control within the Internet. Domain names are formed by the rules and procedures of the Domain Name System (DNS). Any name registered in the DNS is a domain name. Domain names are used in various networking contexts and application-specific naming and addressing purposes. In general, a domain name represents an Internet Protocol (IP) resource, such as a personal computer used to access the Internet, a server computer hosting a website, or the website itself or any other service communicated via the Internet. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name

Servers & Web Hosting

Servers

A web server is a computer system that processes requests via HTTP, the basic network protocol used to distribute information on the World Wide Web. The term can refer to the entire system, or specifically to the software that accepts and supervises the HTTP requests

Web Hosting:

A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to make their website accessible via the World Wide Web. Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server owned or leased for use by clients, as well as providing Internet connectivity, typically in a data center.

HTTP & HTTPS

HTTP

The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web. Hypertext is structured text that uses logical links (hyperlinks) between nodes containing text.

HTTPS:

HTTPS (also called HTTP over TLS, HTTP over SSL, and HTTP Secure) is a protocol for secure communication over a computer network which is widely used on the Internet.

Front-end/Web Design

Front-end web development, also known as client-side development is the practice of producing HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for a website or Web Application so that a user can see and interact with them directly.

HTML (HyperText Markup Language ):

HTML is the standard markup language for creating web pages and web applications. With CSS and JS, it forms a triad of cornerstone technologies for the World Wide Web. Web browsers receive HTML documents from a web server or from local storage and render them into multimedia web pages. HTML describes the structure of a web page semantically and originally included cues for the appearance of the document. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML

CSS(Cascading Style Sheets ):

CSS is a style sheet language used for describing the presentation of a document written in a markup language. Although most often used to set the visual style of web pages and user interfaces written in HTML and XHTML, the language can be applied to any XML document, including plain XML, SVG, and XUL, and is applicable to rendering in speech, or on other media. Along with HTML and JavaScript, CSS is a cornerstone technology used by most websites to create visually engaging web pages, user interfaces for web applications, and user interfaces for many mobile applications. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascading_Style_Sheets

JS (JavaScript ):

Alongside HTML and CSS, JS is one of the three core technologies of World Wide Web content production; the majority of websites employ it, and all modern Web browsers support it without the need for plug-ins.[6] JavaScript is prototype-based with first-class functions, making it a multi-paradigm language, supporting object-oriented,[8] imperative, and functional programming styles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JavaScript

Web design encompasses many different skills and disciplines in the production and maintenance of websites.
web design is normally used to describe the design process relating to the front-end (client side) design of a website including writing mark up

Static Websites:

A static website stores a unique file for every page of a static website. Each time that page is requested, the same content is returned. This content is created once, during the design of the website. It is usually manually authored, although some sites use an automated creation process, similar to a dynamic website, whose results are stored long-term as completed pages

Dynamic Websites:

Dynamic websites are generated on the fly and use server-side technology to generate web pages. They typically extract their content from one or more back-end databases: some are database queries across a relational database to query a catalog or to summarise numeric information, others may use a document database such as MongoDB or NoSQL to store larger units of content, such as blog posts or wiki articles.

Web Development

• Web development broadly refers to the tasks associated with developing websites for hosting via intranet or Internet.
• Web Development encompasses
  • web engineering
  • web design
  • web content development
  • Content management system(CMS)
  • client liaison
  • client-side/server-side scripting
  • web server and network security configuration
  • E-commerce development

ABC Digital agency does web development in PHP and which is the most used language amongst the other popular programming languages

Some Interesting Facts About PHP

• Worlds most popular content management systems including – Wordpress, Joomla, and Drupal are written in PHP.
• Worlds most popular e-commerce platform – Magento is written in PHP.
• Almost all top hosting companies support PHP based server hosting.

Expect some random questions from the person you meet!

1. How many days does it take to build a website?
2. On which platform you build the website
3. Which is the best CMS and which one do you implement for us?
4. Can we get the website ready in 10 days?
5. Do you also suggest the website plan?
6. Do we get the corporate ID’s or email Id’s with the domain name
7. How should be the website built for a business like us?
8. What is the minimum cost to build a website for our business
9. We need everything automated
10. Which domain name you suggest for our business
11. Can we do bulk upload to the website?

Application Development

Mobile application development is a term used to denote the act or process by which application software is developed for mobile devices, such as personal digital assistants, enterprise digital assistants or mobile phones. These applications can be pre-installed on phones during manufacturing platforms, or delivered as web applications using server-side or client-side processing (e.g., JavaScript) to provide an “application-like” experience within a Web browser

Some questions that you can expect from your client or prospect when you pitch the service,

• Why is app required for a business
• In how many days can an app be developed
• Should we have apps for all device types?
• Is app really required for a business like us?
• How to make people know about our app
• Should I have an Android app or IOS app

Think of this as well, “How are we different from others?”

I have mentioned a few samples for your reference, definitely, you can make out many more for your business as well!

1. Websites designed and coded on the latest technology
2. Highly skilled and experienced team working on projects
3. Can design and develop the websites as per client requirement
4. The team suggests the best and helps to come up with the beautiful website
5. User-friendly and SEO friendly websites are built
6. Regular support throughout the year
7. Constant monitoring and update of websites whenever required
8. End to end services on web design and development

Digital Marketing

Marketing:

The action or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising.

Digital Marketing:

Digital marketing is an umbrella term for the marketing of products or services using digital technologies, mainly on the Internet, but also including mobile phones, display advertising, and any other digital medium

Conventional/Traditional Marketing:

Traditional marketing refers to any type of promotion, advertising or campaign that has been in use by companies for years, and that has a proven success rate. Methods of traditional marketing can include print advertisements, such as newsletters, billboards, flyers and newspaper print ads. Other forms of traditional marketing include television spots or commercials, as well as radio spots advertising a business, product or service.

Differences b/t Traditional & Digital Marketing:

Why Digital Marketing

• Easy to reach the audience by their type
• Push and Pull
• Scale/Opportunity
• Minimum use of the resource

“If your business is not on the internet, then your business will be out of business.”

-Bill Gates, Founder of Microsoft

Importance of being available Online

There are “n” number of things to be considered with the advancement in technology and its usage. Meanwhile here are some facts that you can consider to have to an online presence of a business

• Digital World advancement
• Gadgets and Mobile Devices
• Social Sites and their audience base
  • Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube and more
• Search engines
  • Google, Bing, Yahoo, Yandex, Baidu and more
• Top websites on the web and their type

Digital Marketing Channels

Search Engines

• What are search engines?
  • A program that searches for and identifies items in a database that correspond to keywords or characters specified by the user, used especially for finding particular sites on the World Wide Web
• How do search engines work?
• Popular search engines
  • Google
  • Yahoo
  • Bing
  • Baidu
  • Yandex
  • MSN And more

Search Engines Optimization

Search engine optimization is a methodology of strategies, techniques and tactics used to increase the number of visitors to a website by obtaining a high-ranking placement in the search results page of a search engine (SERP) including Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines.

SEO Deliveries

• Market research- To device the product structure ( Type of web pages and content)

• Technical SEO- Deals with the fixture of technical issues

• Usability- Deals with the optimization of web pages for more lead generation and user comfort browsing

• Basic SEO- Deals with the must items/implementations required for search engine friendly website

• Web page content- Research and update of content across web pages

• Off-page- Building backlinks and credibility to the website on the internet

More details on the delivery front:

Many times many of your clients would pose lots of questions to you regarding SEO deliverables and if you couldn’t provide further details you might lose the sale, and make sure you have something to speak.

Here are some of the SEO deliverables you can speak about,

• Site Architecture & SEO Review
• Site Performance Tuning & Engagement Metrics
• Site Wide SEO
• Page Level SEO
• Keyword Research
• Web Mentions
• Blog optimization
• Social Media Integration
• Local Search SEO
• Analysis & Reports
• Spam Detection
• Mobile Site Optimization
• Analytics & Traffic metric reports
• Off-page
• Reporting

Search Engine Marketing (Adwords):

Search engine marketing (SEM) is a form of Internet marketing that involves the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) primarily through paid advertising.

Why SEM?

• Many businesses to survive in the initial phase opt for the search pay per click, and few do PPC for more customer’s acquisition. SEM drives lots of visitor to your website from day one and brings sales/leads of high quality when optimized with great care.
• Outstanding visibility
• Data-driven approaches

More Details on the SEM delivery front:

Account Set Up
Restructuring of existing account
Audit of the account
Account Expansion
Hygiene issue fixture
Improve the quality of leads
Improve the Keyword performance or Quality scores
Improve Ad’s
Landing pages suggestions/improvising

Market Analysis through paid campaigns
All basic updates or fixes on account
Detailed reports on Geo performance
Detailed reports on time-based performance
Account level & ad group level Negative keywords
Remarketing
Display Ad’s
Product listing Ad’s
Report Automation and more

Display Ad’s & Remarketing

Display Advertising:

• Display advertising is a type of online advertising that comes in several forms, including banner ads, rich media and more. Unlike text-based ads, display advertising relies on elements such as images, audio, and video to communicate an advertising message.
  • Display on website
  • Gmail Display

Remarketing Ad’s

• Remarketing lets you show ads to people who’ve visited your website or used your mobile app. When people leave your website without buying anything, for example, remarketing helps you reconnect with them by showing relevant ads across their different devices.
  • Search remarketing
  • Display remarketing
  • Social media remarketing

Social media optimization & Marketing

Social Media Optimization(SMO):

• Social media optimization (SMO): Is the use of a number of social media outlets and communities to generate publicity to increase the awareness of a product, service brand or event. Types of social media involved include RSS feeds, social news and bookmarking sites, as well as social networking sites, such as Twitter, and video sharing websites and blogging sites.

Social Media Marketing (SMM)

• Social media marketing is the use of social media platforms and websites to promote a product or service.

E-mail Marketing

• Email marketing is sending a commercial message, typically to a group of people, using email. In its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered email marketing. It usually involves using email to send advertisements, request business, or solicit sales or donations, and is meant to build loyalty, trust, or brand awareness.
  • Transactional E-mails
  • Direct E-mails

Advantages of E-mail marketing:

• An exact return on investment can be tracked (“track to basket”) and has proven to be high when done properly. Email marketing is often reported as second only to search marketing as the most
• Email marketing is significantly cheaper and faster than traditional mail, mainly because of the high cost and time required in a traditional mail campaign for producing the artwork, printing, addressing and mailing.
• Businesses and organizations who send a high volume of emails, utilize an ESP (email service provider) to send, track and utilize information garnered from behaviors related to these emails. Understanding and leveraging consumer behavior through the insights provided by consumer response to email marketing has become an integral facet of the digital marketing landscape.
• Email provides a cost-effective method to test different marketing content, including visual creative, marketing copy and multimedia assets. The data gathered by testing in the email channel can then be used across all channels of marketing campaigns, both print and digital.
• Advertisers can reach substantial numbers of email subscribers who have opted in (i.e., consented) to receive email communications on subjects of interest to them.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a type of performance-based marketing in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought by the affiliate’s own marketing efforts. The industry has four core players: the merchant (also known as ‘retailer’ or ‘brand’), the network (that contains offers for the affiliate to choose from and also takes care of the payments), the publisher (also known as ‘the affiliate’), and the customer.

Content Marketing

• Content marketing is a form of marketing focused on creating, publishing and distributing content for a targeted audience online. It is often used by businesses in order to:
  • Expand their user base
  • Diversify their user base
  • Establish or Increase online sales
  • Increase brand awareness or credibility
  • Create an online community of users

App Store Optimization

• App Store Optimization (ASO) is the process of improving the visibility of a mobile app (such as an iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry or Windows Phone app) in an app store (such as iTunes for iOS, Google Play for Android, Windows Store for Windows Phone or BlackBerry World for BlackBerry).
• App store optimization includes the process of ranking highly in an app store’s search results and top charts rankings.
• Goals of App Store Optimization
  • Being found more easily by users on the app stores, due to the fact that App Store Search is the No. 1 source for people to discover new applications
  • Rank higher compared to competitors
  • Rank higher for specific keywords
  • Rank higher in Google´s semantic search for applications
  • Create appealing graphics (icon, screenshots, and promo video) to increase the chances of being downloaded

Finding Customers and Pitching Services

Knowing Your Customers:

• Someone who owns a business and also internet presence in this advanced era makes sense to them.
• A business which has the potential to grow by its internet presence
• Someone keen to build the brand at minimum expenses
• Someone who wants to be public across the web
• Someone has website and market potential but are not available on search engines or on top portals
• Someone who needs a quick progress on leads/sales
• Someone looking for brand reputation

Finding Customers:

Cross-selling:

• Customers of ABC groups
• Many customers of the ABC group might not have the website, might have and not so great- getting in touch with all of them and pitching the web design and development services
• Many might have the website but are not available on search engines/popular websites- we will be getting in touch to improve their visibility and also will be fetching some leads/sales.

Through contacts/references:

• Sharing business cards to pre-existing customers and asking our contacts to refer some.

LinkedIn Search & messaging

Through question and answer forum

Apart from all these Digital marketing teams will provide you the leads which are generated through digital marketing activities such as,

• SEO
• Google AdWords
• Social Media Ads
• E-mail Marketing

Approaching Customers (Talking to prospects)

• E-brochure
  • E-brochure has to be sent over e-mail and have to schedule a telephonic or face to face meeting
• Pre-sales report (a thorough understanding of the business)
  • The current state of the website
  • Market potential/opportunity
  • Competitors details and
  • Major implementations
• Business card
• Involving the subject matter expert

Pitching Our services

• Get ready with the Pre-sales report
• Understand about the client business
• Know about competitors of client
• Understand client requirements
• Explain them about our services (Refer to the sample  Presentation- ABC Digital Services)
• Suggesting the best Digital Marketing service that suits their business