Archive for the ‘Marketing’ Category
Mobile Marketing is Real Time
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Marketing, Social Media on November 2nd, 2011
Mobile marketing allows your customers to receive your message or promotion instantly. Unlike other forms of advertising or even email, 90% of text messages get opened, and most get responded to within five minutes. This is as close to ‘real time’ as one can get.
Mobile coupons have a redemption rate of 15% to 40%. Compare this to traditional print coupons, which are redeemed at less than 2%, and you can see the effectiveness of text message marketing. One reason for this is that mobile marketing is opt-in, so your customers are expecting the message.
How does mobile marketing work?
With SMS advertising, you give your potential customers a special keyword to text to a number, much like a telephone number. When they do so, they receive a text message back asking them to confirm their subscription. Then you are able to send out a time-sensitive promotion to your audience of subscribers.
Compared to print, radio, television or other traditional kinds of advertising, mobile marketing is inexpensive, immediate and personal. When a person leaves the house, they take with them three things – their wallet or pocketbook, their car keys and their mobile phone.
What’s your experience with mobile marketing? Do you think it only works for certain niches?
5 Ways to Derail Your Twitter Campaign
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Marketing, Social Media on October 26th, 2011
Make it obvious that you’re not tweeting your own content. If you’ve hired a company to coordinate and manage your Social Media, remember that they are writing and tweeting in your company’s voice. The “tone” should be consistent with your business. The absolute WORST thing to do is to make it obvious that you are just a ghost writer and tweet in third party responses. People will not engage and connect with someone that’s not even with the company they’re following!
Don’t follow anyone back, or auto-follow with a canned message. We can’t say this enough: social media is supposed to be social. If you are attracting or mining mass followers but don’t have the courtesy to follow back you are missing the point. Worse yet, do you send an autoresponder to new followers and never even check to see who they are or reply to their questions? Tsk, tsk!
Tweet only about your accomplishments and what products/services you are selling. This is the fastest way to lose your audience. A well-rounded campaign should follow the 70/10/10 rule: 70% free, helpful content about your industry; 10% products or services you are offering; 10% personal comments and opinions so people know you’re not a tweet-bot!
Update your tweets sporadically. Twitter is fast moving! Sending out a tweet once a week, or a few times a month will not make a dent in your social media strategies. We know it’s extremely time consuming, but there are ways to schedule your main content ahead of time while still checking in and engaging with your audience.
Only broadcast, don’t engage. So many businesses have told us, “I don’t care about all the noise people are putting out there. I just send out my latest blog posts and promotions, but I don’t understand why I haven’t made any sales yet.” Again, if you’re not contributing to the conversation, offering helpful tips, and using good ‘twitterquette’ with your followers, Twitter really is a waste of time and resources for you.
Are you still confused about how to create an effective and seamless Social Media campaign? Let Idea Associates help so you can focus on what you do best – run your business!
Five Best Tips for a Marketing Website
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Marketing, Social Media on October 20th, 2011
There has been a great discussion going on in one of my favorite LinkedIn groups recently – What are your five best tips for a marketing website?
I saw some great viewpoints, strategies, and suggestions that I agree with 100%! But there were also vital points missed in the discussion, as a lot of people focused on the technical aspects only. So here’s my two cents on tips for a great marketing website:
- Be clear about who you serve. Is your business trying to be everything to everyone? Who do you help the most with their problems? A lot of businesses fear that having a niche will limit their exposure or lessen the opportunity for more clients, but it is the opposite. When you know your audience you know what their exact needs are. You are the expert, the go-to person for that specific client base in your industry.
- Be clear about what you do. When people go to your website, do they know what it is that you do? Is it spelled out that you have the exact, unique solution your clients are looking for? Upon the first viewing of your home page there should be no doubt in your prospective clients’ minds how you can help them.
- Have a call to action. People need to be told what to do next. Does your marketing message start out strong and fizzle at the end? Have you given your customers a wonderful appetizer but failed to tell them how to get the whole feast? Or maybe you’ve given the whole smorgasbord on your website and they have no reason to contact you for more. There is a balance of providing helpful information without giving away all your services – does your website reflect that balance?
- Be interactive. Give your audience a chance to express their needs, viewpoints and opinions. Your customers and clients want to be the star of your business – it’s imperative that you provide a place for them to do so. Make it easy to find your Blog, Facebook, Twitter, and any other social networking links so they can easily join the conversation.
- Simplify. The times have changed. Complicated, fluffy marketing websites that are laid out like a brochure are no longer relevant. Your website should be clean and simple, with clear-cut navigation and a prominent call to action. Less is more is the mantra of today’s market.
What about you? How do you make your marketing website stand out? Let us know by commenting below or sharing it on Facebook.
5 Ways to Make Your Blog Stand Out
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Marketing, Social Media on October 12th, 2011
According to Wikipedia, as of 16 February 2011, there were over 156 million public blogs in existence. How do you make yours stand out above the rest? Here are some tips:
Keep it simple. Gone are the days of designing a website that has every possible factoid about your company in a complicated brochure format. Make your design clean and simple so that people will know what you’re offering in the first three seconds.
Deliver consistent content. Starting a blog with award-winning posts won’t matter if you let it go stale. Pick a frequency to post and create a loose editorial calendar for your topics and then stick to it. There is no faster way to lose your audience than to become inactive.
Use visual aids. Photos break up the text in your blog posts, as well as offer a way to connect with your readers through emotions and sometimes even humor. Also remember that in today’s information overload society people scan articles rather than read them. You are at a disadvantage if you are relying solely on your content to keep people interested.
Be a resource. It’s tempting to talk about your latest news, services, and products, but if you deliver free, helpful information about everything related to your specialty, you will keep your readers coming back for more.
Don’t write a term paper. Businesses are often afraid to express their unique voice and opinions in blogs, fearing they will look less professional. The reality is that anyone can deliver information. It’s your expert spin on what’s going on in your market that people are truly interested in.
What about you? How do you make your blog stand out? Let us know by commenting below or posting on our Facebook page!
Top 7 Social Networking Sites for Real Estate
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Marketing, Real Estate Trends, Social Media on October 6th, 2011
Here are the top seven social networking sites that benefit anyone in the Real Estate industry.
1. Facebook
Now reaching 800 million active users, Facebook is one of the easiest ways of finding prospective customers within any given area. For real estate you can target very specific groups according to your business needs and reach your prospective customers where they already are.
572 members in the Atlanta area are using Merchant Circle’s free marketing tools to find new local customers. You can link up with other local businesses, create special deals, and fill your profile with influential reviews.
3. Trulia
Trulia is an all-in-one real estate site that’s jam-packed with the most useful and timely information on homes for sale, apartments for rent, neighborhoods, markets and trends to help you figure out exactly what, where and when to buy. You can also follow popular real estate blogs and get advice and opinions from local experts on Trulia Voices.
4. ActiveRain
ActiveRain is one of the few networking sites that are exclusively meant for real estate professionals. Join 214,063 professionals on the world’s largest real estate network — it is still free.
RealTown is a resource for a wide variety of real estate related articles from industry experts, syndicated columnists, Real Estate magazines, vendors and members. It is an internet portal that features everything real estate. Developed back in 1995, RealTown is one of the oldest and most respected communities in the real estate industry.
Realtors are beginning to leverage the power of Linkedin.com for their business. The growth of the site’s traffic and user base coupled with opportunities to join Groups, engage in Q&A’s, and broadcast information makes Linkedin an absolute necessity to any Realtor.
Zillow is a free online real estate site where you can search for homes for sale, find home prices, see home values, view recently sold homes, and check mortgage rates.
Bonus: Google +
Not quite in the top tools list yet, Google+ offers a steady concentration of traffic from affluent demographics that could create the perfect conditions for luxury marketers.
How about you? What are your favorite real estate social networks?
Affluents Right at Home in the Digital World
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Demographics, Marketing on September 27th, 2011
In a recent survey about lifestyles and attitudes, 79% of affluents shared that in the last decade their lives have become quite intertwined with technology, including digital advertising. Almost 60% said they took action as a result of seeing a digital ad, including clicking, searching for more information, buying the product online, or going to a retail store to purchase.
Agencies have traditionally felt this group was the hardest to reach through any media, especially TV and radio. However, they are actually the heaviest users of digital media, spending at least six hours more a week than the general population.
What does this mean?
The paradigm has shifted; you can expect affluents to respond to digital advertising and even share information about them so they can have a more personal online experience.
They still seek clever and attractive ads that entertain, but affluents look for balance and relevancy, as long as it is on their terms and they are not repeatedly interrupted with ads that demand immediate action.
5 Reasons Newspapers Aren’t Dead
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Marketing on September 21st, 2011
This is the digital age. Print is dead. Newspapers are long gone. Get with the program.
We disagree.
Sure, we specialize in websites, effective social media campaigns and eMedia. But that doesn’t mean we’ve abandoned our roots – it’s not that black and white. There are lots of reasons to balance traditional and new media in your marketing plan; here are 5 reasons you shouldn’t necessarily cut newspapers from your budget:
Content isn’t always free. The popular consensus is that you shouldn’t have to buy a paper when you can read everything online. Here’s what you don’t realize – many online newspaper sites give you a teaser excerpt to an article and then make you pay a subscription to read the rest.
If a newspaper’s website isn’t mobile-friendly, forget it. Many people today access email and websites through their Smartphone. If you think it’s hard to scroll down 10 pages to read an article from a monitor, try reading top news from your blackberry or iPhone. Do you have the patience?
You can still read a newspaper in more places than you can your laptop. Think about how many places you can tuck a newspaper and tote it along for convenient reading. ‘Nuff said.
Reading the Sunday paper over coffee isn’t the same digitally. It’s Sunday morning. There’s a fresh pot of coffee brewing and you decide to enjoy the Fall weather on your back porch. Do you bring your laptop and log on to your favorite newspaper’s website? That doesn’t exactly paint the serene scene you first envisioned.
Digital coupons haven’t quite caught up. We know there are some of you out there that still like to spread out the pages of coupons from the paper and clip away. There are some establishments that are now accepting mobile coupons, but it’s going to be a while before it is widely accepted and stores and restaurants have the capability to go 100% digital like that.
Do you think newspapers are obsolete? Do you still read them?
Why Your Blog Makes People Go Away
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Marketing, Social Media on September 20th, 2011
There’s one web design mistake that is a death sentence for your blog… clutter!
Do you have tons of widgets, plugins, social media profiles, links, badges, ads, and more clogging up your sidebars? As if this weren’t enough of a confusing turn-off, do you have one of those rude pop-up windows that crawls across the screen while your readers are halfway through a compelling post? OY!
It’s the same thing we tell our clients that have just bought a billboard: LESS IS MORE.
What do you absolutely NEED visitors to do to grow your business? Do they need to see your whole Twitter feed running down the side of your blog in order to decide to call you or sign up for your services?
In most cases, you need visitors to subscribe to your email list, so that’s what you should focus on. Kick the rest of the baggage to the curb! Clutter-free sidebars will outperform their busy counterparts every time.
What should be in your sidebar?
You should have an opt-in form for you newsletter, links to popular articles, and a list of resource pages, which are sort of “advice” pages that highlight your best content around your expertise. Within these pages, they should link to several of your best articles on the topic you’re addressing to help people get the exact information they are looking for.
Why a resource page? Your articles are your most popular pages. When people are done reading them, they often look for what they can do next. People who visit these pages are now warmer leads and are more likely to sign up for updates from you: a.k.a. a captured lead.
What about you? Does your blog offer way too many distractions? Do people leave before exploring your class-A content? Do you convert readers to list subscribers or do they abandon ship?
Try cleaning house and let us know how it works!
How Do You Keep Your Readers from Jumping Ship?
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Marketing, Social Media on September 13th, 2011
Most social media and email marketers are obsessed with how large their followers, fans, and email lists 
are. It’s a numbers game to them, but are they truly speaking to the right people?
Growing your list is imperative to your business, but so is nurturing the loyal subscribers you already have. How are you rewarding them for following you? Do you engage them or simply focus on the percentage of increase each month?
For real estate, you’ve heard that location is everything; for new media marketing it’s targeting. I’d reference sounding like a broken record, but iPods don’t get stuck : )
By targeting your audience, you have a chance to really connect with them, to find out who they are and what really matters to them.
When you do write to this targeted group, be sure and let your personality show. Marketing is no longer talking “at” your subscribers, rather conversing “with” them.
Is your content relevant?
Even if you spend time refining and targeting your readers and tweeters, if your content is not relevant to them they will delete you or unsubscribe faster than you can say, “Sign up for my free report”.
Always remember to put yourself in the reader’s shoes when you create updates and newsletters. Its not about what matters to YOU, its about what’s important to THEM.
8 Things You Must Know About Your Perfect Client
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Demographics, Marketing, Social Media on September 7th, 2011
Do you want to really reach your audience with your marketing message? It doesn’t matter if you are using
traditional print or new media campaigns, if you don’t know who your buyer is you won’t get anywhere. Make sure these questions have CLEAR and SPECIFIC answer:
Who is my ideal client?
What is their demographic profile? (age, location, income, etc.)
What do my perfect clients believe?
What do they like?
What are they worried about?
What is their biggest pain or source of discomfort right now?
What do they want from me online?
What amazing benefit will I give my client to make it worth their time to care about me and my product or service?
It is still tempting to focus on what you want from your customers, much like you did when the market demanded experience, awards, and accreditation. Today you’re setting yourself up for failure if you focus on yourself first.
You do something that people need or your business goes away.
Do you need help defining your perfect client and answering these questions for your business? We can help!
