Category: What’s New in Technology

Avoid Wasting Money on Digital Marketing with These Tips

4 min read

Avoid Wasting Money on Digital Marketing

In last month’s article titled “How to Make the Most of Digital Marketing,” we examined how digital marketing can help your business grow. Unfortunately, this involves more than waving a magic wand. You can either choose to do it yourself or hire an agency to do it for you. Either way, if it’s not well done, you could end up wasting a lot of money with no return on your investment. 

Indeed, any business will want to implement a system that promises to grow revenue. But the biggest mistake is to dive into a scheme that you don’t understand well. Understanding the potential of digital marketing and how you can deploy it effectively will significantly help meet your revenue goals.

Tips to Avoid Losing Money in Digital Marketing 

Here are some tips to help you effectively target your audience and eliminate wasteful spending in your digital marketing efforts:

  1. Create a Strategy
    A digital marketing strategy serves as a guide to what you should and shouldn’t do. Invest in marketing that is in line with your mission and goals. And then be ready to make improvements and adjustments because the digital market is always changing.
  2. Understand Different Platforms
    Each platform has its strengths and weaknesses, whether you’re looking at LinkedIn, Facebook, Google ads, etc.
  3. Use Good Content
    People will easily trust the content that is engaging and adds value in some way. No matter the quality of your product or service, terrible content will cause you to lose potential customers. Always remember your content is a direct reflection of your brand. 
  4. Ads 
    When you run ads, they will be displayed when there are searches on the internet relating to what you have advertised. This costs money. To avoid paying on unnecessary clicks or views that don’t convert to leads, run targeted ads. You can also use negative keywords, geo-targeting, or influencers. Keep in mind that any platform offering paid promotion options has as its default to spend your budget as fast as possible (they are in business, too).
  5. Track Your Results 
    Track your results on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. This is the best way to know if you are wasting money. Measure and track your campaigns to understand how much you are making off any campaign. For every single $1 spent, if you are not making any returns you need to rethink your strategies. Note that it could take 60 to 90 days to get enough data for proper analysis.
  6. Avoid Buying Fake Followers
    This is simply a bad idea because you will get little or no return on your investment. The fake accounts will be inactive, and hence no engagement or sales.
  7. Test 
    Carry out A/B testing for anything you want to put out there to your target audience. Be it content, emails, newsletters, social media posts, campaigns or ads, testing will save you from marketing with low or no returns.
  8. Add a Call to Action 
    What do you want an interested reader or viewer to do: make a call; fill out a form; subscribe; make a purchase; or visit a website?
  9. Don’t Ignore Existing Customers
    Approximately 40 percent of business revenue is from returning customers. Specifically target this group with offers, new products or services, or just wishing them well on holidays. 
  10. Don’t Hire Bad Marketing Consultants
    Finally, you might decide to outsource the marketing if your business doesn’t have employees with the necessary skills, or if it’s overwhelming for your staff. Whatever the reason, don’t make the mistake of hiring bad consultants.

6506148 B2 Patent: Nervous System Manipulation – Is it Real or Just Paranoia?

Imagine someone manipulating how you feel. Of course, no one wants that. But how about being manipulated unknowingly? This is exactly what is happening to your nervous system every time you switch on your TV or computer.

Well, at least according to the 6506148 B2 Patent.

The patent named “Nervous System Manipulation By Electromagnetic Fields From Monitors” was filed in 2001 and published in 2003. The patent was filed by one Hendricus G. Loss (perceived to be a fictitious person as no information about who he really is can be traced).

Is it Worth Any Attention?

We already know that the content displayed on TVs or even on the internet is created in such a way as to influence decisions, such as when making a purchase or standing behind certain beliefs.

The mind control subject has been a topic of discussion for a long time. Although initially considered a conspiracy theory, its reality has been observed in the content displayed by mainstream media.

But how about manipulation through the nervous system?

Science teaches us that the work of the nervous system is to carry messages throughout the body and control your senses. The nervous system, according to neuroscientists, is controlled by the brain.

Now, the brain is said to be a complex bioelectrical organ that produces electric fields.

That’s why it’s believed that you can rewire your brain through techniques such as listening to binaural beats. Scientists also claim to control brain functions with a technique that uses powerful electromagnetic radiation. This technique, known as Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), can jam or excite particular brain circuits.

Think of how you are not allowed to use cell phones in some areas of a hospital or in an airplane (where some only allow use in airplane mode). This is so that the electromagnetic transmission of the phone does not interfere with critical electrical devices.

So if a brain is a bioelectrical organ, is there a possibility of manipulating it?

How it Happens, According to 6506148 B2 Patent

Here is a short excerpt from the patent abstract:

“Physiological effects have been observed in a human subject in response to stimulation of the skin with weak electromagnetic fields that are pulsed with certain frequencies near ½ Hz or 2.4 Hz, such as to excite a sensory resonance. Many computer monitors and TV tubes, when displaying pulsed images, emit pulsed electromagnetic fields of sufficient amplitudes to cause such excitation.

It is, therefore, possible to manipulate the nervous system of a subject by pulsing images displayed on a nearby computer monitor or TV set. For the latter, the image pulsing may be embedded in the program material, or it may be overlaid by modulating a video stream, either as an RF signal or as a video signal. The image displayed on a computer monitor may be pulsed effectively by a simple computer program. For certain monitors, pulsed electromagnetic fields capable of exciting sensory resonances in nearby subjects may be generated even as the displayed images are pulsed with subliminal intensity.”

The US Patent 6506148 B2 is a confirmation of the possibility to manipulate the nervous system. The patent includes 14 claims including how video can be used to manipulate the nervous system.

Is it just a conspiracy theory?

Well, it’s not easy to tell. But we can’t ignore the concerns raised in regards to electromagnetic fields (EMF). The EMF issue has raised so much concern that in May 2015, 190 scientists from 39 nations submitted an Appeal to the United Nations requesting the World Health Organization (WHO) adopt more EMF exposure protective guidelines.

Such concerns are an indication that the patent should not be ignored. It also goes to show that apart from your electronic devices recording, monitoring and watching everything you are doing, they can also influence living organisms’ feelings, perceptions, thoughts and behavior.

Switch off that Screen

Well, this is practically not possible. The dependence on these electronic devices is so high that we are practically immobilized if they were to be turned off. Electronics have become part of human attachment.

The age of the Internet of Things (IoT) doesn’t make it any better. Now that we are surrounded by electromagnetic emitting devices, the patent serves as an alert to the public of the possibility of what could happen if these technologies were used unethically.

Unfortunately, the technology is here to stay. The only option is to minimize the exposure from your EMF emitting devices. Therefore it’s not a bad idea to try something different: read a book, go hiking, take a walk or simply switch off that screen when you can.