The times when we waited for a colorful advertisement on TV with flushed face are gone. It is true that there are still outfits that effectively attract our attention and are remembered, but when everything has already happened, it becomes increasingly difficult to find an original and thrilling spot. Currently, there are so many messages, including advertising ones, that we are happy to be silent. How can entrepreneurs present their products well in this difficult world?

The answer is obvious and absolutely natural. The place to present the offer is on the vast internet. It is an (un) tame space that gives a lot of opportunities to promote material goods, services and brands. Top companies and conscious entrepreneurs settled here some time ago. As a result of the pandemic, it was necessary to make room for other strategists who saw the possibility of developing their sales in digital marketing. This raises a lot of questions, including one quite obvious: how to stay ahead of the competition and stay at the top of the list in all of this? Support from proven players will come in handy. And here we come to the point …

Before we get down to business and find out who the real internet marketing ninja is, let’s first explain what digital marketing is all about.

Internet Marketing – What Is It?

To paraphrase the words of Benedict – what marketing is like everyone can see. And the internet one?

This is its most dynamically developing branch. So what is internet marketing all about? It focuses mainly on websites and social media channels. Its main assumptions and goals are unlikely to surprise you – they are attracting and retaining customers and building a good brand image.

What is working in internet marketing? First of all, increasing the company’s visibility on the web, which translates into sales results and increased consumer awareness. The biggest difference between traditional marketing and digital marketing is the role of the recipient. In the virtual world, “Your opinion is important to us”! Forget about passively receiving a message. Of course, this has its advantages and disadvantages.

When offering a product or service, you can count on a wealth of forms of expression in communication with recipients, the lack of a one-sided dimension and on customer reviews practically in live mode. The comments will not always be positive, but that is a topic for another article.

Working in internet marketing – what is it?

Internet marketing and the work of people who deal with this issue on a daily basis are a river topic! Therefore, work in network marketing has many faces. It is an action not only with the broadly understood word, but also with sound, image and data. After all, it is also about optimizing the materials created and making them more accessible – also for Google robots. So what is internet marketing and what does a marketer’s job look like? Below are some of the activities undertaken as part of its implementation:

– conducting Google campaigns and their optimization – creating an advertising creation in the search engine, partner websites and on Youtube, monitoring the campaign results and its modifications in order to obtain the best results while using the optimal budget,

– marketing activities in social media – Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and TikTok are used to the limit! It is not only running a company account on the aforementioned social networks, but also using their platforms for advertising campaigns.

– SEO – the fight for the highest positions in search engines. It is worth mentioning here that the goal of an SEO specialist is to obtain valuable and measurable traffic that brings tangible benefits to the brand. For example, increasing the number of visits to the website, increasing conversions from the organic channel, reducing the bounce rate, increasing the time the user spends on the website, increasing the value of the shopping cart and, consequently, also the profit. In addition to website optimization, content created in compliance with SEO principles is also important.

– content marketing – a specialist in this matter is a master of delivering engaging materials that tie the recipient to the brand, create dedicated communities around it, build awareness or strengthen the position of an expert in a given field. It’s not only fun with words (which seasoned copywriters specialize in), but also creating compelling videos, eye-catching photos, listening podcasts, thought-provoking infographics or life-enriching webinars.

– UX – the user experience. This concept is based on the concept of website usability and the impressions accompanying the user visiting the website. In short – it should quickly find the necessary information and proceed to conversion (e.g. purchase) without unnecessary perturbations. Intuitiveness is the key! Is your website based on it? You may be wondering about it or simply commission a professional UX audit. Yes, this is also what internet marketing is about.

We have already explained what internet marketing is. What job would be the most interesting for you? We hope you can answer this question now. Then we can go on …

How to start working in internet marketing?

You already know what and where you would like to do … So you definitely want to know the answer to the question of whether it is difficult to start working in internet marketing and what conditions must be met to be the perfect candidate …

In the home office era, an important piece of information is that internet marketing and working from home go hand in hand. Monitoring campaign results, creating inspirational blog posts or video creations is possible virtually anywhere! As a result, internet marketing is very flexible – and so is the job in this industry. Would you like to travel or work in the comfort of your home in your beloved tracksuit? You will have a field to show off!

If you already have a few years of experience and internet marketing is as close to you as a wetsuit surfer, your chances increase significantly. There will be a job for you – for good money. The amount of remuneration will depend on your competences, previous projects, negotiation skills and the possibilities of the agency in which you will apply for the engagement. It is also important to ask what position you will apply for. You already know that there are many possibilities! You can find out about the people we are looking for to work in internet marketing at Paraphrase Online and what we offer them in our other blog posts.

If, on the other hand, you are “freshman”, you will have to “feather” a little. Students of digital marketing faculties receive a solid base for later conquering the world. Especially the virtual one!

However, if you have long passed and written your master’s thesis and you are not in a hurry to get to pass tests and exercises, you can invest in specialization courses or participate in free webinars. In addition, a few obligatory readings, watching valuable industry blogs and watching video materials, as well as constantly keeping your finger on the pulse of online marketing – and we have it!

Remember that this industry is constantly evolving, so you always need to be up to date. There is no way to stop expanding knowledge!

Martin Grossberg, Head of Content Marketing at Paraphrase-Online.com, also reveals how to get started in internet marketing. So the guy knows what he’s saying!

– With today’s baggage of experience, I can clearly state that the key to success in the internet marketing industry is specialization in a specific field. The times when a marketing specialist could do everything with the thought “somehow it will be” have left us forever, just like the people of the Renaissance.

There are too many pieces of the puzzle for this puzzle to be completed alone. The multitude of advertising channels (Google, Facebook, SEO, Allegro, Content, Influencer, Pinterest, TikTok, Youtube and a lot of other options), the progressive degree of their complexity, the ability to aggregate data and draw correct conclusions from them in order to optimize activities – all this makes that currently it is not possible to dedicate each of these areas enough time to use them fully – Grossberg explains.

Does the size of the company matter when determining the scope of digital marketing activities?

– Regardless of whether we are talking about a small company or an entity from the SME sector, it is rational to hire people with specific competences to be a pillar in one of the basic advertising environments. It is important for you, the prospective employee, to realize which of these environments is the most used. If you start to develop in them, your competences will count on the market and it will be easier to find a well-paid job. But remember not to close yourself in one area – he continues.

– After reaching an advanced level in a given field, I would also recommend diversifying and deepening your knowledge in a related field. The thing is, marketing channels are increasingly reliant on specific vendors, who may sometimes, for unknown reasons, change their “policies” or limit their ability to display ads. Ultimately, ad accounts are also the target of hacking attacks, and it’s not worth becoming addicted to just one channel. Therefore, I suggest creating competence mixes (of course, a lot also depends on your interests):

– Google Ads + Facebook Ads,
– SEO + Content marketing,
– Content marketing + Facebook Ads,
– Marketplaces + Google Analytics,
– Google Analytics + Google Ads,
– SEO + Google Analytics,
– Pinterest, Instagram, TikTok + Influencer Marketing.

– It is also worth mentioning that competences in a given field are built differently and they are not correlated only with the time spent on a given channel. If, for example, there are 2 people, the first of whom worked in the agency with Google Ads accounts for 2 years, and the second worked in one company with Ads for 5 years, the first one should statistically be better prepared to work in this environment, because she observed more non-standard situations and based on a greater number of different accounts and data, she made different decisions. The agency environment also forces the optimization of activities and constant training in the subject, which is extremely important in the case of paid channels. Therefore, remember that training is training, but every area of internet marketing is based on experience and observation of smarter than us – ends Martin Grossberg.

Internet Marketing – A Job For Everyone?

Apart from competences and experience, there are also natural predispositions. Which of them should a person for whom internet marketing is attractive should have? The work will be easier if he has a lot of divisibility of attention and the ability to work on several projects at the same time. In this world, there is no such thing as “stimulation” and no time to “step out.” Oh no!

There’s a rodeo all the time here, show must go on! This is not a joke. If you don’t like adrenaline and work at top speed, it’s probably not your piece of cake. Working in digital marketing is based on a quick mind and constant readiness to act. Does social media ever sleep? Of course not! Can campaigns be neglected and content allowed to be nudged with the mouse? No, no and no more. So you are in for a dynamic action and constant change. As we know – this is the only constant, especially in the virtual world. Boredom won’t touch you!

What other personality traits will be useful to win awards in the Digital Marketer of the Year category every year? A bit threadbare, but very desirable creativity, the ability to speak words, level PRO interpersonal and communication skills, but also analytical thinking, “connecting the dots” and drawing conclusions. You got it? In that case, internet marketing and work in this plot are meant for you! What to do with this…?

For example, you can take a look at Paraphrase-Online.com and send us a message with special care that you want to work with us. Who knows, maybe you will get to know the sweet taste of digital marketing with us? Yummy!

SEO on YouTube – why do it?

More and more marketers invest in YouTube, but most often it concerns ads on this channel generated with the help of Google Ads. Meanwhile, YouTube can also provide a brand with a significant increase in visibility thanks to organic inputs – guide videos, materials from the company’s life, reports from industry events, video instructions on how to use products – all this content thanks to which brands gain interest and trust of customers. Of course, there is a catch though. According to statistics, videos with a total length of about 500 hours are uploaded to YouTube every minute! There are billions of videos on the platform, uploaded by users from 88 countries. Therefore, it cannot be assumed that it is enough to upload a recording to the Internet to become the king of YouTube – according to our report, almost 90% of YouTube videos do not exceed 1,000 views. So, as with Google, you have to make an effort to get high in the results ranking and get noticed. This is where YouTube video positioning comes into play.

SEO of YouTube videos – what is it all about?

Positioning is still mainly associated with the optimization of the websites themselves and the texts that are on them, while this concept has a much broader definition. SEO activities (Search Engine Optimization) concern not only written content, but also all other materials posted on the Internet – such as photos or videos. Therefore, also on YouTube, we can take appropriate steps to optimize published materials and thus increase the number of views. And it is definitely worth doing, because YouTube is the world’s largest search engine for entertainment content. According to a 2019 study by Ahrefs, a few basic SEO activities, taking no more than 5 minutes, are enough to increase the organic reach of a video by 30%. If we decide to spend about 15 minutes on optimizing and enrich the video with all elements of positioning in the YouTube search engine, we can increase the reach by as much as 400%! First things first. Let’s tell you step by step what needs to be done to make our video visible on YouTube.

Step one – analysis

The basis of any orderly and effective YouTube positioning activity is an in-depth analysis of the channel and individual videos. Thanks to it, we can see what the current visibility of videos is, what works best, but also where there are problems and room for optimization. Specialized tools such as vidIQ help in this.

vidIQ is a Chrome plugin, thanks to which we can measure our YouTube positioning results and increase the organic reach of video materials, but also check the results of competitors or similar channels. What is most useful in the program is the algorithm that determines the optimization score, i.e. the estimated SEO score for each YouTube video. It analyzes all factors related to the video and determines the likelihood that the material will be high in search results or in a side list with similar videos. Thanks to the plugin, we can also conduct a channel audit or check the actions taken by the competition. It is a basic knowledge tool with which you can move to SEO on YouTube.

Step two – movie title and filename

The title is one of the first things a user sees when choosing what content to watch. However, it is also one of the elements taken into account by the YouTube algorithm when matching results to the query entered by the recipient. Therefore, it is important that it describes well what the movie is about, but also contains a properly selected keyword.

A keyword is a term that users enter into a search engine on the platform to find a video on a given topic. Its selection is very important and should be based not on gut feelings, but on hard data on the monthly number of searches for a specific phrase. In search of the best keywords, tools available on the Internet, such as the aforementioned vidIQ plug-in or Ahrefs – a keyword explorer providing results for all the most popular search engines in the world, help. The easiest way to find useful phrases, however, is to check suggestions in the YouTube search engine.

The title of the video should explain as much as possible what the user will find in the video, but it is worth remembering that in the list of similar or recommended videos, the too long name may be cut off. To make sure that doesn’t happen, we should create a title of no more than 60 characters, including spaces. However, you can also use the so-called Zeigarnik effect, which says that people feel the need to complete a process that has already begun. So when the title is too long and gets cut off, there is a chance that the user will open the video to see the rest of the name, but it’s important that it breaks off in an interesting place.

If we decide on longer titles, the most important thing is that the first three words should match the attractive key phrases as possible. Then there may be the so-called long tail phrases, CTA or clickbaits. However, the use of clickbait names works only if they really fully refer to what is in the movie. Ultimately, it is the user’s involvement in the video that determines whether the YT algorithm will continue to display this material on a given query as interesting content. If a lot of people watch the video and don’t abandon it in the first few seconds, the content is valuable – this is called fulfilling the user’s intent.

Positioning a video on YouTube will be more effective if we also include the keyword in the name of the file that we intend to upload to the platform. This is a very important step in positioning as algorithms can read the name to determine the subject of the video. The meaningless original filename reduces our chances of getting on the search results list and the recommended movies bar.

Step three – movie description

The description of the film is a place where we can include all the most important information about the material – data of the creators, place and time of production, etc. However, it is also a space that allows you to use the potential of keywords. An SEO-optimized description should include phrases thematically related to the video material, but placed in a natural way – artificial saturation of the text with any slogans we can think of will not only increase the organic reach, but may be counterproductive.

Why is setting the right description so important from the point of view of YouTube positioning? The content placed in this field is one of the elements taken into account by algorithms when categorizing videos, so including keywords in it increases the likelihood that the video will end up in the sidebar with suggested videos on similar topics. This one is an important source of views for most YouTube channels.

The character limit for the description is so high that we can allow ourselves to thoroughly discuss each material. It is worth taking advantage of this potential and creating an exhaustive description (at least 450 characters) – this is an important element of SEO on YouTube. It is important, however, that most users will only see its beginning, which is around 100-150 characters. To see the full text, it is necessary to click the “show more” button, which is chosen by a small percentage of Internet users. Therefore, the first sentences should contain the most important information about the movie and the most important keywords.

Step four – tags

The selection of tags is one of the most important steps in SEO on YouTube. They should best show users what they will find in the material, but also help the algorithms to link the film with other videos on the platform. To a large extent, it is the tags that determine which videos will be sidelined with similar content suggested by YouTube. However, it is worth choosing tags for your video carefully – too many unrelated tags may be considered spam by algorithms and result in a penalty from YouTube. The aforementioned vidIQ tool will help you choose the best tags. It can be used in two ways. If we add the first tags to the video, the algorithms will show us similar tags with great potential. However, we can also search for them manually, checking in the vidIQ program the activities of the competition that is best at positioning on YouTube. It is worth adding niche keywords in the tags, such as the name of the channel or exact phrases from the title of the movie, but also popular, though not very broad, terms. If we have a chicken stew recipe video, a better tag would be #cassersauce than alone #recipe.

Step five – adding a custom thumbnail to the video

Next to the title, the thumbnail is the most visible element on the list of results, therefore it largely encourages or discourages users from clicking the link, and thus has a significant importance in positioning the page on YouTube. Therefore, it is worth taking care of positive visual impressions of our recipients and preparing a special board that will inform about the subject of the film and attract the eyes of Internet users. It is true that we can choose one of the automatically generated thumbnails by the platform, but YouTube itself states that 90% of the most effective videos are those that have a custom thumbnail. It is important that the image is of very good quality and is legible on the list of films also on smartphone screens – after all, about 70% of YouTube users use the website via mobile devices.

The parameters relevant to the thumbnail are:
– thumbnail size: 1280 × 720 pixels,
– format: .jpg, .png, .gif or .bmp,
– file size: maximum 2 MB.

When creating thumbnails, it is worth using, for example, the Canva graphics program – it has not only a YouTube-sized creator, but also ready-made templates that we can use.

Step six – movie subtitles

Videos published on YouTube should also be enriched with subtitles. They will be useful when the user is watching video with the sound muted, and will facilitate reception for deaf people. In addition, they are very important for the positioning of videos on YouTube – the platform’s algorithm likes films with subtitles, preferably in several languages. We can add captions in various ways. The easiest way is to put a regular text transcript in the description of the movie. Then the user can read the content, but will not be able to view the material at the same time. However, we can use a simple editor on YouTube and add subtitles to the video directly on the platform. On the available timeline, let’s mark there when a given part of the text should appear on the screen and how long it should remain on the screen, thanks to which it is easy to synchronize the subtitles with the sound. However, we can also use an external tool and export the file to YouTube in the .srt format. In the case of the most important films on our channel, it is worth trying to add both a transcript in the description and subtitles in the material itself.

Step Seven – Cards and End Screens

Cards and end screens can be compared to linking in texts to various tabs of a website or external services. They encourage recipients to see other video materials, subscribe to a channel or go to an e-shop website, but also allow them to conduct a survey.

Cards are well-formatted notifications that can be set at different points in the movie using the timeline editor. When we turn on the cards on YouTube, the so-called snares which, when clicked, take the user to another movie, channel, etc. – depending on the implemented link. You can enter up to five cards in one movie. The end screens work in the same way, but appear as a full-surface element after the movie ends. You can set a selected photo as a background and place visually attractive links – for example, when we decide to enter a link to another movie, its thumbnail will appear on the screen.

By taking advantage of the end-screen cards and screens, we greatly increase the chance that a user will reach for other content we publish – especially when combined with the appropriate CTAs in the video. So it is a very important element of SEO on YouTube.

SEO on YouTube – a simple way to increase your visibility

Initially, positioning videos on YouTube may seem difficult and time-consuming, but with a little practice, it does not take more than a few to several minutes (of course it will take longer to create a transcript, but it’s really worth adding). Compared to the time needed to prepare a video, this is very little, and it can make the effort to make a recording worthwhile. Importantly, the correct positioning of a video on YouTube builds a more engaged group of users, and thanks to it, the material often scores a better average rating (the ratio of paws up to paws down) than paid-promoted videos. Could there be a better reason to start SEO?

Thanks to chatbots, depending on their purpose, design and advancement level, we, as users, can easily order a cinema ticket, take advantage of help in choosing a product in the online store, find a solution to a technical problem with a purchase or receive various types of information.

Chatbot in the company – examples of applications

– answers to the most popular questions related to the product or the purchasing process,
– preliminary lead qualification – obtaining information on the expectations of a potential customer,
– comparison of the offered products based on data provided by the user,
– testing the level of customer satisfaction with the product / service.

The simplest chatbot is based on rules – the mechanics of its operation use a set of predefined answers to specific questions. As you click on the next options, new branches will be activated in the tree. More advanced bots use machine learning, thanks to which, to some extent, they “themselves” choose answers based on keywords and their construction, in theory increasing their capabilities with each subsequent interaction with the user. The most developed chat programs are based on artificial intelligence, which allows them not only to “learn” to interpret new words, but also to generate statements in natural language.

Chatbot in the company – is it worth it?

From the company’s perspective, the greatest advantage of a chatbot is the relief of the customer service department. The bot is usually able to answer frequently asked questions and solve simple user problems. If the matter asked by the client requires an employee’s intervention, the bot will provide the consultant with basic data after an initial “conversation”, thanks to which the consultant will be armed with information about the question category at the beginning of the conversation, saving time – both for the employee and the client.

Despite the many undeniable advantages, it is very easy to implement a chatbot in a way that will do more harm than good. The installation of the chatbot in the company must be thought out and properly implemented.

What should we watch out for when “hiring” a chatbot in a company?

In customer service, even the most advanced chatbot builds a psychological wall between the company and the contacting user at the outset. No human likes to be treated – mechanically. Of course, this is an individual matter, but for most clients, making contact with the program creates a feeling of being an ignored petitioner to some extent.

Conversation with a bot (especially underdeveloped) can be irritating – explaining the problem to a consultant is usually faster and easier in terms of communication than “clicking” through the available options to finally find – or not – a specific issue or reach the option of contacting a person on the hotline.

Bots process natural language better and better, but it will be a long time before they learn less standard grammar structures and will be able to fully “understand” every question addressed to them. Even greater complications arise with bots that try to interpret verbal speech. Then the first system is to understand the message using the speech recognition system and process the message into a text form, and then tag individual words. This involves a huge amount of data – each person speaks with a different voice, has a slightly different accent or phonetic habits, and there are potential interference or background noise on the line. It should also be remembered that we usually construct verbal messages a bit differently than written ones. It is only at this point that it comes to the “standard” interpretation of the text, which in itself is a multi-faceted, intricate process.

If the bot cannot recognize the interlocutor’s intentions quickly and accurately, the stairs begin. Some users will resign from contact at this stage, which can be considered a Pyrrhic victory (less work for the service department, at the cost of annoying the customer at best, losing the customer at worst).

Let’s assume that the message has been fully understood and the bot has data on the basis of which it is able to help the user. As in the case of the list of frequently asked questions (FAQ), messages sent by the chatbot must be as specific and precise as possible. In this case, placing a wall of text in front of the user, overloaded with various topics orbiting a specific issue, but not touching it directly, will increase negative feelings from the entire account.

How to implement a chatbot?

The key aspect – as usual in business – is the answer to the question of what tasks the chatbot is supposed to fulfill and, above all, to whom it is intended. Only after a thorough analysis of the purpose and requirements of the target group, it is worth moving to the design stage and then implementation.

Therefore, you should collect a database of questions with which customers (no matter if current or potential) turn to a given company – the brief should be as detailed as possible. The good news is that in the vast majority of cases it is not necessary to create a chatbot from scratch – there are hundreds of ready-made programs on the market that we can implement with the help of specialists according to our needs and requirements, for example by integrating the chatbot with the company’s CRM system.